By Petraq Xhaçka
Part seventeen
Memorie.al / The purpose of this book is to unite the help in the efforts that are made to present the truths and horrors of the communist dictatorship in Albania. The main purpose of the book is not to show our people or anyone else that we oilmen have been innocent, because this has become known from publications in our press, from foreign televisions, as well as from direct meetings with the International Forum and the Albanian Human Rights. The author’s desire, is that through this story, along with other stories, fight any manifestation in any form, even moderate, that he may have to create a communist society. I think that even through this bitter personal history, the cruel, treacherous and overbearing face of Enverism will appear, that for half a century, held the knife with the tip in the chest of the Albanian people, with a pine eye, intercepting the movements for salvation from the outside, or rebellion of the people themselves, ready to push the knife to the heart, at the first movement. The events have been set in the economic fields where it has appeared most strongly, such as the oil and gas industry, where I was fortunate to pour my energies, for a lifetime, and become a participant and witness in those events. All the events that are written in this memoir are true, not only without any exaggeration or embellishment, but perhaps, I don’t know how much I have been able to present the terrifying force of the events that took place in that decadent system of socialism, where no there was no human feeling.
Continues from last issue
Black paper
This time overloaded with serious oil events also coincided with the planning period in the economy for the next five-year period 1976-80. Despite all the great work that was done at the Petroleum Institute to dispel fear, it crept deeper and deeper into the minds of the employees. All that horror that was seen against people who had wasted their lives working in wells, laboratories, fields and hills, against friends and comrades, against their relatives and families, had left deep scars behind.
The Political Bureau of PPSh set as a goal that the level of footage of researches should increase over sixty percent more than the previous five years. It was an extremely high demand, which objectively could not be achieved. The amount of perspective structures in our country was decreasing, as a result of the high research that was done every year, while the area of the territory is small. We were forced to object, but we did so very carefully in the choice of phrases, so that the leadership did not cling to them.
I used to come home late at night. I found the children asleep and sat crying about my problems with my wife. I loved my daughter and son very much, but work did not allow me to stay close to them, talk to them, caress them, live with their problems. Often, always after midnight, I would take the chair and sit in front of their beds, I would look at their faces with love and think with pain how my work would go, and what their fate would be. And why should I think of these two elements so united? Did this happen to other parents?
The love of children was one of the main reasons that drove me away from the dark thoughts of ending my life, thoughts that often wandered through the dark passages of my overworked brain. No, dear reader, my pen is powerless to describe the magical experiences of those times. I lost the most beautiful years of company with my little ones, years that I can never get back. The difficult situations did not allow me to see how they grew day by day, how they played, how they fought and how they looked for each other. I never had enough time to walk around, sit with them and answer their questions. I was hospitalized three times for severe nervous disturbances. I spent months on medication…!
We presented our project at the level of previous years, that is, about sixty percent lower than the plan sent to us by the center. It must be said that it was brave, but it was a necessary response. We needed many debates, discussions with the bodies of our ministry, the State Plan Commission and the apparatus of the Central Committee. Their people landed day after day from Tirana.
After many efforts, the draft plan found an agreement from the parties, was approved in the collective and, according to the rules, in the basic organizations of the party. Finally, they were sent up to get consent. Later, the state leadership again imposed the highest indicators from our forecasts, but to the extent of thirty percent. While we were waiting for the official approval of the figures from the center, a group of five geologists from the Institute, after discussing among themselves, came to a different conclusion on the length of the research. They thought him even lower. They were all trusted people of the party, but they were also against its figures, even against the figures sent by the Institute. It seemed as if for a moment they forgot what was being done and decided to present a proposal for lower figures, from the previous five years.
This meant halving the projected footage and reserves. They had thought to highlight the difficulties, which we really had in the number of new objects for research and came up with the proposal that; it was better to increase the volume of seismic works for each object. Basically there was nothing wrong and their concern, there were both technical and realistic elements, but they were outside the procedures and their aging was quite closed. They do not consider either the collective or the party organization. After traumatic imprisonments and shootings, these people suddenly looked like they came down from the planet Mars…!
