27th March 1886 – Birth of Sergei Mironovich Kirov

Posted on 27/03/2021 by Michael

Sergei M Kirov

Sergei Mironovich Kirov 27^th March 1886 – 1^st December 1934

From The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979)

(Party pseudonym of S. M. Kostrikov). Born March 27^th 1886, in Urzhum, in present-day Kirov Oblast; died December 1^st 1934, in Leningrad. A prominent figure of the Communist Party and the Soviet state. Became a member of the Communist Party in 1904.

Kirov’s father belonged to the lower middle class (meshchanstvo). After his parents died, Kirov at the age of seven was placed in an orphanage. He studied at the Urzhum City School from 1897 to 1901 and the Kazan Mechanical and Technical School, from which he graduated in 1904; that same autumn he moved to Tomsk and worked as a draftsman with the city executive board. There Kirov became an active member of the Bolshevik group of the Tomsk Social Democratic organization. He was elected to the Tomsk Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) committee in July 1905 and organized an underground printing press and conducted party work among railroad workers in the summer of 1906. In October 1905, Kirov prepared and successfully led a strike at the important Taiga railroad station. He was repeatedly arrested in 1905 and 1906; in February 1907, having spent seven months in prison, he was sentenced to one year and four months of detention in a fortress.

After his release in June 1908, Kirov moved to Irkutsk, where he re-established the Party organization that had been smashed by the police. Evading police persecution, Kirov moved in May 1909 to Vladikavkaz (now Ordzhonikidze), assumed the leadership of the Bolshevik organization, and worked on the newspaper Terek. In November 1912 the newspaper published the article “Simplicity of Mores” over the signature S. Kirov, a surname that became his party pseudonym. In the period of the new revolutionary upswing in 1910–14 and during World War I, Kirov directed all Bolshevik political work in the Northern Caucasus; he was elected to the Vladikavkaz Soviet after the February Revolution of 1917. In October 1917, Kirov was a delegate to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets and participated in the October armed uprising in Petrograd. Upon returning to Vladikavkaz, Kirov led the struggle of the working people of the Terek for Soviet rule. He attended the second oblast congress of the peoples of the Terek, held in Piatigorsk in February-March 1918, which proclaimed Soviet rule in the Northern Caucasus, and attended the Sixth All-Russian Congress of Soviets in November 1918 as a delegate of Terek Oblast.

In late December 1918, Kirov led an expedition transporting arms and ammunition through Astrakhan to the Northern Caucasus; he stopped in Astrakhan because the Whites had captured the Northern Caucasus by that time. He was then appointed chairman of the Provisional Military Revolutionary Committee of Astrakhan Krai in February 1919, becoming a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Eleventh Army on May 7th 1919, and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Southern Troop Group of the Red Army on July 7^th Kirov was one of the organizers and leaders of the defense of Astrakhan. From January 1919, Kirov and G. K. Ordzhonikidze directed the offensive of the Eleventh Army in the Northern Caucasus; after capturing Vladikavkaz on March 30^th and Baku on May 1st the army helped the workers in Baku overthrow the Musavatists and restore Soviet power.

On May 29^th 1920, Kirov was appointed plenipotentiary of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in Georgia, where the Mensheviks had seized power, and on October 1^st – 12^th 1920, he headed the Soviet delegation in Riga concluding the peace treaty with Poland. Kirov became a member of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) RCP (B) after his return to the Northern Caucasus (October 1920). He was elected a candidate member of the Central Committee of the RCP(B) at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(B) in March 1921 and directed the work of the constituent congress of the Gorskaia Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) (Vladikavkaz) on April 16^th – 22^nd 1921. Elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in early July 1921, Kirov was instrumental in the rehabilitation of the petroleum industry and was one of the founders of the Transcaucasion Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (December 1922). The Twelfth Congress of the RCP(B), held in April 1923, elected him to the Central Committee of the RCP(B).

At a crucial point in the struggle against the Trotskyite-Zinovievite opposition, the party sent Kirov to Leningrad, and in February 1926 he was elected first secretary of the Leningrad Province Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik), ACP(B) and of the North-western Bureau of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) and a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the ACP(B). Under his leadership the Leningrad organization made great strides in all fields of socialist construction. Kirov waged an uncompromising and principled struggle for party unity against all anti-party groupings, such as the Trotskyites, Zinovievites, and Bukharinites. He was elected to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the ACP(B) in 1930, to the Organization Bureau in 1934, also becoming its secretary, and to the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. A passionate tribune totally committed to the cause of the Party, Kirov enjoyed tremendous prestige among and had the love of the Soviet people. On December 1^st 1934, Kirov was killed by an enemy of the Communist Party in Smol’nyi Institute (Leningrad).

Kirov had been awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner. He is buried in Moscow on Red Square at the Kremlin wall.

Sergei with JV Stalin

On December 1, 1934, S. M. Kirov was foully murdered in the Smolny, in Leningrad, by a shot from a revolver.

The assassin was caught red-handed and turned out to be a member of a secret counter-revolutionary group made up of members of an anti-Soviet group of Zinovievites in Leningrad.

S. M. Kirov was loved by the Party and the working class, and his murder stirred the people profoundly, sending a wave of wrath and deep sorrow through the country.

The investigation established that in 1933 and 1934 an underground counter-revolutionary terrorist group had been formed in Leningrad consisting of former members of the Zinoviev opposition and headed by a so-called “Leningrad Centre.” The purpose of this group was to murder leaders of the Communist Party. S. M. Kirov was chosen as the first victim. The testimony of the members of this counter-revolutionary group showed that they were connected with representatives of foreign capitalist states and were receiving funds from them.

The exposed members of this organization were sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. to the supreme penalty—to be shot.

…..

In a circular letter to Party organizations on the subject of the foul murder of S. M. Kirov, the Central Committee of the Party stated:

a) We must put an end to the opportunist complacency engendered by the enormous assumption that as we grow stronger the enemy will become tamer and more inoffensive. This assumption is an utter fallacy. It is a recrudescence of the Right deviation, which assured all and sundry that our enemies would little by little creep into Socialism and in the end become real Socialists. The Bolsheviks have no business to rest on their laurels; they have no business to sleep at their posts. What we need is not complacency, but vigilance, real Bolshevik revolutionary vigilance. It should be remembered that the more hopeless the position of the enemies, the more eagerly will they clutch at ‘extreme measures’ as the only recourse of the doomed in their struggle against the Soviet power. We must remember this, and be vigilant.

b) We must properly organize the teaching of the history of the Party to Party members, the study of all and sundry anti-Party groups in the history of our Party, their methods of combating the Party line, their tactics and—still more the tactics and methods of our Party in combating anti-Party groups, the tactics and methods which have enabled our Party to vanquish and demolish these groups. Party members should not only know how the Party combated and vanquished the Constitutional-Democrats, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Anarchists, but also how it combated and vanquished the Trotskyites, the ‘Democratic-Centralists,’ the ‘Workers’ Opposition,’ the Zinovievites, the Right deviators, the Right-Leftist freaks and the like. It should never be forgotten that a knowledge and understanding of the history of our Party is a most important and essential means of fully ensuring the revolutionary vigilance of the Party members.

