By ILIR HASHORVA
Memorie.al / While communism violently attacked his opponents and destroyed them culturally, economically, and physically, it also ruined and distorted the morality of his own people. I have always held this view, but it was reinforced and somewhat validated by the transformation of several individuals who became communists, as Liri Lubonja, the wife of Todi Lubonja, recounts in a memoir. Among other things, Liria talks about some individuals she had previously known as normal, but who later changed completely. She says about Nexhmie Hoxha: “She was a gentle girl, reasonable, with common sense. Later, as Enver Hoxha’s wife, she distanced herself from people.”
She remarks on Liri Gegën: “She was always smiling and humorous, very communicative and beloved by the students. She was the one who killed Mustafa Gjinishi.” She states about Ismail Kadare: “This is linked to Kadare’s change over the years regarding the truth…! Ismail’s closeness to us, up to the establishment of a family friendship, was undoubtedly influenced by this – as he saw Todi as a protector and supporter of his literary career. Todi was a member of the Central Committee, a friend of Ramiz Alia.”
While she alludes that Enver Hoxha corrupted Nexhmie, she does not specify who corrupted the others. Indeed, who did corrupt these individuals? I believe that these individuals and all the others who became communists were corrupted by communism itself. Moreover, I do not hesitate to say that communism worsened Enver. Those who knew him before he became a communist pointed out many flaws, but no one ever suggested he was a criminal. He became a criminal after he became a communist. Communism reveals and exploits the worst instincts that a person may have.
The qualities of a doctrine can never be understood solely by its theoretical foundation. It must be tested in life. When communism was proclaimed as a doctrine, no one could predict all its perversity; no one could foresee that it would not be the dictatorship of a group or class but the dictatorship of a single person, who was distanced from human society and given extraordinary powers, powers like that of God. And, as Lord Acton says, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Isolated from the people, separated by walls and guards, the high-ranking communists around Enver Hoxha did not even know what was happening. When the decision of internment was given to Liri Lubonja, she said: “We didn’t even know there was a Commission for Expulsions-Internments,” at a time when thousands of people were continuously being interned by that commission; while Nexhmie Hoxha, when told that the monument of Enver Hoxha had been demolished, according to her daughter-in-law, Teuta Hoxha, said: “Enver, where did all those sacrifices go? Where did all that titanic work go?!” Meanwhile, the sacrifices and titanic work of Enver Hoxha were only linked to crimes, to the murders of his friends and opponents.
Liri Lubonja shares the same opinion held by many of the former communist persecuted regarding communism, that the responsibility for all the evils committed rested solely with Enver Hoxha. Although this view contains many truths, it is not entirely true and just. Enver Hoxha would never have been able to do what he did if he had been in a different political system and if there hadn’t been a number of criminal individuals like him in the system he was in, who became accomplices in crime, providing him with all the necessary help to discredit and persecute all those who were targeted by Enver, regardless of the fact that later on, they themselves would also be discredited and persecuted!
Communism was a system that, after granting full value and power to the “One”, also granted considerable value and power to all others, depending on their proximity to the “One”. Communism produced individuals who were evaluated not by their individual qualities, but by their closeness at any given moment to the epicenter of power. The closer a person was to that epicenter, the more value they held, and even merely being a party member added extra value. However, value, friendship, respect, and honor towards them functioned only as long as they were in power. When they fell from power, everything fell. Communism produced people who were slaves, servile, idolaters, spies, faithless, individuals without personality, dignity, or conscience. Their conscience was the Party; it was Enver. Moral and human values, even cultural ones, were never measured.
With some timid exceptions, none of the communist regime’s persecuted victims criticize the communist system today, nor do they label it as criminal. They nostalgically remember the years when they militated in the Communist Party or the Party of Labor, claiming that everything fell apart, including the party itself, when he, Enver Hoxha, persecuted them. This is completely untrue. The Communist Party was what it was from the very first days of its foundation. Even in those early days, it planned to annihilate anyone who had a differing opinion from its leader or leadership. Our chief criminal, unlike classical criminals, was also a sadist; he sought not only punishment for those he labeled enemies but, above all, forced them to humiliate themselves to the extreme and beg him for salvation.
