CONTENTS : History of the heroic resistance and struggle of the Party of Labour of Albania 2 Development of the power industry in the PSR of Albania 6 AGRON CUEDARI The construction of socialism in the countryside and the narrowing down of distinctions between city and country 11 DEKO RUSI The Albanian school and the outstanding achievements of world culture 22 HAMIT BEQJA Achievements and perspectives of the economic sciences in the PSR of Albania 27 PRIAMO BOLLANO The proclamation of the Independence of Albania - a great turning-point in the history of the Albanian people 32 STEFANAQ POLLO The formation of the Albanian language 41 MAHIR DOMI The present and the historical past in the modern Albanian novel 49 DALAN SHAPLLO Press review 57 HISTORY OF THE HEROK AND STRUGGLE OF THE PARTY OF LABOI Ahaut Camraae EJJVVEM MOXBA^s haah «The Titaites» (Histarieai nates) THE COMMUNISTS, CADRES AND ALL THE WORK• leadership of the Party, they could reduce to submission ING MASSES OF OUR COUNTRY HAVE RECENTLY HAD and subsequently destroy the entire Party, but also by the IN THEIR HANDS A NEW AND VERY IMPORTANT inspirer, organizer and direct leader of the gigantic strug• WORK, THE BOOK «THE TITOITES» BY COMRADE gle of the PLA for uncovering and foiling the hostile ENVER HOXHA. THIS BOOK HAS ALSO BEEN PU• activity of the Titoites. This adds to the truthfulness and BLISHED IN SEVERAL FOREIGN LANGUAGES. great concreteness of the book, to its gripping suspense THE RELATIONS OF THE CPA (TODAY THE PLA) which goes on from page to page and lasts right through AND THE ALBANIAN SOCIALIST STATE WITH THE to the end. The work gains in strength and truthfulness, CPY AND THE YUGOSLAV FEDERATIVE STATE, FROM especially from the fact that the author has based his work THE FIRST CONTACTS BETWEEN THE TWO PARTIES not only on facts from memory but also on many offi• (IN 1941) UNTIL TODAY, ARE IN THE CENTRE OF THE cial documents to be found in the CAP (Central Archives WORK. of the Party), as well as on his own authentic notes, which Comrade Enver Hoxha used and still uses to take. These historical notes reflect the specific and very The ten chapters of the book, in which the events complicated character of the Albanian-Yugoslav relations of 40 years are described in detail, are a vivid description in all their complexity through a wealth of facts, original of the stern struggle between two policies, two stands, and documents, personal impressions and theoretical argu• two ideologies diametrically opposed to one another. This ments by the author. Comrade Enver Hoxha makes a pe• because, as Comrade Enver Hoxha concludes, all the his• netrating analysis of the objective and subjective causes tory of our relations with the CPY and the revisionist Yu• and factors which determined the course in which these goslav state, *Albanians, disregard• tion of how events developed, this book rejects the con• ing and sabotaging their national liberation war, and ne• coctions of the Titoites about the «aid» they allegedly gave gating their national rights, a policy of mass extermina• in the creation of the CPA and their absurd claim that tion, if the attempts of the Great-Serbs at the assimilation they supposedly were the ^creators of the CPA»! -"The or mass expulsion of the Albanian population from its CPA,» concludes Comrade Enver Hoxha in his book, -c

Albania boasts many energy sources (oil, gas, coal and hydro-power reserves) which consti• tute one of its greatest assets. The hydro-po• wer reserves of our country per capita of po' pulation are among the highest in Europe THE PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA IS RICH IN ENERGY SOURCES. FEW ARE THE COUNTRIES WHICH HAVE SO HIGH A CONCENTRATION OF ENERGY SOURCES IN SO SMALL AN AREA AS ALBANIA (28,750 SQ KM). BEFORE LIBERATION AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PEOPLE'S STATE POWER THE CAPITALIST COMPANIES IN ALBANIA KNEW SOME OF THESE SOURCES AND EXPLOITED THEM IN A BARBAROUS IRRATIO• NAL MANNER. THE OIL EXTRACTED IN ALBANIA WAS PROCESSED IN ITALY AND A SMALL QUANTITY OF IT WAS RETURNED ONLY TO BE SOLD AT EXORBITANT PRICES. COAL MINING WAS AT ITS BE• GINNING AND ALL THE QUANTITY EXTRACTED WENT TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE OCCUPYING ARMIES. THE BUILDING OF HYDRO-POWER STATIONS WAS ALTOGETHER OUT OF THE QUESTION AS LONG AS IT DID NOT COMPLY WITH THE INTERESTS OF FOREIGN CAPITALIST COM• PANIES. The annual production of electric lacking all industry. In 1938 eighty- power by the thermal-power stations seven per cent of the able-bodied po• in 1938 was equal to the daily mean pulation engaged in agricultural pur- export of our country at present. This fsuits and only 13 per cent found occu• was in a nutshell the state of our pation in industry and other branches power industry before Liberation. On of the economy. Agriculture accounted the other hand, even those few projects lor 92.4 per cent of the national income, the occupiers and the local bourgeoi• and industry only 4.5 per cent of it. In these conditions there could be no sie built for their own needs were question of the development of the po• almost totally destroyed during the wer industry. war. Apart from this, all geological Only one per cent of the national documentation and studies were taken income created in 19-38 went to funda• away or destroyed and no trace was mental investments. This can be explain• left of them. In the field of the power ed both with the limited volume of industry, as in all other fields, the national income and the use of the Party and our people had to start greater part of it for parasiting pur• everything from scratch. poses by the ruling class. The pre-Liberation Albania was a All this proves what has been said typically agrarian country, with a about the profoundly agrarian character backward and fragmented agriculture, of the countr}% and gives a truthful AGRON QUEDARI — Vice-minister of picture of the ver.v backward state of power industry the productive forces. 8 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

In an effort to justify the plight of have emphasized the need for sources been strengthened in all its links, from the economy, the ideologists of the rul• of energy, in general, and for oil and seismic soundings and prospecting, drill• ing classes tallied much about the its by-products, coal and electric power, ing and research work to the extraction so-called fatality of agriculture, pre• in particular. and processing at oil and gas. In the tending that the economic backward• The external and internal enemies 6th Five-year Plan progress was also ness of Albania was an inevitable of our country have constantly tried made in mastering and applying the result and reflection of its natural and to impede and sabotage the develop• technology of drilling deep oil- and weather conditions. ment of our power industry, and of gas-wells. The fact that all the amount In reality, this backwardness had its the oil industry especially. The Party of the oil extracted during this five- roots in the feudal-capitalist mode of and the Albanian people have foiled year plan was processed locally indica• production, in the deep crisis of the all these attempts on the part of the tes the growth of the productive capa• structure and superstructure of the enemies and have meted out the cities and the material-technical ability state, in the social and economic contra• punishment they deserved. to implement the orientation of the dictions of the country. In its struggle to cope with the sava• Party for the processing of all raw The level of the socio-economic de• ge imperialist-revisionist pressure and materials locally. velopment of the country at that time blockade, the Party of Labour of Al• In the efforts for the realization o£ was inextricably linked with the con• bania developed and further perfected the tasks in the coal mining, the Party tradiction between the forces of pro• its development program for the po• has combated the view of the revisio• duction and the semi-feudal and ca• wer industry, envisaging the construc• nists who tried to sabotage the deve• pitalist relations of production which tion of large power projects and their lopment of this important branch of the were a stumbling block to the eco• coming into production. In 1980, as aga• power base of Albania. Particular atten• nomic and social development of Al• inst 1960, coal mining, for example, tion has been attached in this branch bania. This was the principal inter• increased 3.9 fold and the production to mining operations so that it precedes nal contradiction which constituted the of electric power 18.1 fold. the extraction of coal and the general economic base and premise of the so• The 6th Five-year Plan (1976-1980) development of this branch of industry. cial revolution. was a period of great importance for The electric power has undergone After the triumph of the revolution the construction and defence of social• great development over the years of and the establishment of the people's ism in Albania. During this period the 6th Five-year Plan with the build• state power, along with the important major achievements were made in the ing of new hydro-power and thermal- tasks of the first stage of the revolu• socio-economic development of our coun• power stations. During this five-year tion, a number of measures began to try, thereby ensuring high rates of period such major projects as the be taken for the economic and social development of the productive forces «Light of the Party>^ hydro-power sta• development of the country. In this and the further perfecting of the so• tion at Fierza, the electric power block, context special attention was paid to cialist relations of production. Total etc have been commissioned, thereby the development of industry in gene• social product grew as twice as ra• increasing the productive capacities ral, and the power industry, in parti• pidly as the growth of the population. and the effectiveness of production of cular. This brought about the further streng• this branch of industry. The Party of Labour of Albania, thening of our economy. The growth rates of the production faithfully implementing the teachings In the 6th Five-year Plan the deve• and consumption of electric industry of Marxism-Leninism on the construc• lopment of the heavy industry and, in in Albania are among the highest in tion of socialism in the concrete con• the first place, the development of the world. The People's Socialist Re• ditions of the country, has always gi• the power industry, the extracting and public of Albania is among the few ven priority to the development of processing industry, had priority. The countries in the world today with an power industry. 6th Five-year Plan marked high levels active power balance which supplies At the 1st Congress of the CPA of development in the branches of the for all the country's needs and creates (today the PL A) in November 1948, the power industry. possibilities for the export of surpluses. essence of the fundamental economic During the 6th Five-year Plan our In its policy for the socialist in• task consisted in the socialist industria• oil-workers discovered new oil and dustrialization of the country the PLA lization and electrification of the coun• gas deposits, extended the known sour• has proceeded by the Marxist-Leninist try. This was dictated by the need for ces, and carrying out intensification thesis that the power industry plays setting up a new material-technical base. work in time and with high quality, the leading role in advancing techno• Fulfilment of this task was based, successfully accomplished the tasks set logy and developing the industry and in the first place, on a more to them. the whole country, in general. complete exploitation of the riches of In the 6th Five-year Plan, too, the The achievements of the 6th Five- the soil and subsoil of the country. Party, correctly directing the deve• year Plan have great political and Therefore, particular attention was paid lopment of the power industry, gave economic importance, because they to the extraction of oil and coal, and priority to the sector of geology, which were attained in particularly difficult the production of electric power. precedes and opens new prospects for international conditions for Albania. The development and strengthening extraction and processing industry. The results reached prove the cor• of the national economy and the deepen• The development and strengthening rectness of the Marxist-Leninist line ing of the socialist industrialization of the oil industry has developed and and policy of the Party of Labour of ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 9

Albania for the complete construction ductive capacities and the material- oil and gas extraction from the deposits of socialist society. They are the fruit technical base available guarantee the under exploitation is possible only of the all-round efforts of the work• realization of the major tasks set by through intensive development. This ing masses to implement the tasks the 7 th Five-year Plan. requires, first of all, a rational exploi• set by the Party and live up to the The fulfilment of the important tasks tation of existing deposits. In coal min• valuable teachings of Comrade Enver set by the 7 th Five-year Plan for ing the main aitendon has been fo- Hoxha. the development of industry in ge• cussed on the mines already under The power industry enters the 7th neral, and the power industry, in par• exploitation and on building deep ver• Five-year Plan (1981-1985) more pre• ticular, face the workers, specialists tical wells in time so as to cope with pared, with a more reliable and power• and cadres with many problems of the tasks of the future five-year plans ful base. The 6th Five-year Plan fur• special economic, political, organiza• in advance and to prepare for the ther strengthened the industry of the tional and scientific importance. exploitation of thin layers. All this calls country, especially the heavy industry The present stage of development of for all-round studies, designs and ge• and, within it, the power industry, our country, as well as the great tasks neralization in several sources and assisting the accomplishment of the laid down by the 8ih Congress of the thereby draw the relative conclusions. great tasks set in the directives of Party, dictate the need for the deepen• In the development of electric power, the 8th Congress of the Party for the ing of the technical-scientific revolu• priority is given to production by the 7th Five-year Plan. tion, require that scientific studies be hydro-power stations, both because of The objectives of the 7th Five-year transformed into a general method the high efficiency of their production, Plan both for the power industry and which should determine and precede as well as the great possibilities due the other branches of the economy are all work so as to assist the solution to the hydro-power resources in which fully realizable, because they are based of present and future problems with our country is rich. The production of on preliminary studies. effectivity. The People's Socialist Re• electric power by thermal-power sta• The main characteristic of this five- public of Albania has now a power• tions will also be increased up to the year plan is that the tasks and objecti• ful material-technical base and capable complete utilization of their productive ves, as envisaged in the directives, cadres and specialists who are in a capacities. will be attained by relying entirely on position to cope with the problems Albania is covered by a whole net- our own human, material and financial emerging from the deepening of this woi'K of power lines and sub-stations resources. This is the first five-year revolution in the field of the power linked with a single centre for the plan which is based completely on our industry as well. whole Republic. This national grid and own forces. Nevertheless, the tasks set The experience of the socialist cons• sub-stations enable the unified mana• and the development rates of the eco• truction in our country has taught us gement and supply of electric power, nomy, in general, and the power in• that our economy has developed and the preservation of all electric para- dustry, in particular, are higher than continues to develop by correctly com• metres down to the farthest consumer, in the previous five-year plans. Prio• bining two roads — both the exten• the cutting down on network losses rity will be given to the development sive and intensive road of develop• and the rational utilization of produc• of the power industry to bring about ment. The current five-year plan com• tion capacities. a high-rate increase of its production bines these two roads even better, giv• The directives of the 8th Congress in order to fully meet the needs of ing priority to the factors of intensive of the Party for the 7th Five-year the economy and the increase of ex• development. This calls for powerful Plan, along with the increase of power ports. In 1985, as against 1980, oil ex• reliance on science and technique. production, set important tasks for the traction will increase 58-60 per cent, In the context of the deepening of thrifty use of electricity. coal — 48 per cent and the production the technical-scientific revolution the In the context of the measures for of the electric industry — 16 per cent, problems of geology assume particular strengthening thriftiness in the use of of which about 14 per cent by the importance. Speaking about this pro• energy resources, attention is paid, in hydro-power stations. blem, Comrade Enver Hoxha has the first place, to the replacement of In oil extraction the sources under emphasized that in order to strengthen liquid fuels with solid and gas fuels. exploitation and those discovered and the economy further, to guarantee as In order to cut on the consumption of known, which have been tai>ped, will powerful a basis of raw and power gasoil and raise work efficiently further, constitute the main base for its deve• materials for industry as possible, a oil- and gas-drilling rigs are being lopment. Coal mining will be based particular role appertains to geology reconstructed and equipped with elec• mainly on the exploitation existing as which must precede the development tric outfits. These measures will cut well as the new mines. Likewise, the of industry and open new paths for costs further and extend the active time fulfilment of tasks in the produc• it. Geological work can go neither of the operation of drilling rigs. tion of power industry will be based by speculation nor by empirical me• The exploitation of secondary energy on the complete use of the existing thods. For it to develop geological- components released in the course of capacities of the hydro-power stations geophysical work must be raised to the technological process constitutes a and thermal-power stations, and, at a higher qualitative level and, on this huge reserve for the rational utiliza• the same time, on the commissioning basis, generalizations made and new tion of energy. Hence, tasks have been of new power projects, especially the oil and gas deposits discovered. set to use gases in coking factories hydro-power plants at Roman. The pro• Attainment of objectives increasing and blast furnaces, as well as in other 10 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY projects. The workers of this sector serves), which consititute one of its The Chinese revisionists who tried to are laced with important tasks which greatest assets. The hydro-power re• sabotage, among others, the construc• fall within the complex tasks of the serves of our country per capita of tion of hydro-power stations on the whole national economy. population are among the highest in Drin River, aJso joined this all-round The great energy crisis that has Europe. The Party of Labour of Alba• and persistently hostile anti-Albanian swept the capitalist-revisionist world nia, implementing a correct and far- activity. However, the plans of our today has raised a number of acute sighted energy policy, has Increased, enemies have been foiled thanks to problems. Energy problems today fi• strengthened and further developed the consistent stand of principle of gure high on the agenda more than the power sources of the country, for our Party which turned down their at any other time. The bourgeois and which all the possibilities of their unbased and hostile suggestions. revisionist ideologists, proceeding from further development in the future With the efforts of the Albanian their angle of seeing and assessing exist. specialists, with our technical-scientific things, propose very unpromising pros• The broad and thorough work of possibilities and meains, we began the pects to the solution of the energy our geologists and specialists to increase designing and construction of big hydro- problems in the future. The course of geological reserves and discover new power plants on our own. In the great the development of science through sources of oil, gas and coal assumes development program of the hydro- history proves that mankind, in the particular importance in this direc• power sources of our country, the Party process of cognition and application tion. The PLA has rejected the reactio• has also devoted its attention to small of the laws of nature, can penetrate nary and revisionist theories of the and local sources, which have kept the unfathomable mysteries of nature internal and external enemies w'ho increasing and part of which is linked and discover new kinds of energy of claimed that Albania had no energy with the national energy system. Only extremely high calorific values. The reserves, or if it had any, their extrac• small part of them is under exploita• crisis in the capitalist-revisionist tion was not profitable. The practice tion now. Work for their complete use world, however, is linked by many and the development of the oil industry will go on for some other decades, threads with the monetary crisis and has proved that Albania is rich in oil both to meet the needs of the country the two together, in the framework and gas, and that this branch of in• and to increase exports. Still more of the general crisis of this socio-eco• dustry with the great investments the energy reserves and sources will be nomic system, concur to shatter the state has made and is making, is and made available in the future. foundations of the structure and su• remains a very profitable branch of The achievements and perspectives perstructure of the capitalist-revisionist high interest for the strengthening of in the successful development of the countries. The problem in the present the economy and the defence jMDten- power industry in the PSRA have crisis is linked not just with the lack tial of the country. Studies carried their roots in the correct policy of of energy reserves, but goes deep into out by Albanian specialists show that the PLA and its consistent applica• the nature of the rotten capitalist-re• the hydro-power reserves of Albania tion of the Marxist-Leninist thesis on visionist system arud is made still more are several times as large as the fore• the priority development of the power acute by the global strategy of the cast estimates of the foreign specialists. industry as a factor of particular im• two superpowers which are bent on In their assessment of the oil and portance for the industrial develop• hegemony and the exploitation of other hydro-power sources of our country, ment of the country, the strengthening countries. the foreign specialists have deliberately of the socialist economy and the cons• Albania boasts many energy sources tried to create the conviction that Al• tant raising of the material and cul• (oil, gas, coal, and hydro-power re• bania has no prospects in this field. tural level of the people. THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIALISM IN THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE NARROWING DOWN OF DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN CITY AND COUNTRY .„«..o....

The collectivization of agriculture in Albania opened broad horizons for the all-round development of productive forces in the countryside.Thanks to the new cooperativist order, the self-denying work of the working peasantry and the all-round assistance of the socialist state, agricul• ture has made great progress and life in the Albanian countryside has been radically transformed

THE MANY YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF THE PARTY OF LABOUR OF culture in our country raised the ques• ALBANIA OF THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION HAS FULLY PROVED THE tion: Wliat stand would be maintained CORRECTNESS OF THE TEACHINGS OF MARXISM-LENINISM THAT THE towards the big landowner-bourgeois SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATION OF AGRICULTURE IS AN INDISPENSABLE economies and the small economies of PROCESS FOR THE TRIUMPH OF THE NEW SOCIALIST ORDER. IN ITS the working peasants? The method of REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE FOB THE TRIUMPH OF SOCIALISM IN THE revolutionary violence was to be used COUNTRYSIDE, THE PARTY OF LABOUR OF ALBANIA HAS WORKED OUT towards the former, but the dictator• ITS STRATEGY AND TACTIC ON THE BASIS OF THE MARXIST-jLENINIST ship of the proletariat could not use THEORY AND IMPLEMENTED THEM IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONCRETE this same method of revolutionary vio• HISTORICAL CONDITIONS IN WHICH SOCIALISM IS BEING BUILT IN AL• lence towards the peasantry — the ally BANIA. of the working class. The transformation From the beginning of all its revolu- terrupted strengthening of the alliance ot the small private economies into tionary activity for the socialist trans- between the working class and the large-scale socialist economies could be formation of the countryside, the PLA working peasantry — an indispensable done only on the basis of the free will has hitherto constantly proceeded from condition for the preservation and of the peasants. the fundamental principle of the unin- strengthening of the dictatorship of the For the difficulties it entails and its proletariat and the construction of so- complexity, the solution of the agrarian DEKO nvSI — Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University cialism. question requires a long period of time of Tirana. The socialist transformation of agri- over which the necessary ideological, 12 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY political, economic and social conditions vember 17, 194(5, by consistently imple• the «first revolution" in the socio-eco• mature for tlie transformation of small menting the principle that -"the land nomic relations of the countryside, had economies into large-scale socialist eco• belongs to the tiller*. The law envisaged important political, social and economic nomies. Tiiis process in Albania went expropriation without exclusion and consequences and played an important through three phases: the phase of the compensation of all the land that was role in developing the socialist revolu• democratic transformation of the so• not tilled by the owner. Working ani• tion in the Albanian countryside fur• cio-economic relations in the country• mals were expropriated along with the ther. side, the phase of the construction of land. The whole land fund was redis• The more important result of this the economic base of socialism and the tributed in favour of the working peasan• Reform was the profound transforma• phase of the complete construction of try. The land was given gratis to the tion of the relations of land ownership, socialism in the countryside, which is landless and landpoor peasants. The the land being the main means of agri• sf.ill going on. Reform limited the acres of each pea• cultural production. By taking this de• sant economy to five hectares. If the cisive step, the working class in allian• peasant family had more than 5-6 peo• ce with the working peasantry liquida• • ple, then an additional 0.5 hectare of ted the big feudal property of the land land was given for each family member — the economic base of the remnants over the above limit. of feudalism in the countryside. Howe• Pre-Liberation Albania was a back• As a result, the Land Reform expro• ver, this Reform went even further — ward agrarian country with 87.9 per cent priated the land of 8 114 big landowners, it also expropriated the land owned by of its population engaged in agriculture. of state and religious intitutions. The the bourgeoisie of the city and most of Agriculture which accounted for 92.4 partial expropriation of the land af• the land owned by the rich peasantry. per cent of the national income, was fected an additional 10 617 peasant eco• The Land Reform brought about ra• neverthele.ss. at a very low level of de• nomies, most of them being property dical changes in the class structure of velopment. The land was tilled with of rich peasants with land above the the peasantry. Its main result was the primitive implements and at a very allowed quota. liquidation of the landowning class, backward agrotechnical level. The Land Reform gave the land to which was the most reactionary class The causes of the great backwardness 21 544 landless peasant families and of the Albanian society. It also weaken• of Albanian agriculture had to be sought 48 667 peasant families with little land, ed to a great degree the positions of the in the prevailing landowner-bourgeois which, taken together, accounted for rich peasantry, greatly limited the ex• relations of production, in the savage about half of all the peasant families ploitation of the labouring peasantry exploitation of the peasants by the land- at that time. Apart from the land, the on the part of the rich peasantry and owers, the local and foreign capitalists, poor peasants received gratis from the stemmed the process of disintegration as well as in the anti-popular policy of slate 474 227 olive-trees. 5 923 draught of peasant economies. the ruling Zogite clique which expended and pack animals, vineyards, fruit plan• The position of the poor peasantry only 2 per cent of the state budget for tations, etc. Along with this, as early changed in a direction diametrically op• it, at a time when agriculture consti• as 1945, the people's state power had posed to that of the exploiting classes. tuted the main branch of the economy declared null and void all obligations The poor peasantry strengthened its of the country. deriving from arrears in rents from economic positions, while the streng• Immediately after the overthrow of the former periods, annulled all the ar• thening of its link with the working the landowner-bourgeois rule and the rears in debts of the peasants, nationa• class and the ideological influence of establishment of the dictatorship of the lized all irrigation sources and guaran• the latter enhanced the authority of proletariat, as a result of the triumph teed their use by the peasantry free of the poor peasantry and its role as the of the people's revolution, the Commu• charge, etc. most reliable support for the further nist Party of Albania (today the Party The Law on the Land Reform pro• deepening of the revolution in the coun• of Labour of Albania) had to fulfil an hibited the sale, buying and leasing of tryside. age-old legitimate demand of the work• land to tenants and any other kind of Great changes occurred among the ing peasantry - to be given back the land speculation. The Law also barred middle peasantry. Its numbers increased land usurped by the landowners and the richer economies from utilizing as a result of the transition of part of the rich of the city and country. In hired labour. The Land Reform was the former poor peasants to the eco• the initial process of the revolutionary carried out in the conditions of a stern nomic status of the middle peasant. transformation of the country the dicta• class struggle. The committees of poor The redistribution of the land in fa• torship of the proletariat resolved, in peasants, which were set up in all the vour of the working peasantry streng• the revolutionary road, one of the fun• villages and were led by the Party, thened the economic positions of the damental democratic demands that had played an important role in breaking middle peasantry which received a con• remained from the past — the solution down the dogged resistance of the over• siderable part of the land through the of the problem of the land for the thrown classes during the implemen• Land Reform. peasant by consistently implementing a tation of the Land Reform in the coun• The Land Reform, carried out In the true agrarian reform, such as the working tryside. conditions of the dictatorship of the peasantry had long been dreaming of. The Land Reform, which was carried proletariat in our country, differs in itsi The Land Reform was carried out out in the conditions of the dictator• character, essence and motive forces, during the period from 1945 up to No• ship of the proletariat and which marks from the land reforms carried out in ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 13 bourgeois countries. First of all, it nently, every day, every hour, sponta• tion can be resolved only by transform• brought about essential changes in the neously and on a large scale"-.-* ing the small-scale peasant economies, relations of land ownership which cons• The economic laws of the market also, into large-scale socialist economies. titutes the basis of the relations of which bring about the unavoidable di• 'ine setting out oi the economies of production in the countryside. Unlike sintegration of private peasant econo• the poor and middle peasant on the the bourgeois countries, in Albania the mies and give birth to elements of ca• road of socialism cannot be done by old form of private land ownership pitalism — rich peasants, on the one the same metnods as those used for was not replaced with another. Regard• hand, and impoverished peasants, on the the socialization of tne capitalist eco• less of its outward form, the Land Re• other, operate in small-scale private pea• nomies. The working peasantry is the form marked, in fact, the nationalization sant economies. In the small-scale pri• ally of the proletariat. The sound alli• of the land. Comrade Enver Hoxha vate sector, the main economic laws ance of the working class with the work• pointed out: «We carried out the Land of socialism and, in particular, the fun- ing peasantry is an imperative for the Reform. We did not say expressly that deunental economic law of socialism — dictatorship of the proletariat; any in• the land was nationalized, but the Land the laws of the proportional develop• fringement of this alliance, no matter Reform says that nobody has the right ment of the economy and that of tha how slight, threatens the basis of this to sell or buy the land. This is a ques• concentration of production, the law of dictatorship. In these circumstances, the tion of principle on which the future socialist reproduction and accumulation, socialist transformation of the small- collectivization of agriculture is based. etc. have no direct field of activity. scale peasant economies can be achie• Thus, the Land Reform comprised ele• Being unable to apply modern techni• ved only through the voluntary union ments of an anti-capitalist character. It que on a large scale and to ensure a of individual economies in big socia• led practically to the nationalization of broad socialist reproduction, small-scale list economies based on the experience the land, although «...we did not carry economies are unable to meet the de• of social collective work. out this act expressly, and in the con• mands of industry and of the town The long revolutionary experience of ditions and circumstances of Albania ptopulation for agricultural and livestock the PLA has proved in theory and prac• in that time, the Party acted well-^.^ products. This causes serious dispropor• tice the correctness of the Marxist-Le• With the successful accomplishment tions in the development of large-scale ninist thesis that the only correct form of the Land Reform the stage of the industrial production which is based on to introduce the main mass of the democratic transformation of the socio• the socialist ownership of the means of peasantry into the road of socialism is economic relations in the countryside production, on the one hand, and the the voluntary union of small-scale pea• was realized in the revolutionary road. agricultural production of small-scale sant economies in large-scale socialist The fulfilment of the tasks of this stage private peasant economies. Moreover, economies in the forms of cooperatives was closely linked with and made abso• the small-scale economies, economically of production. All these circumstances lutely necessary the transition to the weak and unable to cope virith the large make the collectivization of agriculture next stage in the solution of the agra• expenditure technical advance calls for, a general law of the construction of rian question — the stage of the cons• cannot pull the peasant out of poverty socialism in the countryside and of the truction of the economic base of socia• and the countryside out of economic, correct and complete solution of the lism, because the complete emancipa• social and cultural backwardness. Small- agrarian question. tion of the peasantry, just as of all the scale private production, by linking the The program of the PLA for the so• working people of the country, could peasant with his narrow interests, be• cialist transfoimation of the country• be ensured only through deep-going comes a source for the birth of the side was worked out and implemented transformations of a socialist charac• petty-bourgeois psychology with all the on the basis of Lenin's plan for coope• ter. dangerous consequences it entails for ration which is a component part of the new socialist society. Lenin's plan for the construction of the In the above conditions, in the first socialist society. * stage of the construction of the econo• Unlike the other revolutions, which * * mic base of socialism, through the his• only replaced one form of private ow• torical period of the preservation of nership with another, the socialist re• Marxism-Leninism has proven with small-scale peasant production, there is volution, after destroying in the revo• arguments and the practice of the so• a contradidtion between the most ad• lutionary road the capitalist relations cialist construction in the PSR of Al• vanced political power, represented by of exploitation, established relations of bania shown that the economy of a the dictatorship of the proletariat, and a new type which are the opposite of country in the conditions of the dicta• the large-scale economy, which is creat• the former. In these circumstances, these torship of the proletariat cannot rely ed through the revolutionary socializa• relations do not and cannot emerge for long on two opposing economic tion of private capitalist enterprises, on spontaneously from the old bourgeois bases: the large-scale socialist produc• the one hand, and the mass of small- society, as the modern revisionists — tion based on the social ownership of scale peasant economies, based on small- Soviet, Yugoslav, Chinese, Euro-com• means of production and the small pea• sized private property, on the other. munist and others, make out. For this sant economies based on the small pri• This contradiction poses a real threat purpose, the resistance of the over• vate property of the peasant of means to the dictatorship of the proletariat thrown classes has to be broken down, of production, which inevitably gives and the very destiny of the construction the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois left• birth to capitalist elements «penna- of the socialist society. This contradic• overs in the consciousness of the small 14 • 1 (68), 1983 ^ ALBANIA TODAY producers have to be eliminated, an proletariat to the collectivization of the main support for the working class, uninterrupted struggle against market small-scale peasant economies, sound and assistance of the middle peasan• spontaneity has to be waged and large- economic links must be established bet• try, have been followed by uncompro• scale social production, etc has to be ween socialist state enterprises and the mising struggle against capitalist ele• created. This deep-going economic and mass of the small-scale economies of ments. Right from the beginning a social transformation cannot be reali• individual peasants. Among the form number of measures were taken for zed without the existence of the dicta• more suitable and readily acceptable for the economic restriction of capitalist torship of the proletariat and the so- the peasantry are the market links elements, which curbed their exploi• ciaUst social ownership of the main established through the exchange of ting tendencies and drew the greater means of production. goods from the city — the production part of accumulation from the richer In the long and complicated process of socialist industry, with the goods economies. of the sociahst transformation of the produced by the small-scale individual The weakening of the positions of small-scale peasant economies the PLA economies. But while embarking on this the bourgeoisie of the countryside was has consistently proceeded from the course, the PLA took, at the same time, also ensured through the resolute mea• principle of rigorously respecting the a number of measures which limited sures the Party and the government free will of the working peasants, either the free private market and were in• took for its political isolation. For this in their joining collective socialist eco• tended to obstruct the channels that purpose, among other things, a special nomies or in the whole successive pro• led to the birth of capitalist elements decision was taken thereby barring the cess of the strengthening and perfec• conditioned by small-scale private pro• kulaks from participation in the ranks of ting of socialist collective property. This perty and the operation of the law of the Democratic Front, a measure which stand of the working class and its value, inevitable concomitants of the bought about their complete isolation Party is due to the nature of the poor private goods production and market. in the political life of the country in and middle peasantry as a stratum of The restriction of the market spon• the conditions in which, after the es• working people exploited by the lan• taneity in our countryside was done tablishment of the people's state power, downers and the bourgeoisie, as the through the creation of buying-and- there was no political organization apart natural and indispensable allies of the selling cooperatives which were set up from the Democratic Front. proletariat in the revolution. in 1946 and not only as a means for All these revolutionary measures In defending the principle of the vo• the education of the peasantry with the brought about the constant economic luntary union of the peasantry in co• coUectivist socialist psychology, but also weakening and political isolation of operatives of production, the PLA has as economic levers to limit market the rich peasantry. However, for the combated any violation of this principle spontaneity, to limit capitalist private kulaks to be liquidated as a class, spe• considering it as a threat to the very trade and to broaden the sphere of cial socio-economic conditions had to base of the dictatorship of the prole• activity of organized socialist trade. be created, and in the first place the tariat. However, while rejecting any With the development of the process causes which gave birth to capitalism violation of the principle of free will of the socialist transformation of the and which stemmed from the small- in the question of collectivization, the country, the forms of direct productive scale goods production, the private mar• Party has also refuted the theories and links by means ef contracts between ket, etc., had to be done away with. practices of the revisionists who advo• city and country, socialist industry and This historic task could be carried out cate the complete spontaneity of this agricultural economies, emerged to the only after the complete transformation process, renunciation of the leading role foreground. of small-scale economies into socialist of the working class, its help and The creation and strengthening of economies based on social ov/nership support for the peasantry in creating the cooperativist order has been achie• of means of production and the closing the objective and subjective conditions ved in stern class struggle against the of all paths that led to capitalism. The for the gradual transformation of the pressure of the capitalist elements in main method to achieve the liquida• small-scale peasant economies into lar• the countryside which, despite the tion of the kulaks as a class, says J.V. ge-scale socialist economies, by means heavy blows it had been dealt at as Stalin, is the method of mass collec• of their collectivization. a result of the revolutionary measure tivization. In the conditions of small-scale pea• of the socialist state, could not be to• The broad masses of the working sant economies based on small private tally liquidated as long as the small- peasantry were aroused in the irrecon• property, spontaneity leaves the way scale economies of peasants and the cilable struggle against the capitalist ele• open for the uncontrolled operation of private market were maintained. Du• ments in the countryside. This struggle the economic laws of goods production ring this period the struggle between strengthened more and more the political which lead to the development of ca• the two roads of development — the and ideological consciousness of the pitalist elements in the economy. The socialist road and the capitalist road, poor peasantry, consolidated the allian• negative experience of the restoration took place. ce of the working class with the wor• of capitalism in the countries ruled by In its revolutionary policy for the king peasantry. In this struggle the the revisionists is proof, by the opposi• socialist transformation of agriculture working peasantry liberated itself from te, of the correctness of this fundamen• the PLA has always maintained a the influence of the bourgeoisie and its tal thesis of Marxism-Leninism. correct class stand towards the diffe• ideology and began to lean more and Over the whole period from the es• rent strata of the peasantry. All-round more to the socialist road of deve• tablishment of the dictatorship of the assistance for the poor peasantry, as lopment of the countryside as the only ALBANIA TODAY 1 f68), im • 15 road to emerge from poverty and back• support of the socialist state in our from the past, and in the epoch of wardness. countryside. socialism, today produce 130 times more In opposition to these teachings of Proceeding from the Leninist prin• than in 1938. However, without losing Marxism-Leninism, in the struggle bet• ciple that <-

