(Reproduced from the daily «Zeri i Popullit», February 7, 1963)
Recent events, more concretely the affinity to and the full reconciliation of the Soviet leaders and their followers with the treacherous Tito clique, the congresses of the communist and workers parties of Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic which indulged in bitter public attacks on Marxist-Leninist parties, N. Khrushchev’s speech to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on December 17, 1962 as well as N. Khrushchev’s speech at the 6th Congress of the German United Socialist Party on January 16, 1963, pointed out very clearly that a serious danger is threatening the international communist and workers movement and its unity.
In the above events the true Marxist-Leninists see open attempts to throw both Moscow Declarations overboard in order to split the communist movement and the socialist camp. That is why the communist and workers parties loyal to Marxism-Leninism, every communist and revolutionary, raise their voice today higher than ever in defense of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism, in defense of the Moscow Declarations, in defense of the militant unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement. The communist and workers, parties, every communist, are faced today with a great test of historical responsibility. To pass this test with success requires Marxist-Leninist devotion to principle, political and ideological clarity and determination, the power to distinguish right from wrong, truth from falsity, friend from foe.
Calls for unity and its reestablishment come from many directions. True unity is upheld by the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists. Compelled by the weakness of their positions and the resistance they encounter in carrying out their opportunist line, the revisionists too speak of unity in a demagogical way While the Marxist-Leninists strive to attain true militant unity, unity based on the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, the revisionists try to establish false unity based on a revisionist platform. While the Marxists strive for unity by upholding the banner of the 1957 and 1960 Moscow Declarations, the revisionists strive for unity by rejecting the Moscow Declarations, by discarding their basic theses one after the other.
The interests of the revolution and of socialism demand of every communist party and of every consistent revolutionary for whom the unity of the communist movement and of the socialist camp is dear, not words and declarations of no value, but concrete deeds in favor of unity. And the main requirement is that they all align themselves without fail with the militant Moscow Declarations, that they all respect their basic principles and norms, that they all strive unwaveringly to carry out in theory and in practice their theses and conclusions in both the present problems of world development as well as in matters pertaining to the tactics and strategy of the international communist and workers movement. There is no other way out. Either with the Moscow Declarations and for unity or against the Moscow Declarations and for dissension.
Let us defend the Moscow Declarations and consolidate unity on their basis.
The unity of the international communist movement is seriously at stake because a revisionist trend, opposed to Marxism-Leninism, has manifested itself among its ranks, a thing that has given rise to deep misunderstandings in a range of important issues having to do with the theoretical and practical activity of the communist and workers parties. The first group of problems over which misunderstandings have sprung up are connected with the problems of peace and war, of the attitude towards the imperialists and the struggle against them, of the theoretical conception and the practical application of the policy of peaceful coexistence, of the stand towards the national-liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples, of the ways towards transition to socialism and so on.
While our Party of Labor as well as the other fraternal parties abide by the principles and conclusions of the Moscow Declarations, N. Khrushchev’s revisionist group and those who follow them pursue in all these matters/ both in theory and practical activity, a revisionist and opportunist line which has nothing in common with the 1957 and 1960 Moscow Declarations.
In contrast to the teachings of Marxism-Leninism and to the joint conclusions of the representatives of the 81 fraternal parties, the modern revisionists try by all manner or means to embellish imperialism, to spread illusions among the masses as if American imperialism is no longer an enemy of peace throughout the world and, as a consequence, it is not longer necessary to oppose the policy of aggression and of war which it pursues, that in general and particularly m the Caribbean crisis Kennedy showed concern about safeguarding peace, that the hopes of attaining peace throughout the world should be based on «mutual leniency», on «discussions» with and «reasonable concessions» to imperialism. In order to work out these views the revisionists, as experience has shown, do not only hesitate to trample underfoot the vital interests of peoples, by relinquishing the revolutionary principled, but they firmly demand, as noted in N. Khrushchev’s recent speeches, that others should sacrifice their revolutionary principles, too, and to beg a boon of peace from the imperialists. The revisionists attach no value to the struggle of peoples in exposing the warmongering and aggressive policy of the imperialists; and in intercepting them. They claim, as N. Khrushchev himself has stated, that the strife and struggle of peoples are «empty words of no value», peoples only «prattle» and this «disturbs no one».
In their views and practical activity the revisionists supersede the national-liberation movement and the revolutionary wars of peoples with the struggle to maintain peace. According to their points of view the oppressed peoples should receive their freedom as a «gift» from imperialism and reaction, from the achievement of peaceful coexistence and general and total disarmament, and they should not rise up and attain it by a clash of arms, for otherwise a nuclear war might allegedly be provoked and world peace might be risked. This is the true meaning of N. Khrushchev’s words pronounced on January 16, 1963, that «no problem of the revolutionary movement of the working class) and of the national-liberation movement can now be taken up without due regard to the struggle for peace, to the avoidance of the nuclear war».
The Marxist-Leninist conclusions of the Moscow Declarations regarding peaceful coexistence are substituted in theory and practice by the revisionists with totally opportunist conceptions, with conceptions, according to which the antagonism between the two systems, the socialist and capitalist systems, the antagonism between the oppressed and the oppressor nations are disappearing, the Leninist teachings on the class struggle are rejected, substituting it with class collaboration in international proportions, as far as propagating the «political and economic integration of the world».
