Despite his macabre legacy and the revulsion felt for him in Albania, the dictator Enver Hoxha is still remembered fondly by communists over the border in Kosovo.
A few minutes walk from the centre of Ferizaj in Kosovo stands the first high school. Opened in 1938, today it houses the Popular Front for the Cultivation of the Works of Comrade Enver Hoxha, founded in 2010.
Agim Xhigoli, the sixty-something secretary of the organization, opens the door and ushers me inside.
There I find myself surrounded by countless photographs and a one-metre-high bust of Enver Hoxha the communist dictator who rose to power after the Second World War in 1945 and maintained a firm grip on Albania until his death in 1985.
Some years ago, the Albanian public was shocked by the sight in Kosovo of a commemorative meeting of Hoxha fans, nicknamed Hoxhaists, at the Red Hall in Prishtina’s Palace of Youth, in the center of the Kosovo capital.
They had gathered to commemorate Hoxha and the “achievements” of his leadership.
The lengthy applause accompanied by chanting of his name evoked the conventions of the old Albanian Labour Party, the only permitted party in Albania until the fall of the communist system in 1990. The strange spectacle in Kosovo was not well received in Albania.
“Enver Hoxha was unwavering in his thoughts, invincible, and never bowed down to anyone,” Xhigoli says of his idol, standing next to the pale bust of the dictator who glares over the paraphernalia of his legacy.
Enver Hoxha bust in Ferizaj. Photo: Rron Gjinovci.
Xhigoli unhesitatingly calls Hoxha one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, comparing him to Nelson Mandela, Jospeh Stalin and Che Guevara.
Having lived in Yugoslavia, which Albania cut all ties with in 1948, Kosovo Albanians had little contact with their cousins across the border until recent years.
Most of the Kosovo nationalist groups that operated illegally during Yugoslav times sought unification with Albania and glorified “the motherland,” as well its leader, Hoxha. Since there was no contact, Kosovars knew little of the truth of Hoxha’s iron-fisted rule.
Kosovars also tend to have a skewed perception of Albanian political leaders generally.
Without directly experiencing the effects of their policies, Kosovars traditionally feel a certain respect for them as the representatives of all Albanians.
Perhaps this is why the Ferizaj Hoxhaists see Hoxha as a great figure.
“Hoxha inspired and masterminded every movement for national liberation and unification,” Xhigoli says, listing Hoxha’s alleged strong points. He recalls that Hoxha was known affectionately as “Uncle Enver” in Albania and that he eradicated illiteracy and the electrified the entire country.
Xhigoli claims Hoxha was a person of great dignity and insists that his “Eastern and Western enemies trembled before him.”
In reality, Hoxha’s Albania was the most isolated country in the world and travel to and from it was almost impossible. More than 5,000 people were sentenced to death in bogus trials and tens of thousands of people were incarcerated in work camps during Hoxha’s rule.
“Life might have been difficult for Albanians, but it is plain to see that Albania preserved its sovereignty because of Enver [Hoxha],” Xhigoli maintains, pointedly calling the ruthless dictator by his first name.
He says that the Popular Front for Cultivation the Work of Comrade Enver Hoxha in Ferizaj has issued around 5,000 membership cards and that they have at least least 300 active members.
The room in which we sit is covered in socialist-era Albanian flags, with their signature five-pointed stars above a double-headed eagle, as well as pictures of activities undertaken by the Front and banners with Hoxha quotes.
Xhigoli, who considers himself a socialist, despised living in the old Yugoslavia under its milder dictator, Josip Broz Tito, who ruled from 1944 until his death in 1980. Back then, he says people had two choices, to be a Hoxhaist or a Titoist. “Surely, us Kosovo Albanians could not side with Tito but with Enver,” he says.
Xhigoli sees Tito, on the other hand, as unprincipled. “He was allied to everybody, he didn’t have principles like Enver,” Xhigoli says.
He praises the communist system for the social protection it offered people. Xhigoli admits that even communist Yugoslavia protected the dignified life of its citizens.
“Back then, you were able to take loans as large as you needed and the banks could not take away more than 30 per cent of your income. Today, they’ll take your whole salary and even empty your house,” he concludes, shaking his head in disbelief and disapproval.
The corruption that is ubiquitous is Albania today, according to Xhigoli, did not exist when Hoxha was alive.
Xhigoli at the Front’s office.
“The only country in the world that was free of corruption was Enver’s Albania,” he says.
“They were taught about the corruption in other countries at school – because Albania had none – but now?” he asks, implying that the question is rhetorical.
Admiration for Hoxha has withstood the test of time in other countries as well as Kosovo. A number of communist parties respect his legacy to this day, including the Labour Party of Iran and the communist parties in Italy and Spain.
Recently, Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK Labour Party, said during his party’s Christmas celebration, borrowed from the Hoxha phrase, “this year will be more difficult than the last”.
The remark generated much hostile reaction in the UK and Albania. Corbyn’s office later clarified that it was meant to be a joke.
In Kosovo, which has no communist party, Xhigoli says that, “in terms of platform, if it’s true what they say, then [the opposition] Vetevendosje [party] is closest to Enver’s ideas.”
Nevertheless, he also sees Hashim Thaçi, the President of Kosovo, as the political figure who in some ways is close to Hoxha. Xhigoli also shows me a picture of Kadri Veseli, the speaker of the Kosovo assembly and leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK.
Most Albanians have no illusions about Hoxha. Remzi Lani, an Albanian media expert, once mockingly said that “Compared to Enver Hoxha”, Romania’s reviled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu “was a big democrat”.
Nevertheless, Xhigoli remains convinced that Hoxha was not only a great man but that his ideas will come around again.
“We cannot resurrect Enver Hoxha, but socialism will come back again,” Xhigoli concludes, defiantly.