AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION

Published in the Zëri i Popullit daily,

organ of the CC of the Party of Labor of Albania,

on October 5, 1964 

Dear Comrades, 

A grave situation has been created in the international communist and workers' movement, the Soviet Union, the socialist camp, the communist parties. The cause for which the communists and proletarians of the whole world have fought heroically, risking their very lives, the cause of socialism and of communism, is facing a great danger, is passing through one of the most difficult periods of its history. Open revisionism, complete division, betrayal and degeneration are threatening them today more than at any other time. 

The originators and principal culprits for this grave situation are the Khrushchev group. After having usurped the leadership of the glorious party set up by the great Lenin, and of the first and most powerful socialist state in the world, the Soviet Union, by putchist and conspiratorial methods, this group have now embarked on the greatest betrayal of Marxism-Leninism and the cause of socialism, have now become the principal bearers and disseminators of the opportunist and revisionist trend that is eroding the international communist and workers' movement today, and which has undermined the very foundations of its unity. 

The Party of Labor of Albania and other Marxist-Leninist parties have time and again urged the leadership of your party, with N. Khrushchev at the head, to give up the line of revisionism and disruption, to courageously reexamine their position, and return to the road of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, to condemn their own chauvinistic attitudes and hostile activities towards sister parties and fraternal socialist countries, and to reestablish relations of friendship and proletarian solidarity with them. 

Even since the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when N. Khrushchev launched his vilest public attacks and most monstrous slanders against the Party of Labor of Albania and its leadership, our party has called on the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to reexamine their line and to return to the right road. <<The Party of Labor of Albania>>, said Comrade Enver Hoxha, in his address to the solemn meeting on November 7, 1961, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Party of Labor of Albania and the 44th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, <<calmly, and with a clear conscience, appeals to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, appeals to its Central Committee newly elected by the 22nd Congress, to judge the situation created in the relations between our two parties and our two countries with Leninist justice, objectively, without heat and anger or in a biased way. Our Party has always been ready to settle the existing differences, for the sake of the unity of the communist movement and the socialist camp, and in the interests of our two countries. But it has always been and remains of the opinion that these matters must be settled correctly and only in a Marxist-Leninist way, under conditions of equality and not of pressure and dictate. We have hope and faith in the justice of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union>>.[*] 

As late as April 1963 in an article published in the organs of its Central Committee, <<Zëri i Popullit>> our Party emphasised: <<If N. Khrushchev is in favor of the settlement of differences and consolidation of unity, he should show this by deeds, should take real and not fictitious steps, to remove all the obstacles he has created in the relations between our two parties and our two countries. Just as he dared to attack our Party and our country in a slanderous way, to interfere in our internal affairs, and to undertake hostile activities against us, he should take the courage to publicly denounce these anti-Marxist stands and acts and return to rigorous respect for the internationalist norms of relations between communist and workers' parties and between socialist countries>>. We would welcome any sincere step in this direction. 

However the Khrushchev group not only failed to listen to the voice of reason, and scorned the comradely advice of our party and the other fraternal parties, but they persisted with even more vehemence in their course of betrayal, increased their assaults and hostile acts against our party, against the Communist Party of China and other fraternal parties, against Marxism-Leninism, against the unity of the socialist camp and the communist movement. Events and facts have proved indisputably that N. Khrushchev is a conscious traitor and enemy, determined to pursue his counter-revolutionary line to the end.  * [Transcriber's Note: See "Speech Delivered at the Tirana Festive Meeting Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Founding of the Party of Labor of Albania and the 44th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution on November 7, 1961 (Excerpts)". -- DJR] 

Their recent arbitrary decision to call an illegal special meeting of the parties that follow on their footsteps is another great plot that testified most clearly that the Khrushchev group are the greatest splitters that the history of the international communist movement has ever known. N. Khrushchev is trying to drag as many parties as he can into this new anti-communist plot which is intended to sanction the full and open splitting of the socialist camp and the communist movement. In connection with this he has sent a letter to all parties, and through them to our party as well, informing them that he has decided to call a meeting of the editorial commission on December 15 this year, and the international meeting of the communist and workers' parties towards the middle of the coming year. In this letter our party is invited to send its delegation to Moscow to take part in the work of the editorial commission and to announce the composition of this delegation as early as possible. 

Taking into account that the Khrushchev group has completely and incorrigibly betrayed the cause of Marxism-Leninism and socialism, and that all efforts and hopes of bringing them back to the right way have totally failed, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, has decided not to reply to their letter of July 30, 1964. The Party of Labor of Albania has no more to do with N. Khrushchev's group of renegades. 

On this occasion, and under these circumstances, the Party of Labor of Albania has decided to address this open letter to you, members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, pioneers of the great cause of communism, for whom we have always had a profound respect and affection. In this letter we want to tell you with open hearts and fraternal sincerity that truth which N. Khrushchev has hidden from you for years on end. He has deceived you and continues to do so. He has denied you any right to acquaint yourselves with the materials of our party, of the Communist Party of China, and of other Marxist-Leninist parties. 

The Party of Labor of Albania is addressing itself to you, for it is of the opinion that in this situation your responsibility and role are of historic significance. It is up to you to say your word. We have faith in you. In the Soviet Union no one else but you can call a halt to N. Khrushchev's revisionist line of action. You are the only force which can save the Soviet Union, the Fatherland of the Great October Revolution, and the glorious Party of the Bolsheviks from the blind alley into which N. Khrushchev has led it, you must defend Marxism-Leninism, the honor and dignity of the Soviet Union and raise aloft the revolutionary banner of your party which N. Khrushchev has sullied with disgrace. 

Dear Comrades, 

The Khrushchev group are making a great fuss about the so-called international meeting of the communist and workers' parties. They are trying to persuade you and all the communists of the world that allegedly this meeting is necessary, that allegedly it will help to settle differences and consolidate the unity of the socialist camp and the communist movement. This is a big fraud, a bluff, a dangerous maneuver. 

