Memorie.al / Private conversations between Enver Hoxha and the Soviet leader, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, have been revealed. In one such conversation, the clashes between them are shown, as the Soviet leader voiced criticism of the executions carried out by the communist regime, especially regarding the case of Liri Gega, who was pregnant, and Dali Ndreu. The conversations between the former main leader of communist Albania, Dictator Enver Hoxha, and the head of the Soviet Union at that time, Nikita Khrushchev, have been declassified by the international center “Wilson.”
26 December 1956
After mild criticisms of the public trials and executions of political criminals, Khrushchev assures Hoxha of the USSR’s support for Albania, with a lecture on international politics. After Hoxha spoke briefly, Khrushchev declared: We understand the difficulties facing the Party of Labor of Albania, we see this. When I met with Tito in Crimea, I told him that Yugoslavia’s attitude toward Albania is not normal. They are somewhat stubborn. They criticize the Albanian party for using hateful language. The information you gave us on Yugoslav activities in Albania, we used to show Tito that he has not stopped espionage activities and that he is interfering in Albania’s internal affairs.
Tito rejected the accusations but was not very convincing in this. The Yugoslavs cannot accept Albania as a state equal with the other parties. We see this in the attitude they are holding toward your party. Tito’s speech was typical, he appears not to criticize from an equal position, but delivers them from a superior position. I told this to Veljko Mićunović and surely he has told Tito. I said: “You claim you are following a different course for the construction of socialism, but why don’t you understand that the Albanians too are following their own path, which they are putting into practice? Why do you seek to impose your way?”
He said: “What is Albania? We created the Party of Labor of Albania. The current leaders of Albania have achieved nothing of their own.” I said: “Why don’t you value Albania and its leaders? Why don’t you see them as equals?” The Yugoslavs act from a nationalist position. They speak a lot about Koçi Xoxe, whom they elevate as a good man, a worker and a revolutionary. I told Tito that they are interfering in Albania’s internal affairs and this contradicts our reciprocal agreement, which clearly states that we do not interfere in each other’s internal affairs. Why do you do it?
Tito said they were not interfering at the moment and that they had replaced diplomatic staff. I told him that they are continuing to send spies and that they are responsible for the Tirana Party Conference. We are defending and will continue to defend the Albanian comrades, since they act according to Marxist-Leninist principles. Tito was nervous about the article in the Russian newspaper “Pravda.” When he was here he gave the impression that he was both with you and against you. I wanted to make some criticisms about the article. We discussed it in the Politburo and thought some parts could be removed, but you had requested that the article be published without changes, so we made no changes. The Yugoslavs were angry since it was clear that the article was directed at them.
Taking into consideration the situation in Hungary and Poland, we agreed to publish the article, but it could have been written in another way, not including the insults. We don’t understand why you continued with the public trials and executions of those people in these circumstances. It was hasty to carry out the trials in that manner. You took this decision without first taking a cold shower, but you should have taken a cold shower beforehand.
According to our view, the trial was harmful and the executions have left a bad impression, especially the execution of a woman. The decision may attract more opponents to you. Here we are not talking about ordinary crimes, but about political crimes, so it is not necessary for people to be sentenced to death. You could have carried out the trial and reached the decision, but not a death sentence. You carried out a public trial.”
Hoxha’s intervention
Hoxha intervenes saying it was not a public trial. But Khrushchev declares: “You didn’t hold a public trial, but you publicized the sentence. This complicates the situation more in the eyes of your enemies. They say you had no evidence to hold a public trial, so you did it behind closed doors. Do you remember when we tried Bagirov, although we had strong evidence against him, there were still reactions. Mir Jafar Bagirov was a collaborator of Lavrentiy Beria, just this fact softened the pressure and made the reactionaries withdraw from the matter.
We took that decision because we are a big country, because we have an important international position and because we are a strong country. Whereas you are not in our position, therefore you should have been more restrained. We fully agree with your party’s policies and stance, but you must be restrained and not rush judgments. Don’t give your enemies reason to continue the fight against you and the party.
