Written at a time of reflection and distancing himself from Stalin, in Khrushchev's memoirs [Nikita Khrushchev], the chapter on Albania also occupies an important place. In memory published in Albanian, translated by Nikolla Sudar, there is no information about the time and circumstances when Nikita Khrushchev kept these memories.

Prepared by: Belina Budini

When Enver Hoxha was held by a thread!

In his memoirs, Nikita Khrushchev speaks a lot about the process of democratization, the initiator of which was in fact himself in the Soviet Union, although within the communist idea of the world. As for Albania, he writes that in this country this issue took a special turn.

"Our embassy colleagues at the time told me that the party's activity for Tirana took place under great tension. This meeting lasted several days and Enver Hoxha was held in suspense. He was severely criticized, and the idea was even raised of replacing Hoxha, Shehu and Beqir Balluku, the whole troika. I do not remember which other party leaders were subjected to criticism during the party's activity for Tirana. But I am paying attention to this fact because, as it turned out, it would have decisive importance for the further development of relations between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Party of Labor of Albania. However, Hoxha crossed the river. He, Shehu and Beqir Balluku remained in the leadership, although this event scared them to death."

In addition, Khrushchev writes that they were shocked in all directions, because they called themselves unquestionable authorities and leaders, who were irritated by those people who had dared to raise their voices in the active and shake their authority and who had not only shaken it, but as Khrushchev puts it, "almost ousted them from their leading positions."

How would Albania be "devoured"?!

Regarding the issue of Albania's inclusion in Yugoslavia, Khrushchev recalls that "when very good relations still existed between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and Tito enjoyed absolute trust in Stalin, I remember that in my presence Stalin dictated a telegram to Tito, which said that further mutual relations with Albania should aim at its inclusion in the Balkan Federation. This telegram was sent. Of course, no one in Albania knew anything about this issue. Stalin had made the idea of creating the Balkan Federation his own and often expressed this opinion in our circle."

Further, in his memoirs on this issue, Khrushchev writes that it had begun to take shape so much that a palace near Belgrade had begun to be built for the headquarters of the new government of the Balkan Federation, which would also include small Albania, which still knew nothing about it.

"When I was in Belgrade, I saw that place. Many reinforced concrete structures were built there, but then everything was abandoned. The inclusion of Albania in the composition of Yugoslavia was not contrary to Stalin's idea of creating the Federation of Balkan States. When friendly relations with Yugoslavia were interrupted and Stalin began to hate Tito, the idea of the Balkan Federation was buried."

When talking about further relations with Yugoslavia, Khrushchev nevertheless mentions Albania as the most extreme case of anti-Yugoslav policy. This certainly pleased the Soviet Union for a while, which had even encouraged this policy of the Albanian side. But Khrushchev thought that this position of Albania became detrimental when the Soviet Union and he himself decided to take steps towards the normalization of Soviet-Yugoslav relations. Albania was the only country that, as Khrushchev recalls, became an obstacle to the normalization of these relations.

"The leaders of the Albanian state and the Party of Labor received our proposals very badly and tried to prove that the Yugoslavs are incorrigible people, that they are not communists. All this was expressed with a malicious tone. Enver Hoxha was especially angry. He has a harsh character and when he talks about what he does not like, his face seems to get tense and he almost grinds his teeth."

However, Albania eventually accepted the USSR's proposal, and Khrushchev says that this happened because the Soviet Union convinced them, but they saw that there was no other way out. When he speaks further about the relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia, in politics and economics, Khrushchev recalls that this caused even greater disgust in Albania.

"In those days, we held the attitude of the older comrade: what can you do when they don't understand? But they will grow up and understand that in reality, there is nothing to worry about here. And we clarified our position so that Albanians could understand us better."

According to him, the relations of the USSR with Albania were not simply fraternal, but equal relations. The relations of the big with the small, according to him, arise when it comes to providing assistance. And in this case it was the Soviet Union, the great friend that "had spent numerous means to help Albania".

Kudos to the army!

While the USSR provided aid to other countries on favorable terms, towards Albania Khrushchev writes that the aid was mainly provided through donations. He writes that it was the Soviet Union that undertook to maintain the Albanian army with uniforms, food, weapons, ammunition, and all of this for free. Of course, there was a reason for this and it is exactly what is imagined. The North Atlantic Pact had been created and Albania had a favorable strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea, which, as Khrushchev writes, the Soviet Union considered as the base of the socialist countries in this sea.

"The question was: Was it necessary for us to keep our army there or to create a strong Albanian army? Albania could realistically maintain a small army, which would not be able to make any impression on the opponent. It itself practically did not produce weapons. Therefore, we decided to help it materially in the creation, within its possibilities, of a large Albanian army in numbers ... When the relations of the USSR with the West began to deteriorate after the war, a military conflict was not an excluded possibility."

Thanks to its position, Albania posed a serious threat to the activities of the NATO military bloc in the Mediterranean Sea.

