Ioannis Metaxas

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Ioannis Metaxas

Ioannis Metaxas was born in Ithaca in 1871.^[8] His family was inscribed in the Libro d'Oro of the Ionian islands,^[9] previously a Venetian possession, while its roots originated in the Byzantine nobility. The Metaxas family were entered into the Libro d'Oro in the 17th century.^[10] Metaxas was very proud of his aristocratic family, observing that many ancestors of ordinary Greeks were not notable enough to be included in the Libro d'Oro.^[11][10]

Following studies at the Hellenic Military Academy, he became a career military officer, being sworn as an Engineers 2nd Lieutenant on 10 August 1890. He first saw action in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 attached to the staff of the Greek commander-in-chief, Crown Prince Constantine.^[8]

Metaxas became a protégé of Constantine and much of his rise through the ranks of the Hellenic Army was a consequence of Crown Prince's patronage.^[11][10] Greece was characterized by a clientist system at the time, and a powerful patron in the form of Constantine boosted Metaxas's career.^[10]

After the war, he continued his military studies at the Berlin War Academy from 1899 to 1903. Metaxas was very close to Constantine and was personally selected by the Crown Prince to go to Berlin. During his time at the War Academy, Metaxas received consistently high marks from his German instructors with one writing that he was "ein kleiner Moltke" ("a little Moltke" – a reference to Metaxas's short stature). Metaxas's time in Germany made him into an admirer of Prussian militarism.^[10]

In his diary in March 1900, he wrote: "I have no other ambition than to fulfill my duty to my king and crown prince ... I consider the king the representative of the past, present and future of the nation. All opposition to him from whatever quarter I reject and find repulsive."^[12] Metaxas also expressed his opposition to the "intemperate parliamentarism" of Greece, preferring the authoritarian German system where the Chancellor was responsible to the Emperor, not the Reichstag. On his return in 1904, he joined the newly formed General Staff Corps.^[8] He was part of the modernizing process of the Greek Army before the Balkan Wars (1912–13). However, he opposed the Goudi coup. For Metaxas, the coup represented an attack on everything he valued because the Military League behind the coup were opposed to Constantine and the other princes holding positions of command.^[13]

In 1910, Metaxas was appointed by

He took part in the Second Balkan War when he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. After the end of the Balkan Wars, he was appointed director of the 1st (Operations) Directorate of the Army Staff Service, and became deputy head of the Staff Service in January 1915.^[8] In October 1913, he was awarded by the King with the Golden Cross of the Redeemer.^{[citation needed]}

In the spring and summer of 1914, Greece found itself in a confrontation with the Ottoman Empire over the status of the eastern Aegean islands, which had been occupied by Greece in the First Balkan War, and were finally awarded to Greece on 31 January 1914 by the

Following the

A German request on 14 July to join the Central Powers was rejected by both Venizelos and King Constantine,^[19] but on 1 August, Venizelos sounded out the Entente Powers, Britain, France, and Russia. The Entente governments were lukewarm to Venizelos' proposals, since they hoped to entice Bulgaria on their side, even offering territorial concessions at the expense of Serbia, Greece, and Romania. Russia in particular considered her interests best served if Greece remained neutral.^[20]

On 19 November, Serbia repeated its request for Greek assistance, supported by the Entente. Venizelos asked Metaxas for an evaluation of the situation; the opinion of the latter was that without a simultaneous entry of Romania into the war on the side of the Allies, Greece's position was too risky. Following the firm refusal of Romania to be drawn into the conflict at this time, the proposal was scuttled.^[21]

On 11 January 1915, the British offered Greece "significant territorial concessions in Asia Minor" if it would enter the war to support Serbia, and in exchange for satisfying some of the Bulgarian territorial demands in

