Greek Diaspora

History forms narratives, narratives form media uses? The present paper formulates a theoretical proposal, that of considering the uses of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly social media, as " habitus " , inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's Field Theory. My thesis draws on a research conducted on the professional network LinkedIn. It examines the way two discussion groups, held by Greek and French migrants respectively, use this platform. The comparative approach raises the question of habitus as praxis related to situated and ideologically charged socio-historical representations of migration. The online discursive practices of each group suggest the existence of an illusio common to their members regarding the relevance and the objective of the discussions. Different forms (eidos) of illusio seem to operate as different symbolic capitals that shape the groups. Following Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, my ultimate assumption is that these divergences are related to the positions that Greece and France hold within the international migration field.

Since the 1980s, Greek American theatre practitioners have been making their presence increasingly felt in the theatre and performing arts landscape of the United States (US). Their work evinces that Greek American theatre has come a long way from the Modern Greek Diaspora theatre, which began in Chicago at the end of the nineteenth century and flourished in several US cities during the interwar period. The motives, springboards, and driving forces of contemporary Greek American theatre are markedly different from those underpinning the work of early agents of Greek American theatre in the US, whether individual practitioners, troupes, or companies. The aim now is not to serve the ethnic imperatives of cultivating the Greek language, spreading Greek culture, and staying in close contact with the ancestral roots. Instead of serving the centripetal forces of Greek history and tradition, as well as the idea(l)s of ethnic identity and belonging, the latest works of Greek American theatre artists are animated by the centrifugal energy of the desire for a reconfigured transnational and transcultural selfhood. Their commitments lie more squarely than ever before with extroversion, movement, mixture, and interaction. The present paper discusses Yannis Simonides’ Socrates Now (or The Apology Project) as an illustrative example of the new directions Greek American theatre has embarked upon in the last few decades. It places special emphasis on what this work reveals about the emerging trends in Greek American theatre’s reception of the Greek classics⸺the latter being the erstwhile core of Greek American theatrical activity in the US. I argue that Simonides’ Socrates Now offers an alternative understanding of Greek American theatre and (its) classical reception praxis by acting upon the will to assemble a viable and generative, performing and performable Greekness from heterogeneous formal and conceptual elements, in line with an ethic that we shall call, after Vassilis Lambropoulos, transcompositional.

The rise of the Greek film industry during the 1950s and 1960s was enjoyed not just in Greece but internationally throughout the Greek diaspora. This was especially apparent in Australia, where waves of post-war migration provided a ready audience for imported Greek cinema. This paper will examine the relationship between domestic and diasporic film industries focussing on the distribution arrangements between Greek suppliers and Australian distributors.

From the late nineteen century until the closing decades of the twentieth century, Greeks played a large part in Australia’s food catering industry. They continued, nevertheless, to enter a wide variety of occupations. These included: agricultural and pastoral activities, mining, sea-related industries, itinerant work, secondary industries, public life, professional fields, and artistic and sporting avenues. Moreover, their contribution in some activities proved significant. This paper firmly challenges the entrenched, popular stereotype of Greek-Australians as being historically defined as essentially a collection of fish’n’chip shop owners and café and milk bar proprietors. Rather, their complex and broad involvement in Australia’s mainstream development over the last two hundred years is clearly revealed, acknowledged and celebrated.

Odessa, berceau de la Grèce moderne : Aux origines secrètes de la Philiki Eteria

Stella GHERVAS
(CES, Harvard University)

Résumé

C’est à Odessa, ville neuve au bord de la mer Noire, que fut fondée en septembre 1814 la célèbre Société des Amis (Philiki Eteria), qui fut à l’origine du mouvement grec de libération qui mena à la Guerre d’indépendance et à la constitution de l’Etat grec moderne. Et pourtant, si l’on excepte quelques tentatives récentes de la part d’historiens grecs (notamment Papoulidis, Prousis) et russes (Arsh) de resituer le mouvement de la Philiki Eteria, sa genèse recèle encore bien des points d’ombre. Cette communication, basée sur de multiples documents inédits tirés des archives russes et ukrainiennes (notamment sur la correspondance politique de Ioannis Capodistrias et Alexandre Stourdza), jette un nouveau regard  sur les origines de la Philiki Heteria, ses conceptions initiales, ses financements, ainsi que ses relations contrastées avec les autorités russes.

