From Albania Today, 1977, 3
Documents
Letter to all Party Basic Organizations – May 9, 1962
The materials under this heading are taken from Volume 23 of Comrade Enver Hoxha's Works which was put into circulation these recent weeks in Albania.
Only six months have elapsed since N. Khrushchev made his open attack on our party, the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist movement, at the 22nd congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But these six months have been sufficient to prove to the entire world the falsity of N. Khrushchev's accusations and slanders against our party, to prove the correctness of the line of our party and its principled Marxist-Leninist stand in the struggle against modern revisionism.
The just, principled struggle of our Party against the Khrushchev group, its valiant and resolute stand in face of the fiercest pressure and provocations from N. Khrushchev and his group, the cool-headedness and wisdom of our heroic Party and people have enhanced the authority of our Party in the eyes of the communists of the whole world, in the eyes of the different nations and progressive people. This is best seen in thousands of letters of solidarity which the Central Committee of our Party has received and continues to receive from the communists of different countries. The communists of the world and the international public are seeing ever more clearly that the Party of Labour of Albania is defending the principles of Marxism-Leninism, while, with his opportunist policy and his anti-Marxist activities, N. Khrushchev is damaging the interests of the communist movement, damaging the struggle of the peoples for freedom, democracy and socialism.
The development of the international situation up to date has provided many proofs that it is the Party of Labour of Albania and the other Marxist-Leninist parties that have taken a principled stand that are right in their evaluations, and not the modern revisionists, the group of Khrushchev and his followers. The communists and the peoples of the world are seeing clearly how N. Khrushchev's illusions about "Kennedy's desires for peace”, his hopes of changing the aggressive nature of imperialism, are collapsing. It is becoming ever more clear that N. Khrushchev's opportunist policy, a policy of concessions and flattery to the imperialists, of instability and constant vacillation, not only resolves nothing, but, on the contrary, is to the advantage of imperialism. In fact, what results have been attained up till now? None at all. The issue of the peace treaty with Germany and the question of West Berlin are deadlocked. So is the question of disarmament. Indeed, while talks on disarmament were going on in Geneva, the Kennedy government resumed its nuclear tests in the atmosphere. The national liberation movement of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America has gained new momentum. In complete opposition to the illusions N. Khrushchev is trying to create among the oppressed peoples about awaiting their liberation from a resolution of the United Nations Organization, or from complete and general disarmament, the peoples have taken up arms. After seven years of sacrifice, through bloodshed and struggle, the Algerian people imposed a cease-fire on French imperialism and won their right to independence; the peoples of the Congo, Laos, and South Vietnam are fighting arms in hand. Everywhere, on all the fundamental questions of the development of the international situation, it is clearly apparent that our Party is right, that, its line is in conformity with the teachings of Leninism, hence it is a revolutionary line, while N. Khrushchev with his revisionist, anti-Marxist line to the detriment of the interests of the peoples, is wrong.
The just struggle of principle of our Party against the Khrushchev group, its heroic resistance to his attacks and pressure, as well as the development of international events, not in the direction which the revisionists want, but in the opposite direction, have further strengthened the positions of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism in the ranks of the international communist and workers' movement. Not only the Party of Labour of Albania and the Communist Party of China, but also many other parties are resolutely defending the correct Marxist-Leninist positions. The line followed by N. Khrushchev against our Party has been publicly criticised, also, by the Communist Party of New Zealand and many other parties.
Neither is N. Khrushchev finding the support he needs even among his loyal allies in the ranks of the parties of the socialist countries of Europe. This is clearly seen in their stand towards our Party and our country.
How is it explained?
First, it is connected with the wise tactics pursued by our Party of Labour. Our Party has been and is convinced that the leaderships of the parties of the European socialist countries take Khrushchev's position. But, as is known, our struggle has been concentrated on the exposure of N. Khrushchev and his followers. This correct tactical differentiation placed the leaderships of the parties of the European socialist countries in a difficult position, since they did not find any formal pretext to undertake actions similar to those of N. Khrushchev against our country. It must be said that in order to create such a pretext they have committed many provocations against our Party, especially through intensive oral and written propaganda, through their official organs. But our Party has always manoeuvred cool-headedly and wisely.
