Yiangos Pesmazoglou ΓΙΑΓΚΟΣ ΠΕΣΜΑΖΟΓΛΟΥ
Born 1918, Chios Died
2003, Athens
Section 7, Number 685
Walk
on any street in the center of Athens today and you will come across remnants
of its past. The Stoa Pesmazoglou
which runs between Panepistimiou and Stadiou streets recalls the thriving 19th
century merchant clan which originated in the Cappadocia region of Asia Minor (1), spread from there to Alexandria and
Constantinople, and then brought their money and expertise to help build Athens
in the latter part of the 19th century.
If you know where to look, you can see a
remnant of a once grand Ernst Ziller designed Pesmazoglou building standing
incongruously cheek by jowl with a building created for Athens more recent
elite:
On Bas.
Sophias Avenue opposite the Benaki Museum
Only the
eastern section of the 1893 building remains.
And then there is the tomb of wealthy banker
Ioannis Pesmazoglou (1857-1906), which is the largest monument (2) in the plaza of the First Cemetery:
The work of
Italian sculptor Franceso Jerace (1853-1937)
But
not all monuments are bricks, mortar, or marble as the subject of this entry
proves. Yiangos Pesmazoglou’s grave may be much more modest, but his legacy is
not: this cosmopolitan, cultured, and far-sighted economist and thinker dedicated
his life to the betterment of Greece.
Yiangos Pesmazoglou
The Early Years
Yiangos
(Ioannis) was born on Chios in 1918 where his father Stephanos was the manager
of the Bank of Athens.(3)
With his
parents
The
family soon moved to Athens where he studied at the Makris school and then at
the Varvakeio School (4) before entering the Athens
University in 1935 to study Law and economics. He was apparently enthusiastic
and hard working throughout his student years.
His primary interest was economics. At the university he was influenced
by the economic theories of Kyriakos Varvaresos (Κυριάκος Βαρβαρέσος), a future deputy director of the Bank of Greece who was
teaching Political Economy at the time. Other
important influences during this period were professors Constantinos Tsatsos and Panayiotis
Kanellopoulos. Yiangos was very
fortunate to have been exposed to the influence of two such intellectual
heavyweights.
The
times were not easy. Yiangos attended University under the Metaxas dictatorship,
a regime that caused democratically minded persons to pause, and, as a
professed Social Democrat, it would have been a difficult period for him. He
fought as a soldier against the Italians who invaded in 1940 and then - at 24
years old, he suddenly found himself living in German occupied Greece.
As a young
man
During the German occupation he came to know EAM
member Nikos Karvounis (Νίκος Καρβούνης ),
who was writing for Proia (Πρωΐα) a newspaper whose editor was Yiangos’
cousin Stephanos Pesmazoglou(5). But in spite of being exposed to EAM’s
political theories and its plans for the future, in the end Yiangos did not believe
that their philosophy or political agenda was the way forward in a post war
world. He wanted to discover a better way.
In February of 1945, he married
Miranda, the love of his life.
His marriage
to Miranda Economou
Cambridge
Just
months later he applied for and was given a grant to study at the University of Cambridge where he would
go with Miranda and obtain his second degree in economics. At Cambridge, Yiangos came under the influence of the economic
theories of John Maynard Keynes. One of the most influential economists of the
20th century, Keynes proposed
a theory that was the opposite of government laissez faire; he advocated that governments should employ interventionist
fiscal and monetary policies in order to mitigate the adverse effects of
economic recessions and depressions such
as the ones that had occurred in the 1930s and thereafter. Yiangos would return
to Greece with these kind of policies very much in mind. And not only that. He
would later say that his sojourn in Cambridge had taught him the value of words
such as ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’, as the means to moderate extreme positions and
deal with conflicting opinions.
The Return
Upon
returning to Greece, his star rose quickly. In 1950 he was elected Assistant Professor of Political Economics
at the Athens Law School and, under the premiership of Nicholaos Plastiras,
was appointed the General Director of Political
Economy and Programming in the Ministry of Co-ordination then headed by
Georgios Papandreau. In 1955 he was appointed Economic Advisor to the Bank of Greece, a position he retained
until 1960.
If
that were not enough, in 1958, the conservative Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis
appointed him to lead the team negotiating
the 1961 agreement with the European Economic Community –the agreement that would pave the
way for Greece’s entry into the E.U. in 1981.
In
1960 he became the Deputy Governor of
the Bank of Greece under the
governorship of Xenophondas Zolotas.
Mr Zolotas
on the left and Mr Pesmazoglou on the right
In
1962 he was appointed President of the
Committee for European Co-operation. At a time when countries like England
and Sweden were pushing for a loose union, others in Europe, including Pesmazoglou,
were pushing for a much closer federalized union. During this period, the name Yiangos Pesmazoglou became synonymous with the Greek effort to
join the Common Market.
1967: The Dictatorship Years
1967
started well. Yiangos was elected professor at the Athens School of
Economics. When the Junta took over the
country in April of that year, he was persuaded to remain in his post at the
Bank of Greece by promises of a quick return to normalcy. But by August of that
same year both Zolotas and Pesmazoglou realized that the promise had been an
empty one and they resigned on August 3. The Junta quickly stripped him of his chair at
the university.
