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Tribute to Enver Hoxha – on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death

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Enver Hoxha

Enver Hoxha

Tribute to Enver Hoxha – on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his death

by Gjon Bruçi, Gazeta DITA, April 11, 2025

April 11, 1985 – Albania held its breath, lowered its flag and put on mourning clothes. The Leader had died – the National Pride, the Renaissance figure of modern times, the greatest man in the history of the Albanians, Enver Hoxha.

But who was Enver Hoxha? A communist? A partisan? A commander? A commissar? A leader of the people? A strategist and reformer? A legend? Or a truth?

‘History is made by the masses, individuals play a particular role’ – so teaches the history of human society. But Enver Hoxha’s role in the 50-year era of the new and modern Albania was immense. He embodied, in a single person, the highest and most refined virtues of the Albanian, while at the same time being the most brilliant fulfiller of his people’s aspirations.

In two thousand years of the New Era, the Arbër people produced dozens and hundreds of giants of both intellect and the sword. Among them shone the Hero of the Nation Gjergj Kastrioti-Skanderbeg. He was granted many titles by the chanceries of the time, such as: ‘Prince of Arbër,’ ‘Iskander,’ ‘Knight of Christ,’ and others. But his people called him with simple words – ‘The Bravest’ and ‘The Leader.’

Five hundred years later, Arbër – now Albania – would once again have its Heroes of the pen and the rifle, of thought and action, of movement and revolution, who stood up for the homeland in its most critical moments. Among them, like a mountain eagle, rose the Glorious Leader Enver Hoxha. Time gave this National Hero dozens of titles too, but the people who loved him so deeply simply called him ‘The Commander’ and ‘The Man of the Land.’

Writing about Enver Hoxha on a memorial anniversary is as easy as it is difficult. It is easy, because his monumental deeds are still alive – not only in the minds and hearts of us, his contemporaries, but also because, despite the slander of the bourgeoisie and its mercenaries, they rise like mountains and shine like the sun across the Albanian horizons and beyond. At the same time, writing about Enver Hoxha is extremely difficult, because our writings, no matter how beautifully crafted, cannot capture – in either quantity or quality – the work and legacy of this Colossus of Communism, this Great Man of Albanianhood. That is why I will attempt to focus only on two or three of the most significant moments of our unforgettable Commander and Commissar – moments which, when viewed today through the lens of time and the events we are experiencing, take on multiplied value, a value that exceeds the dimensions of an ordinary leader’s life and work.

Enver Hoxha was the most authentic embodiment of the well-known Albanian expression ‘The Man of the Land.’ To earn this title requires many qualities and high virtues that set a person apart from ordinary people. Among other things, to be or become such a man, one must possess wisdom, bravery and the courage of true men. These qualities – along with many others – Enver Hoxha possessed to the highest degree.

It was the harsh winter of 1943. In the mountains of Çermenika, the General Staff of the National Liberation Army was in a critical situation. The routes leading to the free zones were blocked by snow and by German and Ballist forces. British General Davies, who was stationed as an ally near the General Staff, was terrified by the dire conditions. In a debate with Enver Hoxha, he urged him to halt the war and surrender:

‘Mr. Hoxha, you’re mistaken… you’ve lost the war… you’re surrounded… you have only two options: either be killed or surrender…’

Enver Hoxha, who had been trying to calm the British ally, exploded when he heard those defeatist words:

‘Who lost the war? Who should surrender? Never! You, Mr. General, are a defeatist and a capitulator. The Albanian partisans do not know defeat, let alone surrender. They know only resistance and victory!’

And it was Enver Hoxha’s unmatched courage – his absolute conviction in victory – that led the General Staff of the National Liberation Army out of that fierce German-Ballist siege, during that unforgettable cold of late December 1943.

In 1946, at the Paris Peace Conference, the outcomes of the Second World War were being finalized. The great victors – the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France – held the primary positions and were deciding the fate of nations. Little Albania, with fewer than one million inhabitants, arrived at this Conference with its head held high. Its contribution to the Anti-Fascist War, compared to its human and material capacity, was of the highest level. But neighbouring chauvinists refused to acknowledge this fact. The Greek representative at the Conference, Caldarisi, launched a storm of accusations against Albania, labelling it a collaborator of fascism in the attack against Greece. If these accusations were accepted as truth, then the territorial integrity of newly-liberated Albania would be called into question. As always, the great powers of the world had little concern for the fate of small countries and peoples. These could be traded among them, like gifts or relics exchanged at a simple celebration. Facing this potential threat to our country was Enver Hoxha. With unmatched courage, he declared at the Conference:

‘I solemnly declare that: Neither the Paris Conference, nor the Conference of the Four, nor any other Conference whatsoever, can take under consideration the borders of my country, within which there is not a single inch of foreign land… Let the whole world know that the Albanian people do not allow their borders and land to be discussed… The Albanian people have not sent their delegation to Paris to give an account, but to demand accountability from those who harmed them so greatly and whom they fought fiercely until the end!’