Elle s’interroge en particulier sur le cadre d’Odessa comme berceau de cette société secrète. Pourquoi est-ce dans cette ville portuaire, si loin des frontières de la Grèce continentale, qu'a pu se développer cette société secrète, et pourquoi son action a-t-elle eu des retombées si importantes ? Qu’y faisaient ses membres et comment s’étaient-ils connus ? Par reflet, nous examinerons les traces que cette organisation a laissées dans la mémoire et le patrimoine culturel de la ville d’Odessa.

Plus généralement, l’action de la Philiki Eteria à Odessa s’inscrit dans la vaste question d’Orient, un enjeu de la géopolitique russe auquel le sort de la Grèce fut intimement lié. C’est l’occasion d’examiner dans quelle mesure ce mouvement fut une cause passionnelle chez les haut fonctionnaires et les diplomates russes, ou au contraire l’instrument d’un Etat décidé à imposer son hégémonie sur les Détroits et en Méditerranée orientale, au détriment de l’Empire ottoman et des autres puissances européennes.

Bibliographie sélective :

- Stella GHERVAS, Réinventer la tradition. Alexandre Stourdza et l’Europe de la Sainte-Alliance, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2008, 625 p.

- Stella GHERVAS, « Odessa et les confins de l’Europe: un éclairage historique », in Lieux d’Europe : Mythes et limites, Stella Ghervas et François Rosset (éds.), Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008, pp. 107-124.

- Stella GHERVAS, « Philhellénisme et ambitions russes dans le contexte de la question d’Orient », in Φιλελληνισμός. Το ενδιαφέρον για την Ελλάδα και τους Έλληνες από την Επανάσταση ως σήμερα, Anna Mandilara, Georgios Nikolaou, Lambros Filitouris et Nikolais Anastassopoulos (éds.), Athènes, Hérodote, 2014, à paraître.

- Stella GHERVAS, « Le philhellénisme d’inspiration conservatrice en Europe et en Russie », in Peuples, Etats et nations dans le Sud-Est de l’Europe, Bucarest, éd. Anima, 2004, pp. 98-110.

- Stella GHERVAS, « Le philhellénisme russe : union d’amour ou d’intérêt ? », in Regards sur le philhellénisme, Cléopâtre Montandon (éd.), Geneva, Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations, 2008, pp. 33-41.

This paper discusses the available information of the cultural activity of the Greek community of Batumi, during an important but rather neglected period of Georgian history, namely the British occupation of the city. This was a transitional political period of Georgia, having come out from an Ottoman occupation and before being ceded to the Bolsheviks, who seized Tbilisi in February 1921. The British occupation, destined to secure a relative stability of the region, was effected between December 1918 and July 1920. The Greeks of Batumi formed one of the strongest Christian communities of the city, at least since the early 19th century, when many Greeks settled in Georgia, following the outbreak of the Greek Revolution (1821) and the Russo-Turkish War (1828-9). Most of those Greeks came from Pontus, the region on the north coast of Turkey that included prosperous and dense-populated cities, such as Trabzon, Samsun, etc. The information comes mainly from a Greek newspaper, called Free Pontus (Eλεύθερος Πόντος), one of the two Greek newspapers at the time (the other being The Echo of Batumi), published in Batumi twice a week, from June 1919 until November 2020, when it was closed down by the authorities. Amid various political and military reports, one may find a lot of information of the cultural activity of the Greek community, such as religious festivities, theatrical or musical events, and literary publications, which will be treated separately.

This paper was written in 2014 for the topic HIST3001: Destination Australia: Migration since 1900 at Flinders University.
The paper explores the history of the Greek Ikarian islander community of South Australia, and the formation of the Pan-Ikarian Brotherhood of SA as a result of Ikarian migration. The essay won the 2014 Wakefield Companion to SA History Undergraduate Essay Prize.

Greek American historical studies have noted the importance of organizations such the American Hellenic Progressive Association within Greek American communities.  In addition to this major influential organization, topika somateia, meaning Local Organizations, or also played a role. Between 1911 and 1924 evidence for the existence of many Local Organizations has been presented by many past researchers. The author of this study has found evidence of a plethora of organizations composed of immigrants from Asia Minor. Specifically, the Greek American Pontus Leagues was found in the New York Times and Ethnikos Keryx archive. The Greek American Pontus League provided a means for its members to preserve and promote the culture and tradition of their homeland. Thereby creating a link of memories and a physical space were these memories could yield contemporary realities. These realities were produced by a mingling of their own virtues with those of American society. They organized dances, presentations, and fundraising events that served as community building reference points. In addition, they carried out philanthropic fundraising drives and with the funds acquired they supported their respective communities in Asia Minor. These monetary infusions were the product of individual transfers or via philanthropic organizations such as Near East Relief. The extent of the Greek American Pontus League’s impact in Greek American communities between 1919 and 1922 will be examined in this study.

