110 years ago, on October 16, 1908, Enver Hoxha, an outstanding figure of the Albanian revolutionary movement, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Albanian Party of Labor, was born in the city of Gjirokastra in the south of Albania. After graduating from high school in Korca Lyceum in 1930, Enver entered the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Montpellier (France). In Paris, where he then moved, he contacts the editorial office of the newspaper L'manite, for which he writes a number of articles on the situation in Albania. In 1936, Hoxha returned to his homeland and entered the Korchinsky Lyceum as a teacher. In Korca, he establishes contacts with communist groups and becomes one of the most active leaders of these groups.
After the Italian fascists, with the connivance of the Western powers, occupied Albania in April 1939, Enver Hoxha was one of the initiators of the organization of the resistance movement to the fascist invaders. He did a lot of work to unite the existing fragmented communist groups into a single party. Pursued by the occupiers, Hoxha was forced into deep underground. The occupation authorities convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to death. After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 in the Soviet Union against Hitler Germany, Enver Hoxha and other leaders of the communist movement stepped up the struggle for the creation of a communist party. On November 8, 1941, in Tirana, under the illegal conditions, the first conference of communist groups was held, at which the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) was created. The party led by the Central Committee, in which Enver Hoxha took an active part, acted as the organizer and leader of the liberation struggle of the Albanian people against the fascist invaders and their Albanian henchmen. On September 16, 1942, in the city of Peza, at the conference of representatives of the broad sections of the Albanian population, convened on the initiative of the CPA, the Council of National Liberation was created, and Enver Hoxha was elected a member of the presidium. In March 1943, at the 1st All-Albanian Conference of the CPA, he was elected General Secretary of the CC of the CPA. In July 1943, Hoxha was appointed Commissioner of the Supreme Headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army. On May 24, 1944, the first national liberation antifascist congress elected Enver Hoxha as the chairman of the Anti-Fascist Committee of the National Liberation of Albania in the liberated city of Permete, at the same time he was appointed Supreme Commander of the People’s Liberation Army. At the 2nd National Liberation Congress held in Berat in October 1944, the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Committee was reorganized into a provisional democratic government, and Enver Hoxha was appointed its head. Under the leadership of the Central Committee of the CPA in November 1944, the rout of the Italian and German occupiers was completed. Revolutionary social and economic transformations began in the liberated country. After the adoption of the people's democratic constitution (March 1946) and until June 1954, Hoxha was the head of the government, and in 1946-1953. - also by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In 1948-1954 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Albanian Party of Labor (in 1948, the CPA was renamed the Albanian Party of Labor - TLA). Since July 1954 - the first secretary of the Central Committee of the APT.
For the skilful leadership of the military actions of the People’s Liberation Army of Albania in the fight against Hitler’s Germany and fascist Italy, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree of August 9, 1947 to the Order of Suvorov of the 1st degree.
After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Enver Hoxha continued building socialism in Albania, remaining loyal to the ideas of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, subjecting to destructive criticism opportunism and revisionism of Khrushchev and Brezhnev. For such loyalty and criticism, Enver Hoxha “deserved” in the Soviet Union in the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (TSB, 1978) only 22 lines of mention of himself, without publishing a photo.
From the memoirs of Enver Hoxha about the meetings with J.V. Stalin:
We have always dreamed about meeting with Stalin day and night since we got acquainted with Marxist-Leninist theory. This desire intensified even more during the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Struggle. After the outstanding figures - Marx, Engels and Lenin - Comrade Stalin was extremely dear and respected for us, because his instructions guided us in the struggle to establish the Communist Party of Albania, as a party of Leninist type, inspired us during the National Liberation struggle and helped us in the construction of socialism.
Conversations with Stalin and his advice should have been guiding in our great and difficult work to consolidate the victories won.
From the very beginning, he created such a friendly atmosphere for us that we soon felt relief from the natural excitement that enveloped us at the entrance to his office - a spacious hall with a long meeting table next to his desk. A few minutes after the first words were said, we had the feeling that we did not talk with the great Stalin, but sat with a friend we knew before, with whom we spoke many times. Then I was still young and representative of a small party and a small country; therefore, in order to create as warm and friendly atmosphere for me as possible, Stalin joked and with love and great respect began to talk about our people, about its military traditions in the past and about its heroism in the National Liberation Struggle. He spoke quietly, calmly and with a peculiar, warming feeling.
Evaluating the correct policy that our party pursued with the masses in general, with the peasantry — in particular, Comrade Stalin gave us a number of valuable comradely advice about our future work. In addition to everything else, he expressed the idea that our Communist Party, since the percentage of communist peasants in its ranks is more significant, could be renamed the “Albanian Party of Labor”. “In any case,” he noted, “this is only my consideration, for it is you, this is your party that decides.”
The attention with which he listened to our explanations about our new economy and the ways of its development impressed us very much. As in the conversation about these problems, and in all the other conversations with him, I ran into the memory, among other things, one of his remarkable features: he never gave orders and did not impose his opinion. He spoke, advised, made various proposals, but always added: “This is my opinion,” “we think so. You, comrades, look and decide for yourself, based on your specific situation, depending on your conditions. ” He was interested in all the problems.
