Manolis Glezos (Greek: Μανώλης Γλέζος; 9 September 1922 – 30 March 2020) was a Greek left-wing politician, journalist, author, and guerrilla fighter most famous for his role in the Greek Resistance during World War II. After the end of the war, Glezos became a journalist and edited the left-wing newspapers Rizospastis and I Avgi. As a politician, he was elected to the European Parliament twice (1984 and 2014) and served as a Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) at various points from 1951 to 2014, representing three constituencies. He also published six books. During the Axis occupation of Gree
Manolis Glezos (Greek: Μανώλης Γλέζος; 9 September 1922 – 30 March 2020) was a Greek left-wing politician, journalist, author, and guerrilla fighter most famous for his role in the Greek Resistance during World War II. After the end of the war, Glezos became a journalist and edited the left-wing newspapers Rizospastis and I Avgi. As a politician, he was elected to the European Parliament twice (1984 and 2014) and served as a Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) at various points from 1951 to 2014, representing three constituencies. He also published six books. During the Axis occupation of Greece, he and Lakis Santas took down the flag of Nazi Germany from the Acropolis. After the end of Axis occupation, his left-wing political beliefs and activism in the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) led to him being sentenced to death three times; his imprisonments and legal troubles were often the topic of international interest, until his permanent release in 1971 ended over 15 years of non-continuous imprisonment and exile. He was originally a member of the Communist Party of Greece and the United Democratic Left (EDA), but left the former in 1968 after the invasion of Czechoslovakia. After the restoration of…
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R.I.P Manolis
Early life and World War II Born in the village of Apiranthos, Naxos, Glezos moved to Athens in 1935 together with his family, where he finished high school. During his high school years in Athens, he also worked as a pharmacy employee. He was admitted to the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Studies (known today as the Athens University of Economics and Business) in 1940. In 1939, still a high school student, Glezos participated in the creation of an anti-fascist youth organization against the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese and the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas. At the onset of World War II, he volunteered to join the Hellenic Army in the Albanian front against Fascist Italy but was rejected because he was underage. Instead, he worked as a volunteer for the Hellenic Ministry of Economics. During the Axis occupation of Greece, he worked for the Hellenic Red Cross and the municipality of Athens, while actively involved in the Greek Resistance. According to popular tradition, on 27 April 1941 Konstantinos Koukidis was ordered to lower the Greek flag and raise the Nazi German flag. Koukidis allegedly lowered the flag and jumped from the Acropolis holding it, rather than raise the…
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R.I.P Manolis
Post-war period The end of World War II was not the end of Glezos' plight. On 3 March 1948, in the midst of the Greek Civil War, he was put to trial for his political convictions and sentenced to death multiple times by the national government. His death penalties were reduced to a life sentence in 1950. Even though he was still imprisoned, he was elected member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1951, under the flag of the United Democratic Left, also known as EDA (Ενιαία Δημοκρατική Αριστερά, ΕΔΑ). Upon his election, he went on a hunger strike demanding the release of his fellow EDA MPs that were imprisoned or exiled in the Greek islands. He ended his hunger strike upon the release of seven MPs from their exile. He was released from prison on 16 July 1954. On 5 December 1958, he was arrested again and convicted of espionage, which was the common pretext for the persecution of the supporters of the left during the Cold War. The Soviet Union issued a postage stamp depicting Glezos, to which the Greek government responded with a postage stamp depicting Imre Nagy. His release on 15 December 1962 was a result of…
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R.I.P Manolis
Since 1974 After the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, Glezos participated in the reviving of EDA. In the elections of October 1981 and June 1985, he was elected Member of the Greek Parliament, on a Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) ticket. In 1984 he was elected Member of the European Parliament, again on a PASOK ticket. He was the President of EDA from 1985 until 1989. In the meantime, in 1986, he withdrew from the Parliament, in order to try to implement a grassroots democracy experiment. He did so in the community of Aperathu, where he was elected as the President of the Community Council in 1986 elections. He then essentially abolished the privileges of the council, introducing a "constitution" and establishing a local assembly that had total control over the community administration. This model worked for several years, but in the long term the interest of the rest of his community wore off and the assembly was abandoned. Glezos remained the President until 1989. In the 2000 Greek legislative election he led the list of Synaspismos (in English Coalition) party of the radical left. In 2002, he formed the political group Active Citizens (which is part of Coalition…
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Non-political career
Apart from his political work, Glezos invented a system to prevent floods, combat erosion and preserve underground water, that works by the constructions of a series of very small dams that redirect water to aquifers. For his contributions to democracy, to geological sciences, and to linguistics he was pronounced honorary Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Patras (Department of Geology) in 1996, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Department of Civil Engineering) in 2001, of the National Technical University of Athens (School of Mining & Metallurgical Engineering) in 2003, and of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (School of Philosophy) in 2008.
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Death
On 30 March 2020, Glezos died of heart failure, at the age of 97. Alexis Tsipras, former Greek prime-minister, said, "He will remain for all eternity the symbol of a fighter who knew how to sacrifice himself for the people." The Russian president Vladimir Putin sent a condolence message to the Greek government, which included, inter alia, the following words: "To his Excellency, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. May you accept [my] deep condolences for the loss of Manolis Glezos, a brilliant political and social figure of Greece and a hero of the Greek Resistance at World War II. Manolis Glezos was a true friend of our country [...] He [also] greatly contributed, in person, in the struggle against the distortion of history. [...] With honour, Vladimir Putin. Moscow Kremlin, April 1st, 2020".
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Funeral
His funeral was held in the First Cemetery of Athens, in public expense on April 1, with only his family present, due to the restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Publications
Glezos wrote articles in Greek newspapers since 1942 and was the editor of the newspapers Rizospastis and I Avgi in the 1950s. He was awarded the International Award of Journalism in 1958, the Golden Medal Joliot-Curie of the World Peace Council in 1959, and the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963. He published six books in Greek:
The History of the Book (Η ιστορία του βιβλίου, 1974)
From Dictatorship to Democracy (Από τη Δικτατορία στη ∆ημοκρατία, 1974)
The Phenomenon of Alienation in the Language (Το φαινόμενο της αλλοτρίωσης στη γλώσσα, 1977)
The Conscience of the Rocky Earth, (Η συνείδηση της πετραίας γης, 1997)
Hydor, Aura, Nero, (Ύδωρ, Αύρα, Νερό, 2001)
National Resistance 1940-1945, (Εθνική Αντίσταση 1940-1945, 2006)
