Enver Hoxha (; 16 October 190811 April 1985 ) was the Communist leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania.

Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër, a city in southern Albania ( then under the Ottoman Empire ) that has been home to many prominent families.

He was the son of Halil Hoxha, a Bektashi Tosk cloth merchant who travelled widely across Europe and the United States of America, and Gjylihan ( Gjylo ) Hoxha.

As a result of his extensive education, Hoxha was fluent in French and had a working knowledge of Italian, Serbian, English and Russian.

Hoxha was chosen from the " Korca group " as a Muslim representative by the two Yugoslav envoys as one of the seven members of the provisional Central Committee.

In July 1942, a " Call to the Albanian Peasantry " was written by Enver Hoxha and issued in the name of the Communist Party of Albania.

The General Headquarters was created with Spiro Moisiu as the commander and Enver Hoxha as political commissary.

According to Hoxha, Josip Broz Tito had agreed that " Kosovo was Albanian " but that Serbian opposition made transfer an unwise option.

The Anti-Fascist Committee for National Liberation was founded, with Hoxha as its chairman.

On 22 October, the Committee became the Democratic Government of Albania after a meeting in Berat and Hoxha was chosen as interim Prime Minister.

As First Secretary, Hoxha was de facto head of state and the most powerful man in the country.

Joseph Stalin gave advice to Hoxha and stated that Yugoslavia was attempting to annex Albania.

At the Eighth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party which lasted from 26 February – 8 March 1948, Xoxe was implicated in a plot to isolate Hoxha and consolidate his own power.

However, this also meant that Albanian industrial development, which was stressed heavily by Hoxha, would have to be significantly reduced.

Hoxha had not been consulted on this and was offended.

Hoxha stated that this was yet another of many attempts to overthrow the leadership of Albania which had been organized by Yugoslavia.

After the collapse of the Axis powers, Albania became a communist state, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, which for the most part of its duration was dominated by Enver Hoxha ( died 1985 ).

Hoxha and Shehu apparently decided in May or June 1960 that Albania was assured of Chinese support, and they openly sided with the PRC when sharp polemics erupted between the PRC and the Soviet Union.

This had the effect of isolating Albania from the rest of the world, as Hoxha was hostile to both the pro-USA and pro-Soviet spheres of influence, as well as the Non-Aligned Movement under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, whom Hoxha had also denounced.

Mercedes Benz cars were owned by Enver Hoxha and reportedly favored by his officials, giving the brand a foothold even before private ownership of cars was legalized.

The pro-Albanian camp would start to function as an international group as well, led by Enver Hoxha and the APL, and was also able to amalgamate many of the communist groups in Latin America, including the Communist Party of Brazil and Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in Ecuador.

Mao Zedong's Three Worlds Theory is described as realpolitik by his critics, including Enver Hoxha, who point out that it was not based in a strong ideological basis, being used only to justify China's alignment with the United States rather than the Soviet Union.

Koçi Xoxe tried to stop Hoxha from improving relations with Bulgaria, reasoning that Albania would be more stable with one trading partner rather than with many.

Known officially as the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1976, and then as the People's Socialist Republic of Albania from 1976 to 1991, Albania spent much of this time under the regime of Enver Hoxha, who severely restricted citizens ' freedom and contact with the outside world.

Colonel David Smiley, an aristocratic Guards officer who had helped Enver Hoxha and his Communist guerillas to liberate Albania, now prepared to liberate it from Hoxha.

Enver Hoxha critiqued Maoism from a Marxist-Leninist perspective, arguing that new democracy halts class struggle, the theory of the three worlds is " counter-revolutionary " and questioned Mao's guerilla warfare methods.

The first country experiencing this approach was Albania, where leader Enver Hoxha immediately changed course from favoring Yugoslavia to opposing it.

But the bunkerisation of Albania produced a disaster, causing Enver Hoxha to send Moisiu to Burrel, where he served as the commander of an engineers ' company from 1982 to 1984.

Unknown in the times of Tintin were later strong leaders from the same area: Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania, Todor Zhivkov of Bulgaria and Enver Hoxha of Albania.

It may be noted that the charip idea of a self-contained economy was unlike other countries that withdrew from the world economy such as Albania under Enver Hoxha and Myanmar ( Burma ), two countries that " withdrew " to no apparent purpose as their economies idled along or got worse ; North Korea didn't idle but grew until the 1980s.

Strauss visited communist Albania on 21 August 1984, while Enver Hoxha, the ruler from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, was still alive.

On 9 December 1990, student demonstrators marched from the Enver Hoxha University ( now University of Tirana ) at Tirana through the streets of the capital shouting slogans and demanding a reforms.

The dominant figure in modern Albanian history, Enver Hoxha rose from obscurity to lead his people for a longer time than any other ruler.

Born in 1908 to a Tosk landowner from Gjirokastër who returned to Albania after working in the United States, Hoxha attended the country's best college-preparatory school, the National Lycée in Korçë.

Mehmet Shehu shared power with Enver Hoxha from the end of the Second World War.

They decide to send Bart to France, while the Simpsons host a student from the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, named Adil Hoxha.

Hoxha, pronounced Hodja is an Albanian surname derived from the title Khawaja.

Critical of the United States, the Soviet Union, China, and Yugoslavia, Enver Hoxha declared the latter three to be social-imperialist and condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia by withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact in response.

He remained in that position until the Communist government began to fall in 1991, when he resigned after mobs tore down the statue of Enver Hoxha, Albania's communist leader from the 1940s until the 1980s.

In July 1953, Hoxha handed over the foreign affairs and defense portfolios to loyal followers, but he kept both the top party post and the premiership until 1954, when Shehu became Albania's prime minister.

Hoxha relinquishes post of Prime Minister to Mehmet Shehu but retains primary power as First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania.