From DASHNOR KALOÇI
Part Ten
Memorie.al / Although he was the main leader of communist Albania for 40 consecutive years, governing his country with an iron hand from 1945 until his death on April 11, ’85, but even after his death and until the collapse of the communist regime in early 1991, a complete official biography of Enver Hoxha was never published, even though he himself left written a series of works of around 80 volumes. Moreover, even after the 1990s and up to today, a biography of the former communist dictator Enver Hoxha has not yet been published, one that would be based on archival documents shedding light on the early origins of the family, with its genealogical tree, as well as a life story of him, from the day he was born until the day he died…! This apparently also due to the fact that throughout his life, there were many light and shadows, indeed many dark stains, which caused him himself to never give approval for the publication of a biography of him in a separate book, even though such biographies have actually existed. Indeed three such biographies with different authors, which are found even today in Enver Hoxha’s personal fond at the Central State Archive in Tirana.
The first official biography of Enver Hoxha was made public in 1946, within the framework of the “popularization” of his figure, as “the main leader and first secretary of the Communist Party of Albania, commander-in-chief of the National Liberation Army with the rank of colonel-general, chairman of the presidium of the Democratic Front of Albania, prime minister of the Albanian government, minister of People’s Defense and minister of Foreign Affairs.” As can be seen in the respective facsimiles attached to this article, this biography, which is a small booklet of 58 pages, published at the “Rinia” Printing House (formerly the “Gutenberg” printing house) on the first page (after the dark maroon cover and the photo of Enver Hoxha in the military uniform of a general with medals on his chest), has written in capital letters: “ENVER HOXHA, A SHORT BIOGRAPHY.” That first official biography of Enver Hoxha was prepared for publication by the employees of the Agit-Prop sector (Agitation and Propaganda) at the apparatus of the Central Committee of the PPSh [Party of Labor of Albania], but in reality its compiler and author was the first captain, Ndreçi Plasari, whose name does not appear in the book in question, but is found written in his own handwriting on the first page of the typed material that was sent to press.
The book, or more precisely the brochure “ENVER HOXHA, A SHORT BIOGRAPHY,” begins with a description of the city of Gjirokastra where Enver was born on October 16, 1908, and continues with several paragraphs on the history of the Hoxha family (which occupies only the first two pages), while the entire remaining part is devoted to his role (Enver’s) during the period of the “Anti-Fascist National Liberation War” with some of its main events (the founding of the PKSH [Communist Party of Albania], the Peza Conference, the Labinot Meeting and the creation of the General Staff of the National Liberation Army on July 10, 1943, the Mukja Agreement, the Përmet Congress, etc.), concluding on January 11, 1946, with the event of the proclamation of the Republic. Even today it is not known with precision why that brochure with the first official biography of Enver Hoxha (where a life story of him for the period of Zog’s Monarchy is almost entirely missing), which glorifies his figure and role (or that of the Hoxha family), from the period of childhood up to the time it was published, was immediately withdrawn from circulation (it is said after two or three months) and was never again used even for references, in books, albums, or other works dedicated to his figure.
Because from that time onward, Enver Hoxha began eliminating his close collaborators (members of the Politburo, ministers, deputies, etc.), by imprisoning, interning or executing them, and the book in question with his biography could no longer circulate with the names of “enemies of the people.” The second biography of Enver Hoxha was written in 1950 (15.VI.1950) and its author is Misto Treska, a close and highly trusted man of Enver Hoxha since the period of the French Lyceum of Korça and the Communist Group of that city where he was a member, who during the War period was political commissar of the partisan Battalion “Reshit Çollaku” and after 1944 was promoted to major, being appointed as prosecutor and member of the judging body in the Special Trial of 1945, which sentenced to death former Prime Minister Maliq Bushati and the members of the Regency, Lef Nosi and Father Anton Harapi.
Just like the biography written by Ndreçi Plasari in 1946, that of Misto Treska too, which has 238 pages of handwriting and the same title (“Enver Hoxha, a short biography”), glorifies beyond measure the figure and role of Enver Hoxha in all the time periods treated there. Perhaps this was also the main reason why that biography written by Misto Treska for Enver Hoxha not only was never published, but was not even typed on a typewriter, like the 1946 biography of Ndreç Plasari, or the other one written later. Likewise, it is not known with precision whether this “service” that Misto Treska did for the main leader of Albania, Enver Hoxha (with whom he had acquaintance also from the period of studies in France), influenced his later career, where he served as jurist, translator, book author, diplomat, ambassador of Albania to France, Belgium, etc., as well as chairman of the Committee for Friendly and Cultural Relations with the Outside World, where he also retired in 1981.
