Kosovo: Important place in communist history
by MIM, printed in MIM Notes 184 
15 April, 1999

In 1989 some Albanians proclaimed an Albanian Republic
of Kosovo. Previously it had had the status of autonomous
province under Serb rule in Yugoslavia. It turns out
that Kosovo and Yugoslavia are very important to 
communist history.

The revisionist constitution under Tito recognized 
so-called socialist republics for Bosnia-Herzegovina, 
Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenes and the Serbs. Of course,
it was supposed to be illegal to disband Yugoslavia, a point
that Serbia's president used as moral leverage to make
war in Bosnia and other republics in the 1990s, especially
with the use of Serbian minorities within those republics.

In 1990, the old Tito-created 
structure more or less fell apart into its 
constituent parts. The new Yugoslavia of 1992
dropped its socialist label and consisted only
of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro. The
Serbs number 10.4 million and there are 700,000
people of Montenegrin ethnicity. There are more
Albanians in Kosovo than Montenegrins in Yugoslavia.

The new Yugoslavia of 1992 continued to hold the two autonomous provinces
of the old Yugoslavia--Kosovo and Vojvodina. Hence,
after the Serb war within the other republics--especially
Bosnia--ended, Kosovo came to the fore.

According to the Serbs, the Albanians are "johnny-come-latelys"
to Kosovo, by which they refer to only the last 400 years
of history. The Albanians claim there is no firm proof
that they were not already the majority in Kosovo at the time
of crucial Turkish victories conquering the area. Indeed,
the Albanians have claimed to have roots as old as the Serbs'.
The Albanians say their roots can be traced through the Illyrians.

According to the Albanian communist later turned revisionist Enver
Hoxha, the boundaries of Balkan countries were unimportant
but majorities of population were. He said that the peoples
of the area had long histories of moving around. By this reasoning,
he felt that Kosovo should be part of Albania.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the capitalist
countries have rushed to learn their pre-World War I history
and pick up from there. Hence, nothing under
Soviet or Titoite rule is deemed legitimate.

In 1914, only Serbia and Montenegro were actual republics
of the republics that came to form Yugoslavia under Tito. Most
of the rest was under the control of Austria-Hungary. The
fading Ottoman empire and the Italians also had their hands
in the mess.

It was Serb nationalism that is recognized as the immediate
cause of World War I. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
of Austria by a Serbian triggered war and drew in larger
powers obligated by secret treaties.

Had there been no Serbian nationalism, the imperialists
would have found another reason for a world war over colonies.
In any case, the same problem we see today in Kosovo is
the same problem that led to World War I and the creation
of the first Soviet state.

In 1913, the Serbian Republic gained the upper hand in the Balkan
situation when the Ottoman Empire of Turkey suffered its
final defeat and when it took on Bulgaria and won in the 
"Balkan Wars." At that time, Kosovo was removed from Albania.

To make matters more complicated, the Italians invaded
during World War II and the Germans insisted that Kosovo
be returned to Albania. Thus, in 1941 under Nazi occupation, the
Albanian people reunited. People in Kosovo freely travelled
to Tirana.

The Nazi action in Kosovo in 1941 created a major headache for the 
international communist movement. Hitler focussed his
racial hatreds on the Slavic peoples and decided to give
the Albanians a break relatively speaking. Thus even
Enver Hoxha admits that the Kosovo Albanians were not
fighting the fascist occupation. The Kosovo Albanians were afraid the
Serbs would turn against them after the war. 

Tito did not appeal to the Kosovo Albanians on the basis
of the Stalin line on the national question. All calls for the
right to self-determination were crushed by the leadership
of the Yugoslavian Communist Party. Some excuse for this can
be seen in that Hitler sought to dismember the Yugoslavian
state by inflaming national tensions.

We must remember that at the time during World War II,
none of the Yugoslavians, Russians or Albanians thought
of their communist parties as other than "Stalinist." Supposedly
they were united. It was only in 1948 that Tito openly
broke with Stalin and led Yugoslavia on the "market socialist"
road.

When the COMINTERN dissolved in 1943, the Albanians and
Yugoslavians were  on their own on how to work
out a coordinated strategy against the Nazi occupation.
At this time, Enver Hoxha gradually gathered suspicions about
his Yugoslav comrades.

However, in the midst of World War II, Enver Hoxha first
agreed to let the Yugoslavian Communist Party be the leadership
of the struggle in Kosovo. He did not want to see the
Yugoslavian Communist Party dismembered by the Nazi tactics.
Hoxha reasoned since all the actors were Stalinists, after the
war they could settle the national questions amicably.

According to Hoxha, he soon found out that Tito in fact planned
to take over Albania completely and not just in Kosovo. Hoxha
says only determined struggle uprooted pro-Tito traitors in
his party.

Hoxha attempted to have his own armed forces organize in Kosovo
to show the Yugoslavians it could be done, but the Yugoslavians
rejected the efforts aimed at the Nazis. It appears that
Serbian nationalism was the reason for this; although again,
the context of fighting the Nazis created complications as
did the fact that Tito himself was a Croat and could not
be accused in a tokenist way. Nonetheless, for at least a year
during World War I, the Yugoslavians would not talk with the 
Albanians about anything except Kosovo.

Hence, after World War II, Kosovo did not go to Albania. Hoxha
looked in on the situation with concern, but both his concerns
and those of Stalin led to the first state-to-state split in the
socialist movement--the Soviet camp versus revisionist Yugoslavia.

As late as 1969, Hoxha still did not claim Kosovo for Albania and in
public statements said it was an internal affair of Yugoslavia.
Nonetheless, Hoxha found himself in a difficult spot, because after World
War II, the Yugoslavians massacred many Kosovo Albanians in the name of
fighting the pro-fascist traitors of the Ballist movement, of which there
were some even according to Hoxha. Also, Hoxha outlived Tito. When Tito
died in 1980, it appears that again pogroms against Kosovo Albanians
occurred shortly thereafter.

At about the same time as Tito's death, China cut off aid to Albania. 
Hence, Hoxha started rewriting his relationship to Mao Zedong. While Mao
was alive, Hoxha respected him and signed communiques with him as
fraternal communist brothers, but after Mao died and the revisionist
Chinese regime cut-off aid, Hoxha started rewriting everything. 

One thing Hoxha didn't like was Mao's efforts to make friends amongst all
Eastern European countries including Yugoslavia against the Soviet Union. 
With hopes fading for a "Stalinist" solution, Hoxha turned his efforts
regarding Kosovo elsewhere.  Hoxha died in 1985, but in the same
year major works in English appeared justifying Albanian interests
in Kosovo.

Today, the Germans are again attacking the Serbs through NATO. This causes
the Russian reflex action against NATO. At the same time, Serbian enemies
now include the United $tates and England unlike in the last go-round of
World War II.  Perhaps for historical reasons of embarassment and
over-exposure, the Italians have called for NATO to stop the bombings.


Sources:
1.  www.encyclopedia.com
2.  Enver Hoxha, The Titoites (Tirana: 1982).