The Project Gutenberg EBook of Area Handbook for Albania, by
Eugene K. Keefe and Sarah Jane Elpern and William Giloane and James M. Moore, Jr. and Stephen Peters and Eston T. White
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Title: Area Handbook for Albania
Author: Eugene K. Keefe
Sarah Jane Elpern
William Giloane
James M. Moore, Jr.
Stephen Peters
Eston T. White
Release Date: April 25, 2010 [EBook #32129]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AREA HANDBOOK FOR ALBANIA ***
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AREA HANDBOOK
for
ALBANIA
_Co-Authors_
Eugene K. Keefe
Sarah Jane Elpern
William Giloane
James M. Moore, Jr.
Stephen Peters
Eston T. White
Research and writing were completed on
July 17, 1970
Published
January 1971
DA PAM 550-98
=Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-609651=
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. 20402--Price $2.50
FOREWORD
This volume is one of a series of handbooks prepared by Foreign Area
Studies (FAS) of The American University, designed to be useful to
military and other personnel who need a convenient compilation of basic
facts about the social, economic, political, and military institutions
and practices of various countries. The emphasis is on objective
description of the nation's present society and the kinds of possible or
probable changes that might be expected in the future. The handbook
seeks to present as full and as balanced an integrated exposition as
limitations on space and research time permit. It was compiled from
information available in openly published material. An extensive
bibliography is provided to permit recourse to other published sources
for more detailed information. There has been no attempt to express any
specific point of view or to make policy recommendations. The contents
of the handbook represent the work of the authors and FAS and do not
represent the official view of the United States government.
An effort has been made to make the handbook as comprehensive as
possible. It can be expected, however, that the material,
interpretations, and conclusions are subject to modification in the
light of new information and developments. Such corrections, additions,
and suggestions for factual, interpretive, or other change as readers
may have will be welcomed for use in future revisions. Comments may be
addressed to:
The Director
Foreign Area Studies
The American University
5010 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
PREFACE
Albania, or, as it proclaimed itself in 1946, the People's Republic of
Albania, emerged from World War II under the control of the local
Communist movement, which later adopted the name Albanian Workers'
Party. The most remarkable feature of Albanian life during the 1960s was
the rigid alignment with Communist China in that country's ideological
struggle with the Soviet Union. In mid-1970 the country continued to be
Communist China's only European ally and its mouthpiece in the United
Nations. Propaganda broadcasts in several languages, extensive for such
a small, undeveloped country, continued to emanate from the capital city
of Tirana, constantly reiterating the Chinese Communist line and making
Radio Tirana sound like an extension of Radio Peking.
Albania's most notable tradition from ancient times has been one of
foreign domination. Brief periods of independence have been overshadowed
by long centuries of subjection to alien rule. Foreign rulers never
seemed able or willing to subject the Albanian peasants to the complete
authority of a central government. Throughout their history Albanians,
protected by the remoteness of their mountain villages, often enjoyed a
measure of autonomy even though they lacked national independence. The
foreign domination plus the limited autonomy developed in the people a
spirit of fierce independence and a suspicion of neighboring states that
might have designs on their territorial integrity.
Militarily undeveloped but unwilling to submit to partition by its
neighbors, Albania has held on precariously to autonomy since World War
II by becoming a client state--first to Yugoslavia, then to the Soviet
Union, and then to Communist China. In all three relationships Albania
has maintained its independence but it has not been able to establish
itself as a viable economic entity.
The _Area Handbook for Albania_ seeks to present an overview of the
various social, political, and economic aspects of the country as they
appeared in 1970. The leaders of the Communist Party have gone to
extremes to maintain an aura of secrecy about their nation and their
efforts to govern it. Material on Albania is scanty and some that is
available is not reliable but, using their own judgments on sources, the
authors have striven for objectivity in this effort to depict Albanian
society in 1970.
The spelling of place names conforms to the rulings of the United States
Board on Geographic Names, with the exception that no diacritical marks
have been used in this volume. The metric system has been used only for
tonnages.
COUNTRY SUMMARY
1. COUNTRY: People's Republic of Albania (Albania). Called Shqiperia by
Albanians. A national state since 1912. Under Communist control after
1944.
2. GOVERNMENT: Functions much like Party-state model of Soviet Union.
Constitution designates People's Assembly as highest state organ; its
Presidium conducts state affairs between Assembly sessions. People's
Council highest organ at district and lower echelons. Communist Party
(officially, the Albanian Workers' Party) organizations parallel
government organizations and control them from national to local levels.
Party members hold all key positions in government.
3. SIZE AND LOCATION: Area, 11,100 square miles; smallest of the
European Communist states. Extends 210 miles from southern to northern
extremities; 90 miles on longest east-west axis. Bordered on north and
east by Yugoslavia; on southeast and south by Greece; and on west by
Adriatic and Ionian seas.
4. TOPOGRAPHY: A narrow strip of lowland borders Adriatic Sea; remainder
of country is mountainous and hilly, intersected by streams that flow in
westerly or northwesterly direction. Terrain is generally rugged.
5. CLIMATE: Unusually varied. Coastal lowlands have Mediterranean-type
climate. Inland fluctuations common, but continental influences
predominate. Annual precipitation is 40 to 100 inches according to area;
highly seasonal; summer droughts common. Temperatures vary widely
because of differences in elevation and the changes in prevailing
Mediterranean and continental air currents.
6. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS: Twenty-six districts. Economic and social
factors played important role in shaping delineations. Control and
direction is from Tirana.
7. POPULATION: Estimated 2.1 million in January 1970. Growth unusually
rapid; at 1970 rate, would double in twenty-six years. Two-thirds live
in rural areas. Inhabitants are 97-percent ethnic Albanian. About 106
males per 100 females.
8. LABOR: In 1967 the working-age population numbered about 932,000, of
which approximately 745,000 were employed. About 66.7 percent were in
agriculture; 14.1 percent in industry; 5.4 percent in construction; and
13.8 percent in trade, education, health, and others.
9. LANGUAGE: Albanian spoken by everyone. Some of the 3-percent minority
use tongue of country of family origin as a second language.
10. EDUCATION: Nearly all persons under age forty are literate,
according to Albanian statistics. Communist ideas and principles
emphasized with strict controls by centralized authority. Production of
capabilities and skills required for modernization and industrialization
considered to be a major goal.
11. RELIGION: Organized religion destroyed by government action in 1967.
Party-directed antireligious campaign aims to eliminate religious
thought and belief. Pre-World War II data indicated population to be
70-percent Muslim, 20-percent Eastern Orthodox, and 10-percent Roman
Catholic.
12. HEALTH: Many diseases, but reportedly greatly reduced or eliminated.
Health improved substantially after 1950, as reflected in Albanian
reports. Malnutrition, poor sanitary-hygienic conditions, and lack of
trained personnel are continuing problems.
13. JUSTICE: System of people's courts from national to village level;
purportedly independent of administrative system but guided by Party
policy. Supreme Court elected by the People's Assembly. District judges
popularly elected from among Party-approved candidates. Jury system not
used. Persons are subject to military law and tried in military courts.
14. ECONOMY: Government controlled. Follows planning model of Soviet
Union. Per capita gross national product lowest in Europe. Lack of
accessible resources, arable land, and trained work force make for slow
growth.
15. INDUSTRY: Poorly developed despite heavy emphasis since 1950s, with
priority to means of production. Extractive industries most productive.
Growth rates high in 1950s, slowed in 1960s.
16. AGRICULTURE: Production low because of lack of arable land and
inefficient methods. Cereal crops for domestic use and exportable items,
such as tobacco, fruits, and vegetables, most important.
17. IMPORTS: Largely items for industrial development and unfinished
materials for processing. Some food, but quantity decreasing.
18. EXPORTS: Mostly at the expense of domestic needs, except for some
metals and minerals. Low in proportion to imports, but increasing.
19. FINANCE: Currency: The lek is standard unit; lacks solid backing.
Banks are state owned and operated. National income consistently less
than expenditures, requiring supplement from foreign sources.
20. COMMUNICATIONS: Government owned and controlled. Press and radio as
instruments to indoctrinate effectively reach the masses. Other media
poorly developed.
21. RAILROADS: Approximately 135 miles standard-gauge. None cross
international borders.
22. ROADS: Approximately 3,000 miles have improved surface. Rugged
terrain makes travel difficult on others. None part of important
international routes.
23. PORTS: Durres, largest and most important, alone links with
hinterland. Vlore only other major port.
24. AIR TRANSPORTATION: Extremely limited within country and with
foreign cities. Long-distance international flights require connections
through intermediate points. Facilities for all but small aircraft
limited to Tirana area.
25. INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS AND TREATIES: Member, United Nations after
1955. Member, Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) and
Warsaw Treaty Organization, 1955-68; participation all but ceased after
1961 split with Soviet Union.
26. AID PROGRAMS: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency
(UNRRA) 1945-46; Yugoslavia 1947-48, as an integrated economy; Soviet
Union 1948-61; and Communist China after 1961.
27. SECURITY: Party-controlled agencies closely watch people's
activities and secure borders. Security forces total approximately
12,500.
28. ARMED FORCES: The People's Army, approximately 40,000, includes
army, navy, and air elements. Most conscripts serve two years. Cost,
about 10 percent of total budget.
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
FOREWORD iii
PREFACE v
COUNTRY SUMMARY vii
Chapter 1. General Character of the Society 1
2. Historical Setting 9
Antiquity and the Middle Ages--Ottoman Turk Rule--National
Awakening and Independence--Creation of Modern
Albania--Communist Seizure and Consolidation of
Power--The Communist Period
3. Physical Environment 25
Natural Regions--National Boundaries--Local Administrative
Areas--Climate--Drainage--Natural Resources--Transportation
4. The People 49
Population--Ethnic Groups--Languages--Settlement Patterns--Living
Conditions
5. Social System 67
Traditional Social Patterns and Values--Social Stratifications
under Communist Rule--Education--Religion
6. Government Structure and Political System 103
Formal Structure of Government--Court System--Political
Dynamics--Foreign Relations
7. Communications and Cultural Development 125
Nature and Functions of the Information Media--The
Press--Radio and Television--Book Publishing and Libraries--Cultural
Development
8. Economic System 145
Labor--Agriculture--Industry--Finance--Foreign Economic
Relations
9. Internal and External Security 175
Historical Background--The Military Establishment--The
Military Establishment and the National Economy,
Foreign Military Relations--Security Forces
BIBLIOGRAPHY 197
GLOSSARY 209
INDEX 213
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure Page
1 Transportation Systems in Albania xiv
2 Landform Regions in Albania 28
3 Administrative Districts in Albania 34
4 Rivers and Lakes in Albania 38
5 Educational System in Albania, 1969 89
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1 Temperature and Precipitation Averages for Selected
Locations in Albania 36
2 Drainage Basins in Albania 40
3 Albanian Vital Statistics for Selected Years, 1950-68 52
4 Social Composition of the Population of Albania 76
5 Summary of Educational Institutions, Pupils, and Teachers
in Albania, for Selected Years 92
6 Students Attending Higher Institutes in Albania 93
7 Selected Albanian Newspapers, 1967 130
8 Selected Albanian Periodicals, 1967 131
9 Albanian Radio Stations, 1969 133
10 Production of Field Crops and Fruits in Albania, 1960
and 1965-70 156
11 Livestock in Albania, 1960, 1964-66, and 1970 Plan 156
12 Industrial Production in Albania, 1960 and 1964-69 163
[Illustration: _Figure 1. Transportation Systems in Albania_]
CHAPTER 1
GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SOCIETY
The People's Republic of Albania was, in 1970, the smallest and
economically most backward of the European Communist nations, with an
area of 11,100 square miles located between Yugoslavia and Greece along
the central west coast of the Balkan Peninsula. Its population of
approximately 2.1 million was considered to be 97-percent ethnic
Albanian, with a smattering of Greeks, Vlachs, Bulgars, Serbs, and
Gypsies. Practically the entire population used Albanian as the
principal language.
The country officially became a Communist "people's republic" in 1946
after one-party elections were held. Actually, the Communist-dominated
National Liberation Front had been the leading political power since
1944, after successfully conducting civil war operations against
non-Communist forces while concurrently fighting against Italian and
German armies of occupation. The Communist regime operated first under
the mask of the Democratic Front from 1944 to 1948 and, subsequently,
through the Albanian Workers' Party; it asserted that it was a
dictatorship of the proletariat--the workers and the peasants--and that
it ruled according to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism.
In practice, a small, carefully selected Party group, which in 1970 was
still under the control of Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu, the partisan
leaders of the World War II period, made all important policy and
operational decisions (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).
In order to gain broad support for its programs the Party utilized mass
social organizations. These included the Democratic Front, the successor
in 1945 to the National Liberation Front; the Union of Albanian Working
Youth; the United Trade Unions; and others. Direct election of
governmental bodies, from the people's councils in villages to the
People's Assembly at the national level, gave the appearance of
representative institutions. While seemingly democratic, these
assemblies met infrequently and for short periods and had no real power.
The average citizen has never had any influence in national politics.
During the 1920-39 period vested interests, mostly landowners and clan
chiefs, were the predominant influence. A middle class was lacking, and
the great bulk of the population, the rural peasantry, was held in a
state of subservience by local leaders. Under Communist rule political
power has been concentrated completely in the Party leadership (see ch.
2, Historical Setting; ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).
The system of controls circumscribed individual freedoms and reached
nearly every facet of day-to-day life. The Communist regime, by its
totalitarian rule, extended and increased obedience to, and fear of,
centralized authority. A new ruling elite, that of the Party, was
substituted for the _beys_ (see Glossary) and _pashas_ (see Glossary) of
pre-Communist times (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).
The goals of the Communist regime as revealed during the 1944-70 period
were to strengthen and perpetuate the Party's hold on the reins of
government, to maintain Albanian independence, and to modernize society
according to the Leninist-Stalinist model. By capitalizing on the
divisions among the Communist nations and by eliminating or rendering
harmless internal opposition, the Party had a firm grip on the
instruments of control, and by 1961 independence was reasonably well
secured. Only modest progress had been made by 1970 toward
modernization. The lack of extensive natural resources and continued
reliance on foreign aid caused much strain and required sacrifices by
the ordinary citizen (see ch. 2, Historical Setting; ch. 9, Internal and
External Security).
Albania tended to be highly aggressive and partisan in the ideological
struggles between the Communist and Western democratic states and those
between the Communist nations. The successive close relationships with
Yugoslavia (1944-48), the Soviet Union (1949-60), and China after 1961
reflected the inherent insecurity of a weak state. Although these
coalitions frequently seemed to place Albania in a subservient role, the
ultimate goals of the Hoxha-Shehu regime were to develop political
autonomy and economic self-sufficiency, thus reducing dependence on
foreign aid to a point where Albania could be truly independent (see ch.
6, Government Structure and Political System).
In many respects Albania was a closed society. Government controls over
all internal communications media ensured that only Party-approved
information was disseminated; however, foreign transmissions were not
jammed, probably because funds were not available. The individual's
activities were closely watched by security police or other Party
watchdogs. Travel into and out of the country was restricted and closely
controlled (see ch. 7, Communications and Cultural Development; ch. 9,
Internal and External Security).
Pre-Communist Albania gained independence in 1912 after 4-½ centuries
of rule by the Ottoman Turks. The movement toward nationhood during the
latter part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth took
advantage of the disintegration of Turkish power and the rivalry between
European nations vying for control over the Balkans. The opportunity for
independence came when a group of Balkan nations attacked Turkey and
proclaimed their intention of seizing the European part of the Ottoman
Empire. A group of Albanian patriots, under the leadership of Ismail
Qemal bey Vlora, thwarted the desires of Albania's neighbors to
partition the country by declaring independence on November 28, 1912.
The new nation sought and received backing from the great powers of
Europe, thus forcing the weaker Balkan nations to give up their plans
for the annexation of Albanian territory.
Under the cruel, corrupt, and inefficient Ottoman rule, institutions and
capabilities for self-government were not allowed to develop, and the
country was ill prepared for statehood when it arrived. Development had
hardly begun when World War I brought chaos to the country as the
opposing powers used it as a battleground. After the war, as Albania
struggled to assert itself as a national entity, the lack of natural
resources and a poorly developed economy created a heavy requirement for
foreign aid. Excessive reliance on Fascist Italy during the 1920s and
1930s eventually led to annexation by that expansionist power.
After regaining its independence during World War II, Albania again
compromised its sovereignty by excessive reliance on outside powers:
first on Yugoslavia, which was heavily involved in the establishment of
the Communist Party in Albania, and then on the Soviet Union.
Catastrophe was averted in each instance by a split between Communist
nations. When Joseph Stalin expelled Yugoslavia from the Communist bloc
of nations in 1948, Enver Hoxha switched his allegiance to the Soviet
Union and ended his country's economic reliance on Yugoslavia, which had
all but incorporated Albania into its federation. For the next several
years Albania was a Soviet satellite but, as the rift between the Soviet
Union and Communist China widened, Hoxha continually sided with the
Chinese and, when the break came in 1961, Albania severed its Soviet
ties and became an ally of Communist China.
The lack of resources and an undeveloped economy, the same economic
problems that had plagued newly independent Albania in the 1920s,
continued to be problems in 1970, and foreign aid was still a
necessity. Communist China provided an undetermined amount of assistance
during the 1960s and into 1970 but, from the Albanian point of view, the
danger of loss of sovereignty to distant China was much less than it had
been during the periods when the country was a client state of nearby
Italy, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union.
The lack of easily defended national boundaries was an additional
concern in the maintenance of territorial integrity. Although the
boundaries originally established in 1913 remained relatively unchanged
and were not officially disputed in 1970, they were not considered
satisfactory in some sectors. About 1 million Albanians lived in
adjacent areas of Yugoslavia, mostly in the Kosovo region, and Albania
revealed her dissatisfaction that they were not included within its
territory. Neither Albania nor Greece was content with the demarcation
along the two most southerly districts of Albania. The lack of sharply
defined terrain features in most places along the northern and eastern
borders with Yugoslavia and the southeastern and southern delineation
between Albania and Greece increased the potential for dispute (see ch.
2, Historical Setting; ch. 3, Physical Environment).
The topography of the land is generally rugged, and access to inland
areas is difficult. Except for the narrow strip of lowlands along the
Adriatic coast, the country is made up of mountains and hills,
intermittently intersected by streams that flow in a generally westerly
or northwesterly direction. Valleys in the hinterland are narrow, and
slopes of mountains and hills tend to be steep (see ch. 3, Physical
Environment).
Considering Albania's small area, climatic conditions are quite varied.
Along the coastal lowlands Mediterranean-type weather prevails. In the
interior there are rapid fluctuations in many areas, but continental
influences predominate. Despite annual precipitation ranging from 40 to
100 inches, droughts are common because rainfall is unevenly distributed
(see ch. 3, Physical Environment).
Few places offer good conditions for large-scale settlement. Localities
with good soil and a dependable water supply are small and scattered.
The coastal lowlands, inundated or desert-like according to the season,
are lightly populated. The region generally bounded by Durres, Tirana,
Elbasan, and Fier grew most rapidly and had the highest population
density in the late 1960s. Inland, the mountain and upland basins offer
the best conditions for settlement (see ch. 3, Physical Environment; ch.
4, The People).
The extensive networks of rivers are of little value for transportation
because waterflow fluctuates, currents tend to be violent, and
estuaries are heavily sedimented. Road and railroad construction is
difficult because of the uneven character of the terrain. Improved land
transportation routes are exceedingly limited. Mountain homesteads and
villages frequently have only a footpath to connect them with the
outside world. The lack of communications routes results in isolation
for many areas and helps to place Albania on a byway of international
travel (see ch. 3, Physical Environment; ch. 4, The People).
Remote and isolated areas had a significant influence in shaping
Albanian society. During the long period of Turkish rule they provided
sanctuaries for the preservation of ethnic identity. After 1912 the
people in these areas were the primary residuary for antiquated customs
and attitudes. Communist leaders made a major effort in the 1960s to
eliminate old customs and other vestiges of the past that detracted from
the collectivization and modernization of society. Comments of high
officials in early 1970 indicated that their efforts still had not been
entirely successful (see ch. 2, Historical Setting; ch. 4, The People).
The Albanians are descendants of the Illyrians, an Indo-European people
who lived in the Balkans in antiquity. Their history before the eleventh
century is linked with, and not easily separated from, that of the other
Illyrian tribes. The written language did not develop until the
fifteenth century, and then for more than four centuries under Turkish
rule it was forbidden. Although Albanians distinguished themselves as
soldiers under Turkish suzerainty and some held high office in the
Ottoman ruling hierarchy, they were little known as a people before the
nineteenth century. As members of clans or feudal estates they lived an
outmoded life style and were relatively untouched by the forces of
industrialization and democratization that changed much of western and
southern Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (see ch.
2, Historical Setting).
For centuries after the death in 1468 of Skanderbeg, the Albanian
national hero and symbol of resistance to Turkish rule, many Albanian
mountain communities lived unto themselves. Local control rested with
_pashas_ and _beys_, and some became virtually independent of Turkish
rule. About two-thirds of the people accepted, or were forcibly
converted to, the Muslim faith under the Turks. Since eligibility to
participate in political life rested on religious affiliation, some
Albanians thus became a part of the ruling hierarchy of the Ottoman
Empire, but the masses were indifferent politically. Activities or
attitudes that would tend to strengthen nationalism were suppressed.
When considered in its entirety the heritage from Ottoman rule
contributed almost nothing toward the development of capabilities
required for a viable government and a modernized society (see ch. 2,
Historical Setting).
Kinship, customs, and attitudes related to family life, and strong
attachments to community and language were strong influences in the
preservation of ethnic identity through the many centuries of foreign
domination. The Albanians are divided into two major subgroups--the
Gegs, who occupy the area north of the Shkumbin River, and the Tosks,
who inhabit the territory to the south. Differences in physical
appearance persist, but the breakup of clans and moves toward
collectivization of society after World War II diminished the most
distinguishing feature, their social system. Antiquated customs and
blood feuds that were frequently initiated by offenses against women
were more prevalent among the Gegs than the Tosks before the Communist
takeover (see ch. 4, The People).
The family continued to be a strong social force in 1970. It was the
primary residuary of customs, practices, and attitudes that detracted
from Communist programs to create a monolithic and modernized society.
Older persons, particularly males, who traditionally held positions of
authority in the family, were considered to be the strongest force
against change. In their efforts to eliminate outmoded customs, Party
and government leaders placed special emphasis on youth and women, the
latter having suffered much discrimination under the clan system. Large
extended families, which sometimes numbered sixty or more persons and
included several generations, were in most cases broken up under
Communist rule as a means to decrease family influence (see ch. 5,
Social System).
Party leaders, realizing the importance of education in developing
attitudes and loyalties favorable to communism and in training the work
force required for a modern industrial economy, placed heavy emphasis on
school programs. By 1970 the level of schooling completed by the people
had been significantly increased over the 1946 level, but the pool of
scientific and skilled personnel fell far short of requirements (see ch.
5, Social System).
The most noteworthy improvement in the people's welfare, as reflected by
Albanian data, was in the area of health. The incidence of disease was
greatly reduced; the death rate decreased; and life expectancy increased
by approximately 12.5 years between 1950 and 1966 (see ch. 4, The
People).
Albanian art, literature, and music have gained little recognition among
world cultures. After 1944 the Communist regime instituted mass
participation in education and social and cultural activities to instill
ideals of socialism and Communist morality and gain the capabilities
required for modernization of the economy. Illiteracy, once prevalent
among all age groups, was reportedly eliminated among persons under the
age of forty and some, but not nearly all, of the skilled work force
required has been produced. Despite these efforts Albania's cultural
heritage was still meager in the late 1960s (see ch. 5, Social System;
ch. 7, Communications and Cultural Development).
Albanians as individuals tended to take religion lightly, and the
Muslim, Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholic religions that had been
brought by conquerors did not play major roles in shaping national
traditions or in strengthening national unity. In 1967, after the
government's withdrawal of approval for religious bodies to function, an
accelerated campaign was undertaken to eradicate religious thoughts and
beliefs. The fact that the campaign was continuing in early 1970
indicated that it had not entirely succeeded (see ch. 5, Social System).
The major economic objective is to develop a modern economy with a
strong industrial base. Before World War II there was practically no
industry, and the system of agriculture was primitive and inefficient.
Substantial aid from the Soviet Union during the 1950s resulted in
modest growth of the economy, with rapid rates of industrial growth and
improvements in education and health. Chinese aid on a lesser scale and
heavy sacrifices by the masses sustained the growth trend in industry
during the 1960s but at a slower pace.
The major source of national income changed from agriculture to industry
during the early 1960s, but the country was still by all appearances
predominantly rural and agricultural. Two-thirds of the people lived in
rural areas, and more than half were engaged in agriculture.
Socialization of the economy, which began in 1944, was completed in the
late 1960s. The model of planning borrowed from the Soviet Union that
was adopted in the late 1940s continued in use with only slight
modifications. The trend was toward greater centralization and
governmental control (see ch. 8, Economic System).
The provision of adequate and proper food, clothing, and housing was a
constant major problem. Little improvement was made in the standard of
living between 1950 and 1970, largely because of sustained rapid
population growth and priority to the means of production sector of
industry in the allocation of resources (see ch. 4, The People; ch. 8,
Economic System).
CHAPTER 2
HISTORICAL SETTING
Historical works and official documents published in Tirana as late as
1970 stressed two major themes: the importance of patriotism and
nationalism and the achievements, real or fancied, of the Communist
regime since it assumed control of the country in November 1944. The
appeal to nationalism always strikes a responsive chord among the
Albanians not only because their history is replete with humiliations
and injustices heaped upon them by long domination of foreign powers but
also, and especially, because of the territorial aspirations and claims
of its neighbors--Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece. The political scene in
Albania since it formally won an independent existence from Turkey in
1912 has indeed been dominated by attempts of one, or a combination, of
its neighbors to dismember it.
The boundaries of Albania in 1970 were essentially the same as those
delineated by representatives of the Great Powers after Albania had
declared its independence. Ethnic problems raised by the drawing of the
boundaries have never been solved to the satisfaction of the countries
involved. The Albanians hold that in 1913 about 40 percent of their
territory, with a population at that time of about 600,000 ethnic
Albanians, was unjustly assigned to Serbia. The area has been a
continuing source of friction between Albania and Yugoslavia.
A source of tension between Albania and Greece has been the status of
Albania's two southernmost districts. Known to the Greeks as Northern
Epirus, this region was awarded to Albania by the boundary delineations
of 1913, but the Greeks have never relinquished their claims to the
area.
Italy, located only about forty-five miles across the narrow Strait of
Otranto, has attempted on several occasions to impose its hegemony over
Albania. The extreme influence exercised on Albanian affairs by Italy
between 1925 and 1939 that culminated in a military invasion in April of
1939 has been a source of great resentment by the Albanian people.
The Communist Party of Albania assumed control of the country in 1944.
The fact that the Communist regime installed itself in the capital city
of Tirana on November 28, Albania's traditional Independence Day, was
an indication that originally it did not intend to cut off all ties with
the past, although its declared intention was to create a new social
order. A year later, however, on November 29, the regime proclaimed a
new national holiday, which it called Liberation Day. Until about 1960
the traditional Independence Day was mentioned only in passing, whereas
Liberation Day was celebrated with considerable publicity.
A basic change of attitude, however, occurred when the regime broke with
the Soviet Union in the 1960-61 period. The ruling elite, apparently
feeling insecure both for their personal safety and for the future of
the country, launched an intensive campaign to win popular support by
appealing to the people's nationalist and patriotic sentiments. The
country's major patriots who were responsible for the national awakening
in the second half of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth
centuries had been forgotten after the Communist seizure of power. In
1961 and 1962, however, books and pamphlets began to be published
praising nearly all those, irrespective of their social backgrounds, who
had played a role in the national awakening and in the declaration of
the country's independence in 1912.
Intensive preparations were made in 1962 to celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the country's independence, and on November 28, 1962, all
the top leaders of the party and government went to Vlore, where
independence had been declared, to stage one of the biggest patriotic
celebrations in the country's modern history. Among the many books and
documents published on this occasion to glorify the country's past was
one entitled _Rilindja Kombetare Shqipetare_ (Albanian National
Awakening), which included photographs of most patriots who had taken
part in winning the country's independence, even those of the landed
aristocracy (_beys_--see Glossary), whom the regime had previously
branded as the "blood-suckers" of the peasants.
This appeal to the past was also accentuated in 1968 in connection with
the 500th anniversary of the death of the country's national hero,
Skanderbeg. The regime sent a number of scholars and historians to
search for historical documents in Vienna and Rome in preparation for
the celebration.
With the exception of these efforts to resurrect the past after a hiatus
of fifteen years, the primary function of the country's historians, all
under the control of the Party, is to glorify the country's achievements
in the period under communism. The Party is given credit for all that
has been done in the economic development of the country, in
improvements in the people's health, and in expansion of educational and
cultural facilities, all of which have been considerable. In 1970 Enver
Hoxha, first secretary of the Party, like Stalin in his day and Mao
Tse-tung in 1970, was daily quoted and glorified.
ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES
The modern Albanians call their country Shqiperia and themselves
Shqipetare. In antiquity the Albanians were known as Illyrians, and in
the Middle Ages they came to be called Arbereshe or Arbeneshe, and their
country Arberia or Arbenia. The present European forms, Albania and
Albanians, are derived from the names Arbanoi and Albanoi or Arbaniti,
which appeared in the eleventh century.
In antiquity the Albanians formed part of the Thraco-Illyrian and Epirot
tribes that inhabited the whole of the peninsula between the Danube
River and the Aegean Sea. Until 168 B.C. the northern and central part
of present-day Albania comprised parts of the Kingdom of Illyria, whose
capital was Shkoder. The Illyrian Kingdom was conquered by the Romans in
168-167 B.C., and thereafter it was a Roman colony until A.D. 395, when
the Roman Empire was split into East and West, Albania becoming part of
the Byzantine Empire.
Under the Roman Empire, Albania served as a key recruiting area for the
Roman legions and a main outlet to the East. The present port of Durres
(the ancient Durrachium) became the western terminum of Via Egnatia, an
actual extension of Via Appia, by which the Roman legions marched to the
East. It was during the Roman rule that Christianity was introduced into
Albania.
From the fifth century to the advent of the Ottoman Turks in the Balkans
in the fourteenth century, invasions from the north and east, especially
by the Huns, the Bulgarians, and the Slavs, thinned the indigenous
Illyrian population and drove it along the mountainous Adriatic coastal
regions. During the crusades in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
Albania became a thoroughfare for the crusading armies, which used the
port of Durres as a bridgehead. By this time the Venetian Republic had
obtained commercial privileges in Albanian towns and, after the Fourth
Crusade (1204), it received nominal control over Albania and Epirus and
took actual possession of Durres and the surrounding areas. In the
middle of the thirteenth century Albania fell under the domination of
the kings of Naples, and in 1272 armies of Charles I of Anjou crossed
the Adriatic and occupied Durres. Thereupon, Charles I issued a decree
calling himself Rex Albaniae and creating Regnum Albaniae (the Kingdom
of Albania), which lasted for nearly a century.
OTTOMAN TURK RULE
In the period after the defeat of the Serbs by the Ottoman Turks in 1389
in the battle of Kosovo, most of Albania was divided into a number of
principalities under the control of native tribal chieftains, most of
whom were subsequently forced into submission by the invading Turks.
Some of these chieftains, however, were allowed their independence under
Turkish suzerainty. One of the most noted of these was John Kastrioti of
Kruje, a region northeast of Tirana, whose four sons were taken hostage
by the sultan to be trained in the Ottoman service. The youngest of
these, Gjergj, was destined to win fame throughout Europe and to be
immortalized as the national hero of his country. Gjergj (b. 1403) soon
won the sultan's favor, distinguished himself in the Turkish army,
converted to Islam, and was bestowed the title of Skander Bey (Lord
Alexander), which, in Albanian, became Skanderbeg or Skenderbey.
