Mehmet Shehu
| Mehmet Shehu | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 23th Prime Minister of Albania | |
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In office July 20, 1954 – December 17, 1981 |
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| Preceded by | Enver Hoxha |
| Succeeded by | Adil Çarçani |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 10, 1913 Çorrush, Albania |
| Died | December 17, 1981 (aged 68) Tirana, Albania |
| Nationality | Albanian |
| Political party | Party of Labour of Albania |
| Spouse(s) | Fiqirete Sanxhaktari |
| Religion | Atheism |
}} Mehmet Ismail Shehu (January 10, 1913 – December 17, 1981) was an Albanian communist politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Albania from 1954 to 1981. As an acknowledged military tactician, without whose leadership the communist partisans may well have failed in their battle to win Albania for the Marxist cause, Shehu exhibited an ideological understanding and work ethic that singled him out for rapid promotion in the communist party. Mehmet Shehu shared power with Enver Hoxha from the end of the Second World War. According to official Albanian government sources, he killed himself on December 17, 1981, after which the entire Shehu clan (his wife, Fiqirete Shehu Sanxhaktari, sons and other of his relatives) were arrested and imprisoned while Mehmet Shehu himself was denounced as "one of the most dangerous traitors and enemies of his country". Persistent rumors remain, however, that Shehu was actually murdered on orders from Hoxha.
Shehu was born in Çorrush, Mallakastër District, southern Albania, in the family of a Tosk Muslim Imam. He graduated in 1932 at the Tirana Albanian Vocational High School funded by the American Red Cross. His focus was on agriculture. Unsuccessful in finding employment within the Ministry of Agriculture he managed to get a scholarship to attend the Nunziatella military academy of Naples, Italy. After being expelled from this school for his pro-Communist sympathies in 1936 he gained entry to the Tirana Officers School, but he left the following year after volunteering to fight for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War. He joined the Spanish Communist Party and rose to the command of the Fourth Battalion of the XIIth Garibaldi Brigade. After the defeat of the Republican forces he was arrested in France in early 1939 as he was retreating from Spain along with his friends. He was imprisoned in an internment camp in France and later was transferred to an Italian internment camp, where he joined the Italian Communist Party.
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