2006. Martyries gia ton Emphýlio kai ten Hellēnikê Aristerá (Witness Accounts of the Civil War and the Greek Left)., ed. Stelios Kouloglou Athens: Estia.
Dangerous Citizens » Chronology
1871
The Law Concerning Brigands, with provision for the prosecution of the kin of brigands and anyone who helps, supports, and abets them.
1881
Thessaly becomes part of Greece.
1910
Major agricultural strike at Kileler, in Thessaly, on March 6.
1917
Establishment of the Workers' Center in Thessaloniki.
King Constantine abdicates. King Alexander assumes the throne.
Eleutherios Venizelos forms government.
The United States enters the First World War.
The February Revolution in Russia, then the October Revolution.
Major strikes in Germany.
1918
General Workers' Union of Greece (GSEE) established.
Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) established.
Civil war in Russia.
Communist parties of Hungary, Poland, and Germany established.
End of the First World War.
Greek Army in Istanbul, following the surrender of the Ottoman army to the Allies at the end of the First World War.
1919
First National Congress of SEKE. Decision to join the Third International.
Panhellenic general strike against the firing of exiled socialist unionists of GSEE.
Revolution in Hungary fails.
Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are murdered.
Founding Congress of the Third International in Moscow.
Establishment of the Communist parties of the United States, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Denmark.
Weimar Republic and constitution.
Treaty of Versailles.
Greek expedition to Asia Minor.
1920
Second National Congress of SEKE. It joins the Third International. Its title changes to the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece—(Communist).
Collaboration of GSEE and SEKE-C.
Demosthenes Ligdopoulos, a leading member of SEKE, is murdered on the Black Sea.
Second Congress of the Communist International.
Major general strikes in France and Italy.
Establishment of the Communist parties of Spain, Iran, Great Britain, and France.
Establishment of the League of Nations.
Treaty of Sèvres.
The Greek army marches into the interior of Turkey. Greek defeat at Eski Sehir and Afion Karahisar.
Murder attempt against Venizelos.
Death of King Alexander. Suspicions are that he was murdered.
Venizelos is defeated in the general elections. Konstantinos Rallis forms government.
Plebiscite in favor of the return of King Constantine.
1921
Inaugural issue of Communist Review, the official publication of the Communist Party of Great Britain, published in May.
General strike by railroad and electrical-power workers in Greece.
The Third Congress of the Communist International is established (comprising thirteen Communist parties).
Revolt at Kronstadt by anarchist Soviet sailors, suppressed by the Bolsheviks. End of civil war in Russia.
Establishment of the Communist parties of Italy, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and China.
Albania and Ireland become independent.
The Greek army is defeated by the Turks at the Sangarius River.
1922
First Congress of SEKE.
Leading members of SEKE-C, GSEE, and Greek soldiers are imprisoned at the front for antiwar activities.
Establishment of the Association of Communist Youth of Greece (OKNE).
General strike in Italy fails.
Establishment of the USSR. Joseph Stalin becomes general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
March to Rome by Italian fascists. Benito Mussolini comes to power.
Asia Minor Catastrophe, following the Asia Minor Expedition.
Coup d'état by General Nikolaos Plasteras.
King Constantine abdicates and flees Greece.
King George II assumes the throne. He later declares that the most useful possession for a Greek king is a suitcase.
Trial and execution of the Six, having been accused and convicted of dragging the country into a war that cost lives and money and caused a catastrophe, at Goudi (Athens).
1923
General Strike. Greece in a state of emergency.
Armed revolts in Italy, Bulgaria, and Hamburg.
Coups d'état in Bulgaria and Spain. Failed coup d'état by Hitler.
Establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk becomes president.
The Gregorian Calendar is adopted in Greece.
Treaty of Lausanne to end the Greco-Turkish war. Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey.
General elections in Greece. Royalist parties abstain. Liberal Party wins elections. King George II leaves the country.
1924
SEKE faces a crisis. The “Communist Union” is formed under Avraam Benaroyia (Avraham Ben-Aruya). The “Socialist Workers' Union” is formed under Sideres. SEKE is renamed Communist Party of Greece—KKE (Greek Section of the Communist International).
General strike by tobacco workers and tobacco producers, marine workers, and railroad workers.
