Georgios Kondylis

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Georgios Kondylis
Γεώργιος Κονδύλης
Georgios Kondylis c. 1919
Regent of Greece
In office 10 October – 25 November 1935
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Alexandros Zaimis (as President of Greece)
Succeeded by	George II (as King of the Hellenes)
Prime Minister of Greece
In office 10 October – 30 November 1935
Monarch	George II (Nov 1935)
Regent	Himself (Oct - Nov 1935)
Preceded by	Panagis Tsaldaris
Succeeded by	Konstantinos Demertzis
In office 23 August – 4 December 1926
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis
Preceded by	Athanasios Eftaxias
Succeeded by	Alexandros Zaimis
Deputy Prime Minister of Greece
In office 5 April – 10 October 1935
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Prime Minister	Panagis Tsaldaris
Preceded by	Andreas Michalakopoulos
Succeeded by	Ioannis Theotokis
Minister of Naval Affairs
In office 10 – 16 October 1935
Monarch	George II
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Sofoklis Dousmanis
Succeeded by	Georgios Rallis
In office 26 August – 4 December 1926
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Ioannis Leonidas
Succeeded by	Alexandros Kanaris
Minister of Military Affairs
In office 10 March 1933 – 10 October 1935
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Prime Minister	Panagis Tsaldaris
Preceded by	Alexandros Othonaios
Succeeded by	Alexandros Papagos
In office 4 November 1932 – 16 January 1933
President	Alexandros Zaimis
Prime Minister	Panagis Tsaldaris
Preceded by	Theodoros Chavinis
Succeeded by	Georgios Katechakis
In office 26 August – 4 December 1926
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Charalambos Tseroulis
Succeeded by	Alexandros Mazarakis-Ainian
In office 12 March – 9 June 1924
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis
Prime Minister	Alexandros Papanastasiou
Preceded by	Konstantinos Gondikas
Succeeded by	Theodoros Pangalos
Minister of the Interior
In office 7 October 1924 – 15 June 1925
President	Pavlos Kountouriotis
Prime Minister	Andreas Michalakopoulos
Preceded by	Georgios Roussos
Succeeded by	Georgios Maris
Personal details
Born	14 August 1878 Proussos, Kingdom of Greece
Died	1 February 1936 (aged 57) Athens, Kingdom of Greece
Nationality	Greek
Political party	National Democratic Party
Awards	Order of the Redeemer Order of George I War Cross Medal of Military Merit Legion of Honour Croix de Guerre Distinguished Service Order Order of the White Eagle Medal for Bravery
Nickname(s)	Thunder Κεραυνός
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Greece
Branch/service	Hellenic Army
Years of service	1896–1923
Rank	Lieutenant General
Battles/wars	Greco-Turkish War (1897) Cretan Revolt (1897-1898) Macedonian Struggle Balkan Wars First Balkan War Battle of Sarantaporo Battle of Yenidje Second Balkan War Battle of Kilkis-Lachanas Battle of Kresna Gorge World War I Macedonian front Battle of Skra-di-Legen Russian Civil War Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Southern Front Southern Russia Intervention Soviet invasion of Ukraine Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) Leonardopoulos–Gargalidis coup d'état attempt

Georgios Kondylis (Greek: Γεώργιος Κονδύλης; 14 August 1878 – 1 February 1936) was a Greek general, politician and prime minister of Greece. He was nicknamed Keravnos, Greek for "thunder" or "thunderbolt".

Military career

Kondylis was born in Proussós. He enlisted in the army as a volunteer in 1896, and fought with the Greek expeditionary corps in Crete. He was later commissioned and participated in the Macedonian Struggle (1904–1908) leading his own guerrilla band, and was promoted to captain during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). He supported the Movement of National Defence of Eleftherios Venizelos during the First World War. He was notorious for his cruel oppression of a loyalist revolt in Chalkidiki (Sept 1916),^[1] rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. A firm Venizelist, he opposed the restoration of King Constantine I in 1920, fleeing to Constantinople together with other Venizelist officers and organizing there the "Democratic Defence" (Δημοκρατική Άμυνα). He returned after the 1922 Revolution as a major general, suppressed the royalist revolt of 1923, retired from the army, and became involved in politics.

Political career

He was elected to Parliament at the 1923 elections for the constituency of Rodope, initially for the Democratic Union, and later founded the National Republican Party (Εθνικό Δημοκρατικό Κόμμα), renamed in 1928 National Radical Party (Εθνικό Ριζοσπαστικό Κόμμα). He was war minister from March to June 1924. On 24 August 1926, he overthrew the dictatorship of Theodoros Pangalos in a bloodless coup and formed a government, proclaiming elections for November. Notably, his party did not participate in these. In the elections of August 1928, voters elected nine of his party's candidates as MPs, and he was elected in Kavala.

During this time, Kondylis began moving rightward. In 1932 he became war minister again in return for his support of the Populist government, a post he retained after the Populists were reelected in 1933. From this post he was instrumental in crushing the March 1935 Venizelist revolt. In the period immediately following the revolt, Kondylis became the real power in the country. He sacked numerous pro-republican soldiers and civil servants, and condemned Venizelos to death in absentia.

By now, Kondylis was one of the strongest proponents of restoring the monarchy. However, he opposed Prime Minister Panagis Tsaldaris' call for a referendum. On 10 October 1935, Kondylis and several other officers called on Tsaldaris and forced him to resign. Kondylis forced President Alexandros Zaimis to name him the new premier. Later that day, Kondylis forced Zaimis to resign, declared himself Regent, abolished the Republic and staged a plebiscite on 3 November for the return of the monarchy.

The official tally showed that 98 percent of the voters supported the return of George II—an suspiciously high total that was likely obtained through fraud. Indeed, the vote took place under less-than-secret conditions. Voters were given the choice of dropping a blue piece of paper in the ballot box if they supported the monarchy, and a red one if they supported the republic. Those who supported the republic risked being beaten up. Under those circumstances, it took a brave Greek to vote "no". By this time, Kondylis had turned so far to the right that he now openly sympathized with fascism. He hoped to echo Benito Mussolini's example in Italy, in which Victor Emmanuel III had been reduced to a puppet.^[2]

George returned to Greece on 25 November, and retained Kondylis as prime minister. Kondylis soon quarreled with the king, who was not content to be a mere puppet, and resigned five days later. In the January 1936 elections, he cooperated with Ioannis Rallis and managed to have fifteen MPs elected. Soon after, however, he died of a heart attack on 1 February 1936, in Athens. His nephew, Georgios Kondylis Jr., became a general in the Hellenic army and later fought against the Axis during the German invasion of Greece.

He was awarded Serbian Order of the White Eagle.^[3]

References

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Georgios Kondylis in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW