CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE

1. Zahariadis

Nikos Zahariadis was undoubtedly one of the most notable Greeks in recent modern Greek history. He was seen then and even later as a genius leader, a mischievous politician, a national hero, and a national traitor to Greece.

Since late 1931, being at the helm of the CPG, he was undoubtedly the most notable Greek in the history of the Macedonian national liberation movement in the Greek state.

Elevteros Stavridis was one of the most remarkable CPG leaders who led the CPG before Zahariadis entered the scene. He was a famous renegade and a provocateur who later told us that Zahariadis, early on, had fallen into the hands of the Gligaburg-Metaxas August 4 dictatorial regime, but settled down nicely in his new position. Stavridis told us this in his anti-party articles published in the “Ethnos” Athens newspaper. (There were a series of articles published in the newspaper “Ethnos” which appeared from May 14, 1951 until April 12, 1952, and which in 1953 appeared as a book entitled “Behind the CPG scenes”.) Namely, Maniadakis, a then Greek Minister of the Interior, discreetly arranged “special evenings” during which he invited his most prominent agents… hunters of the communists. Zahariadis also participated in these “special evenings”, and after the feasts gave lectures on how the CPG works and how effective the struggle with communism in Greece can be.

When the Nazi Germans occupied Greece the Greek Asfalia (police) handed him over to the Gestapo and Zahariadis was then taken to the infamous Nazi camp Dachau. According to Stavridis, there too “Zahariadis lived and worked perfectly”. Namely, he “worked” at the Nazi camp headquarters as an interpreter.

After Nazi Germany was defeated the Nazis surrendered him to the Western allies, and they returned him to Greece on a special English air plane, where he immediately became the head of the CPG as CPG Secretary General.

Because Stavridis was a renegade and a provocateur it appears that no one was obliged to take the information about CPG Secretary General Zahariadis seriously. However, a person has to wonder, with admiration, about the fact that this CPG Secretary General, a well-known communist, survived for years in a Nazi camp and managed to return to office? This becomes even more bizarre when one considers the fact that the Nazis, the Gestapo and the SS furiously pursued all communists and shot them on the spot. What Zahariadis accomplished is indeed a feat worthy of a genius (according to some) and a traitor (according to others).

One cannot write something about this and keep quiet and not talk about the unusual man behind it. His work proved to be significant and far-reaching both to the Greek people, the people’s revolution, as well as to the Macedonian people and the Macedonian revolutionary movement in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia.

People, of course, cannot be judged by their declared good intentions alone. Their work must be valued according to the consequences it created. I will try to build my story about this most magnificent of the modern Greeks and about his works based on this principle...

2. Verbal policy

During the several years before Zahariadis arrived back in Greece, the CPG was experiencing its third phase of internal crisis. “There was unprincipled conduct, division, and an internal power struggle in which the class enemy had a role... This was a type of struggle that caused great damage to the Party...” (Chronicle of a struggle, 1878-1951, CPG Central Committee 1952, p. 27.)

With help from the Comintern, things settled down in the Party and the new leadership, headed by Zahariadis, started to do its work. There was a significant rise in the worker and communist movements. Zahariadis himself led the Central Committee and the Party, and therefore attributed all this success to himself. As a contemporary, I believed that was true but a little later a series of events took place, which made me doubt that. I will talk about them

later. The first half of the 1930s was a sign of a general rise in the worker and communist movements all across Europe and not just in Greece. The reactionaries were forced to take extreme measures, establishing fascist dictatorships wherever these movements were a danger to them, like in Germany, Greece and Spain.

