Sotirios G. Krokidas (; 1852 – July 29, 1924) was an interim

Prime Minister of Greece The prime minister of the Hellenic Republic (), usually referred to as the prime minister of Greece (), is the head of government of the Greece, Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Cabinet of Greece, Greek Cabinet. The officeholder's of ...

in 1922. He was a law professor in Athens.

Biography

Sotirios Krokidas was born in

Sikyona Sikyona () is a municipality in Corinthia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is in Kiato. Sikyona takes its name from the ancient city Sicyon, which was located in the same territory. Municipality The municipality Sikyona was formed at the 201 ...

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

in 1852. He studied law at the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

, from which he also became a doctor. In the period 1881 - 1897 he was an assistant professor of commercial law at the Athens Law School. In 1883 he was elected mayor of Sikyona, while from 1892 he was elected deputy of Corinth. In 1917 he was appointed commander-in-chief of Crete, a position in which he remained until 1920. When the Greek army was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War and the government of

Petros Protopapadakis Petros Protopapadakis (; 31 December 1854 – 28 November 1922) was a politician and Prime Minister of Greece from May to September 1922. Life and work Born in 1860 in Apeiranthos, Naxos, Protopapadakis studied mathematics and engineering in P ...

fell, Greece was plunged into a political crisis. In September, 1922, Nikolaos Triantaphillakos was Prime Minister as the military revolted in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

and then in

Mytilene Mytilene (; ) is the capital city, capital of the Greece, Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University of the Aegean. It was fo ...

. A revolutionary committee led by

Stylianos Gonatas Stylianos Gonatas (; 15 August 1876 – 29 March 1966) was an officer of the Hellenic Army, Venizelist politician, and Prime Minister of Greece from 1922 to 1924. Early life and military career Gonatas was born in Patras. He entered the Hellenic ...

demanded the abdication of

Constantine I of Greece Constantine I (, Romanization, romanized: ''Konstantínos I''; – 11 January 1923) was King of Greece from 18 March 1913 to 11 June 1917 and again from 19 December 1920 to 27 September 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army dur ...

and on September 26, 1922, the king abandoned his throne and the government of Triantaphillakos resigned. The revolutionary committee selected

Alexandros Zaimis Alexandros Zaimis (, Romanization, romanized: ''Aléxandros Zaímis''; 28 October 1855 – 15 September 1936) was a Greeks, Greek politician who served as Greece's Prime Minister of Greece, Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior (Greece), Minist ...

as Prime Minister, but as he was out of the country, Krokidas was appointed as interim Prime Minister. Until Krokidas could reach Athens to be sworn in, the Minister of the Army, Charalambis was sworn in as Prime Minister on September 29, and served for one day. On September 30, 1922, Krokidas became Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. He was responsible for constituting the extraordinary and controversial

Trial of the Six The Trial of the Six (, ''Díki ton Éx(i)'') or the Execution of the Six was the trial for treason, in late 1922, of the Anti-Venizelist officials held responsible for the Greek military defeat in Asia Minor. The trial culminated in the death ...

which sentenced three former Prime Ministers and the General in command of Greek troops in the Greco-Turkish War to death for Greece's defeat in the war.TO BHMA online
Krokidas resigned on November 27, 1922, as a result of in-fighting among ministers concerning fallout from the Trial of the Six, and he was replaced by the leader of the Revolutionary committee, Stylianos Gonatas. The politicians and General were executed on November 28, 1922. Krokidas died in 1924.

References

1852 births 1924 deaths 20th-century prime ministers of Greece 19th-century Greek lawyers Greek legal scholars National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Mayors of places in Greece Ministers of the interior of Greece {{Greece-politician-stub People from Sikyona Greek Freemasons