Llazar Fundo

Llazar (Zai) Fundo (born March 20, 1899 in Görice, Manastir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire died September 20, 1944 in Kukës, Albania) was an Albanian Communist, later social-democratic journalist and writer. He was a former member of the Comintern and the Balkan Communist Federation. He was associated with the Fan S. Noli government in 1924 and became the leader of the Bashkimi organization after the death of Avni Rustemi in 1924. In 1928 he helped establish the Korçë Communist Group.[1] In the fierce rivalry for power control within the Communist Party, he was branded a Trotskyist and purged from the party.[2]

Llazar (Zai) Fundo
Born(1899-03-20)March 20, 1899
Korçë, Albania (then Ottoman Empire)
DiedSeptember 20, 1944(1944-09-20) (aged 45)
Kolesjan, Kukës, Albania
NationalityAlbanian

Biography

Fundo was born in Görice (now Korçë, Albania) to a family of merchants originating from Moscopole, of Vlach origin.[3][4] He attended the French Lycée of Salonica and later studied law in Paris, France. He was the mentor to other Albanian Communist students in Paris, including future Albanian leader Enver Hoxha, to whom he taught law.[5]

Return to Albania in 1924

Upon returning to Albania he was a member of Avni Rrustemi's Bashkimi organization which he later took over upon Rrustemi's death by assassination in April 1924. Fundo developed connections with Orthodox Bishop Fan S. Noli and played an active role in forcing then-Prime Minister Ahmet Zogu's exile to Yugoslavia that same year. Upon the overthrow of Noli's government in November 1924, Fundo emigrated to Vienna, Austria, becoming member of KONARE[6] thus acquainted with the Balkan Communist Federation, and then emigrated to the Soviet Union where he became a member of the Comintern.

Organization of the Korçë Albanian Communist Group

In 1929 he took part in the 8th Congress of the Balkan Communist Federation where he discussed the founding of a Communist Party in Albania, having helped establish the Albanian Communist Group in 1928 in Korçë.[7] From 1930-1931 he served as a journalist for the Vienna-based magazine The Balkan Federation.

1933-1939: anti-Stalinism and expulsion from Comintern

In 1933 while in Germany he was a partial observer of the Reichstag fire events and traveled with Leipzig Trial participant Georgi Dimitrov (whom he befriended) back to Moscow. During the Spanish Civil War he organized Albanian volunteers for the International Brigades. During these years Fundo began criticizing the pro-Stalin wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as "Stalinist", gravitating more towards the views of Leon Trotsky. During the Great Purge he was expelled from the Comintern in 1938 as a "bourgeois deviationist" and a death sentence was announced against him. However, the intercession of Georgi Dimitrov, then leader of the Comintern, resulted in this sentence being dropped.[8]

Return to Albania in 1939

Following the Italian invasion of Albania in 1939, Fundo returned to Albania and served as a secondary school teacher in his hometown of Korçë until his dismissal a year later, as he was a participant in the underground struggles against the Italians. By this time he had become disillusioned with communism and embraced social-democracy.[9] He was subsequently arrested in 1941 and sent to the island of Ventotene. Fundo became acquainted with Altiero Spinelli and Sandro Pertini during this period, the latter urging Fundo to stay and fight with the Italian resistance. As the Fascist government began to fall in 1943 however, Fundo was able to return to Albania.

Death in 1944 by Albanian communists

In September 1944 he was captured in southern Yugoslavia, then allegedly handed over by Josip Broz Tito to the guerrillas of the Communist Party of Albania under Enver Hoxha. He was accused of Trotskyism and collaboration with British Intelligence.[10] He was then either lashed or beaten to death.[11] According to Enver Hoxha in his memoirs, however, he was found by the Albanian National Liberation Army in the company of a "gang of bandits" led by anti-communist partisan Kryeziu Brothers and a British officer, an account that has since been substantiated.[12] The Yugoslav partisans, who in 1942 had told their Albanian counterparts to "expose" Fundo, then allegedly came out in Fundo's defense and demanded that Hoxha's army hand Fundo over to them, but by then their letter had arrived too late as Fundo had already been executed.[13]

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References
  1. Alexander, Robert J. International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1991., p. 32.
  2. Enver Hoxha, Selected Works: Nov. 1941-Oct. 1948; Volume 1. "8 Nëntori" Pub. House, 1974. Page 316
  3. Robert Elsie, Historical Dictionary of Albania, Scarecrow Press, p. 156
  4. Stephen Schwartz (2009-04-20), 'Enverists' and 'Titoists' - I, Bosnian Institute, archived from the original on 2012-02-19, retrieved 2009-12-24, Fundo was a Vlach...
  5. Hamm, Harry. Albania—China's Beachhead in Europe. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1963., p. 84, 93.
  6. Vllamasi & Verli 2000, "Ata që muarrën pjesë në “Konare” prej opozitës së vjetër qenë: Fan Noli, Qazim Koculi, Mustafa Kruja, Riza Dani e Xhevat Korça; nga anëtarët e ish- Krahut Kombëtar, civilë e oficerë: Kol Tromara, Qazim Kokoshi, Llano Borshi, major Shefqet Korça, kapitenët Ariz Çami e Riza Cerova; shumica dërrmuese e rinisë, që kanë qënë anëtarë të shoqërisë “Bashkimi”, si: Halim Xhelo, Sejfulla Malëshova, Llazar Fundo, Qamil Çela, Demir Godelli, Selim Shpuza, Haki Stërmilli, Reshat Këlliçi etj."
  7. Alexander, Robert J. International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1991., p. 32.
  8. Hamm, 84.
  9. Owen Pearson. Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History Vol. III. New York: St. Martin's Press. 2006. p. 396.
  10. Premtaj, Sadik. "Stalinism and Communism in Albania." Revolutionary History #3 (1990).
  11. The source for Fundo being lashed to death can be found in Borkenau, Franz. European Communism. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953., p. 408. Hamm states that he was beaten to death (Albania—China's Beachhead in Europe, p. 93). Another source for him being beaten to death can be found in Horos, George H. Show Trials: Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe, 1948-1954. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1987, p. 7. "In the summer of 1944, he was arrested by his comrades and beaten to death before the horrified eyes of the British military mission."
  12. ‘Enverists’ and ‘Titoists’ - I Archived 2012-02-19 at the Wayback Machine "Llazër Fundo was murdered in Kosova while participating in an anti-Stalinist and anti-fascist movement led by a powerful family of Kosovo Muslim notables, the Kryeziu brothers. Gani Kryeziu and his two brothers Hasan and Sahit, from Đakovica, were sons of a long-established Kosovar Albanian leader. During the second world war, the Kryezius favored the British, Americans, and other democratic and non-Communist powers in the Allied coalition."
  13. Enver, Hoxha. The Titoites. Tirana: Naim Frashëri Publishing House, 1982., p. 30.
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