Editing Nikos Zachariadis (section)

{{Short description|General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece from 1931 to 1956}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Nikos Zachariadis
| native_name         = {{nobold|{{Lang|el|Νίκος Ζαχαριάδης}}}}
| image               = Zachariadis.jpg
| caption             = A photo of Zachariadis, from the 30 May 1945 edition of ''[[Rizospastis]]''.
| office              = [[General Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of Greece]]
| term_start          = 1931
| term_end            = 1956
| predecessor         = [[Andronikos Haitas]]
| successor           = [[Apostolos Grozos]] (temporary)
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1903|04|27|df=yes}}
| birth_place         = [[Adrianople]], [[Ottoman Empire]]<br />(<small>modern-day [[Edirne]], [[Turkey]]</small>)
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1973|08|01|1903|04|27|df=yes}}
| death_place         = [[Surgut]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|RSFSR]], [[Soviet Union|USSR]]<br />(<small>modern-day [[Russian Federation]]</small>)
| resting_place       = [[Athens]]
| spouse              = Mania Novakova <br> Roula Koukoulou (1948 - )
| partner             = <!-- (unmarried long-term partner) -->
| children            = Kiros, Olga, Sifis
| signature           = Nikos Zachariadis signature.svg
| parents             = Panagiotis Zachariadis (Father)
}}
[[File:Nikos Zachariadis.jpg|thumb|Nikos Zachariadis, president of the Supreme Military Council of Democratic Army of Greece]]
'''Nikos Zachariadis''' ({{langx|el|Νίκος Ζαχαριάδης}}; 27 April 1903 – 1 August 1973) was [[General Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of Greece]] (KKE) from 1931 to 1956.

He was appointed, by order of [[Stalin]] and the [[Comintern]], General Secretary of KKE in 1935. He was arrested by the right-wing [[4th of August Regime|Metaxas dictatorship]] the following year. From prison, he lent his political influence to a united antifascist front following [[Greco–Italian War|Italy's invasion of Greece]] on October 28, 1940. Despite his efforts to encourage unity and resistance in the face of fascist aggression, Zachariadis remained imprisoned and when the Nazis ultimately [[Axis occupation of Greece|invaded and occupied Greece in 1941]], Zachariadis was transferred to [[Dachau concentration camp]], where he remained until the camp was liberated by the US Army in May 1945.

Along with [[Markos Vafiadis]], Zachariadis was an integral figure in the formation and operations of the KKE-led [[Democratic Army of Greece]] (DSE) during the [[Greek Civil War]] of 1946–1949. Following the collapse of the military effort in 1949, Zachariadis and other leaders of the DSE retreated to [[Tashkent]], capital city of [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic|Uzbekestan SSR]]. He continued to receive support as the General Secretary of the "exterior" branch of KKE until the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.<br>
Zachariadis fell out of favor with the Tashkent branch of KKE in 1955 and, following some infighting, he was removed from his post — ostensibly with the support and approval of [[Nikita Khrushchev]] — by May 1956. Zachariadis was expelled from KKE the following year.

Zachariadis spent the rest of his life in exile in [[Siberia]], initially in [[Yakutia]] and later in [[Surgut]], where — according to official [[KGB]] records — he committed suicide in 1973. His body was returned to Greece in 1991 following the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|fall of the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/zachariadis/biography.htm | title=Biographical Sketch: Nikos Zachariadis }}</ref>