Aggressors Get Out of Afghanistan!
Writings of Comrade Enver Hoxha on the Occupation of Afghanistan
Aggressors Get Out of Afghanistan!
January 5, 1980
The recent military occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet social-imperialists has sparked off a wave of great anger amongst the progressive and freedom-loving people of the whole world. The present intervention is an act of aggression not only against all of the peoples of the region of the Middle East, against international peace and security.
This is a fascist type of aggression, identical to the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. It is a new edition, both from the point of view of the military action, as well as from the point of view of the arguments which were used to justify it. The Soviet social imperialists are trying to present the occupation of Afghanistan as ‘legitimate’, allegedly carried out according to a request for aid made by the Afghan government on the basis of the so-called ‘friendship’ treaty which exists between the two countries and to defend Afghanistan from external intervention, etc.
All these so-called arguments are just as stale as they are confused. They have been used by all aggressors at all times.
The fact is that the Soviet social-imperialists had carefully prepared the ground for this occupation beforehand, intervening and aggravating the situation inside the country in their favour and binding Afghanistan with the chains of enslaving treaties which the Soviet social-imperialists use openly as instruments to occupy other peoples and countries or to keep them under their dependence and control. The fall of the monarchy and later on of Daoud was a cynical utilization by the Moscow rulers of the desires of the Afghan people for liberation because the people felt the heavy burden of the oppression and exploitation of the monarchy and feudalism and their Soviet allies and wanted to see their country free and sovereign,
To disguise their imperialist aims and to realise these aims as quickly as possible, the staff in the Kremlin brutally interfered in Afghanistan, bringing their own people to power there and eliminating them one after another in their efforts to find the most suitable and obedient to Moscow. The Soviet Union is not interested in either the freedom or independence of Afghanistan as is claimed or in the liberation of the much-suffering people of that country. What interests Moscow the most is Afghanistan’s strategic position in the Middle East, its proximity to the oil resources, its key position in a major region where the savage rivalry between the two superpowers is developing.
The occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union occurred at a time when the United States of America is carrying out broad scale activities to exert pressure and exercise blackmail against Iran, when it is carrying out full-scale economic and political aggression against that country accompanied with a demonstration of force and threats of military intervention. From this angle, the events in Iran and Afghanistan are closely linked and other events of this nature could occur in that region. This shows the intensity of the rivalry between the United States of America and the Soviet Union in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, what a great and threatening danger the two superpowers pose to the countries of that region,
Their aim is to attack and suppress the revolutionary movements of the people, to stop them from breaking away from the hegemony of imperialism and social-imperialism, to obstruct the peoples from entering the road of independent national and democratic development. The barbarous aggression of the Soviet social-imperialists against Afghanistan, the ceaseless threats of aggression being made by the American imperialists and the intrigues of the Chinese social-imperialists in those regions are fraught with immense dangers for world peace and security. These acts refute all the deafening noise which the superpowers are making about the alleged preservation of peace and stability, their manoeuvres to lower the vigilance of the peoples and countries which are threatened by their hegemonic and expansionist policy.
The events in Iran and Afghanistan prove that precisely at a time when the imperialists and social-imperialist superpowers are screaming themselves hoarse about peace, lowering of tensions, disarmament, etc., they are preparing aggression against the freedom and independence of the peoples.
The occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union is a product of its expansionist and aggressive strategy. It once more clearly demonstrates today that aggression and the use of military force constitute the most typical feature of Soviet foreign policy. In rivalry with American imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism has done its utmost, employing all manner of means to secure new strategic positions and extend its sphere of control and domination in Asia, Africa and Latin America and everywhere else. In these efforts they utilise every means, from diplomatic and political manoeuvres to military violence. But when the peoples take their fate into their own hands the defence of their just cause and rise in revolution such as occurred in Iran, the superpowers suffer heavy and irreparable defeat to their hegemonic positions. After occupying Afghanistan and putting it under their iron military heel, the Soviet social-imperialists are now trying to pacify public opinion that allegedly it only sent a few contingents there temporarily, for as long as is necessary, but in reality there is no limit to their stay. They will act in exactly the same way in Afghanistan as they did in Czechoslovakia, where to this day after 12 years, their occupation troops are still in that country. No matter what promises or justifications the Soviet social-imperialists use, they can never be able to cover up the grave crime they have committed against the freedom, independence and national sovereignty of Afghanistan. No one, no matter under what pretext, has the right of intervene in the internal affairs and life of other peoples or countries. Only the peoples are powerful and have the right to decide on the internal problems of their countries without any external interference.