Lenin dies. Trotsky's positions are condemned. Stalin assumes total power.
Armed revolt in Albania.
Greece is declared a parliamentary democracy.
Failed coup by Vassileios Dertiles.
1925
Pangalos dictatorship. Strict laws of morality are imposed.
Mass movement by farmers in Thessaly and Boetia. General strike by railroad workers and civil servants.
Mass persecution of Communists by the Pangalos dictatorship.
Rizospastis (the newspaper of the KKE) founded.
1926
Pangalos is overthrown. Kondyles establishes his own dictatorship.
Dertiles and Zervas attempt a coup d'état but fail.
General elections. First Communist representatives in Parliament.
Military coups d'état in Portugal and Poland.
The United States intervenes in Nicaragua.
Agreement of neutrality and non-aggression between the USSR and Germany.
Major strike by British coal-mine workers.
Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev form a troika.
1927
Major strikes against the British Power Electric Company in Greece.
Strikes by tobacco workers.
The KKE expels its previous and current secretary generals (Pandelis Pouliopoulos and Pastias Giatsopoulos, respectively). The centrists of the Party resign. Communist members of Parliament are arrested and accused of treason. The Popular Party withdraws from the coalition government.
Workers' uprising in Canton. Civil war in China. Chiang Kai-shek forms a government.
Trotsky, Kamenev, and Zinoviev are expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in the United States.
1928
Fourth Congress of GSEE. Communists are expelled from the GSEE.
Centrists are expelled from the KKE.
The “Spartakos” group is formed as Left opposition to KKE.
Further strikes by tobacco workers, bakery workers, and railroad workers. Demonstrations, with many dead, in Kavala and Xanthi (in Thrace).
Venizelos returns from exile in Paris. Elections are held, with great victory for the Liberal Party. Venizelos forms a government.
Greece and Italy sign an agreement of friendship.
First five-year plan in the USSR. Development of the theory of “socialfascism.”
Purges in the Communist parties of Germany, Yugoslavia, and Romania.
1929
The Idiônymon is signed into law.
GSEE becomes unionized.
KKE faces factions within its structure.
Trotsky is exiled from the USSR. Bukharin and his group are indicted and condemned.
Purges in the Communist parties of France and Czechoslovakia.
King Alexander of Yugoslavia imposes a dictatorship.
1930
GSEE is dissolved according to the provisions of the Idiônymon.
Armed revolt in Indonesia.
German reparations to countries that suffered from German aggression during the First World War.
Gandhi leads the opposition to colonial power in India.
Civil war in China intensifies.
1931
The Communist International pleads with the KKE for unity. The Central Committee of the KKE is replaced, and Nikos Zachariadis becomes secretary general.
Rizospastis is closed down after it uncovers scandals that involve the minister of justice. It resurfaces as Neos Rizospastis.
Arson at the Campbell Jewish settlement in Thessaloniki. On June 29, Greek Christian refugees from Asia Minor after the exchange of populations attack the Jewish quarters. Five hundred Jewish families are left homeless.
The Communist Party of Malaysia is established.
Spain becomes a republic.
Demonstrations in Cyprus against British rule.
Acute economic crisis in Germany and Austria. Devaluation of the English pound.
1932
Strike by railroad workers, bakery workers, motorists (taxi and bus drivers), and the employees of the gas company in Athens. University student movement.
The Venizelos government introduces the institution of social security (later IKA).
Elections. Panagis Tsaldares forms a government. Ten Communists are voted into Parliament. Economic crisis and financial bankruptcy in Greece.
Great famine in the USSR.
Strikes in Berlin and Belgium.
Kamenev and Zinoviev are exiled.
Conference of Lausanne, in which Great Britain, Germany, and France agreed to halt reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.
National Socialists win the elections in Germany.
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President of the United States.
Mahatma Gandhi leads the movement of civil disobedience in India.
1933
Hitler becomes chancellor in Germany. Dissolution of political parties and persecution of Communists and Jews.
Major demonstrations in Thessaloniki meet with brutal repression by the police. Many are wounded.
Elections in Greece. Second murder attempt against Venizelos. Tsaldares forms a government again. Plasteras attempts a coup d'état but fails.
Burning of the Reichstag. Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian Communist and leader of the Central European section of the Comintern, is arrested in Berlin and accused of arson. During his trial at Leipzig, he delivers a defense that obligates Germany to drop the charges.
