Dashnor Kaloçi
Second part
Memorie.al publishes an archival document issued by the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), which belongs to 1965, where the minutes of the meeting of the XV Plenum are located The Central Committee of the ALP which was dedicated to art, culture and literature, where after the report of the Politburo held by Ramiz Alia, the closing speech was given by Enver Hoxha, where among other things, after raising a series of problems that were noticed in the development of literature, arts and culture, giving concrete examples, he praised the work and works of some writers and artists such as: Dhimitër Shuteriq, Shevqet Musaraj, Lazar Silic, Jakov Xoxa, Sterjo Spasses, Kole Jakova, Nonda Bulka, Ismail Kadare, the artistic works of Tish Daia, Kristo Konos, Cesk Zade, Odise Paskali, Janaq Paços, Nexhmedin Zajmi, Vilson Kilica, Guri Madhi, etc. What did the communist dictator say about the young poet girl who complained to him that her books were not published as well as about the well-known composer, his old friend from his youth in the city of Korça, who in his work the last one he had sent to Enver was inspired by Greek mythology…!
Excerpts from Enver Hoxha’s speech at the closing of the XV Plenum of the Central Committee of the ALP, on October 26, 1965, dedicated to the art of culture
Continued from the previous issue
We tell you: Write about theaters, ballets, choirs, variety shows, beautiful things and not once on the moon, yes very much and well, in order to fill the gaps that movies cause us. Write more screenplays to start making more movies yourself. The time has come for us to make a new leap in this direction as well, expanding the material-technical base for the preparation of our films. What the Party demands from theaters, ballet, variety shows, and choirs, has been and is constantly said. So, in the face of these needs, how should authors, directors, actors, singers stand, produce and create? The institutions and the works they display must belong to the people and to the people, to express the struggle of the people for the construction of socialism, to express their best and purest feelings and aspirations, to follow the efforts of the people step by step, to inspire him right, to open new perspectives, to be at the forefront. For our institutions to be like this, the authors and actors must live with the people and the line of the Party, recognize and feel the sorrows of the people, their joys and sorrows, their victories and defeats. This truth can neither be written nor expressed on stage ex chair. The school teaches a lot to actors, musicians, etc., but life, war and effort teach them other very useful and inspiring things. The part, the author, the director, orient the actors, but what the life of the people teaches, their feelings and habits, cannot be taught by either the best author or the best director.
The revolutionary life and struggle, full of momentum and enthusiasm of the people and the Party, are the most talented authors and directors that can be made. For artists and authors, no matter how talented they are, I will never use the bourgeois term that they are “stars”, no. They cannot be “stars” before the talent, the creative ability of our people. Therefore, these “stars”, if they lose touch with the earth, lose all radiance. The repertoires of our opera and ballet theaters should be simple, understandable to the people. This does not mean that they should be “banal and without ideas”. In simple presentation the ideas are most clearly and fluently expressed as a clear river flowing from the mountain. In the intricate, bloated and intricate presentation, vague, equivocal ideas are often hidden. The people need clear ideas and not vague ideas, so the Party will support the former and not the latter. In our theatrical and musical plays, the people must be presented in war and at work, as it is with their noble feelings, with their heroic character, with their simplicity, with their pros and cons and these flaws of are pointed out, why they should be corrected and not put for denigration or contempt, or for the sake of some bad decadent, revisionist theories, by which some aesthetes do not fail to sell their minds and beat water in Havana to t ‘was removed knowledgeable, profound, talented, or with a supposedly independent spirit in creativity.
To imagine, to invent, to arrange, even with great prestige, non-existent situations, unreal characters and types of an imagination, can be fruitful, but sick, inspired by unbridled readings of foreign playwrights without any critical attitude and methods Marxist-Leninist dialectics, or from pseudo-progressive and Freudian philosophical currents, our people do not want these, the Party will not allow them and will fight them as harmful to the culture of the people. The erroneous mentality of some authors that “everything they write should be staged without delay” should be rejected. The good will definitely be staged; the bad will be thrown in the basket. Spiritual nourishment is far more delicate than physical nourishment; as I said,. Good fresh meat is eaten, rotten meat thrown away. Theaters, ballets, variety shows, operas cannot be in the service of those who have a sick head, but of those who have their head in place and their heart beats one with the heart of the people. The vast majority of repertoires should be Albanian popular subjects, revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist. Foreign parts, not for xenophobia, why xenophobia undoubtedly leads to isolation and arrogance for oneself, should be a little less and constitute the object of a fine choice. We should in no way detach ourselves from the best world repertoire, but even this, no matter how good, can only be understood by a limited number of intellectuals with a wide culture, the masses do not understand and do not enjoy it properly. , or we make the mass dream out of an objective reality for him, if during the staging no critical dialectical attitude is maintained and no emphasis is placed on the positive sides of the works.
