About

by Andreas Markessinis

This online-based project focuses on the history and philosophy of the fascist regime which existed in Greece in the 1930s called “The Fourth of August” and which was lead by General Ioannis Metaxas. In it you will find an online database entirely dedicated to General Metaxas and his world-view.

The website is now nearly 8 years old, and brings forth a reliable, in-depth and voluminous database covering most of Metaxas’ dictatorship. The website is constantly updated, so those interested in the period of fascism in Greece are strongly encouraged to access the website on a regular basis. It is planned that the website will be developed into a mammoth resource.

I created the Metaxas Project some years ago as the logical derivation of my interest in Ioannis Metaxas and the Fourth of August regime. With the advent of the Internet in the late 90’s, I started working in it digitally and the project was officially launched on January 1st, 2000, when it first appeared on the World Wide Web. It was born as a long-term project and as such all over these years it has never stopped growing both in quantity and quality. Over 7 years now, the Metaxas Project has become a large online database and the only online reference website worldwide about Ioannis Metaxas and his regime. It is the sole website across the Internet specialized in the quite unknown period of Fascist Greece.

Since its inception the Metaxas Project has mantained a three-folded purpose:

First, the project emmends the desperating lack of information over the WWW on Metaxas and Metaxianism. Being myself Cephalonian (like Metaxas himself, with whom I share blood ties), I considered my duty to redeem such state-of-affairs building from scratch a worthy website for this great man of Hellenic and European History.

Second, it intends to become an open forum for all people interested in the Fourth of August regime and in the great man behind it, Ioannis Metaxas. In fact, this website is not only addressed to the general public, but also -or even most specifically- to investigators researching the Metaxas years. In it they should find a framework in which most of Metaxas-related issues are discussed, analysed and observed in articles, resourceful sections and other ever-expanding online tools.

Third, it strives to rehabilitate Metaxas as a first-line political character, since for too long now his historical profile has been dispised, reduced and outcasted. Specially in Greece, Metaxas’ memory has been overshadowed by extremely biased political views. The website’s purpose is to offer an indepth insight on Metaxas’ world without any political standpoint or criteria, overpassing old and narrow-minded political schemes. Its only deliberate goal is to bring an unbiased, non-partisan web-based workshop for both the scholar and the non-initiated.

Metaxas’ re-abilitation as a first-line political character is especially aimed because in Greece Metaxas is still observed and studied from a hostile political viewpoint rather than from an objetive historical one. For decades now, the political establishment has thereafter tried to erase most of Metaxas’ accomplishments, highlighting his failures and remarking the negative aspects of his rule alone.

However childish and unfair this may appear, it still is still a modern-day political trend in Greece to view recent political figures in terms of “ours” and “theirs”, in terms of heroes and villains. Metaxas is within this trend no exception. Quite the contrary: as a first-line somewhat extreme political figure, Metaxas’ darkest side has especially been boosted by the Greek official historical analysis of the XXth century years. This profile has propagated to the media and has eventually become the image the general public has learnt. Hence a hand-crafted version of history has been brought to textbooks and to the Greek official history and culture. According to this partisan, biased lookup at the most recent period of Hellenic history Metaxas is to be regarded as a tyrant and a merciless fascist dictator.

As it is well-known, unfortunately enough, great characters are often granted little popular acclaim, and this is more than true in Metaxas’ case. The historical fact is that within a tight schedule (only 6 years as prime minister) and facing the perspective of a war brooming over Europa, Metaxas brought the Hellenic nation forth as much the country had advanced in the previous 25 years. It is of sheer historical justice to acknowledge the pros and contras of any regime, but Metaxas’ has not even been given the benefit of doubt.

The Metaxas Project tries to challenge this unscientific approach bringing forth a large and indepth website in which historical truth about Metaxas and his legacy is to prevail.