People's Socialist Republic of Albania

(Redirected from Albanian Communists) Socialist state in Southeast Europe from 1946 to 1991 This article is about the government which existed between 1946 and 1991. For the current country, see Albania. For other uses, see Albania (disambiguation).

People's Republic of Albania
(1946–1976)
Republika Popullore e Shqipërisë

People's Socialist Republic of Albania
(1976–1991)
Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë

Republic of Albania
(1991–1992)
Republika e Shqipërisë

1946–1992

Flag

Emblem

Motto: Ti Shqipëri, më jep nder, më jep emrin Shqipëtar
"Albania, you give me honor, you give me the name Albanian"
Proletarë të të gjitha vendeve, bashkohuni!
"Proletarians of all countries, unite!"

Anthem: Himni i Flamurit
"Hymn to the Flag"

The People's Socialist Republic of Albania in 1989

Status

Member of the Warsaw Pact (until 1968) and Comecon (until 1987)

Capitaland largest city

Official languages

Religion

Government

Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic

First Secretary

• 1946–1985

Enver Hoxha

• 1985–1992

Ramiz Alia

Chairman of the Presidium of the People's Assembly

• 1946–1953

• 1953–1982

• 1982–1991

• 1946–1954

• 1954–1981

• 1981–1991

Legislature

Historical era

• Democratic Government

20 October 1944

• People's Republic formed

10 January 1946

• Albanian–Soviet split

1956–1961

• Constitution amended

28 December 1976

• Sino-Albanian split

1972–1978

• Fall of communism

11 December 1990

• Democratic elections

31 March 1991

• 1992 Albanian parliamentary election

22 March 1992

HDI (1990 formula)

0.790
high

Currency

Franga (1946–1947)
Albanian lek (1947–1991)

Calling code

+355

Preceded by

Succeeded by

Democratic Government of Albania

Republic of Albania

Today part of

Albania

Eastern Bloc

Republics of the USSR

Allied and satellite states

Related organizations

Opposition

Anti-Soviet partisans
Albania Bulgaria Croatia Poland Romania Serbia Ukraine
Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
Soviet occupation Estonia Latvia Lithuania Operation Jungle
Protests and uprisings
Poland 1944–1989 Poznań 1956 1980–89 Plzeň 1953 East Germany 1953 Georgia 1956 Hungary 1956 Novocherkassk 1962 Prague 1968 Invasion Moscow Czechoslovakia 1976–1990 Romania 1977 Kazakhstan 1986 Brașov 1987 Tbilisi 1989 Ukraine 1989–1991 Baku 1990 Lithuania 1991 Riga 1991
Dissent
Soviet Poland East Germany to Hong Kong North Korea

Cold War events

Fall

The People's Socialist Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë), officially as the People's Republic of Albania from 1946 until 1976, and as the Republic of Albania from 1991 to 1992, was the communist state in Albania from 1946 to 1991. It succeeded the Democratic Government of Albania (1944–1946).

During this time period, the country was ruled mainly by Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania. They ruled Albania by establishing a Stalinist, and later Hoxhaist, style of state administration and adhering to policies which stressed national unity and self-reliance. Described by scholars as a totalitarian state, travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or travel from. Being Europe's only Muslim-majority country (aside from Turkey) at the time, it declared itself the world's first atheist state in 1967, but after the fall of communism in Albania in 1991, the practice of religion slowly increased. It was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action which was occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The government implemented reforms which were aimed at modernizing Albania, and they resulted in significant gains in the areas of industry, agriculture, education, the arts, and culture, which contributed to a general increase in the Albanian population's standard of living. However, these developments coincided with political repression by the secret police, the Sigurimi, for the purposes of preventing a counter-revolution, which included dismissal from employment, imprisonment in forced labor camps and executions.

The first multi-party elections in Socialist Albania took place on 31 March 1991 – the Communists gained a majority in an interim government. The Republic of Albania was proclaimed on 29 April 1991 and the country's first parliamentary elections were held on 22 March 1992. The People's Socialist Republic of Albania was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania.

