Kadri Hazbiu, participant of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, leader of the partisan formations of the Albanian National Liberation Army, lieutenant general, high official of the state and the Labor Party of Albania, was executed by a firing squad. He was born in Mavrovë (Vlora), in 1922. He completed his primary education in his hometown. He continued his studies at the Commercial High School in Vlora. For anti-fascist activity, he was expelled from school. In 1942, he joined the partisan formations of the Vlora region, initially as part of the “Plakë” squad. With the creation of the 5th Assault Brigade, a battalion commander was appointed. He participated in all the battles that the Brigade fought until Kosovo. In 1945, he was appointed chief of Army Security (with the rank of colonel). After completing his higher studies at the Institute of Security in the Soviet Union, he was appointed deputy minister in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (1949–1954), where he directed actions to eliminate armed groups hostile to the regime in force. In the years 1954-1979 he was Minister of Internal Affairs and then Minister of Defense (1979-1982). Member of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania since the II Congress (1952) and candidate of the Political Bureau in the V Congress (1966) and member in the VI Congress (1971). In 1982, as part of the repressions undertaken in the army, he was dismissed from the post of Minister of Defense, expelled from the Albanian Labor Party, and arrested. He was sentenced to death and shot in 1983. He was a member of the People’s Assembly in all legislatures. He is decorated with war and military service orders and medals. (In the photo: Kadri Hazbiu)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 898.
Graphic processing: AHCF
