NOTES 109

Stalin and Hoxha:

The Master and the Apprentice

Arshi Pipa

Something is happening in the Soviet Union. One wonders whether it is a re-

modeling of the outdated Soviet system, or a real "reconstruction," the term
used by its ambitious and somewhat pretentious champion. One can accept
with less reservation the other parameter of his "new thinking," i.e., "open-
ness," its main thrust being the reexamination and definition of the Stalin
myth.1 From this perspective, glasmst is an attempt to retrieve the meaning of
history which, during the Stalin era and also the Brezhnev period was perverted
into a narrative of gross falsifications and forgeries of all sorts. An example may
suffice. In 1970, the Moscow Progress Publishers issued A Short History ofthe Com-
munist Party ofthe Soviet Union by a team of Soviet historians under the direction of
B. N. Ponomarev. The book exalts Lenin as the architect of Soviet Communism
while being completely silent about Stalin, whose name is not even mentioned
(Brezhnev's is, by the way). We thus have a history of the Soviet Union without
Stalin — one could as well speak, of a house without a roof, or a car without a
steering wheel.
While Stalin's cult merely waned during the 'thaw' interlude, due to Khrush-
chev's desecration of the dictator's icon, Gorbachev's initiative could lead to
dumping it. Joining a campaign inaugurated by some radical historians, Gorba-
chev has accused Stalin of "violations of law (with) tragic consequences."2 His

1. "But the period which we call the personality-cult period affected our laws. . . .
This led to arbitrary rule and the reign oflawlessness. Stalin and his close associates are
responsible for those methods of governing the country. Any attempts to justify that
lawlessness by political needs, international tension or alleged exacerbation of class
struggle in the country are wrong." Mikhail Gorbachev in Perestroika, New Thinking for
Our Country and the World (New York: Harper and Row, 1987), excerpts in U. S. News &
World Report, Nov. 9,1987, p. 71.
2. Ibid.
110 ARSHl PIP A

daring move has met with considerable popular support in the Soviet Union,
while being coldly received in the Warsaw Pact countries, whose leaderships
perceive it as a threat to their power. One can surmise acerbic reactions by the
more unpopular leaderships in those countries. Albania, let us recall, broke
loose from the Soviet bloc when Khrushchev pressed the Hoxha-Shehu tandem
to reconcile with Tito, which they felt as marking die end of their duumvirate
and dierefore pushing diem over to China. Such adventuristic changing of sides
is probably an extreme case, typical of politically immature leaderships. None-
dieless if'reconstruction' obtains in the Soviet Union, restructurings of parts of
the Soviet empire are bound to occur.
Ever since it rejected Yugoslavia's tutelage, Albania has been moving errati-
cally in eastward orbits, circling first one and men the other sun, and ending
up swirling. Despite these twists and turns, Albania remains a Stalinist coun-
try, the only one in Europe where Stalin's memory continues to haunt every
mind. The question arises: if the saga of Stalin as the builder of the greatness
of the Soviet Union is liquidated there, what will happen to the legacy of
Hoxha, his "heir" and the architect of Stalinist Albania?
Before answering this question, let us see whether the poet Yevgeni
Yevtushenko's description of Hoxha as Stalin's most faithful "heir" 3 is accu-
rate. In his book, With Stalin,* published in 1979, i.e., in the same year as Impe-
rialism and Revolution, Hoxha's most representative "theoretical" work, he ex-
tols Stalin for "his stern and principled struggle for die defence, consistent im-
plementation and further development of the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin"
(6), "his great work widiout precedent in history" (12), defends him from "slan-
ders" such as "bloody tyrant" and "murderer" (14), while pointing out his
"brilliant mind and pure soul" (16), his "exhilarating laugh that went right to
one's heart" (146), "his voice so warm and inspiring" (219). Just as "before die
body of Lenin, Stalin pledged that he would loyally follow his teachings" (10),
when Stalin died, Hoxha, in the name of the Albanian people, "sign(ed) die
Oath . . . " 5 "to carry out (his) instructions."6
And in general he kept his word. He gave priority to die industrialization
of an overwhelmingly agrarian country while pushing hard for its diorough

