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Greek Civil War

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Greek Civil War
Part of the Cold War (from 1947)

QF 25 pounder gun of the Hellenic Army during the Civil War
Date31 March 1946 – 30 August 1949
(3 years, 6 months, 2 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Greece (with spillover into Albania)
Result Monarchist victory
Belligerents

Kingdom of Greece

Supported by:
 United Kingdom (1944–1947)
 United States (1946–1949)

Provisional Democratic Government (from 1947)

Supported by:
 Yugoslavia (1946–1948)
Bulgaria
Albania
 Soviet Union (limited)
Commanders and leaders
Strength
  • 232,500 (at peak)[1]
  • 26,000 (at peak, mid-1948)[2]
Total: c. 100,000 men and women served, of whom:
15,000–20,000
Slav Macedonians
2,000–3,000 Pomaks
130–150 Chams[3]
Casualties and losses
  • Hellenic Army, Navy and Air Force, from 16 August 1945 to 22 December 1951:[4] 15,268 killed, 37,255 wounded, 3,843 missing, 865 deserters
  • Hellenic Gendarmerie, from 1 December 1944 to 27 December 1951:[5] 1,485 killed, 3,143 wounded, 159 missing
  • 38,839 killed
    20,128 captured
    (Hellenic Army claim)
80,000[6]–158,000 total killed[7][8][9][10]
1,000,000 temporarily relocated during the war[11]

The Greek Civil War (Greek: ο Eμφύλιος [Πόλεμος]) was a civil war in Greece from 1946 to 1949. It was fought between the US/UK-supported Kingdom of Greece and the Provisional Democratic Government of Greece which was governed by the Communist Party of Greece at the time and supported by the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc.

Disputes between left-wing and right-wing parties begun in 1941 when Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy occupied the nation during World War II, after Allied powers expelled Axis forces, the fight for power from both sides led to an armed conflict. It was the first notable war during the Cold War. For some historians, the war was a sole example of Western policy intervening other nation's affairs.[12] Others argue that this was the first proof that both Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill divided and influenced post-World War II Europe.

In the years of the occupation of the Greek nation, the government-in-exile of Greece could not control the political situation in the country and many resistance movements established other political factions – the most powerful was the communist Greek National Liberation Front (EAM). Beginning in autumn of 1943, conflicts between the EAM and other resistance groups escalated with confrontations until spring 1944, when both sides stopped fighting and created a provisional government with six parliaments belonged to the EAM.

In December 1944, the Allied troops liberated Greece. The EAM, being the primary group, opposed the British, they demand control of the capital city of Athens. The British troops defeated the EAM and the main armed force of this group dissolved. However, the remaining figures of the EAM still existed in the Greek parliament and conflicted against the right-wing factions.

In the year 1946, the Communist Party of Greece, with support from communist states in Eastern Europe (including the Soviet Union) established the Greek Democratic Army against the Greek National Army backed by the United States and the United Kingdom. After some initial victories, the Greek Democratic Army was weakened. The Stalin-Tito split also made the situation worse. In the other side, the United States continued to aid the government of Greece and finally the communists were defeated.

After Western-backed Greek government's victory, Greece became a member of the defensive alliance of NATO. The civil war became the subject of Greece's anti-communist policy, eventually leading to the creation of the Greek junta.

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ The Struggle for Greece 1941–1949, C. M.Woodhouse, Hurst & Company, London 2002 (first published 1976), p. 237
  2. ↑ Νίκος Μαραντζίδης, Δημοκρατικός Στρατός Ελλάδας, 1946–1949, Εκδόσεις Αλεξάνδρεια, β'έκδοση, Αθήνα 2010, p. 52
  3. ↑ Νίκος Μαραντζίδης, Δημοκρατικός Στρατός Ελλάδας, (Kayluff a hoe)1946–1949, Εκδόσεις Αλεξάνδρεια, β'έκδοση, Αθήνα 2010, pp. 52, 57, 61–62
  4. ↑ Γενικόν Επιτελείον Στρατού, Διεύθυνσις Ηθικής Αγωγής, Η Μάχη του Έθνους, Ελεύθερη Σκέψις, Athens, 1985, pp. 35–36
  5. ↑ Γενικόν Επιτελείον Στρατού, p. 36
  6. ↑ Keridis 2022, p. 54.
  7. ↑ Howard Jones, A New Kind of War (1989)Template:Page missing
  8. ↑ Edgar O'Ballance, The Greek Civil War: 1944–1949 (1966)Template:Page missing
  9. ↑ T. Lomperis, From People's War to People's Rule (1996)Template:Page missing
  10. ↑ "B&J": Jacob Bercovitch and Richard Jackson, International Conflict: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Conflicts and Their Management 1945–1995 (1997)Template:Page missing
  11. ↑ Γιώργος Μαργαρίτης, Η ιστορία του Ελληνικού εμφυλίου πολέμου ISBN 960-8087-12-0Template:Page missing
  12. ↑ Chomsky, Noam (1994). World orders, old and new. Internet Archive. New York : Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10156-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
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