Second, the fact that the leaderships of the European socialist countries did not follow N. Khrushchev in all his measures against our Party and country also expresses the existence of contradictions among them, which is quite logical, because there can never be unity and mutual trust among opportunists and revisionists.
As a conclusion, we may say that the just, principled struggle of our Party against the Khrushchev group, the consistent Marxist-Leninist stand of the Communist Party of China and the other parties as well as the development of events in the world contrary to the wishes of the revisionists have placed N. Khrushchev and his followers in a difficult position. They are realizing that the ground is slipping from under their feet, that their anti-Marxist-Leninist features are being exposed. But it is clear that N. Khrushchev is not giving up his opportunist course and his aims against the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist movement. That is why he is trying to manoeuvre, to change his tactics in order to attain the same objectives by other means. Khrushchev's change of tactics is also connected with the strong pressure being exerted by a number of fraternal communist and workers' parties of different countries, who want to find ways for the re-establishment of Marxist-Leninist unity in the ranks of the international communist movement and the socialist camp.
Recently, several communist and workers' parties have sent letters to the CC of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the CC of the Communist Party of China, and the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania. In these letters they express their deep concern about the undesirable situation created in the socialist camp and the international communist movement following Khrushchev's publicizing of our disagreements at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and make an appeal for finding ways to re-establish unity, on the basis of the principles defined in the 1960 Moscow Declaration. In order to settle the existing differences they propose a meeting of the representatives of the three parties – the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of China, and the Party of Labour of Albania, or a meeting of the representatives of the communist and workers' parties of the socialist countries, or, eventually, a meeting of the representatives of all the communist and workers' parties of the world.
The Central Committee of our Party has sent the leaderships of these parties the appropriate answers. In its reply, the Central Committee of our Party points out that it understands the concern of these parties about the situation created in the relations between our Party and country and the Khrushchev group, and that it highly appreciates their efforts for settling the differences and strengthening the unity of the socialist countries and the international communist movement.
The Central Committee of our Party points out also that it has constantly striven and proposed that the differences with the Soviet leadership should be resolved on a Marxist-Leninist basis, in conditions of complete equality and independence, in the spirit of comradely consultations. There is clear and detailed evidence of this in the correspondence between the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, however, the Khrushchev group paid no heed to our proposals. It went on ever more brutally with its anti-Marxist activity aimed at the worsening of the relations between our two parties and countries to the maximum. It went to such lengths as to attack our Party publicly, from the rostrum of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in fact to break off diplomatic relations with our country, and to launch a frenzied anti-Marxist campaign against the Party of Labour of Albania, utilizing the vilest slanders of the reactionary bourgeois press as “arguments”.
N. Khrushchev tried to exploit the initiative taken by those parties for his own hostile purposes. In February this year, the CC of the CPSU addressed a letter to the CC of the CP of China. In the letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, apart from utterly hypocritical words about unity, attempts are made to drive wedges between fraternal parties which stand resolutely for Marxist-Leninist principles, concretely, between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania, to set aside and isolate our Party, as if the issue of the relations with the Party of Labour of Albania and the People's Republic of Albania were a separate problem, which allegedly is not connected with the question of the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist movement.
It should be noted that, in the letter of the Soviet leadership, terms such as “we should look forward, not backward”, “we should consider what unites us and not what divides us”, etc., etc., are used. The comrades will recall that N. Khrushchev has always used such terms whenever he has been seeking agreement and rapprochement with the U.S. imperialists or the Titoite revisionist clique. From this it can be inferred that N. Khrushchev is not in the least concerned about the Marxist-Leninist unity of the socialist camp but is only indulging in demagogy.
This is the essence of the above letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In April this year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sent its reply to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
After acquainting itself with the content of the letters of the CC of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the CC of the Communist Party of China, the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania found it reasonable to express its opinion once again on the differences in the ranks of the socialist camp and the communist movement, and on the state of relations between our Party and country and the present Soviet leadership. To this end, in April this year, the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania sent the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China a letter in which our Party's view on these questions was expressed.
