Theodoros Kolokotronis is one of the most recognisable personalities of 1821, and rightfully occupies a position among the great revolutionaries of the 19th century.
Kolokotronis was born in the year the Orlov Revolt (1770) was crushed in the Peloponnese. Despite beginning his action as a guerilla fighter, in 1805 – 1806 he is wanted by the Ottoman authorities and escapes to the Ionian Islands. He is there transformed from an irregular fighter, into a professional soldier of the British Army. His initiation into the Filiki Eteria was the beginning of his participation in revolutionary action.
In June 1820, the Filiki Eteria appoints Kolokotronis head of the revolutionary troops in the Peloponnese, a move which is a recognition of his experience and prestige. On 6 January 1821, he lands in the Peloponnese, in order to militarily lead the greatest event of modern Hellenism.
His progress begins in Areopoli, Mani on 17 March, and continues with the liberation of Kalamata on 23 March. Under his command, the Greek revolutionaries face an organised Ottoman Army at Valtetsi, in April and May of the same year, for the first time. In the same year, he fights in the Battle of Doliana and in August in the Battle of Grana. He plans the Siege of Tripolitsa, the great administrative centre of the Peloponnese and on 23 September assumes a leading role in its capture. The military genius of Kolokotronis unfolds in the straits of Dervenakia, on 26-28 July 1822, when the Greek revolutionaries under his command beat the army of Dramalis. His name is indissolubly connected to the establishment of the Revolution, while his military feats built his legend, still engraved in historical memory, even after the establishment of the modern Greek state.
The old man of Morias is widely recognised as the military start-point of the Greek Revolution. His person attracted conflicting emotions of like and dislike, love and envy. Kolokotronis has been identified with the persona of the Revolution. Even at its most dangerous point, during the tumultuous times of 1824, he writes, expressing the ideal of the Revolution: “My country was and will be the main image within my soul”.
#ΕλληνικόςΣτρατός, #HellenicArmy