The present paper is aimed to familiarize one with the person of Dymitr Simo Szymanowski. He was born in a Macedonian town of Bitola. Until he arrived in Kalisz he had lived in Peszta in Hungary. He moved to Kalisz after his uncle MikołajSzymanowski died in 1837 and he took over his wine business. Citizen of Kalisz, member of the City Council, Chairman of the Trade Assembly in Kalisz, for 25 years board member of the Public Charity Council of Kalisz Province, he was a member of Greek commune in Kalisz. In the 50s and 60s of the XIX th century he was a member of the Holy Trinity’s Hospital’s supervisory council as well as a member of Rumford  Soup Committee. Co-founder, alongside with R. Pusch, of the Holy Spirit’s House of Refuge in Kalisz, opened in 1855. Chief initiator, founder and benefactor of Sunday-Trade School in Kalisz founded in 1873. In 1867, together with other traders, he appointed “Alexandrian Scholarship” for students of the orthodox church schools in Kalisz who were gifted and of modest means. In 1883 he funded the gravestone for his uncle at the Greek-Russian graveyard in Kalisz. Married to Albertyna, childless. The only relatives were the children of his late sister Anna lived in Bitola in Macedonia. He died after a long illness on 19th October 1889 at the age of 78. Buried at the Greek-Russian (orthodox) commentary in a big classic sepulchral chapel built in style referring to old-Egyptian architecture. In two wills he left substantial amounts to charities and community services in Kalisz.

Greeks have settled in Belgrade and other Serbian towns in several migration waves which were caused by various reasons.
In the second half of XIX century, there was a decline of the Greek population in the Serbian settlements. A great number of Greeks came back to the liberated homeland, while many of them were assimilated. Memory about Greeks in Serbian areas was preserved in folklore texts, literature, music and plastic arts.

Наукова праця присвячена історії синів Еллади на території сучасної України від часу їх появи до сьогодення. Розкриваються основні проблеми грецької еміграції впродовж різних історичних періодів, роль античної спадщини та візантійського впливу на український історичний процес, висвітлюється діяльність грецьких громад. Подано відомості про грецькі аристократичні роди в Україні та про видатних українських греків. Вміщено великий комплекс документів і матеріалів, ґрунтовну бібліографію, ілюстрації, карти. Для науковців, викладачів, студентів, усіх шанувальників грецької
та української історії.
SUMMARY

“Greeks on Ukrainian lands” is a scientific work covering the period of time from the emergence of Greeks on the territory of present-day Ukraine until today. Presented here is the history of ancient Greek cities on the North Black Sea coast during ancient times, as well as the Byzantine influence on old Rus-Ukraine lands and Crimea, and the role the Greek communities played defending the orthodox religion and in the flourishing of farming in medieval Ukraine. Discussed here is the ethnic history of the Tavria Christians (the Greeks) in the principality of Feodoro and the Genoese colonies as well as the Crimean khanate. Described here is the participation of Greek immigrants in the colonization of south-Ukrainian lands, their participation in the Russian-Turkish wars of the 18th and 19th cents, and in the international Black Sea trade at the end of 19th and beginning of 20th cent. Analyzed
were the basic adaptation models of Greek settlers in the Russian empire. Here one can find the history of Ukrainian Greeks during the Soviet times, particularly during the period of “deportation of the nations” as well as the Greek renaissance in independent Ukraine. Included are sketches of outstanding aristocratic Greek families
and biographies of eminent Greeks. Extensive research materials gave birth to the history of Greek national regions in Ukraine during the 1920’s and the present Ukrainian-Greek relations. Fully illustrated, the book’s scientific value was accomplished by its scientific and research apparatus plus a bibliography and schematic maps.

