This book aims not only to represent and re-evaluate a critical period of modern Greek history. The author, presenting the intentions, aspirations, and actions of the political protagonists of the years 1941-1944 and focusing his research specifically on the Middle East (where the Greek government fled after the occupation of Greece by German troops), aspires to illuminate the causes, effects, and conditions under which the Greeks continued their struggle until the final victory and liberation, as well as how they were led to civil war.
Both the researcher and the conscious citizen who wishes to form as objective a judgment as possible of the events following the end of the Occupation cannot be unaware of what preceded the rupture. They also cannot lack a basic knowledge of the Allies' plans for the post-war world, primarily those of Great Britain but also of the newly established Soviet empire.
The 1940s ultimately sealed the fate of the nation. The civil war brought decades of suffering to social life and shaped the interpretation of the events of the period, which to this day are viewed through the lens of the traumatic and divisive occurrences, as descendants and successors of the survivors, both physical and political, keep the wounds of memory and ideology fresh. Ideological obsessions, passions, mistakes, the tremendous losses, feelings, and guilt do not favor a sober historical assessment.
The approach we are attempting aims to rise above these traumas, with the awareness that absolute impartiality does not exist. It is based on the chronological flow of events, with causal criteria and with a critical distance from descriptions that rely on conscious omissions or questionable authenticity. We sought sources of every origin or ideology, without exclusions (archival material, testimonies, memoirs, monographs, studies, research, publications), with the awareness that the abundance of these aids but also complicates their evaluation.
The wars of memory and historical narratives never cease. There may be no absolute scientific objectivity, but this is no reason to insist on myths, whether of the left or the right, which alternate in ideological and political hegemony, always under the shelter of the interests of the local ruling class. Our attempt, therefore, aims at highlighting the just judgment of History.
