Enver Hoxha: Europe's Most Deranged Dictator

Europe is no stranger to tyrannical autocrats. Indeed, all one has to do is leaf through a tome of the continent’s 20th century history, and a barrage of names most wicked will immediately fall upon you.

Many of these, the Hitler’s, the Mussolini’s, and the like, will be names which are immediately known to you, and for damned good reasons. And yet, keep flicking through that loathsome litany some more, and eventually, you will happen upon a more elusive name: Enver Hoxha.

He ruled over Communist Albania from the end of WWII through to his death in 1985, and for some reason, his is a name that has failed to penetrate into the cultural zeitgeist.

And the more you read up on him, the more you will find yourself wondering why this is the case, because without a doubt, he is among the most cruel, the most wicked, the most devious, and most deranged leaders that Europe has ever produced.

Today, we shall be doing our little part to right this wrong, as we shine a spotlight into the darkness, and tell you the full ins and outs of his malevolent rule.

So, let’s begin.

Rise to Power

Hoxha’s rise to power in Albania is a tale that mirrors the trajectories of many Eastern European Communist leaders during the mid-20th century, one defined by strategic savvy, unwavering ideological commitment, and the chaos of WWII. Born on the 16th of October 1908, in Gjirokastër, a small town in Ottoman Albania, Hoxha’s early life played out under a regime that had dominated the region since the late 15th century. His upbringing in a middle-class family afforded him a comfortable early life, with his father, a cloth merchant, providing the means for extensive travel and a robust education.

Said education began at the Albanian National Lyceum, where Hoxha was immersed in a curriculum heavy with European Christian and French influences, which immediately set him apart from his peers with his fluency in French, and understanding of Western ideas.

From there, his academic journey took him to the University of Montpellier in France. Initially focusing on natural sciences, his interest soon shifted towards politics, specifically Marxism. So committed was he to his newfound politics, that it eventually cost him his scholarship, and thus his place at the university, as he stopped attending lectures, and thus found himself expelled in 1930.

Afterward, he drifted across Western Europe, engaging in various menial jobs while he further read Marx and deepened his convictions. But his drifting would come to an end in 1939 following the Italian invasion of Albania, because amidst the chaos that was playing out, he saw an opportunity to make Albania anew, and so, he headed home to join the burgeoning underground communist resistance.

There, before the formal establishment of the Communist Party in November 1941, Hoxha quickly ascended within the nascent movement, eventually becoming a key leader. By March 1943 he had risen to First Secretary, and effectively lead the party. Under his direction, the Communist Party became a significant force in the partisan resistance against both Italian and later German occupiers.

He was actually quite good at this too, contrary to what you may first imagine, as his partisan campaign culminated in the liberation of Tirana on the 17th of November 1944. This victory significantly bolstered Hoxha’s popularity and set the stage for the Communist Party’s overwhelming success in Albania’s first elections in December 1945, where they secured 93% of the vote — a result that certainly wasn’t hurt by the Soviets… ‘helping out’ proceedings.

With this mandate, he established the People’s Republic of Albania on the 10th of January 1946, and then stood poised to turn his nation into the Communist utopia he had always dreamed of, so now, let’s bring this chapter to a close, and take a look at what his ideas were.

Hoxha’s Communism

To REALLY understand Hoxha and the utter destruction he wrought unto Albania, it is worth us taking the time to get to grips with his ideology. Sure, we could just go with a more traditional bullet-point-esque chapter in which we say ‘first he shot this bloke, then he implemented this mad rule, blah blah blah, God, what a nutter ey?’ — but let’s be frank, such an approach would be just a bit shallow, wouldn’t it? So, with that in mind, let’s have a deep dive and do this properly.

Hoxha’s ideology, which is often referred to as Hoxhaism, is a specific strand of Marxist-Leninist thought characterized by its extreme adherence to Stalinist doctrines and its vehement opposition to perceived revisionism in other socialist countries. Naturally, being a Stalinist derived model, its foundation is a highly centralized State run command economy, and a totalitarian single party political system.