The Communist Party of Germany is pronounced illegal.
Antifascist workers' conference in France, in which many intellectuals participate.
Germany and Japan withdraw from the League of Nations.
New Deal in the United States.
Dictatorship in Austria.
1934
Sixth Plenum of the KKE underlines the “bourgeois-democratic” nature of revolution.
Municipal elections produce Communist mayors in Kavala and Serres (Macedonia and Thrace).
Balkan agreement on collaboration and mutual respect for treaties and established borders among Greece, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Turkey on February 9.
Hitler declares himself Führer. Coups d'états in Bulgaria, Cuba, and Austria.
The USSR joins the League of Nations.
Coal miners in Asturias revolt against the Spanish government. A commune is formed. On October 18, the revolutionaries surrender, and the commune is crushed by General Franco. More than two thousand workers die and over thirty thousand are jailed.
Chinese Communists start on the Long March.
Antifascist agreements are drawn up in France, Italy, and Spain.
Purges of Trotsky and other “enemies of the state” in the USSR follow the murder of Sergey Kirov, Leningrad party leader, by Leonid Nikoleyev. Trotsky is accused of being behind the murder. Kamenov and Zinoviev, accused of being implicated, are tried and executed.
1935
Sixth Congress of KKE, in which the position “that all minorities living in Greece ought to enjoy full ethnic and political equality” is adopted.
Failed pro-Venizelist coup. Venizelos flees to France. The leaders of the coup are executed. Giorgios Kondyles imposes a dictatorship. A plebiscite results in the return of King George II.
Agreements of mutual assistance between the USSR and Italy, and the USSR and France.
Italy attacks Ethiopia.
1936
Major strikes in Northern Greece. Tobacco workers' strike in Thessaloniki ends with attack by the police, leaving many dead and wounded.
Elections. Royalist parties gain a majority. Fifteen Communist deputies are voted in.
Venizelos dies in Paris. Deaths of P. Tsaldares, A. Papanastasiou, and G. Kondyles.
Metaxas imposes a dictatorship, with the support and encouragement of King George II. Thousands of Communists and Leftists are arrested, tortured, and exiled to islands. Introduction of Declarations of Repentance and Certificates of Civic Aptitude or Loyalty (Certifats de civisme).
Franco's coup. Beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
Axis between Germany and Italy is formed. Japan joins the Axis powers.
Arab-Jewish clashes in Palestine.
1937
Demonstrations against the Metaxas dictatorship. Cadres of the KKE (George Siantos and Costas Theos) escape from exile in Anafi. The organization Friendly Society (Philike Hetaireia) is formed in Athens against the dictatorship.
Moscow trials of old Bolsheviks, whom Stalin considered enemies. Many are executed or sent to labor camps in Siberia.
Antonio Gramsci dies in prison.
Papal circular against Communism.
Japan invades China.
Guernica is bombed.
1938
Many leading figures of the KKE are arrested. The secretary general of OKNE, Christos Maltezos, is murdered in the Corfu prison. Uprising against the dictatorship in Chania, Crete. It is ended within six hours.
Greece and Turkey sign an agreement of friendship.
Royal coup in Romania.
Germany annexes Austria.
Agreement among Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy for non-aggression signed in Munich.
Moscow trials continue. Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, and others are executed.
Trotsky forms the Fourth International.
1939
Siantos and many other leading figures of the KKE are captured.
The Communist Party of France is outlawed.
Albania is conquered by Italy and Czechoslovakia by Germany.
Madrid falls to Franco. Franco assumes power. End of the Spanish Civil War.
Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement about nonagression between the USSR and Germany.
Germany conquers Poland. Beginning of the Second World War.
1940
Konstantinos Maniadákis (chief of police in the Metaxas government) forms a “Temporary Directorship” of KKE (a shadow KKE). KKE disagrees about the nature of the war. Secretary General Zachariadis considers it a war of national liberation. The old Central Committee considers it an “intra-capitalist” disagreement.
Trotsky is murdered in Mexico.
Greece is attacked by Italy on October 28, against the advice of Hitler, and enters the war.
Italy invades Greece from Albania. Greece resists the Italian forces and makes advances into Albanian territory. Exiled Greek Communists ask to be sent to the front. The Metaxas government refuses.
