Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was a war fought between 1942 and 1949. On one side was the conservative part of the Greek society and the armed forces of the Greek government, supported at first by Britain and later by the United States. On the other side was the revolutionary part of the Greek society and the forces of the biggest wartime resistance organization (ELAS) against the German occupation, whose leadership was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece.

Interlude: 1945-1946

In February 1945 the various Greek parties came to the Varkiza Agreement, with the support of all the Allies. This provided for the complete demobilisation of ELAS and all other paramilitary groups, an amnesty for all political offences, a referendum on the monarchy and a general election as soon as possible. The KKE remained legal, and its leader Nikolaos Zachariadis, who returned from Germany in April 1945, said that the KKE's objective was now a "people's democracy" to be achieved by peaceful means.

Related Topics:
1945 - Nikolaos Zachariadis - KKE

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The Varkiza Agreement transformed the KKE's political defeat to a military one. ELAS's existence was terminated. At the same time the National Army and the right-wing extremists were free to continue their war against the ex-members of EAM. The amnesty was not comprehensive, because many actions during the German occupation were classed as criminal and so excepted from the amnesty. As a result, a number of veteran partisans hid their weapons in the mountains and 5,000 of them escaped to Yugoslavia, although the KKE leadership did not encourage this. The KKE renounced Velouchiotis when he called on the veteran guerrillas to start a second struggle: shortly afterwards, he was killed by the security forces.

Related Topics:
KKE - Yugoslavia - Velouchiotis

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The KKE soon reversed its political position as relations between the Soviet Union and the western Allies deteriorated with the onset of the Cold War and Communist parties everywhere moved to more militant positions. Although Stalin still did not support a resumed armed struggle in Greece, the KKE leadership. George Papandreou in July, 1945, informed the government in exile that the dissolution of the Comintern was a fraud. In February 1946 decided, "after weighing the domestic factors, and the Balkan and international situation," to go ahead with the "organisation of a new armed struggle against the Monarcho-Fascist regime." The KKE boycotted the March 1946 elections, which were won by the monarchist United Patriotic Party (Inomeni Parataxis Ethnikofronon) the main member of which was the People's Party (LK) of Konstantinos Tsaldaris. In September a referendum narrowly decided to retain the monarchy, although the KKE disputed the results, and King George returned to Athens.

Related Topics:
KKE - Cold War - Stalin - Comintern - 1946 - March 1946 elections - Konstantinos Tsaldaris

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