Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes some excerpts from the book unknown to Albanian readers, entitled “Albania of Enver Hoxha” which was published in 1981 in Belgrade, by a group of journalists of the state news agency “TANJUG”, of the former Yugoslavia of Tito and later translated and published in Albanian in Prishtina. What does that book say about the communist regime in Tirana and personally about the dictator Enver Hoxha?
Less than three or four months after the beginning of the mass demonstrations of all the people of Kosovo in the spring of 1981 who stood up for their rights and freedoms violated and oppressed by the Titoist regime in Belgrade, a group of journalists of the state news agency of the Yugoslavia of that time, TANJUG, published a book entitled “Albania of Enver Hoxha”, a book which in July of that year was translated and published in Albanian in Kosovo by the Publishing House. Rilindja” of Prishtina, describing them as “Special Edition”? Although the book in question was a more than realistic reflection of what has been happening for years in the communist Albania of Enver Hoxha, starting from: the complete isolation of the country from the outside world, the way of life of Albanians, the lack of vehicles private, foreign tourists who checked them just got off the plane at Rinas airport for their clothes, beards and long hair, curfew syndrome and bunkerization of the country for fear of imaginary enemies, official inflated propaganda with all means of mass communication (Radio-Television, “Zeri i Popullit” newspaper, etc.), where it was said that “Albania is the only socialist country in the world and fights only American imperialism and Soviet revisionism”, giant slogans that read “Let’s break the blockade and the imperialist-revisionist siege ”Or“ chrome breaks the blockade ”, etc., foreign Marxist-Leninist delegations and groups that were called to the Congresses of the ALP to create the image that communist Albania had friends everywhere ote, the few foreign tourists who visited the country and were controlled everywhere, the extremely difficult economic situation where the communist leadership of Tirana had turned the country, and to end the purges that the communist dictator was doing to his close associates, the publication of That book, at a time when the whole world was paying close attention to the events in Kosovo, clearly had a clear political background. After presenting the darker sides of the communist regime in Tirana and its communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, Belgrade’s propaganda aimed to lower the image of Albanians in the eyes of the world and also of Kosovars themselves, who had their eyes on their homeland. Without entering into these analyzes, we have selected only one chapter from the book in question, which we are publishing without any change from the original version, always according to the Albanian translation of the Prishtina edition in 1981.
Follows from the previous number
Great propaganda
The pages of “Zeri i Popullit” most often publish information about terror, crime, unemployment, affairs and numerous excessive situations in capitalist and “revisionist” countries. According to these “black” chronicles, it turns out that the world is on the brink of conflict, that the world revolution has just begun, that all existing social systems are collapsing, whether it is capitalism or socialist “revisionist” countries… The only country in which things flow properly is Albania, and above all thanks to its “great brave and wise leader” Enver Hoxha, who again the only country in the world that remained consistent “Marxism Leninism “.
When one of the Albanian officials is told that Albania is an “isolated” country, he almost gets angry. An English journalist who as a tourist went “smuggled” to Tirana, was answered: “Whoever thinks so wrong about us, let him come and will be easily convinced that we are not isolated.” The answer would be acceptable if the foreigner went to Albania. Obtaining an Albanian visa is almost impossible. Especially when it comes to the journalist. Tourists in Albania arrive in rare and small groups. This place that has wonderful landscapes and even more beautiful coastline, holds almost nothing from tourism.
“We do not want to sell our country to tourists as capitalist and revisionist countries do,” said the Albanians, explaining why there are so few hotels in the country and only 5-6 thousand tourists a year from the outside world. And even if they leave for Albania, foreign tourists expect great surprises. First, they cannot get to this place with their own car, and then they cannot choose the hotel in which they will stay, nor go to the beach they like the most, nor travel where they want. “Proletarian discipline” reigns in Albania and everything and for every angle is defined. The words “prohibited” or “not allowed” are used much more than “citizen is entitled” or “allowed”. In Albania they say, there is no Ministry of Justice. There are no more lawyers. Albanian officials, as some foreign journalists claim, say: “Our system does not need lawyers. Our citizens do not need a third person to protect them. “Judges of popular courts elected by the people examine the rights of citizens.”
