Somewhere, Lenin wrote that leaders are not measured by whether they meet or not the needs of their time, but rather by what they bring new compared to their predecessors. Seen from this perspective, for better or for worse, Enver Hoxha brought the twentieth century to Albania because he, himself, was the son of his time. If there is anything unique about this book is that it tells a story that is not unique about Albania. All those who have studied Enver Hoxha have explained his rule with Albania’s or the Balkans’ uniqueness. Deemed as lands of strongmen with feeble democratic institutions and a long tradition of autocracy, tyrants seemed to be at home in this corner of Europe. Entrenched in alleged locally rooted cultural traits, these analyses have failed to understand that, although leading a small, not well-known country, Enver Hoxha was not a petty absolute ruler of a banana republic. Quite the opposite.

For understanding him, as a historical phenomenon, geography and the cultural specificities related to the part of the world he came from and led are important; however, we cannot neglect the time he lived in, the globalization of political projects, and universal totalizing messianic ideologies that clashed with each other during the 20^th century. In fact, rather than an exception, Hoxha is part of the norm of the “age of the extremes,” as the famous British historian, Eric Hobsbawm, called the period between the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. He represents the new type of leader in countries where there was uneasiness with their fragile sovereignty, problematic international status, and which faced uphill paths to modernity.

Communism was one of the most alluring alternatives to becoming modern, especially in countries with poor financial resources and lacking social capital. Dictatorships are a response to insecurity and the crisis of self-confidence. Centralization, mobilization, and nationalization seemed to be the magic bullets that would ensure the utopia of peace and affluence. Hoxha was one of those who fully embraced the Soviet model. Like many tyrants of the past century, he represents the emergence of the masses in politics. He was a man from classes that had never had a hand in power, not used to it, who saw in power an instrument for making history and not a medium for entering history.

He conflated his power with mission, becoming a ruthless dictator who imposed on his people the tyranny of an ideology like Marxism that neglects human nature and does not accept its pitfalls but identifies its failures in people’s evilness. While a dogmatic Marxist, he was also a fervent nationalist, a tension he was never able to resolve successfully; it brought him against the historical transformations of his time, and finally to seclude Albania from the rest of Europe. From a son of History, he became her enemy. Even when he was against a world that was abandoning Marxism-Leninism, he was yet part of it, by trying to resist change.

Ongoing thread. More from Artan R. Hoxha to follow.