this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Enver Hoxha, born on this day in 1908, was the communist leader of Albania from 1946 to 1985, leaving behind a complex legacy of feminism and greatly improved access to healthcare and education. Hoxha is also known for having sharp ideological and political disagreements with the Soviet Union and communist Yugoslavia, siding most strongly with and receiving aid from Maoist China.

He was First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania from 1941 until his death in 1985, a member of its Politburo, chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, and commander-in-chief of the Albanian People's Army. He was the twenty-second prime minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times was both foreign minister and defence minister of the country.

Hoxha was born in Ergiri in 1908 and became a grammar school teacher in 1936. Following the Italian invasion of Albania, he joined the Party of Labour of Albania at its creation in 1941 in the Soviet Union.

Before coming into power, Hoxha was a French school teacher and librarian, becoming a communist partisan after fascist Italy invaded Albania in 1939. In March 1943, the first National Conference of the Communist Party elected Hoxha formally as First Secretary.

It was in this position as First Secretary that Hoxha became head of state after the Albanian monarchy was abolished in 1946.

Hoxha declared himself a Marxist–Leninist and strongly admired Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin. The Agrarian Reform Law was passed in August 1945. It confiscated land from beys and large landowners, giving it without compensation to peasants. 52% of all land was owned by large landowners before the law was passed; this declined to 16% after the law's passage.

The State University of Tirana was established in 1957, which was the first of its kind in Albania. The medieval Gjakmarrja (blood feud) was banned. Malaria, the most widespread disease, was successfully fought through advances in health care, the use of DDT, and through the draining of swampland. In 1938 the number of physicians was 1.1 per 10,000 and there was only one hospital bed per 1,000 people. In 1950, while the number of physicians had not increased, there were four times as many hospital beds per head, and health expenditures had risen to 5% of the budget, up from 1% before the war.

Under Hoxha's leadership, the Albanian literacy rate improved from 5-10% in rural areas to more 90%. Hoxha was also a proponent of women's rights, stating "the entire party and country should hurl into the fire and break the neck of anyone who dared trample underfoot the sacred edict of the party on the defense of women's rights". Accordingly, more than 175 times as many women attended secondary schools in 1978 than had done so in 1938.

Relations with Yugoslavia

At this point, relations with Yugoslavia had begun to change. The roots of the change began on 20 October 1944 at the Second Plenary Session of the Communist Party of Albania. The Session considered the problems that the post-independence Albanian government would face. However, the Yugoslav delegation which was led by Velimir Stoinić accused the party of "sectarianism and opportunism" and blamed Hoxha for these errors. He also stressed the view that the Yugoslav Communist partisans spearheaded the Albanian partisan movement.

Tito's position on Albania was that it was too weak to stand on its own and that it would do better as a part of Yugoslavia. Hoxha alleged that Tito had made it his goal to get Albania into Yugoslavia, firstly by creating the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Aid in 1946. In time, Albania began to feel that the treaty was heavily slanted towards Yugoslav interests, much like the Italian agreements with Albania under Zog that made the nation dependent upon Italy

When Yugoslavia publicly broke with the Soviet Union, Hoxha's support base grew stronger. Then, on 1 July 1948, Tirana called on all Yugoslav technical advisors to leave the country and unilaterally declared all treaties and agreements between the two countries null and void

Relations with the Soviet Union

From 1948 to 1960, $200 million in Soviet aid was given to Albania for technical and infrastructural expansion. Albania was admitted to the Comecon on 22 February 1949 and served as a pro-Soviet force on the Adriatic.

Relations with the Soviet Union remained close until the death of Stalin in March 1953. Under Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's eventual successor, aid was reduced and Albania was encouraged to adopt Khrushchev's specialisation policy. Under it, Albania would develop its agricultural output in order to supply the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries while they would be developing products of their own, which would, in theory, strengthen the Warsaw Pact. However, this also meant that Albanian industrial development, which was stressed heavily by Hoxha, would be hindered

In the years after Stalin's death, Hoxha grew increasingly distressed by the policies of the Soviet leadership and of Khrushchev in particular. China was also disillusioned with Soviet behavior at this time, and Hoxha found common ground with Mao Zedong's criticisms of Moscow. By 1961 Hoxha's attacks on the "revisionist" Soviet leadership had so infuriated Khrushchev that he elected first to terminate Moscow's economic aid to Albania and ultimately to sever diplomatic relations entirely.

