Makrygiannis is a unique case of a fighter and politician in the history of the revolution of 1821! With great work and full of words! With passion of expression. With words full of conviction, fervor and faith, with which he addresses everyone, fellow soldiers, rulers and ordinary people, advising on actions in every battle, praising every right action and condemning every bad action.
After the end of the war, in 1829, Makrygiannis, at the age of thirty-two, having already become a general, will learn letters and begin to write his Memoirs. He himself tells us why with great humility and full awareness of his clumsiness, thus giving, like Thucydides, to his nation an "eternal estate". "I shouldn't have entered this project alone."letter", writes Makrygiannis "to burden honest readers and great men and wise men of society and to put them at a disadvantage, to move theirtheir work and lose the valuable values in them."
Makrygiannis has a great need to express his feelings because in his mind, heart and soul there is a Greek world full of ideas and emotions, which is looking for a way out. This is also the reason that in his mature years he will want to learn letters and do this "writing the unskillful", as he himself characterizes it.
Makrygiannis is of the opinion that many mistakes were made in the war and post-war years by both military and political leaders. That is why he emphasizes them, just as he emphasizes the great military exploits of the Greek people, with Thucydidesian thinking! "That's why I'm writing here...", points out, "so that all this may be useful" to the later generations and to learn to sacrifice more virtue for their homeland and their religion... Without virtue and suffering for their homeland and faith in their religion, nations do not exist." A piece of advice for today's leaders, which most seem to have forgotten!
The purpose of Makrygiannis' writing is above all didactic, so that later generations may learn not only from the achievements of their ancestors, but also from their mistakes. For Makrygiannis, as for Thucydides, The works of men must serve the education of the Greek nation.
But where does Makrygiannis get his material from? What he knows about ancient Greek history, he most likely heard from educated people of his time. He knows Achilles from Homer. He also knows a few generals and fewer politicians, as well as the names of Socrates and Plato.
And yet Makrygiannis did not remain a simple folk narrator of things. He reflected deeply on the works of God and men, in words similar to those of our great ancient ancestors, whom he did not know, however, because he was illiterate. For example, the pure patriot writes somewhere: "As long as I love my homeland, I love nothing! Let someone come and tell me that the homeland will move forward, I am afraid he will gouge out both my eyes; that, if I am crooked and the My homeland is well, it nourishes me. If my homeland is in ruins, ten "I have eyes, I may be crooked, that I will live in her." And yet, Makrygiannis's thought on this point is the same as Thucydides', when Pericles in the "Epitaph" says: "hey"I believe that when the city progresses as a whole, it benefits the individualsmore than when the individuals in it are happy, but the whole itselfeverything is destroyed; because when a citizen is happy as an individual, when he isIf his homeland turns away, he too is lost with it, while, if he does evil,"He who lives in a city that is happy, he himself is saved more easily"... I haven't heard similar words from politicians today, except for the paranoid ministerial "I don't care if the Greeks are lost, I care that the homeland is not lost!!!", which of course is completely different, because a state without citizens is a dead state.
Makrygiannis also uses the word "virtue", with the same meaning and content that the ancient Greeks gave it, namely the polemical, political and ethical meaning. He was specifically saying something that today seems so far-fetched to exist in the mouths of politicians: Faith in God and love of country: "You, Lord, willYou will remember the dead Greeks, the descendants of those who died.of men, who adorned humanity with virtue. And with the By Your power and Your justice You want to revive the dead.And Your just decision is to destroy Greece, to may this and the religion of Christ be enlightened, and may there be those who"And good people, those who defend what is right."
But Makrygiannis' love knows no bounds when he speaks of the common people, who had taken part in the Struggle, the immortal Greeks, the blessed people of Greece, as he constantly characterizes them! "Pa"three times, writes "to bless all the Greeks, for they sacrificed themselves for you, resurrect, to be called once again a free homeland, where you were lost from the list of nations. But remember and shine those who were first sacrificed in Alamana fighting with such a strong Turk, and those who were determined and locked in a small, weak, brick enclosure in the Gravia inn, and those who melted so much Turkey and pashas in Vasilika, and those who fought like lions in the Langada of Makrynoros... They resurrected you"... Today These Greeks have been ostracized from Greek history. That's why the Nikos Gatsos writes in "according to Mark» "in our old leaf (meaning old paper), "As we read again, such a name, Greece, does not exist anywhere"!
But today we are also living in a situation that is very reminiscent of the post-liberation period. At that time, Makrygiannis saw around him the old fighters roaming the streets naked and barefoot, and the widows of the war dead and their orphaned children begging. We live in similar images today, seeing Greeks whom politicians destroyed and forced to live on the streets, to search through garbage and to eat in soup kitchens. But then Makrygiannis did something that is unthinkable today for political parties and politicians. This great Greek decided to help in every way the ordinary people, from whom he himself comes and for whom he feels an immense love. Because this anonymous crowd of the Greek people squandered thehis passion and his life for the Struggle without any selfishness and finally reached the point of being unhappy with the inability or even the weakness of political authorities to represent them. So what does Makrygiannis do? It is not limited to just words of protest, as many hypocritically do today and certainly many politicians but to relieve the suffering fighters and the orphaned families, in 1835 he made a report to the Government: "Because those who fought are dying of hunger and suffering, as well as the widows of the killed and their children, order that the salary you give me be cut off in its entirety and given to the fighters and the widows and orphans of the killed. I decide to bring justice to the wronged." A phrase that, without knowing it, existed in political texts and funeral orations of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, which constantly mentioned that one of the boasts of Athenian democracy was that every citizen had the right to help the wronged. Makrygiannis, however, as a true democratic fighter who is aware of the rights of a people who fought and were tyrannized, says prophetically... "From right"The country thirsts for truth and honesty; God bless those who govern it. enlighten them and lead them to it." And knowing the timeless mockery of those in power, Makrygiannis constantly calls for laws to be made "solid and paternal", knowing that only good governance saves the people. He specifically says... "I didn't want money." "and life, I wanted a constitution for my homeland, to be governed by laws and not by what I want", pointing the finger at those who today voted for the law "on ministerial responsibility", those who ignored the scandals and those who led us to the IMF with their foolish actions.
However, the most important reflection of Makrygiannis is the one with which I close these thoughts and which Greek children should be required to learn in schools, so that it may become a guide for their later political life. Something that politicians should also keep in mind, to whom I wish for the new year to take action as their last chance, to deliver justice, to punish the real culprits and to stop caring only about their "ego"! "We have this homeland all together, both wise and ignorant, both rich and poor, both politicians and soldiers, and the most insignificant people. Those of us who have fought in our own way, have to live here. So we have all worked together, and neither the strong nor the weak should say, "I." Do you know when each one should say, "I"? When he fights alone and builds or ruins, he should say, "I." But when many fight and are defeated, then they should say, "We." We are in the we and not in the I!"...
Photo By Karl Krazeisen – https://www.nationalgallery.gr/artist/krazeisen-karl/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=176178483, https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/
