1949: Koci Xoxe, Titoist
June 11th, 2011 Headsman
On this date in 1949, Albania’s former defense minister was purged.
One of the first purge victims in the Soviet satellites — though scarcely the last — Xoxe was induced to admit having labored “against the Party and the people.”
The ethnic Macedonian’s real offense had been a pro-Yugoslav orientation.
That put Xoxe on the wrong side of the emerging rift in the Communist bloc, between Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and independent-minded Yugoslav strongman Josip Tito.
After Tito broke with Stalin in 1948, Moscow froze the naughty Yugoslavs out of the international communist club and began suppressing “Titoist” elements whose national political or economic orientation augured potential annoyance for Soviet supremacy.
Albanian chief Enver Hoxha in later years would become somewhat notorious as the last unabashed Stalinist leader in Europe. (Hoxha took an “anti-revisionist” stance on Khrushchev’s later denunciation of Stalin.) So you can see the bind Koci Xoxe was about to be in.
Hoxha’s own pro-Soviet orientation was akin in its way to Tito’s anti-Soviet orientation: for Tito, Moscow meant domination, but for Hoxha, Yugoslavia was the resented aspiring regional hegemon. Albanian economic ministers complained that trade links disproportionately benefited Belgrade, and Yugoslavia once high-handedly marched troops into Albania to contain a conflict in neighboring Greece.
At any rate, Hoxha went energetically along with Uncle Joe on the Tito question … whose answer, on this date, was a bullet for Hoxha’s former Defense Minister.
On this day..
- 1790: Seven officers of Papal Avignon - 2020
- 1942: Michael Kitzelmann - 2019
- 1916: Henri Herduin and Pierre Millant, "cry against military justice" - 2018
- Themed Set: The Calendar of Saints - 2017
- Feast Day of St. Barnabas - 2017
- 1877: George Washington Fletcher, Philadelphia goon - 2016
- 1561: 88 Calabrian Waldensians, like the slaughter of so many sheep - 2015
- 1948: Kiralyfalvi Miklos, Hungarian Catholic - 2014
- 1835: Captain Pedro Gilbert and the Spanish Pirates - 2013
- 1782: William Crawford, expeditioneer - 2012
- Themed Set: Ohio - 2012
- 1981: Botak Chin, gangster - 2010
- 1725: John Gow and his pirate crew - 2009
- 2001: Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City bomber - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Albania,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Politicians,Power,Shot,Torture,Treason
Tags: 1940s, 1949, cold war, communism, communists, enver hoxha, joseph stalin, june 11, koci xoxe, purge, stalin, stalinism
I’ve been traveling to Albania the past few years on a personal photo project documenting the country’s Cold War infrastructure.
At the same time, I’ve been falling more and more in love with the country and its beautiful, warm hearted people.
It is difficult for me as an American to reconcile the natural beauty of this gem of the Balkans, the hospitality of its people, and the cruelty of its history.
Everything about the country fascinates me.
Xoxe was rightly executed as were the other Titoite traitors in Bulgaria, the CSSR and Hungary.
Is the transcript of Xoxe Trial still available? I would be very much interested. Please reply.
Thanks and Greetings.
Schnehen
There is a book from Kastriot Dervishi on Xoxe. Maybe there is the transcript of the process. In the link you have part of the transcript of the process
https://gazetashqiperiajone.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/gjyqi-i-koci-xoxes-dhe-zbulimet-e-torturave-makabre-mbi-te-gjykuarit-deri-ne-ate-kohe/
If you read Albanian here is another link http://www.gazetadita.al/kryegjyqtari-frederik-nosi-ja-fajesia-e-koci-xoxes-dhe-4-te-pandehurve-si-agjente-te-jugosllaveve/
I belive that koci xoxe was an animal that shold not be mentioned. It was one of the smartest decision that enver ever made. I wish that he sufered a lot before death because thus beast had made a lot o tortures to albanian intelectuals