The views of N. Khrushchev’s group in connection with the ways: towards transition to socialism are likewise different from those of the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. The whole nucleus of his revisionist arguments is to make the communist and workers parties, the proletariat and the working masses renounce the revolution, the determined struggle for overthrowing capitalist enslavement and to throw them into a state of passive inertness, pending the establishment of favorable conditions for «peaceful transition» to socialism. In his address to the Congress of the German United Socialist Party, N. Khrushchev tried to justify his revisionist views on the peaceful way, by reminding the Party of Labor of Albania that J.V. Stalin too has spoken on this matter. No one has any doubts on this. For J.V. Stalin, as a true Marxist-Leninist, could not have opposed the peaceful way of transition to socialism as a possibility. This has always been and is clear to the Marxist-Leninists. But the evil of it all lies in the fact that a clear point of this kind is purposely jumbled by N. Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by proclaiming the possibility of peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism as a «novelty«-, making the peaceful way absolute, by presenting it as the tangible possibility under present conditions, a thing which aimed at arousing that confusion which actually spread among the ranks of some fraternal communist and workers parties..
By pursuing in theory and practice an anti-Marxist line in these matters, N. Khrushchev’s group and all the modem revisionists have caused and continue to cause great disservice to the communist movement, to its militant unity and to the unity of the separate parties, to the struggle of peoples for peace, freedom, national independence and socialism. By pursuing a line of this kind, different from that jointly adopted by the representatives of the 81 fraternal communist and workers parties, they have acted and act at variance with the instructions of the Moscow Declaration which emphasizes: «The interests of the communist movement demand the undivided application by each communist party of the assessments and conclusions regarding the general task of the struggle against imperialism in defense of peace, democracy and socialism which are jointly elaborated by the fraternal parties in their meetings-.
The Party of Labor of Albania has abided and continues to abide by the basic teachings to Marxism-Leninism and the Moscow Declarations in all matters pertaining to present world developments, to the strategy and tactics of the international communist and workers movement. It is futile for the revisionists to try, as they have done and are doing, to misrepresent our correct stand in these matters and the struggle of principle which it wages in defense of the cause of the revolution, of peace and of socialism. Their intention is clear: by misrepresenting the correct attitude and struggle of our Party, of the Chinese Communist Party and of the other Marxist-Leninist parties, they want to sell off their policy of unprincipled compromise and leniency towards imperialism, of fear, of capitulation and submission to it, their line of withdrawal from the revolutionary and national-liberation struggle of peoples, as a Marxist-Leninist line and to legalize revisionism and reformism in the international communist movement.
To speak of unity in the communist movement and in the socialist camp while violating at every step the conclusions of the Moscow Declarations in basic matters' and adopting a line at variance with the interests of peoples and of socialism, as N. Khrushchev's revisionist group do, means to waylay the communists and the people and to practice demagogy, to be in favor of dissension and against unity or to seek a false unity based on an anti-Marxist, revisionist platform, to maintain an attitude based on a revisionist platform and at variance with the common line towards the various events and important issues of the day and, on the other hand, to demand, as N. Khrushchev does, that the Marxist-Leninists refrain from expressing their views in defense of the Moscow Declarations, means to continue to consciously pursue the line of betrayal to the interests of the people and of socialism by removing every obstacle standing in the way of the attainment of these ends.
Either with the Jugoslav revisionists and for dissension or against Jugoslav revisionists and for unity
The other major issue on which there are deep misunderstandings is the stand towards the Jugoslav revisionist leaders. The international communist and workers movement has exposed and condemned the traitors to Marxism-Leninism and to the cause of socialism, the Jugoslav revisionists. It has waged a continuous war of principle against their arrant anti-Marxist views and undermining and dissentient deeds of the Jugoslav revisionists. It has considered this war as its primary duty in defense of the purity of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine and of the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist movement. This unanimous stand towards the Jugoslav revisionists is clearly expressed and sanctioned in the joint programmatic document of the communist and workers movement, in the 1960 Moscow Declaration. It reads: «The Communist parties unanimously condemned the Jugoslav form of international opportunism which is the concentrated expression of the <theories» of the present revisionists. Having betrayed Marxism-Leninism by proclaiming it out of date, the leaders of the League of Jugoslav Communists set off their anti-Leninist and revisionist programme to the 1957 Declaration, set off the League of the Jugoslav Communists to the whole international communist movement, detached their country from the socialist camp, placed under the dependence of the so-called «aid» of the American and other imperialists, and in this way endangered the revolutionary achievements attained by the heroic struggle of the Jugoslav people. The Jugoslav revisionists carry on undermining work against the socialist camp and the international communist movement. Under the pretext of a policy of non-alignment they carry on activities' which prejudice the cause of unity and of all the peace-loving forces and states. Further exposure of the leaders of the Jugoslav revisionists and active attempts to keep the communist and workers movement free from the anti-Leninist views of the Jugoslav revisionists continue to be an essential duty of the Marxist-Leninist parties».