In 1443 Hungarian King Hunyadi routed at Nish the sultan's armies, in
which Skanderbeg held command; Skanderbeg fled to his native land and
seized from the Turks his father's fortress at Kruje. His defection and
reconversion to Christianity and the creation in 1444 of the League of
Albanian Princes, with himself as its head, enraged the Ottomans, who
began a series of intense campaigns that lasted until Skanderbeg's
natural death in 1468. In his wars against the Turks, Skanderbeg was
aided by the kings of Naples and the popes, one of whom, Pope Nicholas
V, named him Champion of Christendom.
Skanderbeg's death did not end Albania's resistance to the Turks;
however, they gradually extended their conquests in Albania and in time
defeated both the local chieftains and the Venetians, who controlled
some of the coastal towns. The Turkish occupation of the country
resulted in a great exodus of Albanians to southern Italy and Sicily,
where they preserved their language, customs, and Eastern Orthodox
religion.
One of the most significant consequences of Ottoman rule of Albania was
the conversion to Islam of over two-thirds of the population. As the
political and economic basis of the Ottoman Empire was not nationality
but religion, this conversion created a new group of Muslim Albanian
bureaucrats, who not only ruled Albanian provinces for the sultans but
also served in important posts as _pashas_ (governors) in many parts of
the empire. A number of them became _viziers_ (prime ministers), and
one, Mehmet Ali Pasha, at the beginning of the nineteenth century
founded an Egyptian dynasty that lasted until the 1950s.
Some of the Albanian beys and pashas, especially in the lowlands, became
almost independent rulers of their principalities. One of these, Ali
Pasha Tepelena, known in history as the Lion of Yannina, whose
principality at the beginning of the nineteenth century consisted of the
whole area from the Gulf of Arta to Montenegro. By 1803 he had assumed
absolute power and negotiated directly with Napoleon and the rulers of
Great Britain and Russia. The sultan, however, becoming alarmed at the
damage Ali Pasha was doing to the unity of the empire, sent his armies
to surround him in Yannina, where he was captured and decapitated in
1822.
Under the Turks, Albania remained in complete stagnation and, when the
Turks were expelled from the Balkans in 1912, they left it in about the
same condition as they had found it. The Albanian highlanders,
especially in the north, were never fully subjected, and their tribal
organizations were left intact. Turkish suzerainty affected them only to
the extent that it isolated them from the world. Thus, they preserved
their medieval laws, traditions, and customs. As a result, Western
civilization and development did not begin to penetrate Albania in any
meaningful way until it became independent in 1912.
NATIONAL AWAKENING AND INDEPENDENCE
The Albanian national awakening made rapid strides after the Treaty of
San Stefano in 1877, imposed on Turkey by the Russians, gave the Balkan
Slavic nations large parts of Albania. The Western powers, refusing to
accept Russia's diktat on Turkey, met in Berlin the following year to
consider revision of the Treaty of San Stefano. Albanian leaders in the
meantime convened at Prizren and founded the League for the Defense of
the Rights of the Albanian Nation. Although the league was unable to
bring sufficient pressure on the Congress of Berlin to save Albania from
serious dismemberment, it set in motion a political movement that had
tremendous influence on Albanian nationalist activity for decades to
come.
Most of the league leaders held high positions in, or were influential
members of, the ruling Turkish elite and were fully aware of the shaky
position of the Ottoman Empire; they therefore demanded from the Turks
administrative and cultural autonomy for all Albanian lands united in a
principality. The Turkish government refused and in 1881 forced the
dissolution of the league. Meanwhile, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary
began to take an active interest in Albania. Russia aimed at blocking
expansion of Austrian influence in the Balkans and supported the
territorial demands of Serbia and Montenegro. Italy and
Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, concerned over Russia's influence
extending to the Adriatic, attempted to influence developments in
Albania.
The advent of the Young Turks regime (1908), in whose establishment
Albanian officials in the service of the empire played a major role,
encouraged the Albanians to found cultural and political clubs for the
propagation of Albanian culture and the defense of Albanian rights. In
1908 a congress of intellectuals from all parts of Albania and the
Albanian colonies abroad, especially the Italo-Albanian colonies in
Italy, convened in Monastir (Bitolj) to decide on an Albanian alphabet;
it adopted the Latin one as most suitable for the country. This decision
marked a great advance toward Albanian unification and eventual
statehood.
In the summer and fall of 1912, while Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and
Greece, prodded by Russia, were waging war against Turkey, the Albanians
staged a series of revolts and began to agitate for the creation of an
autonomous and neutral Albania. Accordingly, a group of Albanian
patriots, led by Ismail Qemal bey Vlora, a member of the Turkish
Parliament, proclaimed Albania's independence at Vlore on November 28,
1912, and organized an Albanian provisional government. Supported by
Austria and Italy, Albania's independence was recognized on December 12,
1912, by the London Conference of Ambassadors, but its boundaries were
to be determined later. In March 1913 agreement was reached on the
northern frontiers, assigning Shkoder to Albania but giving Kosovo and
Metohija (Kosmet), inhabited then chiefly by Albanians, to Serbia. This
frontier demarcation was very similar to the frontiers between
Yugoslavia and Albania as they existed in 1970.
The boundaries in the south were more difficult to delineate because
Greece laid claim to most of southern Albania, which the Greeks call
Northern Epirus. The Conference of Ambassadors appointed a special
commission to draw the demarcation line on ethnographic bases and in
December 1913 drafted the Protocol of Florence, which assigned the
region to Albania. The 1913 boundaries in the south, like those in the
north, were almost the same as those that existed between Greece and
Albania in 1970. The Albania that emerged from the Conference of
Ambassadors was a truncated one; as many Albanians were left out of the
new state as were included in it.
The Conference of Ambassadors also drafted a constitution for the new
state, which was proclaimed as an autonomous principality, sovereign,
and under the guarantees of the Great Powers; created an International
Control Commission to control the country's administration and budget;
and selected as ruler the German Prince Wilhelm zu Wied. Prince Wied
arrived in March 1914 but had to flee the country six months later
because of the outbreak of World War I and the difficulties caused by
the unruly feudal beys. As a consequence, Albania's independence came to
an end, and for the next four years the country served as a battleground
for the warring powers.
CREATION OF MODERN ALBANIA
At the end of World War I Albania was occupied by the Allied armies,
mostly Italian and French. The Secret Treaty of London, concluded in
1915 and published by the Russian Bolsheviks after the October 1917
Revolution, provided for the partition of nearly all Albania among
Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. Another accord, known as the
Tittoni-Venizelos Agreement, concluded between Italy and Greece in 1919,
also called for the dismemberment of Albania. At the 1919-20 Paris Peace
Conference Greece laid claim to southern Albania; Serbia and Montenegro,
to the northern part; and Italy, to the port of Vlore and surrounding
areas. But President Woodrow Wilson's principle of self-determination
and his personal insistence on the restoration of an independent Albania
saved the country from partition. In the summer of 1920 an Albanian
partisan army drove the Italians from Vlore, and the Italian government
recognized Albania's independence.
In the meantime, in January 1920 a congress of representatives met in
Lushnje, in central Albania, and created a government and a Council of
Regency composed of representatives of the four religious denominations
prevailing in Albania: the two Muslim sects (Sunni and Bektashi), Roman
Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox (see ch. 5, Social System).
From 1920 to 1924 there was political freedom in the country along with
extreme political strife. A group of statesmen and politicians, mostly
from the old Turkish bureaucracy, attempted to lay the foundation of a
modern state, but there was a bitter struggle between the old
conservative landlords and Western educated or inspired liberals. The
landowners, led by Ahmet Zogu, advocated the continuance of feudal
tenure and opposed social and economic reforms, especially agrarian
reforms. The liberals, led by Bishop Fan S. Noli, a Harvard University
graduate who had founded the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church in
Boston in 1908 and had returned to Albania in 1920, favored the
establishment of a Western-type democracy. The country was torn by
political struggles and rapid changes of government revealed
considerable political instability.
In June 1924 the liberals staged a successful coup against the
conservative landlords, forcing their leader, Ahmet Zogu, to flee to
Yugoslavia, and formed a new government under Bishop Noli. But Noli was
too radical to command the support of the disparate coalition that had
ousted Zogu. Internally he proposed radical agrarian reforms, the
purging and reduction of the bureaucracy, and the establishment of a
truly democratic regime. In foreign affairs he extended recognition to
the Soviet Union, a move that alienated some of his supporters at home
and alarmed some neighboring states. As a consequence, Zogu, having
secured foreign support, led an army from Yugoslavia and in December
1924 entered the capital city of Tirana and became ruler of the country.
Bishop Noli and his closest supporters fled abroad; some eventually went
to Moscow, and others fell under Communist influence in Western
capitals.
Zogu's rule in the 1925-39 period, first as President Zogu and after
September I, 1928, as Zog I, king of the Albanians, brought political
stability and developed a national political consciousness that had been
unprecedented in Albanian history. To secure his position both
internally and externally, he concluded in 1926 and 1927 bilateral
treaties with Italy, providing for mutual support in maintaining the
territorial status quo and establishing a defensive alliance between the
two countries. These two treaties, however, assured Italian penetration
of Albania, particularly in the military and economic spheres.
King Zog ruled as a moderate dictator, his monarchy being a combination
of despotism and reform. He prohibited political parties but was lenient
to his opponents unless they actually threatened to overthrow his rule,
as happened in 1932, 1935, and 1937. But even during these open revolts,
he showed a good deal of leniency and executed only a few ringleaders.
He effected some substantial reforms both in the administration and in
society, particularly outlawing the traditional vendetta and carrying of
arms, of which the Albanians were very fond. The most significant
contribution of Zog's fourteen-year rule, the longest since the time of
Skanderbeg, was the development of a truly national consciousness and an
identity of the people with the state, although not necessarily with the
monarchy, and the gradual breakdown of the traditional tribal and clan
systems.
In April 1938 Zog married Geraldine Apponyi, a Hungarian countess with
an American mother. Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano was the best
man. On Ciano's return to Italy from the wedding, he proposed to his
father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, Fascist dictator of Italy, the
annexation of Albania. The following year, on April 7, 1939, Ciano's
suggestion was consummated. Italian forces invaded Albania on that day,
forcing Zog to flee the country, never to return. In the next few months
rapid steps were taken to unite Albania with Italy under the crown of
King Victor Emanuel III and to impose a regime similar to that of
Fascist Italy. Albania as an independent state disappeared.
COMMUNIST SEIZURE AND CONSOLIDATION OF POWER
Resistance to the Italian invaders began soon after the invasion, but
the few insignificant Communist groups that existed at that time did not
join the fray until after Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, attacked the
Soviet Union in June 1941. These Communist groups, acting generally
independently of each other, were composed chiefly of young
intellectuals who had revolted against the country's medieval society.
Educated mostly in the West, they felt that their country's economic
development and their desire to use their Western education for their
own and their country's advancement were frustrated by Zog's concept of
personal rule, by the hostility of traditional chieftains and _beys_,
and by the lack of opportunities in the country's underdeveloped society
and economy.
The leaders of these disparate groups convened clandestinely in Tirana
on November 8, 1941, and under the guidance of two emissaries from the
Yugoslav Communist Party, Dusan Mugosha and Miladin Popovic, founded the
Albanian Communist Party--known since 1948 as the Albanian Workers'
Party. Enver Hoxha, a young schoolteacher who had studied in France and
Belgium, was elected provisional and, subsequently, permanent secretary
general. In 1970 he still held the same position, under the title of
first secretary. From the outset the strategy of the Party was to
conceal its true Marxist program and orientation and to stress
nationalism and patriotism. To this end, the front technique, through
the National Liberation Movement, was used.
The National Liberation Movement was created by the Conference of Peze
that was convened, also clandestinely, on September 16, 1942, for the
purpose of creating a militant organization to coordinate and intensify
the activities of a number of guerrilla bands then active against the
Italian occupiers. It was sponsored by the Party and attended by the
Party leaders, who at that time paraded as patriots and vehemently
denied in public that they were Communists, and by a number of
nationalist resistance chieftains. The National Liberation Movement was
dominated from the beginning by the Communists, as were its military
formations, known as partisans.
The movement was further strengthened in July 1943 at the Conference of
Labinot, when the General Staff of the Army of National Liberation of
Albania was created, with Enver Hoxha as chief commissar. Thereafter,
under the guise of the National Liberation Movement, the Communist
leaders devoted all their energies to obtaining complete control of the
partisan formations and to preparing the ground for a seizure of power
as soon as the Axis powers should be defeated. Their prime objectives in
the 1943-44 years were to immobilize the nationalist elements who were
still in the movement by surrounding them with loyal commissars and, at
the same time, to try to annihilate other nationalist groups that had
refused from the outset to collaborate with the movement. There was a
full-scale civil war in the country from September 1943 to November
1944.
The civil war was fought between the partisan formations and the two
principal anti-Communist organizations--Balli Kombetar (National Front)
and the Legality Movement. The Balli Kombetar emerged as an organization
soon after the National Liberation Movement was founded; it was led by
Midhat Frasheri, a veteran patriot who had formed a clandestine
resistance movement during the early days of Italian occupation. The
Balli Kombetar extolled the principles of freedom and social justice and
championed the objective of an ethnic Albania; that is, the retention of
the Yugoslav provinces of Kosovo and Metohija, which the Italians had
annexed to Albania in 1941. For some time it made efforts to collaborate
with the National Liberation Movement, but to no avail.
In July and August 1943 representatives of the two movements finally met
at Mukaj, a village near Tirana, to try to work out an agreement of
collaboration against the Axis forces. The chief obstacle to an accord
was the disposition of Kosmet. The Balli Kombetar refused to consider
collaboration unless the movement joined in the demand that Kosmet
remain a part of Albania after the war. Finally an agreement was reached
for collaboration, with the provision that the question of Kosmet be
resolved after the war.
The emissaries of the Yugoslav Communist Party interpreted the agreement
as a victory for the nationalists and demanded that the Albanian
Communist Party not only denounce the agreement but also launch a
full-scale attack on the Balli Kombetar. The Albanian Communists bowed
to this demand and, in September 1943, launched the attack against Balli
Kombetar and subsequently against the Legality Movement. This movement
was founded in November 1943 by Abas Kupi, who until August 1943 had
been a member of the Central Council of the National Liberation Movement
but broke away from it after the Mukaj agreement was denounced.
In May 1944 the National Liberation Front, as the movement was by then
called, sponsored the Congress of Permet for the purpose of creating the
necessary machinery to seize power. The Congress appointed Hoxha
commander in chief of the Army of National Liberation and elected the
Albanian Anti-Fascist Liberation Council, which in turn created the
Albanian Anti-Fascist Committee, under the presidency of Hoxha, as the
executive branch of the council. The Congress of Berat, convened by the
front in October of the same year, converted the committee into a
coalition provisional "democratic" government, which in the following
month seized control of the whole country and on November 28, Albania's
traditional Independence Day, installed itself in Tirana.
In many respects the 1943-44 civil war in Albania followed a course
similar to that which took place between the partisan forces (Communist)
of Josip Broz (Tito) and General Mihailovich's Chetniks (loyalist) in
Yugoslavia. The Communist operations and final seizure of power in
Yugoslavia played a major role in the Communist takeover in Albania.
Albania was the only European Communist country that was freed from the
Axis invaders without the actual presence of Soviet forces and without
direct military assistance from the Soviet Union. Political direction
was supplied by the emissaries of the Yugoslav Communist Party attached
permanently to the Albanian Communist Party after its founding in 1941.
The Anglo-American command in Italy supplied most of the war material to
the Albanian partisan forces.
Albania's future was never specifically discussed by the Big
Three--Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States--at either
the Teheran or the Yalta conferences. Nor did Albania figure in the
discussions in Moscow in October 1944 between Churchill and Stalin, when
they informally agreed to divide Eastern Europe into spheres of
influence, at least for the duration of the war. Accordingly, when the
last German troops were driven out of Albania, there was a kind of
political vacuum that the Communists, with superior political
organizations and substantial armed partisan groups, were able to fill.
In August 1945 the first congress of the National Liberation Front was
held, and the name of the organization was changed to the Democratic
Front in an effort to make it more palatable to the public. Contending
that the Democratic Front represented the majority of the population
because all political opinions and groups except Fascists were included
in it, the Communist rulers allowed only Democratic Front Candidates for
the first postwar national elections held in December 1945.
The Constituent Assembly elected at this polling was originally
composed of both party members and some nationalist elements. The latter
apparently continued to feel that cooperation with the Communists was
possible but, within a year after the elections, they were summarily
purged from the Assembly, and subsequently a number of them were tried
and executed on charges of being "enemies of the people." All national
and local elections since 1945 have been held under the aegis of the
Democratic Front.
Even after the "liberation," the Party continued its conspiratorial
nature and did not come into the open until the First Party Congress was
held in November 1948. Before that time all its meetings were held in
closest secrecy, and no statements, communiques, or resolutions were
published in its name. The Party thus continued to use the front
technique effectively even after it became the undisputed ruler of the
country.
THE COMMUNIST PERIOD
The Constituent Assembly, elected on December 2, 1945, proclaimed on
January 11, 1946, the People's Republic of Albania; and on March 14 it
approved the first Albanian Constitution, based largely on the Yugoslav
Communist Constitution. In this first Constitution no mention of any
kind was made of the role played by the Party or any other political
organizations. The Constitution was, however, amended after the break
with Yugoslavia in 1948, and revisions of the Constitution published
since 1951 have cited in Article 12 the Albanian Workers' Party as the
"vanguard organization of the working class."
The Communist regime quickly consolidated its power through a ruthless
application of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The first measures
were both political and economic. In the political field a large number
of nationalist leaders who had chosen to remain in the country when the
Communists seized power rather than flee to the West, as many of them
did, were arrested, tried as "war criminals" or "enemies of the people,"
and were either executed or given long-term sentences at hard labor. All
families considered potentially dangerous to the new regime, especially
families of the landed aristocracy and the tribal chieftains, were
herded into concentration or labor camps, in which most of them perished
from exposure, malnutrition, and lack of health facilities. Some of
these camps were still in existence in 1970.
In the economic field a special war-profits tax was levied, which
amounted to a confiscation of the wealth and private property of the
well-to-do classes. A large number of those who could not pay the tax,
because it was higher than their cash and property assets, were sent to
labor camps. All industrial plants and mines were nationalized without
compensation, and a radical agrarian reform law was passed providing for
the seizure of land belonging to the _beys_ and other large landowners
and its distribution to the landless peasants.
The 1944-48 period was characterized by an increase of power and
influence of the Yugoslavs over the Party and the government. This in
turn engendered resentment even among some top Party Leaders, who were
kept in check or purged by Koci Xoxe, minister of interior and head of
the secret police. Backed by the Yugoslavs, he had become the most
powerful man in the Party and government but was tried in the spring of
1949 as a Titoist and executed. By the beginning of 1948 preparations
had been completed to merge Albania with Yugoslavia, but the plan was
not consummated because of the Stalin-Tito conflict, which resulted in
Tito's expulsion from the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform--see
Glossary) on June 28. 1948.
The Stalin-Tito rupture offered Enver Hoxha and his closest colleagues
in the Albanian Party Political Bureau (Politburo) the opportunity to
rid themselves of both their internal enemies, such as Koci Xoxe, and of
Yugoslav domination. A few days after the Cominform resolution against
Tito, the Albanian rulers expelled all Yugoslav experts and advisers and
denounced most of the political, military, and economic agreements.
Albania immediately established close relations with Moscow, although
Stalin never signed a mutual assistance pact with Tirana, as he had done
with all the other European Communist countries. The Party leadership
was now concentrated in the hands of Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu. Shehu
had been dismissed in January 1948 as Chief of Staff of the Albanian
People's Army, because he had opposed the integration of the Yugoslav
and Albanian armed forces and the stationing of two Yugoslav divisions
on Albanian soil. He was rehabilitated immediately after the break with
Yugoslavia.
The period of direct Soviet influence in Albania began in September
1948, when the first joint economic agreement was signed. After the
establishment of the Council for Economic Mutual Assistance (CEMA) in
February 1949, of which Albania became a member, the other Soviet bloc
countries began to extend economic aid. As a result, an intensified
program of economic development began. From 1951 to 1955 industrial and
agricultural production increased rapidly, and the basis was laid for
transforming Albania from a backward agricultural economy to a more
balanced agricultural-industrial one.
The de-Stalinization campaign in the Soviet Union had serious
repercussions in the internal situation in Albania. Although Hoxha
vetoed any relaxation of police controls and stamped out any dissenting
voice within the Party after Stalin's death, by 1956 there was a
significant minority in the Party elite that hoped to profit by
de-Stalinization. The opposition reached its peak at a Party conference
in Tirana in April 1956, held in the aftermath of the Soviet Twentieth
Party Congress. Some of the delegates, including Central Committee
members, criticized openly the conditions in the Party and requested
that the topics of discussion be concerned with such topics as the cult
of personality, the rehabilitation of Koci Xoxe and other top Party
leaders purged since 1948, Party democracy, and the people's standard of
living.
Hoxha silenced the dissident elements, however, and had most of them
expelled from the Party or arrested. Some were subsequently executed.
Among those executed were Lira Gega, formerly a member of the Politburo,
and her husband, Dalli Ndreu, a general in the Albanian People's Army.
Soviet Premier Khrushchev charged at the Soviet Twenty-second Congress
that Gega was pregnant when she was executed.
Workers' riots in Poland and full-scale revolt in Hungary in late 1956,
followed by general uneasiness throughout Communist East Europe, gave
Hoxha additional reasons to increase his control over the Party
apparatus and to sidestep all pressures from Khrushchev for
reconciliation with Tito. Indeed, in an article published in the
November 8, 1956, issue of the Soviet newspaper _Pravda_ (Truth), Hoxha
accused Yugoslavia of being at the root of the Hungarian Revolution and
implied that the relaxation of internal tensions in some of the
Soviet-bloc countries had endangered the existing regimes. In a speech
to the Party's Central Committee in February 1957 he came openly to the
defense of Stalin and lashed out against "those who attempt to discount
the entire positive revolutionary side of Stalin."
Hoxha did, however, pay lip service to the collective leadership
principle enunciated in Moscow after Stalin's death. In July 1954 he
relinquished the premiership to Mehmet Shehu, keeping for himself the
more important post of first secretary of the Party. But aside from this
he made no changes in his Stalinist method of rule. He demonstrated this
after the Party conference in Tirana in April 1956, when he suppressed
ruthlessly all those demanding the elimination of personal rule.
Hoxha showed the same determination in the summer of 1961, when
Khrushchev apparently enlisted a number of Albanian leaders, including
Teme Sejko, a rear admiral and commander of the navy who had been
trained in the Soviet Union to overthrow the Hoxha-Shehu duumvirate and
replace it with a pro-Moscow group. Sejko and his colleagues were
arrested, and he and two others were later executed.
In September of the same year Hoxha arrested a number of other top Party
leaders who were suspected of pro-Moscow sympathies. Among these were
Liri Belishova, a member of the Politburo, and Koco Tashko, head of the
Party's Auditing Commission; these two were also cited by Khrushchev as
examples of the alleged reign of terror that prevailed in Albania.
After the break with Moscow, Albania remained nominally a member of both
the CEMA and the Warsaw Pact. It did not, however, attend any meetings,
and it withdrew officially from the Warsaw Pact after the Soviet
invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Unlike Albania's relations with the Communist world, which have been
varied and fluctuating, those with the Western countries have been, with
minor exceptions, static and rigid, particularly toward the United
States. Only two major Western powers, France and Italy, initially
recognized the Communist regime and established diplomatic relations
with it. Proposals made in November 1945 by the American and British
governments to normalize relations with the Tirana regime were never
consummated, chiefly because of the regime's consistent inimical
attitude toward them.
There have been three distinct periods in the history of the country
under Communist rule. The first, from 1944 to 1948, was characterized by
Yugoslav domination. The country's rulers, however, had no difficulty
extricating themselves from this domination once Stalin broke with Tito.
In the second period, 1948 to 1961, Soviet predominance was evident
everywhere in the country. All the armed and security forces wore
Soviet-type uniforms. The regime copied much of the Soviet governmental
system. The same kind of bureaucracy and the same secret police,
functioning with the same supervision as in the Stalinist era in the
Soviet Union, prevailed. In major branches of the government, the
military, and the security forces, there were Soviet advisers and
experts. The economic and cultural fields were also patterned after
those of the Soviet Union. But despite this widespread penetration, the
Soviets were in the last analysis unable to impose their will on the
Albanian rulers, and in 1961 they withdrew completely from that country.
The third period, begun in 1961, saw the penetration of Communist
Chinese influence in many aspects of political, military, and economic
life. Like the Yugoslavs and Soviets before them, the Chinese introduced
their advisers and experts in various governmental organs and economic
enterprises, and probably in the military and security forces as well,
but they were there at the invitation of the Albanian regime (see ch. 6,
Government Structure and Political System).
CHAPTER 3
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Albania has land borders on the north and east with Yugoslavia and on
the south and southeast with Greece. Tirana, the capital, is less than
an hour by aircraft from eight other European capitals and barely more
than two hours from the most distant of them. The coastline is adjacent
to shipping lanes that have been important since early Greek and Roman
times. Nevertheless, partly because of its rugged terrain and partly
because of its political orientation, the country remains remote and
isolated from its European neighbors (see ch. 6, Government Structure
and Political System).
The large expanses of rugged and generally inaccessible terrain provided
refuge for the Albanian ethnic group and permitted its distinctive
identity to survive throughout the centuries. Although the country was
almost always under foreign domination, it was never extensively
colonized because of the lack of arable land, easily exploitable
resources, and natural inland transportation routes. It has been, and
continues to be, poorly developed. Agricultural and pastoral pursuits
have been the primary means of livelihood, and only after 1950 did
industry begin to be developed to any appreciable degree.
Until recently, the coastal lowlands supported few people and did not
provide easy access to the interior. The mountains that constitute 70
percent of the country's area are difficult to traverse and generally
inhospitable. Rivers are almost entirely unnavigable, and only in the
south are there valleys wide enough to link the coast with the interior.
By 1970 no railway and only three good roads crossed the national
borders.
The physical characteristics of the land have contributed to differing
living conditions and social relationships in the various sectors of the
country. Before independence in 1912, the area of modern Albania had
never been politically integrated, nor had it ever been an economically
viable unit. It owes its existence as a state to the ethnic factor, and
survival of the ethnic group is attributable to the natural isolation of
the country.
The area is 11,100 square miles. The boundaries, established in
principle in 1913 and demarcated in 1923, were essentially unchanged in
1970, although Greece had not dropped its claim to a large part of
southern Albania. The eastern boundary divides the Macedonian lake
district among three states--Albania, Greece, and Yugoslavia--that have
ethnic populations in the area and follows high mountain ridges wherever
possible to the north and south of the lakes. The northern and southern
borders were drawn to achieve a separation between the Albanians and
neighboring nationalities, although there is a large group of Albanians
in the Kosovo area of Yugoslavia across the northeastern border, and
Greeks and Albanians intermingle in the southeast (see fig. 1).
Resources are insufficient to make the country wealthy, and some that
are available have not been thoroughly exploited. Interior regions have
been inaccessible. Agricultural land has been inefficiently used for
centuries because people having large landholdings preferred to maintain
more profitable livestock herds rather than cultivate the earth for
foodstuff production. Malaria, until the 1930s, prevented development or
reclamation of the coastal lowlands. Lacking the capital investment
necessary, extensive development projects had not been undertaken by
1970.
The lowlands and the lower mountains of the south have a Mediterranean
climate; weather in the northern and eastern highlands is dominated by
the continental air masses that persist over central and Eastern Europe.
Overall rainfall is plentiful throughout the country, but most areas
receive it seasonally.
Apart from the bare rock mountains and portions of the alluvial lowlands
that are alternately parched and inundated, most of the land encourages
a wide variety of wild vegetation. Areas suitable for cultivation,
however, are small. There are good soils on about 5 percent of the land
surface, but land three or four times that percentage is considered
arable. Forests cover nearly one-half of the land. About one-fourth is
suitable for grazing animals.
The citizen relates closely to the land. Although he has been nationally
independent for only a few years in the twentieth century and very
seldom earlier, his property has been so difficult to reach that
occupying powers have often left him alone. The land has had beauty that
has fostered pride and loyalty, and a hardy breed has survived the
constant struggle to derive an existence from it.
NATURAL REGIONS
The 70 percent of the country that is mountainous is rugged and often
inaccessible. The remaining alluvial plain receives its precipitation
seasonally, is poorly drained, is alternately arid or flooded, and much
of it is devoid of fertility. Far from offering a relief from the
difficult interior terrain, it is often as inhospitable to its
inhabitants as are the mountains. Good soil and dependable precipitation
occur, however, in river basins within the mountains, in the lake
district on the eastern border, and in a narrow band of slightly
elevated land between the coastal plains and the higher interior
mountains (see fig. 2).
North Albanian Alps
The mountains of the far north of Albania are an extension of the
Dinaric Alpine chain and, more specifically, the Montenegrin limestone
(karst) plateau. They are, however, more folded and rugged than the more
typical portions of the plateau. The rivers have deep valleys with steep
sides and do not furnish arable valley floors; most of the grazing and
farming are done on the flatter mountaintops. The rivers provide little
access into the area and are barriers to communication within it. Roads
are few and poor. Lacking internal communications and external contacts,
a tribal society flourished within this Alpine region for centuries.
Only after World War II were serious efforts made to incorporate the
people of the region into the remainder of the country.
Southern Mountains
The extent of the region occupied by the southern mountains is not
settled to the satisfaction of all authorities. Some include all of the
area in a large diamond shape roughly encompassing all the uplands of
southern Albania beneath lines connecting Vlore, Elbasan, and Korce.
Although this area has trend lines of the same type and orientation, it
includes mountains that are associated more closely with the systems in
the central part of the country. Other authorities confine the area to
the mountains that are east of Vlore and south of the Vijose River.
These have features generally common to southern Albania and the
adjacent Greek Epirus. This demarcation is considered preferable because
it more nearly defined a traditional area that tends to lose some of the
more purely national character of the lands north of it.
The southern ranges revert again to the northwest to southeast trend
lines characteristic of the Dinaric Alps. They are, however, more gentle
and accessible than the serpentine zone, the eastern highlands, or the
North Albanian Alps. Transition to the lowlands is less abrupt, and
arable valley floors are wider. Limestone is predominant, contributing
to the cliffs and clear water along the Albanian Riviera. An
intermixture of softer rocks has eroded and become the basis for the
sedimentation that has resulted in wider valleys between the ridges than
are common in the remainder of the country. This terrain encouraged the
development of larger landholdings, thus influencing the social
structure of the area (see ch. 5, Social System).
[Illustration: Source: Adapted from Norman J. G. Pounds, _Eastern
Europe_, Chicago, 1969, p. 824.
_Figure 2. Landform Regions in Albania_]
Lowlands
A low coastal belt extends from the northern boundary southward to about
Vlore. It averages less than ten miles deep but widens to about thirty
miles in the Elbasan area. In its natural state it is characterized by
low scrub vegetation, varying from barren to dense. There are large
areas of marshland and other areas of bare eroded badlands. Where
elevations rise slightly and precipitation is regular--in the foothills
of the central uplands, for example--the land is excellent. Marginal
land is being reclaimed wherever irrigation is possible.
The land itself is of recent geological origin. It has been, and is
being, created by sediments from the many torrents that erode the
interior mountains. New alluvial deposits tend to be gravelly, without
humus, and require many years before sufficient vegetation to make them
fertile can be established. The sedimentation process, moreover, raises
river channels above the level of the nearby terrain. Channels change
frequently, devastating areas that have not been stabilized and creating
marshes in others by blocking off the drainage. Road builders are
confronted with difficult and constantly changing conditions.
