(Two Albanian Experiences of the Same War: Occupation, Temporary National Unification, Resistance, Communism, and the Reoccupation of Kosovo)
Written by: Nehat Hyseni
One War: Two Albanian Realities!
The Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, represents one of the most complex and tragic periods in modern Albanian history. For Albanians in Albania and for Albanians living within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the war did not have the same political meaning, even though both groups were drawn into the same global conflict.
In Albania, the Italian invasion of April 7, 1939, marked the end of the independence of the Albanian state. In Kosovo and other Albanian-populated territories of Yugoslavia, the occupation and dissolution of Yugoslavia in April 1941 brought a dramatic change in their political status. Most of Kosovo was incorporated into the Italian occupation zone and administratively joined to Albania, which was itself under Italian control. On August 12, 1941, through the relevant decree, most of Kosovo and the Albanian-populated territories of Western Macedonia were incorporated into an administrative structure connected with the Albanian Kingdom.
This created a historical paradox: a territorial Albanian unification was achieved under a fascist regime rather than through a free and democratic national process.
For Kosovo Albanians, this period brought both hope and disappointment. Hope, because after decades of policies of centralization, colonization, and restrictions on education in Albanian, Albanian-language schools were opened, the Albanian language was used in administration, and national symbols were allowed to appear publicly. But it was also a source of disappointment because these changes took place under Italian occupation and served the strategic interests of the Axis. Studies of education in Kosovo emphasize that dozens of Albanian schools were opened in the Italian and German zones and hundreds of teachers were sent from Albania, while Albanian-language education was prohibited in the Bulgarian zone.
Therefore, in order to understand this period correctly, we must distinguish the national experience of Albanians from the nature of the occupying regimes that made these developments possible.
Albania and Kosovo Before the War:
Two Albanian Political Realities
On the eve of the Second World War, Albanians lived within two completely different political realities.
Albania was an independent state, although economically and politically weak. Kosovo and the other Albanian-populated territories within Yugoslavia were part of another state and faced an administrative, political, and colonizing system that sought to integrate them into the Yugoslav state structure.
For Kosovo Albanians, the national question was not merely a cultural issue. It was connected with property, education, political representation, administration, migration, and physical security.
The Albanian state itself was also unable to play the role demanded by the Kosovo question. Ahmet Zogu’s policy toward Yugoslavia was contradictory. Initially, Zogu came into conflict with Kosovo circles and the “Committee for the National Defence of Kosovo,” while later he pursued a more pragmatic policy toward Belgrade.
Nevertheless, during the 1930s the Kosovo question returned more strongly to Albanian state discourse. In 1930, Zogu’s government prepared a document on the situation of Kosovo Albanians, while Albanian diplomacy was instructed to maintain contacts with the Kosovo émigré community and Albanian political figures.
This demonstrates that Zogu’s relationship with Kosovo Albanians cannot be described either as “total abandonment” or as a consistent policy of national unification. It was a pragmatic policy, constrained by the weakness of the Albanian state and by pressure from Yugoslavia and Italy.
April 7, 1939 and the Albanian Tragedy
On April 7, 1939, Fascist Italy invaded Albania. King Zog left the country, and Albania lost its sovereignty.
The Italian invasion was a clear act of aggression and cannot be relativized by subsequent developments in Kosovo. The Italian regime established a system of political, economic, and military control, while the Albanian administration was placed under Italian supervision.
Nevertheless, Italian policy also exploited the Albanian national question. This became particularly important following the invasion and partition of Yugoslavia in 1941.
Here lies one of the greatest paradoxes in Albanian history:
Fascist Italy was the occupier of Albania, yet it used the unification of part of Kosovo with Albania as an instrument for gaining political support among Albanians.
At the same time, the Italian occupier intervened in education, administration, and public life in order to promote its own interests. Studies of education in occupied Albania show that the educational system was also used for the dissemination of fascist ideology.
Thus, a national aspiration could be partially realized administratively without making the regime that enabled it either free or democratic.
April 1941: The Dissolution of Yugoslavia and the Redrawing of the Albanian Map
The German attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941 radically changed the political map of the Balkans.
Yugoslavia was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers. Kosovo was divided among several occupation zones: Italian, German, and Bulgarian. Most of Kosovo was incorporated into the Italian zone and administratively joined Albania.
For Kosovo Albanians, this change was extraordinary!
For the first time since 1912, most of Kosovo was no longer administered by Belgrade.
This brought changes that, for Albanians, had significance far beyond mere administration:
● Albanian-language schools were opened;
● teachers were sent from Albania;
● Albanian textbooks were introduced;
● the Albanian language gained greater space in administration;
● national symbols were publicly used;
● Albanian educational institutions were established;
● cultural ties with Albania were strengthened.
More than one hundred Albanian primary schools operated during the war in the Italian and German zones, and hundreds of teachers were sent from Albania to Kosovo.
