Enver Hoxha was an Albanian communist politician who was the ruler of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania from 1941 until his death, a member of its Politburo, chairman of the Democratic Front of Albania, and commander-in-chief of the Albanian People's Army. He was the twenty-second prime minister of Albania from 1944 to 1954 and at various times was both foreign minister and defence minister of the country.
The Party of Labour of Albania (PLA), also referred to as the Albanian Workers' Party (AWP), was the ruling and sole legal party of Albania during the communist period (1945–1991). It was founded on 8 November 1941 as the Communist Party of Albania but changed its name in 1948. The party was dissolved on 13 June 1991 and succeeded by the Socialist Party of Albania and the new Communist Party of Albania. For most of its existence, the party was dominated by its First Secretary, Enver Hoxha, who was also the de facto leader of Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985.
The Sino-Albanian split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the People's Republic of China in the period 1972–1978.
OJSC AMO ZiL, known fully as the Public Joint-Stock Company – Likhachov Plant and more commonly called ZiL, was a major Russian automobile, truck, military vehicle, and heavy equipment manufacturer that was based in Moscow.
The ZIL-111 was a limousine produced by the Soviet car manufacturer ZIL from 1958–1967. It was the first post-war limousine designed in the Soviet Union. After tests with the shortlived prototype ZIL-Moscow in 1956, which gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest passenger car in the world, the ZIL-111 was introduced from ZIL in 1958. The body style was in the American tradition of the time and resembled the mid-1950s cars built by Packard, although, apart from being in tune with current trends, it was an original design and had nothing in common with them, except in general layout. The interiors were trimmed with top quality leather and broadcloth and decorated with thick pile carpet and polished wooden fittings. It featured a comprehensive ventilation and heating system and a 5-band radio, all of which could be controlled from the rear, electric windows, vacuum-operated screen wash, windshield and front door window defrosting. It was powered by a 6.0 L V8 engine producing 200 hp (150 kW) connected to an automatic transmission giving a top speed of 170 km/h (106 mph), hydraulic drum brakes with a vacuum servo booster, coil and wishbone IFS. The car won a top prize at the Brussels Expo World Fair in 1958.
The Packard Custom Super Eight One-Eighty was introduced for the 1940 model year by the Packard Motor Car Company to replace the discontinued Packard Twelve as their top-of-the-line luxury model. The car was derived from the Packard Super Eight One-Sixty with which it shared the complete running gear including the in-line eight-cylinder, 356-cubic-inch (5,830 cc) engine that developed 180 horsepower. It was advertised as the most powerful eight-cylinder engine offered by any automobile manufacturer in 1940.. It was complemented and gradually replaced by the more modern looking and mid-level Packard Clipper in 1941 and integrated into the Super Eight after the war.
The ZIL-157 is a general-purpose 2+1⁄2-ton 6×6 truck, produced at the Likhachev plant in the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1977, when production was transferred to the Amur plant, since the Likhachev plant wanted to focus more on modern trucks, such as the ZIL-131 range. Nevertheless, production of the ZIL-157 trucks continued even after the fall of the Soviet Union, but eventually ended in 1994.
The ZIS-151 was a general-purpose truck produced by the Soviet car manufacturer Automotive Factory No. 2 Zavod imeni Stalina in 1948–1958. In 1956, the factory was renamed to Zavod imeni Likhacheva, and new trucks were called ZIL-151 (ЗИЛ-151).
The GM "old-look" transit bus was a transit bus that was introduced in 1940 by Yellow Coach beginning with the production of the model TG-3201 bus. Yellow Coach was an early bus builder that was partially owned by General Motors (GM) before being purchased outright in 1943 and folded into the GM Truck Division to form the GM Truck & Coach Division. The Yellow Coach badge gave way to the GM nameplate in 1944. Production of most "old-look" models was stopped upon the release of the GM New-Look bus in 1959, however some smaller "old-look" models continued to be built until 1969. Approximately 38,000 "old-look" buses were built during the 29-year production run. The "old-look" name is an unofficial retronym applied to this series of GM buses after the release of the GM New-Look series.
