LUAN OMARL, THE PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION IN ALBANIA AND THE QUESTION OF STATE POWER .8 NENTORI+ PUBLISHING HOUSE TIRANA 1986FOREWORD The glorious epoch of the Anti-fascist National Li- beration War of the Albanian people is an_ historical period which today is at the centre of the attention of our social sciences. This period, which was a little over five and a half years, from the Ttalian aggression on April 7, 1939 until the complete liberation of Albania from the German nazis on November 29, 1944, is full of such events and has such a dynamic internal development which makes equal {0 entire decades in the life of peoples. These events and this dynamic development led to radical ‘yevolutionary transformations, in which there were the beginnings of the further development of Albania through- out the following decades, leaving their indelible mark on the processes of the present-day development of our socialist Homeland, in the characteristics of these pro- cesses, as well as in the place and role which socialist ‘Albania has today in the international field, The present development. of our country, the imvincible strength of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania, the con tinual strengthening of the role of the Party of Labour of Albania, cannot be understood without studying from the beginning the revolutionary experience of our coun. try, which, as Comrade Enver Hoxha stressed at the 7th Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania, «the correctness of the teachings of genius of Marx has been com- pletely confirmed." ‘As an epoch full of great events, although historic ally short, the period of the National Liberation War has complex problems of a political, social, economic, juridical and cultural character, which must be an object of study for different sciences. In this framework, up to date a great deal has been done for the research, gather- ing and publication of different documents as well as for the preparation of many studies in this field. The documents of the Party and the Anti-fascist Na- tional Liberation War, collected according to their cha- racter in the Works of Comrade Enver Hoxha, too, are the main sources which today enable our scholars to clarify and sumsup new aspects of this great epic of the Albanian people, The History of the Party of Labour of Albania and; recently, the History of the Anti-fascist Na- tional Liberation War are also two main works which serve as a basis for every further study. An important place is occupied in the historiography of this period by the work of Comrade Enver Hoxka Laying the Foundations of the New Albania, which not only provides an extraordinarily rich information an the creation of the revolutionary state powor, but is also a very important detailed analysis of the events of that period and the position of the different social and poli- tical groups in this question of importance such decisive for the fate of the Albanian people, The scientific study of the emergence and the cha- racteristics of the people's power are part of the works on the participation of the Albanian people in the Na= tional Liberation War, as the national liberation councils ‘were set up along with the National Liberation Army, as a factor and an essential expression of the National Liberation War and the people's revolution. The problem ‘of state power is also trated as an aspect of the entire * Enver Hoxba, Report to the Tik Congress of the PLA, «8 Néntori» Publishing House, Tirana 1976, p. 17, Eng. ed. of the National Liberation War in the afore= Pooled are and others. In particwlar at the, Nation nal Conference of Studies on the Anti-fascist vee Liberation War of the Albanian People the problem Of ‘state power was dealt with in special papers ports which threw light on a series of ils asperts. | The National Conference of Studies on the “Ante fascist National Liberation War of the Albenti Foch t Miressed the importance for the further studying of ihe combination of the struggle against the fascist peeupert toith the struggle against the exploiting classes, the deur ening of the revolutionary character of this sireGge which led to the overthrow of the rule of the Les ao era and the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the Peo Jemocratic state power, as a form of the dictatorsl'p of the profetariat. Attention wos Eee cae continuation and deepening of studies solution ing w blem of power was ary process during which the pro! of ore folved as the main problem of the people's ution, ‘unctions of the new revolutionary state Ps . 2 na eal composition, of its argos, of the leading the Communist Party. e Retwratty the fulfilment of these tasks cenanae broadscale research work by ee pela ha a ted to the reader 3 3 Tir attsey of the people's ste proer auring the Period ately after the liberation 0} ania. oe the work of the reader 5 sien i the study there is aw annex which includes severa of the principal documents which reflect the creatio® oot development of the people's state power 4urind Se ie coral Liberation War, These documents and the respertivy notes have been taken from the collection Doclirm The Supreme Organs of the National Liberation State Power published in 1962 THE AUTHORINTRODUCTION ‘Although the content of the revolutionary transi- tion from ‘capitalism to socialism, which constitutes ‘one of the principal features of our time, is the same for all countries, it has its specific characteristics in cach country. The laws of the triumph of the revolu- tion and the construction of socialism are universal laws, common in essence for all countries, but the cconomic, social and political conditions in which they are applied are specific, and this constitutes the speci- fic aspect of the development of each country on the read of socialist revolution. ‘The experience of Albania, a small and backward country where radical socio-economic and political trans” formations took place within a very short period of time dnd ensured the rapid revolutionary transition from anc andowner-bourgeois order into a socialist order, is avery interesting experience which reveals the vital and universal strength of the ideas of socialism, ve’ the one hand, and the ability of the Communist Party. of. Albania’ (today the Party of Labour), which implemented the teachings of Marxism-Leninism in a creative manner in the concrete conditions of our country, ‘On 29 November 1944, together with the liberation of the country from the fascist occupiers the funda- mental problem of our people's revolution, the problem 7of the state power, was definitely solved, the power, the bases of which were laid since the ‘Netonall Liberation Conference of Peza, triumphed. _The Albanian socialist state has