ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΙΣΜΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΠΑΡΕΛΘΟΝ: ΤΟ ΕΡΓΟ ΤΗΣ ΚΕΝΤΡΙΚΗΣ ΕΠΙΤΡΟΠΗΣ ΕΚΑΤΟΝΤΑΕΤΗΡΙΔΟΣ (1928-1933)

Abstract

Christos Triantafyllou, Venizelism and the National Past: The Deeds of the Central Centennial Committee (1928-1933)

This article serves the purpose of examining the organizing mechanism that led to the wide-scale celebrations of the Greek state's Centennial in 1929-1931 in the conjuncture of the last Eleftherios Venizelos' premiership of 1928-1932. The author argues that the Central Centennial Committee (CCC) was a cultural center –according to Edward Shils' definition– that was composed of political and cultural elites who sought to disseminate specific interpretive schemata through the acts of the special subcommittees of the CCC. The two main axes of this vast –in 1930's Greek standards– mobilization were the construction of a new historical narrative for the Greek national past, and the designation of the nation-state's progress since 1830. These elements can also be traced in other national case studies, like the United States (1876) or Poland (1910). The author finally argues that the mobilization of 1929-1930 was a tool in the pro-Venizelist elites' attempt of national reconstruction after the pending integration of the New Lands, and after the Greek defeat at Asia Minor in 1922. More specifically, the above-mentioned new historical narrative comprised the military successes and the territorial gains of Greece in 1912-1922, and directly connected them with the 1821 War of Independence. This narrative was disseminated through memorabilia of banal nationalism (e.g. books, stamps, popular paintings), through historical reenactments, and through the erection of monuments and commemorative rituals.