– enverhoxha.ru –
Enver Hoxha was born on October 16, 1908, in the city of Gjirokastra in southern Albania. His mother, Gjylo, was a simple Albanian woman, while his father, Halil, worked as a minor official struggling to provide for the family during and after World War I, raising and educating five children.
Enver Hoxha’s spiritual development was significantly influenced by his uncle, Hysen Hoxha, a true patriot and leader of various national and cultural organizations in Gjirokastra. Hysen Hoxha was also the founder of the first Albanian school in the city.
Enver’s childhood and youth were marked by a difficult period for the country, with successive foreign invaders burning and ravaging entire regions, committing mass murders, and spreading misery. In March 1913, just three and a half months after Albania declared independence on November 28, 1912, Gjirokastra and its surrounding areas were occupied by the Greek nationalists. Later, in accordance with the secret London Agreement of 1915, the Italian occupiers replaced the Greeks.
The revelation by the Soviet government of secret agreements between imperialist powers after the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution played a significant role in the rise of the national liberation movement in Albania. The anti-imperialist movement for freedom, independence and territorial integrity, against the London Agreement that envisaged the partition of Albania among Italy, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, gripped the Albanian people.
The heroic Battle of Vlora in the summer of 1920, which resulted in the expulsion of the Italian imperialist occupiers from Albania, including Enver Hoxha’s hometown of Gjirokastra, had a profound impact on his young mind and strengthened his patriotic sentiments.
From 1917 to 1923, Enver Hoxha attended high school in Gjirokastra, which had been established through efforts of the national patriotic forces during the years of Italian occupation.
His education took place against the backdrop of the growing democratic movement of 1920-1924, leaving an indelible impression on the maturing young man. After successfully completing high school, Enver Hoxha continued his education from 1923 to 1927 at the French Lyceum in Gjirokastra.
Life taught him to despise the enemies of the Homeland, leading him to actively join the democratic movement of 1924, which had a revolutionary, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist character. This movement culminated in armed uprisings and the establishment of a bourgeois-democratic government in Albania, led by Fan Noli, in June 1924.
At the age of 16, Enver Hoxha became one of the founders and secretary of the Student Society of Gjirokastra, formed in July 1924. This organization actively promoted the ideas of freedom, equality and national independence.
The rise to power in December 1924 of reactionary forces led by Ahmet Zogu, who invaded Albania with the support of Western powers, Serbian and White Guard troops, and ousted Fan Noli’s government, permanently placed Enver Hoxha in the ranks of uncompromising opposition to the regime of medieval obscurantism established in Albania. This opposition was evident in his leadership of student resistance against the demands of the Zogite administration to close the Student Society.
In 1927, Enver Hoxha moved to the city of Korça, where he continued and completed his education at its Lyceum from 1927 to 1930. During his time at the French Lyceum in Korça, he studied progressive foreign literature, philosophy, history, immersed himself in national and world culture, and paid great attention to the study of the Albanian language and the centuries-old traditions of his people.
Korça, in the years 1927-1930, was a relatively large urban centre by Albanian standards with an emerging working class. It was a city where the revolutionary movement was most developed. In 1929, the first communist group was formed in Korça, laying the foundation for an organized communist movement in Albania.
In this city, Enver Hoxha first read the “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” which was handed to him by a worker named Koçi Bako, along with works by Marxist-Leninist classics and Albanian communists. His encounter with the ideas of the 18th-century French Revolution, juxtaposed with the influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution, further inspired Enver Hoxha, opening up a new world and ideology for the young man, and shaping his cultural development and political views.
In the summer of 1930, Enver Hoxha graduated with honours from the Korça Lyceum, and in October of the same year, he won a scholarship to study natural sciences at the University of Montpellier in France. Despite not being able to pursue social sciences due to financial constraints, he enrolled in the natural sciences faculty, where he was awarded the scholarship. Nevertheless, social sciences remained his primary passion and interest.
Throughout his studies, he dedicated much time to the study of history and philosophy, especially Marxist-Leninist literature. He attended lectures and seminars in workers’ clubs organized by the French Communist Party. During summer breaks, Enver Hoxha regularly visited his hometown, Gjirokastra, paying respects to his family and friends, staying closely connected to his Homeland.
In November 1933, King Zogu’s government deprived Enver Hoxha of his scholarship. After unsuccessful attempts to find work for further education, he left Montpellier and moved to Paris, hoping to find employment and continue studying at the faculty of law.
In Paris, the capital of the Paris Commune, Enver Hoxha acquainted himself with French communists, actively participated in the work of Parisian workers’ circles and meetings organized by the Communist Party. In Paris, he established contact with the editorial board of L’Humanité, the organ of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party, and began collaborating, publishing materials exposing Zogu’s regime in Albania.
During this time, he studied Karl Marx’s Capital and Friedrick Engels’ Anti-Dühring. In 1934, through his efforts and with the help of friends, Enver Hoxha secured a job at the Albanian consulate in Belgium. There, he continued his education at the faculty of law of the Free University of Brussels while maintaining a focus on the study of Marxism-Leninism. This study, viewed through the prism of the unfolding situation in Albania and the analysis of the proletarian movement, especially in France, further solidified Enver Hoxha’s revolutionary worldview as a committed communist.
However, Zogu’s agents abroad exposed his anti-Zogite activities. In 1936, he was dismissed from his job under the pretext of turning the Albanian consulate in Belgium into an arsenal of Marxist literature.
During his years of study and work in France and Belgium, and during his travels to Albania and back, Enver Hoxha often stayed in the city of Bari, Italy. There, he met many anti-Zogite emigrants who had left Albania after the defeat of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in 1924. He studied their sentiments and perspectives on the political situation in the country. These insights proved valuable and were later utilized by the leadership of the Communist Party of Albania to unite all patriotic forces in the struggle against Italian occupiers.
Left without a job and money, unable to continue his university education, Enver Hoxha made the decision to return to Albania in the summer of 1936. By this time, he had become a communist fully dedicated to the struggle for the liberation of the Albanian people.
A few days after returning to his Homeland, at the grave of the renowned Albanian patriot Bajo Topulli in Gjirokastra, he took an oath to fight “for a better Albania,” “for the prosperity of the Homeland” and “for the true unity of the nation” until the end of his life. This oath became his program of struggle.
Two months later, Enver Hoxha participated in the solemn reburial of the remains of two of Albania’s national heroes, Çerçiz Topulli and Muço Qulli, delivering a speech expressing his admiration for the patriots of the Albanian national movement.
Upon his return to his Homeland, re-establishing contacts with the Albanian communist movement became a crucial task for Enver Hoxha. In July 1936, he met Ali Kelmendi, one of the experienced Albanian communists who had returned to the country as part of the Communist Group of Albania formed in 1928 in the Soviet Union. Before the Zogu regime expelled Ali Kelmendi in September 1936 for communist activities, both communists had several meetings discussing the development of the communist and workers’ movement in Albania.
The Zogite authorities viewed Enver Hoxha’s return to Albania with suspicion, initially denying him employment for over a month. Eventually, he was hired part-time as a teacher at the Tirana Gymnasium. In April 1937, he secured a part-time position at the Korça Lyceum. He established connections with the Communist Group of Korça, founded in 1929, becoming one of its most active members. Using his teaching platform, he adeptly armed students with democratic and communist ideas, becoming a key mentor in the extracurricular organization “Korça Youth” and a relentless advocate for the unity of the Albanian communist movement.
In 1939, serious danger loomed over Albania as fascist Italy, through numerous concessions and unjust political agreements, prepared for a direct military invasion and occupation. The refusal of King Zogu’s clique to organize armed resistance against fascist aggression, due to their deeply anti-national policies, left the country vulnerable. In these circumstances, only the communists could organize a popular resistance for the defence of the freedom and independence of the Homeland, a fact understood by Enver Hoxha.
March-April 1939 saw numerous demonstrations organized by communists across the country. On the initiative of communist group members and Albanian patriots, recruitment centres for volunteers opened in Tirana and other Albanian cities to resist fascist aggression.
On April 7, 1939, Italy treacherously attacked Albania. Zogu and his clique shamefully fled, abandoning the country to its fate. The bloody and heroic resistance of Albanian patriots, who confronted the aggressors with bullets in all Albanian ports and other locations, was crushed by heavily armed fascist forces. Albania was occupied.
Fully aware of the historical significance of the situation, Enver Hoxha was among those who could see through the fascist darkness that had engulfed the country and envision the future of a free Homeland. As a convinced communist and a true patriot, from the earliest days of fascist occupation, he became an ardent advocate for the idea of launching a National Liberation War among school youth.
Even before the occupation, the student youth demonstrated patriotic and democratic sentiments. After Italy’s invasion, student youth, with great force, expressed their hatred for the fascist occupiers, becoming a reliable support for the communist and anti-fascist movement as a whole.
Due to his revolutionary activities, outspoken anti-fascist propaganda and leading the demonstration on November 28, 1939, Enver Hoxha was removed from his position at the Lyceum.
By the decision of the Communist Group of Korça, he moved to Tirana with the task of solidifying the group’s activities and organizing the anti-fascist movement in the capital and other regions of the country.
At that time, the communist movement in Albania was fragmented, represented by various groups and organizations torn apart by disagreements. These disagreements were both among themselves regarding the prospects of the communist movement, forms and methods of revolutionary and national liberation struggle, and internal disputes within each group due to the activities of certain factions. One such faction causing significant damage to the unity of communist groups in Albania in the late 1930s and early 1940s was the “Youth” group, which emerged from the Communist Group of Korça, presenting an anti-Marxist ideological and political platform.
The Trotskyites, specifically the so-called “Albanian Communist Party” created in Greece and better known as the “Zjarri” group, posed a separate threat to the communist movement.
Attempts to unify the groups into a single party were made repeatedly but always failed. Enver Hoxha became the first to understand that the consolidation of communist groups should not occur through agreements among their leaders but through grassroots movements, through the joint action of communists in the unfolding national liberation struggle.
Recognizing the determination of rank-and-file members of communist groups to fight against fascism and their keen desire for the unity of the communist movement and the establishment of a unified party, Enver Hoxha patiently and skilfully conducted explanatory and organizational work among them.
As a cover for his revolutionary activities, Enver Hoxha ingeniously utilised a small shop, “Flora,” in Tirana, thanks to the assistance of his friends.
Inspired by the fervent desire for the swift unification of Albanian communists into a single party, Enver Hoxha did not retreat in the face of difficulties created by the factional activities of the “Youth” group and the “Zjarri” group. He found common ground with prominent activists from another important centre of the Albanian communist movement, the Communist Group of Shkodra — Vasil Shanto and Qemal Stafa, who soon played a leading role in this group.
The Communist Group of Shkodra, whose first organization was established in 1934, operated in Tirana, Elbasan, Gjirokastra and other cities.
The primary unifying factor for all Albanian communists became their joint struggle against fascism. The common political line brought the groups of Shkodra and Korça closer, ensuring their joint anti-fascist actions, later joined by the “Youth” group.
Among the joint anti-fascist demonstrations organized by these groups, the most important was a large anti-fascist demonstration held in Tirana on October 28, 1941, the anniversary of the “March on Rome” fascist holiday. The demonstration involved the broad masses of the capital. Enver Hoxha, the chief organizer of the demonstration, faced harsh repression from the fascists. Pursued, he was forced to go underground. The fascist authorities sentenced him to death in absentia. The Tirana demonstration became a litmus test for the cohesion of Albanian communists. It demonstrated the strength of this unity in the fire of the struggle against fascism and its significant role in mobilizing the masses within the unfolding national liberation movement.
The Tirana branch, led by Enver Hoxha, gradually transformed into the genuine organizational centre of the entire communist and anti-fascist movement in Albania. Resilient communists from different groups rallied around it, forming the basis of the Communist Party of Albania (CPA), which was founded on November 8, 1941.
