SEEU Review vol. 5 Nr. 2 (pdf) - South East European University

SEEU Review Volume 5, No. 2, 2009
Thus, the only alternative was a right dictatorship, like those of Italy and
Germany, but adapted to the Albanian conditions. Toto called for the king,
as the leader of the young generation, to proclaim the dictatorship and work
for building a regenerated nation. But his hopes were not fulfilled, because
the king did not support his views. Disillusioned from the failure of the
“liberal” government in 1937, Ismet Toto joined in an unsuccessful coup d’
etat led by his brother, the former minister of interior in Frashëri government
and was captured by governmental forces and shortly afterward trialed and
executed.
Intellectuals who sympathized with communism and Soviet Union, did
not constitute a homogeneous group, either. They favored the modernization
of Albanian state and society, for overcoming the “Oriental” past, but at the
same time expressed concern for the plight of the Albanian peasants and
workers. Within the limits of the free speech during the monarchy, they
criticized the government and the combined rule of “Oriental” landlords and
urban bourgeoisie. They were also critical of the imperialist fervor of the
European states and worried about the dependency of Albania on fascist
Italy. Some left publicists of the period were part of the clandestine
communist groups.
In the 1930s, these intellectuals criticized the Occidental civilization, by
focusing on two interrelated events in Europe: the economic crisis and the
new imperialism of Italy and Germany. They highlighted the dire situation
of the workers and peasants in Albania during the years of economic crises.
Migjeni, in an ironic twist in one of his short stories, based on the life of
common man in the city, pretended that at last the Albanian worker was
equal to European worker, because both became unemployed: “So our
worker wanders in the city roads. Looks for job. Like his colleagues in
Berlin and London” (Migjeni 1998, p. 86). Nonda Bulka, a journalist, wrote
in the same vein: “Do you consider a sign of civilization the wandering in
the streets of London, New York, or Berlin, by millions of people
demanding work or bread?” (Bulka 1980, p. 278).
Bulka and others observed the tense atmosphere of international relations
in the middle of 1930s. In one article in 1935 he mocks the civilizing
pretensions of the Occident, in the light of the Abyssinian war: “In the times
of Noah used to live a great and civilized people, called “European people”.
The men composing this people were divided in different nations, which
quarreled like dogs with one-another. Precisely these peoples (who quarreled
like dogs) decided to spread their civilization beyond Europe” (Bulka 1980,
p. 335). In this way, Great Britain and France “civilized” hundred millions of
Africans and Asians and taught them English and French and sold these
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