The Democracy and Class Struggle Editor Nickglais discussed this 1960 Moscow meeting of 81 Parties at which Enver Hoxha spoke with Annie Powell from the Rhondda who was present as a representative of the CPGB at the 1960 meeting of 81 Communist Parties at her home in 1964.
It was this meeting that made us aware that Annie Powell was a staunch supporter of Khrushchevite revisionism largely because Khrushchev liked Annie's singing of the Welsh National Anthem not for any profound political reason - Khrushchev was a classic manipulator of people.
We established contact with Arthur Evans and the new anti revisionist movement as a result of this meeting and started on our long march against revisionism which we battle to this day.
Publishing this speech of Enver Hoxha brought back those memories.
This speech of Enver Hoxha has passed into history and its anti revisionist perspectives were correct and have been validated over time
Enver Hoxha
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania
Reject the Revisionist Theses
of the XX Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and theAnti-Marxist Stand of Krushchev's Group!
Uphold Marxism-Leninism!
Speech Delivered by Enver Hoxha as Head of the Delegation of the Party of Labor of Albania Before the Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers Parties, Moscow, 16 November, 1960
First Delivered: In Moscow, 16 November, 1960, at the Meeting of 81 Communist and Workers' Parties.
First Published: In The Party of Labor of Albania in Battle with Modern Revisionism, "Naim Frasheri" Publishing House, Tirana, Albania, 1972
INTRODUCTION
In his speech delivered at the Conference of the 81 communist and workers' parties in Moscow in November 1960, Comrade Enver Hoxha made an all-round analysis of the main problems that were concerning the international communist movement and firmly upheld Marxism-Leninism. This speech is one of the most important phases of the principled fight which the Party of Labor of Albania has waged to expose modern revisionism and consolidate the unity of the international communist and workers' movement.
The battle the Party of Labor of Albania has waged against the revisionist views of the Khrushchevite Soviet leadership began immediately after the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Although this battle was not waged directly and openly at the beginning, the Party of Labor of Albania had made known all its reservations and objections to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Party of Labor of Albania tried in every way to avoid publicising its differences with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lest that would put weapons into the hands of the enemies of communism. On the other hand, it was not yet cognizant of Khrushchev's real intentions, therefore it tried to settle the differences through talks and consultations in a comradely spirit. While maintaining a principled stand, it strove and hoped to make the Soviet leaders realize their mistakes and take the right path.
The real treacherous features of the Soviet revisionists became more and more evident to the Party of Labor of Albania. The more their treachery was revealed, the harsher and more irreconcilable became the battle the Party of Labor of Albania waged against Khrushchevite revisionism in order to expose and crush it completely.
At the June 1960 Bucharest meeting the Party of Labor of Albania came out in the open in defense of Marxist-Leninist principles and cried "Halt!" to the Khrushchevite revisionists who attempted to hatch up a dangerous plot against the Communist Party of China and against the entire international communist movement.
After the Bucharest meeting the Soviet revisionist leaders launched a savage attack against the Party of Labor of Albania in order to force it into line with them and their deeds. Under these conditions, the Party of Labor of Albania became more thoroughly convinced that its principled stand on all the basic issues of the international communist movement should be maintained with the utmost courage and determination. It did this at the 1960 November Conference in Moscow.
In his speech at the Conference, Comrade Enver Hoxha, openly, frankly and with Marxist-Leninist courage, submitted the principled views of the Party of Labor of Albania on the main issues of the international communist movement about which differences had arisen and sharply criticized N. Khrushchev's revisionist group, both for its erroneous anti-Marxist views and actions as well as for its brutal interference in the internal affairs of the Party of Labor of Albania and the savage attacks it had launched against it.
The Party of Labor of Albania launched this absolutely principled criticism against the Soviet leaders in order to safeguard the unity of the international communist movement and the socialist camp, because unity cannot be preserved without exposing faults and alien manifestations, without condemning them forthrightly and without correcting them on Marxist-Leninist lines.
At the Moscow meeting, the Khrushchevites did their utmost to refute the criticism against their revisionist views and divisive acts. Their attempt was in vain.
Following the determined and principled stand of the Party of Labor of Albania on all the problems that were preoccupying the international communist movement, and after the speech of the Chinese delegation, the representatives of all the participating parties at the meeting were obliged to express their attitude one way or the other. Faced with this situation, the revisionists tried to draw the attention of the participants at the meeting away from principled issues and to turn the meeting into a platform of vicious attacks against the Party of Labor of Albania and the Communist Party of China. But this attempt also met with failure. The principled, internationalist stand of the Party of Labor of Albania in defense of Marxism-Leninism and the unity of the international communist movement was seconded by the Communist Party of China and by the delegations of a number of other parties. The Khrushchevite revisionists were obliged to back down.
Comrade Enver Hoxha's speech was a major contribution to the successful outcome of the Moscow Conference. Thanks to the determined battle waged by the Communist Party of China, by the Party of Labor of Albania and by some other parties, the Moscow Conference approved the Declaration. Included in the Declaration were certain incorrect conclusions and erroneous theses. On these assessments and theses, the Party of Labor of Albania entertained quite contrary views which it had also expressed openly at the Conference. The delegation of the Party of Labor of Albania signed the Declaration considering its content correct in general. While making concessions on partial matters for the sake of unity, the Party of Labor of Albania made no concessions whatsoever on the main issues which were connected with the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism.
The Party of Labor of Albania was of the opinion that unity in the international communist movement could be established if every party carried out the Declaration in good faith, and that the differences could be settled only by observing the norms governing the relations between Marxist-Leninist parties without making public these differences to the enemies of socialism. This is why the Party of Labor of Albania refrained from publishing Comrade Enver Hoxha's speech at the Moscow Conference at that time, but persisted in carrying out the Declaration which was approved there.
Comrade Enver Hoxha's speech at the Moscow Conference clearly shows that from that time onward, the Party of Labor of Albania would wage an open battle against bourgeois and revisionist ideology. Nevertheless, this battle had not yet assumed that breadth and depth which it assumed later as a logical consequence of the embitterment of the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism and of the degeneration of the Soviet revisionist leaders into a gang of renegades from and traitors to socialism. The whole document bears the seal of the time and circumstances under which it came to being. It is published without modification.
Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania
REJECT THE REVISIONIST THESES OF THE XX CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION AND THE ANTI-MARXIST STAND OF KHRUSHCHEV'S GROUP!
UPHOLD MARXISM-LENINISM!
Dear Comrades!
This Conference of the Communist and Workers' Parties is of historic importance to the international communist movement, for it makes a detailed analysis of the international political situation, drawing up a balance sheet of the successes and of the mistakes that may have been verified along our course, helping us see more clearly the line we should pursue henceforth in order to score further successes to the benefit of socialism, communism, and peace.
The existence of the socialist camp with the Soviet Union in the lead is already an accomplished fact in the world. The communist movement in general has been enlarged, strengthened and tempered. The communist and workers' parties throughout the world have become a colossal force to lead mankind forward towards socialism, towards peace.
As the draft statement which has been prepared emphasises, our socialist camp is much stronger than that of the imperialists. Socialism rises higher and stronger day by day while imperialism grows weaker and decays. We would make use of all our means and exert all our efforts to speed up this process. This will come about if we abide loyally and unwaveringly by Marxism-Leninism and apply it correctly. Otherwise, we will retard this process, for we have to cope with a ruthless enemy -- imperialism, headed by U.S. imperialism whom we must defeat and destroy.
We want peace, while imperialism does not want peace and is preparing for a third world war. We must fight with all our might to avert a world war and to bring about the triumph in the world of a just and democratic peace. This will come about when imperialism will have been forced to disarm. Imperialism will not disarm of its own free will. To believe anything of the kind is merely to deceive oneself and others. Therefore we should confront imperialism with the colossal economic, military, moral, political and ideological strength of the socialist camp, as well as with the combined strength of the peoples throughout the world. We should sabotage by every means the war which the imperialists are preparing.
The Party of Labor of Albania has neither kept nor will it ever keep secret from its people this situation and threat from imperialism menacing peace-loving mankind. We can assure you that the Albanian people, who detest war, have not been alarmed by this correct action of their Party: they have not become pessimistic nor have they been marking time as far as socialist construction is concerned. They have a clear vision of their future and have set to work with full confidence, being always on guard, keeping the pick in one hand and the rifle in the other.
We hold the view that U.S.-led imperialism should be mercilessly exposed politically and ideologically. At no time should we permit flattery, prettification or softness towards imperialism. No concessions of principle should be made to imperialism. Tactics and compromises on our part should help our cause not that of the enemy.
Facing a ruthless enemy, the guarantee for the triumph of our cause lies in our complete unity which will be secured by eliminating the deep ideological disagreements which have been manifested, and by basing this unity on Marxist-Leninist foundations, on equality, on brotherhood, on a comradely spirit and proletarian internationalism. Our Party is of the opinion that, not only should we not have any ideological divisions, but that we should maintain a unified political stand on all issues. Our tactics and strategy towards the enemy should be worked out by all our parties, based on Marxist-Leninist principles, on correct political criteria complying with the concrete existing situations.
Our socialist camp, headed by the glorious Soviet Union, has become a colossal force from all points of view, both as to its economic and cultural as well as to its military potential. At the center of the successes, at the center of the strength of our camp lies the colossal moral and political, economic, cultural, and military strength of the Soviet Union. The successes in industry, agriculture, education and culture, in science and in the military field in the Soviet Union are exceptionally great. At the same time they are of immeasurable assistance to the achievement of major successes in the other countries of the socialist camp.
It is rightly pointed out in the draft-Statement that the great and inexhaustible strength of the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union is the decisive factor in the triumph of peace in the world, it is the moral, political and ideological force which inspires the peoples of the world who are fighting to free themselves from the yoke of the blood-sucking colonialists, from the clutches of imperialism and capitalism, it is its force of example and its economic aid which helps and inspires other peoples to win the battle for total liberation from the exploiting capitalists.
It is for this major reason that the Soviet Union and the socialist camp have become the center and hope of the peoples of the world, their moral, political and economic prop, their firm and loyal champions against the threats of the warmongering U.S., British, French aggressors and their allies.
All the peoples of the world aspire to and fight for freedom, independence, sovereignty, social justice, culture and peace. These sacred aspirations of theirs have been and are being trampled upon by the capitalists, the feudal lords and imperialists and it is natural that the struggle of these peoples should be waged with great severity against the capitalists, feudal chiefs and imperialists. It is also natural for the peoples of the world to seek allies in this battle for life which they are waging against the executioners. It is only the Soviet Union and the socialist camp that are their great, powerful and faithful allies.
Therefore, in the struggle for peace, disarmament, and social progress in the world, the socialist camp is not alone against the imperialist camp but in close alliance with all the progressive people of the world, while the imperialists stand isolated against the socialist camp.
We are living at a time when we are witnessing the total destruction of colonialism, the elimination of this plague that wiped peoples from the face of the earth. New states are springing up in Africa and Asia. The states where capital, the scourge, and the bullet reigned supreme, are putting an end to the yoke of bondage, and the people are taking their destiny into their own hands. This has been achieved thanks to the struggle of these people and the moral support given them by the Soviet Union, People's China, and the other countries of the socialist camp.
Traitors to Marxism-Leninism, agents of imperialism and intriguers like Josif Broz Tito, try in a thousand ways, by hatching up diabolic schemes like the creation of a third force, to mislead these people and the newly-set up states, to detach them from their natural allies, to hitch them up to U.S. imperialism. We should exert all our efforts to defeat the schemes of these lackeys of imperialism.
We are witnessing the disintegration of imperialism, its decomposition, its final agony. We live and fight during the epoch which is characterized by the irresistible transition from capitalism to socialism. All of the brilliant teachings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, teachings that have never become outdated, though the revisionists claim they have, are being confirmed in practice.
World imperialism is being dealt hard blows which clearly go to show that it is no longer in its "golden age", when it made the law as and when it wanted. The initiative has slipped from its hands and this is not on account of its own desires. The initiative was not wrested from it by mere words and discourses but after a long process of bloody battles and revolutions which capitalism itself forced upon the proletariat by the strength of people who were rising to smash the world of hunger and misery, the world of slavery. This glorious page was opened by the Great October Socialist Revolution, by the great Soviet Union, by great Lenin.
Even now, when it sees its approaching doom, when it has strong and determined opponents such as the socialist camp and its great alliance with all the peoples of the world, U.S.-led world imperialism is mustering, organizing, and arming its assault forces. It is preparing for war. He who fails to see this, is blind. He who sees it but covers it up, is a traitor in the service of imperialism.
The Party of Labor of Albania is of the opinion that, in spite of the major difficulties we encounter on our way to establish peace in the world, to bring about disarmament and settle the other international problems, there is no reason to be pessimistic. It is only our enemies who are losing, that are and should be pessimistic. We have won, we are winning and will continue to win. That is why we are confident that our efforts will be crowned with success.
But we think that exaggerated, unrealistic optimism is not only bad but also harmful. He who denies, belittles, who has no faith in our great economic, political, military, moral strength is a defeatist and does not deserve to be called a communist. On the other hand, he who, intoxicated by our potential, disregards the strength of the opponents, thinking that the enemy has lost all hope, has become harmless, and is entirely at our mercy, he is not a realist. He bluffs, lulls mankind to sleep before all these complicated and very dangerous situations which demand very great vigilance from us all, which demand the heightening of the revolutionary drive of the masses, not its slackening, its disintegration, decomposition and relaxation. "Waters sleep, but not the enemy" is a wise saying of our long-suffering people.