On the other hand the hypocritical demagogy of the American imperialists and the Chinese social-imperialists which are trying to present themselves as alleged defenders of Afghanistan and are shedding crocodile tears over its fate can fool no one. In these turbulent situations, the American imperialists are trying to profit for themselves, to justify their military threats against Iran and other countries of the Middle East. The peoples have not forgotten the criminal war of the American imperialists in Indochina and elsewhere; they have not forgotten the criminal fascist-type aggression of the Chinese social-imperialists against Vietnam just as they can never forget Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan etc.
They know only too well that the American imperialists, the Soviet and Chinese social imperialists and all the imperialists and other reactionaries, are equally aggressive and bloodthirsty, that they are enemies until death of the freedom and independence of the peoples, that they strike and conclude all sorts of bargains and agreements to the detriment of the peoples. The events in Afghanistan and Iran, which affect all the peoples of the world, make the growth of their vigilance against the aggressive activity of imperialism and social-imperialism, their unity in the struggle against the aggressive expansionist and hegemonic policies of the superpowers, imperative. Now, the freedom loving fighters of Afghanistan have seized arms and are fighting courageously in the mountains and cities against the Soviet domination and its agents. They are setting lofty examples of courage and are everywhere proving their determination to always hold aloft the banner of freedom and national sovereignty to fight through to the end to oust the occupiers. In this just and legitimate struggle, they are enjoying and will always enjoy the support of the freedom-loving people and other honest and progressive people everywhere in the world.
This struggle is being aided powerfully by the Iranian revolution and people. Besides that, the Afghan fighters would be supported by all the freedom-loving Moslem peoples wherever they are; in particular the Arab and African peoples, who at present are under the greatest threat from American imperialism, must rise and powerfully express their fighting solidarity for the Iranian revolution and the Afghan uprising, for in this way they are fighting for their own freedom, independence and sovereignty. In this situation, with the stand they maintain, the leaders of these countries who truly defend the national interest and those of the people will be distinguished from those who sell out these interests to the foreigners.
The Arab people, who live in the rich oil-bearing region, but who are oppressed, poverty-stricken and exploited, clearly witness the cruelty of the imperialists and neo-colonialists to their detriment. But we are convinced that the revolt which has commenced in those countries will never be extinguished. The modern armaments which the enemies may use, even the most sophisticated armaments, cannot operate without the oil which is the property of the peoples who are fighting for freedom and independence.
The Albanian people express the profound conviction that the courageous people of Afghanistan will deal crushing blows to the Soviet social-imperialist aggressors and will oust them from their homeland.
The following writings are from Comrade Enver Hoxha’s political diary
We Support the Struggle of the People of Afghanistan Against the Soviet Invaders
January 3, 1980
We must condemn and denounce the military aggression of the Soviet Union against the people of Afghanistan. We must publish an article (1) about this in which we point out that the Soviet social-imperialists and their agents in Afghanistan exploited the overthrow, first of all, of King Mohammed Zahir Shah and then of Prince Daoud as well as the desire for liberation of the Afghan people who suffered the oppression of the absolute monarchy and its foreign friends, first of all the Soviets, who financed and kept it in power.
In this article we should speak well and make a positive evaluation of the resistance movement against the Soviet invaders, which is spreading in Afghanistan. This is a just struggle of the Afghan people and cannot be suppressed. The people of that country have long-standing traditions in the fight against foreign invaders. They taught the armies of the British imperialist invaders a lesson they won’t forget.
In this instance we must express the solidarity of our people with the Afghan people who are fighting in the mountains and the cities against the revisionist invaders, the Soviet social-imperialists and their tools.
Our article will serve to make things clear to the peoples, to make them aware of the military aggression of the revisionist Soviet Union against Afghanistan and the aims of the Soviet social-imperialists in this region of the world and of the justice of the struggle of the Afghan people against the foreign invaders.
The Soviet Military Aggression in Afghanistan and American Imperialism
January 5, 1980
Today the American president, Carter, announced that as a sign of disapproval of the military invasion of Afghanistan, the United States would not fulfil the contract for the sale of 17 million tons of wheat to the Soviet Union, that is, he announced that this contract was suspended. Carter also announced that he is postponing the approval of the SALT-2 agreement by the Senate, that he will supply arms to Pakistan, etc.
With these activities the United States of America is trying to raise its own morale and that of its allies. We shall see what counter-measures the Soviet Union will take, but it has certainly taken such things into account. Both Canada and Australia supply wheat to the Soviets.
