– Ramiz Alia, Shekulli –
After a relatively long silence, Ramiz Alia returned to the public arena to defend the legacy of Enver Hoxha and the National Liberation War. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Hoxha’s death, he paid tribute to him and expressed his indignation at the refusal to grant the former Commander-in-Chief of the National Liberation Army official recognition as a war veteran. He also rejected claims that the former communist leader had lost his mental clarity towards the end of his life.
“I met and spoke with Enver even one day before he died.”
“It has been written that Enver, particularly during the final months of his life, was no longer mentally lucid. This is not true. Enver Hoxha had suffered from diabetes since 1948 and from heart problems since 1972, when he suffered a heart attack. From that time onwards his condition gradually worsened, but he never withdrew from his work. In fact, there was not a single meeting of the Central Committee of the Party that he failed to attend. Even meetings of the Political Bureau or of the Secretariat of the Central Committee held in his absence could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I myself met and spoke with him even one day before he died.”
“The war cannot be turned into a rag simply because someone dislikes Enver Hoxha.”
“It must be stated clearly that an entire historical era and its principal protagonist, Enver Hoxha, cannot be erased and discarded through one-sided judgements motivated by personal considerations. Such a period of our history – the war that brought the liberation of our homeland from foreign occupiers and the efforts of the entire Albanian people to build and defend the country’s freedom and independence – cannot be reduced to a rag simply because someone dislikes Enver Hoxha. Such an attitude does nothing except throw mud at the history of our entire nation.”
“Refusing a veteran’s certificate to the Commander is an absurdity born of anti-historical attitudes.”
“Anti-historical and subjective attitudes lead to absurdities. Such was, recently, the position adopted by the Ministry of Defence concerning the refusal to issue Enver Hoxha with the certificate recognising him as a veteran of the National Liberation War. It is inconceivable and, above all, constitutes a grave insult to all those who served in the various partisan units during the war and fought for the liberation of the country from foreign occupiers that their Commander-in-Chief should be denied recognition as a veteran of the National Liberation War.”
Twenty years ago, Enver Hoxha died. Under his leadership Albania was liberated from the foreign occupiers, the Italian and German fascists, and for almost four decades afterwards he directed the Albanian people’s immense efforts to build an advanced and prosperous society characterised by equality and social justice and founded upon the ideals of socialism. Today there are differing views regarding Enver Hoxha and his legacy. There are some who do not even wish to hear his name and who portray his activity as leader of both the liberation struggle and socialist construction in the darkest colours imaginable. I do not intend to engage in polemics, whether with those who come from the ranks of the Balli Kombëtar or the Legaliteti, who, as collaborators with the occupiers, were defeated during the war, or with today’s anti-communists, for whom such views have become fashionable, nor with those who, under the previous regime, suffered persecution or imprisonment, whether justly or unjustly. Each has his or her own personal motives, which are now being expressed both in newspapers and in various television programmes.
Nevertheless, it must be stated clearly that an entire historical era and its principal protagonist, Enver Hoxha, cannot be erased and dismissed through one-sided judgements prompted by personal motives. Such a period of our history – the war that brought about the liberation of the homeland from foreign occupiers and the efforts of the entire Albanian people to build and defend the country’s freedom and independence – cannot be turned into a rag simply because someone dislikes Enver Hoxha. Such an attitude does nothing other than cast mud upon the history of our whole nation.
Anti-historical and subjective attitudes lead to absurdities. Such was, recently, the position adopted by the Ministry of Defence concerning the granting of the certificate recognising Enver Hoxha as a veteran of the National Liberation War. It is inconceivable and, above all, constitutes a grave insult to all those who fought in the partisan formations during the National Liberation War and struggled to liberate the country from foreign occupation that their Commander-in-Chief should be denied recognition as a war veteran.
I have written about Enver Hoxha both in the books I have published and in the daily press. I trust that the editorial board of the newspaper Shekulli will complement this article by reproducing excerpts from my book Conversing About Albania (Duke biseduar për Shqipërinë), which was published in 2001 in the form of an interview.
Question: Undoubtedly, the person who dominated Albania’s modern history was Enver Hoxha, its undisputed leader, revered almost to the point of a cult of personality. You knew him personally, worked closely with him and appear to have enjoyed his confidence. What is your assessment of Enver Hoxha today?
Answer: For five decades, Enver Hoxha was Albania’s principal leader, loved and respected by the broad masses of the people. Some claim that this attitude was imposed, that people merely pretended to love him while in reality they feared him. This is not true. The people came to know Enver Hoxha during the most difficult period of their history, in the struggle to liberate the homeland from foreign occupiers. They did not know him through writings; they saw him with their own eyes in the mountains of Albania at the head of the partisans. They opened the doors of their homes to him and shared their bread with him.
Enver Hoxha was the organiser and leader of the National Liberation War, which culminated in the country’s liberation from nazi-fascism. He laid the foundations of the new Albanian state and led the people in the great struggle to overcome centuries of backwardness and to build a better future…
… Enver Hoxha possessed a broad education. He belonged to the generation that linked the period of the Albanian National Renaissance with modern times. He read extensively and with remarkable speed. Naturally, historical and political works occupied first place, together with memoirs of prominent figures from around the world, books on sociology and other subjects. He had an extraordinary memory; he retained everything of interest that he encountered in a book, just as he remembered the names of people he had read about or met. In conversation, even when speaking about partisan life, he would remember the names of the peasants whose homes had given him food and the cadres he had met. Only dates and figures caused him difficulty; he tended to confuse them, apparently because he paid little attention to them.
