Dashnor Kaloçi
Memorie.al publishes a documentary document issued by the Central State Archive (fund of the former Central Committee of the ALP), which belongs to March 30, 1973, where the minutes of the meeting of Enver Hoxha and Hysni Kapos are located, with Fadil Paçrami, who at that time was the secretary of the Party Committee of the Tirana district (covering art, culture and propaganda), a meeting which took place at Paçrami’s own request, after the harsh accusations leveled against him by the ‘leader of the Party ‘, in the speech held on March 15 and 16 of that year in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the ALP, where he for the first time criticized the 11th Song Festival on Radio – Television, throwing serious accusations against Todi Lubonja and Fadil Paçrami, as: “the main culprits and perpetrators, who with their actions had allowed and spread a liberal spirit in art and culture”!
“Let us speak openly, you, Fadil, have put in various cultural institutions of the capital a series of cadres, who hold contemptuous and disregarding attitudes towards the rules and discipline of the Party, towards the forums and its authority. I speak on the basis of the data extracted from what you yourself have said, you have protected these people. It is not you who said to the comrades of the Ministry of Education and Culture: “What do you want that you go for control in Kinostudio or in the Opera and Ballet Theater? Why do you interfere in these issues?! You said that these are not lines in your work, but dots become lines. It is these attitudes that you hold that are dangerous. If you round up the issues in this way, if you do not explain them honestly, but speak in an academic tone even before me, that the Party has charged me with the post of First Secretary of its Central Committee, you certainly have difficult to correct. You dismiss the theorist and think you can talk theoretically, if you do not round things up. I was also told that in a meeting you threw “big” ideas, in which a big ideological mess stands out “. This is how Enver Hoxha addressed, among others, the secretary of the Party Committee of Tirana, Fadil Paçrami, during a meeting with him on March 30, 1973, where the secretary of the Central Committee of the ALP, Hysni Kapo, was also present. which in party ranks covered the organs of the ‘Dictatorship of the Proletariat’), a meeting which was requested by Paçrami himself, after Enver Hoxha’s speech held in the apparatus of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly on January 7 of that year, just a few days after the Festival of 11 of the Song on Radio-Television as well as the speech held on March 15 and 16 of the same year at the meeting of the Central Committee of the ALP, (on the topic: “The fight against liberal attitudes in art and culture and their impact in the life of the country ”), where Enver Hoxha for the first time criticized the 11th Festival and made harsh accusations against Fadil Paçrami and Todi Lubonja, making them guilty and the main responsible for that festival, etc. Regarding these and others, we know this archival document which contains the minutes of the meeting of Enver Hoxha and Hysni Kapos with Fadil Paçrami held on March 30, 1973, which Memorie.al publishes in full and for the first time first.
Minutes of the conversation between Enver Hoxha and Hysni Kapos with Fadil Paçrami on March 30, 1973
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: How are you?
FADIL PAÇRAMI: Well, comrade Enver. I came to talk to you about the discussion you had at the meeting of the basic organization of the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: You should have come earlier to discuss these issues and not now, after I spoke. Apparently, you did not come before, because you did not feel the need for consultation. The reason why you did not feel this need is up to you to say honestly. However, after the criticism I made at the meeting of the Communists of the Central Committee of the Party, you hurried to request an appointment with me immediately, however I did not wait for you quickly, in order to have enough time to delve into the criticism my and your mistakes, for which you must open your heart to the Party and comrades to know. I know your mistakes and I hope now you will have reflected more about them.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: Although maybe late, I think we can talk even now. I also need advice. The criticism you made of me was open, strong and heavy on me. After your speech I feel some pressure, what am I going to do now? I openly admit that I have fallen into the error of emphasizing the danger of conservatism. I have always started from anti-obscurantist and anti-clerical positions.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: I have not seen any article of yours in the press where any important problem raised by the Party against religion and religious traditions was addressed.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I talked about these problems in reports.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: I did not have the opportunity to read all your reports. Since you claimed that anti-obscurantism and anti-clericalism were somehow guided in the views against conservatism, I am asking you: Have you written an article against religion and religious prejudice that the communists and the people of Tirana would take as directives based on Party documents?