Now let us have a closer look at events in Greece, especially those which directly influenced the fate of the Macedonian people. Let us have a look at what the famous Comintern document, entitled “Appeal to the members of the CPG”, published by “Rizospastis” on November 1, 1931, had to say regarding the national question in Greece:

“The CPG has stayed away from the revolutionary struggle carried out by the people who are mostly suppressed by the Greeks. The CPG failed to take the situation into its own hands, to stabilize it, and to implement organizational measures. The CPG failed to take advantage of the great sympathy enjoyed by the communist movement among the repressed nationalities (Macedonians, Turks, Albanians, Jews) - a fact that helped the reactionaries in their endeavours to isolate and alienate the Communists from the masses and to terrorize the revolutionaries from the oppressed nations... The CPG must, without delay, lead the struggle against national oppression and for the right to freedom and to self-determination and secession from Greece… The CPG must lead the struggle against the national oppression of the Macedonians... etc...” (The CPG in its forty years of struggling. p. 307.)

The following was said soon after the CPG Central Committee 4th Plenum was held in December, 1931:

“The formal recognition (as was the case before then) of the Comintern’s remarks, will lead to a vigorous conduct of deeds…” (Ibid., p. 311.) Clearly, this slogan referred to more than just what was quoted about the national question.

Then, in 1932, during the CPG Central Committee 5th Plenum, the following was said regarding the work done on the national question: “The struggle of the national minorities has made practically no progress, even though the economic impoverishment

of the national minorities has prompted them to take part in the revolutionary struggle and, thereby creating the most favourable conditions for a successful outcome…” (Five Years of struggling, 1931-1936, CPG Central Committee edition, 1946, p. 139.)

During the 6th Plenum, held in January 1934, it was again said: “The national districts are the most left out sectors in the work of the Party despite the favourable objective conditions... The Party did not set tasks for itself to upgrade the Party organizations in the national districts and to help organize mass national revolutionary organizations...” (CPG 1931-1952, CPG Central Committee edition, 1952, p. 40.)

During the CPG Central Committee 5th Congress, held in March 1934, K. Vermitis, a delegate representing Western (Greek occupied) Macedonia, once again mentioned that, to this day, the Party “has not done any work with the national minorities”. The only thing the CPG has done so far is talk about “an independent Macedonia” from high above. But, it was also characteristic of K. Vermitis to mention that members of the Party representing Western Macedonia believed that there should not have been a “national question in Macedonia” for the Party because, allegedly, the Macedonian people have already been assimilated into the Greek fold and do not exist as a separate people. (“Marxitiki Vivliothiki”, a CPG organ, No. 6, 1934.) In reality however Macedonians did and do exist and have preserved their identity in Western Macedonia in compact masses. Obviously, this was a calculated move on the part of the CPG in order to mislead and pass false information to the foreign delegations and to people abroad, and above all to misinform the Comintern and the Balkan Communist Federation circles that the situation in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia was quite different than what they believed. This was definitely false in those days and it is false today. All one has to do to prove that Macedonians exist in Greek occupied Macedonia is to visit one or more Macedonian villages in Lerin, Voden, Meglen or Kostur Regions and see for themselves. See what Macedonians wear during celebrations and listen to them speak Macedonian, their mother tongue. All one has to do is speak to them in Greek and listen to how they pronounce the Greek language (pronouncing it like foreigners). It should take no more than five minutes to be convinced that there are no Greeks

among these people, and they themselves are far from being assimilated.

If there were no Macedonians existing in Western Macedonia then why criticize the CPG for “not doing anything” to aid the Macedonian cause? This sharp condemnation from the 5th Congress as well as all other previous self-criticisms was an expression underlining the CPG’s revolution and consistency. It was done to silence or moderate the criticisms coming from the Comintern and from the Balkan Communist Federation regarding the CPG’s opportunistic actions and inconsistencies regarding the national question...

