By Risto Stefov
rstefov@hotmail.com
December 2008
When the Germans left Greece in October 1944, there was very little to prevent the Greek National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the National Liberation Army of Greece (NLAG) from seizing power. By then the Leftists dominated all the villages and towns, had driven the Rightist parties out of Greece and had rounded up most collaborators.
The British forces that landed in Athens were untrained and no match for the superior NLAG force. Yet the GNLF and NLAG leadership made no effort to seize power in Greece. Instead they welcomed the appointment of Prime Minister George Papandreou a non-Leftist and for what? For the few ministries he offered them?
The Soviet Union had made it clear to the Leftist Greeks that they could not depend on Soviet support in an armed seizure of power but still the Leftist leaders, who at the time had the upper hand, did nothing to negotiate something better. Did they know that Greece was given back to British influence as decided by Stalin and Churchill? Anyway, it didn’t matter if they knew or not because the Leftists failed to take advantage of their strong position while they could. Unfortunately failing that, many in the GNLF/NLAG leadership became suspicious of their top leaders especially when the British started returning the Rightists to power at their expense.
It did not take too long for things to boil over as mistrust and suspicion between the Leftists and those ushered into power by British support reached almost unbearable levels. Nevertheless many members of the GNLF/NLAG could not understand why the leadership hesitated to take power.
On December 2nd, 1944, just barely two months after the Germans left Greece, the Leftist ministers in the Papandreou government quit after being unable to agree on the composition of the new police force and who should control the armed forces. The next day, December 3rd, 1944, a large demonstration organized by the GNLF broke out in Athens and began to march towards Constitutional Square. The police opened fire and killed a number of demonstrators, marking the beginning of the Greek Civil War.
Fighting at the time was isolated to Athens and continued until January 1945 when both sides agreed to talk. Meetings were held at Varkiza, a seaside resort near Athens, and a treaty was signed on February 12th, 1945. Signed by the Right, Left and the British, among other things, the Varkiza Treaty called for (a) the GNLF to disband NLAG, (b) legalize the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) and (c) hold a referendum on the return of the monarchy. NLAG troops were to be given political amnesty for the return of their weapons, people were to be guaranteed free speech, martial law was to be lifted and people were to be given amnesty for all political crimes.
When news of the Varkiza agreement reached Greek occupied Macedonia people were shocked and felt as if they were just sold out to their enemies. There was nothing in the agreement about rights for the Macedonians.
This was pure and simple capitulation to a weak enemy which defies logic yet Nikos Zahariadis the CPG’s general secretary called it a victory for the resistance and for the GNLF and CPG. Those assurances were echoed yet again by Zahariadis a year later at the Varkiza first anniversary when he said the agreement was the most reasonable decision.
During the second general assembly of the CPG’s Central Committee, which took place on February 2nd, 1946, Zahariadis in his own leadership speech stated:
“…this day marks the first anniversary since the signing of the Varkiza Agreement in which included are our aims and objectives that will take Greece on its way to a peaceful democratic evolution, which will unite the people and let them exercise their free expression in the free elections so that our state can take the road to tranquility and reconstruction. That was our inclination and our aim then. That inclination was correct. Without any doubt today we will have to say it one more time, because it absolutely answers to the democratic and national interests. The signing of the Varkiza Agreement was the right step which could have been taken under those circumstances.” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 149)
A year later the CPG top leadership was still blind to what was really going on and continued to operate under the kind of illusion that everything was going great. Even after power was snatched from its hands it failed to comprehend that it had voluntarily capitulated to the Right.
If we consider the fact that Greece came under British influence and Britain, particularly Churchill who hated communism with a passion, did not want a communist Greece then we have to wonder what were the top Leftist leaders really thinking about? They were well aware that they were not going to receive help from the USSR and the British did not want a communist Greece so they were left with two choices, surrender or fight. It seems they chose to surrender in a way that was not so obvious to everyone. This surrender came in the form of the Varkiza Agreement. Unfortunately, from the point of view of the British, even after surrendering NLAG, Greece would remain communist and would gain that privilege through the democratic process of voting communist. Something more had to be done.
We can continue to believe that the Leftists in Greece, who by the way were very popular with the people at a grass roots level and would have won a majority at the polls, were really stupid or we can look for a more probable reason for what was really going on.