FADIL PAÇRAMI: No, I have not written articles, but from the beginning I have maintained an anti-obscurantist and anti-clerical attitude.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: I understand that not only you, but all members of the Party are engaged in the fight against clericalism and obscurantism, but by fighting against these two currents of reactionary ideology, they have not fallen into either conservatism or liberalism, on the contrary in practice they have always maintained a right attitude. When a person slips or deviates in one direction, because he pays all his attention to another direction, then in this last direction, in your concrete case in the fight against obscurantism and clericalism that you mentioned, he should be distinguished in a special way. But I have not seen in you a particular attitude against religion. No party member and no one else in our country has been left without speaking out against religion and religious institutions. Then in your person, we do not currently see slipping into mistakes as a result of your anti-clerical views. Being an atheist and maintaining a liberal attitude does not work, your explanation is a big contradiction.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I have had such anti-clerical views since I was in the Ministry of Education and Culture, and even there I put the texts on this basis.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Excuse me for waiting for the floor, but here you have to speak properly. You do not put the textbooks, they are not your works, but of many authors, who have shed sweat on them. You have never taken the trouble to come to me to consult about the fight against clericalism. Then, as I heard, you used your activity as a tool to attack some writers, such as Lazar Silic, who is not a clergyman. I was told that you told Lazarus that he was a clergyman. These announcements that have come to me are accurate. It seems to me that you have hardly really concluded that the struggle against clericalism and conservatism has pushed you to fall into liberalism! You know full well that you have waged a wide-ranging war against a multitude of cadres for personal motives. This has been proven in all basic organizations of the Party. In the context of the fight against clericalism, have you done these actions, which are contrary to your duty as secretary of the Party committee? These actions are important for the whole Party, but also for you personally because you are a communist.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I say that I have constantly stood in the positions of the fight against obscurantism.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Then what do you want from me?
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I came to explain these things to you, because I feel the need to express what I have, as well as to get some advice from you.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Agreed. My first advice is for your mistakes to be absolutely corrected by you. The party requires you to delve deeper into the mistakes you have made. This way of reasoning, with this content of the conversation you made here, in my opinion, does not help you to delve into the causes of your mistakes. The form and especially the content of these words we heard, seriously hinder to look at the true end of mistakes. I personally, as well as all my comrades, think that these issues must be raised in the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party. I would like the analysis of these flaws, mistakes and distortions to serve, first of all, the cleansing of the conscience. This necessary work will be done successfully not by finding “reasons” to hide flaws and mistakes, or to reduce them, on the contrary, by discovering the real sources and causes of their manifestations. I remember that it is not good for your harmful views to be easily overlooked, as you present them here. Noting the work you have done, at a time when you are criticized for mistakes in the work of the Party, it is clear the tendency to defend with inappropriate arguments and to reduce mistakes. It is possible for a person to have a good past, but at a certain moment with the actions he does, he makes mistakes himself, he also confuses his friends. It is not excluded that in the course of work the comrades may also make mistakes, but if they want to be corrected, they must delve into the mistakes in order for the Party to help them, to give them a hand, and the way in which you present the matter, does not allow you to delve into the mistakes you have made. As all the comrades in the plenum of the Party Committee of the Tirana District and in the basic organizations of the Party said, it is undeniable that you have made a personal policy, especially regarding the cadres of culture. If you reason in general and without analyzing the problems concretely, you cannot find the strength to get yourself out of serious guilt. These thoughts that you have, do not allow you to look at the danger of the attitude you hold and the deviation from the Party path. You have to understand these issues well, because you are not a new cadre. Why did you not implement the rules, decisions, discipline and policy of the Party for the staff? You know all these long-established rules, but you have broken them to support unhealthy elements. One can defend a man who makes a mistake for the first time, who has a good biography, who is to the end loyal to the homeland and the Party, but not to support anyone even when he does not deserve support. It is not at all in the spirit of our Party your attitude, which tramples on one who does not act according to your desire. If you look at these attitudes deeply and critically, then you should condemn them. In case you do not take a stand against these mistakes, then we will be forced to take measures to improve the work. Let us speak openly, you, Fadil, have put in various cultural institutions of the capital a series of cadres, who hold contemptuous and disregarding attitudes towards the rules and discipline of the Party, towards the forums and its authority. I speak on the basis