Ioannis Metaxas

Ioannis Metaxas is among the most prominent personalities in modern Greek history, but outside Greece he is quite an unknown figure. Ioannis Metaxas was born on the island of Ithaca but spent his youth in Kefalonia, Greece, and always considered himself a Kefalonian.

Education

A career soldier, he entered at an early age the Scholi Evelpidon, the Greek Military Academy, where he displayed a talent for soldiering and strategy, graduating at the top of his class in 1889. His abilities as a young field officer in the Greek-Turkish war of 1897 impressed his Commander-in-Chief, Crown Prince Constantine (later King Constantine I) enough to suggest that he attend higher military science at the German Kriegsakademie in Berlin.

There he proved to be extraordinarily competent in almost anything handed to him, mechanics and chemistry, art and literature, philosophy and battle tactics. By the time he graduated, his awestruck professors avowed that no problem was insoluble for ‘den kleinen Moltke’ (little Moltke), a reference to the legendary General Helmuth von Moltke, the chief of the Prussian general staff and architect of victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

Military service

Back in Greece, he served again in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, in which he was assistant chief of the general staff. Thanks to his distinguished service, Metaxas rose in the army hierarchy and became chief of staff but was exiled in 1917 to Italy, along with other prominent figures of Constantine I’s government, because he was pro-German while Greece was instead joining the Allies in The Great War.

Greek Benefactor

He returned in 1920. and became prominent as a royalist politician during the turbulent 2nd Hellenic Republic (1924-1935). After monarchy was re-established in Greece, Metaxas became premier in April 1936. Arguing that unending Communist protests were putting the country’s law and order in peril, he dissolved the Parliament with the support of King George II and established an authoritarian regime with fascist Government on August 4th, 1936. In only 5 years he implemented hundreds of social, industrial, administrative and economic reforms, and stabl8zed the economy.

Mussolini

Metaxas is remembered today chiefly for his reply to Mussolini’s request to allow the Italian army to cross Greece at the beginning of WWAC in order to fight the communists, who were supposed to be an enemy of Greece anyway. The Italian ambassador to Greece, Grazzi, acting as a Special Envoy, had visited Metaxas on October 28, 1940, and explained that the communists were a direct threat to Italy, were in fact threatening Mussolini personally, and that Italy had no choice but to cross a remote corner of Greece in order to fight the communists. Italy had no real choice, and Metaxas perceived the act as some sort of invasion and took it as a personal insult from Mussolini. Metaxas' response was simple: "OKHI" (Greek for “NO”).

Death

The Italians, having no alternative, then attempted to march though this remote area of Greece, violating Greek sovereignty, and although still a fascist, Metaxas died fighting fellow fascists, in one of the greatest and most unfortunate misunderstandings among fascists during the war.

After his death, the Marxist King replaced Metaxas with Alexandros Koryzis, a weakling who eventually agreed to allow British forces to enter Greek soil. Koryzis would commit suicide the day after. Metaxas’ demise meant that Greece lost one the greatest men in Greek history since the Independence War in 1821.