Mihal Grameno

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Mihal Grameno in revolutionary uniform during the Albanian National Awakening
Born 1871
Korçë, Vilayet of Monastir, Ottoman Empire
Died 1931 (aged 60)
Korçë, Albania
Ethnicity Albanian
Literary movement Romanticism, Albanian National Awakening

Mihal Grameno (January 13, 1871 – February 5, 1931) was an Albanian rilindas, politician, writer, freedom fighter, and journalist.

Biography

Born in Korçë in a merchant family, he studied there at the local secondary school before emigrating to Romania in 1885. It was in Bucharest that he got involved in the Albanian National Awakening where the movement soon collapsed due to financial reasons in the extended family who were dependant on money.

In 1907, he joined the newly formed Çerçiz Topulli's kachak band, an early guerrilla unit fighting against Turkish troops in Albania.[1] They were considered the apostoles of Albanianism and would go from village to villagte to discuss the Albanian predicament.[2]

Turkish officials sent out military patrols to capture the bandits. The activity of the band consisted of only one battle in two years, when the 5 people band was surrounded by 150 Turkish units in Mashkullore. Four out of five escaped the encirclement. Other bands of this nature, not having a journalist in their company, such as Grameno have remained unsung heroes.[3]

In 1909 Grameno founded in Korçë the Orthodox League (or Alliance) (Albanian: Lidhja Ortodokse)[3] and served as editor of its periodical with the same name during 1909–1910. In 1910 the organization proclaimed the establishment of an independent Albanian church, but wasn't recognized by the Ottoman Empire. [4] He also served as the editor of the weekly Koha (English: Time), initially published in Korçë and later in Jamestown, New York where he lived from 1915 to 1919. He traveled back to Europe to represent Albania through the Albanian-American community at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and in the following year he returned in Albania.

In the 1920s he carried out his journalistic and literary activities until the dictatureship of Zog I forced him to retire from public life. Resigned and seriously ill, he died on February 5, 1931 in his beloved Korçë.

Works

Mihal Grameno's published works include:[5]

  • Vdekja (English: The Death), a patriotic poem published in 1903;
  • Mallkimi i gjuhës shqipe, (English: The curse upon the Albanian language), a comedy published in Bucharest 1905,
  • Vdekja e Piros (English: The Death of Pyrrhus), a historical tragedy published in Sofia, 1906.
  • Oxhaku (English: The Hearth), E puthura (English: The Kiss), and Varr' i pagëzimit (English: The Tomb of the Baptism), Korçë 1909, short stories.
  • Plagët (English: The wounds) Manastir 1912, a volume of poetry;
  • Kryengritja shqiptare, Korçë 1925 (English: The Albanian Uprising), memoirs of his experiences as a guerrilla fighter against the Turkish and Greek troops.

References

  1. ↑ Skendi, Stavro (1967). The Albanian national awakening, 1878-1912. Princeton University Press. pp. 207, 211, 421. Retrieved 2010-06-03. 
  2. ↑ Jacques, Edwin (1995). The Albanians: an ethnic history from prehistoric times to the present. McFarland & Company. pp. 313–317, 348. ISBN 0-89950-932-0. Retrieved 2010-06-03. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jacques pp. 263–264
  4. ↑ Blumi, Isa (2001). "Teaching Loyalty in the Late Ottoman Balkans: Educational Reform in the Vilayets of Manastir and Yanya, 1878-1912". Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 21 (1-2): 19. 
  5. ↑ Hoerder, Dirk; Harzig, Christiane (1987). The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s: An Annotated Bibliography: Volume 2: Migrants from Eastern and Southeastern Europe 031326077X. p. 474. Retrieved 2010-06-03. 

Sources

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