Foundation , where the first congress and foundation of the party was held The
October Revolution of the
Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 gave impetus for the foundation of
communist parties in many countries globally. The KKE was founded on 17 November 1918 by
Aristos Arvanitis,
Demosthenes Ligdopoulos,
Stamatis Kokkinos,
Michael Sideris, , and others. At the Second Congress of the SEKE in April 1920, the party decided to affiliate with the
Comintern, an international communist organization founded in
Moscow in 1919. It changed its name to the '''Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (Communist)
(SEKE(K)'''). A new Central Committee was elected, which included Nikos and
Panaghis Dimitratos,
Yanis 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–Leninism.
Pandelis Pouliopoulos was elected as general-secretary. Ever since, the party has functioned on the basis of
democratic centralism.
KKE between the two World Wars KKE strongly opposed the military and political involvement of the
Kingdom of Greece 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
defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Empire. 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’ administration to withdraw its troops from Asia Minor and to persuade the
Soviet Union to exert political pressure on
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 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, as minister of Education in the government of
Eleftherios Venizelos,
Georgios Papandreou passed legislation against organised communist teachers, known as
Idionymon. 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
Athens,
Piraeus,
Patra,
Thessaly and
Volos,
Thessaloniki,
Kavala, and elsewhere. The KKE collaborated with other newly founded Communist Parties to oppose the rise of the
Fascist movements in Europe. In 1934, the
Comintern 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 Metaxas. The party was banned in 1936 by the dictatorial regime of Metaxas and brutally persecuted by his security chief,
Konstantinos Maniadakis. Many KKE members were imprisoned or
exiled on isolated
Aegean Islands. KKE members volunteered to fight on the side of the
republican government of Spain during the
Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. About 440 Greeks joined the ranks of the
International Brigades, especially brigades such as the
XV International Brigade and the
Dimitrov Battalion, many of whom were high-ranking KKE members.
The KKE and the Macedonian issue After the
Balkan Wars,
World War I and the
Greco-Turkish War, there were diplomatic approaches from the superpowers of that era regarding the re-drawing of Greek borders, based on the territorial claims of the
Kingdom of Bulgaria and
diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States pressing for more territory to improve trade routes with the
British Empire. The ruling parties were simultaneously trying to move parts of
Northern Greece (
Macedonia and
Thrace) to Bulgaria and Turkey; and to win the return of islands in the Aegean and parts of Macedonian territory to the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. This policy was repeated several times throughout the pre-war era. The main impetus for their demand was the ethnic and religious minorities then living inside Greek borders in Northern Greece. The KKE opposed any geo-strategic game 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, the KKE expressed the official position of the
Third International for "independent Macedonia and Thrace". Some members disagreed with this, but it remained the official position 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 Comintern and hurt the popularity of Communism at the time". In 1934, the 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 Secretary of the Central Committee 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
Bulgarian organizations of the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and the
Thracian Revolutionary Organisation. 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 not be crossed referenced with any of KKE referenced literature of that era. During the
civil war (1946–1949), an article written by
Nikos Zachariadis expressed the KKE's strategy after the envisioned victory of the
Democratic Army of Greece 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 "Macedonian 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". 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 Florakis, once again presented KKE's political position on the matter in a speech to the Greek Parliament.
