“Like another St Basil”: Astronomy, Orthodox Apologetics and Anticommunism in Twentieth-Century Greece

Abstract

This article investigates the ideological instrumentalisation of astronomy within twentieth-century Greece, centring on the work of Dimitrios Kotsakis (1909–1986) and, secondarily, Stavros Plakidis (1893–1991). The study demonstrates how Greek astronomers functioned as active agents, reframing scientific practice to serve specific apologetic and political agendas. By recontextualising pre-existing antimaterialist discourses, these figures perpetuated an ideological struggle against materialism and socialism that long predated the geopolitical Cold War, but which contributed to it. Ultimately, the article argues that Kotsakis and his milieu successfully synthesised disparate intellectual fields – scientific, religious and political – to wage what was essentially a Cold War anticommunist crusade, yet one deeply rooted in a distinctively Greek context.