In 1977, an elderly woman in Athens, Athina Nonda Zhusti, wrote a letter with a trembling hand addressed to “Comrade Enver Hoxha.” In soft words and a humble tone, she asked neither for shelter nor for help, but only for a visit permit to see her son — the famous actor Viktor Zhusti, whom she had not seen for more than 30 years.
"I am sick and with one foot in the grave," she wrote to Enver, "please grant me the right to come as a tourist, to hug and kiss my only son for the last time."
The file of the Central Committee of the Albanian People's Party (APS) also contains the accompanying card of this letter. Officials recorded that the woman was a Greek citizen, the widow of Nonda Zhusti from Gjirokastra, who had died in Athens in 1976. The son, Viktor Zhusti, had remained in Albania since childhood, after the separation of the family in 1945, and the mother had never been given permission to see him. In the bureaucratic notes, her request was reduced to a "matter to be examined", but nothing more.
She never got permission. Only many years later, in the 1980s, Viktor Zhusti saw his mother briefly when he visited Greece — their first and last meeting. The letters from Athens Zhusti remain today a painful testimony of mothers separated by iron borders, where love knew no barriers, but states did. A piece of paper that testifies not only to a mother's longing, but also to the cruelty of a time when a hug had to be approved by the party.
First letter – July 2, 1977
First Secretary of the Albanian People's Party,
Tirana
Comrade Enver Hoxha
The undersigned Athina Nonda Zhusti, wife of the former Nonda Zhusti from the city of Gjirokastra, deceased on 1/4/1947, residing in Athens, Glikerias Street No. 36, Petropoli, with Greek nationality and citizenship. Please state the following: Since 1945, our only son, Viktor N. Zhusti, now residing in Tirana, at Bajram Curri Street, Palace 3/69/3, apartment 7, was separated from us for family reasons and I have not seen him since then.
I have sent you once before, Comrade Enver, but unfortunately I have not been granted the requested permission to come as a tourist, to see once again my only son, who has been separated from me for forty years, and now that I am sick and with a life on my knees, and with one foot in the grave. Therefore, I beg you once again, Comrade Enver, to grant me the right to come as a tourist and to hug and kiss my only son for the last time.
Convinced that you will understand me, I conclude with deep Albanian greetings and respect.
Athens, 2/7/1977
(Athina N. Zhusti)
PS Since I have heard my father's complaint, I ask that permission be granted to me under the name: Athina Ch. Nadhio.
Note: Statement by Enver MFA on 18.3.77.
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Official card – March 18, 1982
Central Committee of the Albanian People's
Party Letters and Complaints Sector
Name, patronymic, surname: Athina N. Zhusti
Address: Rr. Glikerias No. 36, Nd. Athens
District (City): Greece (Athens)
To whom the letter is addressed: Comrade Enver
The issue that arises:
She says she is the wife of Nonda Zhusti from the Protokata of Gjirokastra, a Greek citizen. Her husband left Albania in 1931 and lived in Athens where he died in April 1976. During the fascist occupation, her son, only 2 years old, came to Gjirokastra with his grandmother and uncle. He now lives in Tirana. She has written several times to our Foreign Ministry asking to be allowed to come as a tourist to meet him, but she has not received any response.
She is an old woman, with no one else here except her son. So she is asking for permission to come as a tourist to meet her son and his family.
