Editing Enver Hoxha

{{Short description|Leader of Albania from 1944 to 1985}}
{{for|the Kosovar Foreign Minister|Enver Hoxhaj}}
{{redirect|Hoxha|other people|Hoxha (surname)}}
{{pp-move|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Enver Hoxha
| honorific_prefix    = 
| image               = Enver Hoxha (portret).jpg
| caption             = Official portrait, {{circa}} 1985
| office              = [[First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania]]
| term_start          = 8 November 1941
| term_end            = 11 April 1985
| predecessor         = ''Position established''
| successor           = [[Ramiz Alia]]
| order1              = 22nd
| office1             = Prime Minister of Albania
| term_start1         = 23 October 1944
| term_end1           = 19 July 1954
| president1          = [[Omer Nishani]]<br />[[Haxhi Lleshi]]
| deputy1             = [[Myslim Peza]]<br />[[Koçi Xoxe]]<br />Mehmet Shehu
| predecessor1        = [[Ibrahim Biçakçiu]]
| successor1          = [[Mehmet Shehu]]
| office2             = [[Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Albania)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start2         = 22 March 1946
| term_end2           = 23 July 1953
| primeminister2      = Himself
| predecessor2        = Omer Nishani
| successor2          = [[Behar Shtylla]]
| office3             = [[Ministry of Defence (Albania)|Minister of People's Defence]]
| term_start3         = 23 October 1944
| term_end3           = 31 July 1953
| primeminister3      = Himself
| successor3          = [[Beqir Balluku]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1908|10|16|df=yes}}
| birth_name          = Enver Halil Hoxha
| birth_place         = [[Gjirokastër]], then part of the [[Ottoman Empire]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1985|4|11|1908|10|16|df=yes}}
| death_place         = [[Tirana]], Albania
| resting_place       = People's Cemetery, Tirana, Albania
| party               = [[Party of Labour of Albania]]
| nickname            = "Iron Fist of Albania"<ref>{{Cite news |last=Steele |first=Jonathan |date=2016-04-30 |title=Enver Hoxha: The Iron Fist of Albania by Blendi Fevziu review – the People's Republic tyrant |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/enver-hoxha-iron-fist-of-albania-blendi-fevziu-review |access-date=2024-08-10 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Nexhmije Hoxha|Nexhmije Xhuglini]]|1945}}
| children            = 3, including [[Ilir Hoxha|Ilir]]
| alma_mater          = [[University of Montpellier]]<br />[[Free University of Brussels (1834–1969)|Free University of Brussels]]
| awards              = [[Hero of the People]]<br />[[Order of Lenin]]<br />[[Order of Skanderbeg]]<br />[[Order of the People's Hero]]<br />[[Order of Suvorov]]<br />[[Hero of Socialist Labour (Albania)|Hero of Socialist Labour]]<br />[[Order of the Partisan Star (Albania)|Order of the Partisan Star]]<br />[[Order of the Flag]]
| signature           = Enver Hoxha (signature).svg
<!--Military service-->| allegiance          = [[National Liberation Movement (Albania)|LANÇ]] (1941–1945)<br />[[People's Republic of Albania]] (1944–1985)
| branch              = [[National Liberation Movement (Albania)|LANÇ]] (1941–1945)<br />[[Albanian People's Army]] (1944–1985)
| serviceyears        = 1941–1944
| rank                = [[Army General]]
| commands            = [[National Liberation Movement (Albania)|LANÇ]]<br />[[Albanian People's Army]] <small>(supreme commander)</small>
| battles             = {{tree list}}
*[[World War II]]
**[[World War II in Albania]]
***[[Liberation of Tirana]]
***[[Kosovo Operation (1944)]]
*[[Operation Valuable]]
*[[Vlora Incident]]
{{tree list/end}}
| relations           = [[Hysen Hoxha]] (uncle)
| resting_place_coordinates = {{Coord|41.307361|19.761892|type:landmark|display=inline}}
}}
'''Enver Halil Hoxha''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|h|ɒ|dʒ|ə}} {{respell|HOJ|ə}}, {{IPAc-en|US|ˈ|h|ɔː|dʒ|ɑː}} {{respell|HAW|jah}},<ref>{{Cite EPD|18|Hoxha|page=240}}</ref> {{IPA|sq|ɛnˈvɛɾ ˈhɔdʒa|lang|Sq-Enver Hoxha.ogg}}; 16 October 1908{{spaced ndash}}11 April 1985) was an Albanian communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was the [[Secretary (title)#First secretary|First Secretary]] of the [[Party of Labour of Albania]] from 1941 until his death, a member of its [[Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania|Politburo]], chairman of the [[Democratic Front of Albania]], and commander-in-chief of the [[Albanian People's Army]]. He was the twenty-second [[Prime Minister of Albania|prime minister of Albania]] from 1944 to 1954 and at various times was both [[Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Albania)|foreign minister]] and [[Ministry of Defence (Albania)|defence minister]] of the country.

Hoxha was born in [[Gjirokastër]] near [[Greece]] in 1908. He was a grammar school teacher in 1936. After the [[Italian invasion of Albania]], he joined the Party of Labour of Albania at its creation in 1941 in the [[Soviet Union]]. He was elected First Secretary in March 1943 at the age of 34. Less than two years after [[Liberation Day (Albania)|the liberation of the country]], the monarchy of [[Zog I|King Zog I]] was formally abolished, and Hoxha became the country's ''de facto'' head of state.

Adopting [[Stalinism]], Hoxha converted Albania into a [[One-party state|one-party]] [[communist state]]. As a Stalinist, he implemented [[state atheism]] and ordered the anti-religious persecution of [[Islam in Albania|Muslims]] and [[Christianity in Albania|Christians]]. Implementing his radical program, Hoxha used [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] methods of governance. His government outlawed traveling abroad and [[Private property|private proprietorship]]. The government imprisoned, executed, or exiled thousands of landowners, rural clan leaders, peasants who resisted collectivization, and allegedly disloyal party officials. Hoxha was succeeded by [[Ramiz Alia]], who was in charge during the [[fall of communism in Albania]].

Hoxha's government was characterised by his proclaimed firm adherence to [[anti-revisionist]] [[Marxism–Leninism]] from the mid/late-1960s onwards. After [[Sino-Albanian split|his break]] with [[Maoism]] in the 1976–1978 period, numerous Maoist parties around the world declared themselves [[Hoxhaist]]. The [[International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle)|International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organisations (Unity & Struggle)]] is the best-known association of these parties.

==Early life==
[[File:Hodza house.jpg|thumb|The site of the house where Hoxha grew up in [[Gjirokastër]]; the original home was lost to a fire in the 1960s]]
Hoxha was born in [[Gjirokastër]] in southern Albania (then a part of the [[Ottoman Empire]]) in October 1908,{{Sfn|Gürpınar|2012}} the son of Halil Hoxha, a [[Islam in Albania|Muslim]] cloth merchant who travelled widely across Europe and the United States, and Gjylihan Hoxha (''née'' Çuçi). Enver was named after [[Enver Pasha]], a leading figure of the [[Young Turk Revolution]].{{Sfn|Gürpınar|2012}} The Hoxha family was attached to the [[Bektashism|Bektashi Order]].{{Sfn|Pipa|1990|p=262}}

After elementary school, Enver followed his studies in the city senior high school "Liria". He started his studies at the Gjirokastër Lyceum in 1923. After the lyceum was closed, due to intervention of [[Ekrem Libohova]],{{Sfn|Fevziu|2017|p=22}} Enver Hoxha was awarded a state scholarship for the continuation of his studies in [[Korçë]], at the French language [[Albanian National Lyceum]] until 1930.{{Sfn|Dervishi|2012|p=136}}

[[File:Enver Hoxha aged 18 1927.jpg|thumb|right|Hoxha at the age of 18]]
In 1930, Hoxha went to study at the [[University of Montpellier]] in [[Montpellier|Montpellier, France]] on a state scholarship for the faculty of [[natural science]], but he lost the scholarship for neglecting his studies. He later went to [[Paris]], where he presented himself to anti-Zogist immigrants as the brother-in-law of [[Bahri Omari]].{{Sfn|Dervishi|2016|p=188}} From 1935 to 1936, he was employed as a secretary at the Albanian consulate in [[Brussels]]. After returning to Albania, he worked as a contract teacher in the Gymnasium of [[Tirana]] (a school). Hoxha taught French and morals in the Korça Liceum from 1937 to 1939 and was also the caretaker of the school library.{{Sfn|Dervishi|2016|p=188}}

On 7 April 1939, the [[Albanian Kingdom (1928-1939)|Albanian Kingdom]] was [[Italian invasion of Albania|invaded]] by [[fascist Italy]].{{Sfn|Hoxha|1974|p=32, note 1}} The Italians established a puppet government, called the [[Albanian Kingdom (1939–43)|Kingdom of Albania]], under [[Shefqet Vërlaci]].{{Sfn|Hoxha|1974|p=34, 35, note 2}} At the end of 1939, Hoxha was transferred to the Gjirokastra Gymnasium, but he soon returned to Tirana. He was helped by his best friend, Esat Dishnica, who introduced Hoxha to Dishnica's cousin [[Ibrahim Biçakçiu]]. Hoxha began to sleep in Biçakçiu's tobacco factory "Flora", and after a while, Dishnica opened a shop with the same name, where Hoxha began working.{{Sfn|Dervishi|2016|p=189}} He was a sympathiser of Korça's Communist Group.<ref>[[Liri Belishova]], interviewed by Elisabeta Ilnica, "E vërteta për Enverin" (The truth about Enver), ''Panorama'' newspaper, 13 January 2015.</ref>

==World War II==
[[File:Enver Hoxha (i ri).jpg|thumb|200px|Hoxha in uniform, 1940]]
[[File:Hoxha at Odrican 1944.jpg|thumb|200px|Hoxha as a partisan, 1944]]
On 8 November 1941, the Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the [[Party of Labour of Albania]] in 1948) was founded. Hoxha was chosen from the "Korça group" as a Muslim representative by the two [[Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] envoys as one of the seven members of the provisional [[Central Committee]]. The First Consultative Meeting of Activists of the Communist Party of Albania was held in Tirana from 8 to 11 April 1942,{{Sfn|Hoxha|1974|p=3, note 1}} with Hoxha himself delivering the main report on 8 April 1942.{{Sfn|Hoxha|1974|pp=3–30}}

