Abstract
The origins and main events of the civil war that took place in Greece during 1946–1949 are briefly described. A new set of battle data compiled from US military archives, Greek Army sources and Communist Party documents is presented and used to provide a quantitative analysis of the armed confrontation. A statistical analysis indicates that there have been two separate phases in the conflict, and the factors that led to the escalation of hostilities are examined.
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- 1.
An analysis of the 1932 crisis in Greece and its dire consequences on the economy is given by Christodoulakis (2013).
- 2.
- 3.
As compared to the population the country would have had in the absence of war; see Mazower (1994, p. 67).
- 4.
For details see Christodoulakis (2014).
- 5.
- 6.
KKE (1964, p. 524)—adopting a wording that would soon be abandoned—emphasized the importance of “ensuring order and calm so as to rebuild the country”.
- 7.
- 8.
A description is given by Thomadakis (1995).
- 9.
Battle deaths and casualties include all people, combatant and civilian, that are killed or injured in armed engagements.
- 10.
The Third Decree of the State was issued in July 1946 and initially established 11 martial courts in key cities. A few months later the number rose to 30, covering most of the country.
- 11.
For an account of town sieges by the guerrilla army, see Marantzidis (2010, p. 192).
- 12.
The hypothesis of no breakpoint between January and March 1948 is rejected at a range of levels from 1 % to 10 % for total casualties and battle-deaths as shown in Table 2.1.
- 13.
This is frequently called the ‘survivor’ function, but here the term is unsuitable for describing battle-deaths.
- 14.
Criticism is also addressed to a further claim that relates power-law distributions with other confrontational phenomena, from ecology to finance and social dynamics; for example, see Bohorquez et al. (2009).
- 15.
- 16.
The most notorious concentration camp was on the Macronissos Island where 28,800 soldiers and officers were kept during 1947–1950. Though the Government hailed the camp as a “moral transforming institution”, several of the interns perished out of torture and starvation; for an account, see Kaltsogia-Tournaviti (2001).
- 17.
Details are given in Marantzidis (2010, pp. 48–49).
- 18.
Details of the new DAG structure are given by Kyritsis (2006, p. 28).
- 19.
Rizospastis (2011). That was the first open disagreement about strategy, with the DAG leader supporting partisan fighting and the Secretary General of KKE insisting on urban struggle.
- 20.
Rizospastis (2011).
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Christodoulakis, N. (2016). The Greek Civil War 1946–1949: Main Events and Data. In: An Economic Analysis of Conflicts. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32261-2_2
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