Abstract:

How many Slavophones from Greek Macedonia were committed in the Democratic Army during the Greek civil war? Have they joined because of communists beliefs, following their national Macedonian feeling or were they being forced by other circumstances? No one can provide a definite answer to those questions. The current state of research, however, allows some numerical approximations and details on their living conditions, revealing ideological pressures by various occupants, the Greek government, the Greek communist party, the nascent Yugoslavia, and extreme poverty, exacerbated by an exclusion policy pursued by the Greek government, after the Germans had left the country. We also understand that Slavophones are far from having a single policy position, contrary to the assertions of the various national propaganda.

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