The ZIS-150 is a Soviet truck. In 1947 it replaced the ZIS-5 truck on the assembly line. Together with the GAZ-51, it was the main Soviet truck during the 1950s, judging by their quantity. A tractor-trailer version of the ZIS-150, the ZIS-120N was sold from 1956 to 1957. In 1957, the base ZIS-150 model was replaced by ZIL-164, which differed outwardly only by vertical grille bars and bumper.
The ZIS-115 is a Soviet-built, armored version of the ZIS-110 limousine, designed and built especially for Joseph Stalin. 32 of the cars were manufactured between 1948 and 1949. The heavily armored car's design was based on the American 1942 Packard Super Eight. The car weighed over 4 tonnes, windows made of glass nearly 8 cm (3 in) thick were powered by a hydraulic system. Its 6.0-liter straight-eight engine generated 162 horsepower with a top speed of 121 km/h (75 mph). Stalin, extremely paranoid of assassination, always rode in the rear of the car, seated between two armed bodyguards. He never rode in the same armored ZIS two days in a row, and frequently changed the route driven from his home in Kuntsevo to the Kremlin. Usage of this vehicle was seen in other countries, as Stalin donated a ZIS-115 to Chairman Mao Zedong due to the lack of armored Chinese vehicles suitable for the purpose of transporting high-ranking officials. After Stalin's death in 1953, the armored ZIS limousines continued to be used for many years by successive Soviet leaders. In 1955 Nikita Khrushchev donated 2 of these vehicles to Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito. Today, several of the cars still exist and are owned by private collectors and museums around the world. Russian leaders had some in their official garage until 1994.
Kazimierz Romuald Mijal was a Polish communist politician and dissident, best known for founding the illegal Communist Party of Poland (Mijal) in opposition to the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) in 1965. He was born in Wilków Pierwszy.
Albania and China established diplomatic relations on November 23, 1949. Albania has an embassy in Beijing and China has an embassy in Tirana.
Hardial Bains was an Indo-Canadian microbiology lecturer, but was primarily known as the founder of a series of left-wing movements and parties foremost of which was the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist). Presenting himself as staunchly anti-revisionist and pro-Stalinist, until his death, Bains acted as the spokesperson and ideological leader of the CPC(M-L) — known in elections as the Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada. During his lifetime, Bains' outlook swung from supporting the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, to Mao Zedong's China, then later to Enver Hoxha's Albania. Shortly before he died, and abandoning his previous sharp criticisms of the country, Bains turned to Fidel Castro's Cuba for inspiration. Spending most of his life in Canada, Bains was also politically active in England, Ireland, United States and India.
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, popularly known as the Secret Speech, was a report by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, made to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 25 February 1956. Khrushchev's speech was sharply critical of the rule of the deceased General Secretary and Premier Joseph Stalin, particularly with respect to the purges which had especially marked the last years of the 1930s. Khrushchev charged Stalin with having fostered a leadership cult of personality despite ostensibly maintaining support for the ideals of communism. The speech was leaked to the West by the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet, which received it from the Polish-Jewish journalist Wiktor Grajewski.
Anti-revisionism (Marxism-Leninism) is a position within Marxism–Leninism which emerged in the mid-1950s in opposition to the reforms of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. When Khrushchev pursued an interpretation that differed from his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, anti-revisionists within the international communist movement remained dedicated to Stalin's ideological legacy and criticized the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and his successors as state capitalist and social imperialist. During the Sino-Soviet split, the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong; the Party of Labour of Albania, led by Enver Hoxha; and some other communist parties and organizations around the world denounced the Khrushchev line as revisionist.
An International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties was held in Moscow, Soviet Union, November 16–19, 1957. The meeting was attended by 64 political parties from all over the world. The meeting was the first of its kind, marking a new form of forum for the world communist movement following the disbanding of the Communist International (Comintern) and the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform). Four additional parties attended clandestinely out of fear of repercussions at home.
The 1957 October Revolution Parade was a parade on Moscow's Red Square dedicated to the ruby jubilee of the Great October Socialist Revolution on 7 November 1957.
The 147th Automobile Base is a motor transport depot of the Russian Armed Forces, subordinated directly to the Ministry of Defense, whose task is to provide vehicles for the military command of the MoD, as well as servicing foreign military delegations, and the leadership of military districts/fleets of the Russian Navy arriving in Moscow on a service need at the request of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
