4th of August Regime
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2011) |
Kingdom of Greece Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος Vasílion tis Elládos | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1936–1941 | |||||||||||
Motto: Greek Orthodox | |||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Greek, Hellene | ||||||||||
Government | Unitary constitutional monarchy under a Metaxist totalitarian dictatorship | ||||||||||
King | |||||||||||
• 1936–1941 | George II | ||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1936–1941 | Ioannis Metaxas | ||||||||||
• 1941 | Alexandros Koryzis | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Established | 4 August 1936 | ||||||||||
• German invasion | 6 April 1941 | ||||||||||
18 April 1941 | |||||||||||
23 April 1941 | |||||||||||
Currency | Greek drachma | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Today part of | Greece |
History of Greece |
---|
Greece portal |
The 4th of August Regime (Greek: Καθεστώς της 4ης Αυγούστου, romanized: Kathestós tis tetártis Avgoústou), commonly also known as the Metaxas regime (Καθεστώς Μεταξά, Kathestós Metaxá), was an authoritarian regime under the leadership of General Ioannis Metaxas that ruled the Kingdom of Greece from 1936 to 1941.
On 4 August 1936, Metaxas, with the support of King
Origins of the regime
Metaxas imposed his regime primarily to fight the turbulent social situation prevalent in Greece in the 1930s, in which political factionalization had disrupted Greek
The king re-established the
In May 1936, widespread agrarian unrest among tobacco farmers and industrial unrest in the north of the country erupted,[1] which eventually brought General Metaxas to suspend the parliament on the eve of a major strike, on 4 August 1936. Endorsed by the King, Metaxas declared a state of emergency, decreed martial law, annulled various articles of the constitution, and established a crisis cabinet to put an end to the unrest and to restore the social order. In one of his first speeches, Metaxas announced: "I have decided to hold all the power I need for saving Greece from the catastrophes which threaten her."
Thus the Metaxas dictatorship was born, and the period of time which would follow was named after the day Metaxas rose to absolute power: 4 August. The new regime was backed by small extremist political parties, and by conservatives expecting a crackdown on the communists.
Classical influences
The roots of Metaxas' "New State" were sought in Greece's classical history. Metaxas thought
The traditional Greek values of "Country, Loyalty, Family and Religion", which Metaxas praised repeatedly, were also close to those of the ancient Spartans. The regime promoted the perceived Spartan ideals of
External influences
Metaxas considered
Metaxas' regime also developed characteristics typical of authoritarian states such as 1930s Italy and Germany: the regime's propaganda presented Metaxas as "the First Peasant", "the First Worker" and as "the National Father" of the Greeks. Like his contemporaries Hitler with Führer and Mussolini with Duce, Metaxas adopted the title of Archigos, Greek for "leader" or "chieftain", and claimed that his regime had to lay the foundations for the appearance of a glorious "Third Hellenic Civilization" combining the best of ancient Greece and the Greek Byzantine Empire of the Middle Ages.
Greek totalitarianism
The Metaxas regime sought to comprehensively change Greece, and therefore instituted controls on Greek society, politics, language, and the economy. In each of these policy areas, the Metaxas government seemed more nearly an anticipation of Francoist Spain than to resemble its contemporaries Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy.
Greece since the 4th of August became an anticommunist State, an antiparliamentary State, a totalitarian State. A State based on its farmers and workers, and so antiplutocratic. There is not, of course, a particular party to govern. This party is all the People, except of the incorrigible communists and the reactionary old parties politicians.
— Ioannis Metaxas, [6]
Attempts at social control
Having come to power intent on restoring public order, Metaxas' state largely achieved this goal, under the supervision of what can be described as its most fascist member, minister of public order Konstantinos Maniadakis. Maniadakis created a second fake "communist party", published a fake Rizospastis and achieved the dissolution of all the communist organizations.
Metaxas' policies such as the censorship of the media, the banning of political parties and prohibition of strikes copied contemporary European authoritarian regimes. As its far-right contemporaries Italy and Germany, the Greek State also had its political police force, the Asfaleia, based upon the Gestapo (its chief Maniadakis maintained a close relationship with Himmler on methods and techniques). The objective of Asfaleia was to secure public order.
