Enver Hoxha
Hoxha, Enver
(ĕn`vĕr hô`jä), 1908–85, Albanian Communist leader and general. A founder (1941) of the Albanian Communist party (Albanian Labor party from 1948), Hoxha headed the radical resistance group in Italian-occupied Albania during World War II. General secretary of the party from 1943, he was premier (1946–54) of Albania after its proclamation as a republic. Hoxha was also minister of foreign affairs (1946–53) and commander in chief of the army (1944–54). He maintained close ties with the Soviet Union until its rift with Communist China in 1961; he then joined Beijing in its ideological struggle against Moscow and was branded as a Stalinist by Soviet and other Communist leaders. He stopped Albanian participation in the Warsaw Treaty OrganizationWarsaw Treaty Organizationor Warsaw Pact,
alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955 by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.
..... Click the link for more information. (Warsaw Pact) and the Council for Mutual Economic AssistanceCouncil for Mutual Economic Assistance
(COMECON or MEA), international organization active between 1956 and 1991 for the coordination of economic policy among certain nations then under Communist domination, including Albania (which did not participate after 1961), Bulgaria,
..... Click the link for more information. (COMECON). In 1977, Hoxha broke ties with China, protesting that country's liberalization and the U.S.-China rapprochement. Under Hoxha's rule, Albania remained one of the least economically developed and one of the most isolated countries in Europe. Hoxha died in office in 1985, and was succeeded by Ramiz AliaAlia, Ramiz,
1925–2011, Albanian politician. He fought with Communist guerrillas in World War II and joined (1943) the Communist party, becoming an officer and political commisar.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Bibliography
See Enver Hoxha: Selected Works (8 vol., tr. 1974–87) and Selected Works of Enver Hoxha (tr. 2011); biography by B. Fevziu (2016).
Hoxha, Enver
Born Oct. 16, 1908, in Gjirokastër. Albanian state and political figure.
Hoxha graduated from the lycée in Korçë in 1930 and then studied at the University of Montpellier in France. In 1941 he helped found the Communist Party of Albania-(since 1948 the Albanian Workers’ Party, AWP); he was a member of the party’s Central Committee and became the party’s general secretary in 1943. From 1942 to 1945 he was a member of the Presidium and chairman of the National Liberation Front of Albania (since August 1945 the Democratic Front of Albania).
Hoxha commanded the National Liberation Army (since 1945 the Albanian People’s Army) from 1944 to 1954. He was minister of defense from 1944 to 1953. He also served from 1944 to 1946 as head of the Provisional Democratic Government, from 1946 to 1954 as chairman of the Council of Ministers, and from 1946 to 1953 as minister of foreign affairs.
Hoxha was general secretary of the Central Committee of the AWP from 1948 to 1954, when he became the Central Committee’s first secretary. He was made chairman of the General Council of the Democratic Front of Albania in 1945. In 1954 he was elected a member of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly. In 1976, Hoxha was named commander in chief of the armed forces and chairman of the Defense Council.