During and after the Greek Civil War of 1946–1949, members and or supporters of the defeated Communist forces fled Greece as political refugees. The collapse of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) and subsequent evacuation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) to Tashkent in 1949 led thousands of people to leave the country. It has been estimated that by 1949, over 100,000 people had left Greece for Yugoslavia and the Eastern Bloc, particularly the USSR and Czechoslovakia. These included tens of thousands of child refugees who had been forcefully evacuated by the KKE. The war wrought widespread devastation right across Greece and particularly in the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, causing many people to continue to leave the country even after it had ended.
Greek Civil War
After the invading Axis powers were defeated, fighting promptly broke out between the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) and the Greek Government which had returned from exile. Many people chose to return their allegiances as to what they regarded as the rightful government of Greece. Soon the Greek Civil War had broken out between the two opposing sides. Many peasants, leftists, socialists, Pontic Greeks, Caucasus Greeks, ethnic minorities from Northern Greece like Slav Macedonians, and ideological communists joined the struggle on the side of the KKE and the DSE. Backing from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Socialist People's Republic of Albania helped the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) to continue their struggle. The DSE recruited heavily amongst the community of Macedonia. It has been estimated that by 1949, from 40 to 60 per cent of the rank and file of the DSE was composed of Slav Macedonians,Ζαούσης Αλέξανδρος. Η Τραγική αναμέτρηση, 1945–1949 – Ο μύθος και η αλήθεια (). or from 11,000–14,000 of the KKE's fighting force. Given their important role in the battle,Speech presented by Nikos Zachariadis at the Second Congress of the NOF (National Liberation Front of the ethnic Macedonians from Greek Macedonia), published in Σαράντα Χρόνια του ΚΚΕ 1918–1958, Athens, 1958, p. 575. KKE changed its policy towards them. At the fifth Plenum of KKE on January 31, 1949, a resolution was passed declaring that after KKE's victory, the Slav Macedonians would find their "national restoration" within a united Greek state.KKE Official documents, vol 8 Although they had made a critical contribution to the KKE war effort,"Incompatible Allies: Greek Communism and Macedonian Nationalism in the Civil War in Greece, 1943–1949. Andrew Rossos", The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Mar., 1997) (p. 42) their contribution was not enough to turn the tide.
By the spring of 1947 the communist forces controlled much of the Greek rural areas but had yet to achieve significant support in the cities. At the same time, many Greek prisons were full of ELAS Partisans, EAM members and other pro-communist citizens. Thousands of people had been executed by firing squads on claims that they had committed atrocities against the Greek state. After the defeat of DSE in Peloponnese a new wave of terror spread across areas controlled by the Government of Athens. The Provisional Government, with its headquarters on Mount Vitse, soon decided to evacuate all children from the ages of 2 to 14 from all areas controlled by the Provisional Government, most of these children were from Macedonian families. By 1948 the areas controlled by the Provisional Government had been reduced to rural Greek Macedonia and Epirus. Soon many injured partisans and elderly people along with the child refugees had been evacuated to People's Republic of Albania. After 1948 the Yugoslavian Government decided to close the Yugoslav-Greek border, this in turn led many pro-Tito forces in the National Liberation Front to flee to Yugoslavia. Despite this, Slav Macedonians continued to fight in the ranks of DSE. By 1948, Slav Macedonians comprised over 30% of the DSE's fighting force according to some estimates, but these estimates have been disputed by the KKE. In the ensuing aftermath, the National Army began to consolidate its control in areas previously controlled by the Provisional Government. Many villages were destroyed in the fighting and the displaced villagers often fled the country through Albania and onto Yugoslavia. One case is the village of Pimenikon (Babčor) in the Kastoria region which was allegedly eliminated by Greek bombers in 1948, displacing hundreds of people. By this time DSE effectively controlled parts of Northern Greece, along with areas of Macedonia where Macedonians represented a clear majority, along with a large tract of Epirus. By the beginning of 1949, increased American aid for the National Army, the Tito–Stalin split, recruiting problems for DSE, as well as major defeats in the islands and in Peloponnese, helped destabilize the position of the DSE.
