Updated August 23:
Nice job on the Wikipedia article on Enver Hoxha, hardline Communist leader of Albania until his death in 1985, whereupon he was succeeded by Ramiz Alia, who led the country to multiparty elections and a move to a market economy.
Hoxha's record is definitely mixed, and when he died in 1985, there were permanent shortages of even the most basic foodstuffs. That doesn't seem like any way to run an economy.
On the other hand, Albania had little trade, since Hoxha had alienated or been alienated from the entire capitalist world and most of the Communist Bloc, who, since Mao's death, he regarded as impure Communists or revisionists. I don't really go in for this autarchy stuff.
There were quite a few significant accomplishments made during Hoxha's rule, which are outlined in the Wikipedia piece. The article previously was the predictable hatchet job, but a user named Mrdie did a nice job of fixing it.
I really do not think than an encyclopedia, which is what Wikipedia claims to be, should be the place for standard rightwing anti-Communist hit pieces, which is what this Wikipedia article on Stalin reads like, by the way.
Stalin was a very controversial figure, as most well know, but to call him the biggest murderer of the 20th Century is perverse.
Stalin set a world record in doubling life expectancy in the shortest period of time for any country. The death rate under the Czarism so beloved by Alexander Solzhenitsyn was fully three times higher than even under Stalin. So the "worst murderer of the 20th Century" was responsible for 70% reduction in the death rate for Russians. Tell me how that works?
A good book on Stalin, through from a sympathetic author, is The Stalin Era, by US Communist journalist Anna Louise Strong. At one point in the book, describing the development of the USSR up from nothing in the 1920's and 1930's, Strong notes, "Never before in history had so great an advance occurred so swiftly."
Although it was at quite a cost, I would think that that is worth something at least. I have the book on my drive and I need to make it available for download on my download site. Remind me if you want to look at it.
References
- Strong, Anna Louise. (1956). The Stalin Era. New York: Mainstream Publishers.
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