– Manuel Quirós –
July 1974
Enver Hoxha, the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), a communist party that remained steadfast in its commitment to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, was born in the city of Gjirokastra on October 16, 1908, four years before the country’s independence was recognized at the London Conference of 1912.
The young Enver, born into a Muslim urban family, attended the primary school in his hometown, which, along with Shkodra, was one of the oldest centres of Albanian national aspirations. There, he not only learned the basics of education but also developed a strong sense of patriotism and a deep identification with the interests of the people.
During the democratic uprising of 1924, led by the Orthodox bishop and poet Fan Noli, an uprising that would ultimately lead to the tyrannical regime of Ahmed Zogu, supported by the Serbs and Italians, Enver Hoxha, who was a high school student in Korça at the time, organized the first student demonstration against the monarchical oppression. This was his first and last experience of imprisonment at the age of 16, along with many of his schoolmates. It marked his initial test as a revolutionary and a fighter for the people.
The coronation of Ahmed Zogolli as King Zogu I, with Italian financial support and subject to the London Conference, which would only recognize an Albanian monarchical regime, brought foreign currency into the country but also deepened political and economic dependence on fascism.
As a brilliant student at the French high school in Korça, in 1930, Enver Hoxha received a scholarship from the Albanian government to pursue higher education in France, and he departed for France at the end of the same year. By then, he was fully convinced of the absolute necessity to fight against fascism and the domination it sought to impose on the country with the complicity of the state, in the face of the rising popular struggle in which Enver Hoxha took part. This marked the beginning of his political involvement as an anti-fascist activist.
In France, he enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences at Montpellier at the end of 1931, at the age of 23, and soon joined the ranks of the French Communist Party (FCP). There, he encountered a party strengthened by the Bolshevization movement, the Bolshevik style of work and a vigorous fight against social-democrats, petty-bourgeois political instability and early Trotskyite ideological tendencies. Enver Hoxha deeply understood the absolute necessity of political, ideological, organizational and practical unity of the proletarian party. This was his definition as a communist and as a vanguard fighter for the revolutionary proletariat, leading the popular masses.
The secret services of Zogu’s regime kept records of him, tracked his ideological development and had his scholarship revoked in February 1934. Enver Hoxha was then forced to go to Paris in search of work, and in the capital, he began to contribute to the newspaper L’Humanité of the FCP, where he exposed Zogu’s dictatorship, which was leading Albania toward blatant fascism and complete submission to Mussolini’s Italy.
Alerted by the political reports from the 5th and 6th Congresses of the Comintern, and during the preparations for the 7th Congress, where Dimitrov’s attacks and the definition of the policy of the united front would be fundamental principles for all communists, Enver Hoxha’s articles against fascism became increasingly vehement. He even went so far as to predict the Italian occupation of Albania, which became a reality on April 7, 1939. This demonstrated the application of his Marxist analytical method to the concrete situation of the country.
In Paris, Enver Hoxha maintained direct contact with Albanian emigrants, especially with the group of communists attempting to create a “Democratic Front” against Zogu’s regime, following the popular front approach proposed by the Comintern as the only effective way to combat fascism.
Meanwhile, he attended the second year of Law school and wrote articles for L’Humanité, all the while being pursued by Zogu’s secret agents, which led to the loss of several jobs and a precarious situation. However, nothing could dampen his revolutionary fervour, his defence of principle, his combativeness and his dedication to the people’s cause.
While other young people, either individually or advised by the Paris group, joined the international brigades to fight in the Spanish Civil War in a display of idealism, Enver Hoxha returned to Albania. This was a true understanding of the communist’s role, a concrete application of internationalism, which, at any given moment, meant providing the most needed contribution to revolution in accordance with one’s own country’s most objective conditions.
After his return and a period of several months without work, Enver Hoxha taught at the Tirana high school for four months. Subsequently, due to his command of the French language, he was transferred to the Korça high school, where he used his classes to disseminate Marxist-Leninist ideas, albeit under a “democratic and anti-monarchical” facade to avoid the attention of repression that was well-acquainted with him. This was a concrete understanding of limitations but also the absolute necessity of legal work.
