Aris Velouchiotis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Aris Velouchiotis
Greek People's Liberation Army
Political partyCommunist Party of Greece

Athanasios Klaras (

occupied Greece from 1942 to 1945.[1]

Early years

Athanasios Klaras was born in Lamia, Greece in 1905, to an upper urban class family of Aromanian origin.[2] His father was Dimitrios Klaras, a well-known lawyer in the area and his mother was Aglaia Zerva. Initially Klaras studied journalism, but later attended and graduated from the Geoponic School of Larissa. He left for Athens, where he did various jobs, participated in the leftist and antimilitary movement and later became a member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). During the 1920s and 30s he was jailed several times for different offenses.

He became an editor in the communist Rizospastis and wrote several articles supporting socialist revolution. In 1931, an article of Klaras caused the intervention of the authorities, who shut down the newspaper and proceeded to prosecute its editors. The newspaper was republished as Neos Rizospastis.

"If there is a moment in my life which I see with pride is when I entered the communist party.......It is honour for me and the communist party, because I survived from the corruption of my consciousness and I adorned Klaras, who was a lost case, with only pure revolutionary characteristics."

From a letter of Klaras to Rizospastis, 1931

During the

KKE and of the communist ideology," a very humiliating act for a communist at the time. These statements of renouncement, called "declarations of repentance", were then distributed to the authorities in the signatory's home village. These confessions were often publicly published listing both the actions for which the signatory had confessed, as well as wholly fabricated confessions, marking the signatories as dilosias (renegades) in their home villages. This left a mark on Velouchiotis' name, both with those supporting the Metaxas dictatorship, but also from the communists, who saw his declaration as a capitulation.[4]

World War II: From Klaras to Aris

See also: Axis occupation of Greece and Greek resistance
ELAS
Velouchiotis, to the left, with officers of ELAS

During World War II, he fought as an artillery private of the Hellenic Army at the

occupation
.

After Germany's

guerrilla
movement against the occupation forces in this area. His proposals were adopted by the party, and in January 1942, Klaras moved to the mountains to start setting up guerrilla groups.

The first appearance of the

Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). Initially, he collected also the traditional local mountain living bandits
in order to create a small group of experts in guerrilla fighting. Velouchiotis as a leader applied steely discipline and managed to have under his commands a considerable number of guerillas. Starting with only 15 men, ELAS' power finally comprised up to 50,000 guerillas.

One of the most important early operations of the Greek resistance movement (in which Velouchiotis and his fighters, after negotiations with the British, agreed to participate alongside

Northern Africa, as it took place one month after the commencement of the El Alamein
battle on October 23, 1942, in which Rommel was badly defeated by the British.

The destruction of the Gorgopotamos viaduct was to be the last operation where the communist-influenced ELAS organization fought alongside Greek Republican resistance forces, such as the

EDES, EOEA and destroyed EKKA's 5/42 Evzones Regiment, executing its leader Col. Dimitrios Psarros
.

Liberation and expulsion from Communist Party

See also: Dekemvriana and Treaty of Varkiza
Velouchiotis talks in Lamia after the withdrawal of the Axis powers.

In October 1944, when the Nazis evacuated Greece, ELAS was the dominant force in most of the Greek cities, except Athens, while EAM had established its own government, the Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA).

Velouchiotis passed from Central Greece to Peloponnese to clear the region from the Security Battalions, and fought several battles against them.

The British, with units of the Greek Army, were landed in Greece (

Georgios Papandreou, the leader of the Greek National Unity Government, which was established following the Treaties of Lebanon and Caserta
. Velouchiotis returned to Central Greece and made a speech in his native town, Lamia.

".......Who therefore is a patriot? They or us? Capital doesn't have a country and seeks profit in whatever country it is able to. That is why it isn't concerned for the existence of borders and the state. But all we own are our hats and the small kerb in front of us ...So, who can be interested more in their country? They, who remove the capital from the country, or us who are stuck on our doorsteps here?......"

From Velouchiotis speech in Lamia[5]

During the Dekemvriana events in Athens, he was sent by the Party to Epirus, where he attacked the forces of Zervas' EDES, which evacuated the region of Epirus and passed to the Ionian islands.

