20 Facts About Nikos Zachariadis

Nikos Zachariadis was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece from 1931 to 1956.

Nikos Zachariadis was appointed, by order of Stalin and the Comintern, General Secretary of KKE in 1935.

Nikos Zachariadis was arrested by the right-wing Metaxas dictatorship the following year.

Nikos Zachariadis continued to receive support as the General Secretary of the "exterior" branch of KKE until the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.

Nikos Zachariadis's body was returned to Greece in 1991 following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Nikos Zachariadis was born in Edirne, Adrianople Vilayet, Ottoman Empire, in 1903, to an ethnic Greek family.

In 1919, Nikos Zachariadis moved to Constantinople, where he worked in various jobs, including as a soldier.

Nikos Zachariadis studied at various political and military institutions of the Soviet government and of the Communist International, including the International Lenin School.

Nikos Zachariadis was even accused of releasing it to win the favour of Konstantinos Maniadakis and to be released from prison.

Nikos Zachariadis's letter remains a cornerstone of the KKE's vital contribution to the National Resistance movement against the Fascist occupiers.

Nikos Zachariadis declared his political intention for the KKE to fight for people's democracy by elections.

Nikos Zachariadis conducted the military operations of the communist Democratic Army of Greece, which was formed to install a socialist people's democracy in Greece.

Nikos Zachariadis ordered the ELAS commander Markos Vafiadis to abandon guerrilla warfare tactics and adopt a strategy of conventional warfare.

Vafiadis was expelled from the KKE for challenging Nikos Zachariadis and kept under house arrest in Albania, accused of being a British agent.

Nikos Zachariadis ordered the KKE leadership to co-operate with the British when it landed in Greece in 1944 and refused to supply any assistance to the KKE when they took up arms against the Greek government and their British allies.

However, after Stalin's death in 1953, Nikos Zachariadis clashed with the new Soviet leadership, as he opposed the new direction taken by the Soviet Communist Party under Nikita Khrushchev.

In February 1957, Nikos Zachariadis was expelled from the KKE, as were many of his supporters.

Nikos Zachariadis spent the rest of his life in exile in Siberia, initially in Yakutia and later in Surgut, Russian SFSR.

In December 1991, just a few days after the fall of the Soviet Union, Nikos Zachariadis' remains were returned to his homeland of Greece, and he was given a funeral, which gave his supporters the opportunity to honour him.

Nikos Zachariadis is buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.