Majority rule, minority issues: The Macedonian question in the Dekemvriana

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role of the Macedonian Question in the 1944 December Uprising (Dekemvriana) in Greece. While the Dekemvriana is commonly portrayed in right–left terminology in the historiography, this article argues that part of the reason for the left’s failure was their inability to manage the Macedonian ethnic component of the struggle, either within their armed forces or in their relationship with Yugoslavia. As such, this article integrates the early phases of the Greek Civil War into the broader literature on minorities in civil conflict, while simultaneously exposing some of the myths about Macedonian involvement that result from its contemporary political ramifications.

KEYWORDS:

• Macedonian question
• Dekemvriana
• communist party of Yugoslavia
• communist party of Greece
• civil war
• ethnic conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Zapisnik Sa Sednice Politbiroa Ckkpj’, in Dokumenti Centralnih Organa KPJ nor I Revolucija (1941–1945), ed. Milovan Dželebdžić (Beograd: Izdavački Centar Komunist, 1944 (1987)), 125–126.

2. For an examination of this issue see: Mark Biondich, The Balkans: Revolution, War, and Political Violence since 1878 (New York: Oxford UP, 2011), 64–84. Evangelos Kofos, Nationalism and Communism in Macedonia (Thessaloniki: Institute for Balkan Studies, 1964), Passim, 1–10. Basil C. Gounaris, ‘Macedonian Questions’, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 2, no. 3 (2002): 63–94.

3. Andre Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror: The Greek Civil War and the Origins of Soviet-American Rivalary, 1943–1949 (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 97–8. Peter J. Stavrakis, Moscow and Greek Communism, 1944–1949 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989), 26–40.

4. Philip B. Minehan, Civil War and World War in Europe: Spain, Yugoslavia, and Greece, 1936–1949 (New York: Palgrave, 2006), 91–123. Elisabeth Barker, Macedonia: Its Place in Balkan Power Politics (Hertfordshire: Broadwater Press, 1950), passim Stavrakis, Moscow and Greek Communism, passim.

5. Tito 636 KMJ I-2-9/39.

6. Andrija Hebrang, ‘Andrija Hebrang Josipu Brozu Titu’, in Dokumenti Centralnih Organa Kpj nor I Revolucija (1941–1945), ed. Branko Vuković (Beograd: Arhiv Jugoslavije, 1945 (1996), 100.

7. Azeez Olaniyan and Shola Omotola, ‘Ethnic Crises and National Security in Nigeria’, Defense & Security Analysis 31, no. 4 (2015): 303–18. Carter Johnson, ‘Keeping the Peace after Partition: Ethnic Minorities, Civil Wars, and the Third Generation Ethnic Security Dilemma’, Civil Wars 17, no. 1 (2015): 25–50.

8. Erin K. Jenne, ‘Barriers to Reintegration after Ethnic Civil Wars: Lessons from Minority Returns and Restitution in the Balkans’, 12, no. 4 (2011): 370–94.

9. For a Macedonian perspective, see: Andrew Rossos, Macedonia and the Macedonians: A History (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2008). Kindle Edition. For the Greek, see: George C. Papavizas, Claiming Macedonia: The Struggle for the Heritage, Territory and Name of the Historic Hellenic Land, 1862–2004 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2006), passim.

10. Mark Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 97–107; John O. Iatrides, Revolt in Athens: The Greek Communist “Second Round,” 1944–1945 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1972), 17–56; and Thanos Veremis John S. Kolipoulos, Modern Greece: A History since 1821 (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 111–126.

11. Andre Gerolymatos, Guerrilla Warfare and Espionage in Greece, 1940–1944 (New York: Pella Publishing Company, 1992), 212. Iatrides, Revolt in Athens, 26.

12. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 90.

13. Ibid., 80–81.

14. Ibid., 72–3. Stavrakis, Moscow and Greek Communism, 12. Dominique Eudes, The Kapetanios: Partisans and Civil War in Greece, 1943–1949 (New York: Monthly Review Press Classics, 1972 (2009)), 5.

15. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 133.

16. Stavrakis is the biggest proponent of this argument, and other major scholars have taken it up as well. See: Stavrakis, Moscow and Greek Communism, 32–3. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 99–148. Fleischer, furthermore, argues that EAM was perceived to be under the control of the KKE by other actors in Greece. See: Hagan Fleischer, ‘The National Liberation Front (EAM), 1941–1947: A Reassessment’, in Greece at the Crossroads: The Civil War and Its Legacy, ed. John Iatrides and Linda Wrigley (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995), 80.

17. Stavrakis, Moscow and Greek Communism, 33.

18. Thomas W. Gallant, Brief Histories: Modern Greece (London: Hodder Publishing, 2001), 173.

19. Georgios Papandreou, ‘Mr. Papandreou's Plan for Demobilization’, in National Liberation Front (E.A.M.) White Book, May 1944–March 1945 (New York: Greek American Council, 1945), 24.

20. Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece; C. M. Woodhouse, The Struggle for Greece, 1941–1949 (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1976 (2002)); Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece, 117. Mazower, however, puts the number killed at ten and fifty wounded. See Mazower, Inside Hitler's Greece, 352.

21. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 107–9.

22. Ibid., 131–6.

23. Gallant, Brief Histories, 174.

24. Cited in: Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo, Struggle for the Balkans (London: Merlin Press, 1990), 166.

25. Ibid., 76.

26. Conclusions of a Meeting of Delegates of the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania, held on 20 June 1943, cited in Vukmanović-Tempo, Struggle for the Balkans, 72–73.