From The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik), Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 19039, pp325-328.

SM Kirov addressing a meeting in the Ingush village of Bazorkino

IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS

In the North Caucasus the Bolsheviks were obliged to fight under extremely difficult conditions. The very intricate national situation, the antagonisms among the Cossacks, the strife between the higher caste of the Cossacks and the Mountain People, and between the Cossacks as a whole and the peasant settlers from other parts of the country, the national strife among the Mountain People, and the numerical weakness of the proletariat in the region – all this necessitated the employment of exceptionally cautious tactics. An example of thoughtful, Bolshevik handling of problems was set in the Terek Region in 1917 by Sergei Mironovich Kirov.

Kirov had been away in Petrograd on a mission on behalf of the Vladikavkaz Bolshevik organisation and the Vladikavkaz Soviet. He returned on September 2 and immediately plunged into revolutionary work. Every day, and sometimes several times a day, he addressed meetings of workers and soldiers. A brilliant speaker, and well read, he had a gift for illustrating his arguments with vivid metaphors and examples. His inspired speeches, breathing profound faith in the victory of the revolution, literally fired his audiences. In preparing the proletariat and the working people in the North Caucasus in general for armed insurrection Kirov attached enormous importance to propaganda activities among the poorer sections of the Mountain People, among whom he was already extremely popular.

The counter-revolutionaries among the Cossacks and Mountain People did their utmost to foment national strife. Rumours were deliberately spread in the Cossack stanitsas to the effect that the Bolsheviks were· inciting the Mountain People to set fire to and destroy the stanitsas. On the other hand, the mullahs and kulaks among the Mountain People spread the rumour that the shaitans (devils), the Bolsheviks, were urging the Cossacks to wreck their mosques and seize their wives and children. The poorer sections of the Mountain People and the Cossacks, however, knew Kirov as a courageous Bolshevik who had already on one occasion averted what had seemed an inevitable sanguinary collision. On July 6, the soldiers in Vladikavkaz, incited by the counter-revolutionaries, brutally assaulted the unarmed Mountain People who had come to market. The flames of national war threatened to engulf the city, the Cossack stanitsas and the auls, or mountain villages. Foreseeing the frightful bloodshed that would result in the extermination of the best revolutionary forces and the strengthening of the counter-revolutionary forces among the Cossacks’ and the Mountain People, Kirov went off alone to the Ingush village of Bazorkino, where preparations were in progress for an armed attack on Vladikavkaz and succeeded in revealing to the Ingush people the provocative designs of the counter-revolutionaries among the Cossacks and Mountain People. His courage and daring made such a profound impression upon them that they abandoned their intention of attacking the city. Through Kirov, the best representatives of the Ingush people, such as Sultan Kostayev and Yusup Albagachiev, made contact with the Vladikavkaz Soviet of Workers’ Deputies.

Kirov also established connections with the poorer sections of the Ossetian people through the Ossetian revolutionary party known as ‘Kermen’, which was formed in the summer of 1917. This party took its name from the legendary Ossetian hero, Kermcn, a slave, who had fought for his rights and had been treacherously killed by his oppressors. True, this organisation lacked a definite program and clung to a number of nationalist prejudices and fallacies, but it exercised considerable influence among the poorer sections of the Ossetian peasants. In May 1918 the best elements of the ‘Kermenists’ joined the Bolshevik Party and formed an Ossetian Area Bolshevik organisation.

By the autumn of 1917 the Vladikavkaz Party organisation had undergone considerable change. Under Kirov’s leadership, the Bolsheviks had won over the proletarian nucleus in the united Social-Democratic organisation, and from the very first days of the revolution had acted as an independent group. They were backed by the workers in the railway workshops and the Alagir Works.

The split in the Social-Democratic organisation occurred at the end of October 1917. At a general Party meeting held in Vladikavkaz, of the 500 members present, only eight supported the Menshevik platform. In face of this overwhelming defeat the Mensheviks withdrew from the meeting.

Thus, on the eve of the Great Proletarian Revolution the Vladikavkaz Bolsheviks were united in a strong and solid Party organisation. This was an extremely important factor in securing the victory of the Soviet regime in the North Caucasus. Already at the end of September the Bolsheviks had gained control of the Vladikavkaz Soviet.

On October 5 the Vladikavkaz Soviet elected Kirov as one of its delegates to the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. He was also elected as a delegate to this Congress by the Nalchik Soviet. On October 21, after Kirov had left for Petrograd, the Vladikavkaz Soviet re-elected him in his absence a member of the new Executive Committee that was chosen that night.

From The History of the Civil War in the USSR, Volume 2, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1947, pp136-138

THE DEATH OF KIROV

1^st December 1934

A great sorrow has befallen our Party. On December 1st, Comrade Kirov fell victim to the hand of an assassin, a scallawag sent by the class enemies.

The death of Kirov is an irreparable loss, not only for us, his close friends and comrades, but also for all those who have known him in his revolutionary work, and have known him as a fighter, comrade and friend. A man who has given all his brilliant life to the cause of the working class, to the cause of Communism, to the cause of the liberation of humanity, is dead, victim of the enemy.

Comrade Kirov was an example of Bolshevism, recognizing neither fear nor difficulties in the realizing of the great aim, fixed by the Party. His integrity, his will of iron, his astonishing qualities as an orator, inspired by the Revolution, were combined in him with such cordiality and such tenderness in his relations with his comrades and personal friends, with such warmth and modesty, all of which are traits of the true Leninist.

Comrade Kirov has worked in different parts of the U.S.S.R. in the period of illegality and after the October Revolution – at Tomsk and Astrakhan, at Vladicaucase and Baku – and everywhere he upheld the high standard of the Party; he has won for the Party millions of workers, due to his revolutionary work, indefatigable, energetic and fruitful.

During the last nine years, Comrade Kirov directed the organization of our Party in Lenin’s town, and the region of Leningrad. There is no possibility, by means of a short and sad letter, to give an appreciation of his activities among the workers of Leningrad. It would have been difficult to find in our Party, a director who could be more successfully in harmony with the working class of Leningrad, who could so ably unite all the members of the Party and all the working class around the Party. He has created in the whole organization of Leningrad, this same atmosphere of organization, of discipline, of love and of Bolshevik devotion to the Revolution, which characterised Comrade Kirov himself.