Let us look facts straight in the eye. World imperialism headed by its aggressive detachment, U.S. imperialism, is directing the course of its economy towards preparations for war. It is arming itself to the teeth. U.S. imperialism is rearming Bonn's Germany, Japan, and all its allies and satellites with all kinds of weapons. It has set up and perfected aggressive military organizations, it has established and continues to establish military bases all around the socialist camp. It is accumulating stocks of nuclear weapons and refuses to disarm, to stop testing nuclear weapons, and is feverishly engaged in inventing new means of mass extermination. Why is it doing all this? To go to a wedding party? No, to go to war against us, to do away with socialism and communism, to put the peoples under bondage.
The Party of Labor of Albania is of the opinion that if we say and think otherwise we will be deceiving ourselves and others. We would not be called communists if we were afraid of the vicissitudes of life. We, communists, detest war. We, communists, will fight to the end to smash the diabolic and warmongering schemes the U.S. imperialists are up to, but if they launch a war, we should deal them a mortal blow that will wipe imperialism from the face of the earth once and for all.
Faced with the nuclear blackmail of the U.S.-led world imperialists, we should be fully prepared economically, politically, morally as well as militarily to cope with any eventuality.
We should prevent a world war; it is not fatally unavoidable. But no one will pardon us if we live in a dream and let the enemy catch us unawares, for it has never happened that the enemy is to be trusted, otherwise, he would not be called an enemy. The enemy is and remains an enemy and a perfidious one at that. He who puts his trust in the enemy will sooner or later lose his case.
We should do everything, strive with all our means, in order to prevent war. The policy of the Soviet Union and of our socialist camp has been and remains a policy of peace. All the Soviet proposals and those of the Governments of our countries of the People's Democracy made in the international arena have aimed at easing tension among nations, at solving unsettled issues through negotiations and not through war.
The peaceful policy of the Soviet Union and of the countries of the socialist camp has exerted a major influence in exposing the aggressive intentions of imperialism, in mobilizing the people against the warmongers, in promoting their glorious struggle against the imperialist oppressors and their tools. The examples of heroic Cuba, the struggle of the Japanese people and the events in South Korea and Turkey are the best proof of this.
But, in spite of all this, many concrete problems that lie on the table, like the proposals for disarmament, the summit conference, etc., have not yet been resolved and are being systematically sabotaged by the U.S. imperialists.
What conclusions should we draw from all this? The Party of Labor of Albania thinks that imperialism and, first and foremost, U.S. imperialism, has not changed its skin, color or nature. It is aggressive and will remain aggressive as long as it has a single tooth left in its mouth. And being of an aggressive nature, it may plunge the world into a war. Therefore, as we emphasized at the meeting of the Editorial Committee, we insist that it should be brought home clearly to all the peoples that, there is no absolute guarantee against world war until socialism has triumphed throughout the world, or at least in the majority of countries. The U.S. imperialists make no secret of their refusal to disarm. They are increasing their armaments, preparing for the war, therefore we should be on our guard.
We should make no concessions of principle to the enemy, we should entertain no illusions about imperialism because, despite our good intentions we would make things worse. In addition to rearming and preparing war against us, the enemy is launching an unbridled propaganda to poison the spirit and benumb the minds of the people. They spend millions of dollars to recruit agents and spies, millions of dollars to organize acts of espionage, diversion and of outrage in our countries. U.S. imperialism has given and is giving billions of dollars to its loyal agents, the treacherous Tito gang. It does all this with a view to weakening our internal front, to sowing dissention, to wakening and disorganizing our rearareas.
A lot is said about peaceful coexistence, some even go so far as to assert such absurdities as that People's China and Albania are allegedly opposed to peaceful coexistence. Obviously, such harmful and erroneous views should be rejected once and for all. There can be no socialist state, there can be no communist who is opposed to peaceful coexistence, who is a warmonger. Great Lenin was the first to put forward the principle of peaceful coexistence among states of different social orders as an objective necessity as long as socialist and capitalist states exist side by side in the world. Standing loyal to this great principle of Lenin's, our Party of Labor has always held and still holds that the policy of peaceful coexistence responds to the vital interests of all the peoples, responds to the purpose of the further consolidation of the positions of socialism, therefore, this principle of Lenin's is the basis of the entire foreign policy of our people's State.
Peaceful coexistence between two opposing systems does not imply, as the modern revisionists claim, that we should give up the class struggle. On the contrary, the class struggle must continue; the political and ideological struggle against imperialism, against bourgeois and revisionist ideology, should become ever more intense. In our persistent struggle to establish Leninist peaceful coexistence while making no concessions of principle to imperialism, we should further promote the class struggle in capitalist countries as well as the national-liberation movement of the people of colonial and dependent countries.
In our view, the communist and workers parties in the capitalist countries should strive to establish peaceful coexistence between their countries which are still under the capitalist system and our socialist countries. This strengthens the positions of peace and weakens the positions of capitalism in those countries and, in general, helps the class struggle in those countries. But their task does not end there. In these countries, it is necessary to promote, intensify and strengthen the class struggle. The laboring masses, guided by the local proletariat headed by the communist party and in alliance with all the proletariat of the world, should make life impossible for imperialism, should crush its fighting and economic potential, should wrest from its hands its economic and political power and proceed to the destruction of the old power and the establishment of the new power of the people. Will they do this by violence or by the peaceful parliamentary road?
This question has been clear and it was not necessary for Comrade Khrushchev to confuse it in the 20th Congress, and do so in such a way as to please the opportunists. Why was it necessary to resort to so many parodies of Lenin's clear theses and the October Socialist Revolution? The Party of Labor of Albania is quite clear about and does not shift from Lenin's teachings on this matter. So far, no people, no proletariat and no communist or workers' party has assumed power without bloodshed and without violence.
It is incorrect for some comrades to claim that they assumed power without bloodshed, for they forget that the glorious Soviet Army shed streams of blood for them during the Second World War.
Our Party thinks that, in this matter, we should be prepared and prepared well for both eventualities, especially, for taking power by violence, for if we are well prepared for this eventuality, the other eventuality has more chance of success. The bourgeoisie may allow you to sing psalms, but then it deals you a fascist blow to the head and crushes you because you have not trained the necessary cadres to attack, nor done illegal work, you have not prepared a place where you can be protected and still work, nor the means with which to fight We should forestall this tragic eventuality.
The Party of Labor of Albania is and will be for peace and peaceful coexistence and will fight for them in the Marxist-Leninist way, as Lenin taught us, and on the basis of the Moscow Peace Manifest. It has been, is and will be striving actively for general disarmament. On no occasion and not even for a moment will the Party of Labor of Albania cease to wage a political and ideologicaI struggle against the activities of the imperialists and capitalists and against bourgeois ideology, it will not cease to wage a bitter, uninterrupted and uncompromising battle against modern revisionism and, particularly, against Yugoslav Titoite revisionism. There may be comrades who reproach us Albanians, with being stubborn, hot-blooded, sectarian, dogmatic and what not, but we reject all these false accusations and tell them that we do not deviate from these positions, for they are Marxist-Leninist positions.
They say that we are in favor of war and against coexistence. Comrade Kozlov has even put to us, Albanians, these alternatives: either coexistence, as he conceives it, or an atomic bomb from the imperialists, which will turn Albania into a heap of ashes and leave no Albanian alive. Until now, no representative of U.S. imperialism has made such an atomic threat against the Albanian people. But here it is and from a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and to whom? To a small heroic country, to a people who have fought, through centuries, against savage and innumerable enemies and who have never bent the knee, to a small country and to a people who have fought with unprecedented heroism against the Hitlerites and Italian fascists, to a people who are bound like flesh to bone to the glorious Soviet Union, to a party which abides loyally, consistently and to the last by Marxism-Leninism and by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But comrade Frol Koslov, you have made a mistake in the address, you cannot frighten us into yielding to your wrongly calculated wishes and we never confound the glorious Party of Lenin with you who behave so badly, with such shamelessness, towards the Albanian people and towards the Party of Labor of Albania. The Party of Labor of Albania will strive for and support all the correct and peaceful proposals of the Soviet Union and other countries of the socialist camp as well as of the other peace-loving countries.
The Party of Labor of Albania will exert all its efforts, use all its prerogatives and obligations to strengthen the unity of the socialist camp, a Marxist-Leninist unity. It is absurd to think that little socialist Albania may detach itself and live apart from the socialist camp, apart from our fraternity of socialist peoples. Albania is indebted to no one for its presence within the ranks of the socialist camp; the Albanian people themselves and the Party of Labor of Albania have placed it there with their blood and sweat, their work, their sacrifices, with their system of government and through the Marxist-Leninist line they pursue. But let no one ever think that, because Albania is a small country, because the Party of Labor of Albania is a small party it should do what someone else say when it is convinced that that someone is mistaken.
As I said earlier, the Party of Labor of Albania thinks that, our socialist camp, which has the one aim, which is guided by Marxism-Leninism, should also have its own strategy and tactics and these should be worked out together by our parties and states of the socialist camp. Within the ranks of our camp we have set up certain forms of organization of work, but the truth is, that these have remained somewhat formal, or to put it better, they do not function in a collective way, for instance, the organs of the Warsaw Treaty and of the Council of Mutual Economic Aid. Let me make it quite clear. This is not a question of whether we too, should be consulted or not. Of course, no one denies us the right to be consulted, but we should hold meetings for consultation. We raise this problem on principle and say that these forms of organization should function at regular intervals, problems should be taken up for discussion, decisions should be adopted and there should be a check up on the implementation of these decisions.
The development and further strengthening of the economies of our socialist countries have been and always are the main concern of our Parties and Governments and constitutes one of the decisive factors of the unconquerable strength of the socialist camp.
The construction of socialism and communism is proceeding at a rapid rate in our countries. This is due to the great efforts of our peoples and to the reciprocal aid they render one another. A role of major importance in this direction has been and is being played by the coordination of the plans of our countries and by the Council of Mutual Economic Aid.
So far, the People's Republic of Albania has given economic aid to no one, first because we are poor, and, second, because no one stands in need of our economic aid. But within correct norms we have made and are making every effort to help the countries which are our friends and brothers to some extent through our exports. We have been aided by our friends, first and foremost by the Soviet Union. We have been helped by credits and specialists without which it would have been very difficult for our country and our economy to develop at the rate they have developed.
The Party of Labor and the People's Republic of Albania have utilized this generous aid of the Soviet Union and of the other countries of People's Democracy as well as they could to the best advantage of our people. Our people are forever grateful to the Soviet people, to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Government, to the people, parties and governments of the countries of People's Democracy for this aid. We have considered, consider, and will consider this aid not as charity but as a fraternal, internationalist aid.
Our people who have been in dire poverty, who have fought with heroism, who have been murdered and burnt out, fell it their duty to seek the aid of their friends and brothers bigger and economically better off than they. And it was and still is the internationalist duty of their friends to give this aid. Therefore, it is necessary to reject any sinister and anti-Marxist view that any one may hold about the nature and purpose of this aid. The economic pressures on the Party of Labor of Albania, on the Albanian Government, and on our people will never be of any avail.
I wish to propose here that the aid of the economically stronger to the economically weaker countries, as is the case of our people, should be greater. The Albanian people do not, in any way, intend to fold their arms and open their mouths to be fed by others. That is not their habit. Nor do our people expect the standard of living in our country to be raised at once to the standard of living in many other countries of People's Democracy, but greater aid should be given our country to further develop its productive forces. We think that the economically stronger countries of the socialist camp should accord credits also to neutraI capitalist countries and to peoples recently liberated from colonialism, provided the leaders of these capitalist countries are opposed to imperialism, support the peaceful policy of the socialist camp and do not hinder or oppose the legitimate struggle of the revolutionary forces, but first of all, the needs of the countries of the socialist camp should be looked into more carefully and be fulfilled. Of course, India stands in need of iron and steel but socialist Albania stands in more urgent need of them, Egypt stands in need of irrigation and electric power but socialist Albania stands in more urgent need of them.
On many political issues of first rate importance, our socialist camp has held and holds identical views. But, since collective consultations have not become a regular habit, on many occasions it has been noted that states from our socialist camp take political initiatives, not that we are opposed in principle to taking initiatives, but these initiatives very often affect other states of the socialist camp as well. Some of these initiatives are not correct, especially when they should be taken collectively by the members of the Warsaw Treaty.
An initiative of this kind is that of the Bulgarian Government which, with total disregard for Albania, informed the Greek Government that the Balkan countries of People's Democracy agree to disarm if the Greek Government is prepared to do so. From our point of view, this initiative was an erroneous one, for, even if the Greek Government had endorsed it, the Albanian Government would not have accepted it. Albania is in agreement with the Soviet proposal made by Nikita Khrushchev in May, 19591, but not with the Bulgarian proposal which intends to disarm the Balkan countries and leave Italy unaffected. Or have the Bulgarian comrades forgotten that bourgeois and fascist Italy has attacked Albania a number of times during this century?
On the other hand, can the Bulgarian comrades, without consulting at all the Albanian Government with which they are bound by a defensive treaty, be allowed to propose a treaty of friendship and non-aggression to the Greek Government at a time when Greece maintains a state of war with Albania and makes territorial claims against our country? It seems to us, that is dangerous to take such unilateral actions. From this correct and legitimate opposition of ours, perhaps the Bulgarian comrades may have arrived at the conclusion that we, Albanians, do not properly understand coexistence, that we want war, and so forth. These views are erroneous.
