Studying history one finds that, as a rule, those who gave much to their country died poor, forgotten and embittered by the ingratitude of their fellow citizens. This rule was also followed by the merchants Nikolaos Skoufas, Emmanuel Xanthos and Athanasios Tsakalov, who founded the Filiki Etairia (Odessa, 1814), as well as Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos and Panagiotis Sekeris, who were added, subsequently, to the "supreme authority". One said goodbye to life from being trampled in parliament, another from cholera and the rest from bitterness, nostalgia and disappointment. In this article we will refer to the above leaders of the Philiki Etairia, focusing on their inglorious death.
Nikolaos Skoufas (1779-1818) still young, he left his village of Komboti for Arta, where he was engaged in the manufacture of hats and thus he was nicknamed Skoufas (his last name was Koumbaros). When he grew up he went to Odessa, where he first became rich from trade, but then went bankrupt. Then he decided to deal with the enslaved homeland, which he could not banish from his heart. The era (1814) was full of visions of the French revolution but Napoleon's exile on Elba. Together with the merchants Tsakalov and Xanthos, they founded the Friendly Society with the aim of revolution and emancipation of the enslaved Greeks. Whether the idea was his or Xantho's (as he claimed) is of little importance.
Full of national enthusiasm, he began to thresh tsarist Russia, trying to introduce as many expatriates as possible to the secrets of the Society and to secure from the richest some financial support for its needs. His work was far from easy or pleasant. Some distrusted and others regarded him as a fraud, arguing that his goal was not the redemption of the homeland but his own financial recovery after the bankruptcy he had suffered. Anyone else in his position would have given up, but he continued undisturbed in his sacred work, indifferent, apparently at least, to the censures, ironies and insinuations. Finally, in the fourth year since the foundation of the Society, his big but not strong heart could not bear the whole situation and led him to an early death. Anyway, the beginning had been made. The water had entered the gutter.
In 1818, the leaders of the Society, in a meeting held in Polis, deemed it necessary to go down to the Peloponnese and initiate influential personalities.
Emmanuel Xanthos (1772-1851) from Patmos, who, according to his own testimony, was the first to propose the establishment of the Company, had the luck, after fighting with all his strength, to see the homeland free. It should be noted that after the outbreak of the revolution the founders of the Company were completely sidelined and after the establishment of the free Greek state very few knew their names and work. Xanthos, with several years behind him, lived poor and invisible in Athens, with his only daughter, enjoying the goods of freedom. When, after the September 3 revolution, parliamentarianism was established in the country, he used to watch the meetings from the gallery of the parliament. It was perhaps his only amusement. He thought that he himself had contributed to the country reaching this point. Unfortunately, the meetings were often episodic. In other words, the deputies were not limited to threats and insults, but were also caught red-handed.
In such cases, the conference hall, corridors and galleries turned into a "battlefield" and the peaceful MPs and visitors ran to get out of the building badly, badly, to save themselves. At the end of November 1851, something similar happened (the deputy Vilaetis was shopping for a personal matter) and Xanthos, who was in the gallery, ran with many others to leave. But as he descended the stairs, he lost his balance, fell, and, in the confusion, was badly trampled. Some compassionate people, seeing him suffering, beaten in the legs and ribs, took him to the hospital, where he died. At first, no one knew who the dead man was. The newspaper "Aion" two days later revealed that the old man who was trampled was one of the founders of the Philiki Etairea...
Athanassios Tsakalov (1788 – 1851) was born in Ioannina and studied at the Maroussia School. His fur merchant father, when he learned that his son was in danger, because of his unique beauty, of falling into the hands of the outcast tyrant Ali Pasha, took him with him to Russia. There he took care of his education (he studied Natural Sciences in Paris) and his security (even his surname was changed from Tekelis or Tsakalos to Tsakalov). Before introducing him to commerce, he sent him to study in Paris, where he learned many foreign languages.