At the same time, he engaged in clandestine political activities as a member of the Communist Group of Korça, where he was one of the most active militants, particularly through the labour movement. He helped organize workers from craft workshops and small factories in the city and its surroundings to form professional associations. Enver Hoxha approached and organized the proletariat within the specific conditions of its political development. As a Marxist-Leninist, he emphasized three fundamental aspects of correct political positions: the recognition and practice of the absolute need for a guiding political centre, the germ of the future proletarian party; the connection with the working masses; and the essential work to be carried out within the proletariat. Without these, any attempt at political leadership would lead to complete inefficacy and failure.
He was dismissed from his position at the high school in 1939 under the pretext of not joining the Fascist Party. However, in reality, he was dismissed for being one of the organizers of the large anti-fascist demonstration in Korça in the same year and for his role in the youth movement. This led Enver Hoxha to operate exclusively in clandestinity, at a time when there was still significant confusion within Albanian communist groups, separated by deep internal disagreements.
In 1939, he attempted to merge the Shkodra group with the Korça group in Tirana, forming a Central Committee of four members who were equally elected. This endeavour revealed that unity without principles was impossible. The groups continued to defend their previous positions, and the formation of the Party was only possible through the hegemonic assertion of one group, the one that consistently led the proletariat and the popular masses, pursuing a correct proletarian political line.
Only the communist group of Korça practically advocated for the establishment of a true communist party with centralized leadership, discipline, a single line and the initiation of a broad anti-fascist front. As the responsible representative of the Korça group, with the mission of advocating for these principled positions through debate and persuasion, Enver Hoxha was sent to Tirana in early 1940.
The situation of communist groups, or those claiming to be such, in Albania, was quite complex and confusing. Some members, especially the leaders of the Shkodra group, were convinced, in a perfectly capitulationist attitude, that nothing could be done because it might jeopardize the German-Soviet tactical pact. Many young militants in Tirana supported the entry of fascist troops into Albanian territory, as they believed it would lead to rapid industrialization of the country and the subsequent formation of a vast proletariat. According to these right-wing opportunists, a proletarian revolution would only be possible when the proletariat became the most numerous class. The Zjarri group, composed of Trotskyites, advocated for “entryism” into fascist organizations to change them from within, in a blatant form of collaboration. Some militants from the Korça group clung to sectarianism, refusing alliances and rejecting the Anti-Fascist Front’s policy, which amounted to isolating the proletariat from other popular sectors, focussing on a laboratory-derived ideological purity rather than the political leadership of the proletarian struggle.
Faced with this political situation, which oscillated between blatant right-wing opportunism and blind sectarianism, Enver Hoxha’s work, even with the support he found from two militants of the Shkodra group — Qemal Stafa and Vasil Shanto — was prolonged and challenging until he asserted a line of mobilization with the full support of the popular masses, a line of declared struggle against fascism.
The founding of a popular guerrilla in late 1940 in Peza revealed the continuing and significant political dependence on the Korça group’s viewpoint. At that time, discussions to defend political unity based on principles with other groups were still taking shape, and Enver Hoxha moved to the mountains, establishing direct contact with the guerrilla. In June 1941, the complete support of the communists from Korça for the people’s war was crucial for uniting the groups and practically recognizing the proletarian vanguard in this specific situation. Years later, in response to right-wing criticisms of his “voluntarism,” Enver Hoxha stated, “Yes, we started our fight before the USSR, but with its entry into the war, we were certain that our blood would not be shed in vain.” This stance understood that the role of the proletarian vanguard was recognized in practice, not by formal decree.
