Background

Enver Halil Hoxha was born on October 16, 1908, in Ergiri (Gjirokaster), Janina Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Gjirokaster, Albania). He was the son of Halil Hoxha and Gjylihan Hoxha. Enver Hoxha was named by his father after the renowned Ottoman Turkish politician Enver Pasha. He also had three sisters.

Education

Initially, Enver Hoxha attended elementary school and later attended the city senior high school "Liria." In 1923, he started his studies at the Gjirokaster Lyceum. However, soon the Lyceum was closed and Hoxha was awarded a state scholarship in order to continue his studies at the French language Albanian National Lyceum located in Korçë. He studied French history and philosophy at the school.

Enver Hoxha enrolled at the University of Montpellier in 1930 on a scholarship to study the natural sciences. However, he discontinued the course in order to study philosophy. He moved to Paris to study philosophy but was mostly involved in reading Marxism.

Career

Enver Hoxha started his career as a secretary at the Albanian consulate located in Brussels in 1934. He continued to work there for two years before his employment was brought to a halt after communist literature was found in his possession. In 1936, Hoxha returned to Korçë, where he obtained a teaching post at the lycée and became active with one of the few groups of communists operating in Albania.

When Albania was occupied by Italy in 1939 and Hoxha refused to join the Fascist Party, he lost his job and relocated to Tirana. He opened a small tobacco shop, which served as a cover for communist activities. Two years later, he became one of the founding members of the Albanian Communist Party and also became the first secretary of the Party, a position he held on to for close to 44 years. In 1942, he became the political commissar of the communist-dominated National Liberation Movement. Later, in July 1943, the first brigades of the NLM's Army of National Liberation were activated and began large scale operations against the occupiers.

In 1944, Albania was liberated, and on October 22, 1944, Enver Hoxha became the Prime Minister of the country and its all-powerful head of state. He held this post until 1954 and also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1946 to 1953. Although Hoxha formally relinquished his governmental titles in 1953 and 1954, he retained his position as leader of the Party of Labor of Albania. He made several political reforms, ended relations with the Soviet Union, and established new political relationships with China. However, by the mid-1970s, Hoxha grew critical of China's policies, and in 1978, the Chinese suspended their aid program.

In 1981, Hoxha retired from active political activities. He also wrote books about communism and his political colleagues.

Achievements

• Enver Hoxha was an Albanian politician who was known as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania. He also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of Albania. Hoxha headed the Albanian government longer than any other postwar European leader. His legacy effectuated the transformation of Albanian society from an agricultural backwater to a self-sufficient socialist industrial economy.
  
  Enver Hoxha received the Order of Skanderbeg, the Order of Lenin and the Order of Suvorov. However, according to President Berisha's Decree No. 1018, which canceled all awards and honorary titles conferred on leaders of the communist regime, Hoxha lost all his awards posthumously.
  
  Enver Hoxha is mentioned in Vasily Aksenov's novel Island of Crimea. The Brazilian writer Jorge Amado tells about his meeting with the Albanian leader in his memoir Coaster Voyage.

Works

More photos

• book

  • With Stalin: Memoirs

    (Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha recounts his meetin...)

    1979
  • Imperialism and the Revolution

    (The Albanian anti-revisionist leader's polemic against th...)

    1979
  • Seven Letters & Speeches

    (Collection of seven speeches and letters, from the years ...)

    2015
  • Eurocommunism Is Anti-Communism 1980
  • The Khruschevites 1980

Religion

Enver Hoxha didn't like the fact that Albania was the only predominantly Muslim country in Europe but at the same time had not identified religion with ethnicity. He stated that this fact divided the nation in general. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1945 confiscated much of the church's property in the country. In 1946, the Jesuit Order was banned and the Franciscans were banned in 1947. Decree No. 743 on religion sought a national church and forbade religious leaders to associate with foreign powers. The Party focused on atheist education in schools.