The Events Which Are Taking Place in the Moslem Countries Must Be Seen in the Light of Dialectical and Historical Materialism
January 1980
(Excerpts)
The international situation is very tense at present. In many regions of the world and mainly in the large zone of the oil-producing countries, especially those of Asia, the struggle between the two imperialist superpowers, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, not excluding imperialist China and the other capitalist powers, over the division and re-division of markets and spheres of influence, as they try to elbow one another out, has reached new, major proportions just as our Party correctly predicted long ago. Their pressures and plots are accompanied with diplomatic efforts and a propaganda clamour about «agreements and compromises» allegedly to preserve the peace and the balance of power. In fact, as recent events have shown, we see that agreements and compromises are still the basic principle of their policy towards each other regardless of their very acute rivalry. One day, however, the rivalry between them may reach such a point that they can no longer overcome it and settle matters except through military confrontation. The consequences of such a confrontation will descend upon the peoples, just as has occurred in previous imperialist wars.
The most recent result of this rivalry is the military aggression of the Soviet social-imperialists against Afghanistan, the occupation of that country through armed force by one of the imperialist superpowers. The fact is that what is now being done openly by the Soviets through their armed forces against the sovereignty of the Afghan people had long been prepared by the Soviet social-imperialist chauvinist politicians and military leaders and their Afghan agents. In order to arrive at the present situation, both the former and the latter exploited the overthrow, first of King Mohammed Zahir Shah in 1973 and, later, of Prince Daoud in 1978. They also exploited for their evil aims the desire of the Afghan people for social liberation from the oppression they suffered under the absolute monarchy and its foreign friends, first of all, the Soviets, who financed the monarchy and kept it in power. So, irrespective of the «alliance» which they had with the king of Afghanistan, the Soviet social-imperialists worked and acted for his overthrow. In order to disguise their imperialist aims, at first they brought their men, allegedly with more progressive sentiments, to power. Later, these, too, were changed one after the other, through actions in which blood was shed, by means of putsches and tanks, and Noor Mohammed Taraki and Hafizullah Amin were sent to the slaughter.
Nevertheless, no foreign occupier, however powerful and heavily armed, can keep the people, against whom aggression has been committed, subdued for ever. In every country which is invaded the people, apart from anti-national and anti-popular cliques of agents, receive the foreign aggressors with hatred and resistance, sporadic at first and later with more organized revolts which gradually turn into popular uprisings and liberation wars. We are seeing the proof of this in Afghanistan, where the people have risen and are fighting fiercely in the cities, villages and mountains against the Soviet army of occupation. This war of the Afghan people enjoys the support and sympathy of freedom-loving peoples and revolutionary forces throughout the world. Our people, too, support it with all their might. The war of the Afghan people against the Soviet social-imperialists is a just war, and therefore it will triumph.
The current war of the Afghan people against the Soviet military aggression and the anti-feudal, anti-imperialist, anti-American uprising of the Iranian people must make us reflect somewhat more profoundly, from the political, theoretical and ideological aspects, about another major problem which, in the existing situation of complicated developments in the world, is becoming ever more prominent: the popular uprisings of «Islamic inspiration», as the bourgeoisie and the revisionists like to describe these movements, simply because the Moslem peoples of the Arab and other countries have placed themselves in the vanguard of the liberation movement. This is a fact, an objective reality. There are insurrectionary movements in those countries. insurrectionary movements in those countries. If we were to examine and judge these movements and uprisings of Moslem peoples in an over-simplified and very superficial way as movements simply of an Islamic character, without probing deeply into the true reasons which impel the broad masses of the peoples to advance, we could fall in the positions of the revisionists and imperialists, whose assessments of these movements are denigrating and conceal ambitions to enslave the peoples.
We Marxist-Leninists always understand clearly that religion is opium for the people. In no instance do we alter our view on this and we must not fall into the errors of «religious socialism», etc. The Moslem religion is no different in this regard. Nevertheless, we see that at present the broad masses of the Moslem peoples in the Arab and other countries have risen or are rising in struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism for their national and social liberation….
Employing various ways and means, the different imperialists and social-imperialists are trying to present themselves as supporters of these movements and win them over for their own aims. At present, however, these movements are in their disfavour, are against them. So true is this that the Soviet social-imperialists were obliged to send their tank regiments and tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers into Afghanistan, in other words, to commit an open fascist aggression against an independent country, in order to place and keep in power their local puppets who were incapable of retaining power without the aid of the bayonets and tanks of the Soviet army, the armed forces of the Soviet Union.