In fact this meeting by no means helps the cause of Marxist-Leninist unity, either as to the way it is being prepared or as to its political platform. Its aim is to undermine unity, to completely split the communist movement, to consolidate the shaky position of revisionism, to intensify the struggle against Marxism-Leninism, in this way carrying out the greatest service for the imperialist bourgeoisie. 

The Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania declares that the Party of Labor of Albania is firmly opposed to this disruptive meeting of the modern revisionists, and categorically denounces this new plot of the Khrushchevite clique. 

For what reason does the Party of Labor refuse to take part in this meeting and why does it condemn it? 

First, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania is convinced that the hasty calling of the meeting of the communist and workers' parties under the present conditions and circumstances, when deep divergences on basic strategic issues exist in the international communist movement between Marxist-Leninists and revisionists, about which a great polemic is being carried on, is not in the interests af settling differences and of consolidating unity on a sound Marxist-Leninist basis, is by no means the <<most effective>> way of strengthening the solidarity of the communist movement, but, on the contrary, is the way to completely undermine it. 

Through their views and deeds the modern revisionists have made the existing differences increasingly sharper and deeper, have constantly undermined unity, have plunged themselves deeper and deeper into the mire of betrayal and disruption. With all this they have made the calling of the international meeting of the communist and workers' parties even more difficult, they have postponed it even further. Greater efforts and a longer time are now required to prepare the necessary conditions for the calling of a meeting that would truly serve the Marxist-Leninist unity of the socialist camp and the communist movement. 

Second, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania declares that the meeting which is now being called on the initiative of the N. Khrushchev group is absolutely arbitrary and illegal, since the norms and principles sanctioned in the 1960 Moscow Declaration governing relations between parties have been brutally violated. No one is entitled to call a general meeting of the communist and workers' parties to suit his whims without consulting the other parties and receiving their prior consent. We publicly declare that no preliminary consultation on this matter has taken place with the Party of Labor of Albania. 

N. Khrushchev has quite arbitrarily decided that the principle sanctioned in the Moscow meeting of 1960 of arriving at unification of views through equal and comradely consultations, should be replaced with the principle of subjecting the minority to the majority. The Party of Labor of Albania has always opposed such a principle because this is a flagrant violation of the equality and independence of fraternal parties, an attempt to impose the will of the so-called majority on others. But even if we speak of majorities, the real and not the false and fictitious majority, is by no means on the side of the revisionists. A considerable number of sister parties whose ranks contain about half the communists of the entire world, are quite definitely opposed to the calling of the international communist movement under the present conditions and circumstances without reckoning here a whole army of revolutionary communists enrolled in the parties of other countries where the leaders have slipped into the revisionist position, and who also condemn the splitting and treacherous activities of N. Khrushchev. 

Third, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania declares that by organizing the so-called international meeting in a hasty, arbitrary and illegal manner, the Khrushchev group are in fact trying to organize a meeting of factionists. This is clearly evident in the July 30 letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which runs: <<In our opinion the Commission should start its work even if any of the 26 Communist Parties fails to send its delegation at the appointed time>>. And the letter continues: <<The refusal of this or that party to take part in this collective work must not serve as a justification for further postponement of measures aimed at working out the ways and methods of consolidating the internationalist unity of the Marxist-Leninists of the whole world>>. 

Thus it is clear that N. Khrushchev has made up his mind to convene the meeting even without the participation of the representatives of many parties which have already expressed their opposition to an international meeting under the present conditions and circumstances. This means that the meeting which is being called now will only be a meeting of the leaders of a few parties and mainly of those who follow N. Khrushchev, a meeting of revisionists. And this fact alone refutes all N. Khrushchev's demagogy about alleged unity and solidarity and lays bare his anti-Marxist and divisive aims. 

Now it is becoming clear to all that by hastily convening the so-called international meeting of the communist and workers' parties the Khrushchev group are aiming to achieve two main objectives. On one hand, to intensify their fight against Marxism-Leninism, to condemn certain socialist countries and certain communist parties, and <<to expel>> them from the socialist camp and the communist movement; and, on the other hand, to strengthen the ranks of the revisionist front, to subject all the revisionists to their dictate, to force <<a new menu>> on them, while binding them hand and foot. 

The attainment of these objectives is decisive for the fate of the Khrushchev revisionist group who are facing grave difficulties. The determined and principled struggle waged by the Marxist-Leninist parties and the revolutionary communists of the world has not only torn the mask of the Khrushchevite revisionists and is frustrating their hostile schemes, but has brought about a grave situation within the ranks of the modern revisionists themselves. Deep contradictions have arisen between them which are expressed particularly clearly by the tendency to oppose the hegemony and paternalism of the Khrushchev group. 

Under these circumstances there is no other way left for the Khrushchevite revisionists: they must carry the split with Marxist-Leninists through to the end and at the same time hobble the other revisionists, impose their control and domination over them, check any attempt on their part for even formal independence. 

These plans, which N. Khrushchev aims to achieve with the meeting that is being prepared, have encountered great obstacles, not only from the Marxist-Leninist parties, which are quite clear about N. Khrushchev's treacherous aims to the detriment of communism and the socialist camp, but also from some of his revisionist allies. In the first place it must be said that some of the revisionist opponents to N. Khrushchev's proposed meeting, in the preparatory stage of which they are nevertheless participating, are just as revisionist, even more consistently revisionist, than Khrushchev himself. Their opposition to the holding of the international meeting, is not inspired by any concern about the unity of the communist movement and the socialist camp, but from their aim that the completely split and fight against Marxism-Leninism should be carried out by methods different from those of N. Khrushchev, methods which they consider more effective and with fewer dangerous consequences for them by trying to prolong their own lives through creating false illusions about their position, and so on. Moreover, their opposition is inspired by the fact that they do not want to be tied down; they want to gain their <<independence>> from the Khrushchevite clique, to be free to link themselves directly with the social-democrats or the imperialist bourgeoisie, how and when they want. 

The maneuver which N. Khrushchev and his followers are now resorting to, the tactics they are using, cannot conceal the anti-Marxist aims of the modern revisionists, their hostility to Marxism-Leninism. They will not succeed in deceiving any one. 

