Enver Hodja With Stalin

ON THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF JOSEPH STALIN

December 21 this year marks the centenary of the birth of Joseph Stalin, the much-beloved and outstanding leader of the proletariat of Russia and the world, the loyal friend of the Albanian people, and the dear friend of the oppressed peoples of the whole world fighting for freedom, independence, democracy and socialism. Stalin’s whole life was characterized by an unceasing fierce struggle against Russian capitalism, against world capitalism, against imperialism and against the anti-Marxist and anti-Leninist currents and trends which had placed themselves in the service of world reaction and capital. Beside Lenin and under his leadership, he was one of the inspirers and leaders of the Great October Socialist Revolution, an unflinching militant of the Bolshevik Party. After the death of Lenin, for 30 years on end. Stalin led the struggle for the triumph and defence of socialism in the Soviet Union. That is why there is great love and respect for Stalin and loyalty to him and his work in the hearts of the proletariat and the peoples of the world. That is also why the capitalist bourgeoisie and world reaction display never-ending hostility towards this loyal disciple and outstanding, resolute co-fighter of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Stalin earned his place among the great classics of Marxism-Leninism with his stern and principled struggle for the defence, consistent implementation and further development of the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin. With his keen mind and special ability, he was able to find his bearings even in the most difficult times, when the bourgeoisie and reaction were doing everything in their power to hinder the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The difficulties facing the Russian proletariat in the realization of its aspirations were immense, because capitalism reigned in Russia and the world. But capitalism had already produced its own grave-digger — the proletariat, the most revolutionary class which was to lead the revolution. This class was to fulfil its historic mission successfully, in merciless struggle against its enemies, and through this struggle, win its rights and freedoms, and take political power into its own hands. On this course, the proletariat was to wrest political and economic power from its oppressors and exploiters — the capitalist bourgeoisie, and build the new world. 

Marx and Engels created the proletarian science of the revolution and scientific socialism. They founded the International Workingmen’s Association, known as the First International. The fundamental principles of this first international association of workers were formulated in its Constitutional Manifesto, which defined the road of the proletariat for the liquidation of private ownership of the means of production, for the creation of the party of the proletariat to seize state power on the revolutionary road, as well as for the struggle the proletariat had to wage against capitalism and opportunism, which presented itself in different «theoretical» forms in different countries. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the brilliant continuer of the work of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, basing himself on their major works and defending them with rare mastery, waged the struggle against the trends of revisionists, opportunists, and other renegades. The traitors discarded the great banner of the First International and openly spurned the slogan of the Communist Manifesto: «Workers of all countries, unite!». Instead of opposing the imperialist war, these renegades from Marxism voted credits for it. Lenin wrote major works in defence and for the development of Marxism. In particular, he enriched the ideas of Marx and Engels on the construction of socialist and communist society.

Always bearing in mind the materialist development of history, as well as the conditions of the country and the epoch in which he was living, Lenin fought for the creation and consolidation of the Bolshevik Party. Vladimir Ilyich, together with the other bolsheviks, through an intensive revolutionary struggle within Russia and abroad, in the conditions of the decay of czarism and its army, prepared and launched the Great Proletarian Socialist Revolution. Lenin’s plan of genius for the triumph of the revolution was realized. After the Great Revolution, which shook the old world and opened up a new epoch in the history of mankind — the epoch of the liquidation of oppression and exploitation, was crowned with success, Lenin continued the struggle for the construction of the first socialist state. Lenin’s devoted collaborator, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, fought and worked together with him. It is understandable that the bourgeoisie could not fail to rise against the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin and their correct, resolute and unwavering actions in favour of the working class and the peoples, and it did so, without hesitation, savagely and consistently, never ceasing to aim its various weapons against them. This great, organized hostility of capitalism and the reactionary world bourgeoisie was confronted with the great, organized and invincible strength of the Russian proletariat in unity with the world proletariat. This confrontation was an expression of a fierce class struggle within and outside Russia, which was apparent during that whole period in the clashes with the interventionist forces and the remnants of czarism and Russian reaction. These enemies had to be fought mercilessly. The Bolshevik Party had to be tempered, the building of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the principal issue of the revolution, had to be completed and the foundations of the socialist economy laid in the course of this class struggle. Therefore, fundamental reforms had to be carried out in all sectors of life, but on a new course, in a new spirit, with a new purpose; Marx’s theory on philosophy, political economy and scientific socialism had to be applied in a creative manner and under the concrete conditions of czarist Russia. All these aims were to be realized under the leadership of the proletariat, as the most advanced and most revolutionary class, relying on its alliance with the poor and middle peasantry. After the creation of the new state power, a great and heroic struggle had to be waged to improve the economic and cultural life of the peoples liberated from the yoke of czarism and foreign capital of other European countries. In this titanic struggle, Stalin stood firm beside Lenin; he was a front-line fighter.

