Editing Enver Hoxha (section)

=== Relations with the Soviet Union ===
[[File:General Secretary Enver Hoxha and First Secretary of the Soviet Unions Communist Party Joseph Stalin in Moscow.jpg|thumb|[[Joseph Stalin]] and Hoxha in [[Moscow]] in the 1950s]]
After the break with Yugoslavia, Hoxha aligned himself with the Soviet Union. From 1948 to 1960, $200&nbsp;million in Soviet aid was given to Albania for technical and infrastructural expansion. Albania was admitted to the [[Comecon]] on 22 February 1949, and it served as a pro-Soviet force on the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]]. A Soviet submarine base was built on the Albanian island of [[Sazan]] near [[Vlorë]], posing a hypothetical threat to the [[United States Sixth Fleet|U.S. Sixth Fleet]] in the Mediterranean. Relations with the Soviet Union remained close until the death of Stalin in March 1953. It was followed by 14 days of national mourning in Albania – more than in the Soviet Union.{{Sfn|Fevziu|2016|p=146}} Hoxha assembled the population of Tirana in the capital's largest square, which featured a Stalin statue, requested that they kneel and take a 2,000-word oath of "eternal fidelity" and "gratitude" to their "beloved father" and "great liberator".<ref>''The Economist'' 179 (16 June 1956): 110.</ref>{{better source needed|date=November 2021}}

Under [[Nikita Khrushchev]], Stalin's eventual successor, aid was reduced and Albania was encouraged to adopt Khrushchev's specialisation policy. Under it, Albania would develop its agricultural output in order to supply the Soviet Union and other [[Warsaw Pact]] countries while they would be developing products of their own, which would, in theory, strengthen the Warsaw Pact. However, this also meant that Albanian industrial development, which was heavily stressed by Hoxha, would be hindered.<ref>On the "socialist division of labor" see: [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1163 The International Socialist Division of Labor (7 June 1962)], German History in Documents and Images.</ref>

In May–June 1955, [[Nikolai Bulganin]] and [[Anastas Mikoyan]] visited Yugoslavia while Khrushchev renounced the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the [[Communist bloc]]. Khrushchev also began making references to [[Palmiro Togliatti]]'s [[wikt:polycentric|polycentrism]] theory. Hoxha had not been consulted on this and was offended. Yugoslavia began asking for Hoxha to rehabilitate the image of Xoxe, which Hoxha steadfastly rejected. In 1956 at the [[Twentieth Party Congress]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], Khrushchev [[Secret Speech|condemned]] the [[Stalin's cult of personality|cult of personality]] that had been built up around Stalin and denounced his excesses. Khrushchev then announced the theory of [[peaceful coexistence]], which angered Hoxha greatly. The Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies, led by Hoxha's wife [[Nexhmije Hoxha|Nexhmije]], quoted [[Vladimir Lenin]]: "The fundamental principle of the foreign policy of a socialist country and of a Communist party is [[proletarian internationalism]]; not peaceful coexistence."<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|The Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania|1982|p=296}}</ref> Hoxha now took a more active stand against perceived [[Marxist revisionism|revisionism]].

Unity within the [[Albanian Party of Labour]] began to decline as well, with a special delegate meeting held in Tirana in April 1956, composed of 450 delegates and having unexpected results. The delegates "criticized the conditions in the party, the negative attitude toward the masses, the absence of party and socialist democracy, the economic policy of the leadership, etc." while also calling for discussions on the cult of personality and the Twentieth Party Congress.{{Sfn|Griffith|1963|p=22}}

==== Movement towards China and Maoism ====
[[File:Mao Zedong and Enver Hoxha.jpg|thumb|[[Mao Zedong]] and Hoxha in 1956]]
In 1956, Hoxha called for a resolution which would confirm the existing leadership of the Party. The resolution was accepted, and all of the delegates who had spoken against it were expelled from the party and imprisoned. Hoxha claimed that Yugoslavia had attempted to overthrow the leadership of Albania. This incident increased Hoxha's power, effectively making Khrushchev-style reforms impossible there. In the same year, Hoxha travelled to [[China]], then embroiled in the [[Sino-Soviet split]], and met [[Mao Zedong]]. Chinese aid to Albania rose sharply during the next two years.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=27}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Marku|first=Ylber|date=30 May 2019|title=Communist Relations in Crisis: The End of Soviet-Albanian Relations, and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1960–1961|journal=The International History Review|volume=42|issue=4|pages=813–832|doi=10.1080/07075332.2019.1620825|s2cid=191900853|issn=0707-5332}}</ref>

