Enver Hoxha’s Last Purge: Inside the Ruling Circle of Communist Albania (1981–1983)
Enver Hoxha’s Last Purge: Inside the Ruling Circle of Communist Albania (1981–1983)

Summary/Abstract: This article examines some unprecedented political events in post-Stalin Europe which have been the subject of much mystery and speculation but no proper scholarly analysis. Based on archival documents, the study explores the purge of several of the highest- ranking political officials in communist Albania from 1981 to 1983, including the ministers of the interior, health, foreign affairs, and defence. Analysing how and under which conditions this happened, the overall aim is to gain a deeper knowledge of the country’s ruler Enver Hoxha and his inner circle. Ultimately, the article contributes to the study of the Stalinist character of Hoxha’s dictatorship during the last years of his life. The analysis shows that, like Stalin, Enver Hoxha was a master of a crisis and a state of emergency. Through a similar rhetoric of alarmism and demolition, he was able to incite his associates to his course of violence while also reducing them to objects of his omnipotence. Under these conditions, cadres were forced to fight for their lives, meetings of leading organs of the communist party resembling battlefields. Ultimately, the bloody purges of 1981 to 1983 represented the final act in Hoxha’s definitive ascent as master over life and death in “his” party.

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