Enver Hoxha

Like his country, Hoxha is full of surprises. Instead of being a rough, tough mountain chieftain, he is a former schoolteacher and was the pampered son of a well-to-do Moslem merchant. Though he has the mentality of a brigand, his manners are those of a cultivated bourgeois and reflect his education at universities in France and Belgium. Enver Hoxha (pron. En-vair Hode-ja) was the Jedi Stalinist dictator of Albania (from 1944-1985) and author of many exercises in sectarian, doctrinaire hairsplitting like Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism.

Under his long administration he oversaw the economic and social transformation of Albania from a feudal relic which was formerly ruled by a despot named (yes, really) to a relatively modernized state. In his paranoia, however, he had an annoying tendency to turn on and denounce his former allies as being anti-Communist dupes and revisionists, which he did first with Yugoslavia, then the Soviet Union, and finally with his sole remaining ally China.

International relations
After World War II there was some thought of Albania becoming part of Yugoslavia, but following the Tito-Stalin split of 1948 (provoked largely by Yugoslav leader Tito refusing to submit to Soviet control), Albania sided with Stalin. However after Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin and the subsequent, Hoxha sided with Mao Zedong. Then in the 1970s, Nixon went to China and Mao promoted the which allowed co-operation with non-communist nations, and after Mao's death in 1976 China became more liberal; Hoxha got all appalled at this betrayal of Leninism, and farewell Tirana-Beijing friendship.

As a result, Albania was led into isolation from the rest of the world, without any real help from any world power, a rarity for the era.

Domestic policies
Influenced by Mao he launched his Cultural and Ideological Revolution in the late 1960s. This involved bizarre ideas such as de-professionalising the army: military ranks were abolished, professional soldiers stripped of their power, and the army placed under direct party control. He also sent many bureaucrats to work in the fields in an attempt to destroy the state bureaucracy, similar to what happened in China's Cultural Revolution.

Along with Romania, Albania was one of the most bizarre Eastern European Communist regimes. They banned bell bottoms, for example. They also banned beards so the Muslims and Christians couldn't tell each other apart. They also tried, tortured, and executed many clergy and believers. He took Karl Marx "opiate of the masses" line to the extreme and brutally persecuted religion in Albania. After a 1967 campaign as part of his Cultural and Ideological Revolution, he declared Albania to be the world's first atheist state. These campaigns against religion were unsuccessful and probably were counterproductive.

He also In fact, a bunker is nowadays the Albanian equivalent of the backseat of a car in America when it comes to losing one's virginity.

However, he did manage to have a stopped clock moment, because he harshly denounced Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia as "disgusting", "bloodthirsty", and "inhumane", among other things. Also, women's rights in Albania advanced significantly under his rule, as women were encouraged to take up all kinds of jobs and school attendance increased among the female youth. Hoxha himself said in 1967:

On the other hand, under Hoxha's rule, he rebuilt the country, which was left in ruins after World War II. building Albania's first railway line, built industry on a large-scale, raising the adult literacy rate from 5% to more than 90%, wiping out epidemics and providing free and universal healthcare, electrifying the country, completely abolished taxation, and helped Albania gain economic independence.

Legacy
North Korea is probably less popular now than Albania was then, but only just. The nukes are the tiebreaker.

Not to be outdone by Stalin apologetics, there are currently Communist parties in about 25 countries that support : from the late 70s, Hoxha was seen by many as the last true disciple of Lenin and Stalin.