Metaxas, Ioannis (1871–1941)

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METAXAS, IOANNIS (1871–1941)

Greek general and dictator.

Ioannis Metaxas (1871–1941) was a Greek general, statesman, and dictator. Born on the island of Ithaca on 12 April 1871, he graduated from the Military Academy in 1890. In the Greek-Turkish war of 1897 he served in the staff of the heir to the throne, Constantine. With the support of Constantine he went to Berlin to continue his military studies (1899–1903), and when he returned to Greece took part in the reorganization of the army. When World War I broke out in 1914, he was second in command in the general staff, and during the dispute between Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos (1864–1936) and King Constantine (r. 1913–1917 and 1920–1922), Metaxas, promoted to chief in 1915, sided with the latter and resigned. Following the flight of the king in 1917 Metaxas went to Italy (June 1917–November 1920). When the royalists came to power in 1920 he returned to Greece. A staunch royalist with close ties to King Constantine, he nevertheless voiced his opposition to the king's plans for a Greek military campaign in Asia Minor. He foresaw the danger of a disastrous defeat, which happened in August 1922 and resulted in the expulsion of 1.3 million Greeks from Turkey.

In 1922 Metaxas moved into politics and founded the Freethinkers' Party. In the 1926 election his party won fifty-four seats in the parliament but it did not repeat that success in the subsequent elections. In the 1936 election he polled only 4 percent and elected seven deputies. That election produced also a political stalemate because none of the two major political blocs (royalists and republicans) had the majority. In March 1936 King George II (r. 1922–1923 and 1935–1947) appointed Metaxas minister of war, and when the prime minister, Constantine Demertzis (1876–1936), died, the king appointed Metaxas as prime minister on 13 April 1936. On 4 August 1936 General Metaxas, using as a pretext a general strike that was scheduled for the next day, declared a state of emergency, dissolved the parliament, and suspended articles of the constitution that guaranteed fundamental civil liberties. Metaxas's dictatorship (1936–1941) was the result of long period of political instability, the tendency of the political establishment to accept authoritarian solutions, and a reaction to the emergency of a militant labor movement.

The "Fourth of August Regime," as the dictatorship was called, resembled other interwar authoritarian regimes, but it was very different from Italian fascism or German Nazism. There was no mass fascist movement or party despite the considerable efforts of Metaxas to create one through the foundation of the National Youth Organization (EON). With the EON the dictator sought to create a force loyal to the regime, and because its membership was low, the enrollment of the young became compulsory after 1939. At the same time the EON reflected Metaxas's idea about the Greek society of the future: disciplined, militant, nationalist, and non-individualist. Metaxas's dictatorship borrowed elements from the Fascist political culture, like the ideology of the "Third Hellenic Civilization" (Metaxas's rejuvenated Greece as a heir and a synthesis of ancient Greece and Byzantium), the systematic propaganda, the fascist salute, the short-lived Labor Battalions, and the cult of leadership (Metaxas presented himself as "First Worker," "First Peasant," "National Father").

Metaxas also shared with other interwar dictators antiparliamentarianism and anticommunism and a well-organized police force to repress his political opponents. Bourgeois political leaders who protested against the dictatorship were arrested and banished. The Communist Party in Greece eventually ceased to exist because most of its members were arrested, tortured, imprisoned, and forced to renounce their political ideas and their comrades. However, the regime was not based only on repression. The dictator, in an effort to gain the support of the lower classes, took important measures like the settlement of peasants' debts, the arbitration of labor disputes, and the establishment of the Social Security Administration (IKA).

The dictatorship was not very popular and the lack of political and social constituency that a fascist movement could have furnished made Metaxas dependent on King George II to remain in power. King George II was much more powerful than Metaxas because he enjoyed the support of the army and Great Britain. The fact that the king, although he could, did not try to reconstitute democracy and consented to the dictatorship, discredited monarchy and had a significant impact on Greek politics in the 1940s.

When World War II broke out Metaxas hoped to keep Greece out of the war without jeopardizing the relations with its traditional ally Great Britain. Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) wanted to show Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) that Italy was an equally victorious partner and decided to invade Greece. On 28 October 1940 Italy issued an ultimatum that Metaxas, reflecting the popular mood, rejected. The Italian campaign proved to be ill fated and by mid-November the Greek army had pushed back the Italians and had advanced into Albania. The Greek army, however, failed to deliver a decisive victory, and in December there was a military deadlock. Ioannis Metaxas died on 29 January 1941, and on 6 April 1941 the Germans began their offensive against Greece.

See alsoGreece.