Whether or not the revisionists hold their meeting, whether they hold it now or later, makes no difference. The true Marxist-Leninists will intensify their principled struggle for the exposure of the Khrushchevite and other modern revisionists, a struggle that will bring defeat and total destruction to these dangerous enemies of communism. 

The Party of Labor of Albania has been and continues to be in favor of the international meeting of the communist and workers' parties. But it has been and continues to be in favor of a meeting that would serve the real unity of the communist movement on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, on the basis of the revolutionary principles laid down in the 1957 and 1960 Moscow Declarations. It has opposed and continues to oppose any meeting that would sanction an open rift or would create a false unity on an anti-Marxist revisionist basis. 

The Party of Labor of Albania has stated earlier and is repeating now, that in order to prepare a meeting of the Marxist-Leninist unity of the communist movement it is essential to take into account the present situation of the communist movement, the changes that have taken place, and the process that have gone on in it since the 1960 meeting, and in conformity with these circumstances and conditions to specify the measures and steps that should be taken to achieve an international meeting which would really express the opinion and wishes of all the communists of the world, and would achieve and strengthen that militant unity of which our movement stands in greater need today than ever before. 

The only basis for true unity of the socialist camp and the communist movement lies in Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. No unity can be achieved on the basis of revisionism. There can be no unity between Marxists and revisionists who have betrayed the cause of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. N. Khrushchev's plan to unite the communist movement on the basis of revisionism is a plan of disruption, and it is doomed to failure and disgrace. Likewise, any attempt, any hope, any illusion of finding an intermediary platform, satisfactory to all, that would unite both Marxists and revisionists is futile and detrimental to the attainment of true principled unity of the communist movement, which is the only unity possible. 

The treacherous aims which the Khrushchev group are striving to attain at the present meeting are by no means accidental. The Khrushchevite revisionists have always striven towards attaining these objectives. They began the split by spreading their revisionist line. They deepened it with their anti-Marxist and anti-socialist activities. And they are now carrying this division to its logical conclusion. But the revisionists should bear well in mind that the heavens will not be overturned be cause of their separatist meeting and because of the <<collective>> measures that they may take. Their meeting will be fruitful and very favorable to the international communist movement. The day of the revisionists' meeting will go down in history as the day of their complete and open betrayal, and at the same time as the day that will mark their final catastrophe. The revolutionary communist movement will forge ahead, without the revisionists and in struggle against the revisionists, and it will certainly achieve its unity in this militant way. This will be true Marxist-Leninist unity for which the Marxist-Leninists of the world are fighting and will fight courageously. 

Dear Comrades, 

N. Khrushchev tries to persuade you, communists of the Soviet Union, the peoples of the Soviet Union and all peoples of the world, that with his assumption of power a new epoch has begun, a great turn in history. The decade of his rule is described as the decade of <<the blooming of the Soviet Union>>, of the <<triumphal march towards communism>>, as the decade of <<the triumph of peace and peaceful coexistence>>, as the decade of the <<consolidation of the communist movement>> and of the <<creative development of Marxism>>. The revisionists begin <<the real history>> of the Soviet Union in 1953. 

These are all lies, -- nothing but lies. It is true that an historical turn started when the Khrushchev group took the reins of state in their hands, but this was a big retrogressive turn, a turn that flung the doors open to opportunism and revisionism, to treachery and degeneration, to the undermining of unity and beginning the rift in the communist movement, to approaches to and unity with the imperialists and other enemies of peoples and of socialism, towards sabotage of the revolution and restoration of capitalism. 

No other person or group has caused so much harm and so much evil to the Soviet Union, to the socialist camp, to the communist movement, to the cause of socialism and communism, as N. Khrushchev and his group. The history of the Soviet Union and of international communism records no greater renegade, no more rabid and dangerous enemy than the group of Khrushchevite revisionists. 

What the imperialists were unable to do through their armed intervention, what Trotsky, Bukharin and other enemies of the Soviet regime could not do in their time, what the German fascists could not do during the Second World War, N. Khrushchev's group are set on doing now. 

Who has defamed, discredited, assailed so vehemently, who has slandered the Soviet power, the Soviet socialist order, as much as N. Khrushchev has done? 

It was N. Khrushchev who cancelled out the most glorious period of the Soviet Union, when the Soviet peoples, led by the Party with Stalin at the head, overcame colossal difficulties, courageously coped with the ruthless capitalist encirclement, smashed the counter-revolution, built the first socialist society in the world, reaped the great historic victory in the patriotic war, and transformed the Soviet Union into a powerful, developed, and advanced socialist state with an unparalleled authority and role in the international arena. He presented the whole of this period as one during which terror and persecution, prisons and concentration camps, violations of the law and democracy, arbitrarity and despotisms, poverty and hunger reigned in the Soviet Union. He rendered the imperialists great service through these deeds of his, providing them with weapons to attack and discredit the Soviet Union. The infamous <<secret>> report which N. Khrushchev delivered at the 20th Congress and his subsequent speeches became the main nourishment, the inexhaustible source of all the most reactionary anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda. 

Who can believe N. Khrushchev's slanders about the crimes of Stalin? Can we have any faith in the concoctions of investigation committees appointed by Khrushchev, in the writings of the Adjubeys, the knowledge of the Solzhenytsins, and their ilk? Can it be that imperialism and its agents, for whom the Soviet Union has always been an acute irritation which they tried to get rid of by strangling in its cradle, have sat with folded arms all this time, and have done nothing about it? In times gone by N. Khrushchev himself said, in 1938: <<The Jakirs, the Balitskys, the Lypuchenskys, Zatorskyites, and other rogues, intended to bring the Polish aristocracy back to the Ukraine, to bring the German fascists, the landlords and capitalist here. . . . We have exterminated many enemies but still not all of them. Therefore we should keep our eyes open. We should always bear in mind Comrade Stalin's words that so long as the capitalist encirclement exists spies and saboteurs will be sent into our country>>. 