In July 1942, Hoxha wrote "Call to the Albanian Peasantry", issued in the name of the Communist Party of Albania.{{Sfn|Hoxha|1974|pp=31–38}} The call sought to enlist support in Albania for the war against the fascists. The peasants were encouraged to hoard their grain and refuse to pay taxes or livestock levies brought by the government.{{Sfn|Hoxha|1974|p=36}} After the September 1942 Conference at [[Pezë]], the [[National Liberation Movement (Albania)|National Liberation Movement]] was founded with the purpose of uniting the [[anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] Albanians, regardless of ideology or class.{{Sfn|Fischer|1999|pp=128–129}}

By March 1943, the first National Conference of the Communist Party elected Hoxha formally as First Secretary. During WWII, the [[Soviet Union]]'s role in Albania was negligible.<ref>{{cite news |title=Of Enver Hoxha And Major Ivanov |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=28 April 1985 |access-date=29 May 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> On 10 July 1943, the [[Albanian resistance during World War II|Albanian partisans]] were organised in regular units of companies, battalions and brigades and named the Albanian National Liberation Army. The organization received military support from the British intelligence service, [[Secret Intelligence Service|SOE]].<ref>Bernd J Fischer. "Resistance in Albania during the Second World War: Partisans, Nationalists and the S.O.E.", ''East European Quarterly'' 25 (1991)</ref>

Within Albania, repeated attempts were made during the war to remedy the communications difficulties which faced partisan groups. In August 1943, a secret meeting, the [[Mukje Conference]], was held between the anti-communist [[Balli Kombëtar]] (National Front) and the Communist Party of Albania. To encourage the Balli Kombëtar to sign, the [[Greater Albania]] sections that included Kosovo (part of Yugoslavia) and [[Chamëria]] were made part of the Agreement.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=9}}

=== Disagreement with the Yugoslav Communists ===
A problem developed when the [[Yugoslav Communists]] disagreed with the goal of establishing a Greater Albania and asked the Communists in Albania to withdraw their agreement. According to Hoxha, [[Josip Broz Tito]] did not believe that "Kosovo was Albanian" and [[Serbs|Serbian]] opposition to the transfer made it an unwise option.{{Sfn|Beloff|1985|p=192}} After the Albanian Communists repudiated the Greater Albania agreement, the Balli Kombëtar condemned the Communists, who in turn accused the Balli Kombëtar of siding with the Italians. The Balli Kombëtar lacked support from the people. After judging the Communists as an immediate threat, the Balli Kombëtar sided with [[Nazi Germany]], fatally damaging its image among those fighting the fascists. The Communists quickly added to their ranks many of those disillusioned with the Balli Kombëtar and took centre stage in the fight for liberation.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|pp=10–11}}

The Permet National Congress held during that time called for a "new democratic Albania for the people". Although the monarchy was not formally abolished, [[Zog I|King Zog I of the Albanians]] was barred from returning to the country, which further increased the Communists' control. The Anti-Fascist Committee for National Liberation was founded, chaired by Hoxha. On 22 October 1944, the Committee became the [[Democratic Government of Albania]] after a meeting in [[Berat]], and Hoxha was chosen to serve as the interim Prime Minister of Albania. Tribunals were established for the purpose of trying alleged war criminals who were also accused of being "[[Enemy of the people#Albania|enemies of the people]]"{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=12}} and they were presided over by [[Koçi Xoxe]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Koçi Xoxe |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803125217605 |website=[[Oxford Reference]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=7 May 2022}}</ref> From the beginning, the Democratic Government was an undisguised [[Communist state|Communist regime]]. In the rest of what became the Soviet bloc, the Communist parties were at least nominally parts of coalitions before they dropped all pretenses of pluralism and established one-party states.

After Albania's liberation on 29 November 1944, several Albanian partisan divisions crossed the border into German-occupied Yugoslavia, where they fought alongside Tito's partisans and the Soviet [[Red Army]] in a joint campaign which succeeded in driving out the last pockets of German resistance. During a Yugoslavian conference in later years, Marshal Tito thanked Hoxha for the Albanian partisans' assistance during the War for National Liberation (''Lufta Nacionalçlirimtare''). The [[Democratic Front of Albania|Democratic Front]], dominated by the Albanian Communist Party, succeeded the National Liberation Front in August 1945, and the [[1945 Albanian parliamentary election|first post-war election]] was held on 2 December of that year. The Front was the only legal political organisation which was allowed to stand in the elections, and the government reported that 93% of Albanians voted for it.{{Sfn|Vickers|1999|p=164}}

On 11 January 1946, Zog was officially deposed, and the People's Republic of Albania was established (it was renamed the [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania]] in 1976), despite the fact that the country had been a [[Communist state]] since its liberation. As First Secretary of the party, Hoxha was ''de facto'' head of state and as a result, he was the most powerful man in the country.<ref>{{cite book|author=Taylor & Francis Group|title=Europa World Year|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wGA4o-UhAfgC&pg=PA441|access-date=10 January 2012|year=2004|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-85743-254-1|page=441}}</ref>

Albanians celebrate their independence day on 28 November (which is the date on which they declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912), while in the former People's Socialist Republic of Albania the national day was 29 November, the day the country was liberated from Nazi Germany. Both days are currently national holidays.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KCMUAQAAMAAJ&q=Albanians+celebrate+their+independence+day+on+28+November+(which+is+the+date+on+which+they+declared+their+independence+from+the+Ottoman+Empire+in+1912),+while+in+the+former+People's+Socialist+Republic+of+Albania+the+national+day+was+29+Novembe |title=Daily Report: East Europe |date=1987 |publisher=The Service |pages=3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=2022 Official Bank Holiday Schedule |url=https://www.bankofalbania.org/Press/2022_Official_Bank_Holidays_Schedule/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=www.bankofalbania.org |archive-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229124657/https://www.bankofalbania.org/Press/2022_Official_Bank_Holidays_Schedule/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Early leadership (1944–1965) ==
{{Blockquote
| text = The sacrifices of our people were very great. Out of a population of one million, 28,000 were killed, 12,600 wounded, 10,000 were made political prisoners in Italy and Germany, and 35,000 made to do forced labour; of the 2,500 towns and villages of Albania, 850 were ruined or razed to the ground; all the communications, all the ports, mines and electric power installations were destroyed, our agriculture and livestock were plundered, and our entire national economy was wrecked.
| sign = Enver Hoxha<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1974|p=599, "Speech Delivered at the Plenary Session of the Paris Peace Conference"}}</ref>
}}

Hoxha declared himself a [[Marxist–Leninist]] and strongly admired Soviet dictator [[Joseph Stalin]]. Between 1945 and 1950, the government adopted policies and actions intended to consolidate power, which included extrajudicial killings and executions that targeted and eliminated anti-communists. The Agrarian Reform Law was passed in August 1945. It confiscated land from [[beys]] and large landowners, giving it without compensation to peasants. 52% of all land was owned by large landowners before the law was passed; this declined to 16% after the law's passage.{{Sfn|Marmullaku|1975|pp=93–94}} An education policy began in September 1949, requiring citizens between 20 and 40 to attend literacy classes. Illiteracy, which was 90–95% in rural areas in 1939 and an estimated 85% of the total population in 1946,  fell to 30% by 1950, and has been "virtually eliminated by the late 1980s".<ref name="Library of Congress">{{cite book |last=Zickel |first=Raymond |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/93042885/ |title=Albania: A Country Study |last2=Iwaskiw |first2=Walter R. |date=April 1992 |publisher=Library of Congress |isbn=9781490406244 |edition=2nd |location=[Washington, D.C.] |pages=45, 91-94 |language=en-us |quote=Illiteracy declined from perhaps 85 percent in 1946 to 31 percent in 1950.}}</ref>

===Border disputes with Yugoslavia===
{{main|Albanian–Yugoslav border conflict (1948–1954)}}
In 1948, a [[Albanian–Yugoslav border conflict (1948–1954)|border conflict]] erupted between [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] and [[Yugoslavia]]. Enver Hoxha and the [[Sigurimi|Albanian Military Intelligence services]], the Sigurimi, played a significant role in promoting [[separatism]] in [[Kosovo]] and the idea of a "[[Greater Albania]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perritt |first=Henry H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlHqkxGk4Q8C&dq=Early+Planners+in+Exile%2C+encouraged+sporadically+by+Enver+Hoxha%27s+Albanian+intelligence+services%2C+worked+hard+at+developing+support+for+an+independent+Kosovo+but+were+largely+regarded+as+radical+movements+on+the+political+fringes.&pg=PA22 |title=Kosovo Liberation Army: The Inside Story of an Insurgency |date=2010-10-01 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-09213-8 |language=en|quote=Early Planners in Exile, encouraged sporadically by Enver Hoxha's Albanian intelligence services, worked hard at developing support for an independent Kosovo but were largely regarded as radical movements on the political fringes.}}</ref>

By 1949, the US and British intelligence organisations were working with the former King Zog and the mountain men of his personal guard. They recruited Albanian refugees and émigrés from Egypt, Italy and Greece, trained them in Cyprus, Malta and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), and infiltrated them into Albania. [[Operation Valuable|Guerrilla units entered Albania in 1950 and 1952]], but they were killed or captured by Albanian security forces. [[Kim Philby]], a Soviet double agent working as a liaison officer between [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]] and the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], had leaked details of the infiltration plan to Moscow, and the security breach claimed the lives of about 300 infiltrators.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fusonie |first1=Alan Edward M. |title=Charles Telford Erickson: American Friend of Albania |date=1970 |publisher=Catholic University of America |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e50qAQAAIAAJ |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref>

On 19 February 1951, a bombing occurred at the Soviet embassy in Tirana, after which 23 accused intellectuals were arrested and put in prison. One of them, [[Jonuz Kaceli]], was killed by [[Mehmet Shehu]] during interrogation. Subsequently, the 22 others were [[1951 executions in Albania|executed]] without trial under Hoxha's orders.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-09-10 |title=Shqipëri: 26 shkurt 1951 regjimi komunist ekzekuton 22 intelektualë s… |url=http://www.radiovaticana.org/ALB/Articolo.asp?c=360125 |access-date=2024-11-09 |website=archive.ph |archive-date=10 September 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120910030828/http://www.radiovaticana.org/ALB/Articolo.asp?c=360125 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

The [[State University of Tirana]] was established in 1957 and was the first of its kind in Albania. The medieval [[Gjakmarrja]] (blood feud) was banned. [[Malaria]], the most widespread disease,<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Gjonça|2001|p=15}} "20.1% of the population was infected."</ref> was successfully fought through advances in health care, the use of [[DDT]], and through the draining of swampland. From 1965 to 1985, no cases of malaria were reported, whereas previously, Albania had the greatest number of infected patients in Europe.{{Sfn|Cikuli|1984|p=33}} No cases of [[syphilis]] had been recorded for 30 years.{{Sfn|Cikuli|1984|p=33}} In 1938, the number of physicians was 1.1 per 10,000, and there was only one hospital bed per 1,000 people.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal |last1=Gjonca |first1=Arjan |last2=Wilson |first2=Chris |last3=Falkingham |first3=Jane |title=Paradoxes of Health Transition in Europe's Poorest Country: Albania 1950–90 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2137576 |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=585–609 |date=1997 |jstor=2137576 |issn=0098-7921 |doi=10.2307/2137576}}</ref> In 1950, while the number of physicians had not increased, there were four times as many hospital beds per head, and health expenditures had risen to 5% of the budget, up from 1% before the war.<ref name=":3" />

