Aris Velouchiotis - Early Years

Early Years

Athanasios Klaras was born in Lamia, Greece in 1905, in a family of the upper urban class. His father was a well-known lawyer in the area. As a youth, he studied for a while as a journalist and later attented and graduated with enough effort (due to a vagrant youth) from the Geoponic School of Larissa. He participated in the leftist movement and later became a member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). During the 20's and 30's he was jailed several times for several offenses. During the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship (1936–1941), he was arrested also for his communist ideas and jailed in Aegina prison. He was tortured and there are rumors that since then he had problems with his sexual ability. During his trial he escaped (one of his many escapes), but he was arrested again in 1939 and was sent to Corfu prison. He remained there until he signed a "statement of renouncement" of the Communist Party, a very humiliating act for a communist at the time.