Venizelos argued in favor of the proposal, but Metaxas disagreed, for reasons which he laid down in a memorandum on 20 January: the Austrians were likely to defeat the Serbian army before a Greek mobilization could be completed, Bulgaria was likely to flank any Greek forces fighting against the Austrians, while a Romanian intervention would not be decisive. Metaxas judged that even if Bulgaria joined the Entente, it still would not suffice to shift the balance in Central Europe, and recommended the presence of four Allied army corps in Macedonia as the minimum necessary force for any substantial aid to the Greeks and Serbs. Furthermore, Metaxas argued that a Greek entry into the war would once again expose the Greeks of Asia Minor to Turkish reprisals.[23] Venizelos rejected this report, and recommended entry into the war in a memorandum to the King, provided that Bulgaria and Romania also joined the Entente. By that time, however, it was clear that Bulgaria was aligning towards the Central Powers, and Romania's determination to remain neutral led the Greek government to again refuse.^[24]

However, in February 1915, the

This dismissal solidified the rift between monarchists and Venizelists, creating the "National Schism" that would be a centerpiece of Greek politics for decades.^{[citation needed]}

In May and August 1916, Constantine and the General Staff allowed Fort Roupel and parts of eastern Macedonia to be occupied, without opposition, by the Central Powers (Germany and Bulgaria), as a counterbalance to the Allied presence in Thessaloniki. This caused popular anger, especially in Greek Macedonia, and among Venizelist officers.^{[31][page needed]}

In August 1916, Venizelist officers launched a revolt in Greece's northern city of

Meanwhile, the official Greek state and the royal government remained neutral. King Constantine and Metaxas were accused as pro-German by their Venizelist opponents. However they kept negotiating with the Allies a possible entry with their side.^[citation needed]

Metaxas was later the creator and head of the monarchist paramilitary Epistratoi (reservists) forces during the Noemvriana events in Athens. When the French/British landed in Athens and demanded the surrender of material equal lost to Fort Rupel (as guarantee for Greece's neutrality), they met resistance. In June 1917, under Allied pressure, King Constantine was deposed, Alexander became King, and Venizelos came to power, declaring war officially on behalf of the whole country on 29 June 1917.^[32]

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With Venizelos' coming to power in Summer 1917, Metaxas, along with other notable antivenizelists, were exiled to Corsica, from where he escaped to Sardinia (with Gounaris and Pesmazoglou) and later found himself with his family to Siena, Italy,^[33][34] while King Constantine with the royal family left for Switzerland. In January 1920, Metaxas was sentenced to death in absentia for his role in the Noemvriana.^[35]

He returned to Greece in November 1920, after the

Following the defeat of Greek forces in Asia Minor, King Constantine was again forced into exile by the 11 September 1922 Revolution, led by Col. Nikolaos Plastiras. Metaxas moved into politics and founded the Freethinkers' Party on 12 October 1922.^[35]

However, his association with the failed Monarchist

On 1 March 1935, in Thessaloniki there was an attempted coup d'état by Venizelist officers ostensibly over the slow pace of the investigation into the attempted assassination, which almost succeeded. Thessaloniki, together with the rest of Greek Macedonia, had taken in the bulk of the about 1.3 million Greeks expelled from Turkey in the compulsory population exchange of 1923, and the majority of the refugees lived in extreme poverty with those living in rural areas making their living picking tobacco.^[39]

The collapse of international tobacco prices in the Great Depression lowered living conditions even more and Macedonia was the region of Greece hit worse by the Depression. As it was under the leadership of King Constantine that Greece was defeated in 1922, the refugees tended to be very hostile towards the House of Glücksburg and Thessaloniki was known as a "hotbed of republicanism".^[39]

The failed coup with its connotations of social unrest and protest alarmed the Greek elite and led to a swing towards the right among the elite, though not the Greek people. As a result of the failed coup, the Liberals came to be viewed within the elite as the party of insurgency and chaos while many Populists frightened by the prospect of a revolution swung behind Metaxas's viewpoint.^[40]

In response to the fears of the impoverished Greek people rising up in a revolution, Metaxas called for a "new order" in Greece, arguing that the Great Depression proved the failure of democracy and authoritarianism was the solution. Under pressure from the newly empowered and more extreme Monarchists like Metaxas, Tsaldaris announced for the first time his intention to hold a referendum on restoring the monarchy.^[41]