History

Consolidation of power and initial reforms

On 29 November 1944, Albania was liberated by the National Liberation Movement (In Albanian: Lëvizja Nacional-Çlirimtare LNÇ). The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, formed in May, became the country's provisional government.

The government, like the LNÇ, was dominated by the two-year-old Communist Party of Albania, and the party's first secretary, Enver Hoxha, became Albania's prime minister. From the start, the LNC government was an undisguised Communist regime. In most of the rest of what became the Eastern Bloc, the Communist parties were nominally part of a coalition government for a few years before seizing full control and creating one-party states.

Having sidelined the nationalist Balli Kombëtar after their collaboration with the Nazis, the LNÇ quickly moved to consolidate its power, liberate the country's tenants and workers, and fraternally link Albania with other socialist countries. King Zog I was permanently barred from returning to Albania.

The internal affairs minister, Koçi Xoxe, "an erstwhile pro-Yugoslavia tinsmith", presided over the trial of many non-communist politicians who were condemned as "enemies of the people" and "war criminals". Many were sentenced to death. Those spared were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later settled on state farms built on reclaimed marshlands.

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.

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 40 hectares (99 acres) of land. Landholdings of religious institutions and peasants without agricultural machinery were limited to 20 hectares (49 acres). Finally, landless peasants and peasants with tiny landholdings were given up to 5 hectares (12 acres), although they had to pay nominal compensation.

In December 1945, Albanians elected a new People's Assembly, but voters were presented with a single list from the Communist-dominated Democratic Front (previously the National Liberation Movement). 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. Its first act was to formally dethrone Zog, abolish the monarchy and to declare Albania a "people's republic." However, the country had already been under out-and-out Communist rule for just over two years. After months of angry debate, the assembly adopted a constitution that mirrored the Yugoslav and Soviet constitutions. A couple of months later, the assembly members chose a new government, which was emblematic of Hoxha's continuing consolidation of power: Hoxha became simultaneously 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.

The government took major steps to introduce a Stalinist-style 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.

Albanian–Yugoslav tensions

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 the Bulgarian People's Republic, 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 Hoxha's right-hand man, Nako Spiru, became the leading critic of Yugoslavia's efforts to exert economic control over Albania. Tito distrusted the intellectuals (Hoxha and his allies) of 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 of whom were 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. This was the closest Hoxha ever came to being removed from power. Apparently attempting to buy support inside the Albanian Communist Party, Belgrade extended Tirana credits which were worth 40 million USD, an amount which was equivalent to 58% of Albania's 1947 state budget. A year later, Yugoslavia's credits accounted for nearly half of Albania's 1948 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. Subsequently, at a November 1947 meeting of the Albanian Economic Central Committee, Spiru came under intense criticism, which was spearheaded by Xoxe. Failure to win support from anyone within the party (he was effectively a fall guy for Hoxha) he was assassinated the very next day and his death framed as a suicide.

The insignificance of Albania's standing in the communist world was clearly highlighted when the emerging Eastern European nations did not invite the Party of Labour of Albania 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 provide agricultural and industrial machinery to Albania, 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 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. However, when the Cominform expelled Yugoslavia on 28 June, Albania made a rapid about-face in its policy towards Yugoslavia. 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 Albania than hard-strapped Belgrade had. 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 which renamed itself at Stalin's suggestion, Hoxha pinned the blame for the country's woes on Yugoslavia and Xoxe. Hoxha had Xoxe sacked as Albania's internal affairs minister in October, and he was replaced with Mehmet 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 members. Yugoslavia responded by launching a propaganda counterattack and canceling its treaty of friendship with Albania and in 1950, it withdrew its diplomatic mission from Tirana.

