Petro Marko (1913 – 1991), one of the founders of modern Albanian prose!

Petro Marko
Well-known writer. His best known novel is entitled Hasta La Vista which recounts his experiences as a volunteer in the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. Petro Marko is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Albanian prose.

Marko was born in Dhërmi on November 25, 1913. He started writing at the age of twenty, from where his first works were published in the magazines of the time with the support of his mentor Ernest Koliq. Marko’s articles would be published in periodicals such as “Lirija”, “Shqipëria e Re”, “Bota e Re” and the magazine “Koha e Re” at that age.

From 1 March 1936 he became editor of ABC, a literary magazine which was banned by the monarchist authorities soon after, arrested and sent into exile.

In August 1936 he joined the Garibaldi Battalion of the Republican forces of the Spanish Civil War along with other prominent Albanians such as Mehmet Shehu, Asim Vokshi, Emrush Myftari and Thimi Gogozoto. During the Spanish Civil War, together with Skender Luarasi, the son of Petro Nini Luarasi, he published in Madrid the Albanian newspaper “Voluntary of Freedom”, which was discontinued after two issues due to the military status of Madrid. His best known work “Hasta la Vista” published in Tirana in 1958 was mainly influenced by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1940, after being repatriated from France to Albania, he was arrested by the Italian army, imprisoned in Bari, then and sent along with 600 other prisoners to Ustica, an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea from 1941 to 1943, ending up in the “Regina Celi” prison in Rome in 1944.

In October 1944, he joined the forces of the Albanian National Liberation Front as a partisan. After the war he became editor-in-chief of the periodical “Bashkimi”, but was arrested again in 1947 by Koçi Xoxe, the Minister of Defense, and released after the fall of Xoxe in 1949.

Marko would be accused of giving information to the Anglo-Americans while he was editor-in-chief. His last prison would be 1947-1950. However, Marko remained an idealist and anti-fascist. During the prison he would write in Interview with myself: “Clouds and stones”. The same book would express his feelings about his Albanian identity. The most popular works of Marko are the novel “Hasta La Vista” and “The Night of Ustika” republished as “One night and two dawns”. The latter is a 380-page novel that narrates the life of prisoners in the labor camp in Ustica, where Petro Marko was also imprisoned. Many of Marko’s works feature surrealist motifs and patterns, such as his novel “The Last City”, portraying the end of the Italian occupation of Albania.

In 1964, a 204-page collection of tales that he wrote in his early years of activity from 1933 to 1937 was published, entitled “Road without a Road”. In 1973, the novel “A name in four roads” was published, set in the monarchist era. The book was immediately banned due to its content and Marko lost the publishing rights until 1982.

He died on December 27, 1991 in Tirana. In 2003, the President of Albania, Alfred Moisiu, decorated him with the “Honour of the Nation” medal. In 2009, a square in Dhërmi was dedicated to his memory. The theater in Vlorë also bears his name.

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