3. "And I aim to our government with a request: slab, to double, treble the guards
over that gravestone so that Stalin should not rise, and with Stalin — the past. . . . It
seems to me to that coffin a telephone's connected: to Enver Hoxha Stalin transmits his
latest edicts. To where else is that direct line linked up?" Yevgeny Yevtushenko in "The
Heirs of Stalin," in Tariq Ali, The Stalinist Legacy (London: Penguin Books, 1984), p. 549.
4. Enver Hoxha, With Stalin (Tirana: Institute of Marxist-Lenninist Studies at the CC
of the PLA [IMLS], 1978).
5. A photo page after p. 208 in With Stalin shows "Comrade Enver Hoxha signing the
Oath of the Albanian People on die occasion of the death of Joseph Stalin, March 10,
1953."
6. " 'We shall certainly carry out your instructions, Comrade Stalin!' I said . . . . "
{Ibid., p. 216).
 NOTES 111

collectivization, achieved with methods similar to those used in the Soviet

Union. He organized the army and the State Security apparatus according to
stricdy Stalinist patterns. He all but copied the Soviet school system, and im-
posed on literature and the arts die Stalinist dogma of "socialist realism" Stalin's
theses on Soviet linguistics inform the language reform of the so-called "unified
literary Albanian." Last but not least, Hoxha submitted die Party to a series of
rudiless typically Stalinist purges,7 which led to his being glorified as die genius
of die Albanian revolution and die father of modern Albania.
This is not to say mat Hoxha imitated Stalin in everydiing Stalin did. Unlike
Stalin, Hoxha dressed elegandy while also affecting French manners. Stalin's
despotism was all grounded on terror, whereas Hoxha could charm people widi
his joviality and eloquence. On die odier hand, he lacked his master's prudence
and cool bearing, as made dear by his declaring Albania die first adieistic coun-
try in die history of mankind — Stalin would not commit mat blunder. There
are a few more differences between die two, but despite diose differences,
Hoxha was indeed Stalin's most faidiful disciple in at least four respects.
Just like Stalin, Hoxha built his personality cult dirough consecutive Party
purges mainly by playing his rivals against each odier. He first allied himself
to Kocj Xoxe, dien die Party's strongman, to eliminate Sejfulla Maleshova, die
only Albanian communist leader widi a Marxist dieoretical background. He
dien pushed to suicide Nako Spiru, die talented young Minister of Economy,
whose head was wanted by Xoxe. Next he liquidated Xoxe by joining
Mehmet Shehu, a popular military hero. "The artful Albanian" had Shehu,
first as Minister of Interior and later as Premier, do the dirty job of repressing
all kinds of dissidents and deviators, including die former Minister of Educa-
tion, Fadil Pacjami, an innovative playwright much admired by die youdi. Fi-
nally die dictator turned against his longtime faidiful collaborator, accusing
him of being a "superagent" of imperialism (Shehu allegedly committed sui-
cide). Hoxha's way to dictatorship, just like Stalin's, is strewn with die corpses
of his actual or potential rivals.
Like Stalin, Hoxha suffered from megalomania, die kind characteristic of
mediocrities striving to cover dieir inferiority complex by posing as superior
beings. The Bolshevik leaders Stalin liquidated: Trotsky, Bukharin, Zinoviev,
to name die most important among diem, by far outdid Stalin in statesman-
ship and creative power. Envious of dieir superiority of mind and culture, he
tried hard to prove himself equal as a Marxist dieoretician while pretending to
be die sole heir to Lenin, akhough Lenin's testament mentions Bukharin as
such, while criticizing Stalin for his "duress." Driven by his ambition to be
hailed as die dieoretician of Marxism-Leninism (his name for Stalinism), die
former seminarist wrote audioritatively on Soviet economy and, in his capaci-
ty as commander-in-chief of die Soviet armed forces during WWII, dabbled

