The Testament.

Ειμαστέ αισιόδοξοι. Το τέλος της Ιστορίας δεν ήρθε, ουτε θα έρθει. 

Ο κόσμος που ζούμε μπορεί να αλλάξει και θα αλλάξει. Είμαστε σίγουροι για αυτό... 

We are optimist. The end of History didn't come, neither it will.

The world we live in can be changed and it will be changed. We are sure about that...

C. Florakis (captain Yiotis), somewhere on the Greek mountains,
during the Greek civil war (1946 - 1949)

"The farmers leave! The sowing remains! And growing. And becomes bigger. And blossoms. And throws new seeds on the earth. And the circle repeats. That's how the generation of 1912 - 1913 thought, that it's the last heroic generation. And what would happen to the land when they will be gone. But then came the generation of '40, the new sowing and raised the struggle's flag even higher. The same says every generation identifying in itself the history. And forgets the sowing. That is coming too far from the past and goes deep into the future. You see, foolish, the youth around you that you think they have lost their path and have been compromised. You have no idea! Once there is a sparkle, these youth will turn into a fire, a volcano. And they will be proved way better than their fathers’ and grandfathers’ generation was. And they will raise the struggle's flag all the way to the Sun. It's the sowing, i am telling you... "

G. Alexandrou (Diamantis) & C. Florakis (Yiotis),
commanders of the 1st and 2nd division of
Democratic Army of Greece (Δ.Σ.Ε).
Karpenisi, Central Greece, January 1949

On Trial, Athens May 1960

After 26 years the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) is legal once again.
C. Florakis giving his first interview to the press as General Secretary of KKE.
Athens, 26.8.1974

M. Theodorakis, G. Ritsos & C. Florakis attend the commemorations
for the one year from the Polytechnical School Uprising.
Athens, 17.11.1974

C. Florakis addresses the Serbian people during the NATO bombings.
Belgrade, 23.4.1999

"I do not name this paper testament, for the reason that i have nothing to dispose. All i had i gave it to the Party, the Communist Party of Greece, with its known symbols, the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, its program and its principles. Politically, i also have nothing to leave. Everything i had to offer, i did it through my specific action. Give political advice, i do not consider it serious. I want to return and be buried to the place i was born. In Paliozoglopi and specifically at St. Ilias, to have better view. The tomb has to be simple, just be fenced, so it can't be easy for the wild animals to dig me out. I don’t want speeches and wreaths. All these, instead, to be expressed as support to the Party."

September 1994,

Farewell,

Charilaos Florakis

One last goodbye. Rachoula, Agrafa Mountains, 26.5.2005


In memory of Charilaos (20.7.1914 - 22.5.2005).
10 years after...

Victory!

"Κάθε άνθρωπος που αγαπά την ελευθερία,

χρωστάει στον Κόκκινο Στρατό περισσότερα 

από ό, τι μπορεί ποτέ να πληρώσει"

Έρνεστ Χέμινγουεϊ

"Every man who loves freedom,

owns to the Red Army much more

than he can ever payback"

Ernest Hemingway

"We are in Berlin: the darkness of the century, the darkness for many countries, the darkness of consciousness and logic is over. Berlin was the symbol of evil, the death's nest, the hotbed of violence. From Berlin flied the vultures to Guernica, to Madrid, to Barcelona. From Berlin started the phalanxes that trampled the gardens of France, that mutilated the antiquities of Greece, that tortured Norway and Yugoslavia, Poland and Netherlands. By reaching Berlin we didn't save only our country, we saved civilization. If is meant to be a new Shakespeare to be born in England, if a new Delacroix will ever exist in France, if came into flesh the dreams of the greatest minds in humanity, a new golden century, this will be possible because the comrade Sidorov, right now, walks in the streets of Berlin, next to the beerhouses  and the barracks, next to the torture's chambers, next to the workshops that knitted "perfect made" hammocks out of women's hair..."

Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg, 27.4.1945

Kurisnsky. Tania (The Feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya). 1947

S. Gerasimov. Partisan's Mother. 1943

A. Deineka. The Defense of Sevastopol. 1942

P. Krivonogov. Victory. 1945

"It's easier to write now, much easier than October of '41: because if grief is silent, joy never skimped the words. And our hearts are full of joy. The tragedy of the 20th century is about to end: We are in Berlin! All this started from something meaningless: The Reichstag burned to the ground by the fascists. This is coming to an end exactly at the same place: Berlin is in flames! 

Justice moves slowly. Its path is spiral. Took years of hard ordeals and hardships, the ashes of Warsaw, of Rotterdam, of Smolensk, before the arsonists meet Nemesis."

Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg, 27.4.1945

A Soviet junior political officer (Politruk)
urges Soviet troops forward against German positions. (12.7.1942)

Victorious Soviet soldiers in Berlin, May 1945.

“Nobody really wanted to die that night because the war was already won,” he declared. “Even a promise by our officers that those who captured the building would get the highest decoration of Hero of the Soviet Union called forth few volunteers. Except for my little company.” The four men G. Zagitov, A. Lisimenko, A. Bobrov and M. Minin made their way towards the Reichstag they were met by heavy fire.

Running in front was Giya Zagitov, who had a flashlight with him. That flashlight helped us to pass through the damaged stairs. All the corridors linked to the stairs were cleared by grenades and long sub machine gun bursts. Right before reaching the attic I tore a one and half meter pipe off the wall to serve as a flagpole. After reaching the spacious attic, we faced the problem of getting to the roof. Again G. Zagitov found a solution - with his flashlight he noticed in the darkness a heavy winch and two chains going to the top. We climbed the chains and then through a tiny window got out to the roof somewhere on the western side of the building. There near a barely noticeable column Zagitov and i began setting up our Red Banner. Suddenly an explosion lighted up the roof and Lisimenko found our old reference-point - a sculpture of a bronze horse and a large woman in a crown. It was immediately decided to set the banner on the sculpture.

The guys raised me onto the horse’s back which shook from the explosions, and then I fixed the banner right in the crown of the bronze giantess.

We checked the time. It was 22:40 local time. 30th of April 1945..."

The Building in which signed the surrender of German Forces.
Karlshorst, Berlin, 9.5.1945

Few days later, the night from 8th to 9th of May, in a villa in the neighborhood of Karlshorst, the Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff (Luftwaffe), Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (Chief of Staff of OKW) and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine), sign and deliver to Field Marshal  Georgy Zhukov  the unconditional surrender of the German military forces. After 6 destructive years the war in Europe came finally to an end. The beast was dead...

Victory Parade, Moscow, 24.6.1945

Detail of the Soviet War Memorial Treptower Park,
Berlin, April 2010

Today, exactly 70 years after that day. The day of surrender. 70 years after the defeat of the Nazist - Fascist hordes, the effort to rewrite history is more intense than ever. The aspiring distorters and counterfeiters of history know very well that the preservation of  the collective memory has not so much to do with the past, as it has to do with the present and the future. So do we! And every year, this specific day, we will repeat loud and clear that: 

"If someone examines the corpse of fascism, he will see that has many wounds, from simple scratches to deep injuries. But only one wound was deadly and this was caused by the Red Army."

"The Homeland will never forget their heroes".
Soviet War Memorial Treptower Park, Berlin, April 2010


Struggle against oblivion. Struggle for today and tomorrow!

Carlos Latuff, May 2015

In memory of the Great Antifascist Peoples' Victory.

 In memory of Man!