Rainfall is heavy during the winter and is infrequent to nonexistent
during nearly half the year. Mosquitoes thrive in the hot, humid, and
marshy land. Only since about 1930 have there been effective measures to
control malaria. Before then no extensive working of areas near the
marshes could be seriously considered. For these reasons the coastal
zone, in addition to supporting few people, has until relatively
recently acted as a barrier, hindering, rather than encouraging, contact
with the interior.
Coastal hills descend abruptly to Ionian Sea beaches along the Albanian
Riviera from Vlore Bay southward to about Sarande. The 500- and
1,000-foot contour lines are within a mile or so of the water along
nearly the entire distance. In the northern portion a 4,000-foot ridge
is frequently only two to three miles inland. South of Sarande is
another small area of coastal lowlands fronting on the Ionian Sea and
separated from the Greek island of Corfu (Kerkira) by a mile-wide
channel. Climate and soil conditions permit the cultivation of citrus
fruits in this southernmost area of Albania.
Central Uplands
The central uplands region extends south from the Drin River valley,
which marks the southern boundary of the North Albanian Alpine area, to
the southern mountains. It is an area of generally lower mountain
terrain immediately east of the lowlands. In the north, from the Drin
River to the vicinity of Elbasan, it constitutes an area about twenty
miles wide. It narrows to practically nothing in the vicinity of
Elbasan, then widens into a broader triangular shape with its base
against the southern mountains. Earth shifting along the faultline that
roughly defines the western edge of the central uplands causes frequent
and occasionally severe earthquakes. Major damage occurred over wide
areas in 1967 and 1969.
Softer rocks predominate in the uplands. The most extensive are flysch,
a soft crumbly rock that is usually sandstone but frequently contains
shales, sandy limestones, and marl. This type of formation erodes
rapidly and is the basis of much of the poor alluvial lowland soil. The
ridges of the uplands are extensions of the Dalmatian coastal range that
enters Albania from Yugoslavia. Elevations are generally moderate,
between 1,000 and 3,000 feet with a few reaching above 5,000 feet.
Serpentine Zone
Although there are rugged terrain and high points in the central
uplands, the first major mountain range inland from the Adriatic is an
area of predominantly serpentine rock. The serpentine zone extends
nearly the length of the country, from the North Albanian Alps to the
Greek border south of Korce, an area 10 to 20 miles wide and over 125
miles in length lying generally between the central uplands and the
eastern highlands. At Elbasan, however, it makes nearly direct contact
with the coastal plain, and it reaches the eastern border for nearly 50
miles in, and north of, the lake region. Within its zone there are many
areas in which sharp limestone and sandstone outcroppings predominate
over the serpentine, although the ranges as a whole are characterized by
rounded mountain features.
The serpentine rock derives its name from its dull green color and often
mottled or spotted appearance. It can occur in several states. Iron,
nickel, or other metals can substitute in its chemical formula for the
more prevalent magnesium and will cause color variations.
Eastern Highlands
The mountains east of the serpentine zone are the highest in the country
and are the basis for part of the eastern boundary. They occupy a narrow
strip south of Lakes Ohrid and Prespa, and a similar one, also running
north and south, lies between the White Drin River and the Yugoslav city
of Debar. A peak in the Korab range, on the border north of Debar,
exceeds 9,000 feet. The ranges have north-south trend lines.
Geologically young and composed largely of hard limestone rocks, the
eastern highlands, together with the North Albanian Alps and the
serpentine zone, are the most rugged and inaccessible of any terrain on
the Balkan Peninsula.
Lake Region
The three lakes of easternmost Albania are part of the Macedonian lake
district. The Yugoslav border passes through Lake Ohrid; all but a small
tip of Little Lake Prespa is in Greece; and the point at which the
boundaries of all three states meet is in Lake Prespa. The two larger
lakes have areas of about 100 square miles each, and Little Lake Prespa
is about one-fifth as large. These are total surface areas, including
the portions on both sides of the national boundary lines. The surface
elevation is about 2,285 feet for Lake Ohrid and about 2,800 feet for
the other two. The lakes are remote and picturesque. Lake Ohrid is fed
primarily from underground springs and is blue and very clear. At times
its transparency can approach 70 feet. A good percentage of the terrain
in the vicinity of the lakes is not overly steep, and it supports a
larger population than any other inland portion of the country.
NATIONAL BOUNDARIES
The distinct ethnic character of the people and their isolation within a
fairly restricted and definable area brought support for their demands
for independence in the early twentieth century. There were places where
different ethnic populations intermingled, and there were other
pressures that affected the definition of the borders. The Kosovo area
across the northeastern border is a part of modern Yugoslavia, but it
contains a substantial Albanian population. There are Greeks and
Albanians in the mountains on both sides of the southeastern boundary.
Albania is not content with the Kosovo situation, and neither Greece nor
Albania is satisfied with the division effected by their mutual border.
The country is the smallest in Eastern Europe and has a perimeter of
only 750 miles. The border shared with Yugoslavia runs northward from
Lake Prespa, around northern Albania, to the Adriatic Sea for a total of
just under 300 miles. Forty miles of this border follows river courses,
and an almost equal distance is within lakes. The Greek border from the
common point in Lake Prespa southwest to the Ionian Sea is about 160
miles long. Twelve miles of this border are within lakes but, because it
crosses the trend lines of the southern mountain ranges, only four miles
are along rivers.
The Adriatic and Ionian coastline is just under 300 miles long. The
lowlands of the west face the Adriatic Sea and the Strait of Otranto,
which is a mere 47 miles from the heel of the Italian boot. The Albanian
Riviera, the coastline that runs southeast from Vlore, is on the Ionian
Sea.
With the exception of the coastline, all Albanian borders are
artificial. They were established in principle at the 1913 Conference of
Ambassadors in London. The country was occupied by the warring powers
during World War I, but the 1913 boundaries were reaffirmed at
Versailles in 1921. Finally demarcated in 1923, they were confirmed by
the Paris Agreement of 1926 and were essentially unchanged in 1970. The
original principle was to define the borders in accordance with the best
interests of the Albanian ethnic group and the nationalities in adjacent
areas. The northern and eastern borders were intended, insofar as
possible, to separate the Albanians from the Serbian and Montenegrin
peoples; the southeast border was to separate Albanians and Greeks; and
the valuable western Macedonia lake district was to be divided among the
states whose populations shared the area.
When there was no compromise involving other factors, borderlines were
chosen to make the best possible separation of national groups,
connecting the best marked physical features available. Allowance was
made for local economic situations, to keep from separating a village
from its animals' grazing areas or from the markets for its produce.
Political pressures also were a factor in the negotiations, but the
negotiations were subject to approval by powers having relatively remote
interests, most of which involved the balance of power rather than
economic ambitions.
Division of the lake district among three states required that each of
them have a share of the lowlands in the vicinity. Such a distribution
was artificial but, once made, necessarily influenced the borderlines to
the north and south. The border that runs generally north from the
lakes, although it follows the ridges of the eastern highlands, stays
some ten to twenty miles west of the watershed divide.
Proceeding counterclockwise around northern Albania, the watershed
divide was abandoned altogether along the northeast boundary. In the
process a large Albanian population in Kosovo was incorporated into
Yugoslavia.
In the extreme north and the northeastern mountainous sections, the
border with Yugoslavia connects high points and follows mountain ridges
through the North Albanian Alps where there is little movement of the
people. There is no natural topographic dividing line from the
highlands, through Lake Scutari, to the Adriatic, but the lake and a
portion of the Buene River south of it were used. From the lake district
south and southwest to the Ionian Sea, the boundary runs perpendicular
to the terrain trend lines and crosses a number of ridges instead of
following them.
LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE AREAS
The twenty-six districts that are the primary administrative
subdivisions of the country have evolved from divisions that have
existed for many years or have developed over a period of time (see fig.
3). In the northern third of the country, district lines were based on
the territory occupied by tribal groups. In the part of the country
south from about Tirana, they were based on the large landholdings
controlled by those who in earlier years had governed the areas for the
Ottomans.
Upon independence most of the old local boundaries, long understood if
not always precisely defined, were retained, and the areas became
prefectures. Before World War II there were ten prefectures, which in
turn were divided into about forty subprefectures. The Communist regime
did not abandon the prefectures immediately but eventually replaced them
with districts that were, generally, based on the old subprefectures. In
a series of changes, the latest of which were made in December 1967, the
districts were consolidated into the twenty-six that existed in 1970.
The districts are much the same size. Sixteen of them have areas ranging
between 300 and 600 square miles. The largest, Shkoder, has about 980
square miles; the smallest, Lezhe, has about 180.
Changes in the areas and boundaries of the districts made during the
1960s were based chiefly on economic considerations, although political
and security considerations also played a part. A major factor has been
the collectivization of agriculture. In 1968 and 1969, for example, when
the government decided to enlarge the collective farms, district lines
were shifted in order to keep all of the land in a collective within the
same district (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System).
[Illustration: Source: Adapted from _Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh.,
1967-1968_, Tirana, 1968, frontispiece.
_Figure 3. Administrative Districts in Albania_]
Although there are natural barriers to almost all movement in the
country, there are few, if any, that contribute to the boundaries of the
districts. Eight districts border on the seashore, but only three of
them have more lowland than mountainous terrain. The Shkoder District,
for example, has all of the lowlands in the vicinity of the city and
almost half of the most mountainous portion of the North Albanian Alps.
In a few instances the borders of interior districts follow the river
valleys, but it is more usual for them to contain segments of the rivers
and, when this is the case, their boundary lines stay in the higher
regions.
CLIMATE
With its coastline oriented westward onto the Adriatic and Ionian seas,
its highlands backed upon the elevated Balkan landmass, and the entire
country lying at a latitude that receives different patterns of weather
systems during the winter and summer seasons, Albania has a number of
climatic regions highly unusual for so small an area. The coastal
lowlands have typically Mediterranean weather; the highlands have a
so-called Mediterranean continental climate. Both the lowland and
interior weather change markedly from north to south.
The lowlands have mild winters, averaging about 45°F. Summer
temperatures average 75°F., humidity is high, and the season tends to be
oppressively uncomfortable. The southern lowlands are warmer, averaging
about five degrees higher throughout the year. The difference is greater
than five degrees during the summer and somewhat less during the winter.
Inland temperatures vary more widely with differences in elevation than
with latitude or any other factor. Cold winter temperatures in the
mountains result from the continental air masses that predominate over
Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Northerly and northeasterly winds blow
much of the time. Average summer temperatures are lower than in the
coastal areas and much lower at high elevations, but daily fluctuations
are greater. Daytime maximum temperatures in the interior basins and
river valleys are very high, but the nights are almost always cool (see
table 1).
The average precipitation over the country is high resulting from the
convergence of the prevailing airflow from the Mediterranean with the
continental air mass. They usually meet at the point where the terrain
rises. Arriving at that line, the Mediterranean air meets increasing
ground elevations that force it to rise and an air mass that tends to
resist its further progress. This causes the heaviest rainfall in the
central uplands. Vertical currents initiated when the Mediterranean
air is uplifted also result in frequent thunderstorms. Many of them in
this area are violent and are accompanied by high local winds and
torrential downpours.
_Table 1. Temperature and Precipitation Averages for Selected Locations
in Albania_
Average Temperatures* Annual
Elevation Coldest Warmest precipitation
Place Location (in feet) Annual month month (in inches)
Shkoder Northern coastal
lowlands 50 59 40 78 80
Durres Central coastal
lowlands Sea level 61 47 77 38
Vlore Southern coastal
lowlands do 62 48 77 39
Sarande Albanian Riviera do 63 ... ... 55
Tirana Mid-Albania at
base of central
uplands 360 58 42 76 49
Puke North-central
uplands 2,850 51 34 70 72
Kruje Central uplands 2,000 55 39 71 67
Korce Eastern highlands 2,850 51 ... ... 30
*In degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: Adapted from _Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh., 1967-1968_.
Tirana, 1968, pp. 18-19; and Great Britain, Admiralty, Naval
Intelligence Division, _Albania_, London, 1945, p. 93.
When the continental system is weak, Mediterranean winds drop their
moisture farther inland. When there is a dominant continental air mass,
it spills cold air onto the lowland areas. This occurs most frequently
in the winter season. Since the season's lower temperatures damage olive
trees and citrus fruits, their groves and orchards are restricted to
sheltered places with southern and western exposures, even in areas that
have seemingly high average winter temperatures.
Lowland rainfall averages from forty to nearly sixty inches annually,
increasing between those extremes from south to north. Nearly 95 percent
of the rain falls during the rainy season.
Rainfall in the upland mountain ranges is higher. Adequate records are
not available, and estimates vary widely, but annual averages are
probably about 70 inches and are as high as 100 inches in some northern
areas. The seasonal variation is not quite as great as in the coastal
area, with the most nearly even distribution in the north, largely
because of summer thunderstorms.
The higher inland mountains receive less precipitation than the
intermediate uplands. Terrain differences cause wide local variations,
but the seasonal distribution is the most consistent of any area. In the
northern mountains, for example, the months that usually have the
highest averages are November and June.
DRAINAGE
All but a very small portion of the precipitation drains through the
rivers to the coastline without leaving the country. With the exception
of a few insignificant trickles, only one small stream in the northern
part of the country escapes Albania. In the south an even smaller
rivulet drains into Greece. As the divide is on the eastern side of the
borders with Yugoslavia and Greece, however, a considerable amount of
water from those countries drains through Albania. A quite extensive
portion of the White Drin River basin is in the Kosovo area across the
northeastern Yugoslav border. The three lakes shared with Yugoslavia and
Greece, as well as all the streams that flow into them, drain into the
Drin River. The watershed divide in the south also dips nearly forty
miles into Greece at one point. Several tributaries of the Vijose River
rise in that area (see fig. 4).
[Illustration: _Figure 4. Rivers and Lakes in Albania_]
With the exception of the Drin River, which flows northward and drains
nearly the entire eastern border region before it turns westward to the
sea, most of the rivers in the northern and central parts of the country
flow much more directly westward to the sea. In the process they cut
through the ridges rather than flowing around them. This apparent
impossibility came about because the highlands were originally lifted
without much folding. The streams came into existence at that time and
antedate the ridges because the compression and folding of the plateau
occurred later. The folding process was rapid enough in many instances
to block the rivers temporarily, forming lakes that existed until the
downstream channel was cut sufficiently to drain them. This sequence
created the many interior basins that are typically a part of the
landforms. During the lifetimes of the temporary lakes enough sediment
was deposited in them to form the basis for fertile soils. Folding was
only infrequently rapid enough to force the streams to radically
different channels.
The precipitous fall from higher elevations and the highly irregular
seasonal flow patterns that are characteristic of nearly all streams in
the country reduce the immediate value of the streams. They erode the
mountains and deposit the sediment that created, and continues to add
to, the lowlands, but the rivers flood during the seasons when there is
local rainfall. When the lands are parched and need irrigation, the
rivers are usually dry. Their violence makes them difficult to control,
and they are unnavigable. The Buene is an exception. It is dredged
between Shkoder and the Adriatic and is navigable for small ships. In
contrast to their histories of holding fast to their courses in the
mountains, the rivers have constantly changed channels on the lower
plains, making wastes of much of the land they have created.
The Drin River is the largest and most constant stream (see table 2).
Fed by melting snows from the northern and eastern mountains and by the
more evenly distributed seasonal precipitation of that area, its flow
does not have the extreme variations characteristic of nearly all other
rivers in the country. Its normal flow varies seasonally by only about
one-third. Along its length of about 175 miles it drains nearly 2,300
square miles within Albania. As it also collects from the Adriatic
portion of the Kosovo watershed and the three border lakes (Lake Prespa
drains to Lake Ohrid via an underground stream), its total basin is
around 6,000 square miles.
The Seman and Vijose are the only other rivers that are more than 100
miles in length and have basins larger than 1,000 square miles. These
rivers drain the southern regions and, reflecting the seasonal
distribution of rainfall, are torrents in winter and nearly dry in the
summer, in spite of their relatively long lengths. This is also the case
with the many shorter streams. In the summer most of them carry less
than a tenth of their winter averages, if they are not altogether dry.
_Table 2. Drainage Basins in Albania_
Drainage basin Length of river Area of basin
(in miles) (in square miles)
Drin 174 2,263*
Seman 157 2,305
Vijose 147 1,682
Shkumbin 91 918
Mat 65 964
Erzen 56 301
Ishm 43 244
Buene** 27 623
* Within Albania only.
** Includes Lake Scutari.
Source: Adapted from Athanas Gegaj and Rexhep Krasniqi, _Albania_,
New York, 1964, p. 8.
The sediment carried by the mountain torrents continues to be deposited
but, having created the lowlands, new deposits delay their exploitation.
Stream channels rise as silt is deposited in them and eventually become
higher than the surrounding terrain. Changing channels frustrate
development in many areas. Old channels become barriers to proper
drainage and create swamps or marshlands. It has been difficult to build
roads or railroads across the lowlands or to use the land.
Irrigation has been accomplished ingeniously by Albanian peasants for
many years, to the degree that they and their expertise have been sought
after throughout Europe. Projects required to irrigate or to reclaim
large areas of the lowlands, however, are on a scale that probably
cannot be accomplished without financial assistance from outside the
country.
Although water is available in quantities adequate for irrigation and it
has the amount of fall necessary for hydroelectric power production,
terrain and seasonal factors are such that major capital investment
would be required for both irrigation and power projects. Snow
stabilizes drainage of the higher northern and eastern mountains but,
unfortunately, the only major snow accumulations are in the Drin basin,
influencing only the one river system.
NATURAL RESOURCES
Soils
Soil resources are small. Arable land figures notwithstanding, good
agricultural land amounts to only about 5 percent of the country's area.
Soils over limestone are thin or altogether lacking. Serpentine rock
erodes slowly and produces clays of little agricultural value. The
softer rocks of the intermediate mountains crumble easily into course
and infertile sands and gravels that take many years to acquire humus.
The alluvial soil of the lowland plains, therefore, tends to be sterile
in addition to receiving its precipitation seasonally and being poorly
drained. There is little land along the narrow valley floors. The best
soils, those within the inland basins, are excellent. The narrow margin
of slightly elevated land between the coastal plains and the mountains
also provides excellent arable fields.
Vegetation
Western sources have estimated that, in 1969, 11 percent of the land
area was arable, of which nearly one-half was in use as vineyards and
olive groves. Forests covered just over one-third of the land, and
pastures just under one-third. About 22 percent of the land was
unproductive, but one-half of the unproductive areas had a potential for
development. Albanian government pronouncements have stated that about
20 percent of the land was arable in 1968 and that this figure would be
increased to 22 percent in 1970. The discrepancies in land use
statistics arise from varying interpretations as to the amount of
pastureland that is arable. Much that Albanian sources have claimed as
newly arable almost certainly is marginally so.
Dependence upon corn as the primary staple crop in much of the country
and limited amounts of arable land tended, until about 1950, to prevent
proper crop rotation. The government is attempting to introduce more
scientific agricultural practices and has claimed improved crop yields.
Although the amount of land that can be cultivated for the production of
foodstuffs is meager, the remoteness of the interior has allowed natural
flora to exist over fairly extensive areas with little disturbance. A
large variety of species flourishes, and an unusual number of them are
found in that vicinity only. Of some 2,300 seed-bearing plants, over 300
appear in the Balkans alone, and more than 50 occur only in Albania.
The land considered forest includes areas that contain little more than
scrub ground cover and others that have been ravaged by unsystematic
cutting. More than half of the forests, however, contain mature trees
and, owing largely to their inaccessibility, have escaped the reckless
harvesting that destroyed many lower elevation forests during the first
years of the country's independence.
Maquis, a Mediterranean scrub tree, grows to about fifteen or twenty
feet, can be extremely dense, and is the most frequent ground cover at
low elevations. It withstands dry weather and, although it is of little
value as a tree and does not of itself build a rich soil, it stabilizes
the alluvial lowlands and provides cover for better humus-producing
vegetation. Maquis can survive at slightly higher elevations in
sheltered conditions, but it is usually found below 1,000 or 1,300 feet.
Most maquis species are evergreen. Deciduous scrub, usually
Christ's-thorn, or _shiblijak_, is also common in the lowlands, but it
occurs much less frequently than maquis.
The oaks are the most important of trees. Oak forests have never
reattained the majesty they had during the days of Venice's power when
they could be called upon to furnish 400 shiploads of straight oak stems
for Venetian fleets, but in 1970 they still constituted nearly half of
all forests. The oaks are valuable not only for their economic worth as
fuel and lumber but also because the leaves of deciduous varieties and
the undergrowth encouraged beneath them are excellent soil builders.
Occurring at moderate elevations, however, they have been accessible and
overexploited. Lowland oak forests contain poorer species that rarely
grow in excess of thirty feet tall, but the thick undergrowth they
usually allow provides stability and improves the alluvial soil. The
finer and more valuable species occur at middle and higher elevations.
Oak forests predominate between 1,000- and 3,000-foot elevations but
occur up to about 4,000 feet.
Beech trees appear at all elevations between 3,000 feet and the
timberline. They predominate in northern areas between about 3,500 and
6,000 feet. In the south they flourish at the same elevations but are
usually outnumbered by conifers. Beech is excellent hard wood, and its
leaves are among the best of soil builders. The trees generate most of
the humus themselves, as their canopies interlace tightly in mature
forests, permitting relatively little undergrowth to flourish on the
forest floors beneath them. Mature forests have survived in many of the
remote, inaccessible areas that beech species prefer. The most copious
forests are in cloud forest regions where cloud cover is almost
constant, rainfall is frequent, and temperatures do not usually reach
the extreme highs.
The better conifers, usually including several pine species in the
north and fir, with lesser numbers of pine and spruce, in the south,
coexist with beech but tolerate poorer soils and tend to predominate at
the highest elevations. Although they tend to have less continuous
canopies than beech forests, they do not encourage undergrowth. Their
needles, along with rapid decay of their softer dead wood, however, can
create deep humus. The poorer quality lowland pines do well at
elevations down to sea level and will tolerate certain conditions,
although not overly poor drainage, in which the oak will not survive.
Its woods usually have discontinuous canopies and allow dense maquis and
other lower shrubs to flourish beneath them.
True mixed woods, sometimes referred to as karst woods, occur at medium
elevations. They are usually almost entirely deciduous but have wide
varieties of species. The larger trees include maple, ash, beech, and
oak, but these are vastly outnumbered. Intermediate varieties of
hawthorne, dogwood, hazel, and cherry flourish among the larger trees,
and hundreds of smaller plants, ranging from bushes, shrubs, and ferns
to grasses and moss, provide ground cover. With a profusion of varieties
in constant competition for available space and soil, those that do best
in a particular soil mixture prosper in a given locality. Because the
soil in the uplands relates closely to the base rock and the mountains
were created by geologically recent folding that has exposed the edges
of layered rock formations, there are abrupt changes in the basic
surface rock. This is reflected immediately in mixed woods by equally
abrupt changes in the species that appear.
Of the more abundant smaller flora families, the daisy, pea, grass,
pink, nettle, mustard, parsley, figwort, rose, buttercup, and lily
groups has more than fifty species that can be found within Albania.
Flowering plants flourish especially well in limestone areas where there
are masses of vividly colored wild flowers during the springtime. Must
less brilliant colors appear on serpentine outcroppings and, as is the
case with the mixed woods, the difference is abrupt where limestone and
serpentine are the surface rocks in closely adjacent areas.
Wildlife
Summer livestock grazing in the mountains and uncontrolled hunting
reduced wildlife to insignificance. Some deer, wild boar, and wolves
remain in the more remote forests. Chamois were plentiful in the area
but are now extremely rare. Wild fowl, however, are abundant in the
lowland swamps and lower forests.
Minerals
Exploitation of the country's minerals generates the largest share of
the gross industrial product and provides employment for the largest
number of the industrial labor force. This does not indicate, however,
that the country is rich in mineral resources, but it serves to
underscore the still poorer state of its agricultural and industrial
sectors and indicates that the country engages in relatively little
international commerce.
There are considerable reserves in oil and natural gas. Oil can be
extracted in quantity sufficient to meet domestic demands and to export.
A pipeline from the oilfields at Stalin (formerly Kucove) transmits the
oil to the port of Vlore. The crude oil, however, has a high sulfur
content and is expensive to refine.
Chrome is the most important export commodity. Albania is the largest
chrome source in Eastern Europe, and its mines have at times supplied
about 2 percent of the world's total. Good-quality copper ore is also
available in export quantities.
No hard coal veins are known, but lignite is plentiful and its deposits
are accessible. Asphalt (bitumen) occurs in a concentrated deposit in
one small area. This source has been actively worked for centuries. Some
of it has been exported.
Iron, nickel, gold, and silver ores occur in less important deposits.
Iron is plentiful, but the ores are of low grade. The other deposits are
minor. Bauxite appears in quantity deposits in several areas. Sufficient
year-round power sources, however, are not available to process it.
Magnesite, arsenic, pyrites, and gypsum sources are worked. Clay and
kaolin suitable for pottery are also extracted. Salt is abundant.
Limestone is available throughout the country and quarried wherever it
is needed.
TRANSPORTATION
Even when its territory sat astride a direct route between two points,
Albania was usually bypassed because there was nearly always a longer
way around that was easier and safer. As a result, its transportation
links with the rest of the world are very few. Its internal systems are
also inadequate for good communications within the country. All railways
are short, internal routes, and the lines that were complete in 1970
connected only three of the major cities. Two primary roads, one of
which was originally constructed by the Romans, cross into Greece, and a
third crosses into Yugoslavia. Only a dozen more roads, all of them
secondary, lead out of the country. There is little air traffic with the
outside world; it usually involves connecting flights to major airlines
in neighboring countries (see fig. 1).
Roads
Until the twentieth century only two major roads crossed what is now
Albania. The Romans built the Via Egnatia, which makes an east-west
transit from Durres (known as Dyrrhachium in Roman times), via the
Shkumbin River valley, to the lake district. It continued eastward
across the Balkan Peninsula to Thessaloniki and Constantinople (now
Istanbul), and the Romans used it to move forces overland to the eastern
portions of their empire. A north-south route, the Via Zenta, was built
by Ragusan merchants during the period when Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) was a
Balkan mercantile power and needed access to the interior of the
peninsula. The road followed the Drin River valley. Both the Via Egnatia
and the Via Zenta fell into disuse during the centuries of Ottoman
control, but the basic course of the Roman road is followed by one of
the few major highways that has been constructed in the twentieth
century.
Independent Albania was slow to begin construction of roads that would
better conform to the country's national requirements. During World War
I Austrian forces built some 400 miles of strategic roads while they
occupied the area. The Italians did the same during World War II. In
both cases the objective was to improve communications with external
points. There was no attempt to construct a network that would integrate
the country.
The Hoxha regime has placed more emphasis on internal communications,
and in 1969 it claimed that the principal road network had been expanded
by three times over what it had been in 1938. Perhaps 3,000 miles could
be classed as improved roads. These are considered all-weather roads,
although those in the mountains may be closed by snows. Most of the
surfaces are hardened with compacted stone or gravel, and a few have a
tarry stabilizer. Better roads have asphalt surfaces. Road construction
in almost all parts of the country is difficult, especially in bridge
building, and some roads are construction masterpieces. Once built,
however, routine maintenance has ordinarily not been properly
accomplished, and surfaces have deteriorated.
Railways
The first standard-gauge railroad construction began in 1947. The
Italians had started roadbeds during their World War II occupation but
had abandoned their projects in 1943. By 1970 there were only about 135
miles of completed lines. These included basic lines between Durres and
Tirana and between Durres and Elbasan. There is difficult terrain
between Tirana and Elbasan and, although only about 20 miles apart, they
are connected via Durres only.
The lines from Durres curve northward to Tirana and southward to
approach Elbasan via the Shkumbin valley. A northern offshoot from the
Durres-Tirana line is complete to Lac and will be extended to Shkoder. A
southern offshoot from Rrogozhine on the Durres-Elbasan line is now in
service to Fier and will be extended to Vlore. The combination of these
two routes will constitute a coastal line from Shkoder to Vlore.
Construction was in progress in 1970 on a line that will connect Elbasan
with Prrenjas, which is just over five miles from Lake Ohrid. This line
follows the route of the old Roman Via Egnatia, and in later programs it
will probably be extended to Lin, on the lake, and then southward to
Korce. When these lines are completed, they and the road network will
provide vastly improved internal communications, but many small areas
within the North Albanian Alps and the higher central and eastern
mountains will remain difficult to reach.
Pipeline
During the mid-1930s the Italian state-owned petroleum company
constructed a forty-four-mile, eight-inch pipeline to connect the
oilfields in the Stalin area with the port of Vlore. The line had a
capacity of about 5,000 barrels a day and carried crude for
transshipment to refineries in Italy. In the early 1950s the line was
extended northward to the newly built refinery at Cerrik.
Airlines
In the early post-World War II period when Albania was practically a
vassal state of Yugoslavia, regular air traffic was established between
Belgrade and Tirana. After the estrangement of Yugoslavia from the
Soviet Union, when Albania became a satellite of the Soviet Union,
regular traffic was set up between Tirana and Moscow and, to a lesser
degree, between Tirana and the capitals of the Eastern European
Communist countries other than Belgrade. When Albania became aligned
with Communist China, direct connections with almost all external points
were severed. Even Peking flights were routed via intermediate stops in
Italy, usually Bari or Rome.
Between 1967 and 1970 connections between Albania and most of the
Eastern European countries, but not the Soviet Union, were gradually
restored. Service is scheduled but infrequent. Weekly flights are
typically connected through Belgrade. Traffic elsewhere is ordinarily
routed via Italy. Albanian officials depart and reenter the country via
Bari or Rome, connecting to Tirana on a scheduled Alitalia flight or by
an Albanian flight. Internal air services are also limited. Those
available are centered on Tirana.
Merchant Shipping
Because no railway leaves the country and border-crossing roads are
inadequate, nearly all foreign trade is carried by sea. Durres and Vlore
are the major ports. Durres has a first-class harbor, warehouses,
petroleum storage tanks, a shipbuilding capability, and railway spurs to
the docks. Vlore is a better natural port and is the terminus of the oil
pipeline. It has fewer port facilities than Durres, however, and no rail
connections with the rest of the country. Sarande, Shengjin, and Porte
Palermo are less important ports.
Only the Drin and Buene rivers might be considered navigable to any
degree and even then only for small ships and short distances. Lake
Scutari and the interior lakes are navigable but are of little
commercial use. Smaller oceangoing craft are used in a limited amount of
coastal trade.
The government is encouraging the creation of a national merchant fleet.
_Lloyd's Register of Shipping_ for 1968 listed eleven Albanian vessels
totaling 36,550 gross tons. Albania and Communist China maintain a
jointly owned shipping line, and the number of ships with Albanian
registry is increasing.
CHAPTER 4
THE PEOPLE
The population increased by about 71 percent from 1950 to 1969 and in
1970 was increasing at a rate that would double the number of
inhabitants in approximately twenty-six years. The median age, about
nineteen years, was increasing slowly. The abundance of rural population
and the increasing tempo of industrial development provided potential
for rapid urban growth, but government controls and a scarcity of
housing tended to restrict population movements.
Persons of Albanian ethnic origin constituted about 97 percent of the
2.1 million population in early 1970. Of ancient Illyrian descent, they
have maintained their homogeneity despite many invasions and centuries
of foreign occupation. The Communist regime, in its effort to develop
social and cultural solidarity, attempted to reduce consciousness of the
differences between the major subgroups, the Gegs in the north and the
Tosks in the south. Some progress has been made, but a continuing
struggle is being carried out against customs and beliefs that are
considered remnants of the past and detract from the achievement of
Communist objectives (see ch. 5, Social System).
