Dimitrios Hatzis (, 13 November 1913 – 20 July 1981) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

novelist and journalist. Dimitris Hatzis plaque in Budapest13

Hatzis was born in

Ioannina Ioannina ( ' ), often called Yannena ( ' ) within Greece, is the capital and largest city of the Ioannina (regional unit), Ioannina regional unit and of Epirus (region), Epirus, an Modern regions of Greece, administrative region in northwester ...

(

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

) northwestern Greece, the son of the author and journalist, Georgios Hatzis. He graduated from the Zosimaia school in his home land. In 1930, after the death of his father, he succeeded him as director of the newspaper ''Epirus''. In 1932-1934 he was influenced by

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

ideologies and joined the

Communist Party of Greece The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

. In 1936 he was arrested by the regime of

Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; 12 April 187129 January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who was dictator of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as th ...

for communist activity. Hatzis got involved in the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...

(1946-1949), where he joined the

Democratic Army of Greece The Democratic Army of Greece (DAG; , ΔΣΕ; ''Dimokratikós Stratós Elládas'', DSE) was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949). At its height, it had a strength of around 50,000 men and w ...

(DSE). As a result, following the Left's defeat, he went into exile and until the legalization of the Greek Communist Party in 1975, he lived in various

socialist countries A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. This article is about states that refer to themselves as socialist states, and not specifically ab ...

in Eastern Europe. In 1962 Hatzis took up a position at the Byzantine Studies Department at the University of Budapest. There he taught Greek and modern Greek literature. He also worked on the translation and anthology of a wealth of texts in the Hungarian language. Through this work, Hatzis established Greek Studies in Hungary and contributed to the spread of Greek culture. Famous works of Hatzis include: *''Το τέλος της μικρής μας πόλης'' (The end of our small town), 1960. *''Ανυπεράσπιστοι'' (Defenceless), 1966. *''Το Διπλό Βιβλίο'' (The double book), 1976, considered as one of the most important novels in post-war Greek literature. *''Σπουδές'' (Studies), 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hatzis, Dimitrios 1913 births 1981 deaths Writers from Ioannina Communist Party of Greece politicians Greek male poets 20th-century Greek novelists 20th-century Greek poets Zosimaia School alumni National Liberation Front (Greece) members Democratic Army of Greece personnel Exiles of the Greek Civil War Greek prisoners and detainees Greek expatriates in Hungary 20th-century Greek journalists Greek Byzantinists Scholars of Byzantine literature