Maria Desipri Svolou (1892-1976)

Maria Despiri was born in Athens in 1982 but lived the first years of her life in Piraeus. She was the daughter of a family with four girls. Her father George Despiris worked as a bank clerk. The family settled in Larisa, when Despiris was transferred to the local branch of the National Bank, working as its local director. There Maria finished her studies, in an era where the basic education of young girls was overlooked. She graduated in 1907, most likely from the Arsakeio School of Women in Larisa, thus having the opportunity to work as a teacher. After the unfortunate passing of her father in 1915 the family moved to Athens, where Maria finished the French studies program of the French School of Athens, and in 1919 received state approval to teach.

In 1921 she began her professional career as an employee of the Ministry of National Economy, being the first woman to achieve the post of Inspector of Labor, being instrumental in exposing the horrid working conditions of women of the labor classes in the 1920s. In her reports to the Ministry she outlines that the working conditions had worsened with the arrival of refugees [from 1922], that the cheap and unskilled labor of underage girls had increased, and that “as I investigated that from 97 underage laborers under the age of 12, 85 were orphaned missing either their mother or father and even both in some cases or belonged in a family whose adults could not secure permanent employment”, their daily wages were only enough to feed them. Between 1932-1936 she was a member of the Committee of Experts of the International Bureau of Labor. During her tenure at the Ministry of National Economy, she met the director of Labor and Social Policy, a socialist constitutional expert, and in the future a professor at the University of Athens as well as a politician, Alexandros Svolos (Krousovo 1892 – Athens 1956) with whom she married in 1923. They remained married for their entire lives and according to Maria’s wishes did not have any offspring.

Her actions were not contained to the theoretical basis exclusively. Knowing well that without the proper professional education of women there would never be equality, she advised the Union to create, in 1925, the Merchant Night School of Female Workers, aiming to educate women that wanted to work in the private and public sectors. A few years later, in 1929 she assisted in the creation of the Papastrateios School of Children Toys and Decorative Arts, aiming to assist the poor youth to find work through the teaching of new industrial skills. She remained the director of the school until 1936. With these actions, Maria cemented herself as one of the most crucial figures of the women’s movement.

In 1932 after internal disagreements, Maria departed from the Union for Women’s Rights. It appears that during this time, with the rise of fascism in Europe she too turned to the more radical leftist ideas of the KKE, understanding that wider social and economic changes were necessary for the victory of women’s rights. Thus, she was a protagonist in the creation of the Union of Labouring Women, while she actively participated as the Secretary of the Panhellenic Organization of Women against Fascism and War. She also got elected as a member of the International Women’s Committee in the Global Anti-Fascist and Anti-War Women’s Conference. Simultaneously she was on the Executive Board of the International Committee against Fascism. Additionally, in 1935 she was instrumental in the creation of the Female Commission of Collaborating Organizations, composed of 56 women’s groups with progressive ideals.

The political activities of Maria Svolou were halted abruptly by the Metaxas dictatorship. On the night of August 4, 1936, her husband, who had already been chased out of University in 1935 for his leftist and pro-Venizelos beliefs, was arrested alongside many more democratic citizens and sent to the secret police. “The next day they would still not allow any contact with his family, and their response: he is in solitary confinement. Midday they moved them in trucks to the Averoff prisons […]”, Maria Svolou remembers. A few days later, when the state decided to exile Alexandros Svolos (alongside Dimitris Glinos, Giannis Sofianopoulos, and more) to a small island in the Aegean Sea (Anafi), Maria did not hesitate to follow her husband to his place of exile, secretly boarding the boat that was transporting the exiles. As she specifically mentions, “they had announced that they would move them at 5 PM of the next day to Piraeus. But a little after noon they loaded them in trucks, during a time of rest so that the people in the port would not be alerted. I managed to sneak into the boat and watch the prisoners be loaded in. As they left the trucks, shackled in pairs, the nearby observers were shocked: Both Svolos and Sofianopoulos…”

The political exiles traveled in chains, even though the law forbade this. In Anafi other exiles waited for them “There were 13 of them, and amongst them was one woman. A worker from Kavala, in the second year of her exile after a strike in her tobacco factory”. Their very first night they were “greeted” by a dog that was nicknamed “Goebbels” and a pig that began to eat the newspaper they used to block up the window and protect themselves from the wind. The political exiles were not contained to Anafi, during the Metaxas years 1936-1940, they were moved around other islands like Milos, Naxos, and Evia, where Maria devoted herself to bettering the education opportunities of the locals.