And after this historic declaration, Enver Hoxha walked out of the Conference proceedings, returning to the Homeland, to his people – from whom, like Antaeus, he drew endless strength and courage.

In November 1960, Enver Hoxha’s courage rose to legendary proportions. It was a moment of direct confrontation with a threat looming over the international communist movement and, at the same time, over socialist Albania. The clash was face-to-face with the leader of the vast state that made up one-sixth of the globe – the father of kukuruz (maize), Nikita Khrushchev. But this ‘Cyclops’ of the great Eurasian land, when confronted with Enver Hoxha in that bitter winter of the aged Kremlin, resembled the smallest copy of a Russian Matryoshka doll. The opposite was true for Enver Hoxha. His towering and expressive appearance matched perfectly the argument and truth he stood for, all accompanied by rare courage. This was because he came from Albania, where manhood is not measured by weight or position, but by resistance and bravery, by deeds and actions for the benefit of the nation. At the end of that fierce confrontation with Nikita Khrushchev, Enver Hoxha, with a loud and confident voice, would declare: ‘I defend the interests of my country!’

That phrase – delivered with Albanian fire and manliness, in front of Moscow’s treacherous leadership – needs no commentary. As history proved, the entire philosophy of Enver Hoxha’s life and work is encapsulated in that phrase: ‘I defend the interests of my country!’

For half a century, this ‘Man of the Land’ – like no one else in the old or modern history of the Albanians – defended and elevated Albania’s and his nation’s interests to the highest levels.

* * *

It cannot be said with certainty whether an era produces colossi, or whether colossi create an era. But in our case, we can declare without hesitation: Enver Hoxha created an era for Albania and the Albanian nation. An era that placed Albania on the map of the world, raising the Albanians and their country to the highest level of dignity as a nation!

The apologists of the bourgeoisie accuse us, the communists, of the ‘cult of personality’! But who created and continues to fuel the so-called ‘cult of personality’ for the leaders of the proletariat? It was – and still is – the dwarfs of history, starting from the bald Khrushchev to the confused, bearded, scarf-wrapped types of today, who, unable to climb the Great Mountain, spit at it from below – even though their spit only falls back on their own faces!

All the high epithets in the world would not be enough for Enver Hoxha, even if all the dictionaries of the world’s languages were combined. For nature has rarely crafted such a complete person – in stature and presence, in intellect and heart, in courage and bravery, in self-sacrifice and devotion, and above all in a monumental work for the benefit of his nation – as it did in Enver Hoxha.

The ‘cult of personality’? How laughable – and equally deceitful! For a priest said to have cured one or two blind people (surely with remedies unknown in ancient times), the Church and its propaganda perform canonization, and then raise a cult around him where thousands of believers pray. But for Enver Hoxha – who performed real, not imagined, miracles; who shifted history and created an era; who cured not one or two individuals of blindness, but three million Albanians; whose theoretical and practical work lifts not just two or three crippled men, but thousands and millions of proletarians across the world – we supposedly have no right to honour him with a cult?

Yes! Enver Hoxha fully deserves the cult. He is – and will remain – the cult of honourable Albanians. He is – and will remain – the cult of the members of the Communist Party and their supporters, because his majestic figure represents the true national ideals.

Our Albania today, as I wrote at the beginning of this piece, is without a Master of the House. A full 40 years without a master. And how can a house be without ‘its Master’? ‘See and write,’ says the people – and what is to be written is clear for all to see. In the absence of the ‘Master of the Hearth,’ the pack of wolves, along with the great she-wolf of capitalism, has overrun Albania and is tearing it apart without mercy – just as hyenas do in the dark!

On the eve of the March 22, 1992 elections – elections that marked the rise to power of the old bourgeoisie and its new offspring – the chairman of the Communist Party, the revolutionary poet Hysni Milloshi, made a call: ‘Albanian people, do not blindfold yourselves with a black cloth before the ballot box, because afterwards not even the cuckoo will be able to lament your fate!’ But the Albanian people, unfortunately, under the pressure of the horns and drums of ‘bourgeois democracy,’ did not heed the call of the chief communist of the time. With two fingers raised and their minds lowered, they cast their votes into the black bourgeois box – a box that for the past three and a half decades has darkened, and continues to darken, their lives in every aspect.

The Albanians must now remove this black cloth from their eyes. Three and a half decades are enough to understand that bourgeois democracy can bring nothing but the darkness into which the people have completely sunk. Until when will this continue? Has hope been lost for emerging into the light once again?

