I once again believed that life stories shed light on today and tomorrow. The books about the lives of intellectuals that I have read recently give me the opportunity to capture the struggle and evolution of the Republic, the revolutions, and the clues of our current situation.
ONE OF THOSE WHO PAVED THE ROAD FOR THE REPUBLIC
In the book titled Ramiz/From Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa to the National Struggle (Cumhuriyet Kitapları), Hasan Tahsin Benli tells the short but struggle-filled life story of his grandfather, Hopalı Captain Ramiz (1883-10 April 1933).
We see the unique struggle on the road to the Republic in the life of one of the subjects of Ataturk's words to the cadets in 1920: "You neither knew your childhood nor lived your youth."
In this life, we are watching the great resistance of a generation that is "the whole of many lives shaped by courage and resistance."
We read about the life of İştirakçi Hilmi (1885-16 November 1922) in Sabri Karayel's work titled İştirakçi Hilmi and İştirak/The Suppressed History of Socialism in the Ottoman Empire (Izan).
We learn that İştirakçi Hilmi, "the open, direct and fragile face of Ottoman socialism", tried to establish "socialism through a local language, morality and political claim" with the articles he wrote in İştirak magazine, which was identified with his name and published 20 issues between 1910 and 1912.
The book, which tells the life of Hilmi Bey, who defended his ideas in the newspapers İnsaniyet, Sosyalist, Medeniyet, İdrak and founded the first socialist party in the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Socialist Party (1910) and the Turkish Socialist Party (1919), seeks answers to the question "why socialism was always left unfinished as a political practice in the Ottoman Empire."
FROM THOSE WHO GIVE BLOOD TO THE REPUBLIC
In his book titled Spartacist Kuvayı Milliyeci Mehmet Vehbi Sarıdal (Cumhuriyet Kitapları), Metin Atuf Kansu tells the life of Mehmet Vehbi Sarıdal (1886-27 June 1969), a young man who joined the Spartacists in Germany, where he went after his law education.
Sarıdal went to Ankara during the occupation days and became one of the leading cadres of the War of Independence.
He makes intense efforts to adopt statist economic policies with his understanding of social and national economics.
It makes significant contributions to the nationalization and implementation of industry and trade, and to bureaucracy and economics education.
The study, which sheds light on the period when the Republic's economic breakthroughs were most intense, makes us proud of the creators of this extraordinary success.
Güler Yalçın enriches the Village Institutes library with her book titled A Revolutionary Leader İsmail Hakkı Tonguç and His Realized Utopia (Dorlion), which tells about the life, thoughts and dreams of İsmail Hakkı Tonguç (1893-23 June 1960), the creator of the Village Institutes system, which made a great contribution to humanity during the Republican revolutions.
The Window Opening to Light is in Vedat Günyol (Kartal Municipality), Nesim Ovadya İzrail, Adil İzci, Prof. in the panel held at Kartal Soğanlık Cultural Center on 27 November 2025 in the "2025 Vedat Günyol Year". Dr. Gökay Durmuş, Feridun Andaç, Yusuf Çotuksöken, M. Sadık Aslankara, Hülya Soyşekerci, Faruk Duman, Aydın Ergil, Prof. Dr. Ümit Akagündüz, Prof. Dr. It includes the statements of Hüseyin Köse and Sertaç Çelik.
In his book titled Biography of Humanist Writer, Publisher and Teacher Vedat Günyol (Cumhuriyet Kitapları), Aydın Ergil presents the detailed life of our sage Vedat Günyol (1911-2004), from birth to death, and conveys the beauty and ugliness of our cultural and political life, especially from the 1940s to today.
In his book titled Doğan Avcıoğlu/After a Young Turk (Cumhuriyet Kitapları), Hikmet Özdemir conveys the life, thoughts, works and actions of Doğan Avcıoğlu (1926-4 November 1983), who was an advocate of the concept of "Kemalist socialism" and "an important legacy in understanding the socio-historical structure of our country and the reality of the relationship with imperialism".