Moving onto the more unique aspects of Hoxhaism, one of its central pillars is its profound commitment to isolationism and autarky, which, to simplify a bit, basically meant that Albania should lock itself away from the rest of its world, handle all of its own production and affairs internally, and that the rest of the world, in turn, should be expected to respect that.

From Hoxha’s perspective, true socialism required absolute economic and political independence to avoid the corrupting influences of both capitalist and revisionist socialist states. He posited that reliance on foreign aid or economic ties would inevitably lead to political and ideological compromises, which could dilute Albania’s socialist objectives. He also further argued that self-reliance was a strategic necessity due to Albania’s historical betrayals by larger powers.

This stance was justified ideologically through a stringent interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which emphasized the development of internal capacities to build a socialist society, independent of external influences that might impede or distort the revolutionary process. Through this framework, Hoxha aimed to create an unassailable socialist state that was both economically self-sustaining and ideologically unyielding.

As a side effect, it also served to enshrine an ideological xenophobia, one in which all foreigners, even fellow Communists, were potential bourgeois reactionaries to be feared and kept at bay at all costs. As a result, Hoxha promoted the idea that Albania was a besieged fortress of true socialism, constantly under threat, as made clear by the following extract from Reflections on China, first published in 1967:

“The imperialists … have always wanted and still want to do away with socialism in Albania. This we know. But what we must keep most clearly in mind is that for us there exists the danger not only of direct military aggression, but also of ideological aggression… we must take all measures and mobilize all our forces to defeat the ideological aggression of the enemy, too.”

Another key tenet of Hoxhaism is its unyielding stance on anti-revisionism — the idea that Communists can look back on the horrors of their forerunners, like say Stalin, and say “oh, that was a bit bad wasn’t it, maybe we ‘shouldn’t’ be producing mountains of corpses while trying to build the socialist utopia.” To Hoxha, there was NOTHING that needed revising you see, as in his view, Stalin was actually based and comrade-pilled, and as he believed he did such a cracking job with the old socialist construction, anyone who would dare to criticise him was the enemy — a subversive bourgeois element that would ruin EVERYTHING, and therefore should be crushed.

If you happen to think we are portraying Hoxha as being just a bit… ‘disconnected from reality’ there, you’d be absolutely correct, and let us evidence that characterisation with the following extract from Albania Challenges Khruschev Revision, published in 1960:

“At the Bucharest Meeting we did not accept the violation of the Leninist norms of relations among parties… We are Marxists, we are guided and will always be guided in our work by the Marxist-Leninist theory… We think independently and for this reason we are treated as nationalists… We Albanians are principled comrades, we do not change, we do not trade in principles, we are poor materially but politically and ideologically we are rich because we have Marxism-Leninism… Even if we have to go without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles, we do not betray Marxism-Leninism.”

Yep, he outright said his principles wouldn’t waver even if his people were starving… call us crazy, but we’re starting to suspect that this Hoxha fella might have been a bit of a wrongun’.

Additionally, Hoxha also promoted a version of Marxism that placed significant emphasis on the peasantry as a revolutionary force. Unlike many other socialist movements that focused primarily on urban workers, Hoxha’s approach acknowledged the predominantly agrarian character of Albanian and sought to mobilise them to build socialism. This focus was partly practical, given Albania’s demographic and economic structure, but also ideological, as Hoxha believed that Marxist doctrine was adaptable to local conditions — and yes, this was a massive contradiction of his own Marxist orthodoxy.

Shedding more light on his agrarian focus is the following extract from the snappily titled On the Role and Tasks of the Democratic Front in the Struggle for the Complete Triumph of Socialism in Albania, published in 1967:

“Our Party evaluated this problem correctly and seriously. The countryside became the main base and the peasantry the main force of our liberation war. Our Party, as the party of the working class, also expressed and defended the interests of the working peasantry at the same time. The issues with which the peasantry was preoccupied, the economic, political and educational reforms to which it aspired, were embodied.”

Despite its severe isolationism and repressive nature, Hoxhaism also contained an element of utopian idealism. Hoxha envisioned creating a socialist paradise in Albania, free from exploitation, inequality, and poverty. This vision was to be achieved through the total transformation of society along strictly Marxist-Leninist lines, with no room for alternative models or experimental reforms. The ultimate goal was to demonstrate that socialism, as he defined it, was not only viable, but superior to all other socio-economic systems.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened though was it? Instead, Albania, guided by these principles, turned into an utter hellscape the likes of which Europe, maybe even the world, had scarcely seen before. So, now, let’s move on and see exactly what that looked like.