The same goes for Professor Ndreçi Plasari, historian and researcher who during the communist regime held important academic and political posts, being for a long time also deputy director of the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies in Tirana, directed by Nexhmije Hoxha. In those duties, Professor Plasari served until 1982, when he was struck by the Party, accused as “a man of Mehmet Shehu, who had been sent by him to the British archives to inflate his (Mehmet’s) cult and had hidden the documents proving that Mehmet Shehu had been an agent of the Intelligence Service”! The third biography of Enver Hoxha was written in 1969 and its author is Aqif Selfo, a close friend of childhood and youth with Enver and his neighbor in the city of Gjirokastra and, later, at the French Lyceum of Korça, where they studied together and Selfo served for some time also as dormitory supervisor at that lyceum. On the first page of that biography, it is written: “Memories from the life of the Hoxha family, its origin and a life story of comrade Enver Hoxha, for the period 1908-1930 and 1931-1939, 6.1.1969, by Aqif Selfo.”
That biography, or more precisely a life story, as its author himself has titled it (it has 124 pages of handwriting, while 82 pages typed), just like those of Ndreçi Plasari and Misto Treska, from beginning to end, glorifies the figure and role of Enver Hoxha, indeed with distortions and falsifications of historical events and facts. (For example, on p. 46 of his memoirs, Aqif Selfo among other things writes that: “Enver set off for Belgium, settled in Brussels and began the duty of secretary of the Consulate. He stayed here partly in 1934, all of 1935 and partly in 1936. Alongside the duty of secretary of the Albanian Consulate in Brussels, Enver continued his studies at the faculty of law and took the exams of the second year.” While in another archival document found in Enver Hoxha’s personal fond, the Albanian diplomat Nos Qosja who served in our embassy in Paris, among other things writes: “During my visit to Belgium with comrade Harrilla Kola, we went to the University of Brussels (Faculty of Law) and asked and established: Comrade Enver is registered in the Faculty of Law for the academic year 1934-1935. In the archive of that faculty, there exists a card with these data;
HOXHA Enver
Academic year 1934-1935
Date of birth: 3 October 1908 (Gjirokastër)
Register number: 2821
His address: “Legation d’Albania 155 Rue de la Loi, Brussels”.
The card is white; it does not appear that he has taken any exam.”
Paris, 22 February 1969 — Nos Qosja
From what is stated also in the archival document in question (which is conditioned with the period when the biography of Enver by Aqif Selfo was written), it results that Enver Hoxha did not take any exam at the Faculty of Law of Brussels, which refutes what Aqif Selfo writes, that “Enver took the exams of the second year”! Perhaps this was also the main reason why those “Memories” were never published as a book, since in the period they were written, many of Enver’s and Selfo’s friends and peers were still alive (in political prisons or free), whether from the period of their childhood in the city of Gjirokastra, that of the Lyceum of Korça, or even studies in France. But even though those “Memories” never saw the light of publication, in all likelihood they served their author Aqif Selfo as a shield for a quiet life (he worked as a teacher in Tirana at the “Qemal Stafa” gymnasium until he retired), unlike his two cousins, Riza and Syrja Selfo, whom Enver arrested and shot, even though they and the entire Selfo family had helped him with money during the War period, 1939-1944.
On the basis of these three biographies, in 1978, a book or more precisely a brochure-type publication was published with the title: “Enver Hoxha, beloved leader of the Albanian people” – (Material for conversations, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his birth), where on the first page after the cover, it is written: “Prepared by the sector of Marxist-Leninist education, at the C.C. of the PPSh. – In aid of agitators and propagandists.” The book in question was published by the “8-Nëntori” Publishing House at the “Mihal Duri” Printing House in Tirana. The fact that these three biographies of Enver Hoxha are found in his personal fond, indeed even with interventions and corrections by other persons, if they were not done by his order, in all likelihood they were written with Enver’s approval. Nevertheless these remain within the framework of hypotheses where there is room to investigate longer, but in this article we are publishing first the biography of Enver Hoxha, which was written by Aqif Selfo, which is published for the first time and with the respective facsimiles in several issues, by Memorie.al.