But in spite the clear stand of the entire international communist movement towards the Jugoslav revisionist leaders, N. Khrushchev and his followers pursuing under all kinds of pretexts the line of approach and reconciliation with the Jugoslav revisionists, rehabilitated the Titoite clique and went so far as to join up with them completely. Specially L. Brezhniev’s visit to Jugoslavia last September and Tito’s visit to the Soviet Union, N. Khrushchev’s speech to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on December 12, 1962 and the recent 6th Congress of the German United Socialist Party crowned N. Khrushchev’s continuous efforts to attain this objective. Now, having arbitrarily dubbed the League of Jugoslav Communists as a «fraternal party» and Jugoslavia as a «socialist country-, he is trying to make the inclusion of Jugoslavia in the family of socialist states and that of the League of Jugoslav Communists into the ranks of the international communist and workers movement as a fait accompli.
The attitude towards the Jugoslav revisionist group, towards their programme and policy is a matter of principle, is one of the main criteria by which to judge to what political and ideological positions the leadership of this or that party stands. The Jugoslav revisionists are the vanguard of the modern revisionists, their programme is the code of present revisionism, they are agents of the imperialists, in the first place of the American imperialists from which, they keep receiving millions and billions of dollars in the form of credits and «aids» for services rendered to them through all their views and acts in materializing the counter-revolutionary strategy of the American imperialists.
To concur with the Jugoslav revisionists would mean to accept their views summed up in the programme of the League of Jugoslav Communists as correct Marxist-Leninist views and to renounce the basic teachings of Marxism-Leninism which the Jugoslav revisionists have proclaimed as «out-of-date», to discard the 1957 and 1960 Moscow Declarations which they have dubbed as «formal», «bureaucratic» and «dogmatic.
To agree with the Jugoslav revisionists would mean to revise all the strategy and tactics of the international communist and workers movement, to substitute its revolutionary Marxist-Leninist line specified in the Moscow Declarations with the strategy and tactics of the Tito clique, with its anti-Marxist and opportunist line of submission to imperialism, of World economic and political integration, of deterioration of socialism.
To concur with the Jugoslav revisionists would mean to turn one’s back upon the true unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement based on Marxist-Leninist principles and on the Moscow Declarations and to bid fair for a false unity based on the ideological anti-Marxist platform of the programme of the League of Jugoslav communists.
To join up with the Jugoslav revisionists would mean to wipe out the distinction between friends and foes, between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism, between the defenders and the splitters of unity, between the opponents of imperialism and their agents, it would mean to make common cause w.th and to support the enemies of socialism, the renegades of Marxism, the splitters of unity and agents of imperialism who plot against socialist countries.
The arbitrary rehabilitation of Tito’s clique, the reconciliation and complete union with the Jugoslav revisionists, the attempts to usher this «Trojan Horse» in the international communist movement, constitute one of the most arrant and open violations of the 1960 Moscow Declaration unanimously adopted by all the fraternal parties. Through these acts N. Khrushchev clearly demonstrated that right from the start he had been opposed to the condemnation of the Jugoslav revisionists on the part of the international communist movement at the Moscow meeting, but formally agreed to it and signed the Moscow Declaration in order to temporarily mask his intentions which he has recently disclosed. Now he openly calls the Declaration «a stereotype» and states that «it would be erroneous to denounce as renegades all those who do not abide by this stereotype». But are we now to consider as Marxist-Leninists all those who are opposed to the Moscow Declarations and renegades and anti-Marxists those who abide by the Moscow Declarations?
But regardless of the subjective opinions that N. Khrushchev or anyone else may have, on what authority does he arbitrarily revise the Moscow Declaration, a joint document of the entire international communist movement? How can one consider this scornful attitude of N. Khrushchev’s towards the joint documents of all the fraternal parties otherwise than an attempt to place himself above the entire international communist movement and to dictate his will and force his revisionist views on them? This is an open act of dissension undermining the unity of the world communist movement.
Under compulsion of having to justify this open violation of the Declaration of the 81 communist and workers parties before the Soviet party and people, before the international communist movement, N. Khrushchev stated in his address to the Supreme Soviet that the Jugoslav leaders have allegedly made «some major changes in their internal and foreign policy» that they have allegedly «made good many of their former mistakes», that they have allegedly made «strides ahead towards getting closer to and uniting with the entire world communist movement-. But he said nothing concrete as to where, in what matters the Jugoslav revisionists seem to have changed their anti-Marxist line of action, what are concretely the «mistakes» which they seem "to have corrected. And there is nothing concrete for him to say for nothing ha-, happened in this connection. The Jugoslav revisionist leaders themselves have more than once stated that they have made no change whatsoever, that their program and their policy are what they have been, that they do not intend to make any changes in the days to come either. They have firmly denied the statements of those who like to make believe that changes have allegedly been made in the policy of Jugoslavia and in the program of the League of Jugoslav Communist, they have called them «ridiculous and absurd» and they have counseled the authors of these statements to withdraw them and not to nurture vain hopes. Even recently, at the Congress of the Jugoslav Youth, Tito stated once again that Jugoslavia «has neither changed nor intends to make any changes in its policy-.