7. See Arshi Pipa, "Party Ideology and Purges in Albania," Tebs 59 (Spring 1984),
pp. 69-100.
112 ARSHIPIPA

in military theory. He even reached out to legislating over areas totally extra-
neous to his interests. It was Stalin who, together with Gorki, concocted the doc-
trine of "socialist realism." And it was Stalin who reformed Soviet linguistics by
demolishing Marx' concept of language as a superstructural phenomenon with
class character. Hoxha imitated his master by dabbling in all these areas and in
others, too, such as history (he wrote several books of memoirs), education (he
had taught French for some time) and also religion. Being no genius and also
half-educated (he dropped his university studies, and only in his old age read
and wrote extensively), he could enunciate trite and half-cooked judgments, but
never a deep, let alone original, thought.8 His sporadic attempts to deal with
Marxist dieory show him poorly acquainted with even its basics — in this much
inferior to Stalin, who could sustain his arguments with pedantic logic couched
in catechistic style. Hoxha was so insignificant a theoretician of Marxism that his
"teachings" did not even invite elaboration by his devotees, who have been
merely uncritically parroting him. And since it was he who held the monopoly
of Marxism-Leninism in his country, Albanian Diamat (dialectic materialism) is
of the lowest quality, and Albania the only communist country in Eastern Eu-
rope where Marxist theory is at zero level.
A "bloody tyrant" as a statesman and a half-educated mediocrity as an intel-
lectual, Hoxha resembles Stalin also for his unprincipled Byzantine-style
Machiavellianism. After siding with the Bukharin-led faction against the
Trotsky-Zinoviev "left" opposition and liquidating the latter, Stalin shifted to the
position of the "left" faction and turned against his former allies on the "right."
He repeated this volte-face when he concluded a nonaggression pact with Hitler,
following a relentless campaign against all kinds of fascism, even branding as
such social democracy itself. As the Commissar for die nationalities, Stalin de-
fended die right of Soviet peoples to cultivate dieir national languages, a posi-
tion he later reversed when he proceeded to Russify die Soviet Union, his justifi-
cation being the Diamat principle according to which what is valid today may be
invalid tomorrow due to circumstantial changes. Hoxha's principialnost was a
Stalin blueprint. Under Hoxha's leadership during die "national liberation
war," die Albanian Communist Party concluded an alliance with the nation-
alistic Balli Kombetar (National Front) to resist and fight Italian fascism. Pressed
by his Yugoslav mentors, Hoxha quickly denounced die alliance while blaming
it on his delegates. When die Yugoslavs found Xoxe more amenable to dieir plan
of annexing Albania, Hoxha praised Tito in an article9 to gain Tito's confidence.
At die time, diis amounted to his consenting to die annexation plan. And when

8. See Arshi Pipa, review of Hoxha's The Titoites (1962) in Telos 61 (Fall 1984, pp. 197-
206; "Ueber die Zunkunft des albanischen Sozialismus," Gegenstimmen, Fall 1985, pp.
10-15; review of Ion Halliday's The Artful Albanian, The Memoirs ofEnver Hoxha (1986) in
Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, March-June 1987, pp. 40-42, zndDielli, March 31, 1987.
9. "The Yugoslavs needed my article to have it as a 'certificate of good behaviour'
for Yugoslavia and Tito," Enver Hoxha, The Titoites (IMLS: Tirana, 1982), p. 449.
 NOTES 1U

