Konstantinos D. Svolopoulos

Konstantinos D. Svolopoulos (1938-2019) was born in Athens. He became a regular member of the Academy of Athens in 2003 and served as its president in 2010. He was an emeritus professor of Modern Greek History in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Athens. Svolopoulos studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens and Political Science at the Universities of Strasbourg and Paris. He earned his doctorate at the Universities of Strasbourg and Athens and became a lecturer at the Law School of the University of Thessaloniki, where he also served as a professor of the History of International Relations (1981-1989). Between 1962 and 1965, he organized the Eleftherios Venizelos archive at the Benaki Museum. A historian of great repute, he was the director of the Institute for Balkan Studies for nine years. In 1990, he took over the direction of the "Konstantinos G. Karamanlis" Foundation, which he co-founded with K. Tsatsos and K. Trypanis. In 1989, he was elected professor of Modern Greek History at the University of Athens. In 2003, the plenary session of the Academy of Athens, recognizing his significant contributions, elected him a regular member in the chair of "History of Hellenism in Modern Times." He was a member of the scientific council of the De Gaulle Foundation and an honorary fellow of the Southeast Europe Society in Munich. His main independent works include: "Eleftherios Venizelos and the Political Crisis in Autonomous Crete, 1901-1906," Athens (1974), "The Balkan Pact and Greek Foreign Policy, 1928-1934" (Athens 1974), "Unpublished Text of Eleftherios Venizelos" (Athens 1974), "Greek Foreign Policy after the Treaty of Lausanne: The Critical Turning Point, July-December 1928" (Thessaloniki 1977), "Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1940-41. Greek Diplomatic Documents" (Athens 1980), "Greek Foreign Policy, 1900-1945" (Athens 1992), "Constantinople, 1856-1908: The Zenith of Hellenism" (Athens 1994), "The Organization of International Society. A Historical Overview" (Thessaloniki 1996), "Konstantinos Karamanlis: Archive, Events, and Texts" (editor, 12 volumes) (Athens 1992-1997), "Alexandre Ypsilanti, Unpublished Correspondence, 1816-1828" (Thessaloniki 1999), "Eleftherios Venizelos: 12 Studies" (Athens 1999), "Greek Foreign Policy, 1945-1981" (Athens 2001), "Chaidari, September 8, 1944. The Invisible Army on Trial" (Athens 2002), "The Status of the Islets of the Southeastern Aegean. The Testimony of the Sources" (Athens 2002), "The Genesis of the History of Modern Hellenism" (Estia Bookstore, 2006), "Fighting at Missolonghi" (Estia Bookstore, 2007), "The Decision to Extend Greek Sovereignty in Asia Minor" (Ikaros 2009), "Conquering Independence" (Patakis 2010). He was married to Greek theater and film actress Katerina Chelmi. He passed away on August 13, 2019, at the age of 81.