The assembly of communist groups on the issue of founding the Party took place from November 8 to 14, 1941, in Tirana, under illegal conditions.
The assembly of communist groups defined the ideological and organizational foundations of the Party and developed the main issues of its general line during the National Liberation War.
A temporary Central Committee consisting of 7 members was elected to lead the Party. Enver Hoxha was entrusted with the leadership of the committee, although no secretary was appointed.
In accordance with the agreed-upon condition, none of the former main leaders (chairman or deputy) of the groups entered the party leadership. This was not the result of a simple agreement but a requirement for the development of the communist and revolutionary movement. Leaders of the groups, imbued with a strong spirit of factionalism, had long been serious obstacles to the unification of Albanian communists into a single party and had proven themselves incapable of leading the communists and revolutionary masses.
Enver Hoxha became the leader of the temporary Central Committee of the Communist Party of Albania. The decisions of the assembly of communist groups, essentially serving as the constituent congress of the Party, allowed for the rapid structural organization of party units from grassroots cells to regional committees. By January 1942, the organization of the Party was almost complete.
Simultaneously, the temporary Central Committee took measures to organize the Communist Youth of Albania.
In the harsh conditions of fascist terror, sentenced to death by the fascists, Enver Hoxha actively participated in founding the communist youth organization. On November 23, 1941, on behalf of the Central Committee of the CPA, he participated in the organizational meeting that proclaimed the establishment of the Communist Youth of Albania organization.
Soon, Enver Hoxha proved himself to be a true party leader. He initiated intensive efforts to organize party work in Tirana, and various other cities and regions of Albania.
Under the chairmanship of Enver Hoxha, the first meeting of the CPA’s activists took place in Tirana on April 8, 1942. Among all the agenda items, the key issue was the close connection of the Party with the masses, their organization and mobilization for the National Liberation War.
Also under the chairmanship of Enver Hoxha, an Extraordinary Conference of the CPA took place in Tirana from June 28 to 29, 1942, dedicated to issues of ensuring party unity. The conference purged the Party of factional elements, primarily represented by Anastas Lula, Sadik Premte and their supporters, who denied the necessity of armed struggle against the Italian occupiers, opposed an alliance with nationalists and peasants, and engaged in subversive anti-party activities within the CPA.
The vigorous measures taken by the temporary Central Committee, fully supported by all party organizations, eradicated the spirit of factionalism, prevented the danger posed to the young communist party and ensured a strong, militant unity on Marxist-Leninist principles.
The creation of the National Liberation Front, the emergence of organs of people’s power in the form of the first National Liberation Councils and the expansion of armed struggle required the Party to establish a regular party publication. This powerful political weapon in the hands of the communists became the newspaper Zëri i popullit, the organ of the CPA, the first issue of which was released on August 25, 1942.
Enver Hoxha, the author of the first printed publications distributed by the communists even before the establishment of a unified party, was one of the initiators of creating and the direct leader of the new party publication.
In the struggle against occupiers, through its explanatory, mobilizing and organizational work, the Party, in the first months of its existence, laid the foundations of the Albanian people’s unity in combat. To solidify these foundations and provide a healthy political and organizational basis for unity on a nationwide scale, the Central Committee of the CPA convened the National Liberation Conference of Albania. Actively participating in the development of the conference’s political and organizational platform, Enver Hoxha made a direct contribution to its preparation, organization and conduct.
The conference took place on September 16, 1942, in Peza.
The Peza National Liberation Conference laid the foundations for the National Liberation Front and people’s state power. It solidified the leading role of the Communist Party of Albania in the National Liberation War, marking its first significant political victory.
The CPA directly linked its struggle against the occupiers with the creation of new organs of people’s state power in the liberated areas of the country. These organs of power took the form of National Liberation Councils. The theses presented by Enver Hoxha in his report, “The National Liberation Councils as Organs of Unity and Struggle of the Albanian People,” which he delivered at the Conference of Peza, served as the basis for the creation of these councils.
The Albanian people enthusiastically embraced the historic decisions of the Conference of Peza. The ranks of the National Liberation Front steadily expanded, the partisan movement intensified in the rural areas occupied by the enemy and armed resistance grew in the cities. In the joint struggle against invaders and local collaborators such as landlords and the bourgeoisie, an alliance was forged between the working class and the poorest peasants. New organs of people’s state power were established under the guidance of the CPA in both liberated and occupied zones.
In December 1942, the Communist Party of Albania received directives from the Executive Committee of the Communist International regarding the National Liberation War. This event was of great significance for the youthful Communist Party of Albania, indicating that the Party’s political line, formulated at the founding assembly and further specified in the directives of the temporary Central Committee, was correct. Additionally, the CPA was recognized as a detachment of the international communist movement.
In December 1942, Enver Hoxha moved to mountainous regions near Elbasan, where the main party and military organizations of the CPA were based from that moment until December 1943.
In late December 1942, under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, the temporary Central Committee decided to convene the 1st National Conference of the CPA in March 1943.
Shortly before that, another significant success was achieved in the struggle against Trotskyism and opportunism in Albania. In early March 1943, the “Zjarri” group was completely defeated. Enver Hoxha dealt the final blow with his article “A Few Words About Some Servants of Fascism — the ‘Zjarri’ Group,” published in January in the newspaper Zëri i popullit. In this article, the Trotskyite tactics of the leaders of the “Zjarri” group were exposed, showing how they posed under leftist slogans such as “the proletarian revolution,” “the struggle against capital,” “the dictatorship of the proletariat” to gain the trust of the working masses sympathetic to communism, and sometimes as “nationalists” to alienate patriotically inclined nationalists from the National Liberation War and the Communist Party. The article, based on facts, demonstrated that the leaders of this group were enemies of communism and the Albanian people, provocateurs and collaborators of the occupiers.
The deep crisis that engulfed the enemy camp (including the final slide into the ranks of collaborators with the Italian occupiers by the nationalist organization Balli Kombëtar, created in November 1942 by bourgeois reactionary intellectuals, large landlords and reactionary clergy, which until recently positioned itself as the advocate of the true interests of the Albanian people, thereby creating a split in the national liberation movement), the expansion of armed struggle, the growth of revolutionary patriotic consciousness among the people and a favourable international situation brought to the forefront the question of organizing a general people’s uprising and creating the Albanian National Liberation Army (ANLA).
The 1st National Conference of the CPA played an historical role in resolving this task. It took place in Labinot (near Elbasan) and conducted its work from March 17 to 22, 1943.
On the issues discussed and the decisions made, this Conference held the significance of a Party Congress. The Conference elected the Central Committee of the CPA consisting of 15 members and 5 candidates, as well as the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, with Comrade Enver Hoxha as the General Secretary of the CPA. He held this position (from July 1954, First Secretary, following the abolition of the position of General Secretary) until his death in 1985.
In response to the Party’s call and as a result of the active work of the communists, hundreds of new fighters joined the partisan units. In May 1943, the first battalions and regional headquarters were formed. By early July, Albania had 20 partisan battalions and 30 partisan units.
While the healthy forces of the party, following the decisions of the 1st National Conference of the CPA, were engaged in organizing the National Liberation Army and preparing for a general people’s uprising, enemies of the people and the Party, represented by Sadik Premte and others, who had been condemned by the Extraordinary Conference of the CPA in June 1942, secretly organized a hostile faction of the CPA in the Vlora region.
This hostile faction aimed to take control of the party organization and the headquarters of partisan units in the Vlora region, eliminate reliable communists, especially the leadership cadre, suppress the liberation struggle in the region, and then continue subversive work in other regions of the country, overthrow the Central Committee and liquidate the Communist Party. Enver Hoxha, the Political Commissioner of the General Staff of the National Liberation Army of Albania, was sent to lead the fight against the faction due to the serious situation that had developed in the party organization in the Vlora region, which was rightly considered by the Central Committee as a major threat to the entire party.
The struggle for the liquidation of the faction (May-June 1943), led by Enver Hoxha and his associates (Hysni Kapo and others), was challenging and persistent. However, the party emerged from this struggle even stronger.
The events in Vlora served as a valuable lesson for the entire party. They helped the communists to better understand the danger posed by the enemies to the party, contributing to the strengthening of discipline, increased vigilance and the fighting spirit in their revolutionary activities.
On July 4, 1943, in line with the decisions of the 1st National Conference of the CPA on the organization of the Albanian National Liberation Army, the General National Liberation Council established the General Staff of the National Liberation Army. Enver Hoxha, the General Secretary of the CPA, was elected as the Political Commissioner of the staff.
The General Staff organized the Albanian National Liberation Army, concentrating strategic and operational leadership in the armed struggle against invaders and traitors while developing tactics for this war. By the time of the establishment of the General Staff, the ANLA had about 10,000 fighters in its ranks, constituting permanent partisan units. Approximately twice that number of fighters were in voluntary squads in liberated villages and in combat groups in occupied cities and regions.
With the creation of the General Staff, armed struggle entered a new stage, a stage of higher organization and rapid development — the general people’s uprising. Throughout the country, units of the National Liberation Army and volunteer squads, with the assistance of the masses, engaged in battles with the Italian occupation forces and German troops that had entered Albanian territory and were moving through it.
Through the General Staff, the Communist Party, under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, fully implemented the Marxist-Leninist teachings on the people’s armed uprisings in accordance with the conditions of Albania and resolved the main military, political and organizational issues of the National Liberation Army.
In order to further strengthen the unity of the Albanian people in the anti-fascist war, from September 4 to 9, the 2nd National Liberation Conference took place in Labinot. Based on the report presented by the General Secretary of the CPA, Enver Hoxha, the Conference of Labinot declared the National Liberation Councils as the sole legitimate people’s authority in Albania. The Conference also condemned the treacherous compromise on power-sharing with the collaborationist Balli Kombëtar (the so-called Mukje Agreement), dealing a devastating blow to the reactionary forces attempting to seize power with the bourgeoisie and landlords exploiting the fruits of the people’s victory.
The capitulation of fascist Italy on September 9 and their replacement by the German invaders gave even greater impetus to the popular uprising for the complete liberation of the country from foreign occupiers.
As a result of the German occupation of Albania, a new situation unfolded in the country. The main feature of this situation was the rallying of all reactionary groups, trends and forces around the new occupiers, leading to their transition to open, collective armed struggle against the national liberation movement. All of this indicated a deep differentiation of internal class and political forces. The revolutionary movement divided these forces into two irreconcilably hostile blocks.
On one side, the overwhelming majority of the Albanian people emerged — the working class, the poor and middle peasantry, the petty-bourgeoisie and a significant part of the urban bourgeoisie, along with the patriotically inclined intelligentsia and certain elements from the upper echelons, unified and organized in the National Liberation Front under the leadership of the Communist Party.
On the other side were the landlord class, bayraktars, the reactionary bourgeoisie, the majority of wealthy peasants, a reactionary portion of the intelligentsia and clergy, forming diverse organizations and groups with weak ties among themselves. These reactionary organizations did not represent an independent, autonomous block; they served the nazi invaders and mainly existed thanks to their support.
During the years of war with the foreign occupiers and their internal collaborators, the organizational and leadership talents of Enver Hoxha were particularly evident, starting from the creation of the first large formations of the National Liberation Army, its 1st, 2nd and 3rd brigades, to the planning and execution of large-scale military operations.
The composure, courage, Marxist-Leninist maturity and unwavering confidence in his people demonstrated by Enver Hoxha culminated in final victory over the enemy during the harsh winter of 1943-44. Due to a large-scale military operation initiated by the German forces in November 1943, the leadership of the Central Committee and the General Staff, led by Comrade Enver Hoxha, found themselves surrounded by enemy forces in the Çermenika-Shëngjergj-Mërtur areas. The nazis, Ballists and Zogites resorted to various means and methods to capture and destroy the leadership of the National Liberation War. However, they all failed. Many peasants knew the location of their bases, but none of them wavered in the face of enemy threats and betrayed the Communist Party and the General Staff. The leaders of the party and people, heroically overcoming extraordinary difficulties, safely escaped the siege, which lasted for more than three months.