of the data extracted from what you yourself have said, you have protected these people. It is not you who said to the comrades of the Ministry of Education and Culture: “What do you want that you go for control in Kinostudio or in the Opera and Ballet Theater? Why do you interfere in these issues?! You said that these are not lines in your work, but dots become lines. It is these attitudes that you hold that are dangerous. If you round up the issues in this way, if you do not explain them honestly, but speak in an academic tone even before me, that the Party has charged me with the post of First Secretary of its Central Committee, you certainly have difficult to correct. You dismiss the theorist and think you can talk theoretically, if you do not round things up. I was also told that you in a meeting because you threw “big” ideas, in which a big ideological mess stands out. You did not tell me anything so that I could judge whether your views and opinions were right or wrong. From what I see, you came to me today to convince me that your liberalism is a coincidence. We cannot accept this judgment of yours. Neither liberalism nor conservatism are born together with man, but as one and the other, they are formed slowly, at first as concepts, as ways of thinking, then they appear in practical activity. So far you have not told me your point of view on all the mistakes you have made. I do not ask you to say it now, but I think you should do self-criticism in writing, where you show what your liberal concepts are and what factors have influenced their formation. When you say that there were neither liberal nor conservative mistakes in your works, I do not understand where these mistakes in this field lie. Contrary to what you say, I have the opinion that the mistakes you have made are not just detached incidents in your work practice, rather they have a continuum. Comrade Ramiz Alia has called you dozens of times, who thinks extremely honestly about these issues. Comrade Hysni has also guided you very well, and you, leaving aside the instructions of other comrades, mention only the criticism that I have made of you. Apparently, all the criticisms that other friends have made of you, such as Comrade Ramiz, Comrade Hysni and Comrade Manush, have entered you from one ear and left you from the other. You can deny it, but there are many others who prove that you said: “We are full of bureaucrats” and, when you were told that friends from the Central Committee will come there, you said again: – “They are also bureaucrats”! These issues were to be raised at meetings of the Party-based organization, but since they were not raised there, they will be discussed at the meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party. You can deny that you said: “Why go to the Central Committee? If necessary, let my friend Hysni Kapo call me, because I also have my personality”! But do not forget that your personality is not on the same level as the personality of comrade Hysni or comrade Ramiz. When the communists go to the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party, either when they are called, or on their own initiative, they present themselves as comrades, without thinking that the person who will host them is more or less a personality. I do not raise this issue in isolation from other shows that have appeared and seem to you. But let us return to the main issue, to your liberal views, which are not limited to the protection of the liberal elements of the various institutions, but parts, which constitute a whole, extend to other spheres as well. You managed to say in front of the whole team: “I have no responsibility for the festival”! What is this strange and impermissible attitude you hold?
So far you have not told me your point of view on all the mistakes you have made. I do not ask you to say it now, but I think you should do self-criticism in writing, where you show what your liberal concepts are and what factors have influenced their formation. When you say that there were neither liberal nor conservative mistakes in your works, I do not understand where these mistakes in this field lie. Contrary to what you say, I have the opinion that the mistakes you have made are not just detached incidents in your work practice, rather they have a continuum. Comrade Ramiz Alia has called you dozens of times, who thinks extremely honestly about these issues. Comrade Hysni has also guided you very well, and you, leaving aside the instructions of other comrades, mention only the criticism that I have made of you. Apparently, all the criticisms that other friends have made of you, such as Comrade Ramiz, Comrade Hysni and Comrade Manush, have entered you from one ear and left you from the other. You can deny it, but there are many others who prove that you said: “We are full of bureaucrats” and, when you were told that friends from the Central Committee will come there, you said again: – “They are also bureaucrats”! These issues were to be raised at meetings of the Party-based organization, but since they were not raised there, they will be discussed at the meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party. You can deny that you said: “Why go to the Central Committee? If necessary, let my friend Hysni Kapo call me, because I also have my personality”! But do not forget that your personality is not on the same level as the personality of comrade Hysni or comrade Ramiz. When the communists go to the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party, either when they are called, or on their own initiative, they present themselves as comrades, without thinking that the person who will host them is more or less a personality. I do not raise this issue in isolation from other shows that have appeared and seem to you. But let us return to the main issue, to your liberal views, which are not limited to the protection of the liberal elements of the various institutions, but parts, which constitute a whole, extend to other spheres as well. You managed to say in front of the whole team: “I have no responsibility for the festival”! What is this strange and impermissible attitude you hold?
