IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Ανεμοδουρά Μαρία Μετάφραση : Πανουργιά Κλειώ Για παραπομπή : Ανεμοδουρά Μαρία , "", Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL:

Περίληψη : Nikolaos Koumbaros or Skoufas was born in Komboti, Arta. Initially he was a cap-maker. He immigrated to were he became a merchant. He was one of the founders of the Filiki Etaireia. He died of heart disease in . Άλλα Ονόματα Nikolaos Koumbaros Τόπος και Χρόνος Γέννησης 1779 – Komboki, Arta Τόπος και Χρόνος Θανάτου 1818 – Constantinople Κύρια Ιδιότητα Merchant, one of the founders of the Filiki Etaireia.

1. Birth – early years

Nikolaos Koumbaros or Skoufas was born in 1779 in Komboti, Arta, to a middle-class family. He was initially taught by the ascetic Theocharis Ntouia in Arta in the ruined church of Kassopetria.1 He was later taught by Dendramis (or Ventramis) Mesologgitis.2

After turning 18, Nikolaos moved to Arta were he became a cap-maker (hence his nick-name Skoufas) (skoufos = cap) and also ran a small shop. In 1813 he immigrated to Russia on the quest for a better life. He settled in , the newly-established Black Sea port-town and became a merchant.

2. The foundation of the Etaireia and Skoufas’activities as a Filikos

In Odessa, Skoufas met other merchants who were fellow countrymen, among them the future co-founders of the Filiki EtaireiaAthanasios Tsakalof and , and Constantinos Rados. Constantinos Rados, who later participated actively in the Revolution, had studied in Pisa in where he had become associated with movement. It is possible that through his friendship with Rados, Skoufas was initiated into the sphere of secret societies.

According to the memoirs of Emmanuil Xanthos, “during one of their social gatherings in 1814, the three friends, while speaking of the terrible situation and the tyranny suffered by their fellow countrymen”, decided to establish a society “whose aim was the liberation of the Fatherland”.3

Personal and professional commitments forced Skoufas and Tsakalof to travel to in the autumn of 1814, where they perfected the Society’s Charter while Xanthos himself departed a little later for Constantinople (December 1814). Skoufas’journey to Moscow was connected to the bankruptcy of his businesses.

His bankruptcy was a blow both to Skoufas himself and the newly-founded Society as it almost certainly created a very bad impression within the circle of Greek merchants in Russia among whom he was intending to enlist members to the Society. Despite the financial difficulties he faced, Nikolaos Skoufas managed to indoctrinate Georgios Sekeris who had come to Moscow to meet his brother the merchant Athanasios Sekeris, and the wholesale merchant Antonios Komizopoulos from Fillipoupolis, who was known in Russia as Antonios Pavlovitz, whom he made a member of the Authority with the initials A.E. After the initiation of Georgios Sekeris (13 December 1814) who was probably the first proselyte member, Skoufas wanted to transmit the Society’s message to other important of the Diaspora. He also managed to initiate Nikolaos Ouzounidis, an Odessa merchant who came from

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Thessaloniki (7 September 1815).

Anthimos Gazis, an important member of the Greek community abroad had developed significant intellectual activity within the blossoming Greek community in Vienna as a member of the Arts Society and editor of the literary journal “Logios Ermis”.4 Despite his initial hesitation was initiated into the Society in June 1816 and later became a member of the Higher Authority with the initials A.Z. He refused, however, to take on its leadership.

Skoufas was in Odessa from the beginning of 1816 and lived in the house of Athansios Sekeris for whom also Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos5 worked as a shop-assistant. At the same time as Anthimos Gazis, Nikolaos Galatis was also initiated into the Society; he came from an aristocratic family from and was one of the most controversial personalities to join the Society. Nikolaos Galatis’initiation into the Society was Skoufas’personal choice; in the young man from Ithaca he recognized an ideal opportunity to approach . Galatis professed to be the latter’s nephew. Galatis became a member of the Authority with the initials A.D., also used by Xanthos. Equipped with letters, he travelled to Moscow in order to meet Kapodistrias. He then headed for Petersburg where he met Ioannis Kapodistrias and presented him with the proposition by Skoufas’and the other members of the Authority to take on the leadership of the .

