Part VIII: Education and Propaganda

Tirana, Albania. September 14, 1931

Behije Zog, Queen of the Albanians, tried to keep a straight face as she endured yet another dinner with more of Zog's Anglezi friends. Her husband's fluency in the language had been one of the less pleasant surprises she had experienced following the jarring events of his coronation and their subsequent marriage ceremony. How he had kept this skill from being noticed by others since his childhood in Istanbul still baffled her, but any confusion ran secondary to her annoyance at relying on translators when Zog so easily slipped into the language during these dinners. As much as she understood the economic imperative of speaking the language well, given her husband's investments, learning Italian had been difficult enough, to learn English of all things at her age? Impossible.

So, dinners like this became an exercise in endurance and one she seemed destined to repeat in ever increasing frequency. For now, not only did her husband's commercial empire in the English-speaking world continue to grow, but he'd decided to spark a diplomatic incident with Italy. Despite his consistent rhetoric stating the opposite, Behije was beginning to see things from her father's point of view. Day by day, Zog seemed to be acting like those Albanians who vainly wished that the British would sail in to replace the Italians and save the day.

We can't afford this…

Though Behije's knowledge of the exact state of her husband's business remained admittedly limited, it didn't take a genius to recognize that he was truly over-extending himself this time. The British weren't going to seriously contest Italy's interest in Albania, and even if they did, Italy wasn't going to abandon its investment. Civil war was an inevitability if they continued to pursue this course of action, but that might not even matter if her husband kept on putting more and more of the country on his back in the middle of the greatest global downturn in history. His behaviour shortly after their marriage had been nerve wracking enough, but the economy now was hardly booming and unlike 1928, the Italians were highly unlikely to bail out her husband.

Not now…

Zog's sudden hostility to improving Albania's relationship with Italy still confused her. After all, had he not himself arranged for an eventual customs union with the country following his coronation? Were not Italians the main customers for his vaunted factories? What exactly did he stand to truly lose from renewing and expanding the Pact of Tirana at this point? (1) Was the additional independence really worth all the expenses he was personally taking on? Expenses, Behije had tirelessly maintained, that unlike his investments elsewhere had no chance of ever being paid back?

Who in their right mind thought that investing in educating peasants was a good idea at a time like this? What more did they really need to know other than how to plow their fields then harvest, and sell their crops? Why did her husband think it was his responsibility to pay for their education and build their roads? She understood the whole concept of noblesse oblige but this was a bit much. Spending this amount of his own money, during a global depression, and endangering his family for what? Almost all the peasants he educated would likely remain peasants, but some, probably too many, might question their place in society and inadvertently bring all of society down on their own heads.

Especially since the entire edifice that was the Kingdom of Albania was now standing on increasingly precarious economic ground. Her father ensured her that her husband's vaunted "tax reform" was going to be an absolute disaster for the state budget, meaning that Zog would have to pay for even more regular expenses out of his own pocket. Even making up the normal shortfall would have been challenging, but if she understood the numbers being spoken about correctly, Zog was talking about effectively tripling the education budget to not only compensate for the withdrawal of Italian teachers but massively expand the Albanian education system.

Of course, the Qiriazis, (2) being consummate Americanized middle-class graspers, were eating all of this up. After all most of the new education budget was going to be spent according to their whims. Zog had recently appointed Christo Dako, Sevasti Qiriazi's husband, to the post of education minister as part of his continued efforts to slowly integrate reformers into a cabinet largely dominated by his cronies.(3) Yet in Behije's eyes this was hardly the most distressing element of Zog's relationship with the Qiriazis. Dako it seemed was merely a more palatable front for the ideas of his American educated sister in law, Parashqevi Qiriazi who had written extensively on Albanian education reforms during her time at Oberlin College. (4) What had begun innocuously enough with Zog supporting her publication of feminist drivel and allowing her to co-chair the Foreign Scholarship Board with Mid'hat Frashëri (5) was growing into an increasingly parasitic relationship with her husband.

