Partsalidis was a
Pontic Greek born in
Trabzon in the
Trebizond Vilayet of the
Ottoman Empire. During the
population exchange between Greece and Turkey, Partsalidis was expelled to Greece, as were all members of the
Greek Orthodox Church. Partsaldis soon joined the
Communist Party of Greece and became involved in politics. In 1934, with the backing of the
tobacco cultivators, he was elected mayor of
Kavala, being the first member of the Communist Party to be elected mayor of any Greek city. There followed a wave of electoral wins in Communist strongholds and those elected were nicknamed the
Red Mayors. During the
Greek Civil War, on April 3, 1949, Partsalidis became head of the
Provisional Democratic Government formed by the Communists in areas under their effective control, succeeding
Markos Vafeiadis. He was the final head of the Provisional Government, and remained in office until October 1950 (in exile after August 28, 1949). At the
Battle of Grammos-Vitsi the communist
Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) was defeated and he was forced into exile to
Soviet Union. In October 1971, Partsalidis was arrested by the
Greek military junta of 1967–1974 along with Charalambos Drakopoulos (
el), the General Secretary of the
KKE Interior party. He published his memoirs in 1978. Partsalidis died in Athens on June 22, 1980. ==Attribution==