Albania during WWII: Mustafa Merlika Kruja’s Fascist Collaboration

Abstract

This essay discusses the fascist collaboration of Mustafa Merlika Kruja, Albania’s prime minister from 1941 to 1943. In textbooks published before 1990, Kruja was called the Albanian Quisling and his very name was associated with treason. Yet even in publications after the 1990s Kruja was seen as Albania’s black sheep and only few sources viewed him objectively. Aiming to unite Albania with Kosovo, he stressed the need to fight communism, which for him was synonymous with antinationalism and, which he believed, would bring Albania to ruin. Thus Kruja used anticommunism and nationalism as his main political weapon to gain support for his collaboration with fascist Italy and with Albanian nationalists.

Notes

1. Mustafa Merlika Kruja, Kujtime vogjlije e rinije (Childhood and Youth Memories) (Tirana: Shtëpia Botuese “55”, 2007), 36, 41; unless otherwise indicated, all translations from the Albanian are my own.

2. Michael Schmidt-Neke, Entstehung und Ausbau der Königsdiktatur in Albanien (1912–1939): Regierungsbildungen, Herrschaftweise u. Machteliten in e. Jungen Balkanstaat (Emergence and expansion of the royal dictatorship in Albania [1912–1939]): Government formations, ruling and power elites in a young Balkan state) (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1987), 342; Peter Bartl, Albanien: Vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Albania from Middle Ages to the Present) (Regensburg: Pustet, 1995), 285; Ernest Koliqi, Shtatëdhjetëvjetori i lindjes së Mustafa Krujës (On the Seventieth anniversary of the birth of Mustafa Kruja), in Anthologji historike: Shkrime e përkthime (Historical anthology: writings and translations), ed. Mustafa Kruja (Elbasan: Seiko, 2001), 331–34.

3. Thomas Kacza, Zwischen Feudalismus und Stalinismus: albanische Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (Between feudalism and stalinism: Albanian history of the 19^th and 20^th century) (Berlin: Trafo, 2007), 68.

4. Arkivi Qendror i Shtetit (AQSH) (Albanian Central State Archive), Fondi 37: Kruja, Dosja 4, Viti 1918, Fl. 1.

5. Camille Maximilian Cianfarra, Pope Pius XII, The Vatican and the War (New York: Literary Classics, 1944), vol. 3, 158; Pyrrhus J. Ruches, Albania’s Captives (Chicago, IL: Argonaut Publishers, 1965), 24. 

6. Fan Noli was a Christian Orthodox Bishop (proclaimed the Albanian Orthodox Autocephalous Church). He was also a member of parliament, and during June-December 1924 following a coup d’état, he became the country’s prime minister.

7. Nuri Hildebrand, Opozita politike dhe strategjitë diplomatike të emigracionit politik shqiptar në vitet 1924–1939 (Political opposition and diplomatic strategies of Albanian political émigré during 1924–1939), Hylli i Dritës 4 (2008), 142.

8. Mustafa Kruja and P. Paulin Margjokaj, Letërkëmbim 1947–1958 (Correspondence 1947–1958) (Shkodër: Camaj & Pipaj, 2006), 240; Marco Dogo, Kosovo: Albanesi e Serbi. Le radice del conflitto (Kosovo: Albanians and Serbs. The root of the conflict) (Lungro: Marco, 1992), 173.

9. Giovanni Zamboni, “Mussolinis Expansionspolitik auf dem Balkan. Italiens Albanienpolitik vom I. bis zum II. Tiranapakt im Rahmen des italienisch-jugoslawischen Interessenkonflikts und der italienischen ‘imperialen’ Bestrebungen in Südosteuropa” (Mussolini’s expansionist policies in the Balkans: Italy’s Albania policy; Tirana pact under the Italian-Yugoslav conflict of interest and the Italian ‘imperial’ ambitions in Southeast Europe) Hamburger historische Studien 2 (1970): 310–11.

10. AQSH, Fondi 149/Kryeministria, Dosja I/368, Viti 1942, Fl. 92–93; Willibald Kollegger, Albaniens Wiedergeburt (Albania’s rebirth) (Vienna: Wiener Verlagsgesellschaft, 1942), 84–86.

11. Kruja, Antologji, 320.

12. Nicholas C. Pano, Albania, in Communism in Eastern Europe, ed. Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone, 2d ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1984), 214.

13. Raphaël Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (Clark, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, 2005), 99.

14. Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, 100–101.

15. Bernd J. Fischer, Shqipëria gjatë Luftës, 1939–1944 (Albania at war 1939–1944) (Tirana: Çabej, 2004), 66.

16. Francesco Caccamo, L’occupazione italiana della Iugoslavia, 1941–1943 (The Italian occupation of Yugoslavia, 1941–1943) (Florence: Le lettere, 2008), 300; Fischer, Shqipëria gjatë Luftës, 163.

17. Galeazzo Ciano, Diario, 1937–1943 (Diary, 1937–1943) (Milan: Decima Edizione BUR Storia, 2006), 592.

18. Anton Logoreci, The Albanians: Europe’s Forgotten Survivors (London: Gollancz, 1977), 67, 70; Owen Pearson, Albania in Occupation and War: From Fascism to Communism, 1940–1945 (London: I. B. Tauris in association with the Center for Albanian Studies, 2005), 206, 167.