We support you and Albania belongs to the Socialist Camp, therefore your goals must be such that we fully support them. Regarding the Yugoslavs, we will continue with the position discussed in the plenum, which means we will maintain economic relations and some party relations with them, but we will continue the ideological battle. Peace has already been broken.
The continuation of events
How will events continue from here? Certainly for the moment the disagreements with Yugoslavia will not disappear. My personal opinion is that Tito and Ranković are different from the others. I have told this to Mićunović too, I have told him that the two of them want good relations with us, while people like Kardelj, Popović and Todorović are bad. Whereas Tempo is an unstable person in politics, he is like a bull in a china shop. The Yugoslavs are afraid that we will cut economic ties.
Their delegation should have been here in November to discuss economic agreements, but we told them it is not the right time so they should come later, at a more suitable time. Now that we told them to come, they are very happy. It is clearly understood that we will maintain economic relations with them since, as with any other country, we have trade interests. We take from them what we need, while they buy materials for which we have no need. Not like before, when we bought things we didn’t need, just to help them.
For example we bought wine, tobacco, fruit and other things from them. Now we buy this elsewhere, or if we don’t find them we don’t buy them at all. I am telling you these things in confidence. We will also review the agreements we have signed with them for the construction of factories in Yugoslavia. We have prepared a letter that we will send them as soon as the Politburo approves it. In it we tell them to postpone the implementation of the agreements, since a delegation will discuss the matter with the people.
Of course they won’t like it, they will say we are returning to 1948, but that is their business. We cannot offer credit to a country by harming our people, especially when it is a country that has discredited the Soviet Union. If it bites the hand that feeds it, we don’t feed it anymore, eat from your own bowl, I won’t let you take from mine.
These things make our policy stronger. They will accuse us saying we seek to impose political conditions on them. For a long time now we have told them that there should be solidarity among socialist countries, but they don’t want to practice solidarity. We have told them that this helps them in obtaining credits, but if they wish they can get them from the United States, we have told them that this situation is not good.
But the worsening of the situation also has a good result. By this I mean that if before we had disagreements on some issues, we kept silent while their press published all kinds of aggressive articles. Now we can speak in our press mentioning all the documented agreements so that people understand our position better. Based on this, socialist forces grow in unity while the Yugoslav line is exposed publicly.
We have prepared a long response to Tito’s letter and will show it to you too. The letter exposes their opportunist line. Our stance toward Yugoslavia is the continuation of the ideological battle and polemics, without reaching insults. We will engage in polemics so that ordinary people understand us, but we will not offend by calling them ‘spies’ or other epithets, or waste our breath on things that people don’t understand.
This only helps them, as in the time when no one in Yugoslavia believed the accusation that Tito was a spy. This kind of propaganda then helped Tito in the conflict with us, adding to his internal support. Therefore we must not reach insults. The situation of the people’s democracies is not good (he mentions all socialist countries except Romania). Even in China the situation is not good. In Poland reactionary forces are mobilizing, Gomułka is facing a difficult situation.
The things published in the Polish press do not reflect the position of the Central Committee, and are against Gomułka. But they think things are moving toward a stronger position for the party, the working class and Gomułka. Chou En-lai will come here for a visit and will also go to Poland. This will help Gomułka. We thought it was better for a Chinese to speak in defense of Gomułka than for us to speak, since reactionary forces are mobilized against us.
Things are improving in Hungary. Now it depends on (János) Kádár and his comrades not to draw elements from bourgeois parties into the government. It is time to destroy the counter-revolution, strengthen the party and then decide who will join the government, so that other parties understand that they cannot reach the government./ Memorie.al
Clarifications
Veljko Mićunović is the Yugoslav ambassador in Moscow. The death sentences refer to the trials of Liri Gega, Dali Ndreu (her husband) and Peter Bulatović, a month earlier. Gega had been a member of the Politburo since 1944, but had been expelled from the party and again refused the party line at the time of the Koçi Xoxe affair. It is said that she was pregnant at the time of execution, a fact that Khrushchev later used to publicly denounce Hoxha as an unrepentant Stalinist. Mir Jafar Bagirov was the head of the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, who was dismissed, arrested and sentenced to death in 1956 as a collaborator of the former head of Security Lavrentiy Beria.
