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People's Socialist Republic of Albania Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë
← 1944–1991 →
Flag National Emblem
Motto Proletarë të të gjitha vendeve, bashkohuni! (Proletarians of all countries, unite!)
Anthem Himni i Flamurit   (Albanian) "Hymn to the Flag"
Capital	Tirana
Language(s)	Albanian
Religion	State atheism[1]
Government	Marxist–Leninist single-party socialist state
First Secretary
- 1946–1985	Enver Hoxha
- 1985–1991	Ramiz Alia
Chairmen
- 1946–1953	Omer Nishani
- 1953–1982	Haxhi Lleshi
- 1982–1991	Ramiz Alia
Prime Minister
- 1946–1954	Enver Hoxha
- 1954–1981	Mehmet Shehu
- 1982–1991	Adil Çarçani
Legislature	People's Assembly
Historical era	Cold War
- Provisional government	29 November 1944
- Established	11 January 1946
- Constitution amended	28 December 1976
- Sino-Albanian split	1978
- Communist collapse	25 April 1991
- Democratic elections	22 March 1992
Area
- 1991	28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi)
Population
- 1991 est.	3,072,000
Density	106.9 /km2  (276.8 /sq mi)
Currency	Albanian lek

The People's Socialist Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë) was the official name of Albania from 1976 until 1991.^[2] From 1946-1976 it was known as the People's Republic of Albania and from 1944 to 1946 as the Democratic Government of Albania.

Consolidation of power and initial reforms[link]

The Communist Party of Albania moved quickly after World War II to subdue all potential political enemies in Albania, break the country's landowners and middle class, and isolate Albania from the noncommunist world in order to establish the People's Republic of Albania. By early 1945, the new regime had murdered, discredited, or driven into exile most of the country's elite.

The internal affairs minister, Koçi Xoxe, a pro-Yugoslav erstwhile tinsmith, presided over the trial and the execution of thousands of opposition politicians, clan chiefs, and members of former Albanian governments who were condemned as "war criminals." Thousands of their family members were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later exiled for decades to miserable state farms built on reclaimed marshlands.

The communists' consolidation of control also produced a shift in political power in Albania from the northern Ghegs to the southern Tosks. Most communist leaders were middle-class Tosks, and the party drew most of its recruits from Tosk-inhabited areas, while the Ghegs, with their centuries-old tradition of opposing authority, distrusted the new Albanian rulers and their Marxist doctrines.^{[citation needed]}

In December 1945, Albanians elected a new People's Assembly, but only candidates from the Democratic Front (previously the National Liberation Movement then the National Liberation Front), appeared on the electoral lists, and the communists used propaganda and terror tactics to gag the opposition. Official ballot tallies showed that 92 % of the electorate voted and that 93 % of the voters chose the Democratic Front ticket.

The assembly convened in January 1946, annulled the monarchy, and transformed Albania into a "people's republic." After months of angry debate, the assembly adopted a constitution that mirrored the Yugoslav and Soviet constitutions. Then in the spring, the assembly members chose a new government. Enver Hoxha, the Albanian Communist Party's first secretary, became prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister, and the army's commander in chief. Xoxe remained both internal affairs minister and the party's organizational secretary.

In late 1945 and early 1946, Xoxe and other party hard-liners purged moderates who had pressed for close contacts with the West, a modicum of political pluralism, and a delay in the introduction of strict communist economic measures until Albania's economy had more time to develop. Hoxha remained in control despite the fact that he had once advocated restoring relations with Italy and even allowing Albanians to study in Italy.

History of Albania

Prehistory Prehistoric Balkans Antiquity Illyria Illyrians Macedonia (Roman province) Illyricum Middle Ages Albania in the Middle Ages Albania under the Byzantine Empire Albania under the Bulgarian Empire Albania under the Serbian Empire Principality of Arbër Kingdom of Albania Albanian principalities League of Lezhë Venetian Albania Ottoman Albania Ottoman Albania Sanjak of Albania Sanjak of Scutari Sanjak of Debar Scutari Vilayet Janina Vilayet Kosovo Vilayet Albanian Pashaliks Massacre of the Albanian beys Albanian National Awakening Revolts of 1833-1839 Revolt of 1843-1844 Revolt of 1847 League of Prizren League of Peja Revolt of 1910 Revolt of 1911 Battle of Deçiq Revolt of 1912 Albanian Vilayet Albanian Declaration of Independence Post-Independence Independent Albania Provisional Government Albanian Congress of Trieste International Commission of Control Balkan Wars Principality of Albania Peasant Revolt in Albania Republic of Central Albania Vlora War Republic of Korçë Republic of Mirdita Italian Protectorate on southern Albania Vlora War Congress of Lushnjë Italian protectorate over Albania Union of Italia & Albania Albania under Germany Albanian Resistance Second League of Prizren Liberation of Albania Communist Albania Contemporary Albania Post-Communism 1997 unrest Republic of Albania

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The communists also undertook economic measures to expand their power. In December 1944, the provisional government adopted laws allowing the state to regulate foreign and domestic trade, commercial enterprises, and the few industries the country possessed. The laws sanctioned confiscation of property belonging to political exiles and "enemies of the people." The state also expropriated all German- and Italian-owned property, nationalized transportation enterprises, and canceled all concessions granted by previous Albanian governments to foreign companies.

The government took major steps to introduce a Stalinist-style^[3] centrally planned economy in 1946. It nationalized all industries, transformed foreign trade into a government monopoly, brought almost all domestic trade under state control, and banned land sales and transfers. Planners at the newly founded Economic Planning Commission emphasized industrial development, and in 1947 the government introduced the Soviet cost-accounting system.

