Memorie.al publishes a rare photo where they have put together five of the most prominent characters in Albanian journalism and letters: Dimiter Shuteriqi, Dritëro Agolli, Vangjush Gambeta, Niko Nikolla and Marash Hajati. Rightly regarded as personalities, icons of Albanian literature, journalism, humor and Albanian television, such as: Dimitër Shuteriqi and Dritëro Agolli, former Presidents of the League of Writers and Artists and MPs of the National Assembly, Marash Hajati, former Director of Albanian Radio Television, Niko Nikolla, the legendary former editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine “Hosteni”, and Vangjush Gambeta, former journalist of “Voice of the People”, now separated from life for years and within a short period of time. , can rightly be referred to as the “Five Heroes” of Albanian press and literature.
Although with varied life histories and professional careers, even with many ups and downs, serving from the top of the “power of letters” to cooperatives in the country’s most remote and lost villages, the time offered them when they lived, worked and created during the communist regime, they had one thing in common, friendship!
Which is to say it was unique, having been preserved for more than half a century, without even being harmed at all by any of them.
DHIMITER S. SHUTERIQI, Graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy and Law in Grenoble, France in the period of the Bird Monarchy, Professor, Academic, Former Secretary and Chairman of the Albanian Writers and Artists Association from 1945 to 1974, is a unique case, as his literary creativity was practiced in four completely different political and economic regimes, marking a period of nearly seven decades. Poet, writer, novelist, publicist, writer, journalist, translator, academic, scholar and historian of Albanian literature, etc., Professor Shuteriqi, author of dozens of books, is rightly named by Moikom Zeqo as “the last of the Albanian Renaissance”! Considered the most liberal leader of the League of Writers and Artists of Albania, its creation, which was dismissed “with ceremony” in 1974, when he was retired and freelance, separated from life in July 26, 2003, at the age of 87 years.
DRITERO AGOLLI, a graduate of the Faculty of Philology in Saint Petersburg, would return to Albania where he worked as a journalist for many years at the Voice of the People and for 30 years was a Member of the People’s Assembly. Poet, author, novelist, publicist, journalist, translator, writer, academic, etc., headed the Writers’ League from 1974 to 1991, author of a large number of books published in and out of the country, considered ” Patriarch of Albanian Letters ”. After the 1990s he also engaged in politics with the Socialist Party, being a member of the People’s Assembly for several terms. Died February 3, 2017 at the age of 86.
NIKO NIKOLLA, journalist, writer, humorist, publicist, translator, ran the satirical magazine, Hosteni, from 1971 to 1991, successfully bringing that magazine to a circulation of 70,000 copies a week. He is regarded as the legend of humor and satire of the Albanian press and is still remembered for his famous expression “Turn the Balkans from gunpowder to barrels of humor”, stated at an international conference in Varna, Bulgaria in 1988. Considered as Nikolla’s “father of Albanian journalism” passed away on January 4, 2006 at the age of 75.
VANGJUSH GAMBETA, a graduate of the Kiev University of Economics, Ukraine, from 1956 to 1975, would pursue the profession of journalist as head of the economic sector at the editorial staff of “Voice of the People”, a documentary screenwriter at Kinostudio Albania. re, ”and lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, University of Tirana. In 1975, he would be fired and interned for political reasons in the remote villages of the Mat district, where he worked in agriculture and for a short time as a storekeeper. Returning to Tirana in early 1991, Gambeta resumed her journalistic career by working for several years at Republika, as its editor-in-chief and vice-president of the Republican Party. After 1993 he retired from political life, devoting himself to studies as an author and translator of several books. He passed away on August 5, 2008 at the age of 79.
MARASH HAJATI, Graduate of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Saint Petersburg, Department of Journalism in the Soviet Union, journalist, editor, colleague secretary, press instructor, book author, well-known publicist of some of the main Albanian press bodies, such as newspapers ” Work “,” Voice of the People “, etc., from 1974 until 1988, served as Director of the Albanian Radio-Television, and from 1988-1990, as Editor-in-Chief of the” Voice of the People “.Hajati, who was also the President of the Albanian Journalists’ Union before the 1990s, is remembered and considered the most liberal leader of ART before the 1990s! She passed away on March 28, 2013 at the age of 79.
Photo in question published for the first time by Memorie.al. It was made in early 1993 and the “Five Heroes” of Albanian press and letters gathered at a former Block, invited by Niko Nikolla, on his birthday. On this occasion, a large number of not-so-well-known characters from the Albanian press and letters have been invited, but as soon as someone has taken out the camera to become a memory photo, they have all left, leaving place only those of the five, who as seen in this picture, are funny and humorous, even for the fact that they met each other after a few years. This photo is published by Memorie.al on the occasion of Dritëro Agolli’s three-year anniversary, but also being an homage to the fifth of these Albanian letter personalities.