Early life

Yiannis Makriyiannis was born to a poor family at the village of Avoriti, in Phocis. "Makriyiannis" (Long Yiannis) was a nickname he acquired because of his height.^[1] His father, Dimitris Triantaphyllou, was killed in a clash with the forces of Ali Pasha. His family was forced to flee to Levadeia, where Makriyiannis spent his childhood up to 1811. At age seven, he was given as a foster son to a wealthy man from Levadeia, but the menial labour and beatings he endured were, in his own words, "his death".^[10] Thus, in 1811 he left for Arta to stay with an acquaintance who maintained close relations with Ali Pasha. There, still a teenager, he was involved in trade and, according to his memoirs, became a wealthy man. His property amounted to 40,000 piastres.^[11] According to Sphyroeras, he probably joined the Filiki Etaireia, a secret anti-Ottoman society, in 1820.^[10] In March 1821 he left for Patras, in the Peloponnese, supposedly on business. His actual assignment, however, was to inform local members of the Filiki Etaireia of the state of affairs in his native Roumeli. Having met with Odysseas Androutsos, he returned to Arta two days before the revolution broke out in Patras and was promptly arrested by the Ottoman authorities and placed under arrest in the local fortress. He was held captive for 90 days but managed to escape and, in August 1821, first took up arms against the Ottomans under chieftain Gogos Bakolas.^[11]

Activity during the War of Independence

Karaiskakis' camp in Kastella, Phaleron. Makriyiannis is depicted near the cannon.

Under the command of Gogos Bakolas, in September 1821 he took part in the battle of Stavros, near Tzoumerka, and in the battle of Peta, where he sustained a light leg injury. A few days later he took part in the siege of Arta that temporarily brought the city under Greek control.^[10] In late 1821, he left for Mesolonghi, but there, according to his memoirs, he fell seriously ill, only recovering in March 1822.^[10] Having spent his recovery in the village of Sernikaki, near Salona, he resumed military action, assuming the leadership of a band of warriors from four villages in the vicinity. He fought alongside several other chieftains during the successful siege of Patratziki, which had been fortified with considerable Ottoman forces.^[10]

After the Acropolis of Athens was surrendered by the Ottomans in June 1822, Makriyiannis was appointed Supervisor of Public Order in the city by the executive authority of Roumeli on 1 January 1823. In that office, he took severe measures aimed at stopping arbitrary oppression of the populace and thievery.^[10] In the summer of 1823, he fought alongside Nikitaras in the eastern part of Central Greece. In October 1823, he led a force of Roumeliots in the Peloponnese, and fought alongside the government of Georgios Kountouriotis against the rebels in the civil war. For his actions during that conflict, he was rewarded with the rank of brigadier, promoted to lieutenant general in August 1824 and full general in late 1824.^[10]

In March 1825, after the Peloponnese had been invaded by Egyptian forces, he was appointed politarch (head of public order) of Kyparissia and took part in the defence of Neokastro. After the fortress fell on 11 May 1825, he hurried to Myloi, near Nafplio, arriving with one hundred men on 10 June. He ordered the construction of makeshift fortifications, as well as the gathering of provisions. More chieftains soon arrived in Myloi and Ibrahim Pasha, the commander of the Egyptian forces, was unable to take the position, despite numerical superiority and the launching of fierce attacks on 12 and 14 June. Makriyiannis was injured during the battle and was carried to Nafplio.^[10]

Soon after the battle, he married the daughter of a prominent Athenian, and his activities were thereafter inextricably linked with that city until his death. After Athens was captured by Ibrahim Pasha in June 1826, Makriyiannis helped organise the defence of the Acropolis, and became the provisional commander of the garrison after the death of the commander, Yiannis Gouras. He managed to repel a fierce assault against the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on 7 October, and during the defence of the Acropolis, he sustained heavy injures three times, to the head and to the neck.^[10] These wounds troubled him for the remainder of his life, but they did not dissuade him from taking part in the last phase of the war: in the spring of 1827 he took part in the battles of Piraeus and the battle of Phaleron.^[10]

Activity after Greek Independence

Portrait by Spyridon Prosalentis.

