By Maksim Rakipaj
Part twenty six
Memorie.al/ Maksim Rakipaj, originally from Përmet, whose family had helped and supported the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, after graduating from the Navy School in Vlorë, in 1972 he was appointed an officer in the Merchant Navy, where he served with dedication until in 1977, on the “Durrësi” steamer, he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in political prison, as part of a “group”, which also included his colleague, Aladin Kapo, the son of Hysni Kapo’s brother. Family biography was also the reason for his punishment. After the end of the war, two of his uncles were sentenced to political prison, his grandfather was declared a kulak and in 1976, his father was expelled from the party. Maksi began serving his sentence in the Ballsh camp and in 1979, he was transferred to the Spaçi camp and then to the Qafë Bari camp. He was released on September 12, 1984, benefiting from a reduced sentence, from an amnesty. After being unemployed for a long time, with many hardships, he got a job as a miner in the Mzezet mine, he worked until 1991. After the 1991s, he started working in the administration of the Municipality of Durrës, he served until 1997 and after that, he returned to the Merchant Navy (the last captain of the transoceanic ship “Vlora”), until he left Albania for Italy, (illegally on a dinghy), where he currently lives for many years. Since the 90s, in addition to various jobs, Maksim Rakipaj has also devoted himself to writing, such as; poetry, prose, fiction or documentary, translations, etc., publishing several books, such as: ‘Prophet – Khalil Gibran’, (translation from English ‘Toena’ 2003), ’20 love poems and a song of sadness’, (translation from Spanish, ‘Toena’ 2003), ‘Alive after the shipwreck’, (published by ISKK, 2014), ‘Bukowski – poetry’, (translation from English, ‘ENEAS’, 2015), ‘Trilusa m’Tirône’, ( translation from Italian, ‘UEGEN’, 2015), ‘Anthology of Arabic-Persian Poetry’ (English translations, ‘UEGEN’, 2015), ‘The Complete Sonnets of Shakespeare’, (English translation, ‘ADA’ 2016′) , ‘Survivor’ (autobiographical novel, ‘2 East, 2 West’ 2018), ‘Nobelists – poetic anthology, (UEGEN 2019), ‘Hymn of happiness’ (‘JOZEF’ 2023), etc. From the creativity of Mr. Rakipaj, Memorie.al is publishing the book “Survivor”, (published in 2022 by “JOZEF” Publishing House in Durrës, directed by Mr. Aurel Kaçulini), where he has described his life chronologically, where the part the main one is that of serving the sentence in camps and prisons, as well as various characters, his co-sufferers that he met in the communist hell, etc.
Continues from last issue
HEAD V
From the small prison to the big prison
First day of release…!
…I was released from the Qaf-Bari camp on September 12, ’84. I arrived late in Shkodër, the last train to Durrës had left. With my head shaved zero a few days ago, with my brown prison clothes and a small suitcase, where I had letters from home and some translations and poems in English, I immediately caught the eye in Shkodër. In Bahçalek, I was waiting for a random car.
After some time of waiting in vain, from the club across the street, a guy about my age came out, approached me and said: “Hear, my friend, we are a group of friends and we are having a drink, but yes Let’s check and they took me, invite him to have a drink with us. Don’t wait in vain for a car. It’s 5:00 p.m., you can hardly find a car here…”!
I agreed and entered the café with him. They all stood up, the four of them were introduced to me…!
– “Coming from prison, that is understood, but from which prison?! How old are you, where do you live, are you married…”?!
– “I come from Qaf-Bari, I was a political convict, I live in Durrës, I live in house, and my origin is from Përmet, single…”!
– “Thank you for coming out well and finding everyone well, from the cave”.
We met the glasses, drank them to the end and I asked permission to leave…!
– “It’s not good to see you drinking with me…”!
– “You are here in Shkodër and spies don’t enter this club before. And who asks about them…! What about Mark Shkrelin, did you know?! Do you know Nush Topuzi…?! What about Mark Prendin… yes…?! They were supposed to be good guys, until we only asked about honest people, whom I had met myself in prison.
I knew them all; I told them about the deserted Nushi, sorry, how he was killed in the mine and how, right after his death, I was sent to work, exactly in the gallery where Nushi was killed.
It was touching, I felt like family with them…! One of them had been friends with Nushi…! Once we broke up. I objected to going to the house of any of them and went to look for a hotel. The release sheet, it worked for me; I found a bed at the “Sporti” hotel…! I was hungry; I went to a flower garden – restaurant, around 8 pm…! There was no restaurant bread! The waiter understood that I came from prison. He told me: “Let me bring you, how can I find something good from the kitchen, because I’m running for bread, I have it here, not even 50 meters…”!
I finished eating and wanted to pay…!
– “I can’t take your money anymore, brother. You wish me good night and you find a good way to go…!
