Memorials dedicated to communist guerrillas unveiled by the KKE in northern Greece

With two events held in the northern provinces of Florina and Kastoria on Sunday 27 October, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) unveiled two new memorials dedicated to the struggle of the Democratic Army of Greece, the communist-backed guerrilla army which fought against the bourgeois forces and their imperialist allies during the 1946-1949 Civil War.

Both events were attended by the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas. 

 

Thousands of young communists participated in the 32nd Anti-imperialist Camp of KNE

The 32^nd Anti-imperialist Camp of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) took place in Nestorio, Kastoria, on 13–16 July 2023, with the participation of thousands of young people from all over the country.  

 

The area where the camp was held was the centre of the three-year epic of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE, 1946–1949), led by the KKE. 

The KKE, USSR and Sergey Radchenko's anti-communism

By Nikos Mottas.

Recently, the name of Sergey Radchenko made headlines in Greece's media. A historian and professor at John Hopkins University, Radchenko posted on his personal Twitter account “declassified documents” from the Russian State Archives concerning the relations of the Communist Parties of Greece (KKE) and the Soviet Union (USSR), as well as the struggle of the communist-backed Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) during the 1946-1949 Civil War. 

Paul Éluard: To the heroes of the Democratic Army of Greece

French communist poet Paul Éluard (1895-1952) was part of the delegation which visited  the strongholds of the communist-led Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) in Vitsi and Grammos mountains of northern Greece in June 1949. 

Back then, DSE was in the midst of a fierce battle against the National Army and its imperialist allies, namely the United States. 

At the end of his visit, Éluard dedicated the following message to the heroic fighters of the Democratic Army:

Museum in honor of communist guerrillas unveiled in Greece

“The KKE is the power of the people today, because it doesn't enter the fold of the false 'national arrangements', it does not obey the hostile for the people bourgeois plans”, pointed out Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), during his speech in the northern Greek town of Nestorio on Sunday morning.

The speech was given on the occasion of the inauguration of a Museum-Memorial for  the communist guerrilla fighters of EAM-ELAS and the Democratic Army (DSE), who fought against the Axis occupation and during the Greek Civil War respectively. The Museum was a donation by Harisis Tsoutounis who provided a space “in memory of his militant parents”, as well as to “honor the struggle of EAM-ELAS and DSE, to which the people of the area contributed significantly”.

Charilaos Florakis Remembered: The story of a Greek communist leader

By Nikos Mottas.

It was the 22nd of May 2005 when Charilaos Florakis, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1972 to 1991, passed away at the age of 91. Florakis' life and activity, identified with the history and struggles of the KKE, was devoted to the ideals of marxism-leninism.

Born in 1914 in Paliozoglopi, a small village in Thessaly, Charilaos Florakis became a member of OKNE, the Communist Party’s Youth Wing, in 1929. As an OKNE member and later as a student and active worker at the so-called “TTT” (Posts, Telegraphs, Telephone Offices) he began his political activity, during a socially and politically turbulent period for Greece. 

Thousands of young communists participated in the 28th anti-imperialist camp of KNE

KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas in
the political event in Karpenisi.

Thousands young men and women from every corner of Greece gathered between 12 and 14 of July, in Karpenisi, in Evrytania, in order to participate in the 28th anti-imperialist camp organized by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE). 

The base for the camp was Kefalovriso, 3 km from the city of Karpenisi, a place which took its fame from the battle of August 1823 between the Greek revolutionaries and the Ottomans. 

SHAME! Polish authorities destroy memorial dedicated to communist hero Nikos Beloyannis

In another episode of anti-communist barbarity, the authorities of Poland removed and destroyed a memorial dedicated to the heroic Greek communist Nikos Beloyannis in the city of Wroclaw. 

The memorial, which had been erected by Greek political refugees next to the 20th Elementary School at 143 Stabłowicka street, was removed and destroyed according to the  2016 anti-communist law which prohibits "the promotion of communism or other totalitarian regimes". 