Deteriorating relations with the West

Albania's relations with the West soured after the Communist government's refusal to allow free elections in December 1945. Albania restricted the movement of United States and British personnel in the country, charging that they had instigated anti-Communist 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). Albania feared that the United States and Britain, which were supporting anti-Communist forces in the ongoing 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 22 October 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 government by backing anti-Communist 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 Communist authorities 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 who was found guilty of conspiring against the state, damaging state property, or committing economic sabotage. Political executions were common and between 5,000 and 25,000 people were killed in total during the Communist era.

In the Soviet sphere

In the Chinese sphere

Withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact

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 its basic policies to suit Albania, and relations failed to improve. For decades, Tirana's propaganda continued 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 which it had inflicted on the country. Albania had also been feuding with Moscow over suggestions that Albania should focus on agriculture to the detriment of industrial development. Soviet-Albanian relations dipped to new lows after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Albania felt that the Soviet Union had become too liberal since the death of Joseph Stalin. The invasion served as the tipping point, and within one month (September 1968) Albania formally withdrew from the Warsaw Pact. Leonid Brezhnev made no attempt to force Albania to remain.

Cultural and Ideological Revolution

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Main article: Cultural and Ideological Revolution

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 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 even spread to the remote mountains. In addition, the government attacked dissident writers and artists, reformed its educational system, and generally reinforced Albania's isolation from European culture in an effort to keep out foreign influences.

After the 5th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania and Enver Hoxha's speech on 6 February 1967, the authorities launched 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 faiths. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions were 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 which was trumpeted as one of Enver Hoxha's greatest achievements. While the Albanian Constitution had formally guaranteed freedom of religion to the Albanian people right up until that time, religious freedom was virtually non-existent after 1967. The 1976 Constitution of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania later stipulated in Article 37 that "The state recognizes no religion whatever and supports atheist propaganda for the purpose of inculcating the scientific materialist world outlook in people" and Article 55 explicitly forbade the formation of "any type of organization of a fascist, anti-democratic, religious, and anti-socialist character" and stated that "Fascist, anti-democratic, religious, war-mongering, and anti-socialist activities and propaganda, as well as the incitement of national and racial hatred are prohibited."

On 1 November 1977, Enver Hoxha claimed in his Report submitted to the 7th Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania on the activity of the Party's Central Committee that the 1976 Constitution was an embodiment of the free will of the Albanian people, because genuine democracy was necessary in order for socialism to actually exist. He said that, "the broad masses of the working people freely aired their views on the new Fundamental Law of our state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. About 1,500,000 people, practically the entire adult population of the country, participated in the meetings which were held, and about 300,000 people contributed to the discussion... The great popular discussion, characterized by a free and fruitful thrashing out of opinions, by lively and constructive debate, was a clear expression of our socialist democracy in action and the genuine sovereignty of the people. It demonstrated in practice that in socialist Albania the people are the masters, that nothing is done against their will." The numerous testimonies of those who suffered under the religious persecution of this era, however, casts serious doubts into how "free and fruitful" the thrashing out of opinions in this grand debate were, and consequently as critics of the regime would argue, the genuinely socialist character of Albania's socialist democracy.

During the Cultural and Ideological Revolution, traditional kinship links in Albania, which were centered on the patriarchal family, were shattered by the postwar repression of clan leaders, collectivization of agriculture, industrialization, migration from the countryside to urban areas, and suppression of religion. The postwar regime brought a radical change in the status of Albania's women. Considered second-class citizens in traditional Albanian society, women did most of the work at home and they also did most of the work in the fields. Before World War II, about 90% of Albania's women were illiterate, and in many areas, they were regarded as chattel 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 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."

Self-reliance

Transition

Main article: Fall of communism in Albania

After Hoxha's death, Ramiz Alia maintained firm control of the country and its security apparatus, but Albania's desperate economic situation required Alia to introduce some reforms. Continuing a policy set by Hoxha, Alia reestablished diplomatic relations with West Germany in return for development aid and also courted Italy and France. The very gradual and slight reforms intensified as Mikhail Gorbachev introduced his new policies of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the collapse of communist governments across Central and Eastern Europe.

