Lessons from a journey
The unveiling of a statue of the Leichoudis brothers in Moscow next week shows the depth of Greek-Russian ties and, at the same time, the incredible wealth and shared values deriving from our common European history. This shows the dynamism of overseas Greeks, the power of the spirit and cultural exchange. The fiery islanders of Cephalonia in the 17th century are themselves links in a long chain of Greek scholars and merchants who left their mark in Venice, Padua, Trieste, Vienna, Moscow the trans-Danubian countries and the Black Sea. From Theofanis the Greek and the Leichoudis brothers to Iosipos Moisiodakas, Dimitrios Katartzis and Adamantios Korais, the older Greeks, who might not have had a state but still had a sense of nationhood, show us the path in survival and progress: foresight, mobility, reciprocity, exchange and education. That’s the lesson from the journey of the Leichoudis brothers.