The Germans conquer Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France.
Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Great Britain.
The Vichy collaborationist government is established in France.
Charles de Gaulle forms the “France Libre” movement.
The Battle of Britain.
1941
Greek Communists escape from the exile islands. First Resistance movements. Sixth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE decides to join the Resistance.
The Workers' National Liberation Front (EEAM) is formed. EEAM is transformed into the National Liberation Front (EAM).
Metaxas dies. Koryzes forms a government. The Greek government flees to the Middle East with King George II.
On April 6, Germany attacks Greece and occupies it within a week. By mid-April, the Germans are in Athens.
The Battle of Crete.
The National Democratic Greek Cooperation (EDES) and National and Social Liberation (EKKA) are formed.
The Greek government hands over all political prisoners to the Germans, who send many of them to Dachau.
A collaborationist government is formed in Athens.
Greece is under tripartite occupation: German (Crete, parts of Macedonia, some islands), Bulgarian (Northern Greece), Italian (the rest of the country). Athens is occupied jointly by German and Italian forces.
1942
Eighth Plenum of the KKE, under Secretary General Siantos (Zachariadis has been sent to Dachau).
The Greek Popular Liberation Army (ELAS) is formed.
Major strike by civil servants in Athens.
Major Resistance movement in the countryside. Aris Velouchiotes forms the first Resistance groups. ELAS and EDES cooperate in blowing up the bridge at Gorgopotamos. Many other Resistance groups are formed in the country.
British blockade of Greece. Great famine in Greece, especially Athens and other urban centers.
First battle of El-Alamein is won by the Germans in Egypt. Second battle of El-Alamein is won by the Allies.
1943
Germany plans mass mobilization of the Greek civilian population for transport to German labor camps and factories. Major demonstrations in Athens oppose this.
The Unified Panhellenic Youth Organization (EPON) is formed in Greece.
The Funeral of Kostis Palamas, the foremost Greek poet of the early twentieth century, mobilizes thousands in an antifascist demonstration.
Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis forms the Security Battalions (TA).
The Battle of Stalingrad.
Stalin dissolves the Third International.
Mass graves of Polish army officers are discovered in Katyń Forest.
Italy collapses. Germany assumes the entire occupation of Greece.
1944
Tenth Plenum of the KKE decides to form the Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA), a noncollaborationist government of resistance.
Mutiny in the Middle East by officers of the Greek army.
The leader of EKKA, Kostos Psarros, is murdered by ELAS.
A National Council is convened by ELAS in Koryschadhes. It decides upon the “battle of the yield,” so that no produce will go to the Germans.
Major advances by the Red Army. Josip Tito and his partisans form a revolutionary government.
Paris is liberated.
Agreement in Plaka, Epirus, on February 4 between EAM/ELAS and EDES to cease fighting and remain where armies were at the time of the agreement.
Agreement in Lebanon in May among representatives of all political parties of Greece and all Resistance groups to form a government of national unity in exile, comprising twenty-four ministers, six of whom come from EAM.
Agreement at Cazerta, Italy, between the government in exile and Great Britain, according to which all Greek forces will disarm and be placed under the leadership of British officer General Ronald Scobie. Participation of EAM in the next government is agreed upon. Churchill forcefully disagrees.
Athens is liberated on October 12. The Germans withdraw within a few days from the rest of the country.
A coalition government under George Papandreou is formed. EAM asks for the Cazerta agreement to be honored. Churchill and Papandreou refuse.
The December events. The British army and the RAF bomb Athens. Fifteen thousand Communists, Leftists, and members of the Resistance against the Germans are arrested and sent to a British concentration camp in Al Dab`a, Egypt, as hostages.
1945
The Varkiza agreement decrees the disarmament of ELAS. ELAS surrenders most of its armament. Leaving Athens in February, ELAS takes eight thousand hostages along. Many die; most of the others are released by March.
Eleventh Plenum of the KKE. The parliamentary way to power is chosen. Zachariadis returns to Athens from Dachau. Aris Velouchiotes dies.
Twelfth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE.
Popular self-defense against the paramilitaries in the countryside.
“White Terror.”
One hundred and fifty young intellectuals and artists are taken to France on the Mataroa in December.
Yalta and Potsdam agreements.
