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CENTRAL and EASTERN EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume 14, 2020 CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume 14, 2020 BALKAN AFFAIRS. RECENT TITLES REVIEWED. By Antonia Young University of Bradford, UK Colgate University, USA. Jane Nicolo (ed.), Somewhere Near to History: the Wartime Diaries of Reginald Hibbert, SOE Officer in Albania, 1943–44. Oxford: Signal Books, 2020, Marius-Ionut Calu, Kosovo Divided: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Struggle for a State. London: I. B. Tauris, 2020, Felix B. Chang and Sunnie T. Rucker-Chang, Roma Rights and Civil Rights: A Transatlantic Comparison. CUP, 2020. Pepa Hristova (photographer), Sophia Grieff and Danail Yankov (text), Sworn Virgins. Berlin: Kehrer Heidelberg Verlag, 2013. Jelka Vince Pallua, Zagonetka virdžine (Sworn Virgins). Zagreb: Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, 2014, Paola Favorino, A je burrneshe (Are you manly). Verona: SIZ Industria Grafica, 2019. ISSN 1752–7503 10.2478/caeer-2020-0012 © 2020 CEER First publication Central and Eastern European Review Jane Nicolov (ed.), Somewhere Near to History: The Wartime Diaries of Reginald Hibbert, SOE Officer in Albania, 1943–44. Oxford: Signal Books, 2020, Jane Nicolov, Reginald Hibbert’s daughter, inherited her father’s diaries when he died in 2002, with his wish that they might one day be published. Although familiar with their existence, throughout her life, and even as a Cambridge graduate in European History, it was only in 2018, when James Pettifer approached her with a view to publication, that she studied them seriously. Hibbert, was the youngest and least experienced of the British Liaison Officers (BLO) in Albania where he marked his 22nd birthday, during the ten months he spent in the North East mountainous region of the country. This was a region of least support for the Partisans (communists), the group which the British government decided to back, and which ultimately won (leading later to Albania becoming the strictest Stalinist state in Europe under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, whom Hibbert met during his placement). The other two active Albanian fighting factions at the time, were Balli Kombëtar (nationalists) and the Legalitati movement (monarchists and promoters of a Greater Albania). Throughout the diaries, Hibbert relates his discussions with all whom he encounters and concludes that as a soldier, in fighting for the good not only of Britain, but of Europe, that the Partisans offered the best solution for Albania at the time. As Nicolov explains, Hibbert’s strong support for the Partisans was to cause political suspicion of him later in life. Prefacing the Diaries, Pettifer gives a concise historical background leading to the period of SOE action in Albania, from 1943. By this time Germany had occupying forces in Albania, including Kosovo and Western Macedonia (the whole area referred to by nationalists as Greater Albania being the area of high ethnic Albanian habitation). The first section of the diaries records Hibbert’s 15 months of training in England, some from letters to his wife-to-be, Ann Pugh. A few pages are devoted to records of Hibbert’s training in Cairo (August-December, 1943). 36 Central and Eastern European Review Landing from 2000 ft. by parachute into Northern Albania, Hibbert and several others spent their first night in the German occupied country in “a little Albanian cottage”. Within a week, all their kit was stolen, but they spent an “excellent” Christmas with Italians and Albanians. The day-to-day life, always on the alert for German attacks, describes alternately quiet days of simply waiting for commands, food drops by aeroplanes and actions, with days of extremely arduous travel on foot, never being sure of food and any place (disregarding comfortable) safe from attack, to sleep. Surprisingly, substantial meals and alcohol feature quite frequently in the diary. He also relates some time-filling hobbies, reading and learning Italian. Each BLO carried 100 gold sovereigns (and napoleons) to pay their expenses in the field (p. 66). Hibbert’s team frequently varied in size and composition, as did the various groups of Albanians with whom he worked. However, additional difficulties are presented by the inaccessibility of radio contact in the mountains, by harsh winter weather and fleas and other bugs – and later by intense heat – and more bugs and other creatures. The SOE members as well as their supporting troops suffer sicknesses and wounds, with little resource to medical aid. It was not clear to Hibbert at the start, that Northern Albania was so very strongly anti-Communist, even though it was the Communists that the UK government were militarily backing. The diaries shed light on Hibbert’s developing understanding of the complex interactions of the three Albanian political groups and their interactions with the occupying Germans. However, he reports on the differences of opinion of other SOE members from other areas some of whom