Dashnor Kaloçi
The thirty-ninth part
Memorie.al/publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (the fund of the former PPSh Central Committee), which belong to the year 1982, where there is a file with relations, reports, instructions, information, letters, minutes of meetings of the Political Bureau, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, etc., regarding the “hostile activity” of the member of the Political Bureau and the Minister of People’s Defense, Kadri Hazbiu, as well as some of his closest collaborators, such as : Feçor Shehu, Mihallaq Ziçishti, Llambi Peçini, Zoi Themeli, etc., who were accused by Enver Hoxha, as “the main collaborators of the police agent Mehmet Shehu”. In the file in question, there is also a document with Kadri Hazbi’s self-criticism, dated September 27, 1982, sent to Enver Hoxha and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, regarding “his poor work at the head of the Ministry of of Internal Affairs and the lack of vigilance, for not detecting hostile groups, all of which the party and Comrade Enver had discovered”. In this document, the former head of the Ministry of the Interior writes: “From the beginning of September, when I was getting my hair cut, a driver who works with the transport lines abroad came to me and told me that, returning from abroad, the drivers they had spoken badly about my fate. I didn’t ask him what he had been told, but I told him to go and report it where it should be. He added in more detail that he had spoken to the companion who stays with me, which I ordered him to report. He told me that he had done this. I don’t know whether I told him about this case or not, friend Hekuran. After a few days when I returned from a 3-4 day service, my family told me for the first time that they are taking us on the phone and so on, in meetings they ask about you, where are you and how are you, because we have heard things not good, as if we have escaped as a family abroad, as if I have been dismissed from my position as Minister of Defense, etc. I told you that anyone who asks about us, you say we are fine and don’t engage in further conversation. I emphasize that these things have spread so much that even one of the workers who serves in my family left without expecting that something is happening with me and my family. All these things, I told my friend Ramiz, together with my opinion that there is not enough fight against these harmful slogans and that they are spreading from Tirana in the first place”. Likewise, the document in question also contains the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, held on October 8, 1982, where the “hostile activity of Kadri Hazbi” from the period after the war when he was in the position of Chief of Army Security, which has brought fierce debates, they all discussed, starting from: Adil Çarçani, Hekuran Isai, Simon Stefani, Manush Muftiu, Rita Marko, Prokop Murra, Photo Çami, Lenka Çuko, Pali Miska, Besnik Bekteshi, Muho Asllani and Llambi Gegprifti. Even the debates and strong tones in that meeting were not absent between Enver Hoxha and Kadri Hazbiu, which continued throughout the meeting, for several sessions. But for more about these, we know the document, which is published for the first time by Memorie.al
Continues from last issue
The document with the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the PPSh, held on October 8, 1982, where the “hostile activity” of Kadri Hazbi was analyzed
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY TOP SECRET
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
RECORDS
OF THE MEETING OF THE POLITICAL BUREAU OF THE PPS CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON OCTOBER 8, 1982
Agenda:
- Discussion on the serious words of friend Kadri Hazbiu
- Approval of the report on transport to the plenum
All members of the Political Bureau are present at the meeting.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MEETING
The meeting was opened and led by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the PPS, Comrade Enver Hoxha.
Discussion on the serious crimes of comrade Kadri Hazbiu.
COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: I think we are not interested in the fact who signed the accompanying letter of December 1959, or who should sign it, the minister or the deputy minister. While in that year, you were a minister and you did not have clear relations with the Soviet Union?! I think it should be understood much better and especially you should understand the Marxist-Leninist unity of the Party. Looking at the materials of the Party and Comrade Enver, they teach us that: “The Party, as an organized vanguard party of the working class, must be the first vigilant at the top, and unyielding to the class enemy, and to be such, it must to implement Leninist norms.
The party must strengthen unity, not just any unity, but what we call Marxist-Leninist unity. Marxist-Leninist unity within the Party, unity of thought and action based on Leninist norms, unity in the leadership itself, strong Marxist-Leninist Party-People unity, inspired by Marxist-Leninist ideology.”
