The rise and fall of Liri Belishova was nothing more than a continuation of the terrorist spirit that had been born and strengthened day by day in the Communist Party since the years of the War.
In his book "Liri Belishova and its Time", published by "UET Press", Bashkim Shehu shows exactly how the wave of terrorism grew in the CPA, which is also evidenced by the main leaders, from Enver Hoxha, Hysni Kapo, Gogo Nushi, Tuk Jakova, Sejfulla Malëshova, Nako Spiru, at the Second Plenum of the Central Committee, held in Berat, November 23-27, 1944.
He also brings to attention the unprecedented elimination of Mustafa Gjinishi, after whose murder days of mourning were declared.
UNION OF SHEIHU
The first years of communist rule in Albania were years of police terror. Continuous campaigns of arrests, systematic use of torture, kulaks, shootings, hangings. The waves of terror include not only collaborators or those considered as such: the enemy is everywhere, even in the ranks of the Party, even in the leadership. As in the DNA helix, the phenomenon that had occurred in the motherland of communism is replicated, the cleansing, in Russian чистка, a word with religious connotation, which means ritual cleansing from hidden, evil forces.
How did those idealistic young people who risked their lives for a free and happy society, who dreamed of... "Holland," see it? Those who were now purging yesterday's comrades-in-arms, or those who were being purged by yesterday's comrades-in-arms, for whom they had been willing to sacrifice themselves?
During a conference at the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture in 2001, Professor Pere Vilanova began his lecture by saying that, in a political debate, it never happens that the other person's arguments make you change your mind. This is a simple truth, but one that is not obvious to us, which means that, without even realizing it, we take it for granted.
I would complete it by adding that changing opinions due to the arguments of others can happen, but very slowly, so slowly that we don't see it, it doesn't catch our eye, as the debate little by little shifts inside us and repeats itself over and over like a battle of thoughts with ourselves. The same can be said when we find ourselves faced with facts, however clear, that contradict our thoughts, or rather our beliefs.
It is very difficult for them to change. A significant example is the so-called hollow Earth theory. This theory first appeared in the early nineteenth century, in the United States. According to its first version, our planet is hollow and habitable in its interior, while at both poles it is open, with a latitude of twelve to sixteen degrees.
By the middle of the century, this theory was further developed with the idea that we live enclosed within the globe and not on it, that the surface on which we live is not convex, but rather concave, and that, contrary to what we assume, what we see when we raise our heads is not the sky with celestial spheres, but a gaseous mass with bright areas, so that the sun, moon and stars are nothing more than optical illusions caused by other phenomena.
In 1926, pilot Richard Byrd flew over the North Pole and the South Pole, respectively, but did not see any holes leading to the interior of the Earth, and yet a fairly extensive literature emerged that gives a contrary interpretation to his observations.
And, as Umberto Eco says in an essay titled The Force of Lies, the theory of the Empty Earth or Hollow Earth has many followers even today. And here we are talking about something that belongs to the natural sciences. Where and where is the most difficult to change opinion in matters related to relations between people, especially in political beliefs. Faith as opium. The communist doctrine, the communist utopia, promises the abolition of the state, a promise that will be fulfilled in the distant future. This reminds you of the millenarian prophecies. Or the return of Christ in the distant future. And, at the same time, the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, by Dostoevsky, where the object of the Inquisition is Christ himself. Indeed, the application of the doctrine in practice always brings about the opposite of the abolition of the state: “the end of the state as an evil is postponed to an indefinite future, while the real political practical problem is to set limits to this evil in the present; […] the thesis of the abolition of the state in the future serves as a mask and as a justification for the perpetuation of terrorism; thanks to a curious paradox, the thesis of the temporary character of the state constitutes the best justification for the endless continuation of the dictatorship of the proletariat and lays the foundations of totalitarianism” (Paul Ricoeur, “Histoire et Vérité”).
