History of the SNOF/NOF

[akritas]

Mr Stefov in his articles mentioned many times as sources the Greek Communists in order to prove the accrossities that happened from the Metaxa Dictatorships ruler. He forgot as usual a part of History that the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) during the German/Bulagarian/Italian occupation of the Greece and the role of the International Communist Liberate Movements. One of the was the SNOF

The History of SNOF had two periods. The first one that start from the birth date in October 1943 until 2 Aug 1944.

The second one start from the 2 Aug 1944 with the emergence of the “People's Republic of Macedonia” at the first meeting of the Antifascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) until 6 May 1945 when the called “Aegean Macedonian Brigade” was disbanded and its members incorporated into the Yugoslav army, while Tito gradually assumed control over Yugoslav Macedonia.

[akritas]

1st Period (October 1943-2 Aug 1944)

The founding of the Slavo-Macedonian Popular Liberation Front (SNOF) in Kastoria in October 1943 and in Florina the following November was a result of two factors: the general negotiations between Tito's envoy in Yugoslav and Greek Macedonia, Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo, the military leaders of the Hellenic Popular Liberation Army (ELAS), and the political leaders of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in July and August 1943 to co-ordinate the resistance movements; and the more specific discussions between Leonidas Stringos and the political delegate of the GHQ of Yugoslav Macedonia, Cvetko Uzunovski in late August or early September 1943 near Yannitsa. The Yugoslavs’ immediate purpose in founding SNOF was to inculcate a Slavo-Macedonian national consciousness in the Slavophones of Greek Macedonia and to enlist the Slavophones of Greek Macedonia into the resistance movement in Yugoslav Macedonia; while their indirect aim was to promote Yugoslavia's views on the Macedonian Question.

The KKE had recognised the Slavophones as a “SlavoMacedonian nation” since 1934, in accordance with the relevant decision by the Comintern, and since 1935 had been demanding full equality for the minorities within the Greek state; and it now acquiesced to the founding of SNOF in the belief that this would draw into the resistance those Slavophones who had been led astray by Bulgarian Fascist propaganda. However, the Central Committee of the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM) had not approved the founding of SNOF, believing that the new organisation would conduce more to the fragmentation than to the unity of the resistance forces.

This made the KKE all the more cautious with regard to the new organisation's activities. SNOF's progress must be examined in relation to the political developments in Yugoslav Macedonia. Although Tempo managed early in 1943 to establish a Communist party in Yugoslav Macedonia and a GHQ, with Mihailo Apostolski in command and Uzunovski as political delegate, the organisation of the resistance began as soon as the Italians had surrendered and the defeat of Germany was imminent. The resistance movement in Yugoslav Macedonia had two political programmes. The one represented by Tempo and the newly-established Communist Party gave priority to battling against any form of manifest or latent pro-Bulgarian sentiment in Yugoslav Macedonia and to bringing the region into the Yugoslav federation. During the War, the question of uniting the three parts of Macedonia and incorporating them into federal Yugoslavia was considered to be of secondary importance. Attention was chiefly given to spreading propaganda about the right to self-determination of the “Slavo-Macedonian people” in Greece and Bulgaria.

Tito shared this view. During the War, veterans of the interwar Bulgarian IMRO and political cadres of IMRO (United) who had accepted Slavo-Macedonism as an ethnic preference now regarded the main objective as being the unification of the three parts of Macedonia into a single state, whose postwar future was to involve not necessarily inclusion in a Yugoslav federation (in which they foresaw a new form of Serbian dominance over Macedonia), but rather membership of a Balkan federation or else independence under the protection of the Great Powers. This policy was chiefly supported by Metodija Andonov-Cento, Mane Cuckov, and Kiril Petrusevski. In 1943, Kiro Gligorov (former President of the FYROM) also favoured this solution. All the same, regardless of their priorities, both sides acknowledged the right of the “Slavo-Macedonian people” to unification.

