Hellenic Republic

Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα, Elláda [eˈlaða]), officially the Second Hellenic Republic, or the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Β’ Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellinikí Dimokratía [eliniˈci ðimokraˈti.a]), historically also known as Hellas (Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellás [heˈlas]), is a country located in Southern Europe. It is bordered by Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria to the north and Turkey in the south. The Hellenic Republic was declared in 1924, after a coup d'état forced the king to leave the country and established a republic. Greece has a population of approximately 6.2 million as of 1928. Its most populated cities are Athens and Thessaloniki.

## Recent History

### Before the Great War

Amidst general dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, a group of military officers organized a coup in August 1909 and shortly thereafter called to power Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos.

After winning two elections and becoming Prime Minister, Venizelos initiated wide-ranging fiscal, social, and constitutional reforms, reorganized the military, made Greece a member of the Balkan League, and led the country through the Balkan Wars. By 1913, Greece's territory and population had almost doubled, annexing Crete, Epirus, and Macedonia. In the following years, the struggle between King Constantine I and Venizelos over the country's foreign policy , with Venizelos supporting closer relations with Britain, and Constantine (having pro-German sympathies) supported a neutral stance, the eve of World War I dominated the country's political scene, and divided the country into two opposing groups.

This division reached its apex during the first World War. On the one hand, Venizelos believed that the time for “the fulfillment of the Megali Idea”, an irridentist concept that sought the unification of all the Greeks still under foreign rule, mainly in Asia Minor, by the territorial expansion of the Greek state, has arrived. As a result, he sought the entry of Greece into the Entente alliance, in order to obtain the areas in the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria that Greece claimed. The British, however, with the intention of allying with Bulgaria and keeping the Ottomans neutral, rejected Venizelos’ proposals for an alliance, for now. On the other hand, king Constantine, after rejecting a request from the Kaiser for Greece to join the war on the side of the Central Powers, advocated for Greek neutrality in terms of the war. Despite the fact that Constantine had studied in Germany, married Kaiser Wilhelm’s sister, who made him a marshal of the German army, Constantine correctly assessed that Greece, a nation with heavy reliance to its maritime industry, was vulnerable to the British and French navies and couldn’t accept any collaboration with Turkey, something that would, almost certainly, not be tolerated by the war-tired public. That disagreement between the king and the prime minister led to the abdication of the government of Venizelos, in the 21st of February, 1915. In the resulting elections of May, however, Venizelos was was reelected and considered the outcome as approval of his foreign policy by the people.

In the meantime, British and French troops disembarked and occupied Thessaloniki, with the approval of the prime minister. With the king infuriated and not backing down, Venizelos abdicated again, and didn’t participated in the next elections. The pro-royal government of Skouloudis, that replaced his, decided to surrender Eastern Macedonia to Bulgaria, to show that Greece was in favor of the Germans.

    The resulting occupation sparked a coup d'état in Thessaloniki, supported by the Entente forces stationed there and by pro-Venizelist military officials, in the 16th of August 1915. Venizelos sided with the coup plotters and on the 26th of September, he formed a provisional government, named the Government of National Defense, sparking the National Schism (Εθνικός Διχασμός) and on the 24th of November 1916 declaring war on the Central Powers. In an effort to bring the rest of the country into the war, French battleships entered Piraeus and disembarked 3,000 soldiers, while bombarding several areas of Athens and blockading all important ports. Those forces clashed with pro-royal forces, while a wave of persecutions against Venizelists begun in Athens. The French and the British demanded the abdication of the king, who leaved the country and put his second son, Alexander, on the throne, with the consent of the Entente.

### Greece in the Great War

Greece formally entered the war on the 15th of June 1917 on the side of France and Britain. Although the Macedonian Front stayed mostly stable throughout the war on 30 May 1918 Greek forces triumphed over the joint German and Bulgarian forces at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen, and participated in the final attack and breaking of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces along the front. A few days later, Bulgaria signed the Armistice of Thessaloniki with the Allies. By October, the Allies including the Greeks, had taken back all of Serbia and were ready to invade Hungary until the Hungarian authorities offered surrender. The Greeks also contributed to the Entente’s effort to crush the Bolsheviks in Russia, sending 23,000 troops in Crimea under army officer Constantine Nimer.

French General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, field marshal of the Balkan front noted: “Especially about the Greek army, I emphasize their zeal, their prowess and similar vehemency.”

The Greek military suffered an estimated 5,000 deaths from their nine divisions that participated in the war.