-After finishing the letter, they informed me about the ideas they put in it and told me flatly that they had decided to send them to the center. I listened to them, but I refused to discuss that matter, already closed. The pointers were set in collectives and grassroots organizations, and according to the rules, we couldn’t go back to them. – You should have discussed this when you met in the collectives, – I told them. – I understand the right concern, but you also need to understand how this will sound. – We will send this letter to the Central Committee of the Party, and we will tell them that these are our thoughts and proposals, – said the one who was in charge of this initiative.
A coincidence from those that close the circles left open, led to the fact that the geologist, who had been visibly active during the condemnation of what was called “hostile activity”, was at the head of the drafting of this letter. At that time, his name was mentioned in reports and speeches, as a man from the oil party column. He, united in the group and with other party members, had enough conviction and naivety to be guided by the idea that the party wants things to be told to him. Neither of them had ever been on the side of the lost, had never felt any injustice on their backs yet. Everyone here judged that this letter would be welcomed.
After talking with them, anticipating that we would be dealing with unpleasant developments, I informed the director. And he sensed the storm that was coming, he fully agreed with the correct and formal official stance that I had taken, but I left him under a great shock. Not many days passed. The new Minister of Mines and Geology, Pali Miska, had lunch with us at the Institute, in the hall of the Scientific Council. He was accompanied by representatives from the apparatus of the Central Party Committee, from the oil party and district committees.
Pali Miska, who was appointed minister in place of the recently shot Koço Theodhos. Previously, Miska had been an instructor for the preparation of drivers, then as a result of the whims of the promotion of workers to key positions, recently occupied by party leaders, Pali had woken up from his sleep, as the First Secretary of a district. His awakenings became more and happier, because very soon Pali Miska saw himself in the photographic company with Enver Hoxha, as a member of the Political Bureau, and in the days before our meeting at the Institute, our minister had finished. It’s painful, but it must be said that it had already started to seem normal to us, that the main department of the country’s economy was under the direction of a man without a higher education, without being a specialist in any of the fields he covered his institution.
He had only graduated from the “Vladimir Ilic Lenin” High School of the Party in Tirana, where Marxist philosophy was taught, Enver’s lessons were reviewed, and some other political subjects. After informing the participants of the meeting about the letter that had been drafted and sent up by a group of specialists, Pali Miska brought the news from Tirana that Enver Hoxha is extremely angry and condemns this letter, like all hostile activities. – This shows, – emphasized Miska, looking around the hall, – that in this Institute, hostile work continues!
The vast majority of those present were unprepared. They didn’t even know anything about the letter. But the unexpected became complete even for me when, speaking in this language, Pali Miska began a furious attack against me, as if I had prepared and organized that letter, to which the party in the center, you had named; “Black Paper”.
The accusations against me were one after the other heavy, harsh and left me alone in the center of the cyclone. The new minister and other reptilian persons of the presidiums asked me to explain to them why I had written it and, even more clearly, what my intention was. As I mentioned above, not only did I not participate in the preparation of the letter, not only did I not know that it was being prepared, but the director slapped me on the shoulders, for the right attitude, not accepting its discussion, as violation of the norms that we implemented a few days ago.
Apparently, in recent years I had started to attract lightning bolts a lot! In their discussions, some of the authors of the letter did not mention their conversation with me, thinking they were making it easy for me and themselves. Concerned about the course the treatment of the problem was taking, I got up and opened the lid on the whole story, as it was the truth. – I don’t understand, – I addressed the presidium, with the tape on the tip of my nose. – Why are you attacking me, when maybe you should have spent kind words on me for what I said to the authors of the letter and that I cut them off that I did not agree to discuss their problem?!
