Historical Note

Alexandros Mpaltatzis, the fourth child of Theodoros, was born on April 29, 1904, in Kutaisi, Caucasus. His father, Theodoros, who had deep family roots in Argyroupolis of Pontus, moved to Russia in 1893 without his family. He settled in Sokhumi, where he engaged in various business activities, including the 'San Remo' hotel, and in 1902, he brought his family to join him. In July 1908, following the rise of the Young Turks, the Greek community of Sokhumi welcomed a large wave of Greeks from Pontus and completed the construction of the Greek school, which opened in 1909 with 209 students.

In 1910, Alexandros Mpaltatzis began attending this school, where he emerged as one of the top students. He continued his studies from 1913 at the Russian high school in Sokhumi. During this time, Theodoros Baltatzis employed many young refugees from Pontus in his activities, and young Alexandros witnessed their struggles up close, offering them money, which he obtained from his mother.

Alexandros Mpaltatzis grew up in an environment involved in both business and politics, particularly focused on the issue of Pontus' liberation. The lounges of the 'San Remo' hotel, where all the events of the Greek community of Sokhumi were held, were a lively space for political discussions and debates, which young Alexandros closely followed.

It was there that he learnt about the efforts to gain independence for Pontus. He also witnessed the conflict between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks during the October Revolution, in which Greeks also participated. He saw the Mensheviks take power while he was a student at the Russian high school in Sokhumi, from which he graduated in 1920.

With the proclamation of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia and the nationalization of properties, Theodoros Mpaltatzis lost all his immovable and movable assets. He abandoned Georgia. From Sokhumi, the Mpaltatzis family, with little money and few belongings, boarded a ship and disembarked in Constantinople, before temporarily settling in Makra Gefyra, Eastern Thrace. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922, the Mpaltatzis family relocated to Alexandroupolis.

The family of Theodoros Mpaltatzis, once a prominent businessman in Sokhumi, followed the fate of the refugees of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, who came to Greece after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne. They were given land in Neochori, in the Sou Yalesi region of Xanthi, an area known worldwide for its tobacco, where they settled and took up tobacco farming. Like all refugees, the Mpaltatzis family worked with passion and determination to change their fate and to bring a breath of progress and culture to the underdeveloped areas where they had settled. Alexandros moved to Athens to study law at the University of Athens. However, he quickly became engaged with the political ideas of Alexandros Papanastasiou, especially on the agricultural issue, and joined the youth club of his party. Having closely witnessed the struggles of the tobacco producers, he decided to become actively involved in the problems of the agricultural community.  Man of action and hard work, with innovative and pioneering ideas far ahead of his time and a broad trading spirit, he left the security and comfort of his position at the National Bank and returned to his village to begin his great work.

He founded a cooperative in his village and as a young man, at the age of 26 (in 1930), he was elected President of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Xanthi. He immediately took the initiative and spearheaded the founding of PASEGES and in 1935 he was its first President.At the same time, he is involved in politics and became a partner and special secretary of Alexandros Papanastasiou.

After the war, he founded his own party, the "Farmers' and Workers' Party," and was elected as a Member of Parliament (1950, 1951, 1956, 1958). In 1960, he played a leading role in the founding of the Center Union, through which he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Xanthi (1961, 1963, 1964). In the government of the late Georgios Papandreou, he served as Minister of Agriculture (1963-1965).

Alexandros Mpaltatzis envisioned a modern cooperative movement in the service of Greek agriculture. Believing that its major and multiple problems would be largely solved through the active participation of the rural people themselves, who were working under adverse conditions, he "used" his political status to transform and create cooperative organizations such as SEK, SPE, ELEOURGIKI, ASE, SPEKA, among others, through which the supply of farmers with necessary goods and the product of their labor was ensured,Recognizing the need to support these organizations with human resources, and bearing in mind the economic weakness of university education for young people from rural areas, he inspired and created the SEK Cooperative Scholarships program from 1949 to 1965. Through this initiative, over 400 rural youths were able to study at the universities of Athens and Thessaloniki.

Thrace, and especially Xanthi, were particularly fortunate to benefit even more from the work of Alexandros Mpaltatzis, with the creation of major cooperative industries. RODOPI, SEVATH, SEKAP, and SEPEK each employ hundreds of employees and have greatly contributed and continue to contribute to the economic and cultural progress of the region. In recognition of his work, the Municipality of Xanthi awarded him the title of Honorary Citizen, and the Prefecture of Xanthi declared him as the bright personality of the 20th century, who marked the history of the Prefecture.

He passed away on July 29, 1987. In memory of this great man and benefactor of Xanthi, as well as of Thrace (and why not all of Greece), a society was established in Xanthi in 1987, under the name "ALEXANDROS MPALTATZIS STUDY CENTER." With the Center's care, in 2016, the paternal house of the late President, located in Neochori, Stavroupoli, Xanthi, was transformed into the "Alexandros Mpaltatzis Museum," a CENTER FOR RURAL AND COOPERATIVE HISTORY INFORMATION (website: http://almpaltatzi.gr/ and Facebook: Museum "Alex. Baltatzis") with free entrance, after communication.