Vojo Kushi
{{Short description|Albanian and Yugoslav partisan (1918–1942)}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific-suffix = {{post nominals|size=100|country=ALB|list=NK}}
| name = Vojo Kushi
| other_names = Kušić
| image = Vojo Kushi (portret).jpg
| caption = Kushi in 1942
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|08|03|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Vrakë, Shkodër, Austrian-occupied Albania
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1942|10|10|1918|08|03|df=yes}}
| death_place = Tirana, Italian-occupied Albania
| nationality = Albanian-Serbian
| occupation = Albanian resistance in World War II
| party = Communist Party of Albania
Communist Party of Yugoslavia
| awards = 17px Hero of the People
People's Hero (Yugoslav) (posthumous)
}}
Vojo Kushi{{Cref2|a}} ({{IPA|sq|'vɔjɔ 'kuʃi}}; {{Lang-sr-Cyrl|Војо Кушић}}, August 3, 1918 – October 10, 1942) was an Albanian and Yugoslav communist guerrilla fighter (partisan) and one of the founders of the Communist group based in Shkodër, following the Italian occupation of Albania in April 1939. He was proclaimed a National Hero of Yugoslavia by the Yugoslav communist government on February 12, 1945, and then a Hero of Albania by the Albanian communist government in 1946.
Life
Kushi was born in 1918, in Vrakë, near Shkodër. He belonged to either the Serb-Montenegrin{{cite periodical |last=Zlatičanin|first=Blagoje|title=Crnogorci iz Vrake na stalnoj Golgoti |periodical=Matica |date=Summer–Autumn 2011 |url=http://www.maticacrnogorska.me/files/46-47/08%20blagoje%20zlaticanin.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524023849/http://www.maticacrnogorska.me/files/46-47/08%20blagoje%20zlaticanin.pdf |archive-date=2012-05-24 |pages=157–160}} or the Aromanian minority of Albania.{{Cite web|title=The Aromanian Question: Lessons of a Bloody History - Aromanian Cultural Society Farsharotu|url=https://farsharotu.org/the-aromanian-question-lessons-of-a-bloody-history/|publisher=Society Farsharotu|access-date=2022-01-04|language=en-US}} His original surname may have been Kušić ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Кушић}}); due to King Zog's state persecution of Serbs following 1920, surnames with obvious Slavic suffixes such as '-ić' and '-vić' were removed, as were Slavic-speaking schools.
Following the Italian occupation of Albania in April 1939, the first communist revolutionary organization was established in Shkodër (Shkodër group), which included minority members brothers Vaso and Branko Kadija, Vojo Kushi, Jordan Misja, Ivo Jovanov, Vojin Dragović, Petar Bulatović and Vasil Shanto. The Shkodër group was led by Shanto and Qemal Stafa.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|p=158}} The other organization, established in Korçë (Korçë group), was united into one on November 8, 1941, in Tirana, at the house of Bojko Lazarov, hence forming the Communist Party of Albania. In 1942, he was chosen as a member of the regional committee for Tirana and appointed commander of guerrilla units. Enver Hoxha was appointed the Party leader in order to include the majority Muslim population.
Kushi was sent by the Albanian government for education at the Military Academy in Belgrade, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Before his return to Albania, he joined the Yugoslav Partisans and became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.{{cite book|first=Pero |last=Morača|title=Ratna sećanja: aktivista jugoslovenskog revolucionarnog radničkog pokreta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bv0xAQAAIAAJ|year=1961|publisher=Kultura|quote=U našoj grupi bio je Vojo Kuši iz Skadra, koga je tadašnja albanska vlada poslala na školovanje u Vojnu akademiju u Beogradu. Pri povratku za Albaniju, otišao je u partizane i postao član KPJ. Izvodila se jedna akcija u zimu 1942. godine.}} One of the discussions of Partisans in Prokletije, including Kushi, was included in Đurica Labović's Lučonoša sa Prokletija (1985).{{cite book|first=Đurica |last=Labović|title=Lučonoša sa Prokletija|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GvYzAAAAMAAJ|year=1985|publisher=Nova knjiga|quote=насмеши се Воја Куши. — Али зашто му отвара^ у апетит! — заврте Радуле главом. — Медитираш? — упита Зеко Во^водић. Милић истог трена одговори: — На^бол>е разми1шьам и све мисли ми до- бщу крила, нарочито када ...}}
The Albanian fascist regime sentenced communist fighters to death for treachery and unrest.{{cite book|last=Marović|first=Miodrag|title=Balkanski Džoker: Albanija i Albanci: istorijska hronika nastajanja i razvoja albanskog pitanja|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bXMvAQAAMAAJ|date=1 January 1995|publisher=Kulturni centar|isbn=978-86-7004-005-2|quote=Oni su optuženi da su krivi za "izdajstva i provale" zbog kojih su u Tirani poginuli Kemal Stafa i Vojo Kuši, u Skadru Perljat Redžepi, Jordan Misto i Branko Kadija. "Čaša strpljenja bila je prepuna", rečeno je na vanrednoj konferenciji u Tirani, ...}} In Tirana, Qemal Stafa, and later Kushi, Sadik Stavileci and Xoxi Martini were surrounded and killed by carabinieri on 10 October 1942.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|p=208}}{{cite book|first=Vladimir |last= Dedijer|title=Jugoslovansko-albanski odnosi, 1939-1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N4Q6AQAAIAAJ|year=1949|publisher=Borba|quote=Partija je doživela tudi hude udarce. V Tirani je v borbi s kara- binjerji junaško padel sekretar CK komunistične mladine Djemal Stafa. V Skadru so junaško padli tovariši Perljat Redžepi, Jordan Misto in Branko Kadija. V Tirani je bil Vojo Kuši z ...}} Their house on the Kodra Kuqe quarter (Red Hill quarter) was surrounded and a fight ensued for 6 hours, with tanks forcing them out; Kushi stormed out and killed several carabinieri, then ran out of bullets and jumped onto the tank and was killed.{{sfn|Pearson|2006|p=208}}
After the war, he was proclaimed a National Hero. In Albania, many streets, quarters, schools, sport institutions and others were named after him. In Tirana, a monument was erected in his honour, a statue of his face and his name below it. It is located in Sheshi Selvia, Tirana. An Albanian documentary about him, [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351964/ Vojo Kushi (1969)], was made.
Later Hoxha imprisoned Vojo's brother Marko and his family in southern Albania as part of his party purges.
Annotations
{{Cnote2 Begin|liststyle=upper-alpha}}
{{Cnote2|a|His given name, Vojo, is a shortened form of the Slavic name Vojislav. His surname, Kushi, is the Albanian form of Serbian Kušić ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Кушић}}. In Serbo-Croatian sources his name is written Vojo Kuši ({{lang|sr|Војо Куши}}),{{harvnb|Dedijer|1949|p=28}}, {{harvnb|Marović|1995}}, {{harvnb|Morača|1961}} and Voja Kuši ({{lang|sr|Воја Куши}}).{{sfn|Labović|1985|p=137}} }}
{{Cnote2 End}}
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{cite book|last=Pearson|first=Owen|title=Albania in the Twentieth Century, A History: Volume II: Albania in Occupation and War, 1939-45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3knunC7z_oC|year=2006|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-104-5}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kushi, Vojo}}
Category:Albanian people of Montenegrin descent
Category:Albanian people of Serbian descent
Category:Albanian people of Aromanian descent
Category:20th-century Albanian people
Category:Deaths by firearm in Albania
Category:Yugoslav Partisans members