Seferis’ Declaration
As
months passed, Pesmazoglou was concerned by what he felt was too easy an
acceptance on the part of the outside world to the anomalies and depredations
of the Junta, a problem he discussed with the poet George Seferis. Together they considered ways to make their
opposition to the Junta public and, at the same time give courage to the Greek
people suffering under the regime. The result was Seferis’ famous anti-Junta speech of March 28, 1969 which was broadcast on the
Greek Service of the BBC, in Paris and on Deutsche Welle as well as being widely
disseminated in journals.
Seferis
speaks out on the BBC
Then
in 1971, Pesmazoglou founded The Society
For the Study of Greek Problems in order to probe the limits of free
discussion under martial law. The society attracted many members who would meet
at the Alpha theatre of actor Stephanos Linaios (Στέφανος Ληναίος) until the Junta closed
the society down in 1972. It was during this period that Pesmazoglou came into
contact with many people whose ideas would eventually form the core of new parties
of the Greek left, parties such as the Eurosocialists and Eurocommunists.
Pesmazoglou
with author and activist Gunter Grass
His
anti-Junta activities did not go unnoticed and in 1972 he was exiled to the
mountain village of Deskati in Grevena, and after that to Thermo, high up on the
eastern edge of lake Trixonidas in Aitoloakarnanias, both out of the way places
even today.
Exile
by a hostile government has been a popular solution all through Greek history
and could almost be seen as a badge of honour by any dissident worth his or her
salt. His wife Miranda brought his art supplies into exile with him and he was
able to take up a pastime that he had had little time for in the previous
years:
One of the
paintings
The Post
Junta Years
In
1974, he entered the political arena and was elected to parliament on the Center-Union ticket. He became Minister of Economics in the ecumenical
government formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis. From 1975 to 1978 he was President of the Joint Parliamentary Committee
for Greece and the Common Market.
In
the 1977 election, the Center-Union party was badly defeated and Pesmazoglou
led a breakaway movement to form The
Party of Democratic Socialism (ΚΟΔΗΣΟ) a party that, in spite of the
luminaries who joined it, was basically considered the party of Pesmazoglou. (6)
Although
pro-European and imbued with the ideals of Social Democracy, ΚΟΔΗΣΟ was no
match for the rising star of populist Andreas Papandreau and the party disappeared quickly
from the political scene.
During
the 80s, Pesmazoglou would align himself with the conservative party, New
Democracy, although he never became a member.
Kudos
In
1992, at the age of 74 and after a long career, Yiangos was elected to the prestigious Athens Academy and in 1996, he became
its president.
It is always hard to grasp the inner
person. Yiangos Pesmazoglou comes across to me as intelligent, moderate and
intellectual, a man constantly searching for the ‘better way’ during a period
in Greece’s modern history when extremist and populist views were winning the
day. The word ‘balanced’ comes to mind. In a society where being left or right
was a label bestowed on almost all public figures, he seems to have preferred a
‘middle’ way where words like maybe
and perhaps could conceivably become
part of the social and political dialogue.
Yiangos Pesmazoglou died in 2003 and
is buried in the First Cemetery.
Map
Section 7, Number 685
Footnotes:
(1) The family name was
originally “Pesma”. It expanded with
the addition of zoglou (the Turkish
equivalent of ‘son of’). Their family businesses, banking in particular, spread
throughout the Ottoman sphere. Banker Ioannis Pesmazolglou’s ( 1857-1906) bank
merged with the Bank of Athens in 1897 and he became its chairman until he
died.
(2) I have discovered frustratingly little about
the making of this incredible chunk of marble with its impressive hanging
angels and a bas relief of the entrance to Hades. Franceso Jerace was a big name in Italy and
his work can be found all over Europe, but this is his only work in Greece as
far as I know. There is no reference to him ever coming to Greece. Is it
possible he designed it and then a Greek sculptor realized the concept? I would
love to know.
(3) There is very little in
English about this family and research is partly confounded by the repetition
of the same first names (Georgios, Ioannis, and Stephanos) over and over again.
Unless specific dates or other
specifiers are given, it is often difficult to know which Ioannis or Stephanos
or George is being referred to. The name
Yiangos is a diminuative of Ioannis. This passing on of the same names for
generations must have been confusing inside a clan as large as this one!
(4) The Varvakeio School,
funded by Greek benefactor Ioannis Varvakis is still going strong in Athens.
(5) One source
lists this Stephanos as the son of banker Ioannis Pesmazoglu (1857-1906).
(6) Other members
included--------------------------------------
Sources
There are very few English sources on the
internet aside from this obituary by historian Richard Clogg: John Pesmazoglou: Bold champion of
democracy and Greece's place in Europe at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/feb/02/guardianobituaries
Greek Sources:
-«Γιάγκος Πεσμαζόγλου» της
Νίτσας Λουλέ- Θεοχαράκη, από εκδόσεις Ελληνικά Γράμματα.
-Η προσωπικότητα του Γιάγκου
Πεσμαζόγλου. Η σφραγίδα του στην ιστορία της μεταπολεμικής Ελλάδας https://www.blod.gr/lectures/i-prosopikotita-tou-giagkou-pesmazoglou-i-sfragida-tou-stin-istoria-tis-metapolemikis-elladas/
Γιάγκος Πεσμαζόγλου (Νυχτερινός Επισκέπτης) (Αρχείο ντοκιμαντέρ της ΕΡΤ- Το Χαμένο Τμήμα, 38 Βασίλης Πεσμαζόγλου - Ο Γιάγκος Πεσμαζόγλου και το ΚΟΔΗΣΟ: http://toxamenotmhma.blogspot.com/2012/08/38.html