The regime also repressed the
Soon after its inception the regime severely repressed the communists and leftists. About 15,000 people were arrested and jailed, or exiled for political reasons; some were subjected to torture. Metaxas' regime forced the Communist party underground, and also attempted to dismantle the old system of loyalties of the Royalist and Venizelist parties. Those major forces however remained, as they had for the preceding decades, and re-emerged immediately after the four-year Metaxas regime.
While Metaxas' regime did play up the communist threat in order to justify its repression, the regime is not known to have committed political murders and did not instate the death penalty. Dissidents were, rather, usually banished to tiny islands in the
Arts and culture
Metaxas was educated in the
Another notable policy was the use and promotion of Demotic Greek (Demotiki) in the educational system (but in a conservative form), instead of Katharevousa. Manolis Triantafyllidis was appointed to create the Demotic grammar used.
The role of the youth
In order to keep and maintain the values of the regime in future years, Metaxas gave birth to the
The EON brought together youths of all economic and social strata into one single body. Boys' education emphasized discipline and physical training, while girls were taught to become supportive wives and caring mothers to breed a stronger, healthier new generation. The EON published a fortnightly magazine called Neolaia (Νεολαία, Greek for "Youth"), which had much influence both in schools and in higher education.
Metaxas' vision was to create, through the youth, the "Third Hellenic Civilization", a continuity of the ancient Greek and Byzantine civilization.
The EON was disbanded by the German-Italian occupying authority in Greece following its vigorous resistance of the invasion.
Nationalism
As in most other totalitarian regimes, 4 August regime adopted a strong nationalistic program: although Metaxas was opposed to the invasion of Asia Minor as part of the Megali Idea, he used strong nationalist language concerning Greek minorities in neighbouring countries[citation needed] and in answering threats from Greece's neighbours in the still volatile southeast Europe. As with many nation states at the time, he used language exalting his people's race.
Ethnic and linguistic (mainly
Metaxas' regime continued repression of the use of Slavic languages both in public and in private and of expressions of Slavic cultural distinctiveness. During
Again, in contrast to some totalitarian regimes, no mass killings were ever instituted and there is no evidence that any were planned.[7]
Economic policy
One of 4 August government's main objectives was the repudiation of the old capitalist system and its replacement with a corporatist economic system in order to promote national and social solidarity. This idea "harmonized perfectly with Metaxas' convictions on social and national solidarity as well as his rejection of individualism and class struggle". The plan for the creation of a corporatist state was manifest in the early days of the regime by public declarations by Metaxas and by government ministers.[8]
To this end, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Konstantinos Zavitsianos "published details about a horizontal (according to branches of production), not vertical (according to social class), syndicalist organization" of the state. However, due to the external crisis with Italy, the plan had to be temporarily postponed with the result that it never fully materialized.[8]
Metaxas' government, initially unpopular, also gained popularity through an elaborate program to socialize the Greek economy, including:
- Unemployment insurance.
- Μaternity leave.
- A five-day, 40-hour workweek.
- Guaranteed two-week vacations with pay (or two weeks' double pay in place of vacation).
- Stricter work safety standards.
Many elements of this program persist in Greek economic policy. Metaxas' regime founded the Workers' Center (Εργατικό Κέντρο), which was established to look after workers' housing and recreation, among other things.
The 4th of August regime initially stabilized the drachma, which had been suffering from high inflation. Exploiting the newfound solidity of the currency, Metaxas' government embarked on large public works programs (such as the Ellinikon International Airport), including land drainage, construction of railways, road improvements, and modernization of the telecommunications infrastructure.
Metaxas' economic program met with initial success, with a marked rise in per capita income and temporary decline in unemployment in Greece between 1936 and 1938 (unemployment skyrocketed after 1938). Capitalizing on this success, the government instituted debt relief for farmers and instituted price floors on some agricultural goods to redistribute wealth to the countryside.
Also, on the legislation sector the Greek civil code, was finally completed by a jurist commission; a plan pending since the years of Otto of Greece.
Other
Another organization established by the regime was for the first time a state radio station; the YRE (today ERT), suitable also for the propaganda of the regime.
Also, during the years of the regime, the first law was made to establish the
Differences from other far-right regimes
There is some debate over how the regime relates to other far-right regimes of the 1930s, especially
- The anti-imperialist speech of the regime.
