Mihal Grameno

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.

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 dependent on money.

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

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.

In 1909 Grameno founded in Korçë the Orthodox League (or Alliance) (Albanian: Lidhja Ortodokse) 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. He also served as the editor of the weekly Koha (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 dictatorship of Zog I forced him to retire from public life. Resigned and seriously ill, he died on February 5, 1931 in Korçë.