Starting on February 6, 1967, the Party began to promote secularism over Abrahamic religions. Hoxha declared a Cultural and Ideological Revolution and as a result, all 2,169 churches and mosques in Albania were demolished. Town and city names that echoed Abrahamic religious themes were abandoned for neutral secular ones, as well as personal names. During this period, religiously-based names were also made illegal. The promotion of religion was banned and all clerics were outlawed.

Politics

When Enver Hoxha was in France, he became involved in socialist and communist activities there. He also wrote articles critical of the Zog regime in Albania. Later, when World War II began, he wrote "Call to the Albanian Peasantry" in order to enlist support in Albania for the war against the fascists. Soon, the National Liberation Movement was formed.

In 1943, the first brigades of the National Liberation Movement's Army of National Liberation were activated and began large scale operations against the occupiers. The National Liberation Movement managed to withdraw Germans from the country and the leadership of the National Liberation Movement assumed control of the country.

Enver Hoxha became Prime Minister of Albania and tried to solidify its position and put the country on the road to socialism. The 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 was passed in August 1945. Nearly all significant private industry and large landed estates were expropriated, eliminating the influence of foreign companies and the pre-war Albanian elite. These years also saw increasingly blatant attempts by the Yugoslav government of Josip Broz Tito to control Albania politically and economically through pro-Belgrade Albanian communist leaders, such as Koçi Xoxe, the Minister of Interior. The expulsion of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia from the Cominform in June 1948 enabled Hoxha and his supporters to denounce the Yugoslavs and execute Xoxe in May 1949.

Thereafter, Hoxha enthusiastically embraced the Soviet Union and its model of socialism as propounded by Stalin. He continued the campaign against "Titoism" and also crushed several of the United States and British attempts to foment an anti-communist uprising. During this period Hoxha's government received large amounts of Soviet aid for the initial phases of socialist construction. Relations between Albania and the Soviet Union remained close until the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953. Under Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's successor, aid was reduced, and Albania was encouraged to adopt Khrushchev's specialization policy. Under this policy, Albania would develop its agricultural output in order to supply the Soviet Union. Hoxha was not ready for this. By 1961, Hoxha's attacks on the "revisionist" Soviet leadership had so infuriated Khrushchev that he elected first to terminate Moscow's economic aid to Albania and ultimately to sever diplomatic relations entirely. In 1968, following Hoxha's blistering condemnation of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Albania formally withdrew from the Warsaw Pact.

With Hoxha in power, the standard of living of the population improved. Illiteracy, which was 90–95% in rural areas in 1939 went down to 30% by 1950. In 1957, the State University of Tirana was established. The Medieval Gjakmarrja (blood feud) was banned. From 1965 to 1985, no cases of malaria were reported and no cases of syphilis had been recorded for 30 years. Enver Hoxha also championed women's rights and turned the patriarchal society in Albania into an equal opportunity society. In 1960, the Party announced a campaign to provide electricity to each and every Albanian, and within a decade the goal was achieved. Hoxha had also ordered the building of one-man bunkers in order to ensure that a large part of the population could be safe if the country was ever attacked. The health service was free of charge for all and was extended to the remotest villages. Hoxha's governance was also distinguished by his encouragement of a high birthrate policy.

The end of relations with Moscow forced Hoxha to align himself still more closely with the Chinese. During the 1960s, Chinese aid and technicians largely replaced assistance formerly given by the Soviet Union. However, by the mid-1970s, Hoxha grew critical of China's policies, particularly in the wake of Beijing's opening to the United States and its rapprochement with Yugoslavia. Enver Hoxha charged that Mao Zedong's successors aimed to make China a great power by aligning themselves with Washington and betraying revolutionary movements in developing countries. As a result, in mid-1978, the Chinese suspended their aid program and recalled their technicians.

In 1976, a new constitution was established at the Seventh Congress of the Albanian Party of Labour and Enver Hoxha led the charge for the new constitution, as he wanted to build the ideal socialist state. According to the constitution, the government denied the population access to information other than that disseminated by the government-controlled media. Internally, the Sigurimi followed the repressive methods of the NKVD, MGB, KGB, and the East German Stasi. In the end, this led to the fact that every third Albanian had either been interrogated by the Sigurimi or incarcerated in labor camps.

