Liri Belishova, 2011.

 AL Voices  |  Robert Elsie

2011  |  Liri BELISHOVA
      

Liri Belishova (b. 1923) was a noted political figure in Albania in the early communist period. She was born in the village of Belishova in the region of Mallakastra, and stemmed from a wealthy landowning family. She attended the Queen Mother Pedagogical Institute (Instituti Nanë Mbretneshë) in Tirana in the late 1930s and studied nursing. Inspired as a young girl by reading Maksim Gorky’s novel ‘The Mother,’ she joined the communist resistance movement during the Second World War. In 1944, Belishova was secretary of the Council of Anti-Fashist Youth. At the end of the war, she was a member of the Democratic Front and attended a World Youth Congress in London in November 1945. From 1946 to 1947, she was president of the People's Youth (Rinia Popullore). When her first husband Nako Spiru (1918-1947) was purged and committed suicide in November 1947, she was dismissed from all posts, ostensibly because of her support for Albania's economic independence from Yugoslavia, and sent to Berat to teach school. After the fall of Koçi Xoxe (1917-1949) in 1948, however, Belishova was rehabilitated and became a member of the politburo from 1948 to 1960. She attended the Marxist-Leninist Institute in Moscow with Ramiz Alia (1925-2011) in 1952-1954 and was a member of the party secretariat from 1954 to 1960. In these years, she was married to Maqo Çomo, minister of agriculture from 1954 to 1960. On her return from an official visit to China with Haxhi Lleshi (1913-1998) and Gogo Nushi (1913-1970) in mid-June 1960, Liri Belishova stopped over in Moscow and allegedly spoke to Russian leaders about the anti-Soviet intentions of the Chinese leadership. On 8 September of that year, Albania was on the verge of breaking political relations with the Soviet Union and, in the ensuing purge, she was expelled from all party functions for being pro-Soviet and a friend of Nikita Khrushchev. She was arrested and sent to prison in Gjirokastra and was subsequently interned for years on end in Cërrik, near Elbasan. Indeed, Liri Belishova spent the next 31 years of her life, up to 1991, in internment.

 

Liri Belishova, Nako Spiru, 1945.

In this interview, recorded in Tirana in July 2011, Liri Belishova speaks (in Albanian) of her early attraction for the communist movement and her disappointment and disgust at what it became after the Second World War. She also provides a retrospective on the many public figures she knew over the years, including Enver Hoxha, Mehmet Shehu, Nako Spiru, Musine Kokalari and Ramiz Alia.

 

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