Olga Ďurišová

Olga Ďurišová, née Zachariadisová was born on 20 March 1947 in Prague to Czech mother Marie Zachariadisová and Greek father Nikos Zachariadis. Witness´s parents met at the end of the 1920s in Moscow where an international congress was held. Nikos Zachariadis was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece since the 1930s. However, in 1956 he was expelled from his post due to the destalinization process and internal party clashes, he was later expelled from the party and interned in Siberia. At that time, Olga Ďurišová lived only with her mother and she knew her father only from stories. She graduated from the Secondary general school and after it, she worked as a secretary for many years. In 1971, she fulfilled her long-time wish and saw her father Nikos Zachariadis for the first time. She spent a fortnight in Siberia, and she had the opportunity to talk to her father for the first time but also got to know the conditions the former powerful politician lived in. She did not have another opportunity to meet her father because he died two years later. Olga´s mother Marie Zachariadisová died in 1981. After the Velvet Revolution Olga still worked in administration or on the helpline and took care of her two children. Even though she was raised in Czech background, she claimed Greek nationality during the census. She lived in Prague in 2022.