Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents labeled “Top secret” taken from the Central State Archive in Tirana (the fund of the former PPSh Central Committee), which belong to 1976, where there is a circular with the title: On some manifestations and foreign influences, which are noticed among some communists and workers abroad”, addressed to all the basic organizations of the party, of the Albanian diplomatic missions abroad, which was signed by the Secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, Ramiz Alia, as well as his assistant, Piro Kondi. The relationship with the documents in question, which are part of a file, where the Department of Foreign Relations at the apparatus of the Central Committee of the PPSh, has analyzed the work of the basic organizations of the party in our diplomatic missions abroad, mainly those in Belgrade , Budapest, Algiers, Prague, Bucharest, Cairo, etc., where many problems were observed, such as: rumours, frictions, conflicts and fights between communists, thefts in stores, warehouses, smuggling, buying clothes beyond the allowed rate, savings for bought refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and heaters, which require large sums of money in the first year, etc., etc., where, among other things, it is said: “You are aware that the former Prague radio operator, contrary to any okay, just walk around the city until late at night. The former driver of our embassy in Cairo tries to borrow money from a local to buy clothes. And the former coder of Algiers, not only approaches the doors of the embassy to an English merchant and buys a few meters of fabric from him, but as the Englishman himself says, through a letter addressed to our Foreign Ministry, he has not yet been paid for the fabric therefore he now demands the debt.
The secret document drawn up by the secretary of the Central Committee of PPSh, Ramiz Alia and his assistant in the apparatus of the Central Committee, Piro Kondi, addressed to all the basic organizations of the party in the accredited Albanian diplomatic missions in different countries of the world
ALBANIAN LABOR PARTY
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Foreign Sector
No. 4644
Tirana on 28.2.1976
Subject: On some manifestations and foreign influences that are observed in some communists and workers abroad.
All basic representative organizations
The work in the basic organizations of the important documents of the last Plenums of the K.Q. of the ALP, and the programmatic speeches of Comrade Enver Hoxha, the ideological debate and the confrontation that took place in this case with the forms of education in the Party, as well as in the meetings of the employee collectives of the representative offices, helped the communists and employees of the representative offices to form the concepts of revolutionary sound, on the development of the class struggle within our country as well as in the international arena, to better understand the imperialist-revisionist pressure on our country and especially on our people working in our embassies abroad.
Both everywhere and in our embassies abroad, there is a healthy moral-political condition which is reflected in the unity of thought and action. The internal life of basic organizations and collectives has been strengthened and enlivened.
Criticism and self-criticism have been strengthened, responsibility and general mobilization has increased for fulfilling the tasks set before them by the Party in the fight against the manifestations of foreign influences, incompatible with the ideology of the Party and our proletarian morality.
In addition to this general positive characteristic, there have been observed in some basic organizations, communists and special workers some manifestations and foreign influences which, when they have not been fought in the embryo and with partisanship, have been associated with serious consequences.
In this letter we thought to avoid some of these foreign shows in order to draw lessons and tasks to raise to a very high level the ideological struggle against foreign shows and to ensure a revolutionary class attitude, at work and in the family , anywhere and anytime, by all the employees of our agencies.
The slogan of the Party, “To think, work, and fight, as revolutionaries”, must be implemented by all our people, at home and abroad.
First, draw attention to some basic collective organizations, disputes, disputes, and lack of unity. More pronounced are those in the representative offices of Algiers, Prague, Bucharest, but also in any other representative office.
The communists there were divided into factions and fought unprincipled with each other, including the heads and secretaries of these embassies. Criticism was often made not from a right party position, but from a personal position, sometimes even for vindictive purposes.
This had created a spirit of mistrust towards each other, which led to the point where some communists started to fight each other. These ugly acts, incompatible with the norms of our communist morality, diverted the attention of the basic representative organizations from carrying out the tasks assigned by
Party for discussion of such disputes and disputes.
This has caused the activity of these embassies to be limited in the field of information, propaganda, and other important problems. There have also been cases of friction and rumors at other agencies.
It is clear that the break of unity in these basic organizations is not about the Party line, but about concrete issues that have their source in putting personal interest over the general one, in sick familiarity, in ambitions, in selfishness, in caprices and conceits.
They have their source in ideological shallowness, in not studying the works of the Party, in the tendencies of comfort, not living as revolutionaries. For these reasons, the Central Committee took a series of important measures to improve the condition of these organizations. Refreshed the collectives with new cadres.