Similar gestures have been made also by the Polish comrades at the United Nations, when comrade Gomulko stated in an uniteral way at the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization, that Poland proposes to preserve the statusquo on the stationing of military forces in the world and, concretely, that no more military bases should be created, that those that have been set up already should remain, that no more missiles should be installed but the existing ones should remain, that those States that have the secret of the atomic bomb should keep it and not give it to other States. In our opinion such a proposal is contrary to the interests of our camp. No more missiles to be installed, but by whom and where? All the NATO allies including Italy, West Germany and Greece have been equipped with missiles. Not to give the secret of the atomic bomb, to whom? Britain, France and West Germany have it. It is clear that a proposal of this kind will oblige us, the countries of People's Democracy not to install missiles, or any other country of the socialist camp except the Soviet Union, not to have the atomic bomb.
We pose the question, why should Communist China not have the atomic bomb? We think that China should have it and when she has the bomb and missiles, then we will see in what terms U.S. imperialism will speak, we will see whether they will continue to deny China her rights in the International arena, we will see whether the U.S. imperialists will dare brandish their weapons as they do at present.
Some one may pose the question: will China win her rights over the United States of America, by possessing and dropping the bomb? No, neither China nor the Soviet Union will ever use the bomb unless they are attacked by those who have aggression and war in their very blood. If the Soviet Union did not possess the bomb, the imperialists would speak in other terms with us. We will never attack with the bomb, we are opposed to war, we are ready to destroy the bomb but we keep it for defensive purposes. "It is fear that guards the vineyard," is a saying of our people. The imperialists should be afraid of us and terribly afraid at that.
Based on Marxism-Leninism and on the Moscow Declaration and Statement2 on peace, the Party of Labor of Albania has pursued a correct Marxist-Leninist line in matters of international policy and in the important problems of socialist construction. In international relations, the line of our Party has been in accord with the policy of the socialist camp and has followed the direction of the peaceful policy of the Soviet Union.
The Party of Labor of Albania has considered considers, and will consider the Soviet Union as the savior of our people, and its great experience as universal, very necessary and indispensable to all. The Party of Labor of Albania has followed, implemented, and adopted this great experience unreservedly in all fields and has scored successes We have scored successes in setting up and strengthening our industry, in collectivizing agriculture, in developing education and culture which has made great progress, in building our state and our Party. Our Party has now gained maturity and a rich experience in work in this direction.
Our Party has educated, educates, and will continue to educate our people with a great love and loyalty towards the peoples and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This love has been tempered and will be tempered each passing day for it is kneaded with blood, for it has developed on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. We have loved, and still love the Soviet people from the bottom of our hearts and the Soviet people, on their part, have loved and love the people and the Party of Labor of Albania in the same way. This is friendship between peoples, friendship between Marxist-Leninist parties and, therefore, it will flourish through the ages and will never die. This is the unshakable conviction of the Albanian communists, a conviction they have deeply implanted and will continue to implant among our people. We have said and we it repeat now that, without this friendship, there could not have been freedom for our people. This is the fruit of Leninism.
The major problems of the time have preoccupied the Party of Labor of Albania and our people. Our People's Republic has been and is surrounded geographically by capitalist states and the Yugoslav revisionists. We have had to be highly vigilant and tie down people and considerable funds to defend our borders, to defend the freedom and sovereignty of our country from the innumerable attempts of the imperialists and their satellites and lackeys.
We are a small country and a small people who have suffered to an extraordinary degree but who have also fought very hard. We are not indebted to any one for the freedom we enjoy today, for we have won it with our own blood. We are continually aware, day and night of our imperialist enemies, of their maneuvers against the socialist camp and our country in particular, therefore we have never had nor will ever entertain illusions about their changing their nature and their intentions towards our peoples, our camp, and towards socialist Albania in particular. Our Party has been and is for peace, and will fight unceasingly, by the side of the Soviet Union, of People's China, of the other countries of the socialist camp and of all the progressive peoples of the world, to defend peace. For this sacred purpose the Party of Labor of Albania and our Government have supported with all their strength the peaceful policy of the Communist Party and Government of the Soviet Union and of all the countries of the socialist camp. On every issue and on every proposal we have been in solidarity with them.
The U.S. and British imperialists have accused us Albanians of being "savage and warlike". This is understandable, for the Albanian people have dealt telling blows at their repeated attempts to put us under bondage and have smashed the heads of their agents who conspired against the Party of Labor of Albania and our regime of people's democracy.
Tito's gang, that of the Greek monarcho-fascist chauvinists, the rulers in Rome have accused and accuse us of being "warmongers and disturbers of the peace in the Balkans", because, without hesitation, we have always, and will always hit them hard, for their intentions have been, remain, and will always be to chop up Albania among themselves, to enslave our people.
We do not think we need prove at this meeting that war is alien to the socialist countries, to our Marxist-Leninist parties, but the question remains: why do the imperialists and their agents accuse China and Albania of being warlike and, allegedly, opposed to peaceful co-existence?
Let us take the question of Albania. Against whom would Albania make war and why? It would be ridiculous to waste our time in answering this question. But those who accuse us of this are trying to cover up their aggressive intentions towards Albania.
Rankovich wants us to turn our borders into a roadhouse with two gates through which Yugoslav, Italian and Greek agents and weapons could go in and out freely, without visas, in order to bring us their "culture of cutthroats", so that Tito may realize his dream of turning Albania into the seventh republic of Yugoslavia, so that the reactionary Italian bourgeoisie may put into action for the third time their predatory intentions towards Albania, or so that the Greek monarcho-fascists may realize their crazy dream of grabbing southern Albania. Because we have not permitted and will never permit such a thing, we are "warmongers". They know very well that if they violate our borders they will have to fight us and the whole socialist camp.
Their aim, therefore, has been and is to isolate us from the camp and from our friends, to accuse us of being "warmongers and savage", because we do not open our borders for them to graze freely, to accuse us of being, allegedly, opposed to peaceful coexistence. But the irony of fate is that there are comrades who give credit to this game of the revisionists and to these slanders against the Party of Labor of Albania. Of course, we are opposed to any co-existence for the sake of which we Albanians should make territorial and political concessions to Sophocles Venizelos. No, the time has gone forever when the territory of Albania could be treated as a medium of exchange. We are opposed to such a coexistence with the Yugoslav state which implies that we should give up our ideological and political struggle against the Yugoslav revisionists, these agents of international imperialism, these traitors to Marxism-Leninism. We are opposed to such co-existence with the British or the U.S. imperialists for the sake of which we should recognise, as they demand, the old political, diplomatic and trading concessions King Zog's regime had granted them.
As a general conclusions, the Party of Labor of Albania is absolutely convinced that our great cause, socialism and peace, will triumph. Through determined action, the combined forces of the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union, of the international communist and workers movement and of all the peace-loving peoples, have the possibility of compelling the imperialists to accept peaceful co-existence, of averting a world war. But, at the same time, we will intensify our revolutionary vigilance more and more so that the enemy may never catch us unawares. We are convinced that victory will be ours in this noble struggle for world peace and socialism. The Albanian people and the Party of Labor of Albania, just as heretofore, will spare nothing, will assist with all their might the triumph of our common cause. As always, we will march forward in steel-like unity with the whole socialist camp, with the glorious Soviet Union, and with all the international communist and workers' movement.
Dear Comrades!
The unity of the international communist and workers' movement is the decisive factor in realizing the noble aims of the triumph of peace, democracy, national independence and socialism. This question is especially emphasised in the 1957 Moscow Declaration and the draft-Statement prepared for our meeting. In the 1957 Declaration it is stressed that "the communist and workers' parties bear an exceptionally serious historic responsibility for the fate of the world socialist system and the international communist movement. The communist and workers' parties taking part in the meeting declare that they will spare no effort to strengthen their unity and comradely collaboration in the interests of the further unity of the family of socialist states, in the interest of the international workers' movement, in the interests of the cause of peace and socialism". It must be said that, especially in recent times, in the international communist movement and in the relations among certain parties, there have arisen deep ideological and political disagreements, the deepening of which can only bring damage to our great cause. Therefore, the Party of Labor of Albania thinks that, in order to forge ahead together towards fresh victories, it is necessary to condemn the mistakes and negative manifestations which have appeared so far and to correct them.
We want to refer here to the Bucharest meeting at which our Party, as you know, refrained from expressing its opinion concerning the disagreements which have arisen between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China, but reserved the right to do so at this meeting of the representatives of the communist and workers' parties. At that time the Party of Labor of Albania was accused by the Soviet comrades and by some comrades of the other fraternal parties, of everything imaginable, but no one took the trouble to think for a moment why this party maintained such a stand against all this current, why this party, which has stood loyal to the end to Marxism-Leninism and the Moscow Declaration is unexpectedly accused of allegedly "opposing" Marxism-Leninism and the Moscow Declaration, why this party, so closely bound to the Soviet Union and to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, suddenly comes out in opposition to the leadership of the Soviet Union?
Now that all the comrades have in their hands the information materials of both the Soviet and Chinese Communist Parties, let them reflect on them themselves. We have read and studied both the Soviet and Chinese materials, we have discussed them carefully with the Party activists, and come to this meeting with the unanimous view of the Party as a whole.
As we all know, on the occasion of the Congress of the Rumanian Labor Party on June 24 this year, the Bucharest Conference was suddenly organized on the initiative of the comrades of the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union without any previous warning, at least, as far as our Party was concerned. Instead of "exchanging opinions" and setting the date for this Conference we are holding today, which was agreed upon by the letters of June 2 and 7, it took up another topic, namely, the ideological and political accusation directed against the Chinese Communist Party, on the basis of the "Soviet informative" material. On the basis of this material, entirely unknown up to a few hours before the meeting of the Conference, the delegates of the fraternal communist and workers' parties were supposed to pronounce themselves in favor of the views of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, at a time when they had come to Bucharest for another purpose and had no mandate (at least as regards the delegation of our Party) from their parties to discuss, let alone decide, on such an important issue of international communism. Nor could a serious discussion be thought of about this material which contained such gross accusations against another Marxist-Leninist party, when not only the delegates but, especially the leaderships of the communist and workers' parties were not allowed to study it from all angles and without allowing the necessary time to the Party accused to submit its views in all the forms which the accusing Party had used. The fact is that the overriding concern of the Soviet leadership was to have its accusations against the Chinese Communist Party passed over quickly and to have the Chinese Communist Party condemned at all costs.
This was the concern of comrade Khrushchev and the other Soviet comrades in Bucharest, and not at all the international political issues worrying our camp and the world as a whole.
Our Party would have been in full agreement with a Conference of this kind, with whatever other Conference of whatever agenda that might be set, provided that these Conferences were in order, had the approval of all the Parties, had a clear agenda set in advance, provided the communist and workers' parties were given the necessary material and allowed enough time to study these materials so that they could be prepared and receive the approval of the Party Political Bureau and, if necessary, of the plenums of the Central Committees, on the decisions that eventually might be taken at these Conferences. The Conferences should be conducted according to the Leninist norms governing the relations among communist and workers' parties. They should be conducted in complete equality among parties, in a comradely communist and internationalist spirit and with lofty communist morality.
The Bucharest. Conference did not comply with these norms, therefore, our Party, although it took part in it, denounced and denounces that Conference as out of order and in violation of Leninist norms.
We think that the Bucharest Conference did a great disservice to the cause of the international communist movement, to the cause of the international solidarity of the workers, to the cause of strengthening the unity of the socialist camp, to the cause of setting a Marxist-Leninist example in settling ideological, political and organizationaI disputes that may arise within the ranks of the communist and workers' parties and which damage Marxism-Leninism. The blame for this falls on the comrades of the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who organized this Conference, who conceived those forms and who applied those non-Marxist norms in this matter.
The aim was to have the Chinese Communist Party condemned by the international communist movement for faults which do not exist and are baseless. The Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania is fully convinced of this on the basis of the study of facts, of the Soviet and Chinese materials which the Party of Labor of Albania now has at its disposal, based on a detailed analysis which the Party of Labor of Albania has made of the international situation and the official stands of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party.
The whole Party of Labor of Albania holds the unanimous view that the Soviet comrades made a grave mistake at Bucharest, by unjustly condemning the Chinese Communist Party for having, allegedly, deviated from Marxism-Leninism, for having, allegedly, violated and abandoned the 1957 Moscow Declaration. They have accused the Chinese Communist Party of being "dogmatic", "sectarian", of being "in favor of war", of being "opposed to peaceful co-existence", of "wanting a privileged position in the camp and in the international communist movement", etc.
The Soviet comrades made a grave mistake also when, taking advantage of the great love and trust which the communists have for the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, they tried to impose their incorrect views towards the Chinese Communist Party on the other communist and workers' parties.
Right from the start, when the Soviet comrades began their feverish and impermissible work of inveigling the comrades of our delegation in Bucharest, it became clear to the Party of Labor of Albania that the Soviet comrades, resorting to groundless arguments and pressure, wished to lead the delegation of the Party of Labor of Albania into the trap they had prepared, to bring them into line with the distorted views of the Soviet comrades.
What was of importance to comrade Khrushchev, (and comrade Antropov said as much to comrade Hysni Kapo) was whether we would "line up with Soviet side or not". Comrade Khrushchev expressed this opinion in other ways also, in his interjections against our Party at the Bucharest meeting. This was corroborated also by the unjust and unfriendly gestures of the comrades of the Soviet leadership and the employees of the Soviet Embassy in Tirana after the Bucharest meeting which I will refer to later. What was important for the comrades of the Soviet leadership was not the views of a Marxist-Leninist party such as ours but only that we should maintain the same attitude in Bucharest as the Central Committee of the Soviet Union.
No warning was given to the Party of Labor of Albania by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which organized the Bucharest meeting that, on the occasion of the Congress of the Rumanian Labor Party, accusations would be brought against the Chinese Communist Party for, allegedly grave mistakes of its line. This came as a complete surprise to the Party of Labor of Albania. While now we hear that, with the exception of the Party of Labor of Albania, the Chinese Communist Party, the Party of Labor of Korea, the Workers' Party of Vietnam, other parties of the camp were cognizant of the fact that a Conference would be organized in Bucharest to accuse China. If this is so, then it is very clear that the question becomes very much more serious and assumes the form of a faction of an international character.
