– N. Ribar, TML Supplement –
In this year’s summer edition of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism newsletter of the organization Tribute to Liberty, published on July 30, was a brief article entitled “Communism in Albania: A Firsthand Reflection on One of History’s Harshest Regimes.” This article, allegedly written by someone who grew up in the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, throws various dystopian stereotypes at that society. Among other things, it is defined as a society full of paranoia of external forces with an illusion of self-reliance, ruled by the “iron fist” of Enver Hoxha, with an obsessive loyalty to “Marxist-Leninist doctrine,” outlawing of religious practices, a cult of personality, small monthly rations and long, freezing bread lines. It ends: “Communism in Albania wasn’t just a political system — it was a totalitarian nightmare that starved its people, destroyed their faith, and robbed them of their freedom. I lived through it. I will never forget it.” In other words, the same dreadful picture painted by Soviet exiles such as Solzhenitsyn and others.
It is the right of anyone to write whatever they would like about their own life experiences, and the individual in question also has this right. It is, however, easy to be a general after the battle. One must, more importantly, question why the Tribute to Liberty organization decided to publish this article at this time. Enver Hoxha died in 1985, 40 years ago this past April. The PSR of Albania essentially ceased to exist in spring 1991, and officially in 1992 — 34 and 35 years ago, respectively. The problems of those times, in one way or another, have been solved for a time — either permanently or temporarily. These are not current issues, and certainly not pertinent to concerns in Canada at the present time.
What would motivate someone to bring up this history of Albania? What phantasm of the mind leads to this? It can only be assumed that the intent in publishing such an article is to place a black stain on history where none existed, and to utilize a small country and people as part of a general offensive of Anglo-American historiography against anyone who, at any time, dared to defy it.
I am not writing to defend the past, but to demonstrate what a small nation can do when they are of a single will, and to defend the right of peoples to take their own path. Such articles as seen in Tribute to Liberty’s newsletter are not mere criticisms of former societies but, in fact, attacks against any small peoples that decide to go their own way, in spite of the bitter and constant imperialist aggressions to force them on the road of the Anglo-Americans.
This is especially important in our 80th year of the Great Victory in the world anti-fascist war, given that the Albanian Anti-Fascist National Liberation Movement and the Democratic Government set up at Përmet on May 24, 1944, with Enver Hoxha at the head, was a recognized ally of the Great Anti-Hitler Coalition and made outstanding contributions far beyond its people’s means to the defeat of Hitlerite fascism. The Albanian partisans, led by their Commander Enver Hoxha, were the only movement in occupied Europe during the Second World War to completely liberate their territory without the aid of a single Allied Great Power soldier on November 29, 1944.
After Albania liberated itself, Enver Hoxha ordered three divisions of the Albanian partisan army to cross into Yugoslav territory to continue to fight the Nazi-fascist occupier. The 4th, 6th and later 24th Albanian partisan divisions liberated almost the entirety of Kosovo, most of the Sandžak, and parts of Montenegro, western Serbia and eastern Bosnia. This included Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, and the hero-town of Rudo, where the Yugoslav 1st Proletarian Brigade was formed on December 21, 1941. In the Sandžak, a mother in the liberated town of Sjenica was quoted as follows: “Tell the mothers, wives and sisters of those Albanians who laid down their lives for the liberation of the Sandžak, that the sun of our mountains will warm the place where their beloved ones fell just as the sun of your mountains.”
Everywhere the Albanian partisans went in Yugoslavia, they acted with the highest professional attitude and dignity befitting an honourable people and army. In total, the Albanian partisans liberated approximately 10 per cent of Allied Yugoslavia. Hundreds of Albanian partisans fell in selfless, fraternal internationalist aid. This was an enormous contribution to not only the Yugoslav people’s struggle but to the entire world anti-fascist war.