Parashqevi Qiriazi (b.1880) Albanian Teacher and Feminist ​

Whereas Behije had to fight tooth and nail for every franc from her husband, Parashqevi seemingly just had to bat her eyes to open the floodgates from her husband's investments. (6) Thousands upon thousands of francs seemingly appeared out of nowhere for schoolhouses in the middle of nowhere, new publications, and the foundation of scouting troops for both boys and girls around the country. (7) At the same time Behije found herself embarrassed by her continually outdated wardrobe and frustrated by Zog's insistence on a meagre staff and continual postponement of the construction of their new palace and summer homes. Had the recent market crash in Austria not similarly impacted her peers Zog's parsimony towards her would have been completely unbearable.(8)

By now it was apparent to her that the sudden enthusiasm Zog had shown towards their marriage following his coronation had all been a highly political act meant to curry favour with her father. Slowly but surely his efforts to pursue her dwindled as he became increasingly financially independent and entrenched as king. He still put on an act, for whom, Behije didn't know or honestly care at this point. Inviting her to these dinners, buying her flowers, spending time together with her and their son Leka, (9) all of that, even the amazing sex, couldn't outweigh his stubborn refusal to meet her needs in favour of becoming a martyr for an increasingly selfish and ungrateful country. (10) At least she didn't have to endure any more of his attempts to convert her to his increasingly bizarre martyrdom complex. Those had become almost non-existent after her explosive outburst in response to her husband refusing to allow her to travel to Rome. (11)

What's so bad about Rome? Why Paris? Why London? Why couldn't you just have kept buying jewels for that Austrian dancer of yours… She sulked inwardly as the conversation seemed to drone on and on.

When she was being honest with herself, she always knew Zog's outward displays of love weren't going to last. Women of her station seldom had happy marriages and affairs by both parties were common. If Zog hadn't sent his mistress away she wouldn't have cared, so long as he remained discreet. Se was confident that maintaining an Austrian dancer here in Tirana would have been far less expensive than his current undertakings. It would also have been infinitely preferable to the unintentional lectures she was being exposed to at these dinners all the while watching her husband connect with Parashqevi Qiriazi in a way that he'd attempted to but never succeeded with her. At times like these she often wondered whether dismissing Leka's nanny might provide her with an excuse to miss these occasions. Surely childminding would be less tedious…

Yet if she did that, she would never be taken seriously by her peers again. Nor would she have time to engage in the social outings that Zog still permitted her to engage in. Dismissing the boy's nanny would be cutting off her nose to spite her face. Especially when her liberation was not long off. Her father's recent financial difficulties might have prolonged her current state of affairs, but with Leka seemingly healthy it wouldn't be long before Zog and his goddamn martyrdom complex could be dealt with, leaving his wealth and the kingdom in far more responsible hands.

That thought and that thought alone was increasingly becoming her only solace in an increasingly frigid marriage. Properly applied, her husband's wealth could buy her everything she ever dreamed of. She would be the envy of not only the country, but the continent. As her husband and the Qiriazis droned on and on about their nonsensical dreams regarding textbooks for Albanian peasants, Behije mentally retreated to a happier place and continued to design and decorate the villa she would purchase in Rome…

Notes

1. As hinted at before, the renewal/expansion of the Pact of Tirana caused major fallout in OTL and does so in TTL as well. In OTL the deal, signed in 1926, had a validity of 5 years and was seen as a major blow to Albanian independence albeit a necessary one as it gave Albania access to necessary capital in the form of the SVEA loan. In OTL's 1930 the Italians began proposing the signatory of a new Treaty of Friendship which built upon not only the 1926 Pact of Tirana and the Treaty of Alliance signed the subsequent year. Zog however preferred to allow the 1926 Pact of Tirana to expire and allow the 1927 Treaty to govern Italian relations as that treaty had been successfully sold as an alliance between equals. Needless to say, the Italians were not pleased and placed considerable political pressure on Albania prior to shifting their attention to East Africa. In TTL the Italians don't have the issue of the SVEA loan repayments to hold over Zog's head, but they're still not going to go quietly into the night when the SI pursues the same policies.

2. An Albanian family with a long history of supporting Albanian language education. Also a key figure in the small Protestant community.

3. Dako served as Education in OTL and both his wife and sister-in-law were aligned with Zogu in OTL. In TTL that relationship is even stronger due to

4. All OTL

5. Mid'hat never reconciled with Zog in OTL but does in TTL that will be explained later.

6. Keep in mind for later…

7. The formation of scouting clubs also will tie Albania closer to the UK as it was a pet project of both Sterling and Percy during their stints as heads of the Albanian Gendarmerie.