In its letter, the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania observes with satisfaction that both our Party and the Communist Party of China proceed from the same basic principles – from the teachings of Marxism-Leninism – in defining their line and views on all questions facing the international communist and workers' movement. Among other things, the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania stresses that:
“The unity of the socialist camp and the international communist and workers' movement has been and is being gravely harmed by the anti-Marxist views and activity of the Khrushchev group that has departed from the fundamental teachings of Marxism-Leninism and has violated and is still brutally violating the principles of the 1957 and 1960 Moscow Declarations, both in regard to the main questions of present-day world developments and in regard to the relations which should exist among socialist countries and Marxist-Leninist parties, and this is only to the advantage of our common enemy – imperialism”.
The letter brings out many facts and arguments which prove that the views of N. Khrushchev and his group, as well as his disruptive anti-Marxist activities, are opportunist and revisionist.
"The actions of N. Khrushchev and his group”, says the letter, “are the deliberate actions of a revisionist who sees the danger of his exposure in the correct and principled line and stand of the parties which stand firm on the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist principles, and therefore, is striving by every means to subdue them, to impose his own anti-Marxist line on them, to discredit and isolate them”.
“The anti-Marxist and hostile stand of the group of N. Khrushchev towards the Party of Labour of Albania and the People's Republic of Albania”, points out the letter of the Central Committee of our Party, “is neither an isolated nor fortuitous action, but a logical consequence of his whole anti-Marxist line, It is one of the steps in the context of his activity aimed at splitting and subduing the socialist camp and the entire international communist and workers' movement, in order to impose his revisionist line on them, a clear expression of the methods he uses to further his aims. N. Khrushchev thought that the Party of Labour of Albania, as the party of a small socialist country, was the link which could be broken most easily, the most suitable target for his attacks because, by attacking and subduing it, he would be able to attack, intimidate and subdue the others, to impose his revisionist line on them”.
In its letter, the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania stressed that it is in complete accord with the opinion of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China that, for an agreement on unity to be reached, first of all, the grave situation in Soviet-Albanian relations created on the initiative of N. Khrushchev must be cleared up. The letter says: “The Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania holds that an indispensable condition for achieving Marxist-Leninist unity in our movement and its further strengthening is the rigorous implementation of the principles of independence, equality and comradely consultations in the relations among the fraternal communist and workers' parties. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that the course of violation of these principles by the Khrushchev group must be resolutely stopped, and the anti-Marxist actions and methods it uses in order to impose its revisionist line on the entire international communist and workers' movement, which leads to the further deepening of the split among the forces of socialism, must be condemned in a resolute and principled way. The first step and the touchstone to prove that N. Khrushchev and his group genuinely reject these anti-Marxist methods and activities would be admission on his part of his grave mistakes in regard to the Party of Labour of Albania and the People's Republic of Albania, which have been subjected to savage public attacks by N. Khrushchev. If N. Khrushchev does not honestly and publicly admit his grave mistake towards our Party and our country, as well as towards other fraternal parties, this means that he is not sincerely for unity but is only manoeuvring with words about unity, that he is trying to gain time, seeking a respite, dictated by the failures his policy is suffering, and secretly trying to prepare fresh attacks on unity; this means that he intends to persist in his anti-Marxist course of violating the principles of independence and equality in the relations among the communist and workers' parties and the socialist countries, thus making any comradely and equal consultation among fraternal parties impossible.
Apart from this, with his political and economic pressure and blackmail and, especially, his savage slanderous attacks on the Party of Labour of Albania and its leadership, with his breaking off of diplomatic relations with Albania and his public appeals for the overthrow of the Albanian leadership, N. Khrushchev has, in fact, posed unacceptable preconditions for negotiations with our Party, and has put our Party in conditions of inequality. Without the elimination of these preconditions there cannot be any kind of comradely consultations, based on the principles of independence and complete equality, which have been clearly defined in the 1960 Declaration of the Communist and Workers' Parties, while without comradely consultations, without strictly adhering to the principles of independence and equality among the fraternal parties, no kind of unity is possible”.
