21 Facts About Helen Vlachos

Helen Vlachos was a Greek journalist, newspaper publishing heiress, proprietor, and anti-junta activist.

Helen Vlachos was the daughter of Georgios Vlachos, who founded Kathimerini, one of Greece's premier newspapers, in 1919.

Helen Vlachos worked as a journalist in her father's newspaper and covered the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

Helen Vlachos's column was simply titled "E", for "Eleni", her name in Greek.

Helen Vlachos became very popular in Greece because she often used to criticise the government from her column.

Helen Vlachos published Eikones, which was an illustrated magazine and the first of its kind in Greece.

Helen Vlachos launched Ekdosis Galaxia, a quality paperback imprint, which became collectible.

Helen Vlachos had been a supporter of the monarchy and the Greek right-wing parties.

Helen Vlachos realised that in the future such material could prove crucial in documenting the events which, according to her evaluation based on her experience of events centred around World War II, could have led to a possible new catastrophe for Greece.

Helen Vlachos even resisted pressure from Papadopoulos himself who actually threatened her and did not reply to his comments, keeping silent.

Helen Vlachos dismissed the junta demands by declaring: "They cannot tell me how to run my newspapers any more than I can tell them how to run their tanks".

Helen Vlachos gave interviews to the Italian Press where she used to call the junta a circus.

Helen Vlachos obtained a fake passport and dyed her hair black with shoe polish to match the false identification.

Helen Vlachos went into hiding in an Athens bordello while her husband, Konstantinos Loundras, wearing the high heels of his wife, paced about their apartment trying to fool the police into thinking his wife was still in the apartment.

Helen Vlachos loved Britain and the British people and used her fluency in the English language and its idioms to deliver witty attacks against the junta, knowing that the British public appreciates humour rather than exaggeration.

Helen Vlachos became state deputy for New Democracy under Konstantinos Karamanlis in Greece's first democratically elected Parliament during Metapolitefsi.

Helen Vlachos had two homes located in Athens and London and spent her retirement years travelling between them.

Helen Vlachos died on 14 October 1995 in Athens, aged 83.

Helen Vlachos received a state funeral attended by political leaders and hundreds of journalists.

Helen Vlachos was unwavering in her principles and her beliefs.

Helen Vlachos's immediate reaction to the coup of 21 April 1967, with the cessation of publication of Kathimerini and her other publications, is a crowning moment of resistance in the field of journalism.