Founded in 1918, the
Communist Party of Greece , better known by its acronym,
ΚΚΕ (usually pronounced "koo-koo-eh" or "kappa-kappa-epsilon"), is the
oldest party on the Greek political scene.
Foundation
The
October RevolutionThe October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 gave impetus for the foundation of Communist parties in many countries all over the globe. ΚΚΕ was founded on 4 November 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece (Acronym: SEKE, Greek: Σοσιαλιστικό Εργατικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, Sosialistiko Ergatiko Komma Elladas) by
Avraam BenaroyaAvraam Eliezer Benaroya was a Bulgarian Narrow socialist, leader of the workers' movement in the Ottoman Empire and founder of the Communist Party of Greece....
, a
SephardicSephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
Jewish teacher and
Socialist Workers' FederationThe Socialist Workers' Federation , led by Avraam Benaroya, was an attempt at union of different nationalities' workers in Ottoman Thessaloniki within a single labor movement.-The Federation in the Ottoman Empire:...
leader in
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
. The party was run by a five-member central committee which consisted of Nikos Dimitratos, D. Ligdopoulos, M. Sideris, A. Arvanitis and S. Kokkinos.
The background of KKE has roots in more than 60 years of small socialist, anarchist and communist groups, mainly in
industrializedIndustrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
areas. These groups, following the example of the
Paris CommuneThe Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
and the 1892 Chicago workers' movement for the 8 hour day, had as immediate political goals the unification of Greek workers into
trade unionA trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s, the implementation of an 8 hour working day in Greece, and better salaries for workers. Inspired by the Paris Commune and the Communist revolutionary efforts in the US, Germany and Russia at the beginning of the century, and the destruction that almost 20 years of wars had brought upon the Greek workers, a unified Social-Communist party was founded in Greece.
At the Second Congress of the SEKE in April 1920, the party decided to affiliate with
CominternThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, an international Communist organisation founded in
MoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in 1919. It changed its name to the Socialist Labour Party of Greece-Communist (SEKE-K). A new central committee was elected, which included Nikos and Panaghis Dimitratos, Yannis Kordatos, G. Doumas and M. Sideris. At the Third Extraordinary Congress of the SEKE-K in November 1924, the party was renamed the Communist Party of Greece and adopted the principles of
Marxism-LeninismMarxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
.
Pandelis PouliopoulosPandelis Pouliopoulos was a Greek communist and onetime general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece . He stood for the internationalist and revolutionary character of the communist movement...
was elected as general-secretary. Ever since, the party has functioned on the basis of
democratic centralismDemocratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
.
KKE and the Macedonian issue
After the
Balkan WarsThe Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
in 1912-1916,
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1916-1919, and the disastrous Greco–Turkish War of 1919–1922, there were diplomatic approaches from the superpowers of that era regarding the re-drawing of Greek borders, given the fact that the new state in Turkey and
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
were pressing for more territory in order to improve their trade routes with the British Empire. The ruling parties were simultaneously trying to move parts of Northern Greece (
MacedoniaMacedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
and
ThraceWestern Thrace or simply Thrace is a geographic and historical region of Greece, located between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. Together with the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, it is often referred to informally as northern Greece...
) to Turkey and Bulgaria, and to win the return of islands in the Aegean and parts of Macedonian territory to the
Kingdom of YugoslaviaThe Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. This policy was reiterated several times throughout the pre-war era.
The main impetus for their demand was the ethnic and religious minorities currently living inside Greek borders in Northern Greece. KKE opposed any
geo-strategic gameThe Great Game or Tournament of Shadows in Russia, were terms for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813...
in the area which would use minorities to start a new imperialistic war in the region. At its Third Party Congress in 1924, KKE announced its policy for the self -determination of minorities, pointing out the minorities in Macedonia. Its policy was dictated by each Marxist- Leninist theory, that stated any minorities should be self-determined under a common Socialist State, and it had its roots in the example of the newly founded Soviet Union.
In 1924, KKE expressed the official position of the
Third InternationalThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
for "independent Macedonia and Thrace". Some members disagreed with this, but it remained the official positon of the party and caused expulsions of communists by the Greek state. KKE was seen by many as a party whose policy was "the detachment of large areas of northern Greece". According to Richard Clogg "this was dictated by
CominternThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
and hurt the popularity of Communism at the time".
In 1934, KKE changed its view and expressed its intent to "fight for the national self-determination, under a People's Republic where all nations will found their self-determination and will build the common state of the workers...".
Nikos Zachariadis,
General SecretaryThe office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
of the party, officially renounced KKE's policy of secession in 1945. Anti-KKE propaganda up-to-day, added on this quote the will to collaborate for this goal with the
BulgarianThe Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
organizations of the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary OrganizationThe Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization , commonly known in English as IMRO...
and the
Thracian Revolutionary OrganisationThe Internal Thracian Revolutionary Organisation , ITRO, was a Bulgarian revolutionary organisation active in Western Thrace and southern Bulgaria between 1920 and 1934.The reason for the establishment of ITRO was the deplorable situation of the Thracian Bulgarians in...
. This is not mentioned on any of KKE official documents. The quote is referenced as KKE's policy for "giving Greek soil to the northern enemies of the country", a fact that can't be crossed referenced with any of KKE referenced literature of that era.
During the
civil warThe Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
(1946-1949), an article written by Nikos Zachariadis expressed the KKE's strategy after the envisioned victory of the
Democratic Army of GreeceThis article is based on a translation of an article from the Greek Wikipedia.The Democratic Army of Greece , often simply abbreviated to its initials DSE , was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War, 1946–1949...
regarding what was then known as the "Macedonian Issue": "The Macedonian people will acquire an independent, united state with a coequal position within the family of free peoples’ republics within the Balkans, within the family of Peoples’ Republics to which the Greek people will belong. The Macedonian people are today fighting for this independent united state with a coequal position and is helping the DSE with all its soul..." The policy of self-determination for Macedonia within a People's Republic was reiterated during the 5th KKE Central Committee meeting held in January 1949, which declared that the "
MacedonianThe Macedonians also referred to as Macedonian Slavs: "... the term Slavomacedonian was introduced and was accepted by the community itself, which at the time had a much more widespread non-Greek Macedonian ethnic consciousness...
people participating in the liberation struggle would find their full national re-establishment as they want giving their blood for this acquisition ... Macedonian Communists should pay great attentions to foreign chauvinist and counteractive elements that want to break the unity between the Greek and Macedonian people. This will only serve the monarcho-fascists and British imperialism ...”. These statements can be explaned due to the large number of Slavomacedonian fighters (30-50%) amongst the DSE fighters and prompted the government in Athens to begin a campaign against KKE and the party's military wing, the
Democratic Army of Greece (DSE)This article is based on a translation of an article from the Greek Wikipedia.The Democratic Army of Greece , often simply abbreviated to its initials DSE , was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War, 1946–1949...