Read the letters sent by persecuted communists to Enver Hoxha, the chronicles of the plenums of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor, or of Party organizations in meetings held to unmask or punish some high-ranking communists, and you will see with what zeal, ferocity, and hatred, their comrades attacked those targeted by the tyrant for punishment; and with what cowardice, lack of dignity, hypocrisy, and servility they themselves behaved who were to be punished—those who just a short time before were considered brave, ready to shed blood for the cause.
Arben Puto, in his book “A Life with Memories,” in an attempt to distance himself from the communist regime, which he is thought by many to have fully served by all means, presents this paragraph, which I provide in full due to its importance for my writing:
“There is also one thing that completes the picture. These are the minutes of two plenums of military personnel, published later in the press. A number of military officers, of lower levels, were involved. They were asked to explain themselves. A miserable spectacle. They tried to excuse themselves, swearing loyalty to the Party, blaming one another. They were fighters of the National Liberation War, generals, and leading officers of the Army with medals on their chests. They fell to their knees, trampling every personal integrity.”
Let us provide below some behaviors and excerpts from the self-criticisms and requests of several communists persecuted by Enver, to see how they made themselves rags, just as he wished, how they begged him to forgive them for mistakes or sins that were neither mistakes nor sins, and how they treated him as a God, just as he wanted, holding in his hands the fate of themselves and their relatives. Now these make us smirk, but it was not like that then.
Beqir Balluku
(Letter to Enver Hoxha, Roskovec, 18.09.1974)
“Although I currently have no moral right to make even the smallest request to the Party, I address myself with the pleas of the great heart of this noble mother to forgive me for the serious mistakes and sins I have committed, and not to line me up in the ranks of its enemies, but to consider me as a former son who has gravely erred and who seeks her powerful hand to rise from the mire of the hated bourgeois-revisionist world…! I assure the Party and comrade Enver that despite the mistakes and sins I have made… which I condemn with complete conscience, in my heart and mind, the love for the Party and comrade Enver has not faded and will never fade.”
“I plead with the Party to give me the opportunity to start life anew, I ask that with its sharp sword, it cut out from the roots the bad part of my life, so that I go to the grave not as an enemy of the Party and the people but as a simple patriotic citizen, and that my children and all my family circle, who are intertwined like flesh with bone with the Party and who severely condemn my mistakes and sins, walk the path of life as sons and daughters of the Party. I conclude this letter with a shaken conscience and remorse for the mistakes and sins I have made, and convinced that the damage I have caused to the Party cannot be washed away even with my life, which is at the disposal of the Party at any moment.”
“I solemnly affirm before the Party and comrade Enver that despite the mistakes and sins I have made, in my heart and mind today, not only has it not faded, but on the contrary, the hatred against the imperialist-revisionist enemies has increased, along with the belief and determination to fight and win against them in the political, ideological arena, and to crush and annihilate them in armed struggle. Long live the Party. Long live comrade Enver.”
With deep respect towards the Party, the Central Committee, and comrade Enver.
Kristofor Martiro, Beqir Balluku’s interrogator, says: “Even in the state he was in, the former minister-maintained respect for Enver Hoxha. Even when he was interned in Roskovec, after being expelled from the Political Bureau and the Party, when he entered the house where he was to stay, he held Enver Hoxha’s portrait in his hand.” Meanwhile, Arben Puto writes that in court, Beqir Balluku told those judging him: “Do you understand, comrade Enver, what you are doing to me?”
Dashnor Mamaqi
Dashnor Mamaqi relates a conversation he had in prison with Maksim Rakipaj, a former political prisoner: “I once told Shpresa (his wife): Do you remember, Shpresa, when our beloved commander, the great Enver, came to our house…?”
