Vasil Andoni (Elbasan, Ottoman Empire, January 28, 1901 - Rome, Italy, July 13, 1994) Albanian politician, teacher. He was the Secretary General and one of leaders the

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 ...

active in World War II in Albania.

Biography

Vasil studied at Robert College in Constantinople, then took a job at the Elbasan Normal School in his hometown. He became a teacher at a high school in Tirana in 1939 and taught in Prishtina in the early 1940s. In 1942, he joined the Nationalist National Front led by Midhat Frashëri and became its General Secretary. During the battles between the Communist-led National Liberation Movement and the National Front, he joined the National Front units fighting in the mountains of Central Albania in late 1943. Unlike many of his party counterparts, he opposed collaboration with German invaders. Seeing the overwhelming advance of the Communist guerrilla brigades, along with other leaders of the National Front, Frashëri, Ali Këlcira and Hasan Dosti, they left for Shkodra on October 18, 1944, with a small fishing boat, and on October 23, they sailed south of Bris. He first settled in Rome and wrote for the anti-communist newspapers Albania libre ('Free Albania') and Flamuri ('The Flag'). He emigrated to New York in 1949, along with Midhat Frashëri, and until his death was a leading figure in the Albanian expatriate community in the United States. He never returned to his homeland.

Ideology

Vasil Andoni along with Abaz Ermenji, Zef Pali and Halil Maçi was part of the

agrarian socialist Agrarian socialism is a political ideology that promotes “the equal distribution of landed resources among collectivized peasant villages” This socialist system places agriculture at the center of the economy instead of the industrialization ...

and progressive wing of the party, which gained the leadership of the party after the war. He expressed himself as having " no religion" when he left Albania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andoni, Vasil People from Elbasan People from Manastir vilayet Albanian atheists 1901 births 1994 deaths Albanian nationalists Balli Kombëtar Albanian schoolteachers Albanian expatriates in Italy