The creation of new relations in agri• been made for land reclamation, drai• lations in the countryside and in their cultural production coincides with the nage and irrigation, for opening up new uninterrupted development and per-fec- respective level of development of pro• land, for building fruit-tree plantation ting in accordance with the concrete ductive forces. The uninterrupted and vineyards, for the improvement of historical conditions of the socialist re• growth of crop yields cannot be attai• the breed of cattle, etc. Huge funds volution in our country, original solu• ned without introducing mechanized have been allocated to linking all agri• tions have been found to such pro• means on a large scale, without apply• cultural cooperatives with motor roads, blems and the definition of the forms ing modern agrotechnics. This problem for the extension of the electric and and rates of collectivization of Ihe became even more acute in the con• telephone network to all villages, for countryside, the forms and methods of ditions in which agriculture in our the development of education, culture eliminating the class of the village country had inherited a very low ma• and sanitation. From a rough calcu• bourgeoisie (kulaks), the problem of terial and technical level from the past. lation it emerges that during the pe• the form and method of nationa• In these conditions the state power of riod 1950-1980 our socialist state has lizing the land, the ways to bringing the working class had to accomplish invested more than 7 billion new leks cooperativist property closer to socia• the historic task of technical equip• in agriculture. It has also taken mea• list state propertj', etc while, at the sa• ping the Albanian agriculture through• sures from time to time in favour of me time, strengthening and cementing out. The concentration of the princi• agricultural cooperatives by raising pri• the alliance of the working class with the pal means of production in the hands ces for the purchase of agricultural working peasantry. The profound theo- of the state through the MTS created and livestock products from coopera• reiical argumentation of the above pro conditions for all the cooperatives to tivist economies, as well as by redu• blems, as well as of many others emer• equally utilize modern technique, and cing prices for the sale of farming ma• ging from the practical revolutionary this barred all paths to the sponta• chines, chemical fertilizers, insecticides, activity of the construction of socialism neous development and economic diffe- selected seed, breed animals, etc. A in our country, have found their em• rentation of individual cooperatives. number of measures were taken, like• bodiment in the strategy and tactics After the completion of the collec• wise, to reduce tariffs for the work of the Party of Labour of Albania and tivization of our agriculture in all the performed by the MTS in agricultural in the Works of Comrade Enver Hoxha, country the MTS remained the princi• cooperatives. Even more imnortant mea• have further enriched and developed pal form of stable production links sures have been adopted in favour of the treasury of Marxism-Leninism. between the socialist state industry and mountainous cooperatives. These mea• In the concrete historical conditions the agricultural cooperatives, for the sures of an all-round character helped of our country, the highest form of co-ordination and harmonization of the create the objective and subiective con• cooperation of peasant economies, na• interests of peasant collectives united ditions to bring about the great chanse mely, the agricultural cooperative, be• in cooperatives with those of society. of setting the mass of the peasantry came right at the beginning the main In the conditions of socialism the MTS on the road of socialism through collec• form of cooperation, although in the are the material and technical-indus• tivization, as well the constant econo• first stage of collectivization lower trial base of the cooperativist produc• mic and organizational strengthening forms of cooperation also were practi• tion, an economic support for the fruit• of agricultural cooneratives and the sed, such as that of collectives working ful cooperation of the working class systematic raising of the material and the land jointly. However, these forms with the cooperativist peasantry for cultural level of the working peasantry were not applied on a large scale be• the uninterrupted development of the of our country. cause the mass of the working pesantry socialist economy, in general. This has adopted the highest form of coope• become the more reliable and stable ration. basis for the alliance of the working * * The agricultural cooperatives were set class with the working peasantry. These The socialist transformation of agri• up on the basis of common social ow• factors explain the reason why the culture, the main and more complex nership of the main means of produc• modern revisionists, among other things, link of which being the collectivization tion and distribution according to the proceeded towards the re-establlshment of the small-scale economies of the quantity and quality of work done by of capitalist relations and the opening working peasantry, is a relatively long each cooperative member in the com• of the way for the unrestrained ope• and difficult process. Relying firmly mon economy. After a careful study of ration of the economic laws of capita• on the Marxist-Leninist theory and led the problem on the basis of the tea• lism in agriculture, too, precisely by by the teachings of Comrade Enver chings of Marxism-Leninism and of dismantling the MTS and allowing the Hoxha, the PLA carried out this trans• the concrete historical conditions in free sale of tractors and other prin• formation of decisive importance for which the socialist transformation of cipal means of production. the fates of socialism in our country the Albanian countryside was taking Of great help to the working pea• with complete success. In this ^second place, our Party chose the agricultural santry of our country has been the co• revolution in agrarian relations^ the cooperative as the main form of draw• lossal expenditure of the socialist state Party had to blaze new paths in the ing the working peasantry into the road for the all-round development of agri• implementing of the general laws of the of collectivization. culture and the raising of the econo• proletarian revolution and socialist Of particular interest for Marxist- mic material and cultural level of the construction. Both in tlie practice of Leninist theoretical thinking and revo• peasant masses. Ma,ior investments have the establishment of new, socialist re• lutionary practice is the original solu- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 m 17

tion the PLA found to the problem of lation and economic restriction of ku• , The various measures of the Party the rates and stages of collectivization laks, etc. All these measures together and state over me preparatory period of agriculture in Albania. The collec• prepared the objective and subjective ot the mass collectivizaiion of the pea• tivization of agriculture in our coun• conditions to go over to the second santry, as well as the successes achie• try, which was characterized by high stage of collectivization of agriculture. ved m all fields, by 1955, brougnt about rates in constant rise, after an all- In the second stage of the collecti• a radical change in tne stand of the round preparation of objective and su• vization of agriciilture in our covmtry, large masses of peasants towards co• bjective, political and ideological, eco• which comprises the period 1955-1960, llectivization, which was expressed in nomic, organizational and other con• the peasantry set out en masse on the the increased appUcation on their part ditions, went through two main stages. road of collectivization. Marx says, -"For to be admitted to the cooperatives. Thus, In each of them the plan of the Party collective work to replace work on while in about one decade (1946-1954) for the socialist transformation of the small plots, the form of private appro• only 150 agricultural cooperatives were countryside set concrete tasks and re• priation, two things are needed; the set up all over the country, in 1955 the lative measures for their fulfilment. economic necessity of this transforma• number of new cooperatives was 168, These stages were seen as an integral tion and the material conditions for its and during the 5 first months of 1956 process with sound politicEd, ideological implementation."' By 1955 both -"the it rose to 376. and economic objectives, principles and economic necessity* and -"the material All this prove thoroughly that the criteria, while at the same time, wa• conditions" had matured for the com• broad masses of the working peasantry ging a resolute struggle against all ma• plete collectivization of agriculture. In were already convinced about the ad• nifestations of or tendencies to infrin• this period the high-rate development vantage of uniting in large-scale coo• ging, no matter how little, the general of socialist industry began to be se• perativist economies. The middle pea• line for the construction of socialism riously hampered by an agriculture the sants also began to enter these coope• in the countryside. In this historical development rates of which were lower ratives en masse. This marked a radical process all tendencies to skipping the l;han those of industry, because the turn in the coperativist movement, the stages, to hurrying through the creation small-scale individual economies of beginning of a new qualitative advcuice of new cooperatives inconsiderately and peasants, which accounted for most of in the rates of collectivization. Procee• prematurely, as well as the sporadic agricultural production, could not ensu• ding from the analysis of the new con• tendencies to marking time or holding re an extended reproduction to the ex• ditions created, the 3rd Congress of the up the setting up of new cooperatives tent required by the harmonious deve• PLA issued the directive for speeding and their economic and organizational lopment of the productive forces of the up collectivization rates, so that the strengthening, when all the necessary country, in general. These dispropor• collectivization of agriculture be com• conditions had matured, were resolu• tions could be eliminated only by en• pleted in all lowland areas and in tely combated. suring higher development rates for most hilly areas within 1960. The Party The fundamental task of the first extended reproduction in agriculture, called on all cadres that, while working stage of collectivization, which appro• too, which could be done through the to step up collectivization rates, they ximately comprises the period 1946- transformation of the mass of peasant rigorously respect the principle of free 1955, was that of preparing the objec• economies into large-scale socialist coo• will, allowing no form of dictate or tive and subjective conditions for the perated economies capable of making pressure on the peasants, this being mass collectivization of peasant eco• effective use of modern technique and an indispensable condition for streng• nomies. In compliance with this task, agrotechnics. thening the alliance of the working the PLA issued the basic directive for In this period the political, social and class with the working peasantry and, this stage, namely, that «we must economic conditions for stepping up the on this basis, for consolidating the coo• neither be hasty, nor mark time in the rates of collectivization of agriculture perativist order in the countryside. collectivization of agriculture^>. The had also matured. The strengthening Life fully indicated the correctness objective of the Party during this about of the leadership of the Party and the of the orientations of the Party. The ten-year-long preparatory period was people's state power and their increased working peasantry enthusiastically that, while taking all the necessary po• influence on the masses of working adopted the program of the 3rd Con• litical, economic and organizational peasants, the consolidation of the al• gress for the stepping up of collectivi• measures to assist the first agricultural liance of the working class with the zation rates. By the end of 1959, that cooperatives, the latter should be ena• peasantry, the actual restriction of the is, one year ahead of the time set, the bled to show in practice, through their kulak class, the strengthening of the collectivization of agriculture was ac• concrete example, the superiority of the MTS and the expansion of the econo• complished with success in the low• socialist cooperativist order over the mic possibilities to help the peasantry, lands and in most of the hilly areas capitalist economies and the individual the experience gained by the existing of the country. By the end of 1960, fragmented economies. This stage was agricultural cooperatives, as well as 71.3 per cent of peasant economies and also to serve the Party to accumu• the good example they set, the streng• 85.1 per cent of the arable land was late experience and the necessary means thening of the internal and external included in agricultural cooperatives. so as to take quicker steps for the mass situation of the Republic — all these However, for the complete collectivi• collectivization of the countryside later. factors were decisive in assisting our zation of agriculture, this process had During this stage the necessary measu• country to step up the rate of collecti• to be carried through to the end in res were taken for the political iso• vization of agriculture. the mountainous areas, too. Special 18 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

work was needed to prepare the neces- the peasantry. Instead of the stratum the socialist state, agriculture has ma• sai-y conditions lor this purpose. of small, middle and poor proprietors of de great progress and life in the Al• By 1967 the last peasant economies the countryside, the new cooperativist banian countryside has been, radically of the remote mountain areas joined peasantry emerged as one class, born transformed. the agricultural cooperatives. Thus the as a result of the establishment of Major, deep-going quantitative and program of the Party for the complete new, socialist relations of production, qualitative changes have taken place collectivization of agriculture was fully based on socialist common group pro• in our agriculture during a relatively realized. All this proved in practice perty of the main means of production. short historical period. The acreage that the new socialist relations could With the change in the relations of of arable land has increased 2.4 fold be established in the countryside re• ownership and the character of work, compared with the pre-Liberation pe• gardless of terrain, economic, level, the mentality of the broad mass of riod, all swamps and marches which habits, customs, etc. This great suc• peasants began to change, too. Favou• extended over tens of thousands of cess of the policy of the Party for the rable soil was created for the eradica• hectares, were drained; from 1946 to complete collectivization of agriculture tion of religious prejudices, old back• 1978 about 48 500 hectares of land became a powerful base not only for ward customs and habits which charac• were reclaimed and another 186 400 narrowing down essential distinctions terized the peasantry in the past. improved; a whole irrigation system between town and countryside, in ge• The completion of the collectiviza• capable of supplying regular irriga• neral, but also between the peasantry tion of agriculture and the profound tion for more than 52 per cent of the in the mountains and in the lowlands. transformation made in the essence arable land has been set up. This and nature of the peasantry as a class, puts Albania in the first place in laid the socio-economic foundations to Europe in regard to irrigated arable * raise the militant alliance of the work• land. ing class with the cooperativist pea• Important steps have been taken in santry to a new higher level, and ce• the mechanization of farm work. The complete collectivization of agri• ment it further as the powerful basis From about 30 tractors our agricul• culture in the PSR of Albania marked for the uninterrupted development of ture had in 1938, today in the fields the most radical change in the socio• the construction of socialism and com• of our country work more than 18 00(1 economic relations of our countryside. munism with the working class, led by tractors of 15 HP, or 4 times as many The complete transformation of tens of the Party of Labour of Albania, at as in 1960. As a result now many work thousands of private peasant economies the head. processes in agriculture are mecha• into large-scale socialist cooperativist The triumph of the policy of the PL.A nized completely or to a large degree. economies was achieved within about for the collectivization of agriculture Our industry supplies agriculture with two decades. The collectivization of is a living proof which refutes the reac• large quantities of chemical fertili• agriculture created the socio-economic tionary and anti-Marxist essence of the zers, with about 145 kg of active conditions for the liquidation of the theories and practices of the modem matter per hectare, as against 3 kg of exploitation of the working peasantry, revisionists who, in fact, negate the Le• active matter per hectare in 1950. In• for the complete liquidation of capital• ninist theory of the collectivization of secticides, herbicides, etc., with which ist elements in the countryside. By agriculture as a general law of the our agriculture is being provided in affirming the socialist relations in the construction of socialism. With their ever increasing quantities, are employed countryside, it ensured the necessary anti-Marxist theories and practices the extensively. socio-economic conditions so as to bar modem revisionists have plunged the A one-sided primitive agriculture was all paths to the emergence of capitalist peasantry of the countries, in which they replaced with an advanced multi-bran• economies in the countryside. rule, even deeper in the mire of capital• ched agriculture, in conformity with the With the completion of the socialist ism. In these countries the laws of capi• soil and climatic conditions of the coun• collectivization of all small-sized pea• talism find a free field of operation in try, thus, ensuring the development of sant economies, a single economic base the countryside, too, thereby constantly agriculture, not only in the lowlands, was created both in town and coun• deepening the impoverishment of the which occupy about 15 per cent of the tryside, the economic base of socialism, area of the Republic, but also in the hilly as the only prevailing economic system working peasantry, the economic dif• and mountainous areas. In this manner was set up. This marked the complete ferentiation of the countryside, the the directive of the Party, «Let us stick disappearance of the contrast between contradiction between town and coun• to mountains and hillsides and make town and countryside on the socio-eco• tryside, and all the other contradictions them as fertile as the lowlands* is im• nomic plane, established new relations typical of the capitalist mode of pro• plemented. Along with the numerical of social equality, collaboration and mu• duction. increase of livestock, the improvement tual assistance in all fields, and enabled The collectivization of agriculture in of breeds has also undergone great the peasantry to march together with Albania opened broad horizons for the development. Today the thorough-bred the working class towards the complete all-round development of productive or cross-bred cattle account for 100 per construction of socialist society. forces in the countryside. Thanks to cent of all their number in state farms The complete collectivization of agri• the new cooperativist order, the self- and 77 per cent in agricultural coope• culture brought about deep-going trans• denying work of the working pea• ratives. Considerable development has formations of the very class essence of santry and the all-round assistance of also been made in the production of ALBANIA TODAY I (68), 1983 m 19

industrial crops, fruits, etc. A valuable closer to that of the city in all fields. per cent of the real income per contribution to the rapid development In all its activity, the Party has pro• per capita in the city, but it rose to 71 of agriculture has been made by thous• ceeded from Comrade Enver Hoxha's in 1975 and 80 per cent in 1980. At the ands of farming specialists trained dur• instruction that ^Socialism is not built same time, as a result of differentiated ing the years of the people's state only in the town, just for the working measures in favour of cooperatives in power. As against some dozens of class, but also in the countryside and mountainous areas, the distinctions in specialists of higher training our coun• for the peasantry as well>>.8 With the the level of development between the try had before Liberation, 5 084 had fi• complete collectivization of agriculture, latter and the cooperatives in the low• nished higher argicultural education and the Albanian peasantry emerged from lands are being steadily narrowed 16 952 medium agricultural education the poverty, exploitation and ignorance down. up till 1978. inherited from the old feudal-bourgeois These radical transformations, the order. The electrification of all villages emergence and operation of new so• has been completed, and has been ex• cial and material factors in the coun• tended to all the villages. Schools, cul• * * tryside, have created the objetive and tural institutions, such as centres of subjective conditions to increase crop culture, clubs, creches and kindergar• AloNg with the socialist transforma• and livestock yields and the general tens, messes, health and trade facilities, tion of agriculture and the whole eco• agricultural and livestock production exist in all villages. The way of living nomy of the country the process of at high rates. Compared with 1938, the in the countryside has changed in a way transition to the stage of the complete average yield of wheat per hectare has that could not be imagined in the past. construction of socialist society goes on increased more than 3.5 times, that of In the years of the people's state power uninterruptedly. This process involves maize more than 3 times, ets. Through about 200 000 new houses were built in the solution of a number of important the rapid increase of crop yields and the countryside — enough to accom• problems connected with the raising of the extension of the sown acreage, our modate Albania's entire population in the relations of production and the pro• agriculture today produces about 5 ti• 1938. The villages of the Republic de• ductive forces to a new higher level. mes more bread grain than in the pre• velop according to regulation plans of The further deepening of the processes war period. Likewise, total agricultural which the conditions of living in the of socialist transformation, the transi• production is 5 times greater than that countryside are intended to be brought tion to the stage of the construction of of the period before Liberation. Al• as close as possible to those of the city. communism, must lead to such a level though the population of our country Another direction which shows the of development in which, first, the eli• has grown more than 2.5 times as narrowing down of the essential distinc• mination of distinctions between the against the pre-Llberation period, to• tions between town and countryside are working class and the cooperativist pea• tal agricultural production per head of the measures taken by the socialist santry is attained, second, essential so• population today is twice as high. For state in favour of the cooperativist cio-economic distinctions between town the sixth year in succession our agri• peasantry, the development of educa• and countryside are eliminated. culture produces all the quantity of tion and culture in the countryside, the The fundamental direction in the bread grain needed to meet all the institution of pensions for the coope- development of productive forces in needs of the population; rezerves of rativists and the subsequent equaliza• agriculture, in the elimination of the bread grain have been ensured and cer• tion of the criteria of their application essential socio-economic distinctions tain quantities of bread grain have to those of the working people of the between town and countryside, goes been exported. The achievement of self- city. through the further continuation of in• sufficiency in bread grain is another The improvement of the material and tensification of agriculture in the low• great victory of the political and econo• cultural well-being of the peasantry and lands, in the hilly and mountainous mic line of the Party for the construc• the narrowing down of the essential areas, by raising crop and livestock tion of socialism. It strengthens the in• distinctions between city and country yields ever higher. The fulfilment of dependence of the country as regards are also expressed in the high growth this task is linked not only with the the most important item of consump• rates of the real income per capita of further expansion and strengthening of tion of the population and the most im• the peasantry as against the working the material and technical base of agri• portant factor for the development of people of the city. In 1970, compared culture, but also with the raising the other branches of agriculture and with 1960, the real income per capita of its efficiency, with a better combi• livestock-farming. in the countryside grew 1.4 times more nation of the material and technical Sticking faithfully to the teachings of rapidly than in the town, and in the base, with the increase of live work and Marxism-Leninism, the Party of Labour 5th and 6th-Five-year Plans (1971-1980) the application of scientific innovations, of Albania in all its activity ha-s- aimed they-rose twice as quickly. The same as main links and reserves for the in• at creating the conditions needed for rate is foreseen under the -Tth Five- crease of agricultural and livestock pro• the all-round raising of the material and year Plan (1981-1985). AH this has ena• duction. At the same time, another so• cultural level of the countryside on the bled the gradual narrowing down of urce for the increase of production re• basis of development of the productive the distinctions in the real income per mains the extension and systematiza- forces of the countryside and the new, capita between -town and countryside. tion of the arable land, the opening up socialist relations of production, so as to The real income per capita in of new land, especially in the hilly bring the level of the village ever the countryside in 1960 was equal to 65 and mountainous areas. 20 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

