Aris Velouchiotis

Athanasios Klaras Αθανάσιος Κλάρας
In Athens after the Liberation
Born	(1905-08-27)August 27, 1905 Lamia, Greece
Died	June 16, 1945(1945-06-16) (aged 39) Mesounta, Arta, Greece
Other names	Aris Velouchiotis
Organization	National Liberation Front Greek People's Liberation Army
Political party	Communist Party of Greece

Ares or Aris Velouchiotis (Greek: Άρης Βελουχιώτης), the nom de guerre of Athanasios (Thanasis) Klaras (Latinised Claras) (Greek: Αθανάσιος Κλάρας, August 27, 1905 – June 16, 1945), was the most prominent leader and chief instigator of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), the military branch of the National Liberation Front (EAM), which was the major resistance organization in occupied Greece from 1942 to 1945. Aris Velouchiotis was appointed military leader of ELAS at the beginning of the Resistance Movement, by the EAM leadership, being at the same time a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece.

Athanasios Klaras was born in Lamia, Greece in 1905, in a family of the upper urban class. His father was a well-known lawyer in the area. As a youth, he studied for a while as a journalist and later attended and graduated with enough effort (due to a vagrant youth) from the Geoponic School of Larissa. He participated in the leftist and antimilitary movement and later became a member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). During the 20s and 30s he was jailed several times for several offenses. During the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship (1936–1941), he was arrested also for his communist ideas and jailed in Aegina prison. He was tortured and there are rumors that since then he had problems with his sexual ability. During his trial he escaped (one of his many escapes), but he was arrested again in 1939 and was sent to Corfu prison. He remained there until he signed a "statement of renouncement" of the Communist Party, a very humiliating act for a communist at the time.