The founding of SNOF coincided with the second meeting of the Antifascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) in late November 1943 at Jaice. The Council decided to federalise Yugoslavia and incorporate Macedonia. However, the borders of Tito's “Macedonia” did not appear to include the Yugoslav section alone. The Council elected Dimitar Vlahov as the representative for Greek Macedonia and Vladimir Poptomov as the representative for the Bulgarian section. Directly after the Jaice meeting, military liaison officers from Yugoslav Macedonia (Kiro “Dejan” Georgievski, Petre “Pero” Novacesvski, Kole “Kolja” Todorovski-Kaninski, and Dobrivoje “Orce” Radosavljevic) infiltrated Greek Macedonia to spread propaganda to the effect that the “Macedonian people” in Greece should fight not for equality, as the KKE urged, but for self-determination, unification, and a People's Republic of “Macedonia” on the Yugoslav model, and that they should strive for a separate GHQ and separate armed units.

Although the Yugoslav propaganda met with little response from the district committee of the Florina SNOF (whose members included Petros Pilals and Stavros Kotsopoulos), it was eagerly embraced by the district committee of the Kastoria SNOF (whose members included Paskhalis Mitropoulos (Paskal Mitrevski), Naoum Peyios (Naum Pejov), Lazaros Papa1azarou (Lazo Poplazarov), and Lazaros Ossenskis (Lazo Damovski-Osenski)). The immediate aims of the Kastoria SNOF were to disarm the slavophone villagers who had been armed by the Bulgarians, to persuade them to join SNOF, and to inculcate a Slavo-Macedonian national consciousness.
To this end they were publishing a newspaper titled Slavjanomakedonski Glas. Given the Communist position on the existence of a “Slavo-Macedonian nation”, members of SNOF demanded that the KKE recognise the Slavophones' right to self-determination. In a letter to the party organisation in Kastoria dated 24 lanuary 1944, Lazaros Ossenskis wrote:

The KKE promises the Slavo-Macedonians full equality in the framework of a People's Republic. However, the prime objective of its struggle is the liberation of the Dodecanese and Cyprus, whose people will be free to take their place in people-governed Greece. The Slavo-Macedonians justifiably ask, Why do they not leave us free to build our own culture and our national ideals, for we too are something separate, we are not Greeks, we are a Slavo-Macedonian race with different ideals, but they want us to remain within the Greek framework, giving us only equality. How does this square with the declared principles of the self-determination of peoples?

[akritas]

Paskhalis Mitropoulos, a graduate of the Law School of Thessaloniki University, was particularly active. Thanks to him, in March 1944 the slavophone sections of the 9th ELAS Division were omcially named the ('SIavo-Macedonian Popular Liberation Army” (SNOV) and wore their own badge on their forage-caps. In April 1944, the Yugoslav agents prevented the Slavophones from taking part in the elections for members of the Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA). The blatant nationalist and autonomist propaganda of some of SNOF's leading cadres and the organisation's close dependence on the GHQ of Yugoslav Macedonia provoked such alarm in the KKE's Macedonia Bureau and in the Macedonian Divisions Group that in May 1944 it was decided to disband the organisation and amalgamate it with EAM. On 16 May 1944, at Mitropoulos' instigation7, some sixty Slavophones, led by Naoum Peyios and Yorgos Touroundzas defected at Karaorman, seat of the GHQ of Yugoslav Macedonia, vilifying ELAS and EAM for their erroneous policy towards the Slavo-Macedonians.

In an attempt to resolve the crisis that had broken out between the 9th ELAS Division and the GHQ of Yugoslav Macedonia, a committee from the 28th Regiment led by Adjutant Haralambos “Athanatos” Haralambidis went to Karaorman and met Kiro “Dejan” Georgijevski on 23 May. Haralambidis protested against the smear campaign being waged against EAM and the KKE by the military liaison officers from Yugoslav Macedonia, demanded that Tito look into the matter, and presented the following demands:
1. that recruiting cease on Greek territory,
2. that all anti-EAM propaganda cease,
3. that Yugoslav partisans seek refuge on Greek territory only when under strong enemy pressure and only for a few days at a time, pending the resolution of all the contentious issues,
4. that Peyios and the other deserters be handed over with their weapons,
5. that Touroundas be handed over (with protests about the delay),
6. that terrorist tactics for collecting food on Greek territory cease,
7. that ELAS be consulted before any action on Greek territory,
8. that in the absence of ELAS from certain areas, SNOF liaise with the political organizations in its contacts with the people Georgijevski informed Tempo, who in turn told Tito.

