George Castriota Skanderbeg and Enver Hoxha's image-making: the first post-World II reading primers in Albania

Abstract

This paper investigates the appropriation of the legendary figure of George Castriota Scanderbeg by Enver Hoxha since the earliest days of Albania’s communist regime. To this end, I am analyzing from an iconological perspective the juxtaposition of Enver Hoxha and George Castriota Scanderbeg’s images on the first pages of the very first reading primers after the end of the World War II. In so doing, this paper builds up previous work of the late Gëzim Qëndro on the relation of Enver Hoxha with the equestrian statue of George Castriota Scanderbeg at Tirana’s central square. The evidence presented in this paper demonstrates one of the early ways how the communist regime engaged in legitimizing its rule and fostering the new Albanian socialist man through reading primers for children. To this end, through the analysis of two 1946 reading primers for children, the communist regime did so by utilizing various combinations and interactions of people and ideas both during the liberation war, as well as shortly after it.