With a powerful letter to the Athens daily "Ta Nea", the renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis comments on the recent anti-communist hysteria on the occasion of the EU and Estonian government's unhistorical, anti-communist events.
Theodorakis, 92, begins his letter by blaming "Ta Nea" for the newspaper's anti-communist stance: "I'm terrified by the anti-communist hysteria that overwhelms your newspapers. As a young communist, I had the honor to fight through the lines of EAM for the achievement of freedom. Later, during the Junta period, through the Patriotic Front for the restoration of Democracy".
Among other references regarding Greece's recent political history, Theodorakis writes: "The only thing that counts for you is our defeat in the Civil War and your inconvenience because the Left's ideology continues to exist, act and affect after so many persecutions".
Then, the composer refers to Joseph Stalin:
"And from Stalin you remember only his crimes... The only thing I didn't hear about him is that he was eating fried human meat for breakfast. For him, Stalin, the Marshal of the Red Army with the victories in Stalingrad, Moscow, Leningrad and Berlin, you have nothing to say? If the Red Army and Stalin wasn't there, what would we have today? Did you think about it? Who would prevent Hitler from filling the world with thousands of "Aushwitzes"? Do you imagine Greece filled with extermination camps? Up there, in Europe and especially in the racist states, I know why they hurt and attack Stalin and communism. Because he defeated their beloved Furer. Adolf Hitler!".
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| Mikis during a political event in 1970s. |
And, he continues: "But, you here, what is your reason? You were killing communists like flies. With gangs like the ones of Sourlas and Vrettakos. With military courts and executions of 16,000- mostly young- communists. Boys and girls. With (prison) islands like Makronisos, where 100,000 Greek communists martyred. With the security police's slaughterhouses where thousands of male and female communists were tortured by the most horrific methods. So, what all of us are, criminals or victims? And why did we fight? Didn't we fight for the Greece and the Greek people? Did kingship and the para-state organisations who murdered Lambrakis, did the Junta sprang from our lines? Not to mention the collaborators of foreign conquerors, who supported the US-domination that lives and reigns masqueraded in memorandums and troikas that have led us to bring of national disaster".
The legendary composer closes his intervention with the following: "I believe that you easily can understand my anger, because for me as well as for thousands others, our engagement and struggles under the Red Flag consists the most sacred period of our lives, which had one and only aim, to make our People free, independent and happy".