Stalin denounced Tito, Hoxha prompdy accused his ally of being a traitor to in-
ternational communism while having Xoxe hanged as a traitor to the Albanian
nation. Hoxha played die same game widi Khrushchev. When die Soviet leader
requested that Hoxha make peace widi Tito, Hoxha went over to Mao instead,
branding Khrushchev as a "social-imperialist." He extended that epidiet to Mao
when China came to terms widi die United States.
There was a time when diis horse trader of Marxism was applauded as the
champion of "pure" Marxism-Leninism by ill-informed foreign acolytes, dius
prompting Hoxha's Albanian devotees to hail him as the Messiah of world
communism. Purism in politics is much more suspect dian purism in language
and poetry, "pure art" being no more dian a religion of art, widi beauty substi-
tuting for god. Stressing purity in politics is a disingenous way to hide its impuri-
ty. Now "purity" has been a preferred label for die Albanian brand of Marxism-
Leninism, which is nominally Marxist, minimally Leninist, and essentially
Stalinist, widi a smattering of Maoism. The adequate name for diis new religion
is Stalalbanianism, or simply Hoxhanism. It reached its apex widi die apo-
dieosis of its founder, following his deadi. Scholars vied widi each odier to glori-
fy die hero as a great statesman, a military genius, an eminent Marxist and phi-
losopher, an outstanding historian, and even a distinguished writer, attributing
such epidiets as "universal," "immortal" and "eternal" to his mind or work.10
Stalin's cult as die architect of die first socialist state in die history of humankind
and die builder of die Soviet Union into a superpower is in die tradition of Rus-
sian messianism and die mydi of die Third Rome. Hider's charisma was
grounded on die national feeling of revenge compounded widi die mydi of ra-
cial purity traced down to pagan times. Hoxha exploited die rising Albanian na-
tionalism against die traditional religious and regional differences of his people,
a strategy formulated by an Albanian Risorgimento man, Pashko Vasa: "The
Albanians' religion is Albaniandom."
This mixture of patriotism and religiosity was in his blood, his family belong-
ing to die Bektashi sect, a Shia Sufi heretical sea particularly influential in Alba-
nia on account of its patriotic activity. Reflections on the Middle East11 includes a sort
of essay on die Arab civilization, in which one runs into sentences revealing
Hoxha's Islamic parti pris: "In fact die Koran is more complete and purer dian
die Bible (Torah) of the Jews, die Christian Gospel, etc." (464). He gready ad-
mires Mohammed, "While being a preacher of die Koranic law, Mohammed, at
die same time, was also 'head of die state' "(483). "Mohammed was not an 'aut-
ocrat' . . . because (ski) God was die only 'source of audiority bodi for die leader
(Mohammed) and for die people' " (484). Sentences such as diese strongly suggest

10. "Figure universelle" in Ramiz Alia, "Drapeau de la lutte pour la liberte et le

socialisme," Stvdia albanica 23 (1986) 1, p. 7; "oeuvre immortelle" in Foto Qami, "Le
camarade Enver Hoxha, fondateur, organisateur et dirigeant de notre glorieux Parti,"
ibid., 22 (1985) 1, p. 8; "gloire etemelle a l'oeuvre monumentale" in Alia, op. cii., p. 9.
11. (IMLS, Tirana, 1984).
114 ARSHIPIPA

that Hoxha tends to identify with Mohammed, a projection of his own

image as the founder of a new credo, Albanian atheism. Another passage
praises Islam for its "democracy": "Its democratic character was reinforced, also
by the liberation of people from the tyranny of different religions . . . " (486).
Here Hoxha has in mind polytheistic religions as contrasted with monotheistic
ones. But can a monotheistic religion be called democratic because it liberates
peoples from polytheistic religions? This sounds like monopoly capitalism liber-
ating the world from English and French colonialism. Can a person who utters
such an enormity be a follower of Marx, for whom religion, any religion, is
"opiate to the people"? Elsewhere one finds, "Mohammedanism, or Islam, is a
'universal' monotheistic religion" (463), ". . . its monotheism expressed in the
axiom, 'There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet' " (464).
Leaving out Allah, and paraphrasing, one gets: Hoxhanism, or Stalalbanianism,
is a universal mono(a)theistic religion . . . . its mono(a)theism expressed in the
axiom, "There is no god, but Hoxha is his prophet." Here the parallel with the
Georgian seminarist lies in their fanatic pursuit of absolute power. They would
not relent before reaching it, using to that end new and old Machiavellian
means: lies, slander, hypocrisy, perjury, treachery, generalized espionage, falsifi-
cation of history, corruption of science, not to mention jails, psychiatric confine-
ment, gulags, torture of all kinds, and especially murder, be that the shooting of
a pregnant woman once a Politburo member, or the systematic extermination
of millions of people, including old Party members and even Party founders.
Khrushchev dealt the first blow to Stalin's cult, while going only half-way in
his de-Stalinization reform (it was Khrushchev who suppressed the Polish pro-
test in 1956 and then crushed the Hungarian revolution of the same year).
Gorbachev seems committed to do away with both Stalin and the Stalinist
plague. How will glasnost affect Albania, where Stalin has survived, and Stalinism
in its Hoxhan variant is very much alive? Some signs of a change seem promis-
ing. Albania has established diplomatic relations with West Germany and Cana-
da, and — most telling — with Hungary, a Soviet bloc country. The volume of
tourism has increased. And for the first time since Albania broke with Yugosla-
via, non-Party people have been allowed to visit their Yugoslav relatives. Facts
such as these imply a partial rejection of Hoxha's isolationistic politics. If the
trend consolidates, Albania might soon follow the example of other East Euro-
pean communist countries as to foreign policy. What about internal policies? In
his recent talks with Albanian leaders in Tirana, Hans Dietrich Genscher, the
West German Foreign Minister, raised the questions of human rights,12 thus al-
luding to the fact Albania is the only European country that has not signed the
Helsinki Pact. Now that Hoxha is gone, there is no reason for Albania to persist
in being Europe's black sheep. Normal participation in international associat-
ions and conferences (one thinks especially of Third World and Balkan confer-
ences) will erode the Hoxha cult, already injured by the sensational

