ISSN 2225-7063
84
International Journal of Science
II, the postwar years from 1945 until 1949, when Albania began and ended the “brotherhood” relationship with Titist Yugoslavia and especially of breaking of relations with the Soviet Union in the early sixties. These arguments are addressed by examining some sharp topics of Albanian life: Koci Xoxe’s figure, former Minister of Interiors, meetings between the Albanian delegation and the Soviet leadership in November of 1960 in Moscow, the situation in the Pasha Liman military base, bilateral meetings between representatives of two countries in Tirana during the final stages of their ultimate breakup.
1.c. Let’s touch very briefly two other episodes. The first one is a book of memoirs about the war. Kadare has the ability to describe in a few lines the correct perception that some peripheral characters have for the main events of the war. The example of the Besnik’s elderly aunt who reads memoirs of war is emblematic and leaves room for many interpretations. Judgment has to do with words, pages and books. Aunt Rabo resumes reading the book every ordinary morning, after preparing breakfast for her nephew and after her nephew has requested money for a birthday celebration6.
1.d. A traitor to the communist “Internacionale” is trialed in the Albanian partisan court. The second episode has two parts related to each other by one word: the word “Internacionale”. Xhemal Struga, father of Besnik, the novel’s protagonist, is a seriously ill war veteran. His internal monologue during the dinner which was organized in the evening before departure of his son to Moscow includes two historical moments: the first is the present moment, which has to do with his son’s journey as the translator of the delegation. The second has to do with the shooting of a communist exponent by the communist partisans during World War II. These two moments are linked by the word “Internacionale”. At the beginning, Xhemal Struga follows the conversation
6. Kadare 1973, pp. 60-61.
International Journal of Science | No.2