The more the new Soviet state became consolidated politically, the more industry developed in all its branches, the more the collective agriculture and the new socialist culture developed in the Soviet Union, the fiercer the resistance of the external enemies and local reaction became. The enemies intensified this struggle especially after the death of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Before the body of Lenin, Stalin pledged that he would loyally follow his teachings, would carry out his behests to keep the lofty title of the communist pure, to safeguard and strengthen the unity of the Bolshevik Party, to preserve and ceaselessly steel the dictatorship of the proletariat, to constantly strengthen the alliance of the working class with the peasantry, to remain loyal to the end to the principles of proletarian internationalism, to defend the first socialist state from the ambitions of the local bourgeois and landowner enemies and the external imperialist enemies, who wanted to destroy it, and to carry the construction of socialism through to the end in one sixth of the earth. Joseph Stalin kept his word. At the head of the Bolshevik Party he knew how to lead the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union and to make the great Homeland of the Russian proletariat and all the peoples of the Soviet Union a colossal base for the world revolution. He showed himself to be a worthy continuer of the work of Marx, Engels and Lenin, and gave brilliant proof that he was a great, clear-minded and resolute Marxist-Leninist. The enemies within the Soviet Union — the Trotskyites, Bukharinites, Zinovyevites and others, were closely linked with foreign capitalists, because they had become their tools. Some of them remained within the ranks of the Bolshevik Party in order to take the citadel from within, to disrupt the correct Marxist-Leninist line of this party with Stalin at the head, while some others operated outside the party but within the state, and in disguise or openly plotted to sabotage the construction of socialism. In these circumstances, Stalin persistently implemented one of Lenin’s main instructions about unhesitatingly purging the party of all opportunist elements, of any one who capitulates to the pressure of the bourgeoisie and imperialism and any view alien to Marxism-Leninism. The struggle Stalin waged at the head of the Bolshevik Party against the Trotskyites and Bukharinites was a direct continuation of the struggle waged by Lenin, a profoundly principled, salutary struggle, without which there would have been neither construction of socialism, nor any possibility of defending it. Joseph Stalin knew that the victories could be achieved and defended through efforts, sacrifices, through sweat and struggle. He never displayed ill-founded optimism over the victories that were achieved and was never pessimistic about the difficulties which emerged. On the contrary, Stalin was an exceptionally mature personality, prudent in his thoughts, decisions and actions. As the great man he was, Stalin was able to win the hearts of the party and people, to mobilize their energies, to temper the militants in battles, and uplift them politically and ideologically in order to carry out a great work, without precedent in history. The Stalin five-year plans for the development of the economy and culture transformed the world’s first socialist country into a big socialist power. Guided by the teaching of Lenin about giving priority to heavy industry in the socialist industrialization, the Bolshevik Party headed by Stalin equipped the country with a very powerful industry for the production of means of production, with a giant machine-building industry, capable of ensuring the rapid development of the entire people’s economy and all the necessary means, as well as an impregnable defence. As Stalin said, the socialist heavy industry was set up «relying on the internal forces, without enslaving credits and loans from abroad». Stalin had made it clear that in setting up its heavy industry, the Soviet state could not follow the road which the capitalist countries pursue, by taking loans from other countries or plundering other countries.

After the collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union a modern socialist agriculture was built up with the support of a powerful base of agricultural machinery produced by the socialist heavy industry, and thus the problem of grain and other principal agricultural and livestock products was solved. It was Stalin who elaborated Lenin’s cooperativist plan more thoroughly, who led the implementation of this plan in fierce struggle with the enemies of socialism, with the kulaks, the Bukharinite traitors, with the innumerable difficulties and obstacles which stemmed not only from enemy activity, but also from the lack of experience and from the feeling of private property which had deep roots in the consciousness of the peasants. The build-up of economic and cultural strength helped the consolidation of the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union. At the head of the Bolshevik Party, Stalin organized and ran the Soviet state in a masterly way, further perfected its functioning and, always on the Marxist-Leninist course, developed the structure and superstructure of society on the basis of the internal political situation and economic development, while never losing sight of the external situations, that is, the rapacious aims and the sinister intrigues concocted by the bourgeois-capitalist states in order to impede the construction of the new state of the proletarians.

World capitalism regarded the Soviet Union as its dangerous enemy, therefore from outside it endeavoured to isolate it, while it encouraged and organized the plots of renegades, spies, traitors and rightists from within. The dictatorship of the proletariat struck down these dangerous enemies without mercy. All the traitors were put on public trial. At that time, their guilt was proved most convincingly with incontrovertible evidence. The bourgeois propaganda raised a big fuss about the trials conducted in the Soviet Union on the basis of the revolutionary law against the Trotskyites, Bukharinites, the Radeks, Zinovyevs, Kamenyevs, Pyatakovs and Tukhachevskys. It stepped up and raised to a system its campaign of slander and denigration against the just struggle of the Soviet state, the Bolshevik Party and Stalin that defended the life of their peoples, defended the new socialist system built with the blood and sweat of the workers and peasants, defended the Great October Revolution and the purity of Marxism-Leninism. What slander did the external enemies not invent, especially against Joseph Stalin, the continuer of the work of Marx and Lenin, the talented leader of the Soviet Union, whom they accused of being a «bloody tyrant», and «murderer». All these slanders were remarkable for their cynicism. No, Stalin was no tyrant, no despot. He was a man of principle, he was just, modest and very kindly and considerate towards people, the cadres, and his colleagues. That is why his Party, the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the entire world proletariat loved him so much. This is how millions of communists and outstanding personalities, revolutionaries and progressive people throughout the world knew Stalin. In his book entitled «Stalin», Henri Barbusse says among other things: «He established and maintains links with the workers, peasants and intellectuals of the USSR, as well as with the revolutionaries of the world, who love their homeland — that is, with many more than 200 million people». He added, «This clear and enlightened person is an unpretentious man... He laughs like a child... From many aspects Stalin is very much