3. CPG and VMRO (United)

The CPG accepted the well-known 1924 initiative to establish a political organization in the three parts of divided Macedonia under the name “Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (United)”, abbreviated as VMRO (United), but only in principle and without taking any action, except for the above-mentioned false self-criticisms. Only under the influence of the above-mentioned criticisms and pressures from abroad did the CPG, in mid-1933, authorize Sklavenas, one of its officials, to engage in the creation of such an organization. However, the entire effort was masterfully reduced to only a few formal and frustrated meetings, held before and after the CPG 5th Congress, that is, at the same time when the CPG made the statement that “Macedonians as a separate people no longer exist in Greece”. So this grand CPG initiative disappeared without a trace, here in the Greek occupied part of Macedonia, like water being poured on sand. And, as I have already mentioned, VMRO (United) remained a nominal, imaginary organization without a statute and program, without a political line and without political action. The stillborn VMRO (United) Central Committee, based in Solun, did not lead, and did not control or manage anything. Not only did it not do anything but no trace was left of its existence. It did not even have a voice or the means to publish a newspaper or even a flyer to stir the scattered Macedonian masses and to manage their resistance and struggle for survival, through which its voice would have been heard and affirmed inside and outside of the Greek occupied part of Macedonia.

There is no doubt that Andreia Chipov and his comrades, who made-up the VMRO (United) Central Committee, had a great desire to have the ability and the means to publish material in their native Macedonian language that directly touched the hearts and aroused the minds of the Macedonian people. And for that purpose, they acquired an old printing press that could print Cyrillic letters and rented an antique shop in Solun from an old Jew… (See: History of the Macedonian people, INI 1969, Book 3, page 267.) But, like I said before, nothing depended on them. They were not allowed to print anything… But, failing that, Chipov and his Committee made an attempt to bring already published Macedonian material from abroad, like the newspapers “Balkan Federation” and “Macedonian Composition”, but the CPG barely tolerated them at first and eventually banned them and prohibited both their import and dissemination. On top of that, Giorgi Krontselchev from Voden, the man who embraced the idea of importing the newspapers and who was responsible for spreading them in Solun, was arrested and liquidated on the spot by the police...

4. Attacks against the democratic rights of the Macedonians

The plotting against the Macedonian people, long hidden behind the smouldering veil of revolutionary phraseology (for the need of principled democracy in the politics and relations of the minorities), soon acquired a form of open attack against the democratic rights of the Macedonian people in Aegean (Greek occupied) Macedonia.

Namely, during the CPG Central Committee 3rd Plenum, held one year after the 5th Congress, the CPG, in place of continuing with the line “the right to self-determination to secession” adopted the line “full equality for minorities”.

This was confirmed during the CPG 6th Congress held in December 1935, as follows: “This change does not mean that we are abandoning the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination of nations... The population in the Greek part of Macedonia today is Greek in its majority and the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-determination requires that the old slogan and line be replaced to coincide with today’s conditions...” (CPG 1931-1952, p. 74.) And of

course, this was done only in the interest of the workers movement and in the interest of the revolution in Greece (according to the official interpretation).

It is not difficult to see the brutal injustice committed by the CPG leadership against the Macedonian people in the name of this so-called concern for the interests of the workers movement and the revolution. The Macedonian people were a natural ally of the workers movement and the revolution in Greece but that, it seems, did not matter to the CPG. Here is what was said about that in an article entitled “The Macedonian National Question through CPG Politics”, published by the Institute of National History - INI in “GLASNIK” in 1964 in Skopje:

“The CPG turned around one hundred and eighty degrees and accepted a line that was in direct negation of the past. Up to now the CPG had acknowledged that Macedonia is not only a geographical region but also an entire ethnic whole, occupied by the three Balkan bourgeoisies. It had recognized the Macedonian people’s right to self-determination to secession from Greece and their right to establish a separate independent state to include all parts of Macedonia occupied by the neighbouring bourgeois states…” (CPG, official documents, P.L.E. edition, 1964, vol. 1, p. 517.)