In Odessa, he happily accepted to become a co-founder of Filiki Etairia and essentially, due to his great education and language skills, he will be the "mind" of the organization. When the revolution in the Dominions began he rushed and fought as an officer of the holy company in the ill-fated battle at Dragatsani. After the fainting of Alexander Ypsilantis, his flight and his capture by the Austrians, he went down to the Peloponnese, with Xanthos, to take part in the revolution that had broken out there. He fought hard throughout the uprising. The people loved him and elected him a representative in the National Assembly of Argos. Kapodistrias, after the liberation, honored him, appointing him organizer and director of the accounting service of the army. After the assassination of the governor he was sidelined and left bitterly for Russia. There he died more of bitterness and nostalgia for the country to which he had dedicated his life.
Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos (1790-1854) from Andritsaina, after spending difficult childhood years, he managed to go to Odessa, where he started working hard as an employee. Skoufas introduced him to the secrets of the Company (1816), because despite his quarrelsome character he recognized rare abilities in him. It didn't fall out. He soon became the fourth member of the "supreme authority". In 1818, the leaders of the Society, in a meeting held in Polis, deemed it necessary to go down to the Peloponnese and initiate influential personalities. But their problem was money. They thought then to find a rich expatriate, include him in the founding team and solve the problem for them. Anagnostopoulos volunteered to find him himself. And he found the rich expatriate Sekeris. Thus, when, a few months later, Skoufas died, Sekeris took his place, who would later become a key element of the organization.
After his success, Anagnostopoulos gained prestige and tried to introduce the most famous Greeks abroad to the Company. He even initiated Metropolitan Ignatius. When the revolution broke out in the Peloponnese, he hastened to fight himself. Dimitrios Ypsilantis used him as his advisor. They were among those who advised him to demand absolute military and political power, and when the candidates refused, they stirred up the people and the military against them. During the difficult years when Kapodistrias was struggling under terribly bad conditions to create a state, he helped him as much as he could. During the period of the Bavarians, he ceased to deal with the commons. He was perhaps bitter, when Xanthos contradicted his claim that he was a founding member of the Society, since the Society was founded in 1814 and he was initiated in 1816. The State, however, honored them both with the golden cross of the Savior. In 1854 he was infected by the cholera brought by the Anglo-French (during the Crimean War) to Piraeus and wiped out a large part of the population. He died alone and helpless, because of the contagiousness of the disease….
Panagiotis Sekeris (1783-1846) from Tripoli was a successful merchant of the City. His fortune was enormous. Anagnostopoulos, as we mentioned above, counting on her, introduced him to Filiki Etairia and included him in the "12 Apostles". He was the "Golden Twelfth", as he was typically called. After the death of Skoufas he became a member of the "supreme authority". Without thinking of the danger he turned his mansion in the center of the Ottoman capital into the headquarters of the Company. It gradually became her "mind". The coordinator of everything. Of the nine ships he owned, he granted one exclusively to transport the "Apostles" to the areas they undertook to initiate patriots.
Before and after the outbreak of the National Revolt, he spent his wealth sparingly on whatever needs arose (it is reported that he had given 40,000 grossia to Petrobei Mavromichalis alone). Once the expected came. He was notified by friends that the Ottoman authorities had discovered his work and it was a matter of hours before his arrest. He coolly expelled the employees from his businesses, so that they could escape and he himself left for Odessa in disguise. There, he will later meet his wife. In the Russian city the wealthy tycoon will live in poverty. In 1830 he will go down to the now free Greece and will be appointed publican in Hydra. He will never complain about his poverty and he will not ask the Greek public for compensation for what he gave to the Struggle. When King Otto met him on one of his tours and learned of his contribution, he invited him to Athens, to grant him the cross of the Savior. He refused. He wanted no trade-offs. He died in Nafplion in poverty and obscurity, without ever expressing any complaint. Everything he did, he did for the country alone.
Yannis Michael Gryntakis is a PhD in History from the University of Athens.
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