No! The Albanians will once again find the Master of the House – without whom the country, just like a family, cannot stand firm or move forward. It cannot be otherwise. History repeats itself. And in today’s world, this ‘repetition’ has a much shorter time span than in the past. Albania will soon give birth to the ‘Man’ who will lead it out of the tunnel of darkness – towards the true light!

(Translated by November Eighth Publishing House (Canada) from the Albanian original)

See also;

Enver Hoxha – Selected Works

Enver Hoxha – Speeches and articles

Enver Hoxha – Memoirs, Diary Selections and Compilations of Articles

Visiting Enver Hoxha’s grave in Tirana

People’s Socialist Republic of Albania

Hóngqí [Red Flag] Magazine – the Theoretical Journal of the Communist Party of China (1958-1977)

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Red Flag

Red Flag

More on China …..

Hóngqí [Red Flag] Magazine – the Theoretical Journal of the Communist Party of China (1958-1977)

Hóngqí [Red Flag] was the Chinese language theoretical journal of the Communist Party of China from 1958 to 1988. Depending on the year it usually appeared monthly or twice-monthly. During the early-middle part of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution its publication was suspended (from December 1967 to July 1968) but after it resumed publication it again became an extremely important revolutionary leadership force during the rest of the Maoist socialist era along with the newspapers People’s Daily and People’s Liberation Army Daily.

Hóngqí was given its name by Mao and the Chinese characters used for the journal’s masthead were in Mao’s calligraphy. Its first editor was Mao’s secretary Chen Boda. It was the successor to the earlier CCP theoretical journal Xuexi [Study]. The capitalist-roaders replaced the by-then already totally revisionist Hóngqí journal with a new twice-monthly journal Qiúshì [‘Seeking Truth’] in July 1988.

The Joint Publications Research Service of the U.S. government translated into English many articles from issues of Hóngqí published during and after the Mao era and also many entire issues. We have made as many of these translated issues and articles as we can locate available here. However readers should keep in mind that these translations are unofficial and may not be entirely reliable.

A page for issues of Hóngqí in the years 1977-1988, which were published by the capitalist-roaders after Mao’s death, can be found here. 

Below we only include those issues for which we have an English translation. A much more complete collection of the magazine in Chinese can be found on the bannedthought website at Hóngqí [Red Flag] Magazine.

Theoretical and polemical documents can also be found in the pages of Peking Review, published weekly during the period of the construction of Socialism.

1958:

No English versions available.

1959:

No. 23 48 pages, with these articles:

The problem of being ‘Red’ and ‘Expert’ is a problem of world viewpoint
The slogan of so-called ‘Freedom, Equality, Fraternity’
Carry out the revolution in the organization of production in the coal mining enterprises
One result of the labor competitions: introducing experiences of competition in technical demonstrations at Anshan
Use natural resources as effectively as possible in serving the cause of Socialist construction

No. 24 27 pages, with these articles:

Guarantee that industrial production will rise in balance while developing at high speed, by Hsu Hsin-hsueh
Overcome the weak cycles, realize an all-around leap
Forward in industrial production, by Sun Hung-chih
Mathematics and the realities of production, by Kuan Chao-chih

1960:

No. 6 45 pages, with these articles:

Develop the great people’s health work
A health Red-Flag city – Foshan in Kwangtung
The path of combining biological research work and production realities
Victory certainly belongs to the great African peoples

No. 8 19 pages, with these articles:

The new climate in the technical revolution in the factories
The great accomplishment of Vietnam in Socialist reformed construction

No. 9 62 pages, with these articles:

The ‘small foreign groups’ are promoting the Great Leap Forward in the iron and steel industry
Extensive operation of local railways
The laboring people must be the masters of machines
Realization of the automation of tea processing
The movement for the study of theory by the masses in Heilungkiang
The high tide of the national democratic movement in Latin America
The Czechoslovakian ideological and cultural revolution is advancing toward victory

No.13 21 pages, with these articles:

Develop the comprehensive use of lumber with artificial boards as the core
Engage extensively in the comprehensive use of lumber and in the chemical industry for lumber production

No.15 78 pages, with these articles:

Intensify the Socialist-Communist education campaign in the rural areas
Further develop the ‘two-participation, one-innovation and three-union’ system and raise the managerial standard in all enterprises
Fully utilize the wild fibers
Expedite the reform of agricultural techniques, intensify the farm tool innovation movement
Mass line in educational work
On the unity of opposites

1961:

No English versions available.

1962:

No English versions available.

1963:

No English versions available.

1964:

No English versions available.