27. “Report by the Commander of the ‘Damjan Grujev’ Unit, Dated 18 June 1943, to the Yugoslav Macedonian Partisans on Actions Carried out in Greek Territory,” in Zbnor (1943), 253.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid., 253.

31. The debates about Macedonian identity, and its validity, are beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say, it continues to be a bone of contention in contemporary Balkan politics.

32. Cited in: Vukmanović-Tempo, Struggle for the Balkans, 224.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid., 225.

37. Tchavdar Marinov and Alexander Vezenkov, ‘Communism and Nationalism in the Balkans: Marriage of Convenience or Attraction?’, in Entangled Histories of the Balkans Volume Two: Transfers of Political Ideologies and Institutions, ed. Roumen Daskalov and Diana Mishkova (Boston, MA: Brill, 2014), 502

38. Vukmanović-Tempo, Struggle for the Balkans, 224.

39. Pyridon Sfetas, ‘Autonomist Movements of the Slavophones in 1944: The Attitude of the Communist Party of Greece and the Protection of the Greek-Yugoslav Border’, Balkan Studies 35, no. 2 (1995): 305.

40. The last one the CPY held outside of Macedonia was in Slovenia. Arguably, the delay in hosting the Slovenian meeting was due to the lack of an open resistance organization in the region. For a full account of the Slovenian occupation see: Gregor J. Kranjc, To Walk with the Devil: Slovene Collaboration and Axis Occupation, 1941–1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013), passim.

41. Macedonians consider the Illinden Uprising of 1903 to be a seminal moment in their national awakening.

42. ‘Manifest Issued at the First Session of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Macedonia to the People of Macedonia, August 2 1944’, in Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, ed. Hristo Andonov-Poljanski (Skopje: University of “Cyril and Methodius”, 1944 (1985)), 636.

43. Ibid.

44. ‘Proclamation to the People of Macedonia Issued by the Communist Party of Macedonia’, in Documents on the Struggle of the Macedonian People for Independence and a Nation-State, ed. Hristo Andonov-Poljanski (Skopje: University of “Cyril and Methodius,” 1944 (1985)), 647.

45. Stefan Troebst, ‘Yugoslav Macedonia, 1943–1953: Building the Party, the State, and the Nation’, in State-Society Relations in Yugoslavia, 1945–1992, ed. Jill A. Irvine, Carol S. Lilly, and Melissa K. Bokovoy (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997), 249.

46. Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), 155. Boro Mitrovski, Venceslav Glišić, and Tomo Ristovski The Bulgarian Army in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945 (Beograd: Medjunarodna Politika, 1971), passim.

47. For an analysis of this point see: R. J. Crampton, The Balkans since the Second World War (New York: Routledge, 2002 (2014)). Kindle Edition.

48. Svetozar Vukmanović-Tempo, ‘Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo, Delegat U Makedoniji, Centralnom Komitetu Kpj’, in Dokumenti Organa Kpj nor I Revolucija (1941–1945), ed. Milovan Dželebdžić (Beograd: Izdavački Centar Komunist, 1944 (1987)), 226.

49. Ibid.

50. Aleksandar Ranković, 836 KMJ I-3-B/235 (1).

51. Markos Vafiadis, ‘Ordre Relatif Aux Operations Du Groupe De Divisions De L'elas En Macedoine. On Ordonne, Entre Autre, La Liquidation Des Bataillons Macedoniens’, in Documents Relatifs a La Participation Du Peuple Macedonien De La Macedoine Egee a La Guerre Antifasciste 1941–1945, ed. Risto Kirjazovski, Vasil Pejov, and Todor Simovski (Skopje: Les Archives de la Macedoine, 1944), 496–7.

52. Archives of Yugoslavia, CKJ 507 IX 55/VI-9-48.

53. P etros Roussos, ‘Letter from Petros Roussos, Member of the Poliburo of the CC of the KKE, to the Macedonian Bureau of the KKE’, in Documents Relatifs a La Participation Du Peuple Macedonien De La Macedoine Egee a La Guerre Antifasciste 1941–1945, ed. Risto Kirjazovski, Vasil Pejov, and Todor Simovski (Skopje: Les Archives de la Macedoine, 1944), 199–200.

54. Gerolymatos, Red Acropolis, Black Terror, 29.

55. Szetozar Vukmanović-Tempo, “G. Š. Makedonije,” 836 KMJ I-3-6/235.

56. Ibid.

57. Roussos, ‘Letter from Petros Roussos, Member of the Poliburo of the CC of the KKE, to the Macedonian Bureau of the KKE,’ 199–200.

58. Ibid.

59. Tito 636 KMJ I-2-9/39.

60. Ibid.

61. Jefto Sćepanović, ‘Politički Komesar Baze Novj U Bariju Za Marka (Aleksandra Rankovića), Organizacionog Sekretara Ckkpj’, in Dokumenti Centralnih Organa Kpj nor I Revolucija (1941–1945), ed. Milovan Dželebdžić (Beograd: Izdavački Centar Komunist, 1944 (1987)), 330.

62. ‘Centralni Komitet Kpj Političkom Komesaru Baze Novj U Bariju’, in Dokumenti Centralnih Organa Kpj nor I Revolucija (1941–1945), ed. Milovan Dželebdžić (Beograd: Izdavački Centar Komunist, 1944 (1987)), 349.

63. ‘Zapisnik Sa Sednice Politbiroa Ckkpj,’ 125.

64. Ibid., 125.

65. Ibid., 126.