Enver Hoxha also pursued a policy of total nationalism. Hoxha and his government were hostile to Western popular culture. He criticized the "spread of certain vulgar, alien tastes in music and art," which ran contrary to socialist ethics and the positive traditions of the Albanian people.

Views

Enver Hoxha was a supporter of the death penalty.

Quotations: "The modern revisionists and reactionaries call us Stalinists, thinking that they insult us and, in fact, that is what they have in mind. But, on the contrary, they glorify us with this epithet; it is an honor for us to be Stalinists for while we maintain such a stand the enemy cannot and will never force us to our knees."

"It is only the working class at the head of the masses, it is only the working class headed by its real Marxist-Leninist party, it is only the working class through armed revolution, through violence, that can and must bury the traitorous revisionists."

"When the enemy attacks you, it means you are on the right road."

"The entire party and country should hurl into the fire and break the neck of anyone who dared trample underfoot the sacred edict of the party on the defense of women's rights."

"Even if we have to go without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles. We do not betray Marxism – Leninism."

"A country where a man is afraid to criticize another one is no socialist country."

"Every departure from class struggle has fatal results for the destiny of socialism."

Personality

Enver Hoxha was well known for his harsh treatment of political opponents. Clerics and political rivals were transferred to locations where their opposition could not be heard. These could be remote villages under police control or prison. Enver Hoxha was also a supporter of the death penalty. Some of those opponents were executed.

Physical Characteristics: In his final days Enver Hoxha was confined to a wheelchair and suffering from diabetes, which had developed in 1948, and cerebral ischemia, from which he had suffered since 1983.

Hoxha died, after suffering an attack of ventricular fibrillation, on April 11, 1985.

Quotes from others about the person

• Vyacheslav Molotov: "He is very handsome and leaves a good impression. He is quite cultured, but you sense Western influence on his upbringing."
  
  Peter R. Prifti: "Hoxha seems to be well informed about literature, the theater, and philosophy, particularly the philosophy of education. He might well be pictured holding the sword of the dictatorship of the proletariat in one hand and the Western "lamp of learning" on the other."
  
  Jon Halliday: "In a way, even more than Stalin, Hoxha had a vision of "socialism in one country" not for geo-strategic reasons, but out of alledged ideological purity, which served as a convenient cloak for nationalism."

Connections

Enver Hoxha married Nexhmije Xhuglini in 1945. The marriage produced two sons and a daughter.

Father:

Halil Hoxha

Mother:

Gjylihan Hoxha

Wife:

Nexhmije Hoxha

Nexhmije Hoxha (February 8, 1921 – February 26, 2020) was an Albanian Communist politician.

Son:

Ilir Hoxha

Ilir Hoxha (born March 31, 1949) is an Albanian politician and businessman.

Son:

Sokol Hoxha

Sokol Hoxha was the CEO of the Albanian Post and Telecommunication service.

Daughter:

Pranvera Hoxha

Sister:

Fahrije Hoxha

Sister:

Haxhire Hoxha

Sister:

Sanije Hoxha

Uncle:

Hysen Hoxha

Hysen Hoxha (1861 – 1934) was an Albanian politician.

colleague:

Joseph Stalin

References

• A Coming of Age In studying Enver Hoxha's forty-year reign, this book shows that, while it is necessary to give Hoxha a mixed report card, he nonetheless enabled a small nation with a multitude of limitations to maintain its sovereignty and modernize through unorthodox methods.
  1999
• Enver Hoxha: The Iron Fist of Albania Using unseen documents and first-hand interviews, journalist Blendi Fevziu pieces together the life of a tyrannical ruler in a biography which will be essential reading for anyone interested in Balkan history and communist studies.
  2016
• Albania: A Socialist Maverick A book by Elez Biberaj.
  1990