Although Tito felt that the Greek Communists' attitude to the issue of the “Macedonians” in Greece was not correct, in order not to impair the Greek resistance movement he recommended that there be no discussion of the unification of Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia for time being. Following Tito's advice, on 17 June 1944 the GHQ of Yugoslav Macedonia sent out a circular to the political agents travelling around Greek Macedonia in which emphasis was laid on the need for a joint struggle between the Greek and the “Macedonian” people.

The Macedonian people in Yugoslavia, in a fraternal common struggle with the Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, and Montenegrin people, are today achieving their dream: a free Macedonia in a democratic federal Yugoslavia. To achieve this national liberation and equality is the goal of the whole Macedonian people today, of all the Macedonians, including those in Greece and Bulgaria....Only through fraternal concord and the common struggle with the Greek and Bulgarian people can the Macedonians in Greece and Bulgaria achieve their full national liberation and equality, achieve the right to determine their own destiny, a right which the Atlantic Charter guarantees to all enslaved peoples struggling against Fascism.

All the same, the Yugoslav side criticised the KKE before the Soviet military mission at Tito's HQ on the island of Vis for its incorrect policy vis-a-vis the Macedonian Question. On the basis of the information from Yugoslavia, Fitin, the head of Soviet espionage, wrote to Dimitrov:

I write to inform you of the intelligence we have received from Yugoslavia regarding the attitude of EAM to the Macedonian Question. In the course of their task of organising the partisan movement in Macedonia, the representatives of the Yugoslav Popular Liberation Army have encountered strong opposition from the EAM partisans. EAM advocates the old Greek border and denies Macedonia self-deterrnination. The Communists also support this stance. In a discussion with a representative of Marshal Tito, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE said that there can be no question of self-determination for Macedonia, since there is no “Macedonian people” as such. The Greek Communists in Macedonia are firmly opposed to the Macedonians' bid for self-determination. They will not allow the Macedonians to conduct their religious ceremonies except according to Greek custom and they persecute those who worship using the Slavonic sacred books in out-of-the-way churches. The Macedonians are forbidden to offer any kind of assistance to Marshal Tito's representatives.... Owing to the exacerbation of the Macedonian Question, EAM partisans have virtually ceased fighting the Gerrnan conquerors in “their” Macedonia.

These accusations were essentially groundless. After 1934, in accordance with the policy laid down by the Communist International, the KKE recognised the existence of a “Slavo-Macedonian nation”, even though the Slavophones in Greek Macedonia were in fact a small linguistic group, rather than a minority in the sense in which the term is used in international law. To recognise their right to self-determination during the War would essentially have meant acknowledging their right to secede, which would have severely prejudiced the EAM/ELAS resistance movement. The KKE felt that the Slavo-Macedonian issues would be resolved only after the War on the basis of democratic principles. After Andreas Dzimas had visited Tito's HQ on 20 June 1944 as the KKE's representative and made contact with the Soviet delegation, in his first report (to General Korneev, head of the Soviet delegation) on the situation in Greece, dated 29 June t944, he mentioned the Yugoslavs' accusations.

[akritas]

All this despite the warm welcome and support we give them. I appeal to you to intervene and set this unpleasant situation to rights. For the sake of 120,000 Macedonians, the Yugoslavs want us to lose the Greek people, who have naturally become extremely sensitive to the national question of late. All the Greek governments in exile would like to exploit this sensitivity to imbue the Greek people with the Great Idea and with chauvinistic sentiments. I beg you to mediate”.