The KKE during World War II 1940 By 1940, the KKE had almost collapsed after Metaxas' dictatorship had imprisoned many of its leadership and members. By October, half of the party's two thousand members were in prison or in exile. The Security Police proved successful in dismantling the party structure; not only had it imprisoned the leadership, but it created a fake series of
Rizospastis, the Central Committee newspaper. This generated confusion among the remaining scattered underground members. A small group of old party officials formed the "Old Central Committee" and 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 World War II) wrote: "The 'Old Central Committee' interpreted a directive issued by
Comintern as indicating collaboration with the German and Italian dictatorships, given the Hitler-Stalin alliance". On the other hand, Woodhouse argues that
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. also address the confusion between different KKE cadres as 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
Molotov–Ribbentrop 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 Ploumpidis 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
Konstantinos Maniadakis, the
Minister for Public Order, to win his release from prison. According to KKE's archives, the "Old Central Committee" had been denounced for its stance on the war issue and 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 Soviet Union for peaceful intervention, thus aligning his position with that of the "Old Central Committee". 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".'' 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". Ioannis Ioannidis was purged by Nikos Zachariadis, leader of the KKE in exile in 1953, and was stripped of his party offices. The article in the reference just cited ends with just the fact of his "Purge" and being "stripped of his Party offices", so it is unclear whether he was physically Purged (executed), as many Communists still were in 1953. 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 22 June 1941. There were many occasions that police officers released Communist prisoners, especially the ones who were in exile in Aegean islands. In 1941, several KKE members managed to escape prison. One of many stories includes the 20 communists held as political prisoners in
Heraklion,
Crete, who 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 corps of partisan units. 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 200 communists, delivered to the Germans on 1941, were
executed at the Kaisariani Shooting Range on 1 May 1944. Although the KKE was suffering from a lack of central political leadership since its leader Nikos Zachariadis 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 Axis 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 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
Kallithea, Athens and began forming partisan militia units.
1942 to Liberation On 16 February 1942, the
Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) was founded in a small kiosk in
Phthiotis 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
Nazis. These were the first conflicts of the coming
civil war. 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 Tsipas and
Georgios Siantos served as party general secretaries.
KKE and the Greek Civil War After the liberation of Greece from German occupational forces, the government of National Unity, led by G. Papandreou, landed in Athens in October 1944. The government was formed after the Treaty of Cazerta and its main purpose was to form the new Greek state, try accused political and military personnel of collaboration with the Germans and to hold a referendum for the government and the constitution. After several weeks, it became obvious to the KKE and EAM that the returning Greek government and their British allies were hostile to the significant amount of control that they exerted in Greece. Papandreou demanded the disarmament of ELAS and the trials of the collaborators were stalled. Meanwhile, British-led Allied forces together with Greek troops were landing in all major Greek cities and EAM was welcoming them as liberators. In mid-November 1944, the situation escalated dramatically; KKE criticised the interference of General
Ronald Scobie in Greek affairs, and EAM refused to disarm ELAS and ELAN as demanded by Scobie. Six ministers of the EAM, 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 and involving more than 100,000 people. During the demonstration, Greek gendarmes opened on the crowd. More than 28 demonstrators were killed and 148 injured. According to other accounts, it is uncertain if the first shots were fired by the gendarmes or the demonstrators. A member of the pro-monarchists Nikos Farmakis, in one of his interviews revealed that they had a direct order to fire at will when the demonstrators reach the court of the Palace. This incident was the beginning of the 37‑day Battle of Athens (
Dekemvriana). Following a ceasefire agreement called the
Treaty of Varkiza, 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 anticommunist 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. stands for
Demokratia, meaning both "Democracy" and "Republic" (in
Greek language these words are one and the same) 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 of a partisan army with the officers and fighters that were still free. On 26 October 1946, KKE militia units attacked the police station in
Litochoro, armed their forces and founded the
Central Greece Command of the
Democratic Army of Greece (DSE). 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 Islands of as
Mytilene,
Chios,
Icaria,
Samos and
Crete. The Civil War involved two sides. On the one side was the British and American-backed Greek government, led by
Konstantinos Tsaldaris and later
Themistoklis Sofoulis, which was elected in the
1946 elections which the KKE had boycotted. On the other side was the
Democratic Army of Greece, of which the KKE was the only major political force, backed by the
NOF,
Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia and
Albania. In December 1947, the KKE and its allies that participated in the Civil War formed the
Provisional Democratic Government ("Mountain Government") under the premiership of
Markos Vafeiadis. After this, the KKE (still legal due to the Treaty of Varkiza) turned illegal. On 29 January 1949, the Greek National Army appointed General
Alexandros Papagos 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 Florakis, 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 Mountains 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 as 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 Beloyannis in 1952 and
Nikos Ploumpidis 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 while in 1962 there were 1,359 prisoners and 296 exiles. However, under the prevailing anticommunist rules the 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) Party. EDA functioned as the legal political expression of the outlawed KKE. It was not openly communist and attracted moderate voters reaching 70,000 members in the early 60s. Moreover, EDA had a very active youth wing. Historians have argued that the two parties operated parallel paths, something that contributed to the 1968 split between KKE and KKE Esoterikou.