### The Establishment of the Republic

The time after the negotiations, caused by the surrender of Germany, marked the lowest point in Venizelos’ career. Due to Britain’s desire to establish a stable puppet in the area of the Ottoman Empire, Greece gained very little in terms of territorial expansion and was blocked from militarily expanding eastwards.

    Since Venizelos dragged the already war-tired populace to the war with the promises of the fulfillment of the Megali Idea, his failure at the negotiating table resulted in a drastic fall of public support for him and his government. This resulted on his abdication from the position of Prime Minister and his temporary retirement from politics. This only helped push the Liberals’ Party towards anti- monarchism, since Venizelos’ leadership, who was part of the moderate minority in the party, since he had “no disagreements of principle with the monarchy”, was a major factor for keeping the party along moderate lines. The death of king Alexander in 1920 and the subsequent enthroning of his Anti-Venizelist brother, George II, further helped the radicalization of the liberals, who begun to see the monarch as an obstacle for their political goals, as well as succeeded in turning Britain’s support towards them.

This situation culminated in Venizelist elements in the army, led by Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylanos Gonatas, attempting to overthrow the government, put the liberals in power and establish a Republic in early 1924. Since the coup plotters were going to succeed due to most of the army still belonging to the Venizelist camp, after the forced resignations of monarchist officers during the first World War, the parliament asked the king to flee from the country, in order to avoid bloodshed. Plastiras established a temporary government, which had the responsibility of convening a National Congress (Δ’ Συντακτική Εθνοσυνέλευσις) which would decide whether or not the monarchy would remain or not, as well as referendum which would ratify or condemn its decision.

On the 25th of March (a date chosen due to it being the anniversary of the Greek revolution of 1821). the congress finally decided on the creation of the Second Hellenic Republic. The following referendum ratified the congress’ decision, although conservative skeptics said that the referendum was rigged and that the establishment of the republic before the plebiscite gave an unfair advantage to the Venizelists. The liberals emerged victorious from the elections that followed and invited Venizelos to return to Greece from London and form a government, an offer he accepted.

### The Pangalos Dictatorship

The period of political instability following the great war was exploited by Theodoros Pangalos, who on the 25th of  June 1925 started a coup d'état aimed at the retirement of the Michalakopoulos government’s retirement and the formation of a new government headed by him. Due to his movement succeeding across Greece, president Kountouriotis had no choice than to appoint him Prime minister. Although he initially presented himself as the leader of the republic, Pangalos quickly abandoned democracy with him abolishing the parliament which “had lost the trust of the nation”, placing himself as the sole ruler of the country. Furthermore, he introduced the decree of the 13th of July 1925, which reffered those who "broadcasted news that disturbed public order or, in some way, turned against the government" to military tribunals. Due to his nationalistic foreign policy, Pangalos seeked to secure his flanks in preparation for a war with Turkey, he forgave the war reparations of Bulgaria and signed an agreement with the Serbian government which mandade Serbian-Greek co-rulership of the port of Thesalloniki and the Valley of Axios, along with more minor concessions. This treaty outraged greek politicians and army officers, and the continous repression had dissatisfied the people. During a tour of his in Spetses, Kondylis launched a military coup, which seeked to overthrow him and restore democracy. On the 21nd of August 1926, the coup plotters siezed the ministry of the army and the garrison headquarters, after which all its battalions joined the coup. Pangalos was arrested in Spetses, imprissoned and soon placed in front of a firing squad.

A notable effect of the dictatorship was the de-radicalisation of the GSEE (General Confederation of Workers in Greece), the highest trade union body in Greece, which up until this point, was dominated by sympathizers and members of the Communist Party of Greece.

### The Republic at a Crossroads

Venizelos’ government has had to face a steady growth of a conservative, pro-monarchist opposition, under the Peoples’ Party of Panagis Tsaldaris. In the last years, the Venizelists and Anti-Venizelists in Greece have culminated around these parties, who have been competing for power in the parilament. With elections on the horizon, Greece has once again been divided into two. Furthermore, a growing monarchist faction in the army, centered around Georgios Kondylis, has challenged the ability of the liberals to use the army to overthrow opposing governments. The far-left and right have also been growing, with nationalistic sentiment roaring and the communist ideology spreading due to industrialization and the multiple revolutions in Europe. The next few years will come to show the fate of the struggling nation.

