Komninos Pyromaglou

Komninos Pyromaglou (Greek: Κομνηνός Πυρομάγλου; 1899 – 15 December 1980), was a Greek teacher and politician, and one of the driving forces behind the foundation of the National Republican Greek League (EDES), the second-largest Resistance organization in Axis-occupied Greece during World War II. Drifting to the Left after the war, he became elected to Parliament and wrote extensively on his experiences during the Occupation and the Resistance.

He was born in the village of Plaka in Lemnos in 1899. After studying French literature at the Sorbonne, he taught at the Anargyreio School in Spetses from 1931 to 1932, at the Modern Greek Institute in Paris from 1932 to 1934, and in the Athens Experimental School until 1938. In 1936, with the establishment of the dictatorial Metaxas Regime, he became chairman of the United Anti-Dictatorial Front and secretary of the Parties' Initiative against the regime. For this he was sent by the regime to internal exile to Sikinos. Following his release, he fled to France, where he met the exiled Venizelist and republican leader, General Nikolaos Plastiras.

In April–May 1941, Greece was overrun by German forces, and the country was occupied by the Germans, the Italians and the Bulgarians. Soon, resistance movements began to emerge, the principal one being the National Liberation Front (Greek: Εθνικό Απελευθερωτικό Μέτωπο, Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo, EAM). On 9 September, the National Republican Greek League was founded with funding from the British, proclaiming the exiled and completely unaware Plastiras as its president. On the same day however, Pyromaglou left for Greece as Plastiras' representative. After arriving in Athens on September 23, he quickly established contact with officers and politicians. Napoleon Zervas then convinced him to join EDES, which was promptly reformed in October, with Pyromaglou as its General Secretary, at the head of a five-man Executive Committee.

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