– Qemal Cicollari, Chairman of the Communist Party of Albania –
On the occasion of the 145th anniversary of the birth of J.V. Stalin
On December 21, 1879, JOSEPH VISSARIONOVICH STALIN was born — a revolutionary and great Marxist-Leninist thinker, a disciple, collaborator and faithful continuator of Lenin’s work, an outstanding leader of the world proletariat, and a close and dear friend of the Albanian people.
The great Stalin holds the historical merit of having, for 30 years, at the head of the Bolshevik Party and Soviet state, organized and led the struggle for the construction and defence of socialism in the former Soviet Union. This was accomplished in a fierce fight against external imperialist enemies and internal foes, in a relentless battle against opportunists and revisionists of all hues, such as the Trotskyites, Bukharinites and others.
The great Stalin also holds the historical merit of being the great strategist who led the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet peoples and the glorious Red Army against fascism, guiding it to a victory of historic global significance. He bore the main burden of the Second World War. The great Stalin became a terror to fascism and a source of inspiration and great hope for the liberation of the peoples of the world who fought against fascism.
The great Stalin holds the historical merit of having exposed and unmasked the betrayal of Yugoslav Titoite revisionism, the first variant of modern revisionism in power.
The great Stalin was a close and dear friend of the Albanian people and Enver Hoxha. He provided the Albanian people with significant political, economic and military assistance for the construction and defence of socialist Albania.
As a great Marxist-Leninist theoretician and distinguished revolutionary after Marx, Engels and Lenin, Stalin — despite the slanders of the reactionary bourgeoisie, imperialism, opportunists and revisionists of Titoite, Khrushchevite, Chinese and Eurocommunist variants — has been and remains a great teacher and an outstanding leader of the world proletariat and the peoples oppressed by imperialism in their class struggle to overthrow the old oppressive and exploitative capitalist and imperialist order, and achieve the triumph of the new socialist and communist order, free of human exploitation and oppression.
The great Enver Hoxha defended, like no one else, the figure and work of the great Stalin.
The stance towards the life and revolutionary work of the great Stalin is a line of demarcation, a touchstone between genuine communists and pseudo-communists, between Marxist-Leninists, and opportunists and revisionists of all stripes.
Whoever defends the great Stalin is a Marxist-Leninist, a genuine communist.
The Communist Party of Albania
The Communist Party of Albania has always considered and continues to consider the defence of the great Stalin as a major issue of principle.
To defend the cause of the great Stalin means to defend Marxist-Leninist science, the revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism. It means to fight against the bourgeoisie, imperialism, opportunism and revisionism of all variants. It means to defend the cause of the freedom and independence of the peoples and the cause of proletarian internationalism.
Today, the figure of the great Stalin is being magnificently reborn as a banner of struggle and victory in the minds and hearts of the revolutionary world proletariat and the peoples oppressed by imperialism, in the name of the ideals of freedom, democracy, socialism and communism.
The name and work of the great Stalin will live on through the ages.
Glory to the great Stalin!
(Translated by NEPH from the Albanian original)