Albanian Communism
By the end of 1970, Albania, under the leadership of ideological Stalinist Enver Hoxha, lived on complete self-sufficiency in conditions of international isolation
In 1920, Albania remained the only Balkan country in which there was no communist party. Proponents of the theory of Karl Marx for a long time could not unite into a common political force, and the country's president, Ahmet Zogu, in 1928 year, declared himself king as Zog I of Scanderbeg III.
At this time, the son of lawyer and music teacher Enver Hoxha only received a higher education, but already then he was an ardent supporter of the head of the USSR Joseph Stalin. Hoxha came to the conclusion that Albania needed a party built on the model of the CPSU (b), and began to actively publish in the publications of the communist kind. He joined the Communist Parties of France and Belgium, collaborated with the Greek and Italian sections of the Comintern, became one of the leaders of the Albanian communist underground, and then headed a group of like-minded people in Korce.
Hoxha quickly gained popularity among the Albanian opposition. In March, 1938 was sent to the USSR, where he studied at the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in Moscow under the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and at the Institute of Foreign Languages. Among the tasks facing him was the translation of the works of Joseph Stalin, the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars Vyacheslav Molotov and the USSR Prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky into the Albanian language. After a month in the capital, Khoja met Stalin and Molotov personally.
Khoja returned to his homeland in April 1939, when Italian fascists occupied Albania and sentenced the Communist leader to death in absentia. He became one of the leaders of the partisan movement, at the same time taking an active part in party building. 8 November 1941 was announced at an underground conference on the creation of the Communist Party of Albania (CPA). Hoxha became one of seven members of the Provisional Central Committee, and in the spring of 1943, he was formally elected first party secretary. On the basis of the CPA, the National Liberation Army of Albania was formed, which joined the struggle against the forces of the Axis countries and collaborators.
In October 1944, Hoxha took over as Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs. A month later, the guerrillas ousted German troops from Albania, and the communist dictatorship was established in the country, although the monarchy was formally canceled only after three years.
The friendship of Stalin and Khoja grew stronger every year. At the Potsdam Conference, the Soviet leader spoke out against the partition of Albania - Italy and Greece claimed the territory of the country. Khoja negotiated supplies from the USSR of food, medicine and equipment. Soviet specialists of various professions came to Albania: geologists, doctors, teachers, oil workers, engineers. Soviet universities accepted hundreds of Albanian students.
In the second half of the 1940s, relations with the formerly allied Yugoslavia began to deteriorate in Albania. Its leader, Joseph Broz, Tito tried to convince Hoxha that his country would not survive alone, and persuaded him to become part of Yugoslavia. The first secretary did not agree, and the neighbors began publicly accusing him of betraying the ideas of Marxism and embarking on the path of individualism. In the end, all ties between the countries were severed, and the USSR became the main ally of Albania.
Enver Hoxha, 1976 year. Photo: The Art Archive / AFP / East News
On the advice of Stalin in the 1948, the Communist Party was renamed the Albanian Party of Labor (APT). The following year, Albania joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, and in 1955 it signed the Warsaw Pact.
At the first congress of the APT, held in 1948, the delegates declared their commitment to the experience of the USSR and the CPSU (B). Collectivization began in Albania and its own five-year plans appeared. In order to fully embrace the Soviet experience, factories, collective farms, streets, schools and mountain peaks were named after Hoxha. In 1949, one of the numerous purges in the party ran was held, which resulted in the execution of one of the founders of the CPA and Khoja's main rival for leadership Kochi Dzodze, among others. As part of helping the economic development of the country at the beginning of 1950, Stalin donated ZIS and ZIM automobile plants to Albania.
5 March 1953 has become a national mourning day for Albania. The death of Stalin meant for Khoja the loss of a powerful ally, since the views of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev did not coincide with the ideas of the Albanian dictator. The XX Congress of the CPSU was held, at which Khrushchev read out a report defrauding the personality cult of Stalin and proclaimed the concept of “peaceful existence”, which angered Hodge. In 1961, Albania ceased to participate in the CMEA, and in 1968, it withdrew from the Warsaw Pact organization.
The "great helmsman" Mao Zedong became the new comrade of Hoxha. The allied relations of Albania with the PRC lasted for 10 years, the Maoists provided the Balkan dictator with considerable economic support, supplying the Communists with everything they needed. However, at the end of the 1960-s, China went toward rapprochement with the hated Khoja West, and in 1977, Albania actually lost its last major ally.
Squeezed between Europe and the already unfriendly USSR, Hoxha called on Albanians to engage in “building communism in the hostile environment of the revisionists and imperialists” and began to prepare for war. About 750 thousands of military bunkers appeared on the territory of the country - one for each family, considering that the population of Albania was three million. According to Khodja’s plan, during the invasion of one of the hostile states, the Albanians were supposed to hide in concrete shelters and shoot from the invaders.
Albania has become autarky with displacing barter trade. The country fully provided itself with food, medicine and equipment, and all products of the western capitalist world were banned: Albanians could not wear jeans, use imported cosmetics, have a car, listen to rock and jazz. In 1976, foreign loans and loans were prohibited at the legislative level. Temples and mosques were altered for state needs, since Khoja proclaimed that “Albanians do not have idols and gods, but there are ideals - this is the name and cause of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin”, and prohibited religion.
At the Eighth ANT Congress in 1981, the victory of socialism and the beginning of the construction of communism was announced. The economy of Albania was in such a deplorable state that Khoja had to resume trade with Yugoslavia, the CMEA countries and China, but he did not forgive the Soviet Union for the ideas of Stalin. The USSR obstinately ignored all attacks against Albania, and in the Soviet press such a country simply ceased to exist.
In 1983, the health of the 75-year-old dictator deteriorated dramatically, 11 on April 1985, Hodge died of cerebral haemorrhage. Only emissaries from Romania, Vietnam, the DPRK, Kampuchea, Laos, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Nicaragua were admitted to the mourning ceremony at the Stalin Palace in Tirana. Telegrams with condolences from Yugoslavia, the USSR and China, the grieving Albanians sent back.
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