This paper seeks to reveal the many ways in which the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) influenced the Cypriot Left (AKEL) during the 1940s. The analysis centres on the main political events of the decade and details the reaction of AKEL, especially as it was reporting to the KKE. Attention then switches to AKEL's ideology and tactics and how these were developed during and because of the Greek civil war. What this paper brings to the discussion is that the advice and control given by the KKE to AKEL – and at the same time the Cold War, which was a playing field on which a political party had to choose a side – were the main factors that formed the identity and ideological framework practiced for decades by AKEL.