The UP; between dissemination of knowledge and ideology

Knowing that an emancipated society consciously becomes the guardian of the "rights and freedoms" in whose traditions they have been educated, the UP became a target for domination by two different interest groups. The SFRY leadership proclaimed the political emancipation of Albanians in Kosovo to coincide with the "brotherhood and unity" platform or "Titoism." On the other hand, the Republic of Albania proclaimed national emancipation amongst Albanians in the SFRY, trying to expand nationalist ideas about a "perfect"

Albania and "Enverism." Both groups used the UP to disseminate their ideological positions. Due to great difficulties in the provision of high school and university textbooks in Albanian, in November 1969 a representative of the Rilindja Publishing House, Ismail Bajra, met "Art eksport" representatives in Tirana. An agreement was reached according to which Kosovo would be supplied with literature in Albanian from Albania. The parties were also obliged to create a joint committee of specialists to review books to ensure that they were suitable for Albanian students in Kosovo and the SFRY. Under this contract, the Rilindja Publishing House started ordering literature from the Republic of Albania (AJ-319-1-1).¹¹³ Given that Albanian schools in Macedonia and Montenegro also lacked literature

112 See the news portal Telegrafi (http://telegrafi.com/viti-1973-si-u-survejuan-pese-shkrimtaret-e-kosoves-ne-shqiperi/), Viti 1973: Si u survejuan pesë shkrimtarët e Kosovës në Shqipëri? (Year 1973: the surveillance of five Kosovo writers in Albania),

(http://telegrafi.com/viti-1973-miqte-spiunonin-koleget-shkrimtare-nga-Kosovo-2/) Viti 1973: Miqtë spiunonin kolegët shkrimtarë nga Kosova! (Friends were spying on their writer colleagues from Kosovo), and (http://telegrafi.com/viti-1973-cfare-barsoletash-tregoheshin-per-titon-4/) Viti 1973: Çfarë barsoletash tregoheshin për Titon!? (Year 1973: What kind of anecdotes were told for Tito).

113 During the period between 1969 and 1971 alone, 42,266 books of Albanian literature and other translated material, including 3,031 textbooks on 46 subjects, were delivered to different schools in Kosovo. Textbooks were also sent to the faculties of economics, natural sciences, law, history, languages, electrical engineering, mechanical

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in Albanian, books and school texts were also sent to these republics via Kosovo (CAA 511/1971/182). The literature exchange took place mostly between the UP and the UT: the UT regularly provided the UP with copies of each publication published by the UT at that time, including textbooks. Additionally, the national libraries of Prishtina and Tirana exchanged all publications, leading to approximately 430 scientific and 20 periodical titles being exchanged every year (AK PSoER/1979-88/36/3). Even though both parties agreed that only material that did not contradict the official ideology of the Communist League of Yugoslavia could be sent and disseminated in Kosovo/SFRY, this agreement was not always respected (AK PSoER/1972-84/1-97/4).

In a document delivered by Albania's National Library to the Ministry of Education and Culture, for example, it was stated that the libraries of Mitrovica and Ferizaj/Uroševac, as well as the House of Culture in Vushtrria/Vučitrn, had to return books "which were not ordered" (AMFA 1112/1980). However, Albania's Ministry of Education instructed the National Library to stop sending books to those libraries that returned them, but also asked for the same materials to be sent to libraries in Kumanovo, Pejë/Peć and Gostivar (ibid.).

The first generation of UP students stated that to vouchsafe against the confiscation of books coming from the Republic of Albania, there were cases when the first several pages of a book, which usually contained the speeches of Enver Hoxha, would be removed, after which the book would be distributed to the students. Novosella also confirms that books which came from Tirana "inspired us to patriotic acts" (Novosella: October 2015).

