Partisan Vow – Guri Madhi
History of the Party of Labour of Albania
The most complete, official, history of the Albanian Communist Party/Party of Labour of Albania available. We don’t believe the history of the Party after 1980 was ever published, in Albanian let alone English.
Ten years of the Albanian Party of Labour 1941-1951, Orbis, Prague, 1951, 105 pages. A very early book on the history of the Party of Labour of Albania, published in Prague in 1951. It has text in three languages, Albanian, Russian and English. Interesting especially for its collection of photos from the National Liberation War and the first years of Socialist Construction.
History of the Party of Labour of Albania – Chapters 1 and 2, Naim Frashëri Publishing House, Tirana, 1969, 326 pages.
Chapter 1 – The struggle to found the Albanian Communist Party (1929-1941)
Chapter 2 – The Communist Party of Albania – organizer and leader of the War for the Liberation of the Country and for the establishment of the People’s Power (1941-1944)
History of the Party of Labour of Albania – Chapters 3, 4 and 5, Naim Frashëri Publishing House, Tirana, 1970, 308 pages.
Chapter 3 – The Communist Party of Albania in its struggle to rebuild the country and promote Socialist Revolution (December 1944-1948)
Chapter 4 – The struggle of the Party to turn Albania from a backward agrarian country into an agrarian-industrial one (1948-1955)
Chapter 5 – The Party of Labour of Albania and its struggle to complete the building of the economic basis of Socialism (1956-1960)
History of the Party of Labour of Albania, 8 Nëntori Publishing House, Tirana, 1982, 2nd edition, 632 pages. The second edition of the ‘History of the PLA’ covers the activity of the Party up to 1980. Apart from this, the first edition has been re-edited, making a number of minor alterations which do not affect its structure or general content. The changes comprise some abridgements and corrections made on the basis of documents.
As well as the same 5 chapters listed above this volume includes;
Chapter 6 – The PLA in struggle for the complete construction of Socialist society in the conditions of the imperialist-revisionist blockade (1961-1965)
Chapter 7 – The struggle of the PLA for the further revolutionization of the Party and the life of the country (1966-1971)
Chapter 8 – The struggle of the Party for the deepening of the Socialist revolution in all fields through stern class struggle (1971-1976)
Chapter 9 – The PLA leads the people resolutely on the Marxist-Leninist road of the complete construction of Socialist society (1976-1980)
The history of the building of a Communist Party in Albania – according to the modern revisionists
Georgi Dimitrov and the Albanian Democratic and Communist Movement, 1920-1939, Elena Atanassova, Sofia Press, 1979, 62 pages. An approach, not withstanding the outstanding figure of Georgi Dimitrov, that attempts to denigrate the struggle of the Albanians to create their own Communist Party.
there’s a typo on painter’s name, the work “Partisan Vow”
correctly spelled it is Guri Madhi. Thank you so much.
Rectified. But WordPress doesn’t make it easy. You would have thought that moving two letters would be a doddle but it isn’t. Thanks for pointing out the error.
very kind of you. If of any use the below is from your great post on National Art Gallery,
– Ilia Kici Dashi, 1978 – Sali Shijaku
The title is Hero i Punës Socialiste – Hero of the Socialist Work, equivalent to People’s Hero but now during construction times rather than war times.
– The wireworker, 1969 – Sotir Capo
The wire factory was in Shkoder, and that was supplied with copper raw material by the copper enrichment factory of Rubik, Mirdite.
– The days of flying, 1986 – Spiro Kristo
there’s a typo error on date, as it is year 1968, which might affect the painting concept.
– July 30, 1978 – Çlirim Çeka
Relationships between Albania and China broke in the summer of 1978, however the date might mark the first production of albanian steel. Which relates to China because with the break they quit assistance to Albania on that project.
Thanks for more information and pointing out the error on the date of the painting of the airmen. It does change the the meaning of the painting – context is everything. Have made appropriate alterations.
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I actually own this; it came in the form of two small books and ended in 1960. There were no additional small books to my knowledge, though, they simply re-released it as one single English-language “History of the Party of Labor of Albania” in 1971 which incorporated the earlier chapters while adding the rest of the 60’s to them. In 1982 a new edition (with “Labour” instead of “Labor”) was released which extended the history into the 70’s to cover the 7th Congress of the PLA, adoption of the new Constitution, and the Sino-Albanian split. There were no newer editions after that, in Albanian or otherwise.
I think the two small booklets were part of an abandoned project, and that they simply realized there was no need to divide the party’s history into multiple small books, so they went with a more attractive one-volume hardcover work incorporating all of it (which was also what they had in Albania, the English-language history being a translation of the “Historia e Partisë së Punës së Shqipërisë”) and adding a handy bound bookmark to it.
I, too, have the books you mention. I wasn’t sure if there were books covering later years that I had missed before the counter revolution. If we work together we can get all the available years on the net.
The Russian Hoxha website is already planning to upload the 1982 edition of the History in multiple languages in the future: http://www.enverhoxha.ru/history_of_the_party_of_labour_of_albania.htm
Publication of electronic books “History of the Party of Labor of Albania” (2nd edition) in website http://www.enverhoxha.ru in all major languages will begin in November 2013.