, blaming them for secession plans in northern Greece.
In order for KKE to clear up its position on the "Macedonian subject", the 6th Congress of its Central Committee was called a few months later, during which was clearly stated that KKE was fighting for a free Greece and for a common future for Greeks and Macedonians under the same state.
The issue was ended by Central Committee in 1954 with the withdrawal of the position of self-determination of minorities. In 1988, the General Secretary of KKE,
Charilaos FlorakisCharilaos Florakis was a leader of the Communist Party of Greece .Florakis was born on 20 July 1914 in the village of Paliozoglopi, located near Agrafa in the Itamos municipality, prefecture of Karditsa, Greece. He joined KKE, in 1941...
, once again presented KKE's political position on the matter in a speech to the Greek Parliament.
KKE between the two World Wars
KKE strongly opposed Greece's involvement in the Greco–Turkish War of 1919–1922, which it considered an imperialistic scheme to control the market of Asia Minor given the new political situation after the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
's collapse. KKE members propagated this position both on the front - which provoked accusations of treason from the Greek government - as well as in the mainland. KKE collaborated with the Soviet ambassador to persuade
Venizelos'Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
administration to withdraw its troops from Asia Minor, and to persuade the Soviet Union to exert political pressure on Kemal Ataturk to allow autonomy for Greek cities in Asia Minor.
KKE played a prominent role in strikes, anti-war demonstrations, foundation of trade unions and worker associations. KKE and other leftist political forces fostered the creation of labor unions in all sectors, including the General Greek Workers Confederation (ΓΣΕΕ), which shared common goals with KKE.
These activities met by opposition from the Mid-War governments; in 1929
George PapandreouGeorgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of Greece...
, as minister of Education in the government of
Eleftherios VenizelosEleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
, passed legislation against organised communist teachers, known as
IdionymonThe term idionymon was defined by a Greek law, voted in 1929 , after being introduced by the Eleftherios Venizelos government. It was a law "concerning safety measures for the social establishment and protection of the freedom"...
. Such legislation was often used to prosecute KKE members and other leftist activists. Under the Idionymon all members of the Communist Party of Greece, being considered dangers to the state, were to be removed from public service or put in exile.
The first prison camps for left wing citizens and communists were founded in that era. KKE and its organisations, although small in numbers, continue operating in all Greek major cities, especially industrial areas such as
AthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
,
PiraeusPiraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
,
PatraPatra may refer to:* Patras, a port city in western Greece* Patra , a dish from Gujarat, India* Patra , a female Reggae artist* Patra, a surname from Orissa, India...
,
ThessalyThessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
and
VolosVolos is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about 326 km north of Athens and 215 km south of Thessaloniki...
,
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
,
KavalaKavala , is the second largest city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala peripheral unit. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos...
and elsewhere.
KKE collaborated with other newly founded Communist Parties to oppose the rise of the Fascist movement in Europe. In 1932, the Commitern decreed that anti-Fascist fronts be formed internationally. KKE responded by creating the People's Front, which was the largest Marxist anti-Fascist organisation in Greece prior to the dictatorship of
Ioannis MetaxasIoannis Metaxas was a Greek general, politician, and dictator, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941...
.
The party was banned in 1936 by the dictatorial
4th of August RegimeThe 4th of August Regime , commonly also known as the Metaxas Regime , was an authoritarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled Greece from 1936 to 1941...
of Metaxas. Many KKE members were imprisoned or exiled on isolated Aegean islands.
KKE members volunteered to fight on the side of the socialist government of Spain during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939; about 440 Greeks joined the ranks of the
International BrigadeThe International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
, many of whom were high-ranking KKE members.
1940
By 1940, KKE had almost collapsed. Metaxas' dictatorship had imprisoned many of the leadership and members. By October half of KKE's 2,000 members were in prison or in exile. The most prominent prisons were the Acronauplia,
AnafiAnafi is a Greek island community in the Cyclades. In 2001, it had a population of 273 inhabitants. Its land area is 40.370 km². It lies east of the island of Thíra...
, Ikaria,
KefaloniaThe island of Cephalonia, also known as Kefalonia, Cephallenia, Cephallonia, Kefallinia, or Kefallonia , is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece, with an area of . It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit...
and the Central Athens Prison ("Averof"). A large number of prisoners were shot in retaliation to attacks of National People's Liberation Army (ELAS) partisans throughout the German occupation from 1941 to 1944, but some escaped to join the National Liberation Front-ELAS forces.
By 1940, the Security police had proved extremely successful in dismantling the KKE organisation; not only had it imprisoned the leadership, but it created a fake series of
RizospastisRizospastis is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece. It is published daily. It was first published in 1916. Some of the more prominent editors in it are Nikos Boyiopoulos and Liana Kanelli.-Motto:...
, the Central Committee newspaper. This generated confusion among the remaining scattered underground members.
Around this time a small group of old party officials formed the "Old Central Committee". Two of them were elected by the 6th Conference. In his memoirs for the Greek Civil war, C.M. Woodhouse (the British liaison with Greek resistance groups during WWII) wrote: "The 'Old Central Committee' interpreted a directive issued by
CominternThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
as indicating collaboration with the German and Italian dictatorships, given the Hitler-Stalin alliance.". On the other hand, Woodhouse argues, Georgios Siantos, who had escaped from prison, and Nikos Zachariadis, who was still incarcerated, took the opposite view that KKE must support Metaxas in his fight against Mussolini. The archives of KKE also address the confusion between different KKE cadres; the "Old Committee" interpreted the politics of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy as part of the "imperialistic game between the Axis forces and the British." This faction of KKE felt that the Metaxas regime was a "pawn of British imperialism in the region," and, therefore, the "Old Committee" viewed any war between the Axis forces and the British as an "...imperialistic war that the people of any of the countries involved should not participate in...". According to KKE's account, this position was criticised by Comintern in 1939 (a few months after the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact), which had instructed KKE to fight against Italy in the event of an invasion of Greece.