=== Relations with Yugoslavia ===
[[File:Miladin Popović i Enver Hodža.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Miladin Popović]], [[Liri Gega]], and Enver Hoxha]]
At this point, relations with [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] had begun to change. The roots of the change began on 20 October 1944 at the Second Plenary Session of the Communist Party of Albania. The Session considered the problems that the post-independence Albanian government would face. However, the Yugoslav delegation which was led by Velimir Stoinić accused the party of "sectarianism and opportunism" and blamed Hoxha for these errors. He also stressed the view that the Yugoslav Communist partisans spearheaded the Albanian partisan movement.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=19}}

Anti-Yugoslav members of the Albanian Communist Party had begun to think that this was a plot by Tito, who intended to destabilize the Party. Koçi Xoxe, [[Sejfulla Malëshova]] and others who supported Yugoslavia were looked upon with deep suspicion. Tito's position on Albania was that it was too weak to stand on its own and that it would do better as a part of Yugoslavia. Hoxha alleged that Tito had made it his goal to get Albania into Yugoslavia, firstly by creating the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Aid in 1946. In time, Albania began to feel that the treaty was heavily slanted towards Yugoslav interests, much like the Italian agreements with Albania under Zog that made the nation dependent upon Italy.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=19}}

The first issue was that the [[Albanian lek]] became revalued in terms of the [[Yugoslav dinar]] as a [[customs union]] was formed and Albania's economic plan was decided more by Yugoslavia.{{Sfn|Pano|1968|p=101}} Albanian economists H. Banja and V. Toçi stated that the relationship between Albania and Yugoslavia during this period was exploitative and that it constituted attempts by Yugoslavia to make the Albanian economy an "appendage" to the Yugoslav economy.{{Sfn|Banja|Toçi|1979|p=66}} Hoxha then began to accuse Yugoslavia of misconduct:
{{Blockquote
| text = We [Albania] were expected to produce for the Yugoslavs all the raw materials which they needed. These raw materials were to be exported to metropolitan Yugoslavia to be processed there in Yugoslav factories. The same applied to the production of cotton and other industrial crops, as well as oil, bitumen, asphalt, chrome, etc. Yugoslavia would supply its 'colony', Albania, with exorbitantly priced consumer goods, including even items such as needles and thread, and would provide us with petrol and oil, as well as glass for the lamps in which we burn the fuel extracted from our subsoil, processed in Yugoslavia and sold to us at high prices&nbsp;... The aim of the Yugoslavs was, therefore, to prevent our country from developing either its industry or its working class and to make it forever dependent on Yugoslavia.<ref>Ranko Petković, "Yugoslavia and Albania", in ''Yugoslav-Albanian Relations'', trans. Zvonko Petnicki and Darinka Petković (Belgrade): Review of International Affairs, 1984, 274–275.</ref>
}}
Stalin advised Hoxha that Yugoslavia was attempting to annex Albania: "We did not know that the Yugoslavs, under the pretext of 'defending' your country against an attack from the Greek fascists, wanted to bring units of their army into the PRA [People's Republic of Albania]. They tried to do this in a very secretive manner. In reality, their aim in this direction was utterly hostile, for they intended to overturn the situation in Albania."{{Sfn|Hoxha|1981|p=92}} By June 1947, the Central Committee of Yugoslavia began publicly condemning Hoxha, accusing him of taking an individualistic and anti-Marxist line. When Albania responded by making agreements with the Soviet Union to purchase a supply of agricultural machinery, Yugoslavia said that Albania could not enter into any agreements with other countries without Yugoslav approval.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=22}}

Koçi Xoxe tried to stop Hoxha from improving relations with Bulgaria, reasoning that Albania would be more stable with one trading partner rather than with many. [[Nako Spiru]], an anti-Yugoslav member of the Party, condemned Xoxe and vice versa. With no one coming to Spiru's defense, he viewed the situation as hopeless and feared that Yugoslav domination of his nation was imminent, which caused him to commit suicide in November.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=22}}

At the Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party, which lasted from 26 February to 8 March 1948, Xoxe was implicated in a plot to isolate Hoxha and consolidate his own power. He accused Hoxha of being responsible for the decline in relations with Yugoslavia and stated that a Soviet military mission should be expelled in favor of a Yugoslav counterpart. Hoxha managed to remain firm and his support had not declined. When Yugoslavia publicly broke with the Soviet Union, Hoxha's support base grew stronger. Then, on 1 July 1948, Tirana called on all Yugoslav technical advisors to leave the country and unilaterally declared all treaties and agreements between the two countries null and void. Xoxe was expelled from the party, and on 13 June 1949, he was executed by hanging.<ref name=Purge>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kXj3SpPlyX0C&pg=PA10 |title= Show Trials: Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe, 1948–1954 |author=George Hodos |page=11 |publisher= Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1987|isbn= 9780275927837 }}</ref>

=== 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.

== Later rule (1965–1985) ==
[[File:Enver Hoxha60.jpg|thumb|Postage stamp celebrating Hoxha's 60th birthday (1968)]]
[[File:Albania bunkers.jpg|thumb|[[Bunkers in Albania]] were built during Hoxha's rule to avert the possibility of external invasions. By 1983 over 173,000 concrete bunkers were scattered throughout the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://shqiptarja.com/speciale/2751/ekskluzive-hapet-dosja-ja-harta-e-bunkereve-e-tuneleve-sekrete-257289.html|title=Hapet dosja, ja harta e bunkerëve dhe tuneleve sekretë|access-date=27 September 2017|archive-date=17 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917171111/http://shqiptarja.com/speciale/2751/ekskluzive-hapet-dosja-ja-harta-e-bunkereve-e-tuneleve-sekrete-257289.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

As Hoxha's leadership continued, he took on an increasingly [[Marxist philosophy|theoretical]] stance. He wrote criticisms which were based on theory and current events which occurred at the time; his most notable criticisms were his condemnations of [[Maoism]] after 1978.{{Sfn|Hoxha|1978}}

During World War II, the Albanian Communists encouraged women to join the partisans{{Sfn|Papajorgi|1970|p=130}} and following the war, women were encouraged to take up menial jobs, as the education necessary for higher level work was out of most women's reach. In 1938, 4% worked in various sectors of the economy. In 1970, this number had risen to 38%, and in 1982 to 46%.{{Sfn|Begeja|1984|p=61}} 
In 1978, 15.1 times as many females attended eight-year schools as had done so in 1938 and 175.7 times as many females attended secondary schools. By 1978, 101.9 times as many women attended higher schools as in 1957.<ref>The Directorate of Statistics at the State Planning Commission, ''35 Years of Socialist Albania'' (Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House, 1981), 129.</ref>

During the [[Cultural and Ideological Revolution]]<!--(discussed below)-->, women were encouraged to take up all jobs, including government posts, which resulted in 40.7% of the People's Councils and 30.4% of the People's Assembly being made up of women, including two women in the Central Committee by 1985.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Albania : a country study|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/93042885/|access-date=3 January 2021|website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Emadi |first1=Hafizullah |title=Women's Emancipation and Strategy of Development in Albania |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |date=1992 |volume=27 |issue=19 |pages=999–1002 |jstor=4397859 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4397859 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref> Hoxha said of women's rights in 1967:<blockquote>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.{{Sfn|Logoreci|1978|p=158}}</blockquote>

An electrification campaign was begun in 1960, and the entire nation was expected to have electricity by 1985. Instead, it achieved this on 25 October 1970.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Pollo|Puto|1981|p=280}}</ref> During the [[Cultural and Ideological Revolution]] of 1967–1968 the [[Albanian People's Army|military]] changed from traditional Communist army tactics and began to adhere to the [[Maoist]] strategy known as [[people's war]], which included the abolition of [[military rank]]s, which were not fully restored until 1991.{{Sfn|Vickers|1999|p=224}}

[[File:Mali i Shpiragut.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Hoxha's first name engraved on the side of [[Shpirag|Shpirag Mountain]]]]
Hoxha's legacy also included a [[Bunkers in Albania|complex of 173,371 one-man concrete bunkers]] across a country of 3 million inhabitants, to act as look-outs and gun emplacements along with [[Albania and weapons of mass destruction|chemical weapons]].<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20110629043530/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61698-2005Jan9?language=printer Albania's Chemical Cache Raises Fears About Others]", ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 10 January 2005, p. A01</ref> The bunkers were built strong and mobile, with the intention that they could be easily placed by a crane or a helicopter in a hole.<!--"previously dug? It could hardly be a hole if it hadn't been--> The types of bunkers vary from machine gun pillboxes and beach bunkers to underground naval facilities and even Air Force Mountain and underground bunkers.

Hoxha's internal policies were true to Stalin's paradigm which he admired, and the personality cult which was developed in the 1970s and organised around him by the Party also bore a striking resemblance to that of Stalin. At times it even reached an intensity which was as extreme as the [[Kim Il-sung's cult of personality|personality cult]] of [[Kim Il Sung]] (which Hoxha condemned){{Sfn|Hoxha|1979b|p=517}} with Hoxha being portrayed as a genius commenting on virtually all facets of life from culture to economics to military matters. Each schoolbook required one or more quotations from him on the subjects being studied.<ref>Kosta Koçi, interview with James S. O'Donnell, ''A Coming of Age: Albania under Enver Hoxha'', Tape recording, Tirana, 12 April 1994.</ref> The Party honored him with titles such as Supreme Comrade, Sole Force and Great Teacher. He adopted a different type [[military salute]] for the People's Army to render honors which was known as the "Hoxhaist salute", which involves soldiers curling their right fist and raising it to shoulder level.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eX8UAQAAIAAJ&q=hoxhaist+salute |title = The Rebirth of History: Eastern Europe in the Age of Democracy|last1 = Glenny|first1 = Misha|year = 1993| publisher=Penguin |isbn = 9780140172867}}</ref> It replaced the [[Zogist salute]], which was used by the [[Royal Albanian Army]] for many years.

