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Globalized Socialism, Nationalized Time: Soviet Films, Albanian Subjects, and Chinese Audiences across the Sino-Soviet Split

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2018

Elidor Mëhilli
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Abstract

In the 1950s, films like Sergei Yutkevich's Velikii voin Albanii Skanderbeg symbolized Albanian-Soviet friendship, which was said to be undying. The Soviets brought their reels and their famous actors to this corner of the Mediterranean, and they also designed the country's first film agency, baptized “New Albania.” By the early 1960s, however, the friendship was dead. Albania's communist regime sided with Mao's China during the dramatic Sino-Soviet schism. From instruments of friendship, films turned into weapons in a global battle over the soul of socialism. Unexpectedly, Albanian war films assumed revolutionary meaning—far away from the Balkans—during China's Cultural Revolution. Recapturing these zigzags, this article shows how globalized socialism interacted with national imperatives. Bringing about exchange on a cross-continental scale, socialism encouraged constant mental mapping, and it also produced competing temporal frameworks. Going beyond nationalized histories of cinema, the article draws on archival sources from three countries, including previously classified Albanian materials.

Type
Beyond the Iron Curtain: Eastern Europe and the Global Cold War
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 77 , Issue 3 , Fall 2018 , pp. 611 - 637
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2018 

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Footnotes

The idea for this article came to me during a conversation with Chen Jian many years ago, while I held a Mellon fellowship at The George Washington University. I presented an earlier version at The Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University. Thanks to Yanni Kotsonis, Joshua Tucker, and the participants, in particular Rossen Djagalov. I thank the conveners of this cluster, as well as the journal's editor and the anonymous reviewers, for their enthusiasm. Research in three countries was made possible by generous funding from Princeton University, the Presidential Awards at Hunter College of the City University of New York, and the PSC-CUNY Research Awards.

References

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6. For an imaginative approach to opening the “black box” of East German history in light of the Sino-Soviet split, see Slobodian, Quinn, “The Maoist Enemy: China’s Challenge in 1960s East Germany,” Journal of Contemporary History 51, no. 3 (July 2016): 635–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Given the scope of the story, it is not surprising that it takes multiple authors to capture the variegated geography of a non-Soviet-centered socialism. Some examples are contained in Cook, Alexander C., ed., Mao’s Little Red Book: A Global History (Cambridge Eng., 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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9. When officials asked Moscow for Soviet films and other materials in 1946, they specified that these be translated into Albanian or Serbian, since the populace did not understand Russian. “Iz dokladnoi zapiski referenta otdela vneshnei politiki TsK VKP(b) P.I. Manchkhi o poezdke v Albaniiu” (Secret), May 14, 1946, in Volokitina, Tat΄iana V., Islamov, T. M.; Murashko, G.P., Noskova, A. F., and Rogovaia, L. A., eds., Vostochnaia Evropa v dokumentakh rossiiskikh arkhivov 1944–1953 gg., vol. 1, 1944–1948 gg. (Moscow, 1997), 434–38Google Scholar.

10. For an apt summary of the split and its implications, see Mark Kramer, “Stalin, the Split with Yugoslavia, and Soviet-East European Efforts to Reassert Control, 1948–1953,” in Snyder, Timothy and Brandon, Ray, eds., Stalin and Europe: Imitation and Domination, 1928–1953 (New York, 2014), 295–315CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11. Culture officials blamed Belgrade for past failures. An annual report from the Arts and Culture Committee, for example, justified the underdevelopment of the film industry by pointing to Yugoslav “sabotage.” Koçi Xoxe, the interior minister who now stood accused as a pro-Yugoslav element, received blame for having overlooked the arts. See: Arkivi Qendror Shtetëror (hereafter AQSH), f. 490, v. 1948, dos. 811, fl. 14–17. (Arts and Culture Committee to Office of Prime Minister, January 29, 1949).

