ABSTRACT
Outlawed in 1947, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) re-emerged only in 1974, after the collapse of the Colonels’ military junta. Still the party’s leadership and professional structures continue to be dominated by an ageing generation whose entire political culture and practices are imbued by the experiences and ideas of the ‘40s. The split of the KKE in 196b has done little to shake up Communist orthodoxy. The splinter dissident group of Communists, who later formed the KKE-interior, moved gradually to Euro-communist positions but failed to redress the balance within the Communist movement to their favour, as they had hoped. With the downfall of the military regime and the transition to parliamentary democracy Greece entered a new and unprecedented phase of liberalisation. The Communists, now legalised after being banished from the political scene since 1947, acquired equal political status in national politics.