Nikos Zachariadis, KKE General Secretary, wrote from prison on 2 November 1940: "Today the Greek people are waging a war of national liberation against Mussolini's fascism. In this war we must follow the Metaxas government and turn every city, every village and every house of Greece into a stronghold of the National Liberation Fight... On this war conducted by Metaxas government all of us should give all our forces without reservation. The working people's and the crowning achievement for today's fight should be and shall be a new Greece based on work, freedom, and liberated from any foreign imperialist dependence, with a truly pan-popular culture."
Several party members, including
Nikos PloumpidisNikos Ploumpidis was a leading cadre of the Greek Communist Party and a famous member of the wartime anti-Nazi resistance.The son of a poor farming family, he was born in Arcadian Langadia...
of the "Old Central Committee", denounced this letter as a forgery produced by the Metaxas regime. Zachariadis was even accused of writing it to win the favour of K. Maniadakis, the Minister for Public Order, to win his release from prison. According to one source when drafting this letter Zachariadis was unaware of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, and was castigated by the Comintern for an anti-Soviet stance.
According to KKE's archives, the "Old Central Committee" had been denounced for its stance on the war issue; today KKE claims that the majority of the party membership had not followed the decision of being neutral in case of an invasion. On 16 November 1940, Zachariadis repudiated the line of his first letter in a second letter where he accused the Greek Army of waging a "fascist" and "imperialistic war" and appealed to the USSR for peaceful intervention, thus aligning his position with that of the "Old Central Committee".
On 7 December 1940, the "Old Central Committee" issued a manifesto addressed "to all the workers and public servants, to all soldiers, sailors and airmen, to patriot officers, to the mothers, fathers, wives and children of the fighters and the workers of all neighboring countries", in which it describes the war as a game of the imperialist powers, headed by the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. According to KKE, the "Old Central Committee" based this opinion on the belief that Mussolini's Italy would not dare to attack a country that had a cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union. The main political line of this manifesto was the call to the soldiers on the front not to go beyond Greek borders, but after securing them to try seek a peace agreement with the enemy.
Zachariadis may have issued a third letter on 17 January 1941, in which he explained the motives for his first letter and wrote: "Metaxas remains the principal enemy of the people and the country. His overthrowing is in the most immediate and vital interest of our people ... the peoples and soldiers of Greece and Italy are not enemies but brothers, and their solidarity will stop the war waged by capitalist exploiters."
According to KKE archives, Zachariadis had issued no further letters, and the third letter may have been in fact the statement of the "Old Central Committee" on 18 March 1941. In any case, Zachariadis himself referred in his public statements after liberation almost exclusively to his first letter as proof of the patriotic character of KKE and its role as an inspiration to the Greek resistance movement during the war.
On 22 June 1941, the very same day that Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, KKE ordered its militants to organize "the struggle to defend the Soviet Union and the overthrow of the foreign fascist yoke".
1941: Invasion
On April 6, 1941 the German invasion was launched, and Athens was occupied on 27 April, following an unconditional surrender of the Greek forces by General
Georgios TsolakoglouGeorgios Tsolakoglou was a Greek military officer who became the first Prime Minister of the Greek collaborationist government during the Axis Occupation in 1941-1942.-Military career:...
, who was later appointed Prime Minister by the Nazis.
In any case, confusion remained among many Greek Communists as to what the Moscow-sanctioned position was. In his memoirs, KKE leader Ioannis Ioannidis wrote about a regional Communist cadre who proclaimed the following as Greece was being bombed by the axis: "The Germans will not bomb us. The mustached-one (Stalin) will not let them,"
A large number of KKE members were already in prison before the Nazi invasion. The pro-Nazi occupation government handed some of them over to the Nazis fearing that they - following the pro-Soviet party line - would resort to sabotage in Greece following Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. There were many occasions that police officers released communist prisoners, especially the ones that they were in exile in Aegean islands. In 1941, several KKE members managed to escape prison. One of the many stories includes the twenty Communists held as political prisoners in Heraklion, Crete. They demanded to be released to fight against the invading Germans. The Greek government, which had left mainland Greece by then and was en route to Egypt, had no power to release them. They eventually escaped after their jail was damaged by German bombs and joined the British and Greek forces defending the Heraklion harbor. After the fall of Crete, many officers of the Greek Army joined forces with ELAS and became commanders in ELAS's partisan units. Corp.
On the other side of the political fence, KKE was accused for not participating "full throttle" in the anti-invasion preparations.
C.M Woodhouse, a British Intelligence officer, head of the British military delegation stationed by the Allies in Greece during WWII, wrote that on 18 March, when the Germans were moving unopposed into Bulgaria, KKE advised Greeks to follow the example of "the heroic fraternal people of Bulgaria" Moreover, according to
George PapandreouGeorgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of Greece...
, there were hints of a possible collaboration between KKE and the Germans in forming a government under occupation. This has not been historically proven since to date no evidence of such collaboration has been found. To the contrary, when the Allied command ordered Greek resistance groups not to attack the retreating Nazi forces, ELAS never obeyed the order. Yet, even the issue of the Communist Political prisoners was used by right-wing propaganda: According to Woodhouse "...communist prisoners were released by the German occupation forces from the jail on the Acronauplia, at the request of the Bulgarian embassy in Athens". Neverteheless there were reports that communists had been used as a human shield by the Germans to prevent ELAS attacks against them. The fact is however, that it became German policy - especially after it became obvious to them that they were losing the war- to execute civilians in retaliation for attacks against them by communist or non-communist partisans. Approximately two hundred communists, delivered to the Germans on 1941, were executed at the Kaisariani Shooting Range on May 1, 1944.
Although KKE was suffering from a lack of central political leadership, since its leader Nikos Zachariades had been taken by the Germans to the Dachau concentration camp, its members succeeded in maintaining communication with each other. The 6th Meeting of KKE Central Committee was held in Athens from 1–3 July 1941, which decided on strategy for an armed liberation struggle against the Nazi invaders. At the same time, the "Old Central Committee" submitted to the authority of the new Central Committee. The first united resistance organization was founded in the regions of Macedonia and Thrace on 15 May 1941. In
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, the Macedonian Bureau of KKE established the Eleftheri (Liberty) Organization, along with the
Socialist PartyThe Socialist Party of Greece was a political party in Greece. The party was formed in 1920, as an anti-Comintern minority split away at the second congress of the Socialist Labour Party of Greece. The group that founded the Greek Socialist Party was led by A. Sideris...
