Only six weeks after the departure of the Axis occupiers, Greece erupted in a bloody internal conflict
The power vacuum left in the wake of the Axis retreat in 1944 was immediately contested by two major political and military groups. One party claiming power was the communist National Liberation Front (EAM) supported by its military organisation the National People’s Liberation Army (ELAS). The EAM had previously been closely supported by the British during the Nazi occupation.
Opposing the communists was Georgios Papandreou’s exiled Greek government, under the guidance of the British. In the aftermath of the Nazi withdrawal, the EAM was instructed by the Soviets to not take full control of Greece, although it very easily could have, as it would have interfered with Stalin’s post-war plans, and it would have contravened Stalin and Churchill’s agreement that Greece fell within Britain’s sphere of influence.
Britain, on the other hand, had moved its support away from the EAM, its previous partners in the resistance, to the government-in- exile that was backed by the National Republican Greek League (EDES). The changing nature of international support in the prelude to the civil war only exacerbated tensions. The two parties who were previously united in a power-sharing agreement and their goal to create a strong and territorially secure Greece began to fall out over how a new militar y should be organised, and how the old resistance should be demilitarised. Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, rejected the EAM’s requests, and with an agreement appearing far off General Ronald Scobie, the commander of the British forces in Greece, demanded on 1 December 1944 that ELAS surrender its weapons.
On 3 December 1944, 250,000 left-wing, demonstrators sympathetic to EAM took part in a protest in Athens against British post-liberation actions such as installing former Nazi collaborators as police officers and violating the Caserta Agreement, which had been signed by the exiled government, the British, EAM/ELAS and EDES in September 1944 to outline how the new Greece would be governed.
During this demonstration, the protestors proclaimed their appreciation for the Allies’ unwavering support in their fight against their Axis occupiers. Cries of “Viva Churchill, Viva Roosevelt, Viva Stalin” echoed around Athens, accompanied by people waving British, American, Soviet and Greek flags. However, this demonstration, deemed illegal, was heading towards Papandreou’s residence, creating chaos in Athens and threatening the police. Suddenly, a chorus of gunfire from British and Greek government forces rang out, killing 28, mainly young people, and injuring hundreds more. This bloodbath helped ignite the civil war that had been brewing throughout the Nazi’s occupation of Greece, and began
