What if Greek republicans were successfully able to overthrow the Western-backed monarchy? Would the country become a Soviet satellite or an independent (possibly democratic, possibly not so) socialist state like Yugoslavia?
Leftist victory in Greek Civil War
- Thread starter Snowstalker
- Start date
I think if a leftist victory looks imminent, the Americans will directly intervene. A split Greece with Crete, the islands and maybe Peloponnesia as royal "South Greece" and the rest as republican "North Greece" could be interesting.
GiantMonkeyMan
Banned
The USSR was against any formal support for the leftists in Greece for Realpolitik reasons, wanting to maintain somewhat cordial relations with the western allies following the war.
Greece being Greece, it's more likely that whilst adopting communism, it would remain neutral, even if Soviet-aligned. (This becomes even more so if Marshal Tito decides to ramp up support for EAM/ELAS, in which case it would be very interesting to see how Greece adapts Titoism to conditions which are different from Yugoslavia.) So I'd think an independent socialist state.
Which is funny, because Crete IIRC would be even more strongly republican than, say, the Dodecanese.
Which is why I think if Tito was smart, he'd funnel as much aid as he could to EAM/ELAS (discreetly, of course) and thus have Greece not only succeed in the Civil War but also remain as an ally. Having Greece as a friendly neutral, independent socialist state (if not integrated into Yugoslavia - which would provoke a change of name, because apart from some minorities in Northern Greece most Greeks are not Slavs) would be interesting, for sure.
No way. The British intervened military in Dec 1944 and crushed ELAS in Athens. AlSo with the Marshall plan there was no way the Greek army would lose short of Yugo military intervention.
Actually, the Greek military could still lose even with the Marshall Plan. The royalist government-in-exile was largely unpopular with Greeks, and EAM/ELAS controlled most of the country after the Nazis fled. If EAM/ELAS used guerilla warfare extensively to its benefit (much like what it did against the Nazis), then there could be the possibility of the royalists being forced out yet again.
GiantMonkeyMan
Banned
It'd be really interesting if Greece won its freedom from the Nazis in the same way that Albania did, with the communists resistance movement forcing the Nazis out.
It would still affect the outcome of the Greek language struggle (aka katharevousa-demotic wars)
If it looks as though this is even remotely possible, look to see U.S./NATO troops in Greece within a New York minute.
I don't think Greece would join the Warsaw Pact. They're not that gullible.
I've learned after getting kicked around the block a few times by life that there is a big difference between what you want and what you actually get. I didn't say Greece would join, I said the Soviets would have liked to have it happen and the bases they could get outside of the Black Sea.
It'd be interesting to see an independent communist bloc in southern Europe, composed of an allied Yugoslavia and Greece.