Some of the communists, including the incumbents as well as the secretaries of Algiers and Prague, were dismissed from their positions, returned prematurely to the Motherland, and were given for trial to the Party’s Control and Revision Commission which, some of He held them accountable, punished them with party measures, and two communists from the Algiers representative office were expelled from the Party.
As for some communists from the Bucharest representation, other punitive measures were taken.
Secondly, some communists and employees of our representative offices forget that they work and live abroad, underestimate the environment in which they operate, lower political vigilance, violate norms and rules in relations with foreigners, as well as state secrets.
It is known that most of our representations develop diplomatic activity in capitalist and revisionist countries, work inside the siege. Consequently, the pressure of the bourgeois-revisionist ideology on our people abroad is great and continuous.
Therefore, a high and sharp political vigilance is required from all without exception, in order to successfully face this pressure, an irreconcilable war against any foreign appearance.
It is required to strictly apply the norms and rules in the activity of the representative offices as a whole, and of each individual in particular. But sometimes these orders of the Party are underestimated and not taken into account properly.
You are aware that the former Prague radio operator, contrary to all rules, walks alone in the city until late at night. The former driver of our embassy in Cairo tries to borrow money from a local to buy clothes.
And the former cipher of Algiers, not only approaches the doors of the embassy to an English merchant and buys a few meters of fabric from him, but also as the Englishman himself says, through a letter addressed to our Foreign Ministry, he has not yet been paid for the fabric, therefore, he now demands the debt.
Even the former driver of this same embassy, being in a hurry, leaves his job and goes for a walk, although not long ago some provocateurs broke the windows of our embassy’s window.
The wife of a driver of our embassy in Belgrade, contrary to the rules, puts a packet of margarine in her personal bag, and is caught and beaten by the Yugoslav staff of the warehouse.
In Budapest, two of our friends from the embassy during a reception with a foreign diplomat, fight with each other about who should raise the toast first. This did not leave a good impression on the foreign diplomat.
An employee of our embassy in Pyongyang accepts some drugs from a revisionist diplomat. To find and buy a pair of shoes, one of our diplomats in Prague asks for the help of an Albanian woman who married a Czech there.
Our former driver in Sofia did not pay for a bunch of parsley at the store and was caught and interrogated there by the locals. It is also established that some of the friends are not serious in keeping the secret and violate the established rules.
They discuss work matters with their wives. In a representative office, it turned out that the wives of the employees also knew who signed this or that radiogram. Care is not taken in family conversations, in the corridors of embassies, as well as in telephone conversations, forgetting that our people abroad are subject to surveillance by foreigners.
Such problems and examples are also found in other representations, certainly not in these proportions, therefore it is your duty to discover them, analyze them, and make a more determined fight against the manifestations of liberalism and lack of vigilance. Any foreign appearance observed in this direction must be caught and fought immediately.
Thirdly, we are informed that some friends from different agencies do not use the allocation properly. When they go abroad, they make it their goal to save as much money as possible in order to buy clothes. They want to provide refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and heaters, which require large sums of money in the first year.
For this reason, they sometimes borrow money from other friends. Also, they eat and dress poorly, stay abroad for 3-4 years and do not watch theater or any other cultural activity. They don’t visit any museums or go to the cinema.
There are friends who go in and buy things in inappropriate stores, in order to get them as cheaply as possible. It is understood that with these actions they do not properly represent our country abroad.
We also emphasize that there are also friends who, when they come to Albania, bring booty above the rates which are rightly kept at the customs. There are also some employees who pass them, without subjecting you to customs control.
It is known that the allocation is given to the representatives’ friends not to buy clothes, but to live and work decently and to best represent our heroic people and our socialist homeland in the outside world.
Another employee in Sofia, thinking and acting like a micro bourgeois, said: “I went to Sofia to buy clothes.”
There are many such cases, therefore it is necessary for grassroots organizations to discover and criticize those communists and workers who have such vices.
These were some of the problems that we thought we would raise and draw attention to in this letter. It is the duty of grassroots organizations to analyze their work in its spirit.
After the deep analysis in the organization, these problems should be presented in the collective meeting and debates and confrontations will be held there, as well as lessons and tasks will be learned, in order to further improve the work in the future.
For problems, proposals, and suggestions, which will emerge from this analysis, send us information.
By order of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP. Memorie.al
Ramiz Alia Pirro Kondi