The same Khrushchev, a year before, in 1937, said: <<Our Party will mercilessly crush the band of traitors, will sweep all the Trotzkyite corps of rightists from the face of the earth. The guarantee of this is the unwavering leadership of our Central Committee, the unwavering leadership of our leader Comrade Stalin . . . . We shall completely exterminate the enemies from the first to the last, and scatter their ashes to the winds>>. But instead of wiping the Trotzkyite corps from the face of the earth or exterminating all the enemies and of scattering their ashes to the winds, the renegade Khrushchev burned Stalin's remains, scattered his ashes to the wind, the ashes of this great defender and leader of the historic achievements of the Soviet Union. He rehabilitated all the counter-revolutionaries from first to last, proclaimed them victims of Stalin, and decided to raise monuments to them. 

Just who these victims are whom N. Khrushchev takes under his protection, we Albanians, know only too well from our own experience. While N. Khrushchev has called the leaders of the Albanian Party and State, who have led the people in the great fight for liberation and the building of socialism, <<agents of imperialism who have sold themselves for 30 pieces of silver>>, he has openly taken under his protection such murderers and terrorists, enemies of our party and of our people as K. Xoxe, P. Plaku, T. Sejko, L. Gega, and others, dubbing them true revolutionary communists, internationalists, patriots, and innocent victims. 

Only a traitor, an enemy of communism, could hurl such monstrous slanders and attacks on Stalin, this great leader of the Communist Party, the Soviet peoples, and the international communist movement. In his anti-communist attacks on Stalin Nikita Khrushchev has surpassed the imperialists, the most rabid reactionaries and renegades of communism, Kautsky, Trotsky, Tito and Gjilas. What has he not said against Stalin! He has called him a <<murderer>>, a <<common criminal>>, a <<despot of the type of Ivan the Terrible>>, the <<greatest dictator in the history of Russia>>, and so on and so forth. J. V. Stalin, who for 30 years on end led the Party of the Bolsheviks and the Soviet peoples from victory to victory, who courageously defended the line of the great Lenin, who inspired the Stakhonovites and heroes of the socialist construction in the Soviet Union, who aroused and resolutely led all the workers and peasants, all the Soviet people, in the great Patriotic War, with whose name on their lips the Matrasovs, the Kosmodemyanskayas, the heroes of Stalingrad, and hundreds of thousands of other heroes and fighters, threw themselves into attacks on the enemy and fell in battle. 

Have you never stopped to think, Comrades, why such bitter hatred is expressed for Stalin, why he is attacked, with so much frenzy, why the whole glorious period of the Soviet people and its Party when Stalin was at the head is blackened so shamefully? Don't you see a logical connection between attacks and slanders against Stalin and songs of praise for the leaders of imperialism, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and others whom N. Khrushchev has called <<reasonable men>> who <<enjoy the absolute trust of their people>>, who <<are earnestly concerned about the preservation of peace>>, the death of one of whom as in the case of Kennedy, he described as <<a great loss for mankind>> and proclaimed as a day of mourning even for the communists? Only a charlatan, a man without character or shame could behave as N. Khrushchev has done towards Stalin, to whom, when he was alive, he used to sing the most rapturous praises, whom he used to call <<great Lenin's close friend and comrade-in-arms>>, <<friend of the people and beloved father>>, <<the great Marshal of the victory over fascism>>, <<the greatest genius and leader of mankind>>. 

How could it have been possible that you, Soviet communists, the Soviet people, achieved such colossal victories of historic significance with your party and state headed by a man who did nothing but commit all kinds of crimes and mistakes? Can there be any greater absurdity and more clumsy falsification of history than to deny Stalin's great merits as the leader of the Party and the Comman- 

der-in-Chief of the Soviet Army and to praise to the skies the role and merits of N. Khrushchev, who is presented as a great strategist, not only of the Patriotic War but even of the civil war, as the pioneer of the cosmic era, and so on and so forth? It is a regrettable thing that even some comrades-in-arms of Stalin who directed the major operations during the war, with him and under his leadership, are now falsifying history, under instructions from Khrushchev, are now denying what yesterday they admitted with their own mouths. 

Through his base calumnies and attacks against Stalin, worthy only of a hooligan, N. Khrushchev insults the great Soviet people, their party, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the Soviet socialist order, he insults the glorious Soviet Army, the international communist movement and the workers and peoples of the world, he insults socialism and Marxism-Leninism. N. Khrushchev himself used to say: <<Whoever raises his hand against Comrade Stalin has raised it against all of us, against the working class, against the working people. Whoever raises his hand against Comrade Stalin has raised it against the doctrine of Marx, Engels and Lenin.>> -- (from his speech at the Moscow rally in January 1937). 

This is precisely what Khrushchev himself has done. By raising his hand against Stalin he raised it against everything, against communism, against Marxism-Leninism. 

By raising his hand against Stalin, N. Khrushchev raised his hand against the Soviet socialist system itself. He is afraid to admit this in public in spite the calls of his most consistent allies to carry the elimination of the consequences of the <<cult>> through to the end. But the fact remains that by calling the three decades of Stalin's leadership an anomaly, a deviation from the Leninist road, and by working intensively to undermine the socialist system, N. Khrushchev is actually! violating the Soviet socialist system itself and is leading the peaceful evolution to the degeneration of socialism in the Soviet Union. And, the irony of it is that he calls this treacherous social-democratic road a <<return to Lenin>>, <<following the true Leninist road>>! 

This is the purpose and true significance of all of N. Khrushchev's hue and cry about the so-called struggle against the cult of the individual and its consequences. 

The Khrushchev group have raised their hand against the most sacred thing, the most powerful weapon of the Soviet people for the defence of the achievements of the revolution and the construction of communism, -- against the dictatorship of the proletariat and of the Communist Party. They are trying to disarm the people, to take the power from the people's hands, to cause the degeneration of the party. They have trampled upon and rejected the consistent Marxist-Leninist line of the Bolshevik Party, its revolutionary tradition and spirit, they have imposed an opportunist and revisionist course on the party in all fields of its life and activity, a course which jeopardizes the historic victories of socialism in the Soviet Union, for which the party and the Soviet people have fought heroically, have made great sacrifices, have shed their blood. 

