Theodoros Pangalos

Theodoros Pangalos (Greek: Θεόδωρος Πάγκαλος, romanized: Theódoros Pángalos; 11 January 1878 – 26 February 1952) was a Greek general, politician and dictator, who ruled Greece from 24 June 1925 to 22 August 1926. A distinguished staff officer and an ardent Venizelist and anti-royalist, Pangalos participated in the Goudi coup in 1909, served with distinction in the Balkan Wars, Macedonian front of World War I, and the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), and played a leading role in the September 1922 revolt that deposed King Constantine I and in the establishment of the Second Hellenic Republic. In June 1925 Pangalos staged a bloodless coup d'état, and his assumption of power was recognized by the National Assembly which named him prime minister. As a "constitutional dictator" he ruled the country until his overthrow in August 1926. From April 1926 until his deposition, he had also occupied the office of President of the Republic.

In his capacity as dictator, his government purged and imprisoned prominent Venizelist, anti-Venizelist and communist politicians and figures, imposed economic austerity measures, attempted to devalue the drachma by half and invested in agricultural projects. Individual freedoms were significantly abridged, the Hellenic Parliament was dissolved in September of 1925, and morality laws were enforced, in manners similar to Fascist Italy and the Spanish Directorate. Foreign policy was characterised by revanchism due to Pangalos' hatred for the Treaty of Lausanne, which he'd tried to avert as the commander of the Army of the Evros; he briefly led an invasion of Bulgaria known as the War of the Stray Dog and attempted to forge an alliance with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy against Turkey. To that end, a treaty with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for preparations of war against Turkey was criticised as too concessionary, and with his political and financial support on the decline, a successful counter-coup by Georgios Kondylis overthrew him and imprisoned him until 1928.

Pangalos withdrew from public life for a while, but remained active in the Venizelist military circles. He was imprisoned from 1930 to 1932 on charges of plotting against the government of Eleftherios Venizelos, despite his own Venizelist beliefs. During the Axis occupation of Greece (1941–1945), Pangalos and military officers close to him played a role in the establishment of the Security Battalions. He was touted by occupational forces as a potential Prime Minister of the Hellenic State following the fall of Athens, but Georgios Tsolakoglou was chosen instead. He was widely suspected of collaboration with the Germans and was arrested by the first post-war government of Georgios Papandreou in 1944. Cleared by a postwar court the next year, he ran unsuccessfully for political office and died in 1952.