standing communist army. Vafeiadis believed that the forces of the Greek government were too strong, and the best option for the KKE was a guerrilla struggle. However, in July 1946, Zachariadis appointed him as leader of the communist guerrilla formations. In October 1946, when the General Command of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) was founded, Vafeiadis assumed its leadership, and in December 1947 he was appointed Prime Minister and War Minister of the Provisional Democratic Government. During the last stages of the Civil War his disagreement with Zachariadis on issues of military doctrine led to his removal from leadership (August 1948) and later from all offices (January 1949). In October 1950, he was ousted from the Communist Party, while he was in exile in the Soviet Union, where he had fled after the breakup of the DSE. Post-Civil War After the end of Joseph Stalin's era, Markos Vafeiadis was restored into KKE and was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the party. However, new disagreement with the party leadership led to his removal from office in January 1958 and to his second ousting from the KKE in June 1964. After the party split in 1968, the so-called "interior" (εσωτερικού) faction of KKE restored him. In March 1983, ending his 33-year exile in the Soviet Union, he returned to Greece and the island of Chios where he later published his Memoirs. Ηe became a political supporter of Andreas Papandreou and in November 1989 and April 1990, he was honorarily elected into the Greek parliament through the nationwide list of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). In 1984 he was awarded the rank of the General of the Hellenic army. Bibliography Dominique Eude, Les Kapetanios (in French, Greek and English), Artheme Fayard, 1970 References External links Interview with Markos Vafiades, 1983 1906 births 1992 deaths 20th-century prime ministers of Greece 20th-century people from the Ottoman Empire People from Erzurum People from Erzurum vilayet Pontic Greeks Communist Party of Greece politicians Greek MPs 1990–1993 National Liberation Front (Greece) members Greek People's Liberation Army personnel Greek Macedonia in World War II Modern history of Thessaloniki Democratic Army of Greece personnel Exiles of the Greek Civil War in the Soviet Union People from Tosya Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Greece