It must be reminded that, a few months ago, Polish authorities had removed the plaque of a memorial dedicated to the legendary Democratic Army of Greece (1946-1949) in Dziwnów.

Conclusions from KKE's armed struggle during WWII and from the struggle of DSE

Conclusions from KKE's armed struggle during WWII and from the struggle of DSE (Democratic Army of Greece), through the scope of the strategy of the international communist movement.

Speech by Eleni Bellou,

member of the PB of the CC of the KKE,

at the European Communist Initiative Meeting, Istanbul, 16-17/02/2019.

KKE MEP Kostas Papadakis in Poland: Stop the persecution of Polish communists!

A delegation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) group at the European Parliament, headed by Kostas Papadakis, MEP and also member of the Party's Central Committee, visited Poland in order to express solidarity and support with the persecuted members of "Brzask" newspaper. "Brzask" is the official gazette of the Communist Party of Poland and members of its editorial board have been persecuted by the authorities under the unfounded allegations of "public promotion of a totalitarian system".

Hands off the DSE memorial in Dziwnów - New anticommunist provocation in Poland

The memorial with the plaque dedicated to the heroes of the
DSE in Dziwnowie. 

The anti-communist frenzy in Poland continues through the application of the reactionary "decommunization" laws which have been established by the bourgeois governments with the support of the European Union. A month ago, we had reported the demolition by polish authorities of a memorial dedicated to Soviet Red Army soldiers in Warsaw.

The latest incident in the series of anticommunist hysteria is taking place in the town of Dziwnów, where there is a monument in honor of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE)*. More specifically, the monument pays tribute to wounded fighters of the Democratic Army of Greece who had been treated in a special military hospital especially founded by the Polish People's Republic. The fighters subsquently succumbed to their wounds and were buried in Dziwnów. The monument was built by polish soldiers during the socialist era.

Nikos Zachariadis- Tito's dagger stabs the People's Democratic Greece in the back

Note: The article below, written by Nikos Zachariadis, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece from 1931 to 1956, was published in the newspaper-organ of the information Bureau of the Communist and Workers Parties- "For a lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy" on 1/8/1949. In the article, Zachariadis refers to the role of Josip Broz Tito's leadership during the struggle of Greece's guerrilla Democratic Army (DSE) against the bourgeois Greek Army and the imperialists, between the years 1946-1949. 

Tito's dagger stabs the People's Democratic Greece in the back

KKE: Successful event in honor of political refugees held in Athens

The event held by the Central Committee on 21/4/18 at the Conference Hallof the Communist Party of Greece in Perissos was dedicated to a special aspect of our Party's 100 years of life, to the life of Greek political refugees in the People’s Republics.

The KKE headquarters were filled with political refugees, as well as their descendants who earlier visited the exhibition with deep emotion and also met old acquaintances, friends and comrades. The presence of the youth, which is thirsty to learn about a relatively unknown aspect of our Party History, was also special.

Harry Truman: A War Criminal in the center of Athens

By Nikos Mottas.

Two days ago, Greek police forces, following orders of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, brutally assaulted anti-war demonstrators when they tried to bring down the statue of U.S. President Harry Truman. This 3.2-meter statue - “a fossil of the bloodstained american imperialism”, as the KKE called it in a statement- has been in the center of the Greek capital since 1963.

The recent events give us the opportunity to remember who Harry Truman really was. A representative of U.S. imperialism, Truman was the perpetrator of the most horrendous war crime of the previous century. We refer to the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

KKE in Stockholm: Event in honor of the Democratic Army of Greece on March 18th

On the occasion of the Communist Party of Greece's 100 years, the Party Organisation in Stockholm, Sweden organises an event in honor of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE), the heroic guerrilla army which fought during the 1946-1949 Civil War. 

The event includes the screening of the documentary "What if Grammos fell, we shall win", produced by the CC of the KKE about the Democratic Army, as well as an award ceremony for fighters of the DSE. 

50 years of Communist Youth of Greece - Declaration of the Central Council of KNE

Declaration of the Central Council for the course towards the 50 years of life and action of KNE

The 50-year course of KNE is the youthful storming of the future, 

for the new world, socialism-communism

Source: PDF version.