Back in Tirana, Enver Hoxha, using the pseudonyms Hassani and Thanas, managed to convene a meeting of all communist groups on November 3, 1941, where there were inevitably militants willing to adhere to correct positions, with the presence of a representative from the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. He had to struggle to convince all the right-wing opportunists and leftists that it was possible to build a party in a country with a small working class, which would be the basic condition for victory. Only then could it avoid falling under the hegemonic influence of powerful neighbours, especially at a time when the mass struggle was experiencing a rapid upswing.
On November 8, 1941, the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) was founded — later known as the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) — the party that led the Albanian proletariat and people to victory, serving as the head of the National Liberation Army (ANLA) and the Democratic Front against the Italian fascists and their bourgeois collaborators within the country. They also resisted any collusion with the Anglo-American allies. Today, the Party continues to take steps in the march toward building socialism.
At the Party’s founding, Enver Hoxha was appointed as the First Secretary of the Central Committee and started living in the liberated mountainous zones, where the nine Albanian popular guerrilla units formed the central combat body of the National Liberation Army. The creation of Zëri i Popullit in August 1942, under the leadership of the First Secretary of the CPA, served as the unifying element of the entire party, transmitting Marxist-Leninist theory and the single political, ideological, organizational and practical line of the revolutionary proletariat to all its members.
The political stance that has defined Enver Hoxha as a great theorist, especially in the editorials and articles signed under the pseudonyms Selami, Maio, Sali, Taras, Valbona and Shpati, links the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of Albania. He actively participated in both theory and practice in the struggle of the proletariat and people. This is the correct understanding of Marxism-Leninism as a scientific doctrine of a class (the proletariat) and the transition from theory to practice, enriched through practice.
At the same time, Enver Hoxha, in an exemplary combative attitude, constantly took risks. This included visiting areas occupied by Italian troops, even after the Tirana police had published a photo of him with the caption: “Dangerous Communist! Wanted Dead or Alive.” He also went alone to the stronghold of leftists in Vlora at a time when there was a risk of them dominating the Party. Additionally, he established more connections, setting an example of how to do so during military sieges, as was the case with the German troops from 1943-44 when he was isolated in the mountains with most of the Central Committee of the CPA and the Democratic Front. These connections were vital for the continuation of political work and the guidance of the proletarian struggle. This is the practical union of a militant’s combativeness with the responsibilities of political leadership.
Up to that point, Enver Hoxha had often been forced to combat left-wing opportunists, who were more powerful and sometimes appeared firm, ranging from “workerists” to Trotskyites. Now, he had to fight with the utmost strength against the resurgence of right-wing opportunists, especially those who advocated unconditional submission of the vanguard to the Democratic Front without principles. They presented this in a deceptive manner as a way to bring even more sectors into the fight against fascism.
In August 1943, his fight against the right-wing opportunistic leaders took on a new form, as they wanted a capitulationist unity with the Balli Kombëtar, which meant surrendering the proletariat and people to the most cowardly and unprincipled bourgeoisie, thereby paralysing the Democratic Front. After a tough principled struggle, the positions of the CPA were eventually recognized as just, and the Democratic Front declared the condemnation of agreements with the Balli Kombëtar, the representatives of conciliatory interests in defence of the bourgeoisie. This was a severe proletarian blow against all rightists.
On November 28, 1944, after three years of victorious struggle with the CPA at the head, leading the National Liberation Army and the Democratic Front, Enver Hoxha enters Tirana and was elected the head of the democratic government of Albania. It was structured in the political form of the dictatorship of the victorious proletariat. This marked the beginning of the construction of socialism in Albania, but it also heralded new struggles.
It was also at this moment that Enver Hoxha married a teacher and a militant of the now Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), Nexhmije Xhuglini. She is the daughter of a Muslim family from the city of Bitola in Macedonia, a party militant since its foundation, and responsible for the Labour Youth Union of Albania (LYUA). She has always been politically active, playing a particularly active role in the emancipation of Albanian women.
Nexhmije Xhuglini, Enver Hoxha’s partner and mother of three children (Ilir, Sokol and Pranvera), has been a full member of the Central Committee of the PLA since 1948. She has been responsible for the Department of Agitation and Propaganda since 1952 and is also the director of the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies, with a significant role in the cultural revolution in Albania.