To carry their course through the Khrushchev revisionist clique have carried out great and continuous purges in the ranks of the cadres of the party, and the state, from both the central organs and the base, have discussed all those about whom they are doubtful and have replaced them with cadres loyal to their course. Within ten years N. Khrushchev has removed about 70% of the members of the Central Committee who were elected at the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1952, and about 50% of the members of the Central Committee elected in the 20th Congress. Likewise, on the eve of the 22nd Congress, on the pretext of circulation of cadres, he replaced 45% of the members of the central committees of the parties of the Federated Republics, as well as 40% of the regional and district party committees of the cities and regions. In 1963, under the pretext of reorganizing the party on the basis of production, the Khrushchev clique once again replaced more than half of the members of the central committees of the Federated Republics and the regional party committees. 

The men around Khrushchev today who serve him, constitute a privileged stratum, degenerated from the point of view of ideology, who have betrayed the revolutionary cause of the Soviet working class, who are fighting against Marxism-Leninism and socialism. Their sole concern is to consolidate their economic position and their political domination. Relying on this stratum the Khrushchev group are turning the glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union into a revisionist party and the Soviet socialist state into a dictatorship of the Khrushchevite clique. 

Their theses on the so-called <<party of the whole people>> and the state of the whole people are a great fraud. They have nothing in common with Marxism-Leninism and serve only to pave the way to the restoration of capitalism. <<The march forward, that is towards communism, passes through the dictatorship of the proletariat, and it cannot be achieved otherwise>>, said Lenin. By proclaiming that the dictatorship of the proletariat in the Soviet Union has been liquidated, the Khrushchev group have taken a very dangerous step back towards capitalism. N. Khrushchev's so called <<state of the whole people>> is nothing but a mask to hide the dictatorship of his clique directed against the Soviet working class and peasantry, against the Soviet people. N. Khrushchev opposes the dictatorship of the proletariat, and is for the preservation of state power only in order to use it as a means to attain his own counter-revolutionary objectives and to keep the Soviet people and communists under oppression and subjection. Equally dangerous is his thesis about the <<party of the whole people>> which wipes out the proletarian class character of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and opens the way to the degeneration of the Marxist-Leninist party into a revisionist one. All the organizational and re-organizational steps, which N. Khrushchev has undertaken time after time serve these aims. 

Comrades, the Soviet state, the first socialist state in the world which the October Revolution established, the great Communist Party of the Soviet Union, are faced with the grave risk of degenerating into a bourgeois state and into a revisionist bourgeois party. Passivity at these moments is inexcusable and fatal. It is the imperative, lofty, sacred and historic duty of all the members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of the Soviet people, to defend the dictatorship of the proletariat, to defend the Communist Party founded by Lenin. 

Since he came to power N. Khrushchev has taken a number of steps and has made a number of reforms in the field of the economy, particularly in agriculture, about which he has bragged a great deal. But what is the purpose and real meaning of these measures and reforms? They are in opposition to the principles of socialism and communism, they are an attempt to introduce into the Soviet socialist economy organizational forms and methods of management borrowed from the experience of Titoite Jugoslavia and the capitalist countries. The Khrushchev group have replaced the socialist principle of payment according to the work done, with the material stimulus which they absolutise and fetishise. They have undermined the planned and centralized management of the economy, are encouraging the capitalist principle of the struggle for profits, incite unrestrained capitalist competition, are destroying the common property of the whole people, and are breaking it up, as they have done with the machine and Tractor Stations. 

In essence N. Khrushchev's communism is a variety of bourgeois socialism. His hue and cry about his concern for the welfare of the people, for better living conditions for every one, are hypocritical and demagogical from first to last. What the Khrushchev group hanker after is an easier life, more comfort and prosperity for the privileged and degenerate stratum who secure fat incomes in the form of high salaries, bonuses and honoraria, and by means of abuses, bribes, stealing, and so on. N. Khrushchev has reduced the lofty ideal of communism to <<a good plate of goulash>>. The United States of America, the experience of the industrialists and recommendations of big ranch holders and farmers, of the Eatons, Hearsts, & Co. serve as a pattern for his communism. He has gone so far as to hold out his hand to the american imperialists in order to build <<communism in the Soviet Union with their dollars and credits>>. The Khrushchevite revisionists have flung the doors open to the penetration of bourgeois ideology, the bourgeois way of life, bourgeois decadence in art, literature and culture, to the enlivenment of all kinds of anti-Soviet, anti-socialist tendencies, to the spreading of decadent Western trends. They loudly propagate bourgeois individualism and selfishness, bourgeois humanism and pacifism 

Don't all these things speak clearly as to where N. Khrushchev is leading the Soviet Union? These are not at all steps ahead towards communism -- they all lead backwards to capitalism. Under these circumstances the question arises before the revolutionary soviet communists, before the Soviet people: will they allow the Khrushchev group to realize their criminal, counter-revolutionary work in peace, or will they rise up in defence of the victories of socialism and communism in the Soviet Union and call a halt to the anti-Soviet, anti-socialist line of N. Khrushchev. 

Dear Comrades, 

As long as your party held aloft, unsullied, the banner of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism and pursued a consistent revolutionary line in home and foreign affairs, the Soviet Union was, for whole decades, the bastion of revolution and socialism, the greatest defender and supporter of the freedom and independence of the peoples, the greatest fighter for the emancipation of the working class and the cause of peace in the world. The revolutionary communists and people of the world looked upon the great Soviet Union with deep respect and sympathy, took as their example and were inspired by its stand for revolutionary principle. The establishment of the socialist camp, the growth of the communist and workers' movement, the great impetus of the liberation wars of peoples, are closely bound up with the internationalist role and contribution of the first country of socialism, the Soviet Union. At this time there was full unity of views and action in the socialist camp, in the communist movement, and in all the international democratic organizations of the world. All the revolutionary forces of the world, with the Soviet Union at the head, acted united as a single body against the forces of imperialism and of reaction. 

But N. Khrushchev undermined the prestige, authority, and role of the Soviet Union in the world with his political course. In the name of the Soviet Union he splits the socialist camp and the international communist movement, he sabotages and strangles the revolution and the liberation struggle of peoples, deceives and intimidates the peoples, defends capitalism and imperialism and paints them in beautiful colors. 

