Obituary Christos Tsintzilonis (1932-2026)

20. April 2026

Obituary

It is with deep sorrow that we learnd of the passing of our comrade Christos N. Tsintzilonis.
He was born in 1932 in the village Samarina of Grevena, Greece. He finished primary school in his hometown, and at the age of 14 he started working.
In the spring of 1944, during the German occupation, he became a member of the “Aetopoula” (the “little eagles”—groups of children and young teenagers from 8 to 15 years old that helped in the work of the EPON), and then a member of the EPON (Unified National Youth Organization) itself. During the Greek Civil War he fought as a liaison in the first battalions of the Democratic Army of Greece in Western Macedonia. In the summer of 1947, he fled to Albania, where in the autumn of 1948 he attended a two-month pedagogic course in Shkodër, organized by the “Child’s Assistance Committee”, under the chairmanship of Petros Kokkalis.
In December 1948, along with a group of children, he relocated to the Hungarian People’s Republic, where he continued working as a lay teacher in nearly all kindergartens for child refugees, teaching Greek Language, History and Geography. He was the first principal of the school in Beloiannisz village.
In February 1953, after passing the exams of the four-year Hungarian Teaching Centre, he obtained his teacher’s degree with distinction, and in July 1956 he graduated from the Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, University of Szeged, obtaining the degree of History professor. He worked for more than 20 years in the primary and secondary education in Hungary and Romania. He taught Greek Language, Literature, History and Geography to the children of the political refugees.
In 1952, he became a member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In 1972, with a decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the KKE, he was placed in charge of one of the Political Guidance Departments of the CC of the KKE, based in Bucharest.
After his repatriation (December 1975), he worked as a journalist for Rizospastis newspaper. At the same time, he became a member of the Greek Centre of Marxist Studies. In 1983, he became a member of the History Department of the CC of the KKE, being in charge of it for a long time.
He has conducted studies and research on contemporary Greek History, as well as on the labour movement, as author and editor of numerous books.
As representative of PEAEA he was member in the leading body of FIR, when we started the reorganization in 2003. As vice-president he took responsibility for the work of FIR in several years. For this active work and his historic researches, FIR honored him with the Michel Vanderborght Award 2023.
Until his death he was a member of the Athens Daily Newspapers Journalists Union, and former president of the Panhellenic Union of Fighters in the Greek Resistance and the Democratic Army of Greece (PEAEA-DSE). He has been honored by the National Self-Government of the Greeks in Hungary with a commemorative diploma and the honorary plaque “Elli Alexiou”.
We express our deepest sympathy to his family and the members of the PEAEA-DSE. FIR will remember him with great respect.