Changes

Jump to navigation Jump to search

Nikolaos Zachariadis

12 bytes removed, 09:39, January 14, 2007
no edit summary
In 1923, he was sent back to Greece to organise the [[Federation of Communist Youths of Greece]] (OKNE). Imprisoned, he subsequently fled to the Soviet Union. In [[1931]], he was sent back to Greece to restore order in the highly factionalised KKE and in the same year (other accounts claim [[1935]]), he was appointed, by order of Stalin and the Comintern, General Secretary of KKE.
In [[August]] [[1936]], he was arrested by the State Security of the [[Ioannis Metaxas]] regime and imprisoned. From prison, he issued a letter urging all Greeks to rally behind Metaxas in resisting the Italian invasion of October [[1940]]. This was given great publicity, although in two further letters he reiterated the standard Comintern line that the war between Britain and Germany was "imperialist".
After the German invasion of Greece, in [[1941]] the Germans tranferred him to the Dachau concentration camp, from where he was released in May [[1945]]. Returning to [[Greece]], he reassumed the leadership of the KKE from [[Giorgios Siantos]], acting general secretary of the KKE since January 1942.
In 1949, the KKE leadership and the remnants of the Democratic Army fled into exile in the communist states of the Eastern bloc. Zachariadis' tough leadership of the KKE, his harsh treatment of dissenters, and his insistance on keeping units of the Democratic Army on a war footing, provoked serious rioting among exiled Greek communists in Tashkent in [[1955]].
Following Nikita Khruschev's calls for de-Stalinisation and the intervention of other communist parties, in [[May]] [[1956]], the 6th General Assembly of KKE removed Zachariadis from the post of general secretary, and in [[February]] [[1957]] he was expelled from the party. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Siberia, initially in Yakutia and later in Surgut, where he comitted suicide on [[August 8]], [[1973]].

Navigation menu