"Therefore, at that time we agreed with the Albanians to establish a submarine base there. Thus, the deployment of 12 submarines there was approved. Imagine, this was a fairly powerful military concentration - 12 submarines in the Mediterranean Sea. With such a concentration, our opponents had to face. We wanted to give these submarines to Albania. Our sailors arrived there with all the diving and repair equipment, to train the local military and, as soon as the Albanian submarine unit was created, to hand over these tools to them. Such a step proves the great trust, but I would say, also the great love that we showed for our Albanian friends. Albanian delegations came to us, headed on several occasions by Enver Hoxha and Mehemet Shehu. The best relations were established between us, not to mention the ordinary Albanian people."

Albania, a miserable economy

Khrushchev writes in his memoirs that Albania was such a poor country that it had nothing in the way of reserves that could arouse the interest of the Soviet Union. Therefore, economic relations between the two countries were primarily in Albania's interest.

"Even that miserable amount of oil that Albania began to extract with our help, we ourselves bought it... This was oil of such low quality that it was impossible to export it to the Western market, and the USSR bought that amount of oil to pay off their supplies."

He even adds that they did this because if the Soviet Union didn't take it, no one else would buy this oil, which would mean they had to give up on oil extraction.

"Then, we also gave the Albanians tractors. Their territory is small and there is little arable land. But, we wanted to help raise the Albanian economy to a modern level, to make Albania a jewel, which would lure the Muslim world, especially the Near East and Africa, towards communism. These were essentially our goals and the policies we pursued there."

Then, he does not fail to mention the radio station, which they proposed to build in Albania, and the large port that was eventually built.

Nikita Khrushchev's memories of his visit to Albania

"Several times the Albanians had asked us to send a party and state delegation of the highest level on our part. It was decided that I would head such a delegation and we set off for Albania. Before we left, we informed our Albanian friends that we did not want any criticism of Yugoslavia and its leadership to be addressed publicly in our presence. At that time, Albania had very strained relations with Yugoslavia and was conducting an open duel against it in the press as well. I was of the opinion that this was causing harm. Therefore, we discussed it among ourselves and informed Enver Hoxha that we did not want the conflict in the press between Albania and Yugoslavia to continue during the stay of our delegation in Albania. We warned them not to include us in such discussions even at rallies! During our visit, at rallies and other meetings, the Albanians avoided criticism of Yugoslavia. But it was clear that they were coping with it with difficulty. In closed-door conversations, the Albanians tried to convince us that there could be no reconciliation with the Yugoslavs, that they were not communists and all that. We could not get along with them, although we did not support everything that was happening in Yugoslavia ... During our stay in Albania, the Albanians behaved like friends and there was no friction between us ...! We spent several days there, saw their capital, visited other cities, villages and ports. Everywhere we noticed an extremely enthusiastic attitude towards the Soviet Union, towards our people, towards our party, both on the part of the Albanian workers and on the part of Hoxha and Shehu. I did not notice a single black cloud that could darken the sun of friendship, under which we wanted to enjoy life and build fraternal relations between the USSR and the Soviet Union. and Albania. No disagreements arose between us ...! Everything new, built there, was realized with our help, with our credit, by our specialists and workers ...! Albania is a small country. But, its people, numerically limited, live in an interesting geographical place, where various contradictions of Europe are intertwined, therefore its opponents are also numerous”.

Submarines

Nikita Khrushchev also tells an episode from the last conflict of the Soviet Union with Albania.

"We gave them 12 submarines, as I said and when our relations became strained. We decided to take all the submarines, as well as the equipment that accompanied them. The Albanians opposed this. It seems to me that in three submarines the crew was entirely Albanian, in one or two it was mixed. We were able to remove eight or nine submarines and three or four remained in Albania. We even expected aggressive actions from the Albanians, so when we withdrew the submarines, our warships, I don't remember how many, were near the Albanian coast to intervene if the need arose. If the Albanian authorities tried to keep our submarines by force, then our warships would threaten them."

He closes his memories of Albania, adding that this episode also marked the complete break with Albania.

Khrushchev on Enver Hoxha: "Tough character"!

Speaking about the rejection by the leaders of the Albanian state and the Party of Labor of Albania of the Soviet Union's proposals for the normalization of Soviet-Yugoslav relations, Nikita Khrushchev writes in his memoirs that the Albanian side expressed a malicious sentiment.

"Enver Hoxha was particularly angry. He has a harsh character and when he talks about what he doesn't like, his face seems to contort and he almost grinds his teeth."

In his memoirs about Albania, Nikita Khrushchev also speaks of what he calls the troika of Albanian leaders, consisting of Enver Hoxha, Mehmet Shehu, and Beqir Balluku. Khrushchev writes that Tito told him that the main leader of the Communist Party of Albania was a very good friend, whom the Yugoslavs knew and supported, and who came from the ranks of the working class, and was the real organizer of the Communist Party of Albania.

"But Hoxha, Shehu and Balluku organized a conspiracy against him, and it was even said that Shehu had personally murdered this man. Before long, we were informed of other horrific cases: someone was murdered and someone else was secretly killed. There was a system in place: if someone made a mistake and Hoxha, Shehu and Balluku found out, then the three of them would punish him together. It was enough for all three of them to agree that this person was harmful and they would find a way to secretly eliminate him, so this person would disappear without delay. All this was very similar to the method used by Stalin. Through Beria and other such people, he managed to eliminate many honest people."

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