Giannis Lainas
"Partisan Violence in the Balkans during the Second World War."
Giannis Lainas is a PhD candidate at UCD's School of History. His research project delves into the intricate web of the transnational causes and dynamics surrounding partisan political violence during World War II (WWII) in Greece and Yugoslavia. It seeks to uncover the complex connections between local, social, cultural, and political factors, emphasising the impact of pan-European contexts and experiences. It challenges the prevailing historiographical norms that often oversimplify the complexities of wartime societies into rigid binary categories and aspires to connect Balkan history with broader historical debates.
This study is driven by the hypothesis that a confluence of historical events, from the Great War, the interwar crises, the Great Depression, the ideological struggles within the USSR/Comintern, and the Spanish Civil War, had a profound impact on Balkan societies and communist’s mental maps through the Comintern matrix. These experiences, coupled with the unique circumstances of WWII, contributed to the formation of distinct regional variations of “extremely violent societies” and, thus, to outbreaks of partisan political violence. This research endeavours to transcend traditional categorisations and move beyond a nation-centric perspective. Through a transnational case study approach and the framework of histoire croisée, it aims to unravel the multifaceted dynamics of partisan violence by examining intersecting viewpoints and the twisted, multi-causal factors shaping social and political landscapes.
By drawing from disciplines such as social history, Soviet studies, and political violence, this research seeks to present a holistic understanding of partisan violence during WWII in Greece and Yugoslavia, contributing to ongoing discussions about civil war, revolution, and historical agency in a cataclysmic setting.
E-mail: ioannis.lainas@ucdconnect.ie
PhD Supervisor: (opens in a new window)Prof. Robert Gerwarth
Academic Achievements:
2021: MA in History, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London.
2020: MA in Modern and Contemporary History, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens.
2018: BA in Political Science and History, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens.
Research Interests: Resistance Movements, Civil Wars, European History
Time Period: 20th Century
Publications:
(in Greek) “The Western Allies and the Partisans: The Conflict Between Old and New in Yugoslavia during World War II,” Diachronia 5 (2022): 140-147.
“Review of Before Tito. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia During the Great Purge (1936-1940) by Stefan Gužvica,” Europe-Asia Studies 74,no.3 (2022): 510-511.
“Terror or errors? Form the socialist narrative to the post-Cold War era,” Slovo 35, no. 1 (2022).