Injustice in Communism | Teen Ink

Injustice in Communism

February 3, 2020
By Gredel_ikonomi SILVER, Tirana, Other
Gredel_ikonomi SILVER, Tirana, Other
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

    My life could have been significantly better if communism hadn’t been established in Albania and moreover oppress people and their ideas. I broadened my knowledge with a PhD in jurisprudence studies in Rome. Considering the fact that overall in Albania, people with university degrees in particular professions were immensely rare, I decided to move there. Albania was an underdeveloped country during those years. The majority of the population was illiterate and educational institutions, including the justice institution were impoverished. I was hugely proud to give my contributions in law and change society for the better. Before ultimately moving to Albania, I had some involvements in Macedonia, as a trial judge. The moment I stepped in Albania, communism established, which was a system of the monoparty dictatorship.


    But anyways I still wasn't over my viewpoint of adjusting Albania. In 1945, the elections in the Constituent Assembly were planned after the war. I was the president of the Peshkopi court and as an experienced lawyer, I decided to run as an independent MP. I strongly believed in pluralistic democracy. While I was running as an MP, I learned that communism had only one force called the communist labor party. There could be no other parties competing to create democratic pluralism. And by free voting, that part of the population represented by a particular party would win. My ideas of pluralism democracy clashed with the communism ideas and it made them angry. So unfortunately, I lost the elections.


    In 1947, the war against the democratic intellectuals began to intensify. I was charged with false accusations because I had run two years ago as an independent MP. And during the toughest times, when all of this was primarily making the communists angry, I was in Elbasan where I had just begun working as a lawyer. I was there alone, and my family wasn’t living with me at that time. As I finished work, I saw people surrounding me, and I was forcibly grabbed by them. I knew what was occurring and why. I knew that they were going to send me to prison, because of the news that had been spread out. The government cut every way of communication, so it was extremely difficult to connect with my family. After a few days of my arrestation, I was being sent to prison with the bus from Elbasan to Peshkopi. On my way, I found an opportunity and a great chance to inform my wife. I met someone and raised both of my hands effortlessly to show that I had been arrested. This person, who was also a family friend, went to Berat, the place where they were all currently been staying, and told them about the news he had learned.


   When my wife found out that I was in prison, she moved to Peshkopi instantly. The ‘Military Court of First Instance’ in Peshkopi sentenced me to death only 6 months after my imprisonment. Under extraordinary torture, when I started slowly to lose my sight, they punishished me with the highest degree. After a few days of hearing such a painful news, I and 13 other intellectuals went to court. Out of 13, only 3 were sentenced to death, including me. Luckily, I was i was able to defend myself, refuting the allegations against me. And the worst was that I was charged in violation of the rules. I was sentenced without the right to a defense, but the high court, nevertheless increased my sentence to twenty years. After a gradual decline of class warfare, I was reduced to five years and one and a half years benefiting from various amnesties. Even though I deserved it, the communist government never gave me money to support my livelihood. Since they could not execute me, they forced me to do routine work in the prison of Burrel for five consecutive years. It was the most dreadful prison ever in Albania, where once you entered, you couldn’t leave alive. There was a sign right in the entrance that wrote 'You get in, but you don’t get out.’ The government allowed me to bring my family only 6 kg of food per month. After 5 years of exhaustion, including temporary loss of vision due to lack of nutrition, I was moved to work in forced labor camps (ditches, irrigation). Even though I was among the educated people in the field of jurisprudence, I was forced to support my family by doing a lot of manual labor. During the Khrushchev period (since our lives were fairly related to the Soviet Union in 1955), in the last four years of mitigation, there was a period of peace. This period indicated that a new prison was built on relatively good conditions in Vlora, which was also my birth area. That’s where I moved in next. Here I realized that the dark times were coming to an end, and that good and bright times would soon begin. In 1960 I got out of prison and was finally a free citizen.


     As a liberal Democrat, I never subscribed to Enver Hoxha's totalitarian system and I never went to vote willingly. I never lost my confidence and hope that democracy would win no matter what. I managed to touch the triumph of democracy for which I was amazed of.



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