1965:

No. 1

Part 1, 40 pages, with these articles:

Premier Chou En-Lai Reports on work of the Government
Resolution of National People’s Congress
Sixteen Poems

Part 2, 49 pages, with these articles:

Self-Reliance is magic wand
‘One into Two’ and Dynamic Thought
To seek the differences or the similarities?
Workers firmly oppose theory of ‘Class co-operation’
On scientific experiment

No. 2

Part 1, 34 pages, with these articles:

Lenin’s predictions about the Revolutionary Storms of the East
The Vietnamese People will win, U.S. imperialism will lose
How to view the enemy’s opposition

Part 2, 62 pages, with these articles:

Preface to Volume 3 of ‘Khrushchev’s Statement’
A new thing
The Red Lamp
The lamentations of a certain gentleman

No. 3 54 pages, with these articles:

Comment on March Moscow Meeting
An introduction to the Book Polemics on the General Line of the International Communist Movement
To inquire into everything
Comment on history of Imperialism’s use of Christianity to invade Africa
Selection of Revolutionary Songs

No. 4 62 pages, with these articles:

The great victory of Leninism
Drive US aggressors out of Vietnam
Publisher’s explanation of Volume 5 of ‘Khrushchev’s Statement’
Seventh anniversary of founding of Agricultural Middle Schools in Liangsu
Chairman Liu Shao-Ch’i commemorates Tenth Anniversary of Bandung Conference
Poems and cartoons on Aid-Vietnam Oppose-US Struggle

No. 5 44 pages, with these articles:

Commemorate victory over German Fascism
Carry struggle against US Imperialism to end
Historical experience of war against Fascism
Seeing the film ‘Conquering Berlin’ again

No. 6

Part 1, 34 pages, with these 2 articles:

Speech by P’eng Chen at the Indonesian Aliarcham Academy
Marx on Wages Prices and Profits in Capitalist Society

Part 2, 30 pages, with this article:

Pertaining to the discussion on the new view of Basic Particles by the Japanese physicist Sakada Shoichi

1966:

No. 1

Part 1, 40 pages, with these articles:

Speech by Chou Yang at All-China Conference of Spare Time Literary Creation Activists
Leaders of C.P.S.U. are betrayers of Declaration and Statement
Politics the Supreme Commander the very soul of our work

Part 2, 46 pages, with these articles:

High standard quality comes from high standard thinking
We cannot sit and wait for the development of the Socialist enterprise
A rural Film Projection Team
Deliver the books to the hands of the peasants
Course of mankind’s understanding of chemical elements

No. 2 124 pages, with these articles:

Confessions concerning line of Soviet-US collaboration pursued by new leaders of CPSU
Two books by new USSR Communist leadership advocate Soviet-American co-operation
Era of mastering theory by the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers has begun
Workers, farmers and soldiers study Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought with ingenuity and under real world conditions
Theories from ‘On Contradictions’ applied in cement kilns
Ten thousand kilometres: and one kilometre
How the ‘Old Procedure’ was broken time and again
Tend the store counter for the People and learn the skills in practice
Wu Han’s bourgeois view of history
A poor peasant family

No. 3

Part 1, 18 pages, with this one article:

The revolution in historiography must be carried to the very end (Unsigned article written in 1964.)

Part 2, 42 pages, with these articles:

Love weapons not make-up
Constant revolution in ideology and technology
Developing the determination to be a Revolutionary
The Victory of Mao Tse-Tung’s literary and artistic thinking

No. 4 106 pages, with these articles:

Letter of reply dated 22 March 1966 of Central Committee of CCP to Central Committee of CPSU
Letter of Central Committee of CPSU dated 24 February 1966 to Central Committee of CCP
Great revelations of the Paris Commune
Comrade Chien Po-tsan’s outlook on history should be criticized
Comrade Chiao Yu-lu is good example of creative study and application of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking
Philosophical story-telling meetings
Wisdom comes from practice
Dialectics in daily work
Simplicity or complexity?
Bring forth politics and oppose compromise-ism

No. 5

Part 1, 64 pages, with these 2 articles:

Give prominence to politics, put Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking in command of everything
‘Hai Shui curses the Emperor’ and ‘The dismissal of Hai Shui’ are two great poisonous weeds

Part 2, 38 pages, with this one article:

Literature and art must insist on Marxist Epistemology — A Critique of Substantialism

No. 6

Part 1, 28 pages, with these articles:

Worker-Peasant-Soldier masses criticize Wu Han’s anti-Party. anti-Socialist political stand and academic viewpoint
Participation by Worker-Peasant-Soldier masses in academic criticism is an epoch-making event

Part 2, 18 pages, with this one article:

Raise high the Great Red Banner of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking, take an active part in the Socialist Cultural Revolution, editorial in Liberation Army Daily on 18 April 1966 reprinted in Hongqi

Part 3, 28 pages, with this one article:

Commenting On Wu Han’s [Play] T’ou-Ch’iang-Chi by Shih Shao-pin

No. 7

Part 1, 32 pages, with this one article:

Criticism of San Chia Ts’un — The Reactionary Nature of Yen Shan Yeh-hua and San Chia Ts’un Tsa-chi by Yao Wen-yuan

