Propaganda, Mobilisation, and Repression in Greece

We study how clandestine communist radio propaganda shaped mobilisation, repression, and electoral outcomes in Greece during the Cold War. Exposure to the broadcasts increased the legal Left’s (EDA) vote share in 1958 by about 1.5--2.5 percentage points (~16% of its mean). The Left’s gains were met with a coordinated state campaign of arrests, intimidation, and assaults ahead of the 1961 election: the probability of at least one incident in a municipality rose by roughly 12.8 percentage points, with repression concentrated in actions by police and auxiliary paramilitary groups. Repression reduced subsequent Left vote share by about 1.2 percentage points and left a durable footprint in institutional trust and participation. Together, these results show how propaganda‐induced mobilisation can provoke coercive backlash within competitive elections, with persistent democratic costs.