The Second Hellenic Republic is a modern historiographical term used to refer to the Greek state during a period of republican governance between 1924 and 1935. To its contemporaries it was known officially as the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ἑλληνικὴ Δημοκρατία [eliniˈci ðimokraˈti.a]) or more commonly as Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς [eˈlas], Hellas). It occupied virtually the coterminous territory of modern Greece (with the exception of the Dodecanese) and bordered Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Turkey and the Italian Aegean Islands. The term Second Republic is used to differentiate it from the First and Third republics.
The fall of the monarchy was proclaimed by the country's parliament on 25 March 1924. A relatively small country with a population of 6.2 million in 1928, it covered a total area of 130,199 km2 (50,270 sq mi). Over its eleven-year history, the Second Republic saw some of the most important historical events in modern Greek history emerge; from Greece's first military dictatorship, to the short-lived democratic form of governance that followed, the normalisation of Greco-Turkish relations which lasted until the 1950s, and to the first successful efforts to significantly industrialise the nation.
The Second Hellenic Republic was abolished on 10 October 1935, with its abolition being confirmed by referendum on 3 November; this referendum was widely believed to have been mired with electoral fraud. The fall of the Republic eventually paved the way for Greece to become a totalitarian single-party state, when Ioannis Metaxas established the 4th of August Regime in 1936, lasting until the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941.
When the Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924, the official name adopted for the country was Hellenic State (Greek: Ἑλληνικὴ Πολιτεία). However, the name was changed to Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ἑλληνικὴ Δημοκρατία) on 24 May 1924 by vote of the Parliament. Accordingly, the title of the country's head of state was changed from Governor (Greek: Κυβερνήτης) to President of the Republic (Greek: Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας). This was done to avoid any confusion as to the meaning of the terms. The word Δημοκρατία (dimokratía), used in the official name to mean Republic, translates as "democracy" as well.
In everyday speech the country was simply known as Greece. In the official variant of Greek that was the language of state, known as Katharevousa, this was Ἑλλάς (Ellás). In Demotic, or 'popular Greek', it was Ἑλλάδα (Elláda). Sometimes, the name Hellas was used in English as well.
National Schism and the republican question
The collapse of the Hellenic Army in Asia Minor was quickly followed by the collapse of the government. Public outrage at the Asia Minor disaster, as Greece's defeat in the war became known, was partially reflected in the military coup which followed it. The coup, orchestrated by army officers, took the name The Revolution. Although The Revolution itself did not abolish the monarchy, one of its first acts was to shut down all the royalist newspapers as well as use the Armed Forces to prosecute known royalists (including Ioannis Metaxas, who was forced to flee abroad). The decision whether or not to abolish the monarchy is one which divided Greek society, as even some Liberal Party supporters, including the Party's founder, Eleftherios Venizelos, spoke out in favour of retaining the monarchy as a safety net against instability.
After the defeat of Greece by the Turkish National Movement (the "Asia Minor Catastrophe") of 1922, the defeated army revolted against the royal government. Under Venizelist officers like Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, King Constantine I was again forced to abdicate, and died in exile in 1923. His eldest son and successor, King George II, was soon after asked by the parliament to leave Greece so the nation could decide what form of government it should adopt. In a 1924 plebiscite, Greeks voted to create a republic. These events marked the culmination of a process that had begun in 1915 between King Constantine and his political nemesis, Eleftherios Venizelos.
However, and despite the plebiscite, in the closing chapter of his History of the Greek Nation from Antiquity until 1930, Pavlos Karolidis notes that although the question of the form of government had been settled formally, it remained unresolved in the national consciousness. He goes on to add that "the regime change was carried out by men who imposed their preferred form of government posthaste as representatives of the sovereign people so as to educate them, but this is considered by many not to be a true expression of the national conscience and will".
The Republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924 by the Parliament; the chosen date was very significant as the Greek War of Independence is traditionally celebrated on 25 March. Following the proclamation of the change in form of government from constitutional monarchy (βασιλευομένη δημοκρατία, literally crowned republic) to republic (αβασίλευτη δημοκρατία, literally uncrowned republic), a referendum was held proclaimed for 13 April 1924. Voters were asked whether they "approve of the decision of the National Assembly that Greece be reorganised into a Republic on the parliamentary model". Voting was to be secret, although the requirement that "yes" votes be cast with white ballots and "no" votes with yellow ones defeated the purpose of secrecy.
The results of the referendum were a clear victory for the Republican campaign: 69.9% in favour of a republic and 30.1% in favour of the monarchy; these results were almost identical to the results of the 1974 referendum (69.2% in favour, 30.8% against) which finally abolished the monarchy. Newspapers from a wide range of the political spectrum noted a lack of violence, implying a lack of electoral intimidation in favour of one side or another. The newspaper Forward wrote that the vote was "historic for the order which prevailed during the voting time", Skrip commented that people refrained from "any action which could be seen as a provocation" and that "the military measures [taken] made this easier", while the Communist Party's Rizospastis commented on the "relative calm" that prevailed in the electoral district of Athens. Makedonia added that so many people disregarded the yellow "no" ballots, that the floors inside the electoral centers and the streets around were littered with them. Meanwhile, the decree of 1924 "on the safeguard of the republican regime" introduced the jail sentence for a minimum of six months for advocating in public the return of the monarchy, disputing the results of the referendum or publishing slander against the founders of the republic. In an interview following the referendum, then-Prime Minister Alexandros Papanastasiou defended government plans to pass such a decree, saying that the government must be allowed to move forward with its reforms without any sort of hindrance for a limited amount of time.
The fragile nature of the young Greek republic became evident from the first year of its existence. While the Parliament was still debating the new constitution (see below), General Theodoros Pangalos organised a coup. When asked by the Minister of the Military whether he was planning to overthrow the government, Pangalos replied "of course I will carry out a coup". His plot was set to motion on 24 June 1925, and soon prevailed throughout the country with little or no resistance from government forces.
Following his coup, Pangalos was sworn in as prime minister by the acting governor of Greece (Pavlos Kountouriotis) and demanded that the Parliament give him a vote of confidence. Surprisingly, he received the vote of confidence with 185 of the 208 Members of Parliament present voting in favour, including Alexandros Papanastasiou (the prime minister before Pangalos' coup) and Georgios Kondylis.
Meanwhile, relations between Bulgaria and Greece were cold, and this escalated into a full-blown conflict by October 1925. A clash along the Greco-Bulgarian border on 18 October led to the Pangalos dictatorship ordering the III Army Corps to invade Bulgaria. Bulgaria, being unable to defend itself sufficiently, and with the Greek army on the outskirts of Petrich, turned to the League of Nations. Eventually, the League of Nations condemned the Greek invasion and ordered Greece to pay £47,000 (£2.7 million in 2017) to Bulgaria as compensation. Greece complied with the ruling and withdrew from Bulgaria, but not before 50 people had died in the short conflict. Further, Greece protested at the double standards that existed for dealing with such incidents, ones for small countries and ones for Great Powers like Italy, which occupied Corfu in the Corfu Incident just two years prior. Moreover, there was a growing democratic deficit in Greece between liberal democracy as enshrined in the Constitution, and as implemented in practice; over 1,000 political activists, mostly communists were exiled to remote Aegean islands under the Pangalos dictatorship, and the situation did not improve after his fall. A new law targeting trade union activism was passed in 1929, commonly known as the Idionymon, and some 16,000 activists were brought before criminal procedures in the period 1929–1936, with 3,000 exiled to remote islands.