FDR dies. Harry S Truman becomes president of the United States.
The British Labor Party wins the elections.
Atom bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders unconditionally.
The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank are formed.
1946
The Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) is formed.
Elections in Greece. The KKE, EAM, and other socialist parties abstain, arguing that the elections were rigged from the beginning. The Right wing wins the elections. A plebiscite results in the return of King George II.
Partisans attack the gendarmerie station of Litohoron on March 30.
Exile and first executions by the Courts of the State of Emergency.
Beginning of the Greek Civil War.
Nuremberg trials.
Guerrilla warfare in Palestine.
Bulgaria and Albania become Communist countries.
1947
Yiannis Zevgos, a member of the Politburo of the KKE, is murdered.
Siantos dies.
KKE and all its “branches” are declared illegal.
Makrónisos and Yáros concentration and torture camps are established for the re-education and rehabilitation of Communists.
The Third Plenum of the KKE decides the beginning of the civil war.
A provisional democratic government is formed (the Government of the Mountain).
The Dodecannese is ceded to Greece by Italy.
King George II dies. His brother Paul ascends the throne, with Frederika as queen.
The Truman Doctrine. The Marshall Plan. Beginning of the cold war.
War in Indochina.
The Cominform is formed.
Poland and Romania become Communist.
India and Pakistan become independent and partition.
1948
Markos Vafeiades disagrees with the leadership of the KKE regarding the civil war.
Massacre of two hundred prisoners on Makrónisos from February 28 through March 1 when they refuse to sign dēlôseis.
American journalist George Polk is murdered in Thessaloniki. He had covered the civil war for CBS and arrives in Thessaloniki to investigate allegations that Greek officials had embezzled funds from the Marshall Plan. He is found shot at point-blank range in the back of the head. George Stakhtopoulos, a Greek Communist journalist, is accused of the murder but maintains his innocence, stating that his confession was obtained under torture. No one else has ever been accused, though an “inside job” by the Greek Right-wing is suspected.
Mass arrests and persecution continue.
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and North Korea become Communist.
Burma gains independence.
The Berlin embargo, when the Soviets refuse access to Western forces between June 1948 and May 1949.
Mahatma Gandhi is murdered.
Israel is created as an independent nation.
KKE clashes with Tito.
Tito clashes with Stalin.
Vafeiades is accused of Titoism.
1949
Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE takes place in Grammos (at the front line of the war).
Secretary General of GSEE Mitsos Paparegas is murdered at Special Security Headquarters in Athens.
Tito closes the borders to Greek partisans.
The DSE is defeated at Grammos and Vitsi. End of the Greek Civil War. Many members of the DSE flee to Communist countries in the north (mainly Romania, Czechoslovakia, the USSR, and Poland).
China becomes a Peoples' Republic.
Leading members of the Bulgarian and Czechoslovakian Communist parties are accused of Titoism.
Stalinism becomes a crime against the people in Yugoslavia.
Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur are established by Tito as reeducation and rehabilitation camps for Stalinists.
Indonesia gains independence.
1950
The leadership of the KKE flees to Bucharest.
Elections lead to the defeat of the Popular Party.
Sofoulis Venizelos and Nikolaos Plasteras form governments.
John Purifoy is appointed American ambassador to Greece.
Provisional Greek government headed by Mitsos Partsalides (KKE) formed.
Diplomatic relations between Greece and Yugoslavia are restored.
Gradual transfer of prisoners from Makrónisos to exile islands.
The Korean War, in which Greek volunteers fight on the side of the U.S. Army.
Malay rehabilitation and re-education camps are established.
1951
The United Democratic Left (EDA) is formed.
Major trials of Leftists and Communists, often on fabricated charges.
The Second Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE removes Partsalides from the party following disagreement with Vafeiades about the role of the KKE outside of Greece. His name is reinstated only in 1980.
Beloyiannis, Batses, Kaloumenos, Nikolakopoulos, Nikeforides, and many others are put on trial.
Municipal elections reflect the rise of the Right wing.
General Papagos forms the party of Greek Alert.
A coalition government is formed under Plasteras.
1952
Avge, the newspaper of EDA, is founded.
Nikos Ploumpides is accused by the KKE of being a double agent. The Greek police arrest Ploumpides.