In August 1945, the provisional government adopted the first sweeping agricultural reforms in Albania's history. The country's 100 largest landowners, who controlled close to a third of Albania's arable land, had frustrated all agricultural reform proposals before the war. The communists' reforms were aimed at squeezing large landowners out of business, winning peasant support, and increasing farm output to avert famine. The government annulled outstanding agricultural debts, granted peasants access to inexpensive water for irrigation, and nationalized forest and pastureland.

Under the Agrarian Reform Law, which redistributed about half of Albania's arable land, the government confiscated property belonging to absentee landlords and people not dependent on agriculture for a living. The few peasants with agricultural machinery were permitted to keep up to 400,000 square metres of land; the landholdings of religious institutions and peasants without agricultural machinery were limited to 200,000 square metres and landless peasants and peasants with tiny landholdings were given up to 50,000 square metres, although they had to pay nominal compensation.

Thus tiny farmsteads replaced large private estates across Albania. By mid-1946 the Albanian government claimed that its peasants were cultivating more land and producing higher maize and wheat yields than ever before, but the reliability of such claims in light of later international discoveries regarding Albanian industry may be questioned.

Albanian–Yugoslav tensions[link]

Until Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Cominform in 1948, Albania was effectively a Yugoslav satellite. In repudiating the 1943 Albanian internal Mukaj agreement under pressure from the Yugoslavs, Albania's communists had given up on their demands for a Yugoslav cession of Kosovo to Albania after the war. In January 1945, the two governments signed a treaty establishing Kosovo as a Yugoslav autonomous province. Shortly thereafter, Yugoslavia became the first country to recognize Albania's provisional government.

In July 1946, Yugoslavia and Albania signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation that was quickly followed by a series of technical and economic agreements laying the groundwork for integrating the Albanian and Yugoslav economies. The pacts provided for coordinating the economic plans of both states, standardizing their monetary systems, and creating a common pricing system and a customs union. So close was the Yugoslav-Albanian relationship that Serbo-Croatian became a required subject in Albanian high schools.

Yugoslavia signed a similar friendship treaty with Bulgaria, and Marshal Josip Broz Tito and Bulgaria's Georgi Dimitrov talked of plans to establish a Balkan federation to include Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. Yugoslav advisers poured into Albania's government offices and its army headquarters. Tirana was desperate for outside aid, and about 20,000 tons of Yugoslav grain helped stave off famine. Albania also received US$26.3 million from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration immediately after the war but had to rely on Yugoslavia for investment and development aid.

Joint Albanian–Yugoslav companies were created for mining, railroad construction, the production of petroleum and electricity, and international trade. Yugoslav investments led to the construction of a sugar refinery in Korçë, a food-processing plant in Elbasan, a hemp factory at Rrogozhinë, a fish cannery in Vlorë, and a printing press, telephone exchange, and textile mill in Tirana. The Yugoslavs also bolstered the Albanian economy by paying three times the international price for Albanian copper and other materials.

Relations between Albania and Yugoslavia declined, however, when the Albanians began complaining that the Yugoslavs were paying too little for Albanian raw materials and exploiting Albania through the joint stock companies. In addition, the Albanians sought investment funds to develop light industries and an oil refinery, while the Yugoslavs wanted the Albanians to concentrate on agriculture and raw-material extraction. The head of Albania's Economic Planning Commission and one of Hoxha's allies, Nako Spiru, became the leading critic of Yugoslavia's efforts to exert economic control over Albania. Tito distrusted Hoxha and the other intellectuals in the Albanian party and, through Xoxe and his loyalists, attempted to unseat them.

In 1947, Yugoslavia acted against anti-Yugoslav Albanian communists, including Hoxha and Spiru. In May, Tirana announced the arrest, trial, and conviction of nine People's Assembly members, all known for opposing Yugoslavia, on charges of antistate activities. A month later, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia's Central Committee accused Hoxha of following "independent" policies and turning the Albanian people against Yugoslavia. Apparently attempting to buy support inside the Albanian Communist Party, Belgrade extended Tirana US$40 million worth of credits, an amount equal to 58 % of Albania's 1947 state budget. A year later, Yugoslavia's credits accounted for nearly half of the state budget. Relations worsened in the fall, however, when Spiru's commission developed an economic plan that stressed self-sufficiency, light industry, and agriculture. The Yugoslavs complained bitterly, and when Spiru came under criticism and failed to win support from anyone in the Albanian party leadership, he committed suicide.

The insignificance of Albania's standing in the communist world was clearly highlighted when the emerging East European nations did not invite the Albanian party to the September 1947 founding meeting of the Cominform. Rather, Yugoslavia represented Albania at Cominform meetings. Although the Soviet Union gave Albania a pledge to build textile and sugar mills and other factories and to provide Albania agricultural and industrial machinery, Joseph Stalin told Milovan Djilas, at the time a high-ranking member of Yugoslavia's communist hierarchy, that Yugoslavia should "swallow" Albania.

The pro-Yugoslav faction wielded decisive political power in Albania well into 1948. At a party plenum in February and March, the communist leadership voted to merge the Albanian and Yugoslav economies and militaries. Hoxha, to the core an opportunist,^{[citation needed]} even denounced Spiru for attempting to ruin Albanian-Yugoslav relations. During a party Political Bureau (Politburo) meeting a month later, Xoxe proposed appealing to Belgrade to admit Albania as a seventh Yugoslav republic. When the Cominform expelled Yugoslavia on June 28, however, Albania made a rapid about-face in its policy toward Yugoslavia. The move surely saved Hoxha from a firing squad and as surely doomed Xoxe to one. Three days later, Tirana gave the Yugoslav advisers in Albania 48 hours to leave the country, rescinded all bilateral economic agreements with its neighbor, and launched a virulent anti-Yugoslav propaganda blitz that transformed Stalin into an Albanian national hero, Hoxha into a warrior against foreign aggression, and Tito into an imperialist monster.