Consequently, facts; show that those who speak of changes in the policy of the Tito clique deceive the communist movement that if anyone has made changes, it is precisely N. Khrushchev's group who has done so.
N. Khrushchev and his followers have not only changed their attitude and have already joined up completely with the Belgrade revisionists by discarding as worthless the 1960 Moscow Declaration, but they are trying to force this affinity and reconciliation with the Tito clique, on all the parties, to the entire international communist movement. And while singing the praises to the Jugoslav revisionists they bitterly condemn all those parties which, being true to the Moscow Declarations) and carrying out the tasks specified by it, criticize and expose the Jugoslav revisionists. In their assaults against these fraternal parties they even reproach the Party of Labor of Albania with wanting to establish the «law of the jungle» and «morality of beasts» in its relation with Jugoslavia. But it is publicly known that like all Marxist-Leninist parties, it abides by the Moscow Declarations in this matter, and within the bounds of its possibilities, it renders its contribution in the joint struggle against the Jugoslav revisionists, in exposing their hostile views and acts both against the People’s Republic of Albania as well as against the socialist camp and the international communist movement as a whole. To call this struggle a «law of the jungle» and «morals of beasts» means, in fact, to call by this, name the thesis of the Moscow Declaration, regarding the Jugoslav revisionists and the duty which it lays before all the communist and workers parties to further unmask them.
The «law of the jungle» and the «morals of beasts» have been put into the groundwork of their policy not by the Albanians but by N. Khrushchev's friends and allies, the Jugoslav revisionists, by their attitude towards the People’s Republic of Albania and the Albanian people. N. Khrushchev is very well aware of this. Because, as the official account of the talks between N. Khrushchev and the member of the Titoite leadership, Vukmanovich Tempo, on January 16, 1960, a document kept in the archives of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania, points out, N. Khrushchev at that time stated to Tempo the following: «Comrade Enver Hoxha told me that the Jugoslav intelligence Service smuggles to Albania murderers and spies who organize acts of terror against Albanian citizens. The Albanian comrades say that the Jugoslavs have their agents in Albania and I believe Comrade Enver Hoxha because you maintain your agents in other countries as well». N. Khrushchev stated also: «We consider it erroneous when you conscientiously pursue the policy of assaults against Albania. This is prejudicial to the entire cause of socialism». And, true enough, the Jugoslav revisionists have for years in succession organized and organize acts of diversion and criminal plots in order to overthrow the people’s regime in Albania, by collaborating for this purpose with their ally of the Balkan Pact, the Greek monarcho-fascists and with the American imperialists. In accordance with the «law of the jungle» and the «morals of beasts» the Jugoslav revisionists together with their friends are trying now also to hatch fresh plots against our socialist Fatherland. N. Khrushchev who has changed «shirts» by calling our party and our people «beasts» and the Belgrade revisionists «victims», has taken the Tito clique under his protection and in fact supports their conspiratory activity against the People’s Republic of Albania. But he who supposes that Albania can be easily swallowed up through acts of diversion and plots, he who presumes that little Albania can be vanquished, is grossly mistaken.
At the 6th Congress of the German United Socialist Party things went so far as to maintain an unseemly attitude towards, and organize a very shameful scandal of no precedence in the history of the international communist and workers movement against the delegate of the great Communist Party of China invited to that Congress at the same time that the frantic foe of the communist movement, the Belgrade revisionist clique, was ardently supported and its representative was received with ovation. And this all happened because the delegate of the Communist Party of China, on the basis of the 1960 Moscow Declaration, said the truth about the Jugoslav revisionists. Whereas the representatives of certain other fraternal parties who uphold the purity of Marxism-Leninism and express themselves against the Jugoslav revisionists, among whom the representative of the Party of Labor of Korea, were altogether denied the right to address to the Congress.
How can such an insolent and hostile attitude be maintained towards a fraternal party like the Communist Party of China which has striven and strives with heroism far the great cause of socialism and communism, which has wisely and courageously led and leads the great Chinese people of 700 millions from victory to victory, which loyally abides by the teachings of Marxism-Leninism and the Moscow Declarations, which firmly upholds the purity of the revolutionary ideology of the proletariat and the cause of the unity and compactness of the socialist camp and of the international communist and workers movement, for the sake of a clique of renegades? It is clear to every Marxist-Leninist, to every honest man who seriously upholds the anti-imperialist line, it is very clear to them all that to maintain a hostile attitude towards the glorious Communist Party of China, as the modern revisionists do, especially at these moments when world reaction with the American imperialists at the head from Kennedy to the Indian reactionary circles and the social chauvinist traitors, of the type of Dange and Company, are trying to set up a broad front against the People's Republic of China, against this powerful stronghold of the struggle against imperialism, the stronghold of the liberation and socialist movement, when a frantic campaign of monstrous inventions and dangerous provocations, and aggressive acts has been launched, means to join in the anti-Chinese reactionary chorus and to openly depart from proletarian internationalist solidarity.
