Aris Velouchiotis - Legacy

Legacy

Velouchiotis is one of the most controversial and tragic figures of modern Greek history. His personality and action was mythologised during his life and after his death. Supporters consider him a symbol of Greek resistance against the occupying powers, the founder and creator of the biggest guerilla army in the Greek history (ELAS) and a hero of the communist cause. Critics see him as a perpetrator of atrocities and murders against rural people who were perceived as opponents of communism. Velouchiotis is responsible also for the massacre of some one thousand captives, collaborators from the Security Battalions, in Meligalas (a village in south-western Peloponnese) in October 1944, right after the German retreat from that part of Greece. His involvement in attacks against non-communist Greek resistance forces and insurgency against the post-liberation government also draw criticism: C.M. Woodhouse, the Second-in-Command of the Harling Force, remarked that Velouchiotis "fought Greeks more often than he did Germans". In his memories he appreciates his military abilities, he describes him also as ruthless and "occasionally homosexual".

However, he was a man of strong communist and patriotic beliefs. He was especially cruel to the Greeks who sought collaboration with the occupying forces, with his companions who broke the organized discipline, and people who sought the British help and involvement in Greek politics because he considered the British a threat of the communist and patriotic cause of the Resistance.