, the Agrarian Party, the Democratic Union and
Colonel Dimitrios PsarrosDimitrios Psarros was a Greek army officer and resistance leader. He was the founder and leader of the resistance group National and Social Liberation , the third-most significant organization of the Greek Resistance movement after the National Liberation Front and the National Republican Greek...
(who later founded the EKKA).
The Macedonian Bureau of KKE organised the first two partisan units at the end of June 1941. The first was based in
KilkisKilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
and was named "Athanasios Diakos", the second was based in
NigritaNigrita is a town and a former municipality in the Serres regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Visaltia, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It is situated between the Strymonian plain of the Strymon river and the Vertiskos...
and was named "Odysseas Androutsos". These small partisan units blew up bridges, attacked police stations, and eventually organized into larger combat units of more than 300 men each. In several other places and in major cities, small armed groups of KKE members and non-communists began to emerge, protecting people from looters, the Germans, or collaborators. On 27 September 1941, Greek communists together with five other leftist parties formed the National Liberation Front (EAM), in
KallitheaKallithea is the 8th largest municipality in Greece and the 4th biggest in the Athens urban area...
, Athens, and began forming partisan militia units.
1942 to liberation
On 16 February 1942, the National People's Liberation Army (ELAS) was founded in a small kiosk in Fthiotida and by 1943 it consisted of 50,000 members, both men and women, with 30,000 as reserve units in major cities. The KKE played a prominent role in the organisation. By the end of the war, some 200,000 Greek citizens, both workers and peasants, had joined the ranks of KKE. KKE maintained its alliances with the EAM. Its main stated aim at this time was to form a united government with all parties that wanted to see Greece liberated from foreign powers.
ELAS conflicted finally with the rest of the resistance organizations and armies (especially EDES and EKKA), accusing most of them of being traitors and collaborators of the
NazisNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. These were the first conflicts of the coming
civil warThe Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...
.
Nikos Zachariadis was imprisoned in
Dachau; he was released in 1945 and returned to Greece as the elected general secretary of the KKE. During his imprisonment
Andreas TsipasAndreas Tsipas, , , was a Greek Communist leader during the World War II and Greek Civil War....
and Georgios Siantos served as party general secretaries.
KKE and the Greek Civil War
At the end of the war, fighting broke out between EAM and the combined Greek/British forces, which had returned from the Middle East. Backed by the KKE, EAM refused to disarm ELAS and ELAN. Six ministers of the EAM, most of whom were KKE members, resigned from their positions in the government of Georgios Papandreou, in November 1944. Fighting broke out in Athens on 3 December 1944 during a demonstration, organised by EAM, involving more than 100,000 people. According to some accounts, the police, covered by British troops, opened fire on the crowd. More than 28 people were killed and 148 injured. According to other accounts, it is uncertain if the first shots were fired by the police or the demonstrators. This incident was the beginning of the 37-day Battle of Athens (Dekemvriana). During the fighting involved also the communist organization OPLA which involved in assassinations of political opponents of the KKE on both ends of the political spectrum, such as
TrotskyitesTrotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
,
Archio-MarxistsArcheio-Marxism was a radical left political movement that was active in interwar Greece. The main motto of its supporters was "first education and then action" and they were against mass demonstrations and unionism. They were named after the "Archive of Marxism" magazine, that was published in...
and other dissidents. Following a ceasefire agreement called the
Treaty of VarkizaThe Treaty of Varkiza was signed in Varkiza on February 12, 1945 between the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece for EAM-ELAS...
, ELAS laid down the majority of its weapons and dissolved all of its units. Right-wing groups, including elements which had collaborated with the Germans, seized this opportunity to persecute many KKE members.
According to EAM figures, in the few months after the Treaty of Varkiza, the anti-communist violence on the Greek mainland had resulted in the imprisonment or exile of 100,000 ELAS partisans and EAM members, the deaths of 3,000 EAM officials and members, the rape of between 200 and 500 women, the burning of houses, and other acts of violence. The KKE Central Committee issued a directive to all party forces not to engage in any armed conflict but to try to prevent attacks by other means. This caused confusion among the majority of its supporters, and served to weaken the party organisation across the country.
Large groups had returned to their partisan hideouts in the mountains and gradually formed smaller partisan units. As most of the ELAS armoury had been surrendered under the terms of the Varkiza treaty, these units armed themselves with weapons seized from attacks on militia units that had been provided arms by the police, as well as attacking police stations. By mid 1946 these units forced the KKE leadership to change its neutral position and to plan the formation a partisan army with the officers and fighters that were still free. On 26 October 1946, KKE militia units attacked the police station in
LitochoroLitochoro is a town and a former municipality in the southern part of the Pieria regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Dio-Olympos, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It is located at the base of Mount Olympus, on the western shore...
, armed their forces and founded the
Central GreeceContinental Greece or Central Greece , colloquially known as Roúmeli , is a geographical region of Greece. Its territory is divided into the administrative regions of Central Greece, Attica, and part of West Greece...
Command of the
Democratic Army of Greece (DSE)This article is based on a translation of an article from the Greek Wikipedia.The Democratic Army of Greece , often simply abbreviated to its initials DSE , was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War, 1946–1949...
. After this successful operation, the remaining scattered groups reorganized the pre-Varkiza Treaty ELAS formations all over the country. KKE's political influence and organization structure helped form units in the
Aegean IslandsThe Aegean Islands are the group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east; the island of Crete delimits the sea to the south, those of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos to the southeast...
of as
MytileneMytilene is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the...
,
ChiosChios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
, Ikaria,
SamosSamos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional...
, and
CreteCrete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
.
The Civil War involved two sides. On the one side was the British and American backed Greek Government, led by
Konstantinos TsaldarisKonstantinos Tsaldaris was a Greek politician and twice Prime Minister of Greece.Tsaldaris was born in Alexandria, Egypt. He studied law at the University of Athens as well as Berlin, London and Florence...
and, later,
Themistoklis SophoulisThemistoklis Sofoulis or Sophoulis was a prominent centrist Greek politician from Samos Island, belonging to the centre-left wing of the Liberal Party, which he led for many years.-Early life:...