On the reverse side, traitors to the Albanian people, many of whom fled to the West and have had their influence there, descendants of the Albanian Fascist Party, collaborator Balli Kombëtar and SS Skanderbeg, fought against the Great Anti-Hitler Coalition, against the National Liberation Movement, against the Democratic Government and its head, Enver Hoxha. Such forces in Albania fought as mercenaries of the Italian and German occupiers, and in Yugoslavia, on the side of the Ustaše and Chetnik butchers responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
With a total population of approximately 1,125,000 in Albania, the occupiers and collaborators killed 28,800 people, or 2.48 per cent. On a percentage basis, Albania ranked fifth highest in dead among the anti-fascist bloc. These criminals in many cases escaped to the West, including Canada, and had a profound impact on the narrative about the countries they left.
The Tribute to Liberty organization certainly feels this imprint. It is worth noting in this vein that Mustafa Merlika-Kruja, the Prime Minister of the Albanian fascist occupation government, died in 1958 in Niagara Falls, New York. Mithat Frashëri, leader of the collaborationist Balli Kombëtar, died in 1949 in New York City where he was running his “Free Albania” National Committee to undermine the PSR of Albania. This despite the fact that the National Liberation Movement was sent emissaries by the U.S. and Britain during the war and was recognized as the only legitimate force fighting on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition.
It was due to the Albanian National Liberation Movement that in 1946, at the Paris Peace Conference, representing Albania, Enver Hoxha was able to proudly proclaim that despite a fascist government being set up in their name, from the first days of the Italian occupation in April 1939, the Albanian people never put down the rifle, and found themselves not as a losing nation but among the victorious. From that tribune, he was able to proclaim:
“The Albanian people, loyal to their fighting traditions for freedom and independence, and loyal to the end to the allied cause, from April 7, 1939 till the day of victory, never shirked any sacrifice. Albania rendered a major and unstinting contribution in bloodshed for the common cause. Albania’s fight earned it the right to participate in this Conference, with the same title and same rights as those of the twenty-one victorious nations.”
Due to this fierce stance, Albania indeed won a seat as a victorious country. This was also a defence of the territorial integrity of Albania against the monarcho-fascist collaborator regime which came to power in Greece under the backing of the Anglo-Americans, which had ambitions for southern Albania, which they called “vorio-Epirus” — northern Greece.
When various hostile elements came to power in Yugoslavia who were preparing to break off with the Soviet Union and had already prepared an aggressive policy towards Albania, hoping to annex it and make it the seventh republic of Yugoslavia in 1948, and had already sent two divisions into independent Albania, it was Enver Hoxha’s personal vigilance which saved the self-determination of the country. He claimed in his book of memoirs The Titoites that he sent a letter to Soviet Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov and Generalissimo Stalin, informing them of this aggression, which began what is today known in historiography as the Tito-Stalin split. It is also known that after these events, and when Yugoslavia linked itself further up with the U.S. CIA in attempts to overthrow the people’s democratic countries in Eastern Europe, it took in and harboured former Albanian Nazi collaborator elements, training them to overthrow the government of Albania, including Gani Bey Kryeziu and Seit Bey Kryeziu, associates of the Yugoslav State Security (better known as UDBA) and Western intelligence agencies. As late as 1959, President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito and King Paul of Greece, in alignment with these Albanian collaborator elements in Yugoslavia and the West, as well as the former pre-war king Ahmet Zogu, personally discussed splitting Albania in two — the north for Yugoslavia, and the south for Greece.
Enver Hoxha’s time, aside from liberating the country and defending its independence from an all-sided encirclement sponsored by the Anglo-American imperialists, was marked by an enormous amount of accomplishments in building up the country. In 1938, an Albanian’s life expectancy was merely 38 years old, which in 1985 reached 71 years. According to the 1991 Statistical Yearbook published by the new anti-communist government of Albania led by Sali Berisha, in 1979-80, the average Albanian ate 3,019 calories per day, somewhat less than the Netherlands at 3310, but higher than Spain at 3,049 and Japan at 2,807. According to the same anti-communist Yearbook, in 1970 Albanians ate an average of 87 grams of protein a day, and 94 grams per day in 1984. By contrast, the United Kingdom fared at 89.98 grams in 1984 and Denmark at 86.72 in the same year. So, it follows, on average Albanians were better fed than Western citizens. And this despite the fact that 75 per cent of Albanian land is mountainous and difficult to cultivate. On October 25, 1970, Albania became the first country in the world to supply electricity to its entire population down to every man, woman and child. On April 29, 1967, it became the first country in the world to abolish direct taxes or levies on the population. In 1976, it became fully self-sufficient in bread to fulfil all the consumption needs of the population, doing away once and for all with hunger.
