Excerpt from Comrade Enver Hoxha’s book “When the Party Was Born”
The invasion of our Homeland by fascist Italy on April 7, 1939 was one of the most tragic events in our history. Especially for us, the Albanian communists of that time, this heavy event was not only a source of the deepest pain but also a cause for the greatest alarm. Our mission, as communists, was to raise the people up in those days, to stand in front of them, to mobilize them in the supreme struggle for the freedom and independence of the endangered Homeland. Desire, will and readiness were not lacking for us to carry out this sublime act; we knew the patriotism and spirit of sacrifice of the people, and we even made efforts beforehand. But other causes, other factors and conditions made it possible for one of the greatest tragedies in our people’s millennia-old history to be realized in April 1939.
I will never forget those dark days when the sky of our Homeland began to darken, when fascist Italy and Mussolini threatened us with invasion. I was in Korça, where since 1937 I had been working as a teacher at the renowned lyceum of that city. I had just finished teaching when an acquaintance of mine stopped me, visibly shaken:
“Did you hear?” he said. “Mussolini sent an ultimatum to Albania!”
I stood frozen for a moment. For days, there had been various and contradictory circulating rumours about the possibility of a fascist aggression against Albania; every evening, late into the night, we anxiously followed foreign radio broadcasts to get some more accurate information, but even those, just like Radio Tirana, were mumbling everything, and the terrible truth that was being prepared was completely hidden.
And here we were, an entire people betrayed, facing aggression.
I hurried to the workshop of my proletarian friend, the veteran communist, Pilo Peristeri. And what irony! As I walked, the sounds of a banal music from Radio Tirana, the royal radio, echoed in my ears! These were the moments when the alarm bells should have rung with all their might; these were the moments when the great determination of history should have erupted, while the treacherous king and his vile regime still dared to deceive and confuse public opinion, trying to bury the truth and present the situation as if nothing important had happened or would happen.
Pilo, as soon as he heard me, immediately closed the workshop.
“I’m going to see Miha,” he said. “Let’s gather.”
“We should immediately rise up in demonstrations,” I told him. “I’m going to the lyceum.”
As it is known, in Tirana, Korça, Elbasan, Vlora, Shkodra and throughout Albania, the people’s demonstrations erupted immediately. At their forefront were the communists, who, aware that the king, government and royal army had ultimately betrayed the Homeland, undertook the mission of leading the people in resistance. With the initiative of communists and patriotic nationalists in many cities, centres for registering volunteers for the fight the against aggressors were established.
But despite the efforts and revolutionary actions undertaken, those days revealed the great flaw of our communist movement even more clearly; communist groups were divided, they were unable to present themselves as a single and capable leadership to mobilize the people in times of national crisis.
However, communists from the different groups still took the lead in patriotic anti-fascist actions. In Korça, the “Puna” Communist Group, as it was called at the time, took the forefront as always. Students and professors from the lyceum poured into the streets and boulevards together.
“Down with Italy! Down with Mussolini!” the shouts erupted at the gates of the lyceum. Meanwhile, workers, artisans, teachers, students, housewives, young people and the elderly flooded the streets.
“Down with Zogu! We want weapons! We want to fight!” the powerful voices of the Korça workers and youth shouted louder than ever before.
The prefect and the mayor, frightened like mice in their holes, were holed up in offices, protected by gendarmes. The wave of the people, singing old and new patriotic songs, continued the demonstrations with uncontrollable anger. The demonstrations continued all those days with fury and electrified the entire public opinion. The people did not submit; they were not afraid of the dreadful invader; they were ready to shed blood for the freedom and independence of the Homeland. But the great betrayal was not only prepared in Zogu’s palaces and the back rooms of Italian agents and missionaries. The entire state apparatus of the satrap king openly opposed the demands from below for the general mobilization and arming of the population. In this situation, the Korça Group, seriously evaluating the dire state of the Homeland and the fervent desire of the people unwilling to wait for the aggressor with bullets, took the initiative to convene a meeting at city hall and to take power on behalf of the people.
For this purpose, several comrades were appointed, among whom I was also included. All the streets were filled with people, especially Shën Gjergji Boulevard, where city hall building was located and the meeting was supposed to take place. Workers, in battle formations, with shovels in hand, had taken key points of the streets from where the gendarme forces could attack, already demoralized though always under the order of the prefect Veli Vasjari, who was locked up in the prefecture, in the house of Rako. We, as a communist group, had decided beforehand that this meeting would reach two particularly important conclusions: Firstly, to immediately register people’s volunteers and, with the communists at the forefront, to set out to Durrës; secondly, to organize general armed resistance against the invaders when they marched towards Korça.
