Volunteering during Communism – A discourse analysis of volunteering in the Albanian literature of Socialist Realism

Volunteer work during communism is one of the main myths that are often reiterated in the post-communist Albanian sphere. It is often described as an unpaid work done in the public realm to implement massive projects such as construction of dams, of railroads, drainage of wetlands and construction of terraced fields which contributed to the development of the country during communism. The aim of this article is to investigate what meanings were attached to the volunteering work in the communist Albania and how it was presented in the Albanian literature. The volunteer work was managed by the communist state by means of the Party of Labor’s ancillary organizations such as Youth Organization, Democratic Front Organization, Women Front Organization and Committee of Veterans. The implementation of the massive projects required large quantity of funds and immense human capital. To keep people motivated the propaganda sector played an important role. Culture and arts, including the literature of socialist realism, were used to disseminate the messages of the communist leadership to the people. The narrative of the communist leadership was full of cliches such as ‘volunteer work helps to strengthen and create solidarity between the working class, the peasants and the strata of intellectuals’, “the volunteer work helps to emancipate women and girls”, “the voluntary work helps to fabricate the new man”, “the youth is the main driving force towards progress and development”. These messages were present in the speeches of Enver Hoxha, the communist leader of Albania in his meetings with youngsters, women and girls, peasants, working class people, artists and writers and the same messages were present in the Albanian literature of socialist realism. In order to analyze the role of volunteer work in Albania, how solidarity was created among people and what strategies did the Party of Labor of Albania pursued to motivate an immense high number of people in the construction of the country after the World War II, we will analyze how voluntary work was described in the works of Enver Hoxha and how this was reflected in the Albanian literature. By tracing the amount of time voluntary work occupied in people lives (in term of hours of work and as a topic of conversation), the typology of voluntary work and its spatial distribution, its interconnectedness with other aspects of cultural life, we could understand what meaning did people attach to the voluntary work and how the voluntary work itself organized peoples’ life.