ABSTRACT
The disintegration of the 4th of August regime in the wake of the German invasion and the debilitating effects of Metaxas' dictatorship upon the prewar parties, both republican and monarchist, created an apparent vacuum of indigenous authority in wartime Greece. As the country suffered under triple occupation (German, Italian, and Bulgarian), three contenders sought to fill this vacuum: King George II and his government-in-exile, the collaborationist administration in Athens, and forces within Greece which were prepared to resist occupation. The foreign factor was also of crucial importance in the humanitarian crisis, which erupted within a few months of Greece's occupation. The greatest tragedy resulting from the Axis occupation was undoubtedly the inception of the conflict that plunged Greece into intermittent civil war. Recent friction between Moscow and Ankara over the regime of the Turkish Straits, Soviet reluctance to withdraw its army from Iranian territory, and the civil war in Greece fueled suspicion about Soviet intentions in the region.
