Dashnor Kaloçi
Second part
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), where is the speech of Enver Hoxha held on May 30, 1960 with the first secretaries of the Committees of The party of the districts and some of the most important cadres of the Central Committee of the ALP, where he stopped and informed the participants in that meeting, regarding the great contradictions and disagreements that had arisen between official Tirana and the senior leadership. of the Kremlin led by Nikita Khrushchev, where the biggest problem was that of the Vlora Military-Naval Base, where the Soviet side still had 150 sailors and officers, who “created daily incidents.” Enver Hoxha’s speech regarding the letter sent by the Soviet leadership at the meeting on March 28 and 29 of that year with the representatives of the Warsaw Pact member states, this Commander-in-Chief of the United Forces, Marshal Grecko, had found as a pretext for take full possession of the Vlora Base, the incident of the Albanian policeman in the Izvor River with three Soviet women, who had asked them for their ID cards, otherwise they would have problems… ?!
“In the end, we underlined that Grecko’s proposal had no basis and stressed that the reasons he put forward for taking these measures were all slander and fabrications. The only “reason” that Grecko presented in his letter about the measures he proposed, was that the living of Soviet sailors at the Vlora naval base had allegedly become impossible. According to him, the conditions were created for the Soviets on such a bad basis that they saw no other way but for us Albanians to leave our base and be taken over by the Soviets, because only in this way, according to them, would be avoided. every incident! An “incident”, according to them, was that a policeman on the Izvor River, controlling a bus with three other Soviet women traveling, told them that, after going to Vlora, they should have their ID cards with them, because in city, not knowing them, could bring them obstacles. This intervention of the police has aggravated our relations and affected the Soviet “pride”. “This ‘incident’ was one of the decisive reasons for us to take over all the ships from the Soviet side.”
This was stated, among others, by Enver Hoxha in a meeting with the first secretaries of the District Party Committees and with a number of key cadres of the Central Committee of the ALP, held on May 30, 1960, where he stopped and informed the participants in that meeting about the great contradictions and disagreements that had arisen between official Tirana and the senior leadership of the Kremlin headed by Nikita Khrushchev, where the biggest problem was that of the Vlora Naval Base , where the Soviet side still had 150 sailors and soldiers, who “created daily incidents.” Regarding this and all the speech of Enver Hoxha in that meeting of May 30, 1960, we know this document that Memorie.al publishes for the first time and without any cuts.
Continued from the previous issue
Enver Hoxha’s unknown speech with the first secretaries of the Party committees of the districts in the Central Committee of the ALP on May 30, 1960
Long after our response, in solidarity with the Warsaw Pact decision, we received a letter from the Hungarian government, in which, in strong and impermissible terms, we are advised to implement the Warsaw Pact decision. But most vile of all is the letter from the Germans, signed by a certain Vili Shtof, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, who is nothing but a fascist, not even a fascist would write such a letter. With this letter, Vili Shtof openly defends the Yugoslav revisionists and the Greek monarcho-fascists and accuses us of being provocateurs against the Yugoslavs and the Greeks. To this document we have in hand, we will give the deserved answer. Such a letter was sent to us by the Bulgarians. Others have not sent us anything so far.
In our response to the Soviet government we proposed that in the event that the status quo we want to maintain be accepted, a commission from the Soviet Union be set up to discuss the measures and manner in which they wanted to liquidate the Vlora base. They accepted our proposal and the commission came. But even the people who made up this commission, began to make full of provocations. It took the composure of our Party to withstand their provocations. We again amicably submitted our theses to the committee while they stood by their theses. They told us, “Either accept the implementation of the decision or we will leave the base” and asked us to hand over all the tools, even the bolts and boards they used for a barracks. Our representatives, in the spirit of the letter we addressed, replied that in case you do not accept the right view of our Government, then get all 8 submarines and a floating base served by Soviet crews, while the others served by our people, will stay here because they are the property of the Albanian people.
Property of our state, we pointed out to them, are also the 8 submarines and the floating base that we told them to take, and in fact it is, they have become our property by agreement, whether they were given for free, even if with money had been given to us. This from a legal point of view. But also, from the moral point of view, the right is with us, because Albania is a socialist state, a member of the Warsaw Pact, a member of the socialist camp. In this sense we have a common goal. Someone can jump in and say, well, yes, they were given to you, Albanians, without money. We answer that they are not candies or toys, but tools for the protection of the People’s Republic of Albania and the camp of socialism. Our slogan is one for all and all for one. This slogan for our Party has a high internationalist meaning and we adhere to it. As Khrushchev and those who follow him reason, they may ask us to take over the factories and mills given to us by the Soviet Union.
