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Second Sentence: Inside the Albanian Gulag
Prison camps in Communist Albania were as brutal and claustrophobic as Stalin’s gulags, with the additional and unique horror that Albanian prisoners could be charged and re-sentenced while already in prison. In this raw and moving memoir, the prize-winning writer Fatos Lubonja brilliantly evokes life for prisoners of the state as they struggled to cope with the physical and psychological deprivations of imprisonment. Second Sentence opens in 1978 with a vivid description of the author’s experiences as a forced laborer in a copper mine in Northern Albania. In the tense camp atmosphere, Lubonja discovers that two of his co-prisoners have written a letter to the Party criticizing ""the foremost leader,"" Enver Hoxha. Shortly afterwards they are spirited away under mysterious circumstances. Lubonja does not make the connection until he is himself re-arrested in the camp with seven others and sent to stand trial as part of an alleged counter-revolutionary organization. With heart-breaking honesty, Lubonja describes the long months of interrogation and solitary confinement as he awaits his second sentence. This is an extraordinary portrait of the impenetrable world of Communist Albania and an unforgettable memoir of friendship and betrayal.
- GenresHistory
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 25, 2018
'Ridënimi' mund të cilësohet një roman-dokumentar. I ardhur përmes fjalëve të një protagonisti të ngjarjes reale, romani trondit, lemerit, skandalizon fuqishëm çdo lexues të ri që nuk e ka jetuar diktaturën, çdo lexues të papërballur me sisteme totalitare.
'Ridënimi' rrëfen një prej qindra proceseve maskaradë, të ndërtuara mbi mllefin e Udhëheqjes, dëshmi mashtruese çmeritëse, zhdukjen e mendimit ndryshe dhe shtypjen e elitës intelektuale. Një thirrje për të mos rënë sërish në qeverisje makabre dhe rikujtesë e brezave të rritur në vitet e monizmit për të parandaluar gabimet e brezave të rinj të prirur drejt politikave ekstremiste.
'Ridënimi' është një himn i jetës, dinjitetit dhe mendimit të lirë, i cili për shumë vite qe plumbi ballit i atyre që e thërritën.
'Ridënimi' rrëfen një prej qindra proceseve maskaradë, të ndërtuara mbi mllefin e Udhëheqjes, dëshmi mashtruese çmeritëse, zhdukjen e mendimit ndryshe dhe shtypjen e elitës intelektuale. Një thirrje për të mos rënë sërish në qeverisje makabre dhe rikujtesë e brezave të rritur në vitet e monizmit për të parandaluar gabimet e brezave të rinj të prirur drejt politikave ekstremiste.
'Ridënimi' është një himn i jetës, dinjitetit dhe mendimit të lirë, i cili për shumë vite qe plumbi ballit i atyre që e thërritën.
May 3, 2026
Read for the Around the World challenge: Albania. I know that everyone recommends Ismail Kadare for Albanian writing... but none of his books sounded appealing to me, and after reading about him, I learned that he either shares political views with the dictatorial communist State in Albania, OR he compromised his personal principles to align with the reigning party. I came across this book, and knew immediately it was more what I was interested in (principled resistance to misinformation and lies and human rights abuses). It took me a long time to find a copy in the US (actually, I didn't find a copy in the US - my used copy came from the UK), which only confirmed my suspicion that I was on the right track with my selection.
I was expecting this book to be a description of life inside an Albanian gulag, sort of in the same vein as some of the North Korean gulag books out there - but the point of this book is not at all to reveal gulag conditions. Although the first 3rd or so does describe living and working in the Albanian mining work camp Spaç in the 1970s, and the author describes quite a bit of his subsequent solitary confinement in the Tirana prison while awaiting trial, the point of the book is not the gulag. The point of the book is to pay tribute to 2 brave men, friends of the author who were political prisoners along with him, who fought back against the political direction of the country until the end.
In February 1978, author Fatos Lubonja was serving a 7 year sentence in the "re-education" facility of Spaç, a work camp where prisoners were required to perform grueling work in the mines and be subjected to other punishments like deprivation, when he is arrested and taken to the Tirana prison (where prisoners are held for trial). He is held there for 5 months in solitary confinement with no visitors, insufficient food, no bed, and no windows while he is interrogated in preparation for trial and is subsequently tried, alongside 10 other men, for supposedly "organizing" an anti-Hoxha and anti-Albanian political propaganda and agitation group. Most of the book is a detailed account of the trial in which all of the men were falsely accused, showing how the State used fear and intimidation tactics with blatently false (coerced) testimony from other prisoners to try to break the accused and sentence them for their supposed "crimes".
Lubonja's book is surprisingly detached, particularly in the descriptions of the horrid camp and prison conditions. He does not leave room for a lot of emotions in his descriptions of the interrogation and the trial. It is easy to imagine how the State broke many a prisoner with threats and fear, obstinately refusing to see truth and continuing to push lies, immovable by either human connection or reason. The two men accused of "leading" the alleged organizations were particularly stalwart, refusing to be cowed by the State, calmly defending their positions to the end. It is heartbreaking and infuriating to read.
Lubonja does not spend much time educating the reader on the political situation in Albania at the time, nor Albania's history and international relations. I found it helpful to do a bit of pre-reading on their alliances and political development through the first half of the 20th century, and I was glad that I happened to have read Motherland by Julia Ioffe just prior to reading this, as it covers helpful context on Lenin, Stalin, and Krushchev that are highly relevant in Albania's political perspectives in the 1970s. Lubonja's writing (and the translation) are eloquent and advanced. This is not an ordinary convict's memoir. This is a reflection on survival, standing up for one's principals, and never surrendering to the lies of dictators.
