Biography
Hoxha was born in Gjirokastër, a city in southern Albania (then under the Ottoman Empire) that has been home to many prominent families. He was the son of Halil Hoxha, a Bektashi Tosk cloth merchant who travelled widely across Europe and the United States and Gjylihan (Gjylo) Hoxha. At age 16 he helped found and became secretary of the Students Society of Gjirokastër, which protested against the monarchist government. After the government closed the Society was closed, he moved to Korçë, continuing his studies in a French secondary school. There he learned French history, literature and philosophy. In this city he read for the first time the Communist Manifesto.
In 1930, Hoxha went to study at the University of Montpellier in France on a state scholarship given to him by the Queen Mother for the faculty of natural sciences. He attended the lessons and the conferences of the Association of Workers organised by the French Communist Party, but dropped out to pursue a degree in either philosophy or law. After a year, lacking interest in biology, he left Montpellier to go to Paris hoping to continue his studies. He took courses in philosophy at the Sorbonne, and he collaborated with L'Humanité, writing articles on the situation in Albania under the pseudonym Lulo Malësori. He also got involved in the Albanian Communist Group under the tutelage of Llazar Fundo, who taught him law.
He dropped out once more, and from 1934 to 1936 he was a secretary at the Albanian consulate in Brussels, attached to the personnel office of Queen Mother Sadijé. He was dismissed after the consul discovered that his employee kept Marxist materials and books in his office. He returned to Albania in 1936 and taught grammar school in Korçë. His extensive education left him fluent in French with a working knowledge of Italian, Serbian, English and Russian. As a leader, he would often reference Le Monde and the International Herald Tribune.
On 7 April 1939, Albania was invaded by fascist Italy. The Italians established a puppet government in Albania under Mustafa Merlika-Kruja. Hoxha was dismissed from his teaching post following the 1939 Italian invasion for refusing to join the Albanian Fascist Party. He opened a tobacco shop in Tirana called Flora where a small communist group soon started gathering. Eventually the government closed it.
Read more about this topic: Enver Hoxha
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