Editing Nikos Zachariadis (section)

==Post-war life and legacy==
The leadership of the Communist Party found refuge in [[Tashkent]]. However, after [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|Stalin's death]] in 1953, Zachariadis clashed with the new Soviet leadership, as he opposed the new direction taken by the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Communist Party]] under [[Nikita Khrushchev]].

In May 1956, during the Sixth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE, the Soviet Communist Party intervened to expel Zachariadis from his post of General Secretary. In February 1957, Zachariadis was also expelled from the KKE, as were many of his supporters.

Zachariadis spent the rest of his life in exile in [[Siberia]], initially in [[Sakha Republic|Yakutia]] and later in [[Surgut]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]]. In 1962, desperate from the devastating conditions of his exile, he somehow managed to reach Moscow. There, he visited the [[Embassy of Greece, Moscow|Greek Embassy]] and asked to be transported to Greece, where he wanted to stand trial for his actions. Whether or not his request was taken into consideration is not known. Immediately after he left the Greek embassy, he was arrested by the Soviets and was taken back to Surgut.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.tovima.gr/society/article/?aid=341332|title=Γιατί έκλεισαν το στόμα του Ζαχαριάδη|publisher=To Vima|author=Fotini Tomai|date=2010-07-04|access-date=2013-02-16}}</ref> There he committed suicide, aged 70, in 1973. According to a few of his followers, he was executed.<ref>{{cite book|first=Nikandros|last=Kepesis|script-title=el:ΠΡΟΒΛΗΜΑΤΙΣΜΟΙ γύρω από γεγονότα και πρόσωπα|language=el|year=2006|pages=45–46}}</ref> On the base of documents, declassified from the archives of the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russia)|Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs]], it has been confirmed that Zachariadis committed suicide.<ref>Л. Величанская, Никос Захариадис. Жизнь и политическая деятельность (1923–1973). Документы. Litres, 2019, {{ISBN|5041663203}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Hg-UDwAAQBAJ&q=%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%81+%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%81 стр. 13.]</ref>

In December 1991, just a few days after the fall of the Soviet Union, Zachariadis' remains were returned to his homeland of Greece, and he was given a funeral, which gave his supporters the opportunity to honour him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www1.rizospastis.gr/story.do?id=1898874 |title=Μια ιστορική προσωπικότητα του κομμουνιστικού κινήματος |website=Rizospastis |date=3 August 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724130817/http://www1.rizospastis.gr/story.do?id=1898874 |archive-date=24 July 2011 }}</ref> He is buried in the [[First Cemetery of Athens]].

In 2011, a National Conference of the Communist Party of Greece fully rehabilitated Zachariadis as General Secretary of the KKE. That was in line with the KKE's general political reorientation since the collapse of the Soviet Union; the party has adopted the view that the Soviet Communist Party embarked on a [[revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]] line after Stalin's death and Khrushchev's takeover.<ref>{{cite web|title=Greece: SYRIZA, the Communist Party and the desperate need for a united front {{!}} Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal|url=http://links.org.au/node/2863|website=links.org.au|language=en}}</ref>