In Pristina, the “Sami Frashëri” Normal School was also established, while education became one of the principal mechanisms for consolidating Albanian national identity.
This represented a major transformation compared with the period 1918–1941.
How Did Kosovo Albanians Experience the “Unification” with Albania?
A large part of the Albanian population experienced it as national liberation from Yugoslav rule and as the realization of a long-standing aspiration. This sentiment was particularly strong because of the bitter experience of the preceding decades.
But this unification was not the result of a referendum or an international agreement freely negotiated by Albanians. It took place within the framework of Italian occupation and the reorganization of Yugoslav territory by the Axis powers.
This created a contradiction that would accompany Albanian history for decades:
Kosovo experienced an extraordinary national rapprochement with Albania precisely at a time when Albania itself was under occupation!
Therefore, serious historiography must hold both truths together:
The territorial unification was an instrument of Italian occupation, but for many Albanians it had genuine national meaning and brought real and significant cultural and educational benefits.
Albanian Partisans and the Creation of the CPA
In Albania, organized communist resistance took shape particularly after 1941.
On November 8, 1941, the Communist Party of Albania was founded. Its formation was not solely the result of internal Albanian developments. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia played an important role in bringing together Albanian communist groups.
Miladin Popović and Dušan Mugoša, two cadres of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, directly assisted the process of unifying Albanian communist groups in 1941.
The CPA was therefore not simply an isolated Albanian party disconnected from Yugoslav developments. From the beginning, it was formed within a political environment in which links with the CPY and the Yugoslav communist movement were important.
But this does not mean that the Albanian partisan war was simply a “Yugoslav project.” Albanian partisans waged a real struggle against Italian and German forces and built a military organization that, by the end of the war, had become the dominant political force in Albania.
In September 1942, the National Liberation Front was established. It was dominated by communists, but initially included people with different political orientations.
Nationalism versus Fascism and Communism
In 1942, the National Front (Balli Kombëtar) emerged, associated with figures such as Midhat Frashëri and Ali Këlcyra.
Balli Kombëtar was a nationalist, republican, and anti-communist movement. Its program contained strong nationalist elements and sought an ethnic Albania, including Kosovo. Initially, it also engaged in partial cooperation with the National Liberation Movement.
A decisive moment was the Mukje Agreement of August 1–2, 1943.
The agreement sought to unite Albanian forces against the occupier and also provided for addressing the Albanian national question.
But the agreement collapsed.
One of the most important points of conflict concerned Kosovo. Studies by Reginald Hibbert directly associate the breakdown of the compromise with opposition from the Yugoslav communist leadership to a formula that would have implied keeping Kosovo outside Serbia.
Here emerged one of the greatest dilemmas of the war:
For Balli Kombëtar, the Albanian national question was a central political objective; for the communists, the revolution and victory of the National Liberation Front took priority!
After the collapse of the Mukje Agreement, the conflict was no longer simply a war against the occupier. It increasingly took the form of an Albanian civil conflict over postwar power.
Legaliteti and Abaz Kupi
Alongside the communists and Balli Kombëtar, the Legaliteti movement also operated. It was associated with monarchists and King Zog.
Its principal military figure was Abaz Kupi, who had participated in resistance to the Italian invasion.
In May 1944, the British Parliament described three principal forces within the Albanian resistance: the National Liberation Movement, Abaz Kupi’s Legaliteti, and Balli Kombëtar. The British document also emphasized that these organizations had strong political positions and that conflicts between them had become a serious obstacle to the unity of the resistance.
This demonstrates that the history of the Albanian war cannot be reduced to the formula:
“The Albanian people against fascism under the leadership of a single party.”
In reality, there were several political currents:
communists – nationalists – monarchists – republicans – localists – collaborators with the occupiers – independent armed groups.
And the boundaries between these categories were not always fixed.
Contemporary scholarship specifically warns against an excessively black-and-white interpretation of resistance and collaboration in Albania during 1939–1944.
1943: Italian Capitulation and the Arrival of the Germans
In September 1943, Italy capitulated.
For Albanians, this did not mean the end of the war.
The Germans replaced the Italians.
The political situation became even more complicated. Some nationalist forces became involved in resistance against the Germans, while others collaborated or attempted to preserve their own organizational structures.
This period must be treated with great care! It is not historically sound to automatically label every Albanian who was not a communist as a “collaborator”; but it is equally inaccurate to deny that some nationalist forces collaborated with German structures during the final phase of the war.
In Kosovo, some Albanian formations became associated with the Germans, while others continued resistance. Scholars emphasize that Balli Kombëtar in Kosovo was not a homogeneous organization and that attitudes toward the Germans varied according to time and political grouping.
What Happened in Kosovo in 1944–1945?
Here lies one of the most tragic chapters of the history!
At the end of 1944, as the German army withdrew, Yugoslav partisan forces entered Kosovo.
For Albanians, this was not perceived simply as liberation from Nazism.
It was experienced as the return of Yugoslav rule.
