White Terror (Greece)

White Terror (Greek: Λευκή Τρομοκρατία) is the term used in Greece, analogous to similar cases, for the period of persecution of members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and other former members of the leftist World War II-era resistance organization National Liberation Front (EAM) in 1945–46, prior to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War.

Background

During the Axis occupation of Greece, the communist-dominated EAM-ELAS had become the major organization within the Greek Resistance movement. By the summer of 1944, with an estimated membership of between half and two million, and disposing of some 150,000 fighters, it dwarfed its nearest non-communist rivals, EDES and EKKA.[1][2][3] Mounting tensions between itself and the other rival groups, sparked by ideology as well as EAM-ELAS' ambition to be the sole instrument of "national liberation", led to repeated clashes in 1943–44, in what was later termed the "first phase" of the Civil War.[4]

At the time of Greece's liberation in October 1944, EAM-ELAS dominated the country except for the major cities, especially Athens, where British forces supported the returned Greek government in exile. As from the return of the exiled government, a new government of national unity headed by Georgios Papandreou was established in Greece, with the participation of EAM and KKE, according to the Caserta Agreement. The internal disagreements of the government, resulted in the withdrawal of the EAM ministers. The dormant rivalry between the Papandreou's government, backed by the British, and EAM-ELAS, resulted in the Dekemvriana clashes in Athens (December 1944 – January 1945), where EAM-ELAS was defeated, and the disarmament of the organization in the Treaty of Varkiza (February 1945).[5]

White Terror and outbreak of the Civil War

With EAM-ELAS neutralized, its members became easy prey for persecution by various right-wing groups in retaliation for the preceding "Red Terror".[6] These ranged from former members of the collaborationist Security Battalions to the government's paramilitary security services, chiefly the Greek Gendarmerie and the National Guard, acting with the government's tacit support. Thus, as Polymeris Voglis points out, "[w]hereas elsewhere in Europe prisons were flooded with fascists and their collaborators, in Greece most of the prisoners were members of leftist resistance organizations": according to the British Legal Mission in Greece, of the 16,700 prison inmates on 1 October 1945, 7,077 were common law criminals, 6,027 were left-wing prisoners imprisoned after the Dekemvriana, and only 2,896 were collaborators.[7] The campaign of persecution lasted through 1945 and much of 1946, and was a critical element in the radicalization and polarization of the political climate in the country;[8] it led to the formation of leftist self-defence troops, the Left's boycott of the 1946 election, and finally the resumption of warfare with the outbreak of the third, or main phase, of the Greek Civil War in spring 1946.

In the period between the Treaty of Varkiza and the 1946 election, right-wing terror squads committed 1,289 murders, 165 rapes, 151 kidnappings and forced disappearances. 6,681 people were injured, 32,632 tortured, 84,939 arrested and 173 women were shaved bald. Following the victory of the United Alignment of Nationalists on 1 April 1946 and until 1 May of the same year, 116 leftists were murdered, 31 injured, 114 tortured, 4 buildings were set aflame and 7 political offices were ransacked.[9]

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See also

References
  1. Tucker 2013, p. 155.
  2. Stavrakis 1989, pp. 11–14.
  3. Clogg 1979, p. 150.
  4. Stavrakis 1989, pp. 14–15.
  5. Rajak 2010, pp. 203–204.
  6. Rajak 2010, p. 204.
  7. Voglis 2004, pp. 143ff..
  8. Close 1995, pp. 150ff..
  9. Margaris 1966, pp. 29–30.

Sources
  • Clogg, Richard (1979). A Short History of Modern Greece. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521295173.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Close, David H. (1995). The Origins of the Greek Civil War. Addison-Wesley Longman. ISBN 0582064716.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Rajak, Svetoslav (2010). "The Cold War in the Balkans, 1945–1956". In Leffler, Melvyn P.; Westad, Odd Arne (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 198–220. ISBN 978-0521837194.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Margaris, Nikos (1966). Η Ιστορία της Μακρονήσου [The History of Makronisos] (in Greek). I. Athens: Papadopoulos and Co.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Stavrakis, Peter J. (1989). Moscow and Greek Communism, 1944-1949. Cornell University Press. ISBN 080142125X.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Tucker, Spencer C. (2013). Encyclopedia of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: A New Era of Modern Warfare. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1610692809.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Voglis, Polymeris (2004). "Becoming Communist: Political Prisoners as a Subject during Greek Civil War". In Carabott, Philip; Sfikas, Thanasis D. (eds.). The Greek Civil War: Essays on a Conflict of Exceptionalism and Silences. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 141–158. ISBN 0754641317.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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