Hoxha's governance was also distinguished by his encouragement of a high birthrate policy. For instance, a woman who bore an above-average number of children would be given the government award of [[Mother Heroine (Albania)|''Heroine Mother'' (in Albanian: ''Nënë Heroinë'')]] along with cash rewards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.medals.org.uk/albania/albania-pr/albania-pr021.htm|title=ODM of Albania: Title "Mother Heroine"|website=www.medals.org.uk}}</ref> Abortion was essentially restricted (to encourage high birth rates), except if the birth posed a danger to the mother's life, though it was not completely banned; the process was decided by district medical commissions.{{Sfn|Ash|1974|p=238}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/albani1.doc|title=Albania – Abortion Policy – United Nations}}</ref> As a result, the [[Demographics of Albania|population of Albania]] tripled from 1 million in 1944 to around 3&nbsp;million in 1985.

=== Relations with China ===
[[File:Mao-Hoxha CR Poster.jpg|thumb|A [[Cultural Revolution]] poster promoting Albanian-Chinese cooperation featuring Hoxha and Mao; 

The caption at the bottom reads, "Long live the great union between the Parties of Albania and China!" The two leaders only met twice—first in 1956 during Hoxha's visit to China, and again in 1957 at the Moscow meeting of Communist and Workers' parties—before the formation of the Sino-Albanian alliance.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1980b|pp=231–234, 240–250, "My First and Last Visit to China"}}</ref>]]
{{main|Albania–China relations}}

At the start of Albania's third five-year plan, China offered Albania a loan of $125&nbsp;million, which would be used to build twenty-five chemical, electrical and metallurgical plants in accordance with the plan. However, the nation discovered that the task of completing these building projects was difficult because Albania's relations with its neighbors were poor and because matters were also complicated by the long distance between Albania and China. Unlike Yugoslavia or the USSR, China had less economic influence on Albania during Hoxha's rule. During the previous fifteen years (1946–1961), at least 50% of Albania's economy was dependent on foreign commerce.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=40}}

By the time the 1976 constitution was promulgated, Albania had mostly become self-sufficient, but it lacked modern technology. Ideologically, Hoxha found that Mao's initial views were in line with Marxism–Leninism due to his condemnation of Khrushchev's alleged revisionism and his condemnation of Yugoslavia. The financial aid which China provided to Albania was interest-free, and it did not have to be repaid until Albania could afford to do so.{{Sfn|Hamm|1963|p=45}}

China never intervened in Albania's economic output, and Chinese technicians and Albanian workers both worked for the same wages.{{Sfn|Hamm|1963|p=45}} Albanian newspapers were reprinted in Chinese newspapers, and they were also read on Chinese radio, and Albania led the movement [[China and the United Nations|to give the People's Republic of China a seat]] on the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council]].{{Sfn|Pearson|2006|p=628}} During this period, Albania became the second largest producer of [[chromium]] in the world, which China considered important. Strategically, the Adriatic Sea was attractive to China because China hoped that it could gain more allies in Eastern Europe through Albania - a hope which was misplaced. [[Zhou Enlai]] visited Albania in January 1964. On 9 January, "The 1964 Sino-Albanian Joint Statement" was signed in Tirana.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=48}} The statement said of relations between socialist countries:
{{Blockquote
| text = Both [Albania and China] hold that the relations between socialist countries are international relations of a new type. Relations between socialist countries, big or small, economically more developed or less developed, must be based on the principles of complete equality, respect for territorial sovereignty and independence, and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and must also be based on the principles of mutual assistance in accordance with proletarian internationalism. It is necessary to oppose great-nation chauvinism and national egoism in relations between socialist countries. It is absolutely impermissible to impose the will of one country upon another, or to impair the independence, sovereignty and interests of the people, of a fraternal country on the pretext of 'aid' or 'international division of labour.'<ref>"Sino-Albanian Joint Statement", ''Peking Review'' (17 January 1964) 17.</ref>}}
[[File:HODŽA druhá míza.jpg|thumb|197x197px|Hoxha in 1971]]
Like Albania, China defended the "purity" of [[Marxism]] by attacking [[American imperialism]] and "Soviet and Yugoslav revisionism", both of them were equally attacked as part of a "dual adversary" theory.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=68}} Yugoslavia was viewed as both a "special detachment of U.S. imperialism" and a "saboteur against world revolution".{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=68}} However, these views began to change in China, which was one of the major issues which Albania had with the alliance.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=49}} Additionally, unlike Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, the Sino-Albanian alliance lacked "...&nbsp;an organisational structure for regular consultations and policy coordination, and it was also characterized by an informal relationship which was conducted on an ''ad hoc'' basis." Mao made a speech on 3 November 1966 in which he claimed that Albania was the only [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] state in Europe and in the same speech, he also stated that "an attack on Albania will have to reckon with the great [[People's Republic of China]]. If the U.S. imperialists, the modern Soviet revisionists or any of their lackeys dare to touch Albania in the slightest, nothing lies ahead for them but a complete, shameful and memorable defeat."{{Sfn|Hamm|1963|p=43}} Likewise, Hoxha stated that "You may rest assured, comrades, that come what may in the world at large, our two parties and our two peoples will certainly remain together. They will fight together and they will win together."{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=58}}

==== Shift in China's foreign policy after the Cultural Revolution ====
During the [[Cultural Revolution]], China entered into a four-year period of relative diplomatic isolation, however, its relations with Albania were positive. On 20 August 1968, the [[Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia]] was condemned by Albania, along with the [[Brezhnev doctrine]]. Albania refused to send troops to Czechoslovakia in support of the invasion, and it officially withdrew from the Warsaw Pact on 5 September.

Albania's relations with China began to deteriorate on 15 July 1971, when United States President [[Richard Nixon]] agreed to visit China in order to meet with Zhou Enlai. Hoxha believed that China had betrayed Albania, and on 6 August, the Central Committee of the PLA sent a letter to the Central Committee of the CCP in which it called Nixon a "frenzied anti-Communist". The letter stated:
{{Blockquote
| text = We trust you will understand the reason for the delay in our reply. This was because your decision came as a surprise to us and it was taken without any preliminary consultation between us on this question, so that we would be able to express and thrash out our opinions. This, we think, could have been useful, because preliminary consultations, between close friends, determined co-fighters against imperialism and revisionism, are useful and necessary, and especially so, when steps which, in our opinion, have a major international effect and repercussions are taken.

...&nbsp;Considering the Communist Party of China as a sister party and our closest co-fighter, we have never hidden our views from it. That is why on this major problem which you put before us, we inform you that we consider your decision to receive Nixon in Beijing as incorrect and undesirable, and we do not approve or support it. It will also be our opinion that Nixon's announced visit to China will not be understood or approved of by the peoples, the revolutionaries and the communists of different countries.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1982a|pp=666–668}}.</ref>
}}
The result of this criticism was a message from the Chinese leadership in 1971 in which it stated that Albania could not depend on an indefinite flow of aid from China, and in 1972 Albania was advised to "curb its expectations about further Chinese contributions to its economic development".{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|p=90}} By 1972, Hoxha wrote in his diary ''Reflections on China'' that China was no longer a socialist country, instead aligning itself with the interests of a powerful nation that prioritized pragmatic relations over socialist principles.<ref name=":1">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1979a|p=656}}</ref> In 1973, he wrote that the Chinese leaders had "cut off their contacts" with Albania, reducing their interactions to merely formal diplomatic exchanges. While China maintained its economic agreements, Hoxha remarked that their "initial ardor" had waned.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1979b|p=41}}</ref>

In response, trade with COMECON (although trade with the Soviet Union was still blocked) and Yugoslavia grew. Trade with Third World nations was $0.5&nbsp;million in 1973, but $8.3&nbsp;million in 1974. Trade rose from 0.1% to 1.6%.{{Sfn|Biberaj|1986|pp=98–99}} Following Mao's death on 9 September 1976, Hoxha remained optimistic about Sino-Albanian relations, but in August 1977, [[Hua Guofeng]], the new leader of China, stated that Mao's [[Three Worlds Theory]] would become official foreign policy. Hoxha viewed this as a way for China to justify having the U.S. as the "secondary enemy" while viewing the Soviet Union as the main one, thus allowing China to trade with the U.S. He condemned this as a "diabolical plan" for China to position itself as a superpower at the head of the "third world" and the "non-aligned world."<ref name=":1" />

From 30 August to 7 September 1977, Tito visited [[Beijing]] and was welcomed by the Chinese leadership. Following this, the PLA declared that China was now a revisionist state akin to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and that Albania was the only Marxist–Leninist state on Earth. Hoxha stated:

{{Blockquote
| text = The Chinese leaders are acting like the leaders of a 'great state'. They think, 'The Albanians fell out with the Soviet Union because they had us, and if they fall with us, too, they will go back to the Soviets,' therefore they say, 'Either with us or the Soviets, it is all the same, the Albanians are done for.' But to hell with them! We shall fight against all this trash, because we are Albanian Marxist–Leninists and on our correct course we shall always triumph!<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Hoxha|1979b|p=107}}</ref>
}}

On 13 July 1978, China announced that it was cutting off all of its aid to Albania. For the first time in modern history, Albania did not have a major ally nor a major trading partner.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=12 July 1978 |title=China Said to End Aid to Albania; Once-Close Ally Now Harsh Critic |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/12/archives/new-jersey-pages-china-said-to-end-aid-to-albania-onceclose-ally.html |access-date=2025-01-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boriçi |first=Dr.Sc. Gjon |date=2016-07-27 |title=The fall of the Albanian - Chinese Relations 1971-1978 |url=http://iliriapublications.org/index.php/iir/article/view/218 |journal=ILIRIA International Review |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=107 |doi=10.21113/iir.v6i1.218 |issn=2365-8592 |doi-access=free |archive-date=18 January 2021 |access-date=26 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118002411/http://iliriapublications.org/index.php/iir/article/view/218 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Political repression and emigration ===
[[File:Former political prison in Girokaster.jpg|thumb|Former political prison in Gjirokastër; during Hoxha's rule, political executions were common, and as a result, about 25,000 people were killed by the regime and many more were persecuted or sent to [[Forced labour camps in Communist Albania|labour camps]]]]
[[File:Tirana Park+Statues.jpg|thumb|Checkpoint memorial in Tirana featuring a bunker, walls from [[Spaç Prison]], and a fragment of the [[Berlin Wall]]]]
Certain clauses in the 1976 constitution circumscribed the exercise of political liberties, which the government interpreted as being contrary to the established order.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=129}} The government denied the population access to information other than that which was disseminated by government-controlled media outlets. Internally, the [[Sigurimi]] used the same repressive methods which were used by the [[NKVD]], the [[Ministry for State Security (Soviet Union)|MGB]], the [[KGB]] and the [[German Democratic Republic|East German]] [[Stasi]]. At one point, every third Albanian had either been interrogated by the Sigurimi or they had been incarcerated in [[Forced labor camps in Communist Albania|labour camps]].<ref>Raymond E. Zickel & Walter R. Iwaskiw. ''Albania: A Country Study''. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division of the United States Library of Congress. p. 235.</ref> The government imprisoned thousands of people in forced-labour camps or it executed them for alleged crimes such as treachery or disrupting the [[Dictatorship of the Proletariat|proletarian dictatorship]]. After 1968, travel abroad was forbidden to all but those people who were on official business. [[Western culture|Western European culture]] was looked upon with deep suspicion, resulting in bans on all unauthorised foreign materials and arrests:{{cquote|The former student, now the mayor of Tirana, said that he would cower beneath the bedclothes at night and listen to foreign radio stations, an activity which was punishable by a long stretch in a labour camp. He became fascinated by the [[saxophone]]. Yet, because such musical instruments were considered an evil influence and were thus banned, he had never seen one.<ref>{{cite news| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4379499.stm| title = Dance fever reaches Albania| date = 26 March 2005}}</ref>}} Art was required to reflect the styles of [[socialist realism]].<ref>Keefe, Eugene K. ''Area Handbook for Albania''. Washington, D.C.: The American University (Foreign Area Studies), 1971.</ref> Beards were banned as unhygienic in order to curb the influence of [[Islam]] (many [[imam]]s and [[Bektashi|babas]] had beards) and the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] faith. The justice system's legal proceedings regularly degenerated into [[show trial]]s. An American [[human rights]] group described the proceedings of one trial, noting that the defendant was not allowed to question the witnesses. While he could express objections to certain aspects of the case, the prosecutor dismissed them, telling him to "sit down and be quiet" because they claimed to know better.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee|1990|p=46}}</ref>