The CPG is no longer willing to recognize the Macedonian people as a unique ethnic entity and acknowledge the fact that their country has been brutally occupied and portioned. On top of that the CPG has openly and unequivocally accepted Greek bourgeoisie imperialist policies proclaiming that the occupied parts of Macedonia by other states are part of the Greek homeland. The CPG has also accepted the persistent persecution and, in general, the genocidal policies aimed against the Macedonian people on the one hand, and occupying Macedonian territories with so-called Greek settlers and colonists on the other, with aims at artificially changing the national composition of the population in favour of the Greek element.

With its new line declaring that the population in this part of (Greek occupied) Macedonia, in its majority, is Greek, the CPG began to make demands that the Marxist-Leninist principle of self-

determination be applied in favour of the Greek majority and only minority rights in favour of the Macedonian people. In other words continue Macedonia’s annexation but under a Marxist mask.

After proclaiming that the Macedonian people are only a national minority in their own homeland, the CPG and the Zahariadis leadership began to treat (Greek occupied) Macedonia as a country belonging to the Greek population, which in fact meant that this part of Macedonia was viewed only as part of the Greek homeland.

By doing this, the CPG in effect denied or ignored the fact that the Macedonian people and their Macedonian homeland represented an ethnic whole fragmented and occupied by the three neighbouring bourgeois states. With this, the CPG openly and unequivocally accepted and confirmed the imperialist policies applied by the Greek bourgeoisie and the consequences associated with them.

So, with Zahariadis at the helm, the CPG, in the name of the workers movement and in the name of the revolution in Greece, openly changed direction in the service of greater Greek national interests...” This, of course, could not be anything other than Greek bourgeoisie policies implemented through the CPG...

The Party work at the national districts relating to the Macedonian people during the period after the 6th Congress, characterized by the long series of self-critical excesses, was definitely interrupted.

On top of that, the question of democratic rights and freedoms for the Macedonian people was also removed from the governing body agenda. Also, nowhere in the official texts was there any mention of an “oppressed” Greek people living in Macedonia whose struggle for elementary democratic rights should be protected... Terms and expressions such as these completely disappeared from the CPG political vocabulary. The one thing the term “full equality for national minorities” served was to readily respond to outside criticism. No support was given to assist the Macedonian people. Also, the alleged request issued by the communists of Western Macedonia, advising the Party to remove the Macedonian national question from its agenda, although never formally adopted, began to be implemented...

5. Over 300,000 Macedonians

After the 1912 and 1913 mass attacks, persecutions, burning of houses and genocide committed by the Greek army against the Macedonian people in many Macedonian settlements (the villages in Kukush Region and in Kukush itself, etc.) and after many Macedonian people were violently evicted as per the Greek-Bulgarian 1919 and 1924 Agreements on “population exchange”, it was interesting and important to know how closely the Macedonian people still remained “Macedonian” in this part of Greek occupied Macedonia.

Note: French Colonel Lamush, member of the Commission on Minorities at the Committee of Nations, on November 10, 1928, at the Session in Geneva, submitted a report which, among other things, said: “The 1913 and 1919 Agreements made the situation in Macedonia even more difficult, because the majority of the people in this region was placed under the power of nations hostile to the Macedonians. These nations have proven themselves to be more hostile than the Ottomans. The Ottomans never tried to deprive them (the Macedonians) of their language, culture and national sense. The voluntary exchange of population in Greece, according to the 1919 Agreement, turned into a forced eviction of Macedonians...” / See: “Nova Makedonija”, October 2, 1971, published under the column entitled “No comment!”

The above-mentioned 1919 Agreement was renewed in 1924 and signed by Kafantaris and Molov. Although not officially ratified by the Greek government, this Agreement was enforced even after its expiration date in 1928. I can personally attest to this because, while being present at the Sorovich railway station in March 1939, for one thing or another, I personally witnessed the Greek authorities forcibly expelling the Mitredinov family from Sorovich.