But such things can only make people dirty in every sense of the word. Such are the Soviet leaders today with Khrushchev at the helm, so unmasking these revisionists means defending the Soviet Union. We have protected and are defending the peoples of the Soviet Union, especially in these situations they are going through, because Khrushchev and his group are enemies not only of the Albanian people, but also of the Soviet peoples. We know and will always distinguish the Soviet Union of the time of Lenin and Stalin from these renegades of Marxism-Leninism. Soviet revisionists know well who we are talking about, but to cover up their anti-Marxist actions, they say that Albanian leaders are attacking the Soviet Union, throwing mud at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and so on. They want to explain our just but harsh path and criticism, directed against this hostile revisionist group, as if they were directed against the Soviet brotherly people, against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
We also know that the anti-Marxist activity of this group is directed not only against socialist Albania, but also against all international communism. They are clear on the path we are following, they are distorting it with hostile intentions and slandering us. Yesterday, for example, a Soviet navy driver crushed a sailor who is in very serious condition. The scene inspection report was signed by the commanders of the Soviet ships, other Soviet people and the driver who committed this crime, while the Soviet embassy in its note, in response to our note, says that this is not true. We have sent them full grades with such things and so they answer. What a filthy mess has come over! Regarding the Vlora base, we informed them, therefore, which ships can leave, while the others do not move from the place. They made all that noise and pressure. Is Mount Tomor shaking from the rains, winds and storms? No, it does not waver, but stands motionless, like a granite rock standing. Thus, therefore, the leadership of the Party and our Government did not waver from their decisions.
When they saw that they could not go any further, they left with their submarines, which they had not surrendered, and with the floating base. But they left us here about 150 of their sailors, certainly for quarrelsome apples. We told them that they should also leave Albania as soon as possible, they do not have to stay with us anymore, because they are staying in vain and this is nothing but an attitude with bad intentions. And in fact, actions such as what their driver committed can still do. We know that it is not the sailors’ fault for what is being done at the Vlora base, but the leadership. How is it possible to get so far as to instruct sailors to steal whatever they find? So, they are not leaving curtains without removing the night, without getting fans, electric lamps, porcelain items, etc. This is so true that their commander himself has informed our command that he has nothing to do with his men, he has spoken to them a hundred times not to do so, but they are debauched. The commander of their background, with the rank of colonel, has managed to obtain, for the purpose of embezzlement, the loot belonging to our state.
When asked what he is doing, that he is a communist, he answers without shame that he will take these things for granted, because that is what everyone is doing. But why do they do all these dirty deeds? Of course, they plot to accuse us, in order to have as many “facts” against us as possible. But despite these low provocations, our cadres are commanded to keep their composure, ranging from the highest officer to the simple sailor. Everyone is shown at the right level, party people. They see that these attitudes are unworthy and make a very bad impression on them. And we understand that these make them to send us grades constantly. Here, their military representative, the largest they have now with us, comes and complains to our command as if an Albanian sailor had “checked” the pockets of a Soviet sailor, another Albanian sailor “did not allow” a Soviet sailor to go out by the sea, or that he “checked” the package that was being taken out by a Soviet sailor, etc. Apparently, they are packing to escape. In this situation this is the best solution, which we did not want, but which was created by the Soviet revisionists themselves.
The Soviet hostile actions at the Vlora base are carried out on the orders of the Khrushchevite revisionist leadership, but, nevertheless, there are good people at the base who give our sailors the keys to the most delicate submarine apparatus, advise them where to be careful and how to preserve and maintain them, tell them that we have been and are friends, etc. Our party has said and still says that Vlora will always stand a strong basis for the protection of our homeland, the People’s Republic of Albania, and the common interests of the peoples of this area. This has been, is and will remain the immovable principle of our Party. Nothing shakes us out of our way. Soviet leaders, if they want you, let them go further. And they have gone further in their attitudes against us. Since the Soviet leadership would withdraw the naval ships of the Vlora base, it made no sense for us to let the trainees and officers of our navy we had sent to the Soviet Union continue their studies. Our government therefore ordered our military attaché in Moscow to return our naval cadets and officers studying in Soviet naval schools. Our military attaché appeared at the Soviet command and informed her of the decision of our Government.
The only word they said to our attaché to the Soviet command was: why are you in a hurry, but he immediately replied that I have this order from my Government, and I carry out its order. So, our military attaché immediately went to Leningrad, where, after announcing the command of the naval academy, he gathered all the trainees and explained the matter to them. All unanimously said that they are under the command of the Party. When the Albanian military attaché went to the other naval academy, he was not allowed to meet them and all the trainees were locked in rooms, placing guards around them. Yes, the trainees exploded the obstacles and had a meeting with the representative of our state, who gathered them and presented them with the work. He was told that the Party’s order is for you to return to Albania. Everyone responded to the call as a single body and on this occasion chanted speeches and slogans for the right path of our Party. This made a great impression on all Soviet trainees and officers, who wanted to know why these unjust actions were taken against Albanians, why Albanians were imprisoned for behaving, staying and learning so well. Thus, became a great mess which the great little one heard of.