like the extraordinary V. Ilyich: the same mastery of theory, the same practical sense, the same determination... More than in anyone else, in the person of Stalin one finds the thought and word of Lenin. He is the Lenin of today.» Consistent Marxist-Leninist revolutionary ideas run like a red thread through all Stalin’s thoughts and Works, whether written or applied in practice. No mistake of principle can be found in the works of this outstanding Marxist-Leninist. His work was well weighed up in the interests of the proletariat and the working masses, in the interests of the revolution, socialism and com­munism, in the interests of national liberation and anti-imperialist struggles. He was not eclectic in his theoretical and political opinions, nor was he vacillating in his practical actions. He who relied on the sincere friendship of Joseph Stalin was confident in his onward march towards a happy future for his people. He who deviated could not escape the keen vigilance and judgement of Joseph Stalin. This judgement had its roots in the great ideas of the Marxist-Leninist theory which had crystallized in his brilliant mind and pure soul. Throughout his whole lifetime he knew how to keep a firm hold on the helm and steer a correct course to socialism amongst the waves and storms created by enemies. Stalin knew when and to what extent compromises should be made provided they did not violate the Marxist-Leninist ideology, but on the contrary, were to the benefit of the revolution, socialism, the Soviet Union and the friends of the Soviet Union. The proletariat, the Marxist-Leninist parties, the genuine communists and all the progressive people in the world considered the salutary actions of the Bolshevik Party and Stalin in defence of the new socialist state and socio-economic order to be just, reasonable and necessary. The work of Stalin was approved by the world proletariat and the peoples, because they saw that he fought against the oppression and exploitation which they felt on their own backs. The peoples saw that the slanders against Stalin came precisely from those monsters who organized mass tortures and killings in capitalist society, those who were the cause of starvation, poverty, unemployment and so much misery, hence they did not believe these slanders. Millions of proletarians throughout the world rose against these enemies in big strikes and powerful demonstrations in the city streets, and attacked the factories and plants of the capitalists. The peoples rose in struggle against the colonizers to win their democratic freedoms and rights. These actions were, at the same time, an all-round international support for the Soviet Union and Stalin, which helped to strengthen the new state of the Soviets and enhance its great authority in the world. All the communists throughout the world who were fighting against world capitalism were called «agents» of the Soviet Union and Stalin by the bourgeoisie and the renegades from MarxismLeninism. But the communists were honest people, they were nobody’s agents, but were simply loyal supporters of the doctrine of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. They supported the Soviet Union because in its policy they saw their great support for the triumph of communist ideas, they saw a clear example of how they should develop their struggle and increase their efforts to win the battles one after the other, to defeat the enemies and rid themselves of the yoke of the power of capital and build the new, socialist social order. While world capitalism was growing weaker as an outdated order in decay, socialism in the Soviet Union was triumphing as the new order of the future and becoming an ever more powerful support for the world revolution. In these circumstances capitalism was absolutely compelled to employ all its means to strike a mortal blow at the great socialist state of the proletarians, which was showing the world the way to escape from exploitation, therefore the capitalists prepared and launched World War II. They raised, supported, incited and armed the Hitlerites for the «war against Bolshevism», against the Soviet Union, and to realize their dream of «living space» in the East. The Soviet Union understood the danger which threatened it. Stalin was vigilant, he knew full well that the slanders concocted against him by the international capitalist bourgeoisie, alleging that he was not fighting the rising nazism and fascism, were slogans to be expected from this bourgeoisie and the Hitlerite Fifth Column, in order to deceive world opinion and realize their plans for an attack on the Soviet Union. The 7th Congress of the Comintern, held in 1935, rightly described fascism as the greatest enemy of the peoples in the concrete circumstances of that time. On the direct initiative of Stalin, this Congress launched the slogan of the peoples’ anti-fascist united front, which should be created in every country with the aim of exposing the aggressive plans and predatory activity of the fascist states, so that the peoples would rise against these plans and this activity in order to avert a new imperialist war which was threatening the world. Never for any moment did Stalin lose sight of the danger threatening the Soviet Union. At all time he fought resolutely and gave clear-cut instructions that the party must be tempered for the coming battles, that the Soviet peoples must be united in a steel-like Marxist-Leninist unity, that the Soviet economy must be consolidated on the socialist road, that the defences of the Soviet Union must be strengthened with material means and cadres, and have a revolutionary strategy with revolutionary tactics. It was Stalin who showed and proved through facts from life itself, that the imperialists are warmongers and that imperialism is the bearer of predatory wars, therefore, he instructed that people must be continuously vigilant and always prepared to cope with any action by the Hitlerite nazis, the Italian fascists, and the Japanese militarists, together with the other capitalist world powers. Stalin’s word was prized above gold, it became a guide for the proletarians and the peoples of the world. Stalin proposed to the governments of the big capitalist powers of Western Europe that an alliance should be formed against the Hitlerite plague, but these governments rejected such a proposal, indeed they even violated the alliances they had previously signed with the Soviet Union, because they hoped the Hitlerites would eliminate the «seed of Bolshevism» and pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them. Faced with such an extremely serious and dangerous situation, and being unable to convince the government officials of the so-called western democracies to conclude a joint anti-fascist alliance, Stalin considered it appropriate to work so that war against the Soviet Union was postponed, in order to gain time to further strengthen its defences. To this end, he signed the non-aggression pact with Germany. This pact was to serve as a modus vivendi to stave off the danger temporarily, because Stalin saw the Hitlerite aggressiveness, and had made and was continuing to make preparations against it. Many bourgeois and revisionist politicians and historians allege that the Hitlerite aggression found the Soviet Union unprepared and for this lay the blame on Stalin! But the facts refute this slander. Everyone knows that Hitlerite Germany, as an aggressive state, violating the non-aggression pact in a piratical and perfidious manner, took advantage of strategic surprise and the numerical superiority of the huge force of about 200 divisions of its own and its allies, and threw them into a «blitzkrieg» by means of which, according to Hitler’s plans, the Soviet Union was to be overrun and conquered