Enver Hoxha
Enver Halil Hoxha was an Albanian communist revolutionary, statesman and Marxist–Leninist political theorist who was the leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania from 1941 until his death, a member of its Politburo, chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, and commander-in-chief of the Albanian People's Army. He was the twenty-second prime minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times was both foreign minister and defence minister of the country.
Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër in 1908. After the Italian invasion of Albania, he helped unify the fractured Albanian communist movement into the Communist Party of Albania. He was elected First Secretary in March 1943 at the age of 34. Less than two years after the liberation of the country, the monarchy of King Zog I was formally abolished, and Hoxha became the country's de facto head of state.
A Stalinist, Hoxha converted Albania into a one-party communist state. By the 1960s he implemented a program of state atheism and ordered the anti-religious persecution of Muslims and Christians. Implementing his radical program, Hoxha used totalitarian methods of governance. His government outlawed traveling abroad and private proprietorship. The government imprisoned, executed, or exiled thousands of landowners, rural clan leaders, peasants who resisted collectivization, and allegedly disloyal party officials. Hoxha was succeeded by Ramiz Alia, who was in charge during the fall of communism in Albania.
Hoxha's government was characterised by his proclaimed firm adherence to anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism from the mid/late-1960s onwards. After his open break with Maoism in the 1976–1978 period, numerous parties around the world declared themselves Hoxhaist. The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organisations is the best known association of these parties.
Early life
Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër in southern Albania in October 1908, the son of Halil Hoxha, a Muslim cloth merchant who travelled widely across Europe and the United States, and Gjylihan Hoxha. Enver was named after Enver Pasha, a leading figure of the Young Turk Revolution. The Hoxha family was attached to the Bektashi Order.After elementary school, Enver followed his studies in the city senior high school "Liria". He started his studies at the Gjirokastër Lyceum in 1923. After the lyceum was closed, due to intervention of Ekrem Libohova, Enver Hoxha was awarded a state scholarship for the continuation of his studies in Korçë, at the French language Albanian National Lyceum until 1930.
In 1930, Hoxha went to study at the University of Montpellier in Montpellier, France on a state scholarship for botany in the faculty of natural science, but he dropped out due to his interests being in the social and humanistic studies. He later went to Paris, where he presented himself to anti-Zogist immigrants as the brother-in-law of Bahri Omari. From 1935 to 1936, he was employed as a secretary at the Albanian consulate in Brussels. After returning to Albania, he worked as a contract teacher in the Gymnasium of Tirana. Hoxha taught French and morals in the Korça Liceum from 1937 to 1939 and was also the caretaker of the school library.
On 7 April 1939, the Albanian Kingdom was invaded by fascist Italy. The Italians established a puppet government, called the Kingdom of Albania, under Shefqet Vërlaci. At the end of 1939, Hoxha was transferred to the Gjirokastra Gymnasium, but he soon returned to Tirana. He was helped by his best friend, Esat Dishnica, who introduced Hoxha to Dishnica's cousin Ibrahim Biçakçiu. Hoxha began to sleep in Biçakçiu's tobacco factory "Flora", and after a while, Dishnica opened a shop with the same name, where Hoxha began working. He was a sympathiser of.
World War II
On 8 November 1941, the Communist Party of Albania was founded. Hoxha was chosen from the "Korça group" as a Muslim representative by the two Yugoslav envoys as one of the seven members of the provisional Central Committee. The First Consultative Meeting of Activists of the Communist Party of Albania was held in Tirana from 8 to 11 April 1942, with Hoxha himself delivering the main report on 8 April 1942.In July 1942, Hoxha wrote "Call to the Albanian Peasantry", issued in the name of the Communist Party of Albania. The call sought to enlist support in Albania for the war against the fascists. The peasants were encouraged to hoard their grain and refuse to pay taxes or livestock levies brought by the government. After the September 1942 Conference at Pezë, the National Liberation Movement was founded with the purpose of uniting the anti-fascist Albanians, regardless of ideology or class.
By March 1943, the first National Conference of the Communist Party elected Hoxha formally as First Secretary. During WWII, the Soviet Union's role in Albania was negligible. On 10 July 1943, the Albanian partisans were organised in regular units of companies, battalions and brigades and named the Albanian National Liberation Army. The organization received military support from the British intelligence service, SOE.
Within Albania, repeated attempts were made during the war to remedy the communications difficulties which faced partisan groups. In August 1943, a secret meeting, the Mukje Conference, was held between the anti-communist Balli Kombëtar and the Communist Party of Albania. To encourage the Balli Kombëtar to sign, the Greater Albania sections that included Kosovo and Chamëria were made part of the Agreement.
