Part Four
Memorie.al /On September 2, 1969, at the age of 79, the Vietnamese communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, passed away. He was known as a communist revolutionary and statesman who, from 1945 to 1955, held the position of Prime Minister of Vietnam, and from 1955 to 1969, as President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). In 1957, while serving as President of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh also visited Albania, traveling to several regions of the country. Since the breakdown of official relations with the Soviet Union in 1961, the communist regime in Tirana led by Enver Hoxha considered Vietnam one of its friendliest and closest states, second only to the People’s Republic of China. Based on this, in September 1969, official Tirana sent a delegation to Vietnam to attend the funeral ceremonies of Ho Chi Minh. The delegation was led by Rita Marko, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania (PPSH), who at the time also held the post of Deputy Chairman of the People’s Assembly of the People’s Republic of Albania, and First Secretary of the Party Committee of the Durrës District. Following the return from Vietnam and the People’s Republic of China, where the delegation made a friendly visit, in accordance with the “norms and rules of the Party,” Rita Marko reported to Enver Hoxha and the other leading “comrades” regarding those visits. This is reflected in the corresponding minutes, marked “TOP SECRET,” which Memorie.al is publishing in full across several issues, based on the documents containing the minutes of this meeting, located in the Central State Archives, fund of the former Central Committee of the PPSH.
TOP SECRET
Notes taken during the verbal report given to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PPSH, Comrade Enver Hoxha, on September 19, 1969, by Comrade Rita Marko, Chairman of the delegation that visited the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to attend the funeral of President Ho Chi Minh, as well as the visit to the People’s Republic of China.
Comrade Enver invited the following comrades to the meeting to hear Comrade Rita Marko: Mehmet Shehu, Haki Toska, Hysni Kapo, Ramiz Alia, and Xhafer Spahiu. Comrade Enver immediately gave the floor to Comrade Rita Marko.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Zhou Enlai seems like a clever man, but from what he discussed with Rita, he sounds like a big fool. He does not hide at all and says almost openly that he agrees to help the Soviet Union.
COMRADE RITA MARKO: “The possibility that the Soviets might deceive us is not excluded,” Zhou Enlai emphasized again, “which is why we are making great preparations to face the most difficult scenario. We will verify it with facts in case they undertake concrete actions. There are divergences within the Soviet leadership, (and) we will continue polemics with them,” said Zhou Enlai, “but at the same time, we will also discuss the issues I mentioned. Among other things, this meeting has also helped us gather intelligence.”
(Rita Marko): I intervened at this point and said, “But are the Soviet revisionists fools, on their part, and perhaps are they not even trying to gather intelligence against you?!”
“That is correct,” he said, “these things are reciprocal, dialectical, but one must look carefully, because it is not as you say,” he told me. There was a debate between us here. He insisted on his opinions and I on mine, emphasizing that they are making and will make every effort to get out of the difficult situations they are in.
Zhou Enlai then spoke about the internal situation of the Soviet Union and the state of its relations with its allies. “Under these circumstances,” he continued, “(the Soviet Union) will try to get out of this situation, so we must be vigilant.” “Again, I (Rita Marko) emphasized that; precisely under these difficult circumstances for them, this meeting does not seem right to me,” but Zhou Enlai told me that; “I am not treating this issue dialectically. Chairman Mao,” he stressed, “says that peace can turn into war, but this requires a process, just as peace talks can begin after the war ends. It may happen that today you are talking, but tomorrow war breaks out. Even in the talks that take place, like the ones we had, there are still elements of war, because we do not agree with them on many things, so this too is war.”
COMRADE MEHMET SHEHU: With this, they show that they completely agree with the Vietnamese who are negotiating with the Americans in Paris.
COMRADE RITA MARKO: “We must make efforts to avoid war,” said Zhou Enlai.
At the dinner he hosted, he did not toast to us, although he tried to say some good words (for us). When Zhou Enlai told us about the discussions he had with Kosygin, I told him that; “we are not informed about the news, so we want to know why this meeting is being kept secret.”
