Dashnor Kaloçi
Second part
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents labeled “Sekret” taken from the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of PPSh), which belong to the period of September – December 1981 and are part of a file containing some information, relations, reports, letters, notes, instructions, minutes of meetings and plenums, of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PPSh, etc., where the problem of the Prime Minister of that time, Mehmet Shehu, regarding the engagement of his second son, Skënder Shehu, to Silva Turdiu, the former volleyball player of the “Dinamo” team, who had “biographical problems and in her family circle, there were several people who escaped from Albania, who carried out activities against the People’s Republic of Albania”, as well as the action that Mehmet Shehu committed, killing himself. In the said documents published for the first time by Memorie.al, there are the minutes of the meeting of the Plenary of the Central Committee of PPSh, held on December 19, 1981, just a few hours after the event of Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu , who was found dead in the bedroom of his villa inside the “Block” of the APS senior leadership. As we will see in the documents in question, the meeting of the 2nd plenum of the Central Committee of PPSh, which started at 9 o’clock in the morning on December 19, took place without the presence of Enver Hoxha and was led by Ramiz Alia , who informed the members of the plenum to listen to the recorded discussions that took place at the meeting of the Political Bureau. While in the afternoon session, which started at 4:00 p.m. that day, Enver Hoxha came late and after taking the floor, among other things, he said: “Mehmet Shehu, he had an unbridled ambition and his actions were carried out according to a tactic certain and strange. In order to create a sick psychosis of fear in people, in comrades and in Party forums, I can say that he always handled problems with nervousness, arrogance and arrogance. Apart from me, up to and including the members of the Central Committee and the Government, there was no other comrade who was not attacked and did not become the object of his criticism, without a place. With this tactic, he tried to create in the Party, the situation that you heard and that we analyzed at the meeting of the Political Bureau”. For more about this, we are familiar with the archival documents that Memorie.al publishes with the relevant facsimiles, in several numbers.
Continues from last issue
The secret document with the minutes of the meeting of the 2nd plenum of the PPSh Central Committee, related to the suicide of Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, on December 19, 1981
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY Secret
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
General Sector
Minutes of the meeting of the 2nd Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, on 19.12.1981
On 19.12.1981 at 9:00 a.m. the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania convened. Comrade Enver did not participate in the morning session.
The meeting was opened by the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania, Comrade Ramiz Alia.
In this meeting, all the members of the plenum took part, with the exception of Shpresa Zeneli, who was sick.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: When I was going to close the Bureau meeting on the first day, I told him once again that you, Mehmet, as you heard, not only have things to criticize, but you also have good sides. We told him all this in a social way and with full conscience. But he did not come to attend the meeting and did what he did, he killed himself.
This makes you think that he, in his conscience, must have taken other actions. However, what he did, and the damage he thought to cause to the Party, we must consider as the people say that every bad thing has a good one. He filled the cup. The party left nothing without pointing out both his merits and his mistakes.
But he overstepped every limit, took everything underfoot with his views not formed, but carefully camouflaged as Marxist-Leninist, with an incorrect ideological meaning in terms of respecting the norms of the internal life of the Party, with the action of his hostile But the Party was indebted to this man, and the evil he did by killing himself will turn into a good one.
And the good lies in the fact that when the wound is removed, it heals the body. If this wound had not been removed, if it had not been dictated, the Party would later face great dangers. Therefore she escaped some danger, and now it is proper to say that we are very glad that an enemy was driven from our ranks.
This episode, like all other dangerous episodes that our Party has gone through, should be a great lesson for us, and as always serve to further strengthen it. Our party is strong because it has learned from its experience.
It has learned from the mistakes and faults of individuals or groups that have come against it, and it has instilled in the hearts of people, especially the communists, but also of the whole people, the great love for the socialist homeland, for the people it brought out from misery and lifted him up, gave him education and culture and is fighting with all his strength to move him forward, so that he sees every day more and more the excellent results of our socialist system, to see how his life is constantly improving .
So all the experience that we will draw from what happened to us, should serve us to open our eyes even more to the implementation of the directives given by the Party and that we fully understand. But many times in life they pass as slogans, many times you do not get to the end in terms of their deep meaning and application in different times and forms.
That is, in acquiring the dialectic of breaking down and implementing directives. In this direction, we must do a continuous work and fight. Every communist, when he takes a step, when he says a word, and when he expresses an opinion, he must always keep in mind that his word weighs well and serves the interests of the Party and the People.
In other words, he can, with an open and principled discussion, contribute to the analysis and implementation of this or that decision. At the same time, from what happened to us, every communist or non-party worker must understand that revolutionary vigilance must always be on the agenda because the stronger you become, the more the external reaction will attack us.
Indeed, he is degenerating, but towards us, he finds the people and means to attack us and liquidate us. What I am saying is not fantasy. The fact is that in the leadership of the Party, even in its main leadership, enemy elements have emerged.
