Renato Curcio

Born of an extramarital affair between Renato Zampa (brother of film director Luigi Zampa) and Jolanda Curcio, Curcio was born at Monterotondo, in the province of Rome. His early years were a difficult time for him and his mother, a housemaid, whose itinerant positions with families required long separations. In April 1945, Curcio's beloved uncle, Armando, a Fiat auto worker, was murdered in a fascist ambush. The death of Uncle Armando caused Curcio to develop a hatred towards the Nazis and fascists. Although, he is also alleged to have been a member of the Neofascist group Jeune Europe.

A poor student, Curcio failed several subjects in his first year of high school and had to repeat the year. He then resumed vocational training classes until moving to Milan to live with his mother. He enrolled in the Ferrini Institute in Albenga, where he became a model student. During this period he was active in youth organization "Giovane nazione".

On completing his degree in 1962, he won a scholarship to study at the new and innovative Institute of Sociology at the University of Trento, where he became absorbed in existential philosophy. During the mid-1960s, he gravitated toward radical politics and Marxism as a byproduct of his interest in existentialism and the self. By the late 1960s, he had become a committed revolutionary and Marxist theoretician. In addition to Marxism, Curcio also studied the philosophies of Lenin and Mao, further influencing his leftist ideology. In 1967, Curcio would create a "counter-university" at the University of Trento, which focused on teaching courses that were the polar opposite from what was actually being taught at the university, including anti-capitalism, revolution, and Maoist thought.

According to Alessandro Silj, three political events transformed him from a radical to an activist: two bloody demonstrations at Trento and a massacre by police of farm labourers in 1968. During the 1967-69 period, Curcio was also involved in two Marxist university groups: the Movement for a Negative University and the publication Lavoro Politico (Political Work).