Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was fought between 1946 and 1949, and was the first example of a post-war Communist insurgency. The victory of the government anti-Communist forces led to Greece's membership in NATO and helped to define the ideological balance of power in the Aegean for the entire Cold War.

The first phase of the civil war took shape in 1942-1944. The left-wing and right-wing of the resistance movement fought each other in a fratricidal conflict to establish the leadership of the Greek resistance. In the second phase (1944) the ascendant socialists, in military control of most of Greece, were confronted by the returning Greek government in exile, which had been formed under Western Allied auspices in Cairo. In the third phase (commonly called the "Third Round" by the Communists) (1946-1949), a centre-right government, elected under abnormal conditions, fought against armed forces controlled by the Communist Party of Greece. Although the involvement of the Communist Party in the uprisings was universally known, the party remained legal until 1948, continuing to coordinate attacks from its Athens offices until proscription.

During the conflict, neighbouring countries attempted to pursue territorial claims against Greece; they exerted pressures on both sides. The best-known example was the pressure exerted by SNOF, based in Yugoslavia, which fought as an integrated ELAS ally during the third phase of the war (see Macedonia (Greece)). Another case is the appointment of a Bulgarian minister at the last cabinet of the communist forces in 1949. On the other hand, the various anticommunist Greek governments were forced to comply with their Western allies foreign policy priorities, even after the end of the civil war.

The civil war left Greece with a legacy of political polarisation; as a result Greece also entered into alliance with the United States and joined NATO, while relationships with its USSR-allied northern neighbors became strained.

Background: 1941-44

The origins of the civil war lie in the occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria from 1941 to 1944. King George II and his government escaped to Egypt, where they proclaimed a government-in-exile, recognised by the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union. The Western Allies actively encouraged, even coerced, the King to appoint moderate ministers; only two of his ministers were members of the dictatorial government that had governed Greece before the German invasion. Some in the left-wing resistance claimed the government to be illegitimate, on account of its roots in the dictatorship of General Ioannis Metaxas from 1936 to 1941. Regardless of its pretensions, or of the dissenters, the government's inability to influence the governance of Greece rendered it irrelevant in the minds of most Greek people.

The Germans set up a collaborationist government in Athens; but this government, too, lacked legitimacy and support. The puppet regime was further undermined when economic mismanagement in wartime conditions created runaway inflation, acute food shortages, and even famine, amongst the Greek civilian population. Some high-profile officers of the pre-war Greek regime served the Germans in various posts. In 1943, this government started creating paramilitary forces, mostly of local fascists, convicts, and sympathetic prisoners of war, in order to fight the communist partisans and reduce the strain on the German army. These forces, which numbered 14,000 men at their peak in 1944, never were used against the Western Allies, but only against the pro-communist guerillas.

The lack of legitimate government created a power vacuum, which was filled by several resistance movements and began operations shortly after German occupation. The largest of these was the National Liberation Front (in Greek, Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo, or EAM), founded in September 1941. The EAM and its military wing, the Greek National Liberation Army (Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos, or ELAS), were established by the Communist Party of Greece (the KKE). The acting leader was Giorgios Siantos (its proper leader, Nikolaos Zachariadis, was interned a German prison). Following the Soviet policy of creating a broad united front against fascism, the EAM won the support of many non-Communists. It became a large popular organisation which, although completely controlled by the KKE, tried to appear solely as a democratic republican movement. Another organization controlled by the Greek Communist Party was the OPLA (Organization for the protection of the people's fighters). In the area of Florina there also was the Slavo-Macedonian organization NOF, which changed its name to SNOF during the third phase of the civil war.

The EAM and the ELAS opposed all other resistance movements. The most important of such forces were the Greek National Republican League (Ethnikos Dimokratikos Ellinikos Syndesmos, or the EDES), led by a former army officer, Colonel Napoleon Zervas, and the National and Social Liberation (Ethniki Kai Koinoniki Apeleftherosis, or the EKKA), led by Colonel Dimitrios Psaros. The EKKA was a classical liberal movement, with strong opposition to the monarchy. The EDES was committed to obstructing ELAS from achieving power rather than fighting the Germans, and bore little ideological identity.

The resistance first struck in Eastern Macedonia, where the Germans had allowed Bulgarian troops to occupy Greek territories. Large demonstrations were organized by the YBE (DEFENDERS OF NORTH GREECE), a right wing organization, in Greek Macedonian cities, in response.

