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

284 APOSTOLOS PATELAKIS
Stalin. 13 on the 21 st of April, zahariadis meets with tito and presents him
in detail the situation in Greece and their action plan. the Communist party
wanted to liberate northern Greece in order to create a free Greek state and
at the same time it acted to develop the Democratic Army until a number
of 50,000 fighters in its ranks. this Army had to be supplied with food and
weapons by the socialist states.
In May, zahariadis went to Moscow, where he met with Stalin,
Molotov and other Soviet leaders. zahariadis was a convinced Stalinist,
who had been educated in the Soviet union when young, he was russianspeaking,
and also a good diplomat, trying to persuade the Soviet leaders
that it was a necessity to support the fight of the Democratic Army. on his
way back from Moscow, zahariadis stopped in Sofia, where he had talks
with Dimitrov, Stalin’s adviser on Balkan issues.
Meanwhile, in Greece, the situation grew more difficult. the Greek
government faced increasing harnesses, and the British could no longer
support the country economically. the Greek Government turned to
the uSA that would gradually become the external protector of Greece.
In March 1947, president truman convinced the Congress to provide a
substantial emergency aid to Greece, of 300 million $, as part of a program
to help the free peoples, threatened by internal boycott. 14 Many communists
were arrested, exiled, hunted down, further increasing the hatred between
the two camps.
uS intervention in Greece drove anxious Belgrade and Moscow, so
they decided to support the struggle of the Democratic Army. With the aid
from the Soviets and yugoslavs in the period 1946–1947, the Democratic
Army, using guerrilla tactics, gained a few important victories against
prominent national regular army.
on the 27 th of June 1947, at the French Communist party’s Congress
in Strasbourg, the representative of the Greek Communist party, Miltiadis
porfirogenis, after referring at the situation in Greece, declared that the
Greek Communist party would create a free democratic Greece, with its
own government and state territory. 15 In Greece, these statements created
confusion, unrest and political turmoil. right Forces feared that Greece
could be classified into two, with separate governments, with serious
consequences worldwide.
By mid-August, the Greek Communist party required a more substantial
13 Φίλιππος Ιλιού, op. cit. , p. 70 / IlIou, Filippos, op. cit., p. 70.
14 CloGG, richard, Scurtă istorie a Greciei (iaşi: Editura Polirom, 2006), p. 151/
CloGG, richard, Short History of Greece (iaşi: Polirom Publishing house, 2006), p.
151. 15 Φίλιππος Ιλιού, op. cit., σελ. 118/iliou, Filippos, op. cit., p. 118.