Again, Comrade Enver, instructs us that preserving unity and strengthening it are not something that can be achieved once and for all and that the communists should put their minds to sleep. Unity on the social-democratic path, unity outside the principles and norms of Marxism-Leninism, unity not to spoil each other’s fun, without letting the norms of the Party be violated, is not Marxist-Leninist unity, is not the unity of our Party. This is what friend Enver teaches us with this work. Also speaking about the birth of revisionism in the Soviet Union, Comrade Enver also spoke about the role of the cadre.
I do not intend to say all the quotes of Comrade Enver, but I will mention only two of them: Successes at work, feed the feeling of self-satisfaction, and with it and the loss of proletarian simplicity, unfair claims begin to grow, crystallize the sense of comfort, bureaucratism, technocratic, and intellectualism capture you. This is how the arrogance and sense of superiority is born, which progressively puts the cadres above the mass of the Party and above the class. I think that your figure should also be looked at here.
COMRADE PROKOP MURRA: The rest of us looked like flies to him.
COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: I agree with the opinions of my friends and I do not agree at all with the answers and attitude of Comrade Kadri in this meeting. All the Politburo, but in particular Comrade Enver, call on him several times to reflect so that he does not aggravate his guilt even more, even this makes me, even in myself, have many reservations about him and about any opinion that I expressed here. I agree with the measures that are proposed, for the very serious mistakes made by him, for the very poor work, for the very bad direction of his department, etc.
And not giving a clear explanation and this gives us the right to draw many conclusions. That’s all I can say from what we talked about today. To Comrade Enver and the entire Politburo, I promise you that I will work harder in the future, I will fight for the strengthening of the Marxist-Leninist unity of the Party, and I will be vigilant to preserve the victories achieved.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: I don’t want to give you praise here today, nor do I have it in my habit and character, but I note with great joy that the Political Bureau was up to the task and with an iron Marxist-Leninist logic, and with great justice the Party condemned the very serious mistakes of Kadri Hazbiu. I would like to point out that the stand in front of the Political Bureau, Kadri’s self-criticism and retorts here disappointed me even for that thread of hope I had.
However, as a Marxist, I still do not lose hope, but I will not have the faith that Comrade Kadri, both on the phone and with a special letter he sent me, expressed his great feelings and loyalty for the Party and for me. “Let’s leave to the enemy Mehmet Shehu, that designation he made for me, calling me Jago,” he says. It is a known fact that all the plots of the enemies of the Party, in collaboration with foreign agencies, have been discovered by the Party and none by the State Security. Why?! This is a big question that needs an answer.
Just today, we asked Kadri for an answer, but he twisted this answer in a devious way. We did, and are doing, an analysis of the hostile activity of Mehmet Shehu and his collaborators, but this is still superficial. It is our duty to go deep into this issue, because here is not only a problem for a chief agent like him, but also for the even very wide agent network that this enemy has built in our country.
The main collaborators of Mehmet Shehu are now in prison and testifying, but besides them there are others hidden and disguised, which we have the duty to discover. And these will be found, studying in depth their activity and political attitudes, throughout their lives. Nothing will escape the Party, in this direction. Sooner or later, all will be revealed. It is a fact that Mehmet Shehu was the police agent who set in motion all the hostile anti-party groups.
Mehmet Shehu was the main resident of the American CIA, the British Intelligence Service, the French Dyzen Bureau, the German Gestapo, the Italian OVRA, the Yugoslav UDB, the Soviet KGB, but he may also have been an agent of the Chinese. For an agent of the Chinese, I say maybe, since for now we have no facts, since the Party only speaks with facts. But for these others, we have. All these connections of his with other agencies are factual. As it turns out, the preparation of the foreign agency in Albania was not only done by Mehmet Shehu.
He has contacted the agents of the French, Germans, Italians, Russians, and Yugoslavians, after some time ago he had contacted those of the English and Americans, as their old agent. Mehmet Shehu was not a simple recruiter of agents, although he himself has recruited some high-caliber agents, which to some extent we know. He compromised them and put them into action. Mehmet Shehu was the leader of a wide agency in our country, with internal or external enemies, recruited by him or by different agencies. And he had put all these into action.