Given that hitherto writers and artists from Kosovo had mainly been influenced by the creativity of their colleagues in the SFRY, when "confronted" with Albanian literature and art, most of them found themselves caught between "two sides" (AMFA 639/1971). In communist countries nothing could be published without the state’s initial approval. Indeed, the state also attempted to control all other forms of dissemination, but, as attested in this specific case, it did not always succeed. These materials contained ideological resources, hence, different sources claim that the UP promoted populist education, including nationalism, during the 1970s. Findings also show that once the agreement with the UT was reached, the most fruitful cooperation was with the Faculty of Philosophy, especially the

engineering, medicine. As far as other teaching tools are concerned, during the period between 1969 and 1971, 108,970 pieces were sent, mainly maps, geographical and historical tables, newspapers, journals etc., including 60,000 gramophone records with Albanian songs (CCA 511/1972/48).

103 Department of Albanian Language and Literature,¹¹⁴ but also with the Department of History (AK PSoER/1972-84/1-97/4). Lectures by the UT professors from these departments attracted a large number of people, most of whom were not necessarily students. Audiences were often composed of people from different cities and towns of Kosovo, but also from other SFRY republics such as Montenegro and Macedonia (AMFA 661/1971).

This shows that after the Second World War Albanians living in the SFRY idealized the Republic of Albania: everything that came from Albania was considered good and worthy of attention, including "Enverism." However, taking into consideration the historical circumstances and the fact that Albanians in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Yugoslavia, including the SFRY, were discriminated against and usually treated as second class citizens, it is to be expected that due to their shared nationality Kosovo Albanians would idealize the Republic of Albania. While the SFRY, by translating Serbian textbooks into Albanian, aimed to "strengthen the sense of belonging to the socialist community of Yugoslav nations and love towards it" (Kostovicova 2005, 40), the Republic of Albania, on the other hand, by focusing on the two most sensitive UP departments, aimed to preserve the national spirit and/or undermine any sense of identification with the SFRY.

During meetings held in June and September 1979, the Presidency of the Kosovo Provincial Committee discussed the large number of people attending the lectures and their applause for a specific professor from the Republic of Albania who spoke about the "heroic character of the Albanian nation, thanks to the work of the Party and Enver Hoxha." The issues of "secret meetings of Albanian youth," mainly to listen to speeches by Enver Hoxha and songs containing nationalist elements, were also discussed (Mišović 1987: 436).

However, by the late 1970s, the UP already had 26,000 students. In the 1981-1982 academic year, the UP had more students than any other university in SFRY (Horvat 1988: 137). 70%

of the UP students studied linguistics and human sciences, and only around 23% were in other disciplines and technology. These statistics were used by Dušan Čurebić when proclaiming the UP as the center for massive nationalistic teaching (AS Đ-2/327/1981).

Serbian authors, including SFRY political leaders, acknowledged their failure to monitor the implementation of the agreement between the UP and the UT and confirmed

114 Professor Idriz Ajeti received his degree from the Albanian studies department at the University of Belgrade and founded the UP Albanian department jointly with Latif Mulaku, Gani Luboteni, Enver Gjergjeku, Anton Ceta, Mehdi Bardhi, and others.

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that "the enemy was much more prepared and organized than us in the expansion of their nationalist ideologies among youth in Kosovo" (Mišović 1987: 425). Kostovicova points out that the historical pattern of domination of one national group over the other in Kosovo was also reflected in education (Kostovicova 2005: 29). Thus, each ethnicity intricately linked the educational sector with its own political domination objectives. Thus, it was not academic prosperity but the possibility for domination that seems to have been the main focus of multiple parties involved in the struggle for the "establishment and development"

of the UP. Located in the midst of different state actors – the Republic of Albania, the SFRY, and Kosovo authorities – the UP was a forum in which groups with varying political motivations struggled for control. However, it must be also noted that aside from these challenges, the UP managed to produce cadres of engineers, architects, doctors, and professionals in other necessary fields which did not previously exist in Kosovo prior to the UP's establishment.