Having thwarted the enemy campaign in the winter of 1943-44, the Albanian National Liberation Army, in the spring of 1944, transitioned into a decisive offensive across the entire country.
Realizing that the complete and final victory of the national liberation movement was within reach, the Central Committee of the CPA, led by Enver Hoxha, identified the strengthening and legalization of the authority of the National Liberation Councils as the only legitimate power of the Albanian people, as well as the creation of a new Albanian state with its democratic government and regular army, as the immediate crucial tasks.
For this purpose, it was decided to convene the 1st Anti-Fascist National Liberation Congress, which would address the resolution of military and political problems posed by the current situation. The proposal of the CC of the CPA to convene the congress was discussed and approved at the meeting of the Directorate of the General National Liberation Council in April 1944.
The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Congress of Albania took place from May 24 to 28, 1944, in the liberated city of Përmet.
Enver Hoxha, on behalf of the General National Liberation Council, delivered a report at the congress titled “On the Course of the National Liberation War of the Albanian People in Connection with International Events.”
As the supreme legislative and executive organ of power in Albania, representing the sovereignty of the Albanian people and the Albanian state, the congress elected the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council (ANLC). The Anti-Fascist council elected in Përmet was the first Albanian People’s Assembly. The congress entrusted the Anti-Fascist Council to form the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Committee, granting it the authority of a temporary people’s democratic government. The Anti-Fascist Committee, recognized by the congress, became the first people’s democratic government of Albania. Enver Hoxha, the General Secretary of the CPA, was appointed as the Chairman of the Anti-Fascist Committee.
By establishing the highest bodies of people’s state power and enacting a series of resolutions representing the first laws of the Albanian state of people’s democracy, the congress addressed and resolved issues related to the further strengthening and improvement of the National Liberation Army as the main instrument for the complete liberation of the country and the defence of the new authority. Enver Hoxha, as the Supreme Commander of the Albanian National Liberation Army, was confirmed by the decision of the Përmet Congress, which recognized his significant contributions to the creation and leadership of the ANLC and the entire national liberation war of the Albanian people.
The efforts of the Communist Party to destroy the old, anti-popular regime in the fire of the National Liberation War and to establish people’s democratic rule were successful. The conference in Peza laid the foundations for this rule. The conference in Labinot centralized it and declared it the sole political authority in Albania. The Congress of Përmet resolved the question of political power in favour of the people’s uprising, founding the Albanian state of people’s democracy. The congress’ decisions formed the basis of the constitution of the Albanian state.
In terms of its class content and tasks, the power of the national liberation councils represented the democratic dictatorship of revolutionary forces under the direct and unified leadership of the Communist Party.
On May 28, 1944, the Supreme Commander of ANLA, Enver Hoxha, ordered the National Liberation Army to launch a general offensive to completely liberate Albania from the German invaders and finally defeat their collaborators, such as the Balli Kombëtar, Legaliteti and other reactionary forces.
Despite the fierce resistance of the fascist invaders and their new major operation launched in June 1944, the Albanian National Liberation Army not only withstood the enemy’s pressure but also inflicted significant damage on enemy forces and transitioned into a massive offensive on all fronts during the summer campaign.
During the summer offensive of the ANLA, the leadership of the General Staff, led by Enver Hoxha, faced direct pressure from the Anglo-American Mediterranean command. On the one hand, it demanded the cessation of hostilities against the collaborationists who had cooperated with the German invaders (members of Legaliteti led by traitors like Abaz Kupi), and on the other hand, it planned a parachute landing and the deployment of special forces in Albania. At that time, the Western allies saw in the Albanian collaborators a force that, from their perspective, could ensure their influence in Albania after the defeat of German fascist forces in the country.
However, no blackmail or direct intervention by British or American military missions, driven by international capital, could prevent the establishment of the people’s state power in Albania. In the face of strong and constant pressure from the Anglo-American allies, the Central Committee of the Party, its General Secretary,and the Supreme Commander of the ANLA, Enver Hoxha, demonstrated maturity, wisdom and revolutionary courage, categorically refusing this interference in the internal affairs of the Albanian people. Thanks to such a principled and consistent stance and the revolutionary surge of the war, all attempts by the governments of Britain and the United States, as well as their military missions in Albania, to take control of the leadership of the Albanian national liberation movement, crush the Front and the Communist Party and occupy the country through the landing of their armed forces, failed.
The liberation of the majority of the country created an opportunity to expand and strengthen people’s state power, to revitalize the activities of the national liberation councils. In anticipation of the complete and final liberation of the country, at the initiative of Enver Hoxha, the Anti-Fascist Committee, the first people’s democratic government of Albania, formed by the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council in Përmet in May 1944, was renamed the Democratic Government of Albania.
This decision was discussed and adopted at the second session of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, which took place from October 20 to 23, 1944, in the liberated city of Berat. This decision was driven by the growing authority of the committee as the sole government of the Albanian people and the fact that the complete liberation of Albania was now very close.
In accordance with the Berat decisions of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, Comrade Enver Hoxha became the head of government of the new Albania. On November 29, the ANLA completed the liberation of Albanian land from nazi invaders. The day of November 29, 1944 marks the complete liberation of the Homeland and the victory of the people’s revolution.
Two days before the full liberation of the country, on November 27, 1944, the Democratic Government of Albania, as the legal representative of the victorious people’s power in the country, moved from Berat to Tirana. Enver Hoxha, leading the Democratic Government, entered the liberated Tirana.
During the National Liberation War, an unbreakable alliance developed between Enver Hoxha and the dedicated communist and active participant in the anti-fascist struggle, one of the leaders of the Communist Youth, Nexhmije Xhuglini (Hoxha). This alliance later evolved into strong family ties. For over 40 years, this marriage was characterized by deep friendship and love. Nexhmije Hoxha, throughout Enver Hoxha’s life, was not only his wife and the mother of his two sons, Ilir and Sokol, and daughter Pranvera, but also a close collaborator with whom he shared party and state work. In difficult moments and days for Enver Hoxha, she was always a reliable support and encouragement, accompanying him through the joys of victories and the sorrows of defeats.
Albania entered a new era. The established people’s state power in Albania and the undisputed leadership by the Communist Party satisfied all the political conditions necessary to bring the anti-imperialist democratic revolution to completion in economic, social and cultural areas. This also allowed for the continuous development of the revolution, immediately transitioning to the socialist revolution and socio-economic transformations of a socialist nature.
Enver Hoxha, the inspirer and organizer of the historic battles of the Albanian people for the construction of the new Albania, became one of the founders of the Communist Party of Albania and the recognized leader of the National Liberation Movement of the Albanian people, leading them to a great victory. He became the true inspirer and organizer of all subsequent historic battles of the Albanian people for the construction of the new Albania.
For four decades, Enver Hoxha proved to be an outstanding statesman and political figure in Albania, a committed Marxist-Leninist who, without sparing himself, devoted all his strength and knowledge, all his experience and talent as an organizer and leader for the benefit of his Homeland, the triumph of revolutionary ideas, socialism in his country and around the world.
The Democratic Government, led by Enver Hoxha, inherited the poorest country in Europe, completely destroyed by war. Primitive agriculture, almost no industry, railways, illiteracy among the majority of the population, one of the lowest standards of living in Europe — such was Albania before the war. The war only brought additional destruction, countless disasters and suffering, as well as numerous human casualties among the civilian population. Famine threatened the country.
The difficult situation was further aggravated by internal and external reaction, which waged a relentless struggle against the newly-established people’s state power. After Liberation, a close counter-revolutionary alliance formed between the overthrown classes of the country and the foreign imperialist bourgeoisie.
However, the Communist Party of Albania unwaveringly believed that it would successfully manage the task of governing the country. This confidence was based on the experience gained during the struggle for national liberation, on its determination to bring the revolution to completion, on the powerful support of its political line by the masses and on the immense revolutionary enthusiasm that had gripped these masses.
The genuine patriotism and inexhaustible energy of ordinary people were the primary values of Albania in the early years of people’s power. Enver Hoxha, as the national hero of the liberation struggle of the Albanian people, enjoying universal love and respect from the common people, became a crucial factor in their unity for the construction of the new Albania.
Under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, immediately after the liberation of the country, the party and the state of people’s democracy implemented crucial revolutionary reforms that paved the way for radical transformations throughout Albanian society. The Agrarian Reform, involving the transfer of land to those who cultivated it, began in 1945, overcoming fierce resistance from the overthrown exploitative classes. The nationalization of key means of production was another significant act that, along with land reform, laid the foundations of a socialist economy.
The brilliant victory of the Democratic Front of Albania, organized in August 1945 by the Communist Party of Albania under the slogan of the national unity of all progressive forces, in the elections on December 2, 1945, once again demonstrated the trust of the Albanian people in the Communist Party of Albania and its policies.
Enver Hoxha, the head of the new Democratic Government of the People’s Republic of Albania, declared the People’s Republic on January 11, 1946. He held the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers until 1954, simultaneously serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Albania.
Recognition, affirmation and defence of Albania’s rights on the international stage were crucial aspects of the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of Albania in the early years after Liberation.
As Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Enver Hoxha engaged in active political and diplomatic activities, establishing contacts with foreign statesmen and public figures to strengthen the international position of Albania. In August 1946, Enver Hoxha participated in the Paris Peace Conference as the head of the Albanian delegation, brilliantly defending the right of his people to be recognized as a member of the anti-fascist coalition. He vehemently rejected attempts by Anglo-American representatives to categorize Albania as a “defeated state” with corresponding territorial concessions to Greece.
Despite the rejection of Albania’s legitimate demands for the return of its gold reserves stolen by the German occupiers, reparations from Italy to Albania,and recognition of its territorial integrity by the Peace Conference under pressure from the English and American delegations, these and other just demands of the Democratic Government of Albania were later accepted by the Council of Ministers of the great allied powers in November 1946.
While giving considerable attention to issues of foreign policy, Enver Hoxha and the Communist Party of Albania well understood that the true national independence and sovereignty of Albania were not guaranteed by international conferences and agreements.
Only an independent country with a developed economy, strong state structures, relying primarily on its own resources, as well as on the fraternal assistance of the Soviet Union and countries of people’s democracy, capable of resisting any aggressor, could truly become an independent state. The creation of such a state became the main leitmotif of Enver Hoxha’s party and state activities.
The moral, political and economic assistance from the Soviet Union and countries of people’s democracy played a tremendous role in the formation of the young Albanian state. In July 1947, at the invitation of the Soviet state, Enver Hoxha, as part of a high-ranking party and government delegation, visited the Soviet Union for the first time.
During this visit, he had his first meeting with J.V. Stalin, a faithful disciple of V.I. Lenin, a fervent revolutionary, leader of the world communist movement and talented military commander who played a significant role in the defeat of fascist Germany.
Over the subsequent years from 1947 to 1951, Enver Hoxha met with Stalin several times, discussing various issues and always retaining unforgettable impressions of these meetings and of the Soviet leader as an outstanding Marxist-Leninist.
These friendly meetings and negotiations, where both parties demonstrated complete agreement on all major issues, further strengthened the cooperation between the two countries, the position of Albania and its political leadership on the international stage. They also contributed to a more comprehensive understanding and coverage of the struggle of the Communist Party of Albania and the Albanian people.
Personal ties of friendship connected Enver Hoxha with another prominent figure of the world communist movement, Georgi Dimitrov, a recognized leader of the Bulgarian people.
In December 1947, Enver Hoxha led a government delegation from the People’s Republic of Albania on an official visit to Bulgaria.
In Georgi Dimitrov, a legendary anti-fascist and hero of Leipzig, Enver Hoxha always saw a sincere friend of the Albanian people, who, for many years, supported the struggle for freedom of the Albanian people and Albanian communists. Dimitrov was also one of the leaders of the Comintern, contributing to the development of the communist movement in Albania.