Η εργασία αναφέρεται  στα ταφικά μνημεία στο κοιμητήριο του Αγίου Κωνσταντίνου στη Βραΐλα, παραδουνάβιο λιμάνι, όπου άνθισε μια από τις μεγαλύτερες ελληνικές κοινότητες της Ρουμανίας κατά το 19ο και το πρώτο μισό του 20ού αιώνα. Τα μνημεία αυτά προσφέρουν πολλά στοιχεία για τη ζωή και τη δράση των ανθρώπων αυτών, με βάση τις επιγραφές και τις εικονιστικές μαρτυρίες. Αποτελούν επίσης ενδιαφέρουσες καλλιτεχνικές μαρτυρίες για το έργο Τηνιακών μαρμαρογλυπτών που έζησαν και εργάστηκαν στη Ρουμανία.
The paper refers to the funerary monuments in the cemetery of St. Constantine in Braila, a Danube port, where one of the largest Greek communities in Roman flourished in  the 19th and first half of the 20th century. These monuments offer a lot of information about the lives and actions of these people, based on the inscriptions and pictorial testimonies. They are also interesting artistic testimonies of the work of  marble sculptors from the island of Tinos in the Cyclades who lived and worked in Romania.

Προγραμματικές σημειώσεις (άνευ περικοπών) για την αναβίωση της οπερέτας του Αλέξανδρου Γκρεκ "Μυριέλλα" (Αλεξάνδρεια, 1932). Κέρκυρα, 6, 7 και 8 Δεκεμβρίου 2019. Παραγωγή: Φιλαρμονική Εταιρεία Κερκύρας.
Programme notes (non-pruned version) for the revival of Alexandros Grek's operetta "Myriella" (Alexandria, 1932). Corfu, 6, 7 kai 8 December 2019. Produced by the Vorfu Philharmonic Society.

This thesis illustrates the narrative of the Greek political refugees of Tashkent and seeks to recognize their Greek and Soviet identity. By examining the public and private spaces of Greek political refugees in Soviet Tashkent between 1949-1974, the thesis identifies the beliefs, symbols and practices, which reveal the hybridity of Greek-Soviet identity.  Research and its findings are based on oral histories and Greek-language newspapers published during the period as well as on memoirs of Greeks who lived in Tashkent. This will aid our understanding of the collective memory and homemaking narrative of the Greek experience in Soviet Tashkent. The collective narrative of Greeks of Tashkent emerges as a very positive and idealized one. Greeks legitimized their settlement in Tashkent by showing how they defended Soviet ideology and how they contributed to and developed Soviet society. The homemaking narrative allowed Greeks to belong to the imagined Greek Soviet Community, the imagined Soviet community and the imagined Greek community.

Merchant diasporas have long attracted the attention of scholars through the narrow prisms of 'nations' and states. The history of Amsterdam's Greek Orthodox merchants, together with the other cases—who left the Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century and established a seemingly controversial range of networks involving the Dutch, Russian, Ottoman and Greek states there—is an oft-quoted example. This article draws attention to some of the problematic aspects of these perceptions of the relations between states and diaspora merchants. The main tenet of the article is that nation-and state-centred perspectives are limited in explaining the full scope of flexibility and pragmatism displayed by the diaspora merchants.

The islands of Tabarka, Minorca, Corse and Sardinia have formed a social landscape for a long time, becoming increasingly crucial in allowing exchanges between different cultures, religions and markets within the western Mediterranean. As this paper will attempt to show, in the Eighteenth Century, such a rich and multicultural environment – marked by the presence of Christians, Jews, Muslims and renegades – was one of the first places to feel social and economical consequences and effects of the jurisdictional rise of the European states. Such a growth of the statal presence triggered new diasporas, through which thousands of islanders fled and spread all over the Mediterranean in search of new lands to settle. Many of them exploited the King of Sardinia 's proposal, aimed at populating Sardinia with foreign colonists, reinventing the relationship between Sardinian State and its own territorial body. Starting from the case study of the town of Carloforte, this paper will endeavo...

The sea has been an important element in the history of both the ancient and modern Greeks, providing passage, local livelihoods and access to international trade. In the modern era, Antipodean waters have been part of this ongoing relationship. The sea brought the earliest Greek settlers to Australia, together with the majority of post-World War II Greek migrants, offering them employment opportunities, adventure, recreation and sport. This paper provides evidence of the significance of the Greek contribution to Australia’s maritime activities — a contribution that has helped to mould modern
Australia’s connection with the sea.

