Enver Hoxha
Date: July 30, 1978
Source: (Original text)
Translated: Arne Rjevan (from German)
Transciption: Ismail Badiou
HTML Markup: Mike B.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2010). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
Preface: Because Comrade Hysni Kapo was at that time recovering from a heart attack he wasn't able to participate in the conference of the Central Committee of the PLA, where the answer from the Party of Labour of Albania and the government of the SPR Albania to the Communist Party of China and the government of China regarding the stop of credits to the SPR Albania and of all economic relations to Albania was accepted.
This letter from Comrade Enver Hoxha was the reply to a letter which Comrade Hysni Kapo had sent to the Central Committee of the PLA and to Comrade Enver Hoxha. In this letter he condemned the anti-Marxist and anti-Albanian actions of the Chinese leadership and expressed his full solidarity with the correct position of the Party of Labour and the Albanian government. In Comrade Enver Hoxha's letter the policies of the Chinese leadership as well as the events at that time in China are examined carefully."Zëri i Popullit" decided to publish this letter to point out the actual political and ideological backgrounds of the mock trials which took place from the second half of November and lasted till the first days of January 1981 and were aimed against the so-called "Gang of Four" and a group of high-ranking military leaders from the time of the Cultural Revolution.
Comrade Hysni Kapo died in December 1979 after a serious disease. Comrade Enver Hoxha's letter, which was first published on 4th December 1980, was displayed in the Museum "Hysni Kapo" in the village of Comrade Hysni Kapo's birth, Tërbaç (district of Vlora).
Dear Comrade Hysni,
The letter you sent to me and in which you write that you are feeling better, that you are already taking walks in the garden and in the parks of the palace and that you are going to visit the beach at Durrës tomorrow made me very happy.
It is clear that everything is possible, is achievable with enough patience and willpower.
Therefore we are liberated of the trouble which your disease caused you as well as us, your comrades, and the whole Party. You will return full of health and vitality to the party and its leadership, who always has needed and still needs your thoughts and your guidance.
The Chinese have received the answer they deserve. Our Party and its leadership have acted totally correctly in the Marxist-Leninist way. Based on facts we have exposed another great enemy, Chinese revisionism, which was hiding so long behind the mask of Marxism-Leninism...
The Communist Party of China and especially Mao Zedong, who was an idealist dreamer and utopian without general education (apart from the one about ancient China), followed the development of human history as xenophobic dilettantes. Their ideological, political and organisational principles, especially since the foundation of the Communist Party, are demonstratively pragmatical and solely focused on China's interests with the obvious aim of transforming "eternal" China into a superpower which controls the world, dictates the law, imposes its own culture and its own will upon others.
During the analysis of their [Mao and the Chinese leaders – Rjevan] actions we encountered this Chinese ideology, we saw and still see that their form of organisation and their operation scheme are focused on this ideology, which it is their aim to make "universal".
The figure of Mao Zedong has been blown up until it has reached the dimensions of a Chinese emperor. And indeed, this modern emperor operates omnipotently over his courtiers, who have created an extensive and terrible bureaucracy in which the "brilliant ideas" of the "Great Steersman" are carried out. He used the Communist Party as a stepping stone and has been doing so whenever he feels like it and as often as he thinks it is "reasonable"; depending on the "dialectical" development of the "contradictions", seen from the perspective of Taoism, he makes people drop from power, attacks the party and liquidates it, starts some "revolution" and balances the power of the courtiers. He explains all this with allegedly revolutionary phrases which are in fact nothing but more "cultured" actions than those of Emperor Bokassa, the Shah of Iran or the King of Nepal, whom Mao liked very much, whom he welcomed and accompanied, not only because material interests, such as the hope of gaining political advantages and to make them into Chinese satellites, made him do so but also because Mao's philosophy coincided completely with their own.
Under those conditions and following those perceptions the Communist Party of China could be no Marxist-Leninist party. The philosophy which it followed was idealistic, bourgeois-reactionary because China itself, the society there, remained in spite of the bourgeois democratic revolution a closed society with an old faith and outdated mentalities, dominated by mysticism and in the core archaic, only seemingly adhering to developed philosophical and state organisational principles. We see this in the construction and the structure of the state, we see this in the economic development, in the construction of the educational and cultural system, in the structure of the army, etc. All this bears the specific Chinese stamp, from the ideology and the literature to the slogans.
The slogans originate from one source and every man and woman in China, be they small or big, has to repeat them, without deviating only for one millimetre from them. This was a struggle to lull creative thinking, this oppressed every form of democracy, this was nothing else but the cult of the "Steersman" and the reign of bureaucracy. Such an aberrant ideology has to suffer defeats in certain moments and it did suffer them. Mao Zedong preached about this, calling it "revolutions and counter-revolutions" periodically returning every seven years.
One must not label Mao Zedong as a "prophet" of the revolution but as a "prophet of the counter-revolution". He represented the type of the Anarchist in whose blood runs confusion, chaos, the undermining of the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism, but under the condition that this permanent anarchy was led by him or by his typical Chinese anarchist ideology. Mao Zedong is a Chinese Bakunin. The Cultural Revolution was an expression of the ideas and action of this Chinese Bakunin.