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Meanwhile, terror began even before the seizure of power, even when the communists were fighting for the liberation of the country, in the mountains and in the cities. It is not simply an accusation coming from the opposing side. The communist leadership itself strongly affirmed it at the Second Plenum of the Central Committee, held in Berat a few days before the liberation, on November 23-27, 1944, where Liri Belishova, eighteen years old, was elected a candidate for the Central Committee. I am reproducing some fragments from the minutes of the Plenum.
Tuk Yakova: "From the beginning, with the birth of the army, the spirit of war was born, hatred for the occupier and traitors, as well as love for the people. But one thing, which is among the main ones, is the development of terrorist tendencies. Many people have been killed without trial and without guilt."
Gogo Nushi: "Tuku said that there are terrorist tendencies in the army. Not only in the army, but also in the Party, even in the leaders. […] We have seen this spirit of criminality in recent days in Tirana. This shows our line. With the entry of our forces into Tirana, 60 people were killed, we have their list. I know these names and none of them deserved to be killed. This is a consequence of our line. We are sure that there will be others."
Enter Kapo: "The worst thing was the terrorist spirit both in the organizations and in the army. […] The terrorist spirit exists even today, even among those responsible."
Kristo Themelko: "Our terrorist current was born as a line that has been expanding until today."
Sejfulla Maleshova: “We are solving all problems with terror. […] I was surprised when I heard it said that the more brutal and terrorist a person is, the more communist he is, that is, we measure our comrades by brutality and criminality. […] Thus, in our Party, symptoms of degeneration are appearing, from a political party to a gang of criminals. […] So many times you don't know where the political work is and where the crime is. […] Terror occupies a very large place in our political work.”
Enver Hoxha: “The terrorist line was more pronounced in Dushan [Dushan Mugosha, envoy of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia] and in Ali [pseudonym of Miladin Popovic, also an envoy of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia] with Liri [Liri Gega, then a member of the Politburo]. At this point, I was Ali’s mirror. When someone came from the front, where it was said that this or that person was doing something wrong, we decided to kill him.”
The most infamous case of terror among Albanian communists during the war is the physical elimination of Mustafa Gjinishi, a member of the General National Liberation Council and the General Staff of the National Liberation Army at its creation.
On August 23, 1944, he was treacherously murdered by his comrades.
By an order of Enver Hoxha, three days of mourning are declared for Mustafa Gjinishi in the entire National Liberation Army. At the end of this document signed by Enver Hoxha, it is said: “Glory to the heroes who fell in the field of honor”. But at the same time, his murder is considered a punishment for a traitor, although this is kept secret, or semi-secret, and it would take about fifteen years for him to be declared an enemy. At about the same time, almost 12.000 kilometers away, in Buenos Aires, Borgesi writes the story “The Theme of the Hero and the Traitor”, which sounds like an archetype of this event, except that the Albanian reality, at least in terms of cruelty, but also in terms of cynicism, surpasses what is narrated in Borgesian fiction. And the issue of the murder of Mustafa Gjinishi also comes up in the Berat Plenum.
Sejfulla Maleshova: "About terrorist tendencies in the Party, the army and the people. For the first time here I learned how Mustafa Gjinishi was killed and I do not understand why. One of two things: either he was a traitor to the Party and the people and, as such, he should have been openly punished, or he only made mistakes and people are not killed for mistakes. Besides, on the one hand we kill Mustafa Gjinishi, on the other hand we present him as a hero before the people and the Party."
Enver Hoxha: "As for the case of Mustafa Gjinishi, this is different. We think that this should have been done. I was the one who decided on this issue. […] How the work of killing Mustafa was done, I do not know. What Miladini said to Liri [Liri Gegë] about this, I do not know either. I only know that I received a telegram, informing me that Mustafa was killed. The telegram said: 'The work was successful'".
Gogo Nushi: "He [Nako Spiru] told me that things were going very badly. The day before yesterday, Nako told me that he had noticed something like that, but he hadn't said anything, because he was afraid, because there was even a risk of his life. Look where things have gone."
Nako Spiru: "Regarding this, I told him [Gogo Nushi] that if we continued like this, the work would end with Gjinishi."panorama