Isolation of Albanians
Albanian citizens are not allowed to go from one country to another without permission, nor can they travel around the country. Going to the outside world cannot even be talked about, except for members of official delegations and quite rare cultural-artistic and sports groups. Albanian tourists cannot meet in the world. Albanians mostly do not know what is happening in the world. They do not travel, nor does anyone come to them. When cousins from the outside world reach them, they cannot visit them at home. Relatives’ meetings and conversations usually take place in hotels designated for this purpose. But, to show the people at least to some extent, that the country is not alone, that Albania has friends, the regime of Enver Hoxha often brought to Tirana the delegations of Marxist-Leninist parties from the countries of Western Europe and some other countries. These are those small and duplicitous, adventurous political parties, which, as has often happened in the history of past decades, act as their foreign “subsidiaries”, the so-called “mother parties”.
In some cases, we are dealing with parties which have only a few dozen members, even in the best case several hundred. Sometimes only one! These “Marxist-Leninist” parties swear allegiance to Stalin and his “successor”, Enver Hoxha, very often publish their own newspapers, hold congresses, approve resolutions, send telegrams and congratulations to Tirana, distribute proclamations. Of course, with the financial help of his “boss”, in this case, Tirana. Such “delegations”, consisting of people of huri and hemp, often appear in Tirana, take the voice through the pages of the Albanian press and thus help Hoxha show Albanians that they are not alone, that the true Leninist-Marxists are with them, that the Mecca of today’s Marxism-Leninism is located exactly in Tirana. Enver Hoxha treats his people like a minor. He took care of her. Everything is regulated by the decrees and “directives” of the leader.
Place of slogans
Albania is a “country of slogans”. This was seen by those who came to visit Albania from the outside world. Slogans appear at every turn. They bomb the citizen, from the facades of buildings on the street, from the roofs of houses, from the banners drawn in the widths of the streets, from the newspapers, from the radio, and even from the slopes of the mountains. Albania is a young nation and most of its inhabitants learn and are educated. Schools, of course, also teach about the “revisionist siege” of Albania, that the Albanian Labor Party is the only true Marxist-Leninist party in the world. Albania is the only one that is right, everyone else is on the wrong path, everyone else who has changed ways, is deceived, is on the track of betrayal and revisionism. And many of them are “enemies of Albania”. And they can swallow it at any moment.
“In Albania, no one pays taxes, and our communist government has enough money.” How this formula works, which is written in an official Albanian document, is not explained anywhere, but it is not at all difficult to understand the truth that the state has taken over “all the care for the people”, so they do not need to decide almost for nothing. Instead, everything works as intended.
According to the records of the Central Committee of the ALP, announced on the occasion of the last general elections in the country, it turns out that out of 1,436,289 voters in the country, only one did not turn out. Indeed, it is difficult to find in this world a state in which the electoral discipline of the citizens reached such a degree of perfection!? Meanwhile, from the revolution until today, Albania has made great progress, even though it is still at the very bottom of the European list of almost all indicators of economic development and the standard of living of its citizens. Illiteracy is completely eradicated, all citizens are provided from the health and social point of view, industrial production which started almost from scratch, increased about 80 times.
There are no private cars in Albania
But Albanians still live in poverty today. Albania’s roads and cities are still reserved for pedestrians and cyclists. There are no private cars. There are some state cars, even in the first place, with which state and party leaders drive (travel). Members of the Political Bureau of the Albanian Labor Party drive Mercedes. Meanwhile, ministers and lower-ranking officials use Peugeot and Fiat Polish cars. The ordinary Albanian, therefore, does not drive a car, does not yet have a color TV, I still cannot watch some well-known European movies or buy a foreign press in kiosks. When it comes to income, equality is the master principle. The lowest incomes are around 500, and the maximum ones around 1,250 ALL.