“I couldn’t hold back…,” Rakipaj says, “and I told him: this is the last time we stay together. With all that you have endured and are still enduring… you still love the criminal Enver Hoxha?! When will it dawn on you, boy… or will it be when you have the firing squad in front of you, like your friends? Even then, you will scream: Long live that criminal?!
“Just wait, boy, lower your voice,” Dashnor Mamaqi says… and after ensuring that no one was listening, he whispered to me: Ah, if you only knew that dog the way I do… you should genuinely be afraid. But you have no idea what a monstrous criminal he is.”
Halim Xhelo
(Letter to the Central Committee of the Party of Labor, year 1966)
“To the Yugoslavs, the Greeks, the Americans, the modern revisionists, and the internal reaction, I have arrested hundreds of people and executed dozens of them with my own hand…! Regardless of my offenses, I belong only to the Party and the power, and if I live, time will prove it…! If my request for life is denied and my death benefits the Party, then through this letter, I wish: Long live the Party, the power, and comrade Enver!”
Fatmir Gjata
(Self-criticism at the base organization of the cooperative of Lapardha in Berat, year 1966, after he panicked in Switzerland because someone pointed a toy pistol at him)
“In Zurich, I turned my back on the enemy; I lacked the revolutionary spirit and lost some revolutionary qualities that I believe I had. The mistake I made is serious…! I am not allowed, not as a communist, not as a representative of the people I was (a deputy), not as a writer, and not even as a citizen to be afraid. A communist must place the interests of the people above his own, while I panicked and only thought about saving my own skin…! During this time, I have asked myself:
Why did I, a revolutionary communist… act this way?! Why did this happen to me? This is not coincidental; it happened not because I lacked experience, but it was bound to happen, leading me to be afraid, as it was the logical conclusion that would take me where it did. I expect the sharpest criticisms from the base organization. I’m very fortunate to be in a production organization since you will make my ears red…”
Todi Lubonja
(Self-criticism at the Central Committee, year 1973)
“I see the words as excessive. I consider the measure for my exclusion from the ranks of the Central Committee of the Party to be warranted, as the baggage of my mistakes and deviations is heavy…! But I think I should be given the opportunity to work within the Party, to which I have dedicated my life, both its merits and demerits; without which my life would lose its meaning and substance.”
“I don’t have any moral right now to make even the smallest request of the Party, but still I turn to the great heart of this noble mother and ask for forgiveness for the serious mistakes and sins I have committed, and not to categorize me among her enemies but to consider me as a wayward son who has gravely erred and who seeks her powerful hand to rise from the mire of the hated bourgeois-revisionist world…! I assure the Party and comrade Enver that despite the mistakes and sins I have committed… which I condemn with a clear conscience, the love for the Party and comrade Enver has not faded and will never fade.”
Ismail Kadare
(Self-criticism regarding the poem “The Red Pashas”, year 1975)
“As a communist and as a writer, instead of being at the forefront of the situation, helping the Party, not only do I not occupy this position, but I also become a problem for the Party, thus becoming an obstacle to it. This fact is extremely bitter for my conscience, and I do not exaggerate anything when I say that this is the greatest bitterness and the greatest murder of my conscience that I have ever suffered in my life. The only goal and concern of my life from now on will be to return to the trenches, to the honored place of the Party helper, without which my life and my work would have no meaning.”
Thoma Deliana
(Letter addressed to Enver Hoxha, year 1976)
“I am very grateful to the Party and to comrade Enver for the help and care they have shown towards me, and I feel very sorry that I repay them in this way…! I promise that I am and will be loyal until the end of my life to the Party and comrade Enver, I have great faith in the Party, and I am ready to accept even the harshest punishment that it may impose on me. I feel heavy and ashamed that not even a year has passed since comrade Enver severely criticized me and warned me during the VII Plenary Session of the Central Committee for lack of vigilance and political sharpness… and exactly in these mistakes, I fell again!”
