By Petraq Xhaçka
Part sixteen
Memorie.al / The purpose of this book is to unite the help in the efforts that are made to present the truths and horrors of the communist dictatorship in Albania. The main purpose of the book is not to show our people or anyone else that we oilmen have been innocent, because this has become known from publications in our press, from foreign televisions, as well as from direct meetings with the International Forum and the Albanian Human Rights. The author’s desire, is that through this story, along with other stories, fight any manifestation in any form, even moderate, that he may have to create a communist society. I think that even through this bitter personal history, the cruel, treacherous and overbearing face of Enverism will appear, that for half a century, held the knife with the tip in the chest of the Albanian people, with a pine eye, intercepting the movements for salvation from the outside, or rebellion of the people themselves, ready to push the knife to the heart, at the first movement. The events have been set in the economic fields where it has appeared most strongly, such as the oil and gas industry, where I was fortunate to pour my energies, for a lifetime, and become a participant and witness in those events. All the events that are written in this memoir are true, not only without any exaggeration or embellishment, but perhaps, I don’t know how much I have been able to present the terrifying force of the events that took place in that decadent system of socialism, where no there was no human feeling.
Continues from last issue
The so-called accountability were real trials, even more unbearable, because people without relevant education spoke, many of the time, without any kind of responsibility, making the authors of the project some of the most serious accusations. These contour lines made the work of petroleum geologists very difficult. Imagine years of such humiliating practice. In this regard, I will tell an event that left an indelible impression on me.
A shallow exploratory well was designed and drilled, close to the existing wells, in the Kraps area. The result was negative. The established rules required me to go to the well with the group of authors, to be present at the accountability. Among the many criticisms and questions, a worker of the brigade, perhaps carefully taught by someone else, addresses a question to the authors: – “I ask you, as the authors, if you had implemented the orders and teachings of Comrade Enver in this project, would you have tested negative well”?
Of course, for the authors there was a case for explanations and justifications and they tried. – Look, fellow oilman, we. – “No, no, friends! I only want one answer: either ‘yes’ or ‘no’! That with explanations, we will spend here for weeks then…! My question is a workshop question. It’s as simple as it gets: If you had implemented the orders and lessons of Comrade Enver in this project, would it have turned out to be a negative well? I intervened, but the worker didn’t let me explain either, that things shouldn’t be seen so simply, in black and white. The worker stomped like a mule, and did not leave without a firm answer.
The authors saw eye to eye. – No, – said, to get rid of him, the first of the group.
After the authors’ answer, the worker looked at his friends and in a heavy voice drew the conclusion: – “The group of authors did not apply the teachings of the Party and Comrade Enver, that’s why the well came out negative. So, you, as authors, are simply saboteurs and should be punished”. A shadow of fear and horror covered the faces of the authors of the project. It didn’t peck anymore, not even the fly. I was put in a difficult position. But nevertheless, knowing that a large part of the drilling workers knew me well, since I worked as their director, I decided to take the initiative and speak, trying to free the perpetrators from this serious accusation and idiot.
I did this tactfully, saying, among other things, that the party itself admits that there are also negative wells in geological research and has even set indicative quotas for this. I told them that our knowledge of the underground was not absolute and therefore we could not say that we were dealing with a sabotage here. After this heated meeting of accountability, although we had many hours without putting anything in our mouths, we had no desire at all to stay in the canteen of their well, to eat or drink coffee, as we usually did. We got into the car and started the way back to the Institute.
On the way, the main author of the project began to cry. I tried to relax him, but it was impossible. He was crying and we couldn’t find words to comfort him. Everyone’s eyes were teary and without speaking we looked outside. When he finally stopped, no one inside the car was talking. And so in complete silence we made our way to the Institute. Based on this incident and several other cases, where we were dealing with extreme attitudes, which were affecting the whole design work very badly, I decided to go to the superior bodies and let them know about this not comfortable state of the geologists. That’s what I did by going to a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Mines, the minister, to whom I really described the situation.
I pointed out to him that the Institute’s geologists are reluctant to design new wells and this could lead to a very serious situation, which again could easily be described as an oil conspiracy. After listening to me carefully, he told me that he would inform the above, even about this problem he would inform the leadership himself. When I left his office, I was thinking to myself whether I did well to raise the problem or this venture of mine would be misunderstood and then lightning would strike me. Deep down, in my conscience I felt that I did the right thing. After these dramatic events, among the people, especially among the intellectuals, the expression began to circulate; “oil requires heads”. Fear sat cross-legged in the minds of oil geologists.
The negative consequence was the punishment of the so-called “saboteur group” among the students of the Faculty of Geology-Mining of the University of Tirana. The young students, quietly observing from afar the manifestations of terror in the oil sector, began to raise objections to enrolling in this faculty, especially in the geology department. And among those who were already enrolled, the level of lessons dropped significantly. The lecturers complained, as much as the students, in conversations with them, openly said that they had no interest in learning, but only that they had been forced to come to this faculty, because the state had not given them the right to study in other faculties. They also had the infamous oil prophecy on the tip of their tongue; what the head was looking for!