You were near us all Comrade Kirov, as a trusted friend, as a loved comrade, as a faithful companion in arms. We will remember you, dear friend, till the end of our life and of our struggle and we feel bitterness at our loss. You were always with us in the difficult years of the struggle for the victory of Socialism in our country, you were always with us in the years of uncertainty and internal difficulties in our Party, you have lived with us all the difficulties of these last years, and we have lost you at the moment when our country has achieved great victories. In all these struggles, in all our achievements, there is very much evidence of you, of your energy, your strength and your ardent love for the Communist cause.

Farewell, Sergei, our dear friend and comrade.

J. Stalin, S. Ordjonikidze, V. Molotov, M. Kalinin, K. Voroshilov, L. Kaganovich, A. Mikoyan, A. Andreyev, V. Tchoubar, A. Idanov, V. Kuibyshev. Ia. Roudzoutak, S. Kossior, P. Postychev, G. Petrovsky, A. Ienoukidze, M. Chkiriatov, Em. Iaroslavski, N. Ejov,

Pravda

2 December 1934

In JV Stalin, Works, Volume 14, pp63-65

More on the USSR

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – individual works, compilations, biographies – including earlier Collected and Selected editions

Posted on 09/08/2020 by Michael

Lenin in the Smolny

More on the USSR

The Great ‘Marxist-Leninist’ Theoreticians

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – individual works, compilations, biographies and including earlier Collected and Selected editions

This page will include individual pamphlets of the works of VI Lenin as well as a more information about his life and work. Available elsewhere on the site are the Collected Works – a total of 47 volumes – which is the most extensive resource in the English language of the ideas of the leader of the Bolshevik Party and the first Socialist State.

(This is an on going project and other material will be added as and when it becomes available in a digital format. If you are after a particular pamphlet and it is not here at the moment then it might appear in the future.)

Collected and Selected Works

Collected Works of V. I. Lenin, 1930s International Publishers Edition, New York,

Volume 13, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, 1927, 347 pages.

Volume 18, The Imperialist War, 1930, 499 pages.

Volume 21, Book 1, Toward the Seizure of Power, 1932, 305 pages.

Volume 21, Book 2, Toward the Seizure of Power, 1932, 353 pages.

VI Lenin: Selected Works, in 12 volumes, International Publishers, New York, late 1930s, arranged by period and by topic.

Although the later 45-volume Collected Works is more complete and more carefully prepared, this earlier set provides alternate translations which may be helpful in some cases. Plus, this set may facilitate identifying references to Lenin’s specific writings which point to these volumes. Further to that they were also produced at a time when the Soviet Union was following the Socialist Road and the translations were not subject to a Revisionist interpretation, which is the possibility with the versions published in the 1970s.

Volume 1: The Prerequisites of the Russian Revolution (1891-1899), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 564 pages.

Volume 2: The Struggle for the Bolshevik Party (1900-1904), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 587 pages.

Volume 3: The Revolution of 1905-1907, International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 649 pages.

Volume 4: The Years of Reaction and of the New Revival (1908-1914), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 465 pages.

Volume 5: Imperialism and Imperialist War (1914-1917), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 409 pages.

Volume 6: From the Bourgeois Revolution to the Proletarian Revolution (1917), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 679 pages.

Volume 7: After the Seizure of Power (1917-18), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 535 pages. Different scan, Volume 7: After the Seizure of Power (1917-18), Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1936, 536 pages.

Volume 8: The Period of War Communism (1918-1920), International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 473 pages.

Volume 9: New Economic Policy; Socialist Construction, International Publishers, New York, 1937, 521 pages.

Volume 10: The Communist International, International Publishers, New York, 1938, 345 pages.

Volume 11: The Theoretical Principles of Marxism, International Publishers, New York, n.d. 1930s, 779 pages.

Volume 12: Theory of the Agrarian Question, International Publishers, New York, 1938, 351 pages. Different scan, Volume 12: Theory of the Agrarian Question, International Publishers, New York, 1938, 349 pages.

VI Lenin: Selected Works, in 12 volumes, Lawrence and Wishart, London, late 1930s and mid 1940s. (Not complete set.)

Selected Works – Volume 3, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1936, 630 pages.

Selected Works – Volume 4, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1943, 338 pages.

Selected Works – Volume 6, Lawrence and Wishart, London, ND, late 1930s/mid 1940s?, 660 pages.

Selected Works – Volume 8, Lawrence and Wishart, London, ND, late 1930s/mid 1940s?, 460 pages.

Selected Works – Volume 9, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1946, 505 pages.

Selected Works – Volume 10, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1938, 333 pages.

VI Lenin: Selected Works in Three Volumes, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1970/71.

Volume 1, 1970, 890 pages.

Volume 2, 1970, 818 pages.

Volume 3, 1971, 866 pages.

The Essential Lenin in two volumes, Volume 1, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1947. 768 pages.

VI Lenin – Selected works in one volume, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1969, 798 pages.

Individual books and pamphlets

The War and the Workers, speech May 27 1917, International, New York, 1929, Little Lenin Library No 24, 36 pages.

The Teachings of Karl Marx, International Publishers, New York, 1930, 48 pages.

The War and the Second International, (London, Martin Lawrence, 1931), Little Lenin Library, Volume Two, 63 pages. Two documents written in 1914, ‘The Collapse of the Second International’ and ‘The War and Russian Social-Democracy’.

The April Conference, International, NY, 1932, 62 pages. Little Lenin Library, Volume Ten. The Conference actually took place from 7th to the 12th May, 1917 (the backward Tsarist state used the Julian calender which was – in 1917 – 13 days adrift from the Gregorian calender used in most of Europe, hence the ‘April’ Conference of 24th to the 29th Old Calender took place in May).

Lenin on Religion, Martin Lawrence, London, N.D. 1930s?), Little Lenin Library, Volume Seven, 56 pages.

State and Revolution, Martin Lawrence, London, 1933, Little Lenin Library, Volume Fourteen, 96 pages.

‘Left wing’ Communism – an infantile disorder, an attempt at a popular discussion on Marxist Strategy and Tactics, Little Lenin Library, Volume 16, Martin Lawrence, London, 1934, 95 pages.

The Paris Commune, Martin Lawrence, London, 1935, Little Lenin Library, Volume Five, 62 pages.

Marx, Engels, Marxism, a collection of articles, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1936, 225 pages.

The Letters of Lenin, Elizabeth Hill and Doris Mudie, Chapman and Hall, London, 1937, 495 pages.

The Teachings of Karl Marx, Martin Lawrence, London, 1937, Little Lenin Library, Volume One, 47 pages.

Women and Society, an early collection of articles and excerpts, International, New York, 1938, 36 pages.

New data for VI Lenin’s ‘Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism’, E Varga and L Mendelsohn, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1938, 322 pages.

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1939, 127 pages. Little Lenin Library, Volume Fifteen.(My copy is seriously damaged, particularly in one place, and so it was impossible to scan pages 82 and 83. In their place I have scanned the missing text from pages 709-711 from ‘The Essential Lenin in Two Volumes, Volume 1, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1947’. It’s not exactly the same but the closest to the 1939 text I have been able to find.)