The Albanian language is a derivative of the tongues that were spoken by
the ancient Illyrians and Thracians. For many centuries its continuity
was maintained by only verbal means. A standardized alphabet was not
developed until the twentieth century. Since World War II considerable
progress has been made in making the Tosk dialect the standard written
language. In the late 1960s there were still some variations in
spelling.
The pattern of settlement was predominantly one of widely dispersed
villages; approximately two-thirds of the people lived in communities
with less than 1,000 population. Only twelve cities had more than 10,000
population in 1969. The quadrangular area formed by the cities of
Durres, Tirana, Elbasan, and Fier, all of which are linked by rail and
roads, was experiencing the most rapid growth in the 1960s.
There was a very slight improvement in living standards from 1950 to
1970. Despite modest growth in the economy, the per capita gross
national product (GNP) in 1967 was the lowest in Europe, an estimated
United States equivalent of $320. The average citizen's welfare in the
allocation of resources for food, consumers' goods, and housing was
sacrificed to the development of industry and the program to achieve
eventual self-sufficiency in agriculture. Reduction of disease and
improved health were the most important gains countrywide. Also, by 1970
electricity had been extended to over two-thirds of all villages.
Consistently high levels of population growth placed severe strains on
available supplies of food, consumers' goods, housing, and services.
POPULATION
The total population in January 1970 was an increase of approximately
500,000 over the 1960 official census total of 1,626,315. The
distribution by age groups in 1970 was: under fifteen years of age, 42
percent; fifteen to thirty-nine years, 37 percent; forty to sixty-four
years, 16 percent; and sixty-five years and over, 5 percent. With almost
60 percent of its inhabitants under forty years of age and a median age
of approximately nineteen years, the population was extremely youthful,
and indications were that it would remain so into the 1970s. The
proportion of persons in the dependent age groups, under fifteen and
over sixty-four years, to the working age group, fifteen to sixty-four
years, was 887 to 1,000.
The overall ratio of males to females, 106 to 100, was the highest among
the Communist countries of East Europe. The preponderance of men was
greatest at ages below forty; in the age group above sixty-four there
were only 77 men to 100 women. The higher ratio of men for the total
population was attributed in part to the high infant mortality rate
among female infants, caused by neglect and the deference accorded to
male progeny. Losses in World War II, an estimated 28,800 persons, or
2.48 percent of the population, had little influence on the ratio of
males to females and the population structure.
In keeping with the traditional pattern of a highly dispersed
population, the country remains predominantly rural. About two-thirds
live in villages and in the countryside. Urban population increased from
about one-fifth to one-third of the total during the 1950-70 period and
would have increased to a greater extent had the government not taken
measures, beginning in the mid-1960s, to build up agriculture and to
restrict city growth. During the drive to reduce the number of people
involved in administration and to increase production forces in the
mid-1960s, thousands of persons living in the city, including some from
the bureaucracy and the Party, were sent to the country.
Housing in the cities was greatly overcrowded, and the allocation of new
dwellings built by state funds and controlled by the government provided
further restrictions on city growth. Indications were that the expansion
of industry would continue to require urban growth but that the rate of
growth would be controlled. The largest cities and their populations in
1967 were: Tirana, 170,603; Durres, 80,066; Vlore, 57,745; Korce,
53,563; and Shkoder, 49,095.
The birth rate declined only slightly from 1950 to 1970 and in 1968 was
35.5 per 1,000 population (see table 3). Fertility continued at a high
level, and there were no apparent influences that tended to reduce the
prevailing rate of births. No information was published concerning the
effects, if any, on the birth rate of women's employment outside the
home, abortions, contraceptives, or other restraints on population
growth.
The expansion of medical services and improvement in the standard of
health during the 1950s and 1960s resulted in a marked decline in the
mortality rate, from 14 per 1,000 in 1950 to 8 per 1,000 in 1968. The
age structure of the population, with a preponderance in the lower age
brackets, provided the potential for a continuing low mortality rate.
A concomitant of the reduced death rate was an increase in life
expectancy. Data from domestic sources indicated that the average life
expectancy at birth increased from 53.5 years in 1950 to 66.1 years in
1965.
Because of the highly restrictive policies of the Communist regime,
migration into and out of the country had a negligible influence on the
size and composition of the population. Internal migration was
controlled by requiring approval for persons to move from one location
to another. Specific data on the scale and character of population
movements were not available.
The pattern of sustained high birth rates and declining death rates
resulted in high rates of natural increase. Total population increased
by 71 percent from 1950 to 1969, whereas the average increase for all
other East European Communist countries, excluding the Soviet Union, was
18 percent. The growth rate for 1970 was estimated at 2.7 percent.
Government and Party leaders, voicing the need for greater numbers of
people for the building of socialism, supported a continuing high level
of population growth. They were undeterred, in the face of persistent
shortages of food and the requirement for foreign assistance, in their
encouragement of a sustained high birth rate and the payment of an
allowance for each child.
_Table 3. Albanian Vital Statistics for Selected Years, 1950-68 (per
thousand population)_
Year Birth Death Natural increase
1950 38.5 14.0 24.5
1960 43.3 10.4 32.9
1968 35.5 8.0 27.5
Source: Adapted from U.S. Department of
Commerce, Office of Technical Services,
Joint Publications Research Service
(Washington), "Protection of Mother and
Child Health, the High Expression of
Socialist Humanism, Realized by the Party
During the 25 Years of People's Power," by
Vera Ngjela et al., in Shendetesia
Popullore (People's Health), Tirana, 1969
(JPRS: 50,302, _Translations on Eastern
Europe, Political Sociological, and
Military Affairs_, Nos. 204, 1970).
ETHNIC GROUPS
Persons of non-Albanian ethnic origin--Greeks, Vlachs, Bulgars, Serbs,
and Gypsies--constitute only about 3 percent of the population. Among
the Albanians, the natural dividing line between the Gegs and the Tosks
is the Shkumbin River, but there is some spillover on both sides.
Numerically, the Gegs predominate, making up slightly over one-half of
the Albanians within the country (see ch. 2, Historical Setting).
Despite successive foreign invasions and centuries of occupation, a
distinctive ethnic identity was preserved. Mountains and the lack of
communication routes provided isolation and opportunity to evade
intruders. Nevertheless, the imprints of foreign influences were
considerable. Additions and modifications to the language were made from
the Latin, Greek, Slavic, and Turkish contacts. Lacking an organized
religion as part of their Illyrian heritage, Albanians embraced the
Muslim, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic faiths brought to them by their
conquerors (see ch. 5, Social System).
Individual Albanians distinguished themselves in the service of the
Roman and Turkish empires and were noted for their ability as soldiers.
It was not until the nineteenth century when they began to seek
autonomy that their history was recorded in writing. Kinship and tribal
affiliations, a common spoken language, and folk customs served to
provide continuity and common identity through the many centuries of
relative obscurity.
There are marked differences in the physical appearance of the typical
Geg and the typical Tosk, but until World War II the greatest contrast
was in their social systems. The Geg and Tosk dialects differ, and there
are also variations within subgroups. Some progress was made under the
Zog regime in bringing the clans, whose authority prevailed particularly
in the north, under government control and in eliminating blood feuds
(see ch. 5, Social System).
After the Communists emerged victorious they imposed controls, the
objective of which was to eliminate clan rule entirely; they waged a
continuing struggle against customs and attitudes that, they believed,
detracted from the growth of socialism. Blood feuds were brought to an
end. Party and government leaders, in their effort to develop national
social and cultural solidarity in a Communist society, publicly tended
to ignore ethnic differences.
In practice, Enver Hoxha, the Party leader, who came from the south and
received the bulk of his support during World War II from that area,
frequently gave preference to persons and customs of Tosk origin. In the
late 1960s Party and government leaders continued to devote considerable
effort to the suppression of customs and rituals that, they declared,
were vestiges of the patriarchal, bourgeois, and religious systems of
the past. On one occasion in 1968 the Party announced that because of
its influence 450 infant betrothals were annulled and 1,000 girls
renounced ancient customs, including the taboo against females leaving
their village (see ch. 5, Social System).
The Gegs, because of their greater isolation in the mountainous areas of
the north, held on to their tribal organization and customs more
tenaciously than the Tosks. As late as the 1920s approximately 20
percent of male deaths in some areas of northern Albania were attributed
to blood feuds.
Under the unwritten tribal codes, which included the regulation of
feuds, any blow, as well as many offenses committed against women,
called for blood. Permitting a girl who had been betrothed in infancy to
marry another, for example, could cause a blood feud. The _besa_ (pledge
to keep one's word as a solemn obligation) was used under various
conditions and included pledges to postpone quarrels. A person who
killed a fellow tribesman was commonly punished by his neighbors, who
customarily burned his house and destroyed his property. As fugitives
from their own communities, such persons were given assistance wherever
they applied.
A man who failed to carry out prescribed vengeance against a member of
another tribe or that individual's relatives was subjected to
intolerable ridicule. Insult was considered one of the highest forms of
dishonor, and the upholding of one's honor was a first requirement for a
Geg. On the other hand, if the individual carried out the required act
of vengeance, he was in turn subject to extinction by the victim's
relatives. Women were excluded from the feud and, when escorted by a
male, he too was considered inviolable. In other respects, women's
position in society generally was one of deprivation and subjugation
(see ch. 5, Social System).
The isolation from influences beyond his community and the constant
struggle with nature tended to make the Geg an ascetic. Traditionally,
his closest bonds were those of kinship, as a member of a clan.
Obstinate and proud, the Geg proved himself, under the leadership of his
compatriots, a ruthless and cruel fighter. Visitors from outside the
clan were generally suspect, but every traveler was by custom accorded
hospitality.
Less isolated by rugged terrain and with greater, although limited,
contact with foreign cultures, the Tosk generally was more outspoken and
imaginative than the Geg. Contacts with invaders and foreign occupiers
had influence and, before 1939, some Tosks had traveled to foreign
countries to earn sufficient funds to buy land or to obtain an
education. The clan or tribal system, which by the nineteenth century
was far less deeply rooted and extensive in the south than in the north,
began to disappear after independence was achieved in 1912.
Of the minority ethnic groups, persons of Greek descent are the most
numerous. Estimates based on World War II and earlier data indicate that
they compose approximately 2 percent of the population. They are most
numerous in the southwestern coastal area of Dhermi and Himare and the
region extending southward to the Greek border from Gjirokaster. They
have adopted Albanian folkways and dress. Although their first language
is Greek, they speak Albanian as well.
Persons of Vlach, Bulgar, Serb, and Gypsy origin make up about 1 percent
of the population. The Vlachs in Albania have lost much of their
homogeneity and adopted the ways of their Tosk neighbors. The typical
Vlach is akin to the modern Romanian. Both are descendants of Romanized
Dacians or Thracians of the pre-Christian era.
Under Communist rule the Vlachs, mostly herdsmen, have been incorporated
into the collectivized economy. Previously, they grazed their flocks in
the mountains in the summer and then returned to the valleys in the
winter. They are most numerous in the Pindus Mountains and in the Fier,
Korce, and Vlore areas. Persons of Bulgar origin live mostly in the
border area near Lake Prespa; a few persons of Serb derivation live in
the Shkoder area; and Gypsies are scattered in various places.
There are large numbers of persons of Albanian origin living outside the
country. Estimates based on Yugoslav data indicated the total number in
Yugoslavia in 1970 was approximately 1 million, of which about 70
percent were in Kosovo. Data is generally lacking on the exact number in
other areas, and estimates vary widely. There may be as many as 250,000
in Italy and Sicily, 350,000 in Greece, and 80,000 in the United States.
They are found also in Bulgaria, Egypt, Romania, and Turkey. The degree
to which persons living outside the country have retained Albanian
customs and language varies. Indications are that they have retained
their clannishness to a considerable degree.
LANGUAGES
Albanian, of Indo-European origin, is the only surviving language of the
early Thraco-Illyrian group and is spoken by all or nearly all
inhabitants. Some of the minority ethnic groups also speak the tongue of
the country from which their families originated.
Modern Albanian is derived from the ancient Illyrian and Thracian, but
many outside influences are evident. Additions and modifications,
beginning in the pre-Christian era, were made as a result of foreign
contacts. Most important of these were the Latin and Italian influences
during the centuries of Roman domination and trade with the Venetian
merchants and, later, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Contributions also were made by the Greeks, Turks, and Slavs. The first
written documents in Albanian did not appear until the fifteenth
century; therefore it is difficult to trace the development of the
language during the earlier period.
The repressive policies of the Ottoman rulers over a period of 450
years, beginning in the fifteenth century, further retarded language
development. Written Albanian was forbidden, and only the Turkish or
Greek languages could be used in schools. Emigré Albanians, particularly
those in Italy after 1848, helped keep the written language alive. Until
the nineteenth century continuity of the language in Turkish-dominated
areas was provided largely by verbal communication, including ballads
and folk tales (see ch. 7, Communications and Cultural Development).
By the early twentieth century more than a dozen different alphabets had
developed. Some were predominantly either Latin, Greek, or Turko-Arabic.
Many were a mixture of several forms. It was not until 1908 that a
standardized orthography was adopted. The Latin-based alphabet of
thirty-six letters, approved at that time by a linguistic congress at
Monastir, was made official by a government directive in 1924 and
continued in use in 1970.
Letters are written as they are pronounced. There have been variations
in the spelling of many words because of dialectical differences, and
they still persist despite the government's efforts to develop a uniform
language. A dictionary was published by the Institute of Sciences in
Tirana in 1954, and it indicated that the spelling of some words varied.
During the 1960s the Linguistics and History Institute, which was part
of the State University of Tirana, carried on studies relating to
language origins and morphology, but no lexicon was known to have
appeared as of early 1970 to standardize spelling or supersede the 1954
dictionary.
The two principal Albanian dialects are Geg, spoken by about two-thirds
of the people, including those in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, and
Tosk, by the remaining third. There are subvarieties of both dialects.
Despite the considerable variations that developed in the many isolated
communities, Albanians are able to communicate easily with each other.
Efforts were made by the government during the 1920s and 1930s to
establish the dialect of the Elbasan area, which was a mixture of Geg
and Tosk, as the standard and official language; but the local dialects
persisted, and writers and even officials continued to use the dialect
of their association. After the Communists, most of whose leaders had
come from southern Albania, acceded to power, the Tosk dialect became
the official language of the country. In 1952 the Albanian Writers'
Union, a Party-controlled organization, took action to make Tosk the
only dialect to be used in publications.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
Some two-thirds of the people live in rural areas in a widely dispersed
pattern of small villages. The urban population, according to 1969 data,
lived in forty cities with 1,000 to 10,000 inhabitants and twelve cities
with over 10,000 dwellers; of the latter group, six had 10,000 to 30,000
inhabitants; two had 30,000 to 50,000; three had 50,000 to 100,000; and
one, Tirana, was approaching 200,000.
The heaviest concentrations of settlement in the late 1960s were in the
districts of Tirana with a density of 528 persons per square mile,
Durres with 469, Fier with 323, and Lushnje with 298. The area
surrounding Korce and the area immediately around, and to the south of,
Shkoder were among the most thickly settled even though the
administrative districts of Korce and Shkoder were not heavily populated
when considered in their entirety (see ch. 3, Physical Environment).
Several factors contributed to the pattern of settlement. Large expanses
of mountains and generally rugged terrain made the building of land
transportation routes difficult. Poor soil and lack of water during part
of the year did not provide support to large concentrations of people.
Mineral and other resources were generally not readily accessible or
were difficult to exploit (see ch. 3, Physical Environment).
Coastal cities generally have a small hinterland, and their influence
does not extend beyond their borders. The port of Durres, with road and
rail links to Tirana, Elbasan, and Fier, is an exception. During the
1960s the area generally bounded by these cities experienced the
greatest growth of industry and population of any region. Vlore, a port
and naval center, increased almost fourfold between 1945 and 1967, but
it lacks links with inland areas.
Tirana, the capital and largest city, increased from about 60,000
inhabitants in 1945 to 170,000 in 1967, largely because of the expansion
of industry and a growing bureaucracy. It is located on the inner margin
of the coastal plain and is surrounded by an area of the better soils of
Albania. The streets in the central area of the city, where government
buildings are clustered, are wide and attractive; many parts of the city
are much like the rural villages. Tirana has become the most
industrialized city and continues to be a collecting and distributing
point for agricultural products of the area.
Centers for inland mountain valley or upland basin communities are
Berat, Elbasan, and Korce. They, like most cities, have changed little
in appearance and retain much of the flavor of nineteenth-century
agricultural life.
The typical mountain village, of 70 to 100 homesteads, is located on an
isolated slope among rocks and thin scrub-like vegetation. Only
footpaths link it by land with the outside world. During the summer
there is a drought period which requires that water use be limited to
drinking. Houses are clustered in the south, whereas in the northern
mountains they tend to be dispersed. Fields and pastures are located
some distance from the village. Water must be carried from a common
source, usually a spring. Mountain villages frequently are located at
1,300 to 1,600 feet above sea level. This is generally the line of
contact between the underlying impervious serpentine rock and layer of
limestone and the point where spring water comes to the surface.
At lower levels the villages are laid out around the collective or state
farms or enterprises, many of which were previously estates or
patriarchal settlements. Here the houses are more substantial, and the
fields or other place of work are near the village. Water is carried
from a common source. Open sewers run down the streets of some villages,
but this condition is gradually changing. Electric power has been
extended to about 70 percent of all villages, but other facilities and
amenities, except medical services, have been little improved since the
end of World War II.
LIVING CONDITIONS
The standard of living in 1970 was very low, and life was difficult for
the masses despite very modest improvements in living conditions during
the 1950s and 1960s. The standard of living was the lowest in Europe and
was improving at a slow pace because priority was given to industry, to
increasing the means of production, and to developing eventual
self-sufficiency in food production, especially of cereal foods. The
most widely felt improvements were in health services and in use of
electricity, which resulted from expanding the electrical network to
many villages.
Plans for the late 1960s and 1970 called for 23 to 25 percent of the
state budget to be spent on social and cultural sectors. In 1967, when
total planned budget spending was 3.6 billion leks (5 leks equal
US$1--see Glossary), the sum for social and cultural sectors was 837
million leks, of which 189 million were for health, 167 million for
social insurance, 143 million for assistance to mothers and children,
and 338 million for education and culture.
The government maintained that it was improving living conditions by
increasing food supplies and commodities and by construction of public
facilities and structures. In February 1970 the chairman of the State
Planning Commission reported that 1,200 dining rooms, 1,140 bakeries,
1,850 public baths and laundries, and 187 water mains had been built and
that electricity had been supplied to 1,096 additional villages in 1968
and 1969, leaving only 663 without electricity. Although these additions
added to the amenities of life, the rapid growth of population caused
heavy strain on the very limited total resources available.
Medical authorities asserted that many diseases and afflictions that had
taken heavy tolls of life and tended to debilitate large segments of the
population before 1950 had been greatly reduced or eliminated. These
successes were primarily attributable to large-scale inoculation
programs, elimination or reduction in the number of disease-spreading
pests, and expansion of health services. Malnutrition, unsatisfactory
sanitary-hygienic conditions, and indifference to medical aid in some
areas posed problems for further improvements.
The Communist regime, posing as the protector of the masses, credited
itself with a revolutionary transformation in the health standards of
the country. Data on health and disease from other than Albanian sources
were not available. Statistics released by the Ministry of Health
indicated substantial improvements during the 1960s. Responsibility for
shortcomings and inadequacies relating to health care was attributed to
backwardness on the part of the people or to the lack of resources.
Failures on the part of the Party or government were not mentioned.
There were widespread epidemics of measles in 1948 and 1949 and 1954 and
1955, of Asiatic influenza in 1957, of typhoid in 1945 and 1950, and of
poliomyelitis in 1953. Health officials stated that there were no
epidemics during the 1960s.
Malaria was one of the most prevalent diseases before 1950. Health
authorities, assisted by the Rockefeller Foundation beginning in the
1920s, made considerable progress in eliminating mosquitoes and reducing
the incidence of malaria before World War II. The campaign was continued
by the Italians during their occupation. The ravages of war greatly
increased the spread of malaria from 1945 to 1947; according to
Communist reports, 60 to 70 percent of the population were afflicted in
those years, in comparison with 16.5 percent in 1938.
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration provided
food, medicine, and antimalarial assistance in 1945 and 1946, and the
Communist regime followed up with a concerted effort against the
disease, which reduced the percentage of persons afflicted to
approximately 7 percent in the early 1950s. Health officials declared in
1970 that malaria had been eradicated by 1967, and no cases had been
recorded after that date.
Health authorities reported that measles had been eliminated by 1970
through a program of mass vaccinations. The last major epidemic, that
of 1954-55, afflicted almost 14 percent of the population. The incidence
among children under three years of age was 60 percent, and 1,712
children under age fifteen died.
A broad program against tuberculosis was begun in the 1960s that
included general prophylactic measures and vaccine injections. Health
officials planned completion of vaccinations countrywide in 1970. It was
estimated that almost 15 percent of the population had tuberculosis in
the mid-1950s. Officials reported that the incidence of this disease had
dropped to less than 0.2 percent in 1968.
The Health Ministry reported progress in combating many other diseases.
Syphilis, once prevalent, was eliminated. A broad program of serologic
examinations involving over 2.3 million persons between 1947 and 1968
was utilized to detect venereal disease and was instrumental in reducing
the rate of syphilis infection from 3.14 percent in 1949 to 0.02 percent
in 1968. Incidence rates per 1,000 population of other illnesses
decreased from 1955 to 1968 as follows: abdominal typhoid, from 5.2 to
2.4; dysentery, from 87.7 to 14.5; diphtheria, from 2.3 to 0.5;
poliomyelitis, from 0.4 to 0.1; brucellosis, from 2.4 to 0.8; and
arthritis, from 2.2 to 0.8. Trachoma was eliminated, and no cases of
rabies were reported in the 1967-69 period. Deaths per 100,000
population from contagious diseases, including influenza, decreased from
220 in 1950 to 43 in 1968. Data on the number of deaths from heart
ailments, cancer, and other causes were not published.
Although progress was made in reducing mortality among children up to
one year of age--from 121.2 per 1,000 live births in 1950 to 75.2 in
1968--the rate remained unusually high. Failure to obtain timely medical
assistance was given as the primary cause of death by health
authorities. Malnutrition, shortages of professional medical personnel,
and insufficient health facilities were also contributing factors. The
rate for cities in 1968 was 65.4 as compared with 78.0 in rural areas.
Some areas in the mountains of the north ran as high as 136.9 during the
1963-67 period. About three-fourths of all infant deaths occurred during
the first six months after birth. In 1960 only 34 percent of infant
deaths were diagnosed; by 1967 the percentage had increased to 65.
Medical aid by a physician or midwife was provided for about 99 percent
of births in cities; in rural areas approximately 61 percent of births
were with medical assistance.
There were indications that some segments of the population, those in
remote and most poverty-stricken areas, were in poor health. A 1968-69
study of 1,580 children up to three years of age in thirteen northern
localities, reported by the Ministry of Health, showed that 60 percent
suffered from neuromuscular disorders in various degrees and that 47
percent suffered from rickets. The principal causes for these
abnormalities, according to the official study, were malnutrition and
unsatisfactory hygienic-sanitary conditions.
Health and medical organizations from national to local levels were
under the Ministry of Health. In the 1960s the departments of the
ministry were: epidemiology, pharmaceuticals, sanitary inspectorate,
medical prophylactic institutions, personnel, administration, finance,
and planning. Data for 1968 reported by the minister of health listed
facilities countrywide as: 196 hospitals and other facilities with beds;
11,922 beds for medical use; 1,108 first aid stations and polyclinics;
and 36 dispensaries and tuberculosis centers. The average annual
increase in hospital beds from 1950 to 1968 was 323; in 1968 there was 1
bed for every 169 inhabitants.
The total number of persons employed in health and medicine increased
from 9,881 in 1960 to 14,370 in 1967. The numbers of professional and
semiskilled workers in 1969 were: physicians, 1,396; stomatologists
(mouth specialists), 183; pharmacists, 262; medical aides, 725; dental
assistants, 139; pharmacist assistants, 334; midwives, 1,091; nurses,
4,100; and laboratory technicians, 737. Dentists were not listed as a
separate category. The average number of inhabitants per doctor in the
districts was approximately 2,000; however, in two districts the average
was over 3,000, and in one, less than 1,000. All medical personnel were
in government employ, and no private medical practice existed.
The expansion of medical services after World War II was made possible
to a large extent by accelerated training programs. A school for
training medical assistants was begun in 1948 and, starting in the early
1950s, the Red Cross conducted courses for semiskilled medical workers.
A medical college for training professional personnel was established in
1952; in 1957 it became the Faculty of Medicine of the State University
of Tirana, and the first doctors were graduated that year. During the
1950s most physicians were trained in the Soviet Union. In the late
1960s the number of persons undergoing training as midwives was
increased, and the goal was to have at least one midwife in every
village by June 1971.
The use of mobile medical teams and equipment played a major role in
expanding and improving medical care in rural areas. Laboratory, X-ray,
and other services once available only in the largest cities were
established in the district and sometimes at lower levels. The regime,
in its effort to build up agriculture in the mid-1960s, set as an
objective the improvement of living conditions in the countryside and
the elimination of the differential between city and country. Medical
assistance to rural areas continued to increase in the late 1960s, but
in late 1969 the minister of health stated that the differences between
the center and the districts and between the cities and the villages
were very pronounced. He directed that action be taken to lessen the gap
but added that differences would continue to exist.
Nutrition
Food supply--perennially a problem because of poor soil, primitive
methods of cultivation, and lack of readily accessible resources--did
not keep pace with population growth. For the late 1960s calorie intake
per capita per day probably did not exceed 2,100 to 2,200, while the
estimate for the mid-1950s was 2,200 to 2,300. The diet lacked protein
and other protective elements. An estimated 80 percent or more of food
intake was carbohydrates. Fruits and green vegetables were in short
supply, and meats were a real scarcity. Little progress had been made in
increasing livestock herds during the period of Communist rule, and
credits to procure adequate supplies of protective foods from sources
outside the country were not available (see ch. 8, Economic System).
The diet generally depicted scarcity and, in the mountain and rural
areas, was simple and routine. Dishes, high in starch content, made from
corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes were basic. Yogurt, cheese, and prepared
dry beans were among the most commonly found other foods. Green
vegetables and fruits appeared seasonally in limited quantities.
While some progress has been made in improving sources of drinking
water, the vast majority of rural families, and some in the smaller
cities, must rely on unprotected sources. Central sewage systems are
found in only the largest cities.
Housing
Living quarters became increasingly overcrowded as population expanded
at consistently high rates. Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha stated in
December 1967 that the entire country, especially urban areas, was
experiencing a housing crisis. Reports on housing construction indicated
that the situation further deteriorated in the late 1960s because of the
necessity to divert resources to even higher priorities, to the building
of industry and procurement of food and clothing. War and natural
catastrophes added to the burden. In World War II some 35,000 dwellings
were destroyed. Earthquakes in November and December of 1967 demolished
3,500 homes. In April 1969, when 6,500 buildings were damaged or
destroyed by earthquakes, additional thousands of homes had to be
replaced or repaired.
Hoxha stated in late 1969 that 185,000 flats and houses had been built
since World War II. The average annual rate of construction, as
indicated by incomplete reports for the 1960s, was 6,000 private
dwellings and 3,000 state-owned and cooperative apartment units. Total
requirements were not stated, but with annual population growth at
approximately 40,000 to 50,000 persons, and considering reports relating
to crowded conditions, the critical condition was unresolved. Hoxha
stated in late 1967 that the housing situation had reached the point
where in some instances five persons were living in one room.
Most rural houses are of one or two rooms, with a hearth, and are of
simple construction. They are small and sparsely furnished. Many are
made of natural rock or stones. Urban houses and apartments are usually
small and lack central heating. Kitchen and toilet facilities in
apartments must be shared by three or four families.
Social Insurance
The social insurance program is administered by state organizations and
covers medical care, compensation for incapacities, old-age pensions,
family allowances, and rest and recreation. Social insurance was
introduced in 1947. Several modifications were made later to the basic
program. The law of 1953 provided a program closely resembling that of
the Soviet Union, and for a number of years, following the Soviet
example, trade unions administered a large number of social insurance
activities. In 1965 the state assumed the administration of all phases
except those for rest and recreation facilities.
The social insurance program, as provided for in the Council of
Ministers decision of September 13, 1966, and effective January 1, 1967,
included benefits for workers, employees, and others. Peasants in the
collectives were not included in this law, but similar welfare benefits
were provided from funds established by their organizations. The 1966
law continued the policy announced in 1964 that free medical care was
provided to everyone. Drugs, such as penicillin and antibiotics, and
vitamins prescribed during outpatient treatment had to be paid for by
the user. Funds for social insurance payments came from the state
budget. Contributions were paid by state institutions and enterprises
that were in the role of employers.
Workers who became incapacitated and had over ten years of work credit
received payments at the rate of 85 percent of the average wage for the
last month worked; persons with less than ten years' service received 70
percent, except that temporary or seasonal workers were given less. When
disability resulted directly from work, pay was given at the rate of 95
percent for most trades and 100 percent for persons working in mines.
Compensation was less when incapacity resulted from an accident
unrelated to work. Payments under these circumstances depended on age
and years of work credit. Veterans who served in the Army of National
Liberation before May 1944 and some of the Party elite were allowed an
extra 10 percent when incapacitated (see ch. 2, Historical Setting).
Pregnant women were given eighty-four days' leave under normal
circumstances and 95 percent of their monthly wage if they had worked
over five years. They received 75 percent if they had worked less than
five years. Workers could remain at home for limited periods to care for
the sick and receive 60 percent of their pay. When children under seven
years of age were ill, the worker was permitted up to ten days' leave
during a three-month period. A subsidy, a one-time payment, of 280 leks
was provided for each child. Upon the death of a family head or his
spouse, 300 leks were provided for funeral expenses.
Old-age pensions were based on age and years of work. Payments were
computed at the rate of 70 percent of the worker's average monthly wage.
The minimum pension was 350 leks, and the maximum was 900 leks per
month; two exceptions were veterans of the Army of National Liberation
who served before May 1944 and Party leaders, who were awarded an
additional 10 percent. Women who reared six or more children to the age
of eight were permitted to retire at age 50 when they completed fifteen
years of work, instead of the usual requirement of twenty years.
Wages and Prices
The limited data available indicated that in early 1966 factory and
manual workers received 400 to 800 leks in wages per month. Skilled
workers were paid 400 to 1,500 leks, and senior officials received up to
1,500 leks per month. After the reduction in the size of the bureaucracy
was announced in late 1966, the maximum for officials was reduced to
1,200.
Prices in leks per pound for foodstuffs in 1966 were approximately as
follows: bread, 1 to 2, depending on type; flour, 2 to 2.5; sugar, 4.5;
beans, 3 to 4.5; beef, 6.5; and lamb, 8.5. Prices for other
commodities, in leks, were as follows: a man's suit, 400 to 1,300; a
pair of men's shoes, 120 to 200; radio, 500 to 2,400; and a bicycle, 800
to 1,300.
During the late 1960s the consumer continued to feel the squeeze of the
drive for greater economic self-sufficiency and the priority given to
the building of means of production. Despite announcements of greater
benefits to the worker, the average citizen in early 1970 continued to
pay approximately 90 percent of his income for food and shelter. Basic
commodities and foodstuffs were in short supply, and waiting in line at
distribution points was required to obtain the most commonly used items.
Manufactured items were generally of poor quality. Automobiles were
owned by the government only, and bicycles, a status symbol, were
available to only a few.