Albania entered an orbit around the Soviet Union, and in September 1948 Moscow stepped in to compensate for Albania's loss of Yugoslav aid. The shift proved to be a boon for Albania because Moscow had far more to offer than hard-strapped Belgrade. The fact that the Soviet Union had no common border with Albania also appealed to the Albanian regime because it made it more difficult for Moscow to exert pressure on Tirana. In November at the First Party Congress of the Albanian Party of Labor (APL), the former Albanian Communist Party renamed at Stalin's suggestion, Hoxha pinned the blame for the country's woes on Yugoslavia and Xoxe. Hoxha had Xoxe sacked as internal affairs minister in October, replacing him with Shehu. After a secret trial in May 1949, Xoxe was executed. The subsequent anti-Titoist purges in Albania brought the liquidation of 14 members of the party's 31 person Central Committee and 32 of the 109 People's Assembly deputies. Overall, the party expelled about 25 % of its membership. Yugoslavia responded with a propaganda counterattack, canceled its treaty of friendship with Albania, and in 1950 withdrew its diplomatic mission from Tirana.

Deteriorating relations with the West[link]

Albania's relations with the West soured after the communist regime's refusal to allow free elections in December 1945. Albania restricted the movements of United States and British personnel in the country, charging that they had instigated anticommunist uprisings in the northern mountains. Britain announced in April that it would not send a diplomatic mission to Tirana; the United States withdrew its mission in November; and both the United States and Britain opposed admitting Albania to the United Nations (UN). The Albanian regime feared that the United States and Britain, which were supporting anticommunist forces in the civil war in Greece, would back Greek demands for territory in southern Albania; and anxieties grew in July when a United States Senate resolution backed the Greek demands.

A major incident between Albania and Britain erupted in 1946 after Tirana claimed jurisdiction over the channel between the Albanian mainland and the Greek island of Corfu. Britain challenged Albania by sailing four destroyers into the channel. Two of the ships struck mines on October 22, 1946, and 44 crew members died. Britain complained to the UN and the International Court of Justice which, in its first case ever, ruled against Tirana.

After 1946 the United States and the United Kingdom began implementing an elaborate covert plan to overthrow Albania's communist regime by backing anticommunist and royalist forces within the country. By 1949 the United States and British intelligence organizations were working with King Zog and the mountainmen of his personal guard. They recruited Albanian refugees and émigrés from Egypt, Italy, and Greece; trained them in Cyprus, Malta, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany); and infiltrated them into Albania. Guerrilla units entered Albania in 1950 and 1952, but Albanian security forces killed or captured all of them. Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent working as a liaison officer between the British intelligence service and the United States Central Intelligence Agency, had leaked details of the infiltration plan to Moscow, and the security breach claimed the lives of about 300 infiltrators.

Following a wave of subversive activity, including the failed infiltration and the March 1951 bombing of the Soviet embassy in Tirana, the Albanian regime implemented harsh internal security measures. In September 1952, the assembly enacted a penal code that required the death penalty for anyone over eleven years old found guilty of conspiring against the state, damaging state property, or committing economic sabotage.

Albania and the Soviet Union[link]

Palace of Culture of Tirana, Albania whose first stone was symbolically thrown by Nikita Khrushchev

Albania became dependent on Soviet aid and know-how after the break with Yugoslavia in 1948. In February 1949, Albania gained membership in the communist bloc's organization for coordinating economic planning, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon). Tirana soon entered into trade agreements with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and the Soviet Union. Soviet and East European technical advisers took up residence in Albania, and the Soviet Union also sent Albania military advisers and built a submarine installation on Sazan Island. After the Soviet-Yugoslav split, Albania and Bulgaria were the only countries the Soviet Union could use to funnel war material to the communists fighting in Greece. What little strategic value Albania offered the Soviet Union, however, gradually shrank as nuclear arms technology developed.

Anxious to pay homage to Stalin, Albania's rulers implemented new elements of the Stalinist economic system. In 1949 Albania adopted the basic elements of the Soviet fiscal system, under which state enterprises paid direct contributions to the treasury from their profits and kept only a share authorized for self-financed investments and other purposes. In 1951, the Albanian government launched its first five-year plan, which emphasized exploiting the country's oil, chromite, copper, nickel, asphalt, and coal resources; expanding electricity production and the power grid; increasing agricultural output; and improving transportation. The government began a program of rapid industrialization after the APL's Second Party Congress and a campaign of forced collectivization of farmland in 1955. At the time, private farms still produced about 87 % of Albania's agricultural output, but by 1960 the same percentage came from collective or state farms.

Soviet-Albanian relations remained warm during the last years of Joseph Stalin's life despite the fact that Albania was an economic liability for the Soviet Union. Albania conducted all its foreign trade with Soviet European countries in 1949, 1950, and 1951 and over half its trade with the Soviet Union itself. Together with its satellites, the Soviet Union underwrote shortfalls in Albania's balance of payments with long-term grants.

Although far behind Western practice, health care and education improved dramatically for Albania's 1.2 million people in the early 1950s. The number of Albanian doctors increased by a third to about 150 early in the decade (although the doctor-patient ratio remained unacceptable by most standards), and the state opened new medical training facilities. The number of hospital beds rose from 1,765 in 1945 to about 5,500 in 1953. Better health care and living conditions produced an improvement in Albania's dismal infant mortality rate, lowering it from 112.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1945 to 99.5 deaths per 1,000 births in 1953. The education system, considered a tool for propagating communism and creating the academic and technical cadres necessary for construction of a socialist state and society, also improved dramatically. The number of schools, teachers, and students doubled between 1945 and 1950. Illiteracy declined from perhaps 85 % in 1946 to 31 % in 1950. The Soviet Union provided scholarships for Albanian students and supplied specialists and study materials to improve instruction in Albania. The State University of Tirana (now University of Tirana) was founded in 1957 and the Albanian Academy of Sciences opened 15 years later. Despite these advances, however, education in Albania suffered as a result of restrictions on freedom of thought. For example, education institutions had scant influence on their own curricula, methods of teaching, or administration.

Stalin died in March 1953, and apparently fearing that the Soviet ruler's demise might encourage rivals within the Albanian party's ranks, neither Hoxha nor Shehu risked traveling to Moscow to attend his funeral. The Soviet Union's subsequent movement toward rapprochement with the hated Yugoslavs rankled the two Albanian leaders. Tirana soon came under pressure from Moscow to copy, at least formally, the new Soviet model for a collective leadership. In July 1953, Hoxha handed over the foreign affairs and defense portfolios to loyal followers, but he kept both the top party post and the premiership until 1954, when Shehu became Albania's prime minister. The Soviet Union, responding with an effort to raise the Albanian leaders' morale, elevated diplomatic relations between the two countries to the ambassadorial level.

Despite some initial expressions of enthusiasm, Hoxha and Shehu mistrusted Nikita Khrushchev's programs of "peaceful coexistence" and "different roads to socialism" because they appeared to pose the threat that Yugoslavia might again try to take control of Albania. Hoxha and Shehu were also alarmed at the prospect that Moscow might prefer less dogmatic rulers in Albania. Tirana and Belgrade renewed diplomatic relations in December 1953, but Hoxha refused Khrushchev's repeated appeals to rehabilitate posthumously the pro-Yugoslav Xoxe as a gesture to Tito. The Albanian duo instead tightened their grip on their country's domestic life and let the propaganda war with the Yugoslavs grind on. In 1955 Albania became a founding member of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, better known as the Warsaw Pact, the only military alliance the nation ever joined. Although the pact represented the first promise Albania had obtained from any of the communist countries to defend its borders, the treaty did nothing to assuage the Albanian leaders' deep mistrust of Yugoslavia.

Hoxha and Shehu tapped the Albanians' deep-seated fear of Yugoslav domination to remain in power during the thaw following the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist party of the Soviet Union in 1956, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin's crimes in his "secret speech." Hoxha defended Stalin and blamed the Titoist heresy for the troubles vexing world Communism, including the disturbances in Poland and the rebellion in Hungary in 1956. Hoxha mercilessly purged party moderates with pro-Soviet and pro-Yugoslav leanings, but he toned down his anti-Yugoslav rhetoric after an April 1957 trip to Moscow, where he won cancellation of about US$105 million in outstanding loans and about US$7.8 million in additional food assistance. By 1958, however, Hoxha was again complaining about Tito's "fascism" and "genocide" against Albanians in Kosovo. He also grumbled about a Comecon plan for integrating the East European economies, which called for Albania to produce agricultural goods and minerals instead of emphasizing development of heavy industry. On a twelve-day visit to Albania in 1959, Khrushchev reportedly tried to convince Hoxha and Shehu that their country should aspire to become socialism's "orchard."

Albania and China[link]

Enver Hoxha in 1971

Albania played a role in the Sino-Soviet conflict far outweighing either its size or its importance in the communist world. By 1958 Albania stood with the People's Republic of China (PRC)^[4] in opposing Moscow on issues of peaceful coexistence, de-Stalinization, and Yugoslavia's "separate road to socialism" through decentralization of economic life. The Soviet Union, other East European countries, and China all offered Albania large amounts of aid. Soviet leaders also promised to build a large Palace of Culture in Tirana as a symbol of the Soviet people's "love and friendship" for the Albanians. But despite these gestures, Tirana was dissatisfied with Moscow's economic policy toward Albania. Hoxha and Shehu apparently decided in May or June 1960 that Albania was assured of Chinese support, and when sharp polemics erupted between the PRC and the Soviet Union, they openly sided with the former. Ramiz Alia, at the time a candidate-member of the Politburo and Hoxha's adviser on ideological questions, played a prominent role in the rhetoric.

The Sino-Soviet split burst into the open in June 1960 at a Romanian Workers' Party congress, at which Khrushchev attempted to secure condemnation of Beijing. Albania's delegation, alone among the European delegations, supported the Chinese. The Soviet Union immediately retaliated by organizing a campaign to oust Hoxha and Shehu in the summer of 1960. Moscow cut promised grain deliveries to Albania during a drought, and the Soviet embassy in Tirana overtly encouraged a pro-Soviet faction in the Party of Labour of Albania (APL) to speak out against the party's pro-Chinese stance. Moscow also apparently involved itself in a plot within the APL to unseat Hoxha and Shehu by force. But given their tight control of the party machinery, army, and Shehu's secret police, the Directorate of State Security (Drejtorija e Sigurimit të Shtetit—Sigurimi), the two Albanian leaders easily parried the threat. Four pro-Soviet Albanian leaders, including Teme Sejko and Tahir Demi, were eventually tried and executed. The PRC immediately began making up for the cancellation of Soviet wheat shipments despite a paucity of foreign currency and its own economic hardships.

Albania again sided with the People's Republic of China when it launched an attack on the Soviet Union's leadership of the international communist movement at the November 1960 Moscow conference of the world's 81 communist parties. Hoxha inveighed against Khrushchev for encouraging Greek claims to southern Albania, sowing discord within the APL and army, and using economic blackmail. "Soviet rats were able to eat while the Albanian people were dying of hunger," Hoxha railed, referring to purposely delayed Soviet grain deliveries.^{[citation needed]} Communist leaders loyal to Moscow described Hoxha's performance as "gangsterish" and "infantile," and the speech extinguished any chance of an agreement between Moscow and Tirana.^{[citation needed]} For the next year, Albania played proxy for Communist China. Pro-Soviet communist parties, reluctant to confront the PRC directly, criticized Beijing by castigating Albania. Communist China, for its part, frequently gave prominence to the Albanians' fulminations against the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, which Tirana referred to as a "socialist hell."