There are historians and authors out there who offer their perspective on things but most are apologists for the Greek side and none has shown any interest in investigating or reporting the Macedonian side as the Macedonians saw it. They can call it as they like but the reader must remember a of couple things. One, the minority Rightists most of whom collaborated with the German and Italian occupiers won the war with Britain’s help and as the saying goes, the winners write history. Two, the reader is entitled to know both sides of the story and the Macedonian side is yet to be written.
While the British and later the Americans tried to stem the tide of communism in Greece by any means possible, the Greek government sought its opportunity to silence the Macedonian people once and for all.
The Varkiza Agreement initiated what became known on the political left as the White Terror. Rather than prosecuting collaborators, the Greek Justice Minister and the police, together with right wing anticommunist bands, ignored the political amnesty offered by the Varkiza Agreement and continued the collaborationist struggle against the resistance fighters and supporters suspected of having leftist connections. Wartime heroes were executed for killing collaborators and judges and tax collectors of the Political Committee for National Liberation went to jail for unauthorized representation of the Greek government, etc. Right-wing death squads and paramilitary groups embarked on a campaign of terror and assassination against Leftists and suspected Leftists.
Janis Petsopulos, a member of the central committee of the CPG, described the Varkiza agreement as “a capitulation without conditions which earned the high leadership the right to free movement and ability to bear arms while it surrendered the defenseless resistance fighters to the hands of the ultra-nationalists”.
The newly established Greek National Guard was dominated by right-wing officers, who with British assistance began to reconstruct the gendarmerie, which between June 1945 and September 1946 grew from 9,000 to 28,569 men and became increasingly militarized and unpopular with the Greek public.
In May 1945 Captain Pat Evans reported from Lerin on “a general lack of confidence ...a number of people have been remarking in cafés and other public places: ‘There is no State’. ‘The Communists did at any rate make things run, whatever else they may have done.’ ‘The present Government is useless’!” (Mazower, Mark, “After the War was Over Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943-1960”, 2000, Princeton University Press. Pages 11 and 12)
From the summer of 1945 onward, the Greek government initiated anti-Leftist policies in an attempt to control the Leftists. This was done with the aid of public security committees which the government filled with trusted appointees. Such policies were originally set up in 1924 which allowed the government to outlaw persons considered dangerous to public security. Together with special military tribunals, these committees contributed to the drastic increase of special courts set up to work outside the regular judicial system.
In September 1946 the Greek government enacted a law designed to punish the families of army deserters. Imprisonment for political crimes was on the increase and as regular prisons became dangerously overcrowded, new systems of detention were being invented including detention centers, islands of deportation, concentration camps, etc.
Incarcerating large number of communists, male and female of all ages, dated back to before the Metaxas dictatorship, which involved the punishment of people not for their deeds but for their ideas, but the sheer number of those incarcerated during this period was far larger than at any time in the past, and easily dwarfed even the thousands jailed or detained under Metaxas. There was a far greater number of women and even children detained during this period than ever before, necessitating the need for special women’s camps. In 1934, for example, there were approximately 130 women jailed in the Averoff Women’s Prison in Athens. By 1945 the number of prisoners had grown tenfold. “The strains upon the primitive infrastructure required to support such an expansion of the system of incarceration can be judged in the remarkable collection of photos taken by women inmates and recently published under the heading Gynaikes exoristes sta stratopeda tou emfyliou.” (Mazower, Mark, “After the War was Over Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943-1960”, 2000, Princeton University Press. Page 14)
The amount of violence used by the Greek government was also much greater than in the past. Even the death penalty was used against Leftists between 1945 and 1950 which overshadowed the violence perpetrated in all previous and subsequent periods. It is interesting to point out that while Greek governments in the immediate postwar period were disinclined to carry out death sentences against known and convicted collaborators and war criminals, such reservations were much less in evidence against the Leftists, especially after the 1946 elections.
