By Dashnor Kaloçi
The third part
Ramiz Alia: “For now only we know the health condition of Comrade Enver, no one else, so no one should find out”!
Memorie.al / Exactly 39 years ago, at midnight on April 11, 1985, after two days in a coma, the main leader of communist Albania, dictator Enver Hoxha, the man who had ruled his country with an iron hand, died. , since November 1944, when he came to power immediately after the departure of the German forces, which also marked the end of the War. His death also came as a result of a disease (diabetes), which had appeared to him since the first years after the war, which also caused an acute heart attack, which he suffered in 1973, narrowly escaping death. , but since the beginning of the 80s, he became extremely irritated, giving him many complications, this also led to his death at midnight on April 11, 1985.
But the deterioration of Enver Hoxha’s health began in the first days of February 1984, which caused a real alarm among the “leadership comrades”, making Ramiz Alia, the man whom Enver, after the elimination, – Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, in December 1981, had “baptized and promoted him as his successor, to gather several times in working meetings the members and candidates of the Political Bureau, to inform them about the serious health situation, which is the “Commander” passed, or communicated from time to time, about his illness and the “measures the Party was taking” to overcome that extremely difficult situation.
Among other things, this fact is made known by some documents with the motto “Highly secret of a special importance”, extracted from the Archive of the former Central Committee of the APS, (Fund 14, App. O.U)
The first thing that stands out from these documents and the minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau, held on February 17, 1984, is the fact that Ramiz Alia had already taken the “reins” of the Albanian state and in some way he was already the “de facto” head of the Labor Party of Albania, deciding everything himself. And the other thing that can be noticed in these documents is the great preoccupation of Ramiz Ali and all the “friends of the leadership” to keep Enver’s illness and his health condition as secret as possible.
After making a summary of the health condition of Enver Hoxha and the team of Albanian doctors who were engaged in that direction, Ramiz Alia discussed with the “friends of the Bureau” also about the possibility of bringing some specialist doctors from abroad, mainly from France, but it was not accepted by Enver himself, nor by Ramizi and Nexhmija, as they were afraid of the news of the world press, because a Greek newspaper had written that Enver Hoxha had died.
Based on this, in those meetings, Ramiz Alia ordered the “friends of the Bureau” to be careful in maintaining the secret “about Comrade Enver’s health”, not even to talk to their family members at home or in public , keep laughing, so that the people do not understand anything.
But for more, we are familiar with the following documents with the minutes of the meetings of the Political Bureau of February 17 and November 11, 1984, which we are publishing.
Continues from last issue
ARCHIVE DOCUMENT WITH THE MINUTES OF THE POLITICAL BUREAU MEETING ON THE HEALTH CONDITION OF ENVER HOXHA
“Top secret, of special importance”
Minutes of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, dated November 11, 1984
This meeting of the Political Bureau was called by the Secretary of the Central Committee of PPSh, Comrade Ramiz Alia, to inform the main comrades of the party leadership, about the health condition of Comrade Enver.
They gathered in the small break room, upstairs, and Comrade Ramiz’s speech was transcribed.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The French are more inclined to the view that this condition is a consequence of a cardiac embolism. From an objective point of view, this does not play any role, but French specialists are convinced that all these phenomena came from the heart. Only on this issue were discussions between the French and our specialists, there were no other problems.
Our doctors, even with regard to the phenomenon of dragging the leg and twisting the hand, have thought that we are not dealing with any phenomenon of Parkinson’s disease. Even in this matter, ours did not agree with the French.
They are of the opinion that with Comrade Enver, we are not dealing with this disease. The dragging of the leg and the trembling of the hand are a consequence of the weakening of the cardiovascular organs, especially the weakening of the heart.
The French specialist who spoke about Parkinson’s expressed the opinion that such is his point of view, based on the data that was presented, that in order to give an accurate opinion, he asked to see the patient himself.
“Although we are not dealing with Parkinson’s disease,” he said, “I think that the cure against this disease, if proven, is well done.”
From the point of view of therapy, the French therefore recommend the same medicines given by our doctors, with a very slight difference in the administration of any medicine of the same family.
For example, they know that Comrade Enver likes to use salt in his food, while our doctors have advised him not to eat it.
However, by giving him food without salt, he does not eat it. The French doctors say that in his conditions, especially us, we care that the patient eats all the necessary food, so let him take some salt, and after the bread, we give him medicine to discharge it.
However, the medicine he was told to remove the salt made him very tired. When our people pointed this out to the French, they recommended using a diuretic, with a delayed effect.