Part 2, 16 pages, with this one article:

The standpoint of which class do the Editorial Departments of Ch’ien-Hsien and Peking Jih-Pao Take? by Ch’i Pen-yu

Part 3, 32 pages, with these three articles:

Never forget class struggle
Workers, Peasants and Soldiers attack anti-Party and anti-Socialist elements
Enhance politics, fully portray Heroes — Review of the novel: ‘Song of Ouyang Hai’

No. 8 50 pages, with these articles:

Put Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought in the forefront, Cadres give the lead at every level
Long Live the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Sweep away all monsters
Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought is the telescope and microscope of our revolutionary cause
Workers, Peasants, Soldiers and Students denounce ‘Three-Family Village’ Counter-revolutionary clique

No. 9 90 pages, with these articles:

Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art — May 1942
Trust the masses rely on the masses
The compass for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution — Note on the reprinting of ‘Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art’
Thoroughly criticize and repudiate the revisionist line of some of the principal leading members of the former Peking Municipal Party Committee
Chou Yang’s Black Arrow to Turn History Upside Down — Comment on a note in the complete Works of Lu Hsun Vol. VI
‘National Defense Literature’ is a slogan of Wang Ming’s Right Opportunist Line

No.10 70 pages, with these articles:

Decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
A Programmatic Document of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Energetically launch the mass campaign for studying Chairman Mao’s Writings speed up the Proletarian Revolutionization of Peasants’ Thought
Comment on Sun Yeh-fang’s reactionary political stand and economic program
The Three Poison Weeds of Hou Wai-lu’s comments of T’ang Hsien-tsu’s Plays

No.11 60 pages, with these articles:

Communique of the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Our greatest leader, our dearest person
Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech
Comrade Chou En-lai’s Speech
Grow up braving storm and stress victoriously march forward along the road of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
Selection of Revolutionary Big-Character Posters

  • What have Sung Shuo Lu P’ing and P’ei-yun done in the Cultural Revolution?
  • Long Live the Revolutionary Rebellious Spirit of the Proletariat
  • More on Long Live the Revolutionary Rebellious Spirit of the Proletariat
  • Third comment on Long Live the Revolutionary Rebellious Spirit of the Proletariat
  • Bring out the proprietary attitude
  • A letter to seven comrades

Hail the Big-Character Poster of Peking University
Saluting the revolutionary youths and teenagers
The General Election system of the Paris Commune

No.12 60 pages with these articles:

Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech (31 August 1966)
Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech (15 September 1966)
Comrade Chou En-lai’s Speech (31 August 1966)
Comrade Chou En-lai’s Speech (15 September 1966)
Hold fast to the main orientation in the struggle
Take firm hold of the Revolution and stimulate production
In praise of the Red Guards
Selected articles of the Red Guards
Chou Yang is not allowed to attack and disparage Lu Hsun

No.13

Part 1, 48 pages, with these 9 articles:

Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech
Follow along the high road of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
For greater victories in revolution and production
Advance under the illumination of Mao Tse-tung’s Thinking
Ideological revolution motivates production revolution
Chairman Mao, you are the Red Sun of Our Heart!
The People’s Warriors remain loyal to Chairman Mao forever
The New Peking University forces ahead
Contribute your whole lifetime to the revolutionary cause

Part 2, 30 pages, with these 2 articles:

Build the company into a good school for Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
Manage well the oil wells for the People

Part 3, 20 pages, with this one article:

Arm the peasants with Thought of Mao Tse-tung, the basic experience of the Tachai Production Brigade in politico-ideological work

No.14 70 pages, with these articles:

Victory for the proletarian revolutionary line represented by Chairman Mao
Commemorate Lu Hsun and carry the Revolution through to the end
Learn from Lu Hsun, be faithful to Chairman Mao forever
Rebutting Simonov
Mao Tse-tung’s Thought illuminates Lu Hsun
Commemorating Lu Hsun’s rebellious spirit
Concluding speech at meeting in commemoration of Lu Hsun
Commemorating Lu Hsun Cultural Revolution
We must truly master the Thought of Mao Tse-tung
Dare to struggle, be good at struggle
Change the Thought of Mao Tse-tung into one’s own soul
Regard revolutionary interests as primary in life
New people nurtured and brought up by the Thought of Mao Tse-tung

No.15 65 pages, with these articles:

Comrade Mao Tse-Tung’s Message of Greetings
Comrade Lin Piao’s Speech at Peking Mass Rally
Literature and Art workers hold rally for Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Seize new victories
Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
The true features of Chien Po-Tsan an anti-Communist intellectual

1967:

No. 2

Part 1, 18 pages, with these articles:

Respond to Chairman Mao’s call, go among the masses
Long Live ‘To rebel is justified’
Creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s
Writings in Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Labor must stand on the front ranks of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Part 2, 69 pages, with these articles:

Message of greetings to Revolutionary Rebel Organizations in Shanghai
Take firm hold of the Revolution, promote production and utterly smash the new counter-attack launched by the bourgeois reactionary line
Revolutionary workers of newspapers send telegram saluting Chairman Mao
32 Shanghai Revolutionary Rebel Organizations issue ‘Urgent Notice’
Shanghai Revolutionary Rebels launch major attack on bourgeois reactionary line
Shanghai Revolutionary Rebel Organizations send telegram saluting Chairman Mao
Letter saluting Chairman Mao
Oppose economism and smash the latest counter-attack by the bourgeois reactionary line
Proletarian revolutionaries unite, thoroughly smash the new counter-attack of the bourgeois reactionary line
Firmly put in check the evil wind of economism
Money cannot change our will to rebel
Resolutely oppose economism
Proletarian Dictatorship and Proletarian Extensive Democracy
First step in forming one with the workers

No. 3

Part 1, 62 pages, with these 10 articles:

On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party by Mao Tse-tung (1929)
On the proletarian revolutionaries’ struggle to seize power
On revolutionary discipline and revolutionary authority of the proletariat
The People’s Liberation Army firmly backs the proletarian revolutionaries
A great victory in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in Shansi Province
Great alliance is the key factor
Spring thunder over Southwest China
A new dawn breaks over the Northeast
Get rid of ‘self-interest’, forge a great alliance of revolutionary rebels
After seizure of power

Part 2, 33 pages, with these 6 articles:

Shansi Revolutionary Rebel General Headquarters Public Notice No. 1
Tsingtao Municipal Revolutionary Rebel Committee Notice No. 1
Public Notice of the Kweichow Proletarian Revolutionary Rebel General Headquarters
Public Notice No. 1 of the Revolutionary Committee of Red Rebels in Heilungkiang Province
Power to exercise leadership over newspapers must be seized
Let us grasp the destiny of the seaport

No. 4

Part 1, Not yet available.

Part 2, 7 pages, with 1 article:

Creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s Writings in supporting the struggle of proletarian revolutionaries to seize power by Wang Tse-chun

No. 5

Part 1, 82 pages, with these 10 articles:

Letter from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
On the revolutionary ‘Three-way alliance’
Patriotism or national betrayal?
The bourgeois reactionary line on the question of cadres must be criticized and repudiated
Go all out to mobilize the masses, smash the scheme for counter-revolutionary restoration
How we supported proletarian revolutionaries
Bravely advance in the teeth of class struggle
Tachai marches on under the brilliance of Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought
Resolutely carry out Chairman Mao’s Cadres Policy
Put Revolution in the first place

Part 2, 34 pages, with these 4 articles:

‘Hit hard at many in order to protect a handful’ is a component part of the bourgeois reactionary line
Follow Chairman Mao, carry the Revolution through to the end
Transportation situation exceedingly favorable after power seizure in Harbin Railway Bureau
Put Revolution in command of production

No. 8 46 pages, with these articles:

We Workers, Peasants and Soldiers must dominate the arena of literature and art
Long Live Chairman Mao’s revolutionary literary and art line
‘Taking the Bandits’ Stronghold’

No. 9 61 pages, with these articles:

The Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art is a revolutionary program for carrying out the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Dockers have ascended the dramatic stage
‘Raid on the White Tiger Regiment’ is a good play manifesting the Thought of Mao Tse-tung
Workers, Peasants and Soldiers must occupy the art stage
Long Live Chairman Mao’s boundlessly brilliant revolutionary line on literature and art
A new victory of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line for art and literature
Long Live the all-conquering Thought of Mao Tsetung on art and literature

No.10

Part 1, 70 pages, with these articles:

‘On the correct handling of contradictions among the people’ by Mao Tse-tung
A theoretical weapon for making revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
A great strategic measure
Stop the encroachment of bourgeois ideology
Never forget the general orientation of the struggle

Part 2, 46 pages, with these articles:

Creatively study and apply Chairman Mao’s Writings, correctly handle contradictions among the people
Make a strict distinction between the two different types of contradictions, correctly handle the deceived masses
Be forever loyal to Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line
Correctly understand and practice extensive democracy under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Shantung Provincial Revolutionary Committee’s Regulations on conscientiously improving Cadres’ style of work
Combine the Big Criticism with each unit’s struggle, criticism and reform

No.11 100 pages, with these articles:

Mao Tse-tung’s Thought illuminates the road for our Party’s victorious advance
The Military Government of Ne Win, the Chiang Kai-shek of Burma, is bound to fail! The People are bound to win!
People of Indonesia Unite and Fight to overthrow the Fascist Regime
Statement by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Indonesian Communist Party
Self-criticism by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Indonesian Communist Party
It is necessary to topple self-interest in order to realize the great alliance of revolutionaries
Rely on the masses and realize a great revolutionary alliance
Realize the great alliance of revolutionaries, return to school to make Revolution
Forever preserve the revolutionary color of the proletariat
Only by eliminating self-interest and fostering devotion to public interest can we hold and exercise power well
Transact business in strict accordance with Party policies
Hold high the banner of revolutionary great alliance
Resolutely support revolutionary cadres in coming forward

