Bulkes: The "Greek Republic" that "Never Existed"

Bulkes: The "Greek Republic" that "Never Existed"

This is a fascinating case of a place that existed briefly and within living memory (just barely) being deliberately forgotten. A Twitter reference to "wells" (πηγάδες) as a threat made by Greek Leftists against their adversaries (throwing them down a water well to die) led me to the story of Bulkes, a town in Serbia settled by Germans during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, emptied of Germans after World War II, and offered by Tito in 1945 as a haven and training camp for Greek Communists escaping setbacks in the Greek Civil War. The community, which operated as a near-autonomous community in Yugoslavia with its own schools and currency, split over the break between Stalin and Tito, and a civil war with great bloodshed broke out within the community. Yugoslav authorities intervened and the community was scattered, as people returned to Greece or headed to exile elsewhere in Yugoslavia or in the USSR. Yugoslavia, estranged from the USSR and in need of friends, sought rapprochement with Greece, and the Bulkes Republic was swept under the rug. The town was resettled in the 1950s by Serbians from Bosnia and renamed Maglić. In this article, Alexander Bilinis delved into the story in 2016, tracking down filmmaker Alexis Parnis, who had been a young man in Bulkes, writing propaganda plays that were performed at the community theater on Sundays. A film called "Operation Bulkes" by Sinisa Bosancic is in pre-production, featuring interviews with some who lived there.

RELATED: An excerpt from the book Eleni by Nicholas Gage. Gage's mother was tortured to death by Greek Communists; her sacrifice allowed her children to escape.