Lazër Radi, jurist, publicist, poet and translator, was born in Prizren (Kosova). After the Serbian persecution, he lived in Albania, where he finished the high school in Shkodër, thanks to a scholarship. His first publications were published in the newspapers “Kombi” (“The Nation”), “Drita” (“The Light”) and “Diana”. They usually bore his name or nicknames like “L.R.”, “Lara”, “Lapredi” or “Ladi”. After the 1940s, he published the book “Fashizmi dhe fryma shqiptare” (“Fascism and the Albanian spirit”). In 1942, he received the title of “Juris Doctor”. On November 23, 1944, he was arrested by the partisans. He was tried together with other intellectuals in the so-called “Special Trial” where he was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment. He served his sentence for about 10 years and after his release from prison he began the ordeal of internment in various camps, such as Kuç, Shtyllas, Radostinë, etc. For a long period of time he worked as a farmer, mason, carpenter, etc. In 1982, he was labeled as a “bourgeois intellectual and enemy of the people”. After the collapse of the dictatorship, he published various articles in the country’s first free newspapers, published and translated. He passed away in Tirana, in 1998. (In the photo: Lazër Radi)
Text: National Museum “House with Leaves”, Tirana
Photo: © https://www.radiandradi.com/katalogu-i-vepres-se-plote-te-lazer-radit-2018-2021/
Graphic processing: AHCF