Relations with China

At the start of Albania's Third Five-year Plan, China offered Albania a loan of $125 million which would be used to build twenty-five chemical, electrical and metallurgical plants in accordance with the Plan. However, the nation discovered that the task of completing these building projects was difficult, because Albania's relations with its neighbors were poor and because matters were also complicated by the long distance between Albania and China.

The financial aid which China provided to Albania was interest-free and it did not have to be repaid until Albania could afford to do so. China never intervened in Albania's economic output, and Chinese technicians and Albanian workers both worked for the same wages.

During the Cultural Revolution, China entered into a four-year period of relative diplomatic isolation, however, its relations with Albania were positive. Albania's relations with China began to deteriorate on 15 July 1971, when United States President Richard Nixon agreed to visit China in order to meet with Zhou Enlai. Hoxha believed that China had betrayed Albania.

The result of this criticism was a message from the Chinese leadership in 1971 in which it stated that Albania could not depend on an indefinite flow of aid from China. Following Mao's death on 9 September 1976, Hoxha remained optimistic about Sino-Albanian relations, but in August 1977, Hua Guofeng, the new leader of China, stated that Mao's Three Worlds Theory would become official foreign policy. Hoxha viewed this as a way for China to justify having the U.S. as the "secondary enemy" while viewing the Soviet Union as the main one, thus allowing China to trade with the U.S.

On 13 July 1978, China announced that it was cutting off all of its aid to Albania. For the first time in modern history, Albania did not have an ally and it also did not have a major trading partner.

During this period, Albania was the most isolated country in Europe. In 1983, Albania imported goods which were worth $280 million but it exported goods which were worth $290 million, producing a trade surplus of $10 million.

In 1973, Hoxha suffered a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. In increasingly precarious health from the late 1970s onward, he turned most state functions over to Ramiz Alia. Hoxha was succeeded by Ramiz Alia, who oversaw the fall of communism in Albania.

Enver Hoxha Page hoxha-turt

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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

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(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)
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[–] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I had a dream we had a Hexbear Stellaris game and I did synthetic ascension instead of bio or psi ascension, which for some reason made everyone so mad that when I went to the site after the game to defend myself, the admins brought back downvotes just so people could take my comments down to like -20

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[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Got Mr. Sofite in a papoose aka he's on my lap and I have to hunch over to type

[–] Mokey@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So far my impressions of Blowback are: Saddam fafo'd at the worst possible time, the US is evil and the victims are the Iraqi citizens.

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[–] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago (3 children)

What is with pitbull owners not leashing their dogs? Two more of them died today because their dumbass owners didn't leash them and were shocked that the jaguars ate them. It's just as bad in the cities where they run around biting people and their owners always act so shocked that muffin bit someone.

[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Ngl your comment went a different direction than I expected. I have careless owners in my ares, but its wild to be like that in a place with hostile wildlife.

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago (3 children)
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[–] GenderIsOpSec@hexbear.net 13 points 2 years ago

Been reading a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 fanfiction while taking a break from doomscrolling Palestine (palestine-heart ) happenings.

It's taking me back to my misbegotten youth of reading the R.A. Salvatore Drizzt novels, except the fics are way more gay and better written meow-coffee

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)
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[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

Remember when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock?

[–] Antiwork@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

We aren’t going to have an Enver Hoxha daily mega without mentioning a top 5 user of all time. Not on my hexbear. @Enver_Hoxha@hexbear.net who-must-go

[–] PointAndClique@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Today I finally looked up how to pronounce Hoxha, apparently it's close to something like 'Hodzha'. Definitely not 'Houhah', as I had been saying in my head

[–] Fruitbat@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago

ohnoes that like way different with how I been saying Hoxha. I been saying his name like "Hoax-ah" because of the x.

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[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

So many teachers don't seem to realize that they're there to teach students about a subject and not to put them through a gauntlet.

Making education a competitive fair is ridiculous. I learn far more from "soft" professors than from any of these "tough-love" types

[–] SkibidiToiletFanAcct@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago

It is a dark day when you find yourself typing into Google "how to make recursive formulas in Excel"

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago (14 children)

I accidentally changed my language settings in FTL to German and deleted my save file in the same panicked series of clicks.

