FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
In 1985, Ismail Kadare wrote “The Death of the Russian Woman”, a story about the fate of women from the former communist bloc who married Albanian men and were betrayed by the Albanian state. Twenty years later, the writer publicly declared: Apology should be sought for imprisoned foreign women. In January 2008, at the National Cinematographic Center, its president, Xhevdet Ferri, confirmed to us the submission of a project for development, the script written by Ismail Kadare. For this script, the archive of the Ministry of Order was used, with the approval of Minister Bujar Nishani, and over 3,000 pages of investigative files of Russian and foreign women married in Albania, victims of Albanian totalitarianism, were studied by the production.
It is precisely on this subject that the writer has based the script for a feature-length feature film titled “Frightened Sorkadhet”, which will likely be directed by a foreign director. At least, this is what sources within the Approval Council of Artistic Film Projects at the QKK claim, which have taken over the project, which is thought to be a Russian-French-Albanian co-production, of the film houses “Albimage” (Albania), “Ton” (Russia) and “8-et plus” (France).
When two states collide, many destinies of people caught between them are overturned. But when the collision occurs between two communist states, everything is doubly dramatic. This is the story of foreign women from the Socialist Camp, who married Albanian men, and like frightened sorcerers, suddenly found themselves between the clash of the two states of the Communist Bloc. This is the essence of the film-requiem for these women. The script in Albanian is almost 150 pages, it has already been translated into French by Artan Katro, resident in Paris, translator of Kadare's work for 'Fayard' publications, as well as into Russian, by Kadare's translator in Russia, Vasili Tyhin.
The events are initially set in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, more precisely in Moscow, which was the heart of the Communist Bloc of the Eastern Bloc. It is there that the youth of these countries gather to be qualified, formed, educated and to fall in love. The Albanian student, sent to Soviet universities with the aim of returning to his homeland, where professionals were lacking, was not excluded from this collective fate.
One of the two main lines, that of individuals, is built on the fate of a couple, a Russian girl, an Albanian boy. What would happen next, our reader guesses, has heard, has read in the daily cycles about the crimes of communism, and has seen it partially treated in the film “Colonel Bunker” (1996) by director Kujtim Çashku.
In Piro Milkani's "The Sadness of Mrs. Shnajder" (2007), we have only one page, that of love in the places of the Albanian boys' block, with foreign girls, this treated with a kind of lyricism and romanticism, while the drama of what is thought to be coming is declaimed more than lived cinematically.
Also in 2007, a Bulgarian director, Adela Peeva, an artist who works on provocative findings and ideas, completed her next documentary about mixed marriages during the Cold War, where the Albanian subject occupies the main part of the film.
As far as we were able to learn from board members for the project "Frightened Sorkadhet" written by Kadare, that drama will be presented from conception to its climax, because the goal is to "confess the crime", to present the sacrifice of Russian women, who, along with their love for Albanian men, were bringing charm, culture, professionalism and ultimately models of suffering, as Pëllumb Kulla would once write, about one of them, Maria Rafaeli.
They prevented them from receiving documents to return to their country, prevented them from sending and receiving letters to their families (the letters that were never sent and never received are now in the archives of the Ministry of Order, and were used specifically for the "Frightened Sorkadhs" project), tried to recruit them as secret agents and have them spied on by Albanian "friends", the informants close to them.
Thus, Russian women felt betrayed by both countries, by the homeland they left as well as the one they found, at a time when friendship between peoples was proven to be a system "created by dictatorships."
The story written by Kadare is a dramatic story of the life of an intellectual couple supervised by the State Security. In the middle, Russian women, hostage to love on one side and on the other, hostage to the ideal of the Socialist Camp. For this scenario, the archive of the Ministry of Order was used, with the approval of Minister Bujar Nishani, and over 3000 pages of investigative files of Russian and foreign women married in Albania, victims of Albanian totalitarianism, were studied by the production.
"To confess the crime", to give the sacrifice of Russian women who, along with their love for Albanian men, were bringing cultural charm, professionalism and ultimately models of suffering.
statement
"There are crimes for which the regime is responsible, there are crimes for which the state must be responsible. And I think that the Albanian state should apologize to those countries from which the foreign women who were sentenced in Albania came. Of course, this is a small crime compared to the crimes of communism in Albania, but it is one of the ugliest, it is pure revenge against those women who were considered spies," said the famous writer Kadare.
"It was one of the greatest uglinesses of the Albanian state, I'm not saying of the regime but of the Albanian state, that the poor foreign women, who remained in Albania, after the collapse, after Albania's separation from the socialist camp, were put in prison one after the other, it was a cowardly revenge.
"The Albanian state could not catch the KGB spies, it could not catch the spies of East Germany, Hungary, and in a cowardly way, it caught their wives, put them in prison, and left their children on the streets. They were crimes of the regime, but there are some crimes that the state takes responsibility for in historical continuity."
List of Russian women imprisoned in Albania
The three women who were arrested first:
– Nadjezhda Sidorova (surname Kabashi by her husband). Sentenced to 20 years in political prison. Currently lives in St. Petersburg.
– Anufryeva Smirnova (surname Gulina by her husband). Sentenced to 15 years in political prison. Lives in Nikolayev, Ukraine.
– Nina Pumo. Sentenced to 15 years in prison. Lives in Moscow.
The second group arrested
Natalya (Natasha) Pengili. Sentenced to 18 years in political prison. Lives in Moscow.
Taisiya Pisha. Sentenced to 16 years in political prison. Lives in Israel.
Volya Vasiljevna Sharonova (surname Hoxha by her husband). Sentenced to 15 years in political prison. Lives in Moscow.
Vilgelmina Veshi. Sentenced to 15 years in political prison. Lives in Durrës. Her husband, Miço Veshi, was a political convict, sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Inna Shahe. Sentenced to 8 years in political prison. Lives in Moscow.
Elena Çami. Sentenced to 8 years in political prison. Her husband, Minella Çami, sentenced to 20 years in prison. Lives in Korça.
Inga Vitaljevna Tarasova (Dyrzi). Sentenced to 8 years in prison. (Son, Valer Dyrzi, sentenced to 13 years in political prison). Lives in Moscow.
Ludmilla Denisova. Sentenced to 8 years in political prison. From St. Petersburg. Has passed away.
Galina Dani. Sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Valentina Keli. Sentenced to 10 years in political prison. Lives in Canada, in a nursing home.
These are some of the Russian women who were imprisoned in Albania. In fact, there is a longer list, with those who were interned together with their families./Memorie.al
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