The People's Civil Guard (, ) was the security force of the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

(KKE) during the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

(1946–49). It was the police counterpart of the

Democratic Army of Greece The Democratic Army of Greece (DAG; , ΔΣΕ; ''Dimokratikós Stratós Elládas'', DSE) was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949). At its height, it had a strength of around 50,000 men and w ...

(DSE), KKE's military force. It was actually the successor of the National Civil Guard, which was the successor of the Organization for the Protection of the People's Struggle (OPLA). The People's Civil Guard included both men and women; all of them were volunteers and ideologically dedicated to the Communist Party, a situation different from that of the DSE, which engaged in forced recruitment, especially in the last stages of the Civil War. In June 1948, the KKE leadership published a booklet to be studied by the civil guards, "Lessons of Popular Civil Guard" (, ), where it was emphasized that the Popular Civil Guard was a security force "of a new type", different from the Greek Gendarmerie and the Cities Police of the Greek government, whose aim was to serve the people. Initially the People's Civil Guard was commanded by Stephanos Papayannis, a former Captain of the Greek Army who had joined the Communist Party during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and had fought in the Greek Resistance against the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

; later however, Vasilis Bartziotas, a Communist Party cadre took command.Ελεύθερος Κόσμος, 24/8/69 In northern Greece it was also named and it was much known as Close Self-Defense ().

References

{{Greek Civil War Greek Civil War Communist Party of Greece 1947 establishments in Greece Defunct law enforcement agencies of Greece Military wings of socialist parties