The period from 1947 to 1948 was marked by Enver Hoxha’s firm and resolute position regarding the intentions of the Titoite leadership to annex People’s Albania to the Yugoslav Republic.
Even during the years of joint national liberation war against fascist invaders, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia tried to exert pressure on the Communist Party of Albania, attempting to involve the political leadership of the CPA in its sphere of influence and interests.
Enver Hoxha’s distrust towards the leadership of the CPY intensified further in the post-war period as relations between the two countries expanded, leading to growing doubts in the former’s mind about Yugoslavia’s actual policies.
These doubts were reinforced by the way economic relations between the two countries were implemented and Yugoslavia’s increasingly apparent tendency to make Albania a satellite state.
To achieve its goals, the Titoite leadership sought to undermine the unity of the Communist Party of Albania and its Central Committee. Using its influence within the leadership of the CPA, it sabotaged the economic development of the country and attempted to isolate Albania on the international stage, especially from the Soviet Union and other countries of people’s democracy.
The main obstacle to the realization of its plan in Albania, according to the Yugoslav leadership, was the Marxist-Leninist line of the CPA, its General Secretary Enver Hoxha and other members of the Central Committee who staunchly defended this line and opposed external interference in the party and country.
Enver Hoxha, in the struggle for the unity of the CPA against Yugoslav intervention, displayed extraordinary Marxist-Leninist maturity and courage during these critical days for the party and the country. He categorically rejected Tito’s demand for the merging of armies and the deployment of Yugoslav units in Albania, decisively opposing the occupation of Albania and its absorption by Yugoslavia.
Enver Hoxha’s decisive actions to protect the achievements of the Albanian people from the hostile intervention of the Yugoslav leadership received an additional impetus with the subsequent decisions of the CPSU(B) regarding the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
These decisions, conveyed through letters from the Central Committee of the CPSU(B) to the Central Committee of the CPY, subjected the Yugoslav leadership to severe criticism for its anti-Soviet position, for pursuing an opportunist line leading to the restoration of capitalism, for violating Leninist norms of intra-party life, as well as for the arrogance and haughtiness of the leaders of the CPY.
These letters, along with the soon-to-follow resolutions of the Information Bureau of Communist and Workers’ Parties on the situation in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, confirmed the correctness of the healthy leadership of the CPA, with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, in pursuing their political line. This allowed the complete defeat of the anti-party pro-Yugoslav faction within the ranks of the Communist Party of Albania.
From November 8 to 22, 1948, the 1st Congress of the Communist Party of Albania took place in Tirana. Enver Hoxha, as the General Secretary of the party, delivered a report on the activities of the Central Committee during the Congress. In his report, he analysed the entire history of the party since its foundation, evaluated the accomplished victories, characterized the stages the country and party had gone through, and deeply exposed the sources and reasons for the mistakes made in the party’s line. The report clearly outlined the party’s future policy and the main directions for building the foundations of socialism in Albania. Hoxha was elected as the General Secretary of the party during the Congress.
The late 1940s and early 1950s marked the first and most challenging steps for Albania in the direction of economic, social and cultural development. After initial successes in rebuilding industries and agriculture destroyed by war, reaching and surpassing pre-war levels, more monumental tasks lay ahead for the Albanian people. The main challenge was the creation of the economic foundation for socialism. The Party of Labour of Albania (the new name adopted by the Communist Party of Albania according to the decisions of the 1st Congress) prioritized three directions: industrialization, development of agriculture based on cooperation and the formulation of a program for education and cultural development.
Enver Hoxha, as the leader of the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), inspired and organized all the initiatives undertaken during those years. The 2nd Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania, held from March 31 to April 7, 1952, adopted a program for the further development of the socialist economy. Enver Hoxha’s report and the decisions of the Congress focussed on accelerating the industrialization of the country as a guarantee for the successful development of productive forces. The Congress deemed it feasible to achieve economic and cultural development based on a more extended plan, and it adopted directives for the 1st Five-Year Plan for 1951-55. Enver Hoxha was re-elected as the General Secretary of the Party.
The years following Stalin’s death saw Albania, under Enver Hoxha’s leadership, achieve impressive successes in transforming itself from a backward agrarian country into an agrarian-industrial one. The death of J.V. Stalin on March 5, 1953 was mourned deeply by the Party of Labour of Albania and the Albanian people. For Enver Hoxha, in leading the PLA protecting Stalin became an integral part of the struggle for the purity of Marxism-Leninism against opportunist distortions.
After Stalin’s death, revisionist elements in the communist and workers’ parties, including the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, began to gain strength, undermining the foundations of their parties and the unity of the international communist movement. In the 1950s, the Party of Labour of Albania bravely opposed the most dangerous enemy within the global communist movement — Khrushchevite revisionism — preventing it from becoming a unified international trend.
Enver Hoxha closely monitored the development and strengthening of revisionism in the Soviet Union. From 1953 to 1960, he had numerous meetings with the Soviet leaders and leaders of other communist and workers’ parties. These meetings, along with specific political actions by the Soviet leadership, convinced Hoxha of the deeply anti-Marxist and anti-socialist nature of Khrushchev’s group, which had usurped power in the USSR. From the early attacks of the Khrushchevite revisionists on Marxism-Leninism, expressed in the rehabilitation of the Titoite clique, the substitution of the people’s struggle for the preservation of peace with collaboration with imperialist leaders, and the spread of the idea of blunting class struggle, Enver Hoxha was a determined opponent of this emerging dangerous trend of modern revisionism.
The course of subsequent events, especially the decisions of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the onset of Khrushchev and his comrades’ attack on socialism and the global communist movement on all fronts, fully confirmed the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist course chosen by the Party of Labour of Albania with Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head. This course also had a fateful significance for preserving the achievements of socialism in the People’s Republic of Albania, defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity. It elevated the prestige of socialist Albania worldwide and strengthened the faith of healthy forces in the global communist movement and the triumph of Marxist-Leninist ideas.
On May 25, 1956, Enver Hoxha delivered a report to the 3rd Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania, affirming this course. The confirmation of this course took place at the 3rd Congress of the PLA held from May 25 to June 3, 1956.
During the preparation for its congress, the PLA had to address acute issues facing the communist movement in light of the recent 20th Congress of the CPSU. At the same time, it had to resist the pressure exerted by the Soviet leadership, which sought to impose its revisionist course on the PLA.
At the 20th Congress in February 1956, the Khrushchev group, after three years of preparation, launched a vehement attack on the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism and the general Marxist-Leninist line that the CPSU had followed under the leadership of J.V. Stalin.
Opportunist theories advocating the substitution of the principle of proletarian internationalism with the principle of peaceful coexistence between the two systems, peaceful competition between the socialist and capitalist systems, solidifying the status quo of the world capitalist system, theories rejecting socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat during the transition from capitalism to socialism in favour of a peaceful parliamentary path within the framework of the same concept of peaceful coexistence — these and other revisionist positions received official confirmation in the general line of the CPSU.
An even stronger blow was dealt to Marxist-Leninist theory and the socialist system with the “secret” report of Khrushchev during the 20th Congress of the CPSU. In this report, the glorious path taken by the Bolshevik Party since Lenin’s death was slandered and portrayed as a path “full of mistakes, major distortions and monstrous crimes.” This blow had a specific goal — to legalize the liquidation of the Marxist-Leninist line of the CPSU developed in its previous congresses, to adopt a new revisionist political line and to subject Marxism-Leninism to revision. To prepare the ground for achieving this goal, the Khrushchev group needed to discredit Enver Hoxha, who staunchly defended Marxism-Leninism and further developed it in the new conditions that emerged in the world after the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the construction of a socialist society in the Soviet Union and the formation of the socialist camp after World War II. To mask their revisionist, counter-revolutionary views and their counter-revolutionary activities, Khrushchev and his followers used the so-called “cult of personality of Stalin.”
The 20th Congress of the CPSU encouraged and revived anti-party forces and hostile elements in Albania. They had great hopes that now they could change the Marxist-Leninist line of the PLA and regain their lost positions. That is, to start the same process that occurred in the Soviet Union and some countries of people’s democracy.
However, all the hostile plots of counter-revolutionary forces in Albania were completely unsuccessful. Enver Hoxha deserves direct credit for exposing the emerging revisionists and traitors in Albania at the City of Tirana Party Conference held on the eve of the 3rd Congress of the PLA. Enemies of the people tried to use this conference to launch an attack on the Marxist-Leninist line and Marxist-Leninist leadership of the Party. By resolutely resisting the machinations of reaction, the 3rd Congress of the PLA decisively condemned the activities of anti-party elements and reaffirmed the inviolability of the Marxist-Leninist course of the Party of Labour of Albania.
The Congress outlined the program for the country’s further socialist development, focussing on accelerating the pace of collectivization in agriculture, and adopted directives for the Second Five-Year Plan. At the Congress, Enver Hoxha was re-elected as the First Secretary of the Party (the position of General Secretary was replaced by the position of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party by decision of the Plenum of the APL Central Committee on July 12, 1954).
Despite the active efforts of internal and external enemies, the second half of the 1950s was marked by impressive results achieved by Albania in all areas of socialist construction. Dozens of new industrial enterprises were put into operation, leading to the creation of new cities, and the collectivization of agriculture was generally completed.
After centuries of struggle against foreign enslavement and oppression, the Albanian people, for the first time, had the opportunity for free cultural development. The elimination of illiteracy, a heavy legacy of the past, was a major achievement of the revolution. The country essentially established a network of educational institutions anew, and the first university in the history of the country was opened in Tirana. Various new cultural and artistic institutions emerged, such as the Institute of History and Linguistics, the Opera and Ballet Theatre, and more.
In the 1950s, Enver Hoxha emerged as an active figure in foreign policy and diplomacy. Strengthening Albania’s ties with other states was an important aspect of his international activities. He visited many countries and actively participated in various international meetings and conferences. During these visits, he met with the leaders of heads of state, politicians and leaders of various political parties. In his activities for international relations, often challenging and tense, he demonstrated the qualities of a highly gifted interlocutor and wise politician, showing extensive knowledge of issues and remarkable erudition. All of this undoubtedly contributed to the further strengthening Albania’s prestige in the global community, winning sympathy in progressive circles and the revolutionary movement.
In the late 1950s, relations between the PLA and CPSU reached their highest tension. The counter-revolutionary events in Poland and Hungary in 1956, which occurred with the knowledge and direct support of the Soviet leadership, active collaboration between the Soviet leaders and Yugoslav revisionists within the framework of the degeneration of Marxist-Leninist parties in people’s democratic countries, the provocative actions by the Khrushchevites and Titoites against the leadership of the PLA, expressed in their open support for sworn enemies of the Party of Labour of Albania — all of this could not go unnoticed.
During his visits to Moscow in December 1956 and April 1957, Enver Hoxha openly expressed the PLA’s position to Khrushchev and his associates on crucial issues of the world communist and workers’ movement, as well as on various aspects of the international situation.
The active position of the PLA in defence of Marxism-Leninism, against all manifestations of modern revisionism that emerged after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, found its reflection in the report delivered by Enver Hoxha at the February Plenum of the Central Committee of the PLA in 1957.
The revolutionary, internationalist position of the PLA also manifested itself at the Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in November 1957 in Moscow.
At this meeting, the Khrushchevite group attempted to establish the revisionist course of the 20th Congress of the CPSU as the general line for the entire international communist movement.
The delegation of the PLA, led by Comrade Enver Hoxha, made a significant contribution to exposing these anti-Marxist views. It united its efforts with the efforts of other delegations which defended the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism at the meeting.
Faced with the iron logic and scientific arguments, the revisionists could not stand their ground and were forced to retreat. The declaration jointly developed and adopted at the meeting summarized the experience of the international communist movement and the general laws of socialist revolution and socialist construction, outlined the common tasks of communist and workers’ parties, and norms of relations between them. The declaration was based on the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism.