This program for the rapid deve• essential distinctions between town and herds out of individual livestock. As lopment of our socialist agriculture con• countryside, the perfection of the so• long as the cooperatives were still weak stitutes the groundwork of the 7th cialist relations of production, is being economically and unable to meet the Five-year Plan (1981-1985) for the de• achieved through the transformation of needs of their members for some con• velopment of the economy and culture the economically developed agricultural sumer articles of prime necessity, the of the PSR of Albania. It is envisaged cooperatives of the lowlands into higher- small property of the cooperativist's that under the 7th Five-year Plan the type cooperatives. The higher-type coo• personal plot was an unavoidable, agricultural production will grow at an peratives which began to be set up in though temporary means «... only as an annual average of 30-32 per cent as the beginning of the 70's, according to auxiliary means for meeting some of against the eth Five-year Plan, and 90 the orientations of the 6th Congress of the needs which the socialist economy per cent of the increase will be ensu- the PLA, are intended ^•'...to develop will cope with in the future.»9 "-ed through higher yields. agriculture at higher rates in the more Now that the cooperatives have be• In the 7th Five-year Plan, too, the fertile plains of our country and ensure come stronger and are in a position to main task remains the production of a steady increase of those agricultural meet ever better the material needs of bread grain which for the five years and livestock products for which the na• the cooperativist family out of their taken together will Increase about 20 tional economy is in more urgent need.x^ common economy, the personal plot of per cent over the 6th Five-Year Plan. Now the higher-type cooperatives have the cooperativist is gradually losing its The directives of the 8th Congress of become soclali.st economies of large- initial function and purpose. In these the PLA for the 7th Five-year Plan scale production in which, as a result of conditions, from an auxiliary economic call for a better assessment of the im• the direct participation of the state factor, the cooperativist's personal plot portance of industrial crops and taking through fundamental productive invest• turns into an obstacle to the further all the necessary measures for rapidly ments, the possibilities for a more development of the cooperativist system. Increasing their yields so that the an• rapid development of the productive Now it must gradually disappear. The nual average production of sugar-beet forces in the common cooperatives, for practice of the recent 2-3 years proves grows 41-44 per cent; sunflower 56-58 a more efficient utilization of the ma• this. The conditions created and the per cent, cotton 55-58 per cent, and terial and technical base, for the deeoen- convincing and explanatory work of tobacco 46-49 per cent, as against the ing of the technical-scentific revolution the Party have sparked off the emer• past five-year period. Perceptible in• for the concentration, specialization and gence of initatives among the coope- creases are envisaged also for livestock cooperation of agricultural production, rativists of some districts to join their products, fruit-growing, etc. etc are created. personal sheep and goats into common The complete construction of socialist The higher-type cooperatives mark a flocks, and in the last year, their society is dialectically linked with the step forward in the perfecting and personal cows as well. These initiatives process of uninterrupted perfection of further development of socialist rela• now are spreading and being supported the socialist relations of production. tions of production. The degree of so• in all the cooperatives of the country. Basing itself on the teachings of Com• cialization of property in them is higher The perfecting and further streng• rade Enver Hoxha, the PLA has worked than in the other cooperatives, and this thening of socialist property is a power• to ensure that the socialist relations of because the socialist state, as the carrier ful basis to further improve the forms production in the countryside develon of the highest form of socialist owner• of socialist organization and manage• uninterruptedly, that the relations of ship, participates directly and on a grea• ment of work, to raise the scientific le• ownership, the forms of socialist orga• ter degree in them. The relations of vel of planning by adopting such forms nization of labour, distribution, ex• exchange and distribution in the higher- as to draw the agricultural cooperati• change and consumption, are systema• type cooperatives are more perfect than ves directly into the single state plan. tically improved. An important direc• in the other cooperatives and resemble For this purpose many plan indices of tion in the development and further those of the socialist state sector. None• state farms have been brought to cover perfecting of the socialist relations in theless, the higher-type cooperatives agricultural cooperatives as well. This the countryside is the raising of the remain cooperativist economies and do raises the scientific level of planning degree of socialization of group property not come out of the bounds of group and improves the economic activity of through the merger of agricultural co(>- property. However, being a more deve• the agricultural cooperatives in the peratives into large units. This process loped form of cooperation of production, framework of the whole socialist eco• has continued from one five-year plan they are a means for the gradual pre• nomy of the country. to the other, with the result that the paration of the objective and subjective With the perfecting and development degree of concentration of cooperativist conditions to bring socialist group pro• of socialist relations of production a bro• group property has increased. If in 1960 perty closer to state property, until ader horizon opens before the agricul• our country had 1 491 agricultural coo• the former is transformed into property tural cooperatives. They will be able to peratives with an average acreage of of the whole people. raise their relations of exchange and arable land of 220 hectares each, today A vers' important trend, which is distribution to a higher level, to deve• there are 423 agricultural cooperatives being observed in the further perfect• lop and perfect their forms of remu• with an average acreage of arable land ing of the socialist relations of produc• neration according to the quantity and of 1 220 hectares each, which produce tion in agricultural coooeratives, is the quality of work done, to improve their 3.5 times as much on a national scale. reduction of the size of the cooperativist's relations with the state and establish The further narrowing down of the personal plot and*the creation of joint more correct proportions between the ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 21 fund of accumulation and the fund of tryside to advance towards the comple• all the ills the peasantry suffered in consumption, etc. The relations of te construction of socialist and commun• the conditions of capitalism — capitalist exchange between the agricultural coo• ist society. Thus, the objective and sub• exploitation, impoverishment and ruin peratives and the socialist state, in the jective conditions for narrowing down of peasant's economies, on the one hand, field of procurement of agricultural and and eventually fully eliminating the and concentration of property in the livestock products, in the supply of ma• essential distinctions between town and hands of the rich, the mass drawing on terials and technical means, in the dis• countryside are created. the countryside, unemployment, etc. tribution of the product for society, etc. It was proven in practice that the Such a bitter picture of the condition are being constantly perfected, going collectivization of agriculture and its of the working people of the country• over to higher forms which respond to uninterrupted development on the ba• side is to be seen today in all the for• the new conditions and to the new and sis of the fundamental principles of mer socialist countries, in which the re• higher level attained in the develop• Marxism-Leninism in the conditions of visionists seized power and re-esta• ment of cooperativist property, at a time the existence and strengthening of the blished capitalism. when its essential distinctions with state dictatorship of the proletariat, is the property are being narrowed down only historically tested road for the 1. Enver Hoxha, Works, vol. 5, p. 124, more and more. construction of socialism and commun• Alb. ed. ism in the countryside, too. Otherwise, 2 Enver Hoxha, -"Reports and Spee• when the dictatorship of the proleta• ches i70-I7i», Tirana 1972, p. 122, Alb. • riat degenerates into a dictatorship of ed. * * the bourgeoisie, new or old, when the 3 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol principles of Marxism-Leninism on the 31, p. 8, Alb. ed. The many years' experience in the building and development of the coo• 4 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 29, socialist transformation of agriculture perativist order and sociedism in gene• p. 229, Alb. ed. in the PSR of Albania fully vindicated ral are violated, cooperativist property 5 Ibidem, vol. 33, p. 526. the correctness of the policy of the PLA. also disintegrates and degenerates into 6 V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 29, By consistently following the road of the capitalist property and, together with pp. 33-34, Alb. ed. consolidation of the cooperativist order, it, the relations of production in the 7 K. Marx and F. Engels, Worfc.s, vol. according to the Marxist-Leninist teach• countryside, and capitalist relations of 27, p. 684, Russian edition. ings of Comrade Enver Hoxha, constantly production, property, exchange and dis• 8 Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th developing and perfecting the forms of tribution are re-established. The re-es• Congress of the PLA, p. 65, Eng. ed. ownership, exchange and distribution in tablishment of capitalist relations of 9 Enver Hoxha, Report to the 6th the cooperatives, as well as preventing production paves the way for and cre• Congress of the PLA, Tirana 1971, any distortion of their socialist charac• ates the ground for the spontaneous laws p. 81, Alb. ed. ter, the necessary socio-economic con• of capitalism to operate freely, both in 10 Enver Hoxha, Works, vol. 33, p. ditions have been created for the coun• town and countryside. From this emerge 26, Alb. ed. THE AND ALBANIAN ! The present Albanian school. THE OUTSTAND iSBIiS OF WORLD CUL: spirit, are closely integrated with the traditional values an of world culture, while always maintaining towards its phen consistent struggle on both sides -both against xenophobia and against cosmopolitan submission and blind imitati THE MARXIST-LENINIST EDUCATIONAL POLICY WHICH HAS BEEN AND and military training: the socialist re• CONTINUES TO BE CARRIED OUT IN THE PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC volutionization of the methods of tea• OF ALBANIA HAS TWO MAJOR OBJECTIVES, FIRST. IT AIMS TO MAKE ching and education, as well as of PEOPLE'S EDUCATION AND THE SCHOOL THE PROPERTY OF THE BROAD the method and style of management WORKING MASSES, TO DEMOCRATIZE EDUCATION AND GIVE IT AN of people's education and the social• EVER MORE MASSIVE CHARACTER AT ALL LEVELS OF SCHOOLING. THE ist school, in struggle against alien li• GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOCIALIST ALBANIA IN THIS FIELD DURING beral and conservative, bureaucratic, THE FOUR RECENT DECADES OF ITS INDEPENDENT AND DEMOCRATIC technocratic and intellectualistic in• SOCIALIST DEVELOPMENT ARE WELL KNOWN. WITHIN A SHORT PERIOD fluences and manifestations. In the OF TIME, ALBANIA HAS BEEN RAPIDLY TRANSFORMED FROM A COUN• consistency and originality of this pro• TRY OF MASS ILLITERACY INTO A COUNTRY OF MASS EDUCATION. IT gram is also seen the contribution of HAS LONG AGO WIPED OUT ILLITERACY, DEFINITIVELY REALIZED the Party of Labour of Albania in the COMPULSORY 8-YEAR GENERAL EDUCATION, AND NOW DRAWS INTO creative development and enrichment of FOUR-YEAR SCHOOLS OF GENERAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION the Marxist-Leninist pedagogical think• MORE THAN HALF OF THE STUDENTS WHO FINISH THE 8-YEAR SCHOOL ing. IN TOWN AND COUNTRYSIDE. IT HAS A SUFFICIENTLY DEVELOPED However, it would be a mistake to NETWORK OF HIGH SCHOOLS WITH ALL THE SPECIALITIES NEEDED think that this original development of FOB TRAINING ALL THE SPECIALISTS FOR THE VARIOUS BRANCHES the Albanian socialist school has shut OF THE ECONOMY, CULTURE, SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE ADMINIS• it out, has barred it from all links TRATION. with world culture, from modem scien• Second, the educational policy of the Leninist educational policy, working out ce and pedagogy, from their achieve• Party of Labour of Albania has always a comprehensive program for the fur• ments, as well as from many unsolved considered education and the school as ther revolutionization of our socialist problems of a scientific and pedagogi• means of carrying out an ideological school, which has been applied in an cal character which preoccupy almost and cultural revolution of a socialist intensive way for a long time now. The the whole of mankind today. character or, more precisely, the com• aim of this program is, while continu• The question is that the process of munist education of the new man of ing the struggle against reactionary the all-round harmonious development socialist society, the development of concepts, old and new, and affirming of the personality of the new man of his personality and the all-round for• the new revolutionary socialist concepts, socialist society necessarily calls for a mation of the younger generation. to ensure the radical solution of some solid scientific and cultural formation By consistently implementing these cardinal problems of socialist educa• of the younger generation and, possibly, Marxist-Leninist principles, struggling tion such as: the consistent implemen• also of the grown-ups. This formation for the achievement of these objecti• tation of the Marxist-Leninist axis in begins at school and goes on during ail ves, in practice, the Party of Labour of all the structures and in the whole the life, by organically integrating the Albania and Comrade Enver Hoxha teaching and educational process of outstanding values not only of natio• have, especially in the two recent de• the school; ensuring ever stronger and nal culture, but also of world culture, cades, further enriched their Marxist- more effective links of the school with both of the present and the past. Hamit Beqja — Professor at the Uni• the life of socialist society, of teaching The scientific and cultural fomnation versity of Tirana with productive labour and physical of the younger generation and of all CHOOL

NG ACHIEVEMENTS URE progressive achievements Vena a critical stand and waging a principled and ^against xenomania, both against sectarian exclusiveness of foreign things

the working masses of the country is cluding the harmful tendency to xe• and scientific formation of the younger in complete conformity with the Marx• nomania which is so zealously culti• generation. ist-Leninist views on the communist vated especially by the big imperialist Today we live in the epoch of a far- education of the new man and with the and social-imperialist powers. reaching technical-scientific revolution needs of the socialist society for edu• In socialist Albania the whole teach• which has included the whole world, cated and knowledgeable cultured and ing and educational work of the school, of course, with all its social and class capable people. just as all other educational, cultural differences. A fundamental characte• As is known, the Marxist-Leninist and schooling activities, are built and ristic of this revolution is the enhance• view on the communist education of developed in complete conformity with ment of the great role of science, which has become a direct productive force, the new man has been masterfully the Marxist-Leninist concept of the role and the rapid increase of knowledge worked out by Lenin when he answered of knowledge, culture and science. questions about the significance of com• and the expansion of its theoretical and Beside other things, these principled munism and communist formation. Ac• practical range, which calls for a more theoretical-scientific stands in complete cording to Lenin's concept, only he modern education and higher scientific unity, this treatment of the problem who has enriched and continues to formation. and its rational and scientific solu• enrich his mind with the outstanding This technical-scientific revolution tion are also needed for the construction progressive achievements of the whole now develops with great speed in our of the socialist society, taking especially historical development of mankind, who, country, and puts on the agenda the into account the high rates at which in this process of broad cultural com• active utilization of the more valuable this process has to be developed. It munication, has gained the ability of achievements of contemporary science assimilating this knowledge in a cons• is known that socialism cannot be built and knowledge, and especially their ap• cious manner, who has mastered the with success and at necessary rapid plication in modem production, in its scientific bases of modern technology, rates without strongly relying on con• many technical and technological pro• which calls for solid modem polytech- temporary knowledge and education, on cesses. nical education, can be considered a modern science and technology, without The principle of self-reliance does man foiTned in the communist way. equipping the cadres, specialists and not in the least prevent us from at• Such a concept of the formation of technicians, indeed all the working tentively following the advance of world the new man on the basis of a Marxist- masses and, in particular, the younger science, the ' contemporary technical Leninist dialectical materialist approach generation, with them. The greater the and technological progress and struggl• to the cultural legacy of the whole past backwardness of the country which ing to put them in practice, that is, mankind and modern knowledge and sets out on the road of socialist cons• reflecting them in the teaching and science is the complete opposite of any truction, the more imperative this task educational process of our school as cultural nihilism, national isolation and becomes for it. So, proceeding both from well. xenophobic spirit. At the same time it general considerations about the road On these theoretical-scientific bases excludes any spirit of submissiveness to of socialist construction and the specific and socio-economic considerations are things of the past or coming from conditions of our country in this process, built the relations between the modem abroad, any spirit of uncritical idea• from the beginning of its development Albanian socialist school arid world lization of the national and world de• to this day the Albanian socialist school culture as a whole. We see these links velopment in the field of culture, in• has always worked for a solid cultural embodied in all ca':egories and kinds 24 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY of schools, at all levels of schooling, in has become very short today. This, too, ing the way and creating broader possibi• all subjects and disciplines, in all struc• is another feature of the present-day lities for the application of modern scien• tures and teaching and educational technical-scientific revolution. On this ce and didactics in the work and life of procedures. ! basis, the problem of the rapid di• school. This is the acute and complex dactical processing and reflection of task of the scientific-pedagogical mo• the newest achievements of the diffe• dernization of the Albanian school • rent special and applied sciences in which is being carried out in struggle • * teaching programs and the live teaching against any narrow conservative stand. process has become very topical and The question is that the present-day In Albania today the stress is laid on acute. In our country, this is important scientific-pedagogical modernization of the need for the general qualitative especially for medium vocational edu• our school bears and should bear deeply strengthening of schooling at all its le• cation and higher education. on both the content of teaching and vels. At the 8th Congress of the Party In the present period of development the forms and methods of its organiza• of Labour of Albania held in Novem• of our secondary education, the voca• tion and development. However, pre• ber 1981, the leader of the Albanian tional schools of all types, especially cisely in these fields there is more people Comrade Enver Hoxha has said: agricultural and industrial, predomi• traditionalism and conservatism, and "Now the time has come for all the nate. They train the new work force for the school has lagged more behind life. forces of our education and teaching all the branches of the people's econo• This is one of the reasons why every• front to concentrate more seriously and my as well as medium training tech• where in the world there is much talk in a more qualified way on raising the nicians it needs so greatly. about a crisis of the school and peda• quality of the work of the school, The teaching process in these' scho' gogy. However, in many so-called ad• without neglecting constant care to ols is closely linked with modern pro• vanced countries the way out of this further increase the mass participation duction, with its technical and tech• crisis is sought in the transition from in education in general, and especially nological achievements and trends. So, the traditional pedagogy to a new pe• in certain of its links. This need is being closely linked with our socialist dagogy — the so-called kibernetic pe• dictated not only by the specific in• production at its present stage and in dagogy, which is linked especially with ternal development of education, the a certain fetishism of teaching techni• school and pedagogy but in the first its perspective development, they reflect que, of teaching machines, in particu• place, by the general economic, social, these processes, also, from the angle lar. Without neglecting the achievements scientific and technical development of of the more recent achievements of of contemporary didactics, its broad the entire life of the couintry>> (Report contemporary science and technical pro• application of kibernetics and informa• to the 8th Congress of the FLA, Ti• gress. tics, the ever larger use of machines, rana 1961, p. 140, Eng. ed.). In our higher schools, too, efforts we can never accept the abandoning of are made to train many and different sound pedagogical traditions, especially Among others, our school works, bet• specialists of the level of contemporary the tendency towards exaggerated tech- ter than heretofore, to endow our youn• science, so as to meet all the needs of the nicism which leads to the underevalua- ger generation with the necessary know• different branches of the economy and tion of the educational aspects of tea• ledge of contemporary level. It must culture of the country. These schools ching and of role of the teacher as be kept in mind that, in our time, reflect the achievements of contempora• organizer of the teaching process and, knowledge develops uninterruptedly in ry science and technology, as a rule, on particularly, as educator. very large proportions and at very quick a broader profile which applies better rates. This phenomenon is apparent in to a small country and enables narro• The new pedagogical, didactic and all the disciplines that are taught in wer specializations mainly through post- educational problems that face the Al• the school. However, an important de• university courses. banian school today are of a complex velopment and importance have as• Obviously, the Albanian school ap• nature. In order to make up for the new sumed today those sciences which are plies the world experience of teaching and necessary scientific information, the called the fundamental natural scien• of the natural and technical sciences volume of taowledge should not only ces — mathematics, physics, chemistry, in a critical way, without ever ne• be mechanically increased, as has often biology, which renovate the theoretical glecting the scientific struggle between happened, but also a radical change of foundation of many disciplines applied various viewpoints. This in order to its conceptual apparatus and a re-syste- in technique and technology, have as• close all paths for the penetration of matization of information into adequate sumed great development and importan• any idealistic and metaphysical con• didactic equivalents should be brought ce today. In compliance with this task ception. It handles these problems on about, making its structures more com• active and intensive work is being done the philosophical theoretical-scientific pact and more universal so as to in• to raise the level of teaching of those basis of dialectical materialism. crease its proportion and perceptibly subject matters in all categories of To attain all these objectives, the Al• broaden the field of the applications of schools, to build such teaching pro• banian school today is carrying out ra• science. For a certain traditionalism grams that reflect the latest achieve• dical changes in its teaching plans and which is met with also in the teaching ments of contemporary science. programs, textbooks and methods of process of our school, even in the teach• As is known, the time dividing one teaching, renovating all these pedagogi• ing of the fundamental scientific di• scientific discovery from another and cal structures and combating all outdat• sciplines, to be overcome, one cannot go its practical application in production ed concepts and practices, thereby open• on with grafts of the new on the old, ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 25 with patchings, with improvizations, but alistic, metaphysical, cosmopolitan, bo• a general panoramic view of the whole on the basis of a modern comprehen• urgeois and revisionist views clash with world literature from Amtiquity to our sive conception of the whole teaching revolutionary Marxist-Leninist mate• days and this course deals with the which must be graduated according to rialist and dialectical views. All this main literary-artistic epochs, directions all categories of schools and years of stresses the need for the defence and and trends — the classical literature of schooling. In the live process of teach• cultivation of socialist culture, the cul• the Antiquiiy, of the Renaissance and ing and education more attention must ture of a sound national and popular Humanism, of Classicism and lUumin- be paid to the position of the student, spirit. A correct solution to these com• ism, of Critical and Socialist Realism. tw\s,\deTmg him not merely as the plex problems is also found in the con• The concrete literary-artistic analysis object, but as the subject of study and sistent maintenance of a Marxist-Le• in this course is carried out, in the first education, developing his vivid creative ninist stand towards world culture, a place, through the major works of such thinking and practical spirit by integrat• stand which our school takes, espe• outstanding authors as Homer, Aeschy• ing him into a system of independent cially in the teaching of social subjects lus, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Mo- work ranging from the formation of the and, among them, of those which oc• liere, Byron, Goethe, Balzac, Tolstoy, habits of independent systematic learn• cupy a more important place — histo• London, Gorky, Mayakovsky and ing to the intensive development of his ry, literature, geography, which are others. Along with the study of these scientific and technical imagination. extensively taught in the 8-year school progressive authors and the analy• By critically utilizing the more advan• and in the secondary school of gene• ses of their major works, the students ced achievements of contemporary world ral education, in the first place. are taught to take the right stand psj'chology and didactics in the so• Along with a broad study of the na• towards the complicated phenomena lution of all these problems, the Al• tional history of Albania, our school of the historical-literary process, to cri• banian school strongly relies, in the pays great attention, with due conside• ticize reactionary tendencies and, in first place, on the fundamental princi• ration of the age of the students, to the particular, the more blatant manifesta• ples of socialist pedagogy, on developing general history of the world divided into tions of decadent and modernist art and and enriching them in the process of its separate courses according to historical literature of the past century and the own revolutionization, on the new theo• epochs. The Modern History and the present century. In this manner, the retical and practical experience gained History of the Middle Ages are dealt teaching of literature serves the ideo- during this process. with in the second higher cycle of aesthetic education of the younger gene• During the school-year 1981-1982 school of general compulsory 8-year ration in the communist spirit. a broad popular discussion took place education. Taking into account the im• The study of world geography, espe• in the education and pedagogical circles portance and actuality of events. Modem cially of its political and economic of the country, at meetings and in the and Contemporary History are taught aspects, is also imparted in a spiral pro• press, in which the problems of impro• both in the 8-year school (more simply) cess, first in the 8-year school and then in ving the quality of teaching, its scien• and in the secondary school (more de• the secondary school. In his geography tific-pedagogical modernization were eply and extensively). Obviously the lessons the students get to know the si• dealt wiih especially. As a result, mea• teaching of general history focusses on tuation and the evolution of the poli• sures have also been defined to solving the main, more important and more tical map and the economic develop• the problems, which has already begun, typical events of all historical epochs, ment of the world today, focussing, here gradually. from Antiquity to our days, and deals too, on the main and more characteris• with historical problems from the Mar• tic regions and countries. Along with xist-Leninist positions of the material• information from modern history, the ist interpretation of history, treat• teaching of the political and economic * * ing the objective laws of the historical geography of the world prepares the process, proving the role of the class student to take a critical stand towards In regard to the reflection of the struggle as a motive force of this pro• the phenomena of decay of the present outstanding achievements of world cul• cess, and underlining the major role of imperialist and revisionist world, pro• ture in the activity of the present-day the popular masses as creators of his• ceeding from the Marxist-Leninist the• Albanian school, the teaching of social tory. The teaching of history dwells ses and the contribution the Party of and humanitarian subjects raises weig• especially on historical events of a Labour of Albania and Comrade Enver htier, more acute and complex problems. progressive character in all epochs of so• Hoxha have made and continue to make These subjects deal broadly, both in cial development. to the study of these processes. the historical and actual plane, with From these same positions is taught Besides these subjects, the students the relationship between the past and world literature, too. The students of the develop correct philosophical, ethical, the present, the national and the fore• 8-year school acquaint themselves, by and aesthetic concepts through classes ign, the progressive and the reactionary. means of beautiful passages of a sound on the elements of Marxism-Leninism, Here the need emerges for a critical, content and an excellent artistic form as well as through the broad educatio• differentiated approach to these pro• selected according to their age, with nal activity carried out out of school by blems over which a fierce struggle of the main foreign progressive authors. the teachers and the organizations of ideo-scientific views has been and con• The secondary school, for its part, has a the youth and the young pioneers. In tinues to be waged. In this struggle of relatively more complete ihistorical-11- this manner, they have a broader pic• a strong class character reactionary ide• terary course, which gives the students ture of the outstanding and progressive 26 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY values of human thought in the past the so-called modern internationaliza• particular place among them is given and present, both in the socio-political tion of culture, it is carried out with to the works of the best children's aspects and others. the aim of denigrating the national writers. The current information of the It is evident that the 8-year and se• culture of the smaller peoples. achievements of world culture, science condary schools teach only the funda• Although small in number, the Albanian and technology is reflected in dailies mentals of the world progressive cul• people have an ancient history and and periodicals. All these sources of ture of the past and present. Its more culture, outstanding cultural traditions knowledge are also to our reader avail• profound study, with richer information and their present socialist culture of able in the broad network of libraries and more comprehensive treatment, a high level. They, too, have made and which have their funds of scientific with confrontations and stands, is done are making their modest contribution tD and technical works in foreign lan• especially in the specialized courses of the treasury of world culture. Cn this guages. the higher school, in the faculties of basis a consistent struggle is waged, The radio and TV carry out broad the historical, philological, geographi• both against xenophobia and xenoma• activities. In their daily broadcasts the cal, political, philosophical, juridical, nia, and this is reflected in the activity Albanian radio and TV regularly in• artistic and other branches. of the school. form their listeners and watchers about Here we must add that the teaching international political, economic, cultu• of foreign languages, organized in e * ral, scientific, technical, musical, ar• systematic manner, helps the pupils * • tistic and other events. Our TV has and students to get into direct regular programs of foreign films, contact with world culture and scien• It is obvious that our school lays which are selected according to their ce from authetic sources. Begin• only the foundations for an ulterior artistic and ideological values. Foreign ning from the 5th form of the 8-year systematic acquaintance of the younger films, chosen according to the same school the pupils have to choose one generation with the outstanding va• criteria, are shown in all the cinemas of of these three main languages: English, lues of culture and science. It is the the country. The theatres and the other French and Russian. first systematic source of their acquain• cultural institutions work in the same While dealing in brief with the place tance with these values. In the school spirit. world culture occupies in the teaching and then in life the youth have the of social subjects in the Albanian possibility to acquaint themselves with school, we cannot fail to point out here these values through the many and * * that national culture is also extensively powerful mass media. Our school is taught in all its fundamental aspects faced with the task of better harmo• The links between the Albanian and manifestations, past and present, nizing its activity with the activity of school and world culture are establi• dwelling especially on its outstanding these media which complement, indeed shed on correct ideological, scientific and progressive values, as well as its increase, the influence of the teaching- and pedagogical criteria which take present development. Objective is to educational process of the school. Al• account of current progressive values. create in the students a sound socialist though this is a broad problem in itself, The present Albanian school, the pre• national spirit opposed to any narrow we cannot fail to say something about sent Albanian culture, with a sound na• nationalist tendencies, in conformity it. tional and socialist spirit, are closely with the principle of proletarian inter• A great diversity of artistic, scienti• integrated with the traditional values nationalism. Without elaborating on this fic and technical literature have been and progressive achievements of world problem, we must stress that this stand translated into Albanian. Valuable work culture, while always maintaining to• is becoming more and more actual today^ has been done especially in translating wards its phenomena a critical stand and is, absolutely necessary in our and publishing in large circulations es• and waging a principled and consistent struggle against the ideological diver• pecially the famous works of the out• struggle on both sides — both against sion and cultural aggression from the standing classics of other countries, xenophobia and against xenomania, capitalist and revisionist world, es• from Antiquity to our days, as well both against sectarian exclusiveness pecially from the great powers, the as of contemporary progressive authors and against cosmopolitan submission more so since under the banner of from all the countries of the world. A and blind imitation of foreign things. ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES OF THE ECONOMIC SCIENCES IN THE PSR OF ALBANIA

The construction of socialism has never been treated by the Albanian eco• nomic sciences as a mere process of technical and material development of the productive forces. Instead it has been considered and treated in close connection with the solution of economic productive problems the construction of socialism raises and with the ceaseless perf ectioning of the socialist relations of production

by PMIIAMO BOtLI^ANO

SCIENTIFIC-RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF THE ECONOMY nomy of the country, relying on its PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT own natural and human resources. OF ALBANIA ON THE ROAD OF SOCIALISM. The triumph of the people's revo• _THE BACKWARD SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITION OF PRE-WAR ALBA• lution, the establishment of the dicta• NIA DETERMINED THE LOW LEVEL OF THE SCIENTIFIC ECONOMIC torship of the proletariat and of the THOUGHT IN THE COUNTRY. IN THAT PERIOD ADVANCED AND INDE• socialist relations of production marked PENDENT SCIENTIFIC ECONOMIC THINKING WAS QUITE OUT OF THE a great historic turn in the life of Alba• QUESTION. nia. They brought about the emergence of Albania from the centuries-old dark• WITH THE DECLINE OF THE FEUDAL RELATIONS AND THE EMER• ness to the light of socialism. At the GENCE OF CAPITALIST RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION, THE ALBANIAN same time they opened up broad pers• MEN OF THE RENAISSANCE, PARALLEL WITH THEIR EXTENSIVE ACTI• pectives and new horizons to the de• VITIES IN THE FIELD OF LINGUISTICS, LITERATURE AND POLITICS, velopment of the economic science as DID NOT FAIL TO TAKE UP AND ELABORATE VARIOUS THESES AND a separate field of social sciences. IDEAS CONCERNING THE ECONOMIC PROCESSES AND PHENOMENA IN 1. In the second half of the 20th cen• ALBANIA AND ITS FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. THE ALBANIAN THINKERS tury Albanian economic thought emerg• OF^ THE RENAISSANCE TOOK UPON THEMSELVES, AS THEIR FIRST ed on the front line of the theoretical OBJECTIVE, TO RAISE THE NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ALBA• and practical treatment of the qu^- NIAN PEOPLE, TO FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND THE INDEPENDE- tions of scientific socialism. This is con• CE OF THE HOMELAND, AND THE DEFENCE OF ITS TERRITORIAL nected with a number of circumstan• INTEGRITY. ces — with the uninterrupted work for. Fragmentory as they were, these portant role in the formation of the the construction of socialist society in ideas of theirs, about the economic de• national awareness and the building up Albania, and with the , fierce pol^ics velopment of the country played an im- of convictions about the possibilities with the modern revisionists, of .various hues and with the defence of the Marx• ¥RlAUO BOLLANO — Dr. of econo• and perspectives of the independent ist-Leninist economic doctrine. mic sciences and all-round development of the eco• 28 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