 In order to lessen the threat which political dissidents and other exiles posed to the regime, relatives of the accused were often arrested, [[ostracised]], and accused of being "[[Enemy of the people#Albania|enemies of the people]]".<ref>James S. O'Donnell, "Albania's Sigurimi: The ultimate agents of social control" ''Problems of Post-Communism'' #42 (Nov/Dec 1995): 5p.</ref> Political executions were common, and at least 5,000 people—possibly as many as 25,000—were killed by the regime.<ref>15 Feb 1994 ''The Washington Times''</ref><ref>"WHPSI": The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators by Charles Lewis Taylor</ref><ref>8 July 1997, ''The New York Times''</ref> [[Torture]] was often used to obtain confessions:{{cquote|One émigré, for example, testified to being bound by his hands and legs for one and a half months, and to being beaten with a belt, fists or boots for periods of two to three hours every two or three days. Another was detained in a cell one meter by eight meters large in the local police station and kept in [[solitary confinement]] for a five-day period punctuated by two beating sessions until he signed a confession; he was taken to ''Sigurimi'' headquarters, where he was again tortured and questioned, despite his prior confession, until his three-day trial. Still another witness was confined underground for more than a year in a three-meter square cell. During this time, he was interrogated at irregular intervals and subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture. He was chained to a chair, beaten, and subjected to electric shocks. He was shown a bullet that was supposedly meant for him and told that car engines starting within his earshot were driving victims to their executions, the next of which would be his.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee|1990|pp=46–47}}</ref>}}
During Hoxha's rule, there were six institutions for political prisoners and fourteen labour camps where political prisoners and common criminals worked together. It has been estimated that there were approximately 32,000 people imprisoned in Albania in 1985.{{Sfn|O'Donnell|1999|p=134}}

Article 47 of the Albanian Criminal Code stated that to "escape outside the state, as well as refusal to return to the Fatherland by a person who has been sent to serve or has been temporarily permitted to go outside the state" was an act of [[treason]], a crime punishable by a minimum sentence of ten years and a maximum sentence of death.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee|1990|p=136}}</ref> The Albanian government went to great lengths to prevent people from defecting by leaving the country:<blockquote>An electrically wired metal fence stands 600 meters to one kilometer from the actual border. Anyone touching the fence not only risks electrocution but also sets off alarm bells and lights which alert guards stationed at approximately one-kilometre intervals along the fence. Two meters of soil on either side of the fence are cleared in order to check for footprints of escapees and infiltrators. The area between the fence and the actual border is seeded with booby traps such as coils of wire, noise makers consisting of thin pieces of metal strips on top of two wooden slats with stones in a tin container which rattle if stepped on, and flares that are triggered by contact, thus illuminating would-be escapees during the night.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee|1990|pp=50–53}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Religion ===
{{further|Freedom of religion in Albania|Irreligion in Albania|Islam in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Religion in Albania#Communist Albania|State atheism#Albania}}
After the [[Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire|demise of the Ottoman Empire]], Albania was a [[Islam in Albania|predominantly Muslim country]], in which social structure was based on [[Confessional community|confessional communities]], rather than [[ethnic group]]s. After the [[rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire]], [[Muslim millet|Muslims]] were classified as [[Turkish people|Turks]], [[Rum millet|Eastern Orthodox Christians]] were classified as [[Greeks]], and [[Catholic millet|Catholics]] were classified as [[Latin liturgical rites|Latins]]. Hoxha believed that this division of Albanian society along religious and ethnic lines was a serious issue because it fueled Greek separatists in southern Albania in particular, and it also divided the nation in general. The Agrarian Reform Law of 1945 confiscated much of the church's property in the country. [[Catholic Church in Albania|Catholics]] were the earliest religious community to be targeted because the [[Holy See|Vatican]] was considered an agent of [[Fascism]] and [[anti-Communism]].<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Logoreci|1978}}</ref> In 1946 the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit Order]] was banned and the [[Franciscans]] were banned in 1947. ''Decree No. 743'' (On religion) sought the establishment of a [[State religion|national church]], and it also forbade religious leaders from associating with foreign powers.

[[Mother Teresa]], a Catholic nun whose relatives resided in Albania during Hoxha's rule, was denied a chance to see them because she was considered a dangerous agent of the Vatican. Despite multiple requests and despite the fact that many countries made requests on her behalf, she was not granted the opportunity to see her mother and sister.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Enver Hoxha : the iron fist of Albania|last=Fevziu|first=Blendi|isbn=9781784539702|oclc=1000295419|year=2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}</ref> Mother Teresa's mother and sister both died during Hoxha's rule, and the nun herself was only able to visit Albania five years after the Communist regime collapsed.<ref name=":2" /> 

The Party focused on atheist education in schools. This tactic was effective, primarily as a result of the high birthrate policy, which was encouraged after the war. During periods which are considered "holy periods" by religious people, such as [[Lent]] and [[Ramadan]], many foods and non-water beverages were distributed in schools and factories, and religious people who refused to eat those foods and drink those beverages when they were offered to them during their "fasting times" were denounced.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}

Starting on 6{{nbsp}}February 1967, the party began to promote [[secularism]] in place of [[Abrahamic religions]]. Hoxha, who had launched a [[Cultural and Ideological Revolution]] after being partially inspired by China's [[Cultural Revolution]], encouraged Communist students and workers to use more forceful tactics in order to discourage people from continuing their religious practices; the use of violence was initially condemned.<ref>Enver Hoxha, "The Communists Lead by Means of Example, Sacrifices, Abnegation: Discussion in the Organization of the Party, Sector C, of the 'Enver' Plant", 2 March 1967, in Hoxha, E., Vepra, n. 35, Tirana, 1982, pp. 130–131. "In this matter violence, exaggerated or inflated actions must be condemned. Here it is necessary to use persuasion and only persuasion, political and ideological work, so that the ground is prepared for each concrete action against religion."</ref>

According to Hoxha, the surge in [[Antitheism|anti-theist]] activities began with the youth. The result of this "spontaneous, unprovoked movement" was the demolition or conversion of all 2,169 churches and mosques in Albania.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Albania – The Cultural and Ideological Revolution|url=http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-170.html|access-date=14 June 2020|website=www.country-data.com}}</ref> [[State atheism]] became official policy, and Albania was declared the world's first atheist state. Town and city names which echoed Abrahamic religious themes were abandoned for neutral secular ones, as well as personal names. By 1968, Hoxha stated in a speech in that "Religion is a fuel kindling fires of all evils".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hoxha|first=Enver|title=Speeches, Conversations, and Articles: 1967–1968|publisher=The Naim Frashëri Publishing House|year=1969|location=Tirana|pages=195|language=English}}</ref> During this period religiously based names were also made illegal. The ''Dictionary of People's Names'', published in 1982, contained 3,000 approved, secular names. In 1992, Monsignor Dias, the Papal Nuncio for Albania appointed by [[Pope John Paul II]], said that of the three hundred Catholic priests present in Albania prior to the Communists coming to power, only thirty were still active.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kamm |first=Henry |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/27/world/albania-s-clerics-lead-a-rebirth.html |title=Albania's Clerics Lead a Rebirth |date=27 March 1992 |work=The New York Times |access-date=29 May 2017 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The promotion of religion was banned, and all clerics were labeled reactionaries and outlawed.  Those religious figures who refused to embrace the principles of Marxism–Leninism were either arrested or carried on their activities in hiding.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

=== Cultivating ultranationalism ===
{{main|Albanian nationalism}}
During the anti-religious campaign, Enver Hoxha declared that "the only religion of Albania is Albanianism",<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Reynolds|2001|p=233 "the country". Henceforth, Hoxha announced, the only religion would be "Albanianism".}}</ref> a quotation from the poem ''O moj Shqiperi'' ("O Albania") by the 19th-century Albanian writer [[Pashko Vasa]].