After Nicolae Ceaușescu (the leader of Communist Romania) was executed in a revolution in December 1989, Alia expedited his reforms, apparently concerned about violence and his own fate if radical changes were not made. He signed the Helsinki Agreement (which was signed by other countries in 1975) which respected some human rights. On 11 December 1990, under enormous pressure from students and workers, Alia announced that the Party of Labor had abandoned its guaranteed right to rule, that other parties could be formed, and free elections would be held in the spring of 1991.

Alia's party won the elections on 31 March 1991—the first free elections held in decades. Nevertheless, it was clear that the change would not be stopped. The position of the communists was confirmed in the first round of elections under a 1991 interim law, but two months later, it fell during a general strike. A committee of "national salvation" took over but it also collapsed within six months. On 22 March 1992, the Communists were trumped by the Democratic Party in national elections. The change from dictatorship to democracy came with many challenges. The Democratic Party had to implement the reforms it had promised, but they were either too slow or did not solve the country's problems, so 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 by manipulating the results. This government collapsed in 1997 in the wake of additional collapses of pyramid schemes and widespread corruption, which caused chaos 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, forcing other nations to intervene. Pursuant to the 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 name "People's Socialist Republic of Albania" was officially illegitimate after November 28, 1998 with the new Constitution of Albania, although the old communist symbols were already withdrawn and got replaced with the current coat of arms and flag of Albania.

Government

During its communist era, Albania was governed by the Party of Labor of Albania.

According to the Albanian constitution of 1976, legislative powers were vested in the People's Assembly, which the constitution described as "the supreme organ of state power". Its competences included directing the internal and external policies of Albania, approving and amending the constitution and laws, approving plans for economic and cultural development as well as state budget, ratifying international treaties, granting amnesty, defining the "administrative and territorial structure", and deciding on popular referendums. It also elected and dismissed the Presidium of the Peoples Assembly, the Council of Ministers, and the Supreme Court of Albania. The People's Assembly was composed of 250 deputies who were "elected in constituencies with an equal number of inhabitants" for a term of four years. It met in normal session twice per year.

The Presidium of the People's Assembly was described as "a superior organ of the state power with permanent activity" in the 1976 constitution. It was composed of a President, three Vice-Presidents, one Secretary, and ten other members.

The supreme and executive organ of the government was the Council of Ministers. They were appointed from among the ranks of the People's Assembly. Like the People's Assembly, it also had its own presidium, which was composed of a Chairman and Vice-Chairmen.

Economy

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Having emerged as Europe’s poorest nation in the post-war period, Albania embarked on a radical economic postwar program along the lines of Stalinism.

Beginning as early as 1945, Albania issued the agrarian reform law which saw private landholdings be confiscated by the state and the dismantlement of these landownings although the collectivization of agriculture was the slowest sector to be government owned in Albania, due to the rugged terrain, having not completed until 1967. In 1946, the communist regime targeted private business owners, taxing them at prohibitive levels in order to expropriate their enterprises and bring them under state control. By 1947, the state had taken control of all domestic industry was under state control.

By 1951, Albania had effectively wiped out any semblance of a market economy and instead replaced it with a centrally planned economy, modeled along the lines of Stalin’s USSR. The first five year plan with Soviet assistance began, leaning on heavy industry. The State Planning Commission was the organ responsible for such endeavors and by 1959, the Soviet system of economics was fully adopted. Despite these advances, Albania frequently suffered from chronic shortages of goods and foodstuffs throughout the 1950s, despite Soviet foreign aid. As foreign aid accounted for half the Albanian economy at the time, productivity was low. The cessation of relations between Albania and the USSR damaged the Albanian economy by 1961 and the country embarked on austerity measures by 1962; in spite of this, Albania became more self-sufficient (in part due to Chinese foreign aid) in the 1960s, manufacturing its own televisions, radios, firearms, bricks, cement, light bulbs, textiles, foodstuffs, agricultural exports as well as mining chromium. By the 1970s, Albania became the third largest exporter of chromium in the world.