As Kapodistrias mentions in his autobiography, he was so shaken by what he heard from Galatis that he immediately turned him away and rushed to mention the incident to the Emperor. Later, Galatis was arrested by the Russian police and sent to prison. After Kapodistrias’intervention however he was accompanied to the principalities in 1816, under the supervision of the Russian consulate Alexander Pinis6.While in Iaşi Galatis, under the pseudonym Constantinos Alexianos7 developed noteworthy activity on behalf of the Society with the support of Georgios Leventis, secretary to the Russian consulate.8

Nikolaos Galatis’activity in the areas bordering the Danube and his attempts to approach Kapodistrias, in conjunction with the assassination of the Serb leader Karageorge Petrovitch, led Nikolaos Skoufas to the decision to transfer the Society’s headquarters to the Mani. Skoufas’decision was also connected to the initiation into the Society of three chieftains from the , Anagnostis Papageorgiou or , Helias Chrysospathis and Panayiotis Dimitropoulos (or Dimitrakopoulos). Waiting for the chieftains’return from Moscow, he planned to travel with them to Constantinople and from there to the Peloponnese in order to prepare the Revolution. The fear that his name had possibly become implicated in inquiries by the Russian police forced him to hasten his departure for Constantinople, accompanied by Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos and Christodoulos Louriotis while Athanasios Sekeris, who had just become a member of the Authority with the initials A.H., remained in Odessa.

3. Transferral of the Society’s headquarters to Constantinople

The three men reached Constantinople at the end of March 1818 and initially stayed on the boat they had travelled in. On Easter Saturday Skoufas met Emmanuil Xanthos at the church of Arnavutköy and stayed at the latter’s house over the following period.9 From this time forward Constantinople became the centre of activity for the Society.10

Skoufas had created a list of Twelve Apostles whom he intended to become active in both mainland and the Balkans. Specifically he designated Georgakis Olymbios to , Dimitris Vatikiotis to Bulgaria, K. Pentedekas to , Louriotis to Italy, D. Ypatros to Egypt and Gabriel Katakazis to Russia. He had also decided to send Asimakis Krokidas to Ali Pasha’a court in order to initiate the eager who constituted his personal guard.

4. Skoufas’death

Death however came early for Nikolaos Skoufas. After a heart condition which had afflicted him for some months and despite the attendance of the doctors Moschos and Isauridis,11 he died on 31 July 1818 and was buried in the church of Arnavutköy. The description of his temperament by Filimon is characteristic of the man who was the heart of the Filiki Etaireia: “He was a man of strict morals with a sensitive and kind heart, benevolent, energetic, full of great patriotism”.12 Skoufas was the only member of the Filiki

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Etaireia who died before the declaration of the Revolution.

1. See Παπαγιώργης, Κ., Εμμανουήλ Ξάνθος, ο Φιλικός ( 2005), p. 52 ff. Kassopetria or Kassopetria was a small, wooden, single-aisled basilica. It was built in the mid 18th century but was destroyed in 1818 when the large cypress tree which was located in its courtyard fell on the church’s roof. It was rebuilt after the liberation.

2. See Γούδας, Α., Βίοι παράλληλοι των επί της αναγεννήσεως της Ελλάδας διαπρέψαντων ανδρών, vol. E (Athens 1872), p. 9. “... he was taught Greek by Ventramis Mesologgitis, who was knowledgeable of Greek teachings and was a diligent man, who throughout those years with shortages in teaching books, he introduced many young men to the fountains of a true education, unaffected by his incurring efforts...”.

3. Ioannis Filimon mentions that the first to conceive the actual idea for the Revolution was Nikolaos Skoufas and that together with Athanasios Tsakalov and Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos decided to set it in motion. “Skoufas already very heated by all previous discussions, wrote down his observations regarding the liberation of Greece but which were unachievable. They caused the other two to laugh. Skoufas was peeved”, mentions Filimon. See Φιλήμων, Ι., Δοκίμιον ιστορικόν περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας, (Nafplion 1834), p. 133 ff.

