Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes an archival document extracted from the fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP with the speech of Enver Hoxha held at the 8th Plenum of the Central Committee that held the proceedings in October 12-12, 1975. , where he made serious accusations against the Minister of Trade, Kiço Ngjela, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Vasil Kati, two members of the Politburo, and the Deputy Prime Ministers, Abdyl Këllezi and Koço Theodhosi, who had held the main positions for years. Ministries of the Albanian Economy, calling them “the hostile group of saboteurs in the economy”!
In the development of foreign trade, it was thought that “Trade is trade, give it to me to give you.” “What does politics mean here?”, Preached Kiço Ngjela. This is a reactionary view of why there is politics in trade, and that policy depends on how you and your entity pursue it in this trade. Kiço Ngjela spread the impression and euphoria (which he tried to do here as well) that with the revisionist countries our trade is stabilized; that they need our goods; that it was a victory that with some of these countries this trade was growing every year, that we were entering capitalist countries, but it was not seen that, along with these, we were also entering the services of the capitalist-revisionist agency ”.
This is what Enver Hoxha said, among other things, at the meeting of the 8th Plenum of the Central Committee of the ALP held on October 11 and 12, 1975, for the Minister of Trade, Kiço Ngjela, for which he threw a river with accusations such as “hostile, diversionary and sabotaging activities”, etc. Which would then lead Minister Ngjela behind bars, along with Deputy Minister Vasil Kati and two Deputy Prime Ministers Abdyl Këllezi and Koço Theodhosi, who for more than two decades had been the main leaders of the Albanian economy in some ministerial posts? This plenum where Enver Hoxha declared de facto the so-called “sabotage hostile group in the economy”. It took place at a time when behind the bars of the prison and in the cold cells of “Department 313”, where the Special Investigation was located, was arrested another “hostile group” that of Beqir Balluku, Petrit Dumes and Hito Chako, who at the end of in 1974, Enver declared it an “army coup group.”
These events came at a time when official Tirana, led by Enver Hoxha, had almost completely frozen relations with the People’s Republic of China, with which it had found major support since the early 1960s when it was finally separated from the Soviet Union. not only politically, but also militarily and economically. In this context, the political line pursued by the senior leadership of the ALP, headed by Enver Hoxha, Balluku, Dume, Çako from the Ministry of Defense, as well as Ngjela, Kati, Theodhosi, and Këllezi from the Economy sector, were the most functional high of the Albanian government that had the closest ties with China, for receiving all the aid and loans it had granted to Albania since the early 1960s.
Enver’s departure from his close ally, Mao Zedong, who had found him in the most difficult days, came after Beijing’s approach to Washington, which became a fact after Nixon’s visit to Beijing and in this context, as paranoid as it was, it is said that Enver suspected that they might have been linked to China and its new tools in the West, where Ngjela had begun to intensify trade relations.
These and other allusions of Enver Hoxha are made known in his speech held at the 8th Plenum of the Central Committee of the ALP on October 11-12, 1975, which Memorie.al is publishing in this writing.
Enver Hoxha’s accusations against Kiço Ngjela, Vasil Katin, Abdyl Këllezi, and Koço Theodhosi.
Speech at the 8th Plenum of the Central Committee of the ALP
October 11-12, 1975
I also had a few words to say about Kiço Ngjela’s hostile, diversionist, and sabotaging activity. These enemies of the people and the Party have heard these issues hundreds of times, but they have not served them, so what I wanted to point out is to tell the Plenum now. From the analyzes made by the Central Committee of the Party and from the state control, it is confirmed fourfold that even in the Department of Trade, hostile, diversionist, and sabotaging activities have been carried out by spies and elements in the service of foreigners.
This sabotage in the field of Trade is coordinated with the former leaders of the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Mines, Abdyl Këllezi, and Koço Theodhosi, as well as with the important oil sector, which was sabotaged by a group of spies. of saboteurs in the service of foreign enemy powers. In parentheses, I would like to tell the Plenum that the investigation has almost finished the work with the traitors Beqir Balluku and his comrades, who will soon go to military court for trial.
Kiço Ngjela, former Minister of Trade, and Vasil Kati, former Deputy Minister of the same department, are the main perpetrators of this hostile, diversionist and sabotaging work. Therefore, we decided here for Kiço Ngjela to be expelled from the Central Committee and the Party. The facts we have discovered must make the Party aware that the enemy of the class, internal and external, is fighting us fiercely. They are introducing us to spies and saboteurs not only in the grassroots organizations but even in the higher instances of the Party and the state.