The ratio of lek to our dinar is 1: 4.5 which means that salaries range from 2,250 to 5,625 dinars. The prices of bread, milk and vegetables are low, but everything else is pretty expensive. A kilogram of sugar costs 8 ALL, a liter of oil 17. a kilogram of meat about 35. of a black and white TV 4.OOO ALL. Citizens, on the other hand, have a lot of money saved, but with it they can buy little. That’s why they have great savings. Almost all the land is in the hands of the state. Nearly 80% are found in rural labor cooperatives, 20% in state-owned properties, and only 0.25% in private hands. The latter are the plots around the houses. By now each family can have a parcel of 10 dynym, one cow and ten sheep. News from Tirana says that many people during 1981 “voluntarily” gave these sheep to the state for collection. According to the latest news from Tirana, there are “prospects” for these parcels to be reduced and one day disappear completely.
Meanwhile, the Albanian curfew syndrome is continuing. Enver Hoxha is turning this small country against the whole world. In this “island” that today is, if not the last, then the most stable fortress of Stalinism, rules a single man – Enver Hoxha, who this persistent syndrome of state siege, in this paranoid creation of the enemies of Albania, builds, maintains and extends self-power.
According to TANJUG, 2169 churches, mosques and monasteries were closed
Belgrade: Albania disappeared God himself
In the book “Albania of Enver Hoxha” written in 1981 by some journalists of the state news agency of Belgrade, “TANJUG”, in the “radiography” of the communist regime in Albania, the authors have stopped at the decision of official Tirana for the banning of religious beliefs and the closure of places of worship throughout the country. In this regard, among other things, the book states: “14 years ago Enver Hoxha disappeared God himself. It was simply said that God no longer existed, that in the mosque and the church no one dares to go anymore. More than 2,000 churches and mosques collapsed. Only those that were declared historical monuments and in which the cross and the crescent were replaced by the five-pointed star and Marxist slogans remained standing. Along with the ban on religion, a decree was issued to unify monuments on the graves of all religions and all citizens. In that decree it was determined what could be placed on the grave of a relative. The old signs on graves, with a religious character, marked the chroniclers from Tirana, were they replaced with new signs?
Following this decision, 2169 mosques, churches and monasteries, and other centers of “darkness and mysticism” were closed, razed to the ground, or turned into recreational centers, warehouses, and treatment centers. Priests and imams were dispersed and many were sent to labor camps, “improvement and re-education work.” When they issued this decree, by which they abolished God, the Albanians said: “Albania is the first atheist country in the world”. The regime here went a step further, so people with names that were “ideally” inappropriate, ideologically, morally, or religiously, were ordered to change these. In Albania, too, the funeral ceremony is defined by decree.
Radio Tirana in 12 languages and “Zeri i Popullit” in 110 thousand copies
TANJUG: Albania, a small country, big propaganda
Among other things, in their book entitled “Albania of Enver Hoxha”, the Yugoslav journalists of “TANJUG”, have focused on the great importance that official Tirana paid to the means of its propaganda. In this regard, it says: “Through the sources of information about Albania can be heard only the truth which is launched, selected and censored by the powerful propaganda machine of Enver Hoxha. With the help of comparative notes, some foreign journalists calculated that the Albanian propaganda to the world, in terms of volume is the seventh in the world, although Albania enters among the smallest countries on the planet. Radio Tirana has daily showed for the world in twelve languages. Albanians are offered only what the regime chooses, only what the citizen can know. And nothing more. According to Enver, there is no truth other than what Radio Tirana offers, the station with a force of 2000 kilowatts, and “Zeri i Popullit” which is sold in 110,000 copies. Radio Tirana can be heard on radios, this is technically regulated, and the reception of foreign television programs is prevented. So that Albanians cannot see what happens in the neighboring world. Only in Tirana, the people who lived there confess, 16 obstruction devices (noisemakers. Our note) have been installed for the reception of foreign television programs, primarily those from Yugoslavia. Party members as well as workers in the enterprise should “inform” and rise “ideologically”, while professional “agitators” who are trained in the center, as needed are sent to the field. Parts of Enver Hoxha’s speeches, conclusions of K.Q. are most often broadcast on the factories during the working hours through the radio. of the Albanian Labor Party, and similar materials. For the world, Albanians are told a little, very little. The pages of “Zeri i Popullit” most often publish information on terror, crime, unemployment, scandals and numerous excessive situations in capitalist and “revisionist” countries. /Memorie.al
