Vojo Kushi

Vojo Kushi (; , August 3, 1918 – October 10, 1942) was an Albanian and Yugoslav communist guerrilla fighter (partisan) and one of the founders of the Communist group based in Shkodër, following the Italian occupation of Albania in April 1939. He was proclaimed a National Hero of Yugoslavia by the Yugoslav communist government on February 12, 1945, and then a Hero of Albania by the Albanian communist government in 1946.

Early life and origin Kushi was born in 1918, in Vrakë, near Shkodër. He belonged to the Serb-Montenegrin minority of Albania. His original surname may have been Kušić ; due to King Zog's state persecution of Serbs following 1920, surnames with obvious Slavic suffixes such as '-ić' and '-vić' were removed, as were Slavic-speaking schools. One of the discussions of Partisans in Prokletije, including Kushi, was included in Đurica Labović's Lučonoša sa Prokletija (1985).

Death The Albanian fascist regime sentenced communist fighters to death for treachery and unrest. In Tirana, Qemal Stafa, Their house on the Kodra Kuqe quarter (Red Hill quarter) was surrounded and a fight ensued for 6 hours, with tanks forcing them out; Kushi stormed out and killed several carabinieri, then ran out of bullets and jumped onto the tank and was killed.

Legacy After the war, he was proclaimed a National Hero. In Albania, many streets, quarters, schools, sport institutions and others were named after him. In Tirana, a monument was erected in his honour, a statue of his face and his name below it. It is located in Sheshi Selvia, Tirana. An Albanian documentary about him, Vojo Kushi (1969), was made.

Later Hoxha imprisoned Vojo's brother Marko and his family in southern Albania as part of his party purges. and Voja Kuši .