The internal struggle within the Central Committee against Titoite influences, against paternalism and annexationist desires, dates back to the period before the liberation of Tirana. There was a significant influence in Albania exerted by Yugoslav advisors and adherents who managed to infiltrate both the Party and the ranks of the Democratic Front. The Titoites attempted to intervene openly for the first time in November 1944 during the 2nd Plenum of the Central Committee in Berat, where they labelled Enver Hoxha’s approach as “intellectualism,” a cunning way to theoretically disarm the proletarian party. At that moment, they did not dare propose his resignation, fearing his strong connection with the proletariat and the masses of the people. Enver Hoxha’s correct positions prevailed, silencing, for a while, all the right-wing opportunists who were plotting sabotage and betrayals in the shadows.
In Paris, during the Conference of the 21 countries on July 29, 1946, there was an attempt to reduce Albania’s participation under the pretext that it had “collaborated with Italian fascism.” The aim was to diminish the socialist bloc by invalidating the involvement of the members of the PLA in the conference and only recognizing the power of the bourgeoisie, thus undermining the entire struggle of the Party of Labour of Albania. Enver Hoxha delivered his speech on August 21, demanding recognition for Albania and its socialist principles. At this moment, the seats of the American and British delegations were empty, indicating their commitment to establishing a bourgeois regime in the country. Bidault, the President of France, was also absent, likely due to the pressure of Enver Hoxha’s speech. Enver Hoxha was the only leader who could assert that in his country the collaborators of the fascists were truly punished. In a just internationalist position, he denounced the alliance of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden with his Greek counterpart, Konstantinos Tsaldaris, and their policy of crushing the Communist Party of Greece, including the lynching of its main leader, Nikos Zachariadis, and the annihilation of communist guerrillas, who were the only consistent fighters against nazi-fascism in Greece. The Albanian National Liberation Army had also fought in the Çamëria region but withdrew its troops shortly after victory over the Germans. This denunciation was significant because it was known that Tito had handed over many Greek patriots to Tsaldaris’ reactionary government and hoped to incorporate Albania into the Yugoslav Federation through the actions of his secret agents.
On July 14, 1947, Enver Hoxha traveled to Moscow at the invitation of the General Secretary of the Bolshevik Party, Joseph Stalin. This trip led to the first commercial and cultural agreements between the two socialist countries, as well as Soviet technical assistance at a time when Albania was gearing up for industrialization and preparing the coastal marshlands for agriculture. It was a complete agreement between comrades, internationalism in its practical forms, based on common ideology and firm Marxist-Leninist principles.
Tito’s annexationist ambitions took shape in 1947, as a manifestation of a bourgeois policy disguised as Marxism, aiming to turn Albania into the seventh republic of the Yugoslav Federation. There were individuals adhering to this position even within the PLA. They, in general, opposed the Central Committee’s directives and faced complete rejection and revulsion among the masses. This revulsion was, essentially, vigilance of the masses against the internal degeneration of Yugoslavia. The people found their political expression when Tito’s gang was expelled from the Cominform and the bloc of socialist countries in 1948.
Apart from political independence and the assertion of the “self-determination of peoples” according to the basic principles of Lenin and Stalin, the fight against Yugoslav interference was and is a battle of two lines: between the proletarian line, relying on its own forces, and the capitalist line, which emphasizes technology removed from the popular masses, treating them as mere executors.
It is by relying on its own strength, utilizing the initiative of the masses, that Albanian industry grew at a rate of 20.6% in the decade from 1949 to 1959(1). It is by relying on its own strength, guiding the creative capacity of the working-class and peasant masses, that the Party of Labour led the Agricultural Reform between 1945 and 1946, distributing 172,000 hectares of land to the peasants out of a total of 221,000 hectares of arable land, benefiting 70,000 families of poor peasants. The first collective cooperatives were established, using the methods of political persuasion and example, as well as the first state farms, especially on expropriated mountain and marshlands. By relying on the people’s strength, the Party of Labour diversified industry and agriculture, ensuring internal supply to prevent any form of dependency and economic coercion, as attempted by the USSR in 1960 when it cut off supplies of wheat and coal in an unsuccessful attempt to dominate the Albanians.
