Collective Memory and National Consciousness

This study is primarily addressed to teachers and their students, with whom the author wishes to share his thoughts and reasoning. Historical collective memory – which the society independently preserves in its consciousness – is accompanied by the interpretation of historical events and assisted by testimonies of their protagonists, while preserving those testimonials which may not be utilized by scientific history. The latter, undeniably, is great and indeed challenging intellectual work. It is also a cold – blooded rationalization of historical events. Both are important and necessary, as in the work of a coroner. However, the truth of the “psyche” is absent from the cold and rigid scientific investigation of data carried out by professional historians; the experiences of their protagonists, societies and leaderships are missing. The latter, however, is the universal historical truth and it is worth knowing by the future generations. Universal historical truth is not set aside and it can understood in its depth if e.g. one learns the events of the Asia Minor disaster through the eyes of one of their protagonists. H. Venezis, in his work, a piece of historical evidence: “Number 31328”, (ed. Estia, Athens 1995). In this historical document, bitter memories are interviewed in a unique mixture with experiences of war, grief, hope an so on. Memories, as recorded in “Number 31328”, lead the way towards historical criticism, analysis and interpretation. All these with experiential intensity, able to enlighten the younger ones and support national feedback. It can be argued that the remnant of consciousness, the one bequeathed by the immediacy of the historical playwright and his dramaturgy, is what enacts an experience, what established an optimal approach to historical truth into the memory of historical people and of society. Ultimately, this is historical collective memory, a reinforcement of national consciousness so valuable to historical societies as the Hellenic one that makes them respectable and measurable in human consciousness.