His goal was to overthrow the people’s power, take power in his hands, either through a military coup, liquidate the main comrades, and implement the Anglo-American plan that we found in the vault after the suicide. We must bear in mind that what we have discovered so far from the many conspiracies organized by the enemy’s agencies is not complete, because Mehmet Shehu with Feçor Shehu, and others, had sabotaged both the investigations and the entrances of two people who could question the criminals.
So from the facts it appears that we have not yet uncovered all the activities of these enemies despite the fact that Comrade Kadri says that he has gone to the investigator day and night but has not solved anything. Therefore, it is our duty to deepen these processes in the materials we have, also with the elements that we either have in prison, or we have outside. But I think that the most important issue is that within the affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the acts and actions of various people, especially all the bandits of Mehmet Shehu and his friends, we must check how the Party’s line has been implemented. , was there premeditated sectarianism, putting people in prison who did not deserve this or that punishment?!
From all these actions we must draw conclusions. But the work of the Ministry of the Interior is very broad and this consists in a good understanding of the agent methods of all these criminals we have in prison. To understand the connections, and to concretize these connections from the results of the external information which is predicted to have been in the hands of the Soviets and others? Along with this, we must also foresee the removal of some elements that appear either unsafe or compromised.
This is begged by the great interest of the country, of socialism in our country, and of the Party, against which all these open and secret enemies, who have been everywhere, but also those who acted in the most dangerous way, have rushed against in the Ministry of People’s Defense, and in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Bearing this in mind, it is my right to ask more from Comrade Kadri to help us shed light on this agent mess that had been operating in the high spheres of the Party and the State.
That’s why I called him several times and told him: “You Kadri, you worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for almost 30 years. Likewise, you also worked in the Army Counterintelligence where there were Yugoslav advisors. When I mention this, I don’t mean to say that you were an associate of Mehmet Shehu. No, but the fact is that you were in charge of this department for a long time, first as deputy minister, then as minister of internal affairs, and you directed the State Security bodies.
So you were surrounded and cooperated with this strong and very dangerous agency that worked under the direction of Mehmet Shehu, but you intentionally or unintentionally showed a marked lack of vigilance in order not to see the activity of this agency”. Also, it should be taken into account that you, in the first years after the liberation, were in the State Security when the Koci Xoxes agency was operating. Even then, you had Koci Xoxes agents around you, acting under the directives of Belgrade. We, we have now somehow entered the old files (I say somewhat, since we have seen very little of them or rather we have just put our fingertip).
But there, we are finding scandalous documents for which you are directly responsible, Comrade Kadri. By this I mean that you have a great responsibility for what happened there. You can say that they threw me, but the mistakes that have been proven there are so serious that they cannot be forgiven in any way. The fact is that, with all these cadres of the State Security, you had a sick and excessive familiarity, which I have repeatedly pointed out, because I loved you, and I respected you, and I had the conviction that you you were a Marxist Leninist.
But with all the advice given, unfortunately I find that in the department where you worked, there was no healthy party spirit. Instead of this spirit there, there has been sick familiarity. In my opinion, this created the possibility for Mehmet Shehu’s agents to operate freely in the department that you led. We rightly considered and rightly consider the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a sharp weapon of the Party, we knew that we had in the State Security, cadres from the best of the Party, cold-blooded, vigilant people , and faithful.
This has always been our orientation on this issue, but it turns out to be quite the opposite. In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, bandits and spies built their nursery, and you have a great responsibility for this, Comrade Kadri. But in these big issues, I find that the sound spirit and orientation that the Party has given here has been twofold. There were cadres of this sector, who understood this situation, but there were also those who did not understand this and did the opposite, and one of them was you Kadri, which created a situation in the public opinion dangerous for the Party, so much so that it is thought that there is immunity for State Security employees. Memorie.al
The next issue follows