One of the members of the group was very correct. He confirmed word for word, what I told: – It is true, – he said. – Petraqi does not enter here. He was neither aware nor willing to discuss this problem. He told us that the approval process was not over and that our letter would only complicate things. This is the pure truth. I did not expect this honest confession, which was removing the rope from my throat. We had lost our compass and in these gatherings where oil was eating heads, we did not believe that people would do the most normal thing: tell the truth. Tears of gratitude almost flooded my eyes.
After this intervention, I was removed from the list of persons who would be punished for hostile activity, but nevertheless they removed a serious official remark in writing in the documents, with the motivation; that I was responsible since at the Institute, such things still happened, contrary to the Party’s line, it remained unclear to me why I, the deputy director, had to be responsible for these oilmen, and not, for example, the director or the secretary of the party?!
Good for me, that I could not get rid of that work of words that crackled more and more often around me, but why did we all have to answer for the different opinions that others might have?! The mountains of question marks about that crazy time await answers and we won’t have time to answer them, so we’ll cut it short: Time of dictatorship! That evening, when I went home, Zhaneta, who was already used to reading my face without asking, understood me immediately. I told him the whole incident in detail, and while the children slept, for the first time in my life, I took the bottle of brandy and drank several glasses of it.
Describing the event and the people, tears flowed down my cheeks. I cried for these constant injustices, for that miserable life, where you couldn’t find joy anywhere, with a sword over my head and heavy epithets, which I didn’t deserve at all. The woman kissed me on my teary eyes, giving me hope that it would all come to an end. She understood the whole mess well and found sweet words, more effective than all the sedatives the doctors recommended. She cured me that night, with her sweet words; she gave me and gave me this balm, until morning…!
This event constituted the third blow for political motives, after the one in 1969 and after the warning given to me by the First Secretary of the district, regarding the charges that were brought against me after the investigative process of the group, which was so severely punished. Even for the authors of the “Black Letter”, it was organized by the top leadership of the state, a great asset in the cinema hall of Patos. They were also convicted of hostile activities. The people, just beginning to catch their breath, now set out again to face another storm. However, it seemed that the situation was not as serious as with the previous group. The geologist, who a few months before, was himself at the presidium of the infamous meeting, now, a letter with a fair content, was opening his eyes and he was seeing that, without being at all guilty, he moved to the opposite pole of the party his!
A few months later, in 1976, the geologist Kadri Rama, a young specialist, but with a perspective on the scientific path, insisted on his thoughts, which were in these waters. He was immediately arrested on all kinds of political charges and spent many years in prison. While other geologists were expelled from the Institute and worked as ordinary oilmen, or were exiled to other countries, as workers. As a raging bull comes out of its stall and kills with its horns every man in the crowd that comes before it, so the high leadership of the country, as if thirsty for blood, with the same fury, cut to pieces every man that came before them. forward, even on the street by chance, whether this is his pro or his opponent, whether he is a scientist or a drunkard, whether he is a thinker or a failure.
The thirst for blood, which was boundless since the beginning of Enver Hoxha’s Communist Party, made enemies fight even when there were none left. She saw enemies everywhere, just as Don Quixote saw shadows, one after another, until he rushed at the windmills with his lance. Enver Hoxha with his many Sancho Panchos had the Don Quixote syndrome. In the oil-bearing fields of Kuçova and Saranda, in the hills of Patos and Mallakastra, oil wells were drilled day and night to absorb oil from the dry veins of Albania. They resembled windmills, and the latter resembled enemies. For years, silence whistled around them and those who were killed were the ones who built these wells, with the sweat of their brows.
Temporary low tide
Of the regions we rated as first-rate, after the big storms with group penalties, was the Cakran structure, for the limestone facility. Wells had previously been drilled here, in order to capture the limestone, but they had failed and as a result, it was concluded from these previous studies that there is no structure in the limestone and that the layers that were observed on the surface were over the riding gave it a false appearance.
