21 Facts About Kostandin Boshnjaku

Kostandin Boshnjaku was an Albanian banker, politician, diplomat and in the last years of his life as a translator of books.

Kostandin Boshnjaku spent the last years of his live in Durres serving as a translator of books in several languages.

Kostandin Boshnjaku was born in Stegopull, Lunxheri region, Ottoman Albania, which is today Gjirokaster County, Albania, in 1888 to an Albanian Orthodox family.

Kostandin Boshnjaku finished his studies in the Commercial Institute of Piraeus, Greece.

Kostandin Boshnjaku was an economist, publisher, and diplomat, as well as a polyglot, knowing Greek, Old Greek, Russian, Turkish, English, French, and German.

Kostandin Boshnjaku worked for many years in Odessa and St Peterburg in French and international banks.

Kostandin Boshnjaku was sent as ambassador to Sofia, Bulgaria but was recalled back in Albania prior to presenting his letter of credence to Bulgarian authorities; all this would remain an unclear and dubious situation.

Kostandin Boshnjaku brought in Albania the revolutionary ideas of Bolshevism, and people from Comintern were in contact with him for establishing a communist party in the country, though he did not get directly involved in any local communist group.

Kostandin Boshnjaku propagandized the fact that the Soviets prohibited a new partition of Albanian territories by making public the text of the Secret Treaty of London.

Kostandin Boshnjaku's effort did not have any big effect on the Albanian masses, which were mostly illiterate, but did influence young politicians and activists, especially the "Bashkimi" youth society founded in 1922 and led by Avni Rustemi.

Therefore, Kostandin Boshnjaku stopped from his side, but re-assumed his activities on late 1923 after Pentchev left Albania.

Kostandin Boshnjaku was instrumental in passing the resolution of the Albanian National Assembly to honor Lenin, who had recently died, in February 1924.

Kostandin Boshnjaku got arrested in Vienna in 1929, allegedly for implication in the failed murder attempt on Ahmet Zogu.

In 1932, Kostandin Boshnjaku appears in an Albanian anti-Monarchist committee in Constanta, Romania, together with other Albanian emigre members settled there.

Kostandin Boshnjaku returned in Albania in 1939, joining soon the communist side of National Liberation Movement.

Kole Kuqali would be arrested later together with Kostandin Boshnjaku, and hang himself in his cell in dubious circumstances.

Hoxha's dislike over Kostandin Boshnjaku are visible through how he mentions him in his correspondence of that time.

The arrest and trial went on the same time the so-called "Group of the representatives", several opposition members being sentenced, although Kostandin Boshnjaku was not connected to them.

Kostandin Boshnjaku was shortly as a "pro-bourgeois and opportunist element, trying to harm the communist economy".

Kostandin Boshnjaku was rehabilitated after fall of communism in Albania, though he remained enigmatic and unknown to most of the Albanians.

In 1940, Kostandin Boshnjaku married to Margarete Schmid, an Austrian woman he had met in Vienna.