The Commissar and Teacher of the People, Qamil Guranjaku, oil painting, Lee Shkreli, People's Socialist Republic of Albania 1977 == Daily LIFT #913
"The painter immortalizes the beginning of the new Albanian school immediately after the liberation of the country. The commissar of partisan fighting units Qamil Guranjaku was, at the same time, a fighter for spreading education among the broad masses of the people." -- New Albania Magazine 1977
Guranjaku was an Albanian Communist freedom fighter and a leader of the 17th offensive partisan brigade during WWII in the fight against the Nazi and fascist invaders. After the liberation of Albania, he worked as editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Warrior" and then at the Ministry of Education, where he prepared the first textbooks for the new, socialist Albania. He died young in 1949 at the age of only 45. He was regarded as a hero in beginning the building a new, mass education system during the socialist era of the country.