“His capacity is quite low, he is not clear about the political situation, he only has two grades of school and has never held a book in his hand…”/The State Security document on Sulo Gradeci, Enver [Hoxha]’s escort, is revealed

Memorie.al / Sulo Gradeci served as the Commander of the Group for the physical security of Enver Hoxha for 19 years (1966–1985). Born in 1922 in the village of Gradec in the Skrapar district (from where he inherited his surname), he was unable to complete more than two grades of elementary school. In the years 1939–1940, he worked as a servant in Berat, and in 1940–1942, as a manual laborer in Durrës and Tirana. He first heard about communism from Mane Nishova and Gjin Marku. Starting in May 1942, he volunteered for the Skrapar partisan unit, and was accepted as a member of the Albanian Communist Party on August 20, 1943. From 1945–1947, he was with the forces of the Division for the Defense of the People in Elbasan and Berat. From March to September 1947, he was on duty in Romania, on behalf of the Directorate of State Security for Foreign Intelligence.

From 1947–1949, he held functions up to Chairman in the Internal Affairs Branch (DPB) of Berat. From 1949–1950, he was Deputy Chairman of the 8th Branch in the Directorate of State Security. From 1950–1953, he was Chairman of the DPB in Përmet. From 1953–1966, he performed various duties in the Directorate of State Security.

In a letter addressed to the Cadre Directorate of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania (PPSh), the PPSh Committee of the city of Berat complained about the appointment of comrade Sulo Gradeci, for whom they listed a number of dissatisfactions stemming from his background, lack of schooling, and the fact that he and books had never met each other.

The issue was forwarded for review to the Director of the State Security Directorate, Beqir Ndou, but instead of being demoted, Gradeci climbed the career ladder!

REPORT-INFORMATION FROM THE PARTY COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF BERAT, ADDRESSED TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PPSh, COMPLAINING ABOUT THE APPOINTMENT OF SULO GRADECI AS CHAIRMAN OF THE BERAT BRANCH

Party of Labor of Albania

City Party Committee

Berat, 13.12.1948

A year ago, comrade Sulo Gradeci, who was previously the chief of the Berat District, was appointed as Chairman of the Internal Affairs Branch of Berat by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The promotion of this comrade has not been well received by the Security comrades; they are dissatisfied and say that the work will not go well because Sulo is in charge, and they have no sympathy for him at all.

On the other hand, there are comrades who are requesting to leave the Security and Berat so as not to work with Sulo. Our opinion is that Sulo has the following shortcomings:

• His capacity regarding the work is quite low.
• He is not clear about the political situation.
• He is very low theoretically, as he has never held a book in his hand.
• He is impulsive in his work.
• He does not enjoy the sympathy of his subordinates because he cannot impress them, but seeks to impose himself on the comrades through his authority as the person in charge.

This comrade was part of the Party organization of the Berat District, and we do not concretely know what internal matters he might have, but we base these on our observations and the statements of the comrades. / Memorie.al

We kindly request that this be reviewed.

For the Party Committee

Gaqo Ligori