Nevertheless, our Party was not taken unawares and it did not lack vigilance, and this happened because it always observes the Leninist norms in relations with other parties, because it holds in great Marxist esteem the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Chinese Communist Party and all the other communist and workers parties, because it respects the feeling of equality among parties, an equality which the other parties should respect towards the Party of Labor of Albania regardless of its being a small one in numbers.
Right from the beginning, our Party saw that these norms were being violated at the Bucharest Meeting and that is why it took the stand you all know, a stand which it considered and considers, as the only correct one to maintain towards the events as they developed.
Some leaders of fraternal parties dubbed us as "neutralists" some others reproached us with "deviating from the correct Marxist-Leninist line", and these leaders went so far as to try to discredit us before their own parties. We reject all these with scorn because they are slanders, they are not honest and neither are they compatible with communist morality.
We pose the questions to those who undertook such contemptable acts against the Party of Labor of Albania: Has a party the right to express its opinions freely on matters as it views them? What opinion did the Party of Labor of Albania express in Bucharest? We expressed our loyalty to Marxism-Leninism and this is corroborated by the entire life and struggle of the Party of Labor of Albania. We manifested our loyalty to the 1957 Moscow Declaration and Peace Manifesto and this is corroborated by the line pursued with consistency by the Party of Labor of Albania. We expressed our loyalty to and defended the unity of the socialist camp and socialism and this is corroborated by the whole struggle of the Party of Labor of Albania. We expressed our affection for and loyalty to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and to the Soviet people and this is corroborated by the whole life of the Party of Labor of Albania. We did not agree to "pass judgment" on the "mistakes" of the Chinese Communist Party and, even less, "to condemn" the Chinese Communist Party without taking into account also the views of the Chinese Communist Party on the problem raised in such a distorted, hasty, and anti-Marxist way against it. We counselled caution, coolheadedness, and a comradely spirit in treating this matter so vital and exceptionally serious to international communism. This was the whole "crime" for which stones were thrown at us. But we think that the stones which were raised to strike us fell on the heads of those who threw them. The passage of time is confirming the correctness of the stand maintained by the Party of Labor of Albania.
Why did comrade Khrushchev and the other Soviet comrades make such great haste to accuse the Chinese Communist Party groundlessly and without facts? Is it permissible for communists and, especially for the principal leaders of so great and glorious a party as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to perpetrate such an ugly act? Let them answer this question themselves, but the Party of Labor of Albania also has the full right to express its opinion on the matter.
The Party of Labor of Albania is of the opinion that the Bucharest meeting was not only a great mistake but also a mistake which was deliberately aggravated. In no way should the Bucharest meeting be cast into oblivion but it should be severely condemned as a black stain in the international communist movement.
There is not the least doubt that the ideological differences have been and are grave, and that these have arisen and have been developed between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party. These should have been settled in due time and in a Marxist-Leninist way between the two parties concerned.
According to the Chinese documents, the Chinese Communist Party says that these differences of principle were raised by the Communist comrades immediately following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Some of these matters have been taken into consideration by the Soviet comrades while others have been rejected.
The Party of Labor of Albania thinks that, if these differences could not be settled between the two parties concerned, a meeting should have been sought of the communist and workers' parties at which these matters could be brought up, discussed and a stand taken towards them. It is not right that these matters should have been left unsettled, and the blame for this, must fall on the Soviet comrades who had knowledge of these differences but disregarded them because they were dead certain of their line and its "inviolability", and this, we think, is an idealist and metaphysical approach to the problem.
If the Soviet comrades were convinced of the correctness of their line and their tactics, why did they not organize such a meeting in due time and have these divergences settled? Were the problems raised so trivial, for example, the condemnation of Joseph Stalin, the great problem of the Hungarian counterrevolution, that of the ways of taking power, not to speak of other very important problems that emerged later? No, they were not trivial at all. We all have our own views on these problems because as communists we are interested in all of them, because all our parties are responsible to their peoples but they are responsible to international communism, as well.
In order to condemn the Chinese Communist Party for imaginary faults and sins, comrade Khrushchev and the other Soviet leaders were very concerned to present the case as if the divergences existed between China and the whole international communist movement, but, when it came to problems like those I just mentioned, judgment on them has been passed by Khrushchev and his companions alone, thinking that there was no need for them to be discussed collectively at a meeting of the representatives of all the parties, although these were major international problems in character.
The Hungarian counter-revolution occurred but matters were hushed up. Why this tactics of hushing things up when they are not to their advantage, while for things which are to their advantage, the Soviet comrades not only call meetings like that of Bucharest but do their utmost to force on others the view that "China is in opposition to the line of all the communist and workers' parties of the world?"
The Soviet comrades made a similar attempt towards us also. In August this year, the Soviet leadership addressed a letter to our Party in which it proposed that "with a view to preventing the spark of divergences from flaring up", the representatives of our two parties should meet so that our Party would align itself with the Soviet Union against the Chinese Communist Party and that our two Parties present a united front at this present meeting. Of course, the Central Committee of our Party refused such a thing and, in its official reply, described this as an entirely non-Marxist deed, a factional act directed against a fraternal third party, against the Communist Party of China. Of course, this correct principled stand of our Party was not to the liking of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
There is no doubt that these matters are of first rate importance. There is no doubt that they concern us all, but neither is there any doubt for the Party of Labor of Albania that the way the question was raised in Bucharest was and aimed at condemning the Chinese Communist Party and isolating it from the whole international communist movement.
For the Party of Labor of Albania this was monstrous and unacceptable, not only because it was not convinced of the truth of these allegations, but also because it rightly suspected that a non-Marxist action was being organised against a great and glorious fraternal party like the Chinese Communist Party, that under the guise of an accusation of dogmatism against China, an attack was being launched against Marxism-Leninism and the Moscow Manifesto of Peace.
At the meeting, the Chinese Communist Party was accused of many things. This should have figured in the Communique. Why was it not done? If the accusations were well grounded, why all this hesitation and why issue a communique which did not correspond to the purpose for which the Conference was called? Why was there no reference in it to the "great danger of dogmatism", allegedly threatening international communism?
No, comrades, the Bucharest Conference cannot be justified. It was not based on principle. It was a biased one to achieve certain objectives, of which the main one was, in the opinion of the Party of Labor of Albania, that by accusing the Chinese Communist Party of dogmatism, to cover up some grave mistakes of line which the Soviet leading comrades have allowed themselves to make.
The Soviet comrades stood in need of the support of the other parties on this matter. That is why they tried frankly to catch them unawares. The Soviet comrades achieved half their aim and won the right to raise in these parties the condemnation of China as the outcome of an "international Conference of communism". In the communist and workers' parties, with the exception of the Party of Labor of Albania and certain other communist and workers' parties, the question was raised of "the grave errors of policy committed by the Chinese Communist Party", the "unanimous" condemnation of China in Bucharest was reported in an effort to create opinion in the parties and among the people in this direction. The Party of Labor of Albania was also condemned at some of these party meetings.
After the Bucharest Conference, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania decided, and decided rightly, to discuss in the Party only the Communique, to tell the Party that there existed divergences of principle between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party which should be taken up and settled at the coming November Conference in Moscow. And this was what was done.
But this stand of our Party did not please the leading comrades of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and this we very soon felt. Immediately following the Bucharest meeting, an unexpected, unprincipled attack was launched, brutal intervention and all-round pressure was undertaken against our Party and its Central Committee. The attack was begun by comrade Khrushchev in Bucharest and was continued by comrade Kozlov in Moscow. The comrades of our Political Bureau who happened to pass through Moscow were worked upon with a view to turning them against the leadership of our Party, putting forward that "the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania had betrayed the friendship with the Soviet Union", that "the line pursued by the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania is characterized by 'zig-zags'", that "Albania must decide to go either with the 200 millions (with the Soviet Union) or with the 650 millions (with People's China)" and finally that "an isolated Albania is in danger, for it would take only one atomic bomb dropped by the Americans to wipe out Albania and all its population completely", and other threats of the kind. It is absolutely clear that the aim was to sow discord in the leadership of our Party, to remove from the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania those elements who, the Soviet leaders thought, stood in the way of their crooked and dishonest undertakings.
What came out of this divisive work was that comrade Liri Belishova, Member of the PoliticaI Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, capitulated to the cajolery of the Soviet leaders, to their blackmail and intimidation and took a stand in open opposition to the line of her Party.
The attempt of the Soviet comrades in their letter to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to present this question as if the friends of the Soviet Union in Albania are being persecuted is a falsehood. The million and a half Albanians and the Party of Labor of Albania have been, are, and will be, life-long friends of the Soviet Union and its Communist Party, sworn friends of the Soviet people. They have forged and steeled this friendship, tempered in blood, not the various capitulators, splitters and deviators.
But attempts to arouse suspicion about the correct stand of our Party in Bucharest were not confined to Moscow alone. They were made with even more fervor in Tirana by the employees of the Soviet Embassy with the Soviet Ambassador in Tirana himself in the lead.
As I said before, prior to the Bucharest Conference, one could not imagine closer, more sincere, more fraternal relations than those between us and the Soviet comrades. We kept nothing from the Soviet comrades, neither Party nor State secrets. This was decided upon by our Central Committee. These relations reflected the great love and loyalty which our Party had tempered in blood between the Albanian and Soviet peoples.
It was these sacred sentiments of the Party of Labor of Albania and of our people that certain sickly elements, with the Soviet Ambassador at the head, trampled underfoot. Taking advantage of our friendly relations, taking advantage of the good faith of our cadres, they began feverishly and intensively to attack the Marxist-Leninist line of the Party of Labor of Albania, to split the Party, to create panic and confusion in its ranks, to alienate the leadership from the Party, and the Soviet Ambassador to Tirana went so far as to attempt to incite the Generals of our Army to raise the People's Army against the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian State. But the saw struck a nail, and this came to naught, for the unity of our Party is steel-like. Our cadres, tempered in the National-liberation War and in the bitter life and death struggle with the Yugoslav revisionists defended their heroic Party in a Marxist way. They know well enough how to draw the line between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of Lenin and the splitters, they know well enough how to defend and temper their love and loyalty towards the Soviet Union. And in fact they put these denigrators in their place.
Nevertheless, the employees of the Soviet Embassy to Tirana, with the Ambassador in the lead, succeeded, through impermissible anti-Marxist methods, in making the Chairman of the Control Commission of the Party of Labor of Albania, who, 15 days before had been at one with the line pursued by the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania in Bucharest, fall into the clutches of these intriguers, deviate from Marxism-Leninism and come out flagrantly against the line of his Party. It is clear that these contemptible acts of these Soviet comrades aimed at splitting the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania, at alienating it from the masses and from the Party. And this, as a punishment for the "crime" we had committed in Bucharest, for having the courage to express our views freely as we saw fit.
The functionaries of the Soviet Embassy to Tirana went even further. They turned to the Albanians who had studied in the Soviet Union with a view to inciting them against the Albanian leadership, taking them to be a fitting contingent by whom to further their sinister intentions. But the Albanians, whether those who had completed or were still pursuing their studies in the Soviet Union, as well as all the rest, entertained, entertain, and will always entertain a fervent, sincere and untarnished affection for the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and are and will be aware of the fact that the base methods used by the employees of the Soviet Embassy to Tirana are altogether alien to the Soviet Union and to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Albanians are the sons and daughters of their own people, of their own Party, they are Marxist-Leninists and internationalists.
We can list many other examples, but in order not to take so much time of this important meeting, I will mention only two other typical cases. The pressure on our Party continued even during the days when the commission was meeting here in Moscow to draw up the draft-Statement which has been submitted to us; when the Soviet comrades urged that we should look ahead and not back, That day in Moscow, the member of the Central Committee and Minister of the Soviet Union, Marshal Malinovsky, launched an open attack on the Albanian people, on the Party of Labor of Albania, on the Albanian Government and on our leadership at an enlarged meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the Warsaw Treaty countries. This unfriendly and public attack has much in common with the diversionist attack of the Soviet Ambassador to Tirana, trying to incite our People's Army against the leadership of our Party and our State. But Marshal Malinovsky makes as grave an error as the Soviet Ambassador. No one can achieve this end, and even less that of breaking up the friendship of our people with the peoples of the Soviet Union. The correct struggle of the Party of Labor of Albania against these subversive acts strengthens the sincere friendship of our people with the peoples of the Soviet Union and with the glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Nor can this friendship be broken up by the astonishing statements of Marshal Grechko, Commander-in-Chief of the Warsaw Treaty, who not only told our military delegation that it was difficult for him to meet the requirements of our Army for some very essential armaments for the supply of which contracts have been signed, but said bluntly, "You are in the Warsaw Treaty only for the time being", implying that Marshal Grechko seems to have decided to throw us out. But, fortunately, it is not up to the Comrade Marshal to take such decision.
