ELENI K. DIMITRIOU
Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Experience, narratives, claim of memory
ed. Pataki, p. 528
In recent years, the historiographical production in our country revolved mainly around the dramatic events of 1922-1924: defeat on the Asia Minor front, refugees, personal and collective trauma, collapse of the Great Idea, feeling of national humiliation from the greatest disaster it has ever known Hellenism. This editorial “turn”, which took place in terms of usually anniversaries due to the completion of one hundred years since the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the mandatory exchange of populations and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, left us as a heavy legacy excellent studies that “illuminated” aspects of a difficult and harsh period of our modern history.
With her new book “Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Experience, narratives, claim of memory”the Eleni DimitriouPhD in History from the University of Athens, “turns” our gaze to an era very different but at the same time so similar to that of the Asia Minor campaign; an era of “heroes” – the “Balkan fighters” -, of the realization of the unredeeming ideal, of national elevation and high expectations for the future of Greece.
But on the other hand, the protagonists of the “miracle” of the Balkan Wars were exactly the same as those of the disaster experienced by Hellenism a decade later: King Constantine, the political world, the hundreds of famous or lesser-known officers – senior and junior –, the thousands of hoplites and sailors, the corps of miscreants, but also the volunteers who rushed from all the lengths and breadths of the world in order to take part in the effort of national integration of Hellenism.
The “voice” of these very people, as captured in an impressively rich material of testimonies (diaries, memoirs, memories, letters, articles in the press, etc.), we “hear” through the excellent book of Eleni Dimitriou. Of course, as the author herself notes, in contrast to the 1940 epic, the testimonies about the Balkan Wars do not come so much “from below” the social stratification as “from above”, i.e. from the officers, politicians and representatives of the literate elite of Greek society – and in this respect the “voice” of the less educated social strata is “mediated”.
Eleni Dimitriou “turns” our gaze to an era very different but at the same time so similar to that of the Asia Minor Campaign.
Dimitriou’s study is part of the modern trend of “New Military History”, a branch particularly developed in the academic theaters abroad, but not in Greece. Without, therefore, missing the analysis of the clashes in which the Greek armed forces were involved during the two Balkan Wars, the book focuses on the daily life of the fighter – on his anxieties and hopes, on his feelings and beliefs, on the climate, in sanitary conditions, in shortages and logistics, in the brutality of war. At the same time, again, through the testimonies available to the author, less prominent aspects of the two wars are highlighted, such as health care, women’s mobilization and volunteerism.
Memory management
Of particular interest are the parts of the book dedicated to the management of the memory of the Balkan Wars. At this point, the author identifies a critical differentiation between the works written “in the heat”, immediately after the wars, by low-ranking officers, soldiers and journalists, and those published from the interwar years until the 1960s, primarily by high-ranking officers with indirect or direct involvement in the political life of the place. In this last case – Dimitriou aptly points out – the authors prioritized their reputation, with the honest assessment of the events of 1912-1913 being “altered” by the distorting effects of the National Divide.
Overall, Dimitriou’s book contains all those elements that a historical study should have: strictly scientific methodology, synthesis of primary material and secondary literature, honesty and factual accuracy. Besides, it is a text written in excellent Greek, with the result that its reading becomes pleasant for the reader, despite the volume of almost 500 pages. Finally, the perfect aesthetic result of the edition and the excellent editing of Pataki editions should be highlighted.
*Mr. Manolis Koumas is an assistant professor at the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Athens.
