Communist Youth of Greece
political youth organization
The Communist Youth of Greece (Greek: Κομμουνιστική Νεολαία Ελλάδας, romanized: Kommounistikí Neolaía Elládas; Greek: ΚΝΕ, KNE) is the youth organization of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). It is a Marxist-Leninist organization which mainly seeks to familiarize the youth of Greece with the policies of the KKE.
It publishes the monthly magazine Odigitis (Greek: Οδηγητής, "guider") which operates as the Organ of the Central Council of KNE. The annual panhellenic festival of the organization gets its name from this magazine ("KNE-Odigitis Festival").
KNE is a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
History
KNE was founded on 15 September 1968, with a decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the KKE, during the Greek military junta of 1967–74, as an organization of youth with revolutionary and communist ideas.
It is the historical continuation of OKNE (Federation of Communist Youth Organizations of Greece), of all the organizations of youth which had already taken part in people's struggle in Greece, such as EPON (United Panhellenic Organization of Youth), DNE (Democratic Youth of Greece), D.N. "Lambrakis" (Democratic Youth "Lambrakis").
In 1989-1991, a deep crisis shocked KNE and the KKE. In autumn 1989, disagreeing with the participation of the KKE in the Tzannetakis and Zolotas national unity governments, a large group, including the major part of KNE under its secretary-general George Grapsas, split from the KKE and formed the New Left Current (NAR). The KKE, then part of the Synaspismos coalition, attempted to dissolve KNE into the Synaspismos Youth League. Later in 1991, the KKE left the coalition, purged all non-hardliners (incl. 45% of the central committee and KKE secretary-general Grigoris Farakos), and restored KNE with the efforts of some hundreds of members. In March 1993, the 6th Congress of the Organization took place.
The public source identifies “Communist Youth of Greece” as political youth organization. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Communist, Youth and Greece.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q984306. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968, 1967, 1989 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Communist Youth of Greece” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.