War and the Workers, International, NY, 1940, 32 pages. Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty Four. A reprint of a lecture delivered by VI Lenin in Petrograd on May 27th, 1917, about a month after his return from exile. The manuscript was not discovered until twelve years afterwards and was published for the first time in the Moscow Pravda on April 23rd, 1929.

Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder, a popular essay on Marxian strategy and tactics, International Publishers, New York, 1940, 95 pages.

Ten Classics of Marxism, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, International Publishers, New York, 1940, 785 pages.

The Tasks of the Proletariat in our Revolution, Lawrence and Wishart, ND, 1940?, Little Lenin Library, Volume Nine, 52 pages.

On Britain, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1941, 316 pages. Marxist-Leninist Library, Volume Eighteen, with two Prefaces by Harry Pollitt (1934 and 1941).

The Deception of the People by the Slogans of Equality and Freedom Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1942, Little Lenin Library, Volume Nineteen, 47 pages.

A Dictionary of Terms and Quotations – Compiled from the Works of VI Lenin by Thomas Bell, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1942), Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty Five, 45 pages.

One step forward, two steps back, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1948, 115 pages.

Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, critical comments on a reactionary philosophy, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1948, 391 pages.

The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, 79 pages.

The National Pride of the Great Russians, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, 15 pages.

Marx, Engels, Marxism, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, 577 pages.

A Characterisation of Economic Romanticism, Library of Marxist-Leninist Classics, FLPH, Moscow, 1951, 232 pages.

The State and Revolution, FLPH, Moscow, ND, 1951?, 218. (Some markings.)

On Britain, FLPH, Moscow, 1959, 624 pages.

Report on Peace – delivered at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, October 26 (November 8) 1917 and Home and Foreign Policy of the Republic – report of the All-Russian Ventral Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars to the Ninth All-Russian Congress of Soviets December 23, 1921, FLPH, Moscow, early 1960s?, 290 pages.

In commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of VI Lenin the Foreign Languages Press in Peking produced a series of books with quotations from the extensive works of the leader of the October Revolution and First Socialist State on various topics pertinent at the time of the struggle against Soviet Revisionism and the restoration of capitalism in the USSR.

This approach to the works of Lenin, where significant quotations were taken from longer works, was the principal that was followed later with the production of the ‘Little Red Book’ of quotations from the works of Chairman Mao at the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

We are aware of six volumes in this series.

On War and Peace, 2nd ed., FLP, Peking, October 1960, 84 pages.

On Proletarian Revolution and Proletarian Dictatorship, 2nd ed., FLP, Peking, October 1960, 89 pages.

On the National Liberation Movement, 2nd ed., FLP, Peking, October 1960, 58 pages.

On the Struggle Against Revisionism, 2nd ed., FLP, Peking, October 1960, 98 pages.

On Imperialism, the eve of the Proletarian Social Revolution, 2nd ed., FLP, Peking, October 1960 91 pages.

On the Revolutionary Proletarian Party of a New Type, 2nd ed., FLP, Peking, October 1960, 79 pages.

The National Liberation Movement in the East, FLPH, Moscow, 1962, 348 pages.

Lenin’s Fight Against Revisionism and Opportunism – compiled by Cheng Yen-shih (Peking, FLP, 1965), 275 pages

Against dogmatism and sectarianism in the working class movement, Progress, Moscow, 1965, 235 pages.

On War and Peace – Three articles, FLP, Peking, 1966, 108 pages.

On Culture and Cultural Revolution, Progress, Moscow, 1966, 297 pages.

What the ‘Friends of the People’ are and how they fight the Social-democrats, Progress, Moscow, 1966, 218 pages.

Essential works of Lenin, edited and with an introduction by Henry M Christman, Bantam Books, New York, 1966, 372 pages.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a biography, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966, 590 pages.

Karl Marx, a Brief Biographical Sketch with an Exposition of Marxism, FLP, Peking, 1967, 63 pages.

On Youth – Selection of articles from VI Lenin’s Works, (Moscow, Progress, 1967), 298 pages.

The Right of Nations to Self-determination, Progress, Moscow, 1967, 80 pages.

A characterisation of economic romanticism, Progress, Moscow, 1967, 143 pages.

Socialism and War, Progress, Moscow, 1967, 55 pages.

Lenin’s Prediction on the Revolutionary Storms in the East, FLP, Peking, 1967, 15 pages.

On the National and Colonial Questions – Three articles, FLP, Peking, 1967, 40 pages.

On the so-called Market Question, Progress, Moscow, 1968, 51 pages.

Socialism and Religion, Progress, Moscow, 1968, 7 pages.

May Day. May Day action by the Revolutionary Proletariat, Progress Moscow, 1968, 31 pages.

Lecture on the 1905 Revolution, Progress, Moscow, 1968, 19 pages.

Revolutionary Adventurism, Progress Moscow, 1969, 40 pages.

The Tasks of the Youth Leagues, this speech includes Lenin’s most extensive comments on morality and the Marxist-Leninist view of ethics, (Moscow, Progress, 1969), 19 pages.

Party work in the masses, Progress, Moscow, 1969, 170 pages.

On Religion, Progress, Moscow, 1969, 85 pages.

One step forward, two steps back, the crisis in our Party, Progress, Moscow, 1969, 231 pages.

What is to be Done? Progress, Moscow, 1969, 207 pages.

On the Road to Insurrection, N. Lenin (sic), Communist Party of Great Britain, London, n.d., late 1960s?, 519 pages.

The State, (Peking, FLP, 1970), 25 pages. A lecture delivered at the Sverdlov University, July 11th, 1919.

Lenin, Comrade and Man, Progress Publishers, Moscow, ND., 1970s?, 193 pages.

Lenin on Ireland, Irish Socialist Library, New Books, Belfast, 1970, 35 pages.

Letters on Tactics – a Collection of Articles and Letters, (Moscow: Progress, 1970), 104 pages.

‘Left-wing’ Communism – An infantile Disorder, FLP, Peking, 1970, 133 pages.

On the Paris Commune – Selection of articles from VI Lenin’s Works, (Moscow, Progress, 1970), 141 pages.

Two tactics of Social-democracy in the Democratic Revolution, FLP, Peking, 1970, 167 pages.

On Workers’ Control and the Nationalisation of Industry, Progress, Moscow, 1970, 260 pages.

On Lenin, (Dublin, ICO, 1970), 28 pages. 4 articles. The organiser and leader of the Russian Communist Party (On the Fiftieth Anniversary of Lenin’s Birth). Sketches (Comrade Lenin’s Convalescence). On the Death of Lenin (Speech delivered at the Second Congress of Soviets of the USSR, 26th January, 1924). On Lenin (Speech delivered at a Memorial Evening of Kremlin Military Students, 28th January, 1924). Irish Communist Organisation.