Kang Sheng denied what he had told us in the conversation we had with him and stressed that he was only referring to not saying that Kosygin came to China after arriving in Irkutsk, but to say he had come from Hanoi.
Early in the morning, as they were leaving quickly, Kang Sheng came to say goodbye, along with two other members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Xie Fuzhi and Yao Wenyuan. Kang Sheng told us that; “Zhou Enlai was very busy, however, at 6 o’clock in the morning, he called me by phone to ask me to apologize that last night at dinner, he forgot to toast to us.”
When we went to the airport with Kang Sheng, we found Li Xiannian and others waiting there to say goodbye. Li Xiannian told us the same thing as Kang Sheng. From Beijing, we went to Nanjing and then to Shanghai.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Zhou Enlai “forgot” to make a toast, because he and his friends are predisposed to forget. What did you see during your visits outside Beijing?
COMRADE RITA MARKO: Everywhere, even in the enterprises, there was talk of war. Xhoxhi (the Albanian ambassador) also noticed this. “They talk like this all over Beijing,” he told us. This was the impression we got at the military unit we visited.
In Nanjing, too, everyone spoke only about war preparations, even the member of the Political Bureau who received us there, and later, they talk about their formula “war criticism – transformation.”
War preparation is their first task everywhere in China. The entire Chinese economy is now mobilized to serve this goal. The other member of the Political Bureau working in Shanghai spoke to us in this manner as well.
There, we were taken to visit a shipbuilding factory where parts for submarines are produced. We visited one of them, still unfinished, and also visited a military ship equipped with torpedoes. A submarine base is also located there. The factory looked very large, [and] we were told that 7,500 workers work there.
As far as we noticed, wherever we went outside Beijing, the people we talked to did not say a single word about the Kosygin-Zhou Enlai meeting; in fact, they would not enter into it at all, while on our part, when we talked to them, we took every opportunity to speak, even during car rides, to show them what the Soviet revisionists are, but the answers they would give us were general.
Our opinion is that the Chinese leaders, even though they talk a lot about war, are predisposed to negotiate with the Soviet revisionists to get closer to them.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: The Chinese leaders are entirely predisposed to help the Soviet revisionist traitors, and they support friendly relations with the Soviet Union, established quickly and on a large scale.
COMRADE MEHMET SHEHU: They only had one meeting and already agreed to exchange ambassadors, resolve border issues, etc. The prime ministers of two great states do not meet for nothing.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Zhou Enlai brings up in a meeting with Kosygin all those issues that serve to strengthen the position of the Soviet Union against the American imperialists. The Chinese leaders do this consciously.
They know that the position of the Soviet revisionists internally is weak, but with their efforts, they help them consolidate their situation and thus further worsen their rule over the Soviet people. With this, they also helped the Soviet Union regain its prestige, which had been damaged, both before the satellites and before all other parties.
So, at a time when this prestige has been damaged by the adventurist Soviet revisionist policy towards China, the Chinese leaders hold a meeting and thereby create the illusion that the Soviet Union, in some way, is not pursuing an adventurist policy, but that it is trying to find a solution to the disagreements. This is a form of aid that they are giving to the traitors in Moscow.
What else can be understood from this meeting?! It turns out that the steps taken by the Chinese leaders will cement the position of the Soviet revisionist adventurers, and that they will also help to “reduce pressure” on China, so that it has the opportunity to reduce military spending. What the Chinese say, that they will be armed to the teeth, is “washing the pig.”
But also, as long as they intend to work to achieve the “disarmament” of the Soviet Union and enter into an alliance against imperialism, together with the Soviet revisionists, this means that the Albanians who do not follow them on this path are not realists, but extremists. This is the essence of this tendency that is becoming apparent among them.
COMRADE MEHMET SHEHU: This is their evaluation of us. With their stance, the Chinese leaders are telling the Vietnamese that we too have chosen your path that we have told you this indirectly until now, and now we have come to your path.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: When Zhou Enlai told you that with this meeting, the Chinese wanted to gather information about the Soviets, you, Comrade Rita, rightly told him that; the Soviet revisionists also tried to gather information about you. Zhou Enlai did not like this, because it made it known that we suppose the Soviet revisionists want to use this meeting to test where the Chinese stand, to take their pulse.