In October this year, Comrade Khrushchev declared solemnly to the Chinese comrades, "We will treat Albania like Yugoslavia". We say this at this meeting of international communism so that all may see how far things have gone and what attitude is being maintained towards a small socialist country. What "crime" has the Party of Labor of Albania committed for our country to be treated like Tito's Yugoslavia? Have we by any chance betrayed Marxism-Leninism as Tito's clique has done? Or did we break away from the camp and hitch up with U.S. imperialism as revisionist Yugoslavia has done? No, and all the international communist movement, all the concrete political, ideological and economic activity of our Party and our State during the whole period of the National liberation War and during these 16 years since the liberation of the country bear testimony to this. This is borne out also by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself, which, in its 1960 August 13 letter to the Central Committee of the Party of Albania, stressed: "The relations between the Party of Labor of Albania and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union based on the principles of proletarian internationalism have always been truly fraternal. The friendship between our parties and peoples has at no time been obscured by any misunderstanding or abatement. The stand of the Party of Labor of Albania and that of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on all the most important issues of the international communist and workers' movement and of foreign policy have been identical." Of what then are we guilty? Our only "crime" is that in Bucharest we did not agree that a fraternal communist party like the Chinese Communist Party should be unjustly condemned; our only "crime" is that we had the courage to oppose openly, at an international communist meeting (and not in the marketplace) the unjust action of Comrade Khrushchev, our only "crime" is that we are a small Party of a small and poor country which, according to Comrade Khrushchev, should merely applaud and approve but express no opinion of its own. But this is neither Marxist nor acceptable. Marxism-Leninism has granted us the right to have our say and we will not give up this right for any one, neither on account of political and economic pressure nor on account of the threats and epithets that they might hurl at us. On this occasion we would like to ask Comrade Khrushchev why he did not make such a statement to us instead of to a representative of a third party. Or does Comrade Khrushchev think that the Party of Labor of Albania has no views of its own but has made common cause with the Communist Party of China in an unprincipled manner, and therefore, on matters pertaining to our Party, one can talk with the Chinese comrades? No, Comrade Khrushchev, you continue to blunder and hold very wrong opinions about our Party. The Party of Labor of Albania has its own views and will answer for them both to its own people as well as to the international communist and workers' movement.
We are obliged to inform this meeting that the Soviet leaders have in fact passed from threats to treating Albania in the same way as Titoite Yugoslavia, to concrete acts. This year our country has suffered many natural calamities. There was a big earthquake, the flood in October and, especially, the drought which was terrible, with not a drop of rain for 120 days in succession. Nearly all the grain was lost. The people were threatened with starvation. The very limited reserves were consumed. Our Government urgently sought to buy grain from the Soviet Union, explaining the very critical situation we were faced with. This happened after the Bucharest Meeting. We waited 45 days for a reply from the Soviet Government while we had only 15 days bread for the people. After forty-five days and after repeated official requests, the Soviet Government, instead of 50,000 tons, accorded us only 10,000 tons, that is, enough to last us 15 days, and this grain was to be delivered during the months of September and October. This was open pressure on our Party to submit to the wishes of the Soviet comrades.
During those critical days we got wise to many things. Did the Soviet Union, which sells grain to the whole world, not have 50,000 tons to give the Albanian people who are loyal brothers of the Soviet people, loyal to Marxism-Leninism and to the socialist camp, at a time when, through no fault of their own, they were threatened with starvation? Comrade Khrushchev had once said to us: "Do not worry about grain, for all that you consume in a whole year is eaten by mice in our country." The mice in the Soviet Union might eat but the Albanian people could be left to die of starvation until the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania submits to the will of the Soviet leaders. This is terrible, comrades, but it is true. If they hear about it, the Soviet people will never forgive them, for it is neither Marxist-Leninist, internationalist, nor humane. Nor is it a friendly act not to accept our clearing for buying grain in the Soviet Union but to oblige us to draw the limited gold reserve from our National Bank in order to buy maize for the people's bread in the Soviet Union.
These acts are linked with one another, they are not just accidental. Particularly in recent days, Comrade Khrushchev's attacks on our Party of Labor have reached their climax. Comrade Khrushchev, on November 8 you declared that "the Albanians behave towards us just like Tito". You said to the Chinese comrades: "We lost an Albania and you, Chinese, won an Albania". And, finally, you declared that the Party of Labor of Albania is your weak link.
What are all these monstrous accusations, this treatment of our Party, our people and a socialist country as something to be bought or sold or lost and won as in a card game? What appraisal is this of a sister party which, according to you, happens to be the weak link in the international communist movement? For us it is clear, and we understand it only too well, that our correct and principled Marxist-Leninist stand, that our courage, to disagree with you and condemn those acts of yours which are wrong impel you to attack our Party, to resort to all kinds of pressure against it, to pronounce the most extreme monstrosities against our Party. But there is nothing comradely, nothing communist in this. You identify us with the Yugoslav revisionists. But everybody knows how our Party has fought and continues to fight against the Yugoslav revisionists. It is not we who behave like the Yugoslavs but you, comrade Khrushchev, who are using methods alien to Marxism-Leninism against our Party. You consider Albania as a market commodity which can be gained by one or lost by another. There was a time when Albania was considered a medium of exchange, when others thought it depended on them whether Albania should or should not exist, but that time came to an end with the triumph of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism in our country. You were repeating the same thing when you decided that you had "lost" Albania or that some one else had "won" it, when you decided that Albania is no longer a socialist country, as it turns out from the letter you handed to us on November 8, in which our country is not mentioned as a socialist country.
The fact that Albania proceeds along the path of socialism and that it is a member of the socialist camp is not determined by you, comrade Khrushchev, it does not depend on your wishes. This has been determined by the Albanian people headed by their Party of Labor, by their struggle and there is no force capable of turning them from that course.
As regards your claim that our Party of Labor is the weakest link in the socialist camp and the international communist movement, we say that the twenty-year history of our Party, the heroic struggle of our people and our Party against the fascist invaders and the sixteen years that have elapsed since the liberation of the country to this day, during which period our small Party and our people have faced up to all the storms, show the contrary. Surrounded by enemies like an island amidst the waves, the People's Republic of Albania has courageously withstood all the assaults and provocations of the imperialists and their lackeys. Like a granite rock it has held and holds high the banner of socialism behind the enemy lines. You raised your hand, comrade Khrushchev, against a small country and its Party, but we are convinced that the Soviet people who shed their blood in defense of our people, also, that the great Party of Lenin are not in agreement with this activity of yours. We have full confidence in Marxism-Leninism, we are certain that fraternal parties which have sent their delegates to this meeting will size up and pass judgment on this issue with Marxist-Leninist justice.
Our Party has always considered the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a mother-Party and has done this because it is the oldest Party, the glorious Party of the Bolsheviks, it has spoken of its universal experience, of its great maturity. But our Party has never accepted nor will ever accept that some Soviet leaders may impose on it their views which it considers erroneous.
The Soviet leaders viewed this matter of principled importance in an altogether erroneous way, in an idealistic and metaphysical way; they have become swellheaded over the colossal successes attained by the Soviet people and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and violate Marxist-Leninist principles, consider themselves infallible, consider every decision, every act, every word they say and every gesture they make infallible and irrevocable. Others may err, others may be condemned, while they are above such reproach. "Our decisions are sacred, they are inviolable". "We can make no concessions to, no compromise with the Chinese Communist Party", the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union said to our people. Then why did they call us together in Bucharest? Of course, to vote with our eyes blindfolded for the views of the Soviet leaders. Is this the Marxist way? Is this a normal procedure?
Is it permissible for one party to engage in subversive acts, to cause a split, to overthrow the leadership of another party or of another State? Never! The Soviet leaders accused Comrade Stalin of allegedly interfering in other parties, of imposing the views of the Bolshevik Party upon others. We can bear witness to the fact that at no time did comrade Stalin do such a thing towards us, towards the Albanian people and the Party of Labor of Albania, he always behaved as a great Marxist, as an outstanding internationalist, as a comrade, brother and sincere friend of the Albanian people. In 1945, when our people were threatened with starvation, comrade Stalin ordered the ships loaded with grain destined for the Soviet people, who also were in dire need of food at that time, and sent the grain at once to the Albanian people. Whereas, the present Soviet leaders permit themselves these ugly deeds.
Are such economic pressures permissible; is it permissible to threaten the Albanian people, as the Soviet leaders did after the Bucharest Meeting? In no way whatsoever! The Soviet Union has always aided us in a generous way through credits and by all other means. New Albania could not be built without this aid, first and foremost, from the Soviet Union and from the other countries of People's Democracy.
To tell the truth, we are very grateful to the Soviet Union and to the Communist Party and Government of the Soviet Union for the great aid they have given our country to build up its industry, to set agriculture on its feet, in short, to improve the life of our people and speed up socialist construction. We know that this aid is an internationalist aid given our small people who, before the war, suffered great, all round misery, and that the Second World War burnt and devastated our country though never downing the Albanian people who, under the leadership of the glorious Party of Labor of Albania, fought with great heroism and liberated themselves.
But why did the Soviet leadership change it attitude towards us after the Bucharest Meeting to the point that it let the Albanian people suffer from hunger? The Rumanian leadership did the same thing when it refused to sell a single ear of wheat to the Albanian people on a clearing basis at a time when Rumania was trading in grain with the capitalist countries, while we were obliged to buy maize from French farmers, paying in foreign currency.
Some months before the Bucharest Meeting, comrade Dej invited a delegation of our Party for the specific purpose of conducting talks on the future development of Albania. This as a laudable and Marxist concern of his. Comrade Dej said to our Party: "We, the other countries of People's Democracy, should no longer discuss how much credit should be accorded to Albania, but we should decide to build in Albania such and such factories, to raise the means of production to a higher level, regardless of how many million rubles they will cost, that is of no importance". Comrade Dej added: "We have talked this over with comrade Khrushchev, too, and we have been in agreement".
But then came the Bucharest Meeting and our Party maintained the stand you all know. The Rumanian comrades forgot what they had previously said and chose the course of leaving the Albanian people to suffer from hunger.
We have made these things officially known to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union before. We have not submitted them to public discussion nor have we whispered them from ear to ear, but we are revealing them for the first time at this party meeting. Why do we raise this question? We proceed from the desire to put an end to these negative manifestations which do not strengthen but weaken our unity. We proceed from the desire to strengthen the relations and Marxist-Leninist bonds among communist and workers' parties, among socialist States, discarding any evil manifestation that has arisen so far. We are optimistic, fully convinced and have unshaken confidence that the Soviet and other comrades will understand our criticism aright. They are sharp but open and sincere and aim at strengthening our relations. Notwithstanding these unjust and harmful stands which are maintained against us, but which we believe will be stopped in the future, our Party and our people will consolidate still further their unbounded love and loyalty to the Soviet people, to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to all the peoples and communist and workers' parties of the socialist camp, based always on the Marxist-Leninist teachings.
Our Party considers that friendship must be based on justice, mutual respect and Marxism-Leninism. This is what the 1957 Moscow Declaration says and this is what is stressed in the draft-Statement which has been submitted to us. We declare in all earnestness that the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian people will be, as always, determined fighters for the strengthening of relations and unity in the socialist camp and the international communist movement.
The Albanian people will throw themselves in to the flames for their true friends, and the Soviet Union is such a friend of the Albanian people. And these are not empty words. I am expressing here the sentiments of our people and of our Party, and let no one ever think that we love the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for the sake of some one's beautiful eyes or to please some individual, but because without the Soviet Union there would be no free life in the world today, fascism and capitalist terror would reign supreme. This is why we love and will always be loyal to the Soviet Union and to the Party of the great Lenin.
Dear Comrades!
In the 1957 Moscow Declaration as well as in the draft-Statement submitted to us, it is pointed out that revisionism constitutes today the principal danger in the international communist and workers' movement. In the 1957 Moscow Declaration it is rightly stressed that the existence of bourgeois influence is the internal source of revisionism, while capitulation to the pressure of imperialism is its external source. Experience has fully corroborated that, disguised under pseudo-Marxist and revolutionary slogans, modern revisionism has tried by all manner of means to discredit our great doctrine, Marxism-Leninism, which it has dubbed as "out dated" and no longer compatible with social development. Hiding behind the slogan of creative Marxism, of new conditions, the revisionists have striven, on one hand, to deprive Marxism of its revolutionary spirit and to undermine the belief of the working class and the working people in socialism and, on the other, to use all the means in their power to prettify imperialism, describing it as moderate and peaceful. During the three years that have elapsed since the Moscow Conference. it has been fully confirmed that the modern revisionists are nothing but splitters of the communist movement and of the socialist camp, loyal lackeys of imperialism, avowed enemies of socialism and of the working class.
Life itself has demonstrated that until now the standard-bearers of modern revisionism, its most aggressive and dangerous representatives are the Yugoslav revisionists, the treacherous clique of Tito and company. At the time when the Moscow Declaration was approved, this hostile group, agents of U.S. imperialism, were not publicly denounced, although, in our opinion, there were enough facts and information to warrant such a thing. Not only that, but later on, when the danger it presented became more evident, the fight against Yugoslav revisionism, the consistent and ceaseless fight to smash it ideologically and politically, was not conducted with the proper intensity. On the contrary, this has been and is the source of many evils and much damage to our international communist and workers' movement. In the opinion of our Party, the reason why Tito's revisionist group has not been totally exposed, why false "hopes" have arisen for an alleged "improvement" and positive "turn" of this treacherous group is because comrade Khrushchev and some other Soviet leaders maintain a conciliatory attitude towards, erroneous views about, and an incorrect assessment of this dangerous Titoite revisionist group.
It has been said that J. V. Stalin was mistaken in assessing the Yugoslav revisionists and in sharpening his attitude towards them. Our Party has never endorsed such a view, because time and experience has proven the contrary. Stalin made a very correct assessment of the danger of the Yugoslav revisionists, he tried to settle this affair at the proper moment and in a Marxist way. The Inform Bureau, as a collective organ, was called together at that time and, after the Titoite group was exposed, a merciless battle was waged against it. Time has proven over and over again that such a thing was necessary and correct.