On Utopian and Scientific Socialism, articles and speeches, Progress, Moscow, 1970, 254 pages.

Two tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, Progress, Moscow, 1970, 132 pages.

Two tactics of Social-democracy in the Democratic Revolution – selected quotes.

Where to Begin. Party Organisation and Party Literature. The Working Class and its Press – 3 Articles. Progress, Moscow, 1971, 54 pages.

Can the Bolsheviks Retain State Power, Progress, Moscow, 1971, 63 pages.

The Third International and its place in history, Progress, Moscow, 1971, 51 pages.

Speeches at the Eighth Party Congress, Progress, Moscow, 1971, 86 pages. Held in Moscow from 18th – 23rd March, 1919.

On Peaceful Coexistence, articles and speeches, Progress, Moscow, 1971, 144 pages.

Between the Two Revolutions, Articles and Speeches of 1917, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1971, 558 pages.

Marxism on the State, (Moscow, Progress, 1972), Preparatory material for the book ‘The State and Revolution’. 134 pages.

Materialism and Empirio-Criticism, FLP, Peking, 1972, 466 pages. Lenin’s major study of materialist philosophy together with strong criticism of its idealist opponents within the Russian revolutionary movement, published in 1908.

About the Press, a collection of articles and excerpts, International Organisation of Journalists, Prague, 1972, 483 pages.

The Revolutionary Phrase, ‘Left-Communist’ mistakes at the Brest Peace, articles and speeches, Progress, Moscow, 1972, 171 pages.

Lenin about the press, International Organisation of Journalists, Prague, 1972, 483 pages.

Speeches at Congresses of the Communist International, 1919-1922, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972, 158 pages.

The State and Revolution, FLP, Peking, 1973 The Marxist teaching on the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution. 151 pages.

Lenin and Gorky, letters, reminiscences, articles, Progress, Moscow, 1973, 432 pages.

On the Foreign Policy of the Soviet State, Progress, Moscow, 1973, 481 pages.

How Lenin wrote for the Masses, Three articles, including one from Chairman Mao Tse-tung and one from Nadezhda Krupskaya and one from VI Lenin, (New Era Books, London, 1974), 26 pages.

Marxism and the Liberation of Women, Quotations from Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, VI Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung, Union of Women for Liberation, London, n.d., mid-1970s?, 64 pages. Includes a statement of aims of the Union of Women for Liberation.

A caricature of Marxism and Imperialist Economism, (Moscow, Progress, 1974) 61 pages.

Marx, Engels and Lenin on the Irish Revolution, Historical reprints No. 3, Ralph Fox, Cork Workers Club, Cork, 1974, 36 pages.

Lenin on the Jewish Question, International Publishers, New York, 1974, 160 pages.

Economics and Politics in the era of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, (Peking, FLP, 1975), 14 pages.

What is to be done?, FLP, Peking, 1975, 252 pages.

What is to be Done, an alternative digital version, n.p., n.d., 129 pages.

On Marx and Engels, FLP, Peking, 1975, 98 pages.

The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1975, 145 pages.

The Tasks of the Youth Leagues, FLP, Peking, 1975, 22 pages. Speech delivered at the Third All-Russian Congress of the Russian Young Communist League, October 2nd, 1920.

Against Right Wing and Left Wing Opportunism, Against Trotskyism, Progress, Moscow, 1975, 600 pages.

On bourgeois democratic revolution, Novosti, Moscow, 1975, 135 pages.

On the Soviet State Apparatus, articles and speeches, Progress, Moscow, 1975, 447 pages.

On the struggle against Revisionism, Proletarian Publishers, San Francisco, 1975, 98 pages. (Markings throughout.)

Differences in the European Labour Movement, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 11 pages.

One step forward, two steps back, FLP, Peking, 1976, 316 pages.

Marx, Engels, Marxism, Progress, Moscow, 8th rev. ed. 1968 [1976 printing], 515 pages. Most pages well-scanned; a small number too light but mostly legible.

Against revisionism, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 600 pages.

On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 370 pages.

Speeches at Party Congresses, 1918-1922, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 383 pages.

On Scientific Communism, Marx, Engels and Lenin, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 537 pages.

A Great Beginning, FLP, Peking, 1977, 32 pages. Heroism of the Workers in the Rear, ‘Communist Subbotniks’.

The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism, published in March 1913, (Peking: FLP, 1977), 18 pages.

Last letters and articles, Progress, Moscow, 1977, 70 pages.

Lenin – Selected Works, Progress, Moscow, 1977, 782 pages.

Marx, Engels, Marxism, Progress, Moscow, 1977, 180 pages.

On Dialectical Materialism, Marx, Engels and Lenin, Progress, Moscow, 1977, 422 pages.

The Woman Question, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, International Publishers, New York, 1977, 96 pages.

On the emancipation of women, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977, 136 pages.

Lenin and National Liberation in the East, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978, 468 pages.

Alliance of the Working Class and the Peasantry, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 447 pages.

On Literature and Art, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 335 pages.

On Trade Unions, a collection of articles and speeches, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 540 pages.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (The Crisis in Our Party), Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978, 230 pages.

The Revolutionary Phrase, ‘Left-Communist’ mistakes on the Brest Peace (Articles and Speeches), Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1978, 171 pages.

Against imperialist war, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 397 pages

On Participation of the People in Government, a collection of articles and excerpts, Progress, Moscow, 1979, 302 pages.

On the development of heavy industry and electrification, Progress, Moscow, 1979, 203 pages.

On Britain, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1979, 541 pages.

On the Slogan for a United States of Europe. The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution, (Moscow, Progress, 1980) 29 pages. Two articles.

On the October Revolution, Novosti, Moscow, 1980, 120 pages.

On the question of dialectics, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1980, 126 pages.

On Organization, Proletarian Publishers, Chicago, ND – 1980s?, 235 pages. (Lots of markings and underlining throughout.)

Lenin versus Trotsky and his followers, Novosti, Moscow, 1981, 127 pages. (Pages 106-107 missing.) A late Revisionist compilation of quotes from VI Lenin attacking the ‘enemies from within the Party’.

On the United States of America, a collection of articles and excerpts, Progress, Moscow, 1982, 636 pages.

On State Capitalism during the transition to Socialism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1983, 269 pages.

On State Capitalism during the transition to Socialism – selected quotes

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Progress, Moscow, 1983, 127 pages.

For those who find 127 pages too much here are some selected quotes from this edition of ‘Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism’.

On Religion, Progress, Moscow, 1984, 83 pages.

Marxism on the State, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1984, 134 pages.

Lenin’s ‘On Co-operation’, S Serayev, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1984, 75 pages.

On Lenin’s ‘The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky’, VM Gavrilov, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1984, 116 pages.

About the Younger Generation, Novosti, Moscow, 1985, 55 pages.

Experience of the CPSU, its world significance, Progress, Moscow, 1985, 588 pages.