12. “Populli jonë mëson vazhdimisht nga Bashkimi Sovietik [sic],” Shqipëri B.R.S.S., no. 21 (September 1949): 23Google Scholar. By 1950, Albania had around 40 film theaters. Since 1945, it had received 452 Soviet films, documentaries, and newsreels. A survey of cultural affairs is contained in AQSH, f. 513, v. 1950, dos. 18, fl. 18–23. I do not focus on non-Soviet films here because they constituted a small share of screenings. According to a 1954 Soviet memo, over 90 percent of screenings consisted of Soviet titles: Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii (hereafter RGANI), f. 5, op. 28, d. 153, l. 55 (Ideologicheskoe rukovodstvo Albanskoi Partii Truda razvitiem nauki, kul΄tury i iskusstva, June 30, 1954 [Secret]). There were, however, big exceptions like Raj Kapoor’s Awāra (The Vagabond, 1951), which later became a sensation in Albania, as it did in the Soviet Union. See Rajagopalan, Sudha, Indian Films in Soviet Cinemas: The Culture of Movie-going after Stalin (Bloomington, 2008), ch. 2Google Scholar.

13. For the earlier years of VOKS, see David-Fox, Michael, Showcasing the Great Experiment: Cultural Diplomacy and Western Visitors to the Soviet Union, 1921–1941 (New York, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the later years, see Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (hereafter GARF), f. 9576, op. 4, d. 1, ll. 85–87 (General΄nomu Sovetu Obshchestva Druzhby ‘Albaniia-Sovetskii Soiuz’,” March 27, 1958).

14. “Arti kinematografik sovjetik, më i përparuari në botë,” Shqipëri B.R.S.S., no. 15 (1948): 26Google Scholar.

15. In 1956, peasants in the Korçë district were said to have discovered India through Soviet newsreels documenting Khrushchev’s visit there. “Festivali i filmit sovjetik në fshat,” Miqësija, no. 9 (September 1956): 27Google Scholar.

16. RGANI, f. 5, op. 28, d. 153, l. 124 (Levychkin to Zorin [Secret], September 2, 1954). An Albanian source confirms the assessment. Rural film audiences actually declined between 1953 and 1954, due to a limited number of mobile projectors and other equipment failures. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1955, dos. 65, fl. 5 (Relacion mbi çështje të kinematografisë, no date [hereafter n.d.]).

17. On the enduring obsession with rural screenings into the 1960s, see AQSH, f. 490, v. 1964, dos. 378, fl. 3–5 (Vrejtje për një projekt-vendim, August 3, 1964), and (Relacion, forwarded August 22, 1964).

18. Albanian negotiators did not have domestic productions to sell abroad and so relied on the “socialist solidarity” of eastern bloc partners. One official argued that in-person negotiation was the key to obtaining lowered prices. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 11 (Arts and Culture Committee to Office of Prime Minister, October 23, 1952).

19. When agreements expired in 1951, officials struggled to renew them, thus bringing down the number of imported foreign films. (Only two films were obtained from the “people’s democracies” in 1952.) In one example, acquiring a Romanian film took a year, due to delays from diplomatic representatives abroad. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 12–14 (Promemorie mbi çështjen e filmave, n.d., possibly December 1952).

20. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 12 (Promemorie, n.d). By comparison, in 1948, the country had imported 45 Soviet films and 49 documentaries and newsreels. Figures are drawn from an undated report, forwarded to the Office of the Prime Minister in January 1949, contained in AQSH, f. 490, v. 1948, dos. 811, fl. 12. Soveksportfilm, the Soviet film distribution agency, initially loaned feature films to Albanian enterprises for a period of three years. Contract terms are contained in AQSH, f. 490, v. 1950, dos. 1859. Some of the films made it to Albania soon after their Soviet release, whereas others took years. This was the case, for example, with Efim Dzigan’s Dzhambul (1952) and the Georgian Keto and Kote (1948, released in 1953). “Filma të rinj sovjetik në vendin t’onë,” Miqësija no. 12 (December 1956).