See, Comrades, what a great tragedy the Khrushchev group are playing with your country which has such brilliant revolutionary traditions, such great historical merits! They are constantly linking and uniting the Soviet Union with its most ravening enemies, with those against whom the communists and peoples of the Soviet Union have waged a resolute and heroic war. 

The Khrushchev group have made allies and friends of those who would like to bury the Soviet Union. They have made an ally and friend of American imperialism which is the head of world imperialism, the centre of reaction, and the main source of war and aggression, the international exploiter and gendarme enemy No. 1 of the peoples of the whole world. 

They have made a friend and brother of the Tito clique, who have long since betrayed Marxism-Leninism, who carry on activity to undermine the forces of socialism, freedom, and peace in the world, who serve the imperialists most zealously, who are maintained on american dollars, and whom the international communist movement has unanimously denounced. 

They have made friends and allies of the renegades of the working class, servants of the bourgeoisie and most rabid anti-communists, the reactionary right wing leaders of social democracy like Guy Mollet, Spaak, Wilson, and others. 

They have made friends and allies of the reactionary Indian bourgeoisie whom N. Khrushchev is equipping with armaments and whom he is inciting to oppress the Indian people and launch aggression on such a fraternal socialist country as the People's Republic of China. 

They have made friends and allies of the Vatican in Rome, this old center of reaction and obscurantism, with all the counter-revolutionaries of the world, including the Bonn revanchists with whom N. Khrushchev is trying to come to terms. 

N. Khrushchev has turned the sharp edge of his attacks against the true and loyal friends of the Soviet Union. He has launched ferocious attacks against the People's Republic of China, against the Communist Party and the great Chinese people, he is sowing discord between two great peoples, between the two most powerful socialist countries. It is not the Soviet-American alliance 

page 265

for which N. Khrushchev is working hard and dreaming day and night, but the fraternal Soviet-Chinese collaboration and friendship, which the Soviet people, the socialist camp, the revolutionary and liberation movement in the world stand in need of. But instead of this collaboration and of this friendship, N. Khrushchev is continually intensifying his unprincipled fight against the People's Republic of China and its Communist Party. Comrades, is this not a great betrayal of the vital interests of the Soviet Union? 

You know the fierce attacks, monstrous slanders and accusations, the hostile acts which the Khrushchev group have launched against the Party of Labor of Albania, against the People's Republic of Albania, against the Albanian people and their leaders. What crime is there that he has not accused our party and our people of. In his campaign against our party and our people he resorted to threats and pressures, brutal interference in our internal affairs, established the economic blockade and broke off diplomatic relations. From the rostrum of the 22nd Congress he openly called upon the communists and people of Albania to launch a counter-revolution, to overthrow the leadership of the party and the state, exhortations which are continually repeated by the Soviet propaganda organs, and especially by Radio Moscow in its broadcasts to Albania. But why all this resentment, all this hostility, towards a socialist country, towards a Marxist party and a fraternal people, hatred and enmity which even the most rabid imperialist enemies have not expressed towards our country? What was the crime this party and these people committed? Their sole <<crime>> was their refusal to submit to N. Khrushchev's line of betrayal, that came out in defence of Marxism-Leninism, and unmasked and opposed the disruptive aims of the revisionists. 

The Khrushchev group are waging a bitter struggle against other socialist countries which do not submit to their dictate, as well as against all the communist parties which oppose revisionism and uphold Marxism-Leninism. They are using against them all the weapons and methods which the class enemy uses. They interfere brutally in their internal affairs, violate their sovereignty and independence, use pressures and blackmail to force them to their knees, sow dissension and organize plots, as they did recently against the Communist Party of Japan, use the joint organizations of the Council of Mutual Economic Aid and the Warsaw Treaty in order to put the socialist countries under the domination of their group, to exploit them for their own selfish and chauvinistic purposes. 

With the whole of his policy and activity N. Khrushchev has rendered and is rendering great services to imperialism and world reaction, and has caused and is causing heavy damage to the cause of socialism, the freedom of the peoples and peace in the world. 

Modern revisionism, which spread very rapidly following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, paved the way to the bloody counter-revolution in Hungary, to the counter-revolutionary events in Poland, jeopardized the very existence of certain communist and workers' parties as in the United States of America, in Denmark, and elsewhere. Following the Khrushchev policy the Communist Party of India with Dange at its head transformed itself into a tool of the reactionary big bourgeoisie, into a national chauvinist party that has betrayed the ideals of the Indian working class and people. In Algeria the revisionists diverted the party from the armed resistance together with the people, isolated it from the masses, placed it in a tailist position and made it lose its place in the political life of Algeria. Communist Party of Irak suffered a real tragedy, when, having succumbed to pressures from the Khrushchev group, it lost its vigilance, and as a consequence, received a heavy blow from the reactionaries and the cause of the revolution in Irak suffered a big defeat. 

Revisionism is e[n]vading many communist and workers' parties, particularly in Europe, which is pregnant with revisionism. They are being transformed from parties of social revolution into parties of social reform, they are approaching and amalgamating with the social-democrats, are departing from the revolutionary traditions and the revolutionary spirit, they are nurturing themselves with illusions about the peaceful parliamentary road, which the revisionists have raised to a principle of world strategy. 

For the sake of his approach at any price and all-round collaboration with the American imperialists who are the real beneficiaries from the whole at his policy of so-called <<peaceful co-existence>>, N. Khrushchev has committed grave crimes against the peoples' freedom and independence, against peace, against the Soviet Union itself, against its security. For the sake of this approach and reconciliation, following his adventureous actions, Khrushchev capitulated shamefully to American imperialism during the Caribbean crisis, when he did not hesitate to sacrifice Cuba. He brought great shame to the Soviet Union, to its armed forces, when he allowed the American imperialists to search Soviet ships on the open seas in a most humiliating way, while Cuba, a tiny socialist country, only 90 miles from the USA, honorably upheld its dignity, did not allow any imperialist searches in its territory, even of Soviet ships in Cuban territorial waters. N. Khrushchev sacrificed the national interests of the Congolese people when he voted in favor of the intervention of UNO troops under the direction of the American imperialists. This compromise brought tragic consequences to the cause of freedom and independence of the Congolese people, as everybody now knows. The Moscow Treaty on the partial prohibition of nuclear weapons testing which is in fact directed against the interest of the Soviet Union itself and the socialist camp, gives American imperialists the possibility of continuing their underground tests unilaterally, and of increasing their atomic potential, of continuing their nuclear blackmail to threaten and intimidate peoples. 