CHAPTER 5
SOCIAL SYSTEM
The Communist regime was still striving in 1970 to alter the traditional
tribal and semifeudal social patterns of the country and to restructure
the whole system to fit Marxist-Leninist principles of a socialist
society. Until after World War II the strongest loyalties of the people
had been toward family and larger kin groups, which have been the most
important units in Albanian society. Kin groups had been held together
by strong spirit and loyalties, as well as by economic factors. The head
of the family, usually the eldest male member, historically exercised
patriarchal authority, with general responsibility for the welfare and
safety of the members. In this patriarchal society, respect for parental
authority was dominant.
Local autonomy and suspicion of central authority had for centuries been
a way of life for Albanian society. This way of life persisted until the
twentieth century, despite the foreign cultural and political influences
to which the society was subjected during the long domination by the
Ottoman Turks.
Of particular social importance during this domination was the
conversion of the majority of the people to the Islamic faith. Even
before this conversion, however, the people had been segmented by the
schism between the Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches. The people in
the north were usually Roman Catholic, and those in the south, Eastern
Orthodox. Tolerance, however, has been a marked feature of the people
and, accordingly, religious divisiveness has had no great effect on the
tribal and semifeudal structure of the society. Indeed, the three
religious faiths in the country--Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Eastern
Orthodox--have represented traditional loyalties rather than living
creeds for the Albanians.
Until the Communist takeover in 1944, there had been two broad social
classes in the country, an upper and a lower class. The upper class was
composed of the landowning _beys_ (see Glossary); some _bajraktars_
(relatively well-to-do tribal chieftains); and a smaller number of rich
Christian farmers, merchants, small industrialists, some intellectuals,
and the higher clergy. The lower class, amounting to about 90 percent of
the population, was composed of a small group of workers, the peasant
masses, livestock breeders, and the lower clergy.
The Communist regime's political, social, and economic measures aimed at
redirecting the traditional social patterns have resulted in more social
transformations than at any time since the Turkish invasions in the
fifteenth century. Collectivization of agriculture, industrialization
and the consequent migration from rural to industrial areas, and a
widespread educational system have done much to transform the tribal
character of the society.
Although in 1970 the patriarchal system was still a way of life in the
countryside, especially in the highlands, the authority of the master of
the house had been considerably reduced. Marriage customs in particular
had changed. As a result, the position of the close-knit family had been
altered. Radical changes had occurred also in the life of women. Many of
them have had to work outside the home to compensate for the generally
low wages of their husbands. Day-care nurseries had been set up to make
it easier for mothers to work and also to give the regime an early
opportunity to indoctrinate the children.
Despite such transformation, however, the family was still the most
significant unit in the society. The allegiance given to the family,
coupled with the individualism characteristic of the people and the
traditions of political autonomy in local affairs, had made it difficult
for the regime to fully implement its policies for restructuring the
society in general and the family in particular.
Reflecting the influence of the standard Marxist-Leninist dogma, the
regime officially recognized only two classes--one composed of workers
and considered the leading class and the other consisting of the working
peasants, a third group usually being referred to as the people's
intelligentsia. Actually, a distinct new upper class, constituting less
than 10 percent of the total population, emerged under Communist rule to
replace the upper ruling and middle classes that existed before the
Communist takeover. This new upper class was composed of the top ruling
elite that controlled all facets of society and its supporting echelons,
made up of officials of the Party and state apparatus; mass
organizations; and professional and technical people, such as doctors,
lawyers, engineers, and managers of state enterprises.
Membership in the Party or sympathy toward communism was the chain that
linked this upper class together. All its segments had benefited from
the Communist system, having enjoyed considerable advantages over the
rest of the population; they formed practically the only social group
with a vested interest in the perpetuation of the system. The rest of
the population--peasants, workers, and remnants of the upper and middle
classes--were only cogs in the Communist apparatus, all used for the
purpose of implementing the Party policies for the building of a
Communist society.
Under Communist rule the stabilization of the class differentiations had
lessened social mobility both upward and downward. In 1970 it was
difficult to alter one's social status except through a long process of
training and education. Educational opportunities, however, had been
greatly expanded, although they were still limited in the rural areas.
The best opportunities were offered to the children of the Party elite
and Party faithful. But because of the great demand for qualified
personnel to manage the growing socialist sectors of the economy, some
children of worker and peasant backgrounds had opportunities to continue
their education to the highest levels and to fully develop their
abilities and capacities. The whole educational system, however, was
geared to the demands of the Party, and its first objective was the
inculcation of the youth with Communist ideology.
Perhaps the most radical change in the whole social system had been
effected in the area of religion. By 1970 the country's three principal
religious faiths had been eliminated as organizational bodies. All
churches and mosques had been closed; the clergy was not permitted to
function; and the country had been declared by the official media to be
the first atheist nation in the world. Top Party and government
officials admitted, however, that the closing of the houses of worship
and the action against the clergy had not eliminated the religious
feelings and beliefs of the people.
TRADITIONAL SOCIAL PATTERNS AND VALUES
The social structure of the country was until the 1930s basically tribal
in the north and semifeudal in the central and southern regions. The
highlanders in the north retained intact their medieval tribal pattern
of life until well into the twentieth century and were considered the
last peoples in Europe to preserve tribal autonomy. In the central and
southern regions, however, increasing contact with the outside world and
invasions and occupations by foreign armies had reduced the tribes to
tenure peasants.
Traditionally, there have been two major groupings or sub-cultures in
the country: the Gegs in the north, probably numbering slightly over
half the total population, and the Tosks in the south. Although the
terms _Geg_ and _Tosk_ have disappeared from the vocabulary because they
connote division rather than Communist unity, Tirana officials and the
press have often implied in recent years that the old differences and
contrasts between the two groups still existed. These differences were
marked not only in the physical appearance of the people and in dialect
but also in the way of life in general.
The Gegs, partly Roman Catholic but mostly Muslim, lived until after
World War II in a mountain society characterized by blood feuds and
fierce clan and tribal loyalties. The Tosks, on the other hand, were
considered more civilized because of centuries of Greek and other
foreign influences. Coming under the grip of the Muslim landed
aristocracy, the Tosks lost the spirit of individuality and independence
enjoyed for centuries by the Gegs, especially in the highlands.
Until the end of World War II society in the north and, to a much lesser
extent, in the south was organized in terms of kinship and descent. The
basic unit of society was the extended family, usually composed of a
couple, their married sons, the wives and children of married sons, and
any unmarried daughters. The extended family formed a single residential
and economic entity held together by common ownership of means of
production and common interest in defense of the group. Such families
often included scores of persons, and as late as 1944 some contained as
many as sixty to seventy persons living in a cluster of huts surrounding
the father's house.
Extended families were grouped into clans, the chiefs of which
preserved, until the end of World War II, patriarchal powers over the
members of the entire group. The clan chief arranged marriages, assigned
tasks, settled disputes, and decided what courses should be followed in
such basic issues as blood feuds and politics. Descent was traced from a
common ancestor through the male line, and brides were usually chosen
from outside the clan. Clans in turn were grouped into tribes.
In the Tosk regions of the south the extended family was also the most
important social unit, although patriarchal authority had been diluted
by the feudal conditions imposed by the _beys_. The clan and tribal
systems had disappeared at a much earlier period in the south and were
retained into the mid-twentieth century only among the northern
highlanders.
Leadership of society in the lowlands was concentrated in the hands of
semifeudal tribal _beys_ and _pashas_ (see Glossary). The general Tirana
region, for example, was controlled by the Zogolli, Toptani, and Vrioni
families, all being Muslim _pashas_ or _beys_ and all owning extensive
agricultural estates. Ahmet Zogu, subsequently King Zog I, was from the
Zogolli family. Originally the _pasha_ class ranked slightly higher than
that of the _bey_, but differences gradually diminished and all members
were called _beys_. In the northern highlands the _bajraktars_ were the
counterparts of the _beys_ and enjoyed similar hereditary rights to
titles and positions.
The Geg clans put great importance on marriage traditions. Marriage
customs and prohibitions designed to perpetuate these traditions were
still practiced at the end of World War II. According to the custom a
young man from a given clan always married a young woman from outside
the clan but from within the same tribe. In some tribes marriages
between Christians and Muslims were tolerated even before the advent of
the Communist regime, but as a rule such marriages were frowned upon.
A variety of offenses against women served as an igniting spark for
blood feuds. Many girls were engaged to marry in their infancy by their
parents. If later the girl did not wish to marry the man whom the
parents had chosen for her and married another, in all likelihood a
blood feud would ensue. Among the Tosks, religious beliefs and customs,
rather than clan and tribal traditions, were more important in
regulating marriages.
The family had for centuries presented the basic, most important unit in
the social structure of the country. One aspect of this was the deep
devotion of a person to his parents and family. This feeling took a
striking form because the family was a social unit occupying to a great
extent the place of the state. Children were brought up to respect their
elders and, above all, their father, whose word was law in the confines
of his family.
Upon the death of the father the authority of the family devolved upon
the oldest male of the family. The females of the household, with the
exception of the mother, occupied an inferior position. The unwritten
law of family life was based on the assumption that a daughter was part
of the family until she married. When the time came for sons to set up
their own households, all parental property was equally divided among
them; the females did not share in this division.
Geographical conditions affected Tosk social organization. The region's
accessibility led to its coming much more firmly under Turkish rule.
This rule in turn resulted in the breakup of the large, independent
family-type units and their replacement by large estates owned by
powerful Muslim landowners, each with his own retinues, fortresses, and
large numbers of tenant peasants to work the lands. Their allegiance to
the sultans in the period before 1912 was secured by the granting of
administrative positions either at home or elsewhere in the Ottoman
Empire.
The large estates were usually confined to the plains, but the process
of their consolidation was a continuing one. Landowning _beys_ would get
peasants into their debt and thus establish themselves as semifeudal
patrons of formerly independent villagers. In this way a large Muslim
aristocracy developed in the south, whose life style was in marked
contrast both to that of the chieftains of the highlands in the north
and to that of the peasantry, the majority of whom assumed the
characteristics of an oppressed social class. As late as the 1930s
two-thirds of the rich land in central and southern parts of the country
belonged to the large landowners.
There was a sharp contrast between the tribal society of the Geg
highlanders and the passive, oppressed Tosk peasantry, living mostly on
the large estates of the _beys_ and often represented in the political
field by the _beys_ themselves. This semifeudal society in the south
survived well into the twentieth century because of the lack of a strong
middle class. After independence in 1912, however, a small Tosk middle
class began to develop, which in the 1920-24 period, having common
interests with the more enlightened _beys_, played a major role in
attempts to create a modern society. But the advent of Zogu in 1925 as a
strong ruler put an end to Tosk influence and, from that time until the
Italian invasion in 1939, Zog cemented his power in the tribal north by
governing through a number of strong tribal and clan chiefs. To secure
the loyalty of these chiefs, he placed them on the government payroll
and sent several of them back to their tribes with the military rank of
colonel.
In the 1939-44 period general anarchy prevailed throughout the country,
and in the north the tribal chieftains assumed their old independent
positions. The three major resistance movements that developed during
World War II represented the principal social classes then in existence
in the country. The Communist-dominated National Liberation Movement was
composed chiefly of low-level Tosk intellectuals and bureaucrats, some
labor leaders, and a few chieftains from the Geg areas, such as Haxhi
Leshi, who was head of state in 1970. The movement derived its main
support from the small working class and the poor peasants.
The nationalist Balli Kombetar (National Front) was composed of
nationalist _beys_ and Orthodox intellectuals and derived its support
from well-to-do peasants, merchants, and businessmen. The Legality
Movement, a pro-Zog organization, was headed by a chieftain from Mat,
and its supporters were confined to that region. Farther north the
resistance groups were led by the local chieftains, such as Muharem
Bajraktari and Gani bey Kryeziu. The collaborators with the Italian
authorities were composed of reactionary _beys_, Geg chieftains (both
Muslim and Catholic), and a small group of intellectuals that had
embraced the fascist ideology. This group had little or no popular
support.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION UNDER COMMUNIST RULE
The general class structure of the country at the advent of the
Communist regime in 1944 consisted of the peasants and workers making up
the lower class and a small upper class. The peasants represented over
80 percent of the total population, most of whom lived at or below
subsistence level. Chiefly because of the old grievances against the
landowning _beys_ and the promises made by the National Liberation
Movement (which presented itself as a purely patriotic, democratic
movement for agrarian reforms), a large number of peasants, especially
the tenant and landless ones, sided with the movement (see ch. 1,
General Character of the Society).
Nonagricultural workers numbered about 30,000 persons, most of whom
worked in mines and in the small handicraft industries. The movement
found strong support from this group also. The upper class comprised
professional people and intellectuals; medium and small merchants;
moneylenders; and well-to-do artisans, whose capital was invested mostly
in trade, commerce, and the Italian industrial concessions. The
industrialists also belonged to this class; they owned very small
industries and workshops. Both the _beys_ and the tribal chiefs of the
north had been somewhat reduced in importance politically and
economically during Zog's rule, but it was chiefly from these two groups
that Zog created the ruling elite that helped him to control the country
until the Italian invasion in 1939.
The clergy of the three religious denominations did not form a distinct
social group. The higher clergy was intellectual and upper class in
structure; it supported the ruling elite but did not mix in politics
after Bishop Fan Noli, leader of a short-lived reformist government, was
driven out of the country in 1924. The income from the fairly extensive
church estates and the state subsidies provided a good, but not
luxurious, living for the higher clergy. The rank-and-file clergy,
however, were derived from peasant origins, and most of their parishes
were as impoverished as the peasant households they served.
The events immediately preceding and following the Communist seizure of
power forebode the doom not only of the _beys_ and tribal chiefs but
also of most of the upper class and intellectuals, who had refused to
collaborate with the National Liberation Movement. In the summer and
fall of 1944, while civil war was raging between the Communist-controlled
partisan formations and anti-Communist bands, nearly all the influential
_beys_ and _bajraktars_ either fell in battle or fled the country; those
who remained were quickly rounded up by the Communist security forces
and subsequently tried as "enemies of the people" (see ch. 2, Historical
Setting).
The whole leadership of the two nationalist organizations, the Balli
Kombetar and the Legality Movement, fled to Italy. Influential patriots
and intellectuals who had remained neutral during the so-called War of
National Liberation but who were considered potentially dangerous to the
Communist regime were apprehended and tried en masse in the spring of
1945. Some were executed; others were sent to labor camps, where most of
them died from malnutrition and lack of medical care.
A new Communist social order was legally instituted in the country with
the adoption of the first Communist Constitution in March 1946, which
created a "state of workers and laboring peasants." The various
constitutional articles dealing with the new social order abolished all
ranks and privileges that had derived from reasons of origin (such as
the tribal chiefs and the _beys_), position, wealth, or cultural
standing. All citizens were considered equal regardless of nationality,
race, or religion.
Marriage and family were brought under the strict control of the state,
which determined by law the conditions of marriage and the family.
Marriages could be considered legal only when contracted before
competent state organs, and only state courts had jurisdiction on all
matters connected with marriage. Included in the 1946 Constitution also
was the Marxist tenet "from each according to his ability and to each
according to his work." Subsequent revisions to the Constitution gave
legal sanction to the existing situation that the Party and its members
were the leading, or vanguard, group in the country.
_E Drejta Kushtetuese e Republikes Popullore te Shqiperise_ (The
Constitutional Right in the People's Republic of Albania), published in
1963 by the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the State University of Tirana,
stated that the War of National Liberation was actually class warfare, a
civil war whose purpose was as much national as it was social
liberation--that is, the establishment of the "people's power" and the
"dictatorship of the proletariat."
Communist spokesmen listed three principal classes prevailing in the
early years of the regime: the working class, the laboring peasants,
and, in their terms, the exploiting class, that is, the landowners in
the agricultural economy and the bourgeoisie in trade. The exploiting
class was liquidated through a rapid revolutionary process in the early
stages of the regime. The middle and high bourgeoisie was destroyed as a
result of the nationalization of industry, transport, mines, and banks
and the establishment of a state monopoly on foreign commerce and state
control over internal trade. The feudal landlords disappeared with the
application of the agrarian reforms in the 1945-47 period. These steps
were followed by a program of rapid industrialization, with the
consequent creation of a strong working class, and the collectivization
of agriculture, supposedly resulting in the formation of a homogeneous
peasant class.
After the destruction of the old class structure, the Communist regime
claimed that only two classes existed in the country, the workers and
the working peasants. A somewhat different social composition of the
population, however, has been given by the government's statistical
yearbooks, based on the last official census, taken in 1960. Under the
title "Social Composition of the Population," for instance, the 1965
statistical yearbook listed, in order, the following groups; workers,
employees (civil servants), collective and private farmers (officially
called villagers), collective and individual artisans, collective and
private traders, free professions, clergymen, and unemployed and unknown
(see table 4).
In the 1967-70 period several of these groups disappeared. The
individual farmers were all collectivized; the artisan collectives were
converted to state industrial enterprises; the private traders, except
the peasant open markets, were reduced to a minimum, and members of the
clergy were sent to work either in industrial plants or agricultural
collectives.
The number of families almost doubled in the 1945-60 period. In the
cities they grew from 48,800 to 95,500 and in the countryside, from
148,000 to 184,305. The greatest rate of increase, almost 8 percent,
occurred during the 1950-55 period in the urban sector; this was
attributed primarily to the creation of an industrial base.
The expansion of the existing cities, especially the capital city of
Tirana, caused by the establishment of a number of industrial projects,
drew people from the rural regions into the urban centers. This new
migration was reinforced by the relocation of entire families. In
addition, new family units were formed by the younger migrants once they
settled in the newly developing industrial centers. During the decade
of the 1950s the trend was toward larger families.
_Table 4. Social Composition of the Population of Albania_*
_(according to the 1960 official census)_
Average
Number of Number of number per
Social Groups families persons Males Females family
Workers 79,804 433,040 237,307 195,733 5.9
Employees (civil
servants) 36,891 182,913 98,279 84,634 4.3
Collective farmers 105,778 670,422 331,269 339,153 6.8
Private farmers 44,419 275,169 136,683 138,486 6.4
Collective artisans 5,255 35,056 17,304 17,752 5.3
Individual artisans 1,846 8,950 4,683 4,267 5.4
Collective traders 431 2,328 1,216 1,112 5.0
Private traders 751 3,474 1,880 1,594 5.0
Free professions 166 889 498 391 4.1
Clergymen 831 2,785 1,668 1,117 n.a.
Unemployed and
unknown 3,633 11,289 5,507 6,782 3.0
Total 279,805 1,626,315 836,294 791,021 5.8
n.a.--not available.
* According to 1965 data, the family of seven or eight members was then
typical in the villages for the agricultural collectives that were
researched and, in the peasant families as a whole in 1965, the average
family had 6.2 persons.
Source: Adapted from _Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh._, Tirana, 1968,
pp. 74-77; and _Ekonomia Popullore_, Tirana, November to December 1965.
Aside from the workers and peasants, the only group to which the Tirana
authorities have continued to give special attention has been the
so-called intelligentsia. Usually termed a layer or stratum of the new
social order, the intelligentsia was considered, in 1970 to be a special
social group because of the country's needs for professional, technical,
and cultural manpower. To justify this special attention, the
ideologists have often quoted Lenin to the effect that "the
intelligentsia will remain a special stratum until the Communist society
reaches its highest development."
In the development of the social structure under the Communist regime,
basic transformations have occurred in the social composition of the
intelligentsia. This transformation, during the 1944-48 period, involved
not only the purging of a number of Western-educated intellectuals whom
the regime considered potentially dangerous but also some top Communist
intellectuals who were suspected of having anti-Yugoslav or pro-Western
feelings. The remaining old intellectuals were reeducated and reoriented
and were utilized for the preparation of new personnel for the
bureaucracy and industry. Finally, a new intelligentsia was created,
thoroughly imbued with the Communist ideology and recruited generally
from among the children of the Party leaders, workers, and peasants.
The Communist regime created another social group at the bottom rung of
the ladder. This group was composed largely of elements of the upper
classes in existence before 1944. The tribulations of this class had by
1970 reduced it to a small minority, some members of which were still
interned in forced labor camps. It was actually a class of outcasts,
discriminated against politically, socially, and economically.
Most of the members of this group were used as so-called volunteer
laborers on construction projects and in other menial tasks, and their
children did not enjoy the same rights to higher education and other
opportunities open to the other classes. Discriminatory measures against
this class continued to be taken in the late 1960s; in 1968, for
instance, the government passed a law prohibiting them from receiving
money remittances or food and clothing packages from their relatives and
friends abroad.
The Communist assertion of the existence of only two social classes did
not correspond to the real class structure that prevailed in the country
in 1970. In fact, there existed different classes and gradations of rank
and privilege, beginning with an upper class, composed of the Party
elite, leaders of the state and mass organizations, and the leading
members of the armed and security forces. The top Party elite itself was
composed of two distinct social groupings, the higher group consisting
of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of eleven regular and five candidate
members and the chiefs of the Directorates of the Central Committee the
lower group being made up of the rank-and-file members of the Central
Committee.
Family connections played a key role in the composition of the Politburo
in 1970. The top three families were those of First Party Secretary
Enver Hoxha and his wife Nexhmije, who headed the Directorate of
Education and Culture in the Central Committee; Prime Minister Mehmet
Shehu and his wife, Fiqrete, who headed the top Party school; and Party
Secretary Hysni Kapo and his wife, Vito, who headed the politically and
ideologically important women's organization. General Kadri
Hasbiu--minister of interior, head of the security forces, and a
Politburo candidate member--was a brother-in-law of Mehmet Shehu.
Similar family relationships existed between the other Politburo
members. About half of the sixty-one members of the Central Committee
were also related.
Just below the Politburo and the Central Committee were the vast Party
and government bureaucracy, professional people and intellectuals, and
managers of state industrial and agricultural enterprises. There were
some basic social differences between the top Party elite and the lower
Party functionaries and state officials in terms of privileges,
influence, authority, and responsibility. This group of lower Party and
state officials was bound together by the economic privileges and
prestige that went with their positions and membership in, or sympathy
for, the Party; they all benefited from the regime and enjoyed
educational and economic advantages denied the rest of the population.
Below this group were the rank-and-file Party members, whose leadership
role was constitutionally guaranteed. Aside from the prestige enjoyed as
Party members, however, their privileges and economic benefits did not
differ much from the next class in Communist structure of Albanian
society, namely the workers.
Constituting about 15 percent of the total population, the working
class, styled by the regime as the leading class, was created mostly
after the Communist seizure of power and was composed almost wholly of
peasant stock. This group, probably more so than the peasant masses, has
been under constant pressure to work harder, to produce more, and to
work longer, often even after their normal schedules were completed.
Although the regular work schedule was eight hours, workers were called
upon to perform volunteer labor and to overfulfill norms. There was very
little chance for rest and recreation.
Before 1967 the workers could take advantage of religious holidays,
which provided some time for recreation, but since then all religious
holidays have been banned. The only legal holidays were New Year's Day;
Republic Day, on January 11; May Day; Army Day, on July 10; and
Independence and Liberation Days, on November 28 and 29, respectively.
There were, however, a few local socialist holidays connected with the
liberation of the areas by the partisan formations in 1944. The workers
also received two-week paid vacations annually.
The largest class, that of the peasants, represented about two-thirds of
the total population and, according to Communist dogma, was allied with
the working class and led by it. The regime's policy of complete
agricultural collectivization has been distressing for the peasant
class. A lover of his land, irrespective of its size, and of his
independence, the peasant was deprived of his farmland, except for a
tiny plot, and herded into a collective. His income in the collective
was only on the subsistence level. Collective peasants were called upon
to perform 300 to 350 workdays a year.
A constant complaint of the regime has been that the peasants have not
been "freed from the psychology of the small owner, the concept of
private property." As of 1970 there were actually no social differences
between the workers and peasants because nearly all the workers were of
peasant stock and still had close ties with relatives in their native
villages, and indeed some workers continued to keep their families in
the villages.
Soon after the adoption of the Constitution in 1946, a number of laws
were adopted regulating marriage and divorce. The law on marriage,
adopted in 1948, provided that marriages had to be contracted before an
official of the local People's Council, and strong penalties were
prescribed for any clergyman performing a religious ceremony before a
civil ceremony had taken place. The legal age for contracting marriage
was set at eighteen for both sexes, but persons as young as sixteen
years of age could enter into marriage with the permission of the
people's court. In such cases the minors did not need parental consent,
and the law considered them "emancipated."
Marriage was based on the full equality of rights of both spouses. Thus
the concept of the head of the family, recognized by pre-Communist civil
law and so important for Albanian family life, was eliminated. Each of
the spouses, according to the 1948 law, had the right to choose his or
her own occupation, profession, and residence. Marriage with foreigners
was prohibited unless entered into by permission of the government.
The laws on divorce were designed to facilitate and speed up divorce
proceedings. The separation of spouses was made a ground for divorce
under the law, and in such cases a court could grant a divorce without
considering related facts or the causes of the separation. The basic
divorce law, which was originally passed in 1948 and, after some
modifications, was still in effect in 1970, provided that each spouse
may ask for divorce on grounds on incompatibility of character,
continued misunderstandings, irreconcilable hostility, or for any other
reason that disrupted marital relations to the point where a common
marital life had become impossible. Certain crimes committed by the
spouse, especially political crimes, the so-called crimes against the
state, and crimes involving moral turpitude, were also made causes for
divorce.
In the 1950-64 period the total number of marriages averaged about
12,000 annually, except in 1961, when 18,725 marriages were registered;
for the whole fourteen-year period marriages averaged about 7.8 per
1,000 population annually. During the same period there were about 1,000
divorces a year in the whole country; this represented about 0.2
percent of the total married population.
The problems still facing the Communist regime in its efforts to change
the traditional character of society, especially in the countryside,
were highlighted in a strong editorial in the February 8, 1970, issue of
_Zeri i Popullit_ (The Voice of the People), the Party's official daily.
According to the article, the most dangerous antisocial phenomenon in
the social life of the country was patriarchalism. This phenomenon was
particularly strong in the mountainous north where it was firmly
entrenched and involved people from rank-and-file villagers to Party
members.
The basic difficulty derived from the fact that the local Communist
leaders entertained patriarchal notions about the Party; they considered
the Party organization as one in which they found a reincarnation of the
clan. There was a tendency therefore for the Communists to admit to the
Party organization people from their own _bajrak_, or clan, in order to
have a dominant position in, and exercise command over, such socialist
organizations as agricultural collectives. In a Party organization the
head of one _bajrak_ was put in command so that he could rule over the
other, just as if he were the head of the clan. As in the old clan
society, quarrels often occurred in basic Party Organizations when one
_bajraktar_ attempted to wrest control of the organization from another.
Entrance into the Party was considered by the patriarchal-minded
highlanders as penetration into places where they could enjoy privileges
and prestige. A similar situation prevailed in the agricultural
collectives, in which the presidents of the collectives, imbued with the
traditional idea of chieftainship, behaved toward the property of the
collectives as if it were their own. The problems of the collectives
were not submitted to either the basic Party organizations or to the
general assembly of the collective. According to official criticism,
everything was settled in the "clan style, in the spirit of family
interest, of the clan, of the entity, precisely because they formed a
family within which defense and support of their interests, right or
wrong, had become the rule."
Enver Hoxha stated in a speech in 1968 that the position of the
secretary of the Party organization or of an agricultural collective was
considered in many areas as inheritable, just as the chieftainship in
the tribal society has been inherited. The difficulties faced by the
regime's attempts to eradicate the persistent patriarchal notions were
succinctly phrased by Hoxha in his address to the Democratic Front
Congress in September 1967. Declaring that the social problems in the
country were complex in the towns and more so in the countryside, he
lamented the fact that the rural areas:
have their own written and especially unwritten laws, which
are often expressed in various regressive and harmful
customs, in norms that are alien to our Communist morals.
These are very dangerous and obstinate; they insistently
resist the new and are liquidated with difficulty. These
customs and norms have their own economic, ideological,
religious, and ethical basis; they have their own class
roots from capitalism to feudalism, indeed from the _bajrak_
and the tribe.
In an obvious effort to root out some of the old prevailing customs and
traditions, the Party inaugurated in 1967 a movement aimed at
revolutionizing the family and, in Party jargon, liberating it from the
remnants of bourgeois and petty bourgeois ideology. The targets have
been directed toward the youth, both boys and girls. In resolutions
adopted by the Party's Central Committee it was charged that in some
families, because of the conservative and patriarchal mentality of the
parents, the children were still not allowed to participate in parental
conversations, especially the girls, on the pretext that they were too
young and immature.
Discussions on morals, such as relations between boys and girls, love,
and the creation of a socialist family, were particularly limited. It
was the parents' view that they should not discuss such things with
their children since this would undermine the traditional respect and
authority of the parents. As stated in the January 30, 1970, issue of
_Zeri i Popullit_, the need to strengthen the struggle against alien
concepts that still plagued families became clearer when one considered
some negative concepts that were evident in young people. Families of
intellectuals were particularly singled out for criticism because,
according to the Party journal, they manifested liberal attitudes in
their attempts to satisfy every petty bourgeois craving and desire of
their children; they instilled in them their own intellectual tendencies
and fed and dressed them beyond their means.
Evidence of the Party's failure to detach the people completely from
their traditional habits and customs was forcefully presented by the
Party in a book published in 1968 under the title _Party Basic
Organizations for Further Revolutionizing the Life of the Country_. It
was freely admitted that much remained to be done in the struggle to
emancipate the women and to draw boys and girls from the tutelage of
their parents.
When the wife of a Party member decided to join the Party, for example,
her husband addressed a note to the secretary of the basic Party
organization saying that should the secretary enroll his wife in the
Party, he would be destroying a family because he could not possibly
live with his wife on an equal basis. Similarly, when a woman in a
village was proposed as a member of the council of the agricultural
collective, her brother-in-law objected strenuously, saying that her
candidacy should be rejected since it was advanced without obtaining his
permission as the head of the family and that in any case the "men of
that family were not yet dead."
In a village in Kruje the first woman to become a Party candidate was
asked to leave the Party because she did not belong to the same clan to
which the Party secretary belonged. In another case, when a candidate
was proposed for Party membership, someone reportedly stated that "we
must enlist one from our clan also" in order to maintain the clan
equilibrium in the Party.
The problem of social and family relations was still a major concern for
the regime at the end of 1969. For example, in a major speech on family
and social relations in November 1969, Hysni Kapo, the third-ranking man
in the Party hierarchy, blamed the class enemy for the slow progress the
Party had registered in creating a new social structure. The class
enemy, Kapo admitted, was found everywhere, in and outside the Party,
and it was striving hard to obstruct the path of socializing the family
and emancipating the women.
Kapo bemoaned the fact that the men of the socialist society had not
shaken off the vestiges of the past and that there were yet a large
number of people who, with their behavior and actions at work, in
society, and at home, were in contradiction to the requirements of the
personality of the new man in the socialist society. Villages,
agricultural collectives, artisan and trade cooperatives, and work
centers daily faced such social problems as betrothals and marriages
that did not follow guidelines set by the Party, conservative attitudes
toward women and youth, and widespread tendencies toward clannishness.
According to Kapo, there were a large number of Communists who made
little effort to implement the Party social line because the customs
inherited from the old society still existed in the minds and hearts of
the people and because the Party had been unable to divest people of all
that was "hostile and reactionary and clothe them with the Party
ideology." Kapo considered the most disturbing feature of this state of
affairs to be the religious and patriarchal aspects that prevented the
youth from creating a new socialist society and that continued to exist
even among Communist cadres.
Western correspondents reporting from Tirana, in commenting on Kapo's
speech, stated that what actually disturbed the Party most was the
persistent opposition of the parents to new social standards set by the
Party to regulate and control family life in general and the life of the
youth in particular. Standards for dating, mixed Muslim-Christian
marriages, engagement of boys and girls within socially accepted classes
(the aim being to isolate the children of the former upper classes), and
working and living together in various so-called volunteer construction
projects were objectionable to parents.