The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1956, where representatives of the interests of the new Soviet bourgeoisie within the party and the state apparatus attacked Comrade Stalin, marked their open struggle against the dictatorship of the proletariat. However, in Albania, there was a wave of protests against the defence of bourgeois and reactionary positions. Some declared opportunists, though servile towards Nikita Khrushchev, tried to remove references and citations of Stalin from some books, but they could not advance their efforts of sabotage due to resistance from the majority of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour and the people.
Six months after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Enver Hoxha went to Beijing, leading a delegation from the Party of Labour invited to attend the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in September 1956. Relations with the People’s Republic of China, which had increased that year, particularly with large rice shipments to Albania, grew even closer. The meeting between the two leaders, Mao Zedong and Enver Hoxha, was warm and fraternal, reflecting a correct understanding of the significant tasks ahead and the long road that needed to be travelled to eliminate modern revisionism from the International Communist Movement.
The unfounded criticisms of Stalin, similar to the lies spread by the bourgeoisie in their attempt to combat the proletariat in the class struggle, ultimately aimed to attack the regime of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the entire revolutionary history of the USSR. It provided an opening for new annexationist attempts by Tito, a resurgence of capitulationist forms, integration into the Yugoslav Federation, and direct integration with a socialist country that was capitalist in reality. From 1957 to 1959, Enver Hoxha and the majority of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour, with the full patriotic support of the proletariat and the popular masses, decisively combatted Titoism, once again crushing right-wing opportunism and capitulation to the sworn enemy of the working class, eager to dominate a free people.
In the mid-1960s, Khrushchev, who had been exerting economic and political pressure on socialist Albania, began attempting to convert his revisionist theses by subverting the party internally, as he had observed the firmness of the majority of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour falter several times. Now he sought to recruit cadres directly from Moscow, but the response from the Party of Labour was not delayed. With Comrade Enver Hoxha at the head, the Party acted firmly and decisively: Liri Belishova, a former leader of the Labour Youth Union of Albania, and Koço Tashko, the former ambassador to the USSR, were expelled from the Party. A trial was organized involving ten responsible members, and their attempts to participate in a coup d’état that would result in the disintegration of Albania, against the interests of the masses, were proven. Four of these renegade members of the Party of Labour were convicted and executed. As a form of protest over their failed coup, Khrushchev’s gang withdrew Soviet submarines from the naval base of Vlora, leaving Albania’s 472-kilometre maritime border unprotected in the face of the U.S. imperialist fleet patrolling the Mediterranean.
Also in 1960, during the meeting in Bucharest, the Conference of 81 Communist and Workers’ Parties, Enver Hoxha was the first leader to publicly denounce modern revisionism from the tribune of the Conference. This was the consistent attitude of a communist leader and militant who saw and exposed the betrayal of the proletariat and the cause of all the world’s peoples.
In 1961, the Party of Labour, led by Enver Hoxha, firmly rejected the attempts and pressures from the USSR and withdrew from the Warsaw Pact, denouncing it as an aggressive force against the world’s peoples. This was because the USSR controlled the Warsaw Pact troops and used them for its social-imperialist interests to subjugate the countries of Eastern Europe and the popular masses. It appointed revisionists who best served its particular interests to leadership positions. What was initially a defensive agreement against imperialist war had turned into a bridgehead for the new Soviet bourgeoisie.
