In the years immediately preceding, our country managed two important anniversaries, the 200th anniversary of the declaration of the Greek Revolution and the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Metapolitefsi, an anniversary that has the peculiarity of belonging to very recent history with all the relevant “sensitivities”. The sources for the study of the Metapolitefsi are rich: Archives, bibliography, audiovisual material, publications. But also alive are the memories and experiences of the people who lived those days when Greece was called upon to establish a stable democracy, something that was by no means self-evident and easy.

In the context of the anniversary, the National Library of Greece (NLG), the General State Archives (GSA) and the Hellenic Radio and Television (ERT) are co-organizing the exhibition “From Dictatorship to Democracy“, with unique archival documents and rich audiovisual material. The exhibits relate to the dictatorship and the anti-dictatorship struggle, the first year of the Metapolitefsi period, with the major institutional changes, but also the social and cultural post-independence in general, up to the early years of the 1980s. For the exhibition an art installation has been created by Alexis Fidetzis. The artistic curator of the exhibition is Vassilis Zidianakis/ATOPOS cvc.

NLG participates with material from its Collections, mainly newspapers, magazines and books (more than three hundred items in total). The exhibition is accompanied by a 288-page colour catalogue, published by the National Library of Greece, edited by Stavros Zoumboulakis. It contains original studies on the period and many documents.