Under Stalin's Shadow

A Global History of Greek Communism

Nikos Marantzidis

• Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781501768347, 9781501767661
• eBook ISBN: 9781501767678
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Under Stalin's Shadow examines the history of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from 1918 to 1956, showing how closely national Communism was related to international developments. The history of the KKE reveals the role of Moscow in the various Communist parties of Southeastern Europe, as Nikos Marantzidis shows that Communism's international institutions (Moscow Center, Comintern, Balkan Communist Federation, Cominform, and sister parties in the Balkans) were not merely external factors influencing orientation and policy choices.

Based on research from published and unpublished archival documents located in Greece, Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Balkan countries, Under Stalin's Shadow traces the KKE movement's interactions with fraternal parties in neighboring states and with their acknowledged supreme mentors in Stalin's Soviet Russia. Marantzidis reveals how, because the boundaries between the national and international in the Communist world were not clearly drawn, international institutions, geopolitical soviet interests, and sister parties' strategies shaped in fundamental ways the KKE's leadership, its character and decision making as a party, and the way of life of its followers over the years.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: A Global History of Greek Communism
• Part I: Interwar, 1918–39
• Part II: World War II and the Early Cold War Years, 1939–56
• Notes
• Note on Sources
• Bibliography
• Index