, which was elected in the
1946 electionsThese elections were marked by:* The marked abstention of voters, caused by the abstention of Communist Party of Greece, and the effects of the civil war , because of which many citizens either could not or chose not to vote....
which the KKE boycotted. On the other side was the
Democratic Army of GreeceThis article is based on a translation of an article from the Greek Wikipedia.The Democratic Army of Greece , often simply abbreviated to its initials DSE , was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War, 1946–1949...
, of which the KKE was the only major political force, backed by the
NOF BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
,
YugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and
AlbaniaAlbania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
.
In December 1947, KKE and its allies that participated in the Civil War formed the
Provisional Democratic GovernmentThe Provisional Democratic Government was the name of the administration declared by the Communist Party of Greece in December 1947.The Provisional Democratic Government was defeated in the Greek Civil War and left Greece on 28 August 1949....
("Mountain Government") under the premiership of
Markos VafiadisMarkos Vafiadis ]], Ottoman Empire, 1906 – Athens, Greece, February 23, 1992) was a leading figure of the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War.-Pre-war life:...
. After this, the KKE (still legal due to the Treaty of Varkiza) turned illegal.
On 29 January 1949, the Greek National Army appointed General
Alexander PapagosField Marshal Alexander Papagos , was a Greek General who led the Greek Army in the Greco-Italian War and the later stages of the Greek Civil War and became the country's Prime Minister...
Commander-in-Chief. In August 1949, Papagos launched a major counter-offensive against DSE forces in northern Greece, code-named "Operation Torch". The plan was for the Greek National Army to gain control of the border with Albania in order to surround and defeat the DSE forces, numbering 8,500 fighters. The DSE suffered heavy losses from the operation, but managed to retreat its units to Albania.
Charilaos FlorakisCharilaos Florakis was a leader of the Communist Party of Greece .Florakis was born on 20 July 1914 in the village of Paliozoglopi, located near Agrafa in the Itamos municipality, prefecture of Karditsa, Greece. He joined KKE, in 1941...
, whose nom-de-guerre was Kapetan Yiotis, was a DSE-appointed Brigadier General during this battle. Florakis was ordered by the DSE High Command to re-enter Greece with his battalion via the
Gramos MountainsGramos is a village and a former community in Kastoria peripheral unit, West Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Nestorio, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 28 . The village is an old Aromanian settlement, named after the nearby...
and try to establish connection with all the DSE forces that remained within Greece. The battalion indeed reached small DSE units south of Gramos down to Evritania, and retreated thereafter back to Albania. Floriakis later served as General Secretary of KKE from 1972 to 1989.
On 28 August 1949, the Civil War in Greece ended with the DSE forces defeated militarily and politically, and KKE entered a new phase in its history.
Post-War Era
After the Civil War, the KKE was outlawed and most of its prominent members had to flee Greece, go underground, or provide a signed declaration that they renounced Communism to avoid prosecution under Law 504, issued in 1948, A large number of KKE members were either prosecuted, jailed or exiled. Prominent members of the KKE were tried and executed, including
Nikos BeloyannisNikos Beloyannis was a Greek resistance leader and leading cadre of the Greek Communist Party. He was born in Amalias in 1915...
in 1952 and
Nikos PloumpidisNikos Ploumpidis was a leading cadre of the Greek Communist Party and a famous member of the wartime anti-Nazi resistance.The son of a poor farming family, he was born in Arcadian Langadia...
in 1954. The execution of Ploumpidis was the last such execution by the post-Civil War governments. The fear of widespread reaction from left-wing citizens curbed further executions and eventually led to the gradual release of most political prisoners. In 1955 there were 4,498 political prisoners and 898 exiles; in 1962 there were 1,359 prisoners and 296 exiles. But under the prevailing anti-communist rules, communists and KKE sympathizers were barred from the public sector and lived under a repressive anticommunist surveillance system. Such discrimination against communists was partially relieved with the legalization of KKE in 1974, and the discrimination ended in the 1980s. During this period of illegality, the KKE supported the
United Democratic Left (EDA)The United Democratic Left was a political party in Greece, active mostly before the Greek military junta of 1967-1974.-Foundation:...
Party.
Former King Constantine II|align=right|Constantine II was King of Greece from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973, the sixth and last monarch of the Greek Royal Family....
claims that in 1964 he proposed to
George Papandreou (senior)Georgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of Greece...
that the KKE be legalized. According to the former monarch, Papandreou refused to comply so as not to lose his party's left-wing supporters. This allegation cannot be verified, as it was expressed after Papandreou's death. Moreover, Constantine's public statements regarding communism during the 1960s renders the veracity of this allegation questionable.
During the Junta
On 21 April 1967, a group of right-wing
Greek ArmyThe Hellenic Army , formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece.The motto of the Hellenic Army is , "Freedom Stems from Valor", from Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War...
colonels led by Georgios Papadopoulos successfully carried out a
coup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
on the pretext of imminent "communist threat", establishing what became known as the Regime of the Colonels. All political parties, including EDA, were dissolved, and civil liberties were suppressed for all Greek citizens. KKE members were persecuted along with other opponents of the junta.
In 1968, a crisis escalated between KKE's two main factions. The crisis was already festering during the 12th plenum of the party's central committee held in Budapest between 5 and 15 February 1968 in which three members of the politbureau (M. Partsalidis, Z. Zografos & P. Dimitriu) were expelled for fractionist activity and was further triggered by the Soviet invasion of
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. This event led a number of Greek communists who were ideologically leaning with the so-called opportunist faction to break with KKE that was loyal to the Socialist Republic's policy and to follow the nascent
EurocommunistEurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
line, which favored a more pluralistic approach to socialism. A relatively large group split from KKE, forming what became the
Communist Party of Greece (Interior)The Communist Party of Greece, Interior , usually abbreviated as KKE Interior was a communist political party in Greece. The party was formed after a major split of the Communist Party of Greece in 1968...
. The spin-off party forged bonds with Eurocommunist parties such as the
Italian Communist PartyThe Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...
and with
Nicolae CeauşescuNicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
's
Romanian Communist PartyThe Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
. Its supporters referred to KKE as the KKE (Exterior) ("ΚΚΕ εξωτερικού"), inferring that KKE's policies were dictated by the Politburo of the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
.