General Korneev’s mediation was not considered necessary in the end, because Tito had already intervened to settle the matter. In June 1944, the Central Committee of the KKE decided to allow the Slavophones who had fled to Yugoslavia to return, provided they submit to a process of self-criticism. Although SNOF was not re-established as a political body, the KKE's leaders decided to set up separate SlavoMacedonian battalions. The Central Committee of the KKE was prompted to this decision by the necessity for closer collaboration with Tito, both at the military level_owing to the Gerrnans' massive mopping-up operations against ELAS in the summer of 1944 and the reestablishment of the autonomist Bulgarian organisation Ohrana, chiefly in the Edessa area_and at the political level_on account of the KKE's embarrassment after the signing of the Lebanon Charter. On 16 June 1944, a separate Slavo-Macedonian battalion was set up in the Aridaia-Edessa area as part of the 30th ELAS regiment.

This was done on the initiative of Markos Vafiadis, at whose instigation the ELAS GHQ issued the order, despite the opposition of the Macedonia Bureau. Lefteris Foundoulakis of Crete was appointed commander and GeorgiD2odLo Urdov political delegate. The haste with which the Slavo-Macedonian battalion was established on Kaimaktchalan was due to the pressing need to undermine Ohrana's bases. On 24 June 1944, Siandos sent Andreas Dzimas a telegram asking him to draw Tito's attention to the German and Bulgarian Fascists' efforts to start up a autonomist movement in Macedonia, as also to the necessity for ELAS and the SerboMacedonians (the Slavo-Macedonians of Yugoslav Macedonia) to make concerted efforts to win the Slavo-Macedonians over and recruit them into separate Slavo-Macedonian armed divisions. Siandos obviously thought Tito was in a position to control future disruptive moves by the Slavonic-speakers.

[Ptolemy]

Nice topic Akritas. I remember having somewhere infos about SNOF and as soon i will find them, i will post them here.

[akritas]

http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/do...y/Sfetas01.pdf

It's from Mr Sfetas article. I am just broke up the article in order to understand the SNOF easyli.

[Spartan]

Here are some independant numbers on the total deaths during the Greek Civil War. The numbers include Communist deaths, Government deaths and Civilian deaths by the Communist(Democratic Army).

Site:

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm#Balkan

Greek Civil War (1943-49): 158 000
Our Times: 50,000
Hartman, citing Jan.1951 Stratiokita, the Greek general staff weekly:
Greek Army: 12,777 killed, 4527 missing
Civilians executed by Communists: 4,289
Communists: 38,000
[TOTAL: 55,066, maybe 59,593]
WPA3: 12,777 Greek soldiers; 38,000 Communists
Howard Jones, "A New Kind of War" (1989) estimates 13,000 govt. dead or missing + 38,000 guerrillas, and cites ...
Kousalas: 16,753 gov't dead
Averoff-Tossizze: 36,839 guerillas counted, but probably 50,000 killed.
O'Ballance: 158,000 total
P. Johnson: 80,000
C. M. Woodhouse, The Struggle for Greece
70,000 dead on the gov't side, incl. 15,000 soldiers
38,000 rebels killed.
5,000 executions, both sides.
TOTAL: 128,000
Urlanis: 148,000
Edgar O'Ballance, The Greek Civil War : 1944-1949 (1966): 158,000 dead, half Communist forces, half Govt and civilians. He also cites Greek govt figures for 6/1945-3/1949:
Democratic Army (Comm.): 28,992 k.
Greek Natl Army: 10,927 k + 3,756 missing
Civilians: 3156 executed by DA and EPON + 731 k. by mines, etc.
[TOTAL: 43,806 to 47,562]
Clodfelter
Greek National Army: 15,969 k.
Greek Democratic Army: >50,000 k.
TOTAL: 158,000
B&J: 158,000
T. Lomperis, From People's War to People's Rule (1996): 158,000
Singer: 160,000
Eckhardt: 160,000



Pay attention to the "CIVILIANS excecuted by the D.A(COMM) and EPON.