When the

Varkiza Agreement
was signed to end the fighting between EAM forces and governmental and British forces in Athens, he personally with General Sarafis signed the demobilization of the ELAS army. However, afterwards, he vehemently refused to comply with the agreement, which he regarded as a betrayal of the guerillas.

The leadership of the Communist Party, under Nikos Zachariadis, consequently accused him of treachery and of being a "suspicious and adventurous element" and spurned him as a member of KKE.[6][7] The Communist Party was always suspicious of Velouchiotis's actions even though he had been the founder of ELAS because of his status as a simple party member, his old renouncement of the party and his fickle character.

Death

Velouchiotis moved again to the mountains of Central Greece in order to start an insurgency (see Greek Civil War) against the new government and the British allies who supported them. He was reported to have denounced the sell-out to the British in the Varkiza Agreement to lay down the National Resistance arms; particularly moving was the sight of his elite massed Mavroskoufides (Black Berets) openly mourning. He was outmaneuvered by the KKE leadership and resolved to leave Greece; he repeatedly requested permission from the party to be allowed to depart, but was refused.

His intention was to create a new

ELAS and a National Independence Front (MEA). Though most of his associates abandoned him, he was reported to have continued to conduct guerrilla activities until June 1945. He was denounced by the KKE Central Committee and increasingly isolated, until he was ambushed with his unit in the mountain of Agrafa (some[who?
] say that he was set up or even betrayed by KKE contacts) by para-military groups controlled by the Athens government. Aris and his second in command, Giannis Aggeletos (nom de guerre: Leon Tzavellas), were isolated by the main unit, and finally, he committed suicide with his comrade, either by a hand grenade or by a bullet, on the same day he learned that he was denounced by the communist party.

Rumours want him to "have committed suicide with his commander Tzavellas when his thoughts were that there is no better future for his revolution".[8]

The heads of Velouchiotis (right) and Tzavellas, exposed in the central square of the town of Trikala.

The corpses of Velouchiotis and Tzavellas were subsequently decapitated, and the heads displayed (a practice of the pre-war Greek State and Police for the common mountain bandits), hanging from a lamp post in the central square of the town of Trikala.

When British Labour government members of Parliament objected[citation needed] to the barbarity of the operation, they received the reply that the display was in accordance to an "ancient Greek war custom".[citation needed]

Following the rehabilitation in Greece of the EAM/ELAS and subsequently of the Communist party itself (after the end of the

Greek military junta
), busts and statues of Aris Velouchiotis have been erected in his native town. Recently the KKE moved discreetly for Velouchiotis' rehabilitation, following in turn the expulsion of the KKE's wartime leader (who had denounced him), Nikos Zachariadis.

Legacy

Velouchiotis is one of the most controversial figures of modern Greek history. His personality and action was mythologized during his life and after his death. Supporters consider him a symbol of Greek resistance against the

rural people who were perceived as opponents of communism;[citation needed] a basic instigator of the Red Terror.[9] In his memories he appreciates his military abilities. However, he was a man of strong patriotic beliefs. He was especially strict to Greeks who sought collaboration with the occupying forces, with his companions who broke the organized discipline, and people who approved the involvement of the British in Greek politics since he considered the British a threat to the patriotic cause of the Resistance.[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Το αναπάντεχο στυλ του Άρη Βελουχιώτη (1905-1945)". 27 March 2019.
  2. ISBN 9789600327847
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-78663-148-0
    .
  4. ISBN 978-1-78663-148-0
    .
  5. ^ The last speech of Velouchiotis
  6. ^ ΚΚΕ, επίσημα κείμενα, τ8
  7. ^ Δοκίμιο Ιστορίας του ΚΚΕ
  8. ^ For a complete presentation of the circumstances of Velouchiotis' death see: Χαριτόπουλος, Διονύσης (Charitopoulos, Dionysis) (2003). Άρης, ο Αρχηγός των Ατάκτων (Aris, the Leader of the Rebels). Athens: Ελληνικά Γράμματα (Ellinika Grammata), 565-571. Charitopoulos takes for granted that Velouchiotis committed a "heroic" suicide.
  9. ISBN 1-85065-487-5
    , pp. 4-5.
  10. ISBN 978-0-521-24342-1.[page needed
    ]

Further reading

External links
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