During the 22nd Congress of the CPSU in 1962, Khrushchev proclaimed the “state of the whole people” (yet another attack against the dictatorship of the proletariat) and “peaceful coexistence with imperialism” as a strategic means to declare a new division of the world. This was characteristic of superpower imperialists who divide their respective zones and spheres of influence among themselves. Khrushchev used a metaphor of the “frog in a fable” to belittle socialist Albania. This was a way to tarnish Comrade Lenin and invalidate his struggle against the opportunists and renegades of the Second International. Lenin was initially alone and did not have the support of the legions of Kautsky and Bernstein, who represented various shades of opportunism. Khrushchev’s approach reflects a mercantile mindset that measures Marxism by size rather than by the correctness of principles.
However, Enver Hoxha and the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania were not alone, as demonstrated by the publication of several letters from the Central Committee of the CPC to the CPSU. They engaged in a determined struggle against modern revisionism based on principles. These were common positions of sister parties against the class enemy, with precise responses that reflected their respective national particularities in the struggle for the construction of socialism and communism.
In 1967, with the full strength and prestige of the Party of Labour of Albania, the cultural revolution led by Enver Hoxha began. This was a process of extinguishing the bourgeoisie and deepening proletarian ideology under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It marked the culmination of a long mass movement that critiqued modern revisionism in all its forms. The first signs of this movement emerged in 1960 based on the speech by Enver Hoxha at the Conference of 81 Communist and Workers’ Parties in Bucharest, and it intensified with Albanian criticisms of the revisionist positions emerging from the 22nd Congress of the CPSU. This involved the correct understanding that what separates Marxism-Leninism from modern revisionism is not just a specific point but two worldviews: that of the bourgeoisie and that of the proletariat.
The cultural revolution affected all sectors of production and social life. It included critiques of revisionist leaders of the Party of Labour who were involved in promoting the return of capitalism through the development of new cadres. It criticized the prejudices of older cadres against new experiences and the overly leftist fervour of youth cadres, uniting them in a common effort to lead socialist construction. It critiqued those who advocated professionalizing the army through the disintegration of the people’s militias, deepening the integration of working women and increasing the contribution of the masses to the defence of socialism and the people. It also critiqued outdated and patriarchal conceptions of the role of women in socialist construction, raising their status and effective participation at all levels of the party, state and production. It criticized bourgeoisified technocratic specialists, emphasizing the importance of polytechnic education. It also criticized oppressive religions, identifying the role of priests of all faiths and met the demands of the masses for the closure of temples, churches and mosques. Furthermore, it countered individualistic conceptions, fostering collective spirit and proletarian mutual solidarity. It involved a relentless critique of revisionism and bureaucracy, championing class defence of Marxism-Leninism. It was an open and declared struggle against revisionism and bureaucracy.
Enver Hoxha, who led and actively participated in the entire process of the cultural revolution, presented, citing Stalin, the correct way to conduct it: “Organize control from the grassroots, organize criticism by millions of workers against the bureaucratic spirit in our institutions, against their defects, against their errors […] Only by shifting the centre of gravity of criticism to the grassroots can we achieve success in our struggle, and thus bureaucracy will be eradicated.”
The political report by Enver Hoxha to the 6th Congress of the Party of Labour of Albania in 1971, as well as the report by Mehmet Shehu, provided the political and ideological background for the entire cultural revolution movement, the struggle against revisionism and the foundation for the continued construction of socialism and the creation of a society where “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is met, in Marx’s brilliant vision for communism.
The report to the 6th Congress also represents an understanding by Enver Hoxha and the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania that it is a long and difficult path, a path of constant political and ideological refinement, facing the encirclement of American imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, continuing the struggle of the working class and participating in all the vanguard work, especially the most dangerous work that demands the greatest effort and dedication, setting an example among the people and serving the people. As Enver Hoxha stated in his historic speech on February 2, 1973, this involves complete self-abnegation, without economic advantages or personal privileges, but out of the duty of a high degree of political consciousness, as builders of the new world.
In 1968, on the occasion of Enver Hoxha’s 60th birthday, the Communist Party of China sent a congratulatory letter to the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania, signed by Mao Zedong himself, where it is stated, in the edition of Zëri i Popullit dated October 16: “You are indeed a fighter and a great hero of Marxism-Leninism.”