The majority of atrocities against civilians were commited by the Democratic Army(communist) and the FYROMs. Of course I am quite certain that there were some commited by the government forces as well, but probably not enough to register on the list.

I love how the FYOMs always talk about how they were treated by the Greeks during the war but always leave out the treeatment of the Greeks by their forces and the Communist.

[akritas]

A fotograph from the Civil war.Is from the book
Airforce in the Civil War by Elias Kartalamakes. Volume B, page 460 and edition 1998


Greek General Dimitrios Yantzis, US General Van Flet ahead in the Communist HQ at the Prespes Region in 1949. You can see clearly in the Slavic Dialect a text that said:
"Hail General Marko and the Democratic Army."


According the estomations the 50% of the Communist Army in the Macedonia region composed of Slavmacedonians (SNOF and x-Ohranites) tha had as aim the occupation of the Macedonia.



a great thanks to my friend Giannis M.

[akritas]

The Slavophones in Macedonia, Bone of Contention, WW II


The mopping-up operations of the occupation forces came as the nemesis in the drama of the Greek civil strife. In summer 1943 the Germans launched their first major operation against ELAS in Western Macedonia. which resulted in the fall and destruction of Siatista and a large number of villages in the regions of Kozani and Grevena. Meanwhile, Bulgarian penetration had assumed dangerous proportions.

Taking advantage of Italian incompetence and the German need for releasing more troops for service on other fronts, since early 1943 Sofia had been seeking to extend its control over the rest of Macedonia. As the activities of Bulgarian agents intensified, Bulgarian units from occupied Yugoslavia often entered Greek soil and terrorized thepopulation. In spite of their initial reservations, the Germans, under the pressing requirements of the Eastern Front, conceded on 8 July 1943 to the extension of the Bulgarian zone of occupation over the area between the Strymon and Axios rivers. At once, popular reaction broke out in mass demonstrations and strikes throughout the German zone, while the desperate representations of the Athens regime to the occupation authorities had only a temporary effect. Eventually, the capitulation of Italy in September 1943 forced the Germans to take control of Western Macedonia themselves with the occasional `assistance' of Bulgarian forces.

Bulgarian penetration had grave implications for the Resistance, EAM in particular. In Western Macedonia, the Italians had allowed Kalchev, Mladenov and their associates, among them many former IMRO members, to arm pro-Bulgarian elements and to set up the notorious Ohrana (Defence) bands in order to combat the increasing guerrilla activity. These bands, a resurgence of the komitaji legacy, became the nightmare of the local population. At the same time, arms were distributed to a number of `reliable' Slavophone villages for use against the guerrillas.23 The situation seemed to dictate an effort on the part of the Greek resistance to try to win over at least part of the Slavophone element, all the more so as a new challenge had emerged: increasing
Yugoslav interference. Tito's partisan movement was already engaged in an effort to gain a foothold in southern Yugoslavia, where the Slav population had initially greeted the Bulgarian occupying forces as liberators. Soon, the partisans' attention turned to Greek Macedonia too.

During June and July 1943, Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo, Tito's lieutenant in in southern Yugoslavia,at successive meetings with representatives of EAM and the Albanian resistance put forward the idea of a joint Balkan Headquarters to exercise supreme control over the partisan movements of Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria and Greece. Moreover, with the professed aim of combating Bulgarian propaganda, Tempo asked for the recognition to the `Macedonian people' of the right to self-determination as well as permission for the partisans to extend their activity among the Slavophone element in Greek Macedonia.

On the question of the setting up of a joint Balkan Headquarters, Andreas Tzimas, the EAM representative in the talks with Tempo, signed an accord on 25 June and the command of ELAS issued orders to this effect. The leadership of EAM, for its part, although perceiving certain advantages in cooperation with Tito's powerful movement, in the event rejected the apparent Yugoslav bid for leadership. Only a few days after Tzimas signed the accord, Georgios Siantos,
secretary-general of the KKE and the EAM Central Committee, in a meeting with Tempo in Thessaly, repudiated the signature of his representative and the whole scheme was abandoned. EAM also rejected any reference to the `national question' in Macedonia, since, according to Siantos, this "could blow (EAM's) whole work to pieces".

