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Prof. Marenglen Kasmi, PhD
Academy of Science of Albania, Institute of History, Tirana, Albania

 

ALBANIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR: THE AGREEMENT OF MUKJA BETWEEN THE COMMUNISTS AND THE NATIONALISTS

Vol. XLIII, 2/2025, pp. 323–342
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2025.2.kas.323-342

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

The disagreement of the two main political-military forces in Albania during the Second World War, between Fronti Nacionalçlirimtar (National Liberation Front), more precisely the Communist Party and Balli Kombëtar (National Front), at the Mukja meeting on August 1-2, 1943, to join in the war against the Nazi-fascist invaders led to their final separation. The attempt of Balli Kombëtar to take control of the war in Mukja from the hands of the communists is the main reason for the ending of this agreement. The struggle for power and the ideological differences between them became even more evident after the German occupation of Albania in September 1943. While the Communist Party perfected the organization of the partisan army and continued the fight against the invaders, Balli Kombëtar joined the German invaders. Their combat formations fought alongside the German troops against the partisan army, while also burning houses, looting, attacking and arresting parts of the population that were supporters of the partisans. The leaders of Balli Kombëtar hoped to eliminate the communists and the partisan army by using German power. By cooperating with the German invaders, Balli Kombëtar was discredited in the eyes of the Albanian people as well as the Allies and they lost the legitimacy to participate in the country’s first democratic elections after the war. Consequently, in the elections of 1945, the Albanian people had no alternative but the Democratic Front, dominated by the communists. The establishment of communism in Albania was inevitable. Anti-fascism and the fight against the invaders led by the Communist Party, inter-twined with the spectacular political failure of the anti-communist nationalists during the war, set the foundation of communism in Albania. It is paradoxical, but the political myopia of the anti-communist nationalists was the greatest advantage that Enver Hoxha had, in order to be in power after the war.

 

KEYWORDS: Albania, Second World War, German Occupation, Albanian Communist Party, Enver Hoxha, Fronti Nacionalçlirimtar, Balli Kombëtar, Agreement of Mukja

 

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