Outstanding in this is the Ideologi• of the objective economic laws of so• practice such problems as the trans• cal, theoretical and practical thought of cialism, etc. formation of Albania through stages, the Party of Labour of Albania and Treatment, from Marxist-Leninist po• first, from a backward agricultural coun• the great work of Comrade Enver sitions, of the essence and contents of try into an agricultural-industrial one, Hoxha, represented, first of all, in the socialism permitted Albanian economic and then its rapid transformation into series of his Collected Works and in science to realize in practice the or• an industrial-agricultural country, and many of his separate publications. ganization of the functioning of an eventually, a country with developed They represent a scientific summing up original socialist economy, as the so• industry and advanced agriculture; the of the rich revolutionary experience cialist economy of Albania is. procurement of financial means and of the Party of Labour of Albania and 2. Uppermost in this question has primary materials; the training of of the Albanian people in the construc• been and is the solution of the pro• qualified workers and cadres, tech• tion and defence of socialism, provide blems and the overcoming of difficul• nicians and engineers needed for in• the explanation to many ideological, ties connected with the creation of a dustrialization, etc. theoretical and practical problems of strong and complex economy which, In the course of industrialization, the construction and organization of a relying on its own resources, can meet clarity about the method of industria• genuine socialist economy. the fundamental needs of the popula• lization of the countiy was an impor• In the whole range of problems rai• tion, of the economic reproduction and tant question. Right from the start sed in the construction of socialism of defence. The task of setting up this of this process, Albanian economic in Albania, Albanian economic thought, kind of economy constituted an histo• science has faithfully applied the Marx• relying on Marxism-Leninism, has had rical necessity and was the decisive ist-Leninist concept of the simultaneous to solve and carry out in the prac• factor for consolidating and advancing development of both the light and tice of the PSR of Albania the the cause of the political independence heavy industries, giving priority to the organization and construction of a of the Homeland, of creating the con• extracting and processing heavy in• real socialist society. The innova• ditions for the activation and employ• dustry. The branches of the produc• tion Albanian economic thought contri• ment of all the able-bodied forces, of tion of means of production, such as buted to this field was the restitution raising the standard of living and of machinery and "technological equip• of the Marxist-Leninist conception and strengthening the defence potential of ment, electric power, metallic products, the correct application of the essence the country. oil, coal, etc. have always been the and fundamental features of socialism Consistent adherence to the Marxist- pivot of the industrialization of the in the field of the economy. This W9s Leninist principle of self-reliance, the country. Of course, this rapid deve• immediately connected with the abso• policy of the creation of a modem in• lopment of heavy industry has not been lute need for dispelling the fog created dustry relying on the primary mate• regarded as an aim in itself. On the about this problem by the many va• rials of the country and of an advan• contrary, it has been carried out in riants of -"Socialism* churned out and ced collectivized agriculture to ensure order to guarantee the all-round and spread about by the modem revision• the food of the people with its own many-sided development of the eco• ists and the bourgeois propaganda in products, the training of a sufficient nomy, to continuously strengthen the order to distort the real ideals of so• number of technical and scientific economic independence of the coun• cialism. •KClarity on this question, the cadres to work in and run every sec• try. establishment of a clear-cut dividing tor of the economy — these consti• The application of this concept was line between genuine socialism and tute the main questions Albanian eco• bound to bring Albanian economic pseudo-socialism, is of capital impor• nomic thought coped with in this field. thought face to face with anti-Marxist tance to waging the struggle of the At the same time, they constitute those views with which it has clashed and working class and the working masses solid foundations on which the vigor• struggled. One of them has been the successfully.»-l ous economic and cultural development concept of giving priority to light in• The time demanded the creation of a of Albania is based. dustry, proceeding from well-known, clear Idea of the socialist society in The socialist industrialization of Al• though wom-out, arguments (the rela• conformity with the teachings of Marx, bania was put forward as an objec• tively lower demand for fundamental Engels, Lenin and Stalin, true to the tive necessity, not only in order to investments, the more rapid return of principles and general laws of socialist overcome the great technical-produc• the means invested, higher profitabi• society, so as, on this basis, to pro• tive backwardness Inherited from the lity, etc.) so as to renounce the deve• ceed towards organizing in practice a past, but also in order to support the lopment of heavy industry. Likewise, genuine socialist society. Albanian eco• all-round development and advance of Albanian economic science has stuck nomic thought defended with scientific all the life of the country on the road to the principle of sovereignty in the argument the view that genuine social• of socialism. Without advanced indus• exploitation of the natural and other ism in the field of the economy distin• try there can be no advanced working resources of the country, in the course guishes itself by the presence of the so• class. of which it has coped with success and cialist social ownership of the means of Besides, industry creates the condi• rejected both the direct pressures and production, by relations of mutual aid tions for the social property to be the «theorizations»- of the modem re• and collaboration amongst working peo• equipped with the necessary technical visionists which sought to undermine ple, by liquidation of the exploitation of means, and for supporting its own the socialist industrialization of Alba• man by man, by distribution according to further development and that of the nia and transform the Albanian eco• the principle -"each according to his abi• other branches of the economy, first nomy into a trailing appendage of pri- lities and to each according to his of all, of agriculture. man' material sources for the revi• sionist metropolises. work», by the planned and proportio• However, the socialist industrializa• nate development of the economy, by tion of Albania raised a series of pro• The close connection of the process of its management and organization in blems. The Albanian economic scien• socialist industrialization with the a centralized manner, by the socialist ce, proceeding from the conditions of construction of .socialism in the coun• state on the basis of the requirements Albania, worked out and solved in tryside, with the all-round develop- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 29 ment and advance of agriculture and the development of the national eco• among the few countries of Europe the countryside itself and with the nomy as a whole. With a positive energy balance, which need of its further intensification, has Attainment of these objectives re• is continually strengthened, and where always been a very important issue quired that the Albanian Marxist-Le• the electrification of the whole coun• for our economic science. In giving ninist economic science correctly de• try has been accomplished. The Alba• solution to this question, it based it• fined the roads of development of nian engineering industry, set up in self firmly on both its feet, on deve• agriculture in the country. Only the the post-Liberation period, is in a posi• loped industry and advanced agricul• setting out of agriculture on the road tion to build tractors, machinery and ture. This is the reason why the in• of socialist development, on the basis industrial equipment, and even com• dustrialization of our country has been of large-scale modern production and plete factories; it also ensures about carried on and continues to be deepe• in close connection with the other 95 per cent of the needs of the coun• ned not only not to the detriment of branches of the economy, could gua• try for spare parts. The chemical agriculture, but also continuously sup• rantee their attainment. The most industry turns out a series of products porting the development of agricul• suitable form for this was the organ• such as mineral salts, nitrogenous fer• ture. ization of the fragmented peasants' tilizers, sulphuric and hydrochloride This has been realized through the economies into large-scale economies acid, vinylic monomers and polymers, harmonization of the fundamental funds of socialist "production through the etc. which satisfy the requirements of and investments needed for the deve• union of the peasants in agricultural the internal market and those of the lopment of industry and agriculture, cooperatives of their own free will. export. The light and food-processing the definition of correct ratios bet• The agricultural cooperative is a so- industries, too, ensure more than SS ween them, the planned and organiz• ciali-st collective economy. It is based per cent of the broad consumer goods, ed channelling of the mechanical mo• on the socialist cooperativist property thus relieving the economy from the vement of the work force for the and the common work of the coope• heavy burden of their import, and even needs of industry and the other bran• rative members. Distribution of inco• enabling the export of some of their ches, both in town and in country• mes is made according to the quantity products. Agriculture today is in an side, the expansion of the market in and quality of work done and the advanced stage, applying ever better results achieved in production. The the new achievements of science and town and in countryside, regulating the cooperative is the most suitable form of technique, extensively working on the exchange of agricultural products for collectivization, in which the personal road of intensification and increasing industrial goods, etc. intere.sts of the cooperativists are com• its yields. It guarantees, in an inde• Our experience in this field shows bined with the interests of the coope• pendent manner, the food supply of that any disproportion between indus• rative and with those of society, al• the population, the primary materials try and agriculture, or any haste in ways placing the interests of the coope• for the light and food-processing in• the rates of development of industry rative above personal interests, and dustries and ensures an important part to the detriment of agriculture, is the interests of society above those of the national accumulation and strong fraught with serious consequences of of the cooperative. currency. All this has fully proven a political, economic and social natu• Firm reliance of the Albanian eco• that the orientation of the Albanian re. In essence, they not only jeopar• nomy on both its feet, industry and Marxist-Leninist economic thought for dize the subsequent development of agriculture, has been the unchanged the creation of a complex and many- industry itself, prejudice the streng• line in its creation and continuous branched economy relying firmly on thening of the alliance of the working strengthening. It has never been a both its feet, industry and agricul• class with the working peasantry and temporary task dictated by passing ture, has been and remains correct the process of socialist construction, circumstances, or a particular phase and entirely realizable. but also endanger the political and of the construction of socialism, and 3. Another achievement of the Alba• economic independence of the country. was never aimed at transforming the nian scientific economic thought, based This harmonization is realized when Albanian socialist economy into a clo• on the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, the principle of the leading role of sed autarkic economy. It is the result is the elaboration in theory and the industry in the development of the of the strict implementation of the carrying out in practice of the mechan• whole economy and, on this basis, of line that enabled Albania, relying on ism of the functioning of the social• the development at rapid rates of its own natural and financial resources, ist economy. This mechanism has al• agriculture, is applied correctly. Besi• to create a powerful and modem mul• ways had its foundations built on the des this, Albanian economic science ti-branched industry distributed all principle of the planned management proved that the priority development over the territory of the country, and and proportionate development of the of industry does not diminish the role a modern and collectivized agriculture. economy, in conformity with the re• and importance of agriculture as the The great progress the Albanian in• quirements of the economic laws of basic branch of the economy. dustry is seen in the fact that it en• socialism, on the basis of a single ge• In the correct solution of the agra• sures, through its own resources, the neral state plan, which is drafted and rian question, Albanian economic fundamental needs of the population, approved according to the principle thought has had to cope, from the the economy in general and the defen• of democratic centralism and which beginning, with two main tasks closely ce, that it constitutes the main sour• embodies and substantiates the policy connected with one another: the so• ce of the incomes from exports, that of the Party of Labour of Albania cialist transformation of the country• it guarantees the independent develop• for the contruction of socialim. This side and the all-round development of ment of the entire economy. It is the mechanism underlies the foundations agriculture on the road of its moder• primary factor of complete self-relian• of the economy of the PSR of Alba• nization and intensification, so that it ce. The Albanian industry produces nia, constitutes an internal distinctive can feed the population of the country• pig-iron, steel, nickel and cobalt, va• feature of a genuine socialist economy. side and make its contribution to the rious metallic alloys, oil refined through The social product In Albania is industrialization of the country and catalytic processes, etc. Albania is common property. It is distributed and 30 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY used in • the interest of the working increased 2.6 fold and calculated per All these factors, taken in their com• masses, with due regard to the streng• head of population — 1.6 fold, etc. for plexity, constitute those fundamental thening of the independence of the the same period, at a time when the features which characterize a socialist country, the fulfilment of the essential population has increased 1.7 fold over state and society. At the same time, needs of the population, the extended these years. they represent the historical experience reproduction, and the defence of the Work is guaranteed to all citizens of the construction of socialism in Al• country. not only to the old generation, but bania, as well as the contribution and The Albanian economic science at• also to the young one, while economic role the economic sciences have always taches great attention to the effective• emigration does not exist. The num• played in the complicated process of ness of production in socialism. The ber of people occupied in work today the construction of socialism. bread and steel, oil and cement, tex• in Albania is greater than the total po• tiles and food products are just as pulation of the country before Libera• important as financial resources, be• tion. Work is the basis of the well- cause decrease in the production of being for the working people. * * the former will inevitably lead to re• A new legislation regulates work duction of the latter. Therefore, only relations. Immediately upon beginning Albania has now entered a phase of that increase of the national income of work the citizens are guaranteed socialist development which raises new which is accompanied with the abso• against temporary inability to work problems for solution, and about which lute increase of accumulation and the (in case of illness), against cases of the experience needed to tackle them improvement of the weU-being of the invalidity, they enjoy the right to old is lacking. In these circumstances, the working people is valid for the real age pension, etc. The system of social economic science faces the task of fur• increase of the efficiency of the eco• insurance and pensions covers the ther developing its creative thought, nomy. agricultural cooperatives, too. Special relying on the Marxist-Leninist prin• The criterion of gauging the efficien• solicitude is shown for pregnant women ciples and on the experience gained cy of the entire socialist economy in and children. Beginning from 1981 the so far, in order to cope with courage general holds good also for gauging child-birth leave for women of the with the great problems life puts for• the efficiency of each branch or sec• town and countryside is 135 calendar ward and to corroborate with theore• tor. As a consequence what is neces• days (against 49) and, together with tical arguments the perspectives of the sary and profitable to be produced the leave prior to child-birth, totals development. in the context of the entire economy, nearly 6 months. The creation and further development is at the same time necessary and pro• In socialist Albania wages for every of the key branches of the economy, fitable for each productive unit of the category of work are unified all over such as the electric power industry, economy. This criterion of the efficien• the Republic, just as prices for goods, mining, metallurgy, the engineering in• cy of production, as the practice of independently of their origin of pro• dustry, agriculture, etc. have had and the construction of socialism in Alba• duction, are the same aU over the will continue to have vital importance nia based on self-reliance proves, is country. From Liberation until today, for the construction of socialism with a correct criterion. Application of this prices lor retail goods not only have our own forces and for the ceaseless criterion ensures the uninterrupted de• never been raised, but, on the contrary, strengthening of the independence of velopment of the economy at high and have been reduced. The market and the Homeland. In this context, before stable rates, the increase of accu• Ihe currency are stable and grow stron• the scientific economic thought emer• mulation, the uninterrupted increase of ger due to the entire development ges the task of coping with and the standard of living of the people, and advance of the economy. solving a number of problems of an the strengthehirig of the political and Albania is the country in which economic-financial character such as economic independence of the country. everything is produced and built for the definition of the possibilities, or• It permits the employment of aU the and in the interest of the working der and profitability of development work force, the exploitation of all the people. Education and medical care of this or that branch of the economy, productive capacities, the liquidation of are given free of charge, whereas mo• the optimal solution of problems of the the cyclical character of social produc• ral corruption and degenerate ways of economic efficiency of fundamental tion and crises, price rises and infla• life have toeenliquidate d for good. House investments and constructions so as to tion. -rents are very low. An average two- ensure that yearly expenditure on pro• • The reality of socialist Albania speaks days' pay is sufficient to pay the rent. duction decrease and the net social in• clearly of the strength of the economic Distinctions in the level of incomes come increase. system as worked out by the Alba• between working people are among The above-mentioned problems are nian economic science on the basis of the narrowest in the world, the ratio connected with the new, higher, stage the Marxist-Leninist economic doctri• being 1:2. Personal incomes of citi• of socialist industrialization in Alba• ne. Expressed in a nutshell, this is re- zens are not impaired by any sort of nia which has begun in the 70's. The ftected in the indices of the socio• taxes or fera. State finances and the main feature of this stage is the con• economic development of Socialist Al• budget are stable, and during the en• centration of forces on the all-round bania, which are incomparably higher tire period of the existence of the development of the heavy processing than those of the period before Libe• people's state power there has always industry. Amongst other things, the ration 'and even of 15-20 years toefore. been a positive balance of incomes over economic thought stresses, as a strict So, in 1960 against 1960, social product expenditure. -wSocialist Albania is an norm, the absolute need for the ex• has increased 3.8 fold, and calculated entirely free and Independent country ploitation of the productive capacities per capita of the population — 2.4 and state which owes nothing to any• with the highest possible efficiency, fold. Industrial product for the said one. Tutelage and dictate, interferen• making extensive use of the reconstruc• periM has increased 5.5 fold and cal• ce Eind debts, which have afflicted not tion and refitting of the existing ca- culated per head of the population only many small states, but also big picities. As a result of the implemen• — 3.4 fold; agricultural production has ones, are alien and unacceptable to it."-^ tation of this line, in the 7th Five-year ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 31 Plan (1981-1985), nearly 4/5 of the in• net incomes of socialist enterprises. economic science as a mere process of crease of industrial production will be Fulfilment of these tasks raises before technical and material development of ensured from the existing productive the economic science the need to work the productive forces. Instead, it has capacities and their reconstruction. To out new ways for setting in motion been considered and treated in close this end about 40 per cent of invest• all the internal reserves of the coun• connection with the solution of eco• ments in industry and other branches try, which the socialist economy always nomic-productive problems the cons• of the economy will be utilized for the creates. truction of socialism raises and with expansion, reconstruction and moderni• The uninterrupted high-rate develop• the ceaseless perfecting of the socialist zation of the existing enterprises. This ment of the Albanian economy has gua• relations of production. \ a p-colA\.a\i\ "way which saves funds ranteed the employment of all the A summed-up expression of the con• for construction and accelerates the ra• active population of the country, in tribution of our economic sciences are tes of expansion of productive capaci• town and countryside. In the conditions the high rates and stability of the de• ties with new equipment and tech• of a high-rate increase of population, velopment of the Albanian economy, nology. when the new active forces increase materialized, in the final analysis, in the The deepening of the intensive cha• from one year to another, their oc• uninterrupted raising of the standard racter of the development of the eco• cupation in work is not a problem of living of the Albanian i)eople. Suc• nomy is bringing out more and more which can be solved automatically, cesses in this field are great and irre• without difficulties and efforts. Du• futable. However, when speaiklng of the role and importance of increasing the achievements and levels of ^e pre• labour productivity and reducing costs ring the 7th Five-year Plan all the sent, we, the contemporaries of social• as the fundamental factor for increas• new active work force, which is esti• ism in Albania, always remember and ing production and socialist accumu• mated at about 210 000 people, will never forget the miserable past of our lation. Only through securing the grea• find employment. This circumstance, people. From this point of reference, test part of the increase of social pro• together with the fact that expendi• the Albanian people know how to co• duct from the increase of the produc• ture for creating new jobs tends to rrectly estimate the rise they see in tivity of labour and the greatest part increase, makes the economic and po• their standard of living, achieved un• of the net incomes of enterprises from litical-social significance of this pro• der the leadership of the Party of the reduction of costs, is it possible blem quite clear. Therefore, Albanian Labour of Albania. The essential thing to maintain a relatively high norm of economic science faces the task of is that in socialist Albania everything accumulation and gradually raise the making its concrete contribution to has been achieved with our own for• level of the general well-being of the finding more profitable directions in the ces, with the toil of the Albanian peo• people. In the years of the 7th Five- creation of new jobs, in town and coun• ple. This is the greatest victory and tryside, in the productive and the non• the best guarantee for the future. year Plan (1981-1985), the increase of productive spheres, in the various bran• the productivity of labour will ensure ches of the economy and within each savings equal to the amount of work of them. 1 Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Con• turned out by 160000 worker.s. On the gress of the PLA, p. 227, Eng. ed. other hand, reduction of costs will en• The construction of socialism, has 2 Enver Hoxha, Address to the elec• sure nearly 3/4 of the increase of the never been trei'.ted by the Albanian tors, November 1982, p. 8, Atb. ed. THE PROCLAMATION OF OF ALBANIA - A GREAT TURNING - POIN OF THE ALBANIAN PEOPJ

With the act of November 28, 1912, the undeniable historic right of the Albanian nation to be free and independent in their territories, along with the other peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, gained full legal sanction. This right stemmed from the act that the Albanians are a people with their own language, culture, individuality and history, a right won through countless strivings and sacrifices in bloody battles,a right which they had earned through their valuable contribution to ousting the Ottoman foreign rulers from the Balkans

ON NOVEMBER 28,1982, THE ALBANIAN PEOPLE CELEBRATED THE 70TH movement for national libeiation, they ANNIVERSARY OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. THE PROCLAMATION OF laid the foundations of Albanian In• THE INDEPENDENCE OF ALBANIA IS ONE THE THOSE MAJOR EVENTS WHICH HAVE MARKED IMPORTANT TURNING-POINTS IN THE NATIONAL dependence, cemented them with the HISTORY OF OUR PEOPLE. ON THE ONE HAND, IT CLOSED UP A WHOLE blood of their finest sons and paved EPOCH OF CENTURIES OF EFFORTS AND STRUGGLES TO THROW OFF THE the way to the formation of the Al• FOREIGN YOKE, TO PRESERVE THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF THE banian state. HOMELAND AND TO FORM THE FREE ALBANIAN NATIONAL STATE, "With the act of November 28, 1912, CROWNING THE BRILLIANT WORK OF THE RENAISSANCE, WHILE ON THE the undeniable historic right of the Al• OTHER HAND, IT OPENED A NEW EPOCH. AN EPOCH OF NEW STRUGGLES banian nation to bs free and indepen• AND EFFORTS TO DEFEND THE INDEPENDENCE ACHIEVED FROM IN• TERNAL AND EXTERNAL DANGERS, TO SAFEGUARD THE GRAVELY MU• dent in their territories, along with the TILATED NATIONAL UNITY AND TO ESTABLISH THE DEMOCRATIC ORDER. other peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, ON NOVEMBER 28, 1912 THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ALBANIAN gained full legal sanction. This right PEOPLE, HEADED BY THE OUTSTANDING PATRIOT ISMAIL QEMALI, stemmed from the fact that tlie Al• GATHERED IN THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF VLORA, UNANIMOUSLY banians are a people with their own DECIDED THAT ALBANIA BECOME ^'...SEPARATE, FREE AND INDEPfiN- language, culture, individuality and his• DENT,»t THIS HISTORIC DECISION EXPRESSED THE UNANIMOUS WILL OF tory, a right won through countless THE ALBANIAN NATION AND THE GENERAL ASPIRATIOS OF THE BROAD strivings and sacrifices in bloody bat• MASSES OF THE PEOPLE THIRSTING FOR FREEDOM AND ENLIGHTMENT, tles, a right which they had earned AND THE BEHEST OF THOUSANDS WHO HAD FALLEN IN UPRISINGS FOR LIBERATION DURING THE CENTURIES. through their valuable contribution to The raising of the national flag in Dukagjin Plateau in the North up to ousting the Ottoman foreign rulers from Vlora represented the common victory Cameria in the South, from the shores the Balkans. of all the Albanian territories from the of the Adriatic and the Ionian seas in The Proclamation of Independence in the West to the plains of Kosova and November of 1912 was made at a cru• STEFANAQ POLLO — Prof., Director cial moment in the history of the Bal• of the Institute of History at the Aca• Tetova in the East. By taking part demy of Sciences of the PSRA. actively, with rifle and pen, in the kans and Albania, in the very difficult fHE INDEPENDENCE r IN THE HISTORY