4. Skoufas approached him and informed him of the existence and aims of the Filiki Eteria. The answer given by the scholar from Thessaly is recorded by Filimon: “Skoufas, you are young and you will do well to leave us elders to follow the stage of the Epiphany. I heard what you have suggested but I am not in agreement, although I am not entirely opposed”. See Φιλήμων, Ι., Δοκίμιον ιστορικόν περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας, (Nafplion 1834), p. 186.

5. In Odessa Skoufas also initiated Leonidas Leontidis, a merchant from Constantinople, Theod. Christodouloy from in and Spyros Stanelos from Prague, while later that year he managed to initiate Ioannis Bokouriadis and Nikolaos Spiliadis. See Μαζαράκης, Ι.Ε. – Ανιάν Ι.Κ., Η Φιλική Εταρεία, ανάτυπο από τον πρώτο τόμο του αρχείου του Εμμανουήλ Ξάνθου, (Athens 1967), p. 10 ff.

6. Πρωτοψάλτης, Ε.Γ., Η Φιλική Εταιρεία, (Athens 1964), p. 36-37.

7. See Παπαγεώργης, Κ., Εμμανουήλ Ξάνθος, ο Φιλικός (Athens 2005), p. 129 ff.

8. While in Iaşi, he appeared as a relative and representative of Kapodistrias, convincing many fellow countrymen that Russia was behind the Society. Galatis, with his provocative behaviour came into conflict with the bishop of Moldavia Benjamin. Worried by these developments in the principalities, Skoufas travelled to Kisnovi in Bessarabia where he found Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos whom he sent to Iaşi for contacts with Georgios Leventis.

9. Filimon, in his Historical Essay on the Society of Friends mentions that during the particular period “Skoufas would not accept Xanthos into the Society, nor would Anagnostopoulos accept Sekeris”, implying that Xanthos’participation in the Society had slackened and he was accepted anew. Taking his information from Panayiotis Anagnostopoulos he presented the latter as an active member of the Society in contrast to Xanthos who after years becomes active again in the Society after years. See Φιλήμων, Ι., Δοκίμιον ιστορικόν περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας, (Nafplion 1834), p. 191. On the contrary, Emmanuil Xanthos in his memoirs mentions that with Skoufas they decided to reveal the Authority to Anagnostopoulos, “as a new phenomenon, he was initiated with enthusiasm”, see Ξάνθος, Ε., Απομνημονεύματα περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας, (1845), p. 25.

10. As mentioned by Xanthos “the centre of the Society’s active administration was in Constantinople in Xanthos’house ”. See Ξάνθος, Ε., Απομνημονεύματα περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας (1845), p. 19.

11. See Ξάνθος, Ε., Απομνημονεύματα περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας (1845), p. 18.

12. Φιλήμων, Ι., Δοκίμιον ιστορικόν περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας, (Nafplion 1834), p. 197.

Βιβλιογραφία : Βακαλόπουλος Κ., Τρία ανέκδοτα ιστορικά δοκίμια του Φιλικού Γεωργίου Λασσάνη, Θεσσαλονίκη 1973

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Παπαγιώργης Κ., Εμμανουήλ Ξάνθος. O Φιλικός, Αθήνα 2005

Πρωτοψάλτης Ε.Γ., Η Φιλική Εταιρεία, Ακαδ. Αθηνών, Αθήνα 1964

Μαζαράκης-Αινιάν Ι.Κ., Η Φιλική Εταιρεία, Αθήνα 1967

Πηγές Γούδας, Α., Βίοι παράλληλοι των επί της αναγεννήσεως της Ελλάδος διαπρεψάντων ανδρών, v. Ε΄ (Athens 1872).

Ξάνθος, Ε., Απομνημονεύματα περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας (Athens 1845).

Φιλήμων, Ι., Δοκίμιον ιστορικόν περί Φιλικής Εταιρείας (Nafplion 1834).

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