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THE BEGINNING OF MUTINY DECEMBER 1944 |
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By late 1944 it was obvious that the Germans would soon withdraw from Greece, since the armed forces of the Soviet Union were advancing into Romania and Yugoslavia and the Germans risked being cut off. The government in exile, now led by a prominent Liberal, George Papandreou, moved to Caserta in Italy in preparation for the liberation of Greece. Under the Caserta Agreement of September 1944, all the resistance forces in Greece were placed under the command of the British General, Ronald Scobie. |
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British troops landed in Greece in October. There was little fighting since the Germans were in full retreat. They were greatly outnumbered by ELAS, which by this time had 50,000 men under arms and was equipping itself from supplies left behind by the Germans. ELAS forces did not through a single bullet against the fleeing Germans since they wanted to keep their forces intact in order to seize power. At the same time the whole country was terrorized by the communist party. Prominent civilians were kidnapped and killed by OPLA everyday. On October 13, British troops entered Athens, and Papandreou and his ministers followed a few days later. The King stayed in Cairo, since Papandreou had promised that the future of the monarchy would be decided by referendum. |
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At this point there was little to prevent ELAS from taking full control of the country. They did not so because the KKE leadership was under instructions from the Soviet Union not to precipitate a crisis that could jeopardise Allied unity and put at risk Stalin's larger post-war objectives, above all control of Germany. Stalin had in fact agreed with Winston Churchill that Greece would be in the British sphere of influence after the war. The KKE leadership knew this, but rank-and-file Communists did not. This became later a source of conflict within EAM and ELAS. |
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Initially under Stalin's instructions, the KKE leadership tried to avoid a confrontation with the Papandreou government. The most prominent of the communist leaders like Andreas Tzimas or Aris Veloukhiotis did not trust the British. Tzimas was in touch with the Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito and he disagreed with ELAS's co-operation with the British forces. The issue of the resistance organisations dosarmament was the main conflict between the Papandreou government and EAM members. Papandreou demanded the disarmament of all armed forces and the constitution of a National Guard under government control. EAM, feeling that they would loose the only chanche to grab power, submitted an alternative plan which Papandreou rejected, and EAM then resigned from the government. |
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On December 1, gen. Scobie issued a proclamation requiring the dissolution of ELAS. ELAS was the greatest source of strength for the Communist Party of Greece, and its leader Siantos decided that the demand for ELAS's dissolution must be resisted. Tito's influence may have played some role to ELAS's resistance to disarmament. Tito was outwardly loyal to Stalin but had come to power through his own forces and believed that the Greeks should do the same. EAM leadership had put its forces under gen. Scobie's command a couple of months earlier but that was only in papers. General Scombie never hads the real controll of ELAS forces.. |
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On December 3, following an outbreak of shooting at an EAM demonstration in Syntagma square in central Athens, full-scale fighting between ELAS and troops of the Greek government began. ELAS had more than 12.000 fighters in Athens, while the government had only about 1000 policemen the X organization (about 200 fighters) and the loyal mountain brigade. At the beginning of the battle the British tried to remain neutral. By December 12 ELAS was in control of most of Athens and Piraeus. During the battle some Germans and Italians POWs helped ELAS in order to save their lives. |
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Fighting continued through December, with the legal government slowly getting the upper hand. Curiously, ELAS forces in the rest of Greece did not attack the the British (there were not government forces elsewhere in Greece but only in Athens). The battle was fought only in Athens while in other places like Thessaloniki there was not a single confrontation between British and ELAS. In a certain case in Volos some RAF units gave supplies to ELAS. It is obvious that ELAS was watching only the pro government Greek Forces as a threat and not the British. After all the rest of Greece was already occupied by ELAS. The communists say that this is a prove that ELAS did not have a plan for a real coup, but was drawn into the fighting by the indignation of its fighters. |
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The outbreak of fighting between British troops and an anti-German resistance movement, while the war was still being fought, was a serious political problem for Churchill's coalition government, and caused much protest in the British and American press and the House of Commons. To prove his peace-making intention, Churchill himself arrived in Athens on December 24 and presided over a conference, in which Soviet representatives participated, to bring about a settlement. It failed because the EAM/ELAS demands were excessive and rejected. |
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By early January ELAS was driven out of Athens. The Communist Party of Greece's defeat in 1945 was also political. The exaltation of communism terrorism during the days of it's power revealled it's true face and made a political settlement even more difficult. The hunting of civilians accused as collaborators was extended to unrelated people. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) made many enemies by summarily executing up to 8,000 people for various political crimes during their period of control of Athens. They also took another 20,000 hostages with them when they departed. The surviving prisoners were forced to follow the retreating ELAS forces amid a snowstorm wearing only the clothes thy were wearing at the time of their arest usually their pijamas and without shoes. Most of them died. After the Athens fighting the people's support declined sharply. As a result of this, most of the prominent non-Communists in EAM left the organisation. On the other hand, the terrorism of the right-wing extremist gangs was strengthened. Most of them were having a personall reason to revenge tje communists. |
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Papandreou resigned and was replaced by the firm anti-Communist, but not right wing General Nikolaos Plastiras. On January 15, 1945 gen. Scobie agreed to a ceasefire, in exchange for ELAS's withdrawal from its positions at Patras and Thessaloniki and its demobilisation in Peloponnese. This was a severe defeat, but ELAS remained in existence and the KKE had an opportunity to reconsider its strategy. |
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In February 1945 all Greek political parties came to the Varkiza Agreement, with the support of all Allies. This provided for the complete demobilisation of ELAS and all other paramilitary groups, an amnesty for all political offences, a referendum on the future of the monarchy and a general election as soon as possible. The KKE remained legal, and its leader Nikos Zakhariadis, who returned from Germany in April 1945, said that the KKE's objective was still a "people's democracy" but should be achieved by peaceful means. |
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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 right-wing extremists were persecuting the ex-members of EAM, most of them in order to revenge the loss of a relative. The National government in Athens did not had the power to control the right or the left wing gangs. The amnesty was not in full scale since, many actions commited during the German occupation were classed as criminal and so excepted from the amnesty.
It is true that in a few cases in 1945-1946, certain right wing gangs which probably included some ex-collaborators and common criminals tried to revenge killing members of the communist party who had commited crimes during the period of 1943-1944.The communists say that as a result of this, 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 openly encouraged this behaviour. The fact is that most heavy weapons were not surrendered to the government and this could be done only on a certain plan. The Communist Party of Greece renounced Veloukhiotis an infamous partizan leader (whom the lefttists in Greece still consider a hero) when he called on the veteran guerrillas to start a second struggle.
Soon he was killed by the security forces. It is most probable that he was renounced as a result of inside power games (he had become very strong). Also the Communist party wanted to appear following legal methods although it prepared a mutiny. |
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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 openly supported an iarmed uprising in Greece, the Communist leadership In February 1946 decided, to go start organising a new armed struggle against the democratic government of Athens which by the Communists was called Monarcho-Fascist. The Communist party boycotted the March 1946 elections, which were won by the right wing United Patriotic Party (Inomeni Parataxis Ethnikofronon) In September a referendum decided the return of the king and although the Communist party disputed the results, King George returned to Athens. |
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