## Politics

### Government

    The official system of governance of the Hellenic Republic is “A Presidential Parliamentary Democracy”, along the lines of the western world. The most important position in the state is the Head of Government, although the Head of State also has significant responsibilities. The Head of the Parliament also plays a significant role. Under the current Venizelos government, the state administration is dominated by the Liberals’ Party and its cabinet looks like this:

### Political Parties

There are two main political parties in Greece. The one is the liberal Komma Fileleftheron (Liberals’ Party), led by Eleftherios Venizelos, which believes in the modernization of Greece to capitalism, the maintaining of the republic/anti-monarchism and the, albeit slow, completion of land reform. The other is the conservative Laikon Komma (Peoples’ Party), led by Panagis Tsaldaris, which believes in the restoration of the monarchy by a plebiscite, the support of the poorer rural classes that would are in need of land reform (since the party’s protection of private property contradicts it) and the mitigation of the effects of economic modernization through social insurance. This belief was created due to the party’s regarding the peasantry as conservative and the workers progressive, which requires state intervention to ease class tensions. Both parties however recognise the need for popular vote in determining the future of the country, as well as support Greek irridentism and the Megali Idea.

The more radical parties of the Venizelist faction in the Vouli are the progressive Proodeftikon Komma (Progressive Party) and the social democratic Agrotikon Ergatikon Komma (Agrarian Labour Party) which recently incorporated the closely-related ADK (Agrarian Democratic Party), of Mylonas and Zavitsanos. In the opposite faction, the radical elements outside of the Peoples’ Party are concentrated on the GLRE (Geniki Laiki Rizospastiki Enosi), itself a coalition of right-wing parties, the most notable being the National Radical Party (Ethniko Rizospastiko Komma) of Georgios Kondylis, and the Freethinkers’ Party (Komma Eleftherofronon), a far-right fascist party. Both come at odds with the moderates in the LK as concerning the method of establishment and the nature of the monarchy.

On the other end of the Political spectrum, the main political parties are the communist KKE (Kommounistiko Komma Ellados), the radical agrarian AKE (Agrotiko Komma Ellados) and the reformist SKE (Socialistiko Komma Ellados). The KKE, representing the political manifestation of the struggle of the largest and most active working class in the Balkan Peninsula, has increasingly risen in popularity to the recent revolutions in Russia, Germany, and the close Hungary and Bulgaria. The AKE, reflecting the path of the KKE, is in the same position as it, only it represents the downtrodden classes of the peasantry. Both seek to establish a workers-peasants alliance, resulting in the creation of the EME-A, a coalition where the KKE repressents the workerss and the AKE the peasantry. The only other party on the Greek left is the SKE. Founded by “opportunists” castaways from the bolshevication of the SEKE(k), it has little importance in Greek politics.

Emblem of the Liberals' PartyEmblem of the Peoples' PartyEmblem of the Freethinkers' PartyEmblem of the Communist Party of Greece
## Economy

### Industry

Ever since before the start of the 1920’s Greece has seen a period of economic and industrial growth, aided by liberal rule, who firmly sided with the upper and upper-middle classes. The continuous dropping of wages in industry has been a major factor in the acquiring of the large amounts of capital required for the very high tempo of industrialization observed in the last decades. The Greek industry would not have achieved the height it has, though, without the large Ottoman reparations in money and resources. The industrial economic boom has turned Greece from a country with a large majority of peasants to a nation with roughly equal amounts of industry workers and farmers.

Greek industry is largely light, made up by the maritime, textile, tobacco, construction, metallurgy and food processing industries. The economic boom, however has given rise to the first Greek heavy industries in major cities, specifically in steel and infrastructure.

### Agriculture

For the last decade, the Greek government has been executing a land reform aimed at the destruction of the “Tsiflikia”, remnants of feudalism in Greece, and the passing of the agricultural economy into petty-bourgeois hands through redistribution of farmland with compensation. This process, however, has been slow, with a third of the tsiflikia still remaining. Furthermore, the previous landowners and various banks and rich farmers have essentially created for the poor farmers similar living conditions to the workers in industry, with them often having to take loans to pay for compensations and to survive competition and financial ruin, and/or work on other farms in exchange for wages.

### Foreign Debts

    ​​​​​​Ever since the inception of the Greek state in 1821, it has consistently taken a series of loans in order to help the country militarily and/or financially. Thus, Greece has had to constantly pay off debts towards the countries it loaned from, mainly Britain and France. With the crash of the London Stock Exchange, Greece’s imports and exports were seriously hurt, and its creditors became much more strict and demanding, concerning the frequency and size of debt payments. Venizelos’ policy of using the Greek gold reserves to mitigate the damage that would have been done to the economy and the upper and upper-middle classes, which make the base of his support, has worked, but has also left the country vulnerable to another economic crisis.