During the days of our stay in Moscow, after each meeting and conversation with Comrade Stalin, we saw even more and more closely in this outstanding revolutionary, in this great Marxist, also a simple, sensitive and wise man - a real person. He loved the Soviet people with all his heart, he devoted all his strength and energy to it, his mind and heart were full of them. These qualities could be noticed in any conversation with him, in any event that he conducted - from the most important to the most mundane.
A few days after our arrival in Moscow, I was present, together with Comrade Stalin and other leaders of the party and the Soviet state, at the All-Union Athletic Manifestation at the Central Stadium in Moscow. With what passion Stalin watched this event. For more than two hours he sat completely focused, watching the actions of the demonstration participants, and despite the fact that it was raining by the end of the demonstration and several times Molotov asked him to leave, he continued to follow the actions of the athletes, to joke and greet him with attention. I remember at the end of the exercises a massive cross took place. The runners ran around the stadium field several times. Meanwhile, as the competition ended, a lagging, lanky runner appeared before the podium. He barely moved his legs, his hands swayed now in front, then behind, and nevertheless he tried to run. He is the whole izmok to the last thread. Stalin looked at this runner with a smile that expressed regret and fatherly warmth:
- My dear, - he turned to him about himself, - go home, go home, rest a bit, eat and come again! There will be more running ...
After dinner, Comrade Stalin invited us to go to the Kremlin cinema, where, in addition to some film magazines, we watched the Soviet feature film "Tractor Driver". We sat down next to the sofa, and I was struck by the attention with which Stalin watched this new Soviet-made film. Often he spoke louder in his warm voice and commented on various moments from the events in the film. He especially liked how the protagonist, tractor tractor, to win the trust of his comrades and farmers, tried to better learn the customs and behavior of people from the field, their thoughts and aspirations. By working and living with people, this tractor driver could become a respected and respectable peasant leader. Stalin told us at that moment:
- To be able to lead, you need to know the masses, and to know it, you have to go to the masses.
So we spent several hours in such a warm, cordial and family atmosphere. Like me and all of our comrades, the behavior and features of the glorious Stalin, the man whose name and cause drove fear on his enemies — the imperialists, the fascists, the Trotskyists, the reactionaries of all stripes, while the communists, the proletarians, the peoples excited joy and delight, multiplying their strength and strengthening their faith in the future.
This time I spent the entire month of April in the Soviet Union.
A few days after this meeting, on April 6, I went to the “Bolshoi Theater” to listen to the new opera play “With all my heart”, which, as they explained to me before the play began, narrated about a new life in a collective farm village. That evening, Comrade Stalin came to listen to this opera, who was sitting in the seat of the first tier, next to the stage, while I was sitting in the seat of the second tier, on the other side of the stage, along with our comrades and the two Soviet comrades who accompanied us.
The next day I was told that Stalin severely criticized this opera, which had previously been praised to the skies by some critics of art, as a valuable musical creation.
I was later told that Comrade Stalin criticized this opera play for the fact that life in a collective farm village was biased and incorrectly reflected in it. Comrade Stalin said that the collective-farm life in this work was idealized, it was portrayed falsely, it did not reflect the struggle of the masses against various shortcomings and difficulties, and everything was covered with varnish and penetrated with the dangerous idea that “everything is going well”.
Later, this opera was criticized in the central party press, and I understood Stalin’s deep concern over the phenomena that carried the seeds of a great threat to the future.
From the unforgettable visits of those days, I also ran into a visit to Stalingrad, where, in particular, I visited Mamayev Kurgan. During the years of the anti-Hitler war, the soldiers of the Red Army with the name of Stalin in their mouths defended not just every inch, but every millimeter of this mound. Mamaev Kurgan was plowed by shells and repeatedly changed appearance due to the terrible bombardment. From the place, to the glorified Stalingrad battle covered with grass and flowers, it turned into piles of iron and steel, into a heap of tanks that rammed one another. I bent over and with awe gathered a handful of earth from this Kurgan, a symbol of the heroism of the Stalin warrior, and, returning to Albania, presented it to the museum of the National Liberation Struggle in Tirana.
From Mamayev Kurgan, in full view, one could see all of Stalingrad, in the midst of which the wide Volga River snaked. In this legendary city, on the basis of the Stalinist plan for the defeat of the Hitlerite hordes, Soviet soldiers wrote glorious pages, they defeated the Nazi aggressors and marked the beginning of a turning point in the entire Second World War. This city, which bears the name of the great Stalin, was incinerated, destroyed, all was turned into ruins, but did not surrender.
I now had a completely different look. The city destroyed by the war was rebuilt in an exceptionally short time. New multi-storey residential buildings, cultural institutions, schools, universities, cinemas, hospitals, modern factories and factories, new, wide and beautiful streets completely transformed the look of the city. The streets were green from young trees, parks and squares - full of flowers and children. I went to the tractor factory of this city and met with many workers. “... We love the Albanian people very much, and now, in peacetime, we also work for them,” a worker from this factory told me. “We will send even more tractors to the Albanian peasants, this is Stalin’s will and mandate.”
Everywhere we felt love and respect, in the spirit of which ordinary Soviet people were brought up by the great Stalin, beloved and unforgettable friend of the Albanian people and the Albanian Party of Labor.
So, this visit to the Soviet Union was completed, during which I lastly directly met the great Stalin, about whom, as I have said before, I will keep indelible memories and impressions for the rest of my life.
Material prepared by Comrade Mels