State enterprises, entities which were meant to generate revenue briefly operated on market terms until 1948 when they were subject to central planning as well. State Companies ranged from 700 workers to over 4,000 and typically engaged in various sectors. Despite the increased industrial output, salary cutbacks were common and wages remained very low and productivity on the lower end. By the late 1980s, due to aging equipment, the industrial base began to collapse.

In 1983, Albania imported 280 million dollars worth of goods and exported 290 million dollars resulting in a trade surplus of 10 million USD.

Between 1983 and 1988, a prolonged drought brought economic hardship because it lowered the water level in hydropower reservoirs, reducing the electricity supply needed for chromium mining. The economy was further impacted by the 1983 OPEC oil price cut.

Legacy

The policies which were pursued by Enver Hoxha and his followers influenced political and economic thought around the world. Thus, Hoxhaist parties were founded in many countries and they based their ideology on Enver Hoxha's ideas as to how a communist state should be constructed and embraced his strict adherence to Marxism–Leninism. Following the fall of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania in 1991, the Hoxhaist parties regrouped as an international conference and the publication Unity and Struggle.

Encyclopædia Britannica emphasizes that "Hoxha's modernization program aimed to transform Albania from a backward agrarian country into a modern industrial society, and indeed, within four decades, Albania made respectable, even historic, progress in the development of industry, agriculture, education, arts and culture. One of the most notable achievements has been the drainage of coastal swamps-formerly breeding grounds for malaria mosquitoes-and the reclamation of land for agricultural and industrial use. The historic reform of the language, which merged elements of the Gheg and Tosk dialects into a unified literary language, was also a symbol of this change."

A 2016 survey conducted by the Institute for Development Research and Alternatives (IDRA), showed that 42% of Albanians believe that Enver Hoxha had a positive impact on history – not much less than 45% who see his impact as negative. Citizens in the regions of southern and southwestern Albania that were interviewed, had the most positive view of Hoxha, with 55%. Approximately 35% of respondents said that the communist past was not a problem for them, while 62% saw it as "at least somewhat problematic".

List of leaders

First Secretaries of the Party of Labour of Albania:

Enver Hoxha (1946–1985)
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 (1946–1954)
Mehmet Shehu (1954–1981)
Adil Çarçani (1981–1991)

Military

Main articles: Albanian People's Army, Albanian Air Force § Socialist Albania, and Albanian Naval Force § During the Socialist Era

The Albanian People's Army (Albanian: Ushtria Popullore Shqiptare, UPSh) was the term for the national army of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1990. After withdrawing from Warsaw Pact activities in 1968, it conducted a self-reliance policy for national defence. It was dissolved in 1990 and is retained in its current form through the Albanian Armed Forces.

Socialist Albania’s Military Equipment
Name	Origin	Number	Notes
Tanks
T-34/85	Soviet Union	190	Serviceability doubtful
Type-59	China	190	Serviceability doubtful
Type-62	China	N/A
Tank Destroyers
SU-76	Soviet Union	N/A	(Kept in reserve).
SU-100	Soviet Union	N/A
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
BA-64	Soviet Union	N/A	(Kept in reserve).
Armoured Personnel Carriers
Type-63	China	N/A
Type-77	China	N/A
Armoured Recovery Vehicles
T-34-T	Soviet Union	N/A
Type 73	China	N/A
Amphibious Transport Vehicles
BAV 385	Soviet Union	N/A
Bridgelayers
Jiefang CA30	China	N/A
Artillery Tractors
AT-S	Soviet Union	N/A
AT-T	Soviet Union	N/A
Type-60-1	China	N/A
Heavy Mortars
120mm 120-PM-38	Soviet Union	N/A
120mm 120-PM-43		N/A
160mm M160		N/A
160mm Type-56	China	N/A
Towed Artillery
76mm ZiS-3	Soviet Union	N/A
76mm M-1943		N/A
85mm D-44		N/A
100mm BS-3		N/A
122mm M-30		N/A
122mm Type-54	China	N/A
122mm Type-60		N/A
130mm Type-59		N/A
130mm Type-59-I		N/A
130mm SM-4-1	Soviet Union	N/A
152mm ML-20		N/A
152mm D-1		N/A
152mm Type-66	China	N/A
Multiple Rocket Launchers
107mm Type-63	China	N/A	(Towed).
107mm Type-63		N/A	(Jeep-Based).
130mm Type-63		N/A
132mm BM-13 'Katyusha'	Soviet Union	N/A
Anti-Aircraft Guns
12.7mm DShK	Soviet Union	N/A
12.7mm Type-54	China	N/A
14.5mm ZPU-2	Soviet Union	N/A
14.5mm ZPU-4	Soviet Union	N/A
14.5mm Type-56	China	N/A
37mm M-1939	Soviet Union	N/A
37mm Type-65	China	N/A
57mm AZP S-60	Soviet Union	N/A
85mm 52-K M1939		N/A
100mm KS-19		N/A
100mm Type-59	China	N/A
Static Surface-To-Air Missile Systems
HQ-2	China	~4 sites, 22 launchers
Radars
P-35	Soviet Union	N/A
SNR-75	China	N/A	(For HQ-2), (Not yet seen).
SON-9	China	N/A	(For 57mm S-60 and 100mm KS-19 AA guns).
Utility Vehicles
GAZ-69	Soviet Union	N/A
Beijing BJ212	China	N/A
ARO 244	Romania	N/A
Trucks
Berliet GBC8 MT	France	N/A
ZiL-151	Soviet Union	N/A
Jiefang CA10	China	N/A
Jiefang CA30		N/A
Yuejin NJ-130		N/A
IFA W 50	East Germany	N/A