[[Muzafer Korkuti]], one of the dominant figures in post-war Albanian [[archaeology]] and now the Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana, stated the following in an interview on 10 July 2002:<ref name=":0">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Galatia|Watkinson|2004}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Archaeology is part of the politics which the party in power has and this was understood better than anything else by Enver Hoxha. [[Folklore]] and archaeology were respected because they are the indicators of the nation, and a party that shows respect to national identity is listened to by other people; good or bad as this may be. Enver Hoxha did this as did [[Hitler]]. In Germany in the 1930s there was an increase in Balkan studies and languages and this too was all part of nationalism.}}
[[File:HoxhaAndAlbanians.jpg|thumb|Hoxha and Albanians]]
Efforts were focused on an [[Illyrians|Illyrian]]-Albanian continuity issue.<ref name=":0" /> An Illyrian origin of the Albanians (without denying ''[[Pelasgian]]'' roots<ref name="schwandner2">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Schwandner-Sievers|Fischer|2002|p=96}} "but when Enver Hoxha declared that their origin was Illyrian (without denying their Pelasgian roots), no one dared participate in further discussion of the question".</ref>) continued to play a significant role in Albanian nationalism,<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Eya|1997|p=196}} "From time to time the state gave out lists with pagan, supposed Illyrian or newly constructed names that would be proper for the new generation of revolutionaries."</ref> resulting in a revival of given names supposedly of "Illyrian" origin, at the expense of given names associated with [[Christianity]]. At first, Albanian nationalist writers opted for the Pelasgians as the forefathers of the Albanians, but as this form of nationalism flourished in Albania under Enver Hoxha, the Pelasgians became a secondary element<ref name="schwandner2" /> to the Illyrian theory of [[Origin of the Albanians|Albanian origins]], which could claim some support in scholarship.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Madgearu|Gordon|2008|p=146}}</ref>

The Illyrian descent theory soon became one of the pillars of Albanian nationalism, especially because it could provide some evidence in support of the belief that there was a continuous Albanian presence in [[Kosovo]] and [[Southern Albania]], i.e. areas that were subjected to [[ethnic conflict]]s between Albanians, Serbs and Greeks.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Schwandner-Sievers|Fischer|2002|p=118}}</ref> Under the government of Enver Hoxha, an [[Indigenism|autochthonous]] [[ethnogenesis]]<ref name=":0" /> was promoted and physical anthropologists<ref name=":0" /> tried to prove that Albanians were different from all other [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] populations, a theory which is currently discredited.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Belledi |first1=Michele |last2=Poloni |first2=Estella S. |last3=Casalotti |first3=Rosa |last4=Conterio |first4=Franco |last5=Mikerezi |first5=Ilia |last6=Tagliavini |first6=James |last7=Excoffier |first7=Laurent |title=Maternal and paternal lineages in Albania and the genetic structure of Indo-European populations |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |publisher=Macmillan |volume=8 |issue=7 |pages=480–486 |date=2000 |pmid=10909846 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200443 |doi-access=free}}</ref> They claimed that the Illyrians were the most ancient people<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Bideleux|Jeffries|2007|p=23}} "they thus claim to be the oldest indigenous people of the western Balkans".</ref> in the [[Balkans]] and greatly extended the age of the [[Illyrian language]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Bideleux|Jeffries|2007|p=36}}</ref>

===Rejecting Western mass media culture===
Hoxha and his government were also hostile to [[Western world|Western]] [[popular culture]] as it was manifested in the [[mass media]], along with the [[consumerism]] and [[cultural liberalism]] which were associated with it. In a speech on the Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee of the PLA (PLA-CC) on 26 June 1973, Hoxha declared a definitive break with any such Western bourgeois influence and what he described as its "[[Social degeneration|degenerated]] bourgeois culture".<ref name="bon"/> In a speech in which he also criticised the "spread of certain vulgar, alien tastes in music and art", which ran "contrary to socialist ethics and the positive traditions of our people", including "degenerate importations such as long hair, extravagant dress, screaming jungle music, coarse language, shameless behaviour and so on",<ref name="bon"/> Hoxha declared:

{{blockquote|It is precisely this culture, coated with a glossy veneer, accompanied by sensational advertisement, handled in the most commercial way and back up and financed by the bourgeoisie, that inundates the cinema and television screens, magazines, newspapers and radio broadcasts, all the mass information and propaganda media. Its objective is to turn the ordinary man into a passive consumer of poisonous bourgeois ideas, and to make this consumption an addiction. Not only have we nothing to learn from this culture, no reason to impart it to our masses and youth, but we must reject it contemptuously and fight it with determination.<ref name="bon">{{harvnb|Bönker|2016|p=238}}.</ref>}}

== Later life and death ==
[[File:Albania in 1978 1.jpg|thumb|250px|Propaganda (photographed in 1978): ''The fatherland is defended by all of the people'']]
In 1974, Hoxha accused [[Beqir Balluku]], Minister of Defence and longtime ally, of being an agent of China and attempting a [[coup d'état]], since Balluku had criticized Hoxha's bunker program and said that a U.S. and Soviet invasion of Albania was unlikely. Hoxha sentenced Balluku and a group of his accused associates to death and appointed Mehmet Shehu as Minister of Defence.

A new Constitution was decided upon by the Seventh Congress of the Albanian Party of Labour on 1–7 November 1976. According to Hoxha, "The old Constitution was the Constitution of the building of the foundations of socialism, whereas the new Constitution will be the Constitution of the complete construction of a socialist society."<ref>Enver Hoxha, ''Report on the Activity of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania'' (Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House, 1977), 12.</ref>

Self-reliance was now stressed more than ever. Citizens were encouraged to train in the use of weapons, and this activity was also taught in schools. The purpose of this training was to encourage the creation of quick [[Partisan (military)|partisans]].<ref>[http://www.gadling.com/2008/06/26/letter-from-albania-enver-hoxhas-legacy-and-the-question-of-t/ Letter from Albania: Enver Hoxha's legacy, and the question of tourism]: "The bunkers were just one component of Hoxha's aim to arm the entire country against enemy invaders. Gun training used to be a part of school, I was told, and every family was expected to have a cache of weapons. Soon, Albania became awash in guns and other armaments{{spaced ndash}}. Subsequently, the country decommissioned huge stockpiles of ammunition as part of its new NATO obligations."</ref>

Borrowing and foreign investment were banned under Article 26 of the Constitution, which read: "The granting of concessions to, and the creation of foreign economic and financial companies and other institutions or ones formed jointly with bourgeois and revisionist capitalist monopolies and states as well as obtaining credits from them are prohibited in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania."<ref>{{Harvnb|Biberaj|1986|loc=162n}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bjoerna.dk/dokumentation/Albanian-Constitution-1976.htm|title=The Albanian Constitution of 1976|last=Andersen|first=Bjoern|website=bjoerna.dk|access-date=29 May 2017}}</ref> Hoxha said of borrowing money and allowing investment from other countries:
{{Blockquote
| text = No country whatsoever, big or small, can build socialism by taking credits and aid from the bourgeoisie and the revisionists or by integrating its economy into the world system of capitalist economies. Any such linking of the economy of a socialist country with the economy of bourgeois or revisionist countries opens the doors to the actions of the economic laws of capitalism and the degeneration of the socialist order. This is the road of betrayal and the restoration of capitalism, which the revisionist cliques have pursued and are pursuing.<ref>Hoxha, ''Report on the Activity of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania'', 8.</ref>
}}

Albania was the most isolated country in Europe. In 1983, Albania imported goods which were worth $280&nbsp;million but it exported goods which were worth $290&nbsp;million, producing a trade surplus of $10&nbsp;million.<ref>The Directorate of the Intelligence of the Central Intelligence Agency, ''[[The World Factbook]]'' (Washington: [[Government Printing Office]], 1986), 3.</ref>

[[File:Fall of Communism in Albania.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Fall of Hoxha's statue in Tirana's Skanderbeg Square amid student demonstrations]]
In 1981, Hoxha ordered the execution of several party and government officials in a new purge. Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, the second-most powerful man in Albania and Hoxha's closest comrade-in-arms for 40 years, was reported to have committed suicide in December 1981. He was subsequently condemned as a "traitor" to Albania, and he was also accused of operating in the service of multiple [[intelligence agency|intelligence agencies]]. It is generally believed that he was either killed or he shot himself during a power struggle, which may have resulted from differing foreign policy matters with Hoxha.<ref>{{Harvnb|O'Donnell|1999|pp=198–201}}</ref><ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Vickers|1999|pp=207–208}}</ref> Hoxha also wrote a large assortment of books during this period, resulting in over 65 volumes of collected works, condensed into six volumes of selected works.<ref>Chamberlain, Greg (18 October 1987). [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/18/books/the-truest-believer.html?sec=&spon= "The Truest Believer"]. ''The New York Times''. "Hoxha, who died in 1985, was one of the most verbose statesmen of modern times and pressed more than 50 volumes of opinions, diaries and dogma on his long-suffering people, the poorest in Europe."</ref>

In 1973, Hoxha suffered a [[heart attack]] from which he never fully recovered. In increasingly precarious health from the late 1970s onward, he handed most state functions to [[Ramiz Alia]]. In his final days, he was confined to a [[wheelchair]] and suffered from [[diabetes]], with which he was diagnosed in 1948, along with [[cerebral ischemia]], with which he was diagnosed in 1983. On 9 April 1985, he was struck by a [[ventricular fibrillation]]. Over the next 48 hours, he suffered repeated episodes of this arrhythmia, and he died in the early morning hours of 11 April 1985 at the age of 76. The Albanian government announced seven days of mourning, with flags flown at half-mast and entertainment and cultural events cancelled.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/12/world/enver-hoxha-dies-albanian-leader.html "Enver Hoxha Dies; Albanian Leader"]. Reuters. ''The New York Times''. 12 April 1985.</ref>

Hoxha's body lay in state at the building of the Presidium of the People's Assembly for three days before he was buried on 15 April after a memorial service on [[Skanderbeg Square]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Albania mourns loss of Hoxha |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-04-16-8501220351-story.html |agency=[[United Press International]] |website=chicagotribune.com|date=16 April 1985 }}</ref>{{efn|There is uncertainty over Hoxha's true date of birth. {{harvp|Fevziu|2016|p=10}} notes: "No fewer than five different dates are to be found in the Central State Archives [of Albania] alone."}} The government refused to accept any foreign delegations during Hoxha's funeral and it even condemned the Soviet message of condolences as "unacceptable".<ref>{{cite web |title=Albania Rejects Kremlin Condolences on Hoxha Death |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-04-13-mn-12184-story.html |date=13 April 1985 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Schmetzer |first=Uli |title=Albania communist leader Hoxha dies |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-04-12-8501220002-story.html |website=chicagotribune.com|date=12 April 1985 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Albanian leader Enver Hoxha buried |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/04/15/Albanian-leader-Enver-Hoxha-buried/8546482389200/ |publisher=United Press International}}</ref> After his burial, Hoxha was succeeded as head of state by Ramiz Alia, who gained control of the party's leadership two days later.

Hoxha left Albania with a legacy of isolation and fear of the outside world. Despite some economic progress which Albania made during Hoxha's rule,<ref>{{Harvnb|O'Donnell|1999|p=186}}: "On the positive side, an objective analysis must conclude that Enver Hoxha's plan to mobilise all of Albania's resources under the regimentation of a central plan was effective and quite successful&nbsp;... Albania was a tribal society, not necessarily primitive but certainly less developed than most. It had no industrial or working class tradition and no experience using modern production techniques. Thus, the results achieved, especially during the phases of initial planning and construction of the economic base were both impressive and positive."</ref> the country was in [[economic stagnation]]; Albania had been the poorest European country throughout much of the [[Cold War]] period.