19. Larsen Stein Ugelvik, Hagtvet Bernt, Modern Europe after Fascism, 1943–1980s (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), vol. 1,867; Pearson, Albania in Occupation and War, 167.

20. Pearson, Albania in Occupation and War, 167.

21. Ciano, Diario, 677.

22. Francesco Jacomoni, Gjysma ime shqiptare (My half Albanian) (Tirana: Ora, 2005), 276.

23. Hubert Neuwirth, Qëndresë dhe bashkëpunim në Shqipëri (1939–1944). Një analizë historike e gjedhes kulturore të mikut dhe armikut (Endurance and cooperation in Albania [1939–1944]: A historical analysis of the cultural pattern of friend and enemy) (Tirana: Shtëpia e Librit dhe Komunikimit, 2006), 21.

24. In April 1941, an agreement was reached in Vienna between the Italian Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano, and his German counterpart, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to create a larger Albanian state based on ethnicity. The “Greater Albania” was to include Kosovo and other mainly Albanian-inhabited areas in Yugoslavia and the Çamëria region in northern Greece. Cited in Paulin Kola, The Search for Greater Albania (London: Hurst & Co., 2003), 22–23.

25. Mario Pacor, Italia e Balcani dal Risorgimento alla Resistenza (Italy and the Balkans from the Risorgimento to the Resistance) (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1968), 243.

26. Pearson, Albania in Occupation and War, 167.

27. Enriketa Papa-Pandelejmoni, “Një histori e rishkruar. Sfidimi i subjektivizmit historik mbi mendimin politik të Mustafa Merlika Krujës 1910–1944” (A rewritten history: challenging historical subjectivity on political thought of Mustafa Kruja Merlika 1910–1944) in Rishkrimi i historisë dhe figura e Mustafa Krujës (1887–1958) (Rewriting history and Mustafa Kruja [1887–1958]) (Shkodër: Botime Françeskane, 2011), 87.

28. Charles J. Kersten, Communist Takeover and Occupation of Albania (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1954), 11.

29. See “Fjalimi i Kryeministrit në Këshillin e Lartë Fashist Korporativ më 23 Dhjetor 1942 mbi gjendjen e vendit dhe politikën e fuqive të mëdha ndaj tij,” in AQSH, F. 149 (Kryeministria), Dosja VI–97, Viti 1942, Fleta. 2–4.

30. Kruja, Antologji, 323.

31. Akademia e Shkencave të Shqipërisë, ed., Historia e Popullit Shqiptar IV. Shqiptarët gjatë Luftës së Dytë Botërore dhe pas saj 1939–1990 (History of the Albanian People: IV Albanians during World War II and its aftermath 1939–1990) (Tirana: Toena, 2008), 53.

32. At the Albanian State Archive I found a file of Kruja’s eleven-page Government Programme, written in Albanian and Italian, which was publicised in March 1942. AQSH, Fondi 149 (Kryeministria), Dosja I/361, Viti 1942. Fleta 5.

33. Prime Minister Kruja did meet with Abas Kupi, a fervent nationalist and antifascist. Julian Amery, Bijtë e Shqipes (Sons of the Eagle) (Tirana: Shtëpia Boutese “Lumo Skendo”, 2002), 67–68.

34. Kersten, Communist Takeover, 9, 11.

35. Fischer, Shqipëria, 164–65.

36. Amery, Bijtë e Shqipes, 257.

37. Until 1942 Abaz Kupi was an antifascist and nationalist fighter and after 1943 he became the leader of the pro-monarchist party “Lëvizja e Legalitetit/Legality Movement,” 258.

38. Further see the entire harangue in the archival source: AQSH, Fondi 37 (Mustafa Kruja), Dosja 18, Viti 1940–1944. Fleta. 21.

39. Neuwirth, Qëndresë, 21.

40. AQSH, Fondi 149 (Kryeministria-Struktura Politike-Juridike), Dosja I/477, Viti 1943, Fleta 1. See also the document entitled “The demand of a group of political refugees—Mustafa Kruja, Qazim Koculi, and Ali Këlcyra.”

41. Neuwrith, Qëndresë, 144.

42. See the crowned version of the flag of the Albanian kingdom under Italy with the fascist lictors and knots of the House of Savoy (1939–43), at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Albania_(1939_crowned).svg. John R. Lampe, Balkans into Southeastern Europe: A Century of War and Transition (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 155.

43. Kruja, Anthologji, 316.

44. Amery, Bijtë, 258–59.

45. Kruja and Margjokaj, Letërkëmbim, 240.

46. Veton Surroi and Pirro Misha, Dosja sekrete e UDB-së. Emigracioni Shqiptar, 1944–1953 (The secret file of UDB: Albanian emigration, 1944–1953) (Prishtina, Albania: Koha & Shtëpia e Librit dhe Komunikimit, 2004), 75, 232, 238.