Andreas N. Stratos ( el, Ανδρέας Ν. Στράτος; 1905 – 30 August 1981) was a
Greek lawyer, politician and historian. The son of
Prime Minister of Greece
The prime minister of the Hellenic Republic ( el, Πρωθυπουργός της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας, Prothypourgós tis Ellinikís Dimokratías), colloquially referred to as the prime minister of Greece ( el, Πρωθυ ...
Nikolaos Stratos
Nikolaos Stratos ( el, Νικόλαος Στράτος; 16 May 1872 – 28 November 1922 (15 November Old Style dating)) was a Prime Minister of Greece for a few days in May 1922. He was later tried and executed for his role in the Catastroph ...
, he was elected a member of the
Hellenic Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...
continuously from 1932 to 1961, serving five times in cabinet posts as
Minister for Labour (1946, 1954–55),
Minister Governor-General of Northern Greece (1952–54) and
Minister of Health and Social Welfare (1958–61, 1961–62). After retiring from politics he wrote the six-volume ''Byzantium in the 7th Century'' (''Το Βυζάντιον στον Ζ' αιώνα'', 1965–77), the first comprehensive study of the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
state in that period.
Life
Andreas Stratos was born in Athens in 1905, the son of
Nikolaos Stratos
Nikolaos Stratos ( el, Νικόλαος Στράτος; 16 May 1872 – 28 November 1922 (15 November Old Style dating)) was a Prime Minister of Greece for a few days in May 1922. He was later tried and executed for his role in the Catastroph ...
and Maria Koromila. In November 1922, his father was
tried and executed by the
military government
A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...
as one of those principally responsible for the Greek defeat against Turkey in the so-called "
Asia Minor Disaster
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
".
In the virulent political atmosphere of the time, 17-year-old Andreas fled with his mother and sister,
Dora, to Germany. The family was in dire financial situation, despite some help from his grandmother and
Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos, forcing his mother to seek employment as a
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
singer as well as a dressmaker in various fashion designers. Andreas was able to study in law and political sciences at the universities of
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he also studied music in a conservatory.
In 1927, the family returned to Greece, and Andreas received his degree in law from the
University of Athens. After finishing his military service, he became a lawyer, as well as securing an appointment in the legal department of the
National Bank of Greece.
The popularity of his father in his home province of
Aetolia-Acarnania allowed him to stand for
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and win the seat for Aetolia-Acarnania in the
1932 elections with the
People's Party, a feat he would repeat for ten consecutive elections until 1961.
Upon the outbreak of the
Greco-Italian War
The Greco-Italian War (Greek language, Greek: Ελληνοϊταλικός Πόλεμος, ''Ellinoïtalikós Pólemos''), also called the Italo-Greek War, Italian Campaign in Greece, and the War of '40 in Greece, took place between the kingdom ...
in October 1940, he enlisted as a volunteer. He was re-elected with the People's Party in the
first post-war elections in 1946,
and became
Minister for Labour in the interim cabinet of
Panagiotis Poulitsas
Panagiotis Poulitsas (Greek: Παναγιώτης Πουλίτσας) was a Greek judge and archeologist who briefly served as interim Prime Minister of Greece from 4 April 1946 to 18 April 1946. He was born in Geraki, Laconia on 9 September 18 ...
and the cabinets of
Panagis Tsaldaris (13 April – 21 November 1946). Among his initiatives during this tenure were the foundation of the unemployment fund, wage increases for night-shifts, holidays and Sundays, and the establishment of summer camps for children of low-income working families.
In 1947, Stratos and further 18 MPs split off from the People's Party and
Spyros Markezinis'
New Party. In the
1950 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 1950.
Africa
* 1950 South-West African legislative election
Asia
* 1950 Iranian legislative election
Australia
* 1950 New South Wales state election
* 1950 Queensland state election
* 1950 South ...
, however, the New Party performed disastrously, and only Stratos was re-elected to Parliament.
In 1951 he joined the
Greek Rally
Greek Rally ( el, Ἑλληνικὸς Συναγερμός (ΕΣ), ''Ellīnikòs Synagermós'' (ES)) was a right-wing political party in Greece.
History
Founded on 6 August 1951 by former field marshal Alexandros Papagos, the party encompassed ...
of Marshal
Alexander Papagos
Alexandros Papagos ( el, Αλέξανδρος Παπάγος; 9 December 1883 – 4 October 1955) was a Greek army officer who led the Hellenic Army in World War II and the later stages of the subsequent Greek Civil War. The only Greek career of ...
, being re-elected in the
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
and
1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
elections.
Stratos became
Minister General-Governor of Northern Greece
The Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace ( el, Υφυπουργός Μακεδονίας και Θράκης) is the government minister in charge of Greece's Sub-Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, part of the Ministry of the Interior.
The dep ...
in the Papagos cabinet until 15 December 1954, when he was appointed Minister for Labour a second time, until the resignation of the Papagos cabinet on 6 October 1955, following the Marshal's death.
Despite suffering a heart attack which necessitated treatment in Paris, Stratos was again elected ''in absentia'' as MP for Aetolia-Acarnania in the
February 1956 elections, now with the Greek Rally's successor, the
National Radical Union
The National Radical Union ( el, Ἐθνικὴ Ῥιζοσπαστικὴ Ἕνωσις (ΕΡΕ), ''Ethnikī́ Rizospastikī́ Énōsis'' (ERE)) was a Greek political party formed in 1956 by Konstantinos Karamanlis, mostly out of the Greek Rall ...
. He then served as head of the Greek delegation to the
12th session of the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
.
Re-elected in
1958
Events
January
* January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being.
* January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
* January 4
** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...
, he became
Minister for Social Welfare throughout
Konstantinos Karamanlis' third cabinet (17 May 1958 – 20 September 1961), and again after the
1961 elections from 4 November 1961 until his resignation on 20 December 1962.
After his resignation, Stratos retired from politics and devoted himself to his passion, the study of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. Although not a trained scholar, he was an avid enthusiast and participated in many international conferences on Byzantine studies and published many articles in international scholarly journals. Already in the early 1950s he had focused his interest on the 7th century, a transformative but until then neglected period in Byzantine history. The fruit of his research would be the six-volume ''Byzantium in the 7th Century'' (''Το Βυζάντιον στον Ζ' αιώνα'', Estia 1965–77), later translated into French and English, for which he received the Prize of the
Academy of Athens in 1970.
Andreas Stratos died on 30 August 1981. Two volumes with collections of articles were published in his honour in 1986 by his fellow Byzantinists.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratos, Andreas
1905 births
1981 deaths
Mass media people from Athens
People's Party (Greece) politicians
United Alignment of Nationalists politicians
New Party (Greece, 1947) politicians
Greek Rally politicians
National Radical Union politicians
Labour ministers of Greece
Government ministers of Greece
Greek MPs 1932–1933
Greek MPs 1933–1935
Greek MPs 1935–1936
Greek MPs 1946–1950
Greek MPs 1950–1951
Greek MPs 1951–1952
Greek MPs 1952–1956
Greek MPs 1956–1958
Greek MPs 1958–1961
Greek MPs 1961–1963
Governors-General of Northern Greece
People of the Greek Civil War
Greek Byzantinists
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni
20th-century Greek historians
20th-century Greek lawyers
Writers from Athens