Fear and Loathing in Tirana

Jon Halliday

Albania has distinguished itself for secretiveness even among secretive Communist governments, vouchsafing little information to either its own people or the outside world. Now, suddenly, out of this hermetically-sealed country has exploded a series of volumes unprecedented in the history of world Communism, more remarkable and much more revealing than Khrushchev’s Memoirs. Over several thousand pages, the Albanian leader, Enver Hoxha, vents his undying rage against ‘revisionism’, his wilfully blind adoration of Stalin, his fierce nationalism, in tones which are alternately aggrieved, suspicious and self-righteous. He is windy, vulgar and brutal. Yet within the rigid framework of 100 per cent Stalinism lurks a shrewd and lively observer who can quote hunks of Byron to visiting British Army officers during World War Two.

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The books referred to by Jon Halliday are listed below. All those by Enver Hoxha are published by the ‘8 Nentori’ Publishing House (Tirana) and are available from the Albanian Society, 26 Cambridge Road, Ilford, Essex. Reflections on China, Vol. I, 1962-1972: Extracts from the Political Diary by Enver Hoxha. 783 pp., £3, 1979. Reflections on China, Vol. II, 1973-1977: Extracts from the Political Diary by Enver Hoxha. 810 pp., £3, 1979. With Stalin: Memoirs by Enver Hoxha. 224 pp., £1.50, 1979. The Khrushchevites: Memoirs by Enver Hoxha. 484 pp., £3, 1980. The Eurocommunism is anti-communism by Enver Hoxha. 291 pp., £1.50, 1980. The Anglo-American Threat to Albania: Memoirs of the National Liberation War by Enver Hoxha. 446 pp., £2.50, 1982. The History of Albania: From its Origins to the Present Day by Stefanaq Pollo and Arben Puto with the collaboration of Kristo Frasheri and Skender Anamali, translated by Carol Wiseman and Ginnie Hole. Routledge. 322pp., £18.95, 7 July 1981, 0 7100 0365 X.