A Critical Dictionary
Edited by Paschalis
M. Kitromilides and
Constantinos
Tsoukalas
770 pp. The
Belknap Press, Harvard University Press. 2021
ISBN
9780674987432
Reviewed by James Karas
The uprising
that started in the Peloponnese in March 1821 and nine years later resulted in
the establishment of a free Greek state is the most pivotal event in the
history of the nation. Greek tenacity, incredible sacrifices, philhellenic
fervour, Ottoman atrocities and, finally, foreign intervention resulted in the
miracle of Greek independence in the face of incredible odds.
It was the first
new nation to be created in 19th century Europe. It happened despite
the initial and fervent opposition of the European powers who found it unwelcome
and highly disturbing. For the Greeks it is part history, part mythology and
the creator of the modern nation. Historical facts mixed with legends and myths
over 200 years define the Greek nation, the patriotism of its people and to a
large extent the Greek character.
Paschalis Kitromilides
and Constantinos Tsoukalas, the editors of The Greek Revolution,
have undertaken to provide extensive information on a broad range of topics
pertaining to the war of independence. They wanted the topics that are covered
by the writers to examine their subjects and make room for the reader to “use
the topics covered as a foundation and entry into the event.” They want to give
us reliable information and critical evaluation in an easily accessible
dictionary form.
The editors are
both professors emeriti of the University of Athens, Kitromilides of Political
Science and Tsoukalas of Sociology. They have engaged the services of 39
scholars in various fields to write essays on the topics that the editors chose,
and the hefty tome contains detailed information about unexpected topics that
can usually be found in a book that has adopted the form of a dictionary. As
such this is not a narrative history of The Greek War of Independence but a
gold mine of information about some obvious and some unexpected subjects.
Space will not
permit me to comment even on a reasonable number let alone all of the essays. The
book covers the fundamentals of a revolution: warfare, politics, civil war,
diplomacy and eventually independence. It begins with the the situation in the
Balkans, the Greeks of the Diaspora and the homeland, all within the the world
of the Ottoman Empire.
Some essays are
less comprehensible to the general reader than others. Professor Vaso Seirinidou’s
essay on Communities begins as follows: “The Greek Revolution established new
contexts for the historical study of the experience of Greeks within structures
of communities.” She gives two approaches to the historiographic view of
communities which would be of interest to specialists and then tells us that
her “essay offers a critical approach to this historiographic “antinomy” by
examining various versions of the phenomenon.” Her essay would do well in a
peer-reviewed academic journal, but it is hard to follow in a book like The
Greek Revolution.
We are led
through the Forms of Resistance of the occupied Greeks and the organization of
Secret Societies especially the famous and indispensable Philiki Etaireia (The
Society of Friends) which played a pivotal role in the organization of the
uprising.
In Events and
Places, the authors examine in alphabetical order the occurrences in 15 areas
from the Aegean Islands to Asia Minor, Cyprus, Macedonia, Missolonghi Navarino,
Rumeli and Samos. Katerina Galani and Gelina Harlaftis inform us that the
Aegean and Ionian Seas islands contributed about six hundred vessels to the war
effort. They correct a number of misconceptions or omissions about the
contribution of the islands in areas like finance, organization and commercial
and economic damage to the Ottomans. A good, narrative story of successes and
setbacks on the seas.
In some places
like Athens, Cyprus and Macedonia relatively little happens as compared to the
dramatic events in Chios, Morea, Navarino and Rumeli. Robert Holland puts the
great naval battle of Navarino in its international and diplomatic context. The
British, French and Russian navies under Admiral Codrington destroyed a large
Turkish-Egyptian navy under questionable authority. The Admiral was in fact disciplined
but in the event the battle quickened and almost guaranteed the creation of an
independent Greek state.
The second half
of the book zeroes in on topics that are glanced at in general histories but
not necessarily with the focus used in this book. They also include essays
about the Persons involved, including Clergy, Civilian Leaders, Diplomats,
Intellectuals, Military Leaders and Women.