Hoxha and Shehu continued their harangue against the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia at the APL's Fourth Party Congress in February 1961. During the congress, the Albanian government announced the broad outlines of the country's Third Five-Year Plan (1961–65), which allocated 54 % of all investment to industry, thereby rejecting Khrushchev's wish to make Albania primarily an agricultural producer. Moscow responded by canceling aid programs and lines of credit for Albania, but the Chinese again came to the rescue.

After additional sharp exchanges between Soviet and Chinese delegates over Albania at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Twenty-Second Party Congress in October 1961, Khrushchev lambasted the Albanians for executing a pregnant, pro-Soviet member of the Albanian party Politburo Liri Gega, and the Soviet Union finally broke diplomatic relations with Albania in December. Moscow then withdrew all Soviet economic advisers and technicians from the country, including those at work on the Palace of Culture, and halted shipments of supplies and spare parts for equipment already in place in Albania. In addition, the Soviet Union continued to dismantle its naval installations on Sazan Island, a process that had begun even before the break in relations.

Communist China again compensated Albania for the loss of Soviet economic support, supplying about 90 % of the parts, foodstuffs, and other goods the Soviet Union had promised. Beijing lent the Albanians money on more favorable terms than Moscow, and, unlike Soviet advisers, Chinese technicians earned the same low pay as Albanian workers and lived in similar housing. China also presented Albania with a powerful radio transmission station from which Tirana sang the praises of Stalin, Hoxha, and Mao Zedong for decades. For its part, Albania offered China a beachhead in Europe and acted as Communist China's chief spokesman at the UN. To Albania's dismay, however, Chinese equipment and technicians were not nearly as sophisticated as the Soviet goods and advisers they replaced. Ironically, a language barrier even forced the Chinese and Albanian technicians to communicate in Russian. Albanians no longer took part in Warsaw Pact activities or Comecon agreements. The other East European communist nations, however, did not break diplomatic or trade links with Albania. In 1964, the Albanians went so far as to seize the empty Soviet embassy in Tirana, and Albanian workers pressed on with construction of the Palace of Culture on their own.

The shift away from the Soviet Union wreaked havoc on Albania's economy. Half of its imports and exports had been geared toward Soviet suppliers and markets, so the souring of Tirana's relations with Moscow brought Albania's foreign trade to near collapse as China proved incapable of delivering promised machinery and equipment on time. The low productivity, flawed planning, poor workmanship, and inefficient management at Albanian enterprises became clear when Soviet and East European aid and advisers were withdrawn. In 1962, the Albanian government introduced an austerity program, appealing to the people to conserve resources, cut production costs, and abandon unnecessary investment.

In October 1964, Hoxha hailed Khrushchev's fall from power, and the Soviet Union's new leaders made overtures to Tirana. It soon became clear, however, that the new Soviet leadership had no intention of changing basic policies to suit Albania, and relations failed to improve. Tirana's propaganda continued for decades to refer to Soviet officials as "treacherous revisionists" and "traitors to communism," and in 1964, Hoxha said that Albania's terms for reconciliation were a Soviet apology to Albania and reparations for damages inflicted on the country. Soviet-Albanian relations dipped to new lows after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Albania felt the Soviet Union itself had become too liberal since the death of Joseph Stalin, so it withdrew of the Warsaw Pact. Leonid Brezhnev made no attempt to force Albania back into the Warsaw Pact.

The cultural and ideological revolution[link]

A Manhole cover from the Communist period is stamped "The Partisan' Metal Shop of Tirana"

In the mid-1960s, Albania's leaders grew wary of a threat to their power by a burgeoning bureaucracy. Party discipline had eroded. People complained about malfeasance, inflation, and low-quality goods. Writers strayed from the orthodoxy of socialist realism, which demanded that art and literature serve as instruments of government and party policy. As a result, after Mao Zedong unleashed the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966, Hoxha launched his own Cultural and Ideological Revolution. The Albanian leader concentrated on reforming the military, government bureaucracy, and economy as well as on creating new support for his Stalinist system. The regime abolished military ranks, reintroduced political commissars into the military, and renounced professionalism in the army. Railing against a "white-collar mentality," the authorities also slashed the salaries of mid- and high-level officials, ousted administrators and specialists from their desk jobs, and sent such persons to toil in the factories and fields. Six ministries, including the Ministry of Justice, were eliminated. Farm collectivization spread to even the remote mountains. In addition, the government attacked dissident writers and artists, reformed its education system, and generally reinforced Albania's isolation from European culture in an effort to keep out foreign influences.

In 1967, the authorities conducted a violent campaign to extinguish religious life in Albania, claiming that religion had divided the Albanian nation and kept it mired in backwardness. Student agitators combed the countryside, forcing Albanians to quit practicing their faith. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions had been closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, and workshops by year's end. A special decree abrogated the charters by which the country's main religious communities had operated. The campaign culminated in an announcement that Albania had become the world's first atheistic state, a feat touted as one of Enver Hoxha's greatest achievements.

