Filiki Etairia and the Greek Revolution of 1821

Members, Structure and Aim of a 19th-century Secret Organization

Apr 5, 2009

Founded in 1814, the Filiki Eteria, or Society of Friends, was a secret organization aiming to overthrow Ottoman rule and establish an independent Greek state.

As economic, social, political and intellectual changes weakened the foundations of the four-century old Ottoman Empire, nationalism made inroads into the subject Christian Orthodox populations. The Greek merchants who travelled to Western Europe and came in contact with the ideas of the Enlightenment sowed the seeds for the Greek Revolution of 1821.

Foundation of the Filiki Etairia (Society of Friends)

Inspired by the Carbonari, the secret revolutionary societies of Italy, and by Freemasonry, three Greeks founded in Odessa in 1814, a secret organization they named Filiki Etairia (Eteria), or Society of Friends. The founders were the freemason, Emmanuel Xanthos, the artisan Nikolaos Skoufas and the 26-year-old, Athanasios Tsakalov, a shipping company clerk - all men who, as Richard Clogg comments, had failed to make it in the harsh competitive world of the Greek mercantile Diaspora.

Members of the Filiki Etairia

Those who joined the Society of Friends were far from wealthy. Both prosperous merchants and local government notables were rather against the concept of a Greek revolution. They were either thriving within the economic framework of the Ottoman Empire or were an integral part of the Ottoman administration. In both cases they had a lot to lose.

The bulk of the Filiki Etairia members were merchants’ clerks or pedlars and “professionals” (teachers, lawyers, officials). There were also a few local notables and some low-rank clergy. The Filiki Eteria had minimal appeal on peasants and artisans. For the first three years very little progress was made in membership numbers but then there was a great influx of new members, though estimates as to how many vary.

Structure of the Filiki Etairia

Akin to the structure of Masonic organizations, the Filiki Etairia had four grades of membership in ascending order of importance: brother (vlamis), the recommended one (systemenos), the priest (ierefs) and the shepherd (poimin). They were also two military grades: the dedicated one (aphieromenos) and the leader of the dedicated ones(archigos ton afieromenon). The initiates were instructed to the aim of the Society and took an oath of initiation.

The Filiki Etairia was ruled by the Supreme Authority (Anotati Archi), an individual whose name was kept secret from the members. Initiates were led to believe that the Society enjoyed Russian patronage. This played into the traditional belief that the subject Christian Orthodox peoples were going to be liberated by the Russians.

Aims of the Filiki Etairia

The aim of the Filiki Eteria was the violent overthrow of the Ottoman regime. The secret organization had no concrete vision of what would follow the Greeks’ liberation. Lack of ideology meant that the Filiki Etairia was able to recruit from different sections of the Christian Orthodox populations. The Greek revolution of 1821 was as much a result of the preparations of the Filiki Etairia as it was of the military situation in the Ottoman Empire.

Richard Clogg, A Short History of Modern Greece, Cambridge University Press 1984

The copyright of the article Filiki Etairia and the Greek Revolution of 1821 in Greek History is owned by Lito Apostolakou. Permission to republish Filiki Etairia and the Greek Revolution of 1821 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.