I have always loved Shkodra, its culture, the summer…! The people from Shkodran that I met, not only in prison, have increased my love for him.
Looking for work
…There are many sayings about prisons and prisoners, by wise men. Tolstoy says in “Resurrection”, more or less like this: “…You have many prisons and many people you have put in there. Well, tell me… the reformed ones”?!
Someone wrote that; who has been in prison once, is never released from it…! Another says that; the age of the convict does not change; he remains, until he is released, the same age he was when he entered prison…! Being punished at a young age is a good thing…!
In September ’84, I was released from the Qaf-Bari camp. I spent one night in Shkodër. The next day I came home by train. It was a beautiful thing, to wake up in your bed, surrounded by the love of your people, by your sisters, brother, parents, grandmother…!
But the violent reality would not be long in appearing, even merciless, brutal, and cynical. I had to start a job, to live. We only had my father’s pension and the pitiful salary of Dash, my brother. At the labor office, they told me that; as a former senior cadre, I had to be interested in the relevant office of the Executive Committee, where Ligor Çifligu was the chairman.
– “We are lucky”, said my people, Qaniu (my brother- in-law), has an old friend Ligor…!
The good Qani came from Korça, especially, met him and… Nothing! No job offer, for me. A friend of mine also came, who had a close friend B.V., the wife of an official in Tirana and who had a close family friendship with L. Çifligu…! “What’s up, don’t worry, wait there for coffee, because we’re both going to Ligori. We talked on the phone and he’s waiting for us…”! They both left the office, bowed. B., left for home in Tirana, my friend, came to me for coffee…! “But what have you done, you moron…?! Ligori had called the Branch and the Ministry of the Interior about you. ‘It belongs to the incorrigible’, that’s what they told him”!
Very soon, the head of the conversation would come out…! One day, when, as usual, I went to look for a job in the Committee, I was met by Skender Gj., an employee of the Interior Department whom I had known since I worked on the ship “Durrësi”, before his arrest. He was now a Security Operative, for my neighborhood. He made me an offer: I could immediately start work, as a dispatcher in the Forwarding Company, with a salary of 9,000 ALL…! “Except the ones you will take from me, except the bribes from the drivers”… and he winked at me kindly…! The icy rejection I gave to that offer cost me 9 months of unemployment…!
My father had a good friend in Durrës, the unforgettable Ilmi Hoxha, who had a brother, an engineer in the Manza mine, Idrizi, the late Idrizi. I told Ilmi about the pressure of the Security Operative and that I had decided to start working in the mine. Idrizi spoke with the director of the mine, but to start work, he needed a letter from the labor office…!
I wandered around Durrës those days and hardly received any greetings…?! It wasn’t like it used to be, when I was never alone. I was always accompanied by Din Muço, my brother, or his friends, Mir the Bulgarian, or Lushi the Deserter, who later died as a refugee in Italy…! But I will write about this topic another time…! Let’s come now to where I meant.
I wrote a letter to Hekuran Isai, where I told him, among other things, that what I was looking for was only to be given a job, or to be sent back to prison…! Nothing. I had a meeting with Mayor Ligor Çifligu, when I was about 8 months old, without a job. His lawyer B.T., explained to Ligor, who I was…!
– “It is difficult for work, now” – he said! – “What kind of work can you do?” I believe that your mind is not lying, that you can start in the Navy…”?!
– “I am ready to do any job, just to have my own salary and not live at the expense of the family”.
– “Go now…! We will see this work”.
…Meanwhile, I was offered to work as a laborer at the Rruga-Ura Enterprise. I asked about the salary. 4,500 ALL per month, on rainy days, 50% was paid…! It wasn’t worth it. I also considered the Operative’s offer and decided to start as a miner in Manzë. The lawyer, Bujar T., did not allow me to meet the mayor again…! “You met me a month ago, run away, I won’t see you again”!
– “Please, friend B., I only need a work sheet, for Manza, they from the Labor Office won’t give me…”!?
B., turned his back on me and was introducing the others to the meeting, with Ligor. As he was closing the door, I tugged hard on his jacket collar. He screamed (probably scared). Ligor listened and went to the door:
– “What is going on here”?!
– “Nothing, fellow chairman, a small clarification with B.”, – I told him politely.
– “Come in, I’ll make the clarifications” – said Ligori.
I entered without feeling. When it was my turn, Ligor was addressed by the lawyer B. T.:
– “Hey, take B., who is this?! How is he doing”?!
– “Comrade Chairman, this is a political convict. There are not many who have been released and are looking for a chosen job, this one. He doesn’t like to work on Rruga-Ura, where his friends from the Labor Office recommended him…”?!
– “No, we will do this as a director”?! – Somehow Ligori.
– “I came to look for the work sheet as a miner, for Manzë, comrade chairman; it doesn’t seem to me that it is a chosen job…”!
