The inauspicious prospects

In February 1945 Greece seemed to have found at last a formula which promised stability and could lead to the political and constitutional normality in the domestic scene. After the bloody crisis of December 1944, the Greek government took advantage of the British intervention in order to move to solutions which could form the basis of negotiation with the whole spectre of political forces in the country - from the communist left to the traditionalist right. For a short period of time, the ideological confrontation between left and right for the future of postwar Greece had been suspended.

There is no doubt, however, that the interference of the British government in the shaping of Greece's postwar political landscape was an extension of the Churchill-Stalin agreements and was a prelude to the pro-west orientation of the country in the future. In early 1945, the left-right ideological confrontation in Greece had not as yet acquired its international significance; it remained a domestic problem within the British sphere of influence. With the deterioration, however, of the international balance of power between East and West and the beginning of the Cold War, the significance of this confrontation would multiply, causing new, dangerous complications for the future of the country.