The Files of Social and Political Beliefs

Event Details

GREEK HISTORY AND CULTURE SEMINARS:

LECTURE ON THE FILES OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL BELIEFS

Vangelis Karamanolakis, Associate Professor of Theory and History of Historiography and President of the Managing Committee of the Historical Archive of the University of Athens will present an online only lecture titled "Revisiting the Files of Social Beliefs" on Thursday, June 1st, at 7:00 pm. The lecture is part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

From the Metaxas dictatorship until the post-colonization period of 1974, the files of social and political beliefs played a mysterious and unsettling role in Greek history. Security forces created millions of files on citizens deemed "suspicious" due to their political beliefs. These files were necessary for obtaining certificates of social beliefs, which were required for public sector employment, university enrolment, driver's license issuance, and emigration. These meticulously compiled archival documents shed light on the extent of surveillance and control imposed on society. However, following the tragic events of 1989, when millions of files were burned by the Left-Right coalition government, many of these significant historical documents were lost to oblivion.

In his lecture, Mr. Karamanolakis will emphasize the importance of re-examining and re-evaluating these files and their contents to gain a better understanding of the history and social conditions of that time. He will highlight the role these files played in controlling and oppressing society, as well as their contribution to highlighting human resistance and the struggle for freedom.

Vangelis Karamanolakis, renowned for his studies in the history of historiography and the theory of history, has dedicated valuable time and effort to recover and analyse the history of these files, shedding light on the era of transnational surveillance in Greece. He has edited volumes on various topics, including the seven-year dictatorship (1967-1974), the historical paths of Greek youth in the 20th century, the relationship between Greek and French historiography in the 1940s, the brief post-colonization period (1974-1975), and the conceptualization of collective designations such as "Greek-Roman-Greek." His latest book, "The Unwanted Past: The Files of Social Ideas and Their Destruction in the 20th Century," published in 2019 by Themelio Publications, received a prize of the Academy of Athens. Currently, Karamanolakis is working on a new study titled "History in Exile: Marxist History in Greece through the Example of Yanis Kordatos."

Date: Thursday, 1 June 2023
Time: 7:00 pm
Platform: Facebook and YouTube streaming
Language: Greek