Enver Hoxha

[[File:HODŽA_druhá_míza.jpg|thumb|165px|Party on, comrades!]]{{communism|1}}{{cquote|Like his country, Hoxha is full of surprises. Instead of being a rough, tough mountain chieftain, he is a former schoolteacher and was the pampered son of a well-to-do [[Moslem]] merchant. Though he has the mentality of a brigand, his manners are those of a cultivated bourgeois and reflect his education at universities in France and Belgium.|||''Time'', 22 December 1961<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419032659/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827142,00.html|title=Albania: Stalin's Heir|work=Time Magazine|date=1961-12-22}}</ref>}}
'''Enver Hoxha''' (pron. En-vair Hode-ja){{efn|Who was named, perhaps fittingly, after an [[Ottoman]] [[war criminal]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gürpınar |first=Doğan |year=2012 |title=What is in a Name? The Rise of Turkic Personal Male Names in Turkey (1908–38) |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=48 |issue=5 |page=692 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2012.703617 |s2cid=144784853}}</ref>}} {{lived|1908|1985}} was the 
Jedi
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Enver_Hoxha|title=Enver Hoxha|work=Wookieepedia}}</ref> [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] [[dictator]] of [[Albania]] (from 1944-1985) and author of many{{efn|68 volumes!<ref name=kalder>{{cite book|author=Daniel Kalder|year=2018|title=The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=1627793429}}.</ref>{{rp|250-252}}}} exercises in sectarian, doctrinaire hairsplitting like ''Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism''.<ref name=Eurocommunism>{{cite book|author=Enver Hoxha|year=1980|title=Eurocommunism Is Anti-Communism|publisher=Norman Bethune Institute|isbn=0888030908}}</ref>

Under his long administration, he oversaw the economic and social transformation of Albania from a feudal relic which was formerly ruled by a despot named {{wpl|Zog I of Albania|Zog}} (yes, really){{efn|Not to be confused with [[Zionist Occupation Government|this Nazi bullshit]].}} to a relatively modernized state.<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Donnell|first=James S.|url=https://espressostalinist.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/a-coming-of-age.pdf|title=A Coming of Age: Albania under Enver Hoxha|location=New York|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1999|p=186|isbn=0880334150}}</ref> In his [[paranoia]], however, he had an annoying tendency to turn on and denounce his former allies as being anti-Communist dupes and [[revisionist]]s, which he did first with [[Yugoslavia]], then the [[Soviet Union]],<ref name=Eurocommunism/> and finally with his sole remaining ally [[China]].

==International relations==
After [[World War II]], there was some thought of Albania becoming part of Yugoslavia, but following the Tito-Stalin split of 1948 (provoked largely by Yugoslav leader Tito refusing to submit to Soviet control), Albania sided with Stalin.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=lib_fsdocs|chapter=Yugoslav-Soviet Split|author-last=Chapman|author-first=B.|year=2014|title=War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia|editor=Richard C. Hall|volume=1|pages=353-354|location=Santa Barbara, CA|publisher=ABC-CLIO}}</ref> However, after [[Khrushchev]]'s denunciation of Stalin and the subsequent {{wpl|Sino-Soviet split||,}} Hoxha sided with [[Mao Zedong]]. Then in the 1970s, [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] went to China and Mao promoted the {{wpl|Three Worlds Theory}} which allowed co-operation with non-communist nations, and after Mao's death in 1976, China became more liberal; Hoxha got all appalled at this betrayal of Leninism, and bade farewell to the Tirana-Beijing friendship.<ref name=hist11>{{cite web|url=http://motherearthtravel.com/albania/history-11.htm|title=History of Albania, Chapter 11|work=Mother Earth Travel}}</ref>

As a result, Albania was led into isolation from the rest of the world, without any real help from any world power, a rarity for the era.

==Domestic policies==
Influenced by Mao, he launched his Cultural and Ideological Revolution in the late 1960s. This involved bizarre ideas such as de-professionalising the army: military ranks were abolished, professional soldiers stripped of their power, and the army placed under direct party control. He also sent many bureaucrats to work in the fields in an attempt to destroy the state bureaucracy, similar to what happened in China's Cultural Revolution.<ref name=hist11/>

Along with [[Romania]], Albania was one of the most bizarre Eastern European [[Communism|Communist]] regimes. They banned bell bottoms, for example. They also banned beards so the Muslims and Christians couldn't tell each other apart. They also tried, tortured, and executed many clergy and believers. He took [[Karl Marx]]'s "opiate of the masses" line to the extreme and brutally persecuted [[religion]] in Albania.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-186.html|title=Hoxha's Antireligious Campaign}}</ref> After a 1967 campaign as part of his Cultural and Ideological Revolution, he declared Albania to be the world's first atheist state.<ref name=hist11/> These campaigns against religion were unsuccessful and probably were counterproductive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-187.html|title=The Revival of Religion}}</ref>

He also {{wpl|Bunkers in Albania|really fucking loved bunkers.}} In fact, a bunker is nowadays the Albanian equivalent of the backseat of a car in America when it comes to losing one's [[virginity]].

However, he did manage to have a [[stopped clock]] moment, because he harshly denounced [[Pol Pot]]'s regime in [[Cambodia]] as "disgusting", "bloodthirsty", and "inhumane", among other things. Also, [[women's rights]] in Albania advanced significantly under his rule, as women were encouraged to take up all kinds of jobs and school attendance increased among girls and young women. Hoxha himself said in 1967:

{{quotebox|The entire party and country should hurl into the fire and break the neck of anyone who dared trample underfoot the sacred edict of the party on the defense of women's rights.<ref>{{cite book|author=Anton Logoreci|title=The Albanians: Europe's forgotten survivors|location=Boulder, Colorado|publisher=Westview Press|year=1978|isbn=9780891588276}}</ref>}}

On the other hand, Hoxha rebuilt the country, which had been left in ruins after World War II. He built Albania's first railway line, built industry on a large-scale, raised the adult literacy rate from 5% to more than 90%, wiped out epidemics and provided free and universal healthcare, electrified the country, completely abolished taxation,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bjoerna.dk/dokumentation/Albanian-Constitution-1976.htm#B.%20Economic%20Order|title=1976 Constitution of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania (Article 31)}}</ref> and helped Albania gain economic independence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2870/1/U615819.pdf|title=Mortality Transition in Albania, 1950-1990}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=465|title=Celebrating the 100th birthday of Enver Hoxha|work=Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)|year=2008|access-date=2024-09-24}}</ref><ref name="britannica">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Enver-Hoxha|title=Enver Hoxha|work=Britannica Encyclopedia}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[North Korea]] is probably less popular now than Albania was then, but only just. The [[nuke]]s are the tiebreaker.

Not to be outdone by [[Stalin apologetics]], there are currently Communist parties in about 25 countries that support {{wpl|Hoxhaism}}: from the late 70s, Hoxha was seen by many as the last true disciple of Lenin and Stalin.

==External links==
*{{wpa|Bunkers in Albania}}
*{{wpa|Enver Hoxha}}
*{{wpa|Hoxhaism}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{stub|Communism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT: Hoxha, Enver}}
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