These facts are very significative. They clearly demonstrate that those who undertake such acts join with those against whom they should join up and strengthen the compactness against the imperialists and renegades for the triumph of the cause of socialism and communism. Those who follow this line actually wreck the unity of the international communist movement, for this unity can be preserved and strengthened not by joining up with the foes of socialism and communism like the Belgrade revisionists, but on the basis of the war against revisionism as the principal menace to the communist movement, on the basis of the principles of Marxism-Leninism, of proletarian internationalism, of the Moscow Declarations.
Firm and zealous pursuance of the line of rehabilitating the Tito clique on one hand, and the hue and cry about unity, about removing misunderstandings in the movement and about the preparations for the meeting of international communism, on the other, are two different things that exclude each other. The question is posed thus: either with the renegades of Marxism, with the treacherous Tito clique against the Moscow Declarations and for the rupture of unity, or with the Moscow Declarations for exposing the activity of the Jugoslav revisionists and for the Marxist-Leninist unity of the movement.
Unity can be strengthened by observing the norms of relations among the fraternal parties and fraternal countries, not by formal statements about unity.
Divergences in the international communist and workers movement extend also in the field of concrete application of the norms that govern the relations among the communist and workers parties and the socialist countries.
«All the Marxist-Leninist parties» the 1960 Moscow Declaration has it, «are independent, equal, they elaborate their policy proceeding from the concrete conditions of their countries, guided by the principles of Marxism-Leninism and give one another mutual support». These norms are the practical application of the principles of proletarian internationalism in the relations among the fraternal communist and workers parties. Strict observance of them is an indispensable condition to the preservation and consolidation of the unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement. While non-observance of them, their violation, undermines unity and leads inevitably to the mire of nationalism and chauvinism.
The grave situation created within the communist movement, the serious danger of dissension threatening it, arises also from the fact that these norms have been trampled underfoot and brutally violated. A most outstanding and clear example of this is set by the attitude and activity of N. Khrushchev’s group towards the Party of Labor and the People’s Republic of Albania. The problem of Soviet-Albanian relations is an important issue of principle for it is a question of open attempts to force a line and view at variance with the platform of the Moscow Declarations upon other parties by totally inadmissible methods, by perilous acts which undermine the unity of the socialist camp and of the communist movement. The anti-Marxist attitude of N. Khrushchev’s group towards the Party of Labor and the People’s Republic of Albania is not an isolated and casual act, but it is the logical consequence of its entire line and activity which is at variance with the general line of the Moscow Declaration, it is one of the links within the framework of the attempts to subjugate and split the socialist camp and the communist movement at large.
In the international communist and workers movement there are big and small, old and new parties of more or less experience, but there are no superior and inferior parties, parties that lead and parties that are led, commanding parties and subjected parties. Every attempt to place oneself above the other parties, to make the decisions of one party, whatever that party be, binding for all the parties, to subjugate the fraternal parties and to force on them the views of a party, cannot be considered other than a manifestation of the chauvinism of the big state, of selfishness, of the haughtiness and patriarchal vein of the man who pretends that he is the communist movement, that he and he alone is the embodiment of wisdom and of truth, that what lie says is law and all should obey.
True to the Leninist norms and principles which govern the relations among fraternal parties and fraternal countries, the Party of Labor of Albania has, striven against every violation of these norms and principles, for their strict observance, so that the unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement may be preserved and strengthened. It acted thus at the Bucharest June 1960 meeting, where it opposed the inadmissible methods used by N. Khrushchev and the leaders of certain fraternal parties in arbitrarily attacking and condemning another fraternal party, the Communist Party of China, a thing which dealt a hard blow to the unity of the socialist camp and of the communist movement.
Proceeding from the intention of further strengthening the socialist camp and the communist movement, forestalling any act or method which prejudices this unity, the Party of Labor of Albania, through comrade Enver Hoxha’s speech, delivered at the Moscow meeting of 81 parties, in November 1960, expressed its views regarding the extremely important problems which preoccupy the communist movement and criticised in the spirit of comradeship and frankness the N. Khrushchev’s erred attitude towards the problem of J.V. Stalin, towards the Jugoslav revisionists and so on, as well as certain inadmissible acts, of his towards the Party of Labor of Albania and other fraternal parties. The Party of Labor of Albania made these remarks not out in the public square but in a meeting of communists, complying to rules and only in order to correct mistakes and further strengthen the unity of the communist movement.
Unfortunately the voice of our Party and of the other fraternal parties was not only turned a deaf ear to, but the Party of Labor of Albania was subjected to attacks and unheard-of slanders, to most insulting harangues; it was reproached with being «anti-Marxist», «dogmatic», «venturesome», «warmongering», «street urchin» and so on. This can by no means be considered a comradely stand, it has nothing in common with mutual respect among fraternal parties. The representatives of many communist and workers parties were fully justified in expressing their deep uneasiness at the fact that a fraternal party was subjected to bitter attacks and slanders only because it criticised in a Marxist way N. Khrushchev’s erroneous conduct. This uneasiness is lawful, for tolerating a method of this kind would create a dangerous precedence towards anyone who would dare to freely express his own views in an international meeting of communists in the days to come.