Some may say, “Yes, we must teach our people both the foreign reality and the good foreign creativity.” This is necessary, I completely agree and I do not reject this opinion, so I say that this healthy dish our people can and should be given to enjoy, but through numerous, healthy and tasty dishes of Albanian cuisine . Some may say “yes we do not have repertoires”. What a reason! Let’s do it, at first they will not be geniuses, but here they are all gone. If we go from thinking of staging foreign ballets, that we do not have our own, and sometimes put on inappropriate ballets, we have not solved anything, but we have created a serious situation. Such an opinion is not right, it is not real, because our composers have made really beautiful, praiseworthy national operas, because our ballet masters have staged choreographed pieces with folk motifs to excite, our soloists sing folk songs and struggles to gain weight from inspiration, authors of novels, plays or librettos for films have yielded works of great value to the people. Therefore, let us not choose the easiest way, but the hardest one, full of war and effort, to create something good, to serve the people and the Party in this great battle for socialism. I said above that we can put foreign works in our scenes; our authors can also be inspired by foreign subjects, but right.
Always, for everything they undertake, before they get to work, they have to ask themselves the question: “What I am doing, serves the great cause of the people”? Fantasy, imagination should work, but not to create fantastic things. I will give two examples of a differentiated selection of compositions: A few weeks ago, my friend, the famous composer Kristo Kono, sent me a new composition of his, “Prometheus”. He had talked to me about this opera some time ago in a conversation I had with him about music and compositions. I congratulated Kono on successfully performing this opera, even though it was a subject beaten by many well-known composers. But since he had been introduced to such work, and, considering the subject of Prometheus himself, as I shall say below, positive, I also made him some suggestions. The composition of Conos can and we wish to be beautiful and then we will say that the toil did not go to waste, because, as you know, the hero of mythology, Prometheus, Aeschylus made a symbol of the warrior for the happiness of mankind. Whoever sang “Prometheus”, he will remember the words of the hero addressed to Hermes, the servant of the gods: chained to this rock rather than be the obedient lackey of Zeus… ”. In a word I hate all the gods. Marx said: “Prometheus is the most noble saint and martyr in the philosophical calendar.”
Nevertheless, I told Konos that in the history of our people there are many heroic subjects that should inspire you, so instead of going to mythology, compose something beautiful, purely Albanian, if it is beautiful and inspiring not only for the people but also outside the borders of Albania. He gave me the floor and I am confident he will keep it. On the other hand, a few days ago, I sang in the newspaper that our ballet, preparing performances for the people, has found no other subject than Strauss waltzes, composed in a special composition, with a supposedly theme of proletarian morality, which s ‘has nothing to do with the foolish age of the waltzes in question. But what are Strauss waltzes? An excitement, the expression of an era, the sign of the transformation of society in the late 19th century. This coincides with the setting of an unbridled luxury regime of the bourgeoisie, of an era of merriment and which is always a troubled era. The “Blue Danube” is not blue, but turbulent, if we study the social and political situation of the time when that waltz was written. Yes the music is beautiful. This is an undeniable fact and I am not against putting this waltz or any other on the radio, but for our directors, together with the ballet ensemble, to work for months to make a show with these waltzes, this politically and for the education of the masses it brings no profit, so it is useless work. What do our people need this ballet for? Why does this ballet inspire him? For nothing, I had to say. In this case, the question arises as to how we should study and use the foreign world experience in the field of literature, music, visual arts, theater and cinematography.
Should we benefit from world experience in these areas? It would not be Marxist to say no, but it would also be anti-Marxist if we became their slave, to swallow all that foreign people have produced, without a deep critical analysis, without a fair classification. Every deed, of every gender and of every time, has its pros and cons. The good sides must be chosen. Each of these good aspects has the technique, ideas, art of speech, sound, etc. Should we take and adopt even these in the bloc, with passions and feelings that do not know reason, that do not know the era, social status, people’s ideas, tastes, tastes and wars and their efforts? This would certainly be a great and very harmful absurdity. Every creation, in any age, is made with tendency, inspired by the ideas of the time, by the social condition of that age. Many creations have resisted times, predicted the future, prepared it, but they cannot be called perfect in their entirety and model for every time, for every era. There are people who are passionate about some of their idols and with a non-Marxist judgment seek to put these idols in every soup, to adopt them at any time, to copy these out of place, to wear some clothes of our time and pass them off as socialist creativity. Writers, poets, composers, etc., must read, study, learn from others.
