Enver Hoxha Quotes

Enver Hoxha was an Albanian communist politician who served as the head of state of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania. He was chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 1944 until his death. He served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times served as foreign minister and defence minister as well.

Born in Gjirokastër in 1908, Hoxha became a teacher in grammar school in 1936. Following Italy's invasion of Albania, he joined the Party of Labour of Albania at its creation in 1941. Hoxha was elected First Secretary in March 1943 at the age of 34. The Yugoslav Partisans assisted the Albanians. Less than two years after the liberation of the country, the monarchy was abolished, King Zog was deposed and Hoxha rose to power as the head of state of Albania.

"40 Years of Socialist Albania", an Albanian publication from 1984 describes how during his four-decade rule, he focused on rebuilding the country, which was left in ruins after World War II, building Albania's first railway line, raising the adult literacy rate from 5% to 98%, wiping out epidemics, electrifying the country and leading Albania towards becoming agriculturally self-sufficient. However, detractors criticize him for a series of political repressions which included the establishment and use of forced labor camps, extrajudicial killings and executions that targeted and eliminated dissidents, a large number of which was carried out by the Sigurimi secret police.

Hoxha's government was characterized by his proclaimed firm adherence to anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism from the mid-1970s onwards. After 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 is the best-known association of these parties today. Wikipedia  

✵ 16. October 1908 – 11. April 1985
Enver Hoxha photo
Enver Hoxha: 27 quotes1 like

Famous Enver Hoxha Quotes

“It didn't take long till the Titoites displayed dominating tendencies, expansionism and hegemonism in their relations with the newly founded states of people's democracy, especially in their relations with our country. As we know they sought to impose their anti-Marxist political, ideological, organisational and state views on us. They went so far as to make despicable attempts to transform Albania into a republic of Yugoslavia. In this unsuccessful and disgraceful undertaking the Titoites encountered our determined opposition. At first, our resistance was uncrystallised because we did not suspect that the Yugoslav leadership had set out on the capitalist and revisionist road. But after some years, when its hegemonic and expansionist tendencies were clearly displayed, we opposed them sternly and unreservedly.”

Enver Hoxha

Enver Hoxha, Yugoslav &quot;Self-Administration&quot; - Capitalist Theory and Practice http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/1978/yugoslavia/index.htm (Against the anti-socialist views of E. Kardelj) in the book “Directions of the Development of the Political System of Socialist Self-Administration”), Institute of Marxist-Leninist studies of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania, Tirana, 1978. <br class="br">Writings, Yugoslav &quot;Self-Administration&quot; - Capitalist Theory and Practice

Enver Hoxha Quotes about people

“In Cambodia, the Cambodian people, communists and patriots, have risen against the barbarous government of Pol Pot, which was nothing but a group of provocateurs in the service of the imperialist bourgeoisie and of the Chinese revisionists, in particular, which had as its aim to discredit the idea of socialism in the international arena… The anti-popular line of that regime is confirmed, also, by the fact that the Albanian embassy in the Cambodian capital, the embassy of a country which has given the people of Cambodia every possible aid, was kept isolated, indeed, encircled with barbed wire, as if it were in a concentration camp. The other embassies, too, were in a similar situation. The Albanian diplomats have seen with their own eyes that the Cambodian people were treated inhumanly by the clique of Pol Pot and Yeng Sari. Pnom Pen was turned into a deserted city, empty of people, where food was difficult to secure even for the diplomats, where no doctors or even aspirins could be found. We think that the people and patriots of Cambodia waited too long before overthrowing this clique which was completely linked with Beijing and in its service.”

Enver Hoxha

In regard to Cambodia, our Party and state have condemned the bloodthirsty activities of the Pol Pot clique, a tool of the Chinese social-imperialists. We hope that the Cambodian people will surmount the difficulties they are encountering as soon as possible and decide their own fate and future in complete freedom without any 'guardian'. (Selected Works Vol. VI, p. 419.)
Writings, Other

Enver Hoxha Quotes about homeland

“In order to continuously strengthen the defence of our country, it is necessary that we keep the military preparedness of all structures at a high level and perfect it day by day.”

Enver Hoxha

"Albania is Forging Ahead Confidently and Unafraid", speech to a meeting of electors in Tirana (8 November 1978)
Speeches

“Our only "crime" is that in Bucharest we did not agree that a fraternal communist party like the Chinese Communist Party should be unjustly condemned; our only "crime" is that we had the courage to oppose openly, at an international communist meeting (and not in the marketplace) the unjust action of Comrade Khrushchev, our only "crime" is that we are a small Party of a small and poor country which, according to Comrade Khrushchev, should merely applaud and approve but express no opinion of its own. But this is neither Marxist nor acceptable. Marxism-Leninism has granted us the right to have our say and we will not give up this right for any one, neither on account of political and economic pressure nor on account of the threats and epithets that they might hurl at us. On this occasion we would like to ask Comrade Khrushchev why he did not make such a statement to us instead of to a representative of a third party. Or does Comrade Khrushchev think that the Party of Labor of Albania has no views of its own but has made common cause with the Communist Party of China in an unprincipled manner, and therefore, on matters pertaining to our Party, one can talk with the Chinese comrades? No, Comrade Khrushchev, you continue to blunder and hold very wrong opinions about our Party. The Party of Labor of Albania has its own views and will answer for them both to its own people as well as to the international communist and workers' movement.”

Enver Hoxha

Speeches, Moscow Address

“The entire Party and country should wake up, throw into the flames and twist the neck of any one who tramples underfoot the sacred law of the Party in defense of the rights of women and girls.”

Enver Hoxha

"The Further Revolutionization of the Party and Government", speech to local Party organizations on the occasion of rendering accounts and elections (7 February 1967)
Speeches

Enver Hoxha Quotes

“No force, no torture, no intrigue, no deception can eradicate Marxism-Leninism from the minds and hearts of men.”

Enver Hoxha

Enver Hoxha (1980) Eurocommunism is Anti-communism https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hoxha/works/euroco/env2-1.htm <br class="br">Writings, Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism <br class="br">Context: Nevertheless, Marxism-Leninism has not disappeared, it is living and flourishing as an ideology and a reality, materialized in the socialist social system constructed according to its teachings. Exemplifying this is socialist Albania, the Marxist-Leninist parties, and those millions and millions of workers and peasants who are fighting every day for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, for democracy and national liberation. No force, no torture, no intrigue, no deception can eradicate Marxism-Leninism from the minds and hearts of men.

“This is a wrong course the Chinese comrades are trying to lead us on to, it is an opportunist road of vacillation and concessions to the Khrushchev traitor group which finds itself in grave difficulties, and is intriguing in order to escape defeat.”

Enver Hoxha

Enver Hoxha, Reflections on China, 1962-1972, vol. I http://redstarlibrary.org/?p=471 (Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House, 1979) <br class="br">Writings, Reflections on China, 1962-1972

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