Greek Civil War: A Visual History

The Greek Civil War (1946-1949) grew out of the wartime rivalry between the communist-led resistance EAM-ELAS and the royalist government-in-exile; fighting in Athens in December 1944 (the Dekemvriana) was suppressed by British troops, and the Varkiza agreement's disarmament was followed by right-wing 'white terror'. Communists boycotted the 1946 election and the Democratic Army of Greece under Markos Vafiadis, supplied through Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria, fought a guerrilla war from the northern mountains. Britain's exhaustion produced the Truman Doctrine of March 1947 and American aid; the Tito-Stalin split closed the Yugoslav border in 1949, and Papagos's army with US napalm destroyed the DSE at Grammos and Vitsi in August 1949. About 100,000 died, 25,000 children were evacuated to the Eastern bloc, and Greece was locked into the Western camp.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Greek Civil War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Forces in 1949

Timeline of the Greek Civil War

1. 1944
   Liberation; Dekemvriana in AthensDecember.
2. 1945
   Varkiza agreement; white terror
3. 1946
   Election boycott; DSE begins war
4. 1947
   Truman Doctrine; provisional government in the mountains
5. 1948
   Grammos battles; children evacuated
6. 1949
   Yugoslav border closed; Grammos-Vitsi; war endsJuly to October.

From resistance to Dekemvriana

ELAS controlled most of Greece at liberation in October 1944; Churchill's percentages deal with Stalin put Greece in the British sphere. When the government tried to disarm ELAS, police fired on a demonstration in Athens on 3 December 1944 and 33 days of street fighting followed until British troops flown from Italy drove ELAS out. Varkiza (February 1945) disarmed ELAS in return for amnesty; the amnesty was ignored, right-wing bands hunted leftists, and the KKE, on Zachariadis's return, boycotted the March 1946 election and returned to arms.

The Democratic Army and the Truman Doctrine

Vafiadis's DSE grew to 25,000, held the Pindus, Grammos and Vitsi mountains and raided towns; the government interned suspects on Makronisos and executed thousands. Britain told Washington in February 1947 it could no longer pay; Truman asked Congress for 400 million dollars for Greece and Turkey on 12 March 1947, the doctrine of containment. American aid, advisers under Van Fleet, and a National Army of 150,000 with aircraft and napalm turned the war; the KKE's proclamation of a provisional government in the mountains in December 1947 won no recognition. Stalin told the Yugoslavs the uprising 'must be stopped'.

Grammos and defeat

Zachariadis replaced Vafiadis and switched to conventional defence of the mountains; the DSE also endorsed Macedonian autonomy, losing Greek support. Tito's break with Stalin led Yugoslavia to close its border in July 1949, cutting supply and retreat. Papagos's offensive of August 1949 took Vitsi and Grammos in ten days; the DSE remnants crossed into Albania and the KKE declared a 'temporary halt' on 16 October. Some 100,000 fled to the Eastern bloc, many to Tashkent; the KKE stayed banned until 1974, and the war's divisions shaped Greek politics through the 1967 junta and beyond.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• United States (1776 to present)
• Soviet Union (USSR) (1922 to 1991)
• Italian Empire (1882 to 1947)
• Nazi Germany (1933 to 1945)
• Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1922)

Wars of the same era and region

• World War II (1939 to 1945)
• Cold War (1947 to 1991)
• Greek War of Independence (1821 to 1829)
• Yugoslav Wars (1991 to 2001)
• Turkish War of Independence (1919 to 1923)
• World War I (1914 to 1918)

8 surprising things about the Greek Civil War

1. The Truman Doctrine speech of March 1947, prompted by Greece, is often taken as the start of the Cold War.
2. Churchill's 'percentages agreement' with Stalin in October 1944 gave Britain 90 percent influence in Greece on a half-sheet of paper.
3. About 25,000 to 28,000 children were taken by the communists to Eastern bloc countries in 1948; Greeks called it the paidomazoma, after the Ottoman child levy.
4. Makronisos island's 'rehabilitation' camp held tens of thousands of leftist soldiers and prisoners.
5. Napalm was used in Greece in 1949, one of its first uses after World War II.
6. The Tito-Stalin split doomed the Greek communists more than any battle.
7. The war's exiles in Tashkent, Uzbekistan formed a Greek community that survived until the 1980s.
8. The 1969 film Z, about a 1963 assassination, and Loulis's memoirs reflect the civil war's long shadow over Greek politics.

Sources

• Greek Civil War Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Greek Civil War Wikipedia
• Truman Doctrine US State Department Office of the Historian
• David H. Close, The Origins of the Greek Civil War (1995) Longman

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