Communism and Albanian Writers
Writer and intellectual figure, Arshi Pipa (1920-1997)
spent ten years in prison (1946-1956) in communist Albania before escaping to
Yugoslavia and emigrating in 1958 the United States, where he taught university.
It was in America, in an ephemeral organ of the Albanian exile press, that he
published the following article on the purge of virtually all Albanian writers
after the communist takeover, most of whom he had known personally. For
decades, this article was the only first-hand information in the West on the
situation of Albanian writers and intellectuals in the early years of Stalinist
Albania.
“Arshi Pipa is an Albanian poet and writer who was
raised and educated in the period of Free Albania. During the foreign
occupation, he worked as a secondary school teacher of Albanian and philosophy.
He continued in this position after the communist takeover in Albania, until
1946. He was imprisoned for his critical stance towards communism. After ten years
in prisons and concentration camps, he escaped to Yugoslavia in 1957 and now,
since October 1958, he has been in the United States of America. This is part
of the most objective study ever published in the free world on Albanian
writers under the communist regime. The author was kind enough to give it to us
for publication in Shqiptari i Lirë (The Free Albanian).”
Albanian writers have always been in the vanguard of
Albanian nationalism. The language they use, the Albanian language, is more
than a simple means of expression, as is the case in other more advanced
European cultures. It is also the standard-bearer of the nation, the
incarnation of all the historical and cultural qualities that distinguish the
Albanians from other peoples. Over time, Albanian writers have made use of
their language as a sacred heritage, preserving and purifying it, supplementing
and strengthening it.
It was Frang Bardhi, in the 17th century, who compiled
the first dictionary of Albanian. He was concerned that the Albanian language
would degrade and become bastardized. He also raised his voice to defend the
Albanian identity of Scanderbeg against a Slavic Catholic priest who claimed
that our national hero was a Slav. Bardhi was himself a Catholic priest, but he
was an Albanian Catholic priest.
The early writer, Pjetër Budi, was also a champion of
popular resistance against Ottoman occupation. He endeavoured to organise an
uprising against the Turks. By fighting for Christianity, he was also fighting
to defend his homeland, just as Scanderbeg had done earlier. The greatest of
the early Albanian writers, Pjetër Bogdani, a Kosovar from Has, was hounded by
the Oriental occupiers for his religious and patriotic activities. He was
forced to abandon the Diocese of Skopje to hide in the mountains. It was in
Italy, where he took refuge, that he published his greatest work, Cuneus
Prophetarum (The Band of the Prophets) and, in a moving preface, one of the
greatest pieces of writing of Albanian prose, he expressed his longing for his homeland.
At the same time, as an artist and scholar, he transformed the Albanian
language, raising it to a stylistic zenith never before achieved. It would go
far beyond the scope of this work to mention all the other writers who were
standard-bearers of Albanian nationalism […]
We all know what took place on 7 April [1939]. Taken
by surprise and caught up in a fascist dictatorship, our national pride cringed
and cowered for a while. Some Albanian writers, among whom were Branko
Merxhani, Anton Logoreci and Tajar Zavalani left Albania at the time in a sign
of protest. Despite all the compliments it paid and money it spent, Italian
fascism was not able to win Albanian writers over. Only a very few of the
best-known Albanian writers sided with fascism. National conscience awoke to
the perils the nation was facing. Typically, the first reaction to the
occupation came in a protest against the use of the Italian language, which was
threatening to eliminate Albanian altogether. The voices of Albanian writers
against foreign occupation and against the fascist military dictatorship began
to be heard, and resonated throughout the country when fascism fell.
Albanian writers were to write the most illustrious
pages in the annals of their literature in a new period of oppression, this one
more savage, another dictatorship, this time more cruel, with a foreign
ideology just like the one before it. This time, too, there were some Albanian
writers who embraced the new ideology, but once again, very few.