8. See Part V, unfortunately for Shefqet Verlaci and many other of Zog's aristocratic opponents the Creditanstalt collapse of May 1931 which ushered in the Great Depression in Europe basically wiped out their investments.

9. Also see Part V, Leka is the Albanian form for Alexander which is related to the name given to Gjergj Kastrioti: "Skanderbeg" from Ottoman Turkish: اسکندر بگ‎, romanized: İskender Beğ. Given Zog's alleged background the name makes too much sense not to use in TTL even though TTL's Leka Zogu is a completely different person.

10. Unfortunately for this SI he can't use his unselfish lovemaking to magically make this political marriage more palatable…

11. Rome was basically the secondary, or in some cases primary, residence of many Albanian aristocrats particularly those under Italian influence after WWI. Those with means had villas there and often seemed to spend more time there than in Albania proper. Though not letting Behije visit is understandable from a political standpoint which prevents her father from intervening, it doesn't go over well.

(Except from https://www.kilgore.edu/about/institutional-information/university-history)

A Brief History of Kilgore University (12)

C.M. "Buck" Kilgore, whose family first settled in nearby Danville, founded the town of Kilgore (Texas) in 1872. When the International and Great Northern Railroad came to East Texas and located its terminal four miles west Danville, Mr. Kilgore realized the advantages of living near the railroad and moved his family to a new home near the depot located in present-day Kilgore.

As time went by, many from the Danville area migrated to the new settlement; and by 1880, the town had a population of 300 with a hospital, drugstore, depot, two mercantile stores, five dry goods stores, several nice homes, eight saloons and a commitment to education.

In 1873, Professor Isaac Alexander, a prominent educator, established the Alexander Institute in Kilgore and operated a very successful educational institution until it was moved in 1894 to Jacksonville, Texas, where it became Lon Morris College. Gregg County made its first serious attempt at a uniform school system in 1893 by dividing the county into eleven districts. By 1912, the Kilgore School District was a better-than-average school district in the state with an area of 25 square miles and an enrollment of 125 students.

The normal, everyday life of Kilgore was dramatically altered on December 18, 1929, when the Lou Della Crim #1 came in with more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The boom was on! Derricks sprang up everywhere, and the town grew from a population of 800 to 15,000 in a matter of months and the city was formally incorporated in February of 1930. (13) Eager to give back to the region which had given so much to him, King Zog of Albania began corresponding with Kilgore civic and business leaders to form a team dedicated to pursuing what had earlier been an impossible dream. Together, they envisioned a new service for the young people of the area, one that would have long-range effects on every community in East Texas and ultimately the world. They would establish a university.

However, establishing a new university proved to be no small undertaking. W. L. Dodson, superintendent of the Kilgore Independent School District, urged the board to take the necessary steps to create a junior college first; and they authorized him to bring in B. E. Masters, president of Amarillo Junior College, to assist in the implementation of his plan. Mr. Masters came in April of 1932 and met with the board of education. In August, the board formally named Mr. Dodson as president with Mr. Masters as dean. In order to begin classroom instruction by fall, all parties concerned agreed that the college should be operated by the Kilgore Independent School District and would temporarily utilize the public-school facilities until the new buildings were completed. Thus, Kilgore College opened in the fall of 1932 with 11 faculty members and 229 students. (14)

Generous donations from King Zog and others spurred the rapid construction of what is now the Kilgore Campus over the next few years and the college's enrollment began to grow. Though primarily concerned with meeting the needs of surrounding East Texan communities, the international vision of Kilgore University quickly became apparent as under the influence of King Zog they responded to the beginnings of the Holocaust in 1933. Working with the newly established Royal University of Tirana, Kilgore College facilitated the emigration and survival of dozens of Jewish intellectuals from Germany. Though this process was far from painless, it played a foundational role in helping Kilgore establish the reputation for tolerance and scholarship it enjoys today…

Kilgore University's "Zog Hall" (Old Main Building in OTL)​

…In addition to naming several key campus buildings, and having a statue in the central quad, King Zog's influence can still be felt today through the University's longstanding and popular exchange and co-op programs with businesses and institutions in the Kingdom of Albania. If you are interested in not only majestic beaches and mountains, but also seeing what you can learn in one of Europe's most innovative countries, please contact the Center for International Experience immediately as spaces are limited!