On Socialist Ideology and Culture, Progress, Moscow, 1985, 223 pages.

Some selected quotes from ‘On Socialist Ideology and Culture’.

On national liberation and social emancipation, Progress, Moscow, 1986, 342 pages.

Introduction to Marx, Engels, Marxism, Progress, Moscow, 1987, 109 pages. Poor scan, some crooked pages, but fully legible.

Lenin’s ‘What Is To Be Done?’, V. P. Filatov, Progress, Moscow, 1987, 116 pages.

Materialism and empirio-criticism, Progress, Moscow, 1987, 384 pages.

On Lenin’s ‘The State and Revolution’, V. Gavrilov, (Moscow, Progress, 1988). A revisionist interpretation of one of Lenin’s most important works. 106 pages.

On Lenin’s ‘Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, I Rudakova, (Moscow, Progress, 1988). A revisionist interpretation of one of Lenin’s most important works. 106 pages.

The Civil War in France: The Paris Commune, Karl Marx and VI Lenin, International Publishers, New York, 1988, 182 pages.

Lenin’s Economic Writings, edited by Meghnad Desai, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1989, 372 pages.

Learning with Lenin, selected works on education and revolution, Derek R Ford and Curry Malott, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, 2019, 651 pages.

Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, Foreign Languages Press, Paris, 2021, 149 pages.

On the Communist Press, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tsetung, Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist), n.d., 200 pages.

The Life of VI Lenin

Leninism or Trotskyism, Grigory Zinoviev, Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamenev, originally published by the Workers’ Party of America, Daily Worker Publishing, Chicago, 1925. This version FLPH, Moscow, 1949, 75 pages.

Reminiscences of Lenin, Clara Zetkin, Modern Books, London, 1929, 78 pages.

Lenin, by R Palme Dutt, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1933, 96 pages. A short biography by a British Communist.

Lenin on the Woman Question, Clara Zetkin, International Publishers, New York, 1934, 31 pages.

Lenin in action, the early days of Soviet power, personal reminiscences of Lenin in the Revolution of October 1917, by J Stalin and others, Martin Lawrence, London, 1934, 64 pages.

Lenin, D Manulisky, International Pamphlets Number 2, Modern Books, London, 1939, 16 pages.

We have met Lenin, compilation of reminiscences from those who had meetings with Lenin, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 75 pages.

Lenin – A Biography, Hutchinson, London, ND, early 1940’s?, 204 pages. Prepared by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, Moscow. Published by authority of ‘Soviet War News’. Issued by the Press Department of the Soviet Embassy in London. The closest to an official Soviet biography of VI Lenin available.

My Recollections of Lenin, Klara Zetkin, FLPH, Moscow, 1956, 92 pages.

Reminiscences of Lenin, NK Krupskaya, FLPH, Moscow, 1959, 570 pages.

Pages from Lenin’s life, L Fotieva, FLPH, Moscow, 1960, 220 pages.

VI. Lenin – a Short Biography, translated into English from the 6th Russian edition prepared by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, CC of the CPSU, 1968. Progress, Moscow, 4th revised edition 1969, 234 pages.

They Knew Lenin, reminiscences of foreign contemporaries, Progress, Moscow, 1968, 287 pages.

Lenin and the Revolution in the East, Novosti, Moscow, 1969, 120 pages.

Lenin through the eyes of the world, letters and comments from abroad, Progress, Moscow, 1969, 184 pages.

Leninist Standards of Party Life, I Pronin and M Stepichev, Progress, Moscow, 1969, 146 pages.

Fine Drawings of Lenin, a collection published by the Communist Party of Germany on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lenin (1970). 12 pages (missing two drawings).

Lenin as head of government, V Drobizhev, Novosti, Moscow, 1970, 179 pages.

Lenin, James Maxton, Men of Destiny, Heron Books, London, 1970?, 173 pages.

Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Christopher Hill, Penguin, London, 1971, 180 pages.

Lenin’s Teachings and Cause are Immortal, from the record of the Scientific and Theoretical Conference held in Moscow in January 1974 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Lenin’s death, Novosti, Moscow, 1974, 40 pages.

Lenin – Life and Work, by V. Zevin and G. Golikov, (Moscow, Novosti, 1975), 228 pages. A revisionist biography of VI Lenin. Second edition, 1977.

Lenin and Modern Natural Science, edited by M. E. Omelyanovsky, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 432 pages.

Lenin: Life and Works, a chronology of Lenin’s life, by Gerda and Hermann Weber, MacMillan, London, 1980, [Originally published in Munich in German in 1974], 240 pages.

Leninism and the agrarian and peasant question, Volume 1, Lenin’s agrarian programmes for the Three Russian Revolutions, Progress, Moscow, 1981, 514 pages.

Leninism and the agrarian and peasant question, Volume 2, historical experience of the CPSU in carrying out Lenin’s co-operative plan, Progress, Moscow, 1981, 597 pages.

The Central Lenin Museum, Moscow – a guide. (Moscow, Raduga, 1986), 160 pages. A guide to the now destroyed Museum dedicated to the life and work of VI Lenin.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Pages from his life, Volume 1, with reminiscences of his associates, Novosti, Moscow, 1990, 174 pages.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Pages from his life, Volume 2, The First Russian Revolution 1905-07, Novosti, Moscow, 1990, 173 pages.

On the so-called ‘Lenin Testament’. A pamphlet produced by W.B. Bland (then of the Communist League UK) of a presentation given to the Stalin Society (UK) in 1991. The ‘Lenin Testament’ was a document that was used by Trotskyites and other anti-Bolsheviks in an attempt to usurp the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) after the death of Comrade Lenin in 1924. In an effort to maintain Party unity the document was presented to 13th Party Congress in May 1924 where it was overwhelmingly rejected as having no importance in the choice of the Party leadership, with not even Trotsky voting for it.

Reminiscences of Lenin, Nadezhda Krupskaya, International Publishers 1970, this version published as an e-book by the Anarcho-Communist Institute, 2015, 425 pages.

Compilations from the works of VI Lenin with other great Marxists

A Handbook of Marxism, with selections from the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, International Publishers, New York, 1935, 1082 pages,

Strategy and Tactics of the Proletarian Revolution, (N.Y., International, 1936), 95 pages. Consists of a series of brief extracts mostly from the works of Lenin, Stalin and from some reports of the Comintern.

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, articles and extracts from the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, compiled and arranged by V. Bystryansky and M. Mishin, ‘Readings in Leninism’ series, (NY: International, 1936), 132 pages.

Lenin and Stalin on Youth, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1940), Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty One, 48 pages.

Lenin and Stalin on The State, (London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1942), Little Lenin Library, Volume Twenty Three, 48 pages.

Dialectical and Historical Materialism, edited by LL Sharkey and S Moston, Current Book Distributors, Sydney, 1945, 152 pages.

