24“If the Communists had not arrogantly undertaken the operation against Zervas - over three hundred miles away from the main battlefield - they would be masters of the country today without any compromise! It was hubris!” Papa Yiorgos declared while stopping for a glass of tea at Stahoulis’. The same conclusion was on the lips of every Greek in every corner of the world in the winter of 1946, which made Zervas either the hero or the villain, depending on one’s political leanings. He had diverted those fifteen thousand Communist troops long enough for English reinforcements to arrive in Athens and successfully turn the tide, gradually pushing Veloukhiotis and his forces from their enclaves and pressing them back street by street. The Communists soon realized that a military victory could n