In the

Tsaldaris had called early elections in 1935 as a way of putting off the pressure to hold a referendum on restoring the monarchy, and his decisive victory in an election boycotted by the Liberals for the moment seemed to strengthened his hand. In the Peloponnese region, which was the traditional center of Greek royalism, Metaxas's party had fared poorly, but he won 20% of the vote in Athens, mostly in middle class and upper-class neighborhoods as the well off looked towards Metaxas as the best man to "impose order" on Greece.[43]

When the War Minister, General Georgios Kondylis, until then a republican and one of the founders of the First Hellenic Republic in 1924, pronounced himself in favor of restoring the monarchy on 3 July 1935, he demoralized the republicans and the more opportunistic republicans started to defect over to the monarchist camp, though Metaxas drew little benefit electorally. Kondylis pronounced himself an admirer of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and based his call to end the republic he himself had helped to found under the grounds that restoring the monarchy would permanently shift the center of the political gravity in Greece to the right.^[43]

Under strong pressure from Kondylis, Tsaldaris finally brought the necessary legislation for a referendum to a vote on the floor of parliament on 10 July 1935.^[42] From June to October 1935, there was a crisis atmosphere in Greece as the Army was purged of Venizelist officers, rumors swirled of coups being planned, Metaxas spoke openly of the possibility of a civil war and most politicians were fearful of being caught on the losing side as alliances were rapidly made and unmade. Adding to the crisis atmosphere was a wave of strikes and protests all across the country in both urban and rural areas as the unemployed demanded social reforms that would address the Great Depression.^[44] Despite his unpopularity with the Greek people, from August 1935 politicians began to openly visit the former King George II in his exile in London to assure him of their loyalty. On 8 October 1935 and 10 October 1935, the Foreign Minister Dimitros Maximos who was in Geneva attending a session of the League of Nations, telephoned George to tell him that Tsaldaris was preparing a National Council resolution calling for a constitutional monarchy.^[45]

In both telephone calls, Maximos asked George to publicly commit himself to obeying the National Council resolution asking him to behave strictly as a constitutional monarch who would uphold democracy and the rule of law. Both times George refused under the grounds that as a king he was above "procedures" and he would rule Greece whatever way he liked.^[45] On 10 October 1935, the "Thunder General" as Kondylis was known carried out a coup d'état in the name of a "revolutionary committee" that deposed Tsaldaris. On 3 November 1935, the monarchy was restored and George returned to Greece to reclaim his crown.^[46] The American Embassy in Athens reported that public opinion was firmly against the king, and that it would take a "miracle" for George to keep his throne again as he lacked any popular support.^[47]

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After a heavily rigged plebiscite, George II returned to take the throne in 1935. The extent of the voting fraud could be seen in that Crete, the homeland of Venizelos, an island that was well known for its republicanism, showed 50,655 votes for restoring the monarchy and only 1,276 votes for retaining the republic, a figure that was widely regarded at the time as laughable.^[47] On 11 December 1935, the king met with Ernst Eisenlohr, the German envoy in Athens, who in his account of the conversation reminded him that Germany was Greece's largest trading partner and that:

"the fact of a constant active balance in Greece's favor arising from the exchange of goods made it possible for Greece to obtain commodities from Germany which she could not purchase from other countries for lack of sufficient supplies of foreign exchange. In discussing economic changes, I endeavored to make clear to the King that Greece could not live without her German customers and that, in particular, a reduction or cessation of our purchases of tobacco must lead to the impoverishment of the Macedonian peasants and thus to grave disturbances in Greek domestic politics [emphasis in the original]. Careful fostering of these relationships (between Germany and Greece) was therefore as much a political as an economic imperative."^[48]

To stay in the good graces of the Reich, Eisenlohr told the king that he must "bind the armed forces to his person and thus provide himself with a reliable bulwark for his throne in the ever-changing currents of internal politics"; though Eisenlohr did not mention Metaxas by name, it is clear that he was the "reliable bulwark" that he wanted the king to rely upon. At the time, the Romanian foreign minister Nicolae Titulescu was seeking to link the Little Entente of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia together with the Balkan Pact of Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece and Turkey, which Eisenlohr vehemently objected to, saying he wanted the king to appoint as prime minister someone who was friendly towards Germany who would veto Titulescu's plan, which was aimed at building an alliance against Germany.^[49]

