Enver Hoxha (1908–1985) was an international figure whose Cold War significance extended well beyond the borders of Albania. To many Maoists around the world his forty-one-year rule of Albania transformed the county into ‘the only socialist country in Europe.’ Throughout the Cold War, Radio Tirana broadcast in nineteen languages while Hoxha’s many books appeared in at least twenty-seven. But Enver Hoxha was also the leader of a small Balkan nation, which he ruled through his state positions and his role as the First Secretary of the ruling communist party, the Party of Labor of Albania (PPSh). As Albania’s unchallenged leader, Hoxha turned the country into a pariah. In our historiography, Hoxha, the leader of an underdeveloped communist state in the Balkans and Hoxha, the dogmatic Marxist ideologue seem worlds apart. But they are the same person. His forty-one-year rule cannot be explained without referencing his ideology while his ideology cannot be explained without referencing Albania’s place in Cold War politics.
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