In the autumn of 1945, the Communist Party of Albania,
organised the first Congress of Albanian Writers under the leadership of
Sejfullah Malëshova, onetime minister of popular culture and one of the most
powerful communist figures. Virtually all Albanian writers, young and old, were
invited to attend. Among them were many young communists who had written an
article or two in the underground communist press. This was the easiest way of
filling the rather thin ranks of communist writers. Malëshova set the tone. At
the opening session, he recited his own poems that were received with
enthusiastic applause from the young communists. He overshadowed the other
members of the presidency, among whom were venerable writers such as Ndoc Nikaj
and Vinçenc Prennushi.
Although he was a communist, Malëshova understood
something about art and culture in general. Having been Fan Noli’s personal
secretary, he left Albania when the Noli government was overthrown and, before
moving to Moscow, he studied in Italy and received a Western education. He was
wont to quote Dante when he spoke or wrote. In 1945, he gave a seminal lecture
on Albanian literature in which he expressed his opposition to radical groups
within the Party who wanted to ban authors like Fishta, Konitza and Schirò from
Albanian literature classes.
This more moderate, more Western approach, which was
also reflected in foreign policy, was interpreted as “opportunist” when his
rivals rose to power. Malëshova was sidelined and later expelled from the
Party. With his fall, political extremism triumphed. Major writers such as
Fishta, Konitza, Schirò, Mjeda, Prennushi and Poradeci, were expelled from
literature textbooks as if they were rags to be thrown out. Also expelled were
other writers who had had ties with political parties during the occupation.
Malëshova was replaced by Shutëriqi.
Dhimitër Shuteriqi was not Malëshova’s equal – neither
in his writings nor in the dignity that an early communist might have had. He
is a prime example of the literary mediocrity that characterizes Albanian
literature in the communist period. When he was a student in France, he wrote a
few poems, some modernist “pastiches” of the period, but was not even sure
himself whether they were really poetry or not. He called them Kangë (Songs).
His poetry of the communist period is no better. It is replete with pompous
rhetoric. A good example of this is his panegyric of Enver Hoxha whom he
describes as a sort of God that, with the light of his profound thinking,
radiates and revives Albania.
With the removal of Malëshova, the last bit of freedom
was taken from literary composition. From then on, Albanian literature followed
in the wake of Soviet writing, copying its themes and forms and even borrowing
from its lexicon. Our literature became a pale reflection of Soviet literature,
one of the many “national” literatures based on Russian, not unlike, say, Azeri
or Tadjik literature – national in form and socialist in content. Only the
language, reduced to the level of a propaganda machine, distinguished Albanian
literature from the literatures of the peoples of the Soviet Union.
Malëshova had intended to replenish the ranks of
communist authors with non-communist writers. His policy was to assimilate them
gradually until they accepted communism. For this reason, he included in the
editorial board of Bota e Re: Organ i Shkrimtarëve Shqiptarë (New World:
Albanian Writers’ Journal) not only communists, who were lacking in quality and
quantity, but also a few of the best-known young non-communist writers.
With this fall and with the beginning of the new
spirit in literature, no patriotic Albanian writer could sit on the fence. They
were either with the communists or openly against them, and the latter would
suffer the consequences.
It is of significance to note that, initially, very
few Albanian writers of the period actually joined the ranks of the communists.
Most of them kept their distance and some were openly critical. The latter were
soon eliminated, either by being killed or imprisoned. The rest withdrew and
learned to accept what they were being forced to accept.
The most important gain the communists made was in the
figure of Sterjo Spasse, a talented and productive prose writer. They also won
over Nonda Bulka, a figure of less importance from an artistic perspective.
Another “fellow traveller” was Haki Stërmilli.
Of the real militant communists, if we exclude
Malëshova here, only one really merits the distinction of being called a poet -
Aleks Çaçi, but his literary inspiration soon flagged under communism. He has
written nothing of worth for some time now. Another poet who in his day wrote
prosaic verse of empty propaganda was Shefqet Musaraj. In Çaçi’s poem “Oh
Myzeqe” we can at least find a few moving lines here and there, inspired by his
love for his Albanian homeland and by the hopes of the Myzeqe peasants for a
better life, whereas nothing good can be said of Musaraj’s stale propaganda
satire Epopeja e Ballit Kombëtar (Epic of the National Front) which is drenched
in political rage.
Of the other leading communist writers who are still
“active” today, mention can be made of only two: Dhimitër Shuteriqi and Kolë
Jakova. Dhimitër Shuteriqi has now abandoned poetry and has turned to prose.
His recent novels are no better than his early poetry. Shuteriqi is devoid of
inspiration and fantasy. What does go to his credit at least is that he is a
hard worker. He has compiled anthologies, and authored literary texts and
critical studies that are among the best produced in the communist period.
Kolë Jakova is the communist “playwright.” He is a
mediocre writer of barbarian audacity. His major work Halili dhe Hajrija
(Halili and Hajrija) is a flagrant example of literary incompetence.
These four writers, Aleks Çaçi, Shefqet Musaraj,
Dhimitër Shuteriqi and Kolë Jakova, are now communist classics. Another four
men, Andrea Varfi, Petro Marko, Mark Ndoja and Skënder Luarasi could be called
communist heretics.
Andrea Varfi, a pioneer of the early days before the
Communist Party, fell victim to the wave of terror that swept the country in
1947. He was lucky not to spend much time in prison. With the fall from grace
of Koçi Xoxe, he was released and returned to the ranks of his “comrades.” He
prefers writing poetry, which is at least well composed.
Petro Marko, the Albanian “Bohemian” hoped from the
start that by writing poems such as Era ndër pantallona (Wind in their
Trousers) in a style as unruly as his curly hair, he would become the Albanian
Mayakovsky. Two years in a prison cell in Tirana were enough to dampen his lively
temperament. He has recently returned to prose and, with the book Hasta la
Vista, has described his experience in the Spanish Civil War.
Worse was the case of Mark Ndoja, a one-time deacon,
who turned savagely on his spiritual fathers when the storm broke loose. His
actions were, however, not sufficient to convince the communist hierarchy that
his church connections belonged to the past. He was indicted for ideological
deviation and slumped slowly to the rank of a normal renegade, where he is now.
Skënder Luarasi was another figure who fought in the
Spanish Civil War. He taught literature and sowed the seeds of communism in
Albania. He was fortunate enough not to be imprisoned. Luarasi is not a writer
of any great originality, but is among the best Albanian translators. Among his
works are translations of which libraries in communist Albania are proud:
Byron’s Childe Harold, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and the first part of
Goethe’s Faust.
The above-mentioned figures conclude the early period
of communist literature. Not included here are younger communist writers who
arrived on the scene after the installation of communist power. They can be
dealt with in another article, where it will be seen that they are no match for
the older figures. But before continuing on to the last part of this work, we
must mention a group of Albanian writers who did their best to come to terms
with communism so that they would not suffer the same fate as their colleagues.
We will concentrate on four well-known figures, two older and two younger: Ali
Asllani and Lasgush Poradeci, Vedat Kokona and Nexhat Hakiu.
Ali Asllani of Vlora, the author of Hanko Halla
(Auntie Hanko), one of the most characteristic poems of Albanian literature,
remembered for its folk contents and intrinsic artistic value, brought some
sparks of life to literature in the stormy year of 1944. They were extinguished
with the arrival of communism. He stopped writing, but was spared by the
communist, no doubt due to his advanced age.
Lasgush Poradeci, the best lyric poet of Albania, the
“swan of Lake Ohrid,” has been silent for some time now. A few of his poems
appeared during the Italian occupation but they were hermetic and arid, a pale
reflection of the pristine and ponderous magic of the lacustrian lyrics of his
youth. His muse vanished entirely under communism. One hears of him from time
to time as a translator. It was Poradeci who translated Eugene Onegin, perhaps
the most beautiful translation ever made into Albanian, with the exception of
Fan Noli’s version of the Rubaiyat of Omer Khayyam.
Short story writer and poet, Vedat Kokona, was one of
the leading figures of pre-communist literature, known for the originality of
his ideas and his elegant language modelled on the French classics. He has
translated several works and has recently published a few poems, to pay his
toll to communism.
The same thing can be said of Nexhat Hakiu, author of
Këngët e Zamares (Pipe Songs) who, with youthful élan, plunged into the
ever-verdant fountain of popular verse, to come up with unique melodies of
unexpected hues and colours. His pipes have been heard recently again, though
vaguely, but enough to show that he is still alive. Yet the sounds they convey
are from a broken instrument.
The vast majority of Albanian writers, old and young,
rejected and refused to submit to communism. Opposition was strongest among the
Ghegs of northern Albania, around Shkodra. The dean of Albanian writers, Ndoc
Nikaj, perished in a Shkodra prison. He was born in 1864 and was imprisoned in
1946 when he was eighty-two years old. It is difficult to imagine at that age
that he was, according to the standard indictment, plotting to “overthrow the
government by force.” He certainly did not welcome communism, and this was
sufficient reason for the communists to have him rot in prison. They forgot the
fact that this man had once published the Albanian newspapers Bashkimi and Besa
Shqiptare and was the author of the first novels ever written in Albanian,
Bukurusha, Bërbuqja, Shkodra e Rrethueme (Shkodra under Siege), Tivari i marrun
(Bar Captured), etc. and also, at the end of the last century, published the
first history of Albania.
Another writer, and one of the oldest from Shkodra,
Vinçenc Prendushi [Vinçenc Prennushi], died in Durrës prison in 1949. He was a
highly respected figure in Albanian literature, right after Gjergj Fishta and
Ndre Mjeda. His verse, collected in the volume Gjeth e lule (Leaves and
Flowers), is that of a gentle soul in tune with nature and gives proof of his
love of all creatures and his compassion for their sufferings, much in line
with the teachings of the holy man of Assisi who founded the order to which
Prendushi belonged. At other times, the patriotic sentiments of this Franciscan
priest gave rise to appeals to defend the country, to save Albanian land.
Prendushi’s lyrics stem from the people, from whom he derived his inspiration.
In poems such as Vajza Shqiptare (The Albanian Maiden) he is so in tune with
oral verse that people knew them by heart. Together with another Albanian
Franciscan, Shtjefën Gjeçovi, Vinçenc Prendushi is remembered for having
initiated the systematic collection of Albanian folklore. This material
provided the basis for the Franciscan periodical Hylli i Dritës (The Day-Star).
In Sarajevo in 1911, he published Kângë Popullore Gegënishte, one of the
seminal volumes of Albanian folklore. He devoted his life to writing, adapting
plays such as E Trathtuemja (The Betrayed One) and translating well-known
novels such as Quo Vadis and Le mie prigioni (My Prisons), and poems such as
Dreizehnlinden by Weber. None of this work was in the service of communism and
he refused to give them his support. This was his error, his only error.
Vinçenc Prendushi, as is well known everywhere, never had anything to do with
politics.
Nikaj and Prendushi both died in prison. Lazër
Shantoja, Anton Harapi and Ndre Zadeja were executed. Who were these latter
figures?
Lazër Shantoja was one of the most admirable men in
the country, a figure of refined taste and more than average talent. He did not
write regularly, but was more wont to compose on a whim. His literary works
appeared in various periodicals as memoirs, impressions and discussions,
usually enlivened with delightful and typically Scutarine humour. He also wrote
a very few, beautiful poems, and was one of the best translators. From German,
he translated Schiller’s Lied von der Glocke (Song of the Bell), parts of Faust
and, in particular, Goethe’s verse epic Hermann und Dorothea. Shantoja may have
given fascism his moral support and I do not want to justify this. But I am
against the Macchiavellian practice of judging writers only by political
criteria and not making the necessary distinctions, for objectivity’s sake,
between the man and the artist, between ethical and aesthetic values.
Anton Harapi, another Franciscan, is among the best
Albanian writers, known for works such as Valë mbi valë (Wave upon Wave), with
forceful and captivating lectures. Lectures are regarded as a literary genre
and with them, Father Anton gained his place in Albanian literature. His most
impressive lectures are those on national themes. Father Anton Harapi is thus
more than simply a writer, he is one of the great figures of Albanian
nationalism. Father Anton’s noble words in defence of the fatherland, spoken in
April 1939 in the presence of the Italian Foreign Minister, will never be
forgotten by Albanians.
With Shantoja, the communists had a figure they could
defile and denigrate with their hatred, and with Anton Harapi, they had someone
whom they could tarnish and call a Quisling regent. Though convincing no one,
they could tarnish him because his bore the cross at a critical moment of
Albanian history. But what could they find to say about Ndre Zadeja, another of
their victims?
Ndre Zadeja was never involved in politics. He spent
his life in the service of his religion and writing Albanian books. Among the
latter are dramas of Albania’s past, in which he lauded the virtues of the
Albanian nation and its spirit of resistance when it was oppressed but not
conquered in foreign – Italian or Turkish – occupation. His patriotic spirit
was vested of a “pathos” rarely found among writers. Ndre Zadeja composed
Albanian melodramas in the style of Fishta. When performed, Ora e Shqipnisë
(Albania’s Good Fairy), Hijet e Zeza (The Dark Shadows), Rrethimi i Shkodrës
(The Siege of Shkodra), Ruba e Kuqe (The Black Kerchief) and Rozafa (Rozafa)
always received thunderous ovations. He was a talented writer and a great
patriot. His family often gave shelter to Albanian nationalist who were being
persecuted by the communists. And for this reason, they put him to death.
The Albanian communists carried out their war under
the motto of anti-fascism. But many an Albanian anti-fascist landed in prison
or was executed by them. There are many other examples like the ones given
above. Among other writers who suffered are: Nikollë Mazrreku, Gjon Shllaku,
Manush Peshkëpia, Musine Kokalari, Kol Prela, Izet Bebëziqi and Qemal Draçini.
The complete list would take up too much space.
Aside from his many other valuable writings, Nikollë
Mazrreku (alias Nik Barcolla) raised his voice courageously against the Italian
occupation in his well-reasoned pamphlet Skandali Cordignano (The Cordignano
Scandal). He was imprisoned by the communists. Another religious figure, Hafiz
Ibrahim Dalliu, the author of various writings and publisher of the satirical
newspaper Grenzat e Kuqe (The Red Wasps), that was published during the first
regency, passed away in a communist prison.
After the Italian occupation, Gjon Shllaku took over
publishing the well-known Franciscan periodical Hylli i Dritës. He had received
his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Louvain. Trained with a good
dose of culture and vitality in the style of Gjergj Fishta, Father Gjon gave
Hylli i Dritës a more personal tone. Gjon Shllaku expressed his opposition to
fascism. The pages of Hylli i Dritës included powerful patriotic appeals from
time to time against the fascist occupiers, for instance, the lead article Asht
Toka e Jonë (It Is Our Land).
Gjon Shllaku also opposed communism when it spread in
Albania. Hylli i Dritës of course ceased publication. What he could no longer
do in print, Father Gjon continued to do orally, with his public speaking. He
was soon arrested and shot to death at the beginning of 1946, accused of being
the main organiser of Bashkimi Kombtar, an anti-communist nationalist
organisation.
It was at this time that a wave of terror overwhelmed
the Franciscan order and the Catholic clergy in general. Among those killed or
imprisoned were the Franciscan writers Bernardin Palaj, Donat Kurti and Viktor
Volaj.
Bernardin Palaj was slain. He was a major literary
figure, among the best. He was the author of a number of moving poems, all in a
nationalist vein, among which was Kosova, full of musicality. He wrote many
excellent articles on Albanian folklore and customs. In 1937, together with
Donat Kurti, he published the second volume of Visaret e Kombit (The Treasures
of the Nation) that included the best and most complete variants of the
rhapsodic songs of the Mujo and Halili cycle which the two Franciscans recorded
after patient years of collection. This book is one of the greatest and most
representative monuments of Albanian folklore, equal in rank to the Kanun of
Lekë Dukagjini.
Viktor Volaj also spent time in prison. Aside from his
collaboration in Hylli i Dritës with criticism and other writings, he
republished some of the best known works of Fishta and included in them lexical
annotations and explanations on metrics. Up to here, we have concentrated on
writers who were members of the clergy. Let us now turn to the lay writers. Among
those who were killed are: Kol Prela, Salahudin Toto, Beqir Çela, Qemal Draçini
and Manush Peshkëpia.
Kol Prela, an Albanian language teacher, collaborated
in Hylli i Dritës with articles of criticism. He was one of the nationalists
who, deceived by the communists, worked with them during the war for national
liberation. The communists selected him as a deputy in the first legislature.
He was a just, honest and courageous man. When he realised what communism
actually meant, he turned against them and spoke openly of his disappointment.
This he paid for with this life.
The same fate was met by Salahudin Toto, who was also a
deputy. He was an engineer by profession, and had devoted himself to translations
and political writings. Beqir Çela, a teacher, won the 1937 competition for the
national anthem. He also did translations from English that turned out rather
well. He had been a student at the American Technical School run by Harry
Fultz. After the liberation, Mr Fultz came back to Albania as head of the
American Mission. Accordingly, Beqir Çela went to pay him a visit. This was the
corpus delicti for which Çela was arrested, tortured and forced to confess to
things that were not true. He was subsequently executed (1947) as an American
spy.
Qemal Draçini was a young fellow from Shkodra who, as
a secondary school student, had sympathised with the ideals of communism. Later
on, when he realised what was going on around him, he abandoned the “sins of
his youth.” He was arrested in the purge of 1946, after the Postriba uprising.
They tortured him savagely. On the verge of going insane, he choked, and died.
The writings of Qemal Draçini, short stories and
literary criticism, appeared in various periodicals, in particular in Fryma
(Inspiration). This journal, published throughout 1944 by Muzafer Pipa, another
victim of communist terror, was run in good part by Draçini who was responsible
for the editorial process. The periodical began with the lively support of a
group of young men in Shkodra, but later expanded its base to encompass the
whole country. Among its collaborators were: Mitrush Kuteli, Sterjo Spasse, Ali
Asllani, Izet Bebëziqi, Arshi Pipa and Astrit Delvina.
Manush Peshkëpia has a history of his own. He was
arrested in the early days, was convicted at the Special Court of Tirana and
sentenced to five years in prison. He served four of them and was then
released. But his release coincided with the bomb that was thrown at the
Russian Legation in February 1951. As was subsequently learned, this bomb was
planted by a member of the communist party. Over thirty people, so-called
“reactionaries,” were shot on that occasion in reprisal. One of them was
Manush.
The poetry of Manush Peshkëpia appeared in various
journals, in particular in Përpjekja Shqiptare (The Albanian Endeavour) run by
Branko Merxhani. They are short but crystalline poems replete with gentle
emotion and nostalgia. Professor Maximilian Lambertz included some of his verse
in his anthology Albanisches Lesebuch (Albanian Anthology). The poetry is good,
but even better was Manush Peshkëpia as a person. He was clear-thinking,
open-hearted, of almost evangelical disposition, incapable of doing harm to
anyone, even his enemies.