Traditional kinship links in Albania, centered on the patriarchal family, were shattered by the postwar repression^[5] of clan leaders, collectivization of agriculture, industrialization, migration from the countryside to urban areas, and suppression^[6] of religion.^[7] The postwar regime brought a radical change in the status of Albania's women. Considered second-class citizens in traditional Albanian society, women performed most of the work at home and in the fields. Before World War II, about 90 % of Albania's women were illiterate, and in many areas they were regarded as chattels under ancient tribal laws and customs. During the Cultural and Ideological Revolution, the party encouraged women to take jobs outside the home in an effort to compensate for labor shortages and to overcome their conservatism. Hoxha himself proclaimed that anyone who trampled on the party's edict on women's rights should be "hurled into the fire."

The break with China and self-reliance[link]

This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (March 2009)

Albanian-Chinese relations had stagnated by 1970, and when the Asian giant began to reemerge from isolation in the early 1970s, Mao and the other Communist Chinese leaders reassessed their commitment to tiny Albania. In response, Tirana began broadening its contacts with the outside world. Albania opened trade negotiations with France, Italy, and the recently independent Asian and African states, and in 1971 it normalised relations with Yugoslavia and Greece. Albania's leaders abhorred the People's Republic of China's contacts with the United States in the early 1970s, and its press and radio ignored President Richard Nixon's trip to Beijing in 1972. Albania actively worked to reduce its dependence on Communist China by diversifying trade and improving diplomatic and cultural relations, especially with Western Europe. But Albania shunned the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and was the only European country that refused to take part in the Helsinki Conference of July 1975. Soon after Mao's death in 1976, Hoxha criticized the new leadership as well as Beijing's pragmatic policy toward the United States and Western Europe. The Chinese retorted by inviting Tito to visit Beijing in 1977 and ending assistance programs for Albania in 1978.

The Sino-Albanian split left Albania with no foreign protector. Tirana ignored calls by the United States and the Soviet Union to normalise relations. Instead, Albania expanded diplomatic ties with Western Europe and the developing nations and began stressing the principle of self-reliance as the keystone of the country's strategy for economic development. However, Hoxha's cautious opening toward the outside world stirred up nascent movements for change inside Albania. As the dictator's health slipped, muted calls arose for the relaxation of party controls and greater openness. In response, Hoxha launched a series of purges that removed the defense minister and many top military officials. A year later, Hoxha purged ministers responsible for the economy and replaced them with younger persons.

As Hoxha's health declined, the dictator began planning for an orderly succession. He worked to institutionalise his policies, hoping to frustrate any attempt his successors might make to venture from the Stalinist path he had blazed for Albania. In December 1976, Albania adopted its second Stalinist constitution of the postwar era. The document "guaranteed" Albanians freedom of speech, the press, organization, association, and assembly but subordinated these rights to the individual's duties to society as a whole. The constitution enshrined in law the idea of autarky and prohibited the government from seeking financial aid or credits or from forming joint companies with partners from capitalist or revisionist communist countries. The constitution's preamble also boasted that the foundations of religious belief in Albania had been abolished.

In 1980, Hoxha turned to Ramiz Alia to succeed him as Albania's communist patriarch, overlooking his long-standing comrade-in-arms, Mehmet Shehu. Hoxha first tried to convince Shehu to step aside voluntarily, but when this move failed, Hoxha arranged for all the members of the Politburo to rebuke him for allowing his son to become engaged to the daughter of a former bourgeois family. Shehu allegedly committed suicide on December 18, 1981. It is suspected, however, that Hoxha had him killed. Hoxha, obviously fearing retaliation, purged the members of Shehu's family and his supporters within the police and military. In November 1982, Hoxha announced that Shehu had been a foreign spy working simultaneously for the United States, British, Soviet, and Yugoslav intelligence agencies in planning the assassination of Hoxha himself. "He was buried like a dog," the dictator wrote in the Albanian edition of his book, The Titoites.

Hoxha went into semi-retirement in early 1983, and Alia assumed responsibility for Albania's administration. Alia traveled extensively around Albania, standing in for Hoxha at major events and delivering addresses laying down new policies and intoning litanies to the enfeebled president. When Hoxha died on April 11, 1985, he left Albania a legacy of repression, technological backwardness, isolation, and fear of the outside world. Alia succeeded to the presidency and became legal secretary of the APL two days later. In due course, he became a dominant figure in the Albanian media, and his slogans appeared painted in crimson letters on signboards across the country.

Transition[link]

After Hoxha's death, Alia took his place. He tried to follow in his footsteps, but the changes had already started and the fall of communism throughout south central Europe led to widespread changes within Albanian society.

Mikhail Gorbachev had appeared in the Soviet Union with new policies (glasnost and perestroika). The communist regime was pressured by the US and Europe and also by the hate of its own people.^{[citation needed]} After Nicolae Ceauşescu (the communist leader of Romania) was executed in a revolution, Alia knew that he would be next if changes were not made. He signed the Helsinki Agreement (which was signed by other countries in 1975) that respected some human rights. He allowed pluralism under the enormous pressure from students and workers. Under Alia's regime, the first pluralist elections took place since the communists assumed power in Albania. Alia's party won the election of March 31, 1991.^[8] Nevertheless, it was clear that the change would not be stopped. Pursuant to a 1991 interim basic law, Albanians ratified a constitution in 1998, establishing a democratic system of government based upon the rule of law and guaranteeing the protection of fundamental human rights.

The position of the communists was confirmed in the first round of elections under the interim law, but fell two months later during a general strike. A committee of "national salvation" took over but also collapsed in six months. On March 22, 1992^[9] the Communists were trumped by the Democratic Party in national elections. The change from dictatorship to democracy had many challenges. The Democratic Party had to implement the reforms it had promised, but they were either too slow or didn't solve the problems, so the people were disappointed when their hopes for fast prosperity went unfulfilled. In the general elections of June 1996 the Democratic Party tried to win an absolute majority and manipulated the results. This government collapsed in 1997 in the wake of the additional collapse of pyramid schemes and widespread corruption, which caused anarchy and rebellion throughout the country. The government attempted to suppress the rebellion by military force but the attempt failed, due to long-term corruption of the Armed Forces.

