Cover of Imperialism and the Revolution by Enver Hoxha, Albania’s Marxist-Leninist leader from 1944 to 1985. First published in 1978, it marked the peak of Albania’s ideological defiance during the Cold War. By this point, Hoxha had denounced both the Soviet Union & China, accusing them of betraying Marxism and drifting toward capitalism under the banner of “peaceful coexistence.”
In this volume, Hoxha declares that the global struggle of classes had not ended but intensified under new guises. The capitalist West, he argued, still exploited nations through finance, trade, and war—but the so-called socialist superpowers had become “social-imperialist,” preaching revolution abroad while restoring privilege and inequality at home. For Hoxha, the crisis of socialism was not inevitable but the result of revisionist decay that corrupted once-revolutionary parties.
The book stands as a manifesto for anti-revisionism & revolutionary vigilance. Hoxha insists that the world proletariat must not depend on any great power but rely on its own revolutionary force, guided strictly by Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. He sees the betrayal of these principles—first by Khrushchev’s USSR, then by Mao’s successors in China—as a global counterrevolution that turned workers into subjects of new empires.
Albania under Hoxha became the last outpost of what it claimed to be uncorrupted socialism & total independence from both superpower blocs. Imperialism and the Revolution is therefore more than theory; it is a declaration of survival, a justification for Albania’s isolation, and a call to arms for genuine communists worldwide.
The book’s enduring significance lies in its uncompromising defense of Marxism-Leninism at a time when most socialist states were retreating toward accommodation with capital. For Hoxha and his followers, revolution was not a past achievement but an ongoing struggle, betrayed by opportunists and revisionists, yet still possible wherever workers refused to kneel.
Enver Hoxha’s “Imperialism and the Revolution” (1978) rips into Soviet & Chinese revisionist “socialism,” exposing both as new forms of capitalist imperialism. #Albania stood alone to defend #Marxism-Leninism against revisionism, détente & capitalist decay.
#Hoxha #AntiRevisionism #Revolution