The birth centenary of Enver Hoxha gives us an opportunity to reflect upon the impact of his life and work on the people of Albania and the world. Enver personified the victory of the Albanian people in the national liberation war against fascism and Nazism. Free Albania allied itself with the USSR and Stalin, with the people’s democracies which were marching towards socialism and communism. Despite the opposition presented by the Yugoslav and Soviet revisionists who wished Albania to turn to the path of capitalist restoration the country was able to successfully construct a socialist society. Socialist Albania was proudly able to claim that it was the only country where socialism was founded on the basis of the principles of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. As a result an economy and society was created upon the basis of socialist relations in which the working class and collective farm peasantry received unparalleled social services. The country became identified with the power of the working people; the construction of an egalitarian socialism; the struggle against bureaucratism; the emancipation of women from feudalism and capitalism; the struggle against religion, and the establishment of the atheist state. Internationally socialist Albania was identified with the consistent struggle against imperialism; the country stood as a fortress of socialism and democracy.
For the international communist movement the path of Enver represented the defence of Marxist theory and practice against the road of revisionism and capitalism restoration represented by the Yugoslav, Soviet and Chinese revisionists. The battles which were conducted by the Party of Labour of Albania retain their significance till today. It is for this reason that in its meeting held in December 2007 the 13th Plenum of the International Conference of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations decided to commemorate the centenary ‘of the birth of the outstanding and exemplary communist Enver Hoxha’. The name of Enver Hoxha is inextricably linked with revolutionary struggle for socialism and communism. His name will live through the ages.
Vijay Singh,