Aris Velouchiotis

Aris Velouchiotis, real name Athanasios (Thanasis) Klaras (August 27, 1905 – June 16, 1945), was a prominent leader of Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS), the communist segment of Greek guerrilla resistance during World War II, which was followed by the Greek Civil War.

Early Years

Klaras was born in Lamia, Greece in 1905. As a youth, he participated in the leftist movement and later became a member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). During the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship (1936-1941), he was arrested and jailed in Aegina prison. During his trial, he escaped and joined the (then illegal) Communist Party. He was arrested again in 1939 and was sent to Corfu prison, and remained there until he signed a "statement of renouncement" of the Communist Party.

World War II

During World War II, he served as an artillery corporal in the Greek army at the Albanian front (1940-1941) against the Italian army, until the Nazi invasion and Greece's surrender (April 1941).

After Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Klaras was sent to Central Greece (Roumeli) by the Communist Party to assess the potential for the development of a guerrilla movement against the Nazis. His proposals were adopted by the party, and in January 1942, Klaras moved to the mountains to start setting up guerrilla groups.

The first appearance of the partisans organised by Klaras was on June 7, 1942 in the village of Domnista (Evritania) in Central Greece. This was also the first time that he appeared under the alias Aris Velouchiotis. He then rose to prominence in the Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS), which he headed along with Stephanos Sarafis.

One of the most important operations of the Greek resistance movement (in which Velouchiotis and his fighters participated alongside Napoleon Zervas's republican EDES resistance forces and British saboteurs) was the bombing of the Gorgopotamus bridge in Lamia in November 1942. Their success disrupted the supply lines for Erwin Rommel's German forces in Africa for several days, which depended on the Thessaloniki-Athens railroad.

This was to be the last operation to pit the communist-dominated ELAS organisation on the same front with Greek Republican resistance forces, who favoured constitutional monarchy, and opposed the imposition of a communist regime in Greece.

In October 1944, the Nazis evacuated Greece and a new government was formed under Georgios Papandreou, the leader of the Greek National Unity government-in-exile during the period of German occupation. When the Varkiza agreement was signed to end fighting between EAM-ELAS communist insurgents and governmental forces, Velouchiotis vehemently refused to comply, in defiance of the Communist Party of Greece leadership — who accused him of Trotskyism and treachery, referencing his 1939 statement of renouncement and removal from the party's member list.

Death

Velouchiotis moved again to the mountains of Central Greece, in order to start an insurgency against the new government and the British allies who supported them. Though most of his associates abandoned him, he continued to conduct guerrilla war until June 1945, when he fell into an ambush by paramilitary supporters of the government and was killed, alongside his deputy-commander Javellas.

There is dispute over whether he was killed outright during the fighting, or committed suicide after being incapacitated. Velouchiotis' corpse was decapitated, with the head displayed in the central square of the town of Trikala.

Controversial figure

Supporters consider Aris Velouchiotis a symbol of Greek resistance against Nazi Germany and a hero of the communist cause. Critics see him as a perpetrator of atrocities against rural people who were perceived as opponents of communism. His involvement in attacks against non-communist Greek resistance forces and insurgency against the post-liberation government also draw criticism: C.M. Woodhouse remarked that Velouchiotis "fought Greeks more often than he did Germans".

Further reading

• Χαριτόπουλος, Διονύσης (Charitopoulos, Dionysis) (2003). Άρης, ο Αρχηγός των Ατάκτων (Aris, the Leader of the Rebels). Athens: Ελληνικά Γράμματα (Ellinika Grammata). ISBN 960-406-538-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Extensive biography in Greek.