The current regime destroys not only all institutions that guarantee the dignity of the citizen and signal a better future for our children, but also the best qualities of our nation's character. As the process continues, an increasing number of intellectuals and other leaders, including many of our country's brightest new talents, are choosing exile in search of a free and cultured life, which has disappeared from their homeland.

Among those who stay, the bravest will continue to fight only to be "broken" and imprisoned in turn. The cowards and the cynics will compromise by surviving as bureaucrats and technicians. The ambitious and the ruthless will join the military. The rest will settle for resigning themselves in a state of inept and bitter silence. Spiritual life, the clash of ideas, and critical thought will wither away. Greece as we know and love it, Greece for which we have fought, will disappear as a spiritual entity.

Ródis Rúfos, in this book, published for the first time in Greek (fifty-six years after its first edition in French and fifty-four years after its translation into English), describes and denounces the "Kafkaesque" world he witnessed firsthand from the very first day of the military junta's imposition.

This unique testimony covers the most "dark" and undemocratic period of the regime (up to the early 1970s), with the objective of informing and mobilizing international public opinion regarding the regime's character, policies, and practices. This account is complemented by a historical review of the circumstances and causes that led to the April 21, 1967 coup, as well as a well-structured proposal for the appropriate methods of resistance.

Rúfos died in October 1972, at the age of only 48, but in many parts of his book, the "silent roar of the oppressed" can also be heard, serving as a testament to the author's foresight and deep knowledge of his country's situation.