Table Of ContentWORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
ENVER HOXHA
ON LITERATURE AND ART
(1949-1980)
ISBN: 978-1-4583-0578-7
THE NOVEMBER 8TH PUBLISHING HOUSE
TORONTO 2022
ENVER HOXHA
CONTENTS
OUR LITERATURE SHOULD FOLLOW THE
ROAD OF SOCIALIST REALISM — Discussion
at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CC of the
PLA (June 7, 1949) ..................................................... 1
ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS (June 23, 1949) ............. 8
OUR INTELLIGENTSIA IS RAISED AND
DEVELOPED IN THE BOSOM OF THE
PEOPLE — From the speech at the meeting with the
representatives of the intelligentsia of the capital
(October 25, 1962) ..................................................... 12
LITERATURE AND THE ARTS SHOULD SERVE
TO TEMPER PEOPLE WITH CLASS
CONSCIOUSNESS FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIALISM — The
closing speech delivered at the 15th Plenum of the CC
of the PLA (October 26, 1965) ................................... 23
FROM THE REPORT TO THE 5TH CONGRESS
OF THE PLA «ON THE ACTIVITY OF THE
CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PARTY OF
LABOUR OF ALBANIA» (November 1, 1966) ......... 50
TOWARDS FURTHER REVOLUTIONIZING
OUR SCHOOLS — From a speech at a meeting of
the Politburo of the PLA Central Committee (March
7, 1967) ..................................................................... 57
CARRY OUT THE TASKS OF
REVOLUTIONIZING OUR PARTY AND THE
LIFE OF OUR COUNTRY WITH
PERSISTENCE AND IN A CREATIVE WAY —
From a speech at the 17th Party Conference of the city
of Tirana (December 21, 1968) ................................... 66
LETTER TO SCULPTORS KRISTAQ RAMA,
MUNTAZ DHRAMI AND SHABAN HADËRI
(June 26, 1969) .......................................................... 78
FROM THE REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF
THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE
PARTY OF LABOUR OF ALBANIA — Presented
to the 6th Congress of the PLA (November 1, 1971) ...... 82
INSENTIFY THE IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE
AGAINST ALIEN PHENOMENA AND
LIBERAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS THEM —
From a report to the 4th Plenum of the Central
Committee of the PLA (June 26, 1973) ........................ 85
WRITERS AND ARTISTS ARE ASSISTANTS OF
THE PARTY FOR THE COMMUNIST
EDUCATION OF OUR PEOPLE — Speech
delivered at the meeting of the Secretariat of the CC of
the PLA concerning the implementation to date of the
tasks in literature and art set by the 4th Plenum of the
CC of the PLA (December 20, 1974) ......................... 128
FROM THE REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF
THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE
PARTY OF LABOUR OF ALBANIA — Presented
to the 7th Congress of the PLA (November 1, 1976) .... 161
PROUDHON’S SUCCESSORS IN FRANCE
(Excerpts) .................................................................. 214
OUR LITERATURE SHOULD FOLLOW
THE ROAD OF SOCIALIST REALISM
Discussion at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CC of
the PLA1
June 7, 1949
In his address to the comrades of the League of Writers in-
vited at the meeting of the Political Bureau, Comrade Enver
Hoxha said:
We would like to know your opinion on the way the 3rd
Conference of the League of Writers is going to proceed so
that we can help you with our advice. In your material, in
which you have jotted down the principal ideas of the report,
a great deal is said about the prewar writers, and very little
about the writers of the years of the National Liberation War
and the postwar period. Thus the old writers eclipse the new
ones. We want you to tell us how you came to this conclusion,
so that afterwards, as I said above, we can give you our help.
At the conclusion of discussion Comrade Enver Hoxha said:
The conference of writers is of great importance. Of
course, both you as writers and we are concerned to see it
properly prepared so that it will proceed successfully. But it
must be said that this problem has not been properly tackled
1 The Politburo of the Central Committee of the PLA heard a report
from some of the leaders of the Writers’ Union at this meeting on the
issues they intended to raise at the 3rd Conference of the Writers’ Union.