How did this happen? This is not the first time we have encountered such activities. Once again, some party members are intoxicated by internal and external successes and lose vigilance. Even this time, many members of the Party thought that they would say: “We suppressed Yugoslav Titism together with its agency; we crushed and unmasked the Khrushchevite revisionists; they could have no effect on us. ”
So, in these comrades, megalomania was revived and developed, the enemy was underestimated. There was talk of vigilance, of class warfare, of the savage capitalist-revisionist siege, but the wrong conclusion was reached: “The enemy has nothing to do with us, we are strong”! The enemy hid behind these slogans; he adapted to the exaltations, sick psychology, and other weaknesses of a number of Party members and state officials, and thus managed to carry out the mining work. It was said, “Trust in your friends and control them.” However, the work of each was not properly controlled and it was forgotten that the only fair assessment of one or the other is the control of the work. It was more based on the principle “This is an old friend, a minister, a member of the Central Committee of the Politburo, so he is immune from mistakes”.
Life has proved to us that such considerations, which go beyond the norms of the Party, are wrong and can cause great damage to our socialist homeland. How many times has the Central Committee emphasized the task of increasing revolutionary vigilance ?! How many times have we been told to strengthen the organizational work of the Party and the state ?! How many times have we been told about our education with the Party theory ?! But experience shows that there have been comrades, grassroots organizations, party committees, and state bodies that have not performed these tasks properly. The facts prove that it was in these weaknesses and cracks that the enemy was able to penetrate.
In the Ministry of Trade the enemy was in her head. Spy elements kept in touch with enemy agencies, provided information, and sabotaged the economy. Meanwhile, what did the party’s grassroots organization do? Heavy sleep! He was subjected to the arrogance of Kiço Ngjela and his saboteur and spy comrades. Many communists in this department began to open their mouths when the cabbage Peta was discovered. But where did they have their mouths before? Where did they have the courage and bravery to talk about them? Shouldn’t this grassroots organization and the communists who were part of it be able to get ahead of everyone to uncover the diversion that was taking place under their beards?
The report sent by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers through the State Inspectorate gives a clear idea of how guilty the Communists and the disorganized employees in the Party of this department are that left these bandits to a meadow. The cadres of the employees of the Ministry of Trade talked about the capitalist-revisionist siege, forgetting that many of them not only worked and lived in the capitalist and revisionist world but also had alliances with capitalist and revisionist enemies. Not only were these people not kept under strict control, but they were protected, helped, and praised by Kiço Ngjela, Vasil Kati, and others. Is this how the capitalist-revisionist siege is fought? When such things happen, can it be said that we have been taught lessons? Can it be said, then, that the lessons and the whole experience of the Party’s war against the enemies are taken into account?
Hostile work should not be considered a fatality, in case the Party fights and thus closed the way to the enemies. The work of enemies leaves marks, it gives you signals. If you are vigilant, you can dictate it right away and hit it. In the event that for many reasons the vigilance is lost, the work of the enemies thickens, which the Party has constantly pointed out to us. The development of foreign trade with the revisionist and capitalist states was very dubious; he had to be followed with vigilance and especially when it is known that these states seek to make the grave of socialism in their country.
The development of foreign trade was based on the idea that “Trade is trade, give me to give you”. “What does politics mean here?”, Preached Kiço Ngjela. This is a reactionary view of why there is politics in trade, and that policy depends on how you and your entity pursue it in this trade. Kiço Ngjela spread the impression and euphoria (which he tried to do here as well) that with the revisionist countries our trade is stabilized; that they need our goods; that it was a victory that with some of these states this trade was growing every year; that we were entering capitalist countries, but it was not seen that, along with these, the services of the capitalist-revisionist agency were being introduced to us.
Characteristically, some key department heads deal with grievances that belong to others and forget the most important issues. They forget them in the sense that they do not control and rectify the mainline of problems; do not organize the sound skeleton of organizational work and do not insist on the political and ideological education of subordinates; do not fight to achieve the objectives set by the Central Committee and the Government. The Central Committee of the Party and the Government have always given guidelines, directives, and fair instructions, on the basis of which it will proceed. What did it look like in practice during their implementation?