Despite the difficulties resulting from the split, KKE continued its opposition to the Greek Junta throughout the next 6 years. Its political fighting against the regime took the form of labour disruptions and strikes and small demonstrations all over the country. Its power was rising inside the Universities where the newly founded
Communist Youth of Greece (KNE)The Communist Youth of Greece, is the youth wing of the Communist Party of Greece .It publishes the monthly newspaper Odigitis and hosts Odigitis festivals in most of the major towns and cities of Greece....
began working underground. KKE underground forces continued to work closely with other political groups of the center and left within Greece and abroad. In many European capitals anti-Junta committees were founded to support the struggle in Greece.
Legalisation
After the
restoration of parliamentary democracyThe Metapolitefsi was a period in Greek history after the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 that includes the transitional period from the fall of the dictatorship to the Greek legislative elections of 1974 and the democratic period immediately after these elections.The long...
in 1974,
Constantine KaramanlisKonstantínos G. Karamanlís , commonly anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or Caramanlis, was a four-time Prime Minister, the 3rd and 5th President of the Third Hellenic Republic and a towering figure of Greek politics whose political career spanned much of the latter half of the 20th century.-...
legalised the KKE hoping to reclaim "a vital part of national memory". In the
1974 electionsThe first free elections since 1964 and after the end of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 took place in Greece on November 17, 1974 during the metapolitefsi....
the KKE participated with the KKE Interior and the EDA under the name of the
United LeftThe United Left was an electoral union formed between the Communist Party of Greece, Communist Party of Greece and the United Democratic Left to contest the 1974 Greek legislative election. The UL took 9.47% of the vote and won eight seats....
, receiving 9.36 per cent of the vote. In the elections from 1977 to 1989, the KKE participated on its own (see results below).
In 1989, the political consequences of the Civil War were finally lifted: The war was named "Civil War" instead of "War against the gangs" ("συμμοριτοπόλεμος"), that was the official state name for that era up until that point, and DSE fighters were named "DSE fighters" instead of "Communist Gangfighters" ("κουμουνιστοσυμμορίτες").
Participation in government
In 1944, KKE participated in the national unity government of
George PapandreouGeorgios Papandreou was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of Greece...
, holding the positions of Minister of Finance, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Labor, Minister of National Economy and Public Works, and Deputy Minister of Finance.
In 1988, KKE and Greek Left (Greek EAP; the former KKE Interior), along with other left and center parties and organisations, formed the Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos). In the June 1989 elections Synaspismos gained 13.1 per cent of votes and joined a coalition with
New DemocracyNew Democracy is the main centre-right political party and one of the two major parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the first cabinet of the Third Hellenic Republic...
to form a short-lived government amidst a political spectrum shaken by accusations of economic scandals against the previous administration of
Andreas PapandreouAndreas G. Papandreou ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic...
's
Panhellenic Socialist MovementThe Panhellenic Socialist Movement , known mostly by its acronym PASOK , is one of the two major political parties in Greece. Founded on 3 September 1974 by Andreas Papandreou, in 1981 PASOK became Greece's first social democratic party to win a majority in parliament.The party is a socialist party...
. In November of the same year Synaspismos participated in the "Universal Government" with
New DemocracyNew Democracy is the main centre-right political party and one of the two major parties in Greece. It was founded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and formed the first cabinet of the Third Hellenic Republic...
and
Panhellenic Socialist MovementThe Panhellenic Socialist Movement , known mostly by its acronym PASOK , is one of the two major political parties in Greece. Founded on 3 September 1974 by Andreas Papandreou, in 1981 PASOK became Greece's first social democratic party to win a majority in parliament.The party is a socialist party...
which appointed
Xenophon ZolotasXenophon Zolotas , was a Greek economist and served as an interim non-party Prime Minister of Greece.-Early life and career:Born in Athens in 1904, Zolotas studied economics at the University of Athens, and later studied in Leipzig and Paris. He came from a wealthy family of goldsmiths with roots...
as Prime Minister for 3 months. In 1991, KKE withdrew from Synaspismos. Some of its members left the party and remained in Synaspismos, which evolved into a separate left-wing party that is now an alliance of Synaspismos with other leftist groups called the (
Coalition of the Radical LeftThe Coalition of the Radical Left , commonly known by its Greek abbreviation ΣΥΡΙΖΑ , is a coalition of left political parties in Greece...
).
Splits and alliances
There have been a series of splits throughout the party's history, the earliest one being the Trotskyist Organisation of Internationalist Communists of Greece.
In 1956, after the 20th Conference of the Communist Party of the USSR, a faction created the Group of Marxist-Leninists of Greece (OMLE), which split from party in 1964, becoming the
Organisation of Marxists-Leninists of GreeceThe Organisation of Marxist-Leninists of Greece, known by its Greek acronym OMLE, was the original Greek Maoist movement, which split from the Communist Party of Greece in 1964, opposing Soviet revisionism....
.
In 1968, amidst the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, a relatively big group split from KKE, forming KKE Interior.
In 1988 KKE and
Greek LeftGreek Left was a Greek leftwing political party.It emerged, in January 1987, from the split in the Communist Party of Greece into the Communist Party of Greece -Renewing Left and the Greek Left. Its ideology was Eurocommunism....
(the former KKE Interior), along with other left parties and organisations, formed the Coalition of the Left and Progress.
Also in 1988, the vast majority of members and officials from
Communist Youth of GreeceThe Communist Youth of Greece, is the youth wing of the Communist Party of Greece .It publishes the monthly newspaper Odigitis and hosts Odigitis festivals in most of the major towns and cities of Greece....
(KNE), the KKE's youth wing, split to form the New Left Current (NAR), drawing mainly youth in major cities, especially in
ThessalonikiThessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
.
In the early 2000s, a small group of major party officials such as Mitsos Kostopoulos left the party and formed the
Movement for the United in Action LeftMovement for the United in Action Left is a political party in Greece that is part of the Coalition of the Radical Left.KEDA was formed in the early 2000s, by a splinter group of major party officials of the Communist Party of Greece , most prominently Yiannis Theonas and Mitsos Kostopoulos...
(KEDA), which in the 2007 legislative election participated in the
Coalition of the Radical LeftThe Coalition of the Radical Left , commonly known by its Greek abbreviation ΣΥΡΙΖΑ , is a coalition of left political parties in Greece...
.
