Robert Elsie

Texts and Documents of Albanian History

Albanian History
1920 — 1944

1920 Sejfi Vllamasi: Political Confrontation in Albania The political memoirs of Sejfi Vllamasi, from which the following excerpts covering the period 1912-1920 are taken, contain many interesting first-hand observations on political life in Albania at the time.

1920 Ismail Kemal bey Vlora: Memoirs The final chapter of the memoirs of the father of Albanian independence, in which he describes the event for which he is best remembered.

1920 Syreja bey Vlora: The Age of Albanian Independence An Albanian nobleman recounts his activities at the time of Albanian independence.

1921 Rexhep Mitrovica & Bedri Pejani: A Kosovar Protest A letter to the Great Powers from two Kosovar intellectuals to appeal for assistance against the Serbian annexation of Kosovo.

1921 Mufid Bey Libohova: My Policies in Albania, 1916-1920 Memoirs of the wealthy southern Albanian political figure, Mufid bey Libohova, concerning turbulent years in Albanian history.

1921 Hasan Bey Prishtina: Brief Memoir on the Albanian Uprising of 1912 Kosovo Albanian political leader Hasan bey Prishtina describes his efforts to organise an uprising against Ottoman rule in 1912.

1922 Carl Buchberger: Memoirs of My Years in Albania, 1911 - 1914 A young Austrian diplomat experiences at first hand the rise and fall of Prince Wied as Albania’s ephemeral monarch in 1914.

1922 Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf: Austro-Hungarian Relations with Albania in 1914 The Chief of Staff of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces in the First World War gives an account here of what motivated Austro-Hungarian policies towards Albania during the chaotic events that took place there in 1914.

1922 Rose Wilder Lane: A Power Struggle in Albania’s New Capital The American writer Rose Wilder Lane is caught up in a political power struggle during her visit to Tirana in 1921.

1923 League of Nations: The Sederholm Enquiry in Southern Albania Report of a League of Nations commission of inquiry into conditions in southern Albania in 1922-1923.

1929 Franz Babinger: Among the Dervishes in Kruja A German historian visits Kruja and the famed Bektashi teqe (monastery) of Fushë Kruja, Albania.

1929 Petition of Hasan Prishtina Petition from Hasan Prishtina received by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 2 March 1929, protesting against the oppression of Albanian minority in Yugoslavia, and the response of J. Shumenkovich, Permanent Delegate of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, dated 11 July 1929, rejecting the said petition.

1929 Franz Baron Nopcsa: Reisen in den Balkan Präsentation der Memoiren des österreichisch-ungarischen Albanien­forschers, Baron Nopcsa.

1930 Gjon Bisaku, Shtjefën Kurti & Luigj Gashi: Albanian Minority in Yugoslavia Three Catholic priests in Kosovo present a memorandum to the League of Nations on the desperate plight of their people under Serbian rule.

1931 The Balkans in the Operngasse A newspaper account of an attempt to assassinate Albanian King Zog as he left the opera house in Vienna on 20 February 1931.

1933 Ahmed Zogu: King Zog Tells his Story A short autobiography of Albanian King Zog, taken down by the United States Ambassador in Tirana, Herman Bernstein.

1934 Herman Bernstein: Little Albania is the Pawn in a Great Diplomatic Game Article published in ‘The New York Times’ by Herman Bernstein, the United States Ambassador to Albania in 1930-1933, that throws light on Albania’s predicament in juggling her relations between Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece.

1936 Georg Stadtmüller: Research in Early Albanian History Stadtmüller's theory that the original homeland of the Albanians was in the northern Albanian district of Mat.

1937 Reimer Schulz: Burial and the Cult of the Dead among the Northern Albanian Highlanders A German anthropologist travels to Theth in Dukagjin in 1937 and attends a funeral, with rites and customs that have long disappeared.

1937 Reimer Schulz: Leichenbegängnis und Totenkult bei den Malisoren Ein deutscher Anthropologe reist im Jahre 1937 nach Theth in Dukagjin und nimmt an einem zeremoniellen Begräbnis teil.

1937 Vaso Cubrilovic: The Expulsion of the Albanians The text of a memorandum drafted by Bosnian Serb scholar and political figure Vaso Cubrilovic calling for nothing less than the expulsion of the whole Albanian population of Kosovo.

1937 Vaso Cubrilovic: L'expulsion des Albanais Académicien serbe Vaso Cubrilovic réclame l’expulsion de toute la population albanaise du Kosovo.

1938 Convention Regulating the Emigration of the Turkish Population ... An international treaty between the governments of Yugoslavia and Turkey for formalise the start of the expulsion of the Albanians and Turks from Kosovo, Macedonia and southern Serbia.

1939 Ivo Andric: Draft on Albania Bosnian Serb writer and Nobel Prize recipient calls for the partition of Albania between Yugoslavia and Italy.

1939 Faik Bey Konitza: Albania's Position Faik Bey Konitza, head of the Albanian legation to the United States, reacts to the Italian invasion of his country at Easter 1939.

1940 Chatin Sarachi: King Zog of the Albanians: the Inside Story An Albanian diplomat and former friend of King Zog attacks the Albanian monarch and exposes his corruption.

1941 Vandeleur Robinson: Corruptio ad Absurdum British writer exposes corruption in the public service under King Zog, an article with possible parallels to modern-day Albania.

1941 Edith Durham: Albania An overview of Albanian history and a plea for justice following the Italian invasion of Albania.

1942 Balli Kombëtar: The Ten-Point Programme Balli Kombëtar, the non-communist resistance movement in the Second World War, presented this political platform after its creation in November 1942.

1944 August Schmidhuber: Summary Report on the Formation and State of the 21st ‘Skanderbeg’ Armed Mountain Division of the SS A report on the SS Skanderbeg Division written by its German commander in October 1944.

1944 The Resolution of Bujan The 1944 resolution of the Conference of Bujan, that promised the right to self-determination and even secession for Kosovo, was a document of great significance to the Kosovo Albanian population, but was subsequently ignored and forgotten.

1944 Bedri Pejani: Letter to Heinrich Himmler In a last-ditch appeal, Bedri Pejani writes to Heinrich Himmler seeking support for an "Albanian army" to oppose the communists advancing in Kosovo.

1944 Prisoners of the Nazis in Kosovo Lists of the people arrested by the Nazis in Kosovo in 1944 and detained for transportation to the Reich, with names, professions and grounds for their arrest.

1944 Eyewitness Account of the Expulsion of the Chams from Greece An account of the massacre in Filat (Filiates) and the expulsion of the Albanian Chams from Greece in September 1944.

1944 Fred Brandt: With the Partisans in Albania Memoirs of a Nazi agent and ‘master spy’ in the mountains of northern Albania during the Second World War.

1944 Fred Brandt: Bei den Partisanen in Albanien Bericht aus den Bergen Nordalbaniens im Zweiten Weltkrieg von einem deutschen ‘Meisterspion’, Mitglied der militärischen Abwehr der Wehrmacht.

1944 Lazër Radi: The Autumn of 1944 Lazër Radi describes the moment of his arrest in Tirana that would lead to forty-six years of imprisonment and internment in communist Albania.

1944 Zef Pllumi: The Church in the Garden of Gethsemane Chapter from the memoirs of a Catholic priest who survived in communist Albania.

1944 Vaso Cubrilovic: The Minority Problem in the New Yugoslavia A second memorandum by the Bosnian Serb scholar and political figure Vaso Cubrilovic, proposing a radical solution to the “minority question” in Yugoslavia.

 

The translations in this anthology may be copied, downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes if the source is appropriately documented. | Robert Elsie

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