In order to preserve and strengthen the unity of the socialist camp which lies at the root of the unity of the international communist movement it is altogether inadmissible that ideological misunderstandings that may arise among parties should extend to the field of state relations. A conduct of this kind aggravates the misunderstandings and leads to a split. To extend the ideological divergences into the field of the state relations between socialist countries, to force your line on others, means to renounce the principle of equality and comradeship and to replace it with the principle of the cudgel and whip, of subjugation and of compulsion. This is precisely how N. Khrushchev behaved towards the People’s Republic of Albania following the Bucharest meeting and particularly following the 1960 Moscow meeting. Rigorous measures were taken against our country in all fields: all credits were unilaterally suspended, all Soviet specialists were withdrawn from Albania, all Albanian students were expelled from the Soviet Union, all trade, military and other agreements were annulled, they went even so far to sever diplomatic relations with a socialist country, with the People’s Republic of Albania, an act without precedent. In short, all-round attempts were made to establish a strict economic and political blockade around the People’s Republic of Albania, similar to that of the USA against Cuba. Why did N. Khrushchev adopt such an entirely hostile attitude towards a fraternal socialist country like the People’s Republic of Albania, brutally trampling under foot not only the principles of proletarian internationalism, but also the principles of peaceful coexistence of which he raises such a hue and cry, while he tries to establish as good state relations as possible with the mast reactionary imperialist powers and while demanding with persistence not to extend the ideological divergences with the Tito clique in the field of state relations? What thing can such an attitude have in common with Marxism-Leninism, with the interests) of socialism and communism?
The practice of airing the divergences in the movement with/'n earshot of foes, the practice of using the platform of this or that party for open attacks and slanders against fraternal parties, is also at variance with the teachings of proletarian internationalism, with the interests of socialism and with those of the unity and compactness of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement. An anti-Marxist practice of this, kind was pursued at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union where N. Khrushchev was the first to publicly attack the Party of Labor of Albania and to arbitrarily reproach it with its alleged departure from Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, from the common line of action of the international communist movement. At the same time he brutally intervened in the internal affairs of our Party and our country, by accusing the leaders of the Party of Labor of Albania of being sold to the imperialists, of bang murderers and criminals, and he went so far as to launch an open call for counter-revolution in Albania, for the overthrow of the leadership of the party and of the people’s regime.
Our Party, the Communist Party of China and a number of fraternal parties firmly denounced such a practice totally irreconcilable with the norms of relations among communist parties of the socialist countries and stressed most emphatically that those who pursue this sectarian practice, undermine the unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement and assume upon themselves a grave historical responsibility.
It is to be regretted but it is a fact that certain comrades, leaders of some fraternal parties, subscribed to this stand and activity of N. Khrushchev’s. They hurried, especially after the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to align themselves with N. Khrushchev without setting to work to make a scrutinized and unbiased study of the documents of both parties, without taking it up and exchanging views with the Party of Labor of Albania, but only on the basis of the subjective attacks and false reproaches which N. Khrushchev formulated against the Party of Labor of Albania. They convened the central committees of their parties, adopted resolutions condemning the Party of Labor of Albania and organized an extensive campaign through the press and other means of propaganda against our Party. And to justify their incorrect and far from comradely stand towards the Party of Labor of Albania before the communist and their people, they have now and then declared that the Party of Labor of Albania on its part has allegedly launched attacks against their parties and their people. But this is far from true. In fact, despite the numerous attacks launched on it from many directions, our Party has at no time uttered a word against the leadership of any fraternal party or fraternal country, regardless of the many divergences existing between us. A glance at the documents of our party and its press suffices to prove this'. Our Party has responded only to P. Togliatti and to certain other leaders of the Italian Communist Party, and that only when they had gone too far in their attacks. Our Party has always maintained and continues to maintain a just and correct attitude prompted by the principles of proletarian internationalism and of fraternal friendship towards the other fraternal parties. Its conscience is calm and serene towards them.
The leaders' of certain fraternal parties, pursuing the example set by N. Khrushchev, adopted in their congresses too the anti-Marxist practice of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union by making extensive use of these platforms to launch insults and attacks not only against the Party of Labor of Albania, but also against the Communist Party of China, against the Party of Labor of Korea, against the unity of the international communist movement itself. This was done at the Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party, at those of Hungary, of Czechoslovakia, of Italy and of the German Democratic Republic. The tendency to exe.ude the Party of Labor of Albania from the international communist movement and the People’s Republic of Albania from the socialist camp, towards which end the Soviet leaders and the leaders of certain other fraternal parties have long striven, was clearly manifested at these congresses and especially at the congress of the German United Socialist Party to which our country was not invited. The splitters set to work and dealt a hard blow to the unity of the international communist and workers movement. Today it was against the Party of Labor of Albania, tomorrow it will be against another fraternal party and thus in a row against any party which will dare to express its own opinion, be it even at a meeting of communists, as the Party of Labor of Albania did at the Bucharest and Moscow meetings. This is the most ominous and arrant attempt to turn arbitrariness and subjectivism into law. It is the most brutal attempt to force on all the movement the hostile views of certain individuals promulgated from the platform of a party to be introduced as «unanimous decisions» of the international communist movement. It was not unintentional that N. Khrushchev in his speech to the 6th Congress of the German United Socialist Party called the recent congresses of the fraternal parties «international forums of communism». Is it not high time for some persons to think again and to see how far N. Khrushchev’s group is proceeding towards anti-Marxism, if the cause of the unity of the movement, the cause of socialism and communism is still dear to them? We are absolutely confident that there are in the international communist and worker’s movement enough sound forces, loyal to revolutionary Marxism-Leninism, capable of assuming upon themselves the necessary historical responsibility, who will say «halt»! to revisionism in order not to avert the aggravation of the split in order to preserve true Marxist-Leninist unity, to forestall in due time the grave danger menacing the communist movement in general and the fraternal parties in various countries.