Even Mehmet Shehu was one who worked for its destruction. Therefore, our revolutionary vigilance should never be lacking. But this does not mean that we are now covered by the espionage psychosis as if everyone is spying on us.
Mehmeti had this fear emphasized because he had the fly under his belt, to the point where he even suspected the organs of the Party and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. With the act he did, he tried to the end to damage the unity of the Party.
Here we have to be very careful as Mehmet Shehu has used such methods that he approached someone and attacked someone. But neither those of the first category, nor those of the second category, are not his people, they have not been with him, nor they should not feel betrayed because they were close to him.
It’s true that they had a relationship with him, but all of us had a relationship with Mehmet because we loved and respected him, because we didn’t know what he was. However, when he made mistakes, we criticized him and pulled his ears. So with the suicide, Mehmeti left this danger behind him.
But the Party has not fallen and will never fall into such dangers and traps. The party considers its members as its most valuable people, because without them it cannot exist. At the same time, she helps them to overcome life’s difficulties.
That’s why I’m reemphasizing that you are revolutionary vigilantes, and that’s what the Marxist-Leninist ideological understanding of problems and circumstances makes us. It is not enough to just mention the imperialist revisionist siege as a slogan. We must see in daily practice how it operates in one form or another and whether or not it has a hand in hostile activity.
The whole mass of the Party and those without the Party, understand that Mehmet Shehu was like that, and that the Party is working to clarify even those who are still not clear. Do not think that in just one day the influence of Mehmet Shehu will disappear in some people, as well as in others, the nostalgia they have for him.
We must work patiently and if one day we meet individuals on the street who have such nostalgia, and who have doubts about this matter, we should not immediately consider them an enemy but work and convince them in order for this group of people to say that what Mehmet Shehu did was hostile work.
And in order to fix this hostile work, we must jump to work with vigor. For this reason, comrades, we decided to write a letter and send it to the grassroots organizations, for all communists to know, for the whole Party to read. You will take this letter with you.
In the work centers where they carry out their activities, people without a party should also come to hear the voice of the Central Committee directly. Then it is recommended to all of you that after reading the letter, speak in public to explain how this situation really happened.
Situations for us comrades are strong. What happened was just an accident in our revolutionary and militant life. We have gone through even more difficult situations; therefore Mehmet Shehu’s suicide will not have any major negative effect on our work.
Wicked people will soon be forgotten. Our people are taught to go forward and fight the enemies, unmask and fight them. This is how he will act with Mehmet Shehu, as he has done with all other enemies. Now, before we close this meeting of the Plenum, we must make some decisions that consist of expelling Mehmet Shehu from the Party, considering that he did not die as a communist.
So the first decision is this: “To expel Mehmet Shehu from the Party, after his death for serious crimes contrary to the Party’s line, as its dangerous enemy”. We are putting it to the vote. Who is in favor raise your hand. (All at the same time raise their hand in unanimous approval). Are there objections?! There is no. Then long live the Party.
Now, we have another decision to make about Fiqrete Shehu. The basic organization to which she was a member made a decision that was not at all satisfactory, giving her a serious warning with a note on the registration card, as well as recommending that her status as a member of the Central Committee be reviewed, as well as her position as a director of the Party School.
But in the basic organization, the delegate of the Central Committee expressed his opinion correctly that in terms of the first measure, you have the right to make the decision you made, but in terms of her being a member of the Central Committee, the decision will be the Central Committee itself took.
Therefore, today we propose this decision: “To expel from the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party and from the Party, Fiqrete Shehu as a close collaborator of Mehmet Shehu, in his hostile and anti-party activity”.
Then we put this decision to the vote. Do you agree?! (Everyone raises their hand simultaneously). No one has objections?! Then the decision is accepted. Comrades, these were the two decisions that the Central Committee of the Party took with full justice. Now, I wish you much success in your work. Long live the Party, long lives the People.
(All members of the Plenum stand up, clap their hands and burst into ovations for the Party and Comrade Enver. With that, the meeting is over).
Chief of the General Section of the Central Committee
Vaskë Çifligu
Draft decision
Of the 2nd Plenum of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania, on the expulsion from the Central Committee and the Party of Mehmet Shehu, after his death.
The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, in its meeting of December 19, 1981
Set:
Exclude from the Central Committee and from the Party, Mehmet Shehu, after his death for serious crimes contrary to the Party’s line, as its dangerous enemy.
2nd Plenum of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania.
Tirana on 19.12.1981
Draft decision
Of the 2nd Plenum of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania, on the expulsion from the Central Committee and the Party of Fiqrete Shehu.
The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, in its meeting of December 19, 1981
Set:
To expel from the Central Committee and from the Party, Fiqrete Shehu, as a close associate of Mehmet Shehu, in his hostile and anti-party activity.
2nd Plenum of the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania. Memorie.al
Tirana on 19.12.1981
