The Twenty-second Soviet Communist Party Congress opens in Moscow today in a situation contrasting sharply with the script prepared many months ago when this meeting was first announced.

The most surprising thing about the Twenty-second Congress of the Soviet Communist Party is that it is surprising -- perhaps quite as much, in its own way, as the Twentieth Congress of 1956, which ended with that famous `` secret '' report on Stalin.

* 1982 – Estonian Communist Party bureau declares " fight against bourgeois TV "— meaning Finnish TV — a top priority of the propagandists of Estonian SSR

* 1927 – April 12 Incident: Chiang Kai-shek orders the Communist Party of China members executed in Shanghai, ending the First United Front.

Ter-Petrosyan had been elected head of government in 1990, when the National Democratic Union party defeated the Armenian Communist Party.

A new party, the Republic Party, is headed by ex-Prime Minister Aram Sargsyan, brother of Vazgen Sargsyan, and has become the primary voice of the opposition, which also includes the Armenian Communist Party, the National Unity party of Artashes Geghamyan, and elements of the former Ter-Petrosyan government.

* 1927 – The Nanchang Uprising marks the first significant battle in the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China.

* 1937 – Josip Broz Tito reads the resolution " Manifesto of constitutional congress of KPH " to the constitutive congress of KPH ( Croatian Communist Party ) in woods near Samobor.

* 1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens.

* 1950 – Julien Lahaut, the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium is assassinated by far-right elements.

* 1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.

* 1912 – Pravda, the " voice " of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg.

* 1991 – Collapse of the Soviet Union – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

* 1991 – Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

During the Cold War, the ACLU headquarters was dominated by anti-communists, but many local affiliates defended members of the Communist Party.

* 1969 – Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.

* 2011 – Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years of holding the title.

* 1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

* 1941 – World War II: The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols ( also known as " National Democrats ") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.

No consistent investigation has been put forth against the violent protesters, mainly due to the difficulties encountered in identification of the many masked protesters and the fierce opposition at Congress held by most of the left-wing parties, such as the Communist Party and current PM Romano Prodi's Union coalition.

The African National Congress ( ANC ) is South Africa's governing political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions ( COSATU ) and the South African Communist Party ( SACP ), since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994.

In 1955, the Congress of the People officially adopted the Freedom Charter, stating the core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress and its allies the South African Communist Party ( SACP ), the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats ( COD ) and the Coloured People's Congress.

In cooperation with the South African Communist Party, MK was founded in 1961.

The ANC holds a historic alliance with the South African Communist Party ( SACP ) and Congress of South African Trade Unions ( COSATU ), known as the Tripartite Alliance.

Communist parties achieved a significant popularity in such nations as China, Greece, Iran, and the Republic of Mahabad.

Stalin had respected his agreement with Winston Churchill to not intervene, but Yugoslavia and Albania defied the USSR's advice and sent supplies during the Greek Civil War to the partisan forces of the Communist Party of Greece, the ELAS ( National Popular Liberation Army ).

* 1983 – The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.

Staunch supporters of Venizelos and the Republic, many would also radicalize and play a leading role in the nascent Communist Party of Greece.

High unemployment and consequent social unrest resulted, and the Communist Party of Greece made rapid advances.

By the end of 1946, the Communist Democratic Army of Greece had been formed, pitted against the governmental National Army, which was backed first by Britain and after 1947 by the United States.

Communist successes in 1947 – 1948 enabled them to move freely over much of mainland Greece, but with extensive reorganization, the deportation of rural populations and American material support, the National Army was slowly able to regain control over most of the countryside.

* 1892 – Apostolos Grozos, Greek leader of the Communist Party of Greece ( d. 1981 )

The act grants $ 400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.

With a Communist insurgency threatening Greece, and Britain financially unable to continue its aid, the President announced his Truman Doctrine on 12 March 1947, " to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures ", with an aid request for consideration and decision, concerning Greece and Turkey.

* 1900 – Pandelis Pouliopoulos, secretary of the Communist Party of Greece ( d. 1943 )

The first napalm attack in Greece took place on the mountain of Grammos, which was the stronghold of the Communist rebels.

* 1949 – Nikolaos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a " temporary cease-fire ", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.

** Charilaos Florakis is elected honorary president of the Communist Party of Greece.

With the end of World War II, the Cold War began almost immediately, as the Soviet Union installed repressive Communist puppet régimes across Central and Eastern Europe, while the United States backed right-wing forces in Greece and China.

The existence of the centuries-old Serb or Serbian diaspora in countries such as Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine, is the result of historical circumstances – the migrations to the North and the East, due to the Turkish conquests of the Balkans and as a result of politics, especially when the Communist Party came into power, but even more when the communist state of Yugoslavia collapsed into inter-ethnic conflict, resulting in mass expulsions of people as refugees of war.

The effect was to end the Communist threat, and in 1952 both countries ( Greece and Turkey ) joined NATO, a military alliance that guaranteed their protection.

They include the third largest party ( the Communist Party ), which still commands large support from many rural working areas as well as some of the immigrant population in Greece, as well as the far-right Popular Orthodox Rally, with the latter, while commanding a mere three and a half per cent of votes, seeking to capitalise on opposition in some quarters regarding Turkey's EU accession and any tension in the Aegean.

* Avraam Benaroya ( 1953 –), Greek-Jewish Socialist leader, founder of the Communist Party of Greece

It was nearly captured by the Communist Democratic Army of Greece in 1948, and the final battles of the civil war took place on the nearby Mount Gramos in 1949.

By early 1990, numerous other stations also appeared on the air, including New Channel ( no relation to Nea Tileorasi ) with movies, music videos and talk shows, Channel Seven-X ( with avant-garde programming including foreign films, intellectual programming and a simulcast of French music network MCM ), Jeronimo Groovy TV ( initially a popular music video station that broadcast in Athens, amidst serious interference from other stations ), TeleCity ( a right-wing political television station with news and talk shows ), 902 TV ( owned by the Communist Party of Greece ), Kanali 29 ( a television station with political and cultural programs and a cult following ), and a plethora of other broadcasters, which filled every available VHF and UHF frequency, often broadcasting only for several weeks or months, or with very little programming of note.

Founded in 1918, the Communist Party of Greece (, Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas ), better known by its initials, ΚΚΕ ( usually pronounced by Greeks as " koo-koo-eh " or " kappa-kappa-epsilon "), is the oldest party on the Greek political scene.