Andreas Tsipas ( el, Ανδρέας Τσίπας; mk, Андреjа Чипов, translit=Andreja Čipov; bg, Андрей Чипов, translit=Andrey Chipov; born 1904, Patele,

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

(today Agios Panteleimonas, near

Florina Florina ( el, Φλώρινα, ''Flórina''; known also by some alternative names) is a town and municipality in the mountainous northwestern Macedonia, Greece. Its motto is, 'Where Greece begins'. The town of Florina is the capital of the F ...

, Greece) – died 1956, Bitola,

SFRY The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II in Yugoslavia, World War II, and ...

(present-day

Republic of North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

) was a Greek Communist leader during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1933, he became a leader of the IMRO (United) in

Greek Macedonia Macedonia (; el, Μακεδονία, Makedonía ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and Greek geographic region, with a population of 2.36 million in 2020. It is ...

and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He was a KKE candidate in the last pre-war Greek legislative elections in 1936. Between 1936 and 1941, he was imprisoned in the

Acronauplia The Acronauplia ( ell, Ακροναυπλία, translit=Akronafplia, tr, Iç Kale, "Inner Castle") is the oldest part of the city of Nafplion in Greece. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and th ...

prison by political reasons. On 30 June 1941, Tzipas was one of 27 communist prisoners released from the Acronauplia at the request of the

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n embassy in Athens with the intercession of Bulgarian Club in Thessaloniki, which had made representations to the German occupation authorities. Most members of the group belonged to the Slavic Macedonian community of northern Greece, which was regarded as Bulgarian by the Bulgarian authorities. With the permission from the leader of KKE Giannis Ioannides to reconstruct the Greek Communist Party, they all declared Bulgarian ethnicity. Some merely pretended to be a Bulgarian in order to be set free, such as Kostas Lazaridis who was a Pontic Greek,

Andreas Tzimas Andreas Tzimas ( el, Ανδρέας Τζήμας; Kastoria, 1 September 1909 – Prague, 1 December 1972), known also under his World War II-era ''nom de guerre'' of Vasilis Samariniotis (Βασίλης Σαμαρινιώτης), was a leading Gre ...

a Greek

Vlach "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Easter ...

, Petros Kentros of Arvanite and Vlach descent, etc. After his release, Tsipas and others set about reorganising the decimated KKE. Along with

and Kostas Lazaridis, also released from prison, and Petros Rousos, Pandelis Karankitzis and Chrysa Hatzivasileiou constituted themselves as a new central committee, with Tsipas as secretary, at a meeting in July 1941, subsequently named as the VI Plenum by the KKE. This new central committee succeeded in winning the recognition of the "old central committee" and the "provisional leadership" wings of the party. At the VII Plenum of the central committee, held the following September, Tsipas was relieved of his post owing to "political unreliability". Tsipas was careless in security terms and abused alcohol. One account claims that after running up a bill in a bar, he sent the barman to the secret meeting place of the politburo, where someone was expected to pay his bill. After the removal from his post, he was isolated, and in January 1942, he sought refuge in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, where he remained for eight months. According to some sources then he was an agent of the Bulgarian

secret service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

. During the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος}, ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom and ...

, he was active in the National Liberation Front (NOF) working as a nurse. After the defeat of the

Democratic Army of Greece The Democratic Army of Greece (DAG; el, Δημοκρατικός Στρατός Ελλάδας - ΔΣΕ, Dimokratikós Stratós Elládas - DSE) was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949). At ...

, he fled to

in the Socialist Republic of Macedonia, in the city of Bitola, where he died in 1956, suffering from alcoholism.Καλλιανιώτης,Αθανάσιος (2007, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (ΑΠΘ)), Οι πρόσφυγες στη Δυτική Μακεδονία (1941 - 1946)
''εκεί πέθανε ίσως από το πολύ ποτό''

Notes

References

* Matthias Esche, ''Die Kommunistische Partei Griechenlands 1941-1949'', Munich: Oldenbourg, 1982. * Hagen Fleischer, ''Im Kreuzschatten der Mächte Griechenland 1941-1944 (Okkupation-Resistance-Kollaboration)'', Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1986, p. 591. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tsipas, Andreas 1904 births 1956 deaths People from Amyntaio Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia General Secretaries of the Communist Party of Greece Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United) members Date of birth missing Date of death missing