After the elections on 26 January 1936, Venizelists and anti-Venizelists could not form a government mainly on the question of the return of the democratic officers of the 1935 movement to the army. In 1936 elections, the Venizelists won 141 seats while the Populists loyal to Tsaldaris won 72 seats, another faction of the Populists loyal to Ioannis Theotokis won 38 seats, the followers of Kondylis won 12 seats and Metaxas's Eleftherophrones party won only 7 seats, making Metaxas in electoral terms the weakest of the right-wing leaders. The greatest surprise of the 1936 elections was the breakthrough of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) which won 15 seats, settling off a hysterical reaction on the right that this presaged a Communist revolution as the fears were voiced that the great masses of the unemployed would rally to the KKE.^[50]

In 1935, the Comintern had ordered Communist parties around the world to engage in "popular fronts" against fascism, allying themselves with other left-wing parties. Following the Comintern's orders, the KKE declared itself in favor of a "popular front" to unite all left-wing parties against fascism, and called for an alliance with the Venizelists.^[51]

Faced with a parliament evenly divided between left and right, the Liberals entered negotiations for Communist support for a Liberal government. The chief of the Army General Staff, General Alexandros Papagos, told the king that the Army would carry out an immediate coup d'état if the Liberals made an alliance with the KKE, saying he would never allow the Communists to form a government or even have any role in the government.^[52]

Contrary to expectations, George had not taken sides in the 1936 election and remained neutral, behaving for once as a constitutional monarch. The king had expected the Liberals to lose, and with the Venizelists forming the largest bloc in Parliament, he faced demands that the Venizelist officers dismissed in 1935 be restated, which led to warnings from the right-wing parties that the king risked being sent into exile again if any of the dismissed officers received their commissions again.^[50] There was considerable anger within right-wing circles at the king for "stacking" the election in favor of the Venizelists (i.e. being neutral), and the king was faced with a situation where his loyalist supporters were on the verge of turning against him.^[53] Tsaldaris wanted to compromise on the issue of the Venizelist officers, agreeing that some would have their commissions returned, but Theotokis was against any compromise, and thus it was a dispute between Tsaldaris vs. Theotokis as opposed to the dispute between the Venizelists vs. the anti-Venzelists that really paralyzed parliament.^[54]

Although Kondylis had been instrumental in restoring the monarchy in 1935, George greatly distrusted him as he had not forgotten that it was Kondylis who had deposed and exiled him in 1924. George had often mused that if he was to play the role of King Victor Emmanuel III, he wanted his Mussolini to be a man who was loyal to the monarchy, which ruled out Kondylis and led the king to turn to Metaxas.^[53]

In a series of initiatives, King George II was able to play a decisive role in shaping the political scene. On 5 March, George II appointed Metaxas the Minister of Defense, a post in which he would remain until his death in 1941. The political significance of this appointment was great since Metaxas was not only a dedicated Monarchist but one of the few politicians who had supported openly the imposition of an authoritarian, non-parliamentary regime in Greece.^{[citation needed]}

On 14 March, the Demertzis government was sworn in, and Ioannis Metaxas was appointed vice-president of the government and Minister of Defense. Demertzis died suddenly on 13 April. That same day, the king appointed Metaxas Prime Minister. The very first action of Metaxas was to announce his opposition to Titulescu's plan, stating that he was opposed to Greece being allied with any non-Balkan power, which killed Titulescu's plan that required the unanimous approval of all Balkan Pact states.^[55] Following a failure by the Venizelists to come to an agreement with the anti-Venizelist parties, the Metaxas government secured a vote of confidence from the House of Parliament on 27 April with 241 votes in favor, 4 abstentions and 16 against. Three days later, the House of Parliament resolved and suspended its work for five months, authorizing the government to issue legislative decrees on all matters, with the agreement of a parliamentary committee which never operated. The appointment of Metaxas as prime minister caused a strike wave all across the country with Macedonia being the center of the protests and strikes. On 29 April 1936, the tobacco farmers of Macedonia went on a strike to protest his appointment and on 9 May a general strike began in Thessaloniki.^[56]

