Lazar Fundo

Lazar Fundo , also Llazar or Zai Fundo (born March 20, 1899 in Korça , † September 20, 1944 in Kolesian near Kukës ), was an Albanian politician and co-initiator of the Party of Labor of Albania .

Life

Fundo came from a family of traders based in the town of Voskopoja . After finishing high school, he attended the French lyceum in Saloniki and then studied law in Paris .

In the early 1920s he became a member of the communist Bashkimi Union founded by Avni Rustemi , which he took over after his assassination in April 1924. Fundo headed the organization until it joined the Komiteti i Çlirimit Nacional (KÇN), which was close to the Christian Orthodox bishop and politician Fan Noli. In 1924 he took an active part in the so-called June Revolution led by Noli . After the failure of the Noli government, Fundo emigrated to Vienna , the center of the Communist Balkan Federation (KBF), and from there to the Soviet Union . There he became head of the "foreign students" and worked in the Albanian department of the Comintern . In 1929 he took part in the 8th Conference of the CBF, at which the founding of a Communist Party of Albania was decided, which, however, only came about in 1941. He also worked as a journalist, for example in 1930/31 for the magazine “Die Balkanföderation” in Vienna.

In 1933 he was in Germany and took part in the Reichstag fire trial as an observer . After Georgi Dimitrov's acquittal , he traveled back to Moscow with him. During the Spanish Civil War he was involved in organizing Albanian volunteers and was active in the Popular Front in Paris. During these years Fundo gradually turned away from communism with a Stalinist character and approached social democratic positions.

Fundo was also investigated during the period of the Great Terror in the Soviet Union. In 1938 he was recalled to Moscow, questioned by a Comintern commission of inquiry and then expelled from the party. Thanks to his friendship with Dimitrov, he managed to escape to France . He thus escaped the death sentence pronounced against him .

After the Italian annexation of Albania in 1939, Fundo returned to Korça and worked as a high school teacher until his release in 1940. During this time he was active in the (non-communist) underground struggle against the occupying powers. In 1941 he was arrested and deported to the Italian internment camp island of Ventotene . Freed from prison after the collapse of Italian fascism in 1943, he went back to Albania. There he was captured by communist partisans in September 1944 and, on the orders of Enver Hoxha , who was executing an instruction from the Comintern and Titos , beaten to death as a Trotskyist and renegade in front of members of the British military mission.

literature

• Branko Lazitch, Milorad M. Drachkovitch: Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern. Stanford CA: Hoover Institution Press, Rev Sub Ed. 1986. ISBN 0-817-98401-1
• Owen Pearson: Albania and King Zog. London: IBTauris, 2005. (Albania in the Twentieth Century, a History. Vol. I) ISBN 1-845-11013-7
• Owen Pearson: Albania in Occupation and War. London: IBTauris, 2006. (Albania in the Twentieth Century, a History. Vol. II) ISBN 1-845-11104-4

Web link

• Giovanni Falcetta: Biografia di Lazar Fundo (1899-1944). . In: Albania News v. May 13, 2008 (Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the presentation follows Giovanni Falcetta: Biografia di Lazar Fundo (1899-1944). (see web links).
2. ^ Michael Schmidt-Neke: Development and expansion of the royal dictatorship in Albania (1912-1939). Munich 1987, p. 189.
3. ↑ s. B. Lazitch, MM Drachkovitch: Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern. Stanford CA 1986, pp. 130f.
4. ^ O. Pearson: Albania in the Twentieth Century. Vol. I. London 2005, p. 396.
5. ^ GH Hodos: Show trials. Berlin 2001, p. 30; according to Giovanni Falcetta (see web links) he was tortured and shot.