Nel corso del sedicesimo secolo Napoli visse una enorme espansione demografica, che trasformò completamente la sua pianta cittadina. La capitale gentile decantata dai poeti durante l’età aragonese sembrò sempre più una città anomala. Lo stupore dei contemporanei era unanime, Napoli appariva un cantiere aperto. La presenza greca in città era plurisecolare. Dai tempi di Alfonso il Magnanimo gli stradioti divennero figure consuete nell’esercito napoletano, i soldati levantini però preferivano stabilirsi nelle province del regno, mentre nella capitale vivevano commercianti, eruditi e aristocratici sfuggiti alla avanzata ottomana in Rumelia. Tommaso Asan-Paleologo era uno dei personaggi più influenti della comunità ellenica, nel 1518 Carlo V concesse al militare corinzio il privilegio di fondare una cappella di rito greco a Napoli. Nel 1534 l’esperienza militare di Corone terminò con un pesante fallimento, che ebbe forti ripercussioni sulla capitale vicereale: i profughi del Peloponneso rappresentarono difatti il primo nucleo della "natione greca" di Napoli. Gli esuli della Morea entrarono, in gran parte, nella file dell’esercito e dello spionaggio imperiale. Sebbene fossero una comunità esigua, grazie alle mercedi e al sostegno politico di Carlo V i coronei comprarono terreni e immobili intorno alla chiesa fondata dal Paleologo, nel giro di pochi anni sorse un quartiere greco all’ombra del Vesuvio.

Egyptiot Hellenism represents a capital moment in the history of Greek Diaspora. Its course covers the 19th and the first half of the 20th century within the framework of the colonial system's emergence, expansion, peak and decay. The function of Egyptiot Hellenism is located on the economic, community, social and benefaction level. Moreover, it shaped family and business networks in order to facilitate the penetration of European metropolises into colonial markets.Through the Communitarianism it developed, Egyptiot Hellenism became a seedbed  and cradle of Diaspora euergetism.
This study examines the ideology of euergetism and the redefinition of identities it represents in terms of distinction between traditional and modern society. It also analyses the functions of euergetism on the personal, historical and social level, and its differentiation from philanthropy and volunteerism. Special mention is made to personal recognition of the Benefactor, the Philanthropist and the Volunteer, as well as reciprocation from society.

The aim of this study is to understand the education of the upper bourgeoisie in the late 19th century, focusing on the
education of the upper bourgeoisie of the Greek diaspora in Alexandria, Egypt. This research evaluates the educational
content, practices, purposes, and ideals within this context. This study uses, as research data, the literature work of the author
Penelope Delta (1874-1941), daughter of Emmanuel Benakis, a wealthy merchant of the Greek diaspora in Egypt. Her
autobiographies and novels describe the education of her family’s children; in the late 19th century, the Greek upper
bourgeoisie’s education was primarily a home education. Nurses and governesses, from foreign West European countries,
were hired by the families for their children’s education, with the main aim of learning foreign languages. When the children
became older, private tutors were of great importance. Female education was continued at home, and male education in
private schools, typically in foreign educational institutions. The emphasis for the children’s socialization was on good social
behavior and discipline. The findings of this study show that the upper bourgeoisie invested in education in a systematic way.
Education, for this leading social elite, was part of its social identity and contributed to its distinction from other social groups.

The Greek language press in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century was established by several individuals with strong affiliations with the two major Greek political sides, the liberal venizelists and the conservative pro-royalists. Initially formed as the organs of those two ideological blocks, the newspapers gradually had to adapt to the realities of their American environment.

Η Φιλική Εταιρεία όπως και τα υπόλοιπα επαναστατικά κινήματα στην Ευρώπη, είχε ισχυρό ιδεολογικό πυρήνα εμπνευσμένο από τις αρχές και τις αξίες του Διαφωτισμού. Από τα υπό εξέταση αυτοβιογραφικά κείμενα του Εμμανουήλ Ξάνθου που φέρεται να είναι ένας από τους πρωτεργάτες της Εταιρείας, διαπιστώνουμε ότι αμφισβητείται μία σειρά από βασικά στοιχεία που αφορούν τη χρονολόγηση, την ίδρυση της εταιρείας και την ταυτότητα των προσώπων που πρωτοστάτησαν, με αποτέλεσμα η εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων να είναι επισφαλής.