The chaos which resulted in China which originated from this anti-Marxist, traitorous line of Mao Zedong and his courtiers, a chaos full of defeats in politics, ideology and economy was fought by the "Great Steersman" through the anarchy of the cultural revolution.
This anarchist revolution saved the Maoist absolute rule but contained the risk of undermining it, too. The "prestige" of the "Steersman" had to be saved, the anarchy was not allowed to topple the myths, therefore military measures were taken. The character of bureaucracy with the courtier Zhou Enlai-Confucius was saved and supposedly "younger" "revolutionary" elements were integrated into the scene of agitation and propaganda, for whom the "Steersman" had intended the role of painting out the anarchy as a "revolution within the revolution" by which the alleged bourgeoisie, which had infiltrated the party, was supposed to be eliminated. But in fact there was no party but only the bourgeoisie, there were clans and fractions which were fighting for power. This was the Trotskyist "permanent revolution", led by Mao Zedong-Trotsky.
The so-called "Gang of Four" acted according to Mao's advice. In him they found a foothold, therefore they lived as long as a summer flower, only that this "flower" was foul-smelling and poisonous like all the other "flowers and schools" which blossomed in China and are still blossoming.
The "Gang of Four" was a group of megalomaniac, ambitious, intrigant babblers without any principles, just like the other fractions of the bourgeoisie which were swimming in the swamp. But those latter ones controlled the "swamp", whereas the "Gang of Four" only had the "key to the haystack", they did not undertake the least organisational, governmental or economical action. They only wrote articles and organised ballet performances. They were suspicious persons like all the others. They were aimlessly hovering like Mao's thoughts while the fraction of Zhou, Deng and Ye were systematically doing their best in order to take over power. The "Gang of Four" thought they would attract the millions under "Mao's banner" by bombastic words. But the temporarily "overthrown" Deng was able to assemble one million at the Tian'anmen Square who shouted against the "Gang of Four". Later the "Gang of Four" mobilised a million against Deng. Those were the same people who shouted for the one as well as for the other. Deng came to power, one million appeared and shouted for Deng, they were the same who had shouted against him before. This is the bitter and dark "mirror" of Mao Zedong Thought.
The bourgeois world called the "Gang of Four" radical. If you wish, you can also add the term "socialist" and call them "radical socialist". But those four were neither radical nor socialist. Formerly there was a strong bourgeois party in France which called itself radical socialist and was led by the bourgeoisie, by extraordinary politicians and literates like Herriot, Daladier and others. But this party, which suffered a total defeat, left some marks; however, the "radical" four disappeared without a trace, just like the Mao Zedong Thought died, respectively is dying.
The black reaction of Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping, which seized power, will lead a power struggle in order to build a fascist dictatorship. There will be a fight about world hegemony. The strategy they pursue is only logical. The alliances with American imperialism and the world reaction are logical and normal. Just as normal are the antagonisms and the outbreak of the predatory wars which will result form this fellowship of bandits.
The analyses we conduct regarding the Chinese revisionism are generally correct, objective in the light of Marxism-Leninism.
Maoism as anti-Marxist theory is dying. It will face the same destiny as the other theories invented by world capitalism by the decaying imperialism.
The currently ruling crew in China and the others who will definitely follow as result of the internal fraction fights for power will use Maosim, doing so however by using it as an anti-historical corpse in order to ruthlessly, shamelessly build a powerful imperialist Chinese state, in unity respectively in divergence with the other imperialists and through the oppression of peoples who long for liberation, independence and socialism and who will fight for it.
Every single foul means is good enough for the Chinese revisionists, just like they are for their American, Soviet and other imperialist friends. Our just fight will be long and difficult, at the same time we have to keep the party strong, in militant revolutionary unity, we have to steel it hourly, daily in the constant political, ideological and economical struggles, sharpen its vigilance to the utmost in order to make it beloved by the people and bound to it in flesh and spirit, through a proletarian democracy which is far away from every form of opportunism, sectarianism and sick and fatal bureaucracy. The correct Marxist-Leninist line of our party will not only today but also in the future be supported by the revolutionary Marxist-Leninists worldwide, it will be supported by the world proletariat and the peoples. The daily, struggle-filled routine of our party confirms this.
The fascist-revisionist Chinese cliques will stop at nothing to antagonise the Chinese people through propaganda and other means and to deceive the world public. But they will not be able to "deceive everyone at once".
Terrible waves have befallen the Chinese people and will keep doing so, but the day will come when the theory of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin will triumph, too. The current and future generations in China will come to understand this and say: "The Party of Labour of Albania has opened our eyes, has acted correctly, it has unmasked the Mao Zedong Thought, because it [the PLA – Rjevan] was for the proletarian revolution in China, it wanted to dispel the the devastating myths which were created in China and which hindered the happiness of this great people which wished to lived in true socialism."
Our victorious struggle continues, dear Comrade Hysni, therefore get well soon, spend a pleasant and quiet holiday so that we will feel stronger and stronger in the battles which lie ahead, as strong as steel.
I embrace you and kiss you full of yearning.
Enver
Pogradec
30th July 1978