21. AQSH, f. 513, v. 1950, dos. 18, esp. fl. 18–23 (A survey of film distribution during the period 1945–1950).

22. Albanian-language subtitles made a difference. A translated showing of The Battle of Stalingrad in 1949, for example, reportedly received some 3,000 more viewers than a previous screening in Russian only, even though there were 11 fewer screenings of the subtitled version. Arkivi i Ministrisë së Punëve të Jashtme (hereafter AMPJ), v. 1949, dos. 17/1, fl. 13 (Stamo to Albanian mission [Moscow], n.d.).

23. The Albanian diplomatic representative in Moscow noted that translation jobs encouraged bitter competition among students, who were eager to claim the extra income. AMPJ, v. 1949, dos. 17/1, fl. 5 (Moscow [Prifti] to Tirana, “Rreth përkthimit të filmave Sovjetikë,” received March 31, 1949). Three years later, Soviet films came equipped with Albanian-language opening credits and subtitles, a fact emphasized by the East German representative in Tirana (and seemingly underlined in the memo by officials in Berlin). Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts—Ministerium für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten (hereafter PA AA, MfAA) A 4.516, 166 (GDR mission [Tirana], “Monatsbericht für August,” September 1, 1952).

24. One memo from the Film State Enterprise (Ndërmarrja Shtetërore Kinematografike) to the Albanian mission in Moscow admitted that audiences showed little interest in Soviet technical films. Irritated, the representative in Moscow sent the memo back, warning that such statements were “politically delicate.” AMPJ, v. 1950, dos. 31, fl. 113 (Albanian mission in Moscow [Nathanaili] to Tirana, January 11, 1950). Over time, it became increasingly clear that viewers preferred action and comedies. Agitators nevertheless kept taking groups of workers to watch “educational films” like Soviet Azerbaijan. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 2–3 verso (State Control Ministry, “Raport mbi aktivitetin e Kinematografisë” [Secret], date unclear).

25. The detail stems from the unpublished memoirs of director Endri Keko: “Kinostudio, kujtimet e Endri Kekos dhe këshilla e Enverit për të huajt,” July 11, 2012. at shqiptarja.com/lajm/kinostudio-kujtimet-e-endri-kekos-br-dhe-k-euml-shilla-e-enverit-p-euml-r-t-euml-huajt?r=app (last accessed June 4, 2018).

26. “Zhurnalet e parë të Kino-Studios sonë,” Zëri i Popullit, September 12, 1952, 3.

27. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 7–8 (Arts and Culture Committee to Office of Prime Minister, dated by hand May 8, 1952); AQSH, f. 511, v. 1953, dos. 83, fl. 80 (Relacion mbi tabelën Nr. 3, n.d.).

28. Soviet-issued film projectors used a type of lamp that could not be found in Czechoslovakia and Hungary. As a result, some film projectors in smaller towns could not be used. Authorities also blamed equipment damage on the unskilled personnel handling the projectors. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 2 verso (Raport mbi aktivitetin e Kinematografisë, [Secret], date unclear).

29. Skanderbeg had emerged as a European reference point long before the advent of communist power, making an appearance in Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–89). Antonio Vivaldi had put on the three-part opera Scanderbeg in 1718, whose later productions, as Larry Wolff has shown, signaled rather different things about where Europe began and ended to audiences in Venice and Paris. See his The Singing Turk: Ottoman Power and Operatic Emotions on the European Stage from the Siege of Vienna to the Age of Napoleon (Stanford, 2016), 71–78Google Scholar. The Soviet director thus joined a tradition going back centuries, in which the warrior’s military campaign had been cast as a battle between civilizations. See also Schmitt, Oliver Jens, “Skanderbeg reitet wieder. Wiederfindung und Erfindung eines (National-)Helden im balkanischen und gesamteuropäischen Kontext (15. –21 Jahrhundert),” in Brunnbauer, Ulf, Helmedach, Andreas, and Troebst, Stefan, eds., Schnittstellen: Gesellschaft, Nation, Konflikt und Erinnerung in Südosteuropa: Festschrift für Holm Sundhaussen zum 65. Geburtstag (Munich, 2007), 401–19Google Scholar.

30. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 544, fl. 2–6 (Kontratë, draft contract between Soveksportfilm and Komiteti i Kulturës, n.d., forwarded June 27, 1952); AQSH, f. 490, v. 1953, dos. 1051, fl. 6–13 (Relacion mbi filmin me ngjyra ‘Skënderbeu,’ n.d. [forwarded February 5, 1953]).

31. The place to study processes of Sovietization has typically been the borderland of the Soviet sphere, obscuring how, as in this instance, cinematic Sovietization actually may be better imagined as a constant back-and-forth process—occurring, among other places, at the heart of the Soviet Union.

32. PA MfAA A 4.516, 114 (Bericht über das I. Quartal 1953, received April 18, 1953); AQSH, f. 511, v. 1953, dos. 83, fl. 81 (Relacion mbi tabelën Nr. 6, n.d.).

33. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 544, fl. 7 (Komiteteve Ekzek. të K.P. rretheve Krujë, Lezhë, Shkodër, Pukë, Tropojë, Kukës, Rrëshen, Burrel, Peshkopi, Elbasan, Berat, Fier, Vlorë, July 21, 1952).

34. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 18 (Office of the Prime Minister to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, December 24, 1952).

35. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 1 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Arts and Culture Committee [Secret], February 25, 1952).

36. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 15–16 (Enver Hoxha to I. Bol΄shakov, November 24, 1952); and (Uvazhaemyi tovarishch Predsedatel΄, November 17, 1952).

37. “Me xhironjësit e filmit me ngjyra ‘Skënderbeu,’” Miqësija, no. 5 (1953): 19Google Scholar.

38. Hirsch, Francine, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca, 2005)Google Scholar. It should be noted that the Soviet-Albanian cinematic recreation took place alongside choreographed annual “friendship visits” of artists from across the Soviet landmass, including, for example, Uzbekistan’s Halima Nasirova and Mukarram Turgunbayeva, and the artists from the documentary Arena smelykh (Daring Circus Youth, 1953).

39. On Anjaparidze’s visit to Albania: “Me xhironjësit e filmit me ngjyra ‘Skënderbeu,’” Miqësija no.5 (1953): 17Google Scholar.

40. Imami, Besa, “Për herë të parë n’ekran,” Miqësija no. 7 (1953): 19Google Scholar.

41. N. Bulka, “Sa dhe si na njohin sovjetikët,” Miqësija no. 1 (January 1955).

42. “Me xhironjësit e filmit me ngjyra ‘Skënderbeu,’” Miqësija no. 5 (1953): 19Google Scholar.

43. On East Germany: PA MfAA A 9.474, 43 (Jahresbericht, dated by hand January 10, 1955). On an Italian screenwriter’s perspective: Pirro, Ugo, Soltanto un nome nei titoli di testa: I felici anni Sessanta del cinema italiano (Turin, 1998), 133–34Google Scholar. Skanderbeg also circulated in several African countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s, thanks to Soviet translation and promotion. I am grateful to Rossen Djagalov for sharing with me excerpts from Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI), f. 2918, op. 3–6.

44. RGANI, f. 5, op. 28, d. 153, l. 136 (Zapis΄ besedy s poslom Narodnoi Respubliki Albanii v SSSR [Secret], November 12, 1954); Ylli Polovina, “Moska më 28 nëntor 1953 dhe filmi ‘Skënderbeu,’” Shqip, November 28, 2007, 8–9.

45. US Embassy (Rome) to Department of State (Confidential), September 16, 1958, in Records of the U. S. Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of Albania, 1955–1959. Record Group 59, Decimal File 767 (Wilmington, 2002).