The Party of Labor of Albania has always held the opinion and is convinced that Tito's group are traitors to Marxism-Leninism, agents of imperialism, dangerous enemies of the socialist camp and of the entire international communist and workers' movement, therefore a merciless battle should be waged against them. We, on our part, have waged and continue to wage this battle as internationalist communists and also because we have felt and continue to feel on our own backs the burden of the hostile activity of Tito's revisionist clique against our Party and our country. But this stand of our Party has not been and is not to the liking of comrade Khrushchev and certain other comrades.
The Titoite group have long been a group of Trotskyites and renegades. For the Party of Labor of Albania, at least, they have been such since 1942, that is, since 18 years ago.
As far back as 1942, when the war of the Albanian people surged forward, the Belgrade Trotskyite group disguising themselves as friends and abusing our trust in them tried their uttermost to hinder the development of our armed struggle, to hamper the creation of powerful Albanian partisan fighting detachments, and, since it was impossible to stop them, to put them under their direct political and military control. They attempted to make everything dependent on Belgrade, and our Party and our partisan army mere appendages of the Yugoslav Communist Party and the Yugoslav National-liberation Army.
Our Party, while preserving its friendship with the Yugoslav partisans, successfully resisted these diabolical intentions. It was at that time that the Titoite group tried to found the Balkan Federation under the direction of the Belgrade Titoites, to hitch the Communist Parties to the chariot of the Yugoslav Communist Party, to place the partisan armies of the Balkan peoples under the Yugoslav Titoite staff. It was to this end that, in agreement with the British, they tried to set up the Balkan Staff and to place it, that is to say, to place our armies under the direction of the Anglo-Americans. Our Party successfully resisted these diabolic schemes. And when the banner of liberation was hoisted in Tirana, the Titoite gang in Belgrade issued orders to their agents in Albania to discredit the success of the Albanian Communist Party and to organize a "putsch" to overthrow the leadership of our Party which guided the National-liberation War and led the Albanian people to victory. The first "putsch" was organized by Tito through his secret agents within our Party. But the Albanian Communist Party frustrated this plot of Tito's.
The Belgrade plotters did not lay down their arms and, together with their agent in our Party, the traitor Koçi Xoxe, continued the re-organization of their plot against new Albania in other forms, new forms. Their intention was to turn Albania into a seventh Republic of Yugoslavia.
At a time when our country had been devasted and laid waste and needed to be completely rebuilt, when our people were without food and shelter but with high morale, when our people and army, weapons in hand, kept vigilant guard against the plots of reaction organized by the Anglo-U.S. military missions who threatened Albania with a new invasion, when a large part of the Albanian partisan army had crossed the border and had gone to the aid of the Yugoslav brothers, fighting side by side with them and together liberating Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosova and Metohia and Macedonia, the Belgrade plotters hatched up schemes to enslave Albania.
But our Party offered heroic resistance to these secret agents who posed as communists. When the Belgrade Trotskyites realized that they had lost their case, that our Party was smashing their plots, they played their last card, namely, to invade Albania with their army, to crush all resistance, to arrest the leaders of the Party of Labor of Albania and of the Albanian State and to proclaim Albania a seventh Republic of Yugoslavia. Our Party defeated this diabolic scheme of theirs also. Joseph Stalin's aid and intervention at these moments was decisive for our Party and for the freedom of the Albanian people. Precisely at this time the Information Bureau exposed the Tito clique. Stalin and the Soviet Union saved the Albanian people for the second time.
The Information Bureau brought about the defeat of the conspiracies of the Tito clique, not only in Albania but also in other countries of People's Democracy. Posing as communists, the renegade and agent of imperialism, Tito, and his gang, tried to alienate the countries of People's Democracy in the Balkans and Central Europe from the friendship and wartime alliance with the Soviet Union, to destroy the communist and workers' parties of our countries and to turn our States into reserves of Anglo-American imperialism.
Who was there who did not know about and see in action the hostile schemes of imperialism and its loyal servitor Tito? Everybody knew, everybody learned, and all unanimously approved the correct decisions of the Information Bureau. Everyone without exception approved the Resolutions of the Information Bureau which, in our opinion, were and still are correct.
Those who did not want to see and understand these acts of this criminal gang had a second chance to do so in the Hungarian counter-revolution and in the unceasing plots against Albania. The wolf may change his coat but he remains a wolf. Tito and his gang may resort to trickery, may try to disguise themselves, but they are traitors, criminals and agents of imperialism. They are the murderers of the heroic Yugoslav internationalist communists and thus they will remain and thus they will act until they are wiped out.
The Party of Labor of Albania considers the decisions taken against Tito's renegade group by the Information Bureau not as decisions taken by comrade Stalin personally but as decisions taken by all the parties that made up the Information Bureau. And not only by these parties alone but also by the communist and workers' parties which did not take part in the Information Bureau. Since this was a matter that concerned all the communist and workers' parties, it also concerned the Party of Labor of Albania which, having received and studied a copy of the letter comrades Stalin and Molotov had written to the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party, endorsed in full both the letter and the decisions of the Information Bureau.
Why then was the "change of attitude" towards the Yugoslav revisionists, adopted by comrade Khrushchev and the Central Committee of the Soviet Union in 1955, not made an issue for consultation in the normal way with the other communist and workers' parties, but was conceived and carried out so hastily and in a unilateral way? This was a matter that concerned us all. The Yugoslav revisionists had either opposed Marxism-Leninism and the communist and workers' parties of the world or they had not; either they were wrong, or we, not only Stalin, had erred against them. It was not up to comrade Khrushchev to settle this affair at his own discretion. But in fact, that is what he did and this change of attitude in the relations with the Yugoslav revisionists is connected with his visit to Belgrade. This was a bomb shell to the Party of Labor of Albania which immediately opposed it categorically. Before comrade Khrushchev set out for Belgrade in May 1955, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania sent a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in which it expressed the opposition of our Party to his going to Belgrade, stressing that the Yugoslav issue could not be settled in a unilateral way but that a meeting of the Information Bureau should be called to which it asked that the Party of Labor of Albania also should be invited. It is there that this matter should have been settled after a correct and lengthy discussion.
Of course, formally we had no right to decide whether comrade Khrushchev should or should not go to Belgrade, and we backed down on this, but in essence we were right, and time has confirmed that the Yugoslav issue should not be settled in this precipitate way.
The slogan of "overriding interests" was launched, the second Resolution of the Information' Bureau was speedily revoked, the "epoch of reconciliation" with "the Yugoslav comrades" began, the conspirators, wherever they were, were re-examined and re-habilitated and "the Yugoslav comrades" came off unscathed, strutted like peacocks trumpeted abroad that their "just cause" had triumphed, that the "criminal Stalin" had trumped up all these things and a situation was created under which whoever refused to take this course was dubbed as a "Stalinist" who should be done away with.
Our Party refused to take such a conciliatory and opportunist course. It stood fast on correct Marxist-Leninist ideological grounds, fighting the Yugoslav revisionists ideologically and politically. The Party of Labor of Albania remained unshaken in its views that the Titoite group were traitors, renegades, Trotskyites, subversionists and agents of the U.S. imperialists, that the Party of Labor of Albania had not been mistaken about them.
The Party of Labor of Albania remained unshaken in its view that comrade Stalin had not erred in this matter, that, by pursuing their treacherous line, the revisionists had attempted to enslave Albania and, through hatching up a number of international plots with the Anglo-American imperialists, they had tried to plunge Albania into international conflicts.
On the other hand, the Party of Labor of Albania was in favor of establishing state relations of good neighborliness, trade and cultural relations with the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia provided that the norms of peaceful co-existence between states of different regimes were observed, because as far as the Party of Labor of Albania is concerned, Titoite Yugoslavia has not been, is not, and will never be a socialist country so long as it is headed by a group of renegades and agents of imperialism.
No open or disguised attempt will make the Party of Labor of Albania turn from this correct stand. It was futile for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to try to persuade us through comrade Suslov to eliminate the question of Koçi Xoxe from the Report submitted at our 3rd Congress in May 1956, for that would mean negating our struggle and our principled stand.
In Albania, the Titoite saw struck a nail, or, as Tito says, "Albania was a thorn in his flesh" and, of course, the treacherous Titoite group continued their battle against the Party of Labor of Albania, thinking that they were exposing us by dubbing us "Stalinists".
The Belgrade group did not confine their fight against us to propaganda alone but they continued their espionage, subversion, plots, dispatching armed bands into our country more intensively than in 1948. These are all facts. But the tragedy is that, while the Party of Labor of Albania mounted guard against the bitter and repeated attacks by the Yugoslav revisionists, its unshaken, principled, Marxist-Leninist stand was in opposition to the conciliatory stand of the Soviet leaders and of certain other communist and workers' parties towards the Yugoslav revisionists.
Then it was loudly proclaimed and written that "Yugoslavia is a socialist country and this is a fact", that "the Yugoslav communists possess a great experience and great merits", that "the Yugoslav experience deserves greater interest and more attentive study", that "the period of disputes and misunderstandings is not due to Yugoslavia" and that "great injustice had been done to it", and so on and so forth. This, of course, gave heart to Tito's clique who thought they had won everything except that there was still that "thorn in their flesh", which they thought of isolating and then liquidating. But not only could our Party not be isolated, much less liquidated, but time proved that the views of our Party were correct.
Much pressure has been exerted on our Party over this stand. The Albanian leaders were considered "hot-blooded" and "stubborn", "exaggerating" matters with Yugoslavia, unjustly harassing the Yugoslavs, etc. The attack against our Party in this direction has been led by Comrade Khrushchev.
So far, I have mentioned in brief what the Yugoslav revisionists have done against our country during and after the war, after 1948, but I will dwell a little also on the events prior to the Hungarian counter-revolution which is the work of Yugoslav agents. The treacherous Belgrade group began to organize a counter-revolution in Albania also. Had our Party made the mistake of joining in the "conciliation waltz" with the Yugoslav revisionists as Khrushchev preached after 1955, then the people's democracy in Albania would have gone down the drain. We, Albanians, would not have been here in this hall but would have been still fighting in our mountains.
Firmly united by steel-like bonds, our Party and people kept their eyes wide open and discovered and unmasked Tito's spies in our Central Committee who worked in collusion with the Yugoslav Legation in Tirana. Tito sent word to these traitors, saying that they had precipitated things, that they should have waited for his orders. These spies and traitors also wrote to comrade Khrushchev to intervene against the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania. These are documented facts. Tito's intention was to coordinate the counter-revolution in Albania with that of Hungary.
Our 3rd Congress was to be held following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Yugoslav agents thought that the time had come to overthrow the "obstinate Stalinist Albanian leadership" and organized a plot which was discovered and crushed at the Party Conference of Tirana in April 1956. The plotters received the stern punishment they deserved.
Tito's other dangerous agents, Dali Ndreu and Liri Gega, received orders from Tito to flee to Yugoslavia for "they were in danger and because activities against the Party of Labor were to be organized from Yugoslav territory". Our Party was fully aware of Tito's activity and secret orders. It was wide awake and caught the traitors right on the border when they were trying to flee. The traitors were brought to court and were executed. All the Yugoslav agents who were preparing the counter-revolution in Albania were detected and wiped out. To our amazement comrade Khrushchev came out against us in defense of these traitors and Yugoslav agents. He accused us of having shot the Yugoslav agent, the traitress Liri Gega, allegedly "when she was pregnant, a thing which had not happened even at the time of the Czar, and this had made a bad impression on world opinion". These were slanders trumped up by the Yugoslavs in whom comrade Khrushchev had more faith than in us. We of course denied all these insinuations made by comrade Khrushchev.
But comrade Khrushchev's incorrect, unprincipled and hostile stand towards our Party and its leadership did not stop there. The other Yugoslav agent and traitor to the Party of Labor of Albania and to the Albanian people, Panajot Plaku, fled to Yugoslavia and placed himself in the service of the Yugoslavs. He organized the hostile broadcasts from the socalled "Socialist Albania" radio station. This traitor wrote to bandit Tito and comrade Khrushchev asking the latter to use his authority to eliminate the leadership of Albania headed by Enver Hoxha under the pretext that we were "anti-Marxists and Stalinists". Far from being indignant at the letter of this traitor, comrade Khrushchev expressed the opinion that Panajot Plaku could return to Albania on condition that we do nothing to him, or he could find political asylum in the Soviet Union. We felt as if the walls of the Kremlin had dropped on our heads, for we could never imagine that the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union could go so far as to support Tito's agents and traitors to our Party against our Party and our people.
But the culmination of our principled opposition over the Yugoslav issue with comrade Khrushchev was reached when, faced with our principled persistence in the exposure of the Belgrade Titoite agents, he was so enraged that, during the official talks between the two delegations in April 1957, said to us angrily: "We suspend the negotiations. We come to terms with you. You are seeking to lead us to Stalin's ways".
We were disgusted at such an unfriendly stand taken by comrade Khrushchev who intended to break off the talks, which would mean an aggravation of relations with the Albanian Party and State over the question of the traitors to Marxism-Leninism, the Tito group. We could never have agreed on this matter, but we, who had been accused of being hot-blooded, kept calm, for we were convinced that we were in the right, and not comrade Khrushchev, that the line we were pursuing was the correct one, and not that of comrade Khrushchev, that our line would be confirmed again by experience, as it has been confirmed many times over.
In our opinion, the counter-revolution in Hun gary was mainly the work of the Titoites. In Tito and the Belgrade renegades, the U.S. imperialists had their best weapon to destroy the people's democracy in Hungary.