To defeat our people, the Soviet command doubled the guards, but most of them openly stated that they refused to imprison their Albanian comrades. Then they replaced these guards with other guards, but they also objected. The director of one of the naval academies refused to treat our trainees and officers studying there in this way, he instead lined them up and accompanied them to the cinema himself. At another academy, our officers were told that you would be returning to us. So, they went so far as to forcefully hold our trainees by lying to them that counter-revolution had erupted in Albania as in Hungary, etc. When our military attaché was carrying out the order of our Government in Leningrad, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army called him and informed him to return to Moscow, he told him that I was carrying out the order of my Government and not yours. They expelled our military attaché and as a countermeasure we expelled their attaché.
Of course, we protested immediately. In those days, the commissions of both sides met in Tirana on the issue of the Vlora base, but we suspended the work of our commission and informed the Soviet side that if arbitrary and hostile measures against Albanian trainees and officers studying in schools are not given up. of the Soviet Navy, the meeting could not take place. So, they were forced to cancel the measures against our people and in addition they lied by declaring that they did not intend to keep our naval cadets and officers in the Soviet Union and that they would take measures to return them to Albania… Only after that did the talks of both Albanian and Soviet commissions for the Vlora base continue. The Soviet leadership was forced to change its attitude from the determined attitude of our Party and Government, as well as from the high patriotism, great determination and fearless eye of the communists, of our officers and trainees.
Our people studying in naval schools in the Soviet Union took an exemplary stand. As soon as they received the instructions of the Party, they were ready for any sacrifice, except to carry out the message of the Party without the slightest hesitation. The attitude of our people showed the country to the Khrushchevite clique that organizes unprecedented hostile actions against our country, which has broken the friendly and fraternal relations between our two countries. But they must understand that with the Albanians, with the cadres of the Party, they cannot catch the cows in this way, because they will find in front the fist that will break their head. And indeed, with the act they did against our cadets and naval officers, they unmasked themselves, as this act has caused a stir in the Soviet Union as well, especially in those cities where our people were educated and who were loving and kind to professors and with their Soviet comrades, as well as with the people.
As you can see, the situation in relations with the Soviet Union is difficult, we are going through such situations, in which we need to keep calm. Now it is clear to us what people we are dealing with. Between our two countries have happened all those events that are precipitating more and more. They convince us even more that today’s Soviet leaders, led by Khrushchev, are not only on the wrong path, but they are deeply entrenched in a hostile path against the socialist camp and especially against the People’s Republic of Albania. They have done everything against us and are again willing to do whatever they can, but they will be broken. They have lost and will lose even if they go further in their attitudes. They can take a decision to exclude us from the Warsaw Pact, but let them take that decision too, their responsibility will be heavy, but from the heart of the Soviet people and the peoples of other socialist countries they cannot take us pull out.
They will never achieve this, no matter how unbridled propaganda they make against us. Their propaganda against Albania will not take place in the masses of the communists and their peoples. I say this not only in principle, but so it is in concrete reality. We have hundreds of other students and specialists who have connections with ordinary Soviet people, with Soviet communists. They have explained to them the views of our Party and of Khrushchev and his revisionist group. They have been and are able to judge these attitudes and the vast majority of them fully approve of the straight line of our Party. If they did not approve it, the Soviet leadership would let the reports of our IV Congress circulate freely throughout the Soviet Union. But the fact is that against these reports’ censorship has been imposed there. Soviet security was mobilized everywhere to collect reports, which circulated hand in hand. If these reports were anti-Marxist in content, as Soviet leaders’ slander, then why not leave them, as Soviet workers would not be caught by hand.
But the report of the IV Congress of our Party is Marxist-Leninist and exposes the line, attitudes and goals of Nikita Khrushchev’s group. Those who have read it have fully endorsed it. Now that recent international events are unfolding, those who have read the report once again ask it to return, because, as they say, “it is a real analysis of the international situation.” An article in the Izvestia newspaper, published recently, states: “How long will Hitler’s generals be allowed to arm themselves?” This is a smoke that these people emit to cover themselves, because it is the communist and international labor movement that raises the question of how long West Germany will be armed. Kennedy is known to make statement after statement to organize espionage and diversion against socialist countries. What did the Communist Party of China and the Labor Party of Albania say? They have repeatedly stressed that the imperialists, especially American imperialism, should be forced to come to the path of peace and coexistence, that with Khrushchev’s bullshit with comrades they do not come. /Memorie.al
Continues in the next issue
