Article written by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Brazil, João Amazonas, on April 11, 2000 for the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the death of Comrade Enver Hoxha
The greatness of his activity and the contribution he made to the cause of socialism in the world must be recognized.
Fifteen years ago, on April 11, Comrade Enver Hoxha, the founder of the Communist Party of Albania (later the Party of Labour of Albania) and its main leader for five decades, a statesman who led the construction of socialism in his country and a prominent figure in the international communist movement, died. The new generation of socialist fighters in Brazil may not sufficiently know who the leader who led the Albanian people from victory to victory, towards national independence and the construction of a progressive political regime and society, under the banner of scientific socialism, was.
But we who knew him and had the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with him in political and ideological struggles against imperialism and opportunism have the duty to testify to the greatness of his activity and pay tribute to him for the contribution he made to the cause of socialism in Albania and the world. And also out of gratitude, for the solidarity he always extended to our Party.
The Albanians are an ancient and millennia-old people. Their history is multifaceted and over many centuries they had to fight against numerous enemies in fierce battles for freedom and independence. With the pen and rifle, as it is said in poems that depicted these epics, they made immense efforts for progress and emancipation. Many celebrated men led these efforts. Skanderbeg, in the 15th century, was the factor for unity in the struggle against Ottoman domination.
The Frashëri brothers, Renaissance figures, distinguished themselves in the 19th century, driving forward the struggle for culture and the autonomy movement. Ismail Qemali and Isa Boletini proclaimed independence in 1912, at the twilight of Ottoman domination in the Balkans. They left their marks on the secular history of this people.
Enver Hoxha, embodying the virtues of these leaders, distinguished himself among them. It was he who, inheriting the ideals of the national struggle, knew how to merge them with the scientific theory of Marxism, which gave him the inspiration and necessary methodological tools to lead an extensive and profound movement of national and social liberation that at its inception laid the foundations for the construction of the new Albania and, in continuity, effectively lifted up a country with a new face.
In large part, Enver Hoxha’s work is linked to the anti-fascist war for national liberation. From the invasion of Albania by the Italian fascist army on April 7, 1939, until the complete liberation of the country from Hitlerite hordes on November 29, 1944, Enver Hoxha dedicated himself entirely to organizing the anti-fascist movement. He worked tirelessly to awaken the people’s patriotism, mobilize youth, organize the Anti-Fascist National Liberation Front and the People’s Army. It was this victorious struggle that brought genuine freedom and independence to the country and created the conditions for the establishment of the people’s state power.
This achievement opened a new era in the trajectory of the Albanian people. An era that would last almost five decades of great political, economic, social, ideological and cultural transformations, during which Albania became the master of its destiny, truly constituted itself as a sovereign, dignified, respected nation, heard in the international arena. During these decades, under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania emerged from darkness into light. A country of illiterates, with backward customs, where women’s faces were veiled, where vendettas over land and honour were common, where the population bowed before foreigners, became a cultured nation, with diverse education, including higher education, and, despite modest material conditions, quickly achieved a human development index according to recognized standards of dignity in the domains of health, nutrition, etc.
The prestige and authority of Enver Hoxha did not come out of nothing. They resulted from his undeniable role at the forefront of the victorious revolution in 1944 and the construction of socialism in the small country on the shores of the Adriatic.
Enver Hoxha’s name is also linked to his activity on the international stage, as an anti-imperialist fighter, as a party and state leader supportive of the world struggle for socialism, the fight of dependent countries against neo-colonial domination, and primarily the struggle against revisionist opportunism. In many respects, the struggle of the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, against opportunism had a national salvation character for Albania, as it provided the ideological platform to counter the attempts of Yugoslav revisionists to annex the country and, later, of Khrushchev, who aimed to turn Albania into a compliant instrument for his hegemonist policy in the Balkans. However, the overall scope of the struggle against opportunism and revisionism undertaken by Enver Hoxha was historical and internationalist in its significance. It constituted an invaluable contribution to the defence of the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism.
A modest man, Enver Hoxha lived up to the words of the former French president, General De Gaulle: “No one more than Enver Hoxha deserves the saying: glory goes to those who do not seek it.”
The Albanian leader always faced with serenity the tributes bestowed upon him by his peers in the leadership of the Party and the Albanian state, as well as by the workers of that small nation, even when he was at the height of revolutionary and constructive efforts. The tragic events of the early 1990s, the betrayal of revolutionary ideals by the leadership of the PLA, the counter-revolution inflamed by imperialism, brought forth a furious campaign aimed at the memory of Enver Hoxha, in which his image as a party and state leader was denigrated.
The anti-communist vendetta reached such a point that enraged mobs, instigated by a right-wing that had been dormant for years, attacked monuments, public buildings and museums evoking their achievements. His relatives were persecuted, his widow, in advanced age, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in a judicial farce and, ignominy of ignominies, his tomb was violated, a horrifying episode that restored a barbaric attitude where, victorious in war, one resorted to this tactic to demoralize the defeated. But there is nothing like time. Not even a decade has passed since the defeat of socialism in Albania and, even though the campaign against the figure of Enver Hoxha has not come to an end, he was pointed out in a recent public opinion poll conducted in Albania as the “personality of the century.”
Like any party and state leader operating in complex conditions and under many constraints, Enver Hoxha was not infallible. As much as he was the main architect of Albania’s liberation and the construction of socialism in that country, he bears responsibility for any mistakes made. But, surely, what is lacking in the martyred people of present-day Albania is the political clarity, the ability to make difficult decisions, the clarity of purpose and the boldness of Enver Hoxha. May the remembrance of his name on this April 11th be like an inspiration to resume, in the current complex conditions, the struggle for an independent and socialist Albania.
(Fundação Maurício Grabois. Revista Princípios, edição 57, Mai-Jul, 2000, Pág. 59-61.)