Direct orientations and directives in these sectors were distorted and distorted. Enemies hid behind these righteous orientations and developed them in the direction of Tito’s self-government, in sabotaging plans, in developing bureaucracy, in inflating apparatus, and in creating technocrats. All these distortions and sabotages covered them with the noise of success. They tried and often succeeded in attributing success to their own people and the revisionist system they were trying to establish under the guise of socialism. Herein lies the mistake of the communists, of the grassroots organizations, and of the Party committees who did not see the sabotage actions of these enemies; they did not confront the right directives with their deconstruction and application in practice, but only dealt with second- and third-hand things and many times walked, without being at all perverted, in a wrong and dangerous way.
This hostile work, this indifference, this sluggishness at work and in war, the grassroots organizations and the Party committees, the enterprises, the cooperatives, and the departments must make an in-depth political, ideological, economic and organizational analysis. The party, in all its instances and at all times, must analyze the international situation, the forces encountered in the outside world, the situation of the capitalist-revisionist neighbors, etc. This is absolutely necessary to do, otherwise, we are only talking about the capitalist-revisionist siege, but we do not know what this siege is and how it works; where and how he directs attacks on the world in general, and against our country in particular. We need to recognize this and repair it as soon as possible. The party and the people will really be very interested in economic problems, but that does not mean forgetting the political problems that are boiling in the world and especially around us. So can the Party’s grassroots organization be allowed to engage in gossip, talk nonsense, and let some people act as they please ?!
It is always said, “Under the leadership of the party’s grassroots organization.” But is that always the case? Not! If things go well, it is said: “Long live the organization- -base” !, if it turns out badly, then “It is the fault of the government that did not take measures, that did not organize…”, etc. But who is the power in our country? The dictatorship of the proletariat. Who led this dictatorship? Party. Is it enough to just affirm these principles hundreds of times and apply them poorly or even forget them altogether? Friends should be clear that the Party is responsible for everything. They understand that the work of power is never detached from the work of the Party, that the work for the development of the economy is closely connected with the political, ideological and organizational work of the Party.
Without understanding this and without closely linking these cardinal issues, nothing can go well. All-Party members, cadres, and employees must have a cool head and a burning heart. Communists should not set fire to success, especially since we have not reaped one, but thousands of successes. But in no case should we think as if we have reached perfection; we should not think that success was achieved in one voice of the plan and in this realization, there are no flaws, no defects, no reservations that are left apostasy “to be inside” and thus come out on the water, to t ‘bragged’ about climbing stairs. We have success and will continue to have, but these will never intoxicate us and make us forget the capitalist-revisionist siege. This siege exists, is real, and acts.
Beqir Balluku was an old agent of the Yugoslavs and the Soviets; Hito Çakoja of Petrit Dumja as well; Abdyl Këllezi, Koço Theodhosi, Kiço Ngjela, and other enemies and saboteurs were in the service of foreigners. So these people were not the ones who could make any mistake unintentionally. Not! These were conspirators, revisionists, spies. Our party is a strong and seasoned party, but the internal and external enemies should not be underestimated. The underestimation of the enemy is tantamount to the cessation of class warfare, which is the source of all evil and catastrophe. The experience of our Party is great, political, and ideological. It must be mastered and studied deeply by the communists, old and new, by the working class and by the youth, that without a constant ideological and political upliftment of the communists and the workers, things cannot go well for us.
Currently, tens of thousands of people in our country own science and technology, but these cannot be put into service properly if the people who own them are not educated in Marxism-Leninism. We talk about technocracy, but we are still far from the deep understanding of the danger it brings. See Beqir Balluku, Hito Çako, and Petrit Dumen: they were removed as military experts and technicians. Abdyl Këllezi and Koço Theodhosi were also removed as specialists, technicians, and economists. Oil saboteurs were geologists, engineers. Kiço Ngjela and Vasil Kati were also removed as technicians and trade specialists. But what happened to them? They were anti-Marxist, against the teachings of our Party and its experience, they were anti-socialists. But did they speak, did they issue slogans for the Party? As much as you want! But what were they hiding behind these slogans? Poison and knife!
Hence vigilance, comrades, revolutionary vigilance! Education, education with Marxism-Leninism, and the experience of our Party! Full implementation of tasks, trust in friends, but also constant control over them! Control does not mean “suspicion, catching leeks in the hands”, but the fight against degeneration, rot, sabotage, diversion, and many other evils. Nothing, not even life, should be put before the great interest of the Party, the people, socialism. We must correct the friends who make mistakes, and we must crush the enemies without mercy!/Memorie.al
