Dashnor Kaloçi
Part nine
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents with the initials “Top secret”, issued by the Central State Archive in Tirana (Fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP) which belong to 1961 and are part of a voluminous folder with letters , reports, information, reports, instructions, petitions, etc., where it comes to the beginning of contradictions and the breakdown of official Tirana’s relations with the Soviet Union, which at that time was very much felt by Albanian students who were then studying in schools and universities of the Soviet Union, who, by order received from Tirana, discontinued their studies and waited for instructions to return to Albania. The complete file of Albanian students in the former Soviet Union, where most of them, mainly those who attended Military Academies, High School of State Security, Police, Border, Justice, etc., had major problems and were met with many vicissitudes with the Russian official authorities, leading to the measure of arrest as well as the intervention of the Albanian military attaché in Moscow, Major General Halim Ramohito, to unblock the situation and return the Albanian military students to their homeland.
Continued from the previous issue
R e l a t i o n
In the summaries of the first day of February, as I do not remember exactly the date (the date was given exactly to the official report sent to our embassy in the USSR) I had a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Birçak (Romanian). The conversation was born like this:
When I was going to bed, he told me to give him a cigarette. After I give it to him, he asks me how was the work with our sailor trainees in Leningrad?! It is very good, I tell him, because we sent them quickly to Albania and he performed the task assigned to them by the Party.
Enver Hoxha, he tells me, did not speak well at the Meeting of 81 Communist Parties in Moscow, and held a bad attitude against the Soviet government.
I replied that: this was a slander against our small country, as they want to stifle the revolutionary spirit of our party. Because he defends Marxism-Leninism and exposes anti-Marxist attitudes.
He told me that: Comrade Enver was not supported by the countries of the socialist camp.
I say that: he was supported by all those parties that resolutely implement Marxism-Leninism. Our line is represented by Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Cubans, etc. I stressed that these parties represent the working class and fight resolutely, the capitalist siege without compromise.
I also declared to him that our party was the only one at the Bucharest Meeting that broke the noses of the revisionists who tried at all costs to exclude China. I also told him that the Soviet government, through the Commission, was disarming the Albanian people, removing the Vlora base, established by the Warsaw Pact.
He tells me that: you Albanians will seek the help of the Soviet Union very soon, but you will not find it anymore.
I say that: we are helped by the whole Soviet people, the Chinese people, and the people of the socialist camp.
(Romanian Birçak) Your party and government sent a message to the Soviet government regarding the removal of the Vlora base and called it aggressive.
(I): I do not know about this, but if our Party has said this, I as a communist wholeheartedly approve of this as an unjust action.
He tells me: do not worry that we will talk again in two weeks and you will see what will happen to you from what you are doing.
I declare that: if you hope that the revisionists will overthrow our party and government, but they will never succeed. Our party and government enjoy all the sympathy of our employees. You tried it in Leningrad, where, no matter how much you provoked the Albanian sailors, to deceive them and throw them in a difficult situation, they did not fall prey to them.
At the same time, you tried to isolate and arrest them through vile actions, but the loyal son of the party, educated in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism, did not allow an anomaly and possibly bloodshed to be created (I mean the General Ramohiton).
Even in our congress, you tried, through your delegates, to quell the revolutionary impulse of our people, which has exploded powerfully. You say about this act that you are not aware that your newspaper and radio do not talk about it.
Ask me: where does the real unity of your party lie?! If your party left the socialist camp, what would happen?
Answer: Our party is loyal to Marxism-Leninism, because its line has been defined from the beginning.
I say that: there will be absolutely no agreement with opportunism.
He tells me that: you are young and that you do not know exactly how badly Enver Hoxha behaved at the conference.
Answer: I tell him that I read, listen to, and understand Enver Hoxha, but you, where did you find his speech typed, which you knew before me?! I declare to them that our party is not afraid of its members and it openly tells the press its policy, its people. As for you, you are afraid and do not write about the consistent policy pursued by the ALP.
Question: They tell me that: you Albanians complain that Soviet engineers and technicians get a lot of money?!
Answer: It is not true, I say, because these lies are told by the revisionists, who try to separate our people from the Soviet one. Our people have appreciated and appreciate the help of the Soviet people, and our friendship with the USSR will be unbreakable. It has not even occurred to us to mention the level of their salaries, because the goods brought by Soviet engineers to Albanians are not paid in All. We loved the Soviet people even when the German Nazis, aided by the Romanian armies, killed the people of Odessa and Stalingrad.
An angry Romanian Bircak tells me to read the brochure of the 40th Anniversary of the Romanian Communist Party, how many Romanian communists have been killed.
I say that: I read it, because our press published a newspaper page about this, and your press, for the trial that is taking place in our country, does not publish anything.
3-4 days ago, being gathered at the time of lunch break, I was with Lieutenant Colonel Strati Vodica, Colonel Pertef Pumon and Colonel Maman Saliu. Strato, took a newspaper ‘Pravda’ and was reading to Mamani, articles where the Soviet government openly attacked the Albanian people.
Mom, out of anger, took the newspaper and tore it up. The Romanian, after seeing this event, went and reported to the School Command. After he came, he told me that if I were the Soviet government, I would arrest your friend on the spot, because he tore up the newspaper.