The Trial of the Airmen, members of the Greek air force (and some civilians) accused in 1951 of sabotaging a Greek fighter plane as part of a KKE operation. They admit guilt (and one of them dies) under torture. In 1955, K. Karamantis will admit that the case was fabricated.
Beloyiannis, Batses, Kaloumenos, and Argyriades are executed for treason on Sunday, March 30.
Greece and Turkey join NATO.
The camp on Yáros is closed and its prisoners transferred to Makrónisos.
1953
Strikes against the economic policies of the government.
Trial and indictment of Ploumpides.
Greece, Yugoslavia, and Turkey sign an agreement of cooperation.
The Greek currency is devalued.
Plasteras dies.
Cambodia declares independence.
The Korean War ends.
Stalin dies. Khrushchev becomes secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The Rosenbergs are executed in the United States on charges of treason.
1954
Ploumpides is executed in Greece. The execution is doubted by the KKE.
Mass arrests of Communists in Greece.
Tito visits Greece.
Municipal elections bring the democratic parties to municipal power.
Demonstrations support Cypriot independence.
The French are defeated in Indonesia.
A coup d'état in Guatemala is supported by the United States.
Vietnam and Laos declare independence. Ho Chi Minh rises to power.
1955
Twenty-seven leading members of the KKE escape from Vourla Prison.
General Papagos dies. Konstantine Karamanlis forms a government.
Khrushchev visits Belgrade.
Goli Otok and Sveti Grgur do not close with the destalinization of Yugoslavia.
Major demonstrations in Cyprus against the British. Martial law is declared.
1956
Sixth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE removes Zachariadis as secretary general, replacing him with Koliyiannis. Rapprochement of the KKE and the Yugoslav Communist Party.
Revolt in Hungary is crushed by the Soviets.
The British execute members of the decolonization movement on Cyprus (Michael Karaolis, Andreas Demetriou, and others).
Karamanlis forms the National Radical Union (ERE).
Elections in Greece. ERE wins a majority.
Demonstrations in Athens about Cyprus result in dead and wounded.
1957
Seventh Plenum of the KKE decides to expel Zachariadis from the Party.
Stephanos Sarafis, the military leader of ELAS, dies in a motor accident in Athens, hit by a sailor of the U.S. Navy.
The European Economic Union is formed.
The United Nations votes in favor of independence for Cyprus.
1958
Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE. Ploumpides is posthumously reinstated to the Party.
EDA triumphs in elections, winning 24.5 percent of the vote.
Many leading figures of the KKE and EDA are arrested, among them Manolis Glezos.
New elections keep ERE in power.
Khrushchev and Mao meet in Beijing.
1959
Glezos and others are tried and indicted on charges of treason.
First Congress of EDA.
The Left wins again in municipal elections.
Andreas Papandreou returns to Greece.
Khrushchev visits the United States.
The first elections in Cyprus. Archbishop Makarios becomes the first president.
1960
New trials for espionage.
Major strikes by construction workers result in clashes with the police.
African decolonization movement.
Cyprus becomes a republic.
1961
George Papandreou forms the Centrist Union (EK).
Rigged elections give victory to the ERE, and Karamanlis forms a government.
Papandreou announces “uncompromising struggle” against political violations of the Right.
1962
Most political prisoners are released.
Papandreou's struggle results in major demonstrations and clashes with the police.
Karamanlis and the Palace clash.
1963
Queen Frederika visits London, where she is met with demonstrations by Greek students there.
First Marathon Peace March (Marathon-Athens), part of an international peace movement.
Grigoris Lambrakis, the leader of the Peace Movement in Greece, is murdered in Thessaloniki by paramilitary Right-wing thugs.
Karamanlis resigns and leaves Greece.
Elections give power to Papandreou's EK.
Kanellopoulos becomes the leader of ERE.
1964
Second Marathon Peace March.
Municipal elections bring EDA to municipal power.
Sofoklis Venizelos dies.
Elections give great margins to EK.
King Paul dies. Constantine II ascends the throne. He reigns under the influence of his mother, Frederika.
Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti dies in Italy.
The beginning of the Vietnam War.
Greek and Turkish Cypriots clash.
Khrushchev is removed from the position of secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and replaced by Leonid Brezhnev.