List of leaders[link]

General Secretaries of the Party of Labour of Albania:

• Enver Hoxha (1944–1985)
• Ramiz Alia (1985–1991)

Chairmen of the Presidium of the People's Assembly:

• Omer Nishani (1946–1953)
• Haxhi Lleshi (1953–1982)
• Ramiz Alia (1982–1991)

Prime Ministers:

• Enver Hoxha (1945–1954)
• Mehmet Shehu (1954–1981)
• Adil Çarçani (1982–1991)

See also[link]

• Fall of communism

References[link]

• Library of Congress Country Study of Albania
• Afrim Krasniqi, Political Parties in Albania 1912-2006, Rilindje, 2007
• Afrim Krasniqi, Political System in Albania 1912-2008, Ufo press, 2010

v t e Countries of Eastern and Central Europe during their communist period Albania Bulgaria Czechoslovakia East Germany Hungary Poland Romania Yugoslavia Map of Cold War Europe Soviet Russia / Soviet Union: 1917–1927 1927–1953 1953–1964 1964–1982 1982–1991 Eastern Bloc Comecon Warsaw Pact

v t e Eastern Bloc Soviet Union · Communism Formation The secret protocol of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact · Soviet invasion of Poland · Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina · Occupation of Baltic states · Soviet occupation of Hungary · Soviet occupation of Romania · Soviet occupations · Yalta Conference Annexed as, or into, SSRs Eastern Finland · Estonia · Latvia · Lithuania · Memel · East Prussia · West Belarus · Western Ukraine · Moldavia · Uzbekistan · Kazakhstan · Azerbaijan · Georgia · Tajikstan · Kyrgyzstan · Turkmenistan · Armenia Annexing SSRs Russian SFSR · Ukrainian SSR · Byelorussian SSR Related organizations Cominform · COMECON · Warsaw Pact · WFTU · WFDY Revolts and opposition Welles Declaration · The Goryani Movement · Forest Brothers · Ukrainian Insurgent Army · Operation Jungle · State continuity of the Baltic states · Baltic Legations (1940–1991) · Cursed soldiers · Uprising in Plzeň (1953) · Uprising of 1953 in East Germany · 1956 Georgian demonstrations · Poznań 1956 protests · Hungarian Revolution of 1956 · Novocherkassk massacre · Prague Spring and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia · 1968 Red Square demonstration · Polish 1970 protests · June 1976 protests · Solidarity, Soviet reaction and Martial law · Reagan Doctrine · Jeltoqsan · April 9 tragedy · Romanian Revolution of 1989 · Black January Conditions Eastern Bloc emigration and defection · Sovietization of the Baltic states  · Eastern Bloc information dissemination · Eastern Bloc politics · Eastern Bloc economies · Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc · List of Eastern Bloc defectors Decline Revolutions of 1989 · Fall of the Berlin Wall  · Fall of communism in Albania · Singing Revolution · Collapse of the Soviet Union · Dissolution of Czechoslovakia · January 1991 events in Lithuania · January 1991 events in Latvia

v t e Albania topics Index Outline Symbols Flag Coat of arms People Language List of Albanians Albanian diaspora Kosovo refugees Albanian Americans Arbëreshë people Arvanites Writers Enver Hoxha Mother Teresa Ismail Qemali Sali Berisha Skanderbeg Ismail Kadare History Origins Praevalitana Epirus Nova Middle Ages Albania under the Bulgarian Empire Albania under the Serbian Empire Principality of Arbër Kingdom of Albania Albanian Principalities in Middle Ages League of Lezhë Venetian Albania Ottoman Albania Albanian Pashaliks Massacre of the Albanian Beys Albanian National Awakening Revolts of 1833–1839 Revolt of 1843–1844 Revolt of 1847 League of Prizren League of Peja Revolt of 1910 Battle of Deçiq Independence Declaration Independent Albania Provisional Government of Albania Albania during the Balkan Wars Principality of Albania (1914–1925) Italian protectorate over Albania Vlora War Republic of Mirdita Albanian Republic (1925–1928) Albanian Kingdom (1928–1939) Albania under Italy (Invasion Colonization) Albania under Germany Resistance Communist Albania (1946–1992) Post-Communist Albania (since 1992) Timeline Politics Constitution Heads of State Prime Minister Parliament Political parties Elections (2007) Counties Districts Municipalities Foreign relations History of Kosovo Kosovo War Corruption LGBT rights Geography Cities: Tirana Geographical regions: Northern Mountain Range Southern Mountain Range Western Lowlands Central Mountain Range Mountains: Mount Dajti Golem Korab Dinaric Alps Mount Korab Tomorri Mountain Seas: Adriatic Sea Ionian Sea Rivers: Drin River Buna River Vjosë Black Drin Lakes: Lake Skadar Lake Ohrid Lake Prespa Lagoons: Karavasta Narta Plains: Myzeqe Korçë Plain Zadrima Capes: Cape of Gjuhëz Cape of Rodon National Parks: Butrint Lura Llogara Thethi Valbona Valley Shebenik-Jabllanica Fir of Hotova Karaburun-Sazan Economy Agriculture Albanian lek International rankings of Albania Telecommunications Transport Banks Rail Transport Tourism Military Military Air Force Rapid Reaction Brigade Naval Defense Forces Joint Forces Command Support Command Culture Languages Nationalism Literature Art Cinema Costume Cuisine Emigration Music Sports Smoking Holidays Religion Television Radio Mythology Epic Poetry Religion Islam Albanian Orthodox Church Roman Catholicism Protestanism Byzantine Catholicism Categories Archaeological sites Cities Communications Culture Economy Education Geography Government History Military People Politics Politicians Religion Society Sports Transport Albania stubs Buildings and structures Category Portal WikiProject

