ealt with the reconstruction after the years of ravaging
war. Among the writers of the early Communist period were the poets
Mark Ndoja, Llazar Siliqi, Gjergi Kominino, Ziza Cikuli, and Vehbi
Skenderi. Zihni Sako, Fatmir Gjata, and Jakov Xoxe wrote short stories.

During the 1944-48 period translations of Serbo-Croatian works were
published, and several books were translated from Russian. At the end of
1949 the Soviet Union and Stalin, in particular, became additional
themes for Albanian literature; after 1960 the Chinese were substituted
for Soviet heroes.

Theater and Cinema

There were no professional theaters before 1945. Sokrat Mijo, an
Albanian who had studied drama in Paris, tried to set up a professional
theater in the 1930s but was unable to generate interest in the project.
Occasionally, amateur groups performed plays, but that was the extent of
theatrical experience before the Communist era. The people objected to
the presence of women on the stage, and in most amateur performances men
played the feminine parts. The plays performed by the amateur groups
were primarily of a romantically patriotic nature.

The absence of repertory theaters did not inhibit the emergence of
Albanian playwrights and, although their works were rarely performed,
they did have readers. The first playwright to appear on Albanian
territory was Pasko Vasa Pasha, who wrote _The Jew's Son_. Pasha was
able to write in his native land because he lived in the city of
Shkoder, which was the only area to enjoy some immunity from the rigid
restrictions imposed by the Turks against cultural activity in Albania.
His play was produced in 1879 by an amateur group at Xaverian College.

Several playwrights emerged in the Albanian settlements abroad, and a
few within Albania, but their works had to be published abroad before
1912. Two of the most prominent of these writers were Sami Frasheri, who
wrote _Besa_ (The Pledge), and Kristo Floqi, who wrote _Religion and
Nationality_. Ernest Koliqi made significant contributions to Albanian
dramatic literature after independence was won.

The potential of the theater as an instrument of political and social
indoctrination was recognized by the Communist leaders, and in 1945 they
invited the president of the Society of Yugoslav Actors to come to
Albania to establish a professional theatrical group. With the aid of
Sokrat Mijo, who had become the director of the school of drama in
Tirana, such a group