“And what did the Varkiza agreement provides us with?” writes Janis Petsopulos, “…in simple terms, it provided the top leadership with the right to safeguard its own immunity and amnesty while allowing Greece to take away our right of participation in the decisions made in Yalta (which by the way were designed to serve British politics in Greece). The Varkiza agreement allowed for the installation of the fascists in Greece and surrendered our fighters to the executioner and habitual criminal” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 151)
Aris Veluhiotis, commissar of the main headquarters of NLAG, along with about one hundred Partisans who had no faith in the Varzika agreement, detached themselves from the battalion and took to the mountains. The central committee of CPG naturally responded by calling Veluhiotis a “deserter” who on June 25th, 1945 was found dead on Mount Pind. Circumstances surrounding his death to this day have not been explained.
Historians that support the Right, leave it to be understood that Veluhiotis was killed by people from the CPG, claiming that only they know his whereabouts and movements.
In view of the disagreements between the various resistance leaders, the CPG purged Petsopulos, Orestis and Zaharias from the ranks of the party and took measures against the leadership of the Macedonian battalion by initiating a campaign of slanderous propaganda rivaling that of Gables. Macedonian leaders opposing the Varkiza agreement were automatically labeled “autonomists” and “sell outs to the Intelligence Service”.
A flyer released in Voden on October 10th, 1944 referring to Veluhiotis’s splinter group puts it this way: “Those are autonomists and anarchists and with their own brand of adventurism are solely responsible for bringing hardship to the Slavo-Macedonians. They claim to be your protectors but far from it, they are provocateurs who by their actions have provoked the fascist elements to new and more brutal acts against you Slavo-Macedonians.”
Anyone from the CPG or from the GNLF who spoke up in the defense of the splinter group was labeled a traitor. The CPG high leadership openly suggested to people who harboured such thoughts that they were better off going to jail then going to the mountains.
In reference to Veluhiotis fleeing to the mountains, Zahariadis said “it was an attempt to pass with yesterday’s expired ticket”. Attempting to explain what happened, Zahariadis blamed it on a misunderstanding by putting it this way: “A large number of our membership had difficulty comprehending what it is that we are trying to do and where we want to go with the Varkiza Agreement. The confusion comes from a number of members who have a small difference of opinion. Some, like Veluhiotis for example could be dangerous that is why the party had to take decisive action. Party members like him wanted to hold on to their guns and to continue the guerilla war.” (Quotes from Zahariadis’s speech from the CPG plenum of the central committee, July 1, 1945).
After Varkiza the CPG leadership took the attitude that in a short time it would be able to develop a massive political fight in the cities and take over the leadership of various organizations and count on their support in future parliamentary elections. In other words the CPG was heavily counting on the masses to support it. This was a good strategy and worked with the working class syndicates, the farmers’ cooperatives and the skill organizations. Unfortunately the government was well aware of the CPG’s intentions and took counter measures. The government knew it could not win a majority vote through a political fight so with the help of the British and the Rightists it began to bolster its military capabilities. When the government was certain of its military strength it decapitated the workers’ movements by imprisoning its Leftist leaders and by forcefully replacing them with government appointees. But it did not stop there. Exploiting the situation that the resistance fighters were now disarmed and would take some time before they could re-organize and re-arm, the government re-armed the former collaborators, the same collaborators who collaborated with the German and Italian occupiers, and enlisted them in the gendarme and into newly formed National Guard battalions. These former collaborators were given unprecedented power to act as they pleased which unleashed an unbelievable terror campaign against the population.
Between 1945 and early 1946 force was the rule of law in Greek occupied Macedonia where beatings and atrocities were committed daily against democratic citizens. Not only the jails but barns and stables everywhere were filled with people who supported the resistance movement. According to official statistics in 1945 there were 17,985 people jailed of whom 15,596 were jailed without a trial. Another 18,401 were accused of various crimes and 48,936 were accused of being members of GNLF and NLAG. About 80,000 people in total were pursued by the Greek government in 1945.
The terror, as a means to break the Leftists, took frightening measures with each passing day. This is how the situation was described on July 5th, 1945: “After the December incident terror became the rule of law with the arming and unprecedented growth of the extreme Right. Every day life for the non-royal citizens became unbearable. This is a sad affair and the state cannot be without responsibility. The terrorist organizations of the far right most of which were armed by the Germans and cooperated with them, now cooperate with the government to extinguish the democratic spirit. It was the government that enlisted the skills and services of these terrorists and is allowing the atrocities to multiply daily. Therefore the government is responsible for the lockups, imprisonments, the raping of women, the hangings, the beatings and humiliations carried out against the free citizens. This represents a black spot on our civilization.” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 155)
Here is how the Regional Governor of Kozheni Region described the situation in a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs: “From a standpoint of public order the district is finding itself in a savage situation. Disgusting things are happening; multiple hangings, known criminals are being freed from jails, etc. These acts are carried out by known collaborators of the Germans, under whose leadership they developed these blood thirsty skills.” (Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971, page 155)
Unfortunately the government, in order to camouflage its own atrocities against the democratic people in Greece, accused the communists and other peaceful groups of murdering nationalists, of hiding arms, and of “surrendering Macedonia to the Slavs”.
