On this day, on November 17, 1973, the student-led Athens Polytechnic Uprising was violently brought to an end by the military junta, which had been ruling Greece since 1967.
The military coup of 1967 resulted in a long period of fear, distrust, and encroachment of personal and political rights. By the first years of the 1970s, the dictatorship had succeeded in stabilizing its position; it used violence and persecutions to suppress the action of opposition organizations and had managed to actually isolate former politicians.
Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to define its future course. Resistance to the military regime came in various forms, in several high-profile individual actions as well as in underground resistance group acts. It came from inside Greece as well as from abroad, through the nation’s active Diaspora, and the solidarity groups that flourished around the world, demanding the restoration of Democracy in the country of its birth.
Years earlier, on March 28, 1969, Greek poet and diplomat, George Seferis, publicly opposed the authoritarian rule of the junta, and made the following statement to the BBC World Service: "Everyone has been taught and knows by now that in the case of dictatorial regimes the beginning may seem easy, but tragedy awaits, inevitably, in the end. The drama of this ending torments us, consciously or unconsciously — as in the immemorial choruses of Aeschylus. The longer the anomaly remains, the more the evil grows […] This anomaly must stop. It is a national imperative."
Given the fact that a violent overthrow of the dictatorship was not very probable, despite certain individual resistance activities, the prospective “controlled liberalization” of the regime was the aim of the revolutionary government members and of political personalities. Under these circumstances, students constituted the only social environment, where mass anti-dictatorial movements could take place. More specifically, the leading manifestation of resistance was the uprising at the National Technical University of Athens (widely known as Polytechnic School) in November 1973, in a period that the regime intensified its efforts of liberalization.
Starting November 15, 1973 thousands of students occupied the Polytechnic School and transmitted a message of resistance against the military junta, through the legendary radio station they had set up. Their main demand-slogan was “Bread- Education- Liberty”.
In the early hours of November 17, the Regime sent a tank to crash through the Polytechnic University gates; reports indicate that at least 24 civilians were killed, while dozens more were injured. Despite this tragic epilogue, the uprising triggered a series of events that brought the Regime of the Colonels - this “anomaly” in Seferis’ words - to an end on July 24, 1974. Thus, the Athens Polytechnic Uprising became a nationwide outcry against the dictatorship, a source of inspiration for freedom, and a point of reference for modern Greek history.
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Notes: GNA/2020
The military coup of 1967 resulted in a long period of fear, distrust, and encroachment of personal and political rights. By the first years of the 1970s, the dictatorship had succeeded in stabilizing its position; it used violence and persecutions to suppress the action of opposition organizations and had managed to actually isolate former politicians.
Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to define its future course. Resistance to the military regime came in various forms, in several high-profile individual actions as well as in underground resistance group acts. It came from inside Greece as well as from abroad, through the nation’s active Diaspora, and the solidarity groups that flourished around the world, demanding the restoration of Democracy in the country of its birth.
Years earlier, on March 28, 1969, Greek poet and diplomat, George Seferis, publicly opposed the authoritarian rule of the junta, and made the following statement to the BBC World Service: "Everyone has been taught and knows by now that in the case of dictatorial regimes the beginning may seem easy, but tragedy awaits, inevitably, in the end. The drama of this ending torments us, consciously or unconsciously — as in the immemorial choruses of Aeschylus. The longer the anomaly remains, the more the evil grows […] This anomaly must stop. It is a national imperative."
Given the fact that a violent overthrow of the dictatorship was not very probable, despite certain individual resistance activities, the prospective “controlled liberalization” of the regime was the aim of the revolutionary government members and of political personalities. Under these circumstances, students constituted the only social environment, where mass anti-dictatorial movements could take place. More specifically, the leading manifestation of resistance was the uprising at the National Technical University of Athens (widely known as Polytechnic School) in November 1973, in a period that the regime intensified its efforts of liberalization.
Starting November 15, 1973 thousands of students occupied the Polytechnic School and transmitted a message of resistance against the military junta, through the legendary radio station they had set up. Their main demand-slogan was “Bread- Education- Liberty”.
In the early hours of November 17, the Regime sent a tank to crash through the Polytechnic University gates; reports indicate that at least 24 civilians were killed, while dozens more were injured. Despite this tragic epilogue, the uprising triggered a series of events that brought the Regime of the Colonels - this “anomaly” in Seferis’ words - to an end on July 24, 1974. Thus, the Athens Polytechnic Uprising became a nationwide outcry against the dictatorship, a source of inspiration for freedom, and a point of reference for modern Greek history.
_____
Notes: GNA/2020
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