As I mentioned earlier, I needed to know how many of the Macedonian people from Greek occupied Macedonia were still Macedonian. I got my opportunity in Skopje and Bitola, two cities teeming with refugees from that region. I patiently and systematically collected information by personally becoming in

touch with hundreds and hundreds of people from many regions and villages. I asked questions such as: “How many houses were there in your village…? How many families…?” After that I asked people to tell me how many houses were there in their neighbouring villages? And so on.

By doing this I received multiple answers, sometimes from as many as 10 per village. I then assumed 5 people to a family on average and came up with a total number of over 250,000 Macedonian people. Since I did not have data on the Macedonian people living in the Solun Region villages and city or other cities in Greece, I concluded that the total number of Macedonians having lived in Greece after the so-called population exchanges should certainly have been over 300,000...

6. The CPG and Zahariadis’s first move

My uncle Iovan, my father’s brother, had a horse and cart of the sort that was turned over to unload. Iovan delivered sand to the new buildings being built in Lerin. I went with him to help him speed up his work. I was not even fourteen years old at the time. I recall it was November 1926 and the election campaign for the parliamentary elections was already under way.

One day when we were somewhere outside of the city looking for sand to dig on the riverbed along the road, Uncle Iovan stopped the cart and took a bunch of leaflets out of his breast pocket. The leaflets had a large red sickle and hammer stamped over the text. He then placed a number of those leaflets in my hand and said:

“Run up over there, spread them around and leave them. Put a pebble on each so that the wind doesn’t blow them away…!”

The place where he sent me to leave the leaflets was a sandpit, where some other workers who were digging sand had just left with their load of sand.

“This is our Party,” he said to me while tapping his index finger on the red sickle and hammer on the leaflet. “This is a party for all the

poor people... It will be good if we get one of our candidates elected in the Greek parliament …!”

Just seven months ago, my uncle Iovan and my father were living in the village. They were plowing the fields in Dolno Kleshtina. When they moved to Lerin they took on general labour work. They were the most ordinary people, more ordinary than most Macedonians living in the city. They were not communists. Far from it...! But they, like many others, instinctively strove to attach themselves to the Party of the oppressed and exploited and that was the CPG. They did this regardless of the CPG leadership’s provocative and treacherous maneuvers towards the Macedonians. Namely, as was well-known, the CPG entered the pre-election campaign with a program or official document in which not a single word was mentioned about the completely disadvantaged Macedonians. Under the leadership of Elefterios Stavridis, a famous provocateur, the CPG postponed the struggle for the democratic rights of the Macedonian people.

However, out of the ten communist MP’s elected, six were elected in Macedonia and the other four in all of Greece...

The CPG received about 60,000 votes in the September 25, 1932 elections and contributed ten parliamentary seats. The Left leaning Agricultural Party received about 70,000 votes and contributed eleven parliamentary seats. In total, about 130,000 votes and 21 seats were attributed to the Left. Most of these votes were received in Macedonia. In the upcoming elections held on July 9, 1935, the CPG alone received around 100,000 votes or about 10% of the total number of votes in Greece. Again, most of these votes were received in Macedonia. (History of the Macedonian People, Book Three, p. 263.)

One hundred thousand votes amounted to over one hundred thousand members and supporters that included adult men and women as well as young people who had the right to vote. This was a real army of supporters, the majority of whom were in Macedonia.

This kind of force behind the CPG, and still growing, represented a mortal danger to the bourgeoisie. It soon became obvious that Macedonia was becoming the main focus of the revolution...

It was a symbol of dominance of the times, which inevitably and decisively influenced and determined the policies the Greek “patriots” at the top of the CPG leadership and the domestic bourgeoisie would adopt...

On the one hand, the bourgeoisie side decisively took intensive preparations to organize a coup through the establishment of an open dictatorship and through abolishing the people’s democratic rights and freedoms in order to prevent the existence and spread of the revolutionary movement in the Greek state...

