Hoxha, Enver (ĕn`vĕr hô`jä), 1908–85, Albanian Communist leader and general. A founder (1941) of the Albanian Communist party (Albanian Labor party from 1948), Hoxha headed the radical resistance group in Italian-occupied Albania during World War II. General secretary of the party from 1943, he was premier (1946–54) of Albania after its proclamation as a republic. Hoxha was also minister of foreign affairs (1946–53) and commander in chief of the army (1944–54). He maintained close ties with the Soviet Union until its rift with Communist China in 1961; he then joined Beijing in its ideological struggle against Moscow and was branded as a Stalinist by Soviet and other Communist leaders. He stopped Albanian participation in the Warsaw Treaty Organization Warsaw Treaty Organization or Warsaw Pact, alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955 by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.
..... Click the link for more information. (Warsaw Pact) and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON or MEA), international organization active between 1956 and 1991 for the coordination of economic policy among certain nations then under Communist domination, including Albania (which did not participate after 1961),
..... Click the link for more information. (COMECON). In 1977, Hoxha broke ties with China, protesting that country's liberalization and the U.S.-China rapprochement. Under Hoxha's rule, Albania remained one of the least economically developed and one of the most isolated countries in Europe. Hoxha died in office in 1985, and was succeeded by Ramiz Alia.

Hoxha, Enver

Enver Hoxha greeting a member of a Chinese Red Guard delegation to Albania in 1967.

(credit: China Photo Service—Eastfoto)

(born Oct. 16, 1908, Gjirokastër, Alb.—died April 11, 1985, Tiranë) Albanian leader, first Albanian communist chief of state (1944–85). A schoolteacher, he opposed the Albanian fascists in World War II and in 1941 helped found the Albanian Communist Party, which he controlled until his death. He became prime minister (1944–54), and in 1946 he forced King Zog to abdicate. Albania's economy was revolutionized under Hoxha's rule, and he transformed the country from a semifeudal relic of the Ottoman Empire into an industrialized economy. To enforce his radical programs he resorted to brutal Stalinist tactics, making Albania the most tightly controlled society in Europe. An ardent nationalist, he broke with the Soviet Union in 1961 and with China in 1978, declaring that Albania would become a model socialist republic on its own.