Phokion Kotzageorgis, Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary
History, Folklore, and Social Anthropology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
tries to give a balanced view of the involvement of the clergy in the war. He
points out that Patriarch Gregory V’s excommunication of Alexandros Ypsilantis
and his vicious encyclical against the rebels at the start of the uprising had
more to do with solicitude for the Greeks of Constantinople than fidelity to
the Sultan.
Stavros Th. Anestidis of the Centre for
Asia Minor Studies, in his essay on events in Constantinople takes a similar
view. He suggests that the Patriarch had to deal with an “unrelenting blackmail.
The lives of hundreds of thousands of Greek citizens were at imminent risk” in
Constantinople. He states that the Patriarch feared that he “might jeopardize the
very survival of the Christian population.”
Kotzageorgis praises Archbishop Germanos of Old Patras for his diplomatic ability but
adds the “beyond whatever truth or fiction is concealed behind the doxology on
the blessing of the revolutionaries’ weapons by Germanos in the Aghia Lavra
monastery at Kalavryta, on March 25, 2821….[he] ….was an energetic member of
the prelate clergy.” Is that supposed to mean that there is or there may be
truth in the tradition that Germanos was at Aghia Lavra on March 25? I thought that
the legend, indeed myth, that the revolution started on March 25, 1821 has no
basis in fact. It is a myth that the church still promotes insisting that the
War of Independence began on an important religious holiday and that it was a united
effort of clergy and laity,
Kotzageorgis sets out the two diametrically opposed views. First, that
the church was opposed to the revolution and it was dragged into it. Second,
the church “wholeheartedly participated in the struggle or even played a leading
role.” He tries to steer a middle, more nuanced role but I doubt that he will
convince people to change sides on the argument.
Professor Lucien Frary of Rider University engages in the subject in his
essay on The Orthodox Church. He argues that the Orthodox Church “was not the
spearhead of a precocious national project.” No doubt religion was an essential
element in Greek society and it “was at the core of the tragic cycle of
retaliation and reprisal that characterized the War of Independence.” In the
Peloponnese, according to Frary, the Greek insurrection erupted under the
leadership of the Orthodox hierarchy. Then he adds that on the feast of the
Annunciation, “Archbishop Germanos raised a banner with the cross on it at the
Monastery of Agia Lavra and led a group of armed rebels to Patras, singing
psalms and promising salvation to those who fall in battle against the
Muslims.”
He cites George Finlay’s A History of Greece, vol 4, page 145 and
Charles Frazee’s The Orthodox Church and Independent Greece, to support
his assertion. The reference to Finlay is wrong but one can find it in volume
6. Finlay states that the opinion that the revolution was proclaimed at Aghia
Lavra is not correct. He writes of the legend of the start of the revolution
that has been assumed to be historical. It clearly is not and I have no idea
why Frary relies for support from an author who holds the opposite view. I have
not been able to check the reference to Frazee.
The publication
of The Greek Revolution coincides with the 200th
anniversary of the spontaneous uprising in the Peloponnese in March of 1821.
The celebration of the anniversary was planned for years and numerous books
have been published in Greece and elsewhere to mark the occasion. The
coronavirus pandemic threw a huge monkey wrench into the preparations, but it did not go unnoticed. All parades and celebratory events
were cancelled except for one in Athens. It was a stunning event televised
around the world.
The blue and
white colours of Greece could be seen around the world and Greeks everywhere
looked with pride at the international bow to the motherland. The Greek Revolution has two chapters
on previous anniversaries with a glance at the 200th. The chapters
were written before the 2021 anniversary but also before the current pandemic
ruined everything. Anniversaries are statements about the the people’s view of
the past and are a reflection of the national psyche of the present. Patriotism
is a fundamental element of almost all Greeks and even more acutely felt in
Greeks of the Diaspora. For that reason I shall comment extensively on the essays
about Anniversaries.
