Book Description
This is the first edition of the handwritten travel journal of Theologos Panagiotidis, a Greek from Trebizond who was a refugee in Russia, when he left Rostov to reach free Mytilene out of fear for the revolutionaries. The diary entries begin on Saturday, March 23, 1919 and follow the route and port calls of the steamer Jeannetta, on which Panagiotidis was a passenger, together with many members of the Greek community of Rostov who fled Russia due to the war. The text concludes with a brief record of events from 6 to 12 April 1919 in Mytilene. In the publication is also included the text of an unpublished lecture given by Theologos Panagiotidis at Rostov, on January 6, 1919, under the title: “On the Greek national awakening in Russia”. The text is edited and commented by Ourania Polycandrioti, who also signs the Introduction (pp. 11-34), and is divided into the following sections: “Theologos Panagiotidis and his era”, which presents the historical context of the text; “From Rostov to Mytilene, March – April 1919. The calendar and the events”, which describes the itinerary and conditions of the journey; “The beliefs of Theologos Panagiotidis”, into which the ideological views of the author are developed; “The diary as a personal discourse”, in which the literary genre of diary writing is examined as a type of subjective historical documentation.