We did not agree with such a conclusion and as the director we charged a group to re-study the region with another new concept. For this, we planned and carried out complementary seismic works, with a small volume, as much as they could be carried out with difficulty in that mountainous terrain. But they were important because they supported the idea of some of us, geologists, that there was interest there and should be looked for, not where it was drilled before, but a little further east. We now faced a difficult dilemma: to design a 4,500-meter deep well, with little and weak seismic material, for which our colleagues were condemned as saboteurs a short time ago, or to give up and so would we not risk ourselves, even though we would lose an opportunity, to discover a new source?
It was really a critical point, especially for us as leaders of this work, because in the event of a negative result, there was no doubt that an iron hand would fall on our heads. For days and weeks I slept very little. I thought, I re-studied the factual surface geological material of the wells, made sketches of different variants, because such was the primary material, which did not give you the opportunity to build an almost exact variant. My great conviction did not leave me alone, so I decided to take courage, risking my life completely, after all those warnings.
I encouraged the authors to support the option of drilling a new well. After several conversations, even among the authors of the group, the wavering was removed. We were taking a dangerous step towards that dog, which was already looking at us with its mouth open and you could only guess who it was going to bite.
Based on the deficiencies in the primary material, during the discussions in the enterprise, brigade and Scientific Council, it was clearly noticed that some geologists lived with the horror of punishment in case of a negative result. They squirmed a bit, but in the end, they didn’t support drilling the well. We sat down and asked them what we should do, in the concrete conditions of the technique and the terrain, to increase the quantity and quality of the seismic material. They shrugged, not knowing how to answer. It was clear: they wanted to get out without getting wet, in case of a negative result.
However, by majority vote, the well was approved in the Council and in the instances above. In 1977, the Ca 9 well encountered the limestone layers, according to the project, and discovered the most powerful source of gas condensate for our country, with large reserves and of extraordinary interest. This was a very important success for the country’s economy. But the most triumphant aspect, for us geologists and geophysicists of the Institute, was that we designed with great courage, in conditions of extraordinary terror. The success of the well was a release from anxiety, or at least a necessary rest, for our strained nerves. Our tension at that time was unimaginable. Our action was a heroic act, but the top of the dictatorial pyramid could not accept and appreciate it as such.
It was an irresistible joy. We were maddened by this victory achieved in such conditions, which multiplied it. There on the hill, around the well, workers and scientists, drillers and designers, young and old, gray-haired and gray-haired men, we breathed happily, and screamed with all the strength we had: -Hurrah! Hooray! Hooray! And within himself, each one whispered to his troubled soul: We saved, we saved, and we saved!
Now that the well came back positive, no one remembered to scold us for designing with little seismic material. They also celebrated in Tirana. The well indicated the existence of large and sufficient reserves of gas and partly of oil. We didn’t wait any longer, but designed other wells to fully clarify the source site. Gas through pipelines began to go for use in industry, while ultra-light oil, of the countase type, solved many needs. The congratulations and congratulations of the party and state functionaries began, that we had finally listened to their calls for courage, we discovered this place-source of values, relying on new judgments and interpretations, where before and the Soviet specialists had failed.
In none of the greetings that came to us and the speeches that were made, the design with little geophysical material was condemned. Those days, State Security put aside our files, decided to give him some rest. The lightning of the storm over the oil industry was now far away, but the thunder had rolled. Now it was important that before the well was approved in these poor conditions that existed, they were treated and argued in the relevant relationship and if anyone had remarks or objections, they were said and decided from the very beginning, and not waiting for the result of the well, and then the central bodies sang the song, however they wanted.
This required the minimum of a human behavior, the minimum of a respect and compassion for the leaders and specialists, who were giving everything, for the good of the country. As an Institute, in every study relationship, we made it a rule that; the situation on the level and volume of the geophysical works should also be stated, in order to avoid misinterpretations later. And since every well was approved in the ministry and, in some cases, in the prime minister, those high officials should become aware of what they approve and not use only the card of punishments for others. Memorie.al
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