Metaxas Dictatorship Research Articles

The Dictator's Photo Albums: Photography under the Metaxas Dictatorship

The Dictator's Photo Albums: Private and Public Photographs in the Metaxas-Dictatorship The Greek authoritarian «Fourth of August Regime» (1936–1941) focussed in its propaganda on promoting the dictator Ioannis Metaxas as father, grandfather and «First peasant» and while in foreign policy the close ties to the Balkan Entente was advertised, the transfer of ideas from the European fascist regimes was negated. By examining 57 photo albums preserved today in the Hellenic Parliament Archives the article discusses photo albums as a source for the interpretation of the Metaxas dictatorship and as a source for the history of photography in Greece. It examines the private photo album aesthetics and its use in three official brochures with an exceptional high amount of photographs: Fourth of August 1936–1938, Fourth of August 1938–1939 and Four Years of Government by I. Metaxas, 1936–1940. The article's main argument is, that due to their photo album aesthetic the propaganda brochures were invoking the intimacy of a family album.

Change and Continuity: Comparing the Metaxas Dictatorship and the Colonels' Junta in Greece

A comparison between the two dictatorships of Greece in the twentieth century (the 4th of August regime of 1936–41 and the Colonels' dictatorship of 1967–74) cannot be fruitful if it is static. One cannot understand the nature of these two regimes without studying the years that separated them. This period oscillated between Venizelism and anti-Venizelism and was characterized by the ideological struggle between capitalism and communism of the Cold War prior to the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974. A look at these years reveals interesting insights into the legacies and the continuities of Greek society in the twentieth century.

Sociologin i Grekland

Sociology in Greece from 1907 to the Metaxas dictatorship (1936–40) and the Second World War This paper focuses on pre-conditions for sociology to develop and the subject matters of emerging sociology in Greece. Pre-conditions were at hand but without continuity, and the opportunity for sociology to develop was lost. Sociology is said to have started in 1907 with the book The Social Question by Georgos Skliros. He presented sociology and Marxism as identical and deals with Greek society and (among other things) the language issue, all of which triggered off a vibrant debate. Sociological associations and journals were started. However, the initially reformist perspective of social science was gradually replaced by an approach that was more socio-philosophical, influenced by classical sociology, German sociology in particular. This turn was associated with the institutionalization of sociology at the universities during the 1920’s. The Metaxas dictatorship in 1936 put a stop to any further development of sociology for a long time.

Neither Fascist nor Authoritarian: The 4th of August Regime in Greece (1936-1941) and the Dynamics of Fascistisation in 1930s Europe

The 4th of August regime in Greece under Ioannis Metaxas has long been treated by theories of ‘generic fascism’ as a minor example of authoritarianism or at most a case of failed fascism. This derives from the ideas that the Metaxas dictatorship did not originate from any original mass ‘fascist’ movement, lacked a genuinely fascist revolutionary ideological core and its figurehead came from a deeply conservative-military background. In addition, the regime balanced the introduction ‘from above’ of certain ‘fascist’ elements (inspired by the regimes in Germany, Italy and Portugal) with a pro-British foreign policy and a strong deference to both the Crown and the church/religion. Nevertheless, in this chapter, I argue that the 4th of August regime should be relocated firmly within the terrain of fascism studies. The establishment and consolidation of the regime in Greece reflected a much wider process of political and ideological convergence and hybridisation between anti-democratic/anti-liberal/anti-socialist conservative forces, on the one hand, and radical rightwing/fascist politics, on the other. It proved highly receptive to specific fascist themes and experiments (such as the single youth organisation, called EON), which it transplanted enthusiastically into its own hybrid of ‘radicalised’ conservatism. Although far less ideologically ‘revolutionary’ compared to Italian Fascism or German National Socialism, the 4th of August regime’s radicalisation between 1936 and 1941 marked a fundamental departure from conventional conservative-authoritarian politics in a direction charted by the broader fascist experience in Europe.

A modern poet reads ancient war texts: politics, life and death in George Seferis’ ‘The Last Day’

It has been argued that ‘The Last Day’, written during the Metaxas dictatorship and while the Second World War was looming on the horizon, constitutes Seferis’ answer to the exhausted model of the ‘national poet’. The aim of this article is to examine in detail the poem’s allusions to ancient war texts, in order to deal with what stood at the heart of this answer, namely the key concept of the ‘historical poet’. Of prime importance will be issues of language and gender raised by the poem, as well as the historical context of its writing and reception.

Folk Dance in Political Rhythms

In Greece, text, melody and movement have had a long creative history and a close relationship with the people. This trilogy has often been used as an important element in the struggle for freedom, or resistance, whether in the songs of the Klepfts, or in the various step combinations of the refugees from Asia Minor. The Metaxas dictatorship, for instance, in the late 1930s, banned many singers and texts of songs of the so-called rebetika, yet also reinforced the idea of folk tradition. From April 1967 until November 1974, the colonels' junta also banned performances of certain ancient and other plays because of their political content. The songs of Theodorakis, of Loizos landed the composers in exile, which was also the fate of other artists who opposed the regime, such as the famous actresses Melina Merkouri and Irene Pappas. Tradition flourished after a period of silence that began in the movement for a popular music of protest against the junta. Under the dictatorship, this trilogy of text, melody, and movement became a medium of resistance.

The Metaxas Dictatorship: Aspects of Greece 1936-1940 (review)

The Metaxas Dictatorship: Aspects of Greece 1936-1940 (review)

A First Balance Sheet of the Greek Socialist Experiment

Michel Raptis (born 1911) is a well known Greek journalist and author, working for the prestigious liberal quality daily newspapers Ta Nea and To Vima. He was one of the founders of the Greek communist opposition in the 1930s. After his imprisonment by the Metaxas dictatorship in 1936, he went into exile in France. He was one of the founders of the Trotskyist Fourth International in 1938 and its secretary—under the pseudonym of Pablo—between 1943 and 1961. He was very active in the European Resistance during World War II and in the support for the Algerian war of liberation. This and his advocacy of self management led to his break with the Fourth International. As the economic adviser to the Algerian president Ben Bella, he was the main architect of rural self management in that country (see “he Dossier de L'Autogestion en Algerie”, Autogestion, Paris, No. 3, 1967, special issue). Invited by the Allende government in Chile in 1972–1973, he published Revolution and Counter Revolution in Chile: a dossier o...

The Political and Diplomatic Background to the Metaxas Dictatorship, 1935-36

On 4 August 1936, King George II of Greece established a dictatorship under General John Metaxas. The reason given was to prevent 'communism'. This article attempts to explain the domestic policies and the international circumstances that enabled the king to establish the August 4th regime, as it was officially called. Before the dictatorship, the dominant domestic issue in Greek politics was whether the monarchy was absolute or subordinate to parliamentary prerogatives. When, in 1924, a republic was established by a coup and King George went into exile (1925), the constitutional issue became that of republicans versus royalists. The attempt to assassinate Liberal Party leader Eleftherios Venizelos in 1933, and the March Revolt by intransigent republican officers in 1935, both events occurring during a period of great economic distress, triggered a series of political moves which led to a coup by General George Kondylis, followed by a rigged 'plebiscite' and the forced 'restoration' of King George in November 1935. However, George's insecurity after his return made him turn to Metaxas, and in 1936 the alliance between them fused two separate currents, the absolutist tradition of the monar