visit him in the North and added complications in discussing their views with those with whom Hibbert has developed good working relationships. There was a lack of liaison between the Missions of Northern and Southern Albania, all adding to his own diminishing belief in their effectiveness in supporting the British intentions (as promoted by the British command in Bari) as being the most effective way to fight the Germans, for example noting that they did not come to organize a mercenary army (p. 102). An event in February, 1944, set a bloodfeud in motion when a villager of Kalis village shot another villager who opposed the presence of the British soldiers. In March Hibbert records a reprisal for an airdrop that they received, instigated by an 37 Central and Eastern European Review unsympathetic Albanian who inspired the people of nine villages to make a besa (vow) against them. By 6th August 1944, Hibbert is bemoaning the lack of support for the Partisans in the North, “to cut off and reduce the whole German garrison in Albania” (p. 175) And on 9th August, Hibbert expresses his disillusion: “Bari has been at fault in not understanding the political nature of this war in Albania and not giving us a directive for handling political questions. We have wasted eight months here”. (p. 176). On 7th October, they finally leave for Bari. The diary ends, detailing six weeks in Bari, culminating at Christmas, which “will be very sober by comparison” to the previous Christmas, shortly after their arrival in Albania. The book ends with an overview of Hibbert’s life as an active international diplomat. The whole volume provides a serious contribution to our understanding of the activities of the SOE in Albania in World War II, especially in bringing together (in footnotes throughout) many other written accounts of the same period, and with helpful short biographies of both them and the Albanian actors of the time. Many contemporary photos and an index further enhance the Diaries, along with maps, though it is unfortunate that so many of the places mentioned in the Diaries are not shown on the maps. 38 Central and Eastern European Review Marius-Ionut Calu, Kosovo Divided: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Struggle for a State. London: I. B. Tauris, London, 2020. This work, for which Calu earned his Ph.D, is the result of many years of study, mostly during the early part of the second decade of the Twentieth Century (after Kosovo’s declaration of Independence in 2008). He points out at the start of his Introduction, and returns frequently throughout the book, to the fact that the Western-centric preoccupation of “finding solutions for the integration and protection of all its constituents” in modern state-building, may be perceived as both an asset and a burden. Calu claims that that for Kosovo, the development of domestic sovereignty is very important following the dual legacy of Communism and conflict. He sets out the aims of his enquiries: to find out whether the multiethnic political and institutional set-up of Kosovo is an accurate representation of its actual social configuration; whether all minorities benefit equally and proportionally from the complex set of provisions and rights; and how practical and beneficial these measures are. The first chapter is a general discussion about the dilemmas of state-building, giving distinctions between integrationist and accomodationist strategies. Calu gives an overview of the modern liberal democratic state: the state-in-society approach, quoting Joel Migdal and Max Weber; the nation state (noting the transformation in the Eighteenth Century from monarch sovereignty to peoples’ sovereignty; and externally led state-building). He concludes by suggesting that Kosovo falls into the paradigms of contemporary state-building, post-conflict state-building, liberal state-building, and EU post-liberal state-building, with state failure and weakness in the models of democratic governance. There follow a further 15 pages on these theories of state-building before returning, in the next chapter, to how it all relates to Kosovo. However, the second chapter outlines extremely briefly, the history of Kosovo from 1912 – just two pages through to the post-1999 war: so brief that there is no discussion of the very important nonviolent democratizing movement led by Ibrahim Rugova throughout the 1990s (the subject treated in the Howard Clark’s, Civil Resistance in Kosovo, 2000). (Though Rugova’s name is listed in the Index to be found on pp. 57, 61 and 69, but I did not find any of these references. I did find it on p. 53) 39 Central and Eastern European Review As a result, the book’s focus on rebuilding Kosovo’s institutions commences only in the immediate Post-1999 UNMIK period in accordance with UNSC Resolution 1244, establishing a status of autonomy, but with overall authority and coordination of local authorities held by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG: not included in the generally helpful “List of Abbreviations”).
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