The meeting had a national, patriotic character, so not only communists participated, but we also called on patriots and even “nationalists.” Fazlli Frashëri and Loni Kristo came to the meeting, along with Zai Fundo, dragging along Fazlli’s dog, Stavri Skëndi.
We began the discussions. Naturally, ours were fiery, radical, against the invader and against Zogu and his hated regime that was bringing us to the worst catastrophe.
“There is no time for long speeches,” we insisted. “The enemy is knocking at our gates. If we are true patriots, if we are against the invader, let’s take immediate action,” and we openly presented the proposals we had decided on in the Communist Group. The discussions between us and the opportunists became heated.
“Let’s not rush; let’s wait and see what the patriots in Tirana will do!” the opportunists, led by Fazlli Frashëri, proposed.
“‘To wait’ means to accept fascist occupation,” we strongly opposed. “Every second we wait favours the enemy.”
The situation became electrified. In my mind, those moments brought forth the great events of our people’s history of struggle, its continuous efforts and battles for freedom and national independence; I especially remembered Selam Musa Salaria and his comrades, who, 20 years ago, threw themselves into the sea against the occupying armies of the king and kingdom which now threatened us with another heavy servitude. The war song “Vlora-Vlora” echoed in my ears, calling upon us to rise again. Before my eyes appeared the great events of the bourgeois-democratic revolution of France, which I had learned about in school; before me appeared the Great October Socialist Revolution and the teachings of Lenin, which I studied in Koçi Bako’s café. Therefore, supported by my comrades, I stood up and proposed:
“Let’s immediately establish a committee for the salvation of the Homeland, to mobilize and organize young and old, arm them, and then wait for the Italian fascist invaders who threaten us with occupation. Also, it is rumored that Ahmet Zogu is preparing to flee secretly to Greece. It is our duty, and it will be the honour of this people, who are demonstrating everywhere in the streets and squares, to block his path and make this capitulating and cowardly king surrender to us, giving him what he deserves.”
“Come on, young man, how can you say such things about His Majesty!” one of the “patriots” mocked. He declared that, if necessary, he would wear opinga.
“Except not to fight, but to run away,” one of our comrades shouted.
I remember there was a great commotion. We, the young people, were for action; others blushed, turned pale and shouted: “Let’s not rush,” “Let’s not conflict with the government.”
Certainly, there were also agents of the prefect among us, who, in the midst of the commotion, reported everything over the phone or sent someone, like Petraq Katro, a pro-Zogu merchant.
While we were discussing, a gendarme captain and several delegates, known to be men of the prefect, entered the hall and ordered, in the name of the latter, for the meeting to be dispersed, otherwise we would be dealt with by the gendarmes in the name of “restoring order.” I do not remember well, but I think Pilo came forward and said:
“We are not afraid of the prefect’s threats, nor yours, nor the gendarmes’ attack. We have encountered Zogu’s gendarmes before and know how to fight them. Tell the prefect to release the gendarmes and he will see what will happen. Just take a look at the boulevard, gentlemen of the gendarmes, and you’ll see!”
The crowd outside, furious, shouted and chanted slogans against Italy, against the regime.
The streets, filled with people and comrades who had taken positions ready to fight the gendarmes, frightened the prefect, forcing him to take measures to threaten us.
At the meeting, we firmly demanded to be handed weapons; otherwise, the depots would be attacked.
Meanwhile, the “ultimatum” of the district gendarme commander came to us:
“The people will only take up arms when the order comes from above, so disperse!”
But outside the square, the streets echoed:
“Arms! Arms! We want arms!”
Fazlli Frashëri, Zai Fundo and others from the elite, supposedly patriots and nationalists, felt the danger and, after consulting with Zai, Fazlli Frashëri stood up:
“Listen, brothers,” he began to say. “Let’s handle these matters carefully. To avoid bloodshed, as anything can happen, allow me to go alone to negotiate with the prefect and convey the meeting’s desire.”
“The decision of the meeting,” shouted a worker from the middle of the room.