Longer still is the list of Albanian writers who are
or were in communist prisons. Some of them were sentenced to life in prison,
such as Etëhem Haxhiademi, Musine Kokalari and Kudret Kokoshi.
Etëhem Haxhiademi is a playright and the author of
tragedies in classical style, such as: Ulisi (Ulysses), Akili (Achilles) and
Aleksandri (Alexander), and tragedies with Albanian themes such as Pirrua
(Pyrrhus) and Skanderbeu (Scanderbeg). He translated the Bucolics and Georgics
of Vergil and compiled his own lyric verse in the volume Lyra (the Lyre).
Musine Kokalari is the best-known female writer in
Albania. She graduated from the Faculty of Literature in Rome in 1942, but
began writing earlier when she was a student, publishing the volume Siç më
thotë Nënua Plakë (As my Old Mother Tells Me), short stories written in her
native Gjirokastra dialect. In 1944, she published another book in the same
folklore style. She collaborated in many periodicals with various writings that
gave proof of her literary talent.
Musine Kokalari is also a figure of politics. In 1944,
she ran the underground newspaper Zëri i lirisë (The Voice of Freedom), organ
of the Albanian Social-Democrats. In the night of 17 November 1944, when
National Liberation Forces entered Tirana, the communists shot and killed her
two brothers. On that very day, in line with Albanian custom, she put on
mourning dress, which she has not taken off since then. She refused to teach
under the communist regime. When she was arrested for anti-communist activity
in early 1946, she defended herself at the military tribunal in Tirana, also
defending the ideals of her country with rare courage and dignity. She has
since spent many years in the infamous prison of Burrel, one of the few women
to be held there.
Kudret Kokoshi from Vlora is a judge who did his
secondary and university studies in Italy. He published verse, in particular in
a patriotic vein, in various periodicals where one senses the intertwining of
Albanian folk verse from Labëria and classical literature. This style was
initiated by Ali Asllani and, under his influence, continued with Manush
Peshkëpia and Nexhat Hakiu.
Kudret Kokoshi was given the longest prison sentence
of all. He was arrested for his nationalist activities by the Nazis in early
1944 and sent to Mauthausen concentration camp. At the end of the Second World
War, he wanted to get to the free world, but was caught by the Yugoslav
communists and handed over to the Albanian communist authorities. Since that
time, he has been held in Burrel prison.
Another writer who suffered and is still languishing
in prison in Midhat Araniti. He wrote a lot in Albanian newspapers and
periodicals, and towards the end, was an active contributor to the Revista
letrare (Literary Review). He used dialect in his writing. Under the pseudonym
Rem Vogli he published delightfully humorous sketches and portrays in Tirana
dialect. Having completed a ten-year sentence, Midhat Araniti was taken
directly from Burrel prison to a concentration camp at Kuç in Kurvelesh.
Also in Burrel prison was the satirist and singer from
Shkodra, Pjetër Gjini. He is the author of many amusing poems in folk style,
such as Malsori në Paris (The Albanian Highlander in Paris). He is also the
author of many humorous songs, both lyrics and melodies, that were well-known
in Albania before the communist period.
Another group of writers were those who spent time in
prison and then got out after finishing their sentences.
Among them is Gjergj Bubani, a talented satirical
writer, known under the pseudonym Brumbulli, and a translator from Romanian, in
particular of Viktor Eftimiu. Bubani had once run the periodical Shqipëria e Re
(New Albania) in Bucharest. Among the leading collaborators of this journal was
Dionis Miçaço, author of cutting criticism and several beautiful descriptive
pieces. Miçaço was in prison for ten years (1947-1957) where he landed because,
as an honest judge, he sought to maintain a high level of impartiality in his
work.
