The Photo Collection of Vandeleur Robinson Albania in 1939 and 1944 - 1945.
(text by Robert Elsie)
British writer and military figure Vandeleur Robinson (1902-1990), born as Vivian Dering Vandeleur Robinson, was the
son of an army colonel. As a young man, he attended Cheltenham College, was briefly a military cadet at Woolwich
Military Academy, and studied history at Emmanuel College in Cambridge. He seems to have spent some time in
Czechoslovakia since he was initially married to a Czech woman. In the 1930s, Robinson was active for the League of
Nations as a regional organizer for southeastern Europe. It was there that he met his second wife, the British war
correspondent and journalist Clare Hollingworth (1911- ), to whom he was married from 1936 to 1951. The couple
spent their honeymoon in the Balkans and were also in the southeastern Europe for several months before the
Second World War, when they first visited Albania. It was this visit that gave rise to Robinson's book, Albania's Road
to Freedom (London 1941). Later during the Second World War, Robinson was an army captain and seems to have
been involved in intelligence activities. He arrived in Albania in October 1944 and met the new communist leadership.
In March 1945 he was press attaché at the British military mission in Tirana and had the rare opportunity, as a foreign
diplomatic observer, of attending the proceedings of the Treason Trial conducted by the Special Court (Gjyqi Special),
at which sixty members of the pre-communist establishment were sentenced to death and long prison sentences as
war criminals and enemies of the people. In May and June 1945, Robinson had occasion to go on an extensive tour of
southern Albania in an army jeep. It was during his stay in Albania that Robinson met Sara Blloshmi (1900-1974),
daughter of the Ottoman general Abdul Karim Pasha. As the granddaughter of Ismail Qemal bey Vlora who had
declared Albanian independence in 1912, Sara was born in Constantinople and studied in Cairo. Her first husband,
Selahedin Blloshmi had been Albanian ambassador to Romania under Zog. She was known as an emancipated
socialite in the Zogist period and was admired (and disapproved of) for her dancing. Sara realized what was going on
in Albania after the communist takeover and begged Robinson to marry her and get her and her daughter, the painter
Vera Blloshmi (1923-1998), out of the country. Robinson agreed, and arranged for a British military colleague, Jimmy
Mellet, to marry her daughter. In this manner, both women managed to leave communist Albania and got to England,
and both marriages lasted. Relations between the Western powers and the new communist regime in Albania
deteriorated rapidly and the British military mission - and Robinson - were soon withdrawn from Tirana. For decades
little news and few pictures got out of Albania. It is for this reason that the Robinson photo collection of 1944- 1945 is
particularly interesting. Vandeleur Robinson subsequently lived in northern Italy and was the author of some plays.
His archives are preserved at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London. The photo collection of
Vandeleur Robinson consists of two parts: (1) the photos taken during his visit to Albania in 1939 and published in his
book Albania's Road to Freedom (London 1941), probably not all taken by Robinson himself, and (2) the photos from
late 1944 and mid 1945 - unknown to the public until now - that he took in Tirana and on his trip to southern Albania
before he was expelled from the country. The second part of the collection, given by the Mellet family to the Centre
for Albanian Studies, is now preserved in the archives of the Royal Geographical Society in London.
Page 1
King Zog in uniform in the 1930s
Page 2
Kruja, 1939
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Mosque in Tirana, 1939
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Robinson on horseback, 1939
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Women at the market in Shkodra, 1939
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Waiting for a conveyance in Shkodra, 1939
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Man from Gjirokastra wearing a fustanella
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Gypsies in Albania, 1939
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Albanian peasants, once brigands, 1939
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Children in Saranda, 1939
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Early morning in Vlora, 1939
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Old bridge in Rijeka Crnojevica (Montenegro), 1939
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Girls out in costume in Tirana for the king's birthday in the 1930s
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The king's birthday in Tirana in the 1930s
Page 15
View of Përmet, 1939
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Fruit stall in Përmet, 1939
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Tobacco drying near Elbasan, 1939
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Weavers resting by the roadside in Shkodra, 1939
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Buffalo wagon in Durrës, 1939
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Two women, 1939
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Hoisting a water buffalo on board in Durrës, 1939
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Bektashi fathers in Fushë Kruja, 1939
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Bektashi monastery in Fushë Kruja, 1939
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Orthodox Church in Pojani, 1939
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Gateway in Elbasan, 1939
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Naziresha Mosque in Elbasan, 1939
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Noonday rest in Elbasan market, 1939
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Centre of Elbasan, 1939
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View of Gjirokastra, 1939
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Town and fortress of Berat, 1939
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Robinson on horseback in Tirana, October 1944
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Congress of Berat, 22 October 1944
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Enver Hoxha at the Congress of Berat, 22 October 1944
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Communist leaders in Berat,22 October 1944
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Entry of the new government in Tirana, 28 November 1944
Page 36
Myslim Peza and Haxhi Lleshi at a New Year’s reception of the British Mission at Hotel Dajti in Tirana, 1 January 1945
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Enver Hoxha and Omer Nishani in Tirana, January 1945
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Vandeleur Robinson in the hills of Tirana, February 1945
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Vandeleur Robinson reading in Tirana, February 1945
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The British Mission in Tirana, March 1945
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The British Mission in Tirana, March 1945
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Ruins of the Sulejman Pasha Mosque in Tirana, March 1945
Page 43
Children marching in Tirana in front of the present University of the Arts building, March 1945
Page 44
Children marching up the main boulevard in Tirana, March 1945
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The market in Tirana, March 1945
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Youth Congress in Tirana, 16 April 1945
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Youth Congress in Tirana, 16 April 1945
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Market in Korça, 19 May 1945
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Market in Korça, 19 May 1945
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Orthodox church in Korça, 19 May 1945
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Road in Myzeqeja, 29 May 1945
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Lushnja, 29 May 1945
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Berat, 30 May 1945
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Gorica in Berat, 30 May 1945
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Bridge over the Osum River at Berat, 30 May 1945
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Berat, 30 May 1945
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Berat, 30 May 1945
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Berat, 30 May 1945
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Berat, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Gjirokastra, 30 May 1945
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Mosque in the region of Gjirokastra or Delvina (Rusan?), 30 May 1945
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Delvina, 30 May 1945
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Delvina, 30 May 1945
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Delvina, 30 May 1945
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Delvina, 30 May 1945
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Shën Vasil north of Saranda, 30 May 1945
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Shën Vasil north of Saranda, 30 May 1945
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Shën Vasil north of Saranda, 30 May 1945
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Shën Vasil north of Saranda, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Spileja in Himara, 30 May 1945
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Muradiye Mosque in Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Street in Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Market in Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Market in Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Centre of Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Street in Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Street in Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Beach at Vlora, 1 June 1945
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Castle in Këlcyra, 1 June 1945
Source : "http://www.albanianphotography.net/"
Date : "20121020", Exp : ""
ULK : "Albania", TLK : "photos", DMK : "old, early Albanian photos"
Copyright : "Robert Elsie"
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