The file of the writer "to be arrested and taken to the prison of the Enemies of the People" comes out - Letter to his wife: I see death as a release from pain, I see death as a release from pain
The Files Authority has published part of the file of the writer Dhimitër Pasko, otherwise known by the literary pseudonym Mitrush Kuteli. In addition to being a writer, he was a well-known Albanian translator and economist. He was born in 1907 in Pogradec, in a middle class family. He completed primary school in his hometown, while later he moved to Thessaloniki, to continue the commercial high school. He completed his higher studies at the University of Bucharest, Romania, where in 1934 he defended his doctorate in economic sciences.
During his stay in Romania, he worked for a while first in a wine warehouse, but later also in the newspaper "Shqipëria e Re" based in Constanta, where he published various articles about Albania. He returned to Albania in 1942 and was appointed administrative director at SASTEB, where he worked for 5 months. Then at the National Bank, where he worked until August 1946 and later, until the day of his arrest, at the Institute of Studies (information in file no. 3450/A of Dhimitër Paskos).
Dhimitër Pasko was arrested on March 15, 1947. In the indictment against him dated April 2, 1948, it was stated that: "He was a member of the fascist party Iron Guard in Romania, and in 1941 he voluntarily participated in the war against the Red Army. In 1942 he came to Albania and collaborated with the fascists, like Dhimitër Berati and others, against the N.Ç movement. During the Nazi occupation, with articles in the "Bashkimi Kombit" notebook, he vented his hatred against N.Ç. With the liberation of Albania, not breaking away at all from his association with Kostë Boshnjak, Kolë Kuqali cooperates against the People's Power, an activity he carries out through propaganda and agitation among anti-Power elements".
For these charges, the prosecutor demanded that Dhimitër Pasko be found guilty and sentenced to 7 years of deprivation of liberty, confiscation of property and loss of political and civil rights for 5 years.
During the questioning by the investigator, on February 28, 1948, he did not admit that he had been a member of the Iron Guard, but simply its sympathizer, for a short time, because of its socialist slogans, which later, according to him, he had understood that they had been appropriated by the communists. Pasko did not even accept the accusation that he was a fascist, but a vague socialist and that his desire had been to find a path for social justice. If he had volunteered in the war against the Soviet Union, he would have replied that "no, I wasn't, and I didn't even think about it, but I was forced to be a soldier for a few months and I waited for the first opportunity to leave, feeling that the war I was fighting it was unfair, aggressive.
Part of the accusations against him was his stance against the NC movement during the war and that after the liberation he had collaborated with Kostë Boshnjak, Kolë Kuqali, against the communist regime, through propaganda and agitation. Dhimitër Pasko would deny that he had been in the service of the occupier. He would say that: "I thought as against the occupier, not to give me financial means to remove or slow down what the government was giving, to ensure the gold reserve not to mention new currency". Regarding his writings at the time of the German occupation, he would declare that: "I wrote economic and literary articles in the newspaper "Bashkimi i Kombit", it belonged to the government, but my articles were critical of the government on financial and economic issues ".
The last accusation was that of cooperation with Kostë Boshnjaku and Kolë Kuqali against the communist regime. Dhimitër Pasko would clarify before the investigation that his relationship with Kolë Kuqali was only a work relationship stemming from his position as an administrative secretary in the bank. Also, he would deny the development of any conversation with Kole Kuqali against the communist government. As for Kostë Boshnjaku, he would say that he was known in 1931-1932 in Romania, where he wrote for the newspaper "Alhħipriia e Re" in Constanta. Later they had met several times in Albania and the last meeting between them had been near the Argus Bookstore, where they had talked about an article in the "Krediti" Magazine. Finally, he would close his testimony with a categorical denial of any conversation and collaboration with Kostë Bošnjaku and Kola Kuqali to overthrow the communist government.
