Tag #144847 - Interview #83317 (Margarita Farka )

n the relationship between Albania and the USSR became complicated and developed into a critical conflict. I faced a dilemma: to stay or to go back home. I had to decide for myself and for Lilyana, since Ismail would not have been let out of the country. No one forced me to leave. When I appealed to the Embassy of the USSR about our future life, I was told that I should have thought about it earlier, before I had gotten married. There were many such mixed families. We tried to find out if there would be a plane to Moscow. But we were told that there was no information. We hesitated for a long time, went to talk to an acquaintance of ours, the Secretary of the Plant’s Party Committee. By the way, Ismail was a member of the Albanian Workers’ Party. Finally Ismail made a final decision – Lilyana and I had to leave for the USSR. After the relations between the USSR and Albania were broken, there was no telephone or post connection between the countries, and for a number of decades Ismail and I knew nothing about each other!

Many years later, when we met after more than three decades, Ismail told me that it was the wisest decision in his life. Soviet wives, who stayed with their husbands, were arrested and imprisoned for eight to ten years. Ismail was also thrown into prison, since he refused to divorce me officially. He was told, ‘You don’t want to divorce, which means that you hope that the relations with the USSR will improve.’ He stayed in prison for more than twelve years, besides, he was tortured. During the following meetings with Ismail I understood that it was a very painful subject for him, so I tried not to ask more questions about it.