Spahiu, Bedri

Born in a poor family of immigrants from the village. From childhood, he was familiar with Enver Hodge , his peer, neighbor and friend. Bedri Spahiu received his primary education in his homeland, secondary - in Izmir and in the Italian school of Istanbul . Returning to Albania, in 1927 he entered the service in the Albanian army. He served in artillery.

Bedri Spahiu adhered to republican views, adhered to an officer plot against King Zog . In 1931, he became one of the organizers of the underground communist cell. In 1935 he was dismissed from the army as a "subversive element." After that he worked as a sales clerk. At the beginning of the Italian occupation, he joined the Albanian fascist party , but quickly withdrew from left- wing political views.

In 1941, Bedri Spahiu joined the Communist Party of Albania (CPA; since 1948 - the Albanian Party of Labor, APT) . He became a member of the interim Central Committee of the CPA, formed a party organization in Gjirokaster . He was one of the leading partisan commanders of the National Liberation Army . He participated in the battles against the 1st Wehrmacht Mountain Division .

Bedri Spahiu was on the Anti-Fascist Council for National Liberation . After the proclamation of the People's Republic of Albania in 1946, he took the post of Prosecutor General of the NRA. Since 1948 he was a member of the supreme organ of party power - the Politburo of the Central Committee of the APT. He was elected to the National Assembly . Received the military rank of lieutenant general.

As Prosecutor General, Bedri Spahiu took an active part in political repression. From 1944 to 1945, he presented charges in the Special Court ^[1] , a communist emergency tribunal, which sentenced 17 prominent opponents of the new regime to death and about 40 to long sentences. In 1948, Spahiu was the prosecutor in the Kochi Dzodze trial ^[2] . On February 20, 1951, he participated in a meeting of the Politburo, at which a decision was made on the judicial execution of 22 representatives of the opposition intelligentsia ^[3] .

In 1952, Spahiu's position in the party leadership weakened, he was removed from the post of Attorney General. However, in 1953 he was appointed Minister of Education and Culture.

Since the mid-1950s, Bedri Spahiu joined a group of APT functionaries who advocated regime liberalization. At the head of this group was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Albania, Tuk Jacob , he was supported by Bedri Spahiu, Dali Ndreu , Panayot Plaku , Liri Gega , Liri Belishova . They spoke out against mass repressions, in favor of slowing down the pace of industrialization and collectivization, more attention to the living standards of the masses, and “democratization of party life” ^[4] .

At a plenary meeting of the APT Central Committee in June 1955, Bedri Spahiu criticized the policies of First Secretary Enver Hoxha. In response, Hodge accused Spahiu of revisionism and fascism . Two weeks later, on June 23, 1955, Spahiu was arrested by Sigurimi and interned with his family in Elbasan . At the ministerial post, Spahiu was replaced by Ramiz Aliya . In November 1955, Tuk Yakov accused of titoism and removed from all posts was deported to Berat .

The 20th Congress of the CPSU , the condemnation of the personality cult of Stalin and the Khrushchev Thaw in the USSR stimulated the activity of supporters of Tuk Yakov. Plaku, Ndreu, Gega, Belishova were asked about the rehabilitation not only of Jacob and Spahiu, but also of Dzodze, Kristo and other repressed ^[5] . At the April 1956 APT Party Conference in Tirana , an attempt was made to remove Khoja from power ^[6] . The attempt was suppressed, Plaku fled to Yugoslavia and was soon killed, Ndreu and Gega were shot, Jacob died in prison, Belishova was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.

Bedri Spahiu appeared in court and was sentenced to 25 years in prison on June 1, 1957 . He served time in Vlore , then in Tirana. He was released in October 1974 , but was again arrested and interned in 1980 . In total, he spent almost 30 years in prison.

Bedri Spahiu was released on May 10, 1990, during the fall of the communist regime in Albania . After the removal of the APT from power, he moved to Tirana. He led an open lifestyle, gave interviews to the press.

In May 1991, Bedri Spahiu was interviewed by Tirana observer . He condemned the repressions of the communist regime, especially the reckless reprisals against the opposition in 1951. Spahiu named Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu as the main culprits of terror. He gave an extremely negative characterization of Hodge, in which, from an early youth, he saw traits of cruelty, cunning, immoralism, and unprincipledness. At the same time, Spahiu emphasized the social origin of Khoja, its belonging to a noble and prosperous layer ^[7] .

Bedri Spahiu became one of the few communist leaders who apologized to the Albanian people for crimes of the times of the dictatorship, including their own actions ^[8] .

Bedri Spahiu was married, had a daughter and sons. Died at the age of 89.

• Pandy Cristo
• Carry kerengi
• Vaska Koletsi