Mehmet Shehu

Mehmet Ismail Shehu (January 10, 1913 – December 18, 1981) was an Albanian communist politician who served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Albania from 1954 to 1981.

Shehu graduated in 1932 at the Tirana Albanian Vocational High School funded by the American Red Cross.

His focus was on agriculture.

Unsuccessful in finding employment within the Ministry of Agriculture he managed to get a scholarship to attend the Nunziatella military academy of Naples, Italy.

After being expelled from this school for his pro-Communist sympathies in 1936 he gained entry to the Tirana Officers School, but he left the following year after volunteering to fight for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War.

He joined the Communist Party of Spain and was a machine-gunner who rose to the command of the Fourth Battalion of the XIIth Garibaldi Brigade.

In 1938, he joined the International Brigades in Spain and fought as an officer in the 4th Battalion of the Italian Garibaldi Brigade.

A member of the Spanish Communist Party, he moved to France after Franco's victory and was interned there from 1939 to 1942.

He was handed over by the Vichy government to the fascists who sent him to Tirana.

He left the company of his escort and joined the maquis and the Albanian Communist Party.

After the defeat of the Republican forces he was arrested in France in early 1939 as he was retreating from Spain along with his friends.

He was imprisoned in an internment camp in France and later was transferred to an Italian internment camp, where he joined the Italian Communist Party.

In 1942, he returned to Albania under Italian occupation, where he immediately joined the Albanian Communist Party and the Albanian resistance in Mallakastra.

In 1943, he was elected as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

In August 1943, due to his military experience, he rose swiftly to commander of the 1st Partisan Assault Brigade.

Thereafter, he was the commander of 1st Partisan Assault Division of the National Liberation Army.

Commander of the 1st Brigade of the National Liberation Army since 1943, Mehmet Shehu took part in the Battle of Gjorm on January 1, Liberation of Tepelena on September 10 and liberation of Tirana on November 8, 1944.

As an acknowledged military tactician, without whose leadership the communist partisans may well have failed in their battle to win Albania for the Marxist-Leninist cause, Shehu exhibited an ideological understanding and work ethic that singled him out for rapid promotion in the communist party.

Mehmet Shehu shared power with Enver Hoxha from the end of the Second World War.

From 1944 to 1945 he was a member of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation (the provisional government).

After Albania was liberated from the German occupation in November 1944, Shehu became the deputy chief of the general staff and, after he studied in Moscow, became the chief of the general staff.

Later, he was also a lieutenant general and a full general.

In 1948, Shehu "expurgated" from the party the element who "tried to separate Albania from the Soviet Union and lead her under Belgrade's influence".

This made him the nearest person to Enver Hoxha and brought him high offices.

After the purge of Koçi Xoxe, he took over the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

However, he remained in Hoxha's shadow.

From 1948, he was a member of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania, and, from 1948 to 1953, he was a secretary of the Central Committee.

He lost the latter position on June 24 when Enver Hoxha gave up the posts of Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs while retaining the premiership.

Hoxha was probably not willing to yield too much power to him.

From 1948 to 1954 he was deputy prime minister (deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers) and Minister of Internal Affairs.

The latter post made him commander of the secret police, the Sigurimi.

Mike Burke, the American spymaster who set up a 1950 paramilitary project to destabilize and oust the Albanian government, said in 1986 that Shehu was "one tough son of a bitch", whose security forces gave U.S. agents "a tough time".

In 1954, he succeeded Hoxha as Prime Minister.

During the discussion at the Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties in November 1960, Nikita Khrushchev asked Shehu if he had any criticisms of Joseph Stalin, to which Shehu replied: "Yes, not getting rid of you!"

Shehu was considered Enver Hoxha's right-hand man and the second most powerful man in Albania.

From 1974 he was also the Minister of People's Defence while from 1947 to his death he was a deputy of the People's Assembly.

During the war, Shehu won a reputation for brutality.

According to official Albanian government sources, he killed himself on December 18, 1981, after which his family was arrested.

Persistent rumors remain, however, that Shehu was actually murdered on orders from Hoxha.

Shehu was born in Çorrush, Mallakastër District, southern Albania, in the family of a Tosk Albanian Muslim Imam.