Youth organisation
KKE's youth organization is the
Communist Youth of GreeceThe Communist Youth of Greece, is the youth wing of the Communist Party of Greece .It publishes the monthly newspaper Odigitis and hosts Odigitis festivals in most of the major towns and cities of Greece....
, KNE, which closely supports KKE's goals and strategic targets.
Current activities
KKE is a force in the Greek political scene, rallying a significant amount of support within the organized working-class movement. KKE is currently trying to mold a loose and rather disorganised international communist movement along a purely Marxist-Leninist line; since its 18th Congress (February 2009) KKE has opened up a discussion within the ranks and more broadly within the Greek left-leaning community on the future evolution of communism in the 21st century, with a particular emphasis on examining the causes of the collapse of the Socialist system in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe.
The KKE stands in elections and has representatives in the Greek Parliament, local government, and the
European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
, where its two MEPs sit with the European United Left - Nordic Green Left.
It publishes the daily newspaper
RizospastisRizospastis is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Greece. It is published daily. It was first published in 1916. Some of the more prominent editors in it are Nikos Boyiopoulos and Liana Kanelli.-Motto:...
. It also publishes the political and theoretical journal Komounistiki Epitheorisi (Communist Review) every two months and a journal covering educational issues, Themata Paideias.
List of First Secretaries and General Secretaries
- Nikolaos Dimitratos (November 1918-). Expelled from the party on charges of "suspect behavior."
- Yannis Kordatos (February 1922-). Expelled from the party on charges of "distorting Marxism."
- Nikolaos Sargologos (November 1922-). Expelled from the party on charges of "espionage."
- Thomas Apostolidis (September 1923-). Expelled from the party on charges of "opportunism".
- Pandelis Pouliopoulos
Pandelis Pouliopoulos was a Greek communist and onetime general secretary of the Communist Party of Greece . He stood for the internationalist and revolutionary character of the communist movement...
(December 1924-). Expelled from the party on charges of being a "provocateur".
- Eleutherios Stavridis (1924–1926). Expelled from the party on charges of pro-bourgeoisie political position.
- Pastias Giatsopoulos (September 1926-). Expelled from the party on charges of "liquidarism".
- Andronikos Haitas (March 1927-). Expelled from the party and executed in the USSR in 1935.
- Nikolaos Zachariadis
Nikolaos Zachariadis was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece from 1931 to 1956.-Early life:Born in Adrianopole in 1903, the son of an employee of the Ottoman tobacco monopoly. He worked as a seaman on the Black Sea, where he came under the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution...
(1931–1936).
- Andreas Tsipas
Andreas Tsipas, , , was a Greek Communist leader during the World War II and Greek Civil War....
(July 1941-September 1941). Expelled from the party on charges of "adventurism."
- Georgios Siantos (January 1942-1945). Expelled from the party on charges of being an "agent provocateur."
- Nikolaos Zachariadis
Nikolaos Zachariadis was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece from 1931 to 1956.-Early life:Born in Adrianopole in 1903, the son of an employee of the Ottoman tobacco monopoly. He worked as a seaman on the Black Sea, where he came under the influence of the Bolshevik Revolution...
(1945–1956). Expelled from the party;committed suicide after years in exile in Siberia.
- Apostolos Grozos
Apostolos Grozos was leader of the Communist Party of Greece .He was born in Komotini, Thrace, in 1892.On December 30, 1952, at the 4th Plenary session, he was elected leader of the KKE’s Central Committee Directorate....
(1956)
- Konstantinos Koligiannis (1956–1972).
- Charilaos Florakis
Charilaos Florakis was a leader of the Communist Party of Greece .Florakis was born on 20 July 1914 in the village of Paliozoglopi, located near Agrafa in the Itamos municipality, prefecture of Karditsa, Greece. He joined KKE, in 1941...
(1972–1989).
- Grigoris Farakos (1989–1991). Resigned from the party to join Synaspismos.
- Aleka Papariga
Alexandra "Aleka" Papariga is a communist Greek politician who has served the Communist Party of Greece as its General Secretary since 1991. She is the first woman to head a political party in Greece.- Early years :...
(1991–present)
Party's electoral results
Results since 1926
(year links to election page) |
| Year |
Type of Election |
Votes |
% |
Seats |
| 1926 The first legislative elections of the Second Hellenic Republic were held on 7 November 1926. At stake were 286 seats in the Greek Parliament, the Vouli....
|
Parliament |
41,982 |
4.37% |
10 |
| 1928 Legislative elections were held in the Second Hellenic Republic on 19 August 1928. At stake were 250 seats in the Greek parliament, the Vouli. The 1928 elections delivered an overwhelming majority to Eleftherios Venizelos....
|
Parliament |
|
1.4% |
0 |
| 1929 The Senate was a new institution introduced with the Greek Constitution of 1927. In 1929 the first elections for the Senate took place and resulted in a triumph for the Liberal Party, Eleftherios Venizelos and the other venizelist parties....
|
Senate |
↔ |
1.7% |
0 |
| 1932 Legislative elections were held in the Second Hellenic Republic on 25 September 1932. At stake were 250 seats in the Lower House of the Greek Parliament, the Vouli ....
|
Parliament |
58,223 |
4.97% |
10 |
| 1932 In 1932 elections took place for the renewal the 1/3 of the members of the Senate and resulted in an ambivalent result for the two biggest parties, the Liberal Party of Eleftherios Venizelos and the People's Party....
|
Senate |
↔ |
3.91 |
0 |
| 1933 Legislative elections were held in the Second Hellenic Republic on 5 March 1933. At stake were 248 seats in the Lower House of the Greek Parliament, the Vouli....
|
Parliament |
|
4.5% |
0 |
| 1935 The Greek legislative election of 9 June 1935 resulted in a victory for the People's Party of Panagis Tsaldaris.The elections were held in a climate of tension between the liberal Republicans, represented by the Venizelist parties, and the pro-royalist People's Party, following the failed...
|
Parliament |
|
9.59%‡ |
0 |
| 1936 The 26 January 1936 Greek legislative elections were the first held in the restored monarchy. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek parliament, the Vouli....
|
Parliament |
|
5.8%‡ |
15 |
| 1951 The Greek legislative election of the 9 September 1951 resulted in an ambivalent outcome, consisting a narrow and pyrrhic, as proven later, victory for the ruling center-liberal parties of Sophoklis Venizelos and Nikolaos Plastiras.-Background:...