This is the only game I've had for the last few weeks.

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[–] SnAgCu@hexbear.net 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I didn't used to get winded climbing up 5 flights of stairs

not sure if skill issue or the Covid from a while ago disgost

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[–] commiespammer@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Lost my 1936 vic3 PRC save because I left it as an autosave and overrode it with an autosave from my new Italy campaign. Oh well, I'll have a better game when 1.5 comes out.

[–] President_Obama@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago

Good mega topic , learnt a bit about hoxha-turt

[–] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago

olimar-point pikmin-carry-lthey-hit-the-pentagonpikmin-carry-r pikmin-onion
FWIIII ^Huh!^ ^Hooh!^ ^Huh!^ ^Hooh!^ ^Huh!^ ^Hooh!^

[–] Grownbravy@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago (5 children)

My car got a flat over the weekend, and i couldnt get it off because it’s stuck to the hub. And I got to move it by later this morning

thurston

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[–] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago

Palestinian singer Dalal Abu Amneh, who is known for her traditional songs, has been arrested by Israeli police over a Facebook post, according to news reports.

In Soviet China so-true

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago

I was reading through my old posts looking for anything worth archiving and I found a post I made when we federated. i was concered with inline images, made a post about it, and the Devs updated the site to make inline images minimized by default a few days later. rat-salute-2 to our valiant and hardworking devs for making this site such a great place for communication, comradery, and shitposting.

[–] Mokey@hexbear.net 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I dont want to do anything lately. Ive been going to sleep super early. I really need to find a way to practice on a real drum kit more often.

When I was going to community college I worked at a grocery store to help pay my way through. We had this supervisor who wanted to be a cop so bad but he was too much of a massive coward to even be that. He used to help the security hunt down shoplifters, even though he wasnt getting paid for it nor would he be protected by the company for doing it. He was also racist and he'd often try to engage with me in racist rhetoric. He'd also always ask my coworker out on dates and she'd say no and we'd laugh about it.

He eventually became an undercover security guard for the grocery store and he'd wear a beanie and baggie pants as his camoflague. He looked like an undercover security guard.

I saw him yesterday at my local grocery store doing the same shit, its been a long fucking time.

His brother got fired from his job as a security guard at a middle school for picking a fight with my childhood friends. The next week he shot up their house with a BB gun. It was very funny.

[–] john_browns_beard@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Last interview with a potential new job today and I am expecting to be offered the position. I already feel bad for the good people in my department who will very likely be hung out to dry by upper management but I wouldn't fault any of them if they left for what will probably be a >30% pay increase. Not looking forward to the chaos that will come with the lame duck period after I give notice but they survived before me and they'll survive after I'm gone.

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[–] viva_la_juche@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

My partners Brazilian mom is so funny she’s largely apolitical and doesn’t really know what’s going on but something about boomers on the internet, it’s like social media knows and just naturally serves them a ton of reactionary shit (or that’s just generally how sm works and they just don’t know how to tell it stop) but anyway she just came in and told us that the Brazilian govt is trying to oust Lula bc he said he supports Hamas lol

[–] Dolores@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago

broke: Saladin was Kurdish

woke: Saladin was Armenian arm-L 🇦🇲 arm-R (his family was from Ajdanakan)

[–] h3doublehockeysticks@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The fact that people like Masayoshi Son and Marc Andreesen can spend a decade being wrong on every single investment decision they make, still make money and keep going is pretty infuriating. Anyway Marc Andreesen has pivoted to weapons and he's named ethics as his own personal enemy and that's not hyperbole or a joke.

[–] h3doublehockeysticks@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago

No seriously he's named the concept of ethics in tech his enemy

[–] Teekeeus@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago
[–] thirtymilliondeadfish@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

seeing usernames migrate to other instances is very funny to me. ilovethebomb eat my dick and ass and learn to pronounce papakangehorohoro already

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[–] FactuallyUnscrupulou@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago

Does anyone have experience shipping luggage? Is UPS/FedEx the best route or is some online service better?

The real issue is we need more rail; Amtrak won't offer luggage check at certain stations due to lack of staff.

[–] President_Obama@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Every guy named Otis is a cute twink

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[–] Zrc@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago
[–] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 10 points 2 years ago

Saw a chipmunk this morning, it's mid october and they still haven't hibernated yet, weather is fucked.

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