Enver Hoxha
Enver Hoxha | |
|---|---|
 Enver Hoxha in the 1980s | |
| Born |
16 October 1908 Gjirokastër, Janina vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
| Died |
11 April 1985 |
| Nationality | Albanian |
| Alma mater |
University of Montpellier Free University of Brussels |
| Known for | Founder and effective leader of PSR Albania, anti-revisionist author |
Notable work |
Imperialism and the Revolution Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism, and others |
| Title | First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania |
| Term | 8 November 1941–11 April 1985 |
Enver Halil Hoxha (/ˈhɒdʒə/ HOJ-ə, Albanian: [ɛnˈvɛɾ ˈhɔdʒa]; 16 October 1908 – 11 April 1985) was an Albanian communist revolutionary and statesman who served as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania, from 1941 until his death in 1985. He was also a member of the Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania, chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 1944 until his death. He served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times served as both foreign minister and defence minister of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania. Hoxha was the greatest anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist of the 20th century, having opposed Khrushchevism, Maoism, Eurocommunism, Trotskyism and Titoism, among other revisionist stances. He sided with China during the Sino-Soviet split in 1960 but later distanced himself from China in what is known as Sino-Albanian split which began in 1972 and culminated in 1978.
Enver Hoxha would later go on to synthesize what is now the modern ideology of Marxism–Leninism–Stalinism.
Early life
Hoxha was born on 16 October 1908 to a patriotic family in Gjirokastër, located in Southern Albania. Becoming the secretary of a student association at the age of 16, he promoted progressive sentiments of democracy and national independence as well as resistance particularly to the semi-fascist monarchy under Zog I which was ruling Albania at the time. In the late 1920s, Hoxha would begin to be enthused by the French Revolution of the 18th century, and later, the October Socialist Revolution in Russia.[1]
An astute student, Hoxha would spend the early 1930s to pursue studies in France, during which, he would become active in communist organization and would familiarize himself with the writings of Karl Marx and other Marxist theorists, reading Marx's Das Kapital and Engels' Anti-Dühring.
Hoxha would return to Albania in 1936, becoming a school teacher involved in the education of French and morals in the city of Korça. His career in education would end as a result of, in 1939, his refusal to join the Albanian Fascist Party and, by extension, collaborate with the fascist Italian occupiers who had recently invaded Albania. Forced into illegality, Hoxha would involve himself in the communist movement in Albania with him being, at the founding conference of the Communist Party of Albania,[Note 1] elected to hold membership in the party's central committee.[2]
External links
References
- ↑ Enver Hoxha and Hoxhaism — Communist International (Stalinist–Hoxhaist)
- ↑ Celebrating the 100th birthday of Enver Hoxha Proletarian
Notes
- ↑ The original name of what would become the Party of Labour of Albania.