On top of her contribution to the starving people of Athens, Maria connected with EAM and participated in the organization of resistance groups. Alki Zei mentions in her memoirs (With a number 2 Faber pencil, 2013) with regards to the members that created the first female groups: “Right after the liberation we learned their names. The scarecrow was Melpo Aksioti. The pretty one Kaiti Zevgou and the oldest one Maria Svolou, the youngest Helectra was tortured and executed by the Nazis”. With the creation of EPON she participated in the Editorial Committee of the periodical Nea Genia (New Generation). During the occupation she regularly met her “mentor”, her old teacher and member of the Political Office of KKE Dimitris Glinos. She anecdotally recalls one of their illegal meetings in 1943: “We went to a house where on the upper floor two Germans lived. We had the notion that it was safer and less auspicious for Greeks with the conditions that the Germans wouldn’t regularly see us there. Once we opened the door we were faced by them. They gave us the military salute and opened the door for us, we calmly returned the greeting and returned separately. Is it possible, I thought, for a person to be polite and also be an animal?”.

During her imprisonment in the Averoff women’s prison in the very difficult conditions of isolation and the general crowding of the prisons, Maria did not lose the sensitivity she had for socially wronged women. She connected with other political prisoners, met women condemned to death, and moved from the life experiences of working women and young girls that had been persecuted for years and undergone many deprivations. She wrote down the stories that she heard: “[…] I was in EPON with my fiancé, I was 17 and he was 22. In 1944 the Germans killed him, and for the first time, my mouth was shut from shock. I stayed like that for 2 months, it took me a whole year to recover. A year ago I got engaged again, I decided to rebuild my life. It’s been 4 months now, and one night they caught me. When I went to the security building, they brought my fiancé in front of me. They had caught him a few days prior. He was so deformed from the torture that once I saw him I fainted. When I regained consciousness my mouth was shut again, they thought I did it on purpose to avoid speaking, they beat me […]”.

Her turbulent life, her incessant activities, and her old age had seriously affected her health. She withdrew from action with the imposition of the dictatorship on April 21st, 1967. The policemen did not arrest her at her house despite their orders, citing her poor health. She died on June 3rd, 1978 and her funeral was attended by many comrades. As Maria Karra remembers, she had met Maria as an active agitator of EAM in 1946 and then continued to be friends as they were both held in the Averoff Women’s prison: “She was a beautiful woman, honest, truthful, dynamic, feisty and she spoke very well”.

Transcript 

Maria Despiri-Svolou (1892-1976) was one of the leading personalities of the women’s movement. Born in Athens, she defied social stereotypes by receiving an education and joined the Ministry of National Economy in 1921 as the first female Labour Inspector. She played a key role in various feminist organisations, supporting women’s rights, social welfare, and education. During Metaxas’ dictatorship, she faced political persecution and followed her husband, Al. Svolos in exile. In the early years of the German Occupation, she helped in the organisation of food rations, was associated with EAM and participated in the development of resistance organisations from her position as National Councilor to the PEEA. During the Civil War, she was again persecuted and imprisoned, while in the post-civil war period, she joined the EDA, with which she was elected as a member of parliament, continuing her activity around the women’s movement. With the dictatorship of 21st April 1967, she retired from action until she died in 1978.

Script/Narration: Tonia Markatseli, Nikoletta Mavromati, Maria-Eleni Kekebanou, Mirsini Konstantopoulou

Coordination: Manos Avgeridis, Ioanna Vogli
Audio editing – Mastering: Alexey Arseny Fokurov
Recorded at Antart Studios, Athens