within not more than two months! But everyone knows what happened in reality. The «blitzkrieg», which had succeeded everywhere in Western Europe, failed in the East. Being very strong behind the lines, with the support of all the Soviet peoples, in its withdrawal the Red Army exhausted the enemy forces until it pinned them down, then it counter-attacked and smashed them with successive blows, until finally it forced Hitlerite Germany to surrender unconditionally. History has already recorded the decisive role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Hitlerite Germany and the annihilation of fascism in general in World War II. How could Hitler’s plan of «blitzkrieg» against the Soviet Union have been defeated and how could that country have played such a major role in saving mankind from fascist bondage without all-sided prior preparation for defence, without the steel strength and vitality of the socialist system which withstood its greatest and most difficult test in World War II? How can these victories be separated from the exceptionally great role played by Stalin, both in preparing the country to withstand the imperialist aggression, and in the rout of Hitlerite Germany and in the historic victory over fascism? Any diabolical attempt by the Khrushchevite revisionists to separate Stalin from the party and Soviet people in connection with the decisive role of the socialist state in this victory is smashed to smithereens in the face of the historic reality which no force can refute or diminish, let alone wipe out. The war of the Soviet peoples, with Stalin at the head, led to the liberation of a series of countries and peoples from nazi bondage, brought about the establishment of people’s democracy in several countries of Eastern Europe and gave a powerful impulse to the national liberation, antiimperialist and anti-colonialist struggles, so that the colonial system disintegrated and collapsed, and this created a new ratio of forces in the world in favour of socialism and the revolution. Khrushchev was so shameless as to accuse Stalin of being a person «shut away» from the reality, who allegedly did not know the situation in the Soviet Union and the world, who allegedly did not know where the forces of the Red Army were deployed and commanded them using a school globe as his map! Even such heads of world capitalism as Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman, Eden, Montgomery, Hopkins and others were obliged to recognize the incontestable merits of Stalin, although at the same time, they made no secret of their hostility towards the Marxist-Leninist policy and ideology and Stalin personally. I have read their memoirs and seen that these heads of capitalism speak with respect about Stalin as a statesman and military strategist, describe him as a great man «endowed with a remarkable sense of strategy», «with an unrivalled sharpness of mind in the rapid comprehension of problems». Churchill said about Stalin, «...I respect this great and brilliant man..., very few people in the world could have understood the problems over which we had been at a loss for months on end, like this, in so few minutes. He had grasped everything in a second». The Khrushchevites wanted to create the illusion that not Stalin, but they, had allegedly led the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against nazism! But the whole world knows that during that time they were sheltering under the shadow of Stalin to whom they sang hypocritical hymns of praise, saying: «We owe all our victories and successes to the great Stalin», etc., etc., at a time when they were preparing to blow up these victories. The genuine hymns, which came from the heart, were sung by the glorious Soviet soldiers who went into the historic battles with the name of Stalin on their lips. Although far from the Soviet Union, the Albanian communists and people felt the great role of Stalin very strongly and intimately, at the gravest moments our country experienced during the Italian and German fascist occupation, when the fate of our Homeland, whether it would remain in bondage or emerge into freedom and light, was decided. During the most difficult days of the war, Stalin was always beside us. He boosted our hopes, illuminated our perspective, steeled our hearts and will, and increased our confidence in victory. Many a time, the last words of the Albanian communists, patriots, and partisans who gave their lives on the battlefield or facing the enemy’s gallows, machine-gun or automatic rifle, were: «Long live the Communist Party!», «Long Live Stalin!». More than once it has occurred that in piercing the hearts of the sons and daughters of our people, the enemy’s bullets, at the same time, pierced the works of Stalin which they guarded in their bosoms as a much cherished treasure. Despite the open and disguised efforts of the internal and external enemies of the Soviet Union to sabotage socialism after World War II, the correctness of Stalin’s policy set the tone in major international problems. The war-devastated land of the Soviets, which lost 20 million people on the battlefields, was reconstructed with astounding rapidity. This great work was carried out by the Soviet people, the working class and the collective farm peasantry, led by the Bolshevik Party and the great Stalin.

In the years of World War II revisionism emerged with the betrayal of Browder, exgeneral secretary of the CP of the USA, who, together with his revisionist associates, dissolved the party and placed themselves in the service of American imperialism. Browder was for the liquidation of any demarcation line between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, between capitalism and socialism, for their merging in a single world, was against the revolution and civil war and for the peaceful co-existence of classes in society. We can say that with this «white line», with his capitulationist policy, Browder preceded Tito, who, because of his anti-Marxist and anti-Leninist views and stands, entered into ideological and political conflict with the Soviet Union at the time of the war, although this conflict broke out openly after the war. After many patient efforts to bring the renegade Tito into line, when they were convinced he was incorrigible, Stalin, the Bolshevik Party and all the other genuine communist parties of the world unanimously condemned him. It became obvious that the work of Tito was in the service of world imperialism, therefore he relied on and was supported by American imperialism and the other capitalist states. Joining the chorus of the bourgeois propaganda and in order to earn the credits he received from the imperialists, Tito, among other things, slandered that Stalin allegedly prepared the attack against Yugoslavia. Time proved that Tito was lying. In the different talks which I have had the great honour to hold with Stalin, he has told me that there never was and never could be any thought of the Soviet Union attacking Yugoslavia. We are communists, said Stalin, and will never attack any foreign country, hence, Yugoslavia either, but we shall expose Tito and the Titoites, because that is our duty as Marxists. Whether they keep Tito in power or overthrow him in Yugoslavia, this is an internal question which it is up to the peoples of Yugoslavia to settle, it is not up to us to interfere in this affair, he said. The Nikita Khrushchev gang was encouraged and supported in its slanders against Stalin by the renegade Josip Broz Tito, who had come out openly long before, and later by Mao Tsetung and company and other revisionists of various shades. In reality, all of them were minions of capitalism, set on destroying socialism in the Soviet Union from within, preventing socialism from being built in