On the other hand, the Greek “patriots” at the top of the CPG leadership, led by Nikos Zahariadis, through the CPG Central Committee 3rd Plenum and through the CPG Central Committee VI Congress, held in March and December 1935, in a demonstrative manner, put down the democratic rights of the Macedonian people by treating Greek occupied Macedonia as an integral part of the old Greek state and the Macedonian people as an ethnic minority in Greece, thus robbing them of their right to self-determination. This naturally was a blow for the Macedonian people given the conditions that the CPG was growing stronger and more influential primarily because of their support in Macedonia. There is no logical explanation for this except to slow down and even reverse the Macedonian people’s support for the CPG. This naturally stifled the workers’ movement and, with it, the revolution in Greece. The top CPG leadership’s goal was, as it turned out, to break the hefty sympathy and adherence of the Macedonian people to the CPG, and turn them against the CPG, so that the CPG in Macedonia would be isolated and weakened...

7. Sklavenas’s performance in parliament

The next move that Zahariadis made was very characteristic of him.

About four months after the 6th Congress had taken place, during a parliamentary meeting held on April 25, 1936, Stilianos Sklavenas,

head of the Group of Communist MPs in the Greek Parliament, member of the CPG Central Committee and member of the Politburo, announced in the Greek parliament, all over Greece and to the world, that the CPG would fight for the Macedonian nation’s recognition and for the Macedonian people’s self-determination! That is, for the Macedonian people living in Greek occupied Macedonia! Here is what he said, referring mainly to the Macedonian people:

“One more question, which the Government has ignored in its declarations, is the question of giving full equality to minorities living in Greece with the Greek population.

Anyone who has traveled through Macedonia, especially in those districts that are inhabited by compact masses of Macedonian people, must surely have felt the extraordinary pressure on them. The right to have schools, to use the Macedonian language and their customs… all this is strictly forbidden. This situation has forced the Macedonian people to organize themselves to fight for their rights and we need to support them.

The winners of the Great War and the League of Nations have proclaimed that suppressed nationalities must be given the right to self-determination.

We fully recognize this right for the Macedonian nation...”

The above was published in the Party press, (see Rizospastis, April 26, 1936. History of the Macedonian people, book 3, page 268). The bourgeois propaganda machine did not waste much time before jumping on this and with its loud propaganda campaign, accusing the CPG of committing high treason against the Greek homeland.

But then, when we consider that:

a) Nothing was done to “support the Macedonian nation”. In other words the CPG did nothing before or after Sklavenas’s theatrical performance. It did not take any organizational or technical measures to support the Macedonians in a practical manner and help

them, as Sklavenas said, to organize a struggle and fight for their elementary human, civil and national democratic rights.

b) The Zahariadis leadership used Sklavenas and through him masterfully implemented the initiative to organize VMRO (United) in the Greek part of Macedonia so that it could evaporate without leaving any trace.

c) Only about 4 months earlier the same CPG, during its 6th Congress, proclaimed that Macedonia and the Macedonian people were part of the Greek homeland, a minority living in the Greek homeland. By making this claim the CPG deprived the Macedonian people of their rights to self-determination. The same CPG, before the 6th Congress, had proclaimed that Macedonia was occupied by foreign nations and the Macedonian people were an enslaved nation…

When we take all this into account, one would have to inevitably conclude that what Sklavenas did for the Macedonian people in the Greek parliament was a “pure theatrical performance”, empty words. And yet again in practice nothing was done to aid the Macedonian people.

8. Provocation

It is, however, naïve to think that Sklavenas was just throwing empty words into the wind. The move made by Zahariadis and his top leadership, which included Sklavenas, a member of the CPG Politburo, was not as meaningless and unpredictable as it may have seemed. Given the political reality in Greece and the conditions under which this move was made, it had a certain special sense and weight.

Even before the CPG was fearsome and influential in Greece, the dark reactionary forces, headed by the Gligzburg-Metaxas tandem, saw it as a looming danger and resolutely decided to organize a means to abolish it and all democratic freedoms, and to suppress the democratic development in the country with a coup.

