Introduction: What is a "Head?"
In the context of Marxist politics, the term “head” or “classic” are used heavily. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin are the undisputed “classics” of Marxism. Others, like anti-revisionists, will emphasize Joseph Stalin’s role as a classic of Marxism-Leninism in order to counter Khrushchevite assaults on his legacy and standing in communism.
We ask the question, who is the fifth classic of Marxism, and what even is a “classic”?
The comrades of the Communist Front USA have decided that Enver Hoxha of Albania deserves recognition as the fifth great thinker of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism.
What warrants this title?
Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin each held world-historic importance for the international workers’ and communist movement. They are classics because they made stupendous contributions to theory to the extent in which there are no equals outside of the classics. This does not mean that they are above criticism or that they should be followed religiously. On the contrary, they were flawed mortals, as we all are.
“Did Stalin make mistakes? Of course he did. In so long a period filled with heroism, trials, struggle, triumphs, it is inevitable not only for Joseph Stalin personally but also for the leadership as a collective body to make mistakes. Which is the party and who is the leader that can claim to have made no mistakes in their work? [...]” –Enver Hoxha
Marx is a classic because he made enormous contributions to all fields of theory, particularly in the realm of political economy. Marx instilled into the world communist movement that the law of value and exploitation are the governing laws behind the entire capitalist system. Engels is of this status because he heavily aided Marx in realizing scientific socialism as a world-changing movement, contributing to the philosophical elements of Marxism in particular. Lenin is of this status because he mastered the art of party construction, elaborated democratic centralist practices, developed an analysis of imperialist capitalism, and helmed the October Socialist Revolution. Lastly, Stalin is of this status because he applied Leninism to the Soviet Union and developed it further, demonstrating the might of the theories of socialism in one country and intensification of class struggle under socialism.
Why, then, is Enver Hoxha of this status of a classical theorist of Marxism?
Hoxha's Background
Enver Hoxha was born to a patriotic family in 1908 in Gjirokastër, at that time still under the thumb of the Turkish Empire. By age 16, he became secretary of an anti-imperialist student association and promoted progressive and revolutionary sentiments against the rule of the fascistic monarchy of Zog I.
Enver Hoxha would study abroad in France and Belgium. While there, he familiarized himself with the communist movement and studied works such as
Anti-Dühring (Engels) and
Capital (Marx).
In 1936, Hoxha returned to Albania, a few years before it was occupied by the Italian Fascists. He would work in education, teaching French and morals in Tirana. In 1939, when the country was occupied by imperialist forces, Enver Hoxha refused to join the Fascist Party and by extension collaborate with the Italian Fascists. Instead, he involved himself in the communist resistance and eventually helped link up the dispersed communist cells into the Communist Party of Albania (later known as the Party of Labor of Albania) by 1941.
At the founding conference of the Communist Party, Hoxha was elected First Secretary, a position he would wield until his death in 1985.
From his earliest days, Hoxha was a valiant fighter in progressive causes and a student of the four classical theorists of Marxism.
Between July 1947 to April 1951, Hoxha met with Stalin a total of five times to discuss matters relating to their respective socialist states and their steadfast alliance. These meetings, detailed in Hoxha’s memoir
With Stalin, left an impression on Hoxha of deep admiration for Stalin and his teachings. Hoxha clarified Stalin’s role as the fourth classic of Marxism-Leninism.
“Stalin earned his place among the great classics of Marxism-Leninism with his stern and principled struggle for the defence, consistent implementation and further development of the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin. With his keen mind and special ability, he was able to find his bearings even in the most difficult times, when the bourgeoisie and reaction were doing everything in their power to hinder the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution.” –Enver Hoxha,
With Stalin
Stalin was betrayed and made the victim of an assasination in early 1953. A great leader of international communism was lost. Soon, the revisionist clique led by Niktia Khrushchev would make a sweeping assault on Marxism-Leninism and Stalin’s legacy known as “de-Stalinization.” At the 20th congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Stalin was utterly rejected by the Soviet revisionists in a slanderous speech by Khrushchev.
Hoxha privately expressed rejection of this assault, (see Hoxha’s
The Khrushchevites) but would openly reject it in 1961 with his speech “Reject the Revisionist Theses of the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Anti-Marxist Stand of Khrushchev's Group! Uphold Marxism-Leninism!”. Hoxha urged the revolutionary communists to defend Stalin. After the revisionism of the Chinese Communists became clear by the 1960s and ‘70s, Hoxha firmly split with them and would become the sole leader of the revolutionary communist movement worldwide.
Hoxha's Contributions
Hoxha was first and foremost a continuer of Stalin and a loyal disciple. He may be thought of as the Engels of the 20th century. It required multiple figures to define a new “-ism” – Marx and Engels for Marxism, Lenin and Stalin for Leninism, and Stalin and Hoxha for Stalinism. This means that just as there is no “Engelsism,” there is no such thing as “Hoxhaism.” Enver Hoxha’s theory is a development of Stalin’s (which traces its origins back to Marx and Engels) and its full realization. Just like with how Stalin defined Leninism after Lenin, Hoxha defined Stalinism after Stalin.
"During this whole period, our Party has been vigilant and has dealt severely with any alien and hostile manifestation. It has fought for the defence of its line and of Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist principles, has fought opportunism, considering it as a manifestation which leads to the toning down of the class struggle, as a retreat from the revolutionary line of the Party, which crops up due to the petty-bourgeois environment and the external circumstances in general." –Enver Hoxha
The new “-isms” correspond to new stages emerging in the communist movement and its progress. Marxism was developed by Marx and Engels after realizing the necessity of class struggle and revolution. Lenin and Stalin's shaping of Leninism aligns with the abolition of the current state of things, i.e. proletarian revolution, and Stalin and Hoxha's Stalinism aligns to the construction of a new state of things, construction of socialism.
Marxism is the theoretical deconstruction of the current state of things, and it is the foundation for its abolition, Leninism is the abolition of the current state of things, and it is the foundation for building a new state of things, Stalinism is the construction of a new state of things in a camp of the world, while making the foundation of the world transition to the new state of things.
The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania became a world-historic instance of socialism and a model for revolutionaries everywhere, developing socialism to the fullest par none, not even Stalin’s Soviet Union. Hoxha perfected and demonstrated socialism in one country by showing how socialism can be built in even the smallest of countries like Albania. Further, he showed that this development can be done by relying on the country’s own resources and manpower, not requiring foreign intervention.
Hoxha augmented socialist construction by developing the theory of the Cultural and Ideological Revolution. Hoxha and the Party of Labor cleaned the bureaucratic rot in the dictatorship of the proletariat and made it ever closer to the higher stage, communism.
Lastly, Enver Hoxha analyzed revisionism as capitalism in a new form, as a tendency which split and did not unite, and which maintained social-imperialism as its foreign policy and social-fascism as its internal one.
For these reasons, we have reached the conclusion that Enver Hoxha is the fifth classical theorist of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism and perhaps the greatest anti-revisionist the world has known.
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