Obviously, this event, this Soviet armed occupation of Afghanistan, was bound to have repercussions and cause concern in international public opinion, to arouse great anger and indignation among the freedom-loving peoples and progressive forces and, from the strategic standpoint, to provoke the anger of their rivals for hegemony, especially of the United States of America.
The Afghan People Are Not Submitting
January 2, 1981
The Afghan patriots marked the anniversary of the occupation of their country by the Soviet social-imperialist army with big demonstrations and armed struggle. In some regions the occupiers were attacked with weapons or stones according to the possibilities and local conditions.
From what I have read in the news agency reports in recent days there was a big explosion at an important target of the Soviets in the central sector of Kabul. Many other government buildings have been stoned, while the Soviet soldiers have opened fire on demonstrators, students, workers and ordinary citizens. Some have been wounded and many arrested.
The Afghans are a poor people but proud and with traditions of valour. Therefore, neither the large number of the occupying forces, their modern weapons, nor their savage terror can subjugate the Afghans. At present their actions are still on a small scale, but in the future they will increase and be turned into fierce devastating battles against the Soviet social-imperialist hordes, until they are driven right out of the territory of Afghanistan.
Oppression by foreigners does not quell, but fans up the hatred of peoples. This we Albanians learned from bitter experience, until we achieved the final victory over the nazi-fascist occupiers and their local lackeys.
Reprisals of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan
February 24, 1981
News agencies carry repeated reports about the courageous fight of the Afghan patriots against the Soviet army of occupation in Afghanistan as well as about their frequent actions in the rural zones, especially around Kabul. They also speak about the savage and barbarous reprisals of the Soviet forces against the Afghan people. The measures of reprisal are severe, especially in the rural zones where there is resistance and the people support the freedom fighters. The units of the Soviet army carry out ceaseless indiscriminate attacks with artillery, aircraft and helicopter gunships over whole zones. It is said that thousands have been killed amongst the defenceless population.
These days the Soviet occupation army has also shelled the city of Kandahar, including a technical school. Now the centre of the city is patrolled by tanks and other armoured vehicles.
News agencies quite rightly describe these piratical actions of the Soviets as the severest reprisals since December 1979.
Continuous Attacks on the Soviet Occupiers
November 3, 1981
Although I am fully occupied with the proceedings of the Party Congress, I read the news from various news agencies carefully. I do this not only to see the response to the proceedings of our Congress, but also to follow the main international events.
These days I have noticed that the Afghan patriots have waged bloody battles with the Soviet social-imperialist occupiers and have taken control of the whole region near the main centre of the northern province of Takhar. The patriots’ actions have been stepped up greatly also inside Kabul where the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the terrible Pul-el-Shakr prison have been attacked. The patriots control a number of roads which link Kabul with the main provinces of the country where there are major Soviet military concentrations and especially the road which leads to the border with the Soviet Union. At an airport near Kabul the patriots have shot down a Soviet helicopter.
The Soviet army and the remnants of the Afghan puppet army have apparently undertaken a large-scale offensive to «liberate» Kandahar, the second largest city of Afghanistan, which has been held for more than two months by the patriotic forces.
Bravo the Afghan patriots! Their resistance and struggle will certainly be crowned with victory.
The Afghan Fighters Strike Heavy Blows Against the Soviet Occupiers
January 26, 1983
The armed resistance of the Afghan people against the Soviet social-imperialist occupiers is continuing successfully. Although the Soviets have established a strict censorship, from time to time facts are published which indicate that, despite the terror, the savage military oppression and the mass bombing by Soviet military aircraft, the struggle of the Afghan people has been stepped up and extended. A few days ago the news agencies reported a daring action at Mazar-i-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan, in which 16 top Soviet military advisers were captured. Yesterday there were reports of a powerful attack on the big airport of Jalalabad, near Kabul, in which 13 Soviet helicopters were destroyed. From time to time news agencies also report powerful attacks which are made on Soviet military command centres.
The build-up of the resistance and struggle of the patriotic Afghan people rejoices us because, apart from other things, it confirms the Marxist-Leninist thesis that the peoples, however small and unarmed they may be, when it comes to defending their freedom, independence and honour, can launch powerful attacks on and triumph over savage enemies, such as the American imperialists and the Soviet social-imperialists, who are much better armed and more powerful than they are.
The people of Afghanistan have a history of heroic struggles against foreign occupiers. They offered forcible resistance to the influence and pressure of the Russian tzars. They fought the British colonialists for decades on end. They waged three wars against British armies, teaching them a lesson they will never forget. In 1921 they drove them out of the country completely and won their national independence. This strengthens our conviction that the Afghan people will triumph over the Soviet occupiers, too, and that they will emerge from this struggle even more conscious about the need for the defence of their national and social rights.