This dissertation attempts to understand the complex interactions between British and Greek political and business figures in London and Athens during the early twentieth century. It is a portrait, in particular, of the importance of the Greek diaspora in the politics of modern Greece. The role of diasporas is one of the most important current interpretative emphases of transnational historians, and I seek to map how diasporic Greeks, Anglo-Greeks and Philhellenes produced an extended programme of propaganda for the cause of the Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. The focus of the dissertation is the Anglo-Hellenic League, which was founded in 1913 in London to ‘defend the just claims of Greece’. Since this is the first time the League has been the focus of a work of scholarship, it is one of the priorities of this dissertation to examine its identity, activity and discourse, which are contained in its public interventions. The dissertation, at its core, is a study of the origins and ideology of the League, based on manuscript and pamphlet sources and applying theoretical approaches drawn from both discourse analysis and the study of diasporas and nationalism. Following the history of the London Greek community from the late nineteenth century, I study how the economic interests of this commercial bourgeoisie shaped their political interventions in early twentieth-century Greece, and in particular their activity as an influential transnational interest group in favour of Venizelist politics. Through a meticulous study of the League’s forms of political speech in its pamphlets and other writings and its relations with eminent British and Greek figures, this thesis intends to map Anglo-Hellenic interactions during the First World War through the scope of this particular political organ of the Greek London diaspora. It seeks to provide a diasporic dimension to the internal Greek political crisis of that period, in which the League played an active role in debates about the future of Greek politics, the National Schism (1915–1917) and the aims of Greek foreign policy during the Balkan and First World War, as well as towards the Greek populations under Ottoman rule. In this context, I aim to show how the Greek diaspora of London constituted an idea of Greece for both British and Greek consumption which connected the aims of British imperial grand strategy with those of the Greek bourgeoisie.

From the late 1940s until the late 1970s Melbourne was home to a dynamic Greek cinema circuit made up of some 30 different inner-city and suburban venues operated by a handful of vertically integrated exhibition/distribution businesses. Dionysos Films was amongst the first Greek film exhibition/distribution companies to form in Australia and from 1949 until 1956 it operated with little significant competition, establishing the parameters for a diasporic Greek film circuit that stretched across regional and metropolitan Australia and into New Zealand. This article measures the shadow cast by Dionysos Films (and its charismatic proprietor Stathis Raftopoulos) over the history of Antipodean Greek film experiences and the implications that this neglected aspect of Australian and Greek film history has for our understanding of the national cinemas in both countries.

Για ενάμιση αιώνα, που ήταν οι Έλληνες στην Αίγυπτο, εργάσθηκαν
παραδειγματικά, αγάπησαν και ομόρφυναν τη χώρα, προσπάθησαν να
εξαλείψουν τις αναπόφευκτες εντάσεις που είχαν γεννηθεί από το
αποικιακό καθεστώς και καλλιέργησαν τη φιλία των δύο λαών.

The Proceedings of the III. Scientific Symposium on the Asia Minor Greeks, who arrived in Cyprus contain Salutations, nine related papers on the subject with English Summaries and Index./ Τα Πρακτικά του Γ΄ επιστημονικού Συμποσίου, που είχε αφιερωθεί στις αρχειακές μαρτυρίες των Μικρασιατών, που έφθασαν στην Κύπρο περιλαμβάνουν Χαιρετισμούς, εννέα πρωτότυπες σχετικές μελέτες με αγγλιστί περιλήψεις και Ευρετήριο (Index) ονομάτων και γεωγραφικών όρων.

В книге рассматривается роль языка в процессе этнической самоидентификации на примере двуязычного сообщества – мариупольских (приазовских) греков (Донецкая область, Украина). Часть сообщества, урумы, говорит на урумском (одном из тюркских языков), тогда как родной язык другой части, румеев, – румейский (греческая группа индоевропейской семьи).

Galaţi, a Danubian city and one of the most important Romanian ports, as well as an industrial center, attracted a large number of foreigners, including many Greeks, from the 19th century. This city flourished one of the largest Greek communities in the country with an important role in the economy, society and education. The Greeks of Galaţi,  founded a majestic church, clubs and many schools, making the city the educational center of the Greek diaspora in Romania. The Cemetery Eternitatea (Eternity) is the most important and oldest cemetery in the city. Apart from the Orthodox section, it includes sections for other Christian doctrines as well as many military monuments and memorials. In this cemetery, where many interesting funerary monuments are found, important members of the local community have been buried, including many Greeks. These funerary monuments provide many insights into the life and activity of members of the Greek community in Galaţi, based mainly on inscriptions. They are also testimonies  of the artistic activities of Greek marble sculptors who lived and worked in the port- city of Galaţi  and in neighboring cities. The paper  is a first presentation of the subject and it  is based on field research, archives and bibliographic sources.