Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths
| Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths Πανελλήνιος Ένωσις Αγωνιζόμενων Νέων Panellínios Énosis Agonizómenon Néon |
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|---|---|
| Participant in the Greek Resistance | |
| Active | 1941-1944 |
| Ideology | Greek nationalism, Republicanism, Venizelism, Liberalism, Anticommunism, Antifascism |
| Leaders | Kostas Perrikos, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos |
| Area of operations | Athens |
| Allies | EDES, EKKA, RAN, SOE, Greek government in exile |
| Opponents | Royal Italian Army, German Army, Kingdom of Bulgaria, Collaborationist government, Security Battalions, EAM/ELAS |
The Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths (Greek: Πανελλήνιος Ένωσις Αγωνιζόμενων Νέων, Panellínios Énosis Agonizómenon Néon, PEAN, ΠΕΑΝ) was a Greek Resistance organization during the Axis Occupation of Greece in the Second World War. The organization was concentrated in the areas of Athens and Piraeus, and although it never expanded to become a wider movement, it was one of the most active of the multitude of urban resistance groups that sprung up during the Occupation, and one of the first to carry out active resistance, in the form of bombings.
The organization was founded in October 1941 by a Chiot Air Force Lieutenant, Kostas Perrikos. Perrikos was a fervent Republican who had been dismissed from the Air Force after the failed Venizelist coup attempt in March 1935. In June 1941, he was a founding member of the "Army of Enslaved Victors" (Στρατιά Σκλαβωμένων Νικητών, SSN), one of the first resistance groups to spring up after Greece was overrun by the Germans in April 1941. However, Perrikos was dissatisfied by the SSN's neutrality on the crucial issue of the post-war regime (monarchy or republic), and together with a number of others, split off to form the PEAN. The founding members of PEAN were, aside from Perrikos, lawyer Athanasios Dimitrios Skouras, who was chosen as president of the Governing Commission, the lawyers Ioannis Katevatis and Georgios Alexiadis, the merchant Dionysios Papavasilopoulos, the doctor Nikolaos Ailianos and Konstantinos Eleftheriadis. Some of them were members of Panagiotis Kanellopoulos' National Unionist Party, and Kanellopoulos himself would become the group's political mentor. Through Kanellopoulos, PEAN would develop close cooperation with another organization, the "Sacred Brigade" (Ιερά Ταξιαρχία, ΙΤ).
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