It is not at all said that they should not be passionate about some, but what they learn and study from foreigners, should always be dealt with with a critical spirit and with a certain purpose and what is done to serve the people of to serve the creators of literature and art to live with their people, with their wars, goals, aspirations and customs, to create what is appropriate, understandable to their people, appropriate to the time and the struggle he makes. So will truly original works. So, the study of foreigners is worthwhile to benefit and to know the life of those peoples, their struggle and development. This does not mean that the wars, ideas and development of your people are the same, although they may have some similarities or connections with those of others. This lesson, this experience from foreign works, can serve you, open horizons for you to better study the history of your people, but the history of your people has its peculiarities, the ideas of your people have their own special development in the special social condition of your people. This interests us, in the first place, it also interested that foreign genius writer, like Balzac, for example, when he wrote the great work, “Human Comedy”. We must learn their art of writing, their style, method of work, rhythms, metrics, but we must learn these not to become their slave, because our people have their own style and rhythms, we we create our socialist style which is our basis, on which we will work, build and create our originality, because only then will the people understand us and we will inspire it.
One should not go beyond these fair, objective goals, I think, and despite the fact that you can be very knowledgeable and learned, knowledge and learning, until you know how to channel them in the interest of the people, are not worth it, as long as they do not aim to enrich the treasure of the people, his wonderful creativity, they will be just a jewel hanging on your personal neck, yes a jewel worthless to the people. For all this, the Party must take measures, the Ministry of Culture and Arts and the League of Writers and Artists to develop and organize a broad multifaceted activity, not in one direction, but in all directions. Everything must go in harmony, because the arts are the enemy of cacophony. We are all convinced that this Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party will give a great help of a rapid impetus to literature and arts in our country. The Central Committee, and this emerges from the report and the discussions, calls in particular on the Party committees and the organs of power, to take seriously the special direction and assistance which they must give in their districts to the further and rapid development. , with a revolutionary spirit, of literature and the arts, to help the people who work in these sectors, but henceforth more seriously, with perseverance. Based on what we have achieved, to create other more beautiful works, appropriate to the power and beauty of socialism, bright as the line of our Party, pure, pure, heroic, as the heart and as the feelings of our people of gorgeous.
We live in a period of wars and revolutions. Before us we have furious enemies armed to the teeth, but weak and powerless before the invincible force of the peoples, powerless before the vital force of socialism and the triumphant ideas of Marxism-Leninism. American imperialism, the reactionary bourgeoisie and the modern revisionists, with the Khrushchevites and Titoists at the helm, are in complete alliance with each other, ragingly attacking socialist countries, Marxist-Leninist ideology and the peoples of the world fighting for freedom, but they are suffering defeat. In many parts of the world he is fighting furiously against the brutal armed intervention of the American imperialists, aided everywhere by modern revisionists and especially by Soviet revisionists. Imperialism and modern revisionists have set in motion all the means of their propaganda to confuse the minds of the people, to weaken their nerves and will, to darken their conscience, to degenerate them politically, ideologically and morally, in order to oppress, exploit, and enslave them better, faster, and on time. But they have not achieved and will never achieve this diabolical goal.
They are suffering defeats. In the face of these defeats, they attack the people of Vietnam and other peoples with weapons, they try to establish a fascist military dictatorship in Indonesia and Greece, but they will have no success with these criminal enterprises. They are being unmasked in the eyes of the peoples, who are mobilizing their energies for the final war. In this great and glorious war, our heroic people are also engaged, with its heroic leadership, the Albanian Labor Party. All the people, with the Party at the head, have risen to their feet and are fighting at home and abroad, inside to successfully build socialism, to build a happy life, to temper the young man with high virtues; abroad to defend Marxism-Leninism, to fight aggressive imperialism led by the American and modern revisionists, to come to the aid of peoples fighting for peace, for freedom, for justice, for revolution. We, the Marxists-Leninists, will win the war, the people will reap the victory, because the victory belongs to the brave, the brave and those who have a clear mind and a pure and fiery heart.
Some of my conclusions in this closing speech may seem a bit sharp. I did not do this unintentionally, first, because the conclusions are complete in the report and your discussions completed them, and second, I want to emphasize that, in all our activity, we should not forget the current state of the imperialist-revisionist siege of the homeland ours, because this siege is iron and not a simple expression. Bourgeois and revisionist ideology attacks us from all sides. Our enemies of Marxism-Leninism will want us to weigh things in “gold cigarettes”, engage in academic discussions, and let the wolf get in our way. We close the door to the wolf and kill him with a bullet. They will call us savages, why in our scenes we play the flute and the drums and garnets ring, or why we have left the place of honor to the waves with turkeys or turbans on our heads. For us it is only important to defend the homeland, to protect the people, Marxism-Leninism and socialism. And these are protected when everything that is national is protected from form and socialist from content, when the Party line is always considered and properly implemented. To you, the people of literature and the arts, worthy sons of the Party and of our people, as always, as in war, the Central Committee addresses you: Always hold high the flag of the Party and always march in battle and victory with its fire and the people at heart! Memorie.al