Meanwhile, the Soviet leadership headed by Khrushchev, completely disregarding the revolutionary conclusions of the joint declaration, continued to promote and implement the revisionist conclusions of the 20th Congress. Khrushchev’s official visit to Albania in May 1959, marked by his crude demands for establishing a naval base in the country and attempts to turn Albania into a raw material appendage of the USSR by shifting its economy toward the monoculture cultivation of citrus fruits, finally revealed the hegemonic plans of the Soviet revisionists to the Albanian leadership.
The failure of Khrushchev’s policy to involve the Party of Labour of Albania in the prepared conspiracy to split the world communist movement at the Bucharest meeting of communist and workers’ parties participating in the Congress of the Romanian Workers’ Party in June 1960 and the subsequent Moscow Meeting of the 81 Communist and Workers’ Parties, with Comrade Enver Hoxha delivering an historic speech, marked the beginning of the principled struggle of the PLA against Khrushchevite revisionism.
At the Moscow Meeting, following the directives of the Central Committee of the PLA, Comrade Enver Hoxha criticized the revisionist theses of the 20th Congress of the CPSU and the Soviet leadership, which defended and disseminated anti-Marxist views, engaging in anti-socialist and anti-communist activities.
The courageous and principled Marxist-Leninist position of Comrade Enver Hoxha, pursued by him and delegation of the PLA at the Moscow meeting, demonstrated the high revolutionary maturity of the PLA. Support for the PLA’s line increased even more from revolutionary forces worldwide.
In the face of the open political, military and economic pressure from the Soviet revisionists, the 4th Congress of the PLA took place in Tirana from February 13 to 20, 1961.
The congress acknowledged the establishment of the foundations of socialism, both in the city and the countryside. It determined the direction of a new stage in the socialist construction of the country — the stage of fully building a socialist society. Further strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat was recognized as a necessary condition for the complete construction of a socialist society and the defence of the socialist system.
The Congress adopted directives for the Third Five-Year Plan and affirmed the revolutionary position of the PLA in the struggle between Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism.
In conditions of the ongoing open political, military and economic pressure from the Soviet revisionists, the 4th Congress of the PLA re-elected Enver Hoxha as the First Secretary.
The great tasks set by the Congress for the full construction of the material-technical base of socialism through the development of productive forces at a new, higher level, as well as the difficulties created by the betrayal of Khrushchevite revisionists, required the universal mobilization of the party and people.
From the spring of 1961, the Soviet leadership began a general offensive against the People’s Republic of Albania in the political and economic spheres, transferring ideological disagreements to the realm of state relations.
Unilaterally, it terminated all agreements concluded between the two countries, ceased providing loans according to previously signed agreements, and severed all trade, scientific-technical and cultural ties. The Khrushchevite revisionists, with much noise and threats, withdrew all Soviet specialists from Albania and terminated agreements on the education of citizens of the People’s Republic of Albania in educational institutions in the Soviet Union.
In May 1961, the Soviet leadership arbitrarily terminated existing bilateral agreements in accordance with the obligations it had undertaken in the Warsaw Pact and completely ceased the supplying of weapons and other necessary equipment to the Albanian People’s Army.
In full view of the entire world, it withdrew its ships from the naval base in Vlora and seized 8 submarines belonging to Albania, as stipulated by agreements, along with Albanian military vessels undergoing repairs in the Sevastopol port. This was done in anticipation of weakening Albania’s military power and subjecting it to hostile external pressure.
Finally, at the 22nd Congress of the CPSU in October 1961, Khrushchev openly called on the Albanian communists and people to engage in counter-revolution, to overthrow the country’s party and state leadership.
Until then, the Party of Labour of Albania had never publicly disclosed serious ideological disagreements with the leadership of the CPSU, believing that it subjected the Soviet leadership to severe principled criticism within inter-party meetings and conferences to preserve the unity of the international communist movement and the socialist camp. Unity cannot be maintained without exposing errors and negative phenomena, subjecting them to severe condemnation and correcting them on a Marxist-Leninist basis.
By unilaterally publicizing disagreements and resorting to open attacks on the PLA, the Khrushchevite clique provided weapons to the enemies and thus took historical responsibility for the split in the unity of the socialist camp and the international communist movement.
In this situation, the PLA could not remain silent. In a report presented by Comrade Enver Hoxha on November 7, 1961, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the PLA and the 44th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Party of Labour of Albania subjected Soviet-Albanian relations to a deep Marxist-Leninist analysis. It established that the cause of their exacerbation was the chauvinistic, anti-Marxist and hegemonic policies of Khrushchev and his revisionist group. This group deviated from Marxism-Leninism and the traditional policies consistently pursued by the Bolshevik Party and Soviet government under the leadership of V.I. Lenin and J.V. Stalin.
The victory of revisionism in the Soviet Union, the world’s first socialist state, was the greatest tragedy ever experienced by the international communist movement. This tragedy for many years determined the features of the further development of the world revolutionary and communist movement, leading to the temporary victory of counter-revolutionary forces worldwide.
In the challenging 1960s, Comrade Enver Hoxha, as an outstanding Marxist-Leninist, played a significant role in exposing the origins, causes and conditions of the emergence of modern revisionism and its denunciation. Revisionism, particularly one that came to power and wielded significant economic and military power, posed the most dangerous threat.
Numerous speeches by Enver Hoxha, his articles and works written during this period, attest to his profound understanding of the foundations of Marxism-Leninism and his creative development of this doctrine in the context of new conditions emerging in the global revolutionary movement.
Enver Hoxha’s unwavering firmness and conviction in the correctness of Marxist-Leninist ideals, the cause of socialism and the support of communists and revolutionary forces worldwide prevented revisionism from prevailing in Albania during those years.
The strength of the Albanian leader lay not only in his deep commitment to the great teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin but also in his profound and unbreakable connection with his people. He saw in his people, their millennia-old culture, traditions and achievements an inexhaustible source of energy and the guarantee of all future great victories.
On all significant days related to historical milestones in the life of the Albanian people, he was always among the people, together with them.
In November 1962, Albania solemnly celebrated the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of National Independence. The unity of the party and the people in these days, with their leader Comrade Enver Hoxha, demonstrated as never before the unwavering strength and cohesion of the new socialist Albania.
Contemporaries have noted Enver Hoxha’s extraordinary productivity. Even in brief moments of leisure, relaxation after intense state and party work, during meetings with close friends and comrades, all his thoughts were about the problems of the Homeland and the ordinary people. He endeavoured to use any free minute for reading, studying subjects and sciences necessary for solving the tasks facing him as the leader of a small but proud independent country. His free time was dedicated to multifaceted theoretical activities.
The works written by Enver Hoxha in those years and beyond represent an invaluable contribution to the global treasury of Marxism-Leninism.
Neither the rupture of diplomatic relations with Albania by the Khrushchevite revisionists in December 1961 nor the subsequent economic blockade imposed by them, with the participation of most satellite countries of the Soviet Union to varying degrees, forced Albania to submit and succumb to the dictates of Soviet leadership.
“…The Albanian people and their Party of Labour, if necessary, will eat grass, but they will never sell themselves for thirty pieces of silver; they prefer to die standing with honour than to live on their knees in shame.” These words spoken by Enver Hoxha in his speech on November 7, 1961 were a response to Khrushchev and his comrades.
In response to the call of the Khrushchevite revisionists to overthrow the party and state leadership, in response to their attacks, pressure and blackmail, the Albanian communists and broad working masses responded by intensifying their struggle to fulfil the tasks of the Third Five-Year Plan.
By its 5th Congress held from November 1 to 8, 1966, the Party of Labour of Albania came even more united and strengthened, with the Albanian people achieving significant successes in building socialism in the country.
The 5th Congress holds a special place in the history of the PLA. Opening on the eve of the glorious anniversary of the Party, the 25th anniversary of its founding, it was the first congress after the Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of Albania and the Khrushchev clique imposed a total economic, political and information blockade on the country.
In the report presented by Enver Hoxha at the congress, a profound analysis was made of the reasons for the degeneration of the Soviet party and the state.
Bureaucratism that stifled the Communist Party of the Soviet Union provided an opportunity for the Khrushchevite revisionists to seize power. The formation of a privileged layer of state and party officials — bureaucrats, economic leaders, workers in the arts, science and culture, receiving high salaries and having a much higher standard of living compared to the working masses, became the real social basis for the flourishing of revisionist views. It was a solid support for revisionist groups in their efforts to overthrow socialist power and gradually restore the country on the path of capitalism.
The historical correctness of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of class struggle was confirmed. The practice of building socialism confirmed that even after the elimination of exploitative classes as such, class struggle continues and intertwines with the class struggle on the international stage. In addition, class struggle is directed not only against internal and external enemies; it is also waged among the people and within the ranks of the party against bourgeois ideology, against alien phenomena, patriarchal, feudal and bourgeois views, habits and customs that have persisted in the consciousness and behaviour of the working masses. In the consciousness of every worker, there is a persistent struggle between socialist and bourgeois ideology. Socialist construction is threatened not only by remnants of exploitative classes and armed imperialist aggression but also by internal bourgeois-revisionist degeneration through peaceful evolution.
The 5th Congress emphasized the need to deepen the ideological revolution as the basis for the continuous further development of the socialist revolution in all areas and the strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Enver Hoxha was re-elected as the First Secretary.
Deep scientific analysis, to which the congress subjected important contemporary issues of national and international significance, opened new horizons on the path to the complete construction of socialist society. The tasks set by the Congress, primarily the comprehensive strengthening of the socialist system through the further revolutionary transformation of the entire life of the country, defined the future objectives of the Party and the entire Albanian people.
During this time, more than ever, the Party engaged in the scientific generalization of its revolutionary experience and the experience of the masses. These generalizations were reflected in numerous speeches and reports by Comrade Enver Hoxha, in party documents and materials of that period, opening up perspectives for the further development and advancement of Albania along the path of socialism. Of particular significance for implementing the tasks defined by the 5th Congress of the PLA was Comrade Enver Hoxha’s well-known speech on February 6, 1967, “On the Further Revolutionization of the Party and People’s State Power,” which essentially became a programmatic document for the PLA in the coming years.
In the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the country entered a phase of industrialization, developing heavy processing industry. The establishment of this industry contributed to improving the structure of industrial production, strengthening industry and the entire national economy and consolidating its independence, largely contributing to the rise of agriculture.
The second half of the 1960s was marked by Comrade Enver Hoxha’s intensive creative work as a publicist. The international situation was complicated. One of the most important features of the international situation was the formation of a new alliance between American imperialism and Soviet revisionist imperialism. This alliance was based on common interests and strategic goals for dividing spheres of influence and establishing the dominance of the two superpowers in the world.
Comprehensive polemics with modern revisionism, the increasingly tense international situation became a serious impetus for Enver Hoxha to conduct a profound analysis of the processes of global social development. Numerous reflections, letters, articles and memoirs of Enver Hoxha during this time were imbued with a deep concern for the fate and prospects of the revolution in Albania and worldwide. His unequivocal condemnation of the aggressive actions of the American military, the war unleashed in Vietnam, Israeli aggression against Arab countries, the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet social-imperialists and the neo-colonial policies of superpowers towards independent countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America earned Enver Hoxha love and respect not only in his country but throughout the world.
A prominent example of the PRA’s principled position on the international stage was the denunciation of the Warsaw Pact by Albania in September 1968, proposed by Comrade Enver Hoxha. This pact, as the events in Czechoslovakia showed, had become an instrument of the Soviet leadership’s imperialist policy.
The “theory of limited sovereignty” fabricated by Brezhnev after the seizure of Czechoslovakia was called “a theory of great-power chauvinism and expansion, a theory through which the new Soviet imperialists seek to eliminate any sovereignty of other nations and create for themselves the ‘sovereign right’ to intervene wherever and whenever they please” by Comrade Enver Hoxha.
