{{Infobox officeholder |name = Dimitri Vlantas |image = |caption = |office = Secretary of the Communist Youth of Greece |term_start = 1932 |term_end = 1943 |office2 = Commander of the 4th ELAS Division |term_start2 = 1944 |term_end2 = 1944 |office3 = Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece in Crete |term_start3 = 1/07/1944 |term_end3 = 1/07/1946 |birth_date={{Birth date|1908|02|10|df=yes}} |birth_place=Marathos, Greece |death_date={{Death date|1985|07|20|df=yes}} |death_place=Athens, Greece |resting_place=Athens }}
'''Dimitiris Vlantas''' ({{langx|el|Δημήτρης Βλαντάς}}; 1908 – 1985) was the secretary of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in Crete from 1944 to 1946, and general in charge of the communist-led Democratic Army of Greece during the Grammos and Vitsi battles at the end of the Greek Civil War.
==Early life== Dimitris Vlantas, aka Dimitris Vlandas, was born in 1908 in Marathos, Crete.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-confluences-mediterranee-2018-2-page-211.htm#no285 | title=Hommages à Pierre Milza, Konstantin Mitsotakis et Kostas Vergopoulos | journal=Confluences Mediterranee | date=26 June 2018 | volume=105 | issue=2 | pages=211–219 | last1=Chiclet | first1=Christophe | doi=10.3917/come.105.0211 | doi-access=free }}</ref> From a young age, he joined the Communist Youth of Greece (OKNE).In 1924 he entered the central committee of the OKNE and in 1932 enters its politburo.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite journal | url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/mat_0769-3206_1986_num_6_1_401417 | title=Dimitris Vlandas 1908-1985 | first=Ilios | last=Yannakakis | journal= Matériaux pour l'histoire de notre temps | year=1986 | volume=6 | page=23-25 | doi=10.3406/mat.1986.401417 | access-date=2024-07-03 |url-status=live | archive-url=https://archive.today/20240703182958/https://www.persee.fr/doc/mat_0769-3206_1986_num_6_1_401417 | archive-date=2024-07-03 | language=fr}}</ref>
==Political activity in Greece== Having been spotted by Nikos Zachariadis he joined a select number of high potential officials. In 1936, the Ioannis Metaxas regime outlawed the Communist Party of Greece and Dimitris Vlantas was imprisoned at Nafplio.<ref name="auto1"/> He escaped jail in 1940.
In 1947 he became a member of the Communist Party of Greece's Politburo. In January 1948 he was named Agriculture minister in the communist-led Provisional Democratic Government during the Greek Civil War.<ref>{{Cite journal | url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/greece/free-greece.pdf | title=For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy! | date=1948-01-01 | journal=Organ of the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties | location=Belgrade | access-date=2024-07-03 | volume=1 | issue=4 | via=www.marxists.org | url-status=live | archive-url=https://archive.today/20240703183810/https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/greece/free-greece.pdf | archive-date=2024-07-03}}</ref>
==Civil War==
During the last phase of the civil war, Zachariadis and Vlantas regrouped the remaining forces in the strongholds of Grammos and Vitsi, commanded by Dimitris Vlantas.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/stalin/meet4.htm|title=Enver Hoxha: 'With Stalin - Memoirs from my Meetings with Stalin.' (1981)|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> This strategy was negatively viewed by Enver Hoxha <ref name="auto"/> as he tells in his 4th Meeting with Joseph Stalin where he mentions: "Comrade Vlantas held that the enemy would direct the main blow against Gramos and not against Vitsi, because 'Gramos is less fortified, as it is situated on the border with Albania, and the enemy, after defeating us there, will turn back to attack us at Vitsi, because it thinks it can annihilate us there, since it borders on Yugoslavia. After fighting at Gramos and inflicting great losses on the enemy, we shall manoeuvre with our forces from Grammos in order to attack the enemy forces at Vitsi from the rear."
Indeed the battle of Grammos, known as Operation Pyrsos proved to defeat.
==Post-war== After the war, he went in exile in Romania, first in Bucharest then in Rimnicu Vilcea. He lived there with his wife Eleni, his daughter Eugenia and his son Georges Vlandas, who is President of the European Commission Trade Union 'Union for Unity' (U4U) <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cesi.org/members/u4u/|title=U4U – Cesi|date=13 March 2021}}</ref> and lives in Brussels. His grandsons, Alexis Vlandas and Tim Vlandas, are both academics in France and the UK, respectively.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2089-2360|title = Alexis Vlandas (0000-0003-2089-2360)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4245-3932|title = Tim Vlandas (0000-0003-4245-3932)}}</ref> He fled Romania for France in 1967 where he was joined by his family in 1968. In 1983, he donated his archives to the Bibliothèque d'Histoire Contemporaine of the University of Nanterre.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bdic.fr/|title=la BDIC devient La contemporaine|website=www.bdic.fr}}</ref> They can be accessed through the Bibliothèque Nationale website.<ref>[https://ccfr.bnf.fr/portailccfr/servlet/ViewManager?menu=public_menu_view&record=rnbcd_fonds:FONDS:669&setCache=sourcetable&fromList=true Unknown]{{Dead link|date=February 2022 | fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *War diaries 1947-1949 [https://www.skroutz.gr/books/a.68417.vlantas-dimitris.html Δημήτρης Βλαντάς - Όλα τα Βιβλία - Skroutz.gr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191225223044/https://www.skroutz.gr/books/a.68417.vlantas-dimitris.html |date=2019-12-25 }} *Vlandas Archive at the Bibliothèque Nationale website [https://ccfr.bnf.fr/portailccfr/servlet/ViewManager?menu=public_menu_view&record=rnbcd_fonds:FONDS:669&setCache=sourcetable&fromList=true ]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlantas, Dimitris}} Category:1908 births Category:1985 deaths Category:People from Heraklion (regional unit) Category:International Lenin School alumni Category:Democratic Army of Greece personnel Category:Exiles of the Greek Civil War Category:Politicians from Heraklion Category:Communist Party of Greece politicians Category:Prisoners and detainees of Greece Category:Escapees from Greek detention Category:National Liberation Front (Greece) members Category:Greek expatriates in Romania Category:Greek expatriates in France Category:Crete in World War II