In the PSR of Albania, there existed neither unemployment, nor debt, nor taxes or levies, nor drug-addiction, nor inflation. Discrimination, oppression and exploitation of persons by persons were being eliminated. Within its borders, violence was an unknown phenomenon, and outside of them, it never engaged in provocations against other nations. In Albania there existed a people’s state power, modern industry, a truly self-reliant economy, self-sufficiency in foodstuffs, mechanized agriculture, free and modern health care, women given pride of place, positive education of the youth, flourishing folklore and culture, developing scientific fields, Albanological national studies and more.
The question of religion, which was mentioned in the article, omits the Albanian people’s own historic experience, not just during socialism but in democratic movements for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Through the centuries, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam had been imposed on the Albanian people as part of efforts by various Great Powers to split the population along religious lines and gain a foothold in this strategically important country on the straits of Otranto and Adriatic Sea. The Albanian Renaissance of the late 19th century, in forming a modern nation, proclaimed these differences to be anachronistic and, as early as 1878, the Albanian patriot Pashko Vasa wrote in his poem Oh Albania, Suffering Albania the famous slogan which also appeared in Enver Hoxha’s time: The only religion of Albania is Albanianism!
Anyone can see that this was simple modern logic. The decision of the Albanian people in 1967 to close their religious institutions followed not from blind ideology but from this patriotic, modern thinking. The spark which led to this decision was not lit by Enver Hoxha or the Party of Labour of Albania but by the students of the “Naim Frashëri” school in Durrës. These were students who were tired of being weighed down by the prejudices of religion and superstition while they were building their new life protested. In particular, they were motivated by seeing the Albanian woman in chains through the religious obligations of the Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, customary laws which, among other things, stated “The husband is entitled to beat his wife, to bind her in chains if she defies his word and order… Whereas the father is entitled to beat, chain, imprison and kill his son or daughter… It is the duty of the wife to obey her husband… A woman’s blood is worth 500 grosh [an old Turkish coin – TML Ed. Note].” Although the people were centuries removed from the integral application of these laws, the basic mentality towards women remained. One flame, started in Durrës, quickly spread throughout the entire country, and only afterwards was this formalized in the Constitution, nine years later in 1976.
It should also be noted that the Catholic church, for its activity during the fascist occupation and its role as an espionage agency of the West, was banned immediately post-war.
There were many other accomplishments which cannot be attributed to blind ideology. From November 20-25, 1972, on Enver Hoxha’s suggestion, Albanian linguists from both Albania proper and from Kosovo held an Albanian Orthography Congress in Tirana, in which the Albanian language was standardized across the northern Gheg and southern Tosk dialects. It was the first time this was ever done in the Albanian people’s long history. It was a massive step along the road of building a single, unified Albanian nation in their own image and not as today, when the U.S. imposes what kind of nation Albanians should have. Before this reform, these dialects were written much more distinctly than the dialects of neighbouring Serbo-Croatian, which are today called languages.
In ethno-historical matters, neither can a blind devotion to ideology be found. Based on extensive studies, Albanologists in Enver Hoxha’s time proved that the Albanians descend from the ancient Illyrian people and are autochthonous on the lands they inhabit. The name “Albania” itself was inherited from the Illyrian tribe of “Albanoi” near Durrës. The continuation among personal names and toponyms in Albania between Illyrian and modern Albanian include the cities of Shkodra (Scodra), Lezha (Lissus) and Durrës (Dyrrhachium), and the Drin (Drinus) and Mat (Mathis) rivers. Lasting Illyrian influence can be seen throughout the Balkan Peninsula, including the city of Duvno in Bosnia and Herzegovina, derived from the Illyrian city located on roughly the same place, Delminium. Today, the descendants of these Illyrians live in Delvina, northern Albania, another derivative name of the same original.
