The Greek Civil War

Essays on a Conflict of Exceptionalism and Silences

Thanasis D. Sfikas, Philip Carabott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780754641315
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351888646
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Half a century after the civil war which tore apart Greek society in the 1940s, the essays in this volume look back to examine the crisis. They combine the approaches of political and international history with the latest research into the social, economic, religious, cultural, ideological and literary aspects of the struggle. Underpinned by the use of a wide range of hitherto neglected sources, the contributions shed new light, broaden the scope of inquiry, and offer fresh analysis. Thus far, comparative approaches have not been employed in the study of the Greek Civil War. The papers here redress this imbalance and establish the not always so clear links between Greek and European historical developments in the 1940s, placing the evolution of Greek society and politics in a European context. They also highlight the complexity and interconnections of the social, economic and political cleavages that split Greek society, and provide a comprehensive and subtle understanding of the origins, course and impact of the Greek Civil War in a variety of contexts and levels. The volume will appeal to those interested in the European history of the 1940s and the origins of the Cold War, in addition to the specialists of modern Greek history and those engaged in the comparative study of civil wars.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• A Note on References Cited and Transliteration
• Abbreviations and Glossary of Terms
• Acknowledgements
• About the Contributors
• 1. Fifty Years On
• Part I Comparative and International Perspectives
• 2. The Greek Civil War: Greek Exceptionalism or Mirror of a European Civil War?
• 3. What was the Problem in Greece? A Comparative and Contextual View of the National Problems in the Spanish, Yugoslav and Greek Civil Wars of 1936–49
• 4. The Cominform and the Greek Civil War, 1947–49
• Part II Politics and Economics
• 5. A Prime Minister for All Time: Themistoklis Sofoulis from Premiership to Opposition to Premiership, 1945–49
• 6. Struggling from Abroad: Greek Communist Activities in France during the Greek Civil War
• 7. Getting Greece ‘Working Again’: The London Agreement of January 1946
• Part III Communism and The Culture of Anticommunism
• 8. Becoming Communist: Political Prisoners as a Subject during the Greek Civil War
• 9. Orthodoxy in the Service of Anticommuniste The Religious Organization Zoë during the Greek Civil War
• 10. Social Dimensions of Anticommunism in Northern Greece, 1945–50
• Part IV Testimonies and Representations of The Civil War
• 11. The Everyday Lives and Silences of a National Army Soldier and His Wife during the Greek Civil War
• 12. Pyramid 67: A Liminal Testimony on the Greek Civil War
• 13. The Shadow of the Greek Civil War in the Poetry of Takis Sinopoulos
• 14. Writing Silences: Manolis Anagnostakis and the Greek Civil War
• Part V Epilogue
• 15. The Road to Reconciliation? The Greek Civil War and the Politics of Memory in the 1980s
• Index