But, as it turned out, the then plutocrats did not have sufficient understanding of the situation and felt that there was need for it. They did not show a willingness to fund this venture by a non-negotiable means. The modern press (especially the Party organs) often wrote and warned the public about the reactionaries preparing for a coup.

Metaxas did his best to convince the capitalists to “give a little now so that they don’t lose everything later...” Being a contemporary, I was fascinated by the idea.

But the capitalists found it difficult to buy into it and part with their money.

Then, at the most convenient time and in the most suitable place, there was that April 25, 1936 debate in the Greek Parliament, during which the patriot Zahariadis, on behalf of the Party, through Sklavenas, declared that the CPG will fight for the recognition of the Macedonian nation and for the self-determination of the Macedonian people in Greece.

And, as I already mentioned earlier, this theatrical performance was not done or intended for the Macedonian people and it did not apply to them. What applied to the Macedonian people was what was already adopted during the CPG 6th Congress and that was “minority rights” only.

So, what can we really conclude from Sklavenas’s performance?

Given that it was timed to coincide with the fascist move preparing to organize a counter-revolution, and given the fact that it took place in the Greek parliament, Sklavenas’s performance was done to convince the capitalists to finance the fascist coup. The enormous, intimidating CPG power and influence behind Sklavenas carried a terrible sense and weight in the eyes of the Greek capitalists. They now had a reason to finance the fascist coup… to save capitalist Greece and Macedonia...

9. Another opinion

Some people believe Sklavenas’s speech was a reflection, or a consequence of the April 1934 Comintern decision regarding the Macedonian national question. If this were true then:

a) Why did the Comintern decision not affect the CPG official line regarding the Macedonian Question? Why did the CPG still remain anti-Macedonian?

b) Why did the Comintern decision not affect any of the CPG’s party policies? And by that I mean the policies the CPG practiced in regards to the rights of the Macedonian people? For example, why was VMRO (United) not given its rights to organize a political program, perform political actions, publish and disseminate Macedonian revolutionary information, and so on?

c) Why would the CPG hold onto the Comintern decision made in April 1934, for two whole years and then adopt it in April 1936, just at the time when Sklavenas appeared in the Greek parliament? Why would the Comintern decision have no influence on CPG theory and practice on the Macedonian question for two years and then, suddenly, at a particular moment in time, have influence? Why bring up this issue in the Greek bourgeois parliament instead of giving it up to the CPG Central Committee to handle it? Why did this issue arise precisely at the right time when Metaxas was in need to prove that a coup to establish a dictatorship was necessary?

On top of that we could not ignore the fact that Sklavenas, one of the most popular CPG leaders, the leader of the group of communist MPs in the Greek parliament, was further exploited by the reactionaries in the struggle against communism in Greece, that is, against the CPG. According to Stavridis, when Zahariadis was in jail Sklavenas gave lectures to Greek Asfalia (secret police) agents. He also filed a written report denouncing and condemning the CPG because it was allegedly leading a treacherous anti-national policy.

But this was calculated in order to influence and break the broad Party membership and the middle Party cadres’s will to resist and to strengthen the dictatorship. But let’s not run ahead of ourselves.

This happened later, after the coup took place on August 4, 1936 and after the Fascist dictatorship was established.

10. The May 1936 events in Solun

Two weeks after Sklavenas appeared in the Greek Parliament, the Zahariadis leadership made a new move in Solun. The great May 1936 demonstrations erupted...

At that time, strikes and demonstrations all throughout Greece were common and frequent. But this particular demonstration in Solun was powerful and quite exceptional. The whole city of about 490,000 people took to the streets. Even the army that was sent to push back the demonstrators joined it. The police was forced to retreat and barricade itself in the police stations (May 8-9, 1936).

