Enver Hoxha

Born in Gjirokastër in 1908, Hoxha unified Albania's fractured communist cells after the Italian invasion and became First Secretary at 34 in March 1943. Less than two years after liberation he abolished the monarchy and assumed control of the country, a position he held until his death in 1985. By the 1960s he had launched a program of state atheism, persecuting Muslims and Christians alike, and imposed totalitarian governance that imprisoned, executed, or exiled thousands - landowners, peasants resisting collectivization, clan leaders, party members suspected of disloyalty. His government outlawed private property and foreign travel. Proclaiming anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism, he broke with the Soviets, then Mao's China, finally declaring Albania would build socialism alone. That rigid isolation became his doctrine: parties worldwide still call themselves Hoxhaist.