TheNational Liberation Movement (Albanian:Lëvizja Nacional-Çlirimtare; orLëvizja Antifashiste Nacional-Çlirimtare (LANÇ)),[2] also translated asNational Liberation Front, was anAlbanian communist resistance organization that fought inWorld War II. It was created on 16 September 1942, in a conference held inPezë, a village nearTirana, and was led byEnver Hoxha. Apart from the figures which had the majority in the General Council it also included known nationalists likeMyslim Peza although the Partisans under Yugoslav influence ended up executing numerous Albanian nationalist figures. In May 1944, the Albanian National Liberation Front was transformed into the government of Albania and its leaders became government members, and in August 1945, it was replaced by theDemocratic Front.
TheNational Liberation Army (Ushtria Nacional-Çlirimtare) was the army created by the National Liberation Movement.[3]
Albania did not put an organized resistance tothe Italian invasion (April 7–12, 1939). However different Albanian groups of patriots such asMujo Ulqinaku andAbaz Kupi made a brief resistance to the invasion force inDurrës on the day of invasion. Durrës was captured on April 7, Tirana the following day,Shkodër andGjirokastër on April 9, and almost the entire country by April 10.[4]
At the time of the Italian invasion, the Shkodër communist group includedQemal Stafa, a student,Vasil Shanto, an artisan,Liri Gega, an intellectual,Imer Dishnica, a doctor,Zef Mala and others.[5] The leaders were Mala, Shanto, Stafa and Kristo Themelko.[6] The Shkodër group's activities also spanned over Kosovo and western Macedonia, and the organization included several emigrants fromGjakova and other places inKosovo, who had moved to Albania between 1930 and 1937.[5] In spring 1941, Shanto and Stafa met with fellow CommunistFadil Hoxha due to his earlier contact with Yugoslav communist Miladin Popović.[7]Miladin Popović andDušan Mugoša were the Yugoslav delegates that helped unite the Albanian communist groups in 1941.[8]
After the Italian invasion, there was no general resistance to the Italian army, although some local leaders likeMyslim Peza,Baba Faja Martaneshi, Abaz Kupi etc. created smallçetas (small detachments) which from time to time undertake small attacks on Italian forces. Meanwhile, the communist activity in Albania increased and culminated with the creation on 8 November 1941 of theAlbanian Communist Party.
Following the German attack on Russia, Yugoslav leaderJosip Broz Tito under Comintern directives sent two Yugoslav delegatesMiladin Popović andDušan Mugoša to Albania. These two helped unite the Albanian communist groups in 1941.[8] In August 1941, the Albanian Communist Party was established through the agreement between the Shkodër (led by Shanto and Stafa), Korçë and Tirana (led byEnver Hoxha) communist groups.[9] After intensive work, the Albanian Communist Party was officially formed on November 8, 1941, by a unanimous vote of all members and in place of a leadership a Central Committee was elected instead. Members of the Central Committee were Enver Hoxha, Qemal Stafa, Ramadan Çitaku, Koçi Xoxe, Tuk Jakova, Kristo Themelko and Gjin Marku. The creation of the Central Committee was followed by the creation of regional committees, the responsibility of which was to implement the decisions made by the Central Committee.[10]
Starting from December 1941 the communist party began to create small groups of resistance made up of 5-10 people called guerilla units. These detachments began to engage in various acts of sabotage against the Italian forces. They also started to disseminate antifascist propaganda in order to gain the attention and the support of the civilians.[11]
As of 1942 the local press and the foreign consulates began to report an increasing number of attacks. The most spectacular act of sabotage was the interruption of all telegraphic and telephone communications in Albania in June and July 1942. Although the communist activity was increasing, the main concern for Italians were the northern bands. The Italians had given up on governing Northern Albania. The security posts composed of gendarmes in Southern Albania were mostly concerned for their own security and rarely ventured themselves outside their posts, and convoys along the roads were to be accompanied by strong Italian military detachments.[12]
It was at this time (September 1942) that the Albanian Communist Party made their bold move of calling up a national conference, the Conference of Peza, which took place on 16 September 1942 in the house ofMyslim Peza, a known resistance leader, (inPezë village, near Tirana). In the conference the Communist Party of Albania invited all the Albanian resistance leaders to create a national resistance front. The Communist Party saw the creation of this front as a necessity for Albania. Its intention was to dominate this front, although some figures within the Albanian Communist Party opposed the idea of an organised front with other nationalists, fearing their possible betrayal.[12]
The conference decided to create the General Council which was composed of 10 people: seven communists includingMustafa Gjinishi,Enver Hoxha, and known nationalists likeAbaz Kupi,Myslim Peza andBaba Faja Martaneshi.Mehdi Frashëri was the honorary president of the conference, a fact suppressed later by the communist history.[13]
The General Council would supervise local liberation councils. The councils in areas yet to be liberated would function as propaganda agencies, would collect material necessary for the war, conduct espionage, organize the economic struggle against Italian companies, and sabotage the collection of agricultural products by the fascists. In already liberated areas, they were to function as new state. They were to maintain law and order developing local economy; overseeing food supply, trade, education, culture, and press. They would also settle blood feuds, and maintain readiness for war.