Yugoslavia, and hindering the construction of socialism in China and the whole world. That is why they opposed Stalin, in whom they saw the strong man, whom they were unable to put anything across while he was alive. These traitors were the successors to the socialdemocrat, revisionist, opportunist renegades of the Second International, the continuers of their inglorious work in other circumstances and conditions. They claimed that they were applying organizational forms of struggle «appropriate» to the situation and working out allegedly new ideas to «correct» and «complement» Marxism-Leninism in accord with the «spirit of the time», etc. Irrespective of any formal differences they manifested in their opinions and attitudes, all this scum had the one aim: to combat Marxism-Leninism, to negate the absolute necessity of the proletarian revolution, to destroy socialism, to quell the class struggle and prevent the overthrow of the old capitalist society to its very foundations. Stalin was a genuine internationalist. He took good account of the special feature that the Soviet state was created by the union of many republics which were composed of many peoples, many nationalities, therefore he perfected the state organization of these republics while respecting their equal rights. With the correct MarxistLeninist policy he pursued on the national question, Stalin succeeded in moulding and tempering the militant unity of the different peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. While at the head of the party and Soviet state, he made his contribution to transforming the prison of the peoples — the old czarist Russia, into a free, independent and sovereign country, where the peoples and the republics lived in harmony, friendship, and unity with equal rights. Stalin knew the nations and their historical formation, he knew the different characteristics of the culture and psychology of each people and handled them in the Marxist-Leninist way. The internationalism of Joseph Stalin is clearly apparent also in the relations that were established among the countries of people’s democracy which he considered free, independent, sovereign states, close allies of the Soviet Union. He never envisaged these states as dominated by the Soviet Union, either politically or economically. This was a correct Marxist-Leninist policy which Stalin followed. In my memoirs I have written of the request I made to Joseph Stalin in 1947 in regard to the creation of some joint Albanian-Soviet companies, which were to utilize our underground wealth. He told me that they did not set up joint companies with the fraternal countries of people’s democracy, and explained to me that even some step which had been taken at first in this direction with some country of people’s democracy, they had considered mistaken and given up. It is our duty, continued Stalin, to provide the countries of people’s democracy with the technology we possess and the economic aid we are able to give, and we shall always be ready to support them. This is what Stalin thought and that is how he acted. The Khrushchevites, on the contrary, did not follow such a course. They embarked on the road of cunning capitalist collaboration, creating a military, political and economic «unity» with the former countries of people’s democracy in their own interests and to the detriment of others. They transformed the Warsaw Treaty into an instrument to keep their new colonies in bondage, in forms and ways allegedly socialist. They transformed Comecon from an organization of mutual economic aid, which it was in the time of Stalin, into a means of control and exploitation of its member countries. Thus the policy of Joseph Stalin on all the major political, ideological and economic problems was one thing, while the policy of the Khrushchevite and other modern revisionists is quite another thing. Stalin’s policy was principled and internationalist, while that of the Soviet revisionists is a capitalist policy, enslaving for the other peoples who have fallen or are falling into their trap. The imperialists, Tito, the Khrushchevites and all other enemies accused Stalin, alleging that after World War II he divided up the spheres of influence in agreement with the former anti-fascist allies — the United States of America and Great Britain. Time has consigned this accusation to the rubbish bin, just as it did with all the rest. After World War II, Stalin defended with exemplary justice the peoples, their national liberation struggle and their national and social rights against the greed of his former allies in the antifascist war. The enemies of communism, ranging from international bourgeois reaction down to the Khrushchevites and all the other revisionists, have striven with every means to blacken and distort all the virtues, pure thoughts and just actions of this great Marxist-Leninist, and to discredit the first socialist state set up by Lenin and Stalin. With great cunning the Khrushchevites, these new disciples of Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev and Tukhachevsky, incited conceit and the feeling of superiority in those who had taken part in the war. They encouraged privileges for the elite, opened the way to bureaucracy and liberalism in the party and the state, violated the true revolutionary norms, and gradually managed to implant the defeatist spirit among the people. They presented all the evils of their activity as if they were brought about by the «stern and sectarian stand, the method and style of work» of Stalin. This diabolical deed of those who cast the stone and hid the hand, served to deceive the working class, the collective farm peasantry and the intellectuals and to set in motion all the dissident elements who had remained concealed until that time. Dissident, career-seeking and degenerate elements were told that the time of «genuine freedom» had come for them, and this «freedom» was brought about by Nikita Khrushchev and his group. This is how the ground was prepared for the destruction of socialism in the Soviet Union, for the overthrow of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the establishment of a state of the «entire people» which in fact would be nothing but a dictatorial state of the fascist type, as it is now. All this villainy emerged soon after the death, or to be more precise, after the murder of Stalin. I say after the murder of Stalin, because Mikoyan himself told me and Comrade Mehmet Shehu that they, together with Khrushchev and their associates. had decided to carry out a «pokushenie», i. e., to make an attempt on Stalin’s life, but later, as Mikoyan told us, they gave up this plan. It is a known fact that the Khrushchevites could hardly wait for Stalin to die. The circumstances of his death are not clear. An unsolved enigma in this direction is the question of the «white smocks», the trial conducted against the Kremlin doctors, who, as long as Stalin was alive were accused of having attempted to kill many leaders of the Soviet Union. After Stalin’s death these doctors were rehabilitated and no more was said about this question! But why was this question hushed up?! Was the criminal activity of these doctors proved at the time of the trial, or not? The question of the doctors was hushed up, because had it been investigated later, had it been gone into thoroughly, it would have brought to light a great deal of dirty linen, many crimes and plots that the concealed revisionists, with Khrushchev and Mikoyan at the head, had been perpetrating. This could be the explanation also for the sudden deaths within a very short time, of Gottwald, Bierut, Foster, Dimitrov and some others, all from curable illnesses, about which I have written in my unpublished memoirs, «The Khrushchevites and Us». This could