conditions created by the First Balkan haps even graver tragedies would have out. Besides these, internal, political War, when the neighbouring monar• befallen our Homeland. and social factors further hindered and chies, backed by vai'ious Great Powers, The decisions of the convention of complicated the already complicated had put the very existence of the Al• Vlora laid the foundations of the new accomplishment of the tasks put for• banian nation in jeopardy. Wanting to sovereign Albanian state, by creating ward by the Albanian League of Priz• grab as much as possible from the Ot• its supreme state organs and the res• ren. In the new Albanian state the toman legacy as a result of their victo• pective apparatus in the regions where interests and rivalries of the impe• rious war against Turkey, these mo• the National Government exerted its rialists were entangled as never before narchies had drafted plans to wipe authority. This government, headed by with the insatiable predatory appe• Albania from the map of the Balkans Ismail Qemali, continued, in new con• tites of the neighbours, so that the and were putting Ihem into practice. ditions and at a higher level, the great pro-Albanian demagogy and the savage In such circumstances, when the very patriotic work of the Albanian League anti-Albanian genocide, the brutal in• existence of Albania was in question, of Prizren, defending the supreme in• terference in the organization and the when its fate was hanging on a thread, terests of the Albanian nation within internal affairs of the Albanian state the proclamation of independence in the country and abroad. The decisions and the intrigues of the treacherous Vlora was not just a challenge to the of the convention of Vlora marked the feudal chiefs, the military actions of imperialist and chauvinist enemies, but beginning of the existence of the in• the Balkan War and the general un• a far-sighted act that saved the situa• dependent Albanian state, which, irres• certainty about the future of the coun• pective of the storms of history which tion and had important consequences for try collided with exceptional violence. burst upon it, became in later years, the future of the Homeland. And the newly formed, weak and un• «The deed of Ismail Qemali and the in the conditions of new foreign occu• consolidated Albanian state and its go• other patriots,^ says Comrade Enver pations and in the struggle for libera• vernment, a big landowner-bourgeois Hoxha, -was a glorious historic deed tion from them, an important reference state, with a government which reflec• which will always remain unforgetta• point for the re-establishment of inde• ted this alignment of class forces, which ble. It showed the entire world that pendence and the continuation of the functioned in a restricted, backward Albania, which had contributed energe• free existence as a state. territory devastated by the uprisings tically to the liberation of all the peoples With the Proclamation of Indepen• and the Balkan War, had to face up to of the Balkans, not merely existed, a dence and the creation of the national all these nefarious internal and exter• thing which the enemies had tried to state the main objective of the Renais• nal forces and phenomena. deny, but was now free and indepen• sance Was achieved. However, the cha• Thus, independence and the Albanian dent and that it would live and develop nge marked was neither complete nor state emerged in very grave, turbu• as a separate state with its own govern• lasting. Foreign factors intervened bru• lent, internal and external circumstan• ment. Les us stress that had the strug• tally with their anti-Albanian policy ces, fraught with dangers, at a time gle not been waged with that fury in the historic course of the Albanian when the imperialist powers made the and had that act not been carried out people, this time in a new more aggres• law, especially in the case of the small in those difficult times, when the im• sive and predatory edition than that nations. In these circumstances and con• perialist beasts were preparing the followed in the years of the Albanian trary to the imperialist will, indepen• bloodbath of the First World War, then League of Prizren, raising the danger the winning of independence would that the wheel of history would be dence was proclaimed and the first ha\-e become more difficult and per• reserved and the victory achieved wiped major task of the Renaissance was ac• complished, but the other important 34 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY objective, that of uniting all the Al• the League was unable to accomplish desire to win national rights by any banian territories in the national state and a wealth of experience on the ways means. was not achieved. These external and and means to do so. The anti-Ottoman uprisings, especially internal circumstances also prevented The general line, the fundamental those of 1910-1912, occuppy a special the new independent Albanian state strategic task of the movement to en• place and play a first-rate role in the from accomplishing a series of other sure independence remained unaltered, Proclamation of Independence. The tasks vital to the country, which the a constant plank of its program. This great anti-Ottoman liberation uprisings generation of the proclamation of in• struggle had two fundamental compo• of the years 1910-1912 Were a result of dependence left to later generations to nents: the recognition of the Albanian the extreme exacerbation of the eco• complete. nation as an indivisible entity and the nomic, ideological, political and cultu• nreservation of the integrity of the na• ral contradictions between the Alba• tional territories. nian people and the regime of the The suppression of the League of Priz• Young Turks and of the fact that the * * ren had created a very grave situation broad masses of the people adopted for the National Movement in Albania. the program of autonomy. These upri• Like any other major historical event, The entire Ottoman reaction and the sings were preceded and accompanied Albanian independence has its remote chauvinist reaction of the neighbouring by programs, memorandums and de• and immediate pre-history with which monarchies did everything in their po• cisions of various patriotic groups which it is linked indissolubly by a thousand wer to deny the existence of the Albanian expressed the unanimous will of the and one threads as a component part nationality, to ignore and denigrate the fighters and the entire people for re• inseparable from it. National Movement, to assimilate the cognition of the autonomy of the Al• Precisely these close links with the Albanians from the cultural viewpoint banian regions, united in a single ad• former national movement and the pa• by means of opening foreign schools ministrative unit. triotic content of the event itself, as a which began to become widespread after The great Albanian uprisings shook conscious expression of the will of the the Tanzimati. Thus, the keeping alive, the rule of the Sublime Porte to its Albanian people, have been denied by strengthening and raising of the natio• very foundations. The general uprising most of bourgeois historiography in the nal consciousness, which was an essen• of 1912 liberated a number of main past and are still denied to this day tial premise for recognition of the Al• cities, almost totally liquidated the ac• by individual authors, especially by banian nation as an indivisible entity, tivity of the civil and military admi• Greek and Yugoslav authors. Although emerged as a primary task of excep• nistration of the Young Turks in our using a sophisticated phraseology, in tional importance. The most brilliant country and eventually forced the Su• essence they echo the sinister, chauvi• and cultured minds of the Renaissance blime Porte to recognize certain rights nist, anti-Albanian tradition of the past undertook this task with passion, en• of the Albanians to autonomy. Thus, that presents the independence and the thusiasm and patience. the armed uprisings of 1910-1912 ope• autonomous Albanian state as a -"Solu- In fact, these national ideas had been ned the way to the proclamation of tion»-, a <^product» of the Great Powers, implanted deeply and lastingly among independence on a terrain prepared for as an «invention>v of theirs established the masses of the people and it was this major event during the whole of in a -xvacuum"-, that is, on a territory precisely these ideas that set them in our National Renaissance. where nothing existed about a people motion, both during the years of relati• Thus, independence found the overw• without any history, to whom indepen• vely quiet development and in the years helming majority of the Albanian po• dence came as a gift from on high. It is of crises and armed clashes with the pulation in all its territories with a superfluous to point out the false and enemies. political consciousness already formed, baised character of such claims, both The national consciousness was fur• aware of its tasks and its national rights past and present. There is a whole ther developed and reinforced not only and determined to win and defend series of documents to give the lie to through intense political and cultu• them at any cost. such claims. ral work. The armed struggle with The Albanian League of Prizren (1877- the enemies, in response to the or• 1881) with its program of full auto• ganized or spontaneous national and nomy, its modern organizations, its ex• social oppression, on a local, inter-re• * • tension over the whole of Albania and gional, or all-Albanian scale, played an its revolutionary action, had a powerful exceptionally important role in the final Generally speaking, for the small influence on the subsequent events of period of the Renaissance, too, as a countries within exploiting systems, the National Movement, becoming an powerful factor for strengthening the world history has reserved a bitter fate. inspiring example to it in all directions feeling of nationality and the conscious On many occasions they have been oc• and, especially, beqeathing it the tasks cupied, oppressed, partitioned or assi- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 35 militated by the powerful states. The mainly the aspiration to free them• Ottoman domination in the Balkans, the small peoples that have managed to selves from the Ottoman feudal op• new Albanian historiography has not survive the storms of history are those pression and exploitation, to win the ceased and will not cease to strive to that, although under the domination freedom and independence which they throw light on the historical truth of bigger powers, have striven with considered a common course of the which has been obscured and distorted fanaticism to preserve their culture, oppressed peoples of the Balkans. for scores of years by foreign bourgeois have never given up the struggle to However, when the national bourgeoi• historiography, especially that of Bal• free themselves, and even, when van• sie in the various Balkan countries kan countries, which to this day is still quished, have never lost hope of seeing formed their own states and took power treating the First Balkan War from better days. The Albanians are one of in their hands, they began to pursue its own narrow chauvinist stand-point. these peoples. They provide an example a new official policy towards the neigh• When it deals with the character and not only of the cruel, merciless, humi• bouring peoples. Having the support of consequences of the First Balkan War, liating treatment by the other occupying the state, an organized army and di• our historiography bases itself com• empires and countries but also of the plomacy and the encouragement of their pletely on the Marxist analyses and staunch resistance to preserve and de• imperialist protectors, Serbian and Greek assessments of V.I. Lenin which are fend their existence and Identity. nationalism and, later, Bulgarian natio• fully confirmed by a wealth of publi• The course followed by our people, nalism assumed an expansionist cha• shed and unpublished documents about says Comrade Enver Hoxha, -«... was racter. With their plans to form big this event. not an easy one, a course of yielding states which exceeded the bounds of This article is too limited to permit and grovelling, of submission and in• their respective national territories to us to "go into the details of the pro• timidation before the stronger, but a the detriment of other neighbouring blem, but we consider it necessary to course of clashes with savage, internal peoples, they inaugurated the policy of say a few words about the role and and external enemies, both open and national conflicts between the Balkan contribution of the Albanians to the disguised, a course on which the people, countries themselves. These plans were collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the with their great political acumen and aimed against the Albanian people, too, Balkans, a role ignored or denied both maturity, wielding the pen and the against their national movement and in the past and at present by the chau• rifle, have forged ahead at the cost their aispirations to freedom and in• vinist politicians, propaganda and his• of bloodshed and countless sacrifices."--' dependence, because the intention was toriography of the neighbouring coun• For centuries the Albanian people to replace the Ottoman domination tries. have shared a common fate with the with Serbian, Greek or Bulgarian do• The Albanians were just as interested neighbouring peoples of the Balkans. mination. In these conditions, facing as the other oppressed peoples of the This common fate and their common the great-state nationalism of the Balkans in freeing themselves of the aspiration to be free and independent neighbouring countries with its expan• Ottoman yoke. On more than one occa• have brought them together as brother- sionist character, with its insatiable sion their representatives strove to es• in-arms, made them establish relations territorial greed and savage aggressi• tablish links with the neighbours in of economic and cultural collaboration, veness, the weaker Albanian nationa• the common struggle against the Otto• and help one another. At the beginning lism, obliged to fight on several fronts mans. The blame for the failure of of the 9th century, when the Serbian simultaneously against many powerful these attempts falls on the chiefs of national liberation revolution and, later, enemies who were either ruling Al• the Balkan alliance, who did not want the Greek and the Rumanian revolu• bania, or attacking it from the North, to have the Albanians as partners with tions broke out, their sense of Balkan the East or the South, had a generally equal rights in this alliance, because solidarity made the Albanians rush as defensive character from start to fi• they had agreed amongst themselves volunteers to the aid of the insurgents. nish. that in case of a victory over the Otto• They filled the ranks of the military The Albanian National Movement, man Empire, they would divide up the units and also brought forth outstand• more than any other in the Balkans, Albanian territories. Their plans for ing commanders, as is the case of the felt the need for cooperation with the partitioning Albania underlay the en• Greek and the Rumanian revolutions. neighbouring peoples and reciprocal aid tire foreign policy of the neighbouring And these volunteers were not only between them in their joint fight for Balkan monarchies, and guided them Orthodox Christians but also Muslims liberation, on condition that each would in all their negotiations over the Al• and Catholics, a rare phenomenon this get what belonged to it. Here lies the banian question. It is understandable for the time and circumstances, which source of that spirit of solidarity cha• that in these circumstances the Al• showed that it was not simply the racteristic of the Albanian National Mo• banians could not enter into an alliance, community of religious beliefs that im• vement. the chiefs of which intended to use pelled the Albanians to take part as Concerning the role and contribution them only as cannon fodder in the war volunteers in these revolutions, but of the Albanians to the collapse of the against Turkey and for their anti-Al- 36 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY banian aims. Participation of the Al• Basle of Switzerland, in November 1912 whole territory within their borders, banians in such an alliance without in which the representatives of the Rus• have also tried to include foreign te• official recognition of their rights, would sian bolsheviks led by V.I. Lenin took rritories. The Albanian nation encoun• have been a suicide. part, defended the rights of the Al• tered states of both tiiese categories and In these extremely complicated cir• banian people, expressing its opposi• this created a peculiar, profoundly con• cumstances, at this crossroads of his• tion both to the imperialist aims of tradictory situation for it. It was for• tory, the progressive patriotic Alba• the Great Powers and to the predatory med under the domination of the multi• nian circles, with their political ma• aims of the Balkan bourgeoisie. On the national Ottoman Empire, against which turity, defined the most correct course: other hand as V.I. Lenin pointed out, it took up arms to win its freedom. that of defence of the Albanian terri• the conscious workers of the Balkan At the same time it had to resist the tories from the new invadors, not to countries and their revolutionary par• expansionist ambitions of the neighbou• strengthen the Ottoman rule in the ties fought for a consistently demo• ring Balkan monarchies — Serbia, Balkans, not as allies of the Sublime cratic solution of the national question Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro, and Porte, but by demanding the combi• in the Balkans, for genuine and com• of the Italian and Austro-Hungarian ning of these territories into an auto• plete liberation of the peoples of the imperialists, towards its territories. With nomous province, the same course which Balkans. However the worker and de• the continuous weakening of the Otto• the League of Prizren and that of Peja mocratic movement in this region was man Empire, first of all, from the had chosen in the past. And this is weak, not organized at the necessary blows dealt it by the oppressed peoples, how they acted. The volunteer units, level, and hence, unable to restrain the its collapse and expulsion from the which were joined by Albanian sol• chauvinism of the ruling classes and Balkans were approaching. But the bri• diers who deserted en masse from the influence the development of events. lliant future of the liberation of the ranlis of the Ottoman army, defended Albanian people was overshadowed by the national territories which were being the threats of the new aggressors. These encroached upon by the new invadors, factors operated with ever greater in• arms in hand, as masters of the country. * * tensity until the Proclamation of In• Albanian historiography, with which dependence and after it. In these cir• a considerable part of the foreign his• One of the distinguishing features o! cumstances, freedom and teriitorial in• toriography is in agreement, has now the Albanian National Movement which tegrity conditioned each other. The proved convincingly that the great anti- was manifested with special force in threat of partition was hanging over Ottoman uprisings of the years 1910- the years of the Albanian League of the heads of the Albanian people, just 1912 in Albania brought to light the Prizren, the League of Peja, the First as heavily as the Ottoman yoke. And decay of the Ottoman Empire, hailed Balkan War, and after the proclama• here it was not simply a question of down a considerable part of its forces tion of Independence, has been the close the ancestral territories, the ancient and means, spread the seeds of disin• interconnection of the task of the pre• historical homeland of a people who tegration in the ranks of the Ottoman servation of the integrity of the Alba• had shed their blood to defend it army and of revolt in the other regions nian territories with that of their libe• through the centuries. Here it was also of the Empire. These uprisings encou• ration and unification in a free natio• a question of the grave violation and raged the Balkan states but, on the nal state. Nations emerged and deve• disturbance of the equilibrium of the other hand, with their conscious na• loped on a given territory where the historically-formed economic communi• tional character and program for auto• linguistic, economic and spiritual com• ty, and even of the elimination of the nomy they embarrassed the chauvinist munity of each nation was formed. Albanians, as a people and a nation, circles of those states. Thus, the Al• Thus its territory became an inseparable, from the political map of the Balkans. banian uprisings accelerated the for• component part of the nation, the mate• The consequences of the possible par• mation of the Balkan alliance and the rial basis of its existence. Consequently titioning of the Homeland very quickly declaration of war against the Sublime there can be no national community became clear to all the Albanians and Porte. without territorial community. awareness of this threat was deeply During those troubled, disturbing However, it is well-known that the rooted in the consciousness of the na• days, fraught with dangers of a Bal• borders of states have not always coin• tion, setting it in motion whenever kan War, only the Balkan and inter• cided with the borders of national terri• the threat loomed on the horizon. There national socialist movement was for a tories. Some states have extended their are few countries over which the threat policy of solidarity with the Albanian political borders to the detriment of of partition has hung so long like the people, for recognition of their natio• other nations and have formed multi• sword of Democles, in which such an nal demands, for treating them as an national states, others have been formed act has been carried out so cruelly and ally in the common fight. The interna• initially on part of their national terri• in which its grave consequences have tional Congress of socialist parties in tory and, while struggling to unite the been felt so deeply, as in Albania. ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 37 The memory of the heroic struggle of territories and occupied the greatest the right to oppress the Albanians, whdT the Albanian League of Prizren against part of them. Just as in 1877-1878 the for their part, have no less right to the partitioning of the country was occupation by the Serbian troops was exist, since they are the most ancient still alive when a new danger threate• accompanied by massacres and mass inhabitants of the Peninsula and were ned it at the end of the 19th century expulsions of the local population from the first to fight the Turks for their and the beginning of the 20th century. their homes with the aim, as Prime Mi• national freedom* (reference here is The imperialist Great Powers, most nister Pasic himself expressed in his to the uprisings on the eve of the Bal• interested in the question of the Balkans orders, «to assimilate the Albanians kan War — Stefanaq Polio). «Howe- — Russia, Austro-Hungary and Italy, from the cultural and national stand• ver,» he continued, «...we are going to took advantage of the anti-Cttoman points, to completely integrate their defend the cause, not only in the inte• liberation struggles in Macedonia to in• territories into Serbia, as Nis, Piroti, rests of our own people, but also for tervene anew in the Balkans, allegedly Leskovc and Vranja were Integrated in the benefit of those countries which in order to establish peace in this zone. 1878.»5 have become our opponents, instead The years of the First Balkan War These were moments when the life of becoming our friends.» mark a new stage in the struggle of and death of a nation, the fate of a The treatment of the Albanian ques• the Albanian people for the autonomy whole people, who had done so much tion by the imperialist powers in these and defence of the integrity of the for their own freedom and for the years is one of the rare examples in national territory against the aggres• cause of the freedom and the neigh• which imperialist brutality, disdain and sion of neighbouring monarchies. These bouring peoples, were placed in the unscrupulous violation of the legiti• are the most dramatic years in Alba• balance, as rarely before in history. mate rights of the small peoples, sel• nian modern history, in the course of At these critical moments the Inde• fishness, lack of any adherance to prin• which the interests of the Albanian pendence of Albania was proclaimed in ciple, and the total absence of con• people were entangled and defended Vlora and the National Government, formity between word and deeds are with arms on the battlefield and with which extended its authority over an flaunted so openly in all their naked• diplomacy at the negotiating table, aga• extremely restricted territory, was for• ness. They serve as a model to give a inst the aims of chauvinist neighbours med. The new state needed the natio• clear and full understanding of the and imperialism, while the lawful rights nal territorial base, not only because it real character, physiognomy, and mora• of the Albanian people were violated belonged to it historically, but because lity of imperialism, which its apologists there could be no development and and the bourgeois historians try so more brutally than ever before. zealously to conceal. This time, although they had pro• advance without it. Precisely at this ti• found contradictions amongst themsel• me, however, the Albanian question, In the years of the Balkan War, V.I. ves, the Balkan monarchies united in the question of the independence and Lenin accused the reactionary Euro• the struggle against the common ene• the political borders of the Albanian pean bourgeoisie over the interference my — the Ottoman Empire, in order state, became caught up in the ma• and pressure it exerted in the Balkans to drive it from the Balkans. However, chinery of imperialist diplomacy and in order to ensure the maximum gains as V. I. Lenin pointed out, the his• under the savage pressure of the armies for itself, over its incitement of chau• toric tasks facing the peoples of the of the Balkan alliance. And, as is known, vinism and national enmity dn order to Balkans were not accomplished through Albania, which was recognized as a apply its predatory policy m.ore easily, revolution but through a war that was state by the imperialist powers, emerged and to make the free development of guided by bourgeois and dynastic in• gravely mutilated. Nearly half of the the oppressed classes in the Balkans terest.* Such a war could never pro• national territory and the Albanian po• more difficult.''' vide just solution to the national ques• pulation that inhabited it, passed un• Albania suffered the gravest conse• tion in the Balkans. Thus, the war der the foreign yoke. quences of this policy not only through against Turkey, which, objectively, per• The Government of Vlora and the the loss of half its territories, but also formed a progressive function, since its whole Albanian people never recon• through the disruptive and colonialist aim was the liberation and national ciled themselves to this flagrant injus• policy of the representatives of impe• unity of the Balkan peoples, was led by tice and brutal violation of the prin• rialism in independent Albania and, the monarchies, was waged under the ciple on nationality. They protested worse still, through their subsequent banner of bourgeois nationalism, and, and fought against it. anti-Albanian activity to cut other terri• in fact, was turned into a predatory Ismail Qemali declared, -"We regret tories from it in favour of their Bal• war against Albania. just one thing - that the success of kan clients. Having superiority in numbers, ar• a war, which had the liberation of all The fundamental features of the poli• maments and organization, the armies the peoples of the Balkans as its aim, cy that the imperialists pursued to• of the Balkan allies routed the Otto• did so much harm to our neighbours wards Albania before and after the man army, poured in to the Albanian that now it seems they think they have Proclamation of Independence emerge 3S • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

clearly in the years 1912-1914. Whole tended their territorial borders, Alba• of independent Albania would gradually generations in our country have felt the nia is the only country the national unite. consequences of this policy -"...to the territory of which was reduced time What did this Albania present from point that the strongest anti-imperialist after time and which was continuously the economic and social standpoint? sentiments have become deep-rooted in under the threat of total dismember• What problems confronted Albanian ihe psychology of the Albanian people, ment. society at that time? To answer these becoming one of the most characteristic The national community of Albanians questions, one must point out at the features of their national conscious- had become so strong and the idea same time those colossal difficulties ness.»- of the national unity had been implant• that faced the handful of patriots who In support of the decision of the ed so deeply in the people's conscious• undertook the responsibility of running Great Powers for the dismemberment ness that the partitioning of the terri• a state, which had to be set up and of Albania, the propaganda and his• tory imposed by the foreigners could organized from scratch, and a society, toriography of the neighbouring chau• not fail to encounter the powerful coun• which although on the European con• vinist circles put into circulation the teraction both of the Government of tinent, was the last to emerge into most monstrous fabrications, present• Vlora and of the broad masses of the the light after five centuries of me• ing the Albanian people as a primitive people. A powerful movement for the diaeval bondage. national, amorphous mass, without his• unification of all the Albanian terri• These were difficulties of a politi• torical traditions or the capacity to form tories in the independent state burst cal, economic and social character. Al• tlieir own state. All this was done to out both within Albania and in the though Albania was recognized inter• form the belief among internal and Albanian territories annexed by the nationally as an independent state in foreign opinion, that by including Al• Serbs and Montenegrins. a terribly reduced territory, whole re• banians in the neighbouring states, a This movement, which expressed the gions in the north, east and south «humane civilizing"- mission was being aspirations of a people for justice and remained for years on end under the performed. Following the tragic events respect for their most elementary rights, arbitrary rule of Serbia and Greece in Kosova in 1931 year, the Great-Serb served the Great-Serb chauvinists as a which, unsatisfied with what they re• historians and politicians have echoed pretext to continue the genocide and ceived after the First Balkan War, the ugliest emanations of this historio• the mass expulsions of the Albanians sought to annex other parts of the Al• graphy, such as those of V. Djordjevio, from their territories on an even lar• banian territory, contrary to the deci• St.Protic, Dr. Jaksic, P.Pipinelis, etc. For ger scale, with the purpose of chan• sions of the Conference of London, in example Belgrade professor V.Dimitre- ging the Albanian ethnic character of 1913, but with the secret consent of vic claims, amongst other things, that: the occupied z-ones through violence. their big protectors. Even in those re• ^Albania was created by the Great Although it was brutally suppressed gions which remained free, the Natio• Powers"-, and Ismail Qemali -"was an in 1913, this movement revived in 1914 nal Government of Vlora had to cope agent of the Austrians"-, that in London, in Kosova and assumed broad propor• with the ill-intentioned interference of the representatives of the Government tions and special force after the First the International Control Commission, of Vlora displayed -"territorial greed»-. World War, where the mass movement which, sent allegedly to give assistance, in fact, set out to smash the new admi• If there is a question of territorial for national liberation and unity through nistration of the country and the unity greed, this accusation cannot be direc• armed struggle inscribed brilliant pages of the Albanian state. ted against the Government of Vlora, in the history of the Albanian people. which demanded from the Conference However this movement too, was sup• On the other hand, the dismember• of London that the territories in which pressed by the Yugoslav troops without ment of the country was not simply a the entire population, or the overwhel• having achieved its objectives. division of the national territory in ming majority of it was Albanian, two. It was such a division that de• should be included within the borders tached from the trunk of Albania not of Albania, but must be made first of only the territories which had been * all, against the Great-Serb Government outstanding hot-beds of the liberation * * in Belgrade, which between 1877 and movement and centres of its most im• 1925, through the force of arms, with Independence found the bulk of the portant organisations, but also the most the blessing of the imperialist powers or Albanian territories under the Otto• fertile regions. The poorest regions, for through tricks and pressure, carved man rule or occupied by the armies the most part mountanious with the flat off pieces of the Albanian national of the Balkan alliance. At first the land mainly marshy, inhabited by a territory on five separate occasions, National Government of Vlora exer• population consisting mostly of pea• annexing a large part of it. Unlike the cised its authority in a very limited sants. Even in the years of good har• other Balkan national states, which zone, but this was to become the nu• vests these regions did not fulfil the after their fornation continually ex• cleus around which the other regions annual needs of the local population ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 39 for grain. They were burdened by mar• tanding, and most experienced, as a against it and into separatist anti-state ked feudal remnants and the profound statesman and a diplomat. activities, as well as of the representa• ignorance of the overwhelming majo• Among the most important acts, in• tives of the imperialist powers, the rity of the population who were illi• tended to lay the foundations of the reactionary bourgeoisie of which, as terate. Thus, the food crisis, which be• new state and pave the way for its V.I. Lenin said at that time, feared came a grave chronic problem, appear• development and progress, but which genuine freedom in their own coun• ed in independent Albania right from in the conditions of the time could tries and in the Balkans.' its birth as a state. not be carried through to the end and, The government of Vlora, for its The ruling classes that placed them• in some cases, retain only their sym• part, suffered from its own class li• selves at the head of the new state, bolic value, mention should be made mitations, from those limitations that also bore the brand of that backward of the uniting of a good part of the characterized even the democratic wing society. The commercial and industrial regions within the borders recognized by of the bourgeoisie, in general. This national bourgeoisie remained from s'art the Conference of London under the accounts for the waverings, the com• to finish an economically weak class, authority of the Central government, promises, the lack of determination to divided into groups with separate in• the creation of the new civil admini• carry things through to the end and, terests. It is true that during the Re• stration, oif state courts separate from especially, the underrating of the role naissance, especially in its final stage, those of the sheriat and a nucleus of of the masses of the people, as an im• the democratic wing, the elements that the armed forces; the establishment portant positive factor for the set• had emerged from the commercial and of the Albanian language as the offi• ting up of the new state and for handicraft middle bourgeoisie, as well cial language and the setting up of social progress. Without negating the as from the peasantry, began to predo• the national school system; the brea• great patriotic merits of this Govern• minate in the leadership of the move• king of religious dependence of Shey ment, and its head, Ismail Qemali, ment, but they never succeeded in beco• Ul Islam and adoption of the law Comrade Enver Hoxha has pointed ming the sole leading force either in on the modernization of the state ap• out, amongst others, one fundamental the National Movement or in the in• paratus on the European bourgeois mo• shortcoming characteristic of bourgeois dependent state. They shared the leader• del; the efforts to stop the theft of governments, which is the source of ship with the big landowners, conse• state property by the big landlords and a series of weaknesses in its internal quently, the Albanian state emerged as the promise of an agrarian reform, etc. and foreign policy and, precisely, its a bourgeois-landowning state and so Although the Government of Vlora underrating of close links with the it remained until it was finally smashed remained in power for little more than popular masses, of the work with them, by the victory of the Anti-fascist Natio• one year, during this short time the of relying firmly and concretely on nal Liberation Movement and was re• differences between the democratic these masses, which would have streng• placed by the socialist state. thened the political, organizational and wing and the reactionary landowner military power of the state and its in• This alignment of forces was reflec• wing, which had appeared during the dependence.^ This shortcoming has its ted in the National Government of National Movement, manifested them• source in the idealist concept which Vlora, too. However, it is the merit of selves with special force. The inde• bourgeois politicians in general, have the bourgeois-democratic representati• pendent state life brought to the fore of the role of the masses in history. ves of this Government, that they set the acute problems of the country and the tone for it from the beginning the role of the various classes in power, Although in difficult circumstances, and, with the development of events, of democracy, of economic and social the Government of Vlora maintained imposed their will in internal and ex• reforms, of independence from the Great an intelligent and courageous stand in ternal policy, bringing about the pola• Powers, etc. defence of independence. While exer• rization of the class and political for• Democratic activists of the National cising limited authority from the view• ces of the country. Movement (some of the members of point of territory and being under In these circumstances the government the government), who had become strong pressure from the Balkan ar• of Ismail Qemali pressed on through acquainted abroad with the progressive mies of occupation, the diplomacy of innumerable difficulties. Nevertheless, ideas of the time and sought to apply the Great Powers and internal enemies, bold political and social acts of a pa• them in Albania, had gathered in Vlora. it acted courageously without falling triotic and democratic character were This breeze of democracy that began into the innumerable traps set on its proclaimed, acts which honour the Go• to blow in independent Albania did course, pursuing an independent poli• vernment of Vlora, bearing in mind spare the government itself from cri• cy in the interests of the Albanian the circumstances and the short pe• ticism over certain of its acts. Howe• national state. It resisted the efforts riod it remained in power. Without ver, it incurred the wrath especially of Austro-Hungary and Italy to turn it doubt, special merit belongs to Ismail of the landowning beys and pashas, into an instrument serving their inte• Qemali, who was one of the most outs• who hurled themselves into struggle rests in its zone. Although he had an 40 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY excessive faith in the role that the Great which were not proclaimed at all, or the communists, the insurgent people Powers would play in the just solu• were undertaken but abandoned half• and their national liberation councils, tion of the Albanian question, Ismail way, both by the Government of Vlo• who conceived freedom, independence Qemali was very quickly convinced ra and by that which emerged from the and democracy as a single indivisible of the contrary and tried to manoeu• June Revolution of 1924. entity, in order to go on after Libera• vre adroitly in the imperialist laby• With the founding of the Commu• tion to a higher stage — to socialism. rinth to save what could be saved. nist Party in November 1941, a new The Great Powers and the neigh• Its patriotic stand brought the Go• subjective factor emerged, a new revo• bouring monarchies regarded Albania vernment of Vlora into open conflict lutionary leadership of the people's mo• with the policy of the imperialist po• vement for national and social libera• of 1912 and 1924 as *a negligible quan- wers, which led to another brutal in• tion, which neither the Renaissance nor tity», as a small, weak country, on tervention by the Great Powers and the democratic movement had known which the bigger states could impose the overthrow of the government. in the past. their will and could violate its rights With the act of the Proclamation Those premises which made it possi• With impunity. During the Anti-fascist of Independence and its profoundly pa• ble to carry through to the end the iMational Liberation War our people de• triotic stand in defence of the supreme democratic tasks left over from the pe• veloped the awareness that tliey are national interests at those extremely riod of the independence and the trans• tue all-powerful masters of the coun• critical moments for the fate of the formation of Albania into a socialist try and their own late and no longer Homeland, the Government of Vlora country, have their roots in the people's permitted foreigners to behave with il occupies a place of honour in the mo• revolution led by the Party. From this as they had done in the past. Socialist dern history of the Albanian people. stand-point, the liberation of the Ho• Albania raised its dignity in the inter• meland in 1944 marked a radical tur• national arena to a high level. With ning-point in the history of the Alba• its just, sincere and principled policy * nian people — the end of the land• it has gained authority as never before * * owner-bourgeois era and the start of the and occupies a place of honour in the socialist era. This time the triumph of great revolulionary movement of our As can be seen from what was said freedom and independence was com• above, the independence proclaimed in plete and final. This was not becau• times. 1912 did not accomplish all the fun• se the external and internal enemies All these brilliant achievements, lio- damental political, economic and so• ceased their struggle against it, After wever, have their origin in the Natio• cial tasks of the National Movement. the liberation of the country the im• nal Independence of 1912, the 70th an• The reason must be sought in the lan• perialist states and, later, the social- niversary of which we are commemo• downer-bourgeois character of the in• imperialist states and their allies in the rating with a profound feeling of res• dependent state, as well as in the com• Balkans, aided by internal reaction, left pect for everything that our men of plicated negative internal and exter• no stone unturned to wrest the victo• the Renaissance did for the benefit of nal circumstances. It was to take fur• ries achieved from the hands of our our beloved Homeland — Albania. ther decades before Albanian society, people. The reason why all their efforts passing through wars and revolutions, failed is that in the new Albania all was able, under the leadership of the state power had passed into the hands communists, to carry out the greatest of the people, that its freedom and in• 1 «Acfs 0/ Albanian National Renai• and the most profound revolution in dependence was defended by an ar• ssance 1878-1912^>; Tirana 1978, p.261, its history — the people's revolution, and med people and their array tempered Alb, ed. to establish the socialist order, and, in the National Liberation War, who 2 Enver Hoxha, Works, vol.24, p.15, in this context to finally accomplish did not lay down their weapons after Alb. ed. the tasks which independence left un• the victory, but kept a firm hold of 3 Enver Hoxha, Works, vol.24, p.7, them in order to guarantee the victory Alb. de. resolved. 4 V.I.Lenin, Collected Works, vol.19, History bequeathed to the new gene• once and for all. p21. Alb. ed. ration of Albanian communists the hea• The National Liberation War took up 5 «The History of the Albanian Peo- vy burden of leading the democratic again the banner of democracy, but ple», Prishtina 1979, addendum, p.795. and workers' movement and, later, the this time it was held not by the repre• 6 V.I.Lenin, Collected Works, vol.19, Anti-fascist National Liberation Move• sentatives of the bourgeoisie, even the p.21, Alb. ed. ment and of carrying through to the most progressive of them, but by the 7 V.I.Lenin, Collected Works, vol.19, end those revolutionary measures which representatives of the bourgeoisie, even p.22. Alb. ed. Albanian society had long required, but the most progressive of them, but by 8 Enver Hoxha, Works, vol.23, p.148 160, Alb. ed. THE FORMATION OF THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE The thesis of the Illyrian origin of the Albanian language and the Albanian people, with its further development and its backing with new arguments and facts, has imposed itself as more credible in archaeology, linguistisc, history and ethnography