Greece is a country very favourable to guerilla operations, and by 1943 the Axis forces and their collaborators controlled only the main towns and connecting roads, leaving the mountainous interior to the resistance. By 1943 ELAS had about 50,000 men under arms, and effectively controlled large areas of the mountainous Peloponnese, Crete, Thessaly and Macedonia. EDES had about 3,000 men, nearly all of them in Epirus. EKKA only had about 1,000 men.

At the beginning the Western Allies were helping all resistance organizations with money and equipment, since they themselves needed any help they could find against the Axis. Later Western Allies tried to promote the anti-communist resistance organizations. However ELAS took control of the weapons of the Italian garrisons in Greece, when Italy joined the Western Allies, in the summer of 1943. In 1944 ELAS was able to equip its units with weapons looted by the enemy, while EDES enjoyed Western Allied support.

There also were right-wing para military, NAZI organisations, such as X ("Khi")in Athens, PAO in Macedonia and others,having been armed by the Germans. The fact is that all resistance organizations in Greece accused each other of secret agreements, and possible collaboration. The situation and the alliances were quite unstable. The enemy of my enemy maybe wasn't my friend but could be a source of equipment sometimes.

EAM was the strongest of all resistance organizations, and it fought against the others as well as against the para-military forces of the collaborationist government. EAM accused EDES of collaboration with the Germans and was determined to establish a monopoly over the resistance, since it believed that the Allies would soon invade southern Europe through Greece, and wanted to be in a dominant position the day the Germans would leave Greece. This situation led to triangular battles among ELAS, EDES and the Germans. Given the support of the British and the Greek Cairo Government for EDES, these conflicts precipitated a civil war. In October 1943 ELAS attacked its rivals, particularly EDES, precipitating a civil war across many parts of Greece which continued until February 1944, when the British agents in Greece negotiated a ceasefire (the Plaka agreement).

In March 1944 the EAM, now in control of most of the country, established the Political Committee of National Liberation (Politiki Epitropi Ethnikis Apelevtheroseos, or PEEA), in effect a third Greek government to rival those in Athens and Cairo. Its aims were, "to intensify the struggle against the conquerors... for full national liberation, for the consolidation of the independence and integrity of our country... and for the annihilation of domestic Fascism and armed traitor formations." PEEA's first president was Euripides Bakirtzis, the military leader of EKKA. Later on Alexandros Svolos took his position and Bakirtzis became vice-president.

The moderate aims of the PEEA aroused support even among Greeks in exile. In April 1944 the Greek armed forces in Egypt mutinied against the Western Allies, demanding that a Government of National Unity should be established based on the PEEA principles. The mutiny was suppressed by Western Allied armed units. Later on, through political screening of the officers, the Cairo government created staunchly anti-Communist armed forces. In May 1944, representatives from all political groups came together at a conference in Lebanon, seeking an agreement about a government of national unity. Despite EAM's accusations of collaboration, made against other Greek forces, the conference succeeded because of Soviet directives to the KKE to avoid harming Allied unity.

In Greece under Nazi occupation, the struggle was bitter and there was no room for delicate differentiations. All sides burned villages, and executed civilians and suspected collaborators. According to KKE, "the collaborationist groups such as X, however, used terrorism as a deliberate strategy, while with ELAS fighters it was the result of over-zealous local commanders rather than official policy". The fact is that organization X couldn't burn villages or conduct terrorism since its influence was felt only in a small part of the Athens center. The execution of the EKKA leader Dimitrios Psaros was one of the most repellent ELAS crimes: according to KKE some of his officers later were proven to be collaborators with the Germans -- according to the officers themselves they were forced to act, after the ELAS attacks against all non-communist resistance organizations. The truth is that in several cases ex-officers of the Greek army were forced at gun point to join ELAS although they were preferred to join an anti communist partisan group or the forces of the government in M.East. It is quite characteristic the example of St. Sarafis who was the military leader of ELAS. Sarafis intended to join the non-communist resistance group of kostopoulos in Thessaly with a group of other officers. On their way they were caught by an ELAS group commanded by Velouhiotis. Sarafis agreed to join ELAS at gun point when Velouhiotis killed all other officers.

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