prove to be the true reason for the sudden death of Stalin, too. In order to attain their vile aims and to carry out their plans for the struggle against MarxismLeninism and socialism, Khrushchev and his group liquidated many of the main leaders of the Comintern, one after the other, by silent and mysterious methods. Apart from others, they also attacked and discredited Rakosi, dismissed him from his post and interned him deep in the interior of the steppes of Russia, in this way. In the «secret» report delivered at their 20th Congress, Nikita Khrushchev and his associates threw mud at Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin and tried to defile him in the filthiest manner, resorting to the most cynical Trotskyite methods. After compromising some of the cadres of the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Khrushchevites exploited them thoroughly and then kicked them out and liquidated them as anti-party elements. The Khrushchevites headed by Khrushchev, who condemned the cult of Stalin in order to cover up their subsequent crimes against the Soviet Union and socialism, raised the cult of Khrushchev sky-high. Those top functionaries of the party and Soviet state attributed to Stalin the brutality, cunning perfidy and baseness of character, the imprisonments and murders which they themselves practised and which were second nature to them. As long as Stalin was alive it was precisely they who sang hymns of praise to him in order to cover up their careerism and their underhand aims and actions. In 1949 Khrushchev described Stalin as the «leader and teacher of genius», and said that «the name of Comrade Stalin is the banner of all the victories of the Soviet people, the banner of the struggle of the working people the world over». Mikoyan described the Works of Stalin as a «new, higher historical stage of Leninism». Kosygin said, «We owe all our victories and successes to the great Stalin», etc., etc. While after his death they behaved quite differently. It was the Khrushchevites who strangled the voice of the party, strangled the voice of the working class and filled the concentration camps with patriots; it was they who released the dregs of treachery from prison, the Trotskyites and all the enemies, whom time and the facts had proved and have proved again now with their struggle as dissidents to be opponents of socialism and agents in the service of foreign capitalist enemies. It is the Khrushchevites who, in conspiratorial and mysterious ways, «tried» and condemned not only the Soviet revolutionaries but also many persons from other countries. In my notes I have written of a meeting with the Soviet leaders, at which Khrushchev, Mikoyan, Molotov and some others were present. As Mikoyan was to go to Austria, Molotov turned to him and said halfjokingly: «Be careful not to make a ’mess’ in Austria, as you did in Hungary». I immediately asked Molotov: «Why, was it Mikoyan who made the ’mess’ in Hungary?» He replied: «Yes», and went on to say, «if Mikoyan goes back there again, they will hang him». Mikoyan, this covert anti-Marxist cosmopolitan answered: «If they hang me, they will hang Kadar, too». But even if those two were hanged, intrigues and villainy still remain immoral. Khrushchev, Mikoyan and Suslov first defended the conspirator Imre Nagy, and then condemned and executed him secretly somewhere in Rumania! Who gave them the right to act in that way with a foreign citizen? Although he was a conspirator, he should have been subject only to trial in his own country and not to any foreign law, court or punishment. Stalin never did such things. No, Stalin never acted in that way. He con­ducted public trials against the traitors to the party and Soviet state. The party and the Soviet peoples were told openly of the crimes they had committed. You never find in Stalin’s actions such Mafia-like methods as you find in the actions of the Soviet revisionist chiefs. The Soviet revisionists have used and are still using such methods against one another in their struggle for power, just as in every capitalist country. Khrushchev seized power through a putsch, and Brezhnev toppled him from the throne with a putsch. Brezhnev and company got rid of Khrushchev to protect the revisionist policy and ideology from the discredit and exposure resulting from his crazy behaviour and actions and embarrassing buffoonery. He did not in any way reject Khrushchevism, the reports and decisions of the 20th and 22nd Congresses in which Khrushchevism is embodied. Brezhnev showed himself to be so ungrateful to Khrushchev, whom he had previously lauded so high, that he could not even find a hole in the wall of the Kremlin to put his ashes when he died! Meanwhile, neither the Soviet peoples, nor world opinion have ever been informed of the real reasons for Khrushchev’s downfall. Even to this day, the «main reason» provided by the revisionist documents is «his advanced age and deteriorating state of health»!! Stalin was not at all what the enemies of com­munism accused and accuse him of being. On the contrary, he was just and a man of principle. He knew how to help and combat those who made mistakes, knew how to support, encourage and point out the special merits of those who served Marxism-Leninism loyally, as the occasion required. The question of Rokossovsky and that of Zhukov are now well known. When Rokossovsky and Zhukov made mistakes they were criticized and discharged from their posts. But they were not cast off as incorrigible. On the contrary, they were warmly assisted and the moment it was considered that these cadres had corrected themselves, Stalin elevated them to responsible positions, promoted them marshals and at the time of the Great Patriotic War charged them with extremely important duties on the main fronts of the war against the Hitlerite invaders. Only a leader who had a clear concept of and applied MarxistLeninist justice in evaluating the work of people, with their good points and errors, could have acted as Stalin did. Following Stalin’s death, Marshal Zhukov became a tool of Nikita Khrushchev and his group; he supported the treacherous activity of Khrushchev against the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik Party and Stalin. Eventually, Nikita Khrushchev tossed Zhukov away like a squeezed lemon. He did the same with Rokossovsky and many other main cadres.

Many Soviet communists were deceived by the demagogy of the Krushchevite revisionist group and thought that after Stalin’s death the Soviet Union would become a real paradise, as the revisionist traitors started to trumpet. They declared with great pomp that in 1980 communism would be established in the Soviet Union!! But what happened? The opposite, and it could not be otherwise. The revisionists seized power not to make the Soviet Union prosper, but to turn it back into a capitalist country, as they did, to make it economically subject to world capital, to form secret and open agreements with American imperialism, to subjugate the peoples of the countries of people’s democracy under the guise of military and economic treaties, to keep these states in bondage, to create markets and spheres of influence in the world. Such were the Khrushchevites who exploited the successful construction of socialism in the Soviet Union, and turned these successes on to such a retrograde course that they created a new class of the social-imperialist bourgeoisie to make the Soviet Union an imperialist world power which, together with the United States of America, would rule the world. Stalin had forewarned the party of this danger. Khrushchev himself admitted to us that Stalin had said to them that they would sell out the Soviet Union to imperialism. And this is what happened in fact. What he said has proved true.