Professor Gonda
Van Steen, the Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language
and Literature and the Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's
College London, has a fascinating chapter on Anniversaries and writes about the
50th, 100th and 150th anniversaries of the
breakout of the Revolution. Each observance was significantly different from
the others and says a great deal about the state of the Greek nation at the
time.
March 25th
was adopted as the date of the commencement of the revolution in 1838 to
coincide with an event that never happened (the imaginary start of the
revolution at Kalavryta with Archbishop Germanos) and the religious holiday of
The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. She quotes Professor Thomas Gallant as
expressing the ideology of the 1871 jubilee as “the wedding of Orthodoxy to the
Revolution.”
She writes that
statues were erected of Rhigas Feraios Patriarch Gregory V and Adamantios
Koraes representing a fusion of antiquity, Byzantinism and the modern era. The
Patriarch condemned and excommunicated the revolutionaries in the strongest language,
but it was not enough for the Turks who hanged him anyway. Fifty years after
the event the Greek nation went into partnership with the church and recognized
its nation-building even if it meant relying on some unhistorical events.
In 1871, Van
Steen tells us, the new nation espoused the patriotic and expansionist ambition
of the Great Idea (Megali Idea) and a people who were heirs of the continuation
of classical and Byzantine civilization.
The 100th
anniversary in 1921 took place as the occupation of Smyrna by Greece began to
unravel. It was a muted affair, according to Van Steen, but Eleftherios
Venizelos, who had instigated the Asia Minor adventure, turned the anniversary
into “the Venizelist production of the leader’s personal triumph” that “marked
the public euphoria about the Greeks’ military, territorial and diplomatic
gains.” Venizelos had been voted out of office in November 1920.
In March 1921
the result of the Asia Minor war was unknown and hopes were high that there
would be glorious victories and the regaining of land in Turkey including
Constantinople. The big celebrations were therefore postponed to 1930, the 100th
anniversary of the founding of the Geek nation. By then what became known as
the Asia Minor Catastrophe had occurred, Greece was humiliated, refugees had
flooded the country and the patriotic ambitions of the Great Idea were dead and
buried.
The 150th
anniversary in 1971 was celebrated during the military dictatorship of the
junta (1967-1974). It was a “celebration” of Greece’s military power with great
emphasis on patriotism, as usual, but the key element was sacrifice for the
motherland, war on communists and communism and a perversion of history to suit
junta’s ideology. It all depended on how history was taught and viewed. The
junta and its view of Greek history had its detractors, but it also had supporters
in all walks of Greek life.
In the final
chapter, Symbolic Commemorations and Cultural Affiliations, Professor Tsoukalas
takes a synoptic view of The Greek War of Independence in its
political and cultural aspects in early 19th century Europe and
projects them to the then upcoming 200th anniversary. He notes that
Greece is enduring through an unprecedent deep crisis and “its future is
hanging by a thin thread” and, he states, historical circumstances are conspiring
to deprive Greeks of celebrating the 200th anniversary. He is
referring to the economic crisis of the last ten years and attaches no blame on
Greece. It is a European affair. True but within the European affair Greece gained
the status in the acronym PIGS which is made up of the initials of the worst-run
European countries. The financial crisis
may have been exacerbated by currents beyond its control, but the huge loans incurred
by successive Greek governments were hardly the fault of others.
Be that as it
may Tsoukalas casts a long-range view of the political and cultural context of
the revolution and expresses the hope that for Greece the crisis may prove to
be cathartic. He sees a moral debt to Greece by Europe not just for the
classical past but for the significant contribution to 19th century
experience through the revolution and the cultural effects of Philhellenism. It
is a grand vision but then came the coronavirus, Covid-19 and the devastating pandemic.
Tsoukalas’s
vision is worth pursuing and The Greek Revolution provides
information, controversy, and enough food for thought to sustain us for a long
time. But, unfortunately, for most of us, not until the next big anniversary.
But we will be here for the 201st and will catch up on what we did not do
for the 200th.
