Leftist Dissent against State Socialism in Albania: How the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Influenced the Left-wing Dissent in Albania
Inxhi Brisku (University of Haifa)
Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought V, no. 2 (2021): 87–106
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Keywords: left-wing dissent, Conference of the Party Committee of Tirana, the critique of state socialism, Marxist terminology
This article deals with the most important event of leftist dissent during the 45 years of state socialism in Albania. This event was the Conference of the Party Committee for the City of Tirana, where delegates from all over Tirana, under the influence of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, criticized the party’s high leadership for economic difficulties in the country, leadership privileges, lack of internal democracy in the party, and other problems of the time. This paper aims to discern to what extent Marxist terminology is employed in the critique of the system by these individuals. From an analysis of the discussions of the delegates in the conference, it is observed that although they do not directly employ Marxist concepts in their critiques of the party leadership and its policies, they have positioned their criticism from a leftist perspective and have used critiques similar to those that Trotsky used against Stalinism.
doi: 10.46957/con.2021.2.5
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