The violation of the principles and norms of relations among fraternal parties and fraternal countries has, caused serious danger to the unity of the socialist camp and of the communist movement. Therefore, in order to return to the way of strengthening the unity and compactness of our movement, to forestall the split, to return to the way of solving the grave misunderstandings existing within the movement, it is above all necessary to return to the principles defined by the Moscow Declarations, to the observance of the norms of relations among fraternal parties. The Soviet leaders must have the courage to make public self criticism just as they had made unjust attacks against the Party of Labor of Albania, and to condemn their mistakes which consist in extending the ideological divergences into the field of state relations' up to the rupture of d:p!omatic relations with the People’s Republic of Albania and the setting up of a rude economic blockade against it; to retract the call they have made to our Party and our people for counter-revolution, for the overthrow of the leadership, the most scandalous intervention in our internal affairs as well as the monstrous slanders and accusations they have made against the Albanian leaders calling them agents of imperialism, to retract everything they have done and are doing against our Party, our State and our people at variance with the principles of Marxism-Leninism and the Moscow Declarations. If N. Khrushchev fails to do these preliminary acts, every statement of his for unity is demagogism, intended to establish false unity. These should be done so that such acts may not be repeated anymore against any one, so that unity may be preserved, so that the necessary premises may be established for a solution of the differences through meetings and comradely consultations on the basis of equality and mutual respect. These must by all means be done for only thus is the right of a fraternal party restored, and thus is the injustice to the Party of Labor of Albania eliminated. This is a question of principle, not one of prestige and dignity. V.I. Lenin was' right to say: «that the attitude of a political party towards its own mistakes is one of the most important and surest criteria of a party’s seriousness».
The Soviet leaders and following them some leaders of certain other fraternal parties claim that they made every effort to harmonize their relations with the Party of Labor and the People’s Republic of Albania, but these efforts, have given no result allegedly due to the fault of the Albania leaders who have allegedly refused every bilateral meeting and discussion of the misunderstandings that have arisen in spite of the proposals allegedly made to them. And these seem to have compelled them to even go so far as to launch public attacks against the Party of Labor of Albania. This is an open distortion of the truth, it is an attempt to justify their unprincipled fight against the Party of Labor of Albania based on slander and their hostile acts against the People’s Republic of Albania. Whereas the truth is that they have tried not to solve but to aggravate their differences with our Party and our State by going so far as to take the extremest measures aforesaid.
As far as the Party of Labor of Albania is concerned, it has never refused nor refuses bilateral talks and consultations on the basis of equality, discussions of matters of mutual interest. This is proved by a number of facts.
On August 13, 1960, following the Bucharest meeting, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union proposed to the Central Committee of the Par y of Labor of Albania that our two parties should carry on discussions in order to remove the divergences that had arisen between them at the Bucharest meetings so that they might go to the Moscow meeting «with a complete unity of views». First of all, the divergences manifested at the Bucharest meeting were not between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Party of Labor of Albania, but between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China. Secondly, our Party’s attitude at the Bucharest meeting was primarily with regard to the nature of the meeting and to the method of discussion which were at variance with the rules arid regulations of relation among fraternal parties, whereas it withheld the expression of its) views regarding the essence of the differences that were manifested there. What was there then left for our two parties to discuss about? What was meant by our two parties going to the Moscow meeting «with a complete unity of views»? Behind whose back? Therefore the Central Committee of our Party stressed in its reply to the Central Committee of the Soviet Union on August 29, 1960, that the discussions at the Bucharest meeting had been about the differences between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of China, consequently if the representatives of our two parties were to get together to discuss about what took place at the Bucharest meeting, that would mean to discuss behind the back of a third party and on questions that concerned the latter. A practice of this kind would of course not be fair and would not help matters but it would prejudice them.
During the proceedings of the Moscow meeting in November 1960, the representatives of our Party conducted four bilateral discussions with the Soviet leaders including N. Khrushchev. Bui if nothing came out of these talks this was due to the fact that N. Khrushchev tried to force on our Party his ideas through arrogance, pressure and threats, and seeing that he came short of attaining his goal he provoked the suspension of the talks. Nevertheless regardless of the Soviet leaders’ stand and acts towards, the Party of Labor and the People's Republic of Albania, our Party has more than once from November 1960 and onwards, called upon the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to take the initiative to settle the differences, but the Soviet leaders turned a deaf ear to every one of these proposals. In the letter sent by the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on July 6, 1961 it is said:
«We are, of course, well aware that the settlement of these differences demands time and patience by both sides so that the necessary conditions may he brought about for an elimination of the negative phenomena which have appeared for almost a year in the friendly, fraternal and, we may say with no fear of being contradicted, more than exemplary relations that have existed before between our two fraternal parties, countries and peoples. First and foremost an end should be put in this respect to extending the ideological divergences existing between our two parties, in the range of state relations both in the economic, political and military field. Our Party and our Government have never refused to carry on bilateral talks on every issue. But we have stressed and stress that necessary conditions), conditions of equality for both sides, should be created for a thing of this kind».