As before, during these years, Enver Hoxha spent a significant part of his time travelling around the country. He met with leaders of enterprises, party workers from different regions, ordinary people, visited major cities and remote villages. These trips and meetings were an inseparable and important part of Comrade Enver Hoxha’s work and activities. In these encounters, he drew energy and conviction in the correctness of the line pursued by the party and the leadership of the PRA. Furthermore, these trips helped better understand the real situation on the ground, comprehend problems, identify achievements and shortcomings in the implementation of the programmatic goals of the Party of Labour of Albania. In turn, directly explaining the policy of the Albanian leadership to its population strengthened their faith in their leaders, who were flesh and blood with their people.
Certainly, it is difficult to find a place in Albania, be it a region, city or village, that Enver Hoxha did not visit at one time or another. He is present at the opening of mines, factories, and plants, laying the foundations for new schools, cultural and historical centres. Socialism has engaged the entire country in the process of grand transformations, and Enver Hoxha walks hand in hand with his country and his people.
All mothers who were older than him referred to Enver Hoxha as their son. Throughout his life, Enver Hoxha carried an unwavering love and respect for ordinary people, who, armed during the war, secured freedom for their Homeland and provided a peaceful and dignified life for their sons and daughters. During each of his visits to various regions of Albania, war veterans, parents, daughters and sons of fallen heroes were the first people he met, paying tribute to these individuals.
Though years have passed and Enver Hoxha’s hair has turned grey, all mothers older than him still simply called him their son. Enver Hoxha’s work and activities created a revolutionary situation in the country that introduced a new, healthy socialist way of life to all layers of Albanian society.
Albania finally parted ways with the heavy burdens and remnants of the past: the inequality of women, individualism as a manifestation of petty-bourgeois psychology, cultural backwardness, religious prejudices and customs.
Only in the conditions of socialism did Albanian women, who had been in a dependent, enslaved position in family and society throughout the country’s centuries-long history, achieve complete economic, political and social liberation.
The formation of a new person, armed with revolutionary ideology, prioritizing public interests over personal ones, became one of the most significant achievements of the PLA. The unity of the entire Albanian people, their readiness for self-sacrifice, especially manifested itself during the harsh winter days of 1967 when the northern regions of Albania were hit by a powerful earthquake. In these difficult times for the country, its leader, Enver Hoxha, was with his people in the earthquake-damaged areas.
The ideological revolution directly served the cultural revolution, which developed in complete unity and organic connection with it. The entire history of the Albanian people is the history of their centuries-long struggle for freedom and independence. Studying the country’s history, preserving its national and cultural heritage, its distinctive language, art and literature was one of the most important tasks of the PLA. Enver Hoxha always paid personal, unwavering attention to this, believing that true art and culture must firmly rely on native soil, drawing inspiration from the people and wholly serving them.
The resistance of the Albanian people in the Middle Ages, led by Skanderbeg, against the Ottoman invasion has always been a part of national pride and consciousness. Five hundred years after Skanderbeg’s death, Albania gained true freedom through the people who chose their own path to independence, with their own national leader leading them on this journey.
The PLA and Enver Hoxha always took special care of the younger generation. The era of socialism opened all doors for the youth, providing free education and the opportunity for active participation in the state and political life of society. The Party’s directives on the revolutionary transformation of schools, presented by Enver Hoxha in March 1968, opened new prospects for further tempering students, educating them in the spirit of Marxist-Leninist ideology, ensuring a close connection between education and life, and preparing a worthy succession to the current generation.
As it approached its 6th Congress, held from November 1 to 7, 1971, the Party of Labour of Albania gained new historical successes and victories. Despite the imperialist-revisionist encirclement and blockade, the tasks outlined by the previous congress were fulfilled and exceeded. The electrification of the entire country was completed, with more than 200 significant objects for the national economy constructed during the Fourth Five-Year Plan. Agricultural production noticeably increased, the material well-being of the Albanian people improved, and all taxes and fees were completely abolished in the country during the Fourth Five-Year Plan.
The Fourth Five-Year Plan entered history as a “period of great popular endeavours and mass heroism, when the united force of the people, under the Party’s leadership, shook mountains and plains…” (Enver Hoxha, Report to the 6th Congress of the PLA).
The Congress analysed the Party’s activities over the past five years, made generalizations based on this, drew lessons and outlined new tasks with the aim of deepening the socialist revolution in all areas. The Congress particularly emphasized the importance of further strengthening and revolutionizing the dictatorship of the proletariat in the country as a guarantor of socialism, sovereignty, full national independence and successful progress towards communism. In a context where the dictatorship of the proletariat had been eliminated in the Soviet Union and other former socialist countries, and when modern revisionists and all enemies of socialism directed the thrust of their struggle against it both in theory and practice, the defence, strengthening and revolutionization of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania constituted one of the most important and essential tasks for the Party and all working masses.
As part of strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Congress addressed the crucial issue of the defence of the Homeland. In connection with the question of defence, Enver Hoxha further developed the Marxist-Leninist thinking on arming, combat readiness and military training for the entire population. Guided by Lenin’s directives that “every citizen must be a soldier, and every soldier must be a citizen,” the Congress gave the directive for all workers to simultaneously work, study and prepare for defence. This implied implementing the instructions given by Comrade Enver Hoxha to the Ministry of National Defence in 1970 to transition to the system of universal military training.
Military preparation of the army and the entire population for a possible war was dictated by the complex international situation and the imperialist-revisionist encirclement surrounding the country. The war unleashed by the American military in Indochina, the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, the unrestrained arms race, the rattling of weapons and the military confrontation between the two superpowers in Europe, the Israeli aggression in June 1967 against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, behind which stood both American and Soviet imperialists, turning the region into a blazing conflict zone in close proximity to Albania and the continuous provocations by the Titoite chauvinists all demanded taking all necessary measures to repel possible aggression.
The Congress adopted directives for the Fifth Five-Year Plan for the economic and cultural development of the country, envisioning the transformation of Albania from an agrarian-industrial country into an industrial-agrarian one.
Comrade Enver Hoxha was re-elected as the First Secretary of the CC of the Party of Labour of Albania.
The work of the Congress and the decisions taken marked the beginning of a serious confrontation between the Party of Labour of Albania and the Communist Party of China. Guided by the principle of proletarian internationalism, the PLA did not conceal the existing divergences with the CPC at the Congress. However, the decisions taken by the Congress on all fundamental issues of the development of the workers’ and communist movement, as well as the role and place of modern imperialism and social-imperialism, completely diverged from the official positions of the CPC.
As early as the mid-60s and the second half of the 1960s, the Party of Labour of Albania faced attempts by the leadership of the Communist Party of China to draw Albania and the country’s leadership into its sphere of influence.
The alliance between the PLA and the CPC began to take shape in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The PLA came to the aid of the Chinese people during the very critical period that China experienced due to deep internal upheavals and the fierce pressure on it from the united imperialist-revisionist front. Believing that China was a socialist country and the CPC was a Marxist-Leninist party, the PLA always expressed its solidarity with them and fought for the unwavering strengthening of friendship and alliance between the two parties and countries based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, despite not agreeing with a series of non-Marxist views and actions of the Chinese leadership.
However, the flirtation of the CPC leadership with Soviet revisionists, especially after Khrushchev’s removal from office in October 1964, their lack of principles regarding the Titoite revisionists, the dual policy of the CPC towards new Marxist-Leninist parties, attempts to make the PLA adhere to Mao’s anti-Marxist views and ideas in its work (including erroneous theories about the existence of the bourgeoisie as a class throughout the period of socialist construction, theories about the admissibility of factions within the party, etc.), and finally, the methods and implementation of the so-called Cultural Revolution in China, which had nothing to do with proletarian revolution, made the PLA doubt the commitment of the CPC and its leadership, led by Mao Zedong, to Marxism-Leninism already in the 1960s.
Subsequently, especially after backstage intrigues and attempts by the CPC leadership to involve Albania in a military alliance with Yugoslavia and Romania in 1968, as well as the emerging overt rapprochement between China and American imperialism in the early 1970s, these doubts grew into first silent and then open confrontation of the Party of Labour of Albania with the Communist Party of China.
As a manifestation of escalating disagreements, the refusal of the CPC, under contrived pretexts, to send its delegation to the 6th Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania looked like a rejection.
An important role in addressing the tasks set by the 6th Congress of the PLA was played by the speech delivered by Comrade Enver Hoxha at the Plenum of the Mats Party Committee on February 26, 1972.
The main goal of this speech was a deeper understanding and even better implementation of the particularly emphasized Marxist-Leninist position outlined by the Congress: that socialism is built by the popular masses, and the role of the party of the working class is to make them conscious. In this speech, Enver Hoxha put forward a number of concrete and important ideas about strengthening the role of the masses in the economic, political and ideological life of Albanian society. Confirming the decisive and guiding role of the Party in the revolution and the construction of a socialist society, he emphasized the need to involve the masses more widely than ever in participating in state affairs and managing the socialist economy. This speech gave a new impetus to the work of party and state organs, increased the enthusiasm of the masses and dealt an additional blow to bureaucracy.
The beginning of 1973 was marked by another important event — the establishment of the Academy of Sciences of Albania. The creation of this highest academic institution indicated further cultural development and progress in socialist Albania, which, in less than 30 years of its recent history, had risen from the depths of backwardness, ignorance and darkness. Now Albania had its own specialists and scientists in various fields of modern science. Enver Hoxha, as a person who made a great contribution to the development of national culture and science, actively participated in the establishment and further activities of this scientific institution.
Despite the outstanding victories and successes of the mid-1970s in the People’s Republic of Albania, the path of building socialism in Albania, in the conditions of a hostile capitalist encirclement, was difficult and thorny.
After the 6th Congress, a rise in class struggle became apparent. This upsurge was associated with further intensification of the struggle of the Albanian people and their Party against external and internal enemies, especially between proletarian ideology and new and old reactionary ideologies.
The American imperialists, Soviet social-imperialists and Yugoslav revisionists, all lackeys of the bourgeoisie and international revisionism, were disappointed in the 1960s in their attempts to divert the PLA from its revolutionary path and lead socialist Albania towards capitalism, and thus increased their pressure. They further expanded and intensified their ideological subversion to encourage and support peaceful counter-revolution in Albania. This ideological pressure of the enemies took on the character of real ideological aggression.
At the same time, they intensified the economic blockade, espionage, subversive activities, blackmail and preparations for military aggression, preceded by ideological aggression. This enhanced activity of external enemies found support from internal enemies who managed to infiltrate even into the Party, state organs, the army and the leading bodies of the national economy.
Hostile elements attempted to exploit the Party’s struggle against bureaucracy and conservatism. Liberalism, in the form of tolerance for the spreading of bourgeois ideology in literature, art and ideological-political work, became the main direction of activity for these elements. It created the necessary ground for right opportunism. The particular danger of this situation was associated with the fact that such creeping dissemination of hostile ideology was carried out with the knowledge and under the direct instructions of several responsible Party and state officials, as well as leaders of the mass media in Albania.
This could not but cause concern among the healthy forces of the Party, including Enver Hoxha. In January 1973, at the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, he called for increased vigilance against the pernicious influence of bourgeois ideology and culture. On March 15, 1973, at a general assembly of the communists of the Central Committee apparatus, he delivered a report on “How to Understand the Imperialist-Revisionist Encirclement and How to Fight Against It.”
The 4th Plenum of the Central Committee of the PLA, held from June 26 to 28, 1973, with this speech by Enver Hoxha, played a significant role in exposing the conspiracy, overcoming bourgeois-revisionist influence and debunking the idea of peaceful coexistence with hostile ideology.
Enver Hoxha’s speech and the decisions of the Plenum played a major role in improving the situation in the Party, directing the efforts of party, state and social organizations against the spread of bourgeois ideology, culture and way of life, against conservatism and liberalism, thereby creating an insurmountable barrier against the creeping counter-revolution and providing all the necessary conditions for the genuine flourishing of the socialist content of the culture and art of the Albanian people.
