Moscow and Greek Communism, 1944-1949

264 Pages·1989·27.907 MB·English

by  Peter J. Stavrakis

Moscow
AND GREEK
COMMUNISM, I 944-I 949

Moscow
AND GREEK
COMMUNISM, 1944-1949
by PETER J. STAVRAKIS
Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London
Copyright © 1989 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book,
or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address
Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Place, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 1989 by Cornell University Press.
International Standard Book Number o-8014-2125-x
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-47767
Printed in the United States of America
Librarians: Library of Congress cataloging information
appears on the last page of the book.
The paper in this book is acid-free and meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines
for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
To Regina Vassiliki Stavrakis

CONTENTS
Preface ix
Abbreviations xiii
Transliteration and Documentation XV
Map XVlll
I INTRODUCTION: THE GREEK CIVIL wAR AND
SoviET FoREIGN PoLICY
2 CONSOLIDATING WARTIME GAINS, 1944-1945 7
3 POSTWAR SOVIET OBJECTIVES AND GREEK
COMMUNIST GRADUALISM, I945-1946 48
4 FROM DUALISM TO DEFEAT, 1946-1949: THE
SOVIET IMPACT ON THE THIRD ROUND OF THE
CIVIL WAR 127
5 ELITE CONFLICT AND SOVIET POLICY IN GREECE I86
6 THE IMPACT OF SOVIET POLICY ON POSTWAR
BALKAN POLITICS 203
Appendix: Historical Narrative and Path Analysis 2I7
Bibliography 221
Index
233

PREFACE
Few postwar events have had as profound an effect on Western percep
tions of Soviet international behavior as the Greek Civil War. The politi
cal instability and Communist insurgency in Greece, coinciding with
Soviet pressure on the fragile Turkish and Iranian governments, con
vinced the West it was confronted by an ideologically militant Soviet
Union pursuing a policy of global revolutionary expansionism. With the
Truman Doctrine, the United States served notice that Greece was to be
America's first test of a policy of containment of Soviet expansionism.
Although victory in the Greek Civil War was important to the United
States at the time, the conflict's long-term importance lies in the American
perceptions it created about the means and motives of Soviet foreign
policy. More than four decades later, that legacy of the Greek Civil War
continues to affect U.S. calculations of Soviet behavior.
Greece's strategic location and the occurrence of civil war there during
a historic transformation of the international system naturally assured the
examination of the Communist insurgency. What is surprising is the ex
tent to which assumptions about Soviet conduct in the Balkans have
remained unexamined. No investigation has ever determined actual
Soviet involvement in Greece; no persuasive explanation of Soviet policy
during the years 1944-49 has ever emerged. In this book, using a variety
of sources (Greek Communist, in particular), I have tried to determine as
precisely as possible the extent and impact of Soviet activity in Greece.
Beyond this, I have integrated the historical evidence into an interpreta
tion that, without sacrifice of complexity, adequately explains Soviet