Κώστας Καλυβιώτης: «Είμαι ο Αντρέας της ΕΠΟΝ»

Abstract

This text represents a synopsis of a series of interviews given to the authors by Kostas Kalyviotis during the period 2011-2014 about the part he played in the United Panhellenic Youth Organization (EPON).
There are two aspects informing this historic testimony: the historical evidence given by “Andreas” in relation to the creation, the significance and the spread of EPON throughout Greece and to what we know of Kostas Kalyviotis, a familiar figure on the Athenian scene for his trend-setting chain of shops selling sewing materials, first set up in 1956. Kostas Kalyviotis was born in the village of Sykourio in the prefecture of Larissa, Thessaly, in 1921; his parents worked in the tobacco industry. He had a difficult childhood, being obliged to leave school abruptly and become the family breadwinner. When war broke out he was in Larissa, and already active in the Federation of Communist Youth of Greece (OKNE). Under orders from this organization he worked with the resistance movement first in Volos and later allover Thessaly, while in his capacity as Organizing Secretary of EPON he was based in Yannena from where he coordinated their activities in Epirus. After the Liberation he returned to Thessaly, where he was arrested in Karditsa and then transferred to the transit prison in Piraeus. He escaped from there and, using the illegal network, was sent to Halkida to organize the escape of Communist Party cadres from Athens into the mountains. In 1948 he returned to Athens, where he was arrested once again. He was tortured and sentenced to three years in prison for producing a fake ID (because he had no identity papers). He served his sentence in the Averoff Prison and was released in the summer of 1951. A few months later he was picked up again as a suspect in the Beloyianni affair and exiled to Ai Stratis. He was released from exile in September 1956 and after working for a while in various jobs he got involved in supplying sewing materials. That was how he came to open his first shop and conquer the world of haute couture; within about ten years he had twenty-two shops throughout Greece and an office in Paris.