Memorial in honor of the communist guerrilla Democratic Army was unveiled in northern Greece

KKE Gen. Sec. Dimitris Koutsoumbas at the
DSE memorial (Source: 902.gr)

Theotokos, Greece - With the participation of hundreds members, supporters and friends of the Communist Party (KKE) and its youth wing (KNE), as well as numerous locals, the inauguration of the Memorial-museum dedicated to the heroic, communist-backed guerrilla Democratic Army of Greece (1946-1949) took place in the mountain of Gramos, at the northern Greek prefecture of Ioannina. 

The General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumbas unveiled the memorial, while the major speech was delivered by the member of the CC of the Party Dimitris Gontikas. The names of 438 Democratic Army fighters, natives of the Gramos and Smolikas mountainous area, are inscripted in plagues surrounding the memorial. 

Lieutenant Katina Manitara

The elderly lady of the photo was one of those who yesterday participated in a large pensioners' demonstration against the austerity, antipeople measures of the Greek government. 

This woman, along with other retirees took the streets of Athens in order to assert their rights; the rights of their children and grandchildren. The Greek police "welcomed" this woman and the other pensioners with violence and tear gas. 

The name of the lady is Katina Manitara, a resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation of Greece. As a child, in the beginning of the fascist occupation, Katina was delivering secret messages "under the radar" of the italian police. At the age of 14 she witnessed her father's torture from Greek fascists. 

On May 1947, at 15 years old, she joined the heroic Democratic Army of Greece; the KKE-led guerrilla army which fought against the bourgeois military forces and their imperialist allies between 1946-1949. During the war, a bullet fragment stucked in her head where it still remains. At the age of 17, Katina Manitara graduates from the Military School of the Democratic Army with the rank of second lieutenant. 

This lady, Katina Manitara, consists a symbol of resistance, of courage and dignity. 

Declaration of the CC of the KKE: On the 70th anniversary of the Democratic Army of Greece 1946-1949

Athens, February 2016

We are inspired and learn from the 100-year history of the KKE, from the 3-year epic of the DSE.

The CC of the KKE, the entire party and KNE, honours the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the democratic Army of Greece (DSE).

1946 was a year of important developments directly connected to the creation of the DSE, such as:

The 2nd Plenum of the CC of the KKE (12-15 February 1946), which began exactly a year after of the signing of the Varkiza Agreement (12th of February 1945).The 2nd Plenum, even if in a contradictory way, was the one that decided to conduct the armed struggle.

The attack of a group of partisans on the gendarmerie station of Litohoro, on the night of the 30th and early in the morning of the 31st of March 1946, took place on the eve of the parliamentary elections.

Nikos Zachariadis (1903-1973)

The 1st of August marks the 43rd anniversary of the death of Nikos Zachariadis, General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1931 to 1956. He was born to ethnic Greek parents in Ottoman Empire's Edirne (Andrianoupolis) in 1903. At the age of 16, Nikos moved to Istanbul where he worked in various jobs, including as a dockworker and sailor. It was there when he started having his first organised relationship with the working-class movement. 

In 1919-1922 he travelled extensively to the Soviet Union. In 1923 he became a member of the Communist Party of Turkey. He studied in the newly-founded "KUTV" (Communist University of the Toilers of the East), also known as "Stalin School", in the Soviet Union. After the Greco-Turkish War and the exchange of populations, the Zachariadis family moved permanently to Greece, during a period of severe political and economic crisis. 

On summer 1924, after finishing his studies in the Soviet Union, Nikos Zachariadis travelled secretly to Greece where he undertook duties at the Young Communist League of Greece (OKNE). In 1926, during the dictatorship of General Pangalos, he was arrested and imprisoned in Thessaloniki. He managed to escape and worked secretly in various party positions. He was re-arrested and re-imprisoned in 1929, but once again he escaped and fled to the Soviet Union. During his stay in the Soviet Union he became a member of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).