Forty-seven years have passed since the Polytechnic uprising against the dictatorship of the colonels, the first in a series of events that eventually led to its downfall. The diary was written on November 14, 1973, when students at the institution decided to drop out of school, claiming more freedom.
The rebellious students fortified themselves in the emblematic building on Patision Street and set up a radio station to hear their demands beyond the gate railings. Having the know-how from their studies, the students took only a few hours to build the transmitter of the station in the laboratories of the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
"Here Polytechnic, here Polytechnic!" were the first words heard from the station by the voices of Maria Damanaki, Dimitris Papachristos and Miltos Charalambidis. "People of Greece, the Polytechnic is the flag bearer of our struggle, your struggle, our common struggle against dictatorship and for democracy."
Two days of struggle and agony followed as junta youths attempted to invade the Polytechnic but were restrained by guard groups. The student struggle touched the hearts of the vast majority of citizens who tuned their radio receivers to the student station's broadcast frequency.
The events had not left even the youngest unmoved. And they were so strong that they were etched in their memory: "I remember the radio station, the home conversations about tanks on the streets, my mother saying we have to do something to help these children," says a university student who was then just seven years old. It seems that it could not be done otherwise.
In the early hours of November 17, while the regime was supposed to be negotiating the safe departure of the students from the Polytechnic, it was decided that the army would intervene with one of the three tanks lined up outside the gate to storm and demolish the main gate. The students called on the soldiers from their station to defy the orders of their superiors.
The announcer recited the National Anthem, as did the students who had gathered in the central courtyard.
A group of armed special forces would then undertake to remove the students from the Polytechnic from the gate of Stournari Street. As they were leaving, the students were confronted with police violence, while snipers opened fire from neighboring rooftops and KYP agents chased the insurgents. Shortly afterwards, the speakers who had remained in office until then would also be arrested. The fires would continue for hours. The heroic revolt of the students was stained with blood.