LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

282 APOSTOLOS PATELAKIS
In this period of uncertainty over 4,000 communists and their families
were evacuated to Yugoslavia, to Bulcheş, near Novi sad, in a village
abandoned by its inhabitants of German origin, who had collaborated with
the Germans during the war. tito came to the conclusion that he had to
support the Greek communists. here it was the first training centre of the
party-cadres and of the military-cadres of the Communist party in view of
new confrontations. this Greek community was, in fact, the first Greek
communist state in miniature. 10
the Communist party decided to not participate in the elections of 31 st
of March 1946, although the Soviets, and the leaders of Italian Communist
party and French Communist party had advised the Greeks to participate.
zahariadis explained that this participation of the Communist party would
have created a legal framework for further actions of terror and revenge
against the leftist forces. the Communist party wanted to take power under
democratic conditions, but due to the terror that had expanded across the
country, this was difficult.
later zahariadis acknowledged that non-participating in elections
was a wrong tactic. For the Communist party there were two solutions:
either to accept the situation, like the Italian Communist party and French
Communist party, or to go to fight. the Greek Communists chose the
second solution. But after the lesson in December 1944, the Communist
party first wanted to achieve acceptance and support of communist parties
from South-eastern europe and especially from the Soviet union.
on the 30 th of March, the eve of parliamentary elections, an armed
group of national liberation Front (nlF) enters in the city of litochoro,
near thessalonica and sets fire to gendarmerie station, killing 12 gendarmes.
this date is considered the starting date of the Civil War, and in others
opinion start date of the Second Civil War. held as scheduled, the elections
were won by tsaldaris’s populist party, which supported the restoration of
the monarchy.
In spring 1946, zahariadis, returning from the Congress of the Czech
Communist party in prague (March 28 th to 31 st ), met with Stalin in the
Crimea and with tito in Belgrade, asking them for moral support and
(Φεβρουάριος 1945-Αύγουστος 1949), Εκδόσεις Θεμέλιο, Αθήνα, 2002, σ. 2165 /
nIKolAKopouloS, Ilias, Civil War. From Varkiza to Grammos, Febr. 1945 – Aug.
1949 (Athens: themelio public house, 2002), p. 2165.
10 Μίλαν Ρίστοβιτς, Το πείραμα Μπούλκες. στη
Γιουγκοσλαβία 1945-1946, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2006, σ.28 / risToViTs, Milan, The
Experiment Bulghes, The Greek Republic in Yugoslavia, 1945– 1946 (thessaloniki,
2006), p. 28.