The assessment of the struggle of the Party of Labour of Albania against the influence of bourgeois ideology becomes particularly significant in our time, after understanding the tragic events in Albania in the second half of the 1980s. When, even after the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha, the tolerance of the PLA for the spreading of the influence of bourgeois ideology in literature and art ultimately led to the loss of the achievements of socialism in Albania.
In 1974, the Party of Labour of Albania faced another extremely dangerous activity of internal enemies incited by external reactionary forces. A conspiracy of the leadership of the Albanian People’s Army was uncovered.
The conspirators tried to oppose the Party’s army, sabotaging the implementation of its directives, opposing the Party’s control over the army, attempting to organize the army based on provisions and theses contradicting the documents adopted by the Party in 1966 on the qualitative reorganization and strengthening of the People’s Army.
With their actions, they weakened the army and defence capability of the country. At the head of the conspiracy was the top command of the army, including the Minister of People’s Defence, the Chief of the General Staff and the Chief of the Political Administration of the army.
For many years, the conspirators used the “specifics” of the army for their purposes, the provisions on the preservation of military secrets to close the door to control by the Party, the state and the masses, to eliminate the principles of collegiality and democracy, and to pursue their counter-revolutionary policy.
However, frightened by the decisions of the 4th Plenum of the Central Committee of the PLA, which dealt a crushing blow to the forces of internal counter-revolution, they exposed themselves completely, attempting to provoke dissatisfaction and unrest among military personnel to rally against the Marxist-Leninist military line of the Party, substituting it with a counter-revolutionary revisionist line. By staging an armed coup, they aimed to liquidate the Central Committee of the Party and government and, taking political power into their own hands, overthrow the socialist system.
The resolutions of the 5th and 6th Plenums of the Central Committee of the PLA, held in July and December 1974, respectively, played a great role in overcoming the consequences of this conspiracy. Enver Hoxha’s speeches at these Plenums and the decisions they adopted oriented the Party and the entire Albanian people to eliminate all the consequences and traces of the enemy activities of the conspirators, to further develop and strengthen the country’s defence capability through revolutionary means in general and the army in particular.
The first half of the 1970s was marked by the further rise of Albania’s authority on the international stage, strengthening its active cooperation with the majority of countries worldwide.
The independent foreign policy of Albania, active support for its global revolutionary and national liberation movement, passionate speeches by its representatives at the UNO in defence of the rights of peoples to freedom and independence, the exposure of imperialist machinations by the superpowers and their unrestrained arms race — all of this earned love and respect for Albania from the entire progressive humanity.
Albania has never been an isolated state, as enemies of socialism try to portray it. It maintained active economic, political and cultural relations with many countries worldwide. These relations were always built on principles of equality, non-interference in internal affairs and mutual respect.
Enver Hoxha was the creator and an active participant in the foreign policy of People’s Albania. His numerous contacts with political and state figures of various countries, diplomats, representatives of foreign public and cultural organizations found broad resonance and support both within Albania and among its friends abroad.
The first half of the 1970s can rightly be considered the period of flourishing for socialist Albania. Over three decades, advanced industry, highly productive agriculture, which fully satisfied the country’s grain needs, unprecedented successes in education and culture were established. However, the main asset of the country was, of course, its people. The Party of Labour of Albania and its leader, Comrade Enver Hoxha, were the main architects of socialist construction.
This progressive movement could not be halted by the intrigues of external counter-revolutionary forces, including the emerging economic sabotage by the People’s Republic of China, nor by their internal accomplices attempting to pave the way for spontaneity and anarchy in the development of the economy and envy leading the socialist economy into a deadlock.
Such attempts to introduce into the management and organization of the economy the forms and methods of Titoite self-management, to eliminate state, financial and banking control over the activities of enterprises, undertaken in the mid-1970s by a detached anti-party group of leaders of several ministries and the State Planning Commission, were decisively condemned by the Party, and their instigators were defeated.
Unfortunately, after the death of Enver Hoxha, the new leadership of the PLA did not learn from the revolutionary struggle of the Albanian people in the economic sphere in the 1970s. Decentralization and the introduction of market relations became factors that led to the undermining of the country’s socialist economy in the second half of the 1980s and, as a result, to Albania’s transition to the path of capitalism.
In the 1970s, the achievements made by the country opened up new and new prospects for its development. In such conditions, from November 1 to 7, 1976, the 7th Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania was held in Tirana.
As the first item on the agenda, the Congress considered the development, discussion and adoption of the new Constitution of socialist Albania. The draft Constitution was subjected to nationwide discussion by the Central Committee of the Party and the People’s Assembly in the first half of 1976. Comrade Enver Hoxha led the commission for drafting the Constitution.
The new Constitution marked a further qualitative development of the Albanian socialist state in accordance with the new stage of the revolution — the stage of the complete construction of socialist society. It embodied the enormous revolutionary transformations carried out by the Albanian people under the leadership of the PLA, as well as all the new elements introduced by the Party and Comrade Enver Hoxha into the theory and practice of scientific socialism.
Under the new Constitution, the Albanian state became referred to as the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. This name more fully reflected the qualitative socialist transformations which occurred in the base and superstructure of society.
The report presented by Comrade Enver Hoxha on behalf of the Central Committee of the PLA at the Congress summarized the theory and practice of building socialism in Albania over the previous years, drew conclusions about the Party and people’s state power’s work during the period. The 7th Congress approved the Central Committee’s efforts to combat any manifestation of opportunism and revisionism within the Party.
The creative implementation of the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin in practice required the further deepening of the struggle to defend the scientific theory of the proletariat. The Congress once again emphasized the significant danger that modern revisionism poses to the cause of building socialism in Albania and to the entire global communist and workers’ movement.
In his report at the Congress, Enver Hoxha provided a comprehensive assessment of all currents of modern revisionism, ranging from Titoism to the emerging Eurocommunism. He paid particular attention to exposing the anti-Marxist Chinese theory of the “three worlds,” widely publicized by the Chinese revisionists with Mao at the head.
The Congress defined the tasks of the Party for the coming years, adopted directives for the Sixth Five-Year Plan, elected the Central Committee of the Party and Enver Hoxha as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PLA.
On December 28, 1976, the People’s Assembly adopted the new Constitution of the Albanian state. Enver Hoxha, as the Chairman of the Commission for the drafting and editing of the Constitution project, made a significant personal contribution to its development, actively participating in the drafting, discussion and adoption of the final formulations of the country’s fundamental law.
The country began to implement the historic decisions of the 7th Congress. Like before, Enver Hoxha strived to be among his people. He visited labour collectives, actively communicated with youth, labour veterans, consulted with them and explained the Party’s policies. He visited places of his childhood and youth. He was a frequent guest at holidays and solemn events held in the most remote corners of the country.
The majority of Albania’s population consisted of its indigenous inhabitants — Albanians. Besides them, there has been a compact Greek population in Albania for a long time. Enver Hoxha always paid great attention to the correct implementation of the principles of Leninist national policy. Raised without any national prejudices, he always treated representatives of national minorities in Albania with respect and love. Later, these feelings became part of his consciousness and activities as the leader of the Albanian people.
During the National Liberation War, the Communist Party of Albania, with Enver Hoxha at the head, always supported the unity of the Greek minority and Albanians, fighting side by side for the freedom of their Homeland.
The construction of socialism in Albania further strengthened this unity because the correct national policy of the PLA brought freedom, equality and the opportunity for comprehensive development to the Greek minority. The PLA created all the conditions for the development of the national culture of the Greek minority, their language and progressive traditions. Areas of compact residence of the Greek minority during the years of People’s Albania were among the most developed places in the country in economic, social and cultural terms.
The Greek population in Albania had the same rights as the rest of the Albanian population. Its representatives played an active role in society on all fronts of socialist construction: as ordinary workers, as leading cadres in the Party and state, and as figures in science and culture.
In his travels around the country, Enver Hoxha often visited places with compact populations of national minorities in Albania, thereby demonstrating the PLA’s steadfast commitment to a national policy that considered the interests of all people living in the country.
Enver Hoxha drew immense energy from his meetings and travels across the country. Under the Party’s leadership, thanks to the courage and hard work of the freedom-loving Albanian people, socialist Albania transformed into a flourishing garden. Not only metallurgical and oil processing plants, factories, chemical enterprises and power stations were built, but thousands and thousands of hectares of unsuitable coastal territories were improved and drained, and irrigation systems and structures were built in arid areas.
The era of socialism, the Party of Labour of Albania and Enver Hoxha enhanced the beauty of the Albanian landscape, made nature in Albania even richer and placed it in the service of the people.
Unfortunately, Enver Hoxha’s age and effort in the struggle against the enemies of socialism in Albania, especially in recent years, started to take a toll on his health. The possibility of frequent and prolonged trips, meetings for direct leadership on-site, decreased.
As an unwavering revolutionary, Enver Hoxha delved into intensive creative theoretical work. In works written by him in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as Imperialism and Revolution, Yugoslav “Self-Management” — Capitalist Theory and Practice, Reflections on China, With Stalin, Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism and The Khrushchevites, he revealed the global strategy of imperialism and modern revisionism. The goal of this strategy was to crush socialism and stifle revolution worldwide.
In these works, Comrade Enver Hoxha provided a comprehensive, scientifically deep Marxist-Leninist analysis of the modern era, uncovering the reasons for the emergence and spread of modern revisionism in general and each of its trends individually. Comrade Enver Hoxha, presenting numerous convincing facts and arguments, defended the personality and revolutionary cause of J.V. Stalin, rejected all fabrications and slanders by the Khrushchevites with the aim of destroying Marxism-Leninism and socialism. He reiterated the unchanging opinion of the PLA that the restoration of the truth about Stalin’s personality and historical deeds is a major principled issue and an important task in the struggle against modern revisionism.
Comrade Enver Hoxha subjected Maoism to a comprehensive analysis in the aforementioned works as one of the most dangerous currents of modern revisionism. The theoretical debunking of Maoism, as a fusion of views, a mixture of ideas and positions borrowed from Marxism-Leninism, Confucianism, Buddhism, anarchism, Trotskyism, Titoism, Khrushchevism and Eurocommunism, steeped in nationalism and racism, was of great importance for strengthening the Marxist-Leninist movement worldwide.
Enver Hoxha’s significant contribution to the further development of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine is a profound analysis of the modern era, an era of deepening general crisis of the global capitalist system. This analysis, made in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has not lost its relevance today.
The financial, economic and political crisis engulfing the capitalist world in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century only deepened the weakening and collapse of imperialism on a global scale. It prepared the conditions for radical socio-economic transformations first in individual links of the weakening system and then worldwide.
In the early 1980s, new issues requiring specific elaboration and scientific solutions arose on the agenda of socialist Albania. These problems, related to the improvement of leadership in all areas of life by the PLA, as the leading force of Albanian society, the development and deepening of the scientific-technical revolution as a mandatory condition for the successful development of the material-technical base of socialism, occuped an important place in Enver Hoxha’s activities.
At the head of the Party, working jointly with state organs, using the conclusions and experience accumulated in the previous five-year periods, Enver Hoxha actively participated in the development and drafting of the Seventh Five-Year Plan for the country’s development (1981-85). It was the most ambitious perspective development plan for the national economy in the entire history of Albania in terms of the volume and significance of the tasks it set, which, for the first time, entirely envisaged relying on the country’s own forces and resources in solving these tasks.
The main task of the upcoming Five-Year Plan was “the universal development of the economy, entirely relying on our own forces, based on the deepening of the socialist industrialization of the country, strengthening and intensifying agriculture, increasing the efficiency of the economy, developing the scientific-technical revolution, and perfecting socialist production relations with the aim of guaranteeing and improving step by step the material well-being and cultural level of the working masses, further strengthening the socialist system and the defence power of the Homeland.”