I tell him that: where did you find the courage to go and report and slander an Albanian friend, shamelessly, he tells me that I did not report him.
During this incident with us, there were also two colleagues, a Czechoslovak, and a Hungarian. The Hungarian, winked at me to leave, while the Romanian threw his arm at me, and ironically told me: you will understand this later.
I say that: I have understood, but see if you do not understand.
I had conversations with Soviet comrades, and one of the most important conversations in April (I do not remember the date), I had with Major Kavalov, who is in charge of the 1st group of the VII faculty.
One day, I go to their room and after greeting the whole group, one of the officers asks me how I, who came from the country of eagles, went with lessons, how Enver Hoxha does his job and what he discusses.
I say that: the Albanian people under the leadership of the party and Comrade Enver, are building socialism and are having great success.
Why don’t you tell us anything, what is happening between Khrushchev and Enver, they tell me ?!
After explaining the affairs, from the Bucharest Conference, the Moscow Meeting, the issue of the Palace of Culture, and the departure of the Soviet base.
They were astonished and said to me, “These things which I have explained are very interesting, and no one has ever told them these things before.” But at the same time one of them, told me to be careful, that I was not misinformed about these things.
I declare with conviction that: what I said to them is true and that our party, the Albanian people, does not keep anything secret from us and that it informs us about the disputes with the Soviets. I also tell you that: your press is not publishing anything related to the trial of the conspirators that is taking place in Tirana.
I explain to him that in this factual trial, the activity of Yugoslav revisionism in cooperation with Greek chauvinism and American imperialism is being unmasked.
They tell me that: even for the hostile groups that are discovered here in the Soviet Union, our press does not write anything, but we will finally ask for a summary of this trial.
They tell me: removing the fleet was a mistake, especially now that we have big rockets.
I say that: it is not so, as I declared to him the fact that our Marxist-Leninist party boldly criticized Khrushchev and the government of the Soviet Union for their attitudes towards Albania.
Their eyes filled with tears and after two and a half hours of conversation between us, they got up and told me unanimously that the friendship between our people and your people will be unbreakable, that we would not be upset, that everything would be fine, and that everyone, will receive the merit that belongs to him.
After they left, I was left alone with the group leader Major Kavalov. I quoted the whole report of Comrade Enver and I saw that he was very sad. When I told him that: Enver Hoxha in the middle of the Moscow Conference, declared to Khrushchev that he had addressed a letter to K.Q. of the ALP, that we accept the traitor of the Albanian people who are today in Yugoslavia, Panajot Plaku and asked us not to shoot the enemies, Dali Ndreu and Liri Gega, who after the betrayal of Tito, tried to escape.
He told me sadly that: we Soviet cadres tell us that there are some disputes with Albania and China, that will be settled.
On July 12, 1961, while we were about to leave the Soviet Union, I called him and we went out into the city (Gorky Park). I was with Xhemal Morina and when he met us, he asked us how we were.
I say: we are very good and that Khrushchev expelled us from school, because we defend communism. The Soviet government ousted the leader of our group and the Secretary of the Party Organization of the Security Group. And for this reason, our party, decided to withdraw from the Soviet Union, all students studying on behalf of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I also communicated the order to interrupt the lesson.
He tells me sadly: this was unbelievable and that, if someone else had told him, he would not have believed it.
I explained to him the event of the fleet leaving our country and stressed that according to the agreement, Khrushchev, the part of the fleet that he gave us, we returned, while the other part that Stalin gave us, we kept.
Then I tell him how at the Warsaw Pact meeting, instead of discussing to defend the interests of the socialist camp, he turned to attacking Albania, and if the Bucharest Meeting was against China, the Moscow meeting was against Albania.
I had Comrade Enver’s report translated into Russian and gave it to him to read. I say: look at this report and tell me where it is against the policy of the USSR and Marxism-Leninism?!
After reading it, he tells me: you are absolutely right that your party and government are fighting revisionism. I already tell you that I am clear, together with my friends, how the truth stands and that this is a deep issue, that this is not the fault of your party and government, but it is the continuation of a long problem. (I) our people has not supported and approved the exclusion from K.Q. of Malenkov, Molotov, Zhukov, or other party leaders.
Khrushchev criticizes the cult of the individual, but it is more than that, because today, he has passed into repression and is liquidating all party leaders, such as: the cases of those of Moldova and Azerbaijan. He secretly removed the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and put his man, Podgornijn, there. Even in the apparatus of the Central Committee, he has gathered his people; one even belongs to the Khrushchev family circle.
Finally, he told me that: we do not leave Albania alone, that it and China are the most beloved countries for us Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, etc.
Kavalov told me that: Khrushchev liquidated all the good people, but in the end the party and the people of the Soviet Union will show the country to him and others. You Albanians do not despair, but work hard and love your homeland and do not allow any revisionist to enter the border.
Then he pointed out to me that: many people talk about your situation with the Soviets, but they do not do it openly, because you know what happens to you next.
I had conversations in this category with friends and responsibilities and the attitudes were the same./Memorie.al
A.P.P.SH.
Axhem Xhafaj
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