Sino-Albanian split

Mao Zedong and Enver Hoxha.

The Sino-Albanian split lasted roughly between the years 1972 to 1978, climaxing in the full suspension of commercial relations between the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and People's Republic of China. The Sino-Albanian split resulted in Hoxhaism becoming a distinguished form of opportunism, separate from Marxism–Leninism. Hoxhaism would be adopted by various parties worldwide, and would become opposed to organizations upholding Mao Zedong Thought, later Maoism.

Events

Hoxha's stance on Mao prior to the split

Prior to the Sino-Albanian split, Enver Hoxha upheld and supported Mao Zedong as a great Marxist–Leninist and ally of Albania. Hoxha even drew some amount of inspiration from Mao's policies. This would include, for instance, the Ideological and Cultural Revolution which was inspired from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

“The Ninth Congress marks a brilliant page in the long history of the great Communist Party of China, which is full of heroic and legendary struggles. It affirmed the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist line of Chairman Mao and the decisive victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It firmly held and raised higher the red banner of revolution and socialism. It further strengthened and tempered the Party, its unity of thought and action on the basis of the invincible thought of the great Marxist-Leninist Comrade Mao Tse-Tung.” —Enver Hoxha, Letter to the Ninth Conference of the Chinese Communist Party

Albanian attacks on Three Worlds Theory

On July 7, 1977, Enver Hoxha would author but not sign a document entitled Theory and Practice of the Revolution, which made attacks on the Three Worlds Theory upheld by the Communist Party of China at the time. This indirect criticism would be made direct and open by 1978.

Hoxha's attacks on Mao Zedong Thought

In 1978, Enver Hoxha, in his work Imperialism and the Revolution, attacked Mao Zedong Thought as being a deviation from Marxism-Leninism and "an anti-Marxist theory" alongside the "theory of the three worlds" as "a counter-revolutionary chauvinist theory".

Legacy

The results of the Sino-Albanian split are still seen today, with various Hoxhaist parties existing separate from Mao-aligned ones and the two tendencies of Hoxhaism and Maoism being mutually opposed despite both claiming to represent the modern continuations of anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism.

See also

• Hoxhaism
• Sino-Soviet split