I. THE FORMATION OF THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE, LIKE THE FOR• of the problems of its formation, en• MATION OF THE ALBANIAN PEOPLE AND NATIONALITY, CONSTITUTES A able us to throw light on many aspects DIFFICULT COMPLEX PROBLEM OF GREAT IMPORTANCE: IN THIS CASE of these processes and phases, to solve WE HAVE TO DO WITH AN ANCIENT PEOPLE, INDEED ONE OF THE MOST ANCIENT PEOPLES OF THE BALKANS, AND THEIR JUST AS ANCIENT important problems of the genesis of LANGUAGE — ALTHOUGH ITS WRITTEN DOCUMENTS HAVE COME DOWN the Albanian people, and of the factors TO US LATE WITH A LANGUAGE WHICH HAS PRESERVED ITS OWN ORI• and the historical conditions which de• GINALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY AS THE ONLY REPRESENTATIVE OF A termined it. GROUP OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES, ALTHOUGH AS A RESULT OF GEO• The solution of the fundamental pro• GRAPHICAL-HISTORICAL FACTORS, IT HAS HAD IN THE CENTURIES blems of the genesis of the Albanian MANY CONTACTS, AT TIMES VERY INTENSIVE, WITH OTHER LANGUA• language involves all sorts of difficul• GES, BORROWING WORDS FROM THEM OR GIVING THEM WORDS OF ITS OWN. THE DOCUMENTATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE ALBANIAN ties and obstacles. But they are not LANGUAGE AND, TO A CERTAIN EXTENT, OF THE ALBANIAN PEOPLE, insuperable. Albanian is an Indo-Euro• INVOLVES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DISRUPTED LINKS AND THE RE• pean language apart which, although CONSTRUCTION AND COMPLETION OF UNKNOWN PROCESSES AND PHA• directly and marginally linked with SES OF THEIR CENTURIES-LONG DEVELOPMENT. the more ancient languages of the Bal• The formation of a language is clo- about their past, frequently com- kans, is, at the same time, a language sely connected with the formation of pleting and correcting other sources, written at late date and which has the people who speak it. History and mainly historical. Of special importance reached us, for most of it, in a very philology complement and throw light is the linguistic information regarding evolved form. As is known, written on each other. Language, as a social undocumented periods and aspects of Albanian reached us only about the phenomenon, is a historical category, the past historical development. second half of the 15th century, al• one of the fundamental characteristics The importance of information data though testimony of it goes back to the of an ethnic entity, of a people. In from the history of language is espe• 13th century. The materials available the course of time it changes accord• cially great for the history of our peo• from the non-Greek ancient languages ing to its own laws, in conformity with ple, since we lack direct information of the Balkans are scanty and one• the social and political development over entire centuries (4th-10th cen• sided, mainly of onomastic character. of the people who speak it. turies) and, as a result, must recons• However, what our language lost in Being a reflection of the history of truct processes and phases of this his• the people who speak it, language pro• tory on the basis of various indirect the course of time, all the blanks crea• vides interesting material information facts and testimonies. Tlic history of ted in its history, can be complemented, with relatively satisfactory results, by MAHIK DOMI — Professor, linguist the Albanian language, the elucidation 42 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY drawing on the linguistic material of more accurate and correct outline of through Illyrian, was expounded, both the current language which constitutes the future tasks and research. before and after Hahn, in the studies an irreplaceable historical document, The main spoken languages in the of a number of Arbereshi authors — and by reconstructing, on this basis, Balkan Peninsula of ancient times were Nikoll Keta of the 18th century and all information from the first centu• Greek, Illyrian and Thracian, respecti• the great Arbereshi poet Jeronim De ries of the written Albanian, the past vely in the South, in the West and 'n Rada, who ardently defended the thesis phases on which documentation is the East. A few decades ago Thra• of the Pelasgian origin of the Alba• lacking, through internal and external cian has been divided into Thracian nians to the end of his life. This the• comparison and through an historical and Daco-Mysian by the Bulgarian lin• sis was widespread among the men of survey. guist V. Georgiev. the Albanian National Revival, who The history of the formation, crysta• The problem of the origin of the through this emphasis on the ancient llization and consolidation of Albanian Albanian people was raised and treated character of the Albanian people as the language of a people presup• for the first time 2000 years ago (1774), wanted to support their rights to be poses a very lengthy process, and is n on a scientific basis, by the German masters of their own country and to problem of many and broad aspects historian Johan Thunmann. Drawing take the place they deserved amongst involving a number of questions. This on facts from history and geography, the other free and sovereign peoples calls for the determination of its origin, but also utilizing linguistic sources, of Europe. of its components and other elements he rejected the unfounded hypotheses At the turn of the last century the integrated into it, of their role and of some of his contemporaries, and famous Albanologist Gustav Mayer weight, of the time and place of the stressed the autochthony of the Alba• adopted a clear-cut stand on the issue formation of the Albanian, the exami• nians — a thesis which he defended of the origin of the Albanians and nation of its main convergencies and on the basis of their origin from the the Albanian language, a stand which contacts with other languages and the Iliyrians whom he regarded as a people he based on real historical facts. He closely related to the Thracians. From epitomized his thesis in the following impact of the latter on the Albanian an analysis of the Albanian language, words: ^Calling the Albanians modern language, of its different stratifications, he observes, it is impossible not to Illyrians is just as correct as calling etc. The object of this study is the see that the Albanian-speaking po• present-day Greeks modern Greeks*. examination of the more important pulation has been for centuries a neigh• In his opinion, the Albanian language questions of this complex. bour of the Greeks and a subject of represents the most recent phase of 2 Illyrian origin of the Albanian ancient Rome; and both facts lead to one of the Illyrian dialects. The thesis language. When we speak of the ori• the same ancient Illyrians. He under• of the Illyrian origin of the Albanians ginal source of the Albanian language lines that the Albanian people have and the Albanian language was sup• we intend its direct geneaological re• retained the ancient Illyrian elements ported by broad scientific circles and lationship with some other language of in their language, and its borrowings a number of outstanding scientists and the ancient Balkans, the identification from other languages are a reflection scholars of the end of the last cen• of the pre-Albanian language, that lan• of the vicissitudes of the different pe• tury and the beginning of this cen• guage which continues In modem Al• riods of their history. tury, such as Paul Kretschmer, Al• banian, and not its pre-historical ori• After more than one century and bert Thumby, V. Meyer-Lrtibcke, Hol- gin. These problems have attracted the a half, the work -"Albanian Studies>» ger Pedersen, Fr. Ribezzo, and many attention of all those who have stu• (1854) of the Austrian scholar J. Hahn others. died the origin of the Albanian people, marked the beginning of a new epoch At the end of the last century H. the students of the history of the Al• in several fields of Albanology. He Paul was the first to relate Albanian banian language, and many of those posed the question whether or not the to Thracian. His theory was adopted who have dealt with historical-compa• Albanians were autochthonous on their by a number of other linguists, amongst rative linguistics and Balkan linguistics. present territories, and answered it whom the Balkanologist C. Weygand On this subject a very copious litera• in the affirmative. He regarded the put it in a more complete form. His ture exists. Hence, the need for a very Albanians as the direct descendants of thesis was based exclusively on lin• careful examination, as exhaustive as the Illyrians, whom he considered to guistic facts, on a number of proper possible, of all these studies in writting be closely connected to the Epirotes names and place names of Thrace and the history and assessing the present and the Macedonians, and earlier still, Dacia and on some Greek glosses com• situation of the treatment of these pro• to the pre-historical Pelasgians. In or• pared with Albanian words, on spe• blems with all the aspects involved, der to back his thesis of the Illyrian cific relations between Albanian and for a critical analysis of the facts and origin of the Albanians and their lan• Rumanian and their common pre-La- arguments and of the opinions and guage, Hahn also based himself on tin and Latin elements which some in• ideas expressed in them. This would linguistic sources. The theory of the terpret as proof of the geographical help, amongst other things, to make a origin of Albanian from Pelasgian, proximity of the cradles of these two ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 43

languages and, finally, on the criticism cording to some others) of the Alba• certain amount of material whereby it of some facts advanced in support of nians, continued. is possible to form aa idea of the lexic the Illyrian origin of the Albanians. The thesis of the Illyrian origin of of Illyrian, its phonetic system and, to The thesis of the Thracian origin of the Albanian language and the Alba• some extent, its word-building pat• the Albanians, which lacks all histo• nian people, with its further develop• terns and compare it with other lan• rical basis, places the cradle of the ment and its backing with new argu• guages. Albanian people and the Albanian lan• ments and facts, has imposed itself as Hence, we have facts on which to guage further East, considerably re• more credible, especially due to the rely in the examination of the nature moved from the Adriatic coast, thereby fruitful work of the Albanian scientists of Illyrian-Albanian relationships. Be• opposing the autochthony of the Al• in archaeology, linguistics, history and sides, there are other linguistic facts, banians from the period of antiquity ethnography. A great contribution in apart from geographical-historical facts on their present territories. this field was made by the scientific which permit us to reach the conclu• Some scholars have pointed out the session -"The Illyriams and the Genesis sion that the Albanians today live on a double relationship of Albanian to both of the Albanians^- (1969) and by the territory inhabited since ancient times Illyrian and Thracian, regarding these 1st Assembly of Illyrian Studies (1972). by the Illyrians, of whom history does two ancient languages of the Balkans The Albanian linguistics carried these not mention any important migration as very closely connected to each other. problems to a very advanced level, in or as some claim without any founda• This thesis was, to some extent, ex• the first place, through the very fruit• tion, invasion at the end of the anti• pressed by Thunmann in the 18th cen• ful studies of Prof. Eqrem Qabej, who quity or, even less, in the Middle Ages. tury. This thesis was put in more com• has repeatedly examined the various The facts and arguments which sup• plete and crystallized form in the works problems of the origin of the Alba• port and add to the credibility of the of the outstanding Austrian Albano- nian language in close connection, with thesis of the Illyrian origin of the Al• logist Norbert Jokl who pointed out a the origin of the Albanian people. He banians are many and sundry. They number of coincidences and analogies has brought numerous facts and ample are taken up and exhaustively ex• between Albanian, on the one hand, information which throw light on these plained in the works of Prof. E. C^bej. and Illyrian and Thracian, on the other, complex problems, irrefutable argu• Our intention here is to present them mainly as regards their lexical, phone• ments which reject the criticism and in a summarized form. tic and word-building systems, conclu• invalidate the basic points of the sup• Among the facts that indicate the ding that the Albanian language was porters of the thesis of the origin of Illyrian origin of Albanian the follow• very akin to both Illyrian and Thra• the Albanians, while adding further ing can be mentioned: cian. N. Jokl says: •«Whatever the issue, credibility to the thesis of the Illyrian a — the Illyrian-Albanian continuity we notice that the linguistic material origin of the Albanians and their lan• established on the basis of the con• left over from the languages of the guage. The thesis of the Illyrian origin nection of the national name of the ancient peoples of the Balkans, the of the Albanians is also held by a Albanians in the Middle Ages (in By• lUyrians and the Thracians, is very number of foreign linguists and is well zantine sources -"Arbanoi^, «Arbani- closely connected with the language entrenched in world scientific opinion. taix-, the place name of «Arbanon»; in of the Albanians. This double con• The material available directly from Latin sources «Albanenses, Arbanen- nection can be explained only by the Illyrian is scanty and comprises mainly ses»; in Albanian «arber, arberesh, ar- relationship existing between the lUy- proper names and place names, names benor, arberor») with the name -"Al- rians and the Thracians."- of deities, tribes and inhabitants (about banoi» (an Illyrian tribe in the vici• The study of the Illyrian and Thra• 1 000 altogether) and three or four nity of Durres); cian languages has entered a more glosses. To these there must be added b — frequent concordances between advanced phase in the last decades materials from Messapian which, des• Illyrian words and relics in other lan• with materials from these languages pite the reservations of some students guages and Albanian words, as obser• being treated from a new more criti• today, is considered to be Illyrian. The ved by a great number of scholars; cal angle, and a new approach to the latter appears to be rather richer, with c — parallels and similarities bet• study of their phonetic and grammati• some short texts, of which, imfortuna- ween the phonetical systems of Illy• cal systems, mainly on word-building tely, only a small part has been ex• rian and Albanian; and its patterns. plained, and about 450 proper names d — concordances in tlieir word- Progress was also made in the stu• and place names. Attempts have been building patterns and in a number of dy of the origin of the Albanian lan• made to enrich the linguistic material common suffixals; guage and Albanian people, while the of Illyrian by identifying Illyrian words e — the presence of a number of difference of opinions between those in the body of Greek and Latin, the borrowings from ancient Greek, mainly who supported the thesis of the Illyrian southern and northern Italic languages, from the northern Doric dialect, and, origin and those who were for the the dialects of the zone of the Alps, simultaneously, the important place Thracian origin (or Daco-Mysian, ac• etc. In this way has been collected a and proportion of elements borrowed 44 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY from Latin in the Albanian language, which are supposed to come from a Da- banian and Thracian, their points in which shows that the forefathers of cian substratum. common and similarities, are no proof the Albanians lived on territories north These facts, testimonies and argu• of the Thraco-Dacian origin of Alba• of those inhabited by the Greelcs since ments are in favour of the thesis of nian, but only of the integration of a ancient times, and that they experien• the Illyrlan origin of Albanian and the number of Thraco-Dacian elements in• ced for centuries the powerful poli• Albanians, and consequently, of the to the Albanian language. Elucidation tical, cultural and linguistic pressure thesis of their autochthony on the pre• of the connections between these two of the Latins on those territories in sent-day territories. And they become languages requires the preliminary elu• which Illyrians appear to have lived even more convincing and credible cidation of a number of questions: the in the antiquity; when seen in their entirety and in relations between Thracian and Illy• i — the preservation of a great num• their inter-relationship. rian, distinguishing between special ber of toponyms, mainly of Illyrian — When we assume that Albanian is Thraco-Albanian linguistic concordan• names of cities, rivers and mountains, derived from Illyrian and not Thra• ces and peculiarities of a more gene• from ancient times to our days in the cian, this does not imply that the Al• ral character which can be explained Albanian territories, and what is more banian language has no relation what• by historical conditions, etc. important, the general tendency for soever with Thraco-Dacian. A number 3. Place of formation of the Alba• them to appear in a form that corres• of students, although supporters of the nian language. The history of the Al• ponds to the phonetical developments thesis of the lUyrian origin of Alba• banian language and the Albanian peo• of the Albanian language, which in• nian, have not failed to point out a ple poses important problems regarding dicates that these names have at all number of concordances and analo• the place of formation of this language times been used by Albanians and by gies in various fields between Albanian and people and, closely related with no other people; and Thraco-Dacian. N. Jokl pointed them, their source and origin as well g — the continued use of some proper out various relations of Albanian with as the time in which the process of names of Illyrian anthroponymy among both Illyrian and Thracian, These he formation of the Albanian language the present-day Albanians; explained with the proximity of the and its development to the stage of h — the presence of a relatively Illyrian and Thracian languages, which a national language, took place. rich Albanian nautical and marine ter• led him to consider these two langua• Copious scientific literature exists minology connected both with the sea ges as forming one language unit. on the problem of the area of origin animal and plant life, as well as with Illyrian and Thraco-Dacian were of the Albanian language and Albanian navigation and fishing, which speak of geographically close to one another, people. Vai-ious, often contradictory, the ancient peopling of the coast by in constant and intense contacts du• views have been expressed over and Albanians. ring the centuries, acting on and in• over again, without mentioning here Besides this, the relations of Alba• ter-acting with each other as an adstra- outright amateurish and fanciful opi• nian with Thracian (or with Daco- tum on the border territories. nions which present matters as if the Mysian) are not so numerous, impor• Many students have observed and Albanians came to their present terri• tant and specific as to indicate a di• pointed out a series of Thraco-Illyrian tories from parts outside the Balkans, rect relationship between them, as has lexical isoglosses. Thracian noums and such as Scotland, the Caucasus, etc. in been suggested by some supporters of proper names have been compared with the Middle Ages, and other such opi• the thesis of the Thracian origin of Albanian words and attempts have nions which are repeated even in our the Albanians. From the comparison been made to explain them by means days. About the place of formation of of Thracian linguistic material with of Albanian words. the Albanian people and their lan• Albanian emerges that along with some There are cases of phonetical con• guage, however, two main different similarities and common features in cordances and analogies between Al• theses have been expressed. The sup• the lexic and phonetics, the elements banian and Daco-Mysian in the re• porters of the first thesis place the that distinguish them from one an• flection of some sounds of Indo-Euro• area of origin of the Albanians in the other are far more numerous. Many of pean. V. Georgiev's conclusion about lands where they live today, either on the Thracian-Albanian concordances the connection between these two lan• the relatively narrow territories of Dar- are triple Thracio-Illyrian-Albanian guages from the comparative tables of dania and Mat, or on a more exten• concordances. We have another testi• these sounds in Albanian and Daco- sive territory. The supporters of the mony, though indirect, in the fact that Mysian is too far-fetched. His assertion second thesis, the thesis of the Thra• there is no complete concordance bet• that the phonematic system of the Al• cian origin of the Albanians, place it ween Albanian and the Geto-Dacian banian language represents a develop• further inside the Balkans, close to or substratum of Rumanian, that, apart ment on the phonematic system of Da• directly bordering on the area of ori• from pre-Iiatin, Indo-European words co-Mysian is not convincing. gin of Rumanian. E. Qabej has re• common to Rumanian and Albanian, The presence of many cases of ana• peatedly pointed out that the territories Rumanian language has other words logies and concordances between Al• of the Albanians have shrunk, not ex- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 m 45 panded, over the ages, that the area other students proposed. This is based of Dardania in the territory of the of origin of the Albanian people and on the ancient local toponymy which formation of the Albanian language of the Albanian language could not persists, down to our days, on all the and of the Albanian people, claiming have been a small, circumscribed and territories Inhabited by the Albanian that it was entirely Romanized in the isolated territory. Proceeding from lin• population and which consists of na• Roman and Byzantine period. This as• guistic sources and arguments he has mes of cities, rivers, mountains from sertion does not correspond to the shown that the Albanians are auto• the northernmost to the southernmost truth, since the autochthonous popula• chthonous on their present territories. extremity of the country. An important tion of Dardania was still existing du• In order to find a correct solution achievement of the Albanian science of ring the second half of the 3rd century to the problem of the genesis of the linguistics and the great merit of Prof. of our era. If there was Romanization Albanian language we must examine E. ^abej has been the refutation of it was not uniform everywhere and it in an all-round manner and its va• the assertions of those who claimed did not penetrate all strata to the same rious aspects, taking into consideration that the toponymy of the present terri• degree. Studies have shown that the linguistic, historical, archaeological and tories inhabited by the Albanian peo• process of Romanization was very mild etymological sources. The process of ple allegedly shows its Slav origin, in Dardania. Proof of this are the formation of the Albanian language is which has led some of them to the above-mentioned toponyms of this ter• closely connected with the process of point of presuming that the Albanians ritory and the neighbouring zones. formation of the Albanian people and have come next after the Slavs to The frequency of the ancient topo• has developed over a long time. Lin• their present territories. On the con• nyms in the area around Shkodra, ana• guistic and other sources show that it trary, accurate analyses have shown lysed according to the historical pho• has developed on an extensive terri• and proved that the phonetical deve• netics of the Albanian language, re• tory, coinciding more or less with the lopment of these toponyms from an• futes the claims of Selischev and I. present Albanian territories. cient to present forms has proceeded Popovic that what the Slavs met there This very complex and long process in line with the phonetical laws of was not an Albanian, but a completely could not possibly have developed in the Albanian language and no other Romanized population. any social conditions. Besides, it must language. Moreover, in a number of Worth our attention is also the great not be regarded, in a one-sided me• these toponyms seme Slav forms are frequency of local toponyms in Cen• chanical manner, as merely the preser• proved to have originated from the tral Albania, where the name of an vation of the language and the ethni• respective forms of the Albanian lan• Illyrian tribe — the -"Albanoi^, coin• cal character of the local population guage; their phonetical mutations can cides with the name of the Albanian of some small isolated country which be explained only through the inter• people in the Middle Ages, and is men• has remained unaffected, to its geo• mediary of the Albanian language. tioned for the first time by Byzantine graphical position, by the overwhel• E. Qabei has analysed a series of chroniclers in the llfh century in con• ming process of Romanization and the Albanian toponyms of regular pho• nection with their participation in the migrations of various tribes and popu• netical development, and these are to political events that took place in those lations which poured into the Balkans be found on all the Albanian terri• parts. at the end of the antiquity and in the tories: in Dardania — present-day Ko- 4. Time of formation of the Albanian beginnings of the Middle Ages. This sova, in part of Macedonia and some language. In the long and complex pro• process should be regarded as a fur• other border zone: Scupi — Shkup, cess of the formation of the Albanian ther development conditioned by the Naissus — Nish, Astibus — Shtip. Scar- language we distinguish several stages historical circumstances and transfor• dus (mons) — Sharr; in Northwestern which mark its different levels. The mations, as a transition from one stage Albania: Scodra — Shkodra, Drinus, — lack of direct evidence creates a num• to another. In these conditions the area Drilon — Drin, Barbanna — Buna, ber of difficulties. However, a retro• of origin of the Albanians and of the Lissus — Lesh, Mathis — Mat; north spective analysis of linguistic sources, formation of the Albanian language of Shkodra: Ulcinium — Ulqin; in examination of archaeological and his• could not have been a narrow and Central Albania: Dyrrachium — Du- torical information, enable us to build remote mountainous zone like Mat, rres, Isamnus — Ishem, Skampis, Skam- a basis from which to determine the which was inhabited by herdsmen of pinus — Shkambin; in south Albania: time of the formation of the Albanian a backward cultural level, unaffected Aulon — Vlora, Thyemis — Qam, QSL- language and outline its phases. by the Roman penetration due to na• meria. etc. There are other names from "We can distinguish a first phase, tural difficulties, as G. Stadtmuller the antiquity the evolution of which which is characterized by confronta• claimed. The primary and only area into their present forms can be ex• tion of Illyrian with Latin and initial of formation of the Albanian people plained by the rules of the Albanian contacts of Illyrian with Byzantine, and the Albanian language could not language, such as: Tomaros — Tomorr, Greek and other languages in the con• have been the peripherical territory Axoas — Vjosa, Pistum — Bisht, etc. ditions of Roman domination and the of Dardania, either, as N. Jokl, and G. Stadtmuller opposed the inclusion beginning of Byzantine rule, as well 46 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY as of the inflow of various people in end of the second phase of its formation, of the Balkans, on a broad territory on the time of the migration of the peo• the Albanian language is the distin• the eastern coast of the Adriatic, and ples. This is the phase of the transition guishing feature of a none-too-small which attracted the attention of Rome of Illyrian to Albanian and of the for• ethnic unit which serves as a means of and soon became the target for its mation of early Albanian. Illyrian pro• communication for a nation — the Al• expansionist ambitions. In the first ves superior to the attempts of political banian nation. In the 12th century the place, it was the staunch resistance of and cultural Romanization. It won in Albanians had their own state, the Sta• the Illyrian tribes which stemmed the the process, though a large number of te of Arben, which marks a new epoch process of Romanization. Another fact Latin words were integrated into its in the history of our people. which must be taken into consideration body. The result, however, was not a 5. Latin elements in the Albanian is that Southern Illyria, which occupied Latin language, but an independent lang:uage. more or less the present territories of Indo-European language which, in the For more than eight centuries the present-day Albania, was charac• main, preserved its former grammatical on end Illyrian was subjected to the terized by a high level of socio-eco• structure. The beginning of this phase direct and powerful pressure of the nomic development before the Roman can be put approximatively at the end Latin language. Since the occupation conquest. of the 1st century and the onset of the of Southern Illyria, which was complete The widespread opinion that the U- 2nd century of our era when Rome, in the second half of the 2nd century lyrians did not exist beyond the 3rd after crushing the great Illyrian upris• b.o.e., to the end of the 4th century, century, that after this they were com• ings of that time, strengthened its grip when the Roman Empire was divided pletely Romanized, does not correspond on Southern lUyria. This first phase into the Western Empire and the Eas• to the truth. Various testimonies and may be extended up to the end of the tern Empire, Roman domination con• facts contradict this opinion. Illyrian 6th century or the beginning of the tinued uninterruptedly over the Illy• names continue to appear in inscrip• 7th century. At the end of this phase, rian tribes with all its economic, cul• tions as late as the 4th century. The early Albanian, which resulted from the tural and political implications. The La• Latin writer of Dalmato-Illyrian ori• further development of lilyrian, was tin language continued as the official gin, Hieronymus (4th-5th century), af• completely formed with its own indivi• language of the Eastern Empire, too, in firms that in his time Dalmatia and duality and features. It develops as a which Southern Illyria was included, neighbouring Pannonia had a barba• relatively well crystallized single unit, for two centuries after the division. rian language, that is, not Latin, but and as such reacts to all contacts with Frederik Engels, in his Work -"The Ori• their own local language. Despite the other Iangu£.:;es. gin of the Family, Private Property geographical proximity of Rome and The period from the 7th century up and the State"- (Tirana 1970, p. 223), the long duration of Roman occupa• to the middle of the 11th century is the says: -"The levelling plane of the Ro• tion, Romanization did not operate second phase of the formation of the man domination over the world has everywhere with the same intensity in Albanian language and the Albanian passed for a number of centuries on all Illyrian. It did not have the same people, the phase of their consolidation, all the countries of the Mediterranean result everywhere. The historian of an• crystallization and further development basin. There where the Greek language cient Rome, T. Mommsen, points out the in i:ew political and social conditions. put up no resistance, all national lan• intensity of Romanization of Dalmatia Our historians have pointed out that the guages had to cede their place to vulgar as against its slow development in the period from the 7th to the 12th century Latin...; there were no more Gauls, neighbouring central province of Ma• constitutes a key link in the history of Iberians, Ligurians, Rhetians, all were cedonia which included a good part of the Albanian people, in their economic, Romanized."- In Europe the only lan• the present-day Albanian territories. social and ethnic-cultural development. guage that escaped Romanization was A. Buda with good reason writes: -«Ac- At this phase of the development of Greek, and this only thanks to the su• culturization in Southern Illyria was a the Albanian language some old pho- periority of Greek culture and the restricted graduated phenomenon de• netical rules ceased to operate. These prestige this language enjoyed through pending on the social situation and the internal changes must be traced out and this fact. This process of Romanization geographical position of the subject determined with accuracy both in their did not affect Illyrian which continued population. Against the resistance of the chronological order and in the circum• to exist in Albanian as an individual exploited classes, Romanization failed stances of their occurrence, their radia• language. This -"miracle^ was not due to to lead to the mass assimilation of the tion and the transformations which they an accident. Here the question was not language and culture of the southern brought about in the language system. about some small tribe or ethnical territories of Illyria, also because, in By now the Albanian language has a group, hidden in some remote corner intensive contacts with the culture of higher functional role, is no longer a inaccessible to foreign military, poli• the Empire, they acquired new ele• means of communication of small tribal tical, economic, cultural and linguistic ments which, while enriching their cul• communities, but of ever larger regional influences. The question here was about ture, did not change its fundamental and inter-regional communities. At the a population fiiTOly rooted in a key pact elements and did not affect its origin- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 47 ality.» The language of the people waa tin words occupy first place among Slavisms on Albanian were studied Illyrian. In the conditions of the simul• loan words in Albanian. They belong, since the last century. Amongst the taneous use of both languages, Illyrian in most cases, to the general sphere first to deal with this problem were was used by the masses of the people of the language. Part of them apper• Fr. Miklosic and G. Mayer, followed of the city as the colloquial language. tain to the main fund of words. The by N. Jokl, H. Baric, P. Skok, and The local language came off well, for place they occupy is explained with others in our century. The Russian lin• the reasons we mentioned above, in the the strong pressure of Latin as the guist A. Selishchev in his work -«The long disputed struggle with Latin. It state language, as the language of eco• Slav Population in Albania>^ published preserved its own individual features, nomic and trade relations, as the lan• in Sophia in 1931, and though now sur• except that many lexical elements of guage of culture over a long period, passed, republished recently with great Latin were incorporated in it. and as the language of the Catholic publicity, is an attempt at a compre• The Southern Illyrian language, when Church in the last phase. hensive survey and treatment of the it entered its process of development From the great changes Latinisms problem of Slav borrowings in Alba• as Albanian language, had attained a have undergone according to the pho• nian. Basing himself mainly on Slav degree of crystallization sufficient to netic and grammatical laws of the Al• sources, and with ulterior political permit it to emerge as a single unit banian language, it is often difficull motives, the author of this work pre• in its reaction to the pressure of Latin to distinguish a Latinism from a local sents a completely one-sided and, at and the later impact of other languages. Indo-European word, or from some times, distorted picture of the condi• Since the pressure of Latin on Alba• Latin-Albanian isogloss — particular or tions and nature of Albanian-Slav lin• nian continued over several centuries, general. Failure of Latin to penetrate guistic relations. This work is charac• Latinisms in the Albanian language the grammatical structure of Albanian, terized by frequent and serious errors appear in forms -which belong to dif• the latter's ability to preserve its ori• in the interpretation of lexical and to- ferent time stratifications. Many Latin• ginal and individual character as an ponomastic material and unfounded isms in Albanian belong to an earlier Indo-European language in itself, re• and incorrect conclusions. Selishchev stage than that of the Latin elements fute the opinion that the Illyrians were did not examine the facts with due in Rumanian and, at times, even earlier completely Romanized, apart from some objectiveness, put forward or repeated than that of those elements in Roman tribes living in remote mountain cor• baseless tendentious theses. Today this languages. They show that they have en• ners, and that later, about the Early work is a source to which uninform• tered at an early phase into the sou• Middle Ages, this large Romanized po• ed and non-objective students, who thern Illyrian language, partly as early pulation was Albanized by a mino• write on the problems of the Alba• as the time of the Republic, therefore, rity of Albanians who came down from nian language, often refer. they have preserved the earliest Latin the mountains. Everything in the Alba• In recent decades Slav borrowings form, unaffected toy later innovation. nian language shows that Illyrian was in Albanian have been treated by a As has been observed, Latin borrow• always used side by side with Latin number of foreign and Albanian stu• ings in Albanian consist mainly of pri• and that in the course of this simul• dents who have corrected a series of mary words, whereas Latin words in taneous use they acted on each other, wrong or distorted conclusions. They Rumanian consist of derivatives. The which accounts for the Latin loan words have pointed out that there was no latter may have their source in a later the Albanian language has today. This significant difference in the social, eco• stratum, in a more evolved and popu• is not a case of one language falling nomic and cultural level between the lar stage of the language, whereas the into disuse and its remnants surviving Albanians and the Slavs who settled former may have a more literary cha• in the triumphant language, but a case in Albania, that it is very unlikely that racter. It has been observed that Alba• of the operation of an adstratum. Slav borrowings represent economic, so• nian has in its body more literary forms 6. Slav borrowings in the Albanian cial and cultural innovations which the of Latin than the Rumanian language, languaige. Slavs allegedly transmitted to the Al• or even the Roman languages. If the Slav borrowings present an inte• banians in a one-sided process, that Slav general literary character of Latin bor• rest in Albanian not as regards the borrowings, in most cases, have a dia• rowings in Albanian is confirmed, this formation of the Albanian language, lectical character. Notwithstanding this, may throw some light on the manner because by the time of the Slav migra• there are linguists today who still fol• and roads of their penetration into tions to the Balkans, the Albanian lan• low in the footsteps of Selishchev, and the Illyrian language, mainly through guage had been formed as such, had Its some of them go still further ahead a thin stratum of learned people, and own features. Slav borrowings clearly on the line of mistakes and distortions. not through close relations between the show that Albanian has reacted to them Therefore, the Albanian linguistics faces masses of the lUyrians and the mas• in the character of a completely formed the task of carrying out a more ses of the Latin colonists. language. They belong to the sphere of comprehensive and objective study of Relative to their number, the extent vocabulary; the grammatical structure Slavisms, defining their part and of their usage, and their radiation, La• was not affected. weight in Albanian, and the task of 48 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY carrying out a more profound study of considering as Slav a number of auto• country have proved, played a major the influence of the Albanian language chthonous appellatives, such as balte role. Not always and everywhere does on the south Slav languages. (mud), gardh (hedge), etc. and element.' toponsnny say anything about the eth• From their extension and usage, of Albanian word-building. More often nical appartenance of the inhabitants Slavisms in Albanian do not constitute than once, Slav suffixes work together of a given country. In no few cases we a homogenous whole. There is a no with Albanian suffixes, but seldom see that Slav toponyms are only trans• small number of Slav words in Alba• Slav suffixes have a general use in the lations of former Albanian toponyms nian, although they are mainly peri- Albanian language. It is ludicrous to (Ujemire — Dobrovoda, Gur — Kame- pherical and narrowly local. It must try at all costs to present as Slav to• nica, Mali i Thate — Suhogore). Against also be pointed out that many of them ponyms which are not such, as in the the attempts to link up toponyms, just have a synonymous character. Many case of the Bulgarian linguist J. Zai- as loan words, with Slav invasions and Slavisms in literary Albanian have an mov, in whose opinion all the Alba• settlements and not with later historical emotional tinge and are used as lexical- nian toponyms with the -an suffix are factors, such as the rule of Slav kings stylistic variants. Dialectological re• built with the Bulgarian -jan suffix, on Albanian territories, the facts show search of Slavisms has brought inte• whether they are of Slav or non-Slav that there are very few borrowings resting information which will be re• stem. and toponyms of an early date, most flected in the -"Dialectological Atlas of Some authors, mainly Slav, have at• of them belonging to later periods, when Albanian^, now waiting publication. tempted to connect this toponymy with Bulgarian and Serb kings established The grammatical structure of the Al• the existence of a large Slav population their rule on the Albanian territories. banian language shows no sign of Slav One of the students of Slav toponymy influence. Some Slav prefixes, with a in Albania in the Middle Ages, a popu• in 15th century Albania (J. Zaimov) is few exceptions, have a limited use or lation which is supposed to have been compelled to admit the less archaic local character. later Albanianized or to have subse• character of the Slav toponymy of Al• The history of Albanian dialects has quently migrated, or to link it also with bania in comparison with the Slav to- provided argument enough to prove, ancient Slav migrations to and settle• ponomy of Greece. However, instead oi from linguistic analyses, that the ini• ments in Albania. The truth is the other reaching the conclusion that Slav topo• tial processes of the internal develop• way round. nymy in Albania is relatively late, he ment of Albanian, which led to the Naturally, part of the Slav toponyms alleges that the Slav toponymy of Al• emergence of the earliest distinctive belongs to Slav elements in Mediaeval bania had continued to develop side by features of the present two dialects, Albania, which though negligible in the side with the expansion of the Bulga• took place on the territories where the beginning, later gained strength due to rian population in Albania, therefore, Albanians live today, and were com• the rule of the Bulgarian and Serb it could not preserve its earlier forms. pleted or were well in the way of their kings in the Albanian territories. First, In the foi-egoing we dealt will some formation long before the Slavs it must be said that all the toponyms main problems of the history of the came. of Slav origin, which have penetrated formation of the Albanian language and Slav rule has left his imprints also into the Albanian language during the some aspects of its historical develop• on the toponymy of Albania, just a? contacts of the Albanians with the ment, in an attempt to outline the pre• it has in Rumania and less so in Greece Slavs, are place names given not by a sent state of these studies, and in par• and Peloponnesus. Proceeding from Slav population, but by the Albanians ticular, the achievements of the Alba• this, some linguists, mainly Slav, have themselves. On the other hand, we nian science, as well as some of the tried to jump to far-reaching, extra- must not overlook the fact that in Al• tasks which emerge for future research linguistic conclusions distorting the bania's Slav toponymy the intervention and the work that must be done to reality. Attempts have been made to of the Slav administration, as some stu• carry forward and deepen the results increase the number of Slav toponyms dies carried out in recent years in our achieved. THE PRESENT AND THE HISTORICAL PAST IN THE MODERN ALBANIAN NOVEL by nAM^AJV SHAPI^LO