When a People Fight No Great Power Can Defeat Them
March 10, 1983
The Afghan patriots have apparently attacked the Soviet embassy in Kabul again, irrespective of the exceptional strength of its multiple defences. In this country with a valiant people the Soviet social-imperialists are applying a scorched earth policy, but the ground under their own feet is ablaze and heavily sown with mines. They will never be secure and in peace anywhere in Afghanistan.
The reports about the armed resistance and the courageous actions of the Afghan patriots show that when a people fight for their own land, freedom and rights, no great power, however heavily armed, can defeat them.
Bravo the Afghan Patriots!
November 3, 1983
As news agencies report, in recent days the Afghan patriots attacked the general staff of the Soviet army of occupation and the embassy of the Soviet Union in Kabul. The reports also speak of bold actions in the other major cities of the country and attacks on Soviet strategic military positions. Fire, uninterrupted fire, on the foreign occupiers!
The Afghan People Will Kick Out the Soviet Occupiers
December 1983
(Excerpt from ‘The Middle East in the Year 1983’)
These days see the completion of four years since the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet army. The Soviet social-imperialists committed this fascist aggression with the hope that everything would quickly be forgotten and that the Afghan people would be deceived and subjugated just as quickly. But they were gravely mistaken. Not for one moment have the Afghan people reconciled themselves to the occupation of their homeland by the hordes of the Soviet social-imperialists. On the contrary, they have fought and are fighting arms in hand so effectively that the Soviet government has been obliged to dispatch continual reinforcements of fresh troops and the most modern weapons, including chemical weapons, to carry out mass bombardments by means of the air force and artillery, to depopulate, burn and massacre whole villages, to employ the policy of scorched earth and to pack the prisons with defiant Afghan fighters. What means have the Soviet social-imperialists not used during these four years to subjugate the Afghan people? But they have been neither subjugated nor intimidated and they will not be subjugated or intimidated.
During 1983 the armed resistance of the Afghan fighters to the Soviet occupiers assumed more extensive and greater proportions. The powerful garrisons of the Soviet occupation army have been the targets of repeated attacks by the Afghan patriots and not just in mountainous regions as in the provinces of Paktya, Kandahar and Herat, etc., but also right in the capital of the country, Kabul. On a number of occasions the «fortress» Soviet embassy and the buildings in which the general command of the Soviet occupation troops is entrenched have been attacked. Generals, other senior officers and thousands of soldiers have been killed, scores of advisers have been taken prisoner, military airports have been attacked and aeroplanes, helicopters, tanks, artillery and other means of war fare destroyed, while large quantities of weapons have been captured. The very ground is ablaze under the feet of the Soviet occupiers who are obliged to live in panic amongst a people who know them not as «friends» but as savage, perfidious enemies who must be fought to the death. Not for one moment can the Soviet occupiers feel themselves secure on Afghan soil, irrespective of the number of soldiers and the amount of fire power they have deployed there.
The valiant fighting people of Afghanistan, who are poor and armed mainly with weapons captured from the occupiers, are setting a very fine example of how foreign occupiers, whoever they are, however powerful and heavily armed they may be, can and must be fought, of how the ability to fight, the qualities of bravery and self-sacrifice are acquired in the course of the fighting to defend their freedom and their homeland.
Frequently when I read reports or see on the TV shots of the fighting and daring actions which the Afghan fighters carry out against powerful formations or motorized columns of the Soviet army of occupation, jumping from rock to rock amongst the snow and ice, the rain and countless other difficulties, and armed only with rifles, my mind goes back to our glorious National Liberation War, to the heroism and sacrifices of our valiant, patriotic and revolutionary people. Of course, our war was at a much higher level and much better organized and, above all, it was led by our Communist Party on the basis of the teachings of Marxism-Leninism. Our people, rallied in the Democratic Front organization, closely united, without distinction as to region or religion, were more conscious about the ideals for which they had to and did fight and about the character of the state which they would build on the ruins of past regimes, after the victory. Nevertheless, I repeat that the struggle of the people of Afghanistan is a just struggle, and the Afghan patriotic fighters deserve to be honoured and respected by all the patriotic forces of the world, to be supported so that they can step up their liberation war even further until they drive the Soviet occupiers completely from their homeland. And, whether the Soviet social-imperialists and their local lackeys like it or not, this will certainly be realized in the not too distant future. The people of Afghanistan will regain their freedom and independence.