12. Reuter Agency, Bonn, October 23, 1987.

 NOTES Hi

revelation of his homosexuality,13 a crime punishable with no less than ten years
according to the Albanian Penal Code. Once the Hoxha myth is debunked, the
Hoxha cult will go down the drain. Radical writers will see to it. Ismail Kadare's
narrative before his capitulation,14 is a precedent which can serve as an example.
In Chronicle in Stone, a bitter satire of the customs of Gjirokaster, Hoxha's native
town, with him as a minor character, perverse sexuality and murder go hand in
hand.
The question is who will be the one to start the debunking campaign. The ac-
tual number one, a most faithful disciple of die master, seems hardly fit for the
job. The same can be said for the rest of die leadership. An initiative from die
rank and file is to be excluded a priori, Stalinist unions having no more autono-
my than fascist corporations. The students, perhaps? One diinks of the recent
tumultuous demonstrations in China and South Korea, Albania being, accord-
ing to some, more affinal to Third World than to European countries. One also
remembers that the Albanian Cultural Revolution launched by Hoxha emulat-
ing Mao relied only in part on students, whose endiusiasm Hoxha distrusted.
My guess is that a student protest movement in Albania (not to be ruled out
considering that a precedent exists: die 1981 mass demonstrations by die Alba-
nians in Yugoslavia requesting republic status for Kosova) could hardly take
place widiout being instigated, or at least condoned, by those in power. The lat-
ter alternative seems more probable, in view of die long period of totalitarian re-
gime in die country. In odier words, Albania would follow die example of the
actual Chinese leadership which, having shelved Maos's legacy, has allowed a
modicum of liberal reforms in die nation's economy, administration and for-
eign policy. If so, the actual Albanian leadership could manage to operate die
shift in an anodyne manner. Hoxha's name would still be mentioned for rhet-
oric's sake, while sounding more and more hollow. And one hopes a day will
come when die new generation will feel embarrassed and even ashamed of hav-
ing had parents who could revere a person such as Hoxha. And where his body
lies, a nameless slab will read: Sk transit gloria immundi.

13. "II morale vizietto di Hozha," // Corriere della Sera, 11 Nov. 1987; " 'Hoxha 3 Un
pederasta che uccideva i propri amanti'," La Republka, 11 Nov. 1987: "Rivelazioni:
'Enver Hoxha era omosessuale, paranoico e assassino'," II Messaggero di Roma, 11 Nov.
1987; "Cos! Hoxha viet6 romanzi e musica," 14 Nov. 1987: "Albania rivela, 'Hoxha era
gay e assassinava i suoi amanti'," // Resto del Carlino, 11 Nov. 1987; "Hoxha, il
'deviazionista'," 13 Nov. 1987.
14. See Arshi Pipa, "Subversion vs. Conformism: The Kadare Phenomenon," in
Telos 73 (Fall 1987), pp. 47-78.