… Today, his opponents describe Enver Hoxha as a dictator, vindictive and willing to stop at nothing whenever his power was threatened. To lend credibility to these accusations, they point in particular to shortcomings in the sphere of democracy, the excesses committed in implementing the class struggle and the harsh measures taken both against opponents of the regime and against those leaders who, in one way or another, failed to approve of Enver Hoxha’s political line.
It is clear that, during the fifty-year history of the new Albania, various mistakes were made in both politics and the economy. As the principal leader of the Party and state, Enver Hoxha naturally bears the main responsibility for those errors. Likewise, with regard to the severe punishments imposed upon certain senior Party officials, as well as Albania’s isolation and rigid stance in its relations with the outside world, Enver Hoxha himself also exerted influence through his suspicions and his conviction that the dangers facing Albania originated from foreign powers and the conspiracies they organised.
… It has been written that Enver, particularly during the final years and especially the final months of his life, was no longer mentally lucid. This is not true. Enver Hoxha had suffered from diabetes since 1948 and from heart disease since 1972, when he experienced a heart attack. From that time onwards his condition gradually deteriorated, but he never withdrew from his work. In fact, there was not a single meeting of the Central Committee of the Party that he failed to attend. Even meetings of the Political Bureau or of the Secretariat of the Central Committee held in his absence could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I met and spoke with him even one day before he died.
Enver Hoxha distinguished himself as a statesman and diplomat of rare wisdom. He based the foreign policy of the new Albania upon the principle of preserving complete national sovereignty. He insisted that Albania should have its own voice in the world, that it should defend its own interests directly, without “guardians” or intermediaries. From the very beginning, he led the diplomatic struggle to secure for the new Albanian state a status equal to that of the states and nations that had participated in the worldwide anti-fascist coalition.
Enver Hoxha was always exceptionally well informed about matters relating to foreign policy. He read many books dealing with the history of international relations, international law and developments in the various regions and “hotspots” of the world. Undoubtedly, his greatest attention was devoted to developments most closely connected with Albania, particularly events in the Balkans, the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East. He reflected continuously on these issues, discussed them, drew conclusions and wrote extensively about them.
Question: His interest in international affairs is evident from the positions he frequently adopted on questions of foreign policy.
Answer: Enver Hoxha possessed exceptional intuition. He was an accomplished tactician. One of his distinguishing characteristics was his ability to react decisively and at the appropriate moment to particular events. On the very day that the Soviet Army intervened militarily in Czechoslovakia, in August 1968, Enver, without the slightest hesitation, described the action as an act of aggression of a fascist type, a dangerous step that could also threaten Albania’s freedom and independence…
“Now,” he said, “the time has come for our country, de jure as well, to withdraw from this military pact, which has now been transformed into an aggressive alliance, just like NATO. It is true that, de facto, we have long ceased to belong to it because the revisionists expelled us. But now, for our part, we must publicly denounce the Warsaw Treaty and declare our withdrawal from it for all legal purposes.”
Another field in which Enver Hoxha showed particular interest was culture. He discussed cultural issues continuously and wrote extensively on the subject. Any impartial observer can readily recognise that Enver Hoxha’s conception of culture combined the patriot’s passion and the Western education through which he had been formed with the rigorous logic of a Marxist scholar. From a cultural standpoint, Enver Hoxha possessed a Western orientation, acquired not only because he had studied in France, but also because he closely followed developments in Western culture, literature and the arts…
… Enver Hoxha was a passionate advocate of both Albania’s cultural heritage and that of the wider world. He was an opponent of cosmopolitanism, but equally of xenophobia. Among my notes I have preserved one conversation in which he emphasised:
“World literature is a treasure created over the course of historical epochs. For that reason, part of it no longer corresponds to the demands of the present day. Yet, in its own time, every work contributed to the development of society… Therefore, the past should not be treated as a single mould and dismissed lightly by saying, ‘None of this has any value.’ No, every work must be analysed carefully, taking into account the period in which it was created.”
When I recall that, despite these views, our literary and artistic practice was marked by rigidity, restrictions and self-censorship, I cannot avoid concluding that these attitudes were, to a considerable extent, connected with the incompetence of certain Party and state officials, as well as with the opportunism of some writers and artists who, in order to remain “within the fold,” presented themselves as especially principled and imposed sectarian attitudes. At the same time, however, I cannot fail to point out that Enver Hoxha himself also bore responsibility for these phenomena. Under the pressure of particular circumstances, there were occasions when he acted inconsistently, departing from his own inner convictions.
My own view is that Enver Hoxha ranks among the most distinguished personalities produced by our people. Regardless of the fact that anti-communist passions and the logic of revenge prevail today, history will assign Enver Hoxha the place that is rightfully his. Just as the National Liberation War of our people against fascism cannot be denied, neither can Enver Hoxha’s name nor his historical role in the creation and development of the new Albania be obscured or erased.
(Originall published in Shekulli, 9 April 2005, translated from enver-hoxha.net)