1
as a whole and in proportion to its importance. The main
attention should not be centred chiefly on six or seven well-
known writers who have distinguished themselves with their
writings, but on the major problem of building our new pro-
gressive literature as well as of encouraging our new talents.
We would be making a mistake if we were to demand perfec-
tion in the work of new writers at this stage. This will come
gradually. We would also be making a mistake if we were to
be content with just those few affirmed writers. It is my opin-
ion that the writers’ conference should have as its main objec-
tive the encouragement of the new talents, greater encourage-
ment for them from the Party, the special assistance that
should be given them for their ideological education.
The cultural level of our cadres is still low, but this does
not imply that they should hesitate to air their views freely on
problems of literature. This, however, is not attained without
exertion. We must understand this properly. If it is thought
that in order to create writers should be taken off work, all
that will come out will be cliches. We are told that in the So-
viet Union there are writers who have been taken off any
other activity in order to engage in literary creation, but we
should bear in mind that in the beginning they worked any-
where they were needed, some of them even worked in facto-
ries and continued their writing at the same time. Even now
they address conferences, engage in other activities and con-
tinue their writing. With this I mean that our writers should
work somewhere, but at the same time they must also write.
I agree that the writers must be eased of some of the burden
that hinders them in their literary activity, but this does not
mean that they should pass the time strolling round the town.
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Life and the everyday struggle together with the working
masses will assist our writers in their creative work. If you go
to the railway construction site, for instance, and live and
work among the youth, there is no doubt that you will find
inspiration there, while, if you divorce yourself from the
masses, you cannot find inspiration.
In some of the contributions we heard here from the com-
rades of the League I noticed a certain dose of pessimism.
More is demanded from the material we have in our country
today. However, in my opinion, Fishta with his satires can’t
bear comparison with the «Epic of the Balli Kombëtar» by
Shefqet Musaraj. The works of our comrades who write about
the war, the life and work of our people, stand higher and are
of a sound content. At the moment there may be some short-
comings in regard to form, but we can be confident that with
the passage of time their works will improve in this aspect,
too.
Despite this, the study presented by Comrade Dhimitër
Shuteriqi is good. Therefore, we should work in this direction
in order to assist the development of our new socialist litera-
ture. We must encourage our new writers, have more frequent
contact with them, help them study and raise themselves ide-
ologically, culturally, and professionally, so that they can pro-
duce more and better works. Your writings must be brought
more to the fore, because they are not being publicized as they
should. This is not because this person or another does not
want to, but merely because of underestimation and because
the idea has been created that in order to write one should be
a specialist. We must combat this opinion. The press should
play a positive role in this direction. You too must make your
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contribution to the press in order to improve it, because to
us, it has become like a gramophone record which is played
over and over again with the same boring phraseology, the
same words and expressions, without spirit and life, with a
few monotonous reports. We must see to it that our press
publishes better quality reviews and evaluations of the work
of our new writers; this is what we must emphasize. Of course,
this must not become an obstacle to analysing the works of
the past, to evaluating their positive aspects and rejecting
those which are harmful. It would be a great thing, for exam-
ple, if a good study were made of the work of Naim Frashëri,
because in this manner we shall teach our people not only
how to make an assessment of Naim, but also how to get the
correct bearings in assessing the others, and not make mis-
takes. But the problems of the present must be in the centre
of our attention. We should not become involved in empty
discussions of reactionary authors like Fishta, Koliqi, etc., but
we should bring out the values of those who write for the peo-
ple. In the field of literature, as everywhere else, we should
take our stand on the position of the Party.
During this period our literature has grown stronger, has
made headway, and new talents are continually making their
debut. It must be developed along the road of socialist real-
ism, relying firmly on the national terrain and on the Marxist-
Leninist ideology. We must go more deeply into the work for
the development of our literature. This requires that our
writer comrades themselves, among other things, must read
more and never say, «We haven’t the time to read». We are
busy, too, but we try to find the time, and in fact we do read.
A writer who does not make efforts, first of all, to raise his
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