In the existing situation the peoples of the world, the world proletariat, logical people with pure hearts, can judge for themselves the correctness of Stalin’s stands. But people can judge the correctness of his Marxist-Leninist line only in a broad political, ideological, economic and military panorama. Up till yesterday, the bourgeoisie and the revisionists, falsifying history through their propaganda, have blackened Stalin’s activity in people’s minds, but now that people are clear about what the Khrushchevites, Titoites, Maoists, the «Eurocommunists» and others are, and what the Hitlerites were, what the American imperialists and world capitalism are, they know why Stalin fought, why the Bolsheviks fought, why the proletarians and true Marxist-Leninists are fighting, and what their enemies, the currents and trends in the service of capitalism and the revisionists fight for. Those who think that communism has «failed» always have been and will surely be disappointed. Time is proving every day that our doctrine is alive and omnipotent. Any person who assesses Stalin’s work as a whole can understand that the genius and communist spirit of this outstanding personality are rare in the modern world. The great cause of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, the cause of socialism and communism, is the future of the world.

We Albanian communists have successfully applied the teachings of Stalin, in the first place, in order to have a strong steel-like Party, always loyal to Marxism-Leninism, stern against the class enemies, and have taken great care to preserve the unity of thought and action in the Party and to strengthen the unity of the Party with the people. We have followed Stalin’s teachings on the construction of socialist industry and the collectivization of agriculture, and have scored major successes. Our Party and people will fight for the constant strengthening of the close alliance of the working class with the peasantry under the leadership of the working class. We will never be deceived by the flattery and tricks of enemies, whether internal or external, but will continue the class struggle, both internally and externally, and will always be vigilant towards their evil activity. Otherwise, if we had not proved vigilant, if we had not applied the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin faithfully, Albania would have sunk into the mire of modern revisionism, would no longer be independent and socialist, and we would no longer have the dictatorship of the proletariat, but slavery to the imperialist-revisionist powers. Our Party and people will continue the road of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin and Joseph Stalin. The future genera­ tions of socialist Albania will loyally follow the line of their beloved Party. The Albanians, communists and non-party patriots, bow in respect to the memory of the glorious teacher, Joseph Stalin. On the occasion of the centenary of his birth, we remember with devotion the man who helped us, who enabled us to multiply the forces of our people whom the Party made the all-powerful masters of their own destiny. For the deed of the liberation and the construction of socialism in our country also we are indebted to the internationalist aid of Stalin. His rich and very valuable experience has guided us on our road and in our activity. In this jubilee year, our Party is engaged in continuous wide-ranging activity to make the glorious life and work of the great Marxist-Leninist Joseph Stalin even better known. All the activity of our Party, from its founding to the present day, testifies to its love and respect for and loyalty to the immortal doctrine of our great classics, and hence to the ideas of Joseph Stalin. And so it will be in our country, generation after generation. I, as a militant of the Party, as one of its leaders, whom the Party has honoured by sending me several times to meet Comrade Stalin, to talk v/ith him about our problems, our situation and to seek his advice and help, have tried to record my recollections of these meetings at the proper time, just as I have felt and seen the behaviour of Stalin towards the representative of a small party and people like ours. In making these simple memoirs available for publication, I proceeded from the desire to help our communists, working people and youth become acquainted with the figure of that great and immortal man. In this glorious anniversary, I bow in devotion and loyalty to the Party and the people that gave birth to me, raised me and tempered me, and to Joseph Stalin who has given me such valuable advice for the happiness of my people and left indelible memories in my heart and mind. For us Marxist-Leninists and the innumerable sympathizers with the lofty ideals of the working class throughout the world, this centenary must serve to strengthen the fighting unity of our ranks. Now, the commemoration of this great jubilee of Stalin’s birth is the time for profound reflection by honest people everywhere in the world to find the correct road, to dispel from their minds the fog created by the capitalist bourgeoisie, the revisionist bourgeoisie, with the aim of paralysing the revolutionary drive and the revolutionary thought of the masses. Revolutionary thought and action will lead the men of good will, the just men, the men of the people, on to the road of their escape from the yoke of capital. 

