Comrade Enver Hoxha’s Selected Works in English are published in several volumes on decision of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Albania.
The first volume includes works of the 1941-1948 period. It is divided into two parts for the reader’s convenience. The first part includes works written during the period of the Anti-fascist National Liberation War (November 1941-November 1944), and the second comprises those of the period of the reconstruction of the country and of the development of socialist revolution (December 1944- October 1948).
In the works of the period of the Anti-fascist National Liberation War are studied the problems of the creation, building and inner life of the Communist Party of Albania (today the Party of Labour of Albania) as a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist party of the working class. Here the reader will see in what circumstances the CPA was created, and how it remained the sole party of the working class and the sole political party of the country, how within a relatively short time it succeeded in becoming the sole leader of the masses of the people in the Anti-fascist National Liberation War and in remaining as such forever.
The works of the war time dwell on the elaboration of the political line of the Communist Party on the basis of the fundamental Marxist-Leninist principles and of the revolutionary experience as it was continually being gained in the country.
The revolutionary experience of the CPA and of the masses of the people in the Anti-fascist National Liberation War shows that in revolutionary situations any Marxist- Leninist party of the working class can raise itself to the level of a genuine leader of the masses, can organize the revolution and carry it through to the end, provided it is in a position to work out a correct political line responding to the objective tendencies of development of the situations, the political aspirations and demands of the masses, and provided it is capable of implementing this line with determination and maturity.
The fundamental questions of the political line of the Party which the reader finds in Enver Hoxha’s Works are: the defining of the strategic aim, of the chief enemy, of the leading role of the working class and of its allies in the war, the laying down and implementation of the fundamental tasks to achieve this aim. To attain its strategic aim, the CPA had to solve three fundamental tasks: the unity of the people in a single National Liberation Front; the organization of the general armed uprising, and the creating of the National Liberation Army as a regular army of the people and of the new Albanian state; the destruction of the old political power and the setting up of the new revolutionary power of the national liberation councils. These were three component parts of the same revolutionary process. Each of these tasks was solved in close connection with the others through an uncompromising struggle against the foreign fascist invaders and their local servants.
In the works of the war time, an important part is occupied by the stand of the CPA towards the foreign al lies of the insurgent Albanian people, stemming from these revolutionary principles: differentiated stand towards the allies; non-interference in the internal affairs of any ally; self-reliance.
Hence the treatment of the connection between the National Liberation War of the Albanian people and the world anti-fascist war, in the first place, the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union and the liberation war of the neighboring people of Yugoslavia and Greece.
In the post-war works of the period 1945-1948 are elaborated the problems of the uninterrupted development of the people’s revolution from the anti-imperialist democratic stage to the socialist stage; problems of the strengthening and improvement of the political basis of the new political order in Albania in struggle against both the external and internal enemy; of the reconstruction of the country; of the destruction of the old economic basis and of the construction of the economic basis of socialism; of the socialist organization and the planned development of the economy; of the development of the revolution in the field of education and culture, and of the defense of the country. They work out also problems of the foreign policy of the Party, of its revolutionary internationalist stand in establishing fraternal relations and strengthening the friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies, and of its struggle to safeguard in the international arena all the rights the Albanian people had won with blood and sacrifices.
In these works the reader will see for himself the principled struggle, both national and international, of the CPA and of the government of the PRA against US-led imperialism, and against the anti-Albanian and anti-Marxist activity of the Yugoslav revisionist leadership.
Through this struggle the CPA has defended the national independence of the country and guaranteed its development along the socialist road; it has also defended its independence and correct Marxist-Leninist line from the brutal intervention of the Yugoslav revisionist leadership, and the Trotskyite and hostile activity of its agents in Albania.
In Enver Hoxha’s Works stands out the mastery of the CPA in implementing Marxism-Leninism in a creative way in the concrete internal and international conditions.
These works bear the stamp of the time; therefore in order to achieve a correct grasp of their contents, it is necessary to keep in mind the circumstances in which they have been written.
The works included in the first volume have been selected and translated from the Albanian edition of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th volume of Enver Hoxha’s Works.