In the letter approved, by the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania handed to the Embassy of the Soviet Union in Tirana, on January 11, 1961, addressed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union it is emphasized:
«Deeply concerned about the undesirable and very grave situation of present Albanian-Soviet relations arising out of the rude anti-Marxist conduct of N. Khrushchev and his group, the Party of Labor of Albania call on the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to view the situation created in cold blood and to take the necessary steps to harmonize it... The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania are of the opinion that the remedy for this dangerous disease demands the immediate intervention of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, on which the Party of Labor of Albania has had and has unshakable faith».
Following the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, where the Party of Labor of Albania was publicly and slanderously attacked, our Party turned once again to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, through comrade Enver Hoxha’s speech on November 7, 1961.
«With a calm and clean conscience the Party of Labor of Albania calls upon the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, calls upon the new Central Committee elected by the 22nd Congress to study the situation created between our two parties: and our two countries with Leninist fairness, with unbiased objectivity and calmness. Our Party has always been in favor of a settlement of the existing differences for the sake of the unity of the communist movement and of the socialist camp, of the interests of our countries. But it has always been and is) of the opinion that these matters may be settled correctly and in a Marxist-Leninist way, under conditions of equality, not of pressures and dictates. We have hope and confidence in the equity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union».
These are the facts. And in order to throw more light on the truth, to help the public opinion of the communists to pass fair, unbiased judgment on who is in the right and who is in the wrong, the Central Committee of the Party of Labor of Albania suggests to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for which our Party has cherished and cherishes indisputable confidence and respect, to jointly publish all the authentic Albanian and Soviet materials and documents which deal with the differences between our two parties and countries. This would help all parties to discuss objectively and without bias at some future meeting of the international communist movement. We are most certain that it will then be proved in a more persuasive way that it is not the Albanian leaders who «should give up their mistaken' views and turn, to the ways of unity and close collaboration with the fraternal community of the socialist countries, to the ways of the unity of the entire international communist movements as N. Khrushchev said in the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and reiterated at the 6th Congress of the German United Socialist Party. On the contrary it will be proved that it is N. Khrushchev and his followers who should turn as early as possible to the ways of the Moscow Declarations, to the ways of observing the norms and principles that govern the relations between the fraternal parties and countries, that they should renounce their anti-Marxist views and deeds and to return once for all time to the ways of Marxism-Leninism and of proletarian internationalism before it is too late.
The unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement is not strengthened by formal utterances about unity while at the same time continuing to launch attacks and maintain hostile attitude towards fraternal parties, but by standing true and strictly carrying out the basic teachings of Marxism-Leninism and the conclusions and norma jointly arrived at in the international meetings of the entire communist movement with determination, by effective and determined opposition to the common enemy, imperialism, to the opponents, of unity, to splitters, to the principal menace of the communist movement, to modern revisionism as well as to dogmatism, to all manifestations of chauvinism and nationalism On the contrary if views will be spread and policies will be pursued which are at variance with the conclusions, principles and norms, fixed in the Moscow Declarations, and which prejudice the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist and workers movement, the interests of the national-liberation and revolutionary wars of peoples, the cause of peace, the interests of each individual socialist country and fraternal party, it is clear that such acts cannot but arouse the most determined opposition, of the Marxist-Leninists, of the true revolutionaries.
The Party of Labor of Albania, like all the other Marxist-Leninist parties, has considered and considers the problem of the unity of the communist movement and of the socialist camp as a most vital one, as its primary internationalist duty and has sincerely striven to guard and strengthen it by deeds and not through words. It is gravely concerned about the injury, the views and the deeds of the modem revisionists are creating to the A'ty of the camp of the communist movement. The Party of Labor of Albania is of the opinion that the call of an international meeting where the representatives of the entire communist and workers movement may take part, where the most important problems facing the communist movement today may be orcnily and frankly discussed under conditions of equality, would help strengthen unity and comm ctn ess, would settle the differences on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and of the 1957 and 1960 Moscow Declarations
Faced by the united forces of imperialism and of the entire world reaction at war with communism, let us try with all our might and main to strengthen the unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement holding aloft the banner of Marxism-Leninism and of the Moscow Declarations! Unity constitutes the source of the insuperable force of our cause, of the guaranteed attainment and consolidation of our achievements!, of the hope of all the oppressed and' the exploited fighting for national liberation and social emancipation, it constitutes a powerful weapon for a successful struggle against the common foe of all the people, imperialism, for the triumph of the cause of socialism and communism. The preservation and consolidation of the unity is a highest internationalist duty of every Marxist-Leninist party.
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
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