The first phase of the civil strife known as the ‘Dekembriana’ seemed to end officially with the signing of the Varkiza Peace Agreement, in February 1945. The two opposed sides, the government that was supported by the English on the one hand and the EAM (National Liberation Front)/ELAS (National Popular Liberation Army) on the other, agreed on a series of conditions which were later not abided by. In Greece, the period 1945-46 was marked by a situation of uncontrollable violence and anarchy, which became known as ‘White Terror’. Political instability was aggravated and took the form of harsh social clashes that escalated in time. The plebiscite held in February 1946 (that was carried out with the Left abstaining) and concerning the constitutional issue, restored monarchy, but did not avert the aggravation of the clash that was about to break out. So the country was dragged -for the second time in the same decade- to participate in a fratricidal war.

The encounter between the government army and the communist guerrillas, who were organized in the form of the Democratic Army of Greece, had been violent and went through various phases. The enterprises were conducted on a large scale and mostly in the northern regions of the country. The embroilment of the belligerents was total. Eventually the enterprises ended with the final defeat of the ‘Democratic Army’ on Mounts Vitsi and Grammos, in the summer of 1949.

In the years that followed, a political system was founded that excluded the defeated (those who did not take refuge to the northern neighbouring countries after the end of the civil war) from the public sphere and affairs.