COMRADE RITA MARKO: I also emphasized that Kosygin is not an economist, as he said, but an ideological leader and among the oldest.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: This stance of the Chinese leaders does not surprise us.
COMRADE RITA MARKO: Zhou Enlai asked me if we knew the Soviet party official and Secretary of the Central Committee, Konstantin Fedorovich Katushev, who was part of this Soviet delegation, along with Kosygin. I replied that; we do not know him. After this, he openly emphasized that Kosygin is for peace.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: So, with what they are doing, the Chinese leaders think they will soften the “hawks” and thus eliminate the risk of war for China, and the situation, according to them, will evolve towards improving their relations with the Soviet Union. Then, the conclusion is that; only one common enemy remains for both sides: American imperialism.
With this, Zhou Enlai wanted to tell you, Comrade Rita, that you in Albania should also avoid the “hawks.” And you will do this, he thinks, whether you like it or not, because we keep you fed, just as the Soviet party official, Anastas Mikoyan, once told us. They think the Albanians are sectarians, against our policy.
COMRADE RITA MARKO: Whatever the case, the Chinese were very careful with us.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Our line is correct, so our party and government delegation, led by Comrade Haki, which is going to China for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, should openly express, as we have always done, our views on these issues, whether they want it or not.
This does not really hurt us and should not make us violate principles. But, certainly, with tact, we must let them know that our party thinks that this meeting is not right, not opportune, and that it does not serve Marxism-Leninism. They should be reminded of what they told Comrade Rita Marko, that we think like “extremists.”
This is not true, because we think and act according to the Marxist-Leninist path, and only from this point of view do we consider the meeting of Zhou Enlai with Kosygin as an opportunistic stance, a mistaken tactic. We must tell the Chinese leaders that in principle we are not against talks, but not every talk, at every level, and with anyone.
We are not in favor of meetings at this level with the Soviet revisionists, as they did in this case. There are moments when talks are needed, where and why one should speak, but at different levels, which must always be determined correctly, based on real conjunctures, and which bring us a real benefit and not to the enemies.
Talks always have a political character. And our main political stance is to fight to the end against the imperialist enemies and the Soviet revisionists. For us, politics is in every instance and always in the foreground.
If they start talking about the risk of war, you can tell them that we do not have information on the size of the Soviet forces concentrated on the Chinese border and that you may know this better than us, so we may be wrong in our assessments on this issue.
However, we think that with those forces, as you describe them, that the Soviet revisionists currently have on the Chinese border, and in the current situation in the world and within the Soviet Union itself, (the Soviet Union) cannot currently attack China.
We are one hundred percent with you on issues such as you should be armed, ready for war, and always vigilant, but we think that the Soviet Union cannot attack China in the current conjuncture, because a war with China would be extremely dangerous for the Soviet Union, would be to its disadvantage, and would lead to certain defeat.1
We can also tell the Chinese leaders that our opinion is that this meeting you had with Kosygin in Beijing helped the Soviet revisionists. Comrade Rita Marko reported to us about Kosygin’s conversation with yo2u. In this regard, our party thinks that now, on the eve of the UN meeting, this meeting helped the Soviet Union.
Comrade Zhou Enlai described the situation in the Soviet leadership as weak, without unity. We fully agree with this assessment; however, the meeting you had, in our opinion, helped them improve their difficult situation.
Comrade Zhou Enlai says that the Soviet Union has lost authority with its allies. This is also very true. But, in our opinion, the meeting in Beijing with Kosygin came to the aid of the Soviet revisionist leaders.
This meeting also helped the Soviet Union’s lost authority within the international communist movement. It gives the Soviet revisionists an advantage, suggesting that the Soviet Union’s patience and its policy of rapprochement and negotiation are correct.
This stance may cause disappointment among some immature Marxist-Leninists, so we think the meeting may negatively affect the world communist movement. Memorie.al
To be continued in the next issue