Mehmet Shehu
(Letter before his suicide, year 1981)
“Yes, comrade Enver, I have always been ready to give my life for the Party. And precisely this is what I’m doing now: I am leaving my life for the Party, to give you the only chance that remains, you, comrade, teacher, and my dear brother, whom I have rightly been called, so that you may learn the truth…! Down with imperialism, with American imperialism at its head! … Down with reaction! I entrust my family – Fiqrete, the boys (including Skënder and Bashkimi), the children and the daughters-in-law of my sons!”
Vladimir Shehu
(Letter to Enver Hoxha, year 1982)
“Dear comrade Enver. Through this letter, we wish to express our complete and unconditional condemnation of the hostile activities of the traitors of the Party, Mehmet and Fiqrete Shehu…! We also wish to express our deepest gratitude to the Party and to you personally for the differentiation you made between us and other members of our former family, who were implicated in hostile activities…!”
“We owe our blood and that of our children to you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, especially for the special concern you showed towards us in the early days following Mehmet Shehu’s suicide. Regarding our stance towards the members of the Shehu family, parting with them is a matter of principle. The question in this case is clear: either with the Party or with the enemy. We stand with the Party and have nothing to do with those people. With respect, Vladimir and Fatbardha Shehu, Tirana, January 4, 1982.” (Note: Vladimir Shehu was killed or committed suicide in Gramsh two months later.)
Bashkim Shehu, Mehmet Shehu’s son, recounts in his book “The Autumn of Anxiety” about Mehmet Shehu’s funeral: “Mehmet’s other brother, an officer in the Ministry of Defense, did not attend the funeral because Minister Kadri Hazbiu advised him not to…! Their mother (Fiqireti, Mehmet’s wife) was convinced by Vladimir (her son) not to attend (the funeral), since she continued to be a member of the Central Committee, and her presence at Mehmet Shehu’s funeral could very well influence her exclusion from the Party, or at least give rise to suspicion.” Those who were said to have bravely confronted the “nazi-ballist” forces that killed so many of them now feared to go and bury their own!
What kind of system is this?!
There is no doubt that the descendants of these communists, or others similar to them, today, when they read the words and stances of their predecessors, will not feel good; in fact, some may even feel ashamed! Compare now the words and behaviors of these communists with those of the anti-communists at the communist trials, who would be severely punished, possibly even executed, or with their stances before execution, and you will see how courageously, with dignity, and with wisdom they awaited their sentences and deaths, and how different they are from those who were entangled with communism, with those who became one with it!
Continue to compare the stances of the communist families, who would shatter in an instant when a member of theirs was struck by the Party, with the stances of the non-communist families who, with rare exceptions, not only did not disintegrate but followed their imprisoned relatives from one prison to another, with a bag of food, taking it from the mouths of their small children, or their behaviors in internment camps, when, even if one of the spouses finished their sentence and the other did not, the spouse whose sentence ended would remain interned so as not to leave their comrade alone.
Recently, several interviews of the singer Alida Hisku were published, in which she states: “Right after my isolation for hostile activities, they began to keep my father under surveillance. One day he was officially summoned to the committee and faced the terrible dilemma: ‘Either surrender the Party document, or deny Alida!’ Finding himself in such a situation, my father wisely chose the second option to save the rest of the family and the clan.” A man can deny his wife, or vice versa, or a child can deny a parent, but it is very rare for a parent to deny a child for political reasons! And such shameful and immoral cases were treated by communism as triumphs of its cause!
They say that communism, by creating the “new man,” distorted the “old man.” I must say that more than it distorted the “old man,” it destroyed its own “new man,” the communist, and it destroyed him to such an extent that the closer he was to the heights of power. It criminalized him, stripped him of manhood, degraded him, made him hypocritical, and turned him into a fool. /Memorie.al
