An article by American journalist Robert Kroon is published, who served as a reporter for the NBC network for 60 years, going to several countries around the world, where there were hotbeds of wars and conflicts, such as in Congo, etc., and in communist countries of Eastern Europe, such as in 1956 where he followed the events in Hungary, in 1968 in Czechoslovakia, where he covered the military aggression with the introduction of Soviet tanks into Prague, etc.
The Albanian adventure in the summer of 1971, of Kroon, who after being provided with a Dutch passport, was able to visit the communist Albania of Enver Hoxha, by 'infiltrating' a group of foreign tourists, Marxist-Leninists. As he reflected in his writing, the small communist country of the Balkans, or as he calls it "The Land of Eagles" which a few days later, on September 6, 1971, was published in TIME magazine, with the title "Fear is what guards the vineyard"!
Fear is what guards the vineyard.
September 6, 1971
“I think we have lost Albania,” Nikita Khrushchev declared to a Chinese delegation in 1961, “and you have gained an important ally.” Khrushchev, of course, was being very sarcastic, as the head of the Albanian Party of Labor, Enver Hoxha, sided with the Chinese against the Soviet revisionists. Since then, Albania has been China’s only friend in Europe. And for the past decade it has been as angry and isolated as Beijing itself.
Now, following China’s example, Albania is gradually looking to open up to the outside world. It has established trade and diplomatic relations with its neighbors, Greece and Yugoslavia, and with a growing list of other Western European nations. It is even building a few tourist hotels for those who want to see socialism on stage. Most Americans are still banned, but Robert Kroon for TIME, who was able to travel on a Dutch passport, recently visited “the land of the eagles,” as Albanians call it, and reported:
TIRANA (population 190,000) is perhaps the darkest capital in the world. It is a city of dilapidated, pale red brick houses, sometimes adorned with faded yellow or blue apartment buildings and stark facades, wooden stalls on street corners selling fruit, soft drinks and sweets, in some shops you see more banners than goods…!
The cafes are filled with workers in rolled-up shirts, drinking coffee and spending time in endless conversations, in apparent contradiction to the communist party's credo of work. This place is a paradise for pedestrians. Albania is perhaps the most unknown country in the world. The people are suspicious, curious, unsmiling, a testament to the effectiveness of the motto of Enver Hoxha's Party, "Fear is what guards the vineyard."
Western fashion is not tolerated. After the green-uniformed customs officers have noisily completed their checks, visitors arriving at the only airport with a runway are immediately advised that socialist Albania does not tolerate long hair, shorts, or low-cut necklines. “We don’t need drugs, long hair, or jazz music,” said an Albanian student guide, an Italian Maoist, in our group, dressed fashionably but rather disappointedly, for he was wearing his Via Veneto shirt, skinny jeans, and wide belt.
“A socialist does not dress like an American cowboy.” A Swedish girl who left her beachside hotel in shorts on a scorching day took this message even more strongly when a bunch of dedicated puritans from a nearby Party youth camp stopped her and severely reprimanded her.
Tirana was our point of arrival, we were traveling in a Chinese minibus, which went 100 km. per hour, a product of Tientsin Motor Works. The driver was quite expert, he managed to maintain an average speed, while avoiding potholes, people, carts, donkeys and trucks. The only passenger cars, belong to party officials or diplomats.
The Chinese ambassador drives a Mercedes, the northern Vietnamese a sporty Alfa Romeo. A common feature of the landscape is the green coastal plains and hills rising to the scrub-covered mountains. In the midst of them, there are a multitude of Party slogans, placed on the walls of farmhouses, on chimneys. One was made of white, lime-washed stones, 100 meters high and stretched across a mountain. The message is always the same: “Glory to the Party of Labor of Albania,” or “Long live Comrade Enver,” a reference to Albania’s ubiquitous leader.
“Great strides forward.” Hoxha, a hero of Albania’s World War II resistance against Italian and German occupation, is a good candidate for the title of the world’s most autocratic ruler. Yet after 25 years under his tutelage, Albania has progressed from feudal backwardness and poverty to a parasitic society with sufficient food, clothing, shelter and free medical care for its two million people.
His achievements are giant steps forward for Albanians, but they are painfully modest by Western standards. Before Hoxha, there were no railways at all; now a modest rail network connects the country’s major cities. Once 90 percent illiterate, Albania can now boast schools for children and adults, and a university in Tirana. Marshes have been drained, irrigation canals have been installed, and agricultural cooperatives are keeping Albanians fed by cultivating every square meter of arable land. Moreover, the current five-year plan has brought electricity to every rural district, largely thanks to the giant new Mao Zedong hydroelectric power plant.
China has paid a high price for its ally, which it has had to help, since Russia withdrew its technicians after the 1961 split between Tirana and Moscow. Chinese aid since then has been estimated at $100 million or more. Even such simple items as matches and lamps have been shipped by sea around the Cape of Good Hope from Shanghai. Albania is rich in minerals such as chromium, nickel and copper, but understandably poor in industry. The most spectacular Chinese project is a vast textile factory in Berat, where workers work a full, nonsensical 48-hour week, six days a week for a minimum wage of 600 lek ($70) a month – 100 lek more than workers in factories elsewhere.
A director usually earns twice that amount, although the highest-paid state employee, Hoxha himself, takes home a salary of just 2,000 lekë ($240) a month. Retired workers (men aged 60, women 55) receive 70 percent of their previous salary. If a worker manages to get a state-built apartment, he pays what is surely the lowest rent in Europe, from $2.50 to $6 a month.
Other items, however, are not nearly as cheap, and the most desirable luxury of all, a Chinese bicycle, costs a month’s salary. Watches, refrigerators, washing machines, and television sets are beyond the means of the average worker. But Enver Hoxha can boast that: “Albania is the only country in the world without taxes” (government revenue is provided by profits from state-owned factories, cooperatives and farms, exports, and Chinese aid).
Despite the harsh Albanian way of life, at least some Albanian-Americans were able to visit relatives (these were an Albanian-American community of 100,000 in the US, about half of whom live in the Boston area, and were the only American visitors allowed to visit relatives). “My relatives in Korça have a roof over their heads, they have enough money to eat, and they still like Hoxha,” said one of them. “It may not be paradise, but it is a well-disciplined, proud society, without deceit, without criminals, without drug addicts and sex maniacs.
Much of Albania’s rejection of outside influence stems from a fierce nationalism. As Hoxha once put it: “The Albanians have fought their way through history, sword in hand.” They have routinely fallen prey to numerous invaders and, in this century alone, have been ruled by the Turks, Austro-Hungarians, Italians, Greeks and Germans. In fact, apart from a brief period between the World Wars, when it was ruled by the feudal King, Zog, Albania had not been independent since the 15th century.
Perhaps its history provides a sense of kinship, with the historically xenophobic Chinese. But beyond that, Albanians seem to enjoy the presence of the 1,000 to 1,500 or so residents, Chinese civilians, mostly diplomats and technicians. “They don’t impose themselves like the Russians,” said a party member in Tirana. “The Soviets who lived here lived in luxury. They earned 10 times more than their Albanian colleagues. The Chinese get the same salary as us and don’t ask to live in the best places!”
Apparently, Albanians will have a friendly welcome when Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai comes on an official visit this fall. But they have shown themselves to be less than flattering in only one respect. Beijing's presence has not led to the opening of a single Chinese restaurant in Albania so far. /Memorie.al/
