Churchill, Stalin, and the Greek revolution - British Prime Minister William Churchill; Joseph Stalin

Monthly Review, April, 1999 by John Newsinger

Why did the Communists go along with this? Essentially, the Greek Left was sacrificed to the exigencies of Russian foreign policy. Stalin was interested in doing a deal with the British over the disposal of the Balkans and certainly did not intend to allow the Greek Communists to compromise the negotiations. Put simply, Soviet representatives pressured the KKE leadership into accepting British terms even though they were extremely damaging. Soon afterwards, Stalin got his deal. On October 9, 1944, he and Churchill reached a secret agreement, "the Churchill-Stalin Pact," whereby the fate of the Balkan peoples was settled. Stalin conceded Britain a 90 percent interest in Greece, in return for a 90 percent interest in Romania and a 75 percent interest in Bulgaria for Russia. Influence in Yugoslavia and Hungary was to be split fifty-fifty. Stalin had abandoned the Greek Communists and effectively handed them over to the tender mercies of Winston Churchill. They were, of course, completely unaware of this.(5)

The British Arrive

The British were worried that German withdrawal from Greece would create a vacuum that would be filled by the Communists and, in particular, that they would seize Athens. To prevent this, the decision was made to occupy the city with British troops. ELAS agreed to cooperate with this in good faith. For the British, it was merely a prelude to their destruction. In early July 1944, a senior British diplomat noted in his diary that it was "an exhilarating day" because, at last, the decision had been made "to extirpate EAM in Greece."(6) The first British troops began to arrive in Athens on October 17.

The British ordered the disarming and disbandment of ELAS at the same time as they proposed to build up forces loyal to George II. These forces were made up of former members of the much-hated Security Battalions. The arrival of the royalist Mountain Brigade increased tension, with the Communists arguing that if ELAS was to disband then so should royalist units. On December 2, Communist ministers resigned from the government and called a general strike and mass demonstration in Athens for the next day. The demonstration was fired on by the police in Constitution square. According to one British officer present at the massacre:

Men, women and children, who a few moments before had been shouting, marching, laughing, full of spirit and defiance, waving their flags and our flags fell to the ground, blood trickling out of their heads and bodies... I shall never forget that scene.(7)

Twenty-eight people were killed, shot down by a police force that, only weeks before, had been collaborating with the Nazis.

The massacre provoked widespread fighting in Athens, with ELAS units attacking police stations throughout the city. There were no attacks on British troops. This was most definitely not a Communist attempt at seizing power, as the British later claimed. Instead they were taking vengeance on the police and, at the same time, were hoping to put pressure on the Papandreou Government over the issue of demobilization. The Communists were still thinking in terms of reaching a compromise with the British, while the British were determined to destroy them. On December 5, Churchill telegrammed the British commander, General Scobie, that he should not "hesitate to act as if... in a conquered city where a local rebellion is in progress... We have to hold and dominate Athens."(8)