Herein lay the differences in therapy between the French specialists and our doctors. There is no other essential thing between them, and this is very positive, because it shows that the treatment by our doctors was and is very correct.
Although the treatments against Parkinson’s have been done properly for Comrade Enver, in order to remove the worry yesterday we talked with Comrade Enver to call the specialist professor for this disease, but he did not agree, even as Nexhmija told me, the day before, she herself had discussed this matter with him.
“Why come?” he told us. Yes, we expressed the opinion that we do not lose anything if it came, that the French now know all this that our doctors know, and we will take measures so that no one finds out about such a thing, by bringing the doctor French as a tourist.
However, with some difficulty, we convinced him. This neither adds nor detracts from the fact that the treatments for Parkinson’s have been done in order, even the French said that you have done very well, that you have started this cure, because the medicine used does not bring any harm even if it does not have this disease.
Comrade Enver knows all this that I told you, but not to this disturbing degree that I told you. Thus, for the French specialist, who has been called to come, we have not told him that he will visit him for Parkinson’s, but to see the way of giving the cures.
Even for pronounced heart failure, we have also not spoken to him with the seriousness that is his condition, and it must be recognized that this condition is very serious, therefore we must all be very conscious, although we have told Comrade Enver in a way moderate his condition.
The new therapy that has been started may bring some improvement, and we wish that Comrade Enver recovers. Yes, we will look at this. In these conditions, of course, his spiritual state has also changed. Comrade Enver has become sensitive. Well, when I went the day before yesterday and I was talking to him about the new fountain well that has been opened, he started to cry and was very touched.
Also, when you see something on TV, you are affected. So is the disease. In this situation, we have followed and will follow the path, so as not to burden Comrade Enver with work, beyond his current physical capabilities; we will load him with as much as he can bear, so as not to cause him any difficulty.
I have tried to keep it up to date, of course very briefly and without going into detail. I go to his house all the time and he himself sometimes calls me. He also calls his friend Adil, and he also sends him only some necessary material.
So, taking into account the serious health condition of Comrade Enver, I have tried not to burden him, but to make him aware of the problems of the political aspect, without going into details.
We will follow this practice in the future as well, so as not to burden it. Even now we have the problem of the Spartakiad, which will be held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Liberation, where it is necessary for him to participate, since with his appearance in public, the interest of the Party demands it.
In this great physical and cultural manifestation, there will be all the people and the youth of Tirana, who want to see the Commander. For these reasons, I was forced to raise this issue before you, as we are facing new situations.
We have taken all the measures to ensure his appearance in front of the public of the capital, without creating any difficulties for him, than walking to the stands of the stadium, we have ensured that he does it on a very short and horizontal path, only 6-7 steps, until he takes a place in the chair where he will sit and from there he will not move again, until the end of the manifestation.
Some friends may have the opinion that the Spartakiad should be postponed a few days, but it must be understood that here we are not dealing with a flu disease; the word is that it lasts for a few days, the sick person gets better and goes back to work.
Comrade Enver’s situation is different. He is now going through some greater difficulties than he had before, which everyone noticed at the first session of the 9th Plenum of the Party Central Committee, although he came to the meeting on his own two feet that day, and now it is more difficult for him to walk.
However, we will see the issue of his appearance at the demonstration; I just want to say that this is of great importance, because everyone wants to see him there, and not only the people of Tirana, but the whole of Albania.
In the stadium we will place television equipment for this purpose, as in all cases of this type. Therefore, we will try to arrange his exit, in order for the people to rejoice.
However, we will see the issue in the coming days. I think that even if someone accompanies him by the arm, there is nothing wrong. Then everyone guesses that age and illness have these phenomena.
However, for his participation in the Spartakiad, we still have many days to decide, so let’s not rush.
To tell you the truth, I couldn’t handle this concern myself, that’s why I gathered you to tell you all this so that you know, the Political Bureau.
However, our doctors are at the top of their duties and Comrade Enver himself very rigorously applies all the treatments they give him. All that I said, we should keep to ourselves.
Now let’s put all our strength to carry out the tasks under these conditions. This will also be the biggest relief for his condition, so that we don’t worry about the big problems that we have ahead of us and that worry us all, but a little more about him.
Therefore, the more successes we have in the affairs of the Party and the state, the more it will be positively affected and the improvement of the spiritual and physical condition of Comrade Enver.
This will be good for him and this is now our main task. All the services we are doing and will do, and I hope that Comrade Enver will overcome this difficulty thanks to the care that is being shown and the medicines that have been provided to him, and to recover, which will be very important for the Party. Memorie.al
Tirana, on 15.10.1984
