Author Topic: The Dekemvriana  (Read 9724 times)

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Offline Maik

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The Dekemvriana
« on: Sunday, 30 November, 2014 @ 03:45:39 »
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Greek resistance hero tells how the Athens bomb he planted nearly killed Churchill
Manolis Glezos crept through sewers to plant dynamite beneath British HQ in Athens. But the order to detonate never came

...the Athens bomb plot was in a league of its own. The would-be attack, barely two months after the Germans had retreated from Greece, came as the country was hurtling headlong into civil war. Athens had been racked by violence after the British army alongside Nazi collaborators – in one of the most controversial episodes of the second world war – opened fire on a crowd of unarmed civilians demonstrating in support of the partisans in Syntagma Square.

After the bloodletting in Syntagma, Churchill had ordered that British troops should seize the city “as if under occupation”, with RAF aircraft strafing working-class neighbourhoods beneath the Acropolis that were known to be leftwing strongholds.

Long before the end of the war, the prime minister had fretted about a Russian takeover in Europe, telling his personal physician, Lord Moran: “Good God, can’t you see that the Russians are spreading across Europe like a tide? They invaded Poland, and there is nothing to prevent them from marching into Turkey and Greece.”

That the British army would secure the help of collaborators – members of the infamous Security Battalions which had served under German command during Hitler’s brutal occupation of Greece – in successfully keeping communism at bay is a little-known story.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/greek-resistance-manolis-glezos-planted-bomb-athens-winston-churchill


The Dekemvriana.

Offline Maik

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #1 on: Sunday, 30 November, 2014 @ 12:16:42 »
Another Guardian article:

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Athens 1944: Britain’s dirty secret

When 28 civilians were killed in Athens, it wasn’t the Nazis who were to blame, it was the British. Ed Vulliamy and Helena Smith reveal how Churchill’s shameful decision to turn on the partisans who had fought on our side in the war sowed the seeds for the rise of the far right in Greece today
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/athens-1944-britains-dirty-secret?CMP=twt_gu

Offline TonyKath

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #2 on: Sunday, 30 November, 2014 @ 20:03:13 »
Thanks Maik

I knew a bit of that but not much.  Content now sent to my Kindle for later perusal.  I guess it's the 70th anniversary.

Tony

Offline Aristarches

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #3 on: Monday, 01 December, 2014 @ 00:46:00 »
I have recently been reading about the Greek civil war and Churchill's attacks on the EAM and ELAM, the left wing movement and resistance that had done so much to fight against the Germans.  I have never thought of Churchill in the romantic way most of the British seem to but having read of his part in what happened to Greece after WW11  I can only think that the strain of the war had sent him mad otherwise he wasn't any better than Hitler or Stalin.  The rosy spectacled view of him is just another instance of history being written by the victors.

Offline TonyKath

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #4 on: Monday, 01 December, 2014 @ 18:53:23 »
The two articles are part of a longer one in yesterday's Observer by Ed Vulliamy.  Very thorough.

Tony

Offline Maik

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #5 on: Monday, 01 December, 2014 @ 19:28:28 »
Online edition? I might try to plough through it, got a link?

This is a bit off-topic but might be of interest:

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There was a change of mayor in the eastern Athens suburb of Kaisariani on Sunday after fresh elections were held following an appeal against the original result in May’s local elections.

Communist Party-backed Ilias Stamelos took control of the municipality from Giorgos Kontostavlos, who was supported by SYRIZA. Stamelos won the election by 205 votes but the turnout was only 33 percent.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_01/12/2014_545034

KKE gets taken seriously by the media here although rarely does well in elections (though I doubt that troubles them). Can't see any of the British communist parties doing that well in a democratic election.

Offline TonyKath

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #6 on: Monday, 01 December, 2014 @ 23:46:28 »
The KKE has respect because of the historical associations - though far from being unchallenged in that regard, of course - but  won't compromise with other parties which became all to obvious in the May/June elections 2012 and so is less attractive in the very splintered Greek political culture where coalitions now rule.

The two articles you first mentioned are the online version of yesterday's mag which is probably a bit long to put on the web.

Tony

Offline Jolly Roger

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #7 on: Thursday, 11 December, 2014 @ 18:48:51 »
I have recently been reading about the Greek civil war and Churchill's attacks on the EAM and ELAM, the left wing movement and resistance that had done so much to fight against the Germans.  I have never thought of Churchill in the romantic way most of the British seem to but having read of his part in what happened to Greece after WW11  I can only think that the strain of the war had sent him mad otherwise he wasn't any better than Hitler or Stalin.  The rosy spectacled view of him is just another instance of history being written by the victors.

I agree, Churchill made some wonderful speeches and some lousy decisions. The disastrous Gallipoli campaign, the creation of modern Iraq and the misconceived events in Athens at the end of WW2, all come to mind.

Offline U4ea

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #8 on: Thursday, 11 December, 2014 @ 21:45:23 »
Also the invasion of Greece which ended with the Battle of Kos.
« Last Edit: Thursday, 11 December, 2014 @ 21:47:15 by U4ea »

Offline Maik

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #9 on: Saturday, 13 December, 2014 @ 02:32:21 »
Slightly off topic:

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Budgie trainer and pig sketcher: auction reveals the family life of Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill trained his pet budgie to use a salt spoon and signed his family letters with a pig picture
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11291075/Budgie-trainer-and-pig-sketcher-auction-reveals-the-family-life-of-Winston-Churchill.html


Offline Aristarches

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #10 on: Saturday, 13 December, 2014 @ 11:45:33 »
I can't disagree with the way he signed his letters.

Offline Maik

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Re: The Dekemvriana
« Reply #11 on: Monday, 08 May, 2017 @ 18:14:56 »
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How Churchill Broke the Greek Resistance
How Winston Churchill and the British government attacked the Greece Resistance and sowed the seeds of civil war.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/greece-world-war-two-winston-churchill-communism