It was a terrible moment in time which led to the killing of many protesters by the police, including the murder of a young girl - sister of the Major who led the army.

According to his own accounts, renegade Klefterios Stavridis, former secretary general and CPG deputy in the Greek parliament, in an article published in the newspaper “To Ethnos” said that these demonstrations were deliberately organized so that the “united people and army” would have victory over the police. Metaxas, therefore, masterfully proved that there was need for a “strong hand” regime, and at the same time received a convincing reason to strike against the workers and against the communist movement and pursue widespread purging in Solun and in all of (Greek occupied) Macedonia.

But, regardless of what Stavridis said and regardless of the fact that both the choice of the major and the murder of his sister looked like they were planned, and the way things turned out, the fact remains that:

Solun, the second largest city in Greece, fell into the hands of the rebellious people and the army, and the police, surrounded and barricaded in its own stations, was forced to defend itself.

Stavridis also argued that, while the large demonstrations in Solun were deliberately left to develop until the people united and rose victoriously over the police forces, other major military forces were stationed somewhere outside the city, ready to intervene at a moments notice...

This would have been completely normal, if it were true. But no other military forces intervened. The people’s victory was destroyed and turned into a triumph for the reactionary forces in a more efficient and safe way. In other words Zahariadis, the same person who, through the CPG leadership, pushed the masses onto the streets and managed its activities, not only in Solun but everywhere in Greece, also ordered them to stand down and disburse, and handed them over to Metaxas’s Asfalia and police...

After that a massive hunt for communists followed and many were captured, even as they slept in their beds. CPG cells and Party organizations in Solun and all over Greek occupied Macedonia were thoroughly cleaned out...

Metaxas’s counter-attack, according to Stavridis (and others), was very successful mainly thanks to the infiltrators, like Stavridis himself who managed to occupy a high position in the CPG, but who also worked as an extended arm of the bourgeoisie...

The communist leaders at the demonstrations and at the rebellion received suggestions to retreat and return the people to their houses and workplaces.

A person cannot help but think that if the CPG was not ready and did not intend to take power in Greece then why pursue it? Instead of preventing it, why did it allow it to “take place”? A person cannot help but think that if the CPG did not intend to change its line already adopted during the 6th Congress regarding the Macedonian question, then why send Sklavenas to the Greek parliament to declare before everyone that the CPG recognizes the Macedonian nation and will fight for its right to self-determination...?

Shortly after these events, on August 4, 1936, the reactionaries carried out their coup and established their own fascist dictatorship. The funds they required came in abundance.

This was a skillful maneuver worthy of respect… that we can all learn from.

After this, everyone could see how powerful a class enemy the CPG was… with this leadership at is peak. But, in order to strengthen the dictatorial regime, there was a need to destroy the organized revolutionary forces, that is, the CPG. Then, strangely, the CPG top leadership did crumble and from its pieces emerged a rival central leadership which brought disagreements and quarrels into the Party. This the Interior Ministry of the dictatorial regime exploited for its own gains.

This is how the CPG’s top leadership organizational pyramid was broken. And with unusually frequent and wide breakthroughs, the base and middle Party cadres were also crushed.

However, soon afterwards, the dictatorial regime itself was broken by Hitler’s armies. Greece came under the triple German-Italian-Bulgarian occupation. As a result, several high-ranking CPG officials, somehow, managed to get out of prison. At its CPG Central Committee 6th Plenum, held in June 1941, it was concluded that:

“Through bribes..., bad advice and the permeation of fascist agents in the governing bodies, the dictatorship was able to infiltrate and deliver heavy blows on the Party…” Then the Party called on:

“All loyal Party forces, cadres and members, wherever they may be… be they in the so-called ‘Central Committee’ camp or in the ‘Provisional Directorate’ camp, or in any other camp, to leave the various camps and disassociate themselves from all their activities and then come and help clean up and recover the Greek communist movement…” (CPG from 1931 to 1952, p. 103)