The Albanian novel of socialist realism, as one of the more important literary genres, has produced works of national value and has won recognition outside the borders of the Homeland

THE NOVEL IS OCCUPYING AN EVER MORE IMPORTANT PLACE IN pital and the working people, the stern THE DIFFERENT LITERARY GENRES WHICH ARE DEVELOPED IN ALBA• criticism of bourgeois society and man's NIA TODAY. WITH LITTLE TRADITION IN THE PAST AND WITH A NEW disillusion of this society. EXPERIENCE, THE NOVEL OF THE PERIOD OF SOCIALIST REALISM IS For its part the novel of socialist BEING SUCCESSFULLY CULTIVATED FOR SOME DECADES NOW AND realism reflects the new traits of the MEETING THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE READERS WHOSE CULTURAL AND proletarian world which would set out AESTHETIC LEVEL GO ON RISING. on a great revolutionary movement BEFORE THE LIBERATION OF THE HOMELAND THE ALBANIAN NO• under the leadership of the communists; VEL WAS LITTLE DEVELOPED. ONLY SOME NOVELS ON A PATRIOTIC it stands for proletarian humanism and AND SENTIMENTAL LINE, WHICH ALSO DEALT WITH SOCIAL PROBLEMS, the class struggle, penetrating into the MAINLY THAT OF THE EMANCIPATION OF THE WOMAN OPPRESSED BY dialectics of consciousness and voicing THE PATRIARCHAL, FEUDAL AND BOURGEOIS WAY OF LIFE, WERE WRIT• the hope of the future. The Albanian TEN IN THAT PERIOD. novel of socialist realism has travers• The Albanian novel was not cultiva• the art of novel writing which has ed this road, firmly based on its natio• ted in the years of the anti-fascist essentially national peculiarity and ori• nal soil, dealing with the themes and struggle, because there was no time ginality. problems of our society, with the diffe• for that and more experience was need• As a .literary genre with an epic rent phases of its development — the ed. The novel which developed in the tendency, with broader possibilities of history of the country, the epoch of years of the consolidation of the new portraying life in all its complexity, the National Liberation War and that literature also filled some gaps which the novel is always in the process of of the construction of socialism. had remained from the past when rea• development. In progressive world li• The modern Albanian novel has its lism in prose was little cultivated. The terature and in our literature which is problems and difficulties of develop• modern Albanian novel has reached developing in the best national and in• ment but on a whole it goes along new levels, tackling ever more complex ternational traditions, the novel gives an ascending road. Looking back at and posing ever more problems of Al• broad and complex pictures of lie and this road from today, we see its evi• banian society. World progressive tra• the class struggle. The novel as a gen• dent successes — the increased number dition, and realist tradition, in parti• re tackles subjects ranging from the of novels, the enrichment of the range cular, has played an important role in adventures and vicissitudes of man and of problems they deal with, the skill to the deep contradictions between ca• of the writers, the swelling of the DaXan Shapllo — Docent, literary critic 50 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY ranks of the novel writers and the for• this road. They have always been led point into a kind of polyphonism, witfi mation of many creative individualities by the teachings of the Party and the combination of many planes and in this field. Comrade Enver Hoxha on partisan• lines, which, in the best cases, have In the progressive literature of dif• ship of a literature and art of high led to the successful reflection of life ferent countries the novel is cultivated artistic qualities. In all its multiplicity at the present in the realist tradition, with a marked Along with the already known authors important stage of our history. national colouring and a sound essence new ones have emerged who cultivate Styles have been enriched and a more and through an apparent evolution of this genre, and their number is in• varied language, based on the popular forms. Parallel with this trend, there creasing parellel with the development idiom, has been used. Writers have is the other trend of the development of our life and the rising cultural le• contributed more than in the past to of the novel which describes the dege• vel of the people. Outstanding works the development of literary language. neration of man and the decay of v/hich have won or are winning their The vivid and polished language of society — a development which departs place among the readers have been many novels reflects a greater concern from any reahst and progressive tra• published, such as the works that of the writers for the culture of writ- dition. Thus, many experiments are reflect the period of the construction ting. Despite certain shortcomings, the being made, which are justified by pro• of socialism. — -«The Great Winter» by I. individualization of characters through claiming the crisis of the novel which Kadare, «The Face-up»- by T.Laco, «The the language has made progress, draw• is nothing other but the crisis of the Bread of a Snowy Season«- by K. Kosta; ing on the inexhaustible source of hero, the inability of the novel writers the works that deal with the period popular phraseology, the treasury of to give the true picture of bourgeois of the National Liberation War — -«The the colourful and nuanced language of society in all its complexity and con• Man with the Gun* by D. Agolli, «The the people, rich in individualizing and tradictions and to explain the true Singer of Folk Songs» by Sh. Musaraj, emotional values. causes of the social crisis. However, the «The Salt Flower* by J.Xoxa, «The During the recent years notable theories of the anti-novel, of the new Councillors* by F.Gjata, or the histo• achievements have been made espe• novel, of the new wave and many rical novel of the past — -"Skanderbeg* cially as far as the rise of the ave• other theories which consider the su• by S.Godo, the trilogy on the activists rage level of works is concerned. How• bject and characters and the very idea of the National Renaissance by S.Spasse, ever, some acute problems remain, of the novel as already overcome, are «Th'e Fall of the Idols* by S.Drini, especially those connected with a deep• being exploded one after the other. etc. These novels, and many more pub• er and broader reflection of the so• The novel continues its develop• lished in the last decade, the whole cialist reality, with a greater mastery ment as a very democratic genre, open creativeness of this period, carried fur• in the treatment of themes and the to the most varied forms, expressing ther forward the tradition of the new improvement of teclinique, particularly philosophical, poetical, lyrical, epic, or novel of the social type based on live among the younger novelists. dramatic tendencies, using description characters with their psychological and and reasoning^ the direct narration or lyrical inclinations, which, however, * putting its message through poetical operate within the epical nature of the images interlaced with legends, etc but objective reflection of reality, with a * * always on the path it has blazed in stronger tendency for judgment of the centuries so as to deserve the ap- facts and events and analyses of social In this period, especially in the re• pelation of the epic of the modern ti• and political conflicts. Another pheno• cent 4-.5 years, contemporary themes mes. Our novel, a genre in constant menon is connected with the novel of the have been dealt with more broadly and growth and development, loyal to the historical periods and raises problems with the participation of a greater num• truth and revolutionary thinking, also of national dimensions, confronting man ber of authors. There are some fine makes its contribution to this develop• with the time and rendering, in the works of this category both by well- ment. first place, the political colouring and established and by gifted young au• tackling the social aspect of national thors. There is, however, a considera• Our novel advances in struggle against and patriotic problems. Tendencies and ble number of novels on these themes modern bourgeois and revisionist trends phenomena are the offspring of the (although they, too, have their merits of alienation of man from society, of time. And ours is a time full of dyna• and make their contribution to the his despair before difficulties and con• mism, with the struggle of our people treatment of contemporary themes) tradictions, of the distortion of history, against the im.perialist-revisionist bloc• •which are not up to the required le• of deheroization and deep-going and kade for the affirmation of their his• vel. Their shortcomings consist in proli• irreversible moral crises. The best of torical road, and their consistent efforts xity, in sufficient individualization of our novel shows how the realist tradi• for the formation of the moral traits their characters or superficial descrip• tion and socialist realism are carried of the new man. tion of events, weaknesses that are met forward, how works of ideo-aesthetic with also in novels dealing with the• value are created proceeding from the The better novels tend to delve deep• mes from the past or the National truth of hfe, from man and his world, er into the consciousness and the pro• Liberation War. However, it must be from the determination of the artist to cess of formation of characters, reflect admitted that the authors of the no• put his talent in the service of the life more truthfully and in a more poe• vels of the latter category have been people. Our reality itself, our woj'king tical manner, while at the same time more successl!ul in brushing broad pic• man, has led our novel writers on to extending from the structural stand• tures of the life and struggle of our ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 51 people in the past, in tackling some ges, for the fulness of its poetic fi• created by common socialist work and fundamental problems of our history. gures. the mentality based on private pro• The results achieved by the historical Th. Lago's novel, which deals with perty — this is what A.Cerga's novel novel raise the need that the present another period and theme (the first «The Brothers'^ centers on. With its reality should be better and more bro• years after Liberation and the rela• lyrical tones of descriptions and the adly reflected in the works dealing with tions between city and country), in a cordial comradely relations created contemporary themes, that life should distinctly realist style, has attracted the among people of various professions, be reflected in all its complexity and attention of our literary criticism and but working on the same front, the epic grandeur. of the readers with its truthfulness to novel takes the reader through to the The novel of the period of the cons• life, the characters (especially the com• end. truction of socialism that centres on the munists) and its realistically rendered Maintaining his style, but in a dif• problems of the time and the various situations arising in the course of eve• ferent manner from his previous no• stages and aspects of this period, has ryday events. These and other novels vels, in this period D.Agolli wrote -"The been developed further in the recent on contemporary themes deal with both Rose in the Glass» dealing with the years availing itself of the best tradi• the struggle against revisionism and relationship of a writer with the life tion of the contemporary novel. The the class struggle within the country, of lumbermen of a northern region. best achievements are -"The Marsh* by with the economic, moral and social This is a novel of the lyrical-psycho• F.Gjata, «Again on Foot* by Dh.Xhuva- problems coming up constantly. logical type, in which many moral pro• ni, <-The White South Wind» by J.Xoxa, If we look back at the novels writ• blems are raised. The active role of «The Great Duel>> by A. Abdihoxha, etc. ten in recent years, although the sub• the intellectual in the struggle for the The more recent productions which jects they deal with are interwoven socialist transformation of society, in• now occupy an important place in our with each other, we would more or timate relations given through a spi• literature and which have gained re• less notice this relationship of man ritual dialectics, a realistic stand to• cognition, are the novels «The Great with reality, with society: the man in wards life and events, the struggle Winter* by I.Kadare, -"The Face-up» relation to the time and political against sordid interests and gossip — by Th.Lago and some others. -xThe Great events; the man in relation to morality these elements of its content given in Winter"- (1977) marked an important and the moral aesthetic criterium of a clear and thickly woven texture, with achievement in the field of the politi• judgment; the man confronted with few characters rendered in forceful cal novel built on contemporary events class antagonisms at given periods of — the struggle against Soviet revisio• time after Liberation, etc. language, give the novel its artistic nism and the stand taken by the mas• value. Another noteworthy element of ses, the various strata of our society One of the novels dealing with the this novel is an excursion into the realm under the leadership of the Party. As theme of the work and struggle for of the beautiful, rendered through dia• our literary criticism has acknowledg• the local production of bread grain logue, which departs from many sche• ed, the author of this novel has succeed• in difficult natural conditions and in matic ideas on this subject. Works such ed in interlacing, on different planes, fierce class struggle is the novel -"The as -«The Rose in the Glass* and -"Budi outstanding figures such as that of Bread of a Snowy Seasons by K.Kosta. Street* by R.Pulaha, or some other Comrade Enver Hoxha, which is por• Its value consists mainly in the truth• novel on social and moral themes, in trayed in a lapidary and concise man• ful reflection of everyday events, in which the main criterion for the as• ner at particular culminating moments, the portraying of some characters like sessment of man is the moral-aesthetic with figures from the ranks of inte- Pelik Baduni, Puravel Duka and others, one, attract the attention of the reader lleetuals and common people. The tense in the creation of conflicts which stem and assist his moral formation. conflict with the revisionists is master• from facts. No matter how complicat• A moral analysis of the man of our fully developed into a suspense of dra• ed the clashes and some characters time against the background of life and matic effect which arouses the interest may seem, the author comes to correct people, his workmates, neighbours and of the reader and captures his mind. conclusions and proceeds from the in• friends, is found in Z.Cela's novel «A tention of doing away with the old Summer Without Farewell* which is The cultivation of the political-histo• and bringing about the affirmation of written with an effort at the purity of rical novel is a positive trend of our the new in society. The positive cha• the Albanian and with poetical feeling. literature which is also observed in racters breathe a strong lyrical ele• ment which is combined with a warm There is no typical subject and no de• genres other than the novel — poetry, velopment of a central conflict on play-writing, etc. The merit of the no• feeling towards the good people. The structure of this novel rests, more than which the action of the novel would vel -"The Great Winter» is that it de• be centred. Nevertheless, the author scribes political events with a high ar• on an interesting subject, on the action tistic level and through a polyphonic of its characters who enter into cer• succeeds in his analysis of the central construction of characters and types tain relationship and create a subject character, the veterinary doctor Visar taken from real life, reproduces the which perhaps is not such in the classic who is transferred to Tirana and is sense. happy about it, but does not hurry spirit of the time in all its dramati• to leave his work and his comrades. cally impact, showing that right and The education of man through work, Together with his wife, he carries along spiritual vitality are on our side. The at the construction site of the Fierza with him to the capital the certainty style of the author stands out for its hydro-power station, men's friendship, of a well-spent period of his life. laconism and its almost palpable ima• the struggle between the mentality 52 • I (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY Moral and ethical relations, the strug• facts and reduces his product to a su• who have a personal experience of that gle for the emancipation of the woman, perficial narration. time, who have lived through its events. the formation of the consciousness of Second, a schematic treatment is no• The motifs prevailing in the novels the Albanian woman through struggle ticed in individual works on different based on the motifs of the National and work, are problems which have themes, with the subject being deve• Liberation War are those connected attracted the attention of many writers. loped according to frequently used with the popular character of the In the field of novels treating mainly schemes, resulting in unconvincing struggle led by the Party, the role of these themes, to the name of E.Kadare characters that remotely resemble real the national liberation councils, the other names of female writers like men and women. This shortcoming is newly emerging state power and its Dh.Bozdo, N.Lako, E.Mandia, have been at times connected with a narrow view authority with the people, the moral added. They make their contribution of conflicts, with haggling after stereo• formation of man in the process of to the development of our novel and typed conflicts which weaken the action the struggle, his general emancipation enrich it in the psychological and in• of the novel and slacken the interest at a time when the revolution was formative aspect. of the reader. The struggle against solving political problems, and sowing, The problems of work and its crea• schematism is linked with a deeper at the same time, the seed of social tive role, of the struggle against revi• knowledge of life and the enrichment transformations. They are linked up sionism, of city life and others are dealt of the writer's concepts, proceeding with the educational work for the so• with in some novels like -xLife and from the Marxist-Leninist world out• lution of some contradictions among Love>^ by M.Qillari, -"The Last Cab>> look and a well-defined ideo-aesthetic friends, with the struggle of opposite by K.Blushi, etc. angle. motivations going on in people's cons• In the treatment of the actual theme, These shortcomings and weaknesses ciousness, as well as the moral strength along with successes, there are also can be overcome if the writers acqua• and beauty of the Albanian at the shortcomings and weaknesses. Our so• int themselves more profoundly, in the moments when the supreme sacrifice cialist reality raises many more pro• first place, with the man of our time, is required. blems than those dealt with in our with his broad political, social and We find aspects from the epic and moral interests, the active, resolute and novels and, apart from this, some pro• heroism of the wa r— in the works of blems have not yet been delved into enthusiastic man of our socialist so• our prose writers «The Singer of in all the depth of their political, so• ciety who lives in a turbulent and Folk Songs» by Shevqet Musaraj and cial and moral aspects. Characters are difficult international situation, but al• «The Councillors^ by F.Gjata. In his at times schematic, colourless, the ways clearly guided by the line of book, Shevqet Musaraj is concerned our Party. With all the efforts and writers think and act for them, and the about the problem of the formatio — n readers immediately understand what achievements made, much remains to of the consciousness of his hero Sino the writers drive at. This is the result be done for the creation of a more Boraku, a man of the people, he des• credible hero in our novels, a hero of cribes the hardships and vicissitudes of a shallow acquaintance with the broader dimensions, with a rich and of the partisan war, the relation of reality and, in other cases, of a hasty complex inner world, with a consis• the partisan fighters with the com• interpretation of types of people and tent dialectics and clear about his ide• mon people, the patriotism of the mas• phenomena. als. This hero has both his personal ses and the role of the leaders in the The problems of cognition and world and social life, his work and his fami• war, as well as other aspects of life. outlook, the interpretation of the rea• ly, his comrades and friends. Of cour• His characters, rendered through the lity and the art of writing are frequent• se, not everything goes smoothly in recreation of personal reminiscences ly interconnected. In this aspect, short• his everyday life: in his consciousness and impressions of the writer, are very comings in dealing with contemporary and activity he has successes and set• convincing, moving and not easily for• themes, but also with other themes, are backs, he makes efforts towards pro• gotten. Previously, too, our prose has noticed. gress. The range of events is much dealt with these aspects of partisan First, amongst them is descriptivism broader now. Life cannot be depicted life, with the popular character of the which is noticed in some works (not in simplistic and petrified forms, the• National Liberation War, but this novel only novels), lack of immediate gene• refore the novel has to focus on all gives a new dimension of it, makes an ralizations, shallowness in the reflec• the richness of present-day life. attempt to portray characters through tion of life. This weakness is due to the the description of real events, a series insufficient experience of some authors, of typical portraits expressing the col• their superficial philosophical culture * lective physiognomy of the people. and their inadequate knowledge of life or historical documents, shortcomings in In ^The Councillors^^ which was first the organization of the material from The National Liberation War has published as a story and later expand• life into the appropriate literary form. been well reflected in our novel in ed into a novel, F.Gjata treats the This is also connected with insufficient recent years, and the themes based on National Liberation War on a new research in the field of the art of the it have been enriched with others plane and in a style full of pathos scarcely dealt with formerly; there are and lyricism. This novel, just as other novel, with the continuation of aTou- deeper analyses of the inner world of outstanding works of prose and poetry, tine which prevents the writer from the man of that time. These themes as well as of the figurative arts, enrich singling out and duly interpreting the have been treated mainly by authors our literature and art by reconstructing ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 53 the atmosphere of the time of the on the same reality of the National focusses on social relations, the suffer• emergence from among the masses of Liberation War. The author takes his ing and revolt of the peasantry and the the new state power, a profoundly inspiration from a poetical tradition patriotic spirit of the people in a villa• democratic state form, and its constant of our people which has it that those ge of the Myzeqe plain, has also dealt strengthening. The subject of the no• who have fallen in the same battle v/ith the period immediately before the vel and the development of events should be laid in graves close to each war. bring something new to our literature: other. This subject is developed, so to captured by the enemy, the members say, on a symbolical plane, in which • of a people's council keep a cool head the heroism and stoicism of the people despite all threats. As their death sen• stand out in all their majesty. * * tence is to be executed, they sentence The different stands of the different Our writers have turned their atten• some of the traitors to death and classes and strata towards the war tion to the history of our people for charge a young man, whom they cover constitute the material reflected in our two main reasons: to make better with their own bodies when they are new novel right from its beginnings. known, in the language of art, the past gunned down, to execute the order. Successively, this trend becomes broa• of our people, their heroism, their strug• This subject has enabled the author to der and deeper, enveloping many mi• gle against the invaders and traitors, make a broad description of the rea• lieus which had formerly escaped its and their everyday life as they see it lity of the war and give moving aspects attention. Thus S.Drini's novel ^Between from facts and imagination, and to from the heroic struggle of the peasan• Two Times'^ is a reflection, in broad explain contemporary events, by trac• try led by the communists. tableau and recurrent lines, of the par• ing back the origin, and showing the Battle scenes from the war against ticipation of the men of the people, of continuity of the nation, the ancient the enemy and inner contradictions are the intellectuals who have emerged roots of the heroism and the uninterrup- given in S.Godo's ->. The former is a realistically writ• the clergy who was making desperate temporary novel on themes of today, ten novel on the life and fight of par• attempts to hinder the people's strug• we cannot pass in silence the novel tisan battalions, the strength of cha• gle and poison the consciousness of on historical themes — on the patriot• racter, the courage and cool-hcadedncss the believers. The hypocrisy of clerical ism of the people, their unity and of the men and women from the peop• reaction is skilfully exposed in this class battles in the past. The task of le in this war. The hero of the novel novel which is built on precise and the writer in this field resembles, to goes through m.any tests and a spiritual well-studied analyses and whose su• some extent, that of the historian; he struggle which at times comes also bject is based on many concrete facts has to collect the facts and make a from an exaggerated sense of self-res• and data recreated with great imagi• careful artistic interpretation of them. pect, through delicate feelings of love, native power and truthfulness by the According to individual styles and pre• which the author gives sparingly, re• writer. ferences, history may be more or less creating the colouring of the time. The The reflection of pre-war and war prominent, and imagination may oc• end of the enemy, their degeneration, events on a political, social and pa• cupy more or less place, but the mer• is given in convincing details and cons• triotic plane, combined with class rela• ger of these two elements is indispen• titutes one of the more important ele• tions and clashes of opposing world sable for a work in this field to be a ments of the work. outlooks, as in the novel <-- deals, on the one line, Salt Flower^, the last work of J.Xoxa. rule, engage in the investigation of with some hitherto untreated aspects This writer, who with his talent, expe• unrecorded events, but takes m the of inner contradictions between two rience of life and tireless work gave great events of the history of the na• partisan leaders, comrades-in-arms, much to our literature, created in this tion which have left their imprint in who have a different approach to tac• work, too, unforgettable types of peop• the consciousness of the neonle and tical matters, while, on the other line, le, describing the enrichment of the colours them with his emotions and there is the fundamental conflict of mine-owners and land-owners, on the skanes them in line with his ideolo• the struggle against the enemy rendered one hand, and the exploitation of the gical stand. through the description of many bat• mine workers and the impoverishment That is how our writers have pro• tles, heroic stands and portraits of men of the peasants, on the other. In this ceeded in dealing with historical the• from the people closely linked with the work he has created such positive ty• mes — from the «Castle» by l.Kadare partisans. The novel is realistically pes as Petrit or Broken Thread and and -"Skanderbeg" of S.Godo to the written, has a wealth of material from given broad tableaus of the life, the novels that have been produced later. life and represents an attempt to delve ideological struggle and activity of the The events of the Albanian League deeper into individual aspects of the masses on the eve of the founding of of Prizren are reflected in several no• National Liberation War. tlie Party and after it. The novel is vels or works of other genres which F.Arapi has written his novel -"The rich in descriptions of milieus and have been prompted by the centenary Comrades^ in a style different from the various aspects of life in that time. of this League. The novels -"Mic So- novels just mentioned, although with V.Koroshi. especiallj' in hi.«; novel koli- by .S. Krnsniqi and «The Wraths the same depth affecting and based «The Mountain over the Marsh», which by F.Cakaj recreate that heroic time 54 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