== Family ==
[[File:EnverHoxhaHouse.jpg|thumb|Former residence of Hoxha in the formerly restricted area of [[Ish-Blloku|Blloku]] (the Block) in Tirana]]
The surname ''Hoxha'' is the Albanian variant of [[hodja]] (from {{langx|tr|hoca}}),{{Sfn|Pipa|1990|p=262}} a title which was given to his ancestors due to their efforts to teach Albanians about Islam.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pashtriku.beepworld.de/dossier.htm|title=dossier|website=pashtriku.beepworld.de}}</ref> Hoxha's parents were Halil and Gjylihan (Gjylo) Hoxha, and Hoxha had three sisters, Fahrije, Haxhire and Sanije. [[Hysen Hoxha]] ({{IPA|[hyˈsɛn ˈhɔdʒa]}}) was Enver Hoxha's uncle and was a militant who campaigned vigorously for the independence of Albania, which occurred when Enver was four years old. His grandfather, Beqir, was involved in the Gjirokastër section of the [[League of Prizren]].<ref>Pero Zlatar. ''Albanija u eri Envera Hoxhe'' Vol. II. Zagreb: Grafički zavod Hrvatske. 1984. pp. 23–24.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

Hoxha's son Sokol Hoxha was the CEO of the Albanian Post and Telecommunication service, and he is married to Liliana Hoxha.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100514080845/http://lilianahoxha.com/ Liliana Hoxha personal website]}}. 25 February 2010.</ref> [[Sali Berisha]], a later democratic president of Albania, was often seen socialising with Sokol Hoxha and other close relatives of leading Communist figures in Albania.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.albanian.com/v4/showthread.php?t=30610 |title= Your Thoughts - Albanian Forums|website=Albanian.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326193809/http://www.albanian.com/v4/showthread.php?t=30610 |archive-date=26 March 2012}}</ref>

Hoxha's daughter, Pranvera, is an architect. Along with her husband, Klement Kolaneci, she designed the Enver Hoxha Museum in Tirana, a white-tiled pyramid. Some sources have referred to the edifice, said to be the most expensive edifice ever constructed in [[History of Albania|Albanian history]], as the "Enver Hoxha Mausoleum", but this was not an official appellation. The museum was opened in 1988, three years after her father's death, and in 1991, it was transformed into a conference centre and an exhibition venue and it was renamed the [[Pyramid of Tirana]].{{Sfn|Wheeler|2010|pp=49–50}}

== Coup attempts ==
The [[Mustafa Band]] was a [[gang]] which was connected to counter-revolutionary elements such as the [[Albanian mafia]] and members of the royal [[House of Zogu]], and in 1982, it attempted to assassinate Enver Hoxha. The plan failed; two of its members were killed, and another member was arrested.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shqiperia.com/lajme/lajm/nr/9174/Zbulohen-dokumentet-e-CIA-s-dhe-FBI-se-per-Xhevdet-Mustafen|title=Zbulohen dokumentet e CIA-s dhe FBI-se per Xhevdet Mustafen|publisher=Shqiperia.com|access-date=13 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zeriikosoves.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=842:zbuluesi-ushtarak-xhevdet-mustafa-do-vendoste-monarkine&catid=27:dossier&Itemid=31|title=Zbuluesi ushtarak: Xhevdet Mustafa do vendoste monarkinë|publisher=Zeriikosoves.org|access-date=13 November 2012|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521131611/http://www.zeriikosoves.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=842:zbuluesi-ushtarak-xhevdet-mustafa-do-vendoste-monarkine&catid=27:dossier&Itemid=31|archive-date=21 May 2013}}</ref>

According to Hoxha, after Albania's long-time prime minister, Mehmet Shehu, died in 1981, documents were found in a vault which previously belonged to him, and according to them, he would poison Hoxha and assume the leadership of the country, orders which were issued by Yugoslav intelligence.{{sfn|Hoxha|1982b|pp=625–626}} In his book ''The Titoites'', Hoxha argued that this plan failed because Shehu was a coward who could not go through with the task and he figured that suicide would, at the very least, save his family from the punishment which he deserved for his counter-revolutionary activities.{{sfn|Hoxha|1982b|pp=626–627}}

== Legacy ==
In 2016, the results of a survey which was conducted by the Institute for Development Research and Alternatives (IDRA) showed that 45% of Albanians believed that Hoxha had a positive impact on the history of Albania, whereas 42% of Albanians believed that he had a negative impact on the history of Albania.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|date=2016|title=Results of the survey: Citizens understanding and perceptions of the Communist past in Albania and expectations for the future|url=https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/d/1/286821.pdf|website=[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]]|pages=68–69}}</ref> Younger generations (16–35 years old; born after 1981) tend to have a more negative view of Hoxha's contributions, while older generations (over 35 years old; born before 1981) tend to have a more positive view.<ref name=":4" /> Citizens in the regions of southeastern and southwestern Albania who were interviewed had the most positive view of Hoxha, respectively, they comprised 50% and 55% of the entire population.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=9 December 2016|title=Former dictator still seen in positive light by many Albanians, poll shows|work=[[Tirana Times]]|url=https://www.tiranatimes.com/?p=130276|quote=According to a survey report on the Understanding and Perception of Citizens of the Communist Past in Albania, almost half of the population of Albania sees Enver Hoxha's role in the history of the country as positive. The study found that 55 percent of citizens who were interviewed in the regions of southern and southwestern Albania had the most positive view of Albania's former communist dictator.}}</ref> Others have viewed him as a dictator.<ref>{{cite web |title=Late Albanian dictator's museum transformed into tech centre for young |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/late-albanian-dictators-museum-transformed-into-tech-centre-young-2023-08-25/ |access-date=27 February 2024 |website=[[Reuters]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Higgins |first1=Andrew |date=16 August 2021 |title=Guarding the Last Likeness of a Loathed Dictator? It's a Thankless Job. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/world/europe/albania-enver-hoxha-statue.html |access-date=27 February 2024 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Chamberlain |first1=Greg |date=12 April 2019 |title=Hoxha era ends in Albania – archive, 1985 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/12/hoxha-era-ends-in-albania-archive-1985 |access-date=27 February 2024 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

== Awards ==
;Albania
{|
|-
|[[ File:Titulli "Hero i Popullit".svg|40px]]
|[[Hero of the People]], twice (revoked 1995)<ref name="encyclopedia.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/hoxha-enver-1908-1985|title=Hoxha, Enver 1908-1985|publisher=}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:ALB National Flag Order.png|70px]]
|[[Hero of Socialist Labour (Albania)|Hero of Socialist Labour]]
|-
|[[File:AL_Order_Skanderbeg_1kl_BAR.png|70px]]
|[[Order of Skanderbeg (1925–45)|Order of Skanderbeg, 1st Class]]
|-
|}

;Foreign Awards
{|
|-
|[[File:BulgarianWarTimeMeritRibbon.jpg|70px]]
|Order "For Bravery" 1st Class ([[Bulgaria]]) (9 September 1944)
|-
|[[File:Order of the National Hero - ribbon.svg|70px]]
|[[Order of the People's Hero]] ([[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]) (1946)
|-
|[[File:Order suvorov1 rib.png|70px]]
|[[Order of Suvorov|Order of Suvorov, 1st Class]] ([[Soviet Union]]) (1948)<ref name="dirreslajm.al">{{cite web|url=https://durreslajm.al/politike/foto-nga-enveri-te-jozefina-k%C3%ABshtu-moska-dekoron-t%C3%AB-besuarit-e-saj|title=Foto/ Nga Enveri te Jozefina, kështu Moska dekoron të besuarit e saj|publisher=}}{{Dead link|date=February 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
|-
|[[File:Order of Lenin Ribbon Bar.svg|70px]]
|[[Order of Lenin]] ([[Soviet Union]])
|-
|}

==Partial list of works==
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Selected Works, November 1941 – October 1948 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol1.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=I |year=1974}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Selected Works, November 1948 – November 1965 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol2.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=II |year=1975}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Selected Works, June 1960 – October 1965 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol3.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=III |year=1980a}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Selected Works, February 1966 – July 1975 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol4.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=IV |year=1982a}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Selected Works, November 1976 – June 1980 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol5.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=V |year=1985a}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Selected Works, July 1980 – December 1984 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/sw/vol6.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=VI |year=1987}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Albania Challenges Khrushchev Revisionism |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/albania/challenges.pdf |publisher=Gamma Publishing Co. |location=New York |year=1976}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Imperialism and the Revolution |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/imp_rev/toc.htm |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |year=1978}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Reflections on China |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/reflections_on_china_volume_1.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=I |year=1979a}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Reflections on China |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/reflections_on_china_volume_2.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |volume=II |year=1979b}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=The Khrushchevites |url=http://www.enver-hoxha.net/content/content_english/books/books-the_khrushchevites.htm |publisher=The Institutes of Marxist-Leninist Studies at the CC of the PLA |location=Tirana |year=1980b}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=With Stalin |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/stalin/intro.htm |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |year=1981}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=The Titoites |url=http://www.bannedthought.net/Albania/Hoxha/TheTitoites-EnverHoxha-1982.pdf |location=London |publisher=Workers' Publishing House |year=1982b}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=The Anglo-American Threat to Albania |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/the_anglo-american_threat_to_albania.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |year=1982c}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=Two Friendly Peoples |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/ebooks/two_friendly_peoples.pdf |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |year=1985b}}
* {{cite book |last=Hoxha |first=Enver |author-mask=0 |title=The Superpowers 1959–1984 |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |location=Tirana |year=1986}}