Disagreement with the Yugoslav Communists
A problem developed when the Yugoslav Communists disagreed with the goal of establishing a Greater Albania and asked the Communists in Albania to withdraw their agreement. According to Hoxha, Josip Broz Tito did not believe that "Kosovo was Albanian" and Serbian opposition to the transfer made it an unwise option. After the Albanian Communists repudiated the Greater Albania agreement, the Balli Kombëtar condemned the Communists, who in turn accused the Balli Kombëtar of siding with the Italians. The Balli Kombëtar lacked support from the people. After judging the Communists as an immediate threat, the Balli Kombëtar sided with Nazi Germany, fatally damaging its image among those fighting the fascists. The Communists quickly added many of those who were disillusioned with the Balli Kombëtar to their ranks and they also took centre stage in the fight for liberation.The Permet National Congress which was in session during that time called for a "new democratic Albania for the people". Although the monarchy was not formally abolished, King Zog I of the Albanians was barred from returning to the country, which further increased the Communists' control. The Anti-Fascist Committee for National Liberation was founded, chaired by Hoxha. On 22 October 1944, the Committee became the Democratic Government of Albania after a meeting in Berat, and Hoxha was chosen to serve as the interim Prime Minister of Albania. Tribunals were established for the purpose of trying alleged war criminals who were also accused of being "enemies of the people" and they were presided over by Koçi Xoxe.
After Albania's liberation on 29 November 1944, several Albanian partisan divisions crossed the border into German-occupied Yugoslavia, where they fought alongside Tito's partisans and the Soviet Red Army in a joint campaign which succeeded in driving out the last pockets of German resistance. During a Yugoslavian conference in later years, Marshal Tito thanked Hoxha for the Albanian partisans' assistance during the War for National Liberation. The Democratic Front, dominated by the Albanian Communist Party, succeeded the National Liberation Front in August 1945, and the first post-war election was held on 2 December of that year. The Front was the only legal political organisation which was allowed to stand in the elections, and the government reported that 93% of Albanians voted for it.
On 11 January 1946, Zog was officially deposed, and the People's Republic of Albania was established, although in fact, the country had already been a Communist state since its liberation. As First Secretary of the party, Hoxha was de facto head of state and as a result, he was the most powerful man in the country.
Albanians celebrate their independence day on 28 November, while in the former People's Socialist Republic of Albania, the national day was 29 November, the day the country was liberated from Nazi Germany. Currently, both days are national holidays.
Early period in power (1944–1965)
Hoxha declared himself a Marxist–Leninist and expressed strong admiration for the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Between 1945 and 1950, the Albanian government adopted policies and actions intended to consolidate power, which included extrajudicial killings and executions that targeted and eliminated anti-communists. The Agrarian Reform Law passed in August 1945. It confiscated land without compensation from beys and large landowners, giving it to peasants. Large landowners possessed 52% of all land before the law passed; this declined to 16% after the law's passage. An education orpolicy began in September 1949, requiring citizens aged 20 to 40 to attend literacy classes. Literacy rates were 5-10% in rural areas in 1939, and an estimated 15% in the total population in 1946. They had increased to 70% by 1950.Border disputes with Yugoslavia
In 1948, a border conflict erupted between Albania and Yugoslavia. Enver Hoxha and the Albanian Military Intelligence services, the Sigurimi, played a significant role in promoting separatism in Kosovo and the idea of a "Greater Albania".Difficulties and progress
By 1949, the US and British intelligence organisations were working with the former King Zog and the mountain men of his personal guard. They recruited Albanian refugees and émigrés from Egypt, Italy and Greece, trained them in Cyprus, Malta and the Federal Republic of Germany, and infiltrated them into Albania. Guerrilla units entered Albania in 1950 and 1952, but they were killed or captured by Albanian security forces. Kim Philby, a Soviet double-agent working as a liaison-officer between MI6 and the CIA, had leaked details of the infiltration plan to Moscow, and the security breach claimed the lives of about 300 infiltrators.On 19 February 1951, a bombing occurred at the Soviet embassy in Tirana; 23 accused intellectuals were arrested and imprisoned. One of them, Jonuz Kaceli, was killed by Mehmet Shehu during interrogation. Subsequently, the 22 others were executed without trial under Hoxha's orders.
The State University of Tirana, established in 1957, was the first of its kind in Albania. The medieval Gjakmarrja was banned. Malaria, the most widespread disease, was successfully fought through advances in health care, through the use of DDT, and through the draining of swampland. From 1965 to 1985, no cases of malaria were reported, whereas previously Albania had the greatest number of infected patients in Europe. No cases of syphilis had been recorded for 30 years. In 1938, the number of physicians was 1.1 per 10,000, and there was only one hospital-bed per 1,000 people. In 1950, while the number of physicians had not increased, there were four times as many hospital-beds per head, and health expenditure had risen to 5% of the budget, up from 1% before the war.