The most complete information guide about Athens, Greece
HISTORY
OF ATHENS
Greek
Civil War
Interlude
1945-1946
In February 1945, with the support of all the Allies, the various
Greek parties came to the Varkiza pact which provided for:
•
the complete demobilization of ELAS and all other paramilitary
groups
• an amnesty only for political offences
• a referendum on the monarchy
• a general election as soon as possible.
The
Varkiza pact transformed the KKE's political defeat into 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. Thus, the authorities
captured approximately 40.000 communists or ex-ELAS members. As
a result, a number of veteran partisans hid their weapons in the
mountains and 5.000 of them fled to Yugoslavia.
During
1945-1946, right-wing gangs killed about 1.190 pro-communist
civilians and tortured many others. Entire villages that helped
the partisans were attacked by those right-wing gangs. According
to the right-wing citizens, these gangs were retaliating for
what they had suffered during the reign of ELAS. This so-called
by the communists "White
Terrorism" wave led many of persecuted ex-ELAS members to
form self-defence troops, without any KKE approval.
When
relations between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies deteriorated,
the KKE soon reversed its former
political position. With the onset of the Cold War, communist
parties everywhere moved to more militant positions.
In
July 1945, George Papandreou informed the government that
the dissolution of the Comintern Comintern (the Communist
International Organisation, that was founded in 1919 and was
claimed to have been dissolved in 1943) was a fraud. In February
1946, the KKE leadership decided to go ahead with the, "organization
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 (Laiko Komma)
of Konstantinos Tsaldaris. Although the KKE disputed the results,
a referendum in September decided to retain the monarchy and
King George returned to Athens.