Also imprisoned for a time was Dhimitër Pasko, known
under the pseudonym of Mitrush Kuteli. He is one of the best prose writers,
author of Netë shqiptare (Albanian Nights) and of Ago Jakupi (Ago Jakupi),
collections that contain some of the best short stories ever written in
Albanian. He also wrote literary criticism and some poetry, such as Poema
kosovare (Kosovar Poem), and translated the Romanian poet Eminescu into
Albanian. In 1944, together with Vedat Kokona, Sterjo Spasse and Nexhat Hakiu,
he was on the editorial board of Revista letrare, a journal in which many of
the best writers collaborated.
It should be noted in passing that most of those who
managed or edited Albanian journals in the troubled years from 1939 to 1944
ended up in prison or were executed by the communists. Examples have been
mentioned above from the journals Hylli i Dritës and Fryma, but the situation
was the same for the well-known Shkodra periodical Leka, whose editor, Father
Dajani, was executed. Other members of the board, such as Mark Harapi and Gjon
Karma, were imprisoned. As to the editors of Revista letrare, aside from
Kuteli, Nexhat Hakiu was imprisoned for a short while right after the liberation.
Also in prison from 1946 to 1956 was Arshi Pipa, the
author of the lyric collection Lundërtarë (Sailors). In 1944, he was director
of the literary monthly Kritika (Criticism).
Among others imprisoned were its contributors:
Professor Selman Riza, a well-known Albanian linguist; Andon Frashëri, former
editor of Dielli, the organ of the Vatra federation and author of the novel I
funtmi i Kastriotëvet (The Last of the Castriotas); Pashko Gjeçi, an Albanian
teacher, excellent literary critic and one of the best translators of classical
poetry, known for his acute artistic sensitivities; and Astrit Delvina, one of
the younger writers of great promise.
Also imprisoned were: Izet Bebëziqi, an Albanian
teacher, scholar of Arbëresh literature, and one of the earliest anti-fascists,
who spent several years on the infamous island of Ventotene; Filip Fishta,
another Albanian teacher, philologist and active scholar of the Albanian
language; Nikollë Daka, a translator of Latin literature; Gjovalin Ljarja,
Albanian teacher and poetry translator; Mustafa Greblleshi, youthful author of
the novel Gremina e dashunisë (The Chasm of Love).
There are others, whose names I have forgotten, and I
am referring here only to writers. There are also other figures in the field of
culture, such as: Mirash Ivanaj, who died in prison in 1953, author of several
unpublished works, one of the most representative figures of Albanian culture;
Koço Tasi (in Burrel prison), a legal expert and author of a good
Greek-Albanian dictionary, who was sentenced to life in prison; Donat Kurti (in
Burrel prison), collector and publisher of a fundamental work of Albanian
folklore, the two volume Prralla Kombtare (National Folk Tales); and Stavro
Frashëri, another active folklore expert who published several volumes of
folklore.
Not to be forgotten are journalists: Akilé Tasi, one-time
editor of Dielli (now in Burrel prison); Fiqri Llagami, editor of Shqipnia
(Albania) published in 1944; and two well known reporters, Nebil Çika and Aleks
Mavraqi, who were seized and shot on the very eve of the liberation of Tirana.
Here is the count of Albanian writers who were
persecuted by communism: about ten executed, not counting those who died in
prison, and about twenty others who spent years and years in prison - some of
them are still wasting away there. It is an overwhelming tragedy for a little
country like Albania, whose culture had just recently begun to blossom.
But executing and imprisoning the majority of
patriotic Albanian writers and by laming the others, the communist leaders were
carrying out a specific strategy they developed to destroy the Albanian
intellectual elite and its vanguard, the writers, in order to replace them with
their own class of intellectuals and with their own writers.
But what have the communists achieved in Albanian
literature in the fifteen years in which they have had Albania’s fate in their
hands?
Communism wreaked destruction, but it was incapable of
reconstructing. Albanian literature has been wiped out. Not one single good
writer has emerged from the ranks of the communists, and what is more
significant, is that those who initially showed some talent have now fallen
silent. But we must leave this for another study.
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