|
Parliament |
* |
10.57% |
10 |
| 1952 The Greek legislative election of 16 November 1952 resulted in victory for General Alexander Papagos and the party he had founded the previous year, the Greek Rally party....
|
Parliament |
* |
9.55% |
29 |
| 1958 The Greek legislative election of the 11 May 1958 resulted in the second consecutive victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union party....
|
Parliament |
* |
24.42% |
60 |
| 1974 The first free elections since 1964 and after the end of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 took place in Greece on November 17, 1974 during the metapolitefsi....
|
Parliament |
464,787† |
9.47% |
8 |
| 1977 In the Greek legislative election, 1977, Prime Minister, Constantine Karamanlis, called for early elections. His party, New Democracy, suffered a significant loss of power, but, nevertheless, Karamanlis managed to secure an absolute majority in the Parliament. The big surprise was the success of...
|
Parliament |
480,272 |
9.36% |
11 |
| 1981 The Greek legislative election held on 18 October 1981 marked a new era in the modern history of Greece.Panhellenic Socialist Movement , led by Andreas Papandreou, faced New Democracy, led by Georgios Rallis. Papandreou achieved a landslide and PASOK formed the first socialistic government in the...
|
Parliament |
620,302 |
10.93% |
13 |
| 1981 The European Parliament election of 1981 in Greece was the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament in 1981. The rest of the European Community voted in 1979 before Greece became a member state...
|
European Parliament |
729,052 |
12.84 |
3 |
| 1984 The European Parliament election of 1984 in Greece was the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament in 1984. This was the second European election and the first time Greece voted with the rest of the Community....
|
European Parliament |
693,304 |
11.64 |
3 |
| 1985 Legislative elections were held in the Hellenic Republic on 2 June, 1985. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek parliament, the Voule.The ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Andreas Papandreou, was re-elected, defeating the conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis ....
|
Parliament |
629,525 |
9.1% |
12 |
| June 1989 The European Parliament election of 1989 in Greece for the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament took place on June 15. The election system used in Greece was a party-list proportional representation with a 1.30% threshold for any party...
|
European |
936,175†† |
14.30% |
4 |
| June 1989 |
Parliament |
855,944†† |
13.1% |
28 |
| November 1989 |
Parliament |
734,611†† |
11.0% |
21 |
| 1990 Legislative elections were held in the Hellenic Republic on 8 April 1990. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek parliament, the Voule.The conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis, was elected, defeating the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Andreas Papandreou. rowspan=2 colspan=2...
|
Parliament |
677,059†† |
10.3% |
19 |
| 1993 Legislative elections were held in the Hellenic Republic on October 10, 1993. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek parliament, the Voule.The Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Andreas Papandreou, was elected, defeating the conservative New Democracy party of Constantine Mitsotakis.-Results:...
|
Parliament |
313,087 |
4.5% |
9 |
| 1994 The 1994 European Parliamentary Election was a European election held across the 12 European Union member states in June 1994.This election saw the merge of the European People's Party and European Democrats, an increase in the overall number of seats and a fall in overall turnout to...
|
European |
410,741 |
6.29% |
2 |
| 1996 Legislative elections were held in the Hellenic Republic on 22 September 1996. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek Parliament.The ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Costas Simitis, was elected, defeating the liberal-conservative New Democracy party of Miltiadis Evert.-Results: rowspan=2...
|
Parliament |
380,167 |
5.61% |
11 |
| 1999 The European Parliament election of 1999 in Greece for the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament took place on June 13. The election system used in Greece was a party-list proportional representation with a 3% threshold for any party...
|
European |
557,365 |
8.67% |
3 |
| 2000 |
Parliament |
379,517 |
5.53% |
11 |
2004Legislative elections were held in Greece on March 7, 2004. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek Parliament, the Vouli . The New Democracy Party of Kostas Karamanlis won a decisive victory in the elections, ending eleven years of rule by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement .PASOK was led into the...
|
Parliament |
436,573 |
5.9% |
12 |
| 2004 The European Parliament election of 2004 in Greece for the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament took place on June 13. The election system used in Greece was a party-list proportional representation with a 3% threshold for any party...
|
European Parliament |
580,396 |
9.48% |
3 |
| 2007 |
Parliament |
583,815 |
8.15% |
22 |
| 2009 The European Parliament election of 2009 in Greece for the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament in 2009 took place on June 7, 2009. The election system used in Greece is party-list proportional representation with a 3% threshold for any party...
|
European Parliament |
425,963 |
8.35% |
2 |
| 2009 Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 4 October 2009. An election was not required until September 2011.On 2 September Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis announced he would request President Karolos Papoulias to dissolve Parliament and call an election...
|
Parliament |
517,154 |
7.54% |
21 |
- Notes:
- ‡With other parties.
- ↔As part of the United Front.
- *As part of the United Democratic Left
The United Democratic Left was a political party in Greece, active mostly before the Greek military junta of 1967-1974.-Foundation:...
, legal umbrella for the outlawed KKE during this period.
- †As part of the United Left
The United Left was an electoral union formed between the Communist Party of Greece, Communist Party of Greece and the United Democratic Left to contest the 1974 Greek legislative election. The UL took 9.47% of the vote and won eight seats....
coalition.
- ††As part of the Coalition of the Left and Progress.
Party membership
| Membership 1918-1948 |
| Year |
Number of members |
| 1918 |
1,000 |
| 1920 |
1,320 |
| 1924 |
2,200 |
| 1926 |
2,500 |
| 1928 |
2,000 |
| 1930 |
1,500 |
| 1933 |
4,416 |
| 1934 |
6,000 (est.) |
| 1936 (start) |
17,500 |
| 1936 (mid) |
<10,000 (est.) |
| 1941 |
200 (est.) free + 2,000 in prison |
| 1942 (December) |
15,000 |
| 1944 (June) |
250,000 |
| 1944 (October) |
420,000–450,000 |
| 1945 (October) |
45,000 |
| 1946 (February) |
<100,000 |
| 1948 |
<50,000 |
See also
- All Workers Militant Front
The All-Workers Militant Front is a coordination centre within the Greek trade union movement, founded on the initiative of Communist Party of Greece trade-unionists in April 1999. Amongst it membership are also cadres of Communist Renewal. PAME is critical of the official positions and leadership...
(PAME)
- List of participants at International Conference of Communist & Workers' Parties 1998-2005
External links