On January 31, 1949, the infamous 5th Plenary Session of the KKE released Markos Vafiadis "from all party work" because "he has been seriously ill for many months and cannot respond to the serious tasks assigned to him by the Central Committee of the KKE".
In this way, Markos ceased to be "prime minister" of the temporary "democratic" government, a member of the Politburo and the main commander-in-chief of the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE).
The removal of Markos was not a bolt from the blue. His break with Zachariadis and his "beheading" was the product of a complex, chronological process, which began as early as September 1947 during the 3rd Plenum, when Markos Vafiadis reacted to Zachariadis' foolish, grandiose plans (Lakes plan).
Marcos insisted that the DSE should continue to act as a rebel force, arguing that it was impossible to win without outside help from the "great Soviet motherland" and the "socialist" countries. In November 1947 again, during the Politburo meeting, Markos reacted to Zachariadis' plans for an attack on Konitsa.
Markos, clearly more experienced than the late Zachariadis and aware of the weaknesses of the rebel army, expressed his reservations about the operation, also due to the failure of a similar operation against Metsovos.
Finally then Marcos surrendered, the attack was launched and the DSE suffered a heavy defeat. After the defeat, on January 15, 1948, in a meeting in Prespes to assess the situation. There was a new dispute about Zachariadis' intention to turn the DSE into a regular army that would implement "Stalinist strategy and tactics"... Now what kind of strategic or tactical mind Stalin was is much debated.
Marcos had publicly disagreed with the leader's infallibility - a big mistake in the "democratic" party - stressing that with the cadres that DSE had, there was no way he could win in a regular fight. This public dispute was the trigger for the final rupture. On August 18, 1948 the two men again disagreed about what was to happen after the defeat at Grammos and the conflict with Tito . Marcos had then reiterated that the only option for the DSE after Tito's defeat and change of attitude was guerrilla warfare.
Naturally, Zachariadis's opinion prevailed. In fact, due to the failures of the army, because the DSE scored some temporary successes, Zachariadis gained in prestige while Markos became the black sheep.
At the meeting of the War Council of the DSE on August 21, 1948, the issue of the dismissal of Markos was raised. Despite this, Zachariadis did not dare to proceed. However, it limited the powers of both the provisional "democratic" government and the General Headquarters (GA), which were headed by Marcos.
On the same day, Markos was sent to Albania "to rest" and was replaced at GA by Gusios who was promoted to "Lieutenant General". The escalation, however, came on November 15, 1948 when, at the meeting of the Politburo of the KKE Macros presented the infamous "Platform" of.
In this text he openly criticized the movements of Zachariadis since 1946, blasting the plans for the recruitment of 50-70,000 fighters, bringing back to the fore the mistakes of Konitsa and the proclamation of the government, the transformation of the DSE into a regular army, the operations of Grammos and the decision to continue the war, based on these data, in 1949.
In his "Platform" Marcos made it clear that "the monarcho-fascist army, despite its failure to deal serious blows to the DSE, continues to fight for two years without any calculable cases of stops, accessions to the DSE, desertions... It not only has the ability replenishment of the losses, but also a normal numerical increase..." , he wrote.
"Today, the DSE has approximately 25,000 fighters who oppose the 300,000 thousand total armed forces available to monarcho-fascism. In order for the DSE to act aggressively for the liberation of serious areas as a support for the complete overthrow of monarcho-fascism, in the months of October - December 1948, January - February - March 1949, it must reach 65-70,000 men... with the best conditions we had… managed to recruit about 15,000 in one year.
Markos' "Platform" was characterized by the party as "anti-party", "factionalist", "Trotskyist" and was his last political move. However, although Markos was "beheaded", this was not immediately known because by then Zachariadis and the party had exalted Markos to the limits of legend. Finally the members of the DSE learned of the removal of Markos, for health reasons, on January 31, 1949.
Markos did not experience the collapse of the DSE up close, being in exile, essentially in the USSR. In 1950 it was deleted by the KKE. It was reinstated in 1956, but permanently deleted in 1961. He always succeeded against Zachariadis whom he characterized as an agent. The next years of his life he lived in the USSR under the name Ivan Vasilievich Kuliev. He worked there, married a Russian woman and had a son. He returned to Greece in 1983 and was elected MP with PASOK.
"I regret that the Greek soil will cover a multi-agent, a scoundrel , who throughout his life did nothing but devise every good thing. He had an immense hatred against the Soviet Union and the people's movement, and the evidence for this is abundant. In any case what he tried to do with the civil war was accomplished” , were his last words about Zachariadis