I was expecting this book to be a description of life inside an Albanian gulag, sort of in the same vein as some of the North Korean gulag books out there - but the point of this book is not at all to reveal gulag conditions. Although the first 3rd or so does describe living and working in the Albanian mining work camp Spaç in the 1970s, and the author describes quite a bit of his subsequent solitary confinement in the Tirana prison while awaiting trial, the point of the book is not the gulag. The point of the book is to pay tribute to 2 brave men, friends of the author who were political prisoners along with him, who fought back against the political direction of the country until the end.
In February 1978, author Fatos Lubonja was serving a 7 year sentence in the "re-education" facility of Spaç, a work camp where prisoners were required to perform grueling work in the mines and be subjected to other punishments like deprivation, when he is arrested and taken to the Tirana prison (where prisoners are held for trial). He is held there for 5 months in solitary confinement with no visitors, insufficient food, no bed, and no windows while he is interrogated in preparation for trial and is subsequently tried, alongside 10 other men, for supposedly "organizing" an anti-Hoxha and anti-Albanian political propaganda and agitation group. Most of the book is a detailed account of the trial in which all of the men were falsely accused, showing how the State used fear and intimidation tactics with blatently false (coerced) testimony from other prisoners to try to break the accused and sentence them for their supposed "crimes".
Lubonja's book is surprisingly detached, particularly in the descriptions of the horrid camp and prison conditions. He does not leave room for a lot of emotions in his descriptions of the interrogation and the trial. It is easy to imagine how the State broke many a prisoner with threats and fear, obstinately refusing to see truth and continuing to push lies, immovable by either human connection or reason. The two men accused of "leading" the alleged organizations were particularly stalwart, refusing to be cowed by the State, calmly defending their positions to the end. It is heartbreaking and infuriating to read.
Lubonja does not spend much time educating the reader on the political situation in Albania at the time, nor Albania's history and international relations. I found it helpful to do a bit of pre-reading on their alliances and political development through the first half of the 20th century, and I was glad that I happened to have read Motherland by Julia Ioffe just prior to reading this, as it covers helpful context on Lenin, Stalin, and Krushchev that are highly relevant in Albania's political perspectives in the 1970s. Lubonja's writing (and the translation) are eloquent and advanced. This is not an ordinary convict's memoir. This is a reflection on survival, standing up for one's principals, and never surrendering to the lies of dictators.
April 13, 2021
The best ever book that describes Albanian dictatorial regime !
July 30, 2015
The Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha held on to power in his country from about 1944 until his death in 1985, and ruled Albania with a rod of iron. He suppressed all opposition and potential opposition by both murder and cruel imprisonment in camps that easily rivalled the horrors of the Soviet ‘gulag’ system.
Fatos Lubonja, a writer with views that Hoxha and his Sigurimi (Albanian security police) cronies found to be threatening, spent many years in the Albanian gulag, only to be released when the Stalinist regime founded by Hoxha crumbled in about 1991. In his book “Second Sentence”, Fatos touches on the horrors of life in the prison camps, but more importantly describes in detail the bogus judiciary system that was employed to justify his and his fellow prisoners’ seemingly endless deprivation of freedom and human rights. It always amazes me, when reading accounts such as that eloquently written by Fatos, how much trouble is/was taken by illiberal repressive regimes to give a veneer of justice to what was plainly a method of suppressing criticism of, and opposition to, a brutally unfair and corrupt system of government. I suspect that this is because in the oppressors' hearts of hearts, they realise that what they are doing is really wrong, and the bogus trial helps to salve their consciences as they perform inhumane acts with impunity. Fatos illustrates this well, especially with his moving description of his and others’ bogus trial held to convince(?) the Sigurimi and Hoxha of the truth of a blatantly obviously trumped-up charge of organising opposition to the regime. This plot, which was alleged to have occurred, was supposed to have been hatched in a high security labour camp in the remote mountains of northern Albania.
This book is well-written and beautifully translated from its original Albanian. It is essential reading for anyone curious about methods of political repression, which I am certain continue to be employed today in certain countries.
Fatos Lubonja, a writer with views that Hoxha and his Sigurimi (Albanian security police) cronies found to be threatening, spent many years in the Albanian gulag, only to be released when the Stalinist regime founded by Hoxha crumbled in about 1991. In his book “Second Sentence”, Fatos touches on the horrors of life in the prison camps, but more importantly describes in detail the bogus judiciary system that was employed to justify his and his fellow prisoners’ seemingly endless deprivation of freedom and human rights. It always amazes me, when reading accounts such as that eloquently written by Fatos, how much trouble is/was taken by illiberal repressive regimes to give a veneer of justice to what was plainly a method of suppressing criticism of, and opposition to, a brutally unfair and corrupt system of government. I suspect that this is because in the oppressors' hearts of hearts, they realise that what they are doing is really wrong, and the bogus trial helps to salve their consciences as they perform inhumane acts with impunity. Fatos illustrates this well, especially with his moving description of his and others’ bogus trial held to convince(?) the Sigurimi and Hoxha of the truth of a blatantly obviously trumped-up charge of organising opposition to the regime. This plot, which was alleged to have occurred, was supposed to have been hatched in a high security labour camp in the remote mountains of northern Albania.
This book is well-written and beautifully translated from its original Albanian. It is essential reading for anyone curious about methods of political repression, which I am certain continue to be employed today in certain countries.
November 2, 2011
A book that left me thinking. I have read a lot about the gulags in the Soviet Union, as well as about the system of oppression in Eastern European countries, but this added a new twist to the story. The absurdity of the system is so apparent in this book. It will not be a "wow" book to read - but it will leave one thinking about how humans can play such roles in supporting a regime in the name of self-preservation.
August 7, 2013
Heartbreaking and horrifying
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews