Enver Hoxha

Albanian Communist Leader. Enver Hoxha led the partisan resistance against Italian fascist occupation of Albania from 1939 to 1944. After Albania's liberation, Hoxha became head of that country's provisional government, and served as de facto head of state until his death. Initially a close ally of the Soviet Union, Hoxha broke with Moscow in 1961 and aligned Albania with Mao ist China. These relations would also be strained when China opened to the United states in the 1970s, much to the chagrin of the isolationist Hoxha. In 1992, Hoxha's remains were moved from their grandiose memorial in Martyr's Cemetery (which was moved to a city park and rededicated to British troops who had died in Albania during World War II) and reburied without a marker in People's Cemetery.