– “So? – And stood up – No one has done what you are doing, Maksim. Are you kidding?! Then I’ll make fun of you…”?!
– “Please, fellow chairman, the worksheet and we close this matter. Tell them from the Labor Office to give it to me.”
– “No. I don’t tell them. I will give it with my hand, right now. And know that I will follow your own work. Are you sure you can do it as a miner?!
– “I’ve done it all these years with a policeman… without a policeman; I say I do it better.”
With the work letter signed by the chairman, I presented myself to the mine director. He received me well, but he told me that I should go further, from the company doctor. I went to the doctor, about 35-40 years old, Kosovar, last name Krasniqi. He asked me where I had worked before.
– “Did you work in the mine, Max”?
– “Yes, doctor, in copper and pyrite mines.”
– “Do you have documents for this”?
– “No, because I was convicted, doctor. I can’t prove that I worked in the mine.”
– “You worked in copper mines?! So, listen here. As long as I’m a doctor here, you don’t have to work as a miner anymore. Find another way, kill me! I’m a doctor and I don’t allow myself, it leads to death…! You must have silicosis, I know silicosis people by face, I was a doctor in copper mines…”!
I went up to the director again. He got the doctor on the phone. I didn’t hear anything because I was outside.
– “Go back to Dr. Krasniqi, Maks.”
The doctor was waiting for me, his eyes were wet…! “Take my permission and listen to me: whenever you want a day off, come to me, or send me whoever you want, as long as there is a letter from you…”!
…So, in May 1985, I started working in the sector of Gërdec: exploration miner. I started work in May, right after the days of mourning ended, after the death of Hoxha Enver. I found good people in Gërdec. Most were workers from the surrounding villages and from Vora. With three shifts, including the road, my working day was 12 hours. The conditions were for black page, there was no difference from Spaçi. Only the drilling was not done with air, but with electric hammers. Two months after I started working in Gërdec, he became the director, chief engineer of the mine. I received it well, because I had the idea (wrong!), that he did not have an evil eye on me.
In December, I was hospitalized in Tirana, on the recommendation of the mine doctor and the doctor of the wonderful man, Agim Drita, from Durrës. I was admitted to the ward of occupational diseases. I left the hospital and after a few months, I appeared at the medical-legal commission in Tirana…! “You were able to win there, Dr. Agim Drita told me, you saved Max, because then, it’s in my hands.”
In the commission, the chairman was the well-known Dr. Sh. N., from the country’s best pulmonologists. He visited me himself, after he also saw lung graffiti. Visiting me, worried, he turns to doctor N. Bylyku: “Well, come and listen too…! Hey, did you see the graffiti? Hmmm…”! They spoke to each other, in a low voice, followed by Dr. Sh. N., went to the table and took my card in his hand, to fill it. Doctor Bylyku kindly winked at me: “You won”, – he told me, without a sound, moving only his lips…!
– “Don’t wait…! Rakipaj is your last name, right?! – said Dr. Sh. N.
– “As you order, doctor”, – I answered.
– “Don’t explain to me, because I don’t understand this…?! Here it is written; high school education, Navy school, profession: miner?!! Why…”!?
– “Man, many things happen in life, doctor…”!
– “I don’t care at all”! – Quickly filled out my form and handed it to me.
– “Come on, take it and run away now”!
– “Thank you, doctor, have a good day”!
When I got out, I opened the card and saw it written in big letters: “SKILLFUL, FOR EIGHT HOURS UNDERGROUND WORK”. (Now recently this “man” received a high decoration from the state).
Dr. Agim Drita, however, under his responsibility, issued me a report: “For light work underground.” I am grateful to him all my life for his professionalism and especially for his humanity. With that report, with the help of my friend, Servet Alizoti, who was also the head of the sector’s quality, as well as the kindness of the head of the sector of the Gërdec mine, I worked for several months on quality. I was taking coal samples to the laboratory of NIsh Tulla, in Vora. After a month, I was fired. The head of the sector explained to me that there was an order from above for this movement.
– “Who gave the order”?
– “Don’t confuse me, Max. I’m sorry. Serveti knows that I want you to work on quality…! I can’t say who gave the order.”
– “Can I go to the director P.B., in Manzë”?
– “Why not, since you started now, you wanted to.”
I knocked several times on the director’s door. No answer. Someone who passed in the corridor said to me: “The director is there, come in.”
I opened the door slowly:
– “With permission, fellow director?” Excuse me…”!
Director Pëllumb B. raised his head a little: – “Hey, what did you have”?!
I explained my situation to him: – “I am under report, fellow director, and I don’t know, do you know anything, that I have been removed from the quality sector…”?!
– “How did I not know it!? I’m the director here, I’m not a fence! It’s in vain that you come to me. You know yourself, you are yours”!
– “Of course I know, but I remembered that…”?!
– “Don’t remember that! Get out now, leave us alone”! Memorie.al
The next issue follows
