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Enver Hoxha greeting a member of a Chinese Red Guard delegation to Albania in 1967. (credit: China Photo Service — Eastfoto)

(born Oct. 16, 1908, Gjirokastër, Alb. — died April 11, 1985, Tiranë) Albanian leader, first Albanian communist chief of state (1944 – 85). A schoolteacher, he opposed the Albanian fascists in World War II and in 1941 helped found the Albanian Communist Party, which he controlled until his death. He became prime minister (1944 – 54), and in 1946 he forced King Zog to abdicate. Albania's economy was revolutionized under Hoxha's rule, and he transformed the country from a semifeudal relic of the Ottoman Empire into an industrialized economy. To enforce his radical programs he resorted to brutal Stalinist tactics, making Albania the most tightly controlled society in Europe. An ardent nationalist, he broke with the Soviet Union in 1961 and with China in 1978, declaring that Albania would become a model socialist republic on its own.

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