Continued from the previous issue
THE ARCHIVAL DOCUMENT EXTRACTED FROM THE PERSONAL FOND OF ENVER HOXHA FOUND IN THE CENTRAL STATE ARCHIVE, WITH THE MEMOIRS WRITTEN BY AQIF SELFO, ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HOXHA FAMILY AND A LIFE STORY OF ENVER HOXHA
Memories from the life of the Hoxha family, its origin, and the life story of comrade Enver Hoxha for the period 1908–1930 and 1931-1939
By Aqif Selfo
6.1.1969
Enver the teacher and his activity
1936 – 1939
At the beginning of the school year 1936-1937, after many efforts, Enver was appointed as a professor at the gymnasium of Tirana, but not definitively but provisionally; he was paid not with a fixed monthly salary, but on the basis of the hours he did, i.e., effective hours. Here he taught, among other lessons, also the geography of Albania, in the lower classes of the gymnasium. Enver did not stay long at the gymnasium of Tirana. In this period Zog had replaced the supposedly liberal government of Mehdi Frashëri with a reactionary government with Prime Minister Koço Kota and with Minister of the Interior Musa Juka. This government immediately took strict measures against all those who had progressive ideas and who had fallen, more or less, into the eyes of the country’s authorities. One of these measures was the issuing of the order, in the first days of April 1937, for the internment of many people, among them were also two teachers of the lyceum of Korça. One of them, Perikli Mborja, taught Morality and French language in the lower classes of the lyceum. Perikli Mborja was an eccentric young man, very egoistic and misanthropic.
Certainly his pronounced eccentricity and some of his anti-clerical manifestations, at the time he was a professor at the gymnasium of Shkodra, caused him to be noted by Zog’s authorities in the list of those who were interned in Gramsh. After several months the internees were released and this teacher, as well as the other internees, came to his family. This eccentric type, unlike the other internees, kept the beard he had let grow during the internment even after he was released and came to Korça with an unshaven beard. Certainly he wanted to show that he was a man “persecuted by the regime.”
This man “persecuted by the regime,” after some time, because he was invited to Tirana by the Minister of the Interior Musa Juka, shaved his beard. His meeting with Musa Juka aroused suspicion and great surprise among his acquaintances, but for him it was a common thing. Indeed one of his acquaintances, who met him before his meeting with the Minister of the Interior, says to him: what was this meeting with Musa Juka? He, without a trace of shame, says: I go with the one who pays me better and more. For this type everything was connected with money. In the school year 1937-1938, he was appointed professor at the “Normale” of Elbasan. Later with the occupation of Albania by Italian fascism, he went to Italy. These, together with a colleague of his, with the rabid fascist Frano Alkaj, became smugglers and international adventurers.
So to replace this immoral teacher, who taught morality at the lyceum of Korça, the Ministry of Education transferred Enver from the gymnasium of Tirana to the Lyceum of Korça. Enver immediately came to Korça and began his duty on April 6, 1937. In Korça too he was not paid with a fixed salary like all the other teachers, but always paid on the basis of the hours he did. During his stay in Korça, Enver, with the exception of a short time at the beginning when he lodged at the Belba family’s house and a few days at the house of the French professor Andrea Brexho, for the entire remaining time lived at the family of Andrea Theohari, Pandeli Cale Street 13. In this family Enver found a hospitable environment especially for the service done to him, first of all by Andrea’s mother, Vanthulla, and by Andrea’s wife, Polikseni.
This family behaved toward Enver as with their own son. They have always shown this behavior but especially at the time when Enver suffered from a rheumatic arthritis in the knee, in March 1938. At this time, from the great pain he had, he could not walk and was forced to stay in bed. The treatments that the doctors of Korça did had no effect. Then we decided that Enver should go abroad to Bari, Italy. Here Enver had his sister with her family. From Korça we sent him by plane to Tirana and from here he set off for Bari. After several days of going to Bari, he sent us a telegram where he showed that he was better, in the process of recovery and would soon return again to Korça. In this way Enver, after improving, came again to Korça and resumed his duty.
At the Lyceum, Enver taught Morality and French language. Here he quickly won the sympathy of the students. What drew attention among the students, from the first lessons, was his simple, approachable and gentle demeanor. Enver instructed the students, especially for the lesson of Morality, telling them: ‘until the text for this lesson comes, I will speak, while you will listen attentively. At the end we can have an exam. You will not keep notes.’ This manner of teaching Morality and treating the topics in such a way, different from what had been given to them before, gave the students to understand that the new professor of Morality had progressive thoughts and ideas in the interpretation of various concepts. The students of the classes where the lesson of morality was taught, according to the lyceum’s program, began to love and respect their new professor, unlike the professors of other subjects.
Regarding the teaching of morality at the lyceum by Enver, one of his students, of the school year 1936-1937, Xhuvi Bino, in the article titled “The New Professor,” published in the magazine “Arsimi Popullor,” year 1957 No. 6, writes: “We listened to him carefully that hour and the whole year. We awaited with impatience the coming of the Morality lesson, for little by little, hour by hour, a new world was revealed to us with new customs, with new people, with a new morality; the Soviet Union, which our pedagogue mentioned so many times and so frequently, left us to understand it ourselves. Enver also cared a lot about the progress of the students. He continually advised the students who did not study. Here is what happened one day in a class where he taught French. In this class, among the students there was also a student, son of an owner of the Macaroni factory in Durrës. This boy was intelligent, but having money in his hands beyond measure, he occupied himself more with toys and wasted his time. So this student did not study continually and that day too, as usual, he had not learned the lesson.
On this occasion Enver, as always in these cases, advised him to study, that for this he had come to school and added: ‘look at your friend next to you (pointing to another student, son of an Elbasan man who had fled in December 1924 to Italy and had returned again after several years to Albania), he studies and bless him, like him and all those who study.’ The student who did not study takes courage and answers him, pointing to his friend: ‘This one must study, for thus he can earn his daily bread, while I have no need for anything, my father has so much money that I can live as no better.’
Enver, revolted by these thoughts of this student, takes the floor addressing him and the whole class, among other things, said: tomorrow you will be grown men and the country wants to have capable citizens, with sound culture, for thus this country will move forward, while with ignorant and worthless people, it will be a backward country and the people will always be in great misery. You, by studying, will become capable of serving the country and the people as no better and thus you will be honored by all.’ This stance of Enver and his care that he showed toward the students was received well by them. They, for these advices and for the care he showed for them, loved and respected him exceedingly.
Enver at school, in the classroom before the students, or in the teachers’ hall before his French and Albanian colleagues, never missed an occasion to show indirectly or openly his anti-fascist opinion. Here is what happened one day in the teachers’ hall. ‘Gazeta Shqiptare,’ organ of Italian fascism, was published in Bari (Italy). This newspaper had as its aim the propagandizing of fascism in Albania. In this leaflet those who subscribed to it were rare, but nevertheless, it went to everyone at their addresses. Likewise it came to us too, the Albanian teachers of the lyceum, without anyone having agreed with his desire. We and many others never even leafed through this leaflet. One day those of the editorial staff remembered to collect the subscriptions and a man charged for this purpose came also to the Lyceum of Korça. It was the big break, between lessons, and the professors, upon finishing the lesson, with registers in hand, were entering the teachers’ hall. But unlike other times, that day, in the teachers’ hall there was seated, at the head of the table, an unknown man and he had spread out several sheets and blocks.
When the teachers’ hall was filled by the arrival one after another of the teaching collective, the unknown thought that there was no other person who could come, then he presented himself: ‘gentlemen, I am the delegate of the “Gazeta Shqiptare” and charged with collecting the annual subscriptions, therefore I ask you to pay me too the subscription of the newspaper.’ At this time some of our colleagues put their hands in their pockets to take out the money, but without waiting Enver intervened and asks the newspaper’s delegate: ‘Who has subscribed us to this newspaper’? The uninvited guest answered: ‘The Ministry of Education.’ Then Enver, right there and then, says to him: ‘Since it is so, the Ministry of Education has subscribed us, let it pay itself.’ After this cold shower, those colleagues who had put their hands in their pockets withdrew them without taking anything out, while the newspaper’s envoy gathered the sheets and blocks and after putting them under his armpit, got up to go outside angry, murmuring through his teeth: ‘I for this will inform the Ministry of Education.’
After this event, the Albanian teaching personnel was forever saved from this fascist leaflet. Enver often conversed about what he had in his heart, about the Soviet Union. He showed without hesitation the great love for the first socialist country in the world and spoke with great sympathy for it. He showed this continually with one and another, with known friends; but openly and before many people he showed it in the teachers’ hall of the lyceum provoked by a French colleague of his. The professor of philosophy Mejer, known for his conservative and reactionary ideas, was leafing through the French magazine ‘Ilystracion’ (‘Illustration’). This illustrated magazine, in one of its issues, wrote, among other things, also about the parade, I think of November 7, 1937 in Red Square, which was held before the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government. The photographs showed the marching of the armed forces of the Red Army and the workers of Moscow.
At the sight of these photographs the professor of philosophy blushed in the face, and pressing his hand on the table, cried out loudly and with irony: ‘Here is how Russia fights for peace’! All turned toward him and looked him in the eye, but Enver immediately answered him. ‘The Soviet Union, he said, is a country that loves and defends peace with all its forces, but this does not mean that it has no right to have a capable and well-equipped army, to ensure and defend its own country from any external threat and aggression.’ The professor of philosophy did not answer at all, he only shook his head. This courageous and right answer made a great impression on the entire teaching personnel of the lyceum, French and Albanian.