==See also==
* [[Albanian Resistance of World War II]]
* [[Autarky]]
* [[History of Albania]]
* [[Hoxhaism]]
* [[Human rights in Albania]]
* [[National Martyrs' Cemetery of Albania]]
* [[Pyramid of Tirana]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book |title=Pickaxe and Rifle: The Story of the Albanian People |last=Ash |first=William |publisher=Howard Baker Press Ltd |year=1974 |location=London}}
* {{cite book |title=Socialist Albania on the Road to Industrialization |last1=Banja |first1=Hansa |last2=Toçi |first2=V. |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |year=1979 |location=Tirena}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=67Hoe3h5XqsC&q=albanian+economy |title=On Eagle's Wings: The Albanian Economy in Transition |publisher=Nova Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=978-1600210723 |editor-last=Bessemer |editor-first=Dirk J.}}
* {{cite book |title=The Family in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania |last=Begeja |first=Ksanthipi |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |year=1984 |location=Tirana}}
* {{cite book |title=Tito's Flawed Legacy |last=Beloff |first=Nora |publisher=Westview Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-575-03668-0 |location=Boulder, CO}}
* {{cite book |title=Albania and China: A Study of an Unequal Alliance |last=Biberaj |first=Elez |publisher=Westview Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-813-37230-3 |location=Boulder, CO}}
* {{cite book |title=The Balkans: a post-communist history |last1=Bideleux |first1=Robert |last2=Jeffries |first2=Ian |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-415-22962-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/balkanspostcommu0000bide}}
* {{cite book |title=Television Beyond and Across the Iron Curtain |last=Bönker |first=Kirsten |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=978-1443816434}}
* {{cite book |title=Health Care in the People's Republic of Albania |last=Cikuli |first=Zisa |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |year=1984 |location=Tirena |asin=B001ACECPG}}
* {{cite book |title=Oi Alvanoi : neoterē kai synchronē istoria |last=Eya |first=Peppa |publisher=Odysseas |year=1997 |isbn=978-9602102794 |language=el |oclc=880487556}}
* {{cite book |url=http://www.botimpex.com/genre/History#.Wn-Pfbzibcc |title=The communist movement in the 1924–1944 years and the establishment of ACP's |last=Dervishi |first=Kastriot |publisher=55 |year=2016 |isbn=978-9928106384 |location=Tirana |access-date=12 January 2018 |author-link=Kastriot Dervishi |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212004907/http://www.botimpex.com/genre/History#.Wn-Pfbzibcc |archive-date=12 February 2018 |url-status=dead}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Bernd J. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42039895 |title=Albania at War, 1939–1945 |publisher=Hurst |year=1999 |isbn=1-85065-531-6 |location=London |oclc=42039895}}
*{{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 (journal)|Middle Eastern Studies]] |volume=48 |issue=5 |page=692 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2012.703617 |s2cid=144784853}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6jXOmAEACAAJ |title=Kryeministrat dhe ministrat e shtetit shqiptar në 100 vjet |last=Dervishi |first=Kastriot |publisher=55 |year=2012 |isbn=978-9994356225 |location=Tirana}}
* {{cite book |title=Enver Hoxha: The Iron Fist of Albania |last=Fevziu |first=Blendi |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-784-53485-1 |location=London |author-link=Blendi Fevziu}}
* {{cite book |title=Archaeology under dictatorship |publisher=Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers |year=2004 |isbn=978-0306485084 |editor-last=Galatia |editor-first=Michael L. |language=el |oclc=915958520 |editor-last2=Watkinson |editor-first2=Charles}}
* {{cite book |title=Communism, Health, and Lifestyle: The Paradox of Mortality Transition in Albania, 1950–1990 |last=Gjonça |first=Arjan |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-313-31586-2 |location=Connecticut}}
* {{cite journal |title=Albania and the Sino-Soviet Rift |last=Griffith |first=William E. |journal=Studies in Communism, Revisionism, and Revolution |publisher=M.I.T. Press |year=1963 |issn=0081-8054}}
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/albaniachinasbea010786mbp/albaniachinasbea010786mbp_djvu.txt |title=Albania – China's Beachhead in Europe |last=Hamm |first=Harry |publisher=Frederick A. Praeger |year=1963 |location=New York |asin=B0000CLUM3}}
* {{cite book |title=History of the Party of Labor of Albania |last=The Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |year=1982 |edition=2nd |location=Tirena}}
* {{cite book |title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996 |last=Jessup |first=John E. |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-313-28112-9 |location=Westport, CT}}
* {{cite book |title=The Albanians: Europe's forgotten survivors |last=Logoreci |first=Anton |publisher=Westview Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0891588276 |location=Boulder, CO}}
* {{cite book |title=The wars of the Balkan Peninsula: their medieval origins |last1=Madgearu |first1=Alexander |last2=Gordon |first2=Martin |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |year=2008 |editor-last=Gordon |editor-first=Martin |translator-last=Madgearu |translator-first=Alexander}}
* {{cite book |title=Albania and the Albanians |last=Marmullaku |first=Ramadan |publisher=C. Hurst & Co |year=1975 |isbn=978-0903983136 |location=London |translator-last=Milosavljević |translator-first=Margot |translator-last2=Milosavljević |translator-first2=Bosko}}
* {{cite book |title=Human rights in the People's Socialist Republic of Albania: a report of the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee |last=Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee |publisher=The Committee |year=1990 |isbn=978-0929293059 |oclc=24541364}}
* {{cite book |title=The Secret Life of Enver Hoxha, 1908–1944 |last=Myftaraj |first=Kastriot |publisher=Constellation |year=2008 |isbn=978-99956-706-4-1 |location=Tirena |language=sq}}
* {{cite book |title=The Enigmas of Enver Hoxha's Domination 1944–1961 |last=Myftaraj |first=Kastriot |publisher=Constellation |year=2009 |isbn=978-99956-57-10-9 |location=Tirena |language=sq}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Coming_of_Age.html?id=gpu4AAAAIAAJ<!--https://espressostalinist.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/a-coming-of-age.pdf--> |title=A Coming of Age: Albania under Enver Hoxha |last=O'Donnell |first=James S. |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-88033-415-0 |series=East European Monographs |location=New York}}
* {{cite book |title=The People's Republic of Albania |last=Pano |first=Nicolas C. |publisher=Johns Hopkins Press |year=1968 |isbn=978-0608040189 |location=Baltimore, MD}}
* {{cite book |title=Our Friends Ask |last=Papajorgi |first=Harilla |publisher=The Naim Frashëri Publishing House |year=1970}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4wx7kQp4bgC |title=Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History |last=Pearson |first=Owen S. |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84511-105-2 |volume=III |location=New York}}
* {{cite book |title=Albanian Stalinism |last=Pipa |first=Arshi |publisher=East European Monographs |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-88033-184-5 |series=East European Monographs |location=Boulder, CO}}
* {{cite book |title=History of Albania: From Its Origins to the Present Day |last1=Pollo |first1=Stephanaq |last2=Puto |first2=Arben |publisher=Routledge |year=1981 |isbn=978-0710003652}}
* {{cite book |title=Albanian Identities: Myth and History |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0253341891 |editor-last=Schwandner-Sievers |editor-first=Stephanie |ol=9383049M |editor-last2=Fischer |editor-first2=Bernd Jürgen}}
* {{cite book |title=One world divisible : a global history since 1945 |last=Reynolds |first=David |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=2001 |isbn=978-0393321081 |oclc=912430370}}
* {{cite book |ref={{harvid|Talbott|1970}} |title=Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament |translator-last=Talbott |translator-first=Strobe |publisher=Little, Brown and Co. |year=1970 |location=Boston, MA}}
* {{cite book |title=History of the Party of Labor of Albania |last=The Institute of Marxist–Leninist Studies at the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania |publisher=8 Nëntori Publishing House |year=1982 |edition=2nd |location=Tirana |url=http://ciml.250x.com/archive/pla/english/history_of_the_party_of_labour_of_albania_second_edition_eng.pdf}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IzI0uOZ2j6gC&q=editions:Dll7u8aahCQC |title=The Albanians: A Modern History |last=Vickers |first=Miranda |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=1999 |isbn=978-1860645419 |edition=Reprint}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxcZU0ZX61UC&pg=PA49 |title=Lonely Planet Badlands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil |last=Wheeler |first=Tony |publisher=[[Lonely Planet]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-74220-104-7 |location=Victoria |access-date=12 March 2011}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* "Free – Coming of Age at the End of History" – [[Lea Ypi]] – Allen Lane – 2021: "a child's memoir into the death throes of the peculiar Albanian regime".<ref>''Sunday Times'' review 18 December 2021.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/146007/lea-ypi|title=Lea Ypi|website=www.penguin.co.uk}}</ref>

==External links==
{{External links|section|date=September 2020}}
{{Commons category|Enver Hoxha}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/index.htm Enver Hoxha Reference Archive at marxists.org]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110811172205/http://archive.250x.com/hoxha.html English collection of some of Hoxha's works]
* [http://www.enver-hoxha.net/content/content_english/books/books.htm Another English collection of some of Hoxha's works]
* [http://www.enverhoxha.ru/ A Russian site with the works of Enver Hoxha]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190519232045/http://www.enverhoxha.info/ Enver Hoxha tungjatjeta]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111016173018/http://www.shtermeni.com/faqe/libra/ Disa nga Veprat e Shokut Enver Hoxha]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040803214237/http://www.albanian.com/main/history/hoxha.html Albanian.com article on Hoxha]
* [http://muzeuimemories.info/ Virtual Memory Museum Official Website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190912083808/http://muzeuimemories.info/ |date=12 September 2019 }}
* [http://www.bunkart.al/ Enver Hoxha's Underground Bunker Official Website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080504160513/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827142-1,00.html "Albania: Stalin's heir"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 22 December 1961
* [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cX-nwfaEWVA Hoxha's State Funeral – 15 April 1985]
* [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6v_z48do7NQ Albania Under Enver Hoxha (1982)]

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=New creation}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Albania|Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Albania]]|years = 24 October 1944 – 18 July 1954}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Mehmet Shehu]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Omer Nishani]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (Albania)|Minister of Foreign Affairs of Albania]]|years = 1946–1953}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Behar Shtylla]]}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=New creation}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Party of Labour of Albania|First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania]]|years = 8 November 1941 – 11 April 1985}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ramiz Alia]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Prime Ministers of Albania}}
{{Communism}}
{{Marxism-Leninism}}
{{Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania}}
{{Leaders of the Ruling Parties of the Eastern Bloc}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoxha, Enver}}
[[Category:Enver Hoxha| ]]
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century atheists]]
[[Category:Albanian National Lyceum alumni]]
[[Category:Albanian anti-fascists]]
[[Category:Albanian atheists]]
[[Category:Albanian communists]]
[[Category:Albanian former Muslims]]
[[Category:Albanian generals]]
[[Category:Albanian resistance members]]
[[Category:Albanian revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Albanian writers on atheism]]
[[Category:Anti-Christian sentiment in Albania]]
[[Category:Anti-Islam sentiment in Albania]]
[[Category:Anti-revisionists]]
[[Category:Atheism activists]]
[[Category:Critics of Christianity]]
[[Category:Critics of Sunni Islam]]
[[Category:Critics of religions]]
[[Category:Defence ministers of Albania]]
[[Category:Government ministers of Albania]]
[[Category:Hoxhaism]]
[[Category:Male feminists]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Albania]]
[[Category:Members of the Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania]]
[[Category:Natalist politicians]]
[[Category:Party of Labour of Albania politicians]]
[[Category:People from Gjirokastër]]
[[Category:People from Janina vilayet]]
[[Category:People's Socialist Republic of Albania]]
[[Category:Politicide perpetrators]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Albania]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Suvorov, 1st class]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the People's Hero]]
[[Category:Religious persecution by communists]]
[[Category:Socialist feminists]]
[[Category:Stalinism]]
[[Category:University of Montpellier alumni]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]