Fadil Hoxha

Fadil Hoxha (Serbo-Croatian: Фадиљ Хоџа, Fadilj Hodža; 15 March 1916 – 22 April 2001) was a Yugoslavian ethnic-Albanian communist revolutionary and politician from Kosovo.

In 1939, during fascist Italy's invasion of Albania, Hoxha became active in the emerging resistance movement against the Italian occupation.

Hoxha also led or otherwise supported political battles for the expansion of cultural and educational institutions in the Albanian language, leading to the virtual eradication of illiteracy among the Albanian population and the establishment of the Albanian-language University of Pristina in 1970, as well as a Kosovo Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Hoxha consistently initiated or supported policies which would address these problems, including expanding the educational opportunities of Albanians, expanding Yugoslav programs supporting industrial development in Kosovo, and policies addressing the relative inequality of Albanians in employment, who had disproportionately high unemployment rates.

He served as president of the Assembly of the Kosovo Autonomous Province from 1945 to February 1953, and again from June 1967 to May 1969, and chairman of the executive council from 1953 to 1963.

Hoxha and the Kosovar provincial leaders also faced criticism by the Yugoslav party leadership for failures in curtailing the rise of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo.

After the rise of Slobodan Milošević in Serbia, Hoxha, though retired, became subject to a number of political attacks labelling him a nationalist and supporter of secessionism.

Hoxha has published his wartime diary Kur pranvera vonohet [When Spring is Late] (Prishtina: Rilindja, 1980) and a three-volume collection of speeches and articles in Jemi në shtëpinë tonë [This is our Home] (Prishtina: Rilindja, 1986),[1] both published in Serbian (Kad proleće kasni : iz partizanske beležnice)[4] and Turkish editions in addition to the original Albanian.