1965
Inaugural congress of the Lambrakis Youth, the youth organization formed after Lambrakis's assassination.
Third Marathon Peace March, in March.
The July events in Athens. During a demonstration, Soteres Petroulas dies from a tear gas bomb thrown by the police.
ASPIDA trial.
Papandreou is forced to resign.
Government formed by the “Apostates.”
Churchill dies.
Communists are massacred in Indonesia.
1966
Fourth Marathon Peace March.
Papandreou and Kanellopoulos reach agreement with the king to hold new elections.
The Politburo of the KKE (in Bucharest) convenes, with a delegation from the Central Committee of the Party, based in Greece.
1967
Kanellopoulos forms a government and announces elections for May 14.
On April 21, a military dictatorship in Greece is installed by the troika of George Papadopoulos, Stylianos Patakos, and Nikolas Makarezos.
The concentration camp on Yáros is reopened.
Thousands of Leftists, Communists, and Centrists are arrested, imprisoned, and exiled.
Che Guevara is murdered in Bolivia.
The Six Days' War between Israel and Arab countries.
1968
Twelfth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE. Split of the party to KKE and KKE of the Interior ( KKE-ES.).
Panhellenic Resistance Movement (PAK) is formed.
Major trial of members of “Regas Pheraios” (the youth organization of KKE-ES.) in Athens. All are indicted and imprisoned.
First attempt against Papadopoulos by Alexandros Panagoulis. Panagoulis is captured, tortured, and kept in solitary confinement.
Papandreou dies. His funeral becomes a major antidictatorship demonstration.
May '68.
Prague Spring.
1969
Trials of resistance organizations, the Panhellenic Resistance Front (PAM) and arrests of members of the Democratic Defense.
George Seferis, poet and Nobel Laureate of 1963, makes a statement against the dictatorship.
Greece is expelled from the Council of Europe.
Antiwar movement in the United States.
1970
Trial of members of the Democratic Defense.
An “Advisory Council” replaces the Greek Parliament.
Salvador Allende becomes president of Chile.
1971
Seferis dies. His funeral becomes a major antidictatorship demonstration.
EOKA-B' (nationalist organization fighting for unification with Greece) is formed in Cyprus by George Grivas (formerly leader of “X”).
War between India and Pakistan.
1972
PAK trial.
Seventeenth Plenum of the Central Committee of the KKE.
Koliyiannis is deposed and H. Florakis becomes the new secretary general of the KKE.
Bangladesh becomes independent.
“Black September,” when Palestinian fighters murder members of the Israeli athletic delegation during the Munich Olympic Games.
1973
Major unrest in Greek universities. Students occupy the Athens Law School in February.
Gestures toward liberalization.
Amnesty measures for political prisoners.
A plebiscite run by the dictatorship abolishes the monarchy.
On November 17, a student uprising at the Polytechnic is crushed by the junta. By the official count twenty-three died, but many more dead are unaccounted for. There are countless wounded.
A week later, Demetrios Ioannides topples Papadopoulos and the troika to establish the most brutal phase of the dictatorship.
The Navy moves against the dictatorship but fails; the leaders of the movement flee to Italy.
Zachariadis commits suicide in exile in Siberia.
Enrico Berlinguer announces the “historical compromise” of Communism with bourgeois parliamentary democracy.
Pinochet overturns the Allende government in Chile and establishes a long-term dictatorship. Allende is murdered.
1974
The junta in Athens instigates a coup d'état in Cyprus. Turkey invades the island and it is partitioned.
The junta falls.
A coalition government is formed under Karamanlis, who returns from exile in Paris.
Greece resigns from the military branch of NATO.
Elections bring Karamanlis to premiership with the newly-formed Right-wing party Nea Demokratia (New Democracy, ND). A plebiscite establishes the form of government as a “non-royal” parliamentary republic.
Avge and Rizospastis resume publication. The KKE becomes legal again. A new Leftist party is formed comprising all the parties of the traditional parliamentary Left (KKE, KKE-ES, EDA).
Papandreou returns from exile and forms a new socialist party, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).
Revolution of the Carnations in Portugal: a peaceful revolution by the armed forces overthrows the Salazar dictatorship.
1975
New Greek constitution.
Konstantine Tsatsos is elected president of the republic.
Trial of the leaders of the dictatorship.
