Imperialism and the Revolution

by Enver Hoxha

The Albanian anti-revisionist leader's polemic against the rest of the Socialist Bloc, with a special focus on China.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, Theory, Politics

461 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Enver Halil Hoxha was an Albanian Communist revolutionary, statesman and political theorist who was the leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985.

He was the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania from 1941 until his death, a member of its Politburo, chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, and commander-in-chief of the Albanian People's Army. He was, also, the twenty-second prime minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times was both foreign minister and defence minister of the country.

Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër in 1908. He was a grammar school teacher in 1936. After the Italian invasion of Albania, he joined the Party of Labour of Albania at its creation in 1941 in the Soviet Union. He was elected First Secretary in March 1943 at the age of 34. Less than two years after the liberation of the country, the monarchy of King Zog I was formally abolished, and Hoxha became the country's de facto head of state.

Adopting Stalinism, Hoxha converted Albania into a one-party communist state. As a Stalinist, he implemented state atheism and ordered the anti-religious persecution of Muslims and Christians. Implementing his radical program, Hoxha used totalitarian methods of governance. His government outlawed traveling abroad and private proprietorship. The government imprisoned, executed, or exiled thousands of landowners, rural clan leaders, peasants who resisted collectivization, and allegedly disloyal party officials. Hoxha was succeeded by Ramiz Alia, who was in charge during the fall of communism in Albania.

Hoxha's government was characterised by his proclaimed firm adherence to anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism from the mid/late-1960s onwards. After his break with Maoism in the 1976–1978 period, numerous Maoist parties around the world declared themselves Hoxhaist. The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organisations (Unity & Struggle) is the best-known association of these parties.

Reviews

[celestine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half is a high-energy denouncement of the revisionist regimes of the Soviet Union, China, and Yugoslavia. It’s high on repetition and low on resources or specifics and so grows tedious. The second half is a specific indictment of China as a fundamentally non-Marxist (polemically stated as “anti-Marxist” in the book) country based off the deviations of proper Leninist theory in Mao Zedong Thought. Here Hoxha picks apart some of Mao’s errors that are found to be based in a Chinese-chauvinist sense of philosophy it would seem. This was the most interesting part of the book and would perhaps critically notice “socialism with Chinese characteristics” before it was pronounced.

At the same time, Hoxha is also clearly mistaken and misled in some of his understandings of Leninism and dialectical materialism, considering some of the predictions of the forthcoming head of the imperialist vs socialist question. To me, in my readings of various Marxists, the degree to which you correctly understand Marxism, is the degree to which your expansions on the topic become useful or correct in the future. And some of Hoxha’s analyses in this work just do not bear any fruit. He ends up in the present day incorrect. And so we know from this that his application of Leninism was not so perfect. Which leads to the question of just how fair his critique of MZT actually is. For me, it’s all an open question. But Hoxha certainly raises some interesting perspectives.

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comrade Hoxha tackles the problem of revisionism and social imperialism in the USSR and Red China.

[Bun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a well thought out and detailed critique of Mao, China and the Soviet Union from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. While I do not agree with his overall assessment, this text also serves as an abbreviated version of understanding proletarian internationalism, colonialism, and imperialism. That being said, the text is lacking in terms of on the ground, detailed historical material analysis on events in the so-called Third World and such; however, to do so would make the polemic several times as large as Hoxha is criticizing several national liberation movements and countries he deems as revisionist. Ultimately, this hurts hoxha's critiques as it moves away from a nuanced historical materialist approach and leans heavily into dogmatism. Finally, this text is also very prophetic in anticipation of china's later economic reforms under Deng, and that alone makes this worth reading. I'm rating this four stars in spite of hoxha's primary purpose of this- his sometimes inconsistent polemics- and more of what this text does in elaborating important marxist-leninist concepts and predictions about the destiny of china, as well as criticisms of Maoism

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idk, I’m not even curious about communism anymore. Same ol repetitive as it is contradictory, especially when they’re in their feelings. And they’ll never see that that makes them just like organized religion. Every conversation is a daggone loyalty test.

[Paul Kingsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is stupidly anti-Mao, but interesting still

[Charles-Olivier Rivard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long live the anti imperialist proletarian struggle