This explains why some Albanian forces that had fought against the Germans refused to accept mobilization and deployment outside Kosovo.
It was within this context that the conflict involving the Drenica Brigade and Shaban Polluzha developed.
In January–February 1945, the Drenica War erupted. The Institute of History in Kosovo today treats this period as part of the process of Yugoslav reoccupation of Albanian-populated territories and the Drenica War of 1944/45.
Shaban Polluzha refused the order to send his forces to the northern front in Srem, arguing that Kosovo had to be defended and that the departure of Albanian forces would leave the Albanian population unprotected.
The Yugoslav forces subsequently launched a major military operation.
Sources differ regarding the number of forces involved and the number of victims. But the nature of the conflict itself is indisputable: Yugoslav forces employed substantial military power to suppress Albanian resistance in Drenica.
Shaban Polluzha was killed in February 1945, and the resistance was crushed.
Was This a War against Nazism or a Reoccupation?
According to Yugoslav historiography, the entry of the partisans into Kosovo was part of the liberation from Nazism.
For Kosovo Albanians, however, the issue was more complex. They had suffered under prewar Yugoslavia. During 1941–1944, they had experienced a period in which Albanian schools, Albanian administration, and national symbols were present. Then, at the end of 1944, Yugoslav forces returned.
Therefore, liberation from Germany and the restoration of Yugoslav rule were not necessarily perceived as the same thing by Kosovo Albanians.
This is the fundamental distinction that must be understood by the Euro-Atlantic public!
A people can oppose Nazism while simultaneously opposing the restoration of a state order that had previously discriminated against them.
From the War against the Occupier to the Conflict over Kosovo
This is why the war in Kosovo during 1944–1945 cannot be explained solely as a continuation of the anti-fascist struggle.
At the end of the war, two projects confronted each other:
The Yugoslav project: Kosovo would remain within the new federal Yugoslavia.
The Albanian national project: Kosovo and the Albanian-populated territories would be united with Albania.
The Bujan Conference Declaration of January 1944 is an important document in this history. Albanian representatives of the communist movement in Kosovo expressed the aspiration that, after the war, the people of Kosovo should have the right to determine their own fate and to unite with Albania. Later, the Yugoslav leadership rejected this position.
This created a dramatic contradiction:
Kosovo Albanian communists fought within the Yugoslav anti-fascist movement, but some of them believed that a communist victory would also enable a solution to the national question of Kosovo Albanians.
But this hope was ignored and was not realized!
After the War: From Drenica to NDSH
After 1945, Albanian resistance did not immediately end.
The NDSH—the Albanian National Democratic Movement—was established and developed into one of the principal forms of anti-communist resistance in postwar Kosovo. It brought together various nationalist and anti-communist elements and continued armed and underground activity into the late 1940s.
This demonstrates that the Kosovo conflict did not end with the departure of the Germans!
In political terms, a new struggle had just begun:
from the war against a foreign occupier to the struggle over Kosovo’s political, national, and state status.
Albania and Kosovo: Similarities and Differences
At the end of the war, Albanians in Albania and Kosovo emerged from the conflict with two different destinies. The paradox is profound.
In Albania, the communists won both the war and the state. In Kosovo, Albanian communists helped secure the victory of a system that rejected and prevented unification with Albania and kept Kosovo outside the Albanian state.
This was one of the greatest political tragedies in twentieth-century Albanian history.
Conclusion
The Second World War was not merely a confrontation between the Allies and the Axis for Albanians.
It was simultaneously:
a war against occupation;
a struggle for power;
an ideological war;
a national struggle;
an Albanian civil conflict;
and a struggle over the future of Kosovo.
Albania emerged from the war with a consolidated communist regime, while Kosovo emerged under communist Yugoslavia.
For Kosovo Albanians, the period 1941–1944 remained in collective memory as a contradictory time. Under Italian occupation, several national aspirations were realized on a broad scale for the first time: Albanian-language schools, administration in Albanian, the use of national symbols, and institutional links with Albania. But these developments took place under an occupying regime and served its strategic interests.
In 1944–1945, when the Germans withdrew, Kosovo Albanians faced a new reality:
the return of Yugoslavia!
For this reason, the Drenica War and postwar Albanian resistance cannot be understood outside the history of discrimination during the previous period and the fear of its return.
But one fact remains fundamental to understanding the history of Kosovo:
At the end of the Second World War, the Albanian national question was not resolved. It merely changed form!
From the struggle against Italian and German occupation, Kosovo Albanians moved into confrontation with a new Yugoslav communist state that promised national equality but did not allow Kosovo to unite with Albania.
This is why the years 1939–1945 should not be viewed as the end of an era, but as the beginning of a new chapter in the Albanian question.
In this sense, the history of the Second World War for Albanians did not end in November 1944. For Kosovo Albanians, a new political, social, and national conflict had, in reality, just begun!
Pristina, August 28, 2026
