In the village of Negovan (today Flamburo) in the prefecture of Follorina (Greece), Koçi Xoxe was born (1911-1949), was an activist of the communist and labor movement in Albania, a participant in the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, a high official of the Albanian Communist Party and the state. He went to high school in Thessaloniki. He settled in Korça in 1931, where he participated in the organization of the “Puna” society. He joined the communist group of Korça and was elected to its leadership. He participated in the Bread Demonstration held in Korçë on February 21, 1936, and was one of the organizers of the anti-fascist demonstrations of April 1939 in Korçë. Participant in the founding meeting of the Albanian Communist Party, where he was elected a member of the Provisional Central Committee and was charged with the organization of the Party. In the summer of 1942, he was imprisoned by the fascists in Tirana.
At the 1st National Conference of the Albanian Communist Party (March 17-22, 1943), he was elected as a member of the Political Bureau and organizational secretary of the Central Committee. After escaping from prison (summer 1943), he was involved in the organization of partisan formations, especially the I, IV, VIII, IX, XV, and XX Brigades. In the First National Liberation Anti-Fascist Congress (Përmet, 1944), he was elected vice-president of the National Liberation Anti-Fascist Council and was ranked lieutenant general. At the second meeting of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council (Berat, October 1944), he was appointed deputy prime minister. At the First Congress of the National Liberation Front (August 1945), he was elected vice president of the Democratic Front of Albania, which was created there. He was appointed chairman of the Special Court (December 25, 1944), created to judge the collaborators of fascism and war criminals. In May 1945, he was appointed director of the Directorate of People’s Protection (later called Security of State). Deputy in the elections of December 1945. In the government that emerged from these elections, he was appointed deputy prime minister, minister of internal affairs, and chairman of the Control Commission (March 1946). In the Plenum IX of the Central Committee of the Albanian Communist Party (September 1948) and in Congress I of the Albanian Communist Party (November 1948), he was accused of pro-Yugoslav activities and serious violations of legality; he was dismissed from all the functions he held in the party and in the state. In May 1949, he was sentenced to death and shot. (In the photo: Koçi Xoxe)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH,” Tirana, 2009, page 2939.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C3%A7i_Xoxe
Graphic processing: AHCF