46. “Festivali i filmit sovjetik në fshat,” Miqësija no. 9 (1956): 27Google Scholar.

47. Bulka, N., “Sa dhe si na njohin sovjetikët,” Miqësija no. 1 (January 1955)Google Scholar.

48. Mëhilli, Elidor, From Stalin to Mao: Albania and the Socialist World (Ithaca, 2017), 191ffGoogle Scholar. “But we wanted to help them restructure the Albanian economy,” the Soviet party chief later boasted, “bringing it to a modern level, thus making Albania, as it were, a precious gem that would attract the rest of the Muslim world toward Communism, especially in the Middle East and Africa,” in Khrushchev, Nikita S., Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, vol. 3: Statesman, 1953–1964, ed. Khrushchev, Sergei (Providence, RI, 2007), 516Google Scholar. Party officials later denounced Soviet “social-imperialism,” but in the late 1950s they readily engaged with the idea of parallels between Albania and the Soviet republics. For instance: GARF, f. 9576, op. 4, d. 1, ll. 118–19 (Predsedateliu Azerbaidzhanskogo Obshchestva Kul΄turnoi Sviazi s Zagranitsei, n.d., 1958).

49. Some 77,000 individuals reportedly watched Novaia Albaniia by early 1949. As is typical with such figures, it is not clear whether multiple viewings by the same individuals were included. The report, forwarded to the Office of the Prime Minister, is contained in AQSH, f. 490, v. 1948, dos. 811, fl. 14.

50. “For two thousand years, Albania suffered foreign occupations,” the narrator of Novaia Albaniia offers, adding that “Rome and then Venice tried to enslave it. Byzantium and then Turkey saw it as a door to the Adriatic. Austrians, Italians, and Germans wanted to take possession of this key to the Balkans.” One local reviewer praised Kopalin’s work for showing “the heroic past of our great-grandfathers, their battles against Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, and Turkish invaders.” “Filmi mbi Shqipërinë,” Shqipëri B.R.S.S. no. 12 (1948): 26Google Scholar. The later film Albaniia revisits the theme: “For 25 years, Skanderbeg defended Europe from Turkish barbarism.”

51. One example: AQSH, f. 511, v. 1953, dos. 83, fl. 84 (Relacion mbi tabelën Nr. 5, n.d.). For Hoxha, Kopalin’s work had “helped enormously in popularizing here and abroad the successes of our people.” See the correspondence in RGANI, f. 5, op. 28, d. 153, l. 131 (Hoxha to CPSU CC, October 22, 1954). Two years later, party secretaries Hysni Kapo and Liri Belishova expressed the wish that Yutkevich and Khorava might become involved with a film on the National Liberation War. RGANI, f. 5, op. 28, d. 391, ll. 236–37 (Zapis΄ besedy c sekretariami TsK APT Khiusni Kapo i Liri Belishovoi,” September 25, 1956” [Secret], October 18, 1956). Instead, the 1959 Soviet-Albanian collaboration Furtuna was directed by Yuri Ozerov and Kristaq Dhamo.

52. One Moscow-trained individual recalled getting to know Kopalin and other Soviet filmmakers as a formative experience. Fortuzi, Agim, “Si mësuam dhe jetuam në Bashkimin Sovjetik,” Miqësija no. 8 (1953): 21Google Scholar.

53. Another Soviet director, Roman Karmen, had directed his own Albaniia in 1945.

54. Sarkisova, Oksana, Screening Soviet Nationalities: Kulturfilms from the Far North to Central Asia (London, 2017), 22Google Scholar.

55. Youngblood, Denise Jeanne, Russian War Films: On the Cinema Front, 1914–2005 (Lawrence, KS, 2007), 56Google Scholar; Roberts, Graham, Forward Soviet!: History and Non-fiction Film in the USSR (London, 1999), 79–90Google Scholar.