After comrade Khrushchev's visit to Belgrade in 1955, no more was said about Tito's undermining activity. The counter-revolution in Hungary did not break out unexpectedly. It was prepared for, we might say, quite openly, and it would be futile for any one to try to convince us that this counter-revolution was prepared in great secrecy. This counter-revolution was prepared by the agents of the Tito gang in collusion with the traitor Imre Nagy, in collusion with the Hungarian fascists and all of them acted openly under the direction of the Americans.
The scheme of the Titoites, who were the leaders, was for Hungary to be detached from our socialist camp, to be turned into a second Yugoslavia, be linked in alliance with NATO through Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, to receive aid from the U.S.A. and, together with Yugoslavia and under the direction of the imperialists, to continue the struggle against the socialist camp.
The counter-revolutionaries worked openly in Hungary. But how is it that their activities attracted no attention? We cannot understand how it is possible for Tito and Horthy's bands to work so freely in a fraternal country of People's Democracy like Hungary where the party was in power and the weapons of dictatorship were in its hands, where the Soviet army was present.
We think that the stand taken by comrade Khrushchev and the other Soviet comrades towards Hungary was not clear, because the greatly mistaken views which they held about the Belgrade gang did not allow them to see the situation correctly.
The Soviet comrades trusted Imre Nagy, Tito's man. We do not say this for nothing or without good grounds. Before the counter-revolution broke out and when things were boiling up at the "Petöfi Club", I happened to pass through Moscow, and in conversation with Comrade Suslov told him what I had seen on my way through Budapest. I told him, too, that Imre Nagy was deserting and was organizing a counter-revolution at the "Petöfi Club". Comrade Suslov categorically opposed my view, and in order to prove to me that Imre Nagy was a good man, pulled out of his drawer Imre Nagy's fresh "self-criticism". Nevertheless, I told Comrade Suslov that Imre Nagy was a traitor.
We wonder and pose the legitimate question: Why do Comrade Khrushchev and Soviet comrades pay frequent visits to Brioni to talk with the renegade Tito about the Hungarian events? If the Soviet comrades were cognizant of the fact that the Titoites were preparing for a counter-revolution in a country of our camp, is it permissible for the leaders of the Soviet Union to go and talk with an enemy who organizes plots and counter-revolutions in socialist countries?
As a communist Party, as a state of People's Democracy, as a member of the Warsaw Treaty and of the socialist camp, we are justified in asking Comrade Khrushchev and the Soviet comrades why so many meetings with Tito at Brioni in 1956, with this traitor to Marxism-Leninism, and not a single meeting with our countries, not a single meeting of the members of the Warsaw Treaty? When will the members of this Warsaw Treaty meet, if not when one of our countries is in danger?
Whether to intervene or not to intervene with arms in Hungary is, we think, not within the competence of one person alone; seeing that we have set up the Warsaw Treaty, we should decide jointly, because otherwise it is of no use to speak of alliance, of the collective spirit and collaboration among the parties. The Hungarian counter-revolution cost to our camp blood, it cost Hungary and the Soviet Union blood.
Why was this bloodshed permitted and no steps taken to prevent it? We are of the opinion that no preliminary steps could be taken so long as Comrade Khrushchev and the Soviet comrades placed their trust in the organizer of the Hungarian counter-revolution, the traitor Tito, so long as they set so little value on the absolutely necessary regular meetings with their friends and allies, so long as they considered their unilateral decisions on matters that concern us all as the only correct ones, and so long as they attached no importance whatsoever to collective work and collective decisions.
The Party of Labor of Albania is not at all clear about this matter, how things developed and what decisions were taken. At a time when the Titoites are conducting taIks at Brioni with the Soviet comrades, on the one hand, and feverishly organizing counter-revolutions in Hungary and Albania, on the other, the Soviet comrades make not the slightest effort to inform our leadership, at least as a matter of form since we are allies, on what is happening or on what measures they in tend to take. But this is not a case of formality. The Soviet comrades know only too well what the Belgrade gang thought of Albania and what intentions they cherished. In reality, not only is this stand of the Soviet comrades to be condemned but it is also incomprehensible.
Hungary was a great lesson for us, for what was done, and for the drama that was played on the stage and behind the scenes there. We believed that the Hungarian counter-revolution was more than enough to show the betrayal of Tito and his gang. We know that many documents are kept locked away and are not brought to light, documents that expose the barbarous activity of Tito's group in the Hungarian events. Why this should happen we do not understand. What interests are hidden behind these documents which are not brought to light but are kept under lock and key? To condemn Stalin after his death, the most trifling items were searched out, while the documents that expose a vile traitor like Tito are locked away in a drawer.
But even after the Hungarian counter-revolution, the political and ideological fight against the Titoite gang, instead of becoming more intense, as Marxism-Leninism demands, was played down, leading to reconciliation, smiles, contacts, moderation and almost to kisses. In fact, thanks to this opportunist attitude, the Titoites got out of this predicament.
The Party of Labor of Albania was opposed to the line followed by Comrade Khrushchev and the other comrades towards the Yugoslav revisionists. Our Party's battle against the revisionists continued with even more fury. Many friends and comrades, particularly the Soviet and Bulgarian comrades, being unable to attack our correct line, ridiculed us, smiled, and with their friendly contacts with the Titoites, isolated our people everywhere.
We had hoped that, after the 7th Titoite Congress, even the blind, let alone the Marxists, would see with whom they were dealing and what they should do. Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way. Not long after the 7th Titoite Congress, the exposure of revisionism was toned down. The Soviet theoretical publications spoke of every kind of revisionism, even of revisionism in Honolulu, but had very little to say about Yugoslav revisionism. This is like saying: "don't see the wolf before your eyes but look for its tracks". Slogans were launched: "Don't speak any more of Tito and his gang, for that will fan their vanity", "don't speak any more of Tito and his group, for that would harm the Yugoslav people", "don't speak of the Titoite renegades, for Tito makes use of what we say to mobilize the Yugoslav peoples against our camp", etc. Many parties adopted these slogans while our Party did not, and we think we acted correctly.
Such a situation was created that the press of friendly countries accepted articles from Albanian writers only provided they made no mention of the Yugoslav revisionists. Everywhere in the countries of People's Democracy, except in Czechoslovakia where, in general, the Czechoslovak comrades assessed our activities correctly, our Ambassadors were isolated in a round about way, because the diplomats of friendly countries preferred to converse with the Titoite diplomats while they hated our diplomats and did not want even to set eyes on them.
And things went so far that Comrade Khrushchev made his coming to Albania in May 1959 at the head of the Soviet Party and Government Delegation conditional on the Yugoslav issue. The first thing Comrade Khrushchev said at the beginning of talks in Tirana was to inform everybody at the meeting that he would not talk against the Yugoslav revisionists, a thing which no one could compel him to do, but a statement of this kind was intended to show quite openly that he disagreed with the Party of Labor of Albania on this issue.
We respected the wishes of the guest during the whole time he stayed in Albania, regardless of the fact that the Titoite press was highly elated and did not fail to write that Khrushchev had shut the mouths of the Albanians. This, in fact, responded to reality, but Comrade Khrushchev was very far from persuading us on this matter and the Titoites learned that quite clearly, because after our guest's departure from our country, the Party of Labor of Albania felt no longer bound by the conditions put upon us by our guest and continued on its own Marxist-Leninist way.
In his talks with Vukmanovich Tempo, among others, Comrade Khrushchev has compared our stand, as far as its tone is concerned, with that of the Yugoslavs and has said that he did not agree with the tone of the Albanians. We consider that Comrade Khrushchev's statement to Vukmanovich Tempo, to this enemy of Marxism-Leninism, of the socialist camp and of Albania, is erroneous and should be condemned. We hold that one should get what he deserves and we, on our part, disagree with Comrade Khrushchev's conciliary tone towards the revisionists, for our people say one should speak in a harsh tone to the enemy and with honeyed tongue to the beloved.
Some comrades hold the erroneous idea that we maintain this attitude towards the Titoites because, they claim, we are allegedly eager to hold the banner of the fight against revisionism or because we view this problem from a narrow angle, from a purely national angle, therefore, they claim, we have embarked, if not altogether on a "chauvinist course", at least on that of "narrow nationalism". The Party of Labor of Albania has viewed and views the question of Yugoslav revisionism through the prism of Marxism-Leninism, it has viewed, views, and fights it as the main danger to the international communist movement, as a danger to the unity of the socialist camp.
But while being internationalists we are communist of a specific country, of Albania. We, Albanian communists, would not be called communists if we failed to defend consistently and with determination the freedom of our sacred country from the plots and diversionist attacks of Tito's revisionist clique which are aimed at the invasion of Albania, a fact which is already known to everyone. Can it be permissible for us Albanian communists to let Albania become the prey of Tito, of the U.S. imperialists, of the Greeks or of the Italians. No, never!
Some others advise us not to speak against the Yugoslavs, saying "why are you afraid ? You are defended by the Soviet Union?" We have told these comrades and tell them again that we are afraid neither of the Yugoslav Trotskyites nor of any one else. We have said and say it again that the Soviet Union has defended, defends and will defend us, but we are Marxist-Leninists and not for one moment should we diminish the struggle against the revisionists and imperialists until we wipe them out of existence. Because if the Soviet Union is to defend you, you must first defend yourself.
The Yugoslavs accuse us of allegedly being chauvinists, of interfering in their internal affairs, and of demanding a rectification of the Albanian -Yugoslav borders. A number of our friends think and imply that we Albanian communists swim in such waters. We tell our friends who think thus that they are grossly mistaken. We are not chauvinists, we have neither demanded nor demand rectification of boundaries. But what we demand and will continually demand from the Titoites, and we will expose them to the end for this, is that they give up perpetrating the crime of genocide against the Albanian minority in Kosova and Metohia, that they give up the white terror against the Albanians of Kosova, that they give up driving the Albanians from their native soil and deporting them 'en masse' to Turkey. We demand that the rights of the Albanian minority in Yugoslavia should be recognized according to the Constitution of the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Is this chauvinist or Marxist?
This is our attitude on these matters. But if the Titoites speak of peaceful coexistence, of peace, of good neighborly relations and, on the other hand, organize plots, an army of mercenaries and fascists in Yugoslavia for the purpose of attacking our boundaries and of chopping up socialist Albania, and sharing it with the Greek monarcho-fascists, then, we are convinced that not only the Albanians in new Albania but also the one million Albanians living under Tito's bondage will rise arms in hand to stay the hand of the criminal. And this is Marxist and, if anything happens, this is what will be done. The Party of Labor of Albania does not permit any one to play at politics with the rights of the Albanian people.
We do not interfere in the internal affairs of others but when, as a result of the slackening of the fight against Yugoslav revisionism, things go so far that there is published in a friendly country like Bulgaria a map of the Balkans in which Albania is included within the boundaries of Federal Yugoslavia, we cannot keep silent. We are told that this happened due to a technical error of an employee, but why had this not happened before?
But this is not an isolated case. At a meeting in Sremska Mitrovitsa, the bandit Rankovich attacked Albania as usual and called it "a hell where barbed wire and the boots of frontier guards reign supreme" claiming that the democracy of the Italian neofascists was more advanced than ours.
Rankovich's words would be of no significance to us, but these words were listened to with the greatest serenity by the Soviet and Bulgarian Ambassadors to Belgrade who attended this meeting, without their making the slightest protest. We protested in a comradely way over this to the Central Committees of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Bulgarian Communist Party.
In his letter of reply to the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, comrade Zhivkov dared to reject our protest and call the speech of the bandit Rankovich a positive one. We could never have imagined that the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party could describe as positive the speech of a bandit like Rankovich who so grossly insults socialist Albania, likening it to hell. We no only reject with contempt this impermissible insult by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party but we are dead certain that the Bulgarian Communist Party and the heroic Bulgarian people would be utterly revolted if they came to hear of this. Things will not go any too well if we allow such gross mistakes towards one another.
We can never, never agree with Comrade Khrushchev and we protested to him at the time, over the talks he had with Sophocles Venizelos in connection with the Greek minority in Albania. Comrade Khrushchev is well aware that the borders of Albania are inviolable and sacred and that anyone who touches them is an aggressor. The Albanian people will fight to the last drop of their blood if any one touches their borders. Comrade Khrushchev was gravely mistaken when he told Venizelos that he had seen Greek and Albanians working together as brothers in Korsa. In Korsa, there is no Greek minority whatsoever, but there is the age-old covetousness of the Greeks for the Korsa district as for all Albania. There is a very small Greek minority in Gjirokastra. Comrade Khrushchev knows that they enjoy all the rights, use their own language, have their own churches and schools in addition to all the rights that the other Albanian citizens enjoy.
The ambitions of the Greeks, among them those of Sophocles Venizelos, the son of Eleftherios Venizelos who murdered Albanians and put whole districts of southern Albanian to the torch, the frenzied Greek chauvinist and father of the idea of Great Greece, aimed at cutting up Albania and annexing it under the slogan of autonomy, are very well known: Comrade Khrushchev is well aware of the attitude of the Party of Labor of Albania, of the Albanian Government and people on this question. Then, to fail to give Sophocles the answer he deserves, to permit the arousing of hopes and illusions and to say that he will transmit to the Albanian comrades the desires of a British agent, a chauvinist, this is unacceptable to us and deserves condemnation.
Comrade Khrushchev, we have given our reply to Sophocles Venizelos and we believe you have learned of this through the press. We are not opposed to your politicizing with Sophocles Venizelos but refrain from politicizing with our boundaries and our rights, for we have not allowed nor will we allow such a thing. And it is not as nationalists but as internationalists that we do this.
Some may consider these things I am telling you as out of place, as statements inappropriate to the level of this meeting. It would not have been hard for me to have put together a speech in an allegedly theoretical tone, to have spoken in generalizations and quotations, to have submitted a report in general terms in order to please you and pass my turn.
