Nikos G. Svoronos

Nikos Svoronos was born in 1911 in Lefkada and passed away in 1989 in Athens. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens and worked at the Medieval Archive of the Academy of Athens. He participated in the resistance against the German occupation through the ranks of ELAS. In 1945, thanks to the efforts of the director of the French Institute, Octave Merlier, and with a scholarship from the French Republic, he sought refuge in France along with other leftist intellectuals. In 1955, his Greek citizenship was revoked, and in 1961, he acquired French citizenship. In 1962, he obtained his third cycle doctorate, and in 1975, he was awarded the title of Docteur ès Lettres from the Sorbonne. He worked at the CNRS and taught as the director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (IV Section), focusing on the history of the institutions of the Byzantine Empire. After the fall of the dictatorship, he taught at the universities of Thessaloniki and Crete, served as a member of the governing committee of the University of Crete, and was the director of research at the National Research Foundation. He was also declared an honorary doctor of the Universities of Athens and Thessaloniki.