Notes

12. This is adapted from Kilgore College's OTL website.

13. All earlier than OTL see Part II.

14. All happened OTL only substantially earlier. Kilgore College was founded in 1935 in OTL.

(Excerpted from Jason Tomes "King Zog: Self-Made Monarch of Albania" 2003)

Though often overshadowed by the Tax Reform that took place in the same year, Zog's decision to reform and expand Albanian education in 1931 arguably had an even more profound impact on the country. The tripling of the long-neglected Education budget with funds contributed by Zog himself allowed for not only addressing teachers' salary concerns but also the beginning of Zog's lifelong struggle to educate Albanian children. While the Military and Gendarmerie remained the state's largest expenditures, the fact that they remained largely static in the face of sizeable investments in Education, Health, and Infrastructure was a clear sign of Zog's new priorities. Almost overnight, the prestige of Albanian teachers throughout the country experienced a similarly exponential rise as they received not only the back pay owed to them and a pay raise, but the support they so desperately needed.

In addition to providing the books, materials, and educational infrastructure required by Albania's existing body of teachers, Zog also invested in increasing teacher education under the guidance of his new Education Minister Christo Dako and founded the Royal Teachers' College in Tirana later that same year. By bringing in experts from America and the UK as well as utilizing the expertise and experience gained by Zog's earlier experiments with FMSh company schools, Zog began the slow process of providing the same educational experience given to the children of FMSH employees to the rest of his countrymen. The resulting increase in both the quantity and quality of Albanian teachers not only negated Italian efforts to apply pressure by withdrawing educational aid in response to Zog's refusal to sign the proposed 1931 Treaty of Friendship but also succeeded in massively increasing the size of his political constituency.

Intended to renew and expand upon the 1926 Pact of Tirana and thereby complete the final preparations for Albania's transformation into an Italian tributary state, the 1931 Treaty of Friendship was nevertheless considered to be a done deal right up until the point that Zog rejected it. Instead Zog stated that the Treaty of Alliance, signed in 1927 and marketed as an agreement between equals could govern Italo-Albanian relations and the 1931 Treaty was unnecessary especially considering the 1928 agreement on customs harmonization. In pursuing this line of reasoning, Zog hoped to strengthen his position with Albanian Nationalists who had balked at his previous agreements with Italy, yet the Italians were reluctant to surrender any political points to Zog even given their previous agreements. Instead they hoped to appeal to Zog's self interest by withdrawing other forms of support and force the newly wealthy King to surrender even more of his wealth as he sought to fill in the gaps. This policy of intimidation began in the area of education where the Italian government ordered the closure of the 4 technical schools they had founded in 1929 and the departure of their teachers. Then, mere days later, the private Roman Catholic schools in the country's north announced that they would be drastically reducing their activities and closing several schools. Finally, the Italians announced that their contractors, ministry advisors, and all other non-military personnel would be recalled. If Zog wanted to make political hay at their expense, he would have to pay dearly for it.

Unfortunately for Mussolini and Aloisi, the King was more than willing to open his pocket book to expand Albanian education. By 1932 hundreds of new teachers had been hired and new school buildings were being constructed or converted in all parts of the country. While many of these teachers had no official training and thus were often not capable of making up for the quality of the withdrawn Italian teachers, it turned out that sometimes quantity has a quality all its own. (15) Zog's willingness to hire Shkodran Catholic liberals, a political bloc traditionally opposed to him, to replace departed Italian teachers in the North played a major role in preventing the growth in regional unrest the Italians intended to inflict when they withdrew teachers. Zog was also able to avoid the calls of many such as Hel Moisi and Mirash Ivanaj to nationalize Albanian education. Instead the King tapped into his new contacts in America and abroad to bring in new technical staff to resume operations in the closed Italian technical schools while encouraging the activities of other non-state run schools to make up for the politically motivated Italian withdrawal.

