Enver Hoxha. The Iron Fist of Albania

369 Pages·2016·4.34 MB·English

by  Blendi Fevziu

is a journalist, based in Tirana. He was the co-founder of the
BLENDI FEVZIU
RD (Democratic Renaissance) newspaper and presents the popular TV talk
show Opinion. He has written several books in Albanian.
is an expert in the field of Albanian studies. He is the author of
ROBERT ELSIE
over ninety books, including Albanian Literature: A Short History and A
Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History (both published by I.B.Tauris and
the Centre for Albanian Studies).
is a London-based translator who taught English at the
MAJLINDA NISHKU
University of Tirana. Since 2000 she has been working as a freelance conference
interpreter and translator for various international organisations.
‘Blendi Fevziu’s work is extraordinary. Written like a crime novel, based on
unparalleled access to once closed Albanian archives, the book is a must read for
anyone who wants to understand communist Europe and how dictatorships get
set up and eventually survive. Fevziu succeeds brilliantly in capturing the
horrors of Hoxha’s 41 years in power and brings to life many of the voices he
silenced. Not only that, given the Hoxha legacy, Fevziu helps us better
understand why… Albania’s path to democracy is so difficult. This biography is
a major achievement.’
Robert C. Austin, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
‘Based on archival, oral, and published sources, Blendi Fevziu’s Enver Hoxha
provides a fascinating, compelling and realistic account of the life and times of
Albania’s unremittingly Stalinist dictator and the country he ruled with an iron
hand for four decades. This book is a masterful combination of biography and
history.’
Nicholas C. Pano, Professor Emeritus of History, Western Illinois
University

Published in 2016 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2016 Blendi Fevziu
Copyright, editorial and Foreword © 2016 Robert Elsie
English translation copyright © Majlinda Nishku
The right of Blendi Fevziu to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will
be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
ISBN: 978 1 78453 485 1
eISBN: 978 0 85772 908 8
ePDF: 978 0 85772 703 9
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Text design, typesetting and eBook by Tetragon, London
Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1 Death Comes Knocking
2 28 November 1944
3 From Gjirokastra to Korça
4 From France to Belgium: The Dropout
5 Teacher of Moral Education
6 The Founding of the Communist Party
7 A Leader with an Iron Fist
8 Nationalists and Communists
9 Head of the Provisional Government
10 The Plenary Meeting in Berat – An Interlude
11 Tirana and the Wedding
12 A Reign of Terror
13 Departure of the British and the Americans
14 The Yugoslavs: A Matter of Love and Hate
15 Stalin and the Soviets
16 The Bllok
17 Enver Hoxha and Mother Teresa
18 Split Personality
19 The Medical Team
20 The Great Purges
21 Demise of a Prime Minister
22 The Final Purges
23 The Years of Solitude
24 Death and What Remained

CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF ENVER HOXHA

GLOSSARY OF KEY FIGURES
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PLATES
List of Illustrations
1. The communist leaders arrive in Tirana on 28 November 1944 (Archives of
the Centre for Albanian Studies, London).
2. Congress of the Democratic Front on 5 August 1945 (Archives of the Centre
for Albanian Studies, London).
3. Portrait of Enver Hoxha, ca. 1945 (Archives of the Centre for Albanian
Studies, London).
4. Enver Hoxha and jubilating party members, 1972 (Archives of the Centre for
Albanian Studies, London).
5. Stalin and Enver Hoxha in Moscow (Archives of the Centre for Albanian
Studies, London).
6. Enver Hoxha and the mostly aged members of the Politburo, on the occasion
of the 7th Party Congress in November 1976 (Archives of the Centre for
Albanian Studies, London).
Foreword
S
talinism, that particularly sombre phase of Eastern European communism,
came to an end in most of Eastern Europe with the death of Josef Stalin in 1953,
or at least with the Khrushchev reforms that began in the Soviet Union in 1956.
However, in one country – Albania – Stalinism survived unscathed until 1990.
The regime that the Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha (pronounced hodja) led
from the time of the communist takeover in November 1944 until his death in
April 1985, and that continued unabated under his successor Ramiz Alia until
1990, was severe indeed. Such was the reign of terror that no audible voice of
opposition or dissent ever arose in the little Balkan state, a European country that
was as isolated from the rest of the planet as North Korea is today.
When the Albanian communist system finally imploded and multi-party
democracy was introduced in 1990–1, it left behind a weary population,
frightened and confused after decades of purges and political terror. It also left
behind a land with a sub-Saharan economy, a country where extreme poverty
was the norm.
It has been over two decades since the communist regime in Albania came
to an end. The people of Albania, who woke up to find themselves at the bottom
of the barrel in European terms, have been struggling since that time to keep
pace with the new world around them. In their struggle, they have not had much
time to look back dispassionately and reflect on the man who dominated their
lives for almost half a century. Yet the spectre of Enver Hoxha looms heavy over
the land and most observers would agree that the Albanians are still coping in
one way or another with the after-effects of his regime.
Few Albanians today will have a good word to say about the man who was
once their god, but what do they actually know about him? Some still have
recollections of the public image, created by official propaganda at the time, of
their supreme leader as a benevolent ‘father Enver’, and imagine that, in his
isolation in the Bllok with no one daring to contradict him, he may perhaps not
have known how dire the situation at the grass roots really was. Others curse him
as the devil incarnate who was directly responsible for all of the regime’s
failings, yet they, too, have no precise idea of the role he played in the calamities
that beset the nation during communism. Who was Enver Hoxha? Or are people
still too frightened to ask? It is curious amidst all the speculation associated with
his name that in the 25 years since the fall of the dictatorship, not one serious
book has been published about Enver Hoxha. Until now.
In the early years of the new millennium, Tirana journalist and TV
personality Blendi Fevziu began broadcasting a series of programmes on the
communist dictatorship and on the life of Enver Hoxha, based on previously
unpublished archival material and unseen film footage – revelations that shocked
the nation. He also conducted exclusive interviews with leading personalities of
the communist period who had known Enver Hoxha personally and who were
now willing to talk. Investigative journalism at its best.
The material compiled by Fevziu for TV has now been transformed into
the first biography of Enver Hoxha since the fall of the communist regime. The
original, Albanian-language version of this book appeared on the market in