His trial was to take place on April 3, 1948. In general, his testimony was as stated before the inquiry on February 28. He would reject the accusations and declare in court that: "I have never had a political conversation with the people who accuse me, nor have I known such a thing that they were enemies of the People's Power, if I had known , I immediately denounced him. I ran away from Banga in August and was arrested in May 1947, while from Banga in 1946. I went to Kolë Kuqali to get some books to look at Sejcil's library. I have not discussed political issues with him and they lied, I have never talked with them".
The final decision on Dhimitër Pasko would be given by the Council of the Supreme Military Court, on May 20, 1948, which would approve the decision of April 7, 1948, of the Military Court of Tirana, 5 years of deprivation of liberty and forced labor.
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The well-known Mitrush Kuteli of "Old Albanian Stories", "Albanian Nights", "Kosovo Poem" and many other works that were lost or damaged after his arrest, served his sentence in the Vloçishti camp, in the drying up of the Maliqi swamp, between thousands of other political prisoners, many of them intellectuals, such as Arshi Pipa, Vexhi Buharaja, Halit Selfo and others.
According to Visar Zhiti, in the "Swamp of death" of Makensen Bungo, a fellow sufferer in Maliq, "the prison policeman hit Mitrush Kuteli on the head with a shovel because he was a writer, that "only Lenin makes books"....
After he got out of prison and joined his family in exile, Kuteli went through many difficulties, until he resumed work as a translator (often without mentioning his name and recognizing the values of intellectual property).
Mitrush Kuteli closed his eyes in May 1967. The family published some of his manuscripts after his death, among which the masterpiece "Great is the horror of sin", written three months before he was arrested.
In the last letter addressed to his friend, Kuteli said, "Now I see death as a release from pain. I don't want it, but I can't get rid of it. I see it coming, it's coming. I regret that I will leave the little children, without an arm, perhaps in great poverty, unable to reach their goals. My pension will not be enough. I have no "years of service". Of course, 22 years out. I also worked there until I died, but these years of work do not count for the pension effect. My bad luck, their bad luck.
Perhaps, after death, when passions and hatreds cease, our country can help you for the sake of my past work: in journalism and literature, from a young age, and especially in the economic field. A part of my writings - Albanian and Romanian - are there, in the National Library.
Some people know about my efforts against Italian capital, against German robberies. I worked without self-interest, even against self-interest. I have never pursued my own enrichment, because this enrichment could only be made by two means: by theft (there are a thousand and one ways of theft, and I have used none of them) and by treachery, serving foreigners to rob the country and receive money for this service. I chose the opposite path: the fight against those who wanted to rob, those who robbed. I couldn't stop them all, not because I didn't want to, not because I had interest, but because I couldn't. That much I could, that much I did. Against Italian robberies, against German robberies, against Yugoslav robberies. I never chose the path of self-comfort, the path of "the wise, the gentle and the spoonful".
I worked hard, I loved a lot, I made a lot of mistakes. Now life is gone, it cannot be returned, it cannot be repaired. I told you that the Germans were going to hang me in front of the town hall when they found out that I had sabotaged the release of the new currency they wanted to make. I was saved by luck. I will never blush with shame, not even with my action in the early days of liberation. I worked like crazy, fought against Yugoslav robberies. I can't be more ashamed of my practical activity - in the economic field - in Romania. Even there against the Germans.
As a son of a small nation, I have always had a great hatred against the black idea of "peoples over peoples" or "big people over small people", but "peoples alongside peoples". This principle has fed consciously and unconsciously, automatically, my activity. I was against the Russians because they subjugate and denationalize other peoples; against the Germans because they exploited and exterminated other peoples, against the English for the same reason. The son of a small people could not do otherwise. In Romania I fought, as much as a small man can fight, against the exploitation of domestic and foreign capital....
....I command the children to love our country and language to the point of suffering. Do not open your heart against Albania, even when they will suffer without fault. Homeland is home, even when it kills you."
The family is already familiar with the Dhimitër Paskos/Gazeta Shqiptare file.