The Horrors of Hoxhanism

Once in power, Hoxha moved quickly to… “take preventative action against counterrevolutionary and reactionist elements,” i.e., eliminate any potential threats to his authority. He began by abolishing the monarchy. This was actually quite the moot affair all in all, particularly if you have images in your head of Russian Bolsheviks lining the Romanov’s up against a wall and shooting them.

You see, thanks to the chaos of the Italian/German occupation, Albania had barely had a Monarchy in practical terms since 1939 anyway, and the ‘abdication’ was more of a formal letter to King Zog I telling him to not bother coming home, and so he didn’t, and peacefully lived out his days in exile.

Then Hoxha started turning his attention inwards, and that’s when things started getting dark, as executions of those within his close circle became the norm — driven by a madness that was initially fuelled by ideology, but became more and more defined by good old fashioned paranoia as time went on, just like had happened to Stalin — which is ironic given how much Hoxha fanboyed for him. A notable victim of this is Liri Gega, one of Hoxha’s oldest friends and professional confidants, and also the first female member of the Albanian Communist Party, period.

Originally a major part of the movement, she had fallen out of favour and been stripped of all of her positions come 1956, as Hoxha, consumed by paranoia, became increasingly convinced that she was a Yugoslav double agent. She was no fool, and able to read the writing on the wall, so she attempted to flee the country that same year — she was apprehended however, and both her and her husband were given a rushed show trial before being kicked into the dirt and shot in the back… she was also pregnant at the time.

This violent purge would remain fizzing away for the entire duration of Communist Albania’s existence, right from the very top, all the way down to the very bottom, and as a result, thousands of loyal communists met the same cold fate as Gega come the regime’s collapse.

And don’t think you’d be able to survive Hoxhanism by just avoiding politics, keeping your head down, and being a dutiful little proletarian either — because this brutal wrath was also smashed down on ordinary Albanians with equal vigour. All to supposedly safeguard the ‘glorious’ proletarian revolution.

Chiefly, this was done via the Sigurimi, Hoxha’s secret police. It was originally founded back in 1944, and come the time of its full operational capacity, it had become Albania’s most formidable and feared institution. It made use of both overt and covert methods and submitted everyday Albanians to a legitimately Orwellian level of surveillance.

Utilising a vast network of informants, it built up and managed files on virtually EVERY adult in Albania, and quite terrifyingly, it knew everything, and we mean EVERYTHING — your genuine political beliefs that you spoke only to your best friend at the bar that one time, whether or not you were cheating on your spouse, your daily schedule, how partial you were to the drink… the whole lot.

And if they uncovered any information about you that may lead them to believe you were a bourgeois reactionary, may God have mercy on your soul. Without any kind of right to a fair trial or appeal, you would be dragged from your home without warning whenever the Sigurimi deemed fit, at which point brutal torture, the likes of which we cannot even begin to describe without having this video removed by YouTube, would follow, and more likely than not, when they had finished having their fun with you, you would then be shipped off to a forced labour camp — to spend your days engaged in back breaking labour, and continued sporadic torture, until such a point that the Sigurimi arbitrarily decided that you had learned your lesson and were ideologically rehabilitated.

So expansive was this reign of terror, that come the fall of Communism in Albania in 1991, give or take a third of Albania’s whole population had been either tortured or shipped off to a labour camp by the Sigurimi at some point or another.

Something that irked them in particular was so called ‘Slandering the State,’ which in non-newspeak meant any, and we mean ANY criticism of the government or its actions, be it through either casual or more organised formal means. And just to prove we aren’t exaggerating here, one man who managed a café was sent to a forced labour camp for 18 years because he told an undercover Sigurimi agent who popped in for a brew that he didn’t have a spoon. That, supposedly, was a vitriolic criticism of state economic policy, as were the actions of another man, who while walking leisurely along Albania’s southern coast one day, turned to his friend and asked, “How come Corfu has a lighthouse and we don’t?” — he got 25 years.