While the gap that was created in our Institute and the need for a cadre of geologists, after the exclusion of many geologists from it, was filled by the ministry with those of wells and drilling companies. After a period of several months, the voice of the “music” that was being played by the party came. After the arrest of the so-called oil saboteur group, the Minister of Industry and Mines, Koço Theodhosi, and the chairman of the Commission of State Plant, Abdy Këllezi. Together with them, other cadres of these two departments were sentenced.
The “oil group” had only been the prelude or rather the alibi for the arrest of this contingent of high functionaries. So it was found where to hang the nail of guilt and justification of failures in the economy, before the next Party congress. In addition, a strong dose of terror was ensured at the top, at the head of the leadership, so that all the people gathered around the dictator were just pictures for the walls of the offices or more simply, his shadows.
Together with others, the former director of the Ministry’s Geological Directorate, professor of geophysical sciences and member of the Academy of Sciences, Teki Biçoku, who for nearly twenty-five years, was making a significant contribution to the development of of the Albanian geological service and the research of useful minerals, which he directed for this entire period. Tekiu, as I said, was a member of the partisan war and an officer of these liberation units. It was these two sectors that gave oxygen to the sick socialist economy and kept the people with bread, -no more; – with bread, so he wouldn’t die of hunger!
And the specific tragedy is that it was the specialists of these sectors who were unjustly punished and persecuted. The two members of the Political Bureau, Këllez and Theodhos, were sentenced to death by the high court and the firing squads finished the crime after a few days. For months, at our base, the study groups came to the conclusion that; projects were not to be submitted. It seemed to them that the design of the well was not fully substantiated, that the quantity or quality of the seismic material was mainly little or weak and as a result they did not reach the conclusion to submit it for drilling.
It was a natural and fair reaction of geologists. But this brought serious difficulties to the drilling companies, because the drilling brigades were without work, the level of planning made for the footage of the searches and as a consequence of the new reserves of oil and gas, would not be realized. Without drilling, there were also no discoveries of new fields. That’s how we came to the soya bean; “egg-chicken, chicken-egg”, a collapse, which was artificially created by the state leadership itself with the motivations that condemned our comrades as saboteurs. The geologists were receiving full testimony of the innocence of their colleagues, who were so harshly punished.
In these conditions, the leadership of the party, with its typical solutions, released the next slogan, which you had ready: -Geologists project you with courage! Leaving the brigades out of work is also sabotage! This meant indirectly; “do as you have done until now, because we, as you know, start punishing whenever we want”! What should the oil geologist do, in these difficult conditions?! What should we, the leaders of this scientific work, do? we didn’t know how to handle it?! On one side, a big fire, on the other side, a big flood. Both of them dangerous for human life. So, they also forced you to design with the few technical possibilities we had, to entered the mountainous areas and again on a beautiful day, if only they would put the hot stuff on! There can be no more immoral and inhuman acts in the field of technology, from the interventions of the top of the Albanian communist pyramid.
In some wells it was necessary to increase the design depth of the well during drilling, depending on the actual geological material that was obtained to the depth reached. In these cases, the authors of the project and we as the director, had to go to the brigade and talk to the workers, to convince them why the well should be deepened further, in order to get their approval. Sometimes there was a good reaction, especially when there were reasonable brigadiers in charge. But in some cases, when they suffered technical difficulties, they spoke against, and did not accept the deepening of the well.
In these cases, the problem was solved in the ministry, but the conditions were sometimes such that no one dared to take them on. The workers of the brigades began to demand from us, as an obligation, the guarantee: if the geological task was not solved with that supplement, then the authors would be forced to pay the money. In other words, this meant that the perpetrators were put in prison, that the punishment with the salary could not be implemented. The engineer’s monthly salary was only about eight US dollars, while additional drilling, let’s say a hundred meters, cost several tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, far beyond the ability of the oilmen to repay the expenses. As ugly and fair as it may seem, there were times when the authors withdrew from their request.
To put geologists in front of even greater difficulties, at that time, in his speeches, Enver Hoxha put forward the strange thesis; “the science of geology is an exact science”. Thus, for the first time in the world, a great Marxist appeared, who rejected all the conclusions of the scientists of the globe, conclusions that are still valid today, that geology was not in the group of exact sciences, such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. Moreover, our dictator came against the founder of the philosophy of scientific Marxism, Engels, who when he talks about the theory of knowledge, as an example brings the science of geology, where he qualifies, among others, that; our knowledge is relative and not absolute and we move from the unknown to the known. What could we desert geologists do, in these conditions when Enver Hoxha, his teacher, Engelsi, could not do it?!
The meeting I had with the minister finally gave the expected results. One fine day, they informed us to prepare, that Mehmet Shehu, the head of the government, would pay us a visit. On July 14, 1975, an important meeting was organized at the Institute. It was not wide. Only heads of the Institute’s cabinets and sectors, and special employees, were invited. Since two days ago, the hall was surrounded by guards of the Republic Guard and Security officers, who did all the necessary checks.