The withdrawal of Italian educational aid also forced Zog to comprehensively reorganize and expand the Foreign Scholarship Program for Albanian Students. As with many Albanian government programs during the 1930s this meant eliminating corruption and to accomplish this Zog purged the existing leadership and replaced them with a new team spearheaded by noted Albanian feminist Parashqevi Qiriazi and his former opponent Mid'hat Frashëri whom Zog lured out of the bookstore he had established after his retirement from politics. While the public appointment of Qiriazi caused some consternation among conservative Muslims, the relative success both had in running the program quickly dispelled most discontent. Soon Albania's best and brightest students, not merely the friends of government officials, were receiving scholarships to study in Europe and America, but not Italy due to the current spat between Zog and Mussolini. (16)

In addition to these measures, Zog's decision to establish the Center for Albanological Studies in 1932 similarly marked both a massive step forward in the intellectual lives of Albanians and a further entrenchment of his strong reformist constituency. Albanian intellectuals both in the country and around the world suddenly found themselves recruited by royal agents to help preserve rapidly fading folklore and oral histories. While Zog's opponents decried these projects as a barefaced attempt to bribe the chattering classes who more often than not opposed his reign, the products of this investment proved to be vital in not only securing Mid'hat Frashëri's support and establishing Albanology / Albanian studies as a respectable academic discipline, but preserving an image of a country that would soon be radically changed by the decades to come. (17) Today little evidence remains of the essentially feudal landscape of 1930s Albania other than the accounts and folklore recorded by Zog's programs.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that many of the resulting works of folklore and oral history were quite laudatory of Zog and contributed to the growing ranks of works praising the new King's business acumen and determination to modernize the country while preserving its traditions. They also served as excellent material for the growing Ministry of Propaganda. With the aim of creating a truly Albanian national consciousness, the 1930s saw Zog personally fund the Ministry of Propaganda's expansion from producing simple posters and pamphlets to take advantage of new mediums such as radio and film. Working with the Ministry of Education, Zog ensured that every school had a radio with which to receive broadcasts which began emanating from Radio Tirana in 1933. (18) Though programming was limited, the novelty of Albanian language radio, particularly in rural areas proved to be a key contributing element to Zog's growing popularity in rural regions and the growth of rural education.

The success of Radio Tirana paled in comparison to the Ministry of Propaganda's animated film series. Borrowing from techniques pioneered by the USSR, Zog gathered Albania's limited film and animation resources and harnessed them to the interests of the state by funding the production of silent animated films. (19) Featuring ads for FMSh goods, animated folk tales, and nationalist propaganda, these films were sent, often on horseback, with a projector, a sheet, a projectionist, a generator, and an armed guard to almost every village in Albania where screenings would be held with the help of the local teacher and scout troops when available. When coupled with the educational reforms these animated films played a key role in establishing Zog's appeal in rural Albania which proved to be so crucial in the coming years…

…The rapid growth of both the Teacher's College and the Centre for Albanology inspired Zog to merge the two and establish the Royal University of Tirana in 1933. Though the university remained relatively small during the 1930s and failed to completely meet the tertiary education needs of the country, its establishment marked yet another key milestone in Albania's long and arduous road towards modernization. The establishment of UMT also marked a small but noteworthy chapter in Albanian-Jewish relations as Zog emulated Kemal Ataturk in looking to recently dismissed Jewish German intellectuals as potential agents of modernization. (20) Despite Tirana being far less popular than Istanbul, Zog's role in founding Kilgore University (then Kilgore College) in East Texas eventually laid the foundation for a process in which Jewish German professors would take a short term appointment in Tirana as a pre-condition for assistance in securing a position at Kilgore College in the United States. This process proved to be the key to luring famed Albanologist Norbert Jokl from Vienna following the events of Kristallnacht in 1938 and saving both him and his library from the events which followed. (21) While the impact of the rest of these teachers was limited in the 1930s, Zog's decision to pursue their expertise saved dozens of them from the Holocaust and played a key role in establishing relationships which would prove vital in the postwar period…

