By this name, the armed clash that took place in Athens between EAM/ELAS on one side and the government and British forces on the other is known. It began on 3 December 1944 with the bloody conclusion of the rally in Syntagma Square and formally ended with the signing of the Varkiza Agreement on 12 February 1945. It was the prelude to the Civil War (1946 1949), although for some historians the civil conflict had begun before the Liberation.
This confrontation stemmed from the power vacuum created in Greece after the withdrawal of the German occupation forces in October 1944. The EAM/ELAS, under the catalytic influence of the KKE and with the resistance laurels of the Occupation still fresh, had a well-formed military corps and claimed a share of power, if not all power. Against him, the bourgeois democratic forces were utterly powerless to oppose him, having been out of power for almost nine years (Metaxas dictatorship, Occupation), while much of the state apparatus bore the stamp of the Dosilogos. In fact, therefore, the assistance of the British, who were very influential in Greek affairs and as an allied power, was indispensable for the survival of bourgeois democracy. Let us not forget that in the rest of Europe and the Pacific the Second World War was going on with a vengeance, with the scales tipped decisively in favour of the Allies.
On October 18, 1944 Georgios Papandreou arrived in Athens and two days later he formed the Government of National Unity, in which six EAM ministers participated. One of the first issues the new government had to resolve was the demobilization of resistance organizations and the creation of a national army. On 5 November, Georgios Papandreou announced that following his cooperation with General Scobee (head of the British Forces in Greece), ELAS and EDES would be demobilized by 10 December 1944.
However, the KKE did not like this decision, as a possible demobilization of ELAS would remove a strong card in its intention to impose a Soviet-style communist regime in Greece. Negotiations for the demobilisation of the resistance organisations broke down on 28 November and on 1 December the EAM ministers left the Papandreou government. It was clear that the two sides were heading for a conflict, which the KKE had been pursuing since 20 November by decision of its Political Bureau, according to more recent evidence.
In a show of force, EAM organised a large Panathenaic rally in Syntagma Square on Sunday 3 December, despite a government ban. It is estimated that over 100,000 people took part, with some historians putting it as high as 500,000. The rally was drenched in blood, as protesters were fired upon by security forces, resulting in 30 people being killed and 148 injured.
There are three versions of who did the shooting: a) that someone in the crowd fired, causing the police forces to respond, b) that the police fired unprovoked, and c) that the shooting was British provocative fire. Years later, on 12 December 1958, the police director of Athens during the "Decembria", Angelos Evert (father of the politician and leader of the New Democracy party Miltiadis Evert), will admit in an interview with the newspaper "Akropolis" that it was he who ordered the violent dispersal of the demonstration on the basis of orders he had received, because there was a danger of the collapse of the state.
The following day, after the funerals of the victims, the clashes escalated, with the participation of ELAS military forces. EAM formed a new demonstration, resulting in more deaths. That evening, Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou tendered his resignation, but was dissuaded by the British and remained in office. The scales began to tip in favour of ELAS, which controlled almost all of Athens, except for the centre of the capital. Its forces amounted to about 20,000 men (10,000 combatants and as many reserves). The Papandreou government could count on about 10.000 combatants, which included the men of the expert 3rd Mountain Brigade, which had come with laurels from Rimini led by Colonel Thrasybulos Tsakalotos (uncle of Finance Minister and SYRIZA member Euclid Tsakalotos) and of course the British force under Major General Ronald Scobie, which was the best equipped of all involved and numbered around 5."Do not hesitate to act as if you were in a conquered city where a local uprising is taking place", British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who did not think that he would lose Greece from the sphere of influence of Great Britain, telegraphed to Scobee. He had won it by hard bargaining from Stalin in the famous "Quota Agreement", signed in Moscow on 9 October, three days before the Germans left Greece. For his part, the Soviet leader kept his word, avoiding accusing Churchill of interfering in Greece's internal affairs, as the Americans did, but he did not discourage the KKE leadership, which was unaware of the "Moscow bargain" and had a justified belief in comrade help.
The intention of ELAS in the Battle of Athens was to disarm those police services that resisted, in order to weaken the enemy. Particularly fierce battles were fought in the Makriyannis area for control of the Gendarmerie Regiment based there (6 - 11 December 1944). When the British realized that things were going badly for them, they decided to reinforce their forces in Athens by detaching units from the Italian front. From mid-December, the government forces gradually began to gain ground. The British with elite soldiers, tanks and air force, after having neutralised the ELAS force in the eastern districts of Athens and especially in its stronghold, Caesariani, began to clear the city centre, where Homeric infighting took place in the narrow streets around Omonia Square, Psirri and Metaxourgeio.
Churchill believed that the Greek problem could not be solved by military means, but only by political means. Therefore, on Christmas Day, he came to Athens.
In successive meetings at the Foreign Ministry (26-27 December), in which representatives of EAM participated, it was decided to ask the exiled King George II to appoint a Viceroy, namely Archbishop Damaskinos (Papandreou) of Athens. It was an ingenious move by the English politician to keep the bourgeois forces united by bridging the gap between pro-monarchist and Venetian democrats.
On political issues there was complete disagreement. Sientos demanded that almost half of the ministries be given to the EAM, that dissidents be driven out of the state apparatus, that the gendarmerie be disbanded, that a referendum on the state be held in February and elections held in April. The conditions, sufficiently maximalist, were rejected by all politicians, who believed that they would lead to the communisation of the state. The KKE showed intransigence, under the illusion that Churchill's arrival in Athens was a sign of weakness, and did not proceed with a compromise that would have allowed it to save its forces and gain a significant share of power.
On 30 December, the King yielded to intolerable British pressure and announced the appointment of Damaskinos as Regent and his intention to return to Greece only if the people so wished. Georgios Papandreou resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded on 3 January 1945 by Nikolaos Plastiras.
On 5 January 1945, ELAS forces were forced to leave Athens, under pressure from the superior government and British forces. On 11 January ELAS signed an armistice with the British and on 12 February 1945 the "Decembrance" was formally ended with the Varkiza Agreement. EAM was defeated militarily and politically.
Source: SanSimera.gr
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