For the affirmation of the Five-Year Plan, summarizing the results, discussing all issues of the PLA’s policy and activities for the reporting period, and determining the most important political and state tasks facing the country for the coming years from November 1 to November 7, 1981, the 8th Congress of the PLA took place in Tirana.
This was the last congress in which the founder and leader of the Party of Labour of Albania, Comrade Enver Hoxha, participated. His role and participation in the implementation of the party’s economic program, as determined by the 8th Congress of the PLA, were decisive throughout the time from the Congress until the last days of his life.
Enver Hoxha considered the support of the Party’s decisions by the people and the working class as the main guarantee for the successful implementation of the tasks set by the PLA. The understanding by the working masses of the Party’s strategy, directions and the entire revolutionary struggle was the main key to achieving victories and the main condition for the continuous development of the country along the path of socialism and communism. From the first days of the PLA’s existence, Enver Hoxha taught communists to be in the midst of the masses, to feel the pulse of the people’s hearts, to understand the opinions, desires and aspirations of ordinary people. Only then can the Party become one with the flesh of the people, persuade people of the correctness of its line, inspire them and lead them forward.
Contemporaries have spoken of Enver Hoxha as a person who embodied the best qualities of the Albanian people, whose noble and unwavering character, outstanding heroic traditions permeated with the spirit of defiance and magnanimity, were formed and carried through wars, difficulties and deprivations over centuries of struggle for freedom and independence.
Enver Hoxha always had a special concern for the compatriots living abroad. He maintained constant contact with many of them, appreciating their contribution to the significant work of strengthening Albania’s international positions.
All honest, patriotically inclined Albanians living far from their Homeland saw in Enver Hoxha an outstanding national leader who ensured the country’s independence, prosperity and respect worldwide. Supporting the rights of Albanians living abroad to a free and dignified life, the PLA and Enver Hoxha personally always stood in support of the population of Kosova, which was under the oppression of Titoite chauvinists.
The issue of Albanians living in their lands in Yugoslavia was not a problem of a “national minority” that came or settled somewhere in a “vacuum” zone as economic emigration or caused by the invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The Albanians in Yugoslavia always constituted a nationality that had formed over centuries, with its own history, language and culture — a native people that, as known, the great imperialist powers partitioned in 1913 shortly after the proclamation of Albania’s independence, detached from their Homeland and annexed to Yugoslavia. Any other interpretation is a falsification of history.
As emphasized by Enver Hoxha at the 8th Congress of the PLA, “The Albanian people did not give up their Homeland to fascist invaders or anyone else.” The betrayal by the Titoite leadership of the wartime alliance of the two peoples led to the abuse of the rights of the Albanian people in Kosova for self-determination and attempts to solve this problem through an anti-Marxist nationalist path. All this burdened the Albanian people of Kosova heavily, as the Titoite revisionists began to implement in all directions — education, culture, economy and other areas — a fierce, repressive and discriminatory nationalist policy.
After Tito’s death, the confrontation between the Albanian population of Kosova, defending its legitimate rights within the framework of the Yugoslav Federation, and the reactionary Serbian chauvinists who came to power, reached its peak. This confrontation led to bloodshed and mass repression among the Albanian population of Kosova in the spring of 1981.
The 8th Congress of the PLA strongly condemned the crimes of the Yugoslav leadership and demanded that it recognize the legitimate rights of the Albanian people of Kosova within the framework of the Yugoslav Federation.
The speech by Enver Hoxha delivered at the 8th Congress of the PLA regarding the issue of Kosova is an example of the Leninist position of a proletarian party on the national question.
The 8th Congress noted the deepest phenomena of crisis in the world economy of capitalist and revisionist countries, and anticipated the collapse of the so-called “socialist community” due to the sharp exacerbation of contradictions and disagreements between the Soviet Union and its satellite countries torn by serious social and political upheavals (such as the events in Poland, etc.).
The Congress called for an awareness of the dangers posed by revisionism to socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat in Albania and the necessity of taking the most effective measures to prevent them…
The PLA and PSRA faced the threat of a conspiracy by the Mehmet Shehu group. And these were not empty words. Shortly after the Congress of the PLA, a serious conspiracy directed against the party leadership and Enver Hoxha personally was uncovered.
The revelation of the conspiracy was triggered by the “burning” situation in Kosova, near the Albanian border.
The uncompromising Marxist-Leninist position of the PLA on all major issues of internal and foreign policy aroused the fury of both internal and external enemies. Kosova became the last straw that filled the cup of patience and set in motion the enemy’s agency in Albania.
But thanks to the monolithic unity of the Central Committee of the PLA, nurtured by Enver Hoxha, and the decisive actions of party and state organs, all the clumsy attempts by the enemies of the party and the people to stage a comeback suffered a complete failure. The main participant in the conspiracy, Mehmet Shehu, shot himself. His closest associates were arrested.
Despite the swift defeat of the Shehu group, a detailed investigation of this case showed that it was one of the most dangerous conspiracies directed against the Party leader Enver Hoxha.
The long-standing connection of the group with both Western and Yugoslav intelligence services, its direct involvement in conspiracy with previously exposed enemies of the Albanian people, confirmed the need to keep the revolutionary vigilance of the Party and the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the apple of one’s eye.
…Enver Hoxha was a highly educated person, always paying great attention to the achievements of Albanian and world culture, literature and art. He highly appreciated the role of progressive art in the social development of society. The socialist era elevated Albanian literature and art to new heights.
Enver Hoxha and the PLA always took care to ensure that culture, literature and art developed pure and healthy, kept pace with revolutionary transformations in the country, and steadily strengthened their socialist content, militancy, popular spirit and national content.
At the same time, Enver Hoxha always believed that socialist culture should never completely retreat into its national shell. It should use the best achievements of progressive world culture and, being the bearer of the ideals of the Albanian people — ideals of freedom, independence and socialism — become a culture close also to other peoples.
The continuous strengthening of the proletarian party spirit has always been the main task of the PLA in the struggle for the development of culture and art, for their advancement along the path of socialism.
The best reflection in artistic creation of such themes as the hegemony of the working class in society, revolutionary transformations in the socialist village, the revolutionary force of the communists, the interpretation of crucial themes and pivotal moments in the history of the Albanian people, especially the National Liberation War and the socialist revolution, were the cornerstone of the development of Albanian culture and art of socialist realism.
…Enver Hoxha was an outstanding figure in the world communist and workers’ movement. His theoretical reflections and practical revolutionary activities in the struggle for the national interests of Albania were continuously intertwined with his work and efforts for the triumph of revolution on a global scale.
Proletarian internationalism has embraced all his activities since the National Liberation War and especially with the emergence of modern revisionism.
Through his theoretical and practical work, he made an outstanding contribution to the defence of Marxist-Leninist theory, debunking the ideological and political essence of all major currents of modern revisionism and opportunism.
Enver Hoxha always advocated for the unity and cohesion of the global communist movement. He consistently supported genuine Marxist-Leninist parties worldwide, regularly meeting with their leaders and aiming to keep abreast of the development of the global revolutionary movement.
Enver Hoxha’s contribution to the revival of the global communist movement, the differentiation of healthy Marxist-Leninist parties from traitors and opportunists, and the development of a unified strategy for the actions of these parties, taking into account the specific conditions of struggle and work in each country, became a crucial aspect of the internationalist activities of this outstanding communist.
The support given by Enver Hoxha to the revolutionary and liberation struggles of the working class and labourers of all countries earned him recognition and sincere respect within the ranks of the international Marxist-Leninist communist movement, as well as among all progressive and revolutionary forces.
In Albania itself, the people saw in Enver Hoxha a recognized leader, the architect of its great historical victories, a man who paved the way for the bright future of the country, inspiring them on this path through personal example, steadfastness and courage. Every step taken by the country in four decades of socialist construction was associated with his name. The simple name he became known by during the National Liberation War — Commander — forever entered the minds and hearts of the Albanian people.
And even now, almost two decades after the defeat of the revolution in Albania, for many people in this country, he still remains the Commander.
Despite his deteriorating health, Enver Hoxha remained at his post until the end of his days. He closely monitored current world events, the explosive situation arising from the ongoing arms race, the superpowers’ struggle for the redistribution of the world and the establishment of their spheres of influence.
The complex international situation of the late 1970s to the first half of the 1980s, when local wars engulfed many continents, when the major imperialist and social-imperialist countries, entwining the world with military bases, deployed direct intervention, including military, in the internal affairs of independent states (the U.S. in Iran, the Middle East, Central America, and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Angola, Yemen, Ethiopia, and China, aspiring to hegemony, committing aggression against socialist Vietnam), posed to the PLA and Comrade Enver Hoxha the question of defending the Homeland and strengthening the country’s defence capability as one of the most crucial aspects of preserving the socialist achievements in the country.
As the leader of the party and state, as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the country, Enver Hoxha always, especially in the last years of his life, paid close attention to strengthening the power of the armed forces, preparing the army and the entire Albanian people to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity, to protect the gains of the revolution.
Under his leadership, the Party of Labour of Albania made Albania an impregnable fortress against any external enemy.
In October 1984, the entire country, all progressive humanity, solemnly celebrated the 75th birthday of Enver Hoxha.
The people of Albania honoured their leader, and communists and all revolutionary progressive forces worldwide recognized him as a worthy proletarian leader, a faithful disciple of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.
For communists, for citizens of socialist Albania, for workers, peasants and intellectuals, for Albanian youth, the name and personality of Enver Hoxha were sacred, just as the Albanian people and the Homeland were sacred to Enver.
On November 29, 1984, the Albanian people celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Liberation of the country in the National Liberation War and the victory of the people’s revolution. Over these decades of socialist construction, Albania accomplished revolutionary transformations that allowed it to overcome centuries-old backwardness, oppression and ignorance. It was a triumph of Marxist-Leninist ideas. And Enver Hoxha emerged as the main organizer of the victories of the Party and people in the National Liberation War and the chief architect of the program for building socialism in Albania.
On the occasion of this significant anniversary, Enver Hoxha addressed his people with a solemn report, which became one of Comrade Enver Hoxha’s last public speeches. This speech, addressed to his people, served as a synthesis of the heroic struggles, great victories, high qualities and outstanding virtues that distinguished the Albanian nation throughout the centuries.
“We will cherish everything we have achieved as the apple of our eye… We will leave as a legacy to future generations a stronger Albania, always red like the unquenchable flame of communist and partisan hearts and ideals. Albania will live and prosper for centuries. I am convinced that the people and the party will carry our victorious banner higher and higher, raising the honour, prestige and name of socialist Albania in the world.”
These words constituted the political testament of Comrade Enver Hoxha to his party and people.
At the end of 1984, Enver Hoxha’s health sharply deteriorated.
Since 1948, Enver Hoxha had been suffering from diabetes, which over time caused diffuse damage to the blood vessels of the heart, kidneys and some other organs. In 1973, due to these damages, he suffered a myocardial infarction. In the following years, he suffered from severe heart failure. In 1984, he had a stroke.
On April 9, 1985, Enver Hoxha experienced an unexpected cardiac arrest. Despite intensive treatment, recurrent ventricular fibrillation and irreversible changes in the brain and kidneys became the cause of Enver Hoxha’s death on April 11, 1985.
The death of Enver Hoxha was a heavy and irreparable loss for the entire Albanian people, the Party of Labour of Albania, the Albanian state, all progressive humanity and the global communist and workers’ movement.
In those days, along with Albania, all those who cherished the ideals of freedom and independence, national and social liberation, the ideas of proletarian revolution, socialism and communism mourned.
The funeral of Comrade Enver Hoxha took place on April 15, 1985.
The Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania and the Government of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania did not support proposals to preserve the body of Comrade Enver Hoxha, as it contradicted the centuries-old traditions of the Albanian people. Comrade Enver Hoxha, with honours befitting an outstanding national leader, was buried in the Memorial Cemetery “Martyrs of the Nation” in the capital of Albania, Tirana.