N. Khrushchev has made many deals with the imperialists of the peoples' expense. In spite of the great noise made year after year about the signing of the peace treaty with Germany and the settlement of the West Berlin problem, N. Khrushchev has now virtually abandoned this matter, and on the eve of his visit to West Germany, he is preparing to make further compromises with the Bonn revanchists to the detriment of the vital interests of the German Democratic Republic. While all the peoples throughout the world rose in anger and resolutely denounced the new aggressive acts of the United States of America against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, N. Khrushchev to avoid losing favor with the Americans, raised only a feeble voice, with difficulty managed to say a couple of words in an undertone to express his regrets over the Tonkin Gulf incidents, at a time when a fraternal socialist country was faced and is still faced with grave danger. 

Not only has Khrushchev given up fighting the imperialists himself, but he is doing his best to stop other peoples carrying out the revolution and from fighting the imperialists, trying to restrain and strangle the world liberation movement. He spreads all sorts of pacifist illusions about imperialism and its leaders, advises peoples to be docile, not to irritate the imperialists but to submit to them, because, according to him, <<world conflagration could be kindled from any little spark>>. He threatens and intimidates them with the horrors of atomic war, he preaches peace under any conditions and at any price! He has gone so far as to suggest the setting up of an international police force within the framework of the United Nations Organization, to become an international gendarme, together with the American imperialists, in order to suppress any liberation and revolutionary movement of peoples in the world. 

It is not by chance that the American imperialists, the right-wing leaders of social-democracy, and reactionaries of all hues, lavish praises on the person of N. Khrushchev, on his policy, on his attitude. They describe him as <<a great realist politician with whom one can readily come to terms>>, <<the most suitable man for the West in Moscow>>, <<The Soviet Premier who acts like an American politician>>, <<the man who is putting the communist world on the road to great transformations and evolution>>, and so on and so forth. They have rested great hopes on Khrushchev and his group, and that is why they come to meet him half way and give him all kinds of aid and support to lure him further down the road of betrayal on which he has long since embarked. They speak openly about <<not allowing this great occasion slip through their fingers>> and that <<the USA should, to a certain extent, make Khrushchev's task lighter>>, and so on and so forth. 

History has not recorded any other case of this kind, in which the leaders of imperialism, the class enemies, have lavished so much praise, so much enthusiasm, on a leader of any communist party as on N. Khrushchev, have expressed so openly their approval, joy, and hopes, regarding his political policy. This fact alone makes clear who benefits from N. Khrushchev's actions, whom his views and deeds serve. 

Dear Comrades, 

In face of the great danger of Khrushchevite revisionism that is menacing the socialist camp, the international communist movement, and the Soviet Union itself, today the communist parties that have adopted sound Marxist-Leninist positions, all the revolutionary communists the world over, have risen in resolute and principled struggle. 

A struggle of historic importance in defence of Marxism-Leninism against modern revisionism is being waged by the glorious Chinese Communist Party. New Marxist-Leninist parties have sprung up in many countries of the world like Australia and Belgium, Brazil and Ceylon, while Marxist-Leninist revolutionary groups have been set up in many other countries such as Italy and France, Austria and England, India and elsewhere. 

And it could not happen otherwise. The communists who have dedicated their lives to the cause of the revolution and of socialism could not have failed and cannot fail to rise up against this great betrayal of the working class on the part of the modern revisionists. We are fully convinced that this struggle will take ever greater proportions and that this is precisely what will bring about the final defeat of revisionism. 

In this great historic battle between Marxism and revisionism, on whose outcome the present and future of socialism depends, a great responsibility and role devolves upon you, comrades, members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It is precisely in the leadership of your party that the great evil has taken root, it is the center of modern revisionism today. The great danger which revisionism constitutes for the entire international communist movement today lies in the fact that it has manifested itself in the oldest and most authoritative party in the world, in the Bolshevik Party, in the Party of Lenin and Stalin, that it has infected the first and most powerful socialist country, the Soviet Union. 

Taking advantage of the authority of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of the Soviet state, and utilizing the state power with all the colossal means at its disposal, the Khrushchev group are trying to deceive the Soviet Communists to force their course of action on them, to confuse the leaders of many parties, and to plunge them into the mire of opportunism. 

In this grave situation created by N. Khrushchev's betrayal the time has come for you Soviet communists to perform your lofty revolutionary duty towards your glorious party, people and country, towards the proletariat and peoples of the whole world, not to allow the treacherous Khrushchevite clique to jeopardize the future of socialism and communism. The Soviet revolutionary communists have never sat back on the strength of their traditions and merits of the past. Today more than ever before these traditions should be reasserted in the same revolutionary spirit, with the same determination and devotion to principle, to defend the glorious name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to raise high its revolutionary banner, flung to the ground by N. Khrushchev. The vital interests of the Soviet Union, the socialist camp, the revolutionary and liberation movement of the world demand this. 

You live and work in the country where the leaders of modern revisionism hold sway. Therefore your fight in defence of Marxism-Leninism is of decisive importance. No doubt this fight is far from easy. It demands great efforts, courage and determination, even sacrifice. But the Soviet communists during their glorious history have given proofs of their heroism and self-sacrifice for the great cause of the working class. They have never been intimidated, they have never retreated before any enemy, carrying out their duty gloriously even in most difficult moments. 