The Lyceum of Korça was, during Zog’s regime, a nursery of importance for keeping alive patriotic ideas and for spreading progressive ideas. The lyceum’s students received these ideas not only from French literature texts but also from some Albanian professors who taught at this institution. Regarding this issue I am noting a part from the article — “Memories of a former student” (on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the “Raqi Qerenxhi” gymnasium, formerly the Lyceum of Korça) written by Aqif Selfo in ‘Arsimi Popullor’ No. 7 year 1957: “Patriotic ideas, during Zog’s regime, were kept alive in the mass of students of the Lyceum of Korça. Many professors have given a great contribution in this direction. Professor Kostaq Cipo never missed an occasion to speak about patriotic issues and indirectly against Zog’s regime.
With emotion he spoke about the day of independence – about the raising of the flag in Vlora on November 28, 1912 – with great love he spoke about our writers Naim, Çajupi, etc. For this stance he was called several times to the prefecture where they warned him about his progressive ideas.
There were those who spoke almost openly about the country’s bad economic situation, about the inequality that existed in Zog’s regime and as a consequence about the morality of that society; such a one was Enver. Enver’s activity had been noticed and the local organs of Korça were aware. One day, around the month of April 1938, Enver was notified at school that at 12 o’clock he should go because the prefect was asking for him. Before going, Enver notified a colleague of his from Korça and told him how the matter stood; adding that in case you are delayed and they keep him there, to take an interest in sending him something from home. At the appointed hour Enver went to the prefect, who was waiting and held this conversation with him:
– “What is your name, my boy,” the prefect asked him.
– “Enver”!
– “Enver, why don’t you stay quiet at school, continued the prefect again: we have been told that you there speak about communism, but be careful boy, for everything you do there comes to us here immediately, therefore be mindful, communism is not for us – go and be mindful.”
Enver’s behavior and stance had created in the teachers and professors of the lyceum a great respect and a boundless love for him. But among the colleagues there was also someone who was against everything progressive and a tool of the regime; certainly one of them was the one who informed the local power organs about what happened at the Lyceum. This is confirmed also by the prefect he, in the conversation he had with Enver, when he says: ‘everything you do there comes to us here immediately.’ The professors of the Lyceum, Albanian and French, were in general good, hardworking and polite. But among them there were also those who had reactionary ideas. With such types Enver was always in open opposition, as for example with the music professor, Sotir Kozmo, or with the French professors, with the one of philosophy, Mejer and with the one of history-geography, Andrea Brezho.
Andrea Brezho was among the most reactionary French professors, he was an extreme rightist and a rabid partisan of the restoration of the royal regime in France, and he was a monarchist. This professor Enver had had as a professor both in Gjirokastra and in Korça and when he himself came to the lyceum he had him also as a colleague. Andrea Brezho had a well-furnished house and a rich library. Enver, in Korça, although he knew him and knew well what ideas he had, met him from time to time in various places and especially at the professor’s house. The conversations between Enver and Andrea Brezho turned into an open polemic, but nevertheless Enver did not break with him. He went continually to his house to use the library, or to take some book to read at home. Indeed even when Professor Brezho went to France for the holidays, he left the keys of the house to Enver. In this period Enver spent most of his time there, indeed even to sleep, using his library.
Regarding a heated conversation between Enver and Professor Brezho, Skënder Topulli recounts: “We were eating bread at the ‘Minerva’ restaurant, it was the period of the Spanish war and comrade Enver said that Franco in Spain is having the ground slip from under his feet, with all the aid of German fascism and of Duce, the Spanish people and the international brigades are fighting for a just cause for the liberation of the Spanish people from the regime of the noose and the rope of Franco and the victory will be the people’s.” Brezho, revolted by comrade Enver’s views, with nervousness takes from his pocket a telegram he had received from an officer of Zog’s border (Eqrem Telhaj), who congratulated the French professor for a victory of Franco in Madrid. As if mad, the professor addresses comrade Enver, saying: ‘here this is the patriotic youth of Albania and not you who think to put the pickaxe to this country.’ Comrade Enver answered him that; with that youth that you have to do with, they are the garbage of our youth. They are moldy like you from the head and are faithful servants of the puppet regime, oppress, exploit and keep the people in century-old darkness. Thus nervous we parted with the professor.” / Memorie.al
Continued next issue