56. On the centrality of the Second World War for Soviet-east European co-productions, see Siefert, Marsha, “Soviet Cinematic Internationalism and Socialist Film Making, 1955–1972,” in Babiracki, Patryk and Jersild, Austin, eds., Socialist Internationalism in the Cold War: Exploring the Second World (Cham, Switzerland, 2016), 161–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57. In its first three years, the film studio produced 37 newsreels and 10 documentary shorts. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1955, dos. 65, fl. 5 (Relacion mbi çështje të kinematografisë, n.d.).

58. Siliqi became a well-known poet and the author of the libretto of the first Albanian opera. Gjata became one of the country’s top novelists, whereas Pollo a prominent scholar and political historian.

59. Siliqi is also mentioned in the context of Yutkevich’s film. AQSH, f. 490, v. 1952, dos. 1316, fl. 9 (Mbi lëshimin e vizës, August 25, 1952).

60. Keko, Endri, “Shqipërija,” Miqësija no. 1 (1953): 9Google Scholar.

61. Screenings in 16 villages in the district of Shkodër reportedly attracted an audience of 3,000 peasants. “Some of them have never seen the Commander [Enver Hoxha] up close,” one article observed, “but now they can see and hear him speak.” Kopalin’s work was projected on the side of a local building or on cloth hanging from the branches of a tree. “Autokinemaja e Shoqërisë në fshatrat e Shkodrës,” Miqësija no. 7 (1953): 28Google Scholar.

62. Politburo members fretted that Khrushchev might cancel the visit if they refused to comply with the request. Still, they agreed that their uncompromising stance on Yugoslavia was correct. AQSH, f. 14/AP, Organe Udhëheqëse (OU), v. 1959, dos. 17, fl. 1–6, May 19, 1959, (Protokoll mbajtur në mbledhjen e Byrosë Politike të K.Q. të P.P.SH.); AQSH, f.14/AP, Marrëdhënie me Partinë Komuniste (b) të Bashkimit Sovjetik [M-PK(b)BS], v. 1959, dos. 18, May 19, 1959, “Shokut Nikita Sergejeviç Hrushov, Kremlin—Moskë” May 19, 1959.

63. AQSH, F.14/AP, M-PK(b)BS, V. 1959, Dos. 24, May 25, 1959, (Protokoll); AQSH, f.14/AP, M-PK(b)BS, v. 1959, dos. 25, fl. 1–7, May 20, 1959, (Disa kërkesa të K.Q. të P.P.SË [sic] Shqipërisë dhe të Këshillit të Ministrave të shtruara N.S. Hrushçov).

64. Ngjela, Spartak, Përkulja dhe rënia e tiranisë shqiptare, 1957–2010 (Tirana, 2011), 240Google Scholar.

65. “Çfaqen filma sovjetikë në fshat,” Miqësia no. 6 (June 1962): 28Google Scholar; “Festivali i filmit Sovjetik në fshatrat e rrethit të Pogradecit,” Miqësia no. 8 (August 1962): 13Google Scholar; “Elbasani në muejin e miqësisë,” Miqësia no.11 (November 1962)Google Scholar; “Nëpër kinostudiot sovjetike,” Miqësia no. 3 (March 1963): 25Google Scholar; “Tre filma të Uzbekistanit,” Miqësia no. 5 (May 1963): 28Google Scholar. The publication’s name was modified to Miqësia in 1961.

66. On the importance of central European film schools for Albanian directors, see Puto, Artan and Gjika, Eldon, “Kinematografia shqiptare midis nostalgjisë, groteskut dhe të ardhmes,” Përpjekja no. 25 (Fall 2008): 7–28Google Scholar. On Prague as training ground for Albanian technicians, see Hoxha, Abaz, Ne u shkolluam në Pragë: Intervista, kujtime, mbresa (Tirana, 2003)Google Scholar. The shortage of professionally-trained actors continued into the 1960s. (Directors employed amateurs instead.) Soviet equipment, which was still in use by the late 1960s, had become outdated. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 61, fl. 19–22 (Gjendja dhe detyrat për zhvillimin e mëtejshëm të kinematografisë, n.d.).

67. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1963, dos. 87, fl. 159 (Plan për zbatimin e marrëveshjes së bashkëpunimit kultural midis Republikës Popullore të Shqipërisë dhe Republikës Popullore të Kinës për vitet 1963–1964, n.d.).

68. Having learned the bitter lessons of the 1950s, the party leadership also sought to keep propaganda for China and Mao under control. For example: AQSH, f. 14/AP, OU, v. 1964, dos. 13 (Proces verbal i mbledhjes së Byrosë Politike të Komitetit Qendror të PPSH [Top Secret], October 31, 1964).

69. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1962, dos. 93, fl. 2 verso (Albanian Embassy [Beijing], Informacion [Secret], forwarded January 25(?), 1962).

70. Administrators also explored markets in Egypt, India, Turkey, and Latin America. See AQSH, f. 511, v. 1962, dos. 93, fl. 2–2 verso (Albanian Embassy [Beijing], Informacion [Secret], forwarded January 25(?) 1962); fl. 5, (Relacion, n.d.); fl. 11–16 (Raport mbi blerjen e filmave kinematografikë, dated by hand June 15, 1962); AQSH, f. 511, v. 1964, dos. 49, fl. 32–33 (Kinostudio to Deputy Minister of Education and Culture, March 9, 1964); AQSH, f. 490, v. 1969, dos. 497, fl. 27–29 (Relacion mbi projekt-planet e shkëmbimeve kulturale në njerëz me vëndet e huaja për vitin 1968, n.d.).

71. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 124, fl. 45 (Relacion mbi punën e bërë në Romë për zgjedhjen e filmave, July 3, 1967).

72. Sometimes unable to get private screenings, officials saw the latest films in commercial theaters. See AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 124, fl. 46–50 (Relacion për zgjedhjen e filmave dhe blerjen e aparaturave të zërit dhe të stampimit për Kinostudion, dated by hand July 14, 1967) and (Filma që kemi zgjedhur, n.d.). The filing of requests does not mean that they were approved. Moreover, not all purchased films would have necessarily been allowed—or kept—in circulation.

73. For the first time in 1966, the film studio produced two feature films in one year. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 61, fl. 2 (Gjendja dhe detyrat për zhvillimin e mëtejshëm të kinematografisë, forwarded October 20, 1967).

74. Chen, Tina Mai, “Film and Gender in Sino-Soviet Cultural Exchange, 1949–1969,” in Bernstein, Thomas P. and Li, Hua-yu, eds., China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949–Present (Lanham, MD., 2010), 426Google Scholar. For the Cultural Revolution more broadly, see the important study of MacFarquhar, Roderick and Schoenhals, Michael, Mao’s Last Revolution (Cambridge, MA., 2006)Google Scholar.

75. Chinese technical assistance in fact helped the government develop regular television programming in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Authorities saw television as a political project and a tool for mass education, but they were also conscious of the danger of western signals, and thus the need for jamming technology, AQSH, f. 490, v. 1972, dos. 390, fl. 11–15 (Mbi ndërtimin e plotë të televizionit tonë me ndihmën e R.P. të Kinës, August 9, 1969).

76. Shen, Simon and Li, Cho-kiu, “The Cultural Side-Effects of the Sino-Soviet Split: The Influence of Albanian Movies in China in the 1960s,” Modern China Studies 22, no. 1 (January 2015): 221Google Scholar.

77. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 61, fl. 51 (Informacion. Mbi frekuentimin në çfaqjet e disa filmave në kinematë e Tiranës [Secret], n.d.).

78. The British actor Norman Wisdom would become massively popular in socialist Albania. Film administrators planned on purchasing A Stitch in Time (1963), four years after its release. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 124, fl. 49 (Filma që kemi zgjedhur, n.d.).

79. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 61, fl. 51–52 (Informacion. Mbi frekuentimin në çfaqjet e disa filmave në kinematë e Tiranës [Secret], n.d.).

80. Ibid., fl. 52. In fact, Chinese revolutionary rituals continued to befuddle Albanian visitors. Such confusion needed to be articulated carefully, however, given the political stakes. For examples: AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 125, fl. 74 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Ministry of Education and Culture, July 20, 1967); and AMPJ, v. 1967, dos. 64, fl. 69–70 (Tirana to Albanian Embassy [Beijing] [Top Secret], September 20, 1967, and September 23, 1967).

81. Quoted in Shen and Li, “The Cultural Side-Effects of the Sino-Soviet Split,” 219.

82. Sino-Albanian contacts had been limited before 1960, so state-sanctioned introduction to Chinese civilization was fast-paced. Within a few years, readers were bombarded with everything from the classics to the contemporary—Tang dynasty to Mao Zedong. (The classics, of course, entered through the ideological filters of 1960s Chinese cultural politics.) Translations included Mao’s articles on youth (in addition to five volumes of his works), Liu Shaoqi’s How to Be a Good Communist (1939), a book on Lei Feng, the poetry of Du Fu, Zeng Pu’s A Flower in Sinful Sea, in addition to works by Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Cao Yu, Guo Moruo, and the children’s literature of Tianyi., Zhang “Letërsia kineze në gjuhën shqipe,” Miqësia no. 10 (October 1965): 6Google Scholar. On both sides, literary exchanges established claims of cultural authority and hierarchy, just as decisions to translate and disseminate (or not) reinforced the idea of an emerging alternative sphere to the Soviet Union.

83. Istituto Luce, Italy’s documentary agency founded in 1924, produced numerous newsreels celebrating the making of a fascist Albania. On the origins and the crucial colonial context, see Ben-Ghiat, Ruth, Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema (Bloomington, 2015)Google Scholar.

84. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1967, dos. 61, fl. 25 (Të dashur shokë e shoqe, [untitled, undated speech filed under the year 1967]). One example serving as a pre-Soviet reference was Komandanti viziton Shqipërin e mesme dhe të jugës (1947), depicting Enver Hoxha touring southern Albania. Ironically, this production had also involved collaboration with Yugoslav technicians and Avala Film in Belgrade. Later publications mentioned the postwar years but placed the emphasis on the late 1950s. Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH, Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar (Tirana, 1985), 268Google Scholar; Hoxha, Abaz, Filmi artistik shqiptar, 1957–1984: Filmografi (Tirana, 1987)Google Scholar.

85. Calls for a heightened revolutionary approach to filmmaking, already evident in the second half of the 1960s, intensified in 1974, as the party leadership tackled issues of cultural production. AQSH, f. 511, v. 1974, dos. 133, fl. 101–7 (Raport, n.d.).

86. Ngadhnjim mbi vdekjen has resurfaced, for example, in Xiao Jiang’s Meng ying tong nian (Electric Shadows, 2004).

87. “Drita He Daming: Kultura shqiptare, i vetmi dëfrim në kohën e Revolucionit Kulturor,” suplementi Milosao, January 11, 2015. Like “Drita,” Zheng Enbo studied in Tirana in the 1960s, and once penned articles about Albanian culture in China’s leading paper Renmin ribao (The People’s Daily) using the pseudonym “Red Eagle.” At the age of 77, he still speaks fluent Enbo, Albanian. Zheng, “Shengkai zai Zhong A wenyan li de youyi zhi hua,” Beijing Dier Waiguoyu Xueyuan Xuebao 38, no. 4 (2016): 1–9Google Scholar; “Zheng Enbo dhe lidhja e tij e përjetshme me Shqipërinë,” [recorded interview], China Radio International, February 1, 2016, at http://albanian.cri.cn/381/2016/02/01/182s148951.htm (last accessed July 15, 2018).