No.12 98 pages, with these articles:

Chairman Mao Tse-tung on People’s War
Long Live the Victory of People’s War!
The proletariat must take a firm hold of the gun
Open fierce fire on the chief enemy of the people
Politically and ideologically overthrow completely the handful of Capitalist Roaders within the Party
Recommending one good article
Let us go forward triumphantly along Chairman Mao’s proletarian line of army building
Resolutely defend Chairman Mao’s proletarian revolutionary line

No.13 109 pages, with these articles:

Bombard the headquarters
Along the Socialist or the capitalist road?
Completely smash the bourgeois headquarters
Resolution of 8th Plenary Session of 8th Central Committee of C.P.C. concerning the anti-Party clique headed by Peng Teh-huai
From the defeat of Peng Teh-huai to the bankruptcy of China’s Khrushchev
Scheming to betray the Party is aimed at usurping the Party
The bankruptcy of China’s ‘devotee of Parliament’
Song of Triumph on Tsinghai Plateau
Message saluting Chairman Mao Tse-tung
Socialist enterprises can never be allowed to be dragged astray onto the road of capitalism
Thorough criticism of the ‘Three-self, one-guarantee’ system geared to restoration of capitalism
Angry rebuke of the capitulationist program of the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road
Lessons of the Arab war against aggression

No.14 49 pages, with these articles:

Comments on Tao Chu’s two books by Yao Wen-yuan
Bring about the revolutionary great alliance in the course of the high tide of revolutionary mass criticism and repudiation
Steadfastly stand behind the proletarian revolutionaries
The great Chinese People’s Liberation Army is a reliable pillar of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Further implement Chairman Mao’s great principle for grasping the Revolution and stimulating production
Resolutely trust and rely upon the great majority of Cadres

No.15 36 pages, with these articles:

Chairman Mao inspects North Central-South and East China
Comrade Lin Piao’s speech
Long Live Victory of the Great Cultural Revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
A great revolution to achieve the complete ascendancy of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought
‘Combat self-interest, criticize and repudiate revisionism’, carry out well the struggle-criticism-transformation in various schools and unite
Working class unite

No.16 78 pages, with these articles:

Carry out revolutionary great alliances according to fields of work
Comrade Lin Piao’s speech
Advance along the road opened up by the October Revolution
Struggle between the two roads in China’s countryside
Thoroughly establish the absolute authority of the Great Supreme Commander Chairman Mao and of his great thought
Study classes for Mao Tse-Tung’s Thought based on Three-way Combination are very good indeed
A good way to combat self-interest and criticize and repudiate revisionism
Carry out the activity of ‘One helping another to form a red pair’, develop and consolidate the revolutionary great alliance

1968:

No English versions available.

1969:

No English versions available.

1970:

No English versions available.

1971:

No English versions available.

1972:

No English versions available.

1973:

No English versions available.

1974:

No.10 One article, 5 pages:

Grasp the dialectical method of one dividing into two

1975:

No English versions available.

1976:

No. 1 Only a few articles presently available:

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution by Chung Shih, 7 pages. (Article starts in the middle of the page.)
Firmly grasp the class struggle as the key link by Chih Heng, 7 pages.
Two articles, 13 pages:

Uphold Party’s basic line – a study of ‘On the correct handling of contradictions among the people’ The splendid poems that inspire us in our struggle – a study of the Two Poems of Chairman Mao by Yen Shui-kai

Communist Party Digest, No. 195, Author and Title Index to Hung-ch’i [Hongqi] for the years 1966-1967, 43 pages.

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7th November – The October Revolution

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Attack on the Winter Palace

Attack on the Winter Palace

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7th November – The October Revolution

Today is probably the most important day in the history of the international working class. Ninety seven years ago workers, sailors and soldiers under the organisation of the Russian Social Democrat Workers Party (Bolshevik) stormed the Winter Palace, the symbolic centre of Tsarism and latterly the headquarters of the ineffectual Provisional Government. That action took place on, and became known as, the 7th November – The October Revolution.

Some people are confused that the October Revolution in Russia took place in November. The simple answer is that the backwardness of the Russian society under the Tsars, an autocratic and theocratic state, was demonstrated not only by its almost feudal relations with the peasantry but also by the fact that the country was still using the Julian calendar which had been dropped by most other countries hundreds of years before. This meant that the day that saw the cruiser The Aurora fire the shot to signal the beginning of the attack on the palace was reckoned as the 25th October in Russia but the 7th November elsewhere. As soon as was practically possible the new Bolshevik government brought the country into the 20th century, at the end of January 1918, by adopting the more accurate Gregorian calendar.