“Revolutionary Organization 17 November” (17N) appears, with the murder of Richard Welch at Christmastime in Athens.
Saigon falls. End of the Vietnam War.
Franco dies in Spain. Restoration of Spanish democracy. The Khmer Rouge takes power in Cambodia.
1976
Panagoulis dies in a suspicious car accident.
“Eurocommunism” is in the ascendance.
A socialist government under Mario Soares is formed in Portugal.
Communist government is formed in Angola.
Mao dies. Trial of “the Gang of Four.”
1977
Fire bombings in Athens by the extreme Right.
Elections bring ND to power. PASOK is its primary opposition in parliament.
Eurocommunist parties (KKE-ES, EDA, other socialist groups) and KKE end their coalition.
Ulrike Meinhof, Andreas Baader, and Gudrun Esslin are murdered in their white cells in Stammheim Prison.
1978
Eurocommunist youth organization Regas Pheraios splits and forms B' Panhellenic.
Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped and murdered by the Brigate Rosse. He had attempted a rapproachment between Communist and liberal forces.
The USSR supports a coup in Afghanistan.
1979
Student mobilizations in Athens against the extreme Right wing. The School of Chemistry is occupied by students.
Greece signs an agreement for admittance to the European Economic Union.
The USSR invades Afghanistan.
Sandinistas prevail in Nicaragua.
1980
Major clashes in Athens between students and police during the demonstration celebrating the Polytechnic uprising, leaving two dead.
Elections are won by the ND. Georgios Rallis becomes prime minister, Karamanlis president of the republic.
Greece fully rejoins NATO.
Bombing at Piazza Fontana in Bologna by fascists, leaving many dead.
1981
PASOK becomes the first socialist party to gain power in Greece, with 44 percent of the vote and the slogan “Change.”
Socialists and Communists come to power in France.
Bobby Sands, a fighter in the IRA, dies during a lengthy hunger strike in Ireland.
Military law is declared in Poland following opposition to the government.
1982
Resistance to the occupation is officially recognized as “National Resistance” by the PASOK government.
Municipal elections give victory to democratic and socialist candidates.
Refugees of the civil war are allowed to return to Greece from the countries of Eastern Europe.
The Israeli army invades Southern Lebanon. There are massacres in Sabra and Shatila.
Brezhnev dies. Youri Andropov becomes the new secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Socialist parties win elections in Sweden and Spain.
1983
Vafiades returns to Greece and collaborates with PASOK.
Greece agrees to allow U.S. military bases in Greece to continue to operate.
Article 4 of the Greek Constitution, regarding the restriction of the right to strike, is passed by Parliament.
Italian socialists gain power for the first time. Bettino Craxi becomes prime minister.
End of the Argentine dictatorship.
1984
PASOK wins most seats in elections for the European parliament.
Major strike by British coal-mine workers.
Andropov dies in Moscow.
Indira Gandhi is murdered in India.
1985
The border with Albania opens for the first time since 1940.
Members of PASOK resign over the direction of the movement.
Anarchist Michael Kaltezas is murdered in Athens by the police. Demonstrations ensue against the murder and police brutality.
1986
KKE-ES decides to rename itself to remove “Communist” from its title.
Beginnings of perestroika in the USSR.
1987
A split of the KKE-ES is decided during its Fourth Congress. United Renewed Left (EAR) and KKE-ES—Renewed Left are formed.
A massive political movement takes place at the universities.
Relations between church and state are strained on account of ecclesiastical real estate, which secularists claim for the state and the church wants to keep as revenue.
1988
Major strike by secondary-school teachers.
Political prisoners are freed in the USSR.
1989
The Berlin Wall falls.
The Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan.
Collapse of Communist governments in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic.
Pinochet falls in Chile.
The Chinese student uprising at Tiananmen Square is crushed by the Chinese government.
1990
The USSR collapses.
2002
Arrests of members of 17N. The main operative, Dimitris Koufondinas, surrenders of his own accord.
2003
The trial of 17N starts in Athens.
2004
The Olympic Games take place in Greece.
2008
Massive forest fires spur reaction from citizens. Demonstrations against the government take place in Athens.
Note: I have based this Chronology loosely on the one compiled by Marilia Papathanasiou and Stratis Bournazos and published in Kouloglou (2006): 577.