Former king Constantine II claims that in 1964 he proposed to
George Papandreou 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 Army colonels led by
Georgios Papadopoulos successfully carried out a
coup d'état 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 and P. Dimitriu) were expelled for fractionist activity and was further triggered by the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. 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
Eurocommunist 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 spin-off party forged bonds with Eurocommunist parties such as the
Italian Communist Party as well as with
Nicolae Ceaușescu's
Romanian Communist Party. 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 Union. Despite the difficulties resulting from the split, KKE continued its opposition to the Greek Junta throughout the next six 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) 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 democracy in 1974,
Konstantinos Karamanlis legalised the KKE hoping to reclaim "a vital part of
national memory". In the
1974 elections, the KKE participated with the KKE Interior and the EDA under the name of the
United Left, receiving 9.36 per cent of the vote. In the elections from 1977 to 1989, the KKE participated on its own. 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, following the
Liberation of Greece, KKE participated in the national unity government of
George Papandreou, 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. KKE members retained their portfolios until December 2 (one day before the onset of the
Dekemvriana). In 1988, KKE and
Greek Left (Greek EAP; the former
KKE Interior), along with other left-wing 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 Democracy to form a short-lived government amidst a political spectrum shaken by accusations of economic scandals against the previous administration of
Andreas Papandreou's
Panhellenic Socialist Movement. In November of the same year, Synaspismos participated in the "
Ecumenical government" with New Democracy and Panhellenic Socialist Movement which appointed
Xenophon Zolotas as prime minister for three months. In 1991, KKE withdrew from Synaspismos. Some KKE 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 Left.
21st century , the longest serving general secretary of KKE (1991–2013) , the incumbent general secretary of KKE since 2013 KKE actively participated in the
anti-austerity protests beginning in 2010 and also supported Greek steel worker's strikes. During the height of the
Greek debt crisis in 2012, the party proposed disobedience to the
Troika reforms, a "confrontation and a rupture with both
NATO and the
European Union, the unilateral cancelation of the debt and the development of the relations with States that produce mutual benefits". It criticized opposition party
Syriza, accusing it of "presenting itself with a left speech" but operating in line with the
capitalist system and "the European Union’s
imperialism" and "anti-people strategy". In the
first 2012 legislative election held on 6 May, the party got 8.5% of the vote and increased its parliamentary seats by five for a total of 26 seats. However, in the
second 2012 legislative election held a month later, on 17 June 2012, the party's support halved, resulting in a loss of 4 percentage points and 14 MPs. On 3 June 2014, following the
2014 European elections, the Central Committee of the KKE announced that it would no longer continue the party's affiliation with the
European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in the European parliament. After the failure of the
Hellenic Parliament to elect a new
President of State in late 2014, the parliament was dissolved and a snap
legislative election was scheduled for 25 January 2015, where the party increased its support by one percentage point to 5.5%. At the fresh
elections later that year, the party got a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points, reaching 5.6% of the vote. Since the 2015 election, the party saw a further increase in its support in
opinion polls, overtaking the former major party
PASOK to reach 4th place. Although KKE was again overtaken by PASOK (now called
Movement for Change – KINAL) in the
2019 election, it nonetheless managed to maintain a fourth-place in the polls, due to the decline of far-right party
Golden Dawn. In the
2023 Greek legislative election, KKE won in
Icaria. == Policies ==