Romania and the Greek Civil War (1946-1948)

After WWII, caught between the interests of the USSR and Great Britain, Romania and Greece, two friendly countries in the Balkans, found themselves on opposite sides of the fence.

Steliu Lambru, 21.07.2014, 14:00

Romania fell into the Soviet sphere of influence and was Sovietized, while Greece fell into the Anglo-American sphere, adopting democracy. Until 1941, Romania’s relations with Greece had been friendly, with the exception of the late 19th and early 20th century.

When German troops transited Romania towards the Balkans, in the autumn of 1941, Greece condemned the violation of the 1934 protocols signed by the Balkan Entente (also called Balkan Pact), made up of Romania, Greece and Yugoslavia.

Relations between Romania and Greece became even more complicated after 1945. Under Soviet occupation, Romania could not resume normal relations with Greece’s legitimate government because of pressure from the communist regime. In Greece, communist guerrillas would drive the country into a civil war between 1946 and 1949. Like other communist governments in countries under Soviet occupation, the Romanian communist authorities supported the Greek partisans.

Apostolos Patelakis, a professor at the University of Thessalonica, told us about the events: “In the initial stage of the civil war, 1946-1947, the Greek communists were supported particularly by Tito and Stalin, who offered them moral and material support. Then followed Dimitrov’s Bulgaria and Enver Hoxha’s Albania. The Greek communists wanted to liberate Northern Greece and to create a free Greece, and asked socialist states to support them with everything they needed to achieve that lofty goal. In August 1947, representatives of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania meeting in the Slovenian resort of Bled, agreed to help morally and materially the Greek democratic army, calling on the governments of Romania and Hungary to collaborate better towards this end. At the conference of September 1947, held in Poland, with the aim of creating the Cominform, the issue of the civil war in Greece was also discussed. At that event, Gheorghiu-Dej made a proposal to make it mandatory for all parties to support the Greek Communist Party. Poland’s representative, Wladyslaw Gomulka made a proposal for the Greek issue to become emblematic for the fight of all communist parties and democratic forces.”

The row and ensuing rift between Tito and Stalin affected the help offered by Socialist states to the Greek communists. Consequently, they moved their centre of coordination from Belgrade to Bucharest, where they set up an embassy of the communist government headed by General Markos, designating Lefteris Apostolou as ambassador. They also set up a radio station and a press agency.

Apostolos Patelakis has further details: “On January 14th 1948, Lefteris Apostolou sent a 30-page report to the Romanian Communist Party, presenting the situation in Greece, the causes of the civil war, and asked diplomatically for Romania to set up the first friendly relations with the provisional government. I quote: ‘I must add that the help that the Romanian people has provided so far exceeds that provided by any other democratic country, and this is a fact, which neither my party, nor the Greek people will forget’ unquote. Of course, that was not true, the greatest support the Greeks had gotten had been from Yugoslavia, but it was a statement meant to flatter the Romanians. Between 1947 and 1948, the Romanian communists sent to Greece basic foods, clothing, medication, weaponry, such as light automatic weapons, machine guns, grenades, explosives, as well as horses and fuel. Starting in April 1948, while the war was in full swing, Romania started receiving thousands of Greek children, as well as hundreds of ill and wounded partisans.”

The agreements between the Soviets and the Britons were to decide the fate of the Greek communists, and the fate of anti-communist partisans in Romania. It was a simple bargain: Stalin would give up supporting communist guerrillas, while Churchill would not encourage a policy of obstructing the communist regime in Romania, a policy pursued by the Romanian king and the democratic political parties.

Apostolos Patelakis: “When the Greek political migrants came here, in 1948, first the children arrived, then in 1949 the adults, and they felt much better here than in other countries. They got sent to 7 countries. In some countries, like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Uzbekistan, the locals hadn’t even heard of Greeks, so the migrants found themselves in a totally foreign environment. In Romania there already were Greek communities, bilingual people, who could communicate with everyone, they felt closer to Greece. Some of the 28,000 children evacuated after the civil war went to the Democratic Republic of Germany. Imagine the shock those children had, the more so as the Germans had demanded older and more educated children, in order to reduce the problems they would have. At home they heard all the time stories of the Germans, the Fascists, and then they had to go there and hear the German language all around. Those who got to Romania were luckier, at least initially. The civil war was in northern Greece, in the mountains, where a lot of Aromanian families lived. Among these children were Aromanian children, who acted as translators. Those kids understood the language better, it was much easier for them to learn Romanian than for the others.”

A lot of Greek communists took the road to exile leading to Romania. The policy of negotiation had prevailed against ideas and expectations.