In an effort to keep Albania in the Soviet sphere, increased Soviet aid was given but Albania's relations with the Soviet Union remained at the same level until 1960, when Khrushchev met [[Sofoklis Venizelos]], a liberal Greek politician. Khrushchev sympathised with the concept of an autonomous Greek [[North Epirus]] and he wanted to use Greek claims on North Epirus to keep the Albanian leadership in line.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=46}} Hoxha reacted by only sending [[Hysni Kapo]], a member of the Albanian Political Bureau, to the Third Congress of the [[Romanian Workers' Party]] in [[Bucharest]], an event which Communist heads of state were normally expected to attend.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|pp=46–47}} As relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate during the course of the meeting, Khrushchev said:
{{Blockquote
| text = Especially shameless was the behavior of that agent of Mao Zedong, Enver Hoxha. He bared his fangs at us even more menacingly than the Chinese themselves. After his speech, Comrade [[Dolores Ibárruri]] [a Spanish Communist], an old revolutionary and a devoted worker in the Communist movement, got up indignantly and said, very much to the point, that Hoxha was like a dog who bites the hand that feeds it.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Talbott|1970|pp=475–476}}</ref>
}}
<!-- [[File:Enver & Mao Tse Dung.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Hoxha and Mao shaking hands in a Chinese Communist propaganda poster]] -->

==== Friction with the Soviet Union ====
Relations with the Soviet Union rapidly deteriorated. A [[hardline]] policy was adopted, and the Soviets reduced grain shipments at a time when Albania needed them due to the possibility of a flood-induced famine.{{Sfn|Hoxha|1980b}} In July 1960, a plot to overthrow the Albanian government was discovered. It was to be organised by Soviet-trained Rear Admiral [[Teme Sejko]]. After that two pro-Soviet members of the Party, [[Liri Belishova]] and Koço Tashko, were expelled.{{Sfn|Hoxha|1976|pp=109, note 2, 110}}

In August, the Party's Central Committee sent a protest letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union about the presence of an anti-Albanian Soviet Ambassador in Tirana. The Fourth Congress of the Party, held from 13 to 20 February 1961, was the last meeting that the Soviet Union or other Eastern European nations attended in Albania. During the congress, Mehmet Shehu said that while many members of the Party were accused of [[tyranny]], this was a baseless charge, and unlike the Soviet Union, Albania was led by genuine Marxists.

The Soviet Union retaliated by threatening Albania with "dire consequences" if the condemnations were not retracted. Days later, Khrushchev and [[Antonín Novotný]], [[President of Czechoslovakia]], threatened to cut off economic aid. In March, Albania was not invited to attend the meeting of the Warsaw Pact nations, and in April, all Soviet technicians were withdrawn from Albania. In May, nearly all Soviet troops at the Soviet submarine base were withdrawn.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|The Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania|1982|loc=pp. 451–474 Chapter 13: The Final Act}}</ref>

On 7 November 1961, Hoxha made a speech in which he called Khrushchev a "revisionist, an anti-Marxist and a defeatist". Hoxha portrayed Stalin as the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union and alluded to Albania's independence.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|The Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania|1982|p=359, "the Albanian people and their Party of Labour will even live on grass if need be, but they will never sell themselves 'for 30 pieces of silver',&nbsp;... They would rather die honourably on their feet than live in shame on their knees."}}</ref> By 11 November, the USSR and every other Warsaw Pact nation had broken diplomatic relations with Albania. Albania was unofficially excluded from the Warsaw Pact and Comecon. The Soviet Union also attempted to claim control of the submarine base. The Albanian Party then passed a law prohibiting any other nation from owning an Albanian port. The [[Albanian–Soviet split]] was now complete.