The Party of Labor of Albania addresses this open letter to you, members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, because we are heart and soul with you, because we consider you today, as we have always done, our comrades-in-arms, because we love your party, the Soviet people, the Soviet Union. We have never confused the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union itself, with the Khrushchev group. The attempts of this group to smash the Soviet-Albanian friendship, to sow dissension and enmity between our peoples, will fail. The sentiments of friendship and brotherhood of our party and our people towards your party and people have never been, nor will ever be quelled. The Albanian communists and people are lifelong friends of the Soviet Union regardless of the fact that a group of renegades stands today at the head of the Soviet Union, the Party of Labor of Albania, the People's Republic of Albania, and the Albanian people, will always defend the Soviet Union, the first socialist state, created by the great Lenin despite all the foreign and internal enemies. We have never forgotten, nor will we ever forget, what the Soviet Union means to us, we will never forget its internationalist aid for the liberation of our country and the building of socialism. 

The attitude of the Party of Labor of Albania has been and remains clear cut: an uncompromising struggle of principle for the destruction of the Khrushchev revisionist group; friendship, loyalty and full internationalist solidarity and brotherhood with the peoples of the Soviet Union. 

Our Party abides strictly by the statement made by Comrade Enver Hoxha after the 22nd Congress, in a speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Party of Labor of Albania and the 44th anniversary of the October Revolution, in November 1961, when he said: <<Our Party and our people will keep intact in their hearts pure sentiments of friendship towards the fraternal peoples of the Soviet Union, regardless of the attacks, slanders, and hostile acts to which they have been subjected. Our Party has taught us to love the Soviet Union, the great Fatherland of Lenin and Stalin both in good times and in difficult ones. The glorious Soviet Union and the Soviet peoples, the great Party of the Bolsheviks have been, are, and will remain for us our dearest friends, our liberators from the fascist yoke, our faithful and resolute allies in the great struggle for the construction of socialism in our country. We have been and remain bound for life with the Soviet Union, with the Soviet peoples, with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union>>. 

Guided by these principles, these feelings and this spirit, the Party of Labor of Albania turns to you fully confident that the Soviet communists will know at these historical moments how to fulfill their revolutionary internationalist mission with dignity, will face every storm as worthy sons of their glorious party, of its heroic road ant history. 

How many plots and hostile acts have been concocted by the class enemy, the enemies of the Soviet Party and people, against the Soviet Union since the time of the October Revolution! But the enemy has always been crushed. The cause of socialism, the Soviet power has been defended with honor. You, sons of the Bolshevik Party, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, have smashed the intervention of the imperialist forces, which like ravening beasts tried to strangle the revolution, and you triumphed in the bloody civil war against the rabid class enemies. Supporting you heart and soul with militant actions during those days were the communists, the proletarians, all the revolutionaries and oppressed peoples of the world. You, sons of the Bolshevik Party, fought with unparalleled heroism under the leadership of the great successor to the work of Lenin, J. V. Stalin, during the Patriotic War, bravely vanquished German fascism on the field of battle, and become the saviours of the peoples of Europe. In this war, again you had allies in the communist and workers' parties throughout the world, the proletariat and all the peoples, the whole of progressive mankind. 

Today great danger is again threatening the Soviet Union and your party. They are being menaced from within and from abroad by the plot that the imperialists, together with the modern revisionists, are hatching up. This plot which is being effected under peaceful conditions, is, in fact, much more dangerous for the fate of socialism in the Soviet Union, for all the international communist and workers' movement, for the fate of the revolution in general! At the head of this plot are the leaders of American imperialism and world reaction and the Khrushchev clique. The cause of socialism and the October Revolution, to which you have dedicated your lives, calls on you once more to defeat the great counter-revolutionary plot which is threatening you with the same heroism and revolutionary spirit that have characterized your whole life as militant Leninists. And today, as yesterday, in this just fight in defense of Marxism-Leninism and the Soviet Union you are not alone. Standing by you are the Marxist-Leninists, the communist and workers' parties, all the revolutionary communists, all the proletariat and peoples of the world, who comprise a much greater force than the allies you used to have in your battles against the class enemy, the enemies of the Soviet Union in the days gone by. 

The Party of Labor of Albania, which is not accostumed to whispering behind the door, but speaks openly and frankly, declares resolutely with a clear conscience that is with you. It is with you because the Soviet Union, the off-spring of the Great October Revolution, against whom the imperialists and modern revisionists have spearheaded their attack, is dear not only to you, but to us as well. It is dear to all the revolutionaries and proletarians of the world, to all men of toil and progress. Therefore we consider the struggle that must be waged against the revisionist and imperialist plot, in defence of Marxism-Leninism, in defence of the Soviet Union, the first socialist country in the world, as a lofty internationalist duty. And the Soviet Union cannot be defended by saying: <<We are with the Soviet Union right or wrong>>. Only traitors think that way. The Soviet Union cannot be defended in that manner. That would only defend the betrayal. We do not want the Soviet Union dominated by the revisionist traitors. We do not want to see the revisionists wreck the achievements of the October Revolution and push the country towards alliance with the imperialists for the restoration of capitalism over the soil watered with the blood of the best sons of the party, of the working class, of the Soviet people. We want to see the Soviet Union, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and always, a powerful bastion of the cause of socialism and communism, of the Revolution and the freedom of people's, of peace in the world. 

We, Albanian communists, all the workers and patriots of socialist Albania, regardless of our being few in numbers and the object of continuous ruthless attacks from the imperialists and revisionists, are fighting and will be fighting resolutely, unyieldingly to the end in defence of our great common cause, Marxism-Leninism, in defence of the Soviet Union. In this fight we accept our full responsibilities and we think that it is time that all true communists and revolutionaries, for all those to whom the cause of Marxism-Leninism, socialism, and the revolution are dear, to assume their full responsibilities in this situation courageously. 

Once again we express our full confidence and unshaken belief that our comrades, the communists of the glorious party of Lenin and Stalin, who have been an example of great inspiration for all the communists and peoples of the world, today too, with a lofty revolutionary consciousness, will know how to carry out the very responsible duties with which history charges them. 

In defence of Marxism-Leninism, in defence of socialism and communism, in defence of the Soviet Union, and under the great banner of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, the Soviet communists will unite their efforts, their powerful struggle with those of all the communists and proletarians of all countries, for the complete exposure and defeat of modern revisionism and imperialism. 

THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

OF THE PARTY OF LABOR OF

ALBANIA

Tirana, October 6, 1964.