After Varkiza terror in Greek occupied Macedonia rose to unprecedented levels and without opposition. Well known collaborators like the cut throat Mihalaras (Mihalis Papadopoulos) and Kolaras were unleashed on the innocent and unarmed Macedonian population. Kolaras, a well known collaborator who was working for the Germans during the occupation, was seen many times being driven in the same vehicle with the British Captain Evans. Evans was a British Mission representative responsible for the Vich Region during the occupation. Kolaras was well known for his beastly methods of liquidating his victims.
Kostas Papadopoulos, a Greek reservist second lieutenant, wearing a military uniform who during the occupation commanded an entire detachment of cut throat traitors was responsible for the death of over 500 patriots an activity he continued to pursue even after Varkiza. There is no doubt that the British not only knew about this but were party to it as the attacks on the Macedonian villages escalated and were turning into a tragedy.
The National Guard was the first Greek army formed by the government after Varkiza and consisted exclusively of soldiers who had Greek nationalist persuasiveness. In Greek occupied Macedonia the National Guard in 1945 consisted of the following:
Under the military command in Solun were battalions 115, 150, 163, 183 and 605. Under the military command in Ber were battalions 111, 103 and, 305. Under the military command in Seres were battalions 145 and 158. And under the military command in Drama were battalions 101, 147, 159 and 167.
After the National Guard was trained by the British Mission and transformed into a regular army it conducted a series of raids on Macedonian villages in the mountains. These raids, which included killings, beatings and abuse of peaceful citizens, were conducted together with British military units during the period from February to September 1945 and were designed to terrorize CPG, GNLF and NLAG sympathizers.
Like the National Guard, the first formations of the gendarme were also trained by the British Mission under General Charles Ujakam (sp?) a well known enemy of the communist ideology, well known from the time he was chief of the British military interventionist forces in the Soviet Union.
During the summer of 1945 the gendarme consisted of 27,000 men from which 14,000 were stationed in Greek occupied Macedonia. New “hunting units” were formed from the most ruthless of these men and together with the special units trained for “mountain operations” were sent to conduct a number of surprise and abrupt attacks against the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG).
With the increase in terror perpetrated by the ultra-nationalist Rightist bands, many former resistance fighters fled their homes and villages for self-protection and began to form new bands in the mountains. By late 1946 it was evident that the country was facing civil war. These bands, most of which were remnants of NLAG, once again began to organize another form of resistance. This time resisting the Greek government forces which were determined to liquidate them. These rag tag forces became the Democratic Army of Greece, the postwar successor to NLAG, except that communist control was much tighter and the ideological stakes were less ambiguous. Initially DAG was very successful in fighting against the newly reformed “Greek National Army”. But British and later American assistance, combined with a policy of forcibly relocating tens of thousands of villages to starve out the guerillas and increasing Greek military sophistication, turned the tide. As the guerrilla struggle became something much closer to a conventional military conflict, the advantages enjoyed by the government army eventually proved decisive.
In 1946 the democratic population in Greece once again rose up and took up arms to fight against oppression and with it stood the Macedonian population which had no other choice but to fight for its survival.
Sources:
Andonovski, Hristo. Vistinata za Egejska Makedonija. Skopje: Misla, 1971.
Koliopoulos, John S. Plundered Loyalties; Axis Occupation and Civil Strife in Greek West Macedonia, 1941-1949. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1999.
Mazower, Mark. After the War was Over Reconstructing the Family, Nation, and State in Greece, 1943-1960. Princeton University Press, 2000.
Pejov, Naum. Makedontsite i Gragjanskata vojna vo Grtsija. Skopje: Institut za Natsionalna Istorija, 1968.
To be continued.
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