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I have said that I have no direct responsibility.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: No, you have stated precisely that you have no responsibility for the poor organization of the Radio-Television Song Festival, arguing that Radio-Television depends on the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Party. With these expressions you have attacked the Central Committee of the Party, therefore the Party cannot allow you to act in this way. The party will reach those conclusions that lead us to the facts, lead us to the truth. If you do not accept the truth, based on the principle of denying everything, this cannot be a communist attitude. If he speaks the language of facts and evidence, this is the honest attitude of the communist. You are talking here as if we are “tabula rasa” in terms of knowing your views and your liberal and opportunistic activity. Leadership may not agree with you when you present the matter as if only you were right, while others do not tell the truth. You have intervened in everything, excluding others who had to deal with some problems. You have gone so far as to insult the actors of the People’s Theater, saying that they should have left from there because they “perform like in the Bogdan Theater”! Theater actors have complained about this insult you have done to them.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I admitted that I was wrong.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: To admit in general that you were wrong, that is one side of the issue, but to discover the causes of the mistakes you have made, this is very important to you as a communist. Deepen why you made a mistake in your relationship not with one or two, but with many people. Why did these mistakes happen in your relationship with everyone? Can the Party not think that these attitudes express not a case, but a line built by you in working with people? Comrade Jordan Pani told you at the plenary meeting that, when he had called Koço Vasili, to make some remarks about his work at the Opera and Ballet Theater, in order to protect him, you had gone to your friend Jordan as Koço’s companion! All these, which I am mentioning, come from the minutes of the meetings. There is no question of blaming you for the accusations made by Koço Vasili, that he bears his own responsibilities, but we are pointing out those facts that prove that you were a liberal. We are not hearing from you in what directions you understand your liberalism and how you ideologically judge this issue. I am obliged to mention some shows in your concrete actions to help you understand that you have been liberal.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I have been liberal in the concepts of artistic creativity and in poetry where hermeticism and ideological ambiguity are noticed. It has happened that our creators have cast dark and vague thoughts, and I have not reacted, thinking that they were young and had time to mature ideo-artistically. I also told my friends about these shortcomings, but they did not react completely either.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Do not add water to the wine! Do not seek to stifle others, for, even if you love, the Party will not leave you. There are people who, in order to wash themselves, try to kill others, but even from this side our Party has its eyes open. Therefore, speak for yourself first.
FADIL PAÇRAMI: I, in the works I have created, do not tend to liberal concepts.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: I advise you to be modest. Often, during the conversation, you highlighted the five plays you made, repeating the phrase: “My works”, but did not say a word to you if this activity of yours has created clans and difficulties in the People’s Theater. Why don’t you talk about these groups that have been created, or even these are the evil mouths that speak against you? Didn’t you like the works of other writers as well?
FADIL PAÇRAMI: Other creators have had their sympathetic people around them.
COMRADE ENVER HOXHA: Why, emphasizing the importance and seriousness of unity, you stated in the meeting that it is not fair to say that clans have been created, when now you yourself are saying that other writers have had their supporters around them. These groups are nothing but clans, because how can it be explained that your plays are staged earlier than those of other writers? I am trying to overcome these attitudes, so I told you from the beginning that the basis of your actions is seen in the concrete attitude. You have not analyzed in a healthy spirit the mistakes you have made, because you have assessed as critical the criticisms that have been addressed to you. In a very serious meeting attended by Comrade Ramiz, he gave you the opportunity to make self-criticism, while you spoke there succinctly about unity and did not explain the mistakes made during your concrete actions. /Memorie.al
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