- The pro-Jewish stance of Metaxas and tolerance to religious minorities.
- Absence of a mass political base for the regime, in the form of a political party or movement.
- No representative architecture or monuments.
The end of the 4th of August regime
Foreign policy was one of the main concerns of 4 August regime. Metaxas, who had studied in Germany as a youth, was pro-German, while the King was pro-British. This caused heated discussions between the two, but the reality of 1930s Europe was that Greece's security depended less on Germany than on her traditional ally and protector, the
As tensions and threat of war increased in Europe just before World War II, the situation was almost exactly the same as the position before World War I, when Greece had strong pro-German affinities in government, but it depended on Great Britain for its security. Most observers were anticipating Greece would attempt to remain neutral. Metaxas indeed attempted to maintain strict neutrality, but Italian
Metaxas died suddenly in January 1941 among dark circumstances. His death raised hopes of a liberalization of his regime and the restoration of parliamentary rule, but King George quashed these hopes when he retained the regime's machinery in place. In the meantime,
Despite British assistance, by the end of May, the Germans had overrun most of the country. The 4th of August regime collapsed on May 29, 1941. The King and the government escaped to Crete, where they stayed until the end of the
Meanwhile, in Greece a fascist puppet government was placed into power by the Axis powers.
Legacy
As the Axis occupation ended, Greece descended into civil war between the communist-dominated forces of the left, operating in Greece and from bases in the south of Yugoslavia, and the U.S.- and UK-aligned forces of the political right. This was the first major protracted combat of the Cold War, one of the first exercises in U.S. policy of Containment, and a subject of the Truman Doctrine of U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The alignments were quite different from the Venizelist-Monarchist National Schism, as most Venizelists supported the right-wing alliance during the civil war.
See also
- 4th of August Party
- 1938 Greek coup d'état attempt
- Golden Dawn
- Regime of the Colonels
Footnotes
- ^ The bloody May of 1936 in Thessaloniki, Greece
- ^ Metaxas Jugend - A picture album of the Greek Fascist Youth EON (2009), p.11
- ^ Clogg (1992)
- ISBN 0-19-923038-2, p. 177
- ^ Hamilakis (2007), pp. 177-178
- ^ Metaxas' diary p. 553
- ^ a b c Kallis
- ^ a b Constantine Sarandis, "The Ideology and Character of the Metaxas Regime", The Metaxas Dictatorship: Aspects of Greece, 1936-1940, pages 156-157.
- ^ Clogg (1987), p. 182
References
- Clogg, Richard. A Concise History of Greece; 1992
- Clogg, Richard. Parties and Elections in Greece: the Search for Legitimacy; 1987
- Hondros, John L. Occupation and Resistance; 1983
- Aristotle A. Kallis, "Fascism and Religion: The Metaxas Regime in Greece and the 'Third Hellenic Civilisation': Some Theoretical Observations on 'Fascism', 'Political Religion' and 'Clerical Fascism'," Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 8,2 (2007), pp 229–246.
- McNeill, William. The Metamorphosis of Greece Since World War Two
- Woodhouse, C M. Modern Greece: A Short History; 1992
Further reading
- Robin Higham and Thanos Veremis (eds), The Metaxas Dictatorship. Aspects of Greece 1936-1940 (Athens, Eliamep-Vryonis Center, 1993).
- Pelt, Mogens (Winter 2001). "The Establishment and Development of the Metaxas Dictatorship in the Context of Fascism and Nazism, 1936-41". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 2 (3): 143–172. S2CID 143930737.
- Vatikiotis, P.J. (1998). Popular Autocracy in Greece, 1936-41: A Political Biography of General Ioannis Metaxas. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-4869-9.
- Papacosma, S. Victor, "Ioannis Metaxas and the "Fourth of August" Dictatorship in Greece," in Bernd J. Fischer (ed), Balkan Strongmen: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of Southeastern Europe (West Lafayette, IN, 2007) (Central European Studies), 165-198.
External links
- Metaxas Project, a website about 4 August state
- Symbols of the Metaxas regime
- Flagspot: The National Youth Organization
- ioannismetaxas.gr, a website about Ioannis Metaxas' life, made by his granddaughter