Many people fled due to the collapse of the DSE, it has also been claimed that many Slav Macedonians fled to avoid possible persecution by the advancing National Army.John S. Koliopoulos. Plundered Loyalties: World War II and Civil War in Greek West Macedonia. Foreword by C. M. Woodhouse. New York: New York University Press. 1999. p. 304. 0814747302 The Exodus of Macedonians from Greece was the experience of the ehnic Macedonians who left Greece as a result of the Civil War, particularly in North Macedonia and the ethnic Macedonian diaspora. The KKE claims that the total number of political refugees was 55,881,3rd KKE congress 10–14 October 1950: Situation and problems of the political refugees in People's Republics pages 263–311 (3η Συνδιάσκεψη του Κόμματος (10–14 October 1950. Βλέπε: "III Συνδιάσκεψη του ΚΚΕ, εισηγήσεις, λόγοι, αποφάσεις – Μόνο για εσωκομματική χρήση – Εισήγηση Β. Μπαρτζιώτα: Η κατάσταση και τα προβλήματα των πολιτικών προσφύγων στις Λαϊκές Δημοκρατίες", σελ. 263 – 311") Quote: "Total number of political refugees : 55,881 (23,028 men, 14,956 women and 17,596 children, 368 unknown or not accounted)" an estimated 28,000–32,000 children were evacuated during the Greek Civil War. A 1951 document from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia states that the total number of Slav Macedonians that left Greece during the Civil War was 28,595 report of General consultant of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia addressed to foreign ministry of Greece Doc 47 15-7-1951 SMIR, ΡΑ, Grcka, 1951, f-30, d-21,410429, (έκθεση του γενικού προξενείου της Γιουγκοσλαβίας στη Θεσσαλονίκη SMIR, ΡΑ, Grcka, 1951, f-30, d-21,410429, Γενικό Προξενείο της Ομόσπονδης Λαϊκής Δημοκρατίας της Γιουγκοσλαβίας προς Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, Αρ. Εγγρ. 47, Θεσσαλονίκη 15 July 1951. (translated and published by Spiros Sfetas . ΛΓ΄, Θεσσαλονίκη 2001–2002 by the Macedonian Studies ) Quote: "According to the report of General consultant of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the total number of Macedonian refugees who came from Greece between the years 1941–1951 is 28,595. From 1941 till 1944 500 found refuge in Yugoslav Macedonia, in 1944 4,000 people, in 1945 5,000, in 1946 8,000, in 1947 6,000, in 1948 3,000, in 1949 2,000, in 1950 80, and in 1951 15 people. About 4,000 left Yugoslavia and moved to other Socialist countries (and very few went also to western countries). So in 1951 at Yugoslavia were 24,595 refugees from Greek Macedonia. 19,000 lived in Yugoslav Macedonia, 4,000 in Serbia (mainly in Gakovo-Krusevlje) and 1595 in other Yugoslav republics." whereas some ethnic Macedonian sources put the number of refugees at over 213,000. However, disclosed CIA documents indicated that the Greek government was willing to transfer 50,000 ethnic Macedonians to Yugoslavia from Greece in 1953.Current Intelligence bulletin, p. 3, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T00975A001000200001-7.pdf Over the course of the war thousands of Communists were killed, imprisoned or had their land confiscated. The headquarters of the Democratic Army in Greece reported that from mid-1945 to May 20, 1947, in Western Macedonia alone, 13,259 were tortured, 3,215 were imprisoned and 268 were executed without trial. In the same period 1,891 had been burnt down and 1,553 had been looted and 13,553 people had been resettled by force. Of the many Macedonians who were imprisoned many would often form their own groups within the prisons. It is claimed that the Greek Prison Camps were located on the islands of Ikaria and Makronisos, the Averof jail near Athens and the jails in Thessaloniki and Larisa.
Refugee children
On March 4, 1948, the communist "Radio Free Greece" announced that all children under the age of 15 would be evacuated from areas under control of the Provisional Government. The older women were instructed to take the children across the border to Yugoslavia and Albania, while the younger women took to the hills with the partisans. Widows of dead partisans soon became surrogate mothers for the children and assisted them in their journey to the Eastern Bloc. Many people also had their children evacuated. By 1948 scores of children had already died from malnutrition, disease and injuries. It is estimated that 8,000 children were taken from the Kastoria area in the ensuing weeks. The children were sorted into groups and made way for the Albanian border. The partisan carers (often young women and men) had to help and support the children as they fled the Civil War.
Thousands of Greek Macedonian, Pontic Greek, Caucasus Greek, Slavic Macedonian and Aromanian children were evacuated from the areas under communist control. A United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans (UNSCOB) report confirms that villages with an ethnic (Slavic speaking) Macedonian population were far more willing to let their children be evacuated. They are now known as Децата Бегалци (Decata Begalci) "the Refugee Children" in North Macedonia and the ethnic Macedonian diaspora. It is estimated that from 28,000 children to 32,000 children were evacuated in the years 1948 and 1949. Exceptions were made for children under the age of two or three who stayed with their mothers while the rest should be evacuated. Many of these children were spread throughout the Eastern Bloc by 1950 there were 5,132 children in Romania, 4,148 in Czechoslovakia, 3,590 in Poland, 2,859 in Hungary and 672 had been evacuated to Bulgaria.
The official Greek position was that these children had been forcibly taken from their parents by the Communists to be brought up under a socialist system. Some Greek historians and politicians referred to this as the Paidomazoma (Παιδομάζωμα).
The term "political refugee" has been vague and in some cases misleading in the case of the Greek Civil War, and includes different categories of people. It is difficult to determine the number of people who left Greece because of "justified fear of persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, social class or political beliefs" as the 1951 Geneva Convention provides for the determination of a refugee. Many people left voluntarilly and others were forced to follow the guerrillas in Eastern Europe.Antoniou Giorgos, Kalyvas Stathis (eds.), The political refugees of the Civil War, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, 2015, pp. 8, 9 (Αντωνίου Γιώργος, Καλύβας Στάθης (επιμ.), Οι πολιτικοί πρόσφυγες του Εμφυλίου Πολέμου, Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2015) In Greek.
Evacuations following the Communist defeat