Widespread industrial unrest gave Metaxas justification to declare a state of emergency on 4 August 1936 with the excuse of the "communist danger". With the King's support, he adjourned parliament indefinitely and suspended various articles of the constitution guaranteeing civil liberties. In a national radio address, Metaxas declared that for the duration of the state of emergency, he would hold "all the power I need for saving Greece from the catastrophes which threaten her." The regime created as a result of this self-coup became known as the "4th of August Regime" after the date of its proclamation.

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, ^[57]

The regime's propaganda presented Metaxas as "the First Peasant", "the First Worker" and "the National Father" of the Greeks. Metaxas adopted the title of Arkhigos, Greek for "leader" or "chieftain", and claimed a "Third Hellenic Civilization", following ancient Greece and the Christian Byzantine Empire of the Middle Ages. State propaganda portrayed Metaxas as a "Saviour of the Nation", bringing unity to a divided country.^[58]

Patterning his regime on other authoritarian European governments of the day, Metaxas banned political parties (including his own), prohibited strikes and introduced widespread censorship of the media. National unity was to be achieved by the abolition of the previous political parliamentary system, which was seen as having left the country in chaos (see National Schism).^[59] Metaxas disliked the old parties of the political landscape, including traditional conservatives.^[59]

Along with

Suppressing Communism was followed by a campaign against "anti-Greek" literature viewed as dangerous to the national interest.[62] Book burnings targeted authors such as Goethe, Shaw and Freud, and several Greek writers.^[62]

It is often mistakenly believed that Metaxas followed a neutral stance in foreign policy by trying to balance between Britain and Germany or that he had a pro-German policy.^[64] As recent studies have proven, however, Greece under Metaxas remained a close ally of Britain, and he never intended to adopt a pro Axis policy.^[64] Additionally, the foreign policy of the regime was mainly determined by George II of Greece, who had close ties with the British government.^[64]

Ever since the

To break the German dominance of the Balkans, the British agreed to launch an "economic offensive" into the Balkans in November 1938, but the question of whether Britain should buy the Greek tobacco crop led to much debate within the British government as objections were made that British smokers, accustomed to Canadian and American tobacco, should not have to smoke Greek tobacco.[67] Metaxas himself had a reputation as a Germanophile dating back to his studies in Germany and his role in the National Schism.^[66] The regime's literature gave praise to fellow European authoritarian states, especially those of Francisco Franco, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.^{[citation needed]} In October 1938, Metaxas asked Michael Palairet, the British minister in Athens, for an alliance out of the hope that the British would turn him down, as they did, which would justify Greek neutrality if another world war should break out.^[66]

However, events gradually drove Metaxas to lean toward France and Britain. King George and most of the country's elites were staunchly anglophile, and the predominance of the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean could not be ignored by a maritime country such as Greece.^[66] Furthermore, the expansionist goals of Mussolini's Italy pushed Greece to lean towards the Franco-British alliance.^[68] On 4 April 1939, Italy annexed Albania and Mussolini had committed 20 divisions to occupy Albania, which was far more men than was necessary to occupy a small nation like Albania.

Metaxas became convinced that an Italian invasion of Greece was imminent.^[65] On 8 April 1939, Metaxas summoned Palairet for a meeting at midnight to tell him that Greece would fight to the death if Italy invaded, and he asked for British assistance.^[65] The fact that Germany had supported Italy's annexation of Albania showed Hitler was supporting Italian ambitions in the Balkans, which left Metaxas with no choice but to turn to Britain as a counterweight to Italy.^[66] On 13 April 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain speaking in the House of Commons, and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier speaking in the Chamber of Deputies, announced a joint Anglo-French guarantee of Romania and Greece.^[69] On the same day, Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, the British ambassador in Turkey, asked the Turks to open staff talks with the Greeks so that they could come to Greece's aid in the event of an Italian invasion.^[70] Though Greece declared neutrality in September 1939, Metaxas's acceptance of the Anglo-French "guarantee" in April 1939 associated Greece with the Allies.