And if you were religious? Well, we know that Hoxha was something of a Marx-literalist don’t we, and since Marx wasn’t exactly a pious sort, this led to the HEAVY persecution of religion in Hoxha’s Albania — Muslim, Christian, it mattered not to him, they were all smoking the opium of the people, and so they were all in the firing line, quite literally.

This is exemplified best by the case of Lazër Shantoja, a publicist, poet, satirist, and above all else, priest — all things that Hoxha REALLY didn’t take kindly to. Seeing the writing on the wall, he had fled to the mountains in 1944, before the Communist State had even been established, to attempt to ride out the coming storm and survive. Unfortunately, Communist agents, who had been hot on the tail of him and the oh so scary naughty ideas in his head, tracked him down in December of that same year, and dragged him from his cabin and back to Tirana.

By the time he was dragged out again for his show-trial on the 29th of January, he was visibly broken, having had had both of his arms and legs broken, and so was forced to drag himself to the stand on his elbows and knees. Archbishop Zef Simoni, an Albanian cleric who was imprisoned at the same time, and through the grace of God managed to survive, was imprisoned beside him, and recalled witnessing Shantoja be flayed with red hot irons, and then having his ruined flesh repeatedly salted. So bad was this torture, that Shantoja’s own mother begged with the prison guards to just shoot her son and end his suffering; a request which they were only too happy to oblige, and he was shot on the 5th of March 1945.

Shantoja’s case is obviously on the extreme of things, or else how would Simoni have survived to recall what he witnessed, but the point still stands — the repression of religion under Hoxha was nothing short of demonic.

Oh, and speaking of the persecution of religion. Hoxha officially declared Albania to be an Atheist state in 1967, and with this in mind, he banned ALL beards — on account of Muslims being rather partial to them; a measure intended to get them out of the Mosques and make New Socialist Men out of them. Further to this, all hair longer than 4cm was also banned, as were mullets specifically — lest the western decadence such styles supposedly represented sneak into Albania and taint the purity of its socialism.

And then there’s the simply obscene amount of money that Hoxha, the leader of one of Europe’s poorest countries, spent on bunkers. All in all, he constructed over 750 THOUSAND of them — for reference, Hitler ‘only’ built 25,000 to cover the entire stretch of Coastline between the Spanish border and Northern Norway. Why you ask? Well, remember that want for TOTAL independence from the world that was supposedly out to get him that we discussed in the last chapter? Yeah, that.

The cost of all of these was simply staggering. Exact figures are hard to come by, but we do know that just construction, never mind installation and maintenance of these bunkers cost an estimated two percent of Albania’s ENTIRE economic output. We also know that they cost roughly twice as much as the Maginot Line in France and consumed three times as much concrete. Historians now estimate that the cost of just one of the smaller sorts of bunkers was roughly the same as a two-room apartment, and due to the absurd amount of them, they also took A LOT of arable farming land out of use — further heightening the economic damage wrought upon Albania.

Had he not pursued this mind boggling “bunkerisation” policy, maybe, just maybe, Hoxha could have actually built the socialist utopia he dreamed of — materially anyway.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of things related to the border. In addition to building that insane network of bunkers to keep imagined enemies out, Hoxha also completely encased the country in lethally high voltage electric fences to keep his people in — which was dubbed the so called “Death Line.” Naturally, the border was also extensively patrolled, and if you were spotted near it without good reason, guess what happened… yep, torture followed by being chucked in a labour camp for God knows how many years.

Conclusion

Fortunately, Communism in Albania is now a thing of the past, the system having collapsed six years after Hoxha’s death. But unfortunately, the damage he inflicted will be a long-time healing. When he left this mortal plane, he had taken as many as 100,000 of his innocent countryfolk with him, and as for the ones who did survive, they were left immeasurably poorer for his governance, a tragic state of affairs best summed up by a single fact: that when Communism collapsed in Albania in 1991, the country was the third poorest in the world, and no, we didn’t misspeak there; not in Europe, not even just in Eastern Europe… Albania was the third poorest country in the whole damned world, with an average monthly wage of barely 15 USD a month.