EDUCATION
Pre-Communist Era
As late as the 1940s over 80 percent of the people were illiterate. The
principal reason for this was that schools in the native language were
practically nonexistent in the country before it became an independent
state in 1912. Until about the middle of the nineteenth century the
Ottoman rulers prohibited the use of the Albanian language in schools.
The Turkish language was used in the few schools that existed, mainly in
cities and large towns, for the Muslim population. The schools for
Orthodox Christian children were under the supervision of the Istanbul
Ecumenical Patriarchate. The teachers for these schools were usually
recruited from the Orthodox clergy, and the language of instruction, as
well as that used in textbooks, was Greek. The first known school to use
the native tongue in modern history was in a Franciscan seminary that
was opened in 1861 in Shkoder, where the Jesuits in 1877 founded a
seminary in which the native tongue also was used.
During the last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first
decade of the twentieth, a number of patriots who were striving to
create a national consciousness founded several elementary schools in a
few cities and towns, mostly in the south, but they were closed by the
Turkish authorities. The advent of the Young Turks movement in 1908
encouraged the Albanian patriots to intensify their national efforts,
and in the same year a group of intellectuals met in Monastir (Bitolj),
Yugoslavia, to formulate an Albanian alphabet. Books written in Albanian
before that date used a mixture of alphabets, consisting mostly of a
combination of Latin, Greek, and Turkish-Arabic letters.
The Monastir meeting developed a unified alphabet based on Latin
letters. As a result, a number of textbooks were written in the new
alphabet, and elementary schools were soon opened in various parts of
the country. In 1909, to meet the demands for teachers able to teach in
the native tongue, a normal school was inaugurated in Elbasan. But in
1910 the Young Turks, fearing the emergence of Albanian nationalism,
closed all schools that used Albanian as the language of instruction.
Even after the country became independent, schools were scarce. The
unsettled political conditions caused by the Balkan wars and World War I
hindered the development of a unified educational system. The foreign
occupying powers, however, opened some schools in their respective areas
of occupation, each using its own language. A few of these schools,
especially the Italian and French, continued after the end of World War
I and played a significant role in introducing Western educational
methods and principles. Of particular importance was the French Lycée in
Korce, founded by the French army in 1817.
Soon after the establishment of a national government in 1920, which
included a Ministry of Education, the foundations were laid for a
national educational system. Elementary schools were opened in the
cities and some of the larger towns, and the Italian and French schools
opened during the war were strengthened. In the meantime, two important
American schools were founded--the American Technical School in Tirana,
established by the American Junior Red Cross in 1921, and the American
Agricultural School in Kavaje, sponsored by the Near East Foundation. An
important girls' school was also founded by Kristo Dako, an
Albanian-American, whose teaching language was English. The two top
leaders of the Country in 1970, Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha and
Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, were educated in these foreign schools;
Hoxha graduated from the French Lycée in 1930, and Shehu from the
American Technical School in 1932.
In the 1920s, the period when the real foundations of the modern
Albanian state were laid, education made considerable progress. In 1933
the Albanian Royal Constitution was amended, making the teaching and
educating of citizens an exclusive right of the state. Education was
thus nationalized, and all foreign-language schools, except the American
Agricultural School, were either closed or nationalized. The reason for
this move was to stop the rapid spread of schools sponsored directly by
the Italian government, especially among the Catholic element in the
north.
The nationalization of schools was followed in 1934 by a far-reaching
reorganization of the whole school system. The new system provided for
obligatory elementary education from the ages of four to fourteen; the
expansion of secondary schools of various kinds; the establishment of
new technical, vocational, and commercial secondary schools; and the
acceleration and expansion of teacher training. The obligatory
provisions of the 1934 reorganization law, however, were never enforced
in the rural areas because of the economic conditions of the peasants
who needed their children to work in the fields and because of the lack
of schoolhouses, teachers, and means of transportation.
The only minority schools operating in the country before World War II
were those for the Greek minority of about 35,000 living in the
prefecture of Gjirokaster. These schools too were closed by the
constitutional amendment of 1933, but Greece referred the case to the
International Permanent Court of Justice, which forced Albania to reopen
the schools.
There was no university-level education in prewar Albania. All advanced
studies were pursued abroad. Every year the state granted a number of
scholarships to deserving high school graduates who were economically
unable to continue their education. But the largest number of students
were from well-to-do families and thus privately financed. For instance,
in the 1936/37 academic year, only 65 of the 428 students attending
universities abroad had state scholarships. The great majority of the
students attended Italian universities because of geographic proximity
and because of the special relationship between the Rome and Tirana
governments. The Italian government itself, following its policy of
political, economic, military, and cultural penetration of the country,
granted a number of scholarships to Albanian students recommended by its
legation in Tirana.
There are no reliable prewar statistics on school population. The
1967-68 Albanian official statistical yearbook placed the total 1938/39
school enrollment at 56,283. Other sources placed it at over 60,000.
Soon after the Italian occupation in April 1939 the educational system
came under complete Italian control. The Italian language was made
compulsory in all secondary schools, and fascist ideology and
orientation were inserted into the school curricula. After 1941,
however, when guerrilla bands began to operate against the Italian
forces, the whole educational system was paralyzed. In fact, secondary
schools became centers of resistance and of guerrilla recruitment, and
many teachers and students went to the mountains and became members or
leaders of resistance bands. By September 1943, when Italy capitulated
and German troops occupied the country, education came to a complete
standstill.
Education Under Communist Rule
Immediately upon seizure of power in November 1944, the Communist regime
gave high priority to opening the schools and organizing the whole
educational system along Communist lines. The Communist objectives for
the new school system were to liquidate illiteracy in the country as
soon as possible, to struggle against "bourgeois survivals" in the
country's culture, to transmit to the youth the ideas and principles of
the Party, and to educate the children of all classes of society on the
basis of these principles. The first Communist Constitution (1946) made
it clear that the intention of the regime was to bring all children
under the control of the state. The state, constitutionally, took
special care for the education of youth, and all schools were placed
under state management.
The Educational Reform Law of 1946 provided specifically that
Marxist-Leninist principles would permeate all school texts. This law
also made the struggle against illiteracy a principal goal of the new
school system. A further step in this direction was taken in September
1949, when the government promulgated a law requiring all illiterates
between ages twelve and forty to attend classes in reading and writing.
Courses for illiterate peasants were established by the education
sections of the people's councils. The political organs in the armed
forces provided parallel courses for its illiterate military personnel.
The 1946 education law, in addition to providing for seven-year
obligatory schooling and four-year secondary education, called for the
establishment of a wide network of vocational, trade, and pedagogical
schools to prepare personnel, technicians, and skilled workers for the
various social, cultural, and economic fields. Another education law
adopted in 1948 provided for the further expansion of vocational and
professional courses to train skilled and semiskilled workers and to
increase the theoretical and professional knowledge of the technicians.
A further step was taken in 1950 to expand technical education.
Secondary technical schools were established along Soviet lines by the
various economic ministries. In 1951 three higher institutes of learning
were founded: the Higher Pedagogic Institute, the Higher Polytechnical
Institute, and the Higher Agricultural Institute, all patterned along
Soviet models. The Council of Ministers said that their purpose in
founding these institutes was to create conditions for further
development "according to the example of science, culture, and technique
of the Soviet Union."
In the 1949-54 period the school system was given a thorough Soviet
orientation both ideologically and structurally. Most textbooks,
especially those dealing with scientific and technical matters, were
Soviet translations. Soviet educators were attached to the major
branches of the Ministry of Education. The Russian language was made
compulsory as of the seventh grade, and Soviet methodology was applied.
Large numbers of students and teachers were sent to Soviet pedagogical
schools for study and training.
Courses for teacher preparation were established in which the Russian
language, Soviet methods of pedagogy and psychology, and
Marxist-Leninist dialectics were taught by Soviet instructors. A law
adopted in 1954 reorganized the Ministry of Education, renamed it the
Ministry of Education and Culture, and, among other things, provided for
the dissemination of Communist principles "supported by the school
experience of the Soviet Union." In 1957, when the State University of
Tirana was opened, a team of Soviet educators laid its structural,
curricular, and ideological foundations.
Parallel with the Sovietization of the school system in the 1950s, the
government made a concerted effort to implement the idea that education
must be directly connected with daily living. A large number of
white-collar and blue-collar workers were registered in evening and
correspondence courses in the various trade and professional schools.
According to government statistics, in the late 1950s one out of every
four workers was taking some kind of course. Importance was particularly
given to improving polytechnical and related work experiences and to the
dissemination of manual work in most of the schools. Attempts were made
to build vocational workrooms in most elementary and secondary schools.
Emphasis was placed on technical and agricultural subjects.
By 1960 the system of elementary and secondary education had evolved
into an eleven-year program made up of schools of general education and
of vocational and professional schools. The schools of general education
consisted of primary grades one to four, intermediate grades five to
seven, and secondary grades eight to eleven. In October 1960, however,
as the Soviet-Albanian conflict was reaching the breaking point, the
Party adopted a resolution calling for a reorganization of the whole
school system, the real aim being to purge the schools of Soviet
influence and rewrite the textbooks. One more year was added to the
eleven-year general education schools, and the whole school program was
integrated more closely with productive work so as to prepare youths to
work in industry to replace some of the Soviet specialists should the
latter be withdrawn, as they actually were in January and April 1961.
Another far-reaching school reform became effective on January 1, 1970.
Two factors seemed to have accounted for the new reorganization: the
apparent lack of success in completely ridding the schools of so-called
revisionist Soviet influences and the decision, evidently related to the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, to introduce military
training in the whole school system. The reform was decreed by the
Party's Central Committee in a special plenum held in June 1969. At the
plenum the principal speakers were Party First Secretary Hoxha and Prime
Minister Shehu, the latter in his capacity as chairman of a special
education commission attached to the Central Committee. Hoxha charged
that the old school system had left vestiges of the past in the
consciousness of many intellectuals, teachers, professors, and men of
science.
According to Hoxha the aim of the reform was to revolutionize the
schools so that the new generation would be imbued with scientific and
theoretical concepts of Marxism-Leninism and to combine these concepts
with physical and military training. The new educational system was to
persist in its struggle against old customs in society and in its
efforts to inculcate youth with atheistic ideas. The new system, Hoxha
declared, was intended in particular "to safeguard our schools from the
Soviet revisionist school," which in a "demagogic way was degenerating
into a bourgeois school." Accordingly, the Soviet concept in pedagogy
was to be eradicated from the Albanian schools.
As reorganized on January 1, 1970, the system was divided into four
general categories: preschool, general eight-year, secondary, and higher
education (see fig. 5). On December 23, 1969, the government submitted
to the People's Assembly a draft bill on educational reform, which was
approved and became effective on January 1, 1970. The preamble to the
law set the ideological tone of the new system. Its aim was to make "a
decisive contribution to the training and education of the new man with
comprehensive Communist traits, loyal to the end to the Party's cause,"
closely linking "learning with productive work and with physical and
military education, giving absolute priority to Marxism-Leninism." In
presenting the bill on the school reform to the People's Assembly,
Minister of Education and Culture Thoma Deljana listed the three
components of the reorganized school system as academic education,
production, and military education.
The educational system in 1969 was divided into two general parts: one
dealt with full-time pupils and students from the kindergarten to the
university level, and the other with adult education for employed
people. The eight-year education was obligatory, beginning at age six
and ending at age thirteen; secondary education began with grade nine,
or age fourteen, and ended with grade twelve.
[Illustration: _Figure 5. Educational System in Albania, 1969_]
Before a full-time student proceeds to higher education, he must pass a
probationary period of one year in production work. The eight-year
system was described as the fundamental link of the entire educational
system; it was intended to provide the pupils with the primary elements
of ideological, political, moral, aesthetic, physical, and military
education. The new eight-year system differed from the old in that it
lowered the entrance age from seven to six, and there were no longer
separate primary and intermediate schools; that is, there was a single
eight-year school, which was, however, completely separate from the
secondary school.
The secondary schools were of many kinds, consisting of four-year
general education courses and four-year vocational and professional
courses (industrial, agricultural, pedagogic, trade, arts, health, and
others). Some of these courses lasted only two years. In his report to
the Party's Central Committee in June 1969 on the reform of the school
year, Prime Minister Shehu said that the secondary schools were to have
a standard curriculum for the school year. Priority was to be given to
academic subjects, followed by production and by physical and military
education.
Shehu formulated the structure of the academic year in all secondary
schools as follows: 6-½ months of academic study, 2-½ months of
productive work, 1 month of military training, and 2 months of vacation.
The curriculum of the secondary schools and, with slight differences, of
the higher schools was divided as follows: academic subjects, 55 to 56
percent; production work, 26 to 27 percent; and physical and military
education, 17 to 19 percent. Shehu also said that terms borrowed from
the Soviet school system, would be dropped, and in the future secondary
schools would be known by such names as general secondary school and
industrial, agricultural, construction, trade, art, and sanitation
secondary schools.
The terms of study in the higher institutes lasted from three to five
years. Provision was also made to expand higher education by increasing
the number of full-time students, setting up new branches in places
where there were no higher institutes, and organizing specialization
courses for those who had completed higher education to train highly
qualified technical and scientific cadres. All full-time graduate
students had to serve a probationary period of nine months in production
and three months in military training, in addition to the prescribed
military training received while in school.
Adult education had the same structure as that for full-time students,
with two exceptions: first, the eight-year general education was not
compulsory and was contracted into a six-year program allowing for
completion of the first four grades in two years; second, those who
wanted to proceed to higher institutes after graduating from secondary
school had to devote one year to preparatory study instead of engaging
in production work, as did full-time students.
According to official statistics, in the late 1960s, the regime had made
considerable strides, at least quantitatively, in education since it
came to power in 1944 (see table 5). From a total enrollment of less
than 60,000 students of all levels in the 1938/39 school year, according
to the Tirana press, the number had reached over 570,000 in the 1969/70
school year, with a teaching staff of 22,000. The total enrollment
included pupils in the compulsory eight-year schools and students,
workers, and collective farmers in the eight-year general education,
secondary, trade, and professional schools, the State University of
Tirana, and other higher institutes of learning.
Nearly half of the total enrollment represented adults attending evening
and correspondence courses. An article in the April 5, 1970, issue of
_Zeri i Popullit_ admitted that, of those originally enrolled in
September 1969 in evening elementary, secondary, higher education,
trade, and vocational courses, from 25 to 50 percent either dropped out
or were often absent.
According to available official statistics, nearly 500,000 people were
enrolled in schools and courses in the 1967/68 academic year; this
included all adults who registered for, but did not necessarily attend
regularly, technical and vocational courses, evening classes, or
correspondence courses. In the same academic year the State University
of Tirana and five other higher institutes of learning had a total
enrollment of 12,435 students, of whom nearly 8,000 attended the State
University of Tirana (see table 6). Of the total enrollment, over 4,000
were adults or part-time students.
In the 1945-56 period, that is, before the founding of the State
University of Tirana, the government sent a number of students to pursue
their education in the Soviet-bloc countries, mostly the Soviet Union.
When the break came with Moscow in 1961, all students were either
expelled or withdrawn from all these countries. According to documents
published by the Tirana government after the break, at the beginning of
the 1961/62 academic year there were 1,213 Albanian students already
enrolled in Soviet institutions, and an additional 100 were to enroll
during that academic year. They were all expelled by the Soviets except
for a few who asked for and obtained political asylum. In 1970 an
unknown number of students were attending schools in the People's
Republic of China (Communist China), and a few in Romania and Italy.
_Table 5. Summary of Educational Institutions, Pupils, and Teachers
in Albania, for Selected Years_
1938/39 1950/51 1960/61 1967/68
_Primary and Secondary Education_
Schools 649 2,222 2,990 3,597
Pupils 55,404 172,831 290,728 455,557
Teachers 1,477 4,942 9,071 16,758
_Secondary Professional Schools_
Schools 5 17 34 25
Pupils 879 4,818 14,105 21,005
Teachers 34 171 511 638
Normal Schools
Schools (3) (8) (11) (5)
Pupils (675) (2,525) (5,591) (2,708)
Teachers (18) (61) (200) (115)
Technical Schools
Schools (2) (9) (23) (20)
Pupils (204) (2,253) (8,514) (18,297)
Teachers (16) (110) (311) (522)
_Higher Education_
Institutes 1 6 6
Students 304 6,703 12,436
Professors and assistants 13 288 606
_All Educational Systems_*
Schools 654 2,240 3,030 3,628
Pupils and students 56,283 177,953 311,536 498,997
Teachers and instructors 1,511 5,126 10,942 18,001
* The lower vocational schools are not included.
Source: Adapted from _Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh._, 1967-68,
Tirana, 1968, p. 115.
The chain of command in the organization of the educational system in
1970 ran from the Party Politburo to the education sections in the
district people's councils. The Politburo set the general policy
guidelines and directives. In 1968 the Politburo created a Central
Commission on Education attached to the Central Committee and headed by
Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu. The commission's function was to elaborate
the Politburo's directives on reforming the school system. When Mehmet
Shehu submitted the report on behalf of the commission to the plenum of
the Central Committee in June 1969 concerning the reorganization of the
school system, it was decided to continue the commission for an
indefinite period.
A more permanent body in the Party's Central Committee was the
Directorate of Education and Culture, headed by Nexhmije Hoxha, wife of
Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha. This body, guided by the directives
prescribed by the Politburo, supervised the Ministry of Education and
Culture in implementing the Party's ideological and political
guidelines.
_Table 6. Students Attending Higher Institutes in Albania
(academic year 1967/68)_
Total Number of Students Full-Time Students
Total Female Total Female
State University of Tirana
_Faculties_
Economics 1,275 271 437 137
Geology 255 10 255 10
History and Philology 1,944 701 984 462
Engineering 1,259 139 1,102 120
Law 504 62 163 29
Medicine 1,034 378 1,034 378
Natural Sciences 1,683 529 1,262 440
----- ----- ----- -----
Total 7,954 2,090 5,237 1,576
Higher Agricultural Institute
_Faculties_
Agronomy 1,234 62 839 58
Forestry 174 10 150 8
Veterinary 324 23 324 23
----- ----- ----- -----
Total 1,732 95 1,313 89
Higher Institute of Arts 239 60 232 60
Higher Institute of Physical
Culture 191 39 169 37
Two-Year Higher Institute of
Pedagogy, Tirana 1,113 458 331 140
Two-Year Higher Institute
of Pedagogy, Shkoder 1,206 446 859 316
------ ----- ----- -----
Grand Total 12,435 3,188 8,141 2,218
Source: Adapted from _Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh., 1967-1968_,
Tirana, 1968, p. 125.
The Ministry of Education and Culture was responsible for executing
Party policies and for administering the whole school system. It had
education sections in all the district people's councils, which
administered and, through their inspectors, controlled the teachers and
the teaching programs. Party control at all levels was exercised either
directly by the Party's basic organizations, as was the case in the
higher institutes, or through the branches of the Union of Albanian
Working Youth, the Party's most powerful front organization. The
majority of the teachers in secondary schools and higher institutes
were Party members.
By the beginning of 1970 the regime seemed to have scored substantial
progress in the field of education. Illiteracy had been reduced
considerably, if not actually eliminated. Through an intensive program
to train elementary and secondary school teachers, build schoolhouses,
and make schooling obligatory up to the eighth grade, the government had
enabled all the country's children to obtain some kind of rudimentary
education. It had also instituted a system of higher education and had
founded the first university in the history of the country and was thus
no longer dependent on foreign universities to train people in the
various professions. It had also instituted a widespread network of
professional and vocational schools intended to train badly needed
technicians and skilled workers.
The whole education network, however, was a one-track system geared to
serve the ideological and political objectives of the Party. The Party,
through the Central Commission on Education and the Directorate of
Education and Culture, both attached to the Party's Central Committee,
controlled every facet of the school system: programs, curricula,
administration, teaching staffs, and funds. The schools, students,
teachers, and professors were so organized as to form a monolithic
establishment centrally directed and completely immersed in
Marxism-Leninism.
The entire system was dedicated to the education of the new man with
Communist traits and morality. As defined by the Party leaders and Party
theoreticians, these traits and morality meant the development of a
"revolutionary spirit and responsibility for one's tasks for society and
the cause of socialism, the defense of the basic principles of the Party
and the implementation of its correct policy." The whole school system,
as developed in the past twenty-five years, therefore, was for the
building of communism as defined and interpreted by the Albanian
Communists. All other ideologies, beliefs, cultures, and thoughts were
banned from the country's schools.
RELIGION
Situation Before the Communist Takeover
One of the major legacies of nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule was
the conversion of over 70 percent of the population to Islam. When
independence came, therefore, the country emerged as a predominantly
Muslim nation, the only Islamic state in Europe. No censuses taken by
the Communist regime since it assumed power in 1944 have shown the
religious affiliations of the people. It has been estimated that of a
total population of 1,180,500, at the end of World War II, about 826,000
were Muslims, 212,500 Eastern Orthodox, and 142,000 Roman Catholics. The
Muslims were divided between adherents of the Sunni branch and over
200,000 followers of a dervish order known as Bektashi, an offshoot of
the Shia branch.
Christianity was introduced early in Albania, having been brought in
during the period of Roman rule. After the division of the Roman Empire
into East and West in 395, Albania became politically a part of the
Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire but remained ecclesiastically dependent on
Rome. When, however, the final schism occurred in 1054 between the Roman
and Eastern churches, the Christians in the southern part of the country
came under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Ecumenical
Patriarchate. This situation prevailed until the Turkish invasions of
the fourteenth century, when the Islamic faith was introduced. The
apostasy of the people took many decades.
In the mountainous north the propagation of Islam met strong resistance
from the Catholics. Gradually, however, backwardness, illiteracy, the
absence of an educated clergy, and material inducements weakened
resistance. Coerced conversions occurred, especially when Catholic
powers, such as the Venetian Republic and Austria, were at war with the
Ottoman Empire. By the close of the seventeenth century the Catholics in
the north were outnumbered by the Muslims.
Large-scale forced conversions among the Orthodox in the south did not
occur until the Russo-Turkish wars of the eighteenth century. Islamic
pressure was put on the Orthodox Christians because the Turks considered
them sympathetic to Orthodox Russia. The situation of the Orthodox
improved temporarily after a Russo-Turkish treaty of 1774 in which
Russia was recognized as the protector of the Orthodox Christians in the
Ottoman Empire. The most effective method employed by the Turks in their
missionary efforts, especially in the central and southern parts of the
country, was the creation of a titled noble Muslim class of _pashas_,
_beys_, and _agas_ (Albanian tribal chiefs in Turkish service), who were
endowed with both large estates and extensive political and governing
powers. Through their political and economic influences these nobles
controlled the peasants, large numbers of whom were converted to Islam
either through coercion or through promise of economic benefits.
In the period from independence to the Communist seizure of power, the
Muslim noble class composed the country's ruling elite, but this elite
never interfered with religious freedom, which was sanctioned by the
various pre-World War II constitutions. The church and state were
separate. These constitutions had declared that the country had no
official religion, that all religions and faiths were respected, and
that their freedom of exercise was assured. These provisions had
expressed the true feelings of the people who, whether Muslim, Eastern
Orthodox, or Roman Catholic, were tolerant on religious matters.
Tolerance has been a marked characteristic of all Albanians, as
indicated in part by the fact that even after accepting Islam, many
people privately remained practicing Christians, or so-called
crypto-Christians. As late as 1912 in a large number of villages in the
Elbasan area, most men had two names, a Muslim one for public use and a
Christian one for private use. A characteristic remark on the religious
tolerance of the Albanians was made by Lord Byron, who observed in one
of his diaries that elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire a man would declare
himself to be either a Muslim or a Christian when asked what he was, but
the Albanian would reply that he was an Albanian.
Situation Under Communist Rule
The Communist regime has exhibited in its attitude toward religion a
wide gap between precept and practice. The Communist Constitution,
adopted in March 1946 and as subsequently amended, contains liberal
provisions with regard to religion. Freedom of conscience and religion
is guaranteed to all citizens; the church is separate from the state;
religious communities are free to exercise and practice their creeds; it
is forbidden to use the church and religion for political purposes, and
political organizations based on religion are outlawed; and the state
may give material assistance to religious organizations.
Even before the adoption of the Constitution, however, legislative
measures had already been taken to curb the freedom and power of all
religious bodies. For example, the agrarian reform law of August 1945
made special provision for the confiscation of all their wealth,
especially the estates of monasteries, orders, and dioceses, and the
seizure of their libraries and printing presses. But the first major law
aimed specifically at the control and regulation of all religious bodies
and at the elimination of all distinguished clergymen was enacted two
years after the promulgation of the Constitution. This law is known as
Decree No. 743 On Religious Communities, approved by the Council of
Ministers on November 26, 1949, converted into Law No. 773 on January
16, 1950, and amended by Decree No. 3660 of April 10, 1963.
The law provided that religious communities through their activities had
to develop in their followers a sentiment of loyalty toward the People's
Republic of Albania. In order to organize and function, religious
communities had to be recognized by the state, such recognition taking
place as a result of the approval of their statutes by the Council of
Ministers. All regulations and bylaws issued on the basis of such
statutes had also to be approved by the Council of Ministers, and the
heads of religious communities and sects had to be approved by the
Council of Ministers after being elected or appointed by the proper
religious organs. Religious communities or branches, such as the Jesuit
and Franciscan orders, that had their headquarters outside the country
were henceforth prohibited and ordered to terminate their activities
within a month of the enactment of the decree.
All religious communities were obliged to send at once to the Council of
Ministers all pastoral letters, messages, speeches, and other
instructions of a general character that were to be made public in any
form. Religious institutions were forbidden to have anything to do with
the education of the young since this was the exclusive right of the
state, and all religious communities were prohibited from operating
philanthropic and welfare institutions and hospitals or from owning real
estate.
On the basis of Decree No. 743 the Council of Ministers on May 4, 1950,
issued Decrees Nos. 1064, 1065, and 1066, approving respectively the
statutes of the Sunni, Orthodox, and Bektashi religious communities. A
common provision of all three decrees was that each religious community
had to develop the "sentiment of loyalty in their followers toward the
people's power and the People's Republic of Albania, as well as their
patriotic feelings." The Statute of the Independent Catholic Church of
Albania was approved by Decree No. 1322 of July 30, 1951.
The regime's policy toward each of the three religious denominations,
although differing somewhat in tactics, aimed from the outset at the
eventual destruction of all organized religion. The regime achieved
control over the Muslim faith by dealing with each sect separately. The
first measure aimed at dividing the Sunni and Bektashi, which was
effected, officially, in May 1945, when the two were declared completely
independent of each other.
In dealing with the Sunni clergy, the government arrested and executed
as "enemies of the people" those members of the top hierarchy who were
reluctant to toe the Communist line, while others were imprisoned or
sent to concentration camps. It named as head of the Sunni community
Hafez Musa Haxhi Ali, who in 1950 led a delegation of the Sunni clergy
to the Soviet Union, visiting Uzbekistan and the Muslim religious
shrines of Samarkand and Tashkent and meeting with many Soviet Muslim
leaders. He was also used in appeals for world peace and other slogans
directed at the Muslim countries in the Middle East.
The policy followed toward each group differed somewhat. The Bektashi
group had always been much more liberal and forward looking than the
Sunni. During the war a few leading Bektashi clergymen had joined the
National Liberation Movement, and three of them--Baba Mustafa Faja
Martaneshi, Baba Fejzo, and Sheh Karbunaro--played major roles in
bringing about close collaboration between the Bektashi order and the
regime. In March 1947, however, Baba Faja and Baba Fejzo were
assassinated at the group's headquarters in Tirana, where they had gone
to meet with the World Bektashi Primate Dede Abazi (the Bektashi had
moved their world headquarters in the 1920s from Ankara to Tirana). As
the Tirana press reported the event: "The leaders of the Bektashi, Baba
Faja and Baba Fejzo, cooperating with the people's government, visited
Dede Abazi to discuss the democratization of the religious organization.
Dede Abazi answered with bullets, killing them both. Later he shot
himself." Taking advantage of this incident, the regime eliminated those
leaders of the Bektashi clergy it considered disloyal.
Because of the traditionally nationalistic character of the Albanian
Orthodox Church, the regime has attempted from the outset to use it as
an instrument for mobilizing the Orthodox population behind its
policies. Using the church for its own ends, the regime took steps to
purge all those elements within it that were considered unreliable.
Clergymen who did not yield to the demands of the regime were purged.
Among the purged Orthodox leaders was the primate of the church,
Archbishop Kristofor Kisi, who was deposed in the late 1940s and
subsequently died in jail. The regime replaced Kisi with Pashko Vodica,
a renegade priest who had joined the ranks of the partisan formations.
On assuming the office of primate, under the name of Archbishop Paisi,
he stated that it was the church's duty to be faithful to the People's
Republic of Albania and to the people's power and added: "Our Church
must be faithful to the camp of Peace, to the great anti-imperialist and
democratic camp, to the unique camp of socialism led brilliantly by the
glorious Soviet Union and the Great Stalin...."
Archbishop Paisi brought about close ties between the Albanian Orthodox
Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. These ties were further strengthened
after a delegation of Soviet religious leaders, headed by Bishop Nikon
of Odessa, visited Tirana in the spring of 1951. After the 1960-61
Moscow-Tirana break, however, these ties lapsed.
The Roman Catholic Church, chiefly because it maintained close relations
with the Vatican and was more organized than were the Muslim and Eastern
Orthodox faiths, became a principal target of persecution as soon as the
Communists assumed power. In May 1945 Monsignor Nigris, the apostolic
nuncio in Albania, was arrested on charges of fomenting anti-Communist
feelings and deported to Italy. In 1946 a number of Catholic clergymen
were arrested and tried on charges of distributing leaflets against the
regime; some were executed, others given long prison terms at hard
labor.
According to Vatican sources, from 1945 to 1953 the number of Catholic
churches and chapels in Albania was reduced from 253 to 100. Both
seminaries in the country were closed, and the number of monasteries
dropped from ten to two. All twenty convents were closed, as were
fifteen orphanages, sixteen church schools, and ten charitable
institutions. Both Catholic printing presses were confiscated, and the
publication of seven religious periodicals ceased.
The ranks of Catholic priests were thinned from ninety-three in 1945 to
ten in 1953, twenty-four having been executed, thirty-five imprisoned,
ten either missing or dead, eleven drafted into the army, and three
having escaped from the country. Secular officials and laymen active in
church affairs also suffered execution, imprisonment, and harassment.
The Catholic school system was completely eliminated. This included five
secondary schools with a total enrollment of 570 and ten elementary and
vocational schools with 2,750 pupils. All Catholic associations were
suppressed.
A severe blow against the Catholic church was struck in 1951, when the
regime mustered a small group of clergymen to hold a national Catholic
assembly to draw the statute for the church. As approved by the Council
of Ministers on July 30 of that year, the statute provided that the
"Catholic Church of Albania has a national character ... [and that] it
shall no longer have any organizational, political, or economic
relations with the Pope." The statute provided further that the church
was to be directed both in religious and administrative matters by a new
Catholic Episcopate, that relations concerning religious questions
could be established only through governmental channels, and that the
church would submit to the canon law of the world Catholic church only
if the provisions of this law did not contradict the laws of the
People's Republic of Albania.
Enver Hoxha himself spearheaded the campaign against the Catholic
church. In 1952, for example, he purged Tuk Jakova, the only Catholic
member of the Politburo and previously one of Hoxha's closest
collaborators, because he had allegedly befriended the Catholic clergy.
In his speech to the Second Party Congress in 1952, in an attempt to
justify Jakova's purge, Hoxha said: "Comrade Tuk Jakova, in
contradiction to the political line of the Party and of the state
concerning religion generally and the Catholic clergy in particular, has
not properly understood and has not properly acted against the Catholic
clergy. Without seeing the great danger of the reactionary clergy,
Comrade Tuk Jakova has not hated them in sufficient measure...."