Regarding Turkey, Metaxas continued the policy of friendship and good relations, which had been started by Venizelos. The Italian presence and ambitions in the Aegean Sea left him with no other choice. On the day of

Metaxas's efforts to keep Greece out of war came undone when Mussolini demanded occupation rights to strategic Greek sites. When Italian Ambassador Emanuele Grazzi visited Metaxas's residence and presented these demands on the night of 28 October 1940, Metaxas curtly replied in French (the language of diplomacy), Alors, c'est la guerre ("So it's war").^[71]

A popular story, promoted by Metaxas's widow Lela, was he simply told Grazzi Ochi!" ("No!") and the image of Metaxas shouting "ochi!" upon the presentation of the Italian ultimatum made the previously unpopular prime minister into a national hero.^[71] The single word "Ochi" and all it symbolizes has become iconic in Greek culture. In Nicosia, Cyprus, there is even an "Ochi Square," now the site of a popular regular farmer's market.^[72]

A few hours later, Italy invaded Greece from

The Hellenic Army mounted a successful defense and a subsequent counteroffensive which forced the Italians back, occupying large parts of southern Albania, which was usually referred to by the Greeks as "Northern Epirus". In April 1941, Germany invaded Greece to help Italy.

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Metaxas never saw the joint Italian-German invasion of Greece during the

An idea of erecting a Metaxas statue in central Athens was not accepted by the government and Georgios Papadopoulos, who preferred to identify with Eleftherios Venizelos instead, inaugurated in Athens a large statue of the latter. In the last years of junta, some minor local officials of the regime, disappointed by the liberalization steps planned by Papadopoulos, erected busts of Metaxas in some towns, in order to upset Papadopoulos. In the meantime, during and shortly after the dictatorship, an imagined ideological connection between the 1967 junta and the Metaxas regime and fascism was constructed, by means of books and works of art, such as the books of Spyros Linardatos on the 4th of August regime (1965 and 1966) and the film Days of '36 by Theo Angelopoulos. This concept was adopted by the antidictatorial struggle and had a profound impact on subsequent historical production. A resistance group blew up a bust of Metaxas in a Piraeus suburb in 1972. The concept became mainstream after 1974.

The microhistory of Metaxas's statues is examined by Kouki K. and Antoniou D. in a study on the construction of an ideological commonality between Metaxas, the 1967 junta and fascism in modern Greek history.^[75][76]

• Metaxism

Sources

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• Συνοπτική Ιστορία του Γενικού Επιτελείου Στρατού 1901–2001 [A Concise History of the Hellenic Army General Staff 1901–2001] (in Greek). Athens: Hellenic Army History Directorate. 2001.
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• Brewer, David (2016). Greece, the Decade of War: Occupation, Resistance and Civil War. Bloomsbury Publishing.
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• Papacomsa, Victor (2007). "Ioannis Metaxas and the Fourth of August Dictatorship in Greece". In Bernd Jürgen Fischer (ed.). Balkan Strongmen: Dictators and Authoritarian Rulers of South Eastern Europe. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. pp. 165–199.
• Pelt, Mogens (Winter 2001). "The Establishment and Development of the Metaxas Dictatorship in the Context of Fascism and Nazism, 1936–41".
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• Joachim, Joachim G. Ioannis Metaxas: The Formative Years 1871–1922, Verlag Franz Philipp Rutzen,
  ISBN 978-3-941336-03-2
• Watt, Donald Cameron (1989). How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–1939. Pimlico.
  ISBN 978-0-7126-6713-5
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ioannis Metaxas.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Ioannis Metaxas.

• Works about Ioannis Metaxas at Open Library
• Newspaper clippings about Ioannis Metaxas in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Political offices
Preceded by Konstantinos Demertzis	Prime Minister of Greece 13 April 1936 – 29 January 1941	Succeeded by Alexandros Koryzis