In commemorating Stalin and his work on the centenary of his birth, we Marxist-Leninists cannot fail to address ourselves directly to the peoples of the Soviet Union to tell them in the most frank and sincere manner: You, who fought and triumphed over the most dangerous enemies of humanity with the name of Stalin on your lips, what are you going to do, are you going to remain silent on the occasion of this great jubilee? Since they cannot conceal the name and brilliant work of Stalin, the Khrushchevite revisionists, who left nothing unsaid against him, may write some few feeble words about him. But it is up to you, who carried out the Great October Revolution, to remember your brilliant leader with profound respect. You must destroy the dictatorial fascist regime which is hidden behind deceptive slogans. You must know that those who are leading you are fascists, chauvinists and imperialists. They are preparing you as cannon fodder for a fierce imperialist war, to kill the peoples and burn and devastate countries which had great hopes in the Homeland of Lenin and Stalin. This is not what the peoples of the world want you to be. If you go on like this, they can no longer respect you, but will hate you. The peoples of the world hate your present counterrevolutionary leaders, because the atomic weapons they are producing, the parades in Red Square and the military manoeuvres they are organizing, have become threatening to the peoples and their freedom, just like those of American imperialism and world capitalism. The weapons and the army in the Soviet Union are no longer in the hands of the Soviet peoples and do not serve the liberation of the world proletariat. On the contrary, they are intended to oppress the Soviet and other peoples. You must understand and realize that the enemies have long since turned you from the road of the revolution. The Khrushchevite revisionists are seeking to arouse in you feelings of superiority and domination over others. They claim they are using your great strength allegedly to combat American imperialism and world capitalism, but this is false. Your rulers are in contradiction and alliance with American imperialism and world capitalism, not in the interests of the revolution, but because of their imperialist ambitions and greed for the division of spheres of influence and domination over the peoples. The peoples of the world are worried whether you, the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of those glorious fighters who carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution, you, the Soviet proletarians, collective farmers, soldiers and intellectuals, will proceed on this course hostile to the peoples, on to which those who rule you have led you, or will rise and fight on the revolution-ary road with the names of Lenin and Stalin on your lips. The hope and desire of the world is that you will take the road of the revolution and march forward, shouting like your forbears: «za Lenina!», «za Stalina!»*, for genuine socialism and against imperialism, social-imperialism and revisionism. The traitor leadership does not inform you correctly about the sufferings of other peoples who are being killed in the streets in demonstrations against the blood-thirsty capitalists and imperialists. They do not tell you the truth about why the people in Iran, thirsting for freedom and independence, rise to their feet and topple the tyrannical Shah, the tool of the American imperialists. The Khrushchevite revisionist clique keep you in the dark about the sufferings of the Arab peoples, the peoples of the American continent and all the continents of the world, because it is imperialism and your treacherous leaders who inflict these sufferings on them. They tell you nothing about how they oppress the peoples of Africa, using your men and their vassals, you do not know about the intrigues the new Czars of the Kremlin hatch up in the world, you are not told that the friends of the Khrushchevites, the friends of your leadership to whom Nikita Khrushchev and his followers, headed by Brezhnev, opened the road of betrayal, are making common cause with the capitalists to the detriment of the working class and the interests of their peoples. You don’t know many things about the sufferings and persecution of honest people in your country, because the present gang which oppresses you is silent about such things. You must know that the peoples have risen in revolution, that they are fighting heroically, while you, who constitute a great force, allow your traitor leaders to oppress you, delude you and put you to sleep. A gang of overlords has turned your country into a social-imperialist power. The road to salvation is that of the revolution which Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin have taught us. The Brezhnevs, Kosygins, Ustinovs and Yakubovskys, like the Solzhenitsyns and Sakharovs, are counterrevolutionaries and as such must be overthrown and liquidated. You are a great power, but you have to regain the trust of the world proletariat, the trust of the peoples of the world, that great trust that Lenin and Stalin created through work and struggle. You must not delay reflecting deeply about your future and that of mankind. The time has come for you to become what you were when Lenin and Stalin were alive — glorious participants in the proletarian revolution. Therefore, you must not remain under the yoke of enemies of the revolution and the peoples, enemies of the freedom and independence of states. You must never allow yourselves to become tools of an imperialism which is seeking to enslave the peoples, using Leninism as a mask. If you follow the road of the revolution and Marxism-Leninism, if you link yourselves closely with the world proletariat, then American imperialism and the decaying capitalism in general will be shaken to their very foundations, the face of the world will be changed and socialism will triumph.

 You, the Soviet peoples, Soviet workers, collective farmers and soldiers, have great responsibilities and duties to mankind. You can perform these duties honourably by refusing to tolerate the domination of the barbarous clique which now prevails over the once glorious Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Stalin and over you. In your country the party is no longer a Marxist-Leninist party. You must build a new party of the Lenin-Stalin type through struggle. You must understand that the Soviet Union is no longer a union of peoples for freedom, in full harmony with one another. It was Bolshevism which succeeded in creating the fraternal unity of the peoples of the Soviet Union. Revisionism has done the opposite: it has split the peoples of your country, has aroused chauvinism in every republic, has incited hostility amongst them, has aroused the hatred of other peoples against the Russian people, who were the vanguard in the revolution under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin. Will you go on allowing yourselves to be downtrodden? Will you go on allowing the deepening of the process of bourgeois degeneration in all fields of life in your country, as the revisionists are doing? Will you accept the yoke of a new capital, under the cloak of a false socialism? We Albanian communists and people, like all the communists and freedom-loving peoples of the world, have loved the true socialist Soviet Union of the time of Lenin and Stalin. We resolutely follow the road of Lenin and Stalin and have faith in the great revolutionary strength of the Soviet peoples, the Soviet proletariat, and that is why we are convinced that this strength will gradually express itself, through struggle and sacrifices, will be built up to the level the time demands and will smash Soviet social-imperialism to its very foundations. The revolution and sacrifices you will make will not weaken your country but will revive the true socialist Soviet Union. They will overthrow the socialimperialist dictatorship and the Soviet Union will emerge from this stronger than ever. In this glorious work you will have the support of all the peoples of the world and the world proletariat. 

The strength of the ideas of socialism and communism is based on this revolutionary overthrow and not on the empty words and underhand actions of the clique ruling you. Only in this way, proceeding on this course, will the genuine communists, the Marxist-Leninists everywhere in the world, be able to defeat imperialism and world capitalism. They will assist the peoples of the world to liberate themselves, one after the other, will assist great China to set out on the genuine road to socialism and not become a superpower so that it, too, can rule the world, by transforming itself into a third partner in the predatory wars which American imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism and the clique of Hua Kuo-feng and Teng Hsiao-ping which is ruling in China at present, are preparing. In this glorious jubilee, we Albanian communists, as loyal pupils of Lenin and Stalin and soldiers of the revolution, remind you to think over these problems, vital to you and the world, because we are your brothers, your comrades in the cause of the proletarian revolution and the liberation of the peoples. If you follow the road of the predatory, imperialist war, on which your renegade leaders are taking you, then, without doubt, we shall remain enemies of your system and your counterrevolutionary actions. This is as clear as the light of the day. It cannot be otherwise. When we are convinced that we are acting correctly, we Albanian communists, linked with our people like flesh to bone, do not heave to in the face of even the fiercest storm. And we are convinced that we shall weather any storm, just as the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet power did, just as the great Captains of the revolution, Lenin and Stalin, weathered them.