But to the Party of Labor of Albania it seems that this is not the occasion. What I have said may appear to some as attacks, but these are criticisms which have pursued their proper course, which have been made before, when and where necessary within Leninist norms. But seeing that one error follows another, it would be a mistake to keep silent because attitudes, deeds and practice confirm, enrich and create theory.
How quickly the Bucharest Conference was organized and how quickly the Chinese Communist Party was condemned for "dogmatism"! But why has a Conference to condemn revisionism not been organized at the same speed?
Has revisionism been totally exposed as the Soviet comrades claim? No, in no way whatsoever! Revisionism has been and continues to be the principal danger, Yugoslav revisionism has not been liquidated and the way we are dealing with it is leaving it a clear field for all forms of action.
And can it be said that there are no disturbing manifestations of modern revisionism in other parties? Anyone who says "no" is closing his eyes to this danger, and one fine day we will wake to see that unexpected things have happened to us. We are Marxists and should analyze our work just as Lenin did and taught us to do. He was not afraid of mistakes, he looked them in the eye and corrected them. This is the way the Bolshevik Party was tempered and this is the way our parties have been tempered.
But what is happening in the ranks of our parties? What is happening in our camp since the 20th Congress? Comrade Suslov may feel optimistic, and he expressed this feeling at the October Committee meeting when he reproached the delegate of the Party of Labor of Albania, Hysni Kapo, with pessimism in observing events. We, Albanian Communists, have not been pessimistic even at the blackest moments of the history of our party and people and never will be, but we will always be realists.
Much has been said about our unity. This is essential, and we should fight to strengthen and temper it. But the fact is that on many important issues of principle we have no unity.
The Party of Labor of Albania is of the opinion that things should be re-examined in the light of a Marxist-Leninist analysis and errors should be corrected. Let us take the question of the criticism of Stalin and his work. Our Party, as a Marxist-Leninist one, is fully aware that the cult of the individual is an alien and dangerous manifestation for the parties and for the communist movement itself. Marxist parties should not only not permit the development of the cult of the individual which hampers the activity of the masses, negates their role, is at variance with the development of the life of the party and with the laws that govern it, but should also fight with might and main to uproot it when it begins to appear or has already appeared in a specific country. Looking at it from this angle, we fully agree that the cult of the individual, Stalin, should be criticized as a dangerous manifestation in the life of the party. But in our opinion, the 20th Congress and, especially, Comrade Khrushchev's secret report did not put the question of Comrade Stalin correctly in an objective Marxist-Leninist way.
Stalin was severely and unjustly condemned on this question by Comrade Khrushchev and the 20th Congress. Comrade Stalin and his work does not belong to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet people alone, but to us all. Just as Comrade Khrushchev said in Bucharest that the differences are not between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party but between the Chinese Communist Party and international communism, just as it pleases him to say that the decisions of the 20th and 21st Congresses were adopted by all the communist and workers' parties in the same way, he should also be magnanimous and consistent in passing judgment on Stalin's work so that the communist and workers' parties of the world could adopt it with a clear conscience.
There cannot be two yardsticks nor two measures of weight for this matter. Then, why was Comrade Stalin condemned at the 20th Congress without prior consultation with the other communist and workers' parties of the world? Why was this "anathema" pronounced upon Stalin all of a sudden to the communist and workers' parties of the world and why did many sister parties learn of it only when the imperialist press published Comrade Khrushchev's secret report far and wide?
The condemnation of Comrade Stalin was imposed on the communist and progressive world by Comrade Khrushchev. What could our parties do under these circumstances, when unexpectedly, using the great authority of the Soviet Union, he imposed a matter of this kind on our bloc?
The Party of Labor of Albania found itself in a great dilemma. It was not convinced and will never be convinced on the question of condemning Comrade Stalin in that way and in those forms that Comrade Khrushchev did it. Our Party adopted, in general, the formula of the 20th Congress on this matter but, nevertheless, it dit not stick to the limitations set by the Congress nor did it yield to the blackmail and intimidation from outside our country.
The Party of Labor of Albania maintained a realistic stand on the question of Stalin. It was correct and grateful towards this glorious Marxist against whom, while he was alive, there was no one among us "brave enough" to come out and criticize, but when he was dead a great deal of mud was thrown, creating in this way an intolerable situation in which a whole glorious epoch of the Soviet Union when the first socialist State in the world was set up, when the Soviet Union waxed strong, successfully defeated the imperialist plots, crushed the Trotskyites, Bukharinites and the kulaks as a class, when the construction of heavy industry and collectivization triumphed, in a word, when the Soviet Union became a colossal power succeeding in building socialism, when it fought the Second World War with legendary heroism and defeated fascism, liberated our peoples, when a powerful socialist camp was set up, and so on and so forth -- all this glorious epoch of the Soviet Union is left without a helmsman, without a leader.
The Party of Labor of Albania thinks that it is no right, normal or Marxist, to blot out Stalin's name and great work from all this epoch, as it is actually being done. We should all defend the good and immortal work of Stalin. He who does not defend it is an opportunist and a coward.
As a person and as the leader of the Bolshevik Communist Party, after Lenin's death Comrade Stalin was, at the same time, the most prominent leader of international communism helping in a very positive way and with great authority in consolidating and promoting the victories of communism throughout the world. All of Comrade Stalin's theoretical works are a fiery testimony of his loyalty to his teacher of genius, to great Lenin and Leninism.
Stalin fought for the rights of the working class and the working people in the whole world, he fought to the end with great consistency for the freedom of the peoples of our countries of People's Democracy.
Viewing things from this angle alone, Stalin belongs to the entire communist world and not to the Soviet communists alone, he belongs to all the workers of the world and not to the Soviet workers alone.
Had Comrade Khrushchev and the Soviet comrades viewed this matter in this spirit, the gross mistakes that were made would have been avoided. But they viewed the question of Stalin very simply and only from the internal aspect of the Soviet Union. But, in the opinion of the Party of Labor of Albania, even from this aspect, they viewed it in a one-sided way, seeing only his mistakes, almost completely putting aside his great activity, his major contribution to the strengthening of the Soviet Union, to the tempering of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to the building of the economy of the Soviet Union, of its industry, its kolkhozian agriculture, to his leading the Soviet people to their great victory over German fascism.
Did Stalin make mistakes? Of course he did. In so long a period filled with heroism, trials, struggle, triumphs, it is inevitable not only for Joseph Stalin personally but also for the leadership as a collective body to make mistakes. Which is the party and who is the leader that can claim to have made no mistakes in their work? When the existing leadership of the Soviet Union is criticized, the comrades of the Soviet leadership advise us to look ahead and let bygones be bygones, they tell us to avoid polemics, but when it comes to Stalin, they not only did not look ahead but they turned right round, completely backward, in order to track down only the weak spots in Stalin's work.
The cult of the individual of Stalin should, of course be overcome. But can it be said, as it has been claimed, that Stalin himself was the sponsor of this cult of the individual? The cult of the individual should be overthrown without fail, but was it necessary and was it right to go to such lengths as to point the finger at any one who mentioned Stalin's name, to look askance at any one who used a quotation from Stalin with great speed and zeal? Certain persons smashed statues raised to Stalin and changed the names of cities that had been named after him. But why go any further? At Bucharest, turning to the Chinese comrades, Comrade Khrushchev said: "You are catching on to a dead horse", "Come and get his bones, if you wish!" These references were to Stalin.
The Party of Labor of Albania solemnly declares that it is opposed to these acts and to these assessments of the work and person of Joseph Stalin.
Soviet comrades, why were these questions raised in this manner and in such a distorted form, while possibilities existed for both Stalin's mistakes and those of the leadership to be treated properly, to be corrected, without creating such a shock in the hearts of the communists of the world, which only the sense of discipline and the authority of the Soviet Union prevented from bursting out?
Comrade Mikoyan has said that we dared not criticize Comrade Stalin when he was alive for he would have cut off our heads. We are sure that Comrade Khrushchev will not cut off our heads if we criticize him aright.
After the 20th Congress, the events we know took place in Poland, the counter-revolution broke out in Hungary, attacks began on the Soviet system, disturbances were aroused in many communist and workers' parties of the world and finally this that has occured.
We pose the question: Why did these things occur in the international communist movement, in the ranks of our camp, after the 20th Congress? Or do these things happen because the leadership of the Party of Labor of Albania is sectarian, dogmatic and pessimistic?
A thing of this kind should be of extraordinary concern for us and we should look for the source of and cure this malady. But, certainly, this sickness can not be cured by patting the renegade Tito on the back nor by putting in the Statement that modern revisionism has been completely done away with, as the Soviet comrades claim.
The authority of Leninism has been and is decisive. It should be established in such a way as to purge erroneous views everywhere and in radical way. There is no other way out for us communists. If there are things that must and should be said outright, just as they are, this should be done now, at this Conference, before it is too late. Communists, we think, should go to bed with a clear conscience, they should strive to consolidate their unity but without keeping back their reservations, without nurturing feelings of favoritism and hatred. A communist says openly what he feels in his heart and matters will be judged correctly.
There may be people who will not be pleased with what our small Party is saying. Our small Party may be isolated, our country may be subjected to economic pressure in order to prove, allegedly, to our people that their leadership is no good, our Party may be and is being attacked, Michael Suslov equates the Party of Labor of Albania with the bourgeois parties and likens its leaders to Kerensky. But this does not intimidate us. We have learned some lessons. Rankovich has not said worse things about the Party of Labor of Albania, Tito has called us Goebels, but again, we are Leninists and they are Trotskyites, traitors, lackeys and agents of imperialism.
I wish to emphasize that the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian people have shown in practice how much they love, how much they respect and how loyal they stand to the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and that when the Party of Labor of Albania criticizes the wrong doings of certain Soviet leaders, that does not mean that our views and our attitude have changed. We, Albanians, take the courage as Marxists to criticize these comrades not because we hate them but because we think highly of them and because we love above everything else the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet people.
This is how we love the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet leadership. With our Marxist severity we tell them in a comradely way, we open our hearts, we tell them frankly what we think. Hypocrites we have never been nor will ever be.
In spite of the severity we show, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union will hold us dear, regardless of errors we may make, but the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the other communist and workers' parties of the world will not accuse us of lacking sincerity, of talking behind their backs or of swearing allegiance to a hundred banners.
In conclusion. I wish to say a few words about the draft-Statement submitted to us by the Editorial Commission. Our Delegation took cognizance of this draft and scrutinized it carefully. In the new draft-Statement many amendments have been made to the first variant submitted by the Soviet delegation which was taken as a basis of the work of the said Commission. With the amendments made to it, the new draft-Statement has been considerably improved, many important ideas have been stressed, a number of theses have been formulated more correctly and the overwhelming majority of the allusions against the Chinese Communist Party have been rejected.
At the meeting of this Commission, the Delegation of our Party offered many suggestions which were partially adopted. Although our Delegation was not in agreement that certain important matters of principle should remain in the drafted document, it gave its consent that this document should be submitted to this meeting, reserving its right to express once again its views on all the issues on which it disagreed. Above all, we think that those five issues which remain uncoordinated, should be settled so that we may draw up a document which has the unanimous approval of all.
We think that it is essential to make clear in the Statement the idea of Lenin expressed recently by Comrade Maurice Thorez as well as by Comrade Suslov in his speech at the meeting of the Editorial Commission, that there can be an absolute guarantee of the prohibition of war only when socialism has triumphed throughout the world or, at least, in a number of other great imperialist countries. At the same time, that paragraph which refers to factionist or group activity in the international communist movement should be deleted since this, as we have pointed out also at the meeting of the Commission, does not help consolidate unity, on the contrary, it undermines it. We are also in favor of deleting the words refering to the overcoming of the dangerous consequences of the cult of the individual or else, of adding the phrase "which occurred in a number of parties", a thing which corresponds better to the reality.
I do not want to take the time of this meeting over this question and other opinions which we have on the draft-Statement. Our Delegation will make its concrete remarks when the draft-Statement itself is under discussion.
We will do well and it will be salutary if we take the courage at this conference to look our mistakes in the face and treat the wounds, wherever they may be, but which are threatening to become aggravated and dangerous. We do not consider it an offense when comrades criticize us justly and on facts, but we will never, never, accept that without any facts, they may call us "dogmatic", "sectarian", "narrow nationalists" simply because we fight with persistence against modern revisionism and, especially, against Yugoslav revisionism. If anyone considers our struggle against revisionism as dogmatic or sectarian, we say to him, "Take off your revisionist spectacles and you will see more clearly!"
The Party of Labor of Albania thinks that this Conference will remain an historic one, for it wilI be a Conference in the tradition of the Leninist Conferences which the Bolshevik Party had organized in order to expose and root right out distorted views, in order to strengthen and steel the unity of our international communist and workers' movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. Our Party of Labor will continue to strive with determination to strengthen our unity, our fraternal bonds, the joint activity of our communist and workers' parties, for this is the guarantee of the triumph of the cause of peace and socialism. The unity of the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union, the unity of the international communist and workers' movement with the glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the center, is the most sacred thing which our Party will guard as the apple of its eye and will strengthen more and more with each passing day.
NOTES
1. The government of the USSR, through this proposal and through notes addressed on May 25, 1959 to the governments of Albania, Bulgaria, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Britain and the United States, sought the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the Balkans and Adriatic.
2. This refers to the documents approved by the Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties which was held in Moscow in November 1957, the central document of which is commonly known as the "Moscow Declaration" of 1957. The meeting at which this speech was delivered issued its own central document, known as the "Statement of 81 Communist and Workers Parties" or simply the "Statement". Both documents, in conjunction, were to have important roles in the later Sino-Soviet debate.
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