In the archives of the dark communist history, there is evidence that shows the climate of suspicion and ideological control that was nurtured among the party comrades themselves. One of these is a letter from 1957, written by a communist from Lezha and sent to Rita Markos, a senior functionary of the Party of Labor and a close associate of Enver Hoxha.
The author of the letter denounces his communist comrades who attended mass and churches, baptized their children, and maintained ties with the religious world, at a time when the party was preparing to intensify its attacks on religion. The denunciation is made a full 10 years before the regime's open and violent campaign against religious institutions began in 1967.
In his letter, the accuser does not stop at religious belief alone, but also targets social relationships that the party considered unacceptable. He also mentions the name of Pjetër Gac, accusing him of having friendship with the “kulaks.” To hit him harder, he even takes the opportunity to mention Gac’s brother-in-law, demanding that he be marked as “connected with the kulaks.”
This letter clearly shows how espionage, internal denunciations, and hate speech against religion and "class enemies" were present in Albanian society since the 1950s, long before Albania's official declaration as the first atheist state in the world.