which is part of the militant tradition Skender Drini devotes his novel -"Kill been reflected at all by our novel writ• of our people. The novel of S.Krasniqi the Treason !»• to this period, focussing ers. So along with contemporary built as a broad epic treats a subject mainly on the events in Shkodra. He themes, the reflection of which should in which the people are the protago• describes the struggle of our people make a perceptible qualitative advan• nists. The figure of such outstanding against the representatives of the Ot• ce, the themes from the national libe• fighters as Mic Sokoli, or the leaders toman Empire in Albania, against their ration struggle and the history of our of the popular movement as Abdyl cunning and use of brutal force, as people will continue to occupy an ho• Frasheri and others, are interwoven well as against the chauvinist stand noured place in our novels. with many characters from the people, of the neighbouring states. Writing, this When we speak of our novel and es• with their roots going deep into the time, in a more contained and rational pecially of its treatment of the national people's national soil. The flow of his• style, the author achieves his aim of historical theme we think of works torical events, the life of people, mass recreating events and characters, such written both in the PSR of Albania scenes, battles such as that of Kapanik, as Braho Shkreli, and of stigmatizing and in Kosova, as well as by Albanian etc represent the lines of a rich, though treason personified by Esad Toptani in writers in Macedonia and Montenegro. at times lengthy and overloaded, su• particular. His novel is a general in• The general problems of the contempo• bject. «The Wrath» has also aroused dictment of treason at all times and rary Albanian novel were discussed interest with the clarity of its descrip• a description of the people's disgust at a conference held in November 1980 tions, some moving scenes and well- and hatred of it. in Tirana, with the participation of no• portrayed historical and imaginary Our children's writers have dealt velists and critics from Kosova. As was characters. These, and some other no• with historical themes. Among them said at that conference, the novels writ• vels like them, are correctly set against worth mentioning is G.Bushaka's -"The ten in Kosova take up, in the first the historical background and based Black Gown* which arouses heroic place; national historical problems — on the historical truth of the struggle feelings and develops the imagination love for the Homeland, the ulcer of against the Turkish occupiers and the of children. emigration and the social and class manoeuvres and schemes of the neigh• The novels ^Neither for Me nor for struggle for freedom, land and justice. bouring chauvinists. You* by M.Kallamata, «The Castle on The novels on themes from the life in An important place among historical the Barbana* by J.Dini, «Shots in post-War Kosova deal with problems novels is occupied by S.Spasse's tri• Paris* and others occupy a particular of the emancipation of the woman and logy devoted to the men of our Nation• place among literary-historical works. society as a whole, the fight against al Renaissance, which describes major Apart from purely historical novels, blood feuds, the right of development historical events in various regions of novels on social themes from the past of the national culture and language our country in that period. The epic have been produced and achieved suc• against the regressive elements and character of this work stems from the cess. T. La^o's novel ^"The Meadow of forces that persecute the men of cul• central idea that it is the peoples who Tears* focusses on the ulcer of emi• ture and the common people. The Al• shape the major historical events. The gration, the social relations and the banian writers in Kosova have written author has done a great amount of hardships of life in pre-War Albania. works of a progressive and democratic work in collecting and selecting facts, Its success is mainly due to the por• content dedicated to the love for the as well as in giving them an artistic traying of types and characters from the Homeland and the friendship among form and interweaving the historical plain folk to the representatives of peoples. line with the social line, historical types the bourgeoisie of the time, their tools After the tragic events in Kosova, with characters that represent diffe• and some spineless intellectual. the apologists of Yugoslav revisionism rent strata of the people. A merit of The trilogy «The Village among the in the field of culture, the anti-Alba• this work, whose third part under Waters* by K.Jakova and -«Kiu Muza- nian Great-Serbs and their tools are the title -xDeath or Freedom* deals with ka with the Goad* by G.Kongoli have talking a great deal about a kind of the uprising of the Northern Mountains been added in this period to our satiric ^historical romanticism* which alle• in 1911, consists in its patriotic pathos, novels on themes from the past like gedly exists in the field of culture, its historical truthfulness, and the crea• «Under the Shade of Scarecrows* by education and art, trying to divert the tive artistic approach towards historical M.Kallamata, or «The Career of Mr attention of the writers of Kosova from facts. In the novel -"Death or Freedom*, Maksut* by Q.Buxheli. Our satiric no• the Albanian history and even to pre• the author narrates the revolt and strug• vel is still developing, though it must vent them from dealing with themes gle of our people against the Turkish be said that it has attained some re• from our national history, which is an occupier, their revolt, and portrays such attempt on their part to wipe out Al• historical figures as Ded Gjo Lull and sults in the creation of positive cha• banian culture and tradition. many others, among whom there are racters through the artistic language The treatment of historical themes also women — Tringa, Dava and Nora. of humour, as well as through better by Albanian writers both in Albania The author exposes the hostility and assimilation of people's humour. and in Kosova is always done from schemes of Montenegro who uses re• As emerges from this brief survey, the ligious differences to sow divisions novel of the national liberation strug• the positions of historical realism and among the peasants, and shows the gle and history in general has made incontrovertible truth. The history of determination and intelligence of the important achievements. Still there are our people and the history of many northern highlanders and their leaders. periods of our history that have been other peoples in the world shows that insufficiently reflected or have not all the attempts of reaction to deny ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 55 a nation its tradition, its culture and a deeper analysis of characters and Novels aire varied and different in its history, have ended in failure. the use of retrospective, but all should forms, but the main place in them is be done with a sense of measure, with• occupied by man, by life with its * out affecting the intensive development drama and poetry of everyday. There is * * of the subject. no literature outside them. Hence, a We have novels in many volumes more penetrating analysis of characters, Something has recently been said, lilie S.Spasse's trilogy or the last novel a more comprehensive reflection of though not enough, about the problems of J.Xoxa, as well as more concise man and life in all its multiplicity is of form of the novel, its structure and works in which time and events are another problem our novel has to cope other elements of this constantly dy• more condensed, such as -"A Chronicle with, and this calls for a further broad• namic genre. Some problems, especially on Stone"-, «The Man with the Gun»-, ening of the knowledge and culture of structure, of our novel have been -"Again on Foot» and others. A new of our writers. taken up at various symposia and dis• kind of novel is also developing, in cussions. which events are condensed in time, * It has been observed that, as to its but life is taken in a more comprehen• * * structure, our novel is of the exten• sive manner, in broader class relation• sive type, with its composition following ships, like, for example -'

On the eve of the New Year 1982, the Council of In 40 days of selfless and persistent work, with high Ministers of the PSK of Albania informs the entire peo• determination and consciousness, the population of the zo• ple that the consequences of the earthquake of November nes damaged by the earthquake and the volunteers carried 17, 19S2 which hit the districts of Fier, Lushnja, Berat, Vlora out their tasks. They repaired 16 000 dwelling houses, 600 and some other zones have been completely liquidated socio-economic buildings and built 371 new houses, at a to• within the time limit. This is an important success in the tal cost of 43 million leks. All expenditure was met by series of continuous achievements and victories of our work• Ihe state. ing masses, under the leadership of the Party, for the The liquidation of the consequences of the earthquake honourable fulfilment of all the tasks set. of November 17 within such a short period is another ex• On Instructions by the Central Committee of the Party pression of the vitality and unity of our people, of their and Comrade Enver Hoxha, the Council of Ministers, the fighting unity around the Party with Comrade Enver Hoxha organs of the Party and the people's state power in the dis• at the head, of the implementation of the principle of tricts took instant measures in order to assist the earthquake self-reliance, of the strength of our economy, of the vitality victims hit in the winter conditions, organized and directed of our socialist order. This new triumph over the bUnd ele• the work in such a manner that the New Year should ments of nature is a clear expression of the great solicitude find the population accomodated in their new houses. of the Party and our entire society for man, shows what In order to liquidate the consequences of this earthquake a genuinely socialist country can do when it is lead by rapidly, at the call of the Party, like brothers and sisters a Party which is always loyal to Marxism-Leninism and the of the one ideal, together with the population hit by the loftiest interests of the people. earthquake, thousands of workers and cooperativisfs, young The successful conclusion of the action for the liquida• men and women from all over Albania, rose to their tion of the consequences of the earthquake is the doing of feet. The banner of socialist solidarity, «AU for one and the entire people led by the Party. Let us develop further one for all», the high mobilization and readiness, the re• the experience of this new action in order to carry our volutionary enthusia^im of our people were strongly mani• work forward at more rapid rates and in all fields of fested also in this great political, ideological and economic socialist construction and the defence of the Homeland. action. Side by side with the working people of the dis• Let the year 1983, the decisive year of the 7th Five-year tricts of Fier, Lushnja, Berat and Vlora, 25,000 specialists, Plan, be a period of ceaseless revolutionary drive for new brick-layers, carpenters, drivers and mechanizers. techni• achievements in the fulfilment of the plan, for the at• cians and engineers from all over the country, made their tainment of the objectives set by the 8th Congress of the tireless contribution. Most outstanding in this action were Party, for boldly overcoming the difficulties of the imperial• ist-revisionist blockade and encirclement, relying power• the working people from the districts of Tirana, Dibra, fully and entirely on our own forces, to make our social• Korea, Shkodra, Gjirokastra, Kukes, Gramsh, Pogradec, ist Homeland ever more impregnable, and the life of the Saranda and Durres. people ever happier. WHY DEMOCRATIC SWITZERLAND WORRIES BELGRADE?

-ZBRJ I POPVLLIT>' — organ of the CC of the PLA

By the end of last year a Nevertheless, Belgrade be• try which has given asylum considerable number of Al• gan to thunder against Swit• and jobs to those persecuted banians from Kosova, Mace• zerland. The Foreign Minis• by fascism or other reactio• donia and Montenegro, whom try, the Socialist League, radio nary regimes, a state which destitution and national op• stations and newspapers, as• has never meddled in inter• pression have compelled to ta• sociations of veterans, etc., ta• national quarrels and which ke the road of emigration, ke turns at accusing the Swiss has not favoured one coun• o!ganized in Geneva of Swit• authorities that, by permitting try to the detriment of ano• zerland a manifestation in sup• this manifestation in their own ther. Because of this, the UNO port of the demands of their country, they, neither more has established many of its brothers and sisters in their nor less, help destabilize Yugo• organisms on Swiss territo• native country. They demand• slavia! ry, and they carry out their ed for Kosova the status of The Yugoslav chiefs are no• activities freely and without a Republic within the frame• torious for political blackmail any impediment there. work of the Federation, the of this, or even lower, degree. As it seems, all this is not end of the discrimination of They have gained a great skill to the liking of the Yugoslav the Albanians of Yugoslavia in presenting themselves as gentlemen. For example, they in the field of education and threatened and endangered, as are displeased that the Koso- national culture, the release the centre of world equili• var demonstrators, as the news of prisoners and the cessa• brium. On this basis they try agencies reported, presented tion of chauvinist' violence. to get dollars and rubles, am• a petition with their demands The manifestation, accord• munition and food, diplomatic to the Centre of the UNO for ing to reports from news agen• privileges and economic faci• human rights. Now these gent• cies, was peaceful and correct lities. Nevertheless, it is hard lemen want not only to teach and carried out in full respect to explain all their bile aga• Switzerland what to permit of the laws and rules of the inst neutral and democratic and what to prohibit on its country. Swiss public opinion, Switzerland, as previously, own territory, but also to show which knows the Albanians against Belgium and the FR the UNO what its rights are. as honest hardworking people of Germany when manifesta• But Geneva is not Prishtina who never create problems, not tions of the poor Albanian where the Great Serbs can only did not complain about emigrants, who demanded re• send in their tanks to crush it but even openly expressed cognition of their rights, were demonstrations, and the func• its sympathy with this mani• organized there. tionaries of the UNO are not festation of the representati• However, it is hardly pro• the rulers of Belgrade who ves of a people who deman• bable that, by means of tricks turn a deaf ear to the demands ded the national and democra• such as is the present anti- of the Kosovars. tic rights negated to them. Swiss campaign, they can ma• World public opinion is get• Moreover, the manifestation in ke any capital, and less so ting more and more thoroug• Geneva was given a positive political capital. It is known hly acquainted with the si• coverage in many press organs world-wide that Switzerland tuation in Kosova and more of different countries. is a free and democratic coun• and more supporting the Al- 58 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

press banians in their demands. Ttiis desist from telling others that Just as the voice of Kosova review explains the unjustified Yu• human rights are infringed and of the Albanian popula• goslavs' tirade against the when, for instance, shop's tion of Yugoslavia cannot be Swiss authorities and their to• signs in Korushka of Austria silenced by means of tanks, rrent of shameless abuse di• are not written also in the imprisonment, threats and in• rected agaiinst the Kosovar Slovene, but when thousands sults, so world opinion emigrants. The Yugoslav au• of Albanians are thrown into cannot be forced into silence thorities can expect nothing when, right in the heart of from their claim that the prison, tortured and murder• Europe, an entire people is Final Act of Helsinki cannot ed, only because they demand oppressed and persecuted, be• be applied to the Albanian de• their national rights in a cause Belgrade dislikes to see monstrators in Switzerland. So, peaceful manner and without its chauvinist and anti-Alba• the Yugoslavs understand and violating the law, this, accord• nian policy exposed and con• interpret the Chart of Helsinki ing to them, is not infrin• demned more and more every to their liking. They do not gement of human rights I day.

^COMPENSATED^v SOVEREIGNTY

«Z£RI 1 POPlJLhlT»

In order to justify to some tion of a single socio-economic nal relations and international extent their curtailment and organism^* for the countries of law. All these, at least regard• violation of the national sove• the "Socialist community^- or ing the countries which are reignty of the East-European to the "interconnection of the part of their empire, the So• countries, the Soviet social- economic and political struc• viet revisionists proclaim out• imperialists are fabricating tures of the integrated coun- dated, not only in form but many absurd -«theories>>. Fo• tries^>. Always according to also in content. llowing the ^limited sovereign- them, this developing process The Soviet social-imperialists ty»- another kind of sovere• "is connected with a change in want to prove that life, the ignty has recently emerged content and form of tKe exer• creation of international so• and is being greatly publi• cise of sovereign rights"- b.y cieties and organisms, and so• cized in the political and these countries. Thus, natio• cial progress in general oblige scientific press of the Soviet nal independence, national and every Comecon member coun• revisionists. Going by its state sovereignty, exercise of try to exercise its sovereignty content we may describe it national rights, national laws "in a new form; in that of without fear of mistake ^'com- etc. now must be seen in a taking decisions jointly with pensated sovereignty-^. light different from that in the governments of the other According to the theoreti• which they were considered countries-^. In other words this cians of Soviet social-impe• in the centuries' long life of means that the East-European rialism "Socialist economic in• various peoples and states, in countries are not recognized tegration leads to the crea• the long practice of internatio• even formally the right to de- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 59

cide for themselves, according case,» always according to the 7 other countries.» According press to their national and state in• above magazine, -«not only this to this way of reasoning, the terests, that the peoples of country, but all the member lost sovereignty of one coun• these countries are not con• countries of the Comecon will try is compensated with sidered, be it only formally, have a say on the utilization little pieces of the sove• masters of their land, their of this part of its national reignty the other countries wealth and the fruits of their funds.»• This means that co• have lost! work. lossal national assets can be It is not difficult 1o see that Let us take an example as used against or independently the ^compensated^^ sovereignty reported in the Soviet revi• of your will and according to has been invented in order sionist magazine -<- to see what is the «new^>others . According to the same tify the notorious doctrine of content of the sovereignty of magazine -xjust as one country ^limited sovereignty^. In es• the Comecon member coun• has lost the faculty of decid• sence, this is only a variant tries and to have an idea of ing for itself about the uti• of it. So the sovereignty of the how things stand with the na• lization of the funds it has de• countries of the <> writes the above-men• given, say, to the 7 other the base bargainings according tioned magazine, «that the countries the right of having to the narrow egoistical natio• government of one country de• a say about it. so is entitled nal-chauvinist interests of the posits 100 million rubles in to decide about the utilization almighty sovereigns of the the Investment Bank. In this of the funds deposited by the Kremlin.

THE MISFORTUNE OF EUROPE

"ZSRI I POPULLIT'>

From the Balkans to the The heavy political, econo• for the independent activity northern expanses Europe has mic and military chains the of the European states. This been turned into a zone of two superpowers have put on is being heard especially at constant new conflicts and Europe speak of the existence present, when Washington and dangerous tensions due to the of a great national pro• Moscow, along with demons• interference of the United Sta• blem both in the East and tes of America and the So• in the West. trations of strength, are ma• viet Union. This is a bittsr This great national problem king new gestures of detente reality which the Americans the European political chan• towards each other. There are and the Soviets try to cover celleries try to conceal by many people in Europe who up and whicli the West-Euro• spreading the illusion that, if support the American-Soviet pean bourgeoisie and the re• warmer winds begin to blow thesis that the lowering of visionist countries of Eastern in Soviet-American relations, tension in the relations of the Europe pretend not to see. ampler space will be created United States with the Soviet 60 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

press Union and collaboration with revolutionary and liberation and cultural control of the them create better con• movement." However, recogni• superpowers over the mem• review ditions for peace and interna• tion of the right of influence, ber countries of their blocs, tional security. The irony of according to the division of but also to the attempts of the European position is that spheres, does not in the least the Americans and Soviets to Europe itself has fallen a prey exclude the increased efforts transform these countries to these illusions. The Ame• of either superpower to expand• into tools for their strategic rican Department of State has ing this sphere in Europe and tactical, political and re-emphasized the Sonnefeld through the inclusion of other military activities which high• Doctrine, according to which countries or to interfering in ly endanger the freedom and America recognizes Soviet do• one way or the other in that independence of all the peo• mination in Eastern Europe. part wl-iich is traditionally ples of Europe and the This thesis was recently re• considered as belonging to its whole world. affirmed by the newspaper rival. The possibility created for «New York Times» which wro• One of the regions in which NATO and the Warsaw Tre• te that -"Eastern Europe is a the superpowers are more ac• aty to take actions outside zone which enters into the So• tive in demanding ever new the European geographic pe- viet sphere of influence^'. In concessions to their further rimetre, which is being tal• exchange, the Kremlin and penetration is the Balkans. ked about at high level me• the political observers of the Here there is a growing threat etings of the two blocs, is Soviet Union recognize the due to the participation of very significant. Despite the «legitimacy>> of American in• the different Balkan countries fierce contradictions that terests and influence in Wes• in the military blocs of the break out between the super• tern Europe. superpowers and the intrigues powers and their allies, it is It is clear that the reco• of the superpowers trying to Washington and Moscow that gnition of the right of one incite the Balkan countries make decisions, both in re• superpower to exercise its in• and peoples against one ano• gard to the member coun• fluence in its sphere is based ther. tries of the Warsaw Treaty and on the recognition of the The fact that the super• the member countries of NATO. same right of the other super• powers go beyond the bounds The participation of the power. Both the United States of their spheres of influence European countries in the and the Soviet Union consider on our continent (in general military and political blocs their rule over their allies a on the border of the coun• of the superpowers has cre• historical right of theirs. -"I tries participating in the ated a suitable climate for want to re-affirm to our blocs ruled by the superpo• the American imperialism allies," declared Reagan, Kthat wers) explains in part the and the Soviet social-imperia• we accept the responsibility grave situation in Europe lism to step up their hege• for the role of international and the great national pro• leadership America has as• blem that exists on this con• mony-seeking and expansion• sumed from the historical evo• tinent. We have said and still ist policies. It is a hard lution of events following the say that the participation of truth which brings out with Second World War.»- The claim the majority of the countries even greater force the co• expressed by the Soviet theo• of Europe in the military rrectness of the thesis of the retical journal «The USA: the and political blocs of the su• PLA that there can be no Economy, Politics, Ideology» perpowers is the cause of talk about the freedom and has essentially the same cha• its misfortune. The great independence of the European racter. It states: -"The Soviet danger of this participation is countries, about security and Union is the ideological and due not only to the all-round peace on the European conti• political centre of the world political, economic, military, nent without the disappea- ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 61

ranee of these blocs and the defence of their culture, tra• litical, economic and other elimination of the presence ditions and civilization are links with the European of the superpowers in Eu• achieved and strengthened by countries in order to attack rope. As Comrade Enver opposing the hegemonic po• other countries, to put in Hoxha has put it In his ad• licy of American imperialism danger the freedom and in• dress to the electors; «The and Soviet social-imperialism, dependence of the peoples, development and prosperity by giving neither of them any peace and international se- of the European states, the possibility to exploit their po• curity».

THE CARD OF THE SANCTIONS

«Z£RI I POPULUT'>

After returning from the plementation of the «accord tions. The United States that Soviet embassy in Washing• on the construction of the gas- raised the fist against its part• ton where he had gone to line.» ners, increased its trade with present his condolences on However, the ^electronic the Soviet Union 40 per cent the occasion of Brezhnev's brain" of the American poli• and imposed no embargo at death, the «inflexible>> Rea• cy had not made its reckon• all on the export of its grain gan sat at his presidential ings well and things turned to the deficitary Soviet mar• desk and ordered the lifting the other way round. The ket. This made the Atlantic of sanctions against the trans- allies of the Washington not partners even more determi• Siberian gas-line. At the same only did not submit to the ned to oppose the American time he dispatched to Mos• American dictate, but, on the dictate. Faced with this si• cow an ^^army» of 200 busi• contrary resolutely demanded tuation Reagan looked for ano• nessmen to take part in a that the White House give up ther tactic: he let go the stick conference organized there on its policy of interference in and stuck to the carrot. the development of Soviet- their internal affairs. They ac• Reagan tried to patch up American economic relations. cused it of violation of inter• the crisis that broke out bet• When his administration im• national norms and impermis• ween the United States and posed these sanctions unila• sible stands. France decided its partners, presenting it as terally and without consult• to implement all the obliga• «a kind of family quarrel; the ing its Western partners, it tions of the agreement'; a lit• family may quarrel but it re• intended to kill two birds tle later the other countries mains united.»• Then he tur• with one stone: on the one followed suit. The Soviet Uni• ned to a more wily tactic, hand, to break the «stubborn- on did not like the sanctions, preaching that it was in the ness^y of its partners, who wi• but it was very pleased with interest of the ^united fami- thout Washington's approval the split that occurred in the ly»- to work out a common had decided to develop their Atlantic alliance and pledged strategy, not only over the economic relations with the to implement the agreement sanctions, but also over the East and, on the other, to put regardless of any «sacrifice«-. East-West relations in gene• its main rival, Moscow, in a However, there was a thing ral. Of course, all this had to difficult position in the im• unclear in the game of sanc• be done under American con- 62 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

press trol and according^ to the Ame• nistration is again playing a another card, that of streng• revietr rican taste. The Western part• double game. Now it is ready thening its expansionist posi• ners categorically refused to to do what it formerly bla• tions on the Eastern market enter into such agreements med its partners for, giving by intensifying its counter-re• with Washington because they them to understand that it was volutionary collaboration with infringed their sovereignty, making a compromise. Here Moscow. Speaking recently and blamed all responsibili• are some significant facts: it about the Soviet-American re• ty for the imposition of sanc• is not by chance that the lations, Reagan pointed out, tions on it. Moreover, even fierce notes in Reagan's mes• «We have seen that things are when Reagan lifted these san• sage to the Soviet Union are much better when we colla• ctions and the White House somewhat toned down, indeed borate with each other instead alluded that this had to be there is something more about of one carrying out an aggres• done after it had reached it. Nor is George Bush's trip to sive policy and the other agreement with its Atlantic Moscow and his half hour trying to oppose him*. New partners, the latter publicly meeting with Yuri Andropov bridges are being built for the denounced the rumours spread in the Kremlin accidental. At collaboration between Wa• by the Americans. A spokes• the same time 200 American shington and Moscow. This is man for the Ministry for Re• businessmen went to the So• seen in the good understand• lations with Foreign Countries viet Union and were warmly ing between the Soviet and of France declared: «France, received by the Soviet prime- American businessmen, as re• which has also stressed its minister Tikhonov. «A11 this,* ported by the foreign news stand in regard to the East- declared George Bush after his agencies, «over a great incre• West trade, has entered into return from Moscow, «shows ase of bilateral trade*. no agreement with the United that we are ready to engage The superpowers give signs States about lifting the Ame• in the game of the improve• of an ^'easing of tension* bet• rican embargo*. The same sta• ment of relations.* Significant ween them so as to have their tement was made by the head are also the declarations of hands free to raise tension to of British diplomacy who ad• the American senator Robert the detriment of their victims. ded that «the imposition of Dole who took part in the «The Soviet Union,* declared sanctions was a unilateral great American-Soviet trade Tikhonov. the Soviet prime- American decision. Their lift• conference, as the commenta• minister, -"has always been ing was also a unilateral deci• tors called it. According to and is for ever better and more sion.In order to dispel the him, «the American adminis• friendly relations with the clouds of these fierce quarrels tration has made a fresh start United States.* There is no in the bosom of the -"united with the leadership in the doubt that, in the content of familly», Washington dispat• Kremlin and there are signs collaboration with the "West, ched to Europe the head of the of a thaw in the relations the Soviet Union gives prio• American diplomacy, Shultz, between the two countries*. rity to collaboration with with the declared mission of Washington lifted its sanctions American imperialism in or• •"Cooling tempers» while in rea• not so much to please its part• der to attract its more ad• lity his task was to keep the ners as to engage in a new vanced technology, of which it «East-West relations* under game in which it will have the is in great need. Neverthe• control of the White House. initiative and play the main less, the Soviet Union is follo• Reagan lifted the sanctions role in the counter-revolutio• wing with great interest the on the trans-Siberian gas-line, nary collaboration between splits among the Western part• but for it he chose the mo• the East and the West. ners in order to make the ment of the change in the So• Without easing its pressure eventual profits in its rivalry viet leadership. In lifting these on its allies, the Reagan ad• with .the other superpower — sanctions the Reagan admi• ministration is also playing the United States. ALBANIA TODAY 1 (68), 1983 • 63

press ZIONIST LOGIC review «Zmi I POPVLLITx- Tell-Aviv informs that the fiscated by the Israeli state force entire populations to Israeli Government has work• for military purposes or for other regions; that they can ed out a new plan for the Jewish settlements. In the change governments and re• Israelization of the occupied meantime, the Israeli authori• gimes in other countries that Arab lands on the West Bank ties encourage of emigration they can colonize lands which of the Jordan and in the Ga• of the Arab inhabitants of for centuries belong to their za Strip, This plan is not con• these territories by every po• autochthonous inhabitants; that fined to the creation of dwell• ssible means. Resorting to vio• they can present the history ing centres of the Kibutz type. lence, they have succeeded in of the peoples as it suits them, Now the appetite of the Isra• settling an average of 20 000 etc. etc. These Zionist ambi• eli expansionists has grown Jews each year in these lands. tions remind the peoples of and they intend to found a The military authorities have also created, apart from large the crimes of the Hitlerites number of big cities on the during the Second World War. West Bank. Tell-Aviv reckons occupation forces, more than 1 000 fascist para-military Going by its aggressor logic, to quadruble the Jewish po• Israeli Zionism stops before pulation in the occupied Arab groups which are employed to lands until 1987. keep «law and orders. nothing for the realization of The Israelization of the oc• The Zionist policy intends to its expansionist plans — nei- cupied Arab lands has begun people the occupied Arab lands their before massacres, nor the with their occupation. Since with Jewish settlers in order most savage terror. These ex• then hundreds of colonies with to have the pretext to tell pansionist ambitions become hundreds of thousands of Je• world opinion that «in these even greater when the Israeli wish colonists have been set up, lands dwell many Jews whose aggressors see that American mainly members of fanatical desire is that the lands they imperialism and the whole Zionist groups such as «Gush inhabit should not remain world reaction approve of Emunim» etc, Their intention is outside Israeli sovereignty^. their crimes and give them all to have the whole of ^Erets This is a known practice of possible military, political and Israel'^ (the Biblical Israel), all occupiers. economic assistance. the boundaries of which are With the logic of the agg• These measures of the Zio• laid down in the ^^Holy Book"-' ressor and occupier, the Zio• nist authorities are increasing peopled with Jews. More than nists think that they can do the hatred of the Arab peoples 60 per cent of the occupied what they like in the Middle and the other peoples of the lands is or will be soon con• East, that they can expel by world.

KGB - THE BLACK SCOURGE OF THE KREMLIN "ZfiRI / POPULLIT" The Soviet KGB is the main cret police and the «main- pionage centre, its name is secret centre of the Krem• tenance of law and orders" in being mentioned more and lin. It is charged with espio• the Soviet Union. Despite the more frequently. It has be• nage and counter-espionage, complete silence and the mis- come synonymous with sava• and with the tasks of the se• tery that surrounds this es• gery and perfidy, intrigues 64 • 1 (68), 1983 ALBANIA TODAY

and plots, assassinations and in other countries are KGB kewise, it pays great attention review massacres. Together with the and GRU (Soviet Military to compromising many foreign American spying agencies, it Intelligence) men. They co• students and specialists that belongs to the same school, llect information of a secret are <4nvited'> to the Soviet to the school of the fiercest character, compromise vaci• Union under the pretext «of enemies of the freedom and llating people, concoct intri• internationalist aid, for the independence of the peoples. gues and overthrow govern• development and advancement The Soviet espionage net• ments, as happened in Afgha• of other countries». The «Lum- work is the vanguard of the nistan. umba« University of Moscow, Russian tanks and divisions In order to be able to according to a recent article in the streets of Prague and carry out its hateful mission, of the Latin-American maga• Kabul, of its mercenaries in the KQB has a whole army zine '. alone are engaged 250 000 blackmail and open threats". There are many facts which active agents and their Being what it is, the KGB speak about the feverish ac• collaborators. According to in• cannot avoid being hated by tivity of the Soviet KGB and complete data, the Kremlin all the peoples of the world. its despicable role in carry• expends over 7.5 billion rub• The peoples have sharpened ing out the aggressive policy les for the KGB. Expenditure their vigilance against the fe• of the Kremlin in the world. on espionage is increasing at verish activity of the secret The Soviet embassies, consula• rapid rates, parallel with mili• spying agencies of the two tes and commercial offices, tary expenditure. The KGB ca• imperialist superpowers. Only cultural centres and informa• rries out a savage oppressing during the recent 25 years tion offices, says the foreign activity within the Soviet Union thousands of KGB and CIA press, have been turned into as well. It shadows, follows agents and their collaborators nests of Soviet secret agents. and eventually eliminates any have been caught red-handed According to various sources opponent of the oppressive po• and meted out the deserved of information, about 75 per licy of the Kremlin within punishment in more than 70 cent of the Soviet diplomats and outside the country. Li• countries of the world.