To the Yugoslav slogan of self-determination, EAM and the KKE countered the recognition of equal rights to all minorities. There was an agreement, however, for political and military cooperation between Greek, Yugoslav and Albanian resistance units in adjacent areas. This meant in practice the unimpeded movement of Yugoslav partisans and instructors in the sensitive borderlands of Western Macedonia. Although it did not accept Yugoslav involvement in the organization of guerrilla bands in Slavophone areas, EAM consented in late 1943 to the establishment of a distinct organization, the Slav-Macedonian National Liberation Front (SNOF), which it
attempted to keep under its control. Moreover, some ELAS officers, particularly those formerly serving in the Greek Army, undertook to check the activities of SNOF in the military field

However, it soon became clear that EAM's decision had opened Pandora's box.

quote from

Modern and Contemporary Macedonia, vol. II, 64-103.,Giannis Stefanidis

[akritas]

British and SNOF

It is an indisputable fact that the British tried to prevent ELAS from entering Thessaloniki in October 1944. But to allege that, in their efforts to weaken ELAS, British soldiers went so far as to encourage the Slavophones' irredentist aspirations against the territorial integrity of Greece is a baseless hypothesis that directly contradicts British policy. There can be no doubt that Stringos' and Vafiadis' views were a result of their political prejudices about the role of the British. In his confidential final report on his activities (1 December 1944), Captain P. H. Evans, liaison officer in Western Macedonia from March to December 1944, mentions no private transactions with Goce, merely that they met once53. By his own admission, Evans knew nothing about the Macedonian Question. He never doubted the existence of a SlavoMacedonian patriotic sentiment, which, however, he regarded as more in the nature of a localistic feeling. What particularly struck the young officer was the fluidity of the Slavophones’ national consciousness,which was determined chiefly by motives of self-interest. Evans' final conclusion was that the Slavophones could easily remain in the Greek state, since it ensured them better living conditions and permitted them to speak their local dialect, as also that no objective preconditions existed for a “free Macedonia”.

There can be no doubt that, during the occupation and in order to keep EAM together, the KKE handled the Macedonian Question sensitively. However, the recognition of the existence of a “Macedonian nation” (which was the KKE's fundamental mistake and the source of its inconsistent policy vis-a-vis the Macedonian Question), the confusion of the national and the ideological sphere, and above all the influence of external factors, all had the effect of making the Slavophones in Greek Macedonia opt for different political choices than the official party line. But the situation was not out of control, and the majority of the Slavophones preferred to fight in the ranks of ELAS, rather than SNOF and the Goce Battalion. The unstable political situtation in Greece following the Varkiza agreement, coupled with the Civil War, presented the KKE leadership with some difficult decisions and made the Macedonian Question its Achilles’ heel.

Sources:

• M. Vafiadis ,Apomnêmoneymata, vol. II (1940-4), Athens 1985. p. 201.
• A. Rossos, “The Macedonians of Aegean Macedonia: A British Officer's Report, 1944”, The Slavonic and East European Review, 69 (1991), No. 2, 304.
• “It is this perfect duplicity of the Macedonians which makes them difficult to know. It is hard to rind out what they are thinking.... I have often been struck by this ambivalence or more-thanambivalence of the Slavs in Greece, their willingness to go in this direction or that according to the vagaries of propaganda and the altering pressure of circumstances. They are a set of muddleheaded peasants who perhaps hardly know from one month to the next what they really want”, op.cit., pp. 297-8
• “If Greece can give the Macedonians what they want_freedom of language and a somewhat better life_they want to remain Greek citizens... There can be no independent Macedonia. Even if one regards it,as I do, as right, in the abstract, that there should be, one has to concede that practically it is undesirable”, op.cit., pp. 298, 308.