Liri Gega (1917 – December 1956) was an

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

n communist activist and politician. The only female founder member of the Communist Party of Albania, she was one of the first group of women elected to parliament in 1945. However, she was later executed after being accused of being a Yugoslavian agent.

Biography

Gega was born in

Gjirokastër Gjirokastër (, sq-definite, Gjirokastra) is a city in the Republic of Albania and the seat of Gjirokastër County and Gjirokastër Municipality. It is located in a valley between the Gjerë mountains and the Drino, at 300 metres above sea le ...

in 1917,Wojciech Roszkowski & Jan Kofman (2016)
Biographical Dictionary of Central and Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century
', p280 to Asija and Beso Gega, a pharmacist and mayor of the town. After graduating from the

Queen Mother Pedagogical Institute The Queen Mother Pedagogical Institute ( sq, Instituti Femnuer "Nana Mbretneshë"), was a women's pedagogy, pedagogical high school, created in 1933 in Tirana, Albania. The Institute, approved by Government Decree nr. 666 on October 2, 1933, ope ...

in Tirana, she won a state scholarship to study in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. However, she was arrested in 1940 and imprisoned for nearly two years. She was the only female founder member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

in 1941 and became a member of its politburo in March 1943. During the

Congress of Përmet The Congress of Përmet, was a meeting of the Albanian communist leaders on May 24, 1944, in Përmet, Albania, which elected a Provisional Government. The congress was modeled after the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslav ...

in May 1944 she was elected to the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council.Ligjvënësit Shqiptarë në Vite
Parliament of Albania In the same year she became secretary general of the Anti-Fascist Women's Union and the Anti-Fascist Youth Union. In August 1944 she murdered fellow politburo member

Mustafa Gjinishi Mustafa Gjinishi (15 January 1912 – 23 August 1944) was an Albanian communist from Peqin, central Albania. He was known for having opposed Enver Hoxha and the Italian invasion of Albania. Mustafa Gjinishi was a known fighting for Albanian pr ...

under orders from Yugoslavian communists after he had made an agreement with the anti-communist

Balli Kombëtar The Balli Kombëtar (literally ''National Front''), known as Balli, was an Albanian nationalist, collaborationist and anti-communist resistance movement during the Second World War. It was led by Ali Këlcyra and by Midhat Frashëri. The movem ...

. She was subsequently removed from the politburo in November, although she remained head of the Women's Union until 1946. Gega contested the December 1945 parliamentary elections in the Vlorë constituency, and was one of three women elected to the Constituent Assembly alongside

Naxhije Dume Naxhije Dume (3 January 1921 – 29 September 2008) was an Albanian politician. She was one of the first group of female members of the Albanian parliament and the first female minister, serving briefly as Minister of Education in 1948. Biograp ...

and

Ollga Plumbi Ollga Plumbi (1898 – 1984) was an Albanian feminist, activist and politician. She also was elected as deputy of the Albanian parliament in 1945 but became known as one of the first feminists in Albania. Biography Ollga Plumbi, also known wi ...

. She married Dali Ndreu the following year. At a meeting of the Communist Party's central committee in 1948, Gega was accused of sympathising with separatists in northern Albania, political terror and sectarianism. This was a result of her opposition to eliminating the units that had operated in the area following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. She was removed from the Assembly and subsequently worked as a teacher. In 1956 she and her husband were arrested while trying to leave Albania. She was charged with collaboration and the couple were executed for being '

Titoist Titoism is a political philosophy most closely associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War. It is characterized by a broad Yugoslav identity, workers' self-management, a political separation from the Soviet Union, and leadership in the ...

agents'. Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

claimed that Gega was pregnant at the time.Memorandum of Meeting with Khrushchev, Moscow
Wilson Center

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gega, Liri 1917 births People from Gjirokastër Albanian communists Labour Party of Albania politicians Members of the Parliament of Albania Women members of the Parliament of Albania Albanian educators 1956 deaths 20th-century women educators Executed Albanian people People executed by Albania Executed politicians Executed women 20th-century Albanian politicians 20th-century Albanian women politicians