Although this revolution was to change the course of history, as no other had done in the past, it was relatively bloodless on that chaotic morning. There used to be a ‘joke’ in revolutionary circles that there were more people injured in the making of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1928 film ‘October’ (recreating the events of just over a decade earlier) than the real event.

If reaction and oppression couldn’t stop the revolution at the time it did all it could in the next 4 to 5 years to strangle the nascent workers’ and peasants’ state. Those imperialist powers that had been slaughtering each other (or more exactly had convinced their own workers to kill fellow workers of different countries) for almost four years – the start of which is now being cynically and hypocritically commemorated at this moment – banded together against a common enemy, the working class.

But under the leadership of the party that was to become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik) and its great leaders, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, the workers and peasants prevailed and started along the difficult and uncharted road towards Socialism.

The reason that the Party, having to surmount unimaginable obstacles and at a great human cost, was due to the Bolsheviks keeping their promise to the Russian people, downtrodden in both the countryside and the cities and tired of the slaughter that was the First World War. The very day after the revolution (26th October) a decree giving land to the peasants was passed and the following day (27th October) the Bolsheviks declared that they were not prepared to continue with the crime of worker killing worker.

Revolutions are not the same as dinner parties, as Chairman Mao said, and however well they are organised they rarely go to plan, there being too many variables and this happened to the intention to cease military action on the eastern front. Foolishly Lenin gave the task of the negotiations with the German High Command at the city of Brest-Litovsk to the recent ‘convert’ to Bolshevism Leon Trotsky.

Playing a role that his followers have played in the intervening years Trotsky went against the instructions of the Central Committee of the Party and dragged out the negotiations, thereby acting as the tool for those nations fighting against the German alliance (who wanted Russians to die and keep a large percentage of German troops away from the western front), causing the needless death of thousands of Russian workers and peasants and finally making an agreement that was more disadvantageous to the new Soviet State than it would have been if he had followed orders. (The erroneous ‘theories’ of Trotskyism, demonstrated by this approach, having failed to lead a successful revolution anywhere in the world in the last, almost, hundred years.)

Attempts at revolution in Hungary and German came to nought and the other capitalist nations went through crises and economic depression without the workers following the lead of the Soviets, thereby weakening themselves and the first socialist state.

Being the first is always difficult. Mistakes, as well as many successes, were made but capitalism never tires in its aim to maintain the system of oppression and exploitation. Whilst it had failed in the intervention with the 14 nations in the Civil War it hoped that the Fascists in Europe would finish the job. Unfortunately for imperialism the dogs of war decided to go for the easy touch first and France, Belgium and the Netherlands capitulated at the first opportunity and the British had to scuttle back across the English Channel, a disorderly retreat which is now depicted as a victory.

But the megalomania of the Nazis knew no bounds and it was inevitable that they would seek to destroy socialism in the Soviet Union. However, at a huge sacrifice in terms of human life and the material advances that had been made since the end of the Civil War (with industrialisation and collectivisation) the ‘Thousand Year Reich’ was utterly destroyed. The men and women of the Soviet Union had saved the world from Fascism.

Although defeated on the battlefield Fascism did have the effect of weakening the Soviet Union, the best and most committed communists being prepared to make the supreme sacrifice in order to save their revolutionary gains. This meant that when the revolution was attacked this time from the inside, following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, those revisionist elements within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were able to move the country off the road of socialism.

The Soviet Union as an entity ceased to exist in 1991 but it ceased to be a socialist country long before that, the date being accepted by most Marxist-Leninist is that of the time of the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956, when Khrushchev made his attack upon Stalin – but really on the whole concept of revolutionary socialism.

But in the same way that the October Revolution was made by the people so the defeat of that same revolution less that 40 years later was also the responsibility of the Soviet people. If they are treated as nothing more than pawns by their rulers then they have accepted that situation. If the working class is the class to move society to a higher level they can’t then cry that they are victims of forces beyond their control.

The slogan ‘ye are many, they are few’ is as valid today as it was when Shelley wrote the line almost 200 years ago.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Russian people have seen virtually all the advances made in those 40 years of socialism destroyed completely in the last 20 or so years, with gangsters and thieves using the natural wealth and the labour of the workers to buy football teams, huge yachts, a myriad of palaces and countless whores no one can take away from their grandfathers and grandmothers the achievements they made in the first half of the 20th century.

The men and women who make revolutions are rare and if a country can produce such a generation once in a millennium they are doing well. Despite the arrogance that oozes out of the capitalist propaganda machine that socialism is dead what those men and women started on 7th November 1917, the October Revolution, will forever be a beacon to the oppressed and exploited of the world.

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