Notes

Human Development Report 1990, p. 111
Kushtetuta e Republikës Popullore Socialiste të Shqipërisë: miratuar nga Kuvendi Popullor më 28. 12. 1976
Pajo, Matilda (September–December 2016). "Consequences of the Totalitarian Past on Albanian post-communist society" (PDF). Revistia. 3 (1): 138–141 – via European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies.
Majeska, George P. (1976). "Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe, Review". The Slavic and East European Journal. 20(2). pp. 204–206.
"Socialist Albania: The Stalinist state". Encyclopædia Britannica.
Robert Elsie (2012), A Biographical Dictionary of Albanian History, I. B. Tauris, p. 388, ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3, ...the Treason Trial conducted by the Special Court (Gjyqi Special), at which 60 members of the pre-Communist establishment were sentenced to death and long prison sentences as war criminals and enemies of the people
Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity; by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999 ISBN 1-85065-279-1; p. 222 "the French Communist Party, then ultra-Stalinist in orientation. He may have owed some aspects of his political thought and general psychology to that"
Owen Pearson: Albania As Dictatorship And Democracy. London 2006, S. 238.
Zitat nach: G. H. Hodos: Schauprozesse. Berlin 2001, S. 34.
Congressional record, 66th Congress, 2nd session, Volume 59, Part 7 (4 May 1920 to 24 May 1920), p. 7160
15 Feb 1994 Washington Times
"WHPSI": The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators by Charles Lewis Taylor
Perlez, Jane (8 July 1997). "A Stalinist Dowager in Her Bunker". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
"Hapet dosja, ja harta e bunkerëve dhe tuneleve sekretë". Shqiptarja.com (in Albanian). Tirana. 5 December 2014. Archived from the original on 17 September 2017.
Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity; by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999 ISBN 1-85065-279-1; p. 210 "with the split in the world communist movement it moved into a close relationship with China"
"1955: Communist states sign Warsaw Pact". BBC News. 14 May 1955. Retrieved 27 May 2010.
HISTORY OF THE PARTY OF LABOR OF ALBANIA. Tirana, Albania: The "Naim Frasheri" Publishing House. 1971. pp. 624–625.
"Albania – Hoxha's Antireligious Campaign". www.country-data.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA. Tirana, Albania: The "8 Nentori" Publishing House. 1977. pp. 20, 26–27.
Hoxha, Enver (1977). REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE 7th CONGRESS OF THE PARTY OF LABOUR OF ALBANIA. Tirana, Albania: The "8 Nentori" Publishing House. pp. 14–15.
Forest, Jim (2002). The Resurrection of the Church in Albania. Geneva: WCC Publications. ISBN 978-2-8254-1359-3.
Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity; by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999 ISBN 1-85065-279-1; p. 138 "Because of its association with the years of repression under communism, Albanians have developed an aversion to collective life in any form, even where it"
Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan Identity; by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999 ISBN 1-85065-279-1; p. 2 "Enver Hoxha's regime was haunted by fears of external intervention and internal subversion. Albania thus became a fortress state"
The Greek Minority in Albania – In the Aftermath of Communism Archived 3 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine "Onset in 1967 of the campaign by Albania's communist party, the Albanian Party of Labour (PLA), to eradicate organised religion, a prime target of which was the Orthodox Church. Many churches were damaged or destroyed during this period, and many Greek-language books were banned because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, as in other communist states, particularly in the Balkans, where measures which were putatively geared towards the consolidation of political control intersected with the pursuit of national integration, it is often impossible to draw sharp distinctions between the ideological and ethno-cultural bases of repression. This is all the more true in the case of Albania's anti-religious campaign because it was merely one element of the broader "Ideological and Cultural Revolution" which was begun by Hoxha in 1966 but whose main features he outlined at the PLA's Fourth Congress in 1961"
^ Abrahams, Fred C (2015). Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy. NYU Press. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-8147-0511-7.
"Albania 1998 (rev. 2008)". Constitute. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
"The Constitution of the People's Republic of Albania" (PDF). Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT). Bjoern Andersen. March 2005. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
Bléjer, Mario I., "II The Pre-Reform Economic System", Albania, International Monetary Fund, ISBN 978-1-55775-266-6, retrieved 25 October 2024
Bléjer, Mario I., "II The Pre-Reform Economic System", Albania, International Monetary Fund, ISBN 978-1-55775-266-6, retrieved 25 October 2024
Bléjer, Mario I., "II The Pre-Reform Economic System", Albania, International Monetary Fund, ISBN 978-1-55775-266-6, retrieved 25 October 2024
"Albania Economy 1986, CIA World Factbook". allcountries.org. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
"Albania - Isolation and Autarky". countrystudies.us. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
Artisien, Patrick F.R. (1986). "Albania After Hoxha". SAIS Review (1956-1989). 6 (1): 159–168. ISSN 0036-0775. JSTOR 45349338.
"Albania - Collapse of communism | Britannica". www.britannica.com.
^ Mejdini, Fatjona (12 December 2016). "Albania Survey Shocks Victims of Communist Regime". Balkan Insight. The survey, conducted by IDRA think tank and presented by OSCE Ambassador Bernd Borchardt, surprisingly revealed that 42 per cent of Albanians believed Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha had a positive impact on history – not much less than the 45 percent who see his impact as negative. Some 35 per cent of respondents to the survey based on 995 people said the communist past was not a problem for them, while 62 per cent saw it as at least somewhat problematic.
"Former dictator still seen in positive light by many Albanians, poll shows". Tirana Times. 9 December 2016. According to a survey report on the Understanding and Perception of Citizens of the Communist Past in Albania, almost half of the population of Albania sees Enver Hoxha's role in the history of the country as positive. The study found that 55 percent of citizens in the regions of southern and southwestern Albania that were interviewed, had the most positive view of Albania's former communist dictator.
^ International Institute for Strategic Studies (1989). The Military Balance, 1989-1990. London: Brassey's. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-08-037569-4.
^ Oryx. "The North Korea Of Europe: Listing Socialist Albania's Military Equipment". Oryx. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
International Institute for Strategic Studies (1989). The Military Balance, 1989-1990. London: Brassey's. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-08-037569-4.

References

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

External links

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