Enver Hoxha was personally given numerous decorations, honours and praises by all Allies and Great Powers, even decades post-war. From Yugoslavia, he received the Order of the People’s Hero, from Bulgaria the Order of Bravery, from the Soviet Union the Order of Lenin and the high honour of the Order of Suvorov, 1st Class – intended only for the most outstanding military leadership, in his case his leadership of the Albanian partisans during the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War.
Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the U.S. remarked: “Do not underestimate Mr. Enver Hoxha, as he is a great head in the field of diplomacy!” Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was forced to appraise him in the following way: “One of the world’s most remarkable leaders, who has presided over every negotiation table, regardless of who was seated at the table!” Zhou Enlai, former Premier of China, was quoted saying: “The only party leader whose thoughts and judgements I could never confront was Enver Hoxha!” The French President Charles de Gaulle stated: “No one more than Enver Hoxha deserves the saying, ‘Glory goes to he who does not seek it’!” And Andreas Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece, stated at Enver Hoxha’s funeral: “A people can be made to applaud their leader by force, but they cannot be made to cry for him!”
In the United Nations, the PSR of Albania was a respected member-state, known worldwide for its noble stands, especially in favour of the heroic Palestinian and Arab peoples against Israeli Zionist machinations – a cause close to the heart of all progressive humanity. It was on the PSR of Albania’s initiative and extensive insistence that the People’s Republic of China was admitted to the UN on January 25, 1971 to take its rightful seat, fraudulently given to Formosa (Taiwan) after World War II.
Far from an isolated maniac as the author in the maniacal Tribute to Liberty piece seeks to portray, Enver Hoxha’s stature was respected by both friend and foe in the world as a serious statesman and revolutionary fiercely dedicated to his country and beliefs.
Given this entire record, Tribute to Liberty should explain — what in these facts do you condemn? Albania as an Allied, anti-Hitler victorious nation? Albania standing up for its sovereignty amidst an all-sided encirclement? Albania feeding its people? Albania doing away with backwardness? Albania as a nation-builder? Albania as respected by both friend and foe in the world? What does it serve Canadians to tell them such stories about the PSR of Albania, which ceased to exist three and a half decades ago?
Today, Albania is a neo-colony of the European Union and United States. Its beautiful seaside towns have been turned into U.S. military bases. Its people are held captive by vultures who are plucking away at the society and economy. The ravishing of modern industry and mechanized agriculture was the first task of the pro-U.S. government which came to power in 1992. Half of the population has left since that time, and polls indicate another half would like to leave. Feudal social customs such as the aforementioned Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, which sanction the subjugation of women to man and archaic blood feuds, have been revived in these last 35 years of so-called democracy.
In this light, the German news agency DW recently reported on a man whose son committed murder, and who cannot leave his home because the Kanun gives the murdered family the right to kill the murderer’s father.
This “democracy” has plunged Albania into humiliation, into the darkest days of its history, unknown even during the five centuries of Ottoman occupation. This is the kind of Albania bought lock, stock and barrel by the Euro-Atlantic masters. But history knows it is difficult to keep a people with heroes like Gjergj Kastrioti-Skanderbeg, Naim Frashëri, Ismail Qemali and Enver Hoxha down for long, with their long and storied legacy of victoriously fighting imperialists of all shades and hues.
To repeat, everyone has the right to write about their own experiences, but the peoples of the world also have the right to defy imperialism and build a nation and society of their own making. The Albanians in the period when Enver Hoxha was alive were just like any other people who wish to live in light and prosperity on their own terms. They had everything to do it, especially with their heroism emerging in the Second World War, and indeed did it with spectacular results. The experience of the Albanian people, with the Party of Labour of Albania and Enver Hoxha at the head, serves as an inspiration to our day. The peoples of the world will continue to fight in the same way, in spite of whatever apparition is concocted about the past of the Albanians or any other people.
(Republished from TML Supplement, Vol. 55, No. 29, August 23, 2025)