Assessment and significance

Statue in Athens

Makriyiannis concluded work on his Memoirs in the years before his imprisonment; the last entries seem to be from September or October 1850, as evinced by his references to the events of that period.^[10] In the text of the Memoirs, one can see not only the personal adventures and disappointments of his long public career, but, more significantly, his views on people, situations and events, phrased clearly and quite often passionately. They were first published in 1907 by Yiannis Vlahogiannis, while some fragments of them had earlier been published in the newspaper Acropolis in 1904. Spyridon Lambros, in 1908, noted his straightforwardness and slight egotism, along with his holding firm to his own opinion (as quoted by Sphyroeras).^[10] Kostis Palamas, in 1911, called his work "incomparable in its kind, a masterpiece of his illiterate, but strong and autonomous mind" (ibid).^[10] Makriyiannis had received only the most basic and fragmentary education, and, according to his own testimony, mastered writing shortly before he started writing his Memoirs, while he was stationed in Argos.^[10]

Makriyiannis, having been ignored by history, and hardly mentioned by chroniclers of the War of Independence, had renewed interest in the revolution by offering a significant personal testimony to historical research. Despite this, after the initial interest in the newly published Memoirs, they were hardly cited for almost 40 years. One could say that Makriyiannis was forgotten, not only as a fighter, but also as the author of a text written in Demotic Greek;^[10] a text that, besides reproducing the heroic atmosphere of the War of Independence, is also a treasure-house of linguistic knowledge concerning the common Greek tongue of the time.

Makriyiannis's reputation was revived during the German occupation of Greece. In 1941, Yorgos Theotokas published an article on the general, calling his Memoirs "a monument of Modern Greek literature" because they were written in pure Demotic Greek.^[14] Two years later, in 1943, the Greek Nobel laureate Giorgos Seferis gave a lecture on him, saying:

In our times, ... when people seek to find in other people something clear and stable and compassionate, it is appropriate to speak of people such as Makriyannis.

— Giorgos Seferis, Dokimes (Essays)^[15]

According to the National Book Centre of Greece, Seferis also stated that Makriyiannis, along with Alexandros Papadiamantis, is one of the two greatest masters of modern Greek prose.^[1]

Since then hundreds of essays have been written on the subject of his Memoirs, and it would be fair to say that the chronicler has overshadowed the fighter, and with good reason, according to Sphyroeras.^[10] Spyros Asdrachas has noted that:

The fact that an illiterate man managed to use the Demotic speech ... to achieve an expressive density and dynamism entirely unusual of Greek prose made a terrific impression on people.

— Spyros Asdrachas, preface to Memoirs of General Makriyannis^[16]

The general's objectivity, however, has often been questioned. Vlahogiannis, in his preface to the Memoirs, praises his honesty and contrasts it to his lack of objectivity and impartiality.^[17] While always straightforward, Makriyiannis clearly holds a grudge against people he had come into conflict with. He often uses disparaging language against people like Kolokotronis, while staying silent about the more questionable deeds of people he had a favourable opinion of. According to Sphyroeras, however, his judgements do not stem from selfishness, but rather from his severity against those he considered were defaming the cause of Greece.^[10]

A few months after completing his Memoirs, on New Year's Eve in 1851, Makriyiannis started to write another "history", as he called it, which he interrupted rather abruptly in late March 1852, when he was under house arrest. This text was acquired in 1936 or 1937 by Vlahogiannis, and was finally published in 1983 by Angelos Papakostas, aptly titled Visions and Wonders. It has, according to Papakostas, far less historical significance than the Memoirs.^[18] The events described therein are given briefly, and are used only as an excuse for his meditations and the interpretation of his Visions, on which he particularly insists. Vlahogiannis, according to Sphyroeras, considered the manuscript to be an overzealous work of a deranged mind, and that is the reason he did not publish it.^[10] The work, however, is also the product of a physically and mentally tormented soul, who, being isolated at the age of 54, instead converses with God, the Panagia, and the saints. It also shows Makriyiannis's deep religious feeling; he turns away from guns, instead seeking the nation's salvation through divine intervention. Furthermore, as Sphyroeras points out, the work is unique in Modern Greek literature in its subject matter, and is, as the Memoirs, a significant source of linguistic and cultural information.^[10]

Works

• Ἀπομνημονεύματα (Memoirs) first published: Athens: 1907
• Ὁράματα καὶ Θάματα (Visions and Wonders) first published: Athens: 1983