Fazlli went out and returned late, telling us:
“The prefect listened to me with indulgence, but we must give him time until tomorrow to issue the necessary orders, because now it’s late.”
No one believed this lie. Nevertheless, we decided to leave the meeting for tomorrow morning. But the next day, the gendarmes and the subdued army had taken to the streets and squares. Zogu’s officers, protected and armed, had adopted the slogan: “We are preparing to fight, we have orders from the king.” The final act, the most shameful of betrayals, was being played out. All these were mere words to calm the anxious people. In this situation, we, the communists of the Korça Group, began to prepare lists of volunteers who were ready to set out for Durrës.
Simple people, workers, artisans, lyceum students, came and signed their names with the naturalness of a son who is ready to give his life for the motherland. Thousands of men and women stood in front of the Municipal building and the Monument of the National Fighter, which had become a sacred symbol of our people’s struggles for freedom and independence, continuing to shout: “We want arms!” “Long live the freedom of Albania!” “Long live the Flag!” while patriotic songs like “For the Homeland” and others were sung with fervour from morning till late at night.
The authorities were deeply worried; the gendarmes were ready to aim, not at the enemy threatening the Homeland, but at the people wanting to defend the Homeland. And, as Fazlli Frashëri and his company proudly read the pompous and noisy telegrams of “protest” against the “havoc of the motherland,” a certain Eqrem Telhai, a Zogist toga wearer at the time and later a fascist officer, Ballist, agent of the English, etc., shouted in the café:
“At last, the day has come for us to show Italy some fun.”
This was a vile farce. While the entire people, all over the country, had risen, poured into the streets and demanded arms, while the people and youth of Tirana stood at the walls of Ahmet Zogu’s palace, guarded by thousands of gendarmes, shouting “Arms! Arms!” the spokesman for the tyrant appeared on the balcony and declared: “Keep calm, as His Majesty has decided to put on his opinga and join you in the mountains!” But when the youth of Tirana, not fooled, stormed the barracks to seize the weapons, the traitors and agents of Italy had sabotaged them: the guns were unloaded. However, the demonstrations continued. In Tirana, Zogu’s people sounded the alarm: “This afternoon Italian planes will come to bomb; stay in your homes and defend yourselves as best you can!” The citizens of Tirana, to protect their families and children, locked themselves in basements and some fled to the outskirts or nearby villages. All this noise of Zogu’s “captains” was aimed to secure the escape route for the satrap king and his family, taking the state’s treasure with them like bandits.
In these conditions, when the army and gendarmes were left to their own fate and the betrayed raised their voice, in Tirana, Durrës, Elbasan and elsewhere, patrols were formed by the communist groups and the youth. In Elbasan, they intercepted the king’s convoy, but they couldn’t catch the satrap.
In Korça those days, a man of the king, Qazim Bodinaku, had come, perhaps with a mission to prepare the passage of Zogu, his family and his suite from Kapshtica to Greece. But one morning, the Zogist prefect, a hated and criminal element, was found murdered in a hotel by an unknown hand. It was said that Maliq Frashëri’s son killed him. Though neither the situation nor any other reason prompted us to take interest. Both sides were involved in crimes.
Meanwhile, the dark news spread everywhere: the Italian fascist troops had launched their aggression. An entire people, standing up, ready to fight for its own freedom and independence, found themselves without leadership, without arms, without organization, betrayed by the ruling classes, by the king and government, without help and support from abroad. Nevertheless, groups of Albanian patriots, like Mujo Ulqinaku and his comrades, greeted the aggressors with bullets, and the fact is that the Italian fascists, before organizing the “ceremony” of entering Durrës, were forced to secretly withdraw their troops and leave the squares soaked in blood.
The number of fascists killed on our shores was kept secret and their bodies were taken to Italy at night or disappeared into the depths of the sea. These were the true “bouquets” with which the Albanian people greeted the aggressors on April 7, 1939.
But the resistance of our patriots in Durrës, Saranda, Vlora, Shkodra, Shëngjin, etc., although bloody and heroic, was spontaneous and disorganized. It was suppressed by the hordes of armed fascists with the most modern means of aggression and annihilation.
Albania was occupied. I will never forget the hatred and deep pain with which the inhabitants of the city of Korça greeted the first planes of fascism and occupation. People shed tears and threatened the planes with their fists. In the eyes of the Albanian people, the fascists saw only hatred.