its roots in the National Liberation War, because the conditions in which the national liberation movement of our country developed, the composition of its motive forces, the leading role of the Communist Party of Albania, the ratio of classes which was created inside the country at that time, were the factors which put in the order of the day, beside the question of national liberation, also the problem of the creation of the new state, a state different in principle from the old state. ‘ The program of the Comintern, endorsed by its Sth Congress in 1928, stressed that ‘the developed ca. pitalist countries directly faced the socialist revolution, the averagely developed capitalist countries faced either the socialist revolution, which parallel with the funda- mental socialist tasks ‘would solve the tasks unsolved by the bourgeois-demoeratic revolution, or the bourgeois~ democratic revolution, which would be transformed later into the socialist revolution; in the colonial, semi-colonial and dependent countries the going over to the dicta- torship of the proletariat would be made possible only after the bourgeois-democratic revolution was changed into socialist revolution, transformation which would cover a whole period; and, last, in the still more back- ward countries, the triumph of the national Uberation ovement would open the road to socialism provided at the socialist revolution, which would have already triumphed in the more developed countries, helped them, to achieve thls! , though the people's democratic sta i was ‘created in the framework of the mays ly with the establishment in Albania of an administr on which would suit its aims of integrating the covatry letely into the framework of fascist Italy and of ing out the colonization and assimilation of the country In order to realize these aims the Mussolini govern~ ment had ensured the support of Albanian reactionary political emigrants and exponents of the exploiting clas- ses within the country. These individuals, who had co- llaborated closely with king Zog, abandoned him to unite with the Italians in whom they saw a more reliable guarantee for the protection of their privileges. Initially the Talian fascists’ plan, worked out by the foreign minister of the government of Rome, Ga- leazzo Ciano, and approved by Mussolini, envisaged that a prince of the Savoy dynasty, that ruled Maly, should be placed at the head of the «Albanian State». Howevel another plan was worked out later, which would permit a direct unification, ie the practical annexation of Al- bania by Italy. The first measure the Italian embassy in Tirana took in this direction was the formation of an ~Administrative Committee» with the function of an «Albanian provisio- nal government- composed of the general secretaries of the ministries, and headed by Xhafer Ypi, one of the top-men of Zog’s regime. The Malian embassy, on orders dispatched by Mussolini, was instructed io make sure that the provisional government should set up a Consti- tutional Assembly and offer the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel Ill, the crown of Albania. On April 12, 1939 the self-styled Constitutional Assembly was convened in Tirana, It comprised 159 18 members elected from among beys, big merchants, the reactionary clergy and degenerate intellectuals, many of whom had served faithfully not only the Zog regime but also the governments of the Ottoman Sultans. A reat number of the «deputies» were urgently brought to Tirana from various regions of Albania! on board Italian planes. The Assembly, chaired by Xhafer ¥pi, took a de- cision which had’ been prepared beforehand by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which declared the overthrow of the Zog regime and the invalidation of its Constitution, created a ~government with full po- wers- and offered Vielor Emmanuel III the crown of Albania in the form of a personal union, The ceremony in which the crown of Albania toge- ther with the title «King of Italy and Albania, Emperor of Ethiopia» were conferred on Vietor Emmanuel III, was organized in Rome on April 16. With the proclamation of the unification of the crowns» and with the ereation of a government headed by the big landowner Shefqet Vérlaci, the Italian fas- cists wanted to give the appearance of legitimacy to their aggression against Albania, against a formally in- dependent and sovereign state and a member of the League of Nations. In fact, this was a clumsy attempt to cover up the annexation of Albania, its complete subjugation to Italy, There is no true sovereignty for a country which, under the disguise of formal independence, is placed in comple- te political, economic and military dependence from foreign occupiers as Albania was in reality during the fascist occupation. In this case there is no sovereignty, not only in the political sense but also in the juridical ense, despite the fact that on the basis of the decla- ration of the Italian Government in April 1939 and the decision of the traitor ~Assembly-, Albania was to retain 1 See Francesco Jacomoni, La politica delt'ivatia in Atba~ nia, p. 133, Cappelli editore.its «sovereignty». In the international practice this is neither the first nor the last case when an imperialist state, which submits a small country, covers. up. its aggression with juridical forms, while speaking of the «sovereignty» of the submiited state! The real state of matters was clearly expressed oY Count Ciano, who in his diary of April 12, 1939, nowde «There is no longer independent Albania+*, and by Jaco- moni, who wrote in a rhetoric ferm that, ~The union of Albania with Italy was not a ‘personal’ union limited only in a casual and temporary community of the head of the siate. It was an intimate, lasting union of the life and destinies of the two states, based on very close links of solidarity and on ultimate common aims 3. The duty of the occupation administration, whieh was created in Albania, was to implement the plans for the gradual colonization and annexation of Albania AU the head of this administration was the «Ge neral Viceroy which represented the King Victor Emmanuel Hl and had power of execution on his behalf. 1 The bourgeois juridical science is obliged to admit that the assessment of every of personal union should be made not just by the formal appearance, but by the essence of unity, Thus for example, the French lawyer, Charles Rousse: in. the paragraph «Pseudo. Italian-Albanian personal unions; writes among other things, that It is not an authentic example of a personal union». «As for the way in which this union was decided... the Italian-Albanian union was unilaterally desired by the side which imposed it by foree upon the other. As for the functioning of this union, Rousseau points out that,