Republic of Albania Republika e Shqipërisë
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  "Ti, Shqipëri, më jep nder, më jep emrin Shqiptar" (Albanian) "You, Albania give me honor, you give me the name Albanian"
Anthem: Himni i Flamurit   (Albanian) "Hymn to the Flag"
Location of  Albania  (green) in Europe  (dark grey)  —  [Legend]
Capital (and largest city)		Tirana 41°20′N 19°48′E / 41.333°N 19.8°E / 41.333; 19.8
Official language(s)		Albanian1
Ethnic groups		95% Albanians,[1] 3–6% Greeks,[1][2] 2% others[1]
Demonym		Albanian
Government		Parliamentary republic
-	President	Bamir Topi
-	Prime Minister	Sali Berisha
Legislature		Parliament
Formation
-	Principality of Arbër	1190
-	League of Lezhë	2 March 1444
-	Independence from the Ottoman Empire	28 November 1912
-	Recognized by the Great Powers	2 December 1912
-	Current Constitution	28 November 1998
Area
-	Total	28,748 km2 (143rd) 11,100 sq mi
-	Water (%)	4.7
Population
-	2011 census	2,831,741 [3]
-	Density	98.5/km2 (63) 251.11/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$24.910 billion[4]
-	Per capita	$7,741[4]
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$12.847 billion[4]
-	Per capita	$3,992[4]
Gini (2005)		26.7[5] (low)
HDI (2011)		0.739[6] (high) (70th)
Currency		Lek (ALL)
Time zone		CET (UTC+1)
-	Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		AL
Internet TLD		.al
Calling code		355
1	Greek, Macedonian and other regional languages, are government-recognized minority languages.

Albania (ⁱ/ælˈbeɪniə/ al-BAY-nee-ə, Albanian: Shqipëri/Shqipëria; Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia), officially known as the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë pronounced Albanian pronunciation: [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːs]), is a country in Southern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo^[a] to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea to the southwest. It is less than 72 km (45 mi) from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which links the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea.

Albania is a member of the UN, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Council of Europe, World Trade Organisation, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and one of the founding members of the Union for the Mediterranean. Albania has been a potential candidate for accession to the European Union since January 2003, and it formally applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009.^[7]

The modern day territory of Albania was at various points in history part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia (southern Illyricum), Macedonia (particularly Epirus Nova), and Moesia Superior. The modern Republic became independent after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe following the Balkan Wars.^[8] Albanians had for centuries been at the heart of a sprawling empire in which they enjoyed an outstanding position as administrators, generals and in the diffusion of Ottoman culture throughout the European, Arabian and African continents.^[9] Albania became independent in 1912, and after World War Two became a Communist state under the authoritarian regime of Enver Hoxha, a period that lasted up until 1991.

Albania is a parliamentary democracy with a transition economy. The Albanian capital, Tirana, is home to 421,286 of the country's 2,831,741 people.^[10] Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy and transportation infrastructure.^[11][12][13] Albania was chosen as the No.1 Destination in Lonely Planet's list of ten top countries to visit for 2011.^[14]

Etymology and terminology[link]

Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country which is called Shqipëri by its people. In Medieval Greek, the country's name is Albania besides variants Albanitia, Arbanitia

The name may be derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Albani recorded by Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria who drafted a map in 150 AD^[15] that shows the city of Albanopolis^[16] (located northeast of Durrës).

The name may have a continuation in the name of a medieval settlement called Albanon and Arbanon, although it is not certain this was the same place.^[17] In his History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was the first to refer to Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the Duke of Dyrrachium.^[18] During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbër or Arbën and referred to themselves as Arbëresh or Arbnesh.^[19][20]

As early as the 16th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria and Arbëresh. While the two terms are popularly interpreted as "Land of the Eagles" and "Children of the Eagles", they derive from the adverb shqip, which means "understanding each other".^[21][22]

Under the Ottoman Empire Albania was referred to officially as Arnavutluk and its inhabitants as Arnauts (officially, Arnavutlar). These terms remain the same officially and in common usage in the current Republic of Turkey.^[23] The word is considered to be a metathesis from the word Arvanite, which was the Medieval Greek name for the Albanians.^[24]

History[link]

History of Albania

Prehistory Prehistoric Balkans Antiquity Illyria Illyrians Macedonia (Roman province) Illyricum Middle Ages Albania in the Middle Ages Albania under the Byzantine Empire Albania under the Bulgarian Empire Albania under the Serbian Empire Principality of Arbër Kingdom of Albania Albanian principalities League of Lezhë Venetian Albania Ottoman Albania Ottoman Albania Sanjak of Albania Sanjak of Scutari Sanjak of Debar Scutari Vilayet Janina Vilayet Kosovo Vilayet Albanian Pashaliks Massacre of the Albanian beys Albanian National Awakening Revolts of 1833-1839 Revolt of 1843-1844 Revolt of 1847 League of Prizren League of Peja Revolt of 1910 Revolt of 1911 Battle of Deçiq Revolt of 1912 Albanian Vilayet Albanian Declaration of Independence Post-Independence Independent Albania Provisional Government Albanian Congress of Trieste International Commission of Control Balkan Wars Principality of Albania Peasant Revolt in Albania Republic of Central Albania Vlora War Republic of Korçë Republic of Mirdita Italian Protectorate on southern Albania Vlora War Congress of Lushnjë Italian protectorate over Albania Union of Italia & Albania Albania under Germany Albanian Resistance Second League of Prizren Liberation of Albania Communist Albania Contemporary Albania Post-Communism 1997 unrest Republic of Albania

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