Fortunately, things are getting better now, with the World Bank now classifying it as a ‘lower-middle-income’ country. Key word there however, getting. Modern Albanians, though they have made immeasurable efforts to improve their country’s lot, still have to get by with an average yearly salary of barely 6,800 USD, and are still one of the poorest countries in Europe despite their many efforts to dig themselves out of the economic hole that Hoxha left them in.

And really, that is the great tragedy of all. Walk the streets of Tirana today, and you will walk shoulder to shoulder with civilised and amenable folk, people who will welcome you with open arms, and proudly show you the cultural splendour of which their civilisation is capable, and yet, despite the richness upon which you would behold, and the graciousness with which you would be received, over all that joy would loom a cloud most dark; Enver Hoxha, and the immeasurable, irreparable damage his rule wrought upon the nation of Albania.

Key Takeaways

• Enver Hoxha ruled Communist Albania from 1946 until his death in 1985, implementing a brutal and isolationist regime.
• Hoxha’s ideology, Hoxhaism, emphasized extreme adherence to Stalinist doctrines and vehement opposition to perceived revisionism.
• Hoxha’s rule was marked by severe repression, with the Sigurimi secret police surveilling and torturing citizens for minor infractions.
• Hoxha’s economic policies, including massive bunker construction, left Albania impoverished, becoming the third poorest country in the world by 1991.
• The legacy of Hoxha’s rule continues to affect Albania, with the country still recovering from the economic and social damage inflicted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Enver Hoxha?

Enver Hoxha was a Communist leader who ruled over Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985. He is known for his tyrannical rule and the severe isolationism and repression he imposed on the country.

How did Enver Hoxha rise to power?

Hoxha’s rise to power was facilitated by his strategic savvy, ideological commitment, and the chaos of World War II. He joined the underground communist resistance in Albania during the Italian invasion and became a key leader of the Communist Party, eventually leading the partisan resistance against both Italian and German occupiers.

What is Hoxhaism?

Hoxhaism is a specific strand of Marxist-Leninist thought characterized by its extreme adherence to Stalinist doctrines and its vehement opposition to perceived revisionism in other socialist countries. It emphasizes isolationism, autarky, and a highly centralized state-run command economy.

What were some of the key tenets of Hoxhaism?

Key tenets of Hoxhaism include isolationism and autarky, a highly centralized state-run command economy, a totalitarian single-party political system, and a profound commitment to anti-revisionism. Hoxha believed in the absolute economic and political independence of Albania to avoid corrupting influences from capitalist and revisionist socialist states.

How did Hoxha’s regime treat political dissent?

Hoxha’s regime was extremely repressive towards political dissent. The Sigurimi, Hoxha’s secret police, used both overt and covert methods to surveil and control the population. Criticism of the government or its actions, no matter how minor, could result in torture, imprisonment in forced labor camps, or execution.

What was the Sigurimi?

The Sigurimi was Hoxha’s secret police, founded in 1944. It was responsible for the surveillance, torture, and imprisonment of Albanians deemed to be threats to the regime. By the fall of Communism in Albania in 1991, approximately a third of the population had been tortured or sent to labor camps by the Sigurimi.

How did Hoxha’s regime treat religion?

Hoxha’s regime heavily persecuted religion, declaring Albania an atheist state in 1967. Religious practices were suppressed, and religious leaders were often tortured and executed. The regime also banned beards and long hair, targeting Muslim practices and Western influences.

What was the impact of Hoxha’s rule on Albania’s economy?

Hoxha’s rule left Albania in a state of severe economic decline. His policies, including the construction of over 750,000 bunkers and the encasement of the country in high-voltage electric fences, drained the country’s resources. When Communism collapsed in 1991, Albania was the third poorest country in the world.

What happened to Enver Hoxha’s regime after his death?

Communism in Albania collapsed six years after Hoxha’s death in 1985. The country was left in a state of extreme poverty, with an average monthly wage of barely 15 USD. Despite efforts to improve, Albania remains one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: Enver Hoxha: Europe’s Most Deranged Dictator
• Hero image source by Wolfmann / openverse, by-sa.

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