Three out of four Greeks (74.5%) believe that there should be a criminal investigation into the crimes committed by the Communist regimes, similar to the trials into the crimes of Nazism that took place immediately after the end of World War II.
The results of the survey by the University of Macedonia on behalf of news site iefimerida.gr, add further fuel to the controversy caused by the Greek government’s decision to abstain from the high-level EU conference in Estonia on the crimes commited by Communist regimes.
The survey also shows that the overwhelming majority of Greeks (96%) say that the Nazi regime did not respect human freedom and dignity, and they also believe (98.5%), that it was directly responsible for millions of deaths.
On the other hand, three out of four respondents (76%) replied that Stalin’s Soviet Union did not respect human freedom and dignity; 78.5% believe that Stalinism caused millions of deaths, while a significant percentage (72.5%) share the view that other communist regimes are also responsible for the violent deaths of millions of people.
When asked to compare Nazi or Fascist regimes with Communist regimes, one in three (33%) replied that that two are very similar to each other, while 46% say they have similarities but also differences. See table below:
An interesting finding is that the majority of participants seem to be unaware of important aspects of modern European history.
When asked the question, “if in the year 1940, Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union were allies or in war,” an impressive 57.5% replied that the two states were at war, and only 29% replied correctly.
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