Nikolaos Zachariadis (1903-1973) has been the General Secretary of the "Communist Party of Greece" (KKE) from 1931 to 1956.

From a young age he was a member of the "Federation of Communist Youths of Greece" (OKNE ) initially and afterwards of the KKE and the "Communist Party of the Soviet Union" (CPSU). In 1929, he was sent by KKE to Moscow to study at the communist party school of Kutv . He returned to Greece in 1931 and in November he was appointed, by order of Stalin and the Comintern as the General Secretary of KKE.

In August 1936, he was arrested by the State Security and imprisoned. In 1941 the Germans tranferred him to Dachau, from where he was released in May 1945. returninng to Greece he reassumed the leadership of the KKE. With the approval of Stalin, Zachariadis initiated the second phase of the Greek Civil War (1946 - 1949), which the communists lost.

In May 1956, the 6th General Assembly of KKE removed him from the seat of General Secretary, and in February 1957 his party membership was revoked. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Siberia, initially in Yakutia and later in Surgut , where he died in 1973.