In its letter, the Central Committee of our Party stresses that it is fully confident that the other fraternal parties, too, even those parties which are not yet clear, will understand this correctly. "Speaking of the course which should be followed to prepare the ground for the elimination of differences in the socialist camp and for the normalization of Albanian-Soviet relations, this is not a matter of satisfying 'our national pride' but of restoring and defending the Leninist principles in the relations among fraternal parties and socialist countries. Failure to condemn the anti-Marxist methods and actions of N. Khrushchev, which have been expressed in the most open and brutal manner in his stand towards the Party of Labour of Albania and the People's Republic of Albania, not only gives no guarantee that they will not be repeated in the future towards some other fraternal party or socialist country, but, on the contrary, encourages him to proceed further on his dangerous course, to cause still greater damage to our unity”.
This, in general outline, is the content of the letter which the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania addressed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in April this year, in which our Party's stand in connection with the question of unity is clearly expressed.
Dear comrades,
Our Party has always been and always will be for the unity of the international communist movement. It has fought with determination and in a principled manner for the strengthening of this unity on the sound basis of Marxism-Leninism. Proceeding from this principled position, our Party has always stood loyal to the common line of the international communist movement and has resolutely put this line into practice. In its relations with the sister parties and fraternal socialist countries our Party has always rigorously upheld the principles of proletarian internationalism, equality and independence, of non-interference in each other's internal affairs and of fraternal mutual aid and support, of reaching unity by means of comradely consultations.
As a resolute fighter for unity, the Party of Labour of Albania has been, is, and always will be, for the preservation and strengthening of unity in the international communist movement. Our Party has fought and is fighting not for any kind of unity in the socialist camp and in the international communist movement, but for a sound unity, based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, for a unity in struggle against imperialism and the renegades from Marxism-Leninism, the modern revisionists. The struggle for unity and the struggle against the splitters of unity, the modern revisionists, cannot be separated. Only such a Marxist-Leninist unity can be the truly effective and durable unity which the international communist movement needs. Precisely because it has upheld and upholds such a principled stand on the question of unity, our Party has been savagely attacked by the enemies of Marxism-Leninism and of our unity – N. Khrushchev and his supporters.
The ground is slipping from under the feet of N. Khrushchev and his group. N. Khrushchev is seeing the danger of his complete exposure, therefore he is striving to come out with the banner of "unity”, tomanoeuvre with words about "unity”, in order to gain time, to gain a kind of reprieve, to deceive the communist and workers' parties, and prepare fresh attacks on unity. This tactic of N. Khrushchev's is especially dangerous now, when the problem of unity is seriously worrying the parties and the communists the world over. In these conditions, it is all the more necessary for the parties which stand resolutely on sound Marxist-Leninist positions to take the banner of the unity of the international communist movement into their own bands, to take the initiative in this direction, and thus expose the tactical manoeuvres of N. Khrushchev. It should be borne in mind that N. Khrushchev is not yet fully exposed in the communist movement as a splitter of the socialist camp and the communist movement and as an anti-Marxist.
Of course, the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania thinks that the Khrushchev group will not admit its mistakes, that it will not make self-criticism. We are already well acquainted with the revisionists. We have seen what the Tito clique is, and we know that they never, under any circumstances, made self-criticism, or gave up their anti-Marxist course. We know the Khrushchev group, too, and we are convinced that it will try to take the opportunity to make its revisionist activity more refined, to increase its efforts, both against our Party and against the socialist camp and the international communist movement, in other forms.
The Central Committee requires that the party organizations and all the communists understand the stand of our Party in connection with the issue of unity in the present situation correctly, that they combat illusions that may be created from the fact that, for the time being, our press will not speak out against N. Khrushchev, etc. On the other hand, the party organizations should further step up their word of mouth propaganda, through conferences, lectures and talks with the masses of the people, to expose the revisionist views and activities of the Khrushchev group. It must be thoroughly understood that the line of the Party remains unchanged, remains what it has been, therefore it should be well publicized among the masses. On this question, you will have the aid of our press, which will write more about the various problems, presenting our line in all its aspects.
As always, the Central Committee is informing all the members of our Party about the situation created in recent times in the international communist and workers' movement. Therefore, this letter should be discussed and analysed in all the party basic organizations by 30th May, 1962.
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania
Enver Hoxha
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