Norbert Jokl (b.1887) Jewish Austrian Albanologist​

Zog's investment in Health Education is often overshadowed by his role in expanding all other levels of Albanian education but was arguably just as influential. As with his other educational reforms, Zog built off his experience with FMSh and beginning in 1931 began to work towards providing all of Albania with the same benefits he provided his workers. While Zog would only seriously begin to approach this goal after the war, his policies did result in several major advances in Albanian medicine. In addition to ensuring every major Albanian city had a proper hospital, Zog also initiated domestic doctor and nurse training programs at UMT. Yet the most influential program proved to be Zog's health education campaign which was aimed primarily at women and centered largely on improving the health of both mothers and children. When coupled with the registration and subsidization of midwives, many have argued that these programs played a key role in the population boom during the 1930s despite considerable anecdotal evidence of Albanian women ignoring these efforts and a lack of statistical evidence showing decreased infant mortality…(22)

…By investing so heavily in Education, Infrastructure, and Health after 1931, Zog effectively negated any political pressure the Italians had applied following their withdrawal of educational expertise, contractors and other economic aid in response do Zog's refusal to sign the 1931 Treaty of Friendship. Contrary to their expectations, Zog showed yet again that he was willing to put his country before his bottom line and would gladly shoulder considerably more costs than anyone expected. Though Pompeo Aloissi suggested going even further and withdrawing military support as well, Zog's contemporaneous flirtation with the Little Entente killed that idea and led to a renewal of efforts to ensure a restoration of Italo-Albanian relations that would safeguard the eventual customs union.

Notes

15. Zog's initial educational reforms echo what the Albanian communists did in OTL from 1944-46. As it turned out there too, quantity had a quality all its own as the massive expansion of education, albeit of a low quality due to the lack of formal teacher training, similarly helped produce a massive growth in their popularity.

16. In OTL Enver Hoxha was the recipient of one of these scholarships and eventually went to France where he was introduced to Communism. In TTL his fate is going to be different, needless to say. More on Hoxha's fate will be revealed in Part XII.

17. Mid'hat Frasheri's library was massive (20,000 books apparently) and in OTL was confiscated by the Albanian communist party to form the basis of the National Library. In his will he dictated that should he die he wanted all the books donated to an Albanological Institute. The SI's sudden decision and means to fund such projects plays a major role in undoing the animosity that existed in OTL.

18. Radio Tirana was founded in 1938 in OTL but no efforts were made to distribute radios so its reach was quite limited. In TTL Zog's willingness to provide additional funds exponentially increases its reach.

19. USSR silent films are from OTL and are lauded in modern scholarship for helping to integrate illiterate Soviet citizens. Zog simply is copying the process as much as he can for the illiterate Albanian citizens which make up most of his country.

20. Though initial scholarship on Turkish attempts to rescue Jews was quite laudatory, more recent work has emerged which shows a less favourable side to many efforts. In the case of inviting Jewish academics in 1933, it needs to be noted that their arrival coincided with the purge of the existing Turkish academic community as a part of efforts to westernize the country. In TTL Zog is seen as emulating Ataturk because Tirana is far less appealing than Istanbul so the academics which do come, arrive later when all other options have been exhausted.

21. Jokl is from OTL and in addition to being a Jewish Austrian was the authority on Albania in the 1930s and 40s to the extent that Gjergj Fshita attempted to get him a job in 1939 and the Albanian fascists who were recruited into the Italian puppet government tried to get him to emigrate in the 1940s. His concerns about going to Tirana and the fate of his library among other things prevented him from leaving in TTL and he was eventually murdered by the Nazis or committed suicide (accounts differ) sometime in 1942. In both OTL and TTL Jokl was dismissed from his position in the University of Vienna in May 1938 but in TTL Zog is able to be much more persuasive due to additional resources and by extending the possibility of emigrating to America thus getting him out before emigration restrictions prevent him from doing so.

22. Keep in mind that in OTL the population of Albania grew during the 1930s going from just under a million to roughly 1.1 million. Given that Zog has engineered the most economic growth Albania has ever seen in its history in TTL and has done a lot to ensure that a good chunk of this growth gets to the people, there's exponentially more reason IMO for larger population growth than OTL. Of course TTL's books don't have OTL to compare it to so they're limited in their analysis.

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Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed the update. I'm not entirely happy with it especially since I struggle to write female characters (practice makes perfect I guess!) and I'm trying to cram several shorter updates into one/lay some groundwork for the later 1930s and early 1940s. Anyways comments and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.