REPERTOIRES OF INDUSTRIAL
CULTURE
The repertoire of industrial culture and its collective memory is in great measure broadened by local ethnic associations and amateur historians and collectors of Elefsina. Greeks of Asia Minor, Pontic Greeks, Symiots, and Cretans are among those rescuing the memories of their communities related to industry, because all foreign men and women who came to Elefsina became associated with the latter.
The collective industrial memory of Elefsina’s residents is also fashioned by legends and tales surrounding the industry. Among the principal custodians of such legends and tales, and a person of reference for the city, is Vangelis Liapis, lawyer, scholar, and folklorist of Arvanite descent, who was born in Elefsina and lived there his whole life, from 1913 to 2008. In his book Elefsina in Modern Years (Supplementary Information 1997), he preserves a tale about the arrival of the railroad to the city in the late 19th century.
I’ll tell you about the first time the train passed through the city. It was the winter of 1885, if I recall correctly. Our teacher told us that we would go see it. We had also heard the crier announcing it in the village. The whole village had gathered, waiting to see it. We heard a whistling from afar, like a scream, and we huddled together. We saw it coming from far away, felt it like an earthquake. It was an enormous black beast, with great protruding glass eyes. Its chimney spouted black smoke blackening the area all around. It also spouted white smoke from its nostrils and mouth, and it made our blood run cold; we thought it was rabid and wanted to gnaw at us, eat us all.
EXCERPT FROM “ELEFSINA IN THE MODERN YEARS (SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 1997)”
Another depository of memories around industrial culture is the collective volume Viomichanikes Anamniseis (Industrial memories).
In 2006, Yannis Kalomenidis, cultural heritage collector, Louizos Paraskevaidis, former director of TITAN’s plant, and Yorgos Tsoukalas, teacher and municipal councilor, jointly edited a volume titled Viomichanikes Anamniseis, which was published under the auspices of the municipality of Elefsina.
It recorded the testimonies of 67 retired male and female workers at the factories of Elefsina, recounting their memories from their work. According to its editors, the explicit purpose of this volume is to pay homage to "all those who, in one form or another, found themselves at the forefront of events, yet no one recorded their deeds".
“INDUSTRIAL ELEFSINA – PEOPLE AND FACTORIES”
This exhibition took place in 2016 in the framework of the Aeschylia Festival annually organized by the Municipality of Elefsina, and it was conceived as a retrospective of the city’s industrial history from the late 19th century to the Metapolitefsi (1974). Each factory’s history, interwoven as it was with city life, was used to present stories of individuals who toiled in these workplaces, ranging from industrial workers to businessmen. Rare documents regarding the operation of the area’s large industrial units were unveiled for the first time ever. The exhibits were based on historical texts, oral testimonies, theatrical narrations, and audiovisual and art materials.
This exhibition was the first public event of the Administrative Board of the “Georgios Abatzoglou” Modern History Museum of Eleusis, which was founded on the initiative of residents of Elefsina.
Considering the size of the city, the involvement of so many people with different types of archives and the wealth of such archives constitute an impressive aspect of Elefsina. Amateur collectors recognize the city’s rich industrial history and call attention to it in various ways.
VANGELIS TSAKOS
Vangelis Tsakos (1913-1978): Amateur photographer, whose photographs are invaluable for the preservation of the city’s memories, since they include photographic material from factories, workers, social struggles, the National Resistance, and everyday life. He came to Elefsina as a teenager during the interwar period and secured a job at the TITAN cement factory. He was among the founders of the Elefsis Greek Mountaineering Club (E.O.S. Elefsinas) and a very active participant in workers’ struggles and union activities. After TITAN, he opened a lingerie store in Elefsina, but always carried his camera in hand, like the early street photographers. His photos have won awards in international exhibitions. According to his last wishes, his archive was bequeathed partly to the Workers' Center of Elefsina, partly to the municipality of Elefsina, and partly to the Elefsis Mountaineering Club, while another, significant part of it has sadly been scattered, lost, or destroyed.
KOSTAS LYKIDIS
Kostas Lykidis: Mathematician and collector of Arvanite descent, owner of an extensive collection of evidence and artifacts of Greek and Elefsinian industrial history, most of which he salvages and classifies himself, including objects, photos, documents of workers and factories, advertisements, and press clippings, as well as testimonies. Items from his collection as well as his knowledge of Elefsina’s industrial culture provided the basis for exhibitions on industry, including "People and Factories" (2016), "160 years made in Greece: Industry, Innovation, Novelty", and "Raw Museum" (Benaki Museum, 2022-2023).
YORGOS PAVLOPOULOS
Yorgos Pavlopoulos: Collector, of Arvanite descent, longtime worker at the TITAN factory, and amateur historian who salvages, classifies, and catalogs evidence of industrial history of the wider region, with particular focus on Elefsina. He collects documents, photographs, press clippings, and owns one of the most important collections of engravings depicting Elefsina and other areas of the Thriasian Plain. As with Kostas Lykidis, the wealth of Yorgos Pavlopoulos’s collection was used in the exhibitions "People and Factories" (2016) and "Raw Museum" (2022-2023).