Communism and Nationalism in Postwar Cyprus, 1945-1955

This book analyzes the events that impacted the structure and competitive processes of the two dominant Cypriot political factions while under the watchful eye of British rule. Based on new archival research, Alecou addresses the social and political environment in which the Cypriot Communists and Nationalists fought each other while at the same time had to fight the British Empire. The differences between communists and nationalists brought the two sides to a frontal collision in the wake of the events of the Greek civil war. The class conflict within Cypriot society would at some point inevitably lead, in one way or another, to a clash between the two factions. The civil war in Greece constituted another field of conflict between Left and Right, accelerating the formation of a bipolar party system in which the vertical division of the Greek community in Cyprus eventually expressed itself. 

• Cyprus
• Greek-Cypriot community
• nationalism
• communism
• World War II

• University of London, London, United Kingdom

  Alexios Alecou

Alexios Alecou is a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London, England and he also teaches history at the Open University of Cyprus. He earned his PhD in Political History from Panteion University of Athens and his current work includes the study of Postwar Greece and Cyprus as well as the history and transformation of political institutions in South European countries.

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