A new policy aimed at the complete destruction of organized religion was
enunciated by Hoxha in a speech to the Party's Central Committee on
February 6, 1967. Calling for an intensified cultural-education struggle
against religious beliefs and declaring that the only religion for an
Albanian should be Albanianism, he assigned the antireligious mission to
the youth movement. By May of the same year religious institutions were
forced to relinquish 2,169 churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines,
most of which were converted into cultural centers for young people. As
the literary monthly _Nendori_ (November) in its September 1967 issue
reported the event, the youth had thus "created the first atheist nation
in the world."
According to Western correspondents in Tirana, the procedure employed in
seizing the places of worship was to assemble the villagers or
parishioners in order to discuss Hoxha's speech and to take measures to
eliminate what the regime referred to as harmful survivals of religious
customs. A decision was then taken to ask the government for permission
to close a church, mosque, or monastery. A few days later the
government, stating that it was following the will of the people, would
issue orders to close the house of worship.
Drastic measures were reportedly taken in cases where the clergy opposed
the government order. The strongest resistance came from the Catholic
clergy, resulting in the detention of some twenty priests. The cloister
of the Franciscan order in Shkoder was set afire in the spring of 1967,
resulting in the death of four monks. The Catholic cathedral in Tirana
had its facade removed, and on June 4, 1967, it was taken over by the
government and converted into a museum. A similar fate befell the
Catholic cathedrals in Shkoder and Durres.
After the seizure of the houses of worship, the younger clergymen were
forced to seek work either in industry or agricultural collectives. The
elder clergy were ordered to return to their birthplaces, which they
could not leave without permission from the authorities. Monsignor
Ernest Coba, bishop of Shkoder and acknowledged head of the Catholic
church in Albania, was evicted from the cathedral in April 1967 and was
forced to seek work as a gardener on a collective farm. He was still
alive but ailing at the end of 1969.
By the beginning of 1970 the provision of the Constitution concerning
freedom of religion was ostensibly in effect, but government decrees had
made such a provision a dead issue. On November 22, 1967, a significant
measure was taken that apparently aimed at delivering the coup de grace
to formal religious institutions. On that day _Gazeta Zyrtare_, the
government's official gazette, published Decree No. 4337 of the
Presidium of the People's Assembly entitled, "On the Abrogation of
Certain Decrees." Specifically, the new decree annulled all previous
decrees dealing with organized religion, thus removing official sanction
from religious bodies and, in effect, placing them outside the law.
The 1949 decree on religion had provided for subsidies from the state to
the three religious denominations. These subsidies had become
indispensable for their survival because their property and all other
material means of subsistence had been confiscated and nationalized in
1945, and without state help the churches could not function. Concurrent
with the official moves against religions, a number of antireligious
brochures and pamphlets were prepared and distributed by the Democratic
Front in an effort to prepare the people for the attacks on their
religious institutions.
Even though organized religion had been destroyed by the end of 1967,
the regime was still struggling as of early 1970 to eradicate religious
thought and beliefs. The _Nendori_ article that proclaimed the creation
of the first atheist state in the world admitted that "despite the hard
blows religion had suffered through the destruction of its material
institutions, religious ideology is still alive."
Hoxha himself has often admitted that antireligious measures and the
closing of places of worship have not sufficed to eradicate religious
beliefs. Thus, addressing the Fourth Congress of the Democratic Front in
September 1967, he declared that it was misleading to hold that religion
consisted of church, mosque, priests, icons, and the like, and that if
all of these disappeared, then automatically religion and its influence
on the people would vanish. The struggle against religious beliefs, he
added, had not ended because for centuries they had been deeply rooted
in the conscience of the people.
Hoxha reverted to the subject again in his speech to the Party's Central
Committee plenum in June 1969, devoted to reforming the school system,
in which he said that one of the aims of the reorganized schools would
be to bring up the new generation imbued with scientific and theoretical
knowledge; for, according to Hoxha, religious beliefs could be
eradicated only through the elimination of old concepts still prevalent
in the minds of the people.
At the beginning of 1970 Party leaders in their speeches and in the
press were continuing to call for an intensification of the struggle
against religious ideology and especially for the eradication of every
religious influence or belief among students, who were still under the
influence of parents. The older generation, according to the leadership,
continued to entertain the religious beliefs that everything in nature
has been created with a predetermined purpose by God. The press has also
reported on several occasions that there was strong resistance to the
closing of places of worship and that the clergy resorted to all kinds
of subterfuge to continue their religious activities.
CHAPTER 6
GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AND POLITICAL SYSTEM
Political power in 1970 was solely in the hands of the ruling elite,
that is, the leadership of the Communist Party (officially the Albanian
Workers' Party). No political, economic, or social activity occurred
without the sanction of the Party. Although the facade of a people's
republic under constitutional rule was established in 1946, the reality
of a rigid police state was clearly evident from the beginning, and no
true democratic processes had been allowed to develop. The greatly
heralded People's Assembly, people's councils, and people's courts were
elected from a list of Party candidates; only one candidate was
presented for each office, and there was no popular selection or popular
choice. In effect, the Party was the government and directed all aspects
of the lives of the people--from the cradle to the grave.
The governmental structure and political system of the Albanian People's
Republic have their roots in the National Liberation Movement, which
came into existence during the Italian and German occupations of World
War II. Communist Party members dominated the leadership and, while
combating Italian and German occupiers, fought against other national
resistance groups for postwar control of the country. Enver Hoxha, first
secretary of the Albanian Workers' Party in 1970, and Mehmet Shehu,
premier and second ranking Party member, were wartime leaders of the
Communist resistance forces. Superior organization and the establishment
of crude governing bodies called national liberation councils
facilitated the Communist takeover of the country after the cessation of
hostilities. These councils later became the basis of the postwar
governmental structure.
The Communists moved rapidly after the end of the war to prevent the
reestablishment of the monarchy and to secure their own position of
power. Operating under the banner of a mass organization known as the
Democratic Front, the Communist Party strengthened its hold on the
country and in early 1946 promulgated a Constitution based on Yugoslav
and Soviet models. This Constitution provided for a unicameral
legislature, a collective executive branch, and an independent
judiciary. Actually, the Albanian Workers' Party, formerly the Communist
Party, which is mentioned in the Constitution as "the vanguard
organization of the working class," uses the formal governmental
structure as the instrument for governing the nation and for
implementing its own policies.
The Albanian People's Republic in its twenty-five years as a Communist
nation has remained as rigidly authoritarian and Stalinist in its
approach to government as it was at the end of World War II. The Party
is all pervasive, the leadership is glorified to an extreme degree, and
Party pronouncements are treated as infallible doctrine. The average
citizen casts his ballot in periodic elections for local and national
offices, but two conditions invariably exist: a candidate for office is
a member of the Party, and only one name is listed for any particular
office. It has become standard practice for well over 99 percent of the
electorate to vote and for over 99 percent of those voting to approve
the single candidate. Absolute control of the government, the economy,
and the cultural life of the country is assured by a system that places
the leading officers of the Party in the top positions of government.
Albanian history as a Communist state can be divided into three distinct
phases based on outside influence: the Yugoslav period, the Soviet
period, and the Chinese period. Yugoslav influence began with the
founding in 1941 of the Albanian Communist Party, in which some Yugoslav
nationals played leading roles, and lasted until Yugoslavia's expulsion
from the Cominform in 1948. From 1948 until 1961 the Albanians looked to
the Soviet Union for assistance and advice, and after 1961 Communist
China became the foreign power wielding greatest influence in the
country.
In 1970 Albania continued as the only European ally of Communist China.
Hoxha and Shehu continued the harsh polemics with the Soviet Union; made
tentative gestures of friendship toward Yugoslavia; continued their
tirades against Western imperialism; and, in general, tried to present
themselves to the world as the embodiment of true Marxism-Leninism.
FORMAL STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT
The People's Assembly
The Constitution established the People's Assembly as the legislative
branch of the government and refers to it as "the highest organ of state
power." Representatives to the Assembly are elected from a single list
of Party-selected candidates for a term of four years in a ratio of 1
representative for every 8,000 inhabitants. The Assembly meets in two
regularly scheduled sessions annually, and there is constitutional
provision for the convening of extraordinary sessions.
All legislative power is vested in the People's Assembly, although
proposals for legislation and for constitutional amendments can be made
by the Presidium of the People's Assembly or the Council of Ministers,
as well as by members of the Assembly itself. Bills become laws after an
affirmative vote by a simple majority of the Assembly, but an amendment
to the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote. In practice, the
Assembly listens to the reading of bills drawn up by its Presidium and
then votes unanimous approval.
The Assembly elects officers to preside over its meetings and direct its
affairs. Usually a chairman, two vice chairmen, and a secretary are
elected for the four-year term of the Assembly. The chairman of the
People's Assembly in 1970 was Abdyl Kellezi, who was concurrently a
candidate member of the Party, Political Bureau (Politburo). One of the
two vice chairmen and the secretary were also members of the Party
Central Committee. The Assembly has the power to appoint commissions, to
carry out specific functions, or to conduct investigations.
The Presidium
The Constitution provides that the People's Assembly elect its
Presidium, which is made up of a president, two vice presidents, a
secretary, and ten members. The president of the Presidium becomes the
titular chief of state and, in 1970, this office was held by Haxhi
Leshi, a member of the Party Central Committee. Enver Hoxha was one of
the ten members of the Presidium, and a majority of the other Presidium
members concurrently held high Party positions. Because of the
infrequent and short meetings of the Assembly and because the real
power, that is Party power, is held by the Presidium, it has become the
actual legislative branch of government.
The Presidium performs several functions besides that of conducting the
affairs of the Assembly between sessions. It calls for the elections of
representatives to the Assembly and convenes its sessions. It has the
power to issue decrees and to ratify international treaties. The
Presidium also appoints or recalls diplomats, receives credentials and
letters of recall of foreign diplomats, and appoints and recalls the
supreme commander of the armed forces. Between sessions of the Assembly,
the Presidium is empowered to decree general mobilization and a state of
war and to appoint and relieve ministers as proposed by the premier. The
Presidium also designates ministry jurisdiction over various
enterprises according to the recommendations of the premier.
The Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers, referred to as the government in the
Constitution, is the highest executive organ and constitutionally is
appointed by, and responsible to, the People's Assembly or its
Presidium. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, by virtue of his
position, is also the premier or prime minister. Mehmet Shehu, who
assumed this position in 1954, still held it in 1970. Shehu was also a
member of the Politburo of the Party Central Committee. The Council of
Ministers is composed of the chairman, three deputy chairmen, thirteen
ministers, and the chairman of the State Planning Commission, who has
ministerial rank. The Constitution provides for the establishment of new
ministries and the abolishment or combining of old ones.
The Council of Ministers, as a unit, is constitutionally responsible for
preparing the overall economic plan and the budget, which must then be
approved by the People's Assembly. After approval, which is pro forma
and usually granted without discussion or debate, the council is
responsible for implementation. The council also directs the monetary
system; assures protection of citizens rights and the maintenance of
public order; directs the organization of the army; oversees foreign
relations; and, in effect, administers the entire economic and cultural
life of the nation.
The interlocking of the Party with the Council of Ministers has been
standard practice since its inception. In 1970 eight of the seventeen
principal officers of the council were members or candidate members of
the Politburo, six were Central Committee members, and the remaining
three were regular members of the Party. With every key position
occupied by a Politburo member, the Party elite maintained direct
control over the entire governmental structure.
Local Government
People's councils are the constitutional agencies on the local level.
Elected for three-year terms to administer districts, cities, and
villages, they are responsible to their constituencies as well as to the
higher organs of state power. According to the Constitution, the
councils are charged with economic and cultural matters and direct the
affairs of the administrative organs within their jurisdictions.
Councils are responsible for maintaining public order, for implementing
laws, and for drawing up local budgets. The Constitution also requires
that the councils call periodic meetings of their constituents to keep
the people informed on council activities.
Each council chooses an executive committee from among its membership,
and it is through this committee that the actual work of local
government is accomplished. Other committees or departments may be
established at the discretion of the executive committee for the
performance of specific tasks or for the supervision of a particular
enterprise. In performing such functions, the special committees and
departments are constitutionally responsible to the people's councils
and to corresponding sections at higher levels of the bureaucracy. The
people's councils are elected from lists of the local organizations of
the Albanian Workers' Party.
COURT SYSTEM
The people's court system consists of the Supreme Court and courts at
each of the territorial subdivisions. Other types of courts may be
created by law. The Constitution provides that the people's courts are
independent of the administration. A law on the organization of the
courts passed in 1968, however, specified that the "people's courts will
be guided in their activities by the policy of the Party. In carrying
out their responsibilities, they must strongly rely on the working
masses and submit to their criticism and control."
Decisions are made collegially. In cases where the Supreme Court and
district courts have original jurisdiction--that is, when a case is to
be first heard by them--assistant judges participate in the ruling,
unless the case is such that the law specifically states otherwise.
People's courts at the village and city levels decide cases with the
participation of an assistant judge from the district court and two
so-called social activists, who are actually local Party members. If a
case is before the Supreme Court by appeal, three judges make the
verdict; when a case is before a district court by appeal, assistant
judges participate.
Trials are generally open to the public. In order to facilitate the
political and social education of the population, courts are held in
places of employment, villages, and any other place that makes them more
accessible to the people.
Assistant judges from the district courts and several social activists
make up the village and city courts. The social activists are elected
for one-year terms by a people's meeting. This level of the court system
has jurisdiction over minor social crimes and simple civil cases.
The district courts are composed of a chairman, judges, and assistant
judges. The judges are elected for three-year terms by the general
population, and the People's Council appoints the chairman from among
the elected judges. The district courts have original jurisdiction in
all penal and civil cases unless otherwise specified by law. They also
hear appeals from lower court decisions.
Military courts, called military collegiums, are appointed by the
Presidium of the People's Assembly to operate at the district level.
They are composed of a military judge and several military assistant
judges. These courts have original jurisdiction over crimes committed by
military personnel.
The highest court is the Supreme Court. It has original jurisdiction in
important cases that the chairman of the Supreme court takes over from
the district courts. It also hears appeals from the rulings of all lower
courts.
Supreme Court judges are elected for four-year terms by the People's
Assembly. The court consists of a chairman, deputy chairmen, and
assistant judges, the exact number being determined by the Presidium of
the People's Assembly. The Supreme Court is broken down into collegiums
to handle different types of cases, such as penal, civil, and military.
It also sits in a plenum in order to issue directives concerning legal
practices, to hear appeals from decisions made by its collegium, and to
study the operation of the court system in its entirety.
POLITICAL DYNAMICS
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
As officially defined by the Constitution, the state is a form of
dictatorship of the proletariat. The power of the state constitutionally
belongs to the workers and peasants, represented locally by the people's
councils, which supposedly make up the political base of the state. In
legislation and in official documents dealing with elections, it has
been stated that the people not only enjoy freedom of choice concerning
candidates but also have the right to supervise the work of their
elected representatives and the right of recall if they are
dissatisfied. In practice, such people's democracy does not exist, and
the dictatorship of the proletariat--that is, the rule of the people
over themselves--is a facade behind which the real dictatorship of the
Party elite operates.
The Constitution provides for direct, secret vote to elect
representatives to all governmental bodies, from the people's councils
in villages to the highest organ of the state, the People's Assembly.
The voters themselves do nothing on their part to be registered in the
electoral lists. These lists are drawn up for every type of election by
the people's councils and are supposed to include all citizens who reach
age eighteen on or before the day of the elections.
The democratic character of these elections is allegedly guaranteed by
the procedure or right for nominating candidates. This right legally
belongs to the Party, the Democratic Front, trade unions, and social
organizations and is exercised by the central organs of these
organizations and their organs in the districts. Nominations, with Party
approval, also are made at the general meetings of workers and employees
in the enterprises and state farms, of soldiers in their detachments,
and of peasants in their agricultural collectives or villages.
All meetings for the selection of candidates are held under the auspices
of the Democratic Front, in whose name all the candidates are presented
for election. The only legal requirement of a candidate is that he enjoy
the right to election, that the organization which proposes him confirm
its intention in writing, and that he accept his candidacy for that of
the Assembly was a "vivid expression of the socialist democ-him. In
practice, all candidates are preselected, and the meetings simply
confirm the Party choice.
Political power, according to official documents, is thus vested in the
broad masses who, through various organizations to which they belong,
choose the candidates to be elected to all state organs, including the
people's courts. The candidate who receives one more vote than half the
number of voters registered in the electoral zone is proclaimed the
winner and becomes, in theory, the agent representing the sovereignty of
the people.
The highest organ of state power, according to official dogma, is the
People's Assembly, composed of representatives elected by direct vote
who exercise the sovereignty and will of the people. The aim of the
People's Assembly, this dogma alleges, is to carry out the main
functions of directing and supervising the people's democratic state.
The Assembly's sphere of action includes practically all the political,
economic, social, and cultural fields through the passage of laws.
"These laws," according to an official document published in 1964, "on
their part determine the juridical form of the line pursued by the
Albanian Workers' Party in building socialism in Albania." The same
document that stated that the laws passed by the Assembly were but the
juridical form of Party policies declared that the concentration of all
state power in the hands of the Assembly was a "vivid expression of the
socialist democracy of the state system of the People's Republic of
Albania."
Another document, published in 1963, asserted that economic power and
political power were indivisible and that a combination of the two
formed the state power. The representative nature of the socialist
state, the document declared, was rooted in the socialist economic basis
of the country, derived from the state ownership of the means of
production and from the property of the cooperative and collective
organizations, principally the agricultural collectives. All mines and
subsoil resources, waters, forests and pastures, industrial enterprises,
the means of air, rail, and sea communications, post, telegraph,
telephones, radio broadcasting stations, and banks had become the
property of the people.
It is thus the contention of the regime that the creation of the
socialist sector of the economy not only placed all economic levers in
the hands of the people but also altered old relations in production,
resulting in a planned organization of the economy. Economic planning,
it is argued, makes possible the elimination of exploitation of man by
man. Also, through the planned organization of the economy the people
are guaranteed the right to work.
With a view to regulating relations in work, the regime passed a series
of legislative acts that were subsequently embodied in the Labor Code.
As a result of this legislation, it was asserted, conflicts between a
worker and an enterprise were no longer possible, for the enterprise was
the property of the state and the state was of and for the worker.
Accordingly, both the worker and the enterprise strove to achieve the
same results, namely, to increase production and improve the material
and cultural conditions of all the workers. To assure their own welfare,
the workers in turn had to assume certain obligations; they were duty
bound to guard socialist property, which was the "sacred and inviolate
basis of the people's democracy, the source of power of the homeland and
of the welfare and culture of the workers."
The theoretical mechanism evolved for the exercise of power through
freely elected representatives had no resemblance to the actual locus of
power and the state institutions created to wield this power. The source
of political and economic power was neither the workers and peasants nor
the organs presumably elected by them. A perfect example was the actual
power and influence of the People's Assembly, to which official
documents attributed the power to appoint all the higher state organs
and on which all state organs were dependent. In actual practice, the
People's Assembly held only two sessions a year, each lasting about two
days; the delegates heard reports made by Party and government
officials, approved without debate all bills and appointments presented
to them, and then adjourned. The Presidium of the People's Assembly was
also given wide constitutional powers in the fields of legislation and
control of the state apparatus, but in reality its main function was to
promulgate draft laws submitted to it by the Council of Ministers.
The Albanian Workers' Party
National Organization
The real source of all power was the Party, whose all-powerful Politburo
was the country's top policymaking body. But even this body, composed of
eleven regular and five candidate members, was under the firm control of
Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha, who has headed the Party since it was
founded on November 8, 1941, and Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, who
emerged as the military strategist in the Communist-dominated Army of
National Liberation during World War II.
Although Hoxha, as first secretary and as the only surviving member of
the small group of Communists who founded the Party, was considered the
leader and the foremost Albanian Marxist-Leninist, he and Shehu have
shared almost equal power since 1949 (see ch. 2, Historical Setting).
The real base of their power has rested in the security and armed
forces, and Hoxha and Shehu have divided this power. As minister of
defense until 1953, Hoxha personally controlled the armed forces, and
since then he has controlled them through Beqir Balluku, his lieutenant
(see ch. 9, Internal and External Security).
Shehu, as minister of the interior from 1948 to 1954, personally
controlled the security forces, composed of the Directorate of State
Security (Drejtorija e Sigurimit te Shtetit, commonly known as the
Sigurimi), the People's Police, and the Frontier Guards. Since then he
has controlled them through his brother-in-law Major General Kadri
Hasbiu, who succeeded Shehu as minister of the interior in 1954 and who
still held that position in 1970.
The top executive branches of the Politburo were the four-man
Secretariat and the various directorates of the Central Committee. In
1970 the Secretariat was composed of Hoxha as first secretary and Ramiz
Alia, Hysni Kapo, and Xhafer Spahiu as secretaries. Hoxha supervised the
whole work of the Secretariat; the other three secretaries were
responsible for general areas of operation. Alia was responsible for
ideological affairs, Kapo for organizational matters, and Spahiu for the
state administration.
Policy guidelines adopted by the Politburo were passed by the
Secretariat to the appropriate directorate, which elaborated and
drafted them in final form for implementation by the respective Party
and state organs. The directorates had direct connections with all
implementing bodies. For instance, the Directorate of Agitation and
Propaganda, known as Agitprop, issued directives not only to the
Agitprop sections of the District Party Committees but also to all
propaganda outlets in the government, mass organizations, and the armed
and security forces.
The most important directorates were the: Directorate of Cadres and
Organizations, headed by Hysni Kapo, the third ranking man in the Party
hierarchy; Directorate of Agitation and Propaganda, headed by Ramiz
Alia; Directorate of Education and Culture, headed by Nexhmije Hoxha,
wife of the first secretary; Directorate of State Administrative Organs,
headed by Llazi Stratoberdha; and Directorate of Mass Organizations,
headed by Politburo member Adil Carcani.
When important policy issues were decided by the Politburo, special
commissions were created in the Central Committee to draft implementing
guidance for a specific decision. Thus, for instance, in the spring of
1968 the Politburo decided on a complete reorganization and
reorientation of the country's educational system. A Central Commission
on Education was immediately created in the Party Central Committee; the
commission was headed by Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu and included some
fifty experts in the ideological, academic, and military aspects of
education.
After a year's work the commission completed its report and, in June
1969, submitted it to the Central Committee, which gave its formal stamp
of approval. In December of the same year the government submitted a
bill to the People's Assembly for the reorganization of the educational
system; in its preamble the bill said that it was based on the report of
the previous June as approved by the Party Central Committee (see ch. 5,
Social System).
The Central Committee was the next highest echelon in importance in the
Party organization. In 1970 it was composed of sixty-one regular and
thirty-six candidate members. It was to the Central Committee that the
Politburo submitted its policy decisions for formal approval. As a rule,
in recent years the Central Committee has approved Politburo reports and
decisions with little, if any, debate. But there have been occasions
when the Central Committee has been called upon to decide on issues of
the utmost importance for the country. For example, in February 1948 the
Central Committee was convened to discuss and decide the issue of a
possible merger of Albania with Yugoslavia. Although the forces favoring
such a merger were in the majority, the dissenting voices were
sufficient to block the proposed merger. Another Central Committee
meeting, held in September of the same year, purged the top Party group
that had advocated the merger with Yugoslavia. A similar crucial issue
arose in the fall of 1961 on the question of relations with the Soviet
Union. The Central Committee approved the Politburo decision to break
with Moscow and issued a declaration to that effect.
The Party's ideological principles, tasks, and organizational structure
were delineated in the Party's statute, originally adopted by the First
Party Congress in 1948 and amended several times since then. In it,
control by the Party was detailed specifically, and the statute rather
than the Constitution was the fundamental law of the land. According to
the statute, the highest leading organ of each organization was: the
general meeting for the basic Party organizations; the conference for
the Party organizations of districts and cities; and the congress for
the entire Party.
The guiding principle of the ideological and organizational structure of
the Party was the Leninist dictum known as democratic centralism. As
described in the statute, this principle provided in theory that the
leading organs of the Party were elected from bottom to top at general
meetings, conferences, and congresses; these organs were obliged from
time to time to give account of their activities before their Party
organizations.
Strict Party discipline was to be maintained under any circumstances,
the minority being subject to the majority; decisions were to be reached
on the basis of so-called free discussions but, from the moment a
decision was reached, unanimously or by a majority of votes, all Party
members were obliged to execute it without question; and the decisions
of the higher Party organs were binding on the lower organs. The statute
also provided that collective leadership was the highest principle of
the leadership of the Party and that the elected organs as well as the
basic Party organizations examined and solved collectively all Party
problems.
The Party statute considered the Party Congress as the highest Party
organ. The congress, usually called every four years, heard, examined,
and approved the reports of the Central Committee and of other central
Party organs; reviewed and made changes in the Party program and
statute; determined the Party's tactical line on major policy problems;
and elected the Central Committee and the Central Control and Auditing
Commission and fixed the number of members of these two bodies. In
actual practice, however, the Party Congress merely heard and approved
reports submitted by the Politburo.
According to the statute, the Central Committee, which should meet in
plenum at least once every four months, performed such formal functions
as electing both the Politburo for guiding the affairs of the Central
Committee between sessions and the Secretariat for "guiding the
day-to-day affairs of the Party, especially for organizing the control
of the execution of decisions and for the selection of cadres." During
the period between two congresses the Central Committee guided the
activities of the Party; represented the Party in its relationships with
other parties, organizations, and institutions; organized and guided
different Party institutions; named the editors of the Party's central
press organs and granted permission for publication of the local Party
press; distributed the cadres and the means of the Party and
administered the central treasury; and guided and controlled the
activities of the central organs of the people's democratic authority
and social organizations by means of Party groups in them.
Regional Organization
Regionally, the highest Party organ is the Party Conference at district
and city levels, which is supposed to meet once a year and is comparable
to the Party Congress at the national level. In practice, the periodic
Party Conference becomes a pro forma meeting held for the purpose of
displaying unanimity of opinion. Between conferences, operations are
conducted by Party committees, and real power is exercised by a bureau
of each committee that usually consists of about eleven members, who
must first be approved by the Party Central Committee in Tirana. Bureau
membership includes two secretaries who are the leading Communist
officials in the city or district and, by virtue of their positions, the
most powerful individuals.
The principal functions of the district or city committees are to guide
the activities of all Party organizations in the district or town so as
to assure the precise application of the Party line; approve the
establishment of basic Party organizations; maintain records on members
and look after their ideological and political education; distribute
within the district or city the Party cadres; and administer the Party
finances. More importantly, the district or city committee guides and
regulates the activities and work of the local governmental bodies and
social organizations by means of Party groups within them.
The statute describes the basic Party organizations as the foundations
of the Party because they serve to link the working masses of the town
and village with the Party. The basic Party organizations are
established in factories and plants, agricultural enterprises, machine
tractor stations, villages, units of the armed and security forces,
state administration, schools, and other work centers where there were
no less than three Party members. When deemed necessary and where there
are less than three Party members, there can be created joint groups of
the Party and of the Union of Albanian Working Youth. These groups are
directed by a Party member chosen by the district or city committee.
The basic Party organizations are assigned a multitude of duties and
responsibilities. They must ensure that Party orders are fully
implemented, the masses are politically oriented, the Communists obtain
the required ideological and political education, new members are
accepted into the Party, the masses are mobilized in production work,
the activities of the mass organizations are checked and guided, and
control is exercised over all economic sectors and over all local
governmental bodies.
The statute provides that in the armed forces Party affairs are to be
directed by the Political Directorate of the Ministry of People's
Defense and in the Ministry of the Interior they are to be directed by
appropriate political organs. Party organizations in the armed forces
operate on the basis of special instructions issued by the Party's
Central Committee. All chiefs of political branches in military units
and installations must be Party members with no less than five years of
membership. The political organs in the military units are required to
maintain close contact with the local Party committees (see ch. 9,
Internal and External Security).
The latest official figures for Party membership were given by Party
First Secretary Hoxha in his report to the Fifth Party Congress in 1966.
He placed the total membership at 66,327, of which 3,314 were candidate
members. Since the Fourth Party Congress in 1961 the membership had
grown by 12,688. According to Hoxha, the social composition of the Party
membership was as follows: workers, 32.9 percent; collective farmers,
25.8 percent; private farmers, 3.2 percent; state, Party, and mass
organization officials and armed forces personnel, 37.2 percent; and
students and housewives, 0.9 percent. Of the total Party membership,
women comprised 12.5 percent. Hoxha also said that nearly 68 percent of
all Communists lived in cities and only 32 percent in villages, despite
the fact, he commented, that the rural population was three times as
large as that of the cities.
Party Operations
A fundamental factor in the Party's exercise of political power and
control is the selection of candidates for all elected positions.
Although the candidates for such elective organs as the People's
Assembly, the people's courts, and the people's councils at all levels
are formally nominated by the meetings of mass organizations or of
workers and peasants, they have been, in fact, handpicked by the local
Party organizations and approved by the Party Central Committee.
The procedure at all nominating meetings is standard and simple: a list
of candidates, previously prepared by the Party district or city
committee, is read; the qualifications of each candidate are described;
and the list is unanimously approved. Since the first national and local
elections held in 1945 in which the list of candidates included
non-Party people, lists have been restricted to Party members only.
Veterans of Hoxha's partisan forces of the so-called War of National
Liberation still predominate among candidates for office.
A similar situation prevails with regard to the appointment of
government officials. After each national election, the People's
Assembly has appointed a new government. The procedure for this
appointment has never varied: at the first meeting of the new People's
Assembly the Party First Secretary has submitted for approval the list
of the new ministers, which invariably has received unanimous approval.
Because of purges in the top echelons of the Party, especially in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, the government list has undergone several
changes. Since the elimination of the pro-Yugoslav faction in 1948,
however, these changes have affected mostly the technical and economic
ministries. The three key posts in the government, however--namely,
those of prime minister, minister of the interior, and minister of
defense--have been consistently held by Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu or
their trusted lieutenants.
The appointment of all government officials as well as the managers of
the state economic enterprises rested formally with the agencies
involved, but no official has been appointed without the prior approval
of the appropriate Party organization. In reality, all key positions are
held by Party cadres who have been selected and appointed by the Party
district or city committees. The Party statute empowers the basic Party
organizations in all governmental organs and economic enterprises to
check and guide the activities of all officials and to see that they are
properly oriented in the political and ideological fields. The prime
requisite in filling these positions is Party loyalty.
Party Schools
In 1970 the Party operated a number of schools and courses for its
cadres as well as three research and study institutes, attached to the
Central Committee. The highest school was the V.I. Lenin Institute,
headed by Fiqrete Shehu, wife of the prime minister. It was attended by
the higher and more promising Party members.
The three Party institutes were the Institute of Marxist-Leninist
Studies, headed by Nexhmije Hoxha, wife of Enver Hoxha; the Institute of
Party History, headed by Ndreci Plasari, who was also editor in chief of
the Party's theoretical monthly, _Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path); and the
Institute for Economic Studies, under the direction of Myqerem Fuga. In
addition, there were a number of secondary Party schools for training
low-level Party functionaries and one-year schools for refresher
ideological courses, attended both by Party officials and leaders of
mass organizations.
The Party also operated intermittently, as the need arose, political
courses and study groups for its activists and propagandists. In 1969,
for example, more than 20,000 study centers were organized throughout
the country for the study of the official, newly published _History of
the Workers' Party of Albania_. The teaching program of all the Party
schools and study centers included such topics as the importance of
Communist education; the origins and development of Communist morality;
socialist attitudes toward work and property; the importance of
patriotic education; the history, theories, and tactics of the
international Communist movement; and the history and statutes of the
Party.