Prime Minister Shehu came at the appointed time, accompanied by party leaders from the Fier district and those from the oil industry. The tone of the discussion, this time, was mild. He condemned all those manifestations of extremism that geologists were suffering and appreciated their selfless work. He called their situation difficult and hostile actions, this time he described the pressure exerted on geologists. I immediately realized that the minister had conveyed my great concerns to Mehmet Shehu. They had welcomed the problems I raised, and this gave some oxygen to my work as well, with the hope that now things would be looked at more correctly and more realistically.
– To ask the geologist that if he drills here and no oil comes out, you are the enemy, or if he increases the design depth of the well and does not produce oil, you as the author will pay, – he raised his voice like thunder the prime minister, – it is an action by the enemy. This is sabotage. So the brainiacs pit our intelligence against the working class! Khrushchev would not want more than that! Even I, who am the head of the government, in these conditions, hand over my diploma and say: Hell, I don’t work anymore! From a wave of calm, which spread to the edges of my being, I had the luxury of noticing that Mehmet Shehu pronounces the word “Class” with two “l”, like his great Enveri, while he himself pronounced a double “r” in “government”.
A meeting like this was also held in the cinema of Patos, with a wider participation, with managers of oil companies and oil drilling and extraction workers. It is to tell the truth, that this speech warmed all the geologists and seismics. Although with a little more naivety than we should have shown, we were warmed by a certain hope, thinking that this is how it would be judged in the future. His word opened a window for us in that great fog that had gathered around us.But unfortunately, this time I was also wrong, because the upper leadership, realizing that the situation was going to that point in the field of research, used the support of geologists and the slap against extremism at the base, as a temporary tactic. They realized that the oilmen needed a boost and introduced this trick into the game. Life later showed that they had not learned any lessons.
The oilmen were not under pressure, neither from below, nor from themselves there. During a break that took place during the meeting at the Institute, when I was leaving the hall, together with the other employees, one of Mehmet Shehu’s companions took me by the arm and told me to go back inside, that the prime minister wanted me. I came back and went to present myself to the Prime Minister, who was talking with the First Secretary of Fier. They were both standing near a stand where we had placed a map of Albania. As soon as he saw me, Mehmet Shehu asked me: – “Xhaçka, what are, in your opinion, the promising areas of our country for oil and gas?” And I repeat, I want your personal opinion”.
I started talking to him, but also about the western area of Albania as a whole. He interrupted me: – “I want you to define for me with a clear square, the most promising area, where we should focus on our oil and gas research.” – You see, friend Mehmet, – I laughed, – it is hard to speak clearly. We geologists…! – “Oh, you geologists, you geologists! You geologists have a lot of words. I want a square! Give me the square”! Then I concentrated and roughly defined the coastal area of Lushnja, the line Dumre-‘Cytet Stalin’, Patos, the line Gorisht-Vlora, which extended to the coast. After that we separated to return to the meeting, from which we had left for a short break.
Only two or three weeks had passed since this meeting, when we received a brochure, which contained a new speech by Enver Hoxha, held at the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, which said, among other things, that; “from what I have studied, the most promising area for oil and gas in Albania is the square that starts with the coast of Lushnja, the line Dumre-‘Cytet Stalin’, Patos, the line Gorisht-Vlora, and extends to the coast, and here we must to concentrate oil and gas research”.
I realized that this was the statement that I hastily formulated after the prime minister’s question, a statement that would continue to be sold to us as part of the studies of the mythomaniac party leader. And this truth, I have not confessed to anyone until today that I am writing these memories.
This determination by official institutions was canonized with the name; “the perspective framework defined by the leader Enver Hoxha”. It became a taboo, to be enforced with the greatest rigor on our part, and over eighty-five percent of the exploration wells were to be exclusively within this sacred square. If it was drilled away from him, this was considered a contradiction or a violation of the party’s orientations and had serious consequences for geological-geophysical specialists, including the noble Petraq Xhaçka, who, without losing his mind, formulated it hastily under the push of Mehmet Shehu!
And how could I have thought that one day, my act-accusation for sabotage and hostile activity, would have as an essential part the sin I committed, the permission of research with drilling outside the framework clearly defined by Enver Hoxha! Indeed, I had never before thought or said, that there is no prospect of research in other areas. On the contrary! And I have expressed these things in writings and studies, which are certainly preserved even today. If I had known that day with Mehmet Shehu, I was formulating my next indictment, I would have thought better and insisted more in my explanation.
Yes, man does not know what fate has in store for him. I was not such a prophet to wait for my paycheck, after twenty years, as neither was the prime minister himself, who after only six years, would end up under the wheels of Enver’s murderous car. My fateful saying turned into an official dogma. And the most beautiful, or the most cynical, was that after the publication of the brochure, I was recommended to write an article on the scientific importance of the determination by our leader, for the perspective square! It is understood, of course, that I also made that article. Memorie.al