The conference managed to set in place a joint National Liberation Movement with a provisional eight-member council, with Enver Hoxha and Abaz Kupi among them, though it was dominated by the communists.[13]
Partisan fighters were organized into 20 to 70-men units, equivalent to a platoon, including a communist commissar, who acted as the political officer. The commander, the political commissar and their deputies constituted the unit command, and all military decisions were made and agreed upon by all members of the command. Every partisan unit, no matter how large or small, had a command of four individuals. The role of the commissar was, among others, to guarantee that the activities of the partisan unit would comply with the directives of the Communist Party. Other duties of the commissar included keeping the partisans up to date with the latest political developments, serve as the official representatives of the National Liberation Front in dealings with national liberation councils and civilians, and as leader of the communist members of the partisan unit.[14]
The Communist Party oriented the activities of the National Liberation Army through its various organizations inside the army. Each partisan unit had a political organization called the communist cell and both the communist cell and the commissar were responsible to regional committees of the Communist Party.Miladin Popović, aYugoslav communist, attended the Peza Conference as an adviser and hoped to further strengthen party controls by creating a general staff that would tie the various units together, but his suggestion was not adopted. The partisan units were supplemented by territorial units - irregular self-defense detachments made up of volunteers. They were planned for every larger village or one for two-to-three villages together. Their function was to protect the liberated zones and to serve as a source of replenishment for the regular partisan units. At the end of 1942 there were 2000 partisans plus a larger number of territorial units.[15]
TheMukje Agreement was a treaty signed on August 2, 1943, in the Albanian village ofMukje between the nationalistBalli Kombëtar and the communist National Liberation Movement. The two forces would work together in fighting off Italy's control over Albania. However, a dispute arose concerning the status of Kosovo. For the Communist party, the question should have been resolved after the war, without the presence of foreign powers on the national soil. The Yugoslavian Communist Party would have had to return Kosovo to Albania as established by the Comintern. Whereas the Balli Kombëtar proposed to fight for the integration ofKosovo into Albania.
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After the German Winter Offensive the communist partisans regrouped, attacked the Germans and gained control of southern Albania in April 1944.[16] In Maya congress of the National Liberation Front was held inPërmet, during which an Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation to act as Albania's provisional government was elected.Enver Hoxha became the chairman of the council's executive committee and the National Liberation Army's supreme commander. The communist partisans resisted a German Summer Offensive (May–June 1944) and defeated the last Balli Kombëtar forces in southern Albania by mid-summer 1944 encountering only scattered resistance from the Balli Kombëtar and Legality forces when they entered central and northern Albania by the end of July. On 29 November 1944 partisan forces liberatedShkodra and this is the official date of liberation of the country. A provisional government the communists which has been formed atBerat in October 1944, administered Albania with Enver Hoxha as prime minister up to theelections of December 1945, in which theDemocratic Front (successor to the National Liberation Front) won 93% of the vote which was widely described as a sham election due to the lack of non-communist candidates.[17]
... Ne tetor 1944 forcat partizane kishin arritur mbi 40.000 vete (Albanian), In October 1944, the partisan forces had reached over 40,000 people (English)
Дугим радом и убеђивањем на састанцима с појединцима и с по двојицом-тројицом, другови Миладин Поповић и Душан Мугоша сломили су групашки отпор код већине албанских другова. Они су успели да их убеде како је Партија неопходна радпим масама у њи- ховој борби за ослобођење од капиталистичке експлоатације и импе- ријалистичког поробљавања. Тај рад довео је до састанка 8 новем- бра 1941 године, на коме је било присутно преко двадесет ...
Mehdi bey Frashëri was honorary chairman of the gathering, a fact later suppressed in communist historiography. The conference set in place a joint national liberation movement (Lëvizje Nacionalçlirimtare) with a provisional eight-member council, among whom were Enver Hoxha and Abaz Kupi, though the movement was increasingly dominated by the communists and eventually broke apart.
