Markos Vafiadis
Markos Vafiadis (
Theodosiopolis,
Asia Minor,
1906 -
Athens,
Greece,
February 23,
1992) was a leading cadre of the
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) during the
Greek Civil War.
After the
Asia Minor disaster of
1922, Vafiadis went to
Thessaloniki and
Kavala as a
refugee. From
1928, he worked in
Thessaloniki as a member of the
Federation of Greek Communist Youths (
OKNE). In
1932, he was
imprisoned and
exiled for his political action. After his release in October
1933 he worked as party instructor in many areas of
Greece.
At the beginning of the
Metaxas' dictatorship (
4 August 1936) he was exiled in the island of
Ai Stratis, but managed to escape in less than a month. Subsequently he worked in the party's underground organisation in
Crete and was one of the leaders of the
Chania uprising against the dictatorial regime (
28 July 1938). After the supression of the uprising, he went to
Athens where he was arrested. He was jailed in
Akronafplia and was exiled to the island of
Gavdos.
In May
1941, during the
German invasion in
Greece, he escaped from
Gavdos and began underground work against the German
occupation, initially in
Crete, later in
Athens and
Thessaloniki. In
1942, he was elected into the
Central Committee of the
KKE and was named supervisor of the
Macedonia wing of the
Greek Popular Liberation Army (
ELAS). In May
1944, he was elected as a representative of
Thessaloniki to the national congress that took place at the village of Koryschades in
Eurytania, which he was unable to attend.
In November
1944, he went into disagreement with
Aris Velouchiotis, who wanted ELAS to prepare to fight the
Brittish and during the December fighting, the
Macedonian wing of the ELAS didn't fight against the Brittish troops. He also went into disagreement, in February
1946, with
Nikolaos Zachariadis, the
general secretary of
KKE, who wanted to resume fighting.
However, in July
1946,
Zachariadis appointed him as leader of the communist
guerrilla formations. In October
1946, when the General Command of the
Democratic Army of Greece (
DSE) was founded, he assumed its leadership, and in December
1947 he was appointed
Prime Minister and
War Minister of the
Provisional Democratic Government.
During the last stages of the
Civil War his disagreement with
Zachariadis on issues of
military doctrine lead to his removal from leadership (August
1948) and later from all offices (January
1949). In October
1950, he was ousted from
KKE, while he was in exile in the
Soviet Union, where he had fled after the breakup of
DSE.
After the end of
Stalin's era, Markos Vafiadis was restored into
KKE and was elected as a member of the
Political Bureau of the
Central Committee of the party. However, new disagreement with the party leadership led to his removal from office in January
1958 and to his second ousting from the
KKE in June
1964. After the party split in
1968, the so called "interior" (
εσωτερικού) faction of
KKE restored him.
In March
1983, he returned to
Greece from
Soviet Union where he had remained in
exile for 23 years. Later on, he published his
Memoirs.
In November
1989, and in April
1990, he was honorarily elected into the Greek parliament through the nationwide list of
PASOK.