On Scientific Communism, Marx-Engels-Lenin, Progress, Moscow, 1967, 537 pages.

Selections from V. I. Lenin and J. V. Stalin on the National and Colonial Question, Calcutta, 1970, 244 pages.

Selected Writings by Marx, Engels, and Lenin On Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism, International Publishers, New York, 1972, 362 pages.

K. Marx F. Engels V. Lenin On Historical Materialism – a collection, Progress, Moscow, 1972, 751 pages.

Marx, Engels and Lenin: On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, a collection of quotations, (Peking: FLP, 1975), 52 pages. (Some underlining.) This collection also appeared in Peking Review on February 28, 1975.

Marx, Engels, Lenin On Communist Society – a collection, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 157 pages.

More on the USSR

The Great ‘Marxist-Leninist’ Theoreticians

Peze War Memorial

Posted on 16/02/2015 by Michael

Peze War Memorial

The third major monument in the Peze Conference Memorial Park is the cemetery to those from Peze who fell during the anti-Fascist war of Independence. The Peze War Memorial is a short distance from the main area of the park and you could be excused for not knowing it’s there.

At one time this area must have been a pleasant place to spend some time away from Tirana. In the past the capital itself was not a busy, noisy and polluted city (as it has become now) and the contrast wouldn’t have been so great. Now that Tirana has all the negative aspects of capitalism such oases of quiet should be at a premium but that doesn’t mean that they are looked after.

On my recent visit the waste bins hadn’t been empties and if the litter hadn’t just been left on the grass the wind would blow the plastic bags from the overflowing bins and were everywhere. This includes the small river that runs through the park – you really wouldn’t want to be a river in capitalist Albania, see, for example, the fate of the River Kir in Skhoder.

The Peze War Memorial and cemetery is across a bridge over the river and it’s more than likely there will be some kind of makeshift fence that gives the impression that you are going into someone ‘s field. The cemetery is slightly around the corner, up on the right and with the trees in full leaf it’s not possible to see exactly what’s there.

However, just go through the fence (only bits of scrappy string hold the ‘gate’ closed and once on the other side of the bridge you’ll see the monument sitting against a backdrop of pine trees, which you reach after going up a flight of low steps.

This is the work of the sculptors Mumtaz Dhrami and Kristo Krisiko with Nina Mitrojorgji as the architect. The official name is ‘Monumenti i vendosur në varrezat e dëshmorëve në Pezë’. It was unveiled in 1977, the same time as the Monument to Heroic Peze at the junction of the Peze-Tirana-Durres road. They must have been part of a joint project (together with the Monument to the 22nd Brigade) and it’s possible to see similarities in the style and imagery.

The bronze part of the monument is embedded into a concave mass of white concrete. (There’s been a lot of painting of the Socialist period monuments recently and I’m not always sure if they were originally designed to be whitewashed or if the bare concrete was considered to be more aesthetically appropriate.) The bronze section is in two parts. The large concave section is decorated in bas-relief and in front of that (but also attached) is the statue of a group of four partisans on top of a plinth.

These statues are not complete figures, the male partisan at the front is only shown from a point midway between his knees and thighs and of those behind him there is more as they are raked so that we can see all of their faces.

The prominent, young male is dressed in what would have been the partisan’s uniform, wears a cap with a star and has what would have been a red bandanna around his neck. In his right hand he holds the top of the barrel of a rifle, the butt of which would be resting on the ground (unseen). Across his right shoulder there’s a bandolier (broad ammunition belt) and he wears another around his waist. On his right hip there hangs a British made Mills bomb (a fragmentation grenade). Over his left shoulder is a narrow strap that is attached to a small satchel that hangs just behind the grenade. His left hand is clenched into a tight, angry fist. He is looking straight in front of him, his head held high and proud.

Standing at his left shoulder is an older woman. She is very reminiscent of the depiction of the female on the Peze junction memorial, on that part that looks in the general direction of Tirana. She is not in uniform but wears traditional peasant dress with a hood pulled over her head. As I’ve said a number of times now the women are always armed (including in the description of the Albanian Mosaic on the National Museum) and she has a rifle slung over her left shoulder. She is looking slightly to her left, the only one of the group not looking straight ahead.

Behind her, and head and shoulders higher, is another young man. He is also not in any formal uniform. He has his sleeves rolled up, holds the top of the barrel of a quite significant machine gun in his left hand and his right hand is clenched in a bent arm salute, his hand directly over the head of the partisan soldier at the front of the group. He doesn’t wear a hat. He is looking in the same direction as the partisan.

The last of the statues is of an older man. His face looks over the right shoulder of the forward male. He has a bushy moustache and wears a fez. His right arm, sleeves rolled up, is also bent and his fist clenched in a revolutionary salute. He is also looking forward but there’s no evidence that he’s armed.

The plinth upon which they are standing carries the slogan: ‘Honour to the Martyrs of Heroic Peze’

As a backdrop to this group there’s a large five-pointed star (only three points are visible) on the concave bronze background.

Here we have the representation that the war against the Fascist invaders was a war that was fought, and won by ALL the people. A National Liberation War is not like those wars fought by the mercenary armies of capitalist/imperialist nations. As Mao Tse-Tung said: “The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea” and that was how the Albanians were able to defeat the invader. And it meant the involvement of all the population, regardless of age or gender.

There are a lot of stars on this monument. Two of them have letters on them. One on the left hand side of the group has the letters VFLP – which we have already seen on the Peze junction monument, “Vdekje Fashizmit – Liri Popullit!” (“Death to Fascism – Freedom to the People!”). Another, on the right hand side of the group has the letters PKSH – Partia Komuniste Shqiptare (Albanian Communist Party) which was later to become the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA).

Immediately to the right of the group on the bas-relief is the depiction of a young family, a mother, father and child. Both the man and the women are armed (with rifles slung over their shoulders) but it’s only the woman who is in the uniform of the Partisans, wearing a cap with a star and the red neckerchief. Her fingers of her left hand are tucked behind the strap of her rifle and she holds something hanging down from her right hand but I’m not able to work out what it is, it looks like a bottle/container of some kind. (See comments below for another interpretation of the groupings in this part of the monument.)

Holding the baby

What’s a little bit different (and unique, so far, in my travels) is that it’s the man who’s left holding the baby. He is static, looking out at us, but she is marching towards the left hand edge of the tableau, as if marching to war. However, this doesn’t mean that she is doing the fighting and he is the stay at home dad as he is also armed and is obviously a fighter as well as she.

Next to them, and taking up the space for the rest of this side of the monument, there is a lot going on. In the front, at the bottom, is another family group. Although looking in the direction of the battle, of the front, of the attack, the man has his right arm around his wife and she is pressed tightly against his chest, her right hand on his shoulder and a bag hanging from her left. She is dressed as a peasant woman of the time, her hair covered with a scarf.

The man is not in uniform and his sleeves are rolled up and he is clutching a rifle by the bottom end of the barrel. Grabbing hold of the wooden butt of the gun is a young boy. Whilst he is standing with his back to the action that is drawing the attention of his father he has his hands on the gun as he looks back over his shoulder as if to say ‘give me the gun and I’ll go and fight the invader’. The woman is wearing what would now be called flip-flop sandals and the boy appears to be barefooted. Is this the farewell before he goes off to the mountains?

The gun’s mine

Behind this family group is a single male. He’s looking in the same direction as the others on this side of the monument but he is not pointing his gun (which looks like what I think is an Italian FNAB-43 submachine gun – the same as one partisan is carrying in the 22nd Brigade Monument) but brandishing it high above his head, as a challenge to the enemy – ‘we are going to get you’ he seems to be saying.

The next group, slightly higher and at a diagonal to the family, is a group of three males, of different ages and, by their dress, from different parts of the country. Two of them have their guns at the ready as if they are about to, or have just fired at the enemy. The third, the moustachioed and wearing a fez, for some reason isn’t armed and merely has his right hand clenched.

This is not the first time that groups of three have appeared in Dharmi and Krisiko’s work. I don’t know if that this is just a fad that they have or whether it holds a greater significance. (See the Heroic Peze Monument.)

Next up is a single male. He is a Communist as we can see the star on his fez. He’s full on. His right arm is high up above his head, in which he holds some sort of grenade he’s about to throw – I don’t recognise the type. (This looks similar to what the young mother mentioned before has in her hand.) This Communist has an FNAB-43 submachine gun in his left hand, ready to put it to work once the grenade has caused its havoc.

Next, and higher up, is a group of four (three men and a woman) partisans, all in the act of firing at the enemy, the three with rifles have them up to their faces in the act of aiming and one with a heavy machine gun on a tripod. Three of this group wear a star on their caps.

The remaining two partisans on this side show that victory does not come without casualties, without sacrifice. At the highest point of the bronze we have a female Communist (star on cap) with her left hand under the arm of a wounded male comrade. He is unable to stand on his own and she keeps him up. His left hand is on his rifle and she grips the same rifle by the barrel, whilst looking in the direction of battle. He might have fallen but there will always be someone ready, and willing, to pick up the rifles of the fallen to continue the struggle.

There’s a different dynamic on the other side of the group of four. The only one who is looking in the direction of the battle in which his comrades are involved is the standard-bearer. He holds the flag pole, the banner itself fluttering in the direction of battle, with the star over the heads of the two-headed eagle. Whilst his left hand is holding the flag pole in his right he holds a rifle and has a bandolier from his left shoulder.

The rest of the bronze on this side is taken up with a group of ten partisans.

The front group is made up of four males, all armed. Three of them are holding their rifles by the barrel whilst the butts are on the ground, but all these rifles are held so that they are very close together. One of the group looks like a teenager, he is smaller than the others and one of the men has his left hand on the young lad’s shoulder in a comforting, supportive manner. However young he might be the lad is armed as well as the others. Three of this group are wearing caps with the red star (including the youngster).

I’m trying to work out what they are doing, looking at. On the other side virtually all the attention is paid in one direction, where the conflict is taking place. On this side the group has no common point of interest. Although the four individuals are obviously together, the uniting of their weapons tells us that, where they are looking does not indicate unity, at least to me. Possibly it’s a meeting with a commander, who would be the one who is looking out at us, and that’s the reason the others are looking inwards.

Behind the four principals we only see the heads of the other six fighters. As with the front group there’s no common direction of attention.

On the far right we have a hatless fighter, the top of the barrel of his rifle peeking out behind his shoulder. Next along is a Communist partisan woman, with a star on her cap and her rifle raised above the heads of the males in the forefront. Both these are looking out at the viewer.

Behind the woman there’s a group of three males, of different ages (again stressing the fact that war is not just a matter for 19-20 year olds) looking generally over to their left. Things get squeezed a bit here and above their heads can be seen the tops of the barrels of various weapons and what appears to me to look like a pitchfork. This suggests two things. The first is that any weapon can be used against an invader. Secondly, even though the PKSH was a workers party Albania at that time was also a country with a predominantly peasant, agricultural population. Collectivisation and the establishment of State Farms after liberation would alter that class structure but the monument represents the situation in the country pre-1944.

The remaining male on this side looks out at the viewer, hatless but with his right fist clenched in the revolutionary salute. It might be useful to stress here that this group is collected together under the star with the letters of the anti-fascist slogan, VFLP.

This monument is in a very good condition, the only signs of wear being on the white concrete base which shows the stains from the pine trees behind. The condition of monuments throughout the country varies. This varying situation depending, I would have thought, on either the ruling political force in the locality as well as devoted individuals who take it up themselves to respect the memory of the past and the contribution made by the men and women who gave their lives for the liberation of their country. A case where, institutionally, this looks like the case is the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Berat.

This monument exists as a celebration of those from Peze who lost their lives in the war against first the Italian and then the German invaders. I don’t know if all the tombs are actually the final resting place of those who died but I’m sure there would have been a great deal of effort after the war to collect the remains of as many of the fallen as possible and place then close to their home town.

Before 1990 all of the cemeteries throughout the country would have been in a pristine condition. On significant dates relating to the war there would have been memorial services where, traditionally, children would place flowers on ALL of the graves. This served a double purpose. It ensured that those who might not have had any living relatives were not left out in the commemoration and also served as a lesson to the young to remember, recognise and respect what others had done to ensure their freedom.

Peze Cemetery

On my visit in November 2014 it was not pristine but there had obviously had been some attempt to tidy the garden and at least the marble slabs on the steps hadn’t been looted as they had been at Korce, for example.

The cemetery is also in a very pleasant location. The village of Peze itself is at the head of a valley which is wide close to the Tirana-Durres road but which narrows significantly at the village. The cemetery is on one side of this narrow valley looking out to the fields that, during the Socialist period would have been full of activity but which are now is only worked sporadically.

GPS:

N 41.21647504

E 19.70247201

DMS:

41° 12′ 59.3101” N

19° 42′ 8.8992” E

Altitude: 109.7m

Getting to Peze by public transport:

Getting to Peze is not difficult but it does require a little bit of pre-planning and a bit of organisation as the starting point in Tirana is slightly out of the centre and it’s not a particularly frequent service. The bus stop is on Rruga Karvajes, opposite the German Hospital and just a few metres east of Rruga Naim Fresheri. The journey takes between 45 minutes and an hour, depending upon traffic and the driver, and costs 50 lek each way.

Departures from Tirana: 09.00, 12.00, 13.30,

Departures from Peze: 10.00, 12.45, 15.15

These times can be flexible in the sense of leaving later than stated. I suggest you allow at least an hour to explore the park. There are a number of bars and restaurants close to where the bus turns around so you can move quickly if necessary.