Mass Organizations
In its exercise of power and control over every phase of the people's
lives, the Party also utilizes several mass, or social, organizations,
the most important of which are the Democratic Front, the Union of
Albanian Working Youth, the Union of Albanian Women, and the United
Trade Unions of Albania. In a speech at the Fourth Congress of the
Democratic Front held in September 1967, Enver Hoxha said that the mass
organizations, as components of the system of the dictatorship of the
proletariat were "levers of the Party for its ties with the masses" and
that they carried out their political, executive, and organizational
work in such a way as to enable the Party directives to be correctly
understood and implemented by all segments of the population.
Party Secretary Hysni Kapo, in a speech delivered at a Party seminar in
January 1970, declared that the Party carried out its mission through
its own organizations and through the activities of its "levers, the
mass organizations, such as the trade unions, youth, Democratic Front,
women's, and the people's councils," thus revealing that even the
people's councils were mere Party levers. By relying on these powerful
levers, Kapo added, the Party guaranteed its links with the masses and
obtained their support for its policies. He remarked further that,
although there were not Communists in every family in the country,
everyone in the family belonged to some kind of organization.
The Party has set the implementation of its line as a general primary
goal for all mass organizations. Considered as powerful Party levers,
they are required to convey the Party line to the people and to bring to
the Party the people's attitudes and grievances. As Party instruments
they must mobilize, organize, and orient the people during the process
of the building of socialism. The mass organizations also assist the
Party in its control over the administration and management of state
enterprises and initiate new actions and new movements in all work
centers.
The Party places particular importance on the Union of Albanian Working
Youth, described officially in such terms as the "greatest revolutionary
force of inexhaustible strength," a "strong fighting reserve of the
Party," and a "vital force of our revolution." According to the Party
statute, the union operates directly under the guidance of the Party,
and the union's local organizations are guided and checked by the
appropriate district or city Party committees. Organized in the same way
as the Party, the union has parallel basic organizations, district and
city committees, a Central Committee, a Politburo, and a Central Control
and Auditing Commission. In 1967 official reports credited the youth
organization with 210,000 members, ranging in age from fifteen to
twenty-five and, in a few cases, even older.
The main function of the union is to select and prepare future Party
members. It is also required by the Party to control all Pioneer
organizations, which embrace all children from seven to fourteen years
of age; to see to it that all Party directives and policies are
implemented by the country's youth, especially in schools and in
military units; and to mobilize the youth into so-called voluntary labor
brigades to work on production projects. The Party often gives the union
special storm trooper or Red Guard types of missions to perform. For
example, in February 1967 Enver Hoxha assigned to the organization the
mission of shutting down all places of worship in the country; within a
period of a few months, the union had accomplished its mission.
The Democratic Front, successor to the National Liberation Front, was
defined by Enver Hoxha, who has headed it since 1945 and was still its
president in 1970, as the greatest political revolutionary organization
of the Albanian people and as a powerful weapon of the Party for the
political union of the people. In 1970 the Democratic Front continued to
be a key element in the Party's control mechanism. Considered officially
as the broadest mass organization, it was supposed to give expression to
the political views of the entire population and to serve as a school
for mass political education.
The tasks and objectives of the Democratic Front, as set forth in its
statute and as constantly reiterated by Party leaders, include the
strengthening of political unity among the people and the mobilizing of
the people for the implementation of Party policies. The spreading of
the Marxist-Leninist ideology is also a task of the front, as is the
purging of any attitudes that are considered backward and reactionary.
In essence, the front is an instrument of the Party, expressly designed
for the political control of the entire population. Enver Hoxha declared
in a speech to the Fourth Congress of the Democratic Front in 1967 that
all citizens over age eighteen were members of the front, including
Party members and members of all other mass organizations.
The Union of Albanian Women is also referred to as a powerful weapon of
the Party. The union, headed in 1970 by Vito Kapo, wife of Secretary of
the Party Central Committee Hysni Kapo, controls and supervises the
political and social activities of the country's women, handles their
ideological training, and spearheads the Party's campaign for the
emancipation of women. The campaign was launched by Hoxha in June 1967
and renewed in October 1969 in a Hoxha speech to the Party Central
Committee.
The Union of Albanian Women, according to reports by visitors has a good
record of assistance to the Party in making legal, economic, and social
equality for women a reality. By 1970 women shared responsibility in the
government at all levels, had entered all the professions, and worked
side by side with men for equal pay in most occupations.
By 1967 the union was able to boast that more than 284,000 women took
part in production in some way, mostly in industrial plants and
agricultural collectives. In the same year there were about 40 women,
out of a total of 240 deputies, in the People's Assembly; 1,878 women in
the people's councils; and 1,170 in the people's courts.
Since 1967 task forces of women from the cities have been dispatched to
tour backward regions, particularly the highlands, explaining the
Party's line on the emancipation of Albanian women. Reforms such as
giving women equal rights to inherit property, an equal voice in the
people's councils, and equal political rights, however, have created
considerable hostility in a country where man has traditionally been the
master of the family.
The tasks of the United Trade Unions are similar to those of the
Democratic Front, albeit on a more limited scale. During ceremonies in
February 1970 marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of
the trade unions, it was stated that they were created by the Party,
that they had since struggled to implement the Party line, and that they
recognized the Party leadership as the "decisive factor of their force
and vitality." It was stated further that they were created jointly with
the dictatorship of the proletariat for its consolidation and defense
and as an important component part of this dictatorship.
In a conference in Tirana on February 10, 1970, Gogo Nushi, then
president of the trade unions, boasted that they had become powerful
levers of the Party in implementing the Party line among all the
country's workers, who had grown from some 30,000 in February 1945 to
about 400,000 in February 1970. At the same conference Politburo member
Adil Carcani, in a speech dealing with the functions of the trade
unions, attributed to them the task of exercising control over all
workers.
Other duties and responsibilities of the trade unions in 1970, according
to Tonin Jakova, General Secretary of the General Council of the United
Trade Unions of Albania, were to carry out the political and ideological
education of the workers; to influence all the other strata of the
population so that the class ideology should gradually become the sole
ideology of the society; to broaden their control and sphere of action
in all fields of life--political, ideological, cultural, artistic,
social, economic, and educational; to increase labor productivity by
increasing work norms; and to struggle against old traditions and
backward customs, with emphasis on religious beliefs. In listing the
duties and responsibilities of the trade unions not a word was said
about their safeguarding the interests of the workers, such as improving
their living and bargaining with the management.
Organizationally, the United Trade Unions of Albania was composed in
1970 of three general unions--the Trade Union of Workers of Industry and
Construction, consisting of workers in industry, mines, construction,
and transportation; the Trade Union of Workers of Education and Trade,
made up of the workers in the state administration, trade, health,
education, and culture; and the Trade Union of Workers of Agriculture
and Procurements, composed of workers in agriculture, forestry, and
procurements. Over 2,000 individual trade union organizations existed in
enterprises, factories, plants, offices, schools, and other work
centers and cultural and social institutions.
In the exercise of political power through the Party, the mass
organizations, the state organs, and the security and armed forces, the
Tirana rulers have consistently followed Stalinist methods of rule. In
major policy speeches these rulers have in recent years often praised
Stalin's political system and have consistently attempted to emulate it
in Albania. As _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People) phrased it on
April 13, 1963, "without reinstating Stalin and his work, [throughout
the Communist world] our revolutionary movement and the cause of
Marxism-Leninism can make no headway."
FOREIGN RELATIONS
After centuries of foreign domination, Albania in 1912 was ill prepared
for independence, and the chaos brought by the Balkan wars and by World
War I allowed little opportunity for the development of statehood. One
of its first moves in foreign relations was to secure support for its
independence from some of the great powers of Europe. In the years
between World War I and World War II, Albanian foreign policy was
dominated by the Italians.
In the years immediately after World War II, Albania was a satellite of
Yugoslavia, which in turn was a satellite of the Soviet Union. This
situation deprived Albania of any initiative in foreign affairs, and it
remained out of the mainstream of Eastern European affairs until 1948,
when ties with Yugoslavia were broken and Albania became a full-fledged
satellite of the Soviet Union. Albania's position vis-à-vis the other
satellite countries was improved when it came under the direct tutelage
of the Soviet Union; it then became the recipient of economic aid,
military assistance, and military and economic advisers, not only from
its powerful sponsor but also from the other Communist nations. In time
it also became a member of the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Economic
Mutual Assistance.
Soviet influence in Albanian affairs was pervasive from 1948 to 1960
but, from a material point of view, Albania benefited from the
relationship. The Soviets canceled a large debt and sent aid and
advisers to help develop the backward Albania economy. Internally, the
ruling elite, headed by Enver Hoxha, maintained a rigid regime of the
Stalinist type. In foreign affairs the country became a cold war
participant completely accepting directions from Moscow.
Its thirteen years as a Soviet satellite were years of turmoil for
Albania, particularly after the death of Joseph Stalin and the rise of
Nikita Khrushchev to the Soviet leadership. Khrushchev's policy of
seeking a rapprochement with Yugoslavia worried both Hoxha, the Party
leader, and Shehu, the premier, because of the difficulties they had
encountered in purging their Party of a strong pro-Yugoslav faction
while in the process of securing their own positions of power. In the
Albanian view Stalin had been a great hero, and Tito of Yugoslavia, a
great villain. Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin and wooing of Tito
brought consternation to Tirana, but reliance on Soviet aid apparently
tempered Albanian reactions.
During the 1950s the Albanian leadership, coaxed by Moscow, made some
attempts at restoring normal relations with Yugoslavia. After the riots
in Poland and the revolt in Hungary in 1956, however, the Albanians
raised strident voices against Yugoslavia's so-called revisionism--that
is the alleged perversion of Marxism-Leninism--which they asserted was
the basis for the troubles afflicting Eastern Europe. According to
official Albanian dogma the two greatest evils in the world were
revisionism and imperialism, personified, respectively, by Yugoslavia
and the United States. Toward the end of the 1950s it became apparent to
Hoxha and Shehu that they were closer ideologically to Peking than to
Moscow, and only the latter's economic aid prevented an open break.
In 1960, as Khrushchev sought to line up Communist parties for a
condemnation of Communist China, Albania refused to participate and, by
the end of the year, the Soviet-Albanian dispute was made known openly.
By the end of 1961 diplomatic relations between the two countries were
severed, Soviet aid ceased, and Soviet advisers and technicians left
Albania, to be replaced by those of Communist China. Although not
formally breaking off diplomatic relations, the other Eastern European
Communist countries also halted aid programs and withdrew advisers.
Khrushchev then became the object of violent attacks in the Albanian
press, being castigated as more of a revisionist than Tito. Khrushchev
counterattacked to defend himself but, in addition, used Albania as a
proxy for violent propaganda blasts that were obviously directed against
the Chinese Communists.
After the final break with the Soviet Union, Albania entered the third
stage of its Communist existence--the alliance with Communist China.
Stages one and two had been as a satellite, first of Yugoslavia and then
of the Soviet Union. In stage three, if not a satellite, it was a client
of a powerful sponsor. Albania, throughout the 1960s and into 1970,
continued to require the economic support of an outside power. Communist
China has provided that support, though apparently on a much reduced
scale.
In return for Chinese support the Albanians accept the Chinese view of
world affairs and speak for their sponsor in Eastern Europe and in the
United Nations. Albania successfully defied Moscow, but its internal and
international positions remained weak. In 1968 Hoxha withdrew his
country from the Warsaw Pact in protest against the invasion of
Czechoslovakia, but this was primarily a symbolic move because Albania
had not participated in Warsaw Pact affairs since 1961.
By 1970 Albania was attempting to normalize relations with its Balkan
neighbors, but its main propaganda thrusts continued to be against
revisionism and imperialism. Overtures toward both Greece and Yugoslavia
were made in 1970, which may indicate that the Hoxha regime recognized
the futility and danger of an isolationist policy. Official attitudes
toward the Soviet Union remained as they had been for ten
years--strident and abusive--but better relations were being sought
among Eastern European nations as well as with some non-Communist
states. Seemingly the regime recognized that Communist China was a
distant ally, that the Chinese could not support the Albanian economy,
and that, if Albania was to remain a viable national entity, it would
have to relate to its European neighbors and, in effect, become a part
of Europe.
CHAPTER 7
COMMUNICATIONS AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Information channels in 1970 were relatively well developed compared
with those of the pre-World War II period. The press was the most
advanced, although by 1970 a substantial radio network existed.
Throughout the 1960s there was only a single experimental television
transmitter, at the end of 1969, however, the government reportedly
requested the French to install a television system.
The press and radio were indispensable instruments in the efforts of the
Albanian Workers' Party (Communist Party) to revolutionize all aspects
of life. To supplement the formal channels, there were several thousand
Party activists who orally transmitted the Party line to the people on a
more personal and informal level.
The various aspects of culture, such as literature, art, music, and
drama, were also structured to promote the goals of the Party. They have
been used extensively to promote support among the masses for the Party
and its principles, to combat religion, and generally to increase the
political and social consciousness of the people.
The guidelines set forth by the Party for all writers and artists to
follow in their creative endeavors are the principles of socialist
realism. The general definition of this approach to art and literature
is that the form of creative works must be national, but their content
must be socialist. The principle of art for art's sake has been rejected
by the Communist leaders. All cultural developments must reflect the
efforts to create a socialist society.
The information media are controlled by the Party directly or indirectly
through the government and such organizations as labor unions, youth
groups, and cultural societies. Private ownership of such media has been
prohibited since the Communist regime came to power.
NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE INFORMATION MEDIA
The media are invaluable instruments for the achievement of the goals of
the Communist leaders. When the Communist regime came to power in
November 1944, it seized control of all such media, although they were
not formally nationalized until 1946. From the outset, the press and
radio were used to justify and extend Communist rule. In general, the
function of the media has been to propagate Marxist-Leninist ideology,
as modified to relate to the specific conditions in Albania, and to
liquidate the traditional religious, social, and economic beliefs of the
people (see ch. 4, The People; ch. 2, Historical Setting).
The functions of the media have remained essentially unchanged
throughout the twenty-six years of rule by the Albanian Workers' Party.
The leaders have used the media extensively in their efforts to
revolutionize all aspects of the national life. In this connection,
there are many specific functions performed by the press and radio that
generally fall into the categories of education, organization, and
control.
The first functional category has two aspects: the press and radio are
instruments of political and social indoctrination, and they help to
raise the educational and cultural levels of the masses. In practice,
however, these two aspects are often combined--that is, in the process
of education, Marxist-Leninist ideology is usually interjected. In
general, the educational function has been performed by conducting
campaigns against illiteracy and ignorance, encouraging maximum
utilization of the educational and cultural facilities set up throughout
the country, and making literary works accessible to the population (see
ch. 5, Social System).
The media, in the final analysis, are used to saturate the population
with Marxist-Leninist ideology. The content of the media--whether it is
news, music, or literature--is structured to promote the goals of the
Party and designed to further the building of a Communist society. In
order to facilitate ideological indoctrination, content is devised to
appeal to sentiments of Albanian nationalism. The development of
communism, for example, is related to the theme of developing the nation
and preserving its independence; and Enver Hoxha, the Party leader, is
quoted as frequently as are Marx and Lenin.
One of the most important uses of the press and radio, which falls into
the category of organization, has been to mobilize the people actively
to support, and participate in, the implementation of specific policies,
such as the fulfillment of economic plans or antireligious campaigns.
Often, in conjunction with mobilization campaigns, the media are used to
transmit specific information that is necessary for the implementation
of various aspects of the policies. In the economic sphere, for example,
discussions of industrial processes or agriculture often appear in the
press.
The media are also means of Party control over officials at all levels
of the government and the Party hierarchies, as well as over the
population in general. This function is performed primarily through
exposure of corruption, negligence, and inefficiency on the part of
various officials or workers or by issuing warnings against such crimes
and behavior. In addition, the press and radio are channels through
which the top leaders issue directives or communicate changes in the
Party line to the lower level administrators and activists throughout
the country.
The importance of the pervasive role of the press was stressed in the
following statement by Enver Hoxha that was quoted in the December 1965
issue of _Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path): "Without the press there can be
no education of the masses; without the press there can be no
conscientious mobilization of them, organization, nor solution to the
problems of the economic and cultural construction in the new socialist
society." Although the article dealt specifically with the press, it can
be assumed that the role assigned to it also pertains to the other media
of communication.
The functions assigned to the media necessitate strict control over
their operation and content by the Party. Although there appears to be
no formal institution for censorship, an elaborate system was created
whereby the Party leaders could maintain the necessary control either
directly or indirectly through the government and mass organizations.
Fragmentary information suggests that the Party leaders have several
mechanisms for the maintenance of control over the dissemination of
information. Within the Party there is a hierarchical organization that
implements decisions made by the Party leaders concerning public
information and propaganda activities. It is headed by the Directorate
of Agitation and Propaganda, which is directly under the Central
Committee of the Party. The directorate is divided into various
functional sectors, for example, one dealing with the press. Throughout
the Party and government hierarchies, as well as in the mass
organizations, there are sections for agitation and propaganda that are
directed by the central directorate.
The Political Bureau (Politburo), the highest decision-making body of
the Albanian Workers' Party, formulates policy concerning ideological
indoctrination and the use of the media of mass communication. The
Directorate of Agitation and Propaganda coordinates the implementation
of such policy (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System).
Perhaps the most effective control mechanism is that which is built into
the Party structure and in the Party's relationship to the government
and to society in general. The media are formally owned and operated by
the government with the exception of the Party press and publications of
the mass organizations. Since all government officials are members of
the Party or its front organization, the Democratic Front, and since the
mass organizations are dominated by Party members, Party supervision of
all publications is assured. Radio broadcasters, film directors and
editors, administrators and editors of the publishing houses,
journalists, and newspaper editors are also Party members.
Thus all individuals who work with the mass media, either directly or
indirectly, are subject to Party discipline. Failure to adhere to
directives from the Politburo is a crime against the Party, and
punishment for such crimes can be severe (see ch. 6, Government
Structure and Political System).
To supplement the formal media of communication, there are about 25,000
Party agitators who propagandize among the masses. These agitators work
in factories, villages, neighborhoods, and on farms with the objective
of bringing the Party line to every individual. Besides explaining the
content of the press and radio to the people, the agitators conduct
courses, present lectures, and guide discussions on Party history, the
oppressiveness of religion, friendship with Communist China, Soviet
revisionism, and other such topics. For example, in the weekly meetings
held for women, emphasis is placed upon how religion causes
discrimination against them.
In the factories the agitators explain the Party line to their coworkers
and rally them to compete to outproduce each other, a practice called
socialist competition. Agitators in rural areas are usually of peasant
origin and consequently are better able to gain the trust of the
peasantry. They explain the Party line to them in a manner that is
relevant to local conditions and mobilize them to produce their quotas.
The agitators also sponsor cultural and sports activities, such as
organizing trips to museums and arranging for athletic events. When new
laws are passed, the agitators explain them to the masses in terms that
they will understand. Before elections the agitators mobilize the people
to go out and vote, even though there is only one candidate on the
ballot.
To aid the agitators in their work, the _Agitators' Notebook_ is
published monthly listing the various points of the Party line which do
change from time to time. The agitators also have books, pamphlets,
pictures, and films to facilitate the indoctrination of the masses. In
addition to the activities of the agitators, the Statutes of the
Albanian Workers' Party require that all Party members work to educate
the masses in Marxist-Leninist ideology. The same requirement is made
of the members of the Union of Albanian Working Youth.
THE PRESS
The press is the most developed of the information media. According to
official statistics, in 1967 there were nineteen newspapers and
thirty-four periodicals as compared with six and fifteen, respectively,
in 1938. Circulation figures per issue for all newspapers and
periodicals are not available, but the government statistics indicate
that total circulation for newspapers increased by about sixteen times
between 1938 and 1967, and the figures for periodicals indicate a
sixfold increase for the same period.
Most publications originate in Tirana, although during the 1960s the
regime began to establish local newspapers. Information on the press is
sparse, and it is difficult to ascertain how many publications were in
circulation in 1970; there are indications that new publications were
added, while others were consolidated after 1967.
There are three daily newspapers, all of which are published in Tirana
(see table 7). _Zeri i Popullit_ (The Voice of the People) is published
by the Central Committee of the Albanian Workers' Party, and in 1967 it
had a daily circulation of 86,000. _Bashkimi_ (Union) is published by
the Democratic Front and is the mouthpiece of the government. It had a
daily circulation of 20,000 in 1967. _Puna_ (Work) is the daily
newspaper of the Central Council of the United Trade Unions of Albania.
In 1967 it reportedly had a circulation of 18,000. _Zeri i Rinise_ (The
Voice of Youth), a twice weekly newspaper of the Central Committee of
the Union of Albanian Working Youth, had a circulation of 36,000 in
1967.
Circulation figures do not necessarily give an accurate picture,
however, because many of the subscriptions are held by institutions,
libraries, and cultural houses rather than by individuals. Factories,
farms, schools, and other institutions have reading rooms with
subscriptions to newspapers and magazines. In addition, the Party
agitators frequently read articles aloud to groups. Thus there is
greater exposure to the press than the circulation figures indicate.
Local newspapers are all published by the local Party committees.
Examples of such newspapers are: _Jeta e Re_ (New Life), published in
Shkoder; _Perpara_ (Forward), published in Korce; _Pararoja_ (Vanguard),
published in Gjirokaster; and _Adriatic_, which is published in Durres.
These newspapers have been assigned the function of explaining Party
policies in relation to the specific conditions found in the various
localities. They also propagandize against religion and such so-called
crimes as laziness and indifference. Local newspapers give a great deal
of attention to the economic, social, cultural, and political problems
that are specific to their districts.
_Table 7. Selected Albanian Newspapers, 1967_
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Newspaper Frequency Publisher Circulation
--------------------------------------------------------------------
_Zeri i Popullit_ daily Central Committee 86,000
(The Voice of the of the Albanian
People) Workers' Party
_Bashkimi_ do. Democratic Front 20,000
(Union)
_Puna_ do. Central Council 18,000
(Work) of Albanian Trade
Unions
_Zeri i Rinise_ twice Central Committee 36,000
(The Voice of the weekly of the Union of
Youth) Albanian Working
Youth
_Jeta e Re_ n.a. Shkoder Party n.a.
(New Life) Committee
_Perpara_ n.a. Korce Party n.a.
(Forward) Committee
_Pararoja_ n.a. Gjirokaster Party n.a.
(Vanguard) Committee
_Adriatic_ n.a. Durres Party n.a.
(Adriatic) Committee
----------------------------------------------------------------------
n.a.--not available.
In addition to the local newspapers there are wall newspapers, or flash
bulletins, as they began to be called after the 1966 initiation of the
so-called Cultural Revolution in the Party drive to rekindle among the
people a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary spirit. These wall newspapers
are usually single sheets that are posted on bulletin boards in
factories, farms, schools, offices, cultural houses, and other such
places. They are usually written by either the Party agitators or
members of the youth organization, and they serve the same purposes as
the formal press--that is, agitation for increased productivity by
workers and peasants, antireligious campaigns, and so on (see ch. 6,
Government Structure and Political System).
The periodical press is as important as the newspaper press and is
slightly more diversified. The number of periodicals published grew from
fifteen in 1938 to thirty-four in 1967. In 1967 there were almost twice
as many periodicals published as newspapers. Thus it is possible to
design many of the periodicals for consumption by specific audiences.
The Party, many government ministries, and each of the various mass
organizations publish periodicals (see table 8). _Rruga e Partise_
(Party Path) is the theoretical journal of the Party and is published by
its Central Committee. _Ylli_ (Star) is the monthly illustrated review
that supplements _Zeri i Popullit_. It was first published in 1960.
_Table 8. Selected Albanian Periodicals, 1967_
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title Publisher
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
_Arsimi Popullor_ Ministry of Education and Culture
(People's Education)
_Bujqesia Socialiste_ Ministry of Agriculture
(Socialist Agriculture)
_Buletin i Shkencave High Agricultural Institute
Bujqesore_
(Bulletin of Agricultural
Sciences)
_Drita_ Union of Albanian Artists and Writers
(Light)
_Fatosi_ Central Committee of the Union of
(The Brave One) Albanian Working Youth
_Hosteni_ Union of Journalists
(The Goad)
_Kultura Popullore_ Ministry of Education and Culture
(People's Culture)
_Llaiko Vima_ Democratic Front (in Greek)
(The People's Voice)
_Luftetari_ Ministry of Defense
(The Warrior)
_Mesuesi_ Ministry of Education and Culture
(The Teacher)
_Nendori_ Union of Albanian Artists and Writers
(November)
_Pionieri_ Central Committee of the Union of
(The Pioneer) Albanian Working Youth
_Rruga e Partise_ Central Committee of the Albanian
(Party Path) Workers' Party
_Shqiperia e Re_ Committee for Foreign Cultural Relations
(New Albania) (in Albanian, Chinese, English, French,
and Russian)
_Shqiptarja e Re_ Union of Albanian Women
(The New Albanian Woman)
_Sporti Popullor_ General Council of the Union of the
(People's Sport) Federation of Sports of Albania
_Teknika_ Ministry of Industry
(Technology)
_Tregetija Popullore_ Ministry of Commerce
(People's Trade)
_Ylli_ Central Committee of the Albanian
(Star) Workers' Party
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Adapted from _Europa Year Book, 1969_, London, pp. 457-458.
The Albanian Telegraphic Agency (Agjencia Telegrafike Shqipetare) is
government controlled and the only source of news, both domestic and
foreign. It supplies all national and local newspapers with news items,
as well as radio stations and the single television station. The agency
has agreements with foreign news agencies for the exchange of news
items.
RADIO AND TELEVISION
The radio is another important instrument of political and social
indoctrination. It was barely in existence when the Communist regime
came to power. In 1945 there were only two radio transmitters in the
entire country. Since that time the radio system has been developing
rapidly, although it still lags behind the press. In 1969 there were
fifty-two radio transmitters, and in 1968 there were 150,000 receivers.
The radio system is under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of
Radiobroadcasting, which is under the Council of Ministers. In
actuality, however, the Party is in control because the members of the
directorate, as well as all personnel involved in radio broadcasting,
are Party members.
All but eight of the transmitters are shortwave, which is indicative of
the emphasis placed upon transmitting propaganda abroad. Broadcasts from
mediumwave transmitters, however, are directed to the countries of
Eastern Europe, parts of the Soviet Union, Italy, and some Arab
countries. Shortwave is used for domestic programs in cases where the
mountainous topography creates an obstacle to the mediumwaves.
There are only six radio stations in Albania (see table 9). Radio Tirana
is the largest, with four mediumwave transmitters and forty-one
shortwave transmitters. Radio Gjirokaster and Radio Korce each have only
one mediumwave transmitter. Radio Kukes and Radio Shkoder each have one
mediumwave and one shortwave transmitter. Radio Stalin has only one
shortwave transmitter. Radio Tirana broadcasts all of the programs
directed abroad and has the most powerful transmitter (50,000 watts) for
domestic programs, whereas local transmitters usually have only 200-watt
power. Quite possibly the local stations simply relay programs from
Radio Tirana.
The domestic service is on the air 13-½ hours daily and 17 hours on
Sundays. In 1969 domestic programs were scheduled between 4:30 and 7:00
A.M. and 11:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. daily. The Sunday schedule was from
5:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. Included in the domestic programs were twelve
daily newscasts, children's programs, theatrical presentations,
operettas, and other types of cultural programs.
Foreign broadcasting is done in seventeen different languages and on
five beams directed to Latin America, North America, Africa, Asia, and
Australia. Besides Albanian, the foreign broadcasts are made in Arabic,
Bulgarian, Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian,
Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and
Spanish.
_Table 9. Albanian Radio Stations, 1969_
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Number of
Station Transmitters Shortwave Mediumwave
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Radio Gjirokaster 1 ... 1
Radio Korce 1 ... 1
Radio Kukes 2 1 1
Radio Shkoder 2 1 1
Radio Stalin 1 1 ...
Radio Tirana 45 41 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Adapted from Foreign Broadcast Information Service,
_Broadcasting Stations of the World_, Part I: Amplitude
Modulation Broadcasting Stations According to Country and City,
Washington, September 1, 1969.
As late as the end of 1967 the Albanian government reportedly was not
jamming broadcasts from abroad. This probably was not because of a
relaxed attitude on the part of the ruling elite; rather, it was more
likely because of the lack of technology necessary for jamming
operations and the expense involved.
In 1964 the Albanian government published statistics on the distribution
of radio receivers by social composition. The categories of "workers,"
"employees," and "peasants" were not explicated; however, it can be
assumed that workers refer to blue-collar workers or manual laborers and
that employees refer to white-collar workers or office, administrative,
and professional personnel. In 1963, out of a total of 70,913 radio
receivers, 28,672 were owned by workers, 30,391 were owned by employees,
and 6,303 were owned by peasants. Clubs and institutional enterprises
held 1,236 receivers, and 4,311 were listed under the heading "other."
The Albanians opened their first television station for experimentation
in May 1960. At the end of 1969 they were still experimenting,
transmitting programs three times a week. The government had reportedly
asked the French to install a television network at the end of 1969. At
that time there were about 2,100 television receivers in the country.
BOOK PUBLISHING AND LIBRARIES
There were three book-publishing enterprises in 1970, all of which were
located in Tirana. Ndermarja e botimeve ushtarake (Enterprise for
Military Publications) was operated by the Ministry of National Defense.
N.I.S.H. Shtypshkronjave "Mihal Duri" (State Printer "Mihal Duri") was
operated by the Party, and Shtepia Botonjese "Naim Frasheri" (State
Publishing House "Naim Frasheri") was directed by the Ministry of
Education and Culture. Ndermaja Shteterore Tregetimit te Librit (The
Book Selling State Enterprise), located in Tirana, had a monopoly over
the distribution of books under the direction of the Ministry of
Education and Culture.
According to official Albanian statistics, there were 628 books
published in 1967, with a total of 5,605,000 copies printed. This is a
great increase over the number published in 1938: 61 books with a total
of 183,000 copies printed.
According to the latest statistics available, a total of 502 books were
published in 1965, of which 110 were literary works. Another 197 dealt
with the social sciences; 42, with philology; 61, with pure science; 47,
with the applied sciences; and 24, with geography and history. It was
not indicated how many of these titles were first editions or how many
were translations. In 1966, 140 translations from abroad were published,
of which 72 dealt with the social sciences, 57 were literary works, 10
were pure science books, and 1 dealt with applied science.
Because books are an additional channel for propaganda, foreign works to
be translated into Albanian are carefully scrutinized. Literary works
must be of the sort that portray the ills and conflicts within
capitalist societies. Often, although a literary work might be generally
ideologically acceptable, parts of it are unacceptable. In such cases,
the book is carefully edited and abridged before publication in the
Albanian language is permitted.
Scientific and technical literature from abroad, on the other hand, is
actively sought for translation. On December 21, 1967, the Council of
Ministers issued a decision "On the Assurance, Publication,
Organization, and Massive Utilization of Technical-Scientific
Literature" from abroad. In this decision, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs was called upon to devise new ways for obtaining such literature
through its embassies and through international organizations. Once the
foreign works are obtained, the decision stresses that their
translations must be of the best quality. Such translations are done
under the direction of the Ministry of Education and Culture.
There are numerous libraries of varying sizes throughout the country.
Official sources report that in 1967 there were twenty-nine people's
libraries with a total of 1,367,000 volumes, compared with only five
such libraries in 1938 with a total of 12,000 volumes. The largest of
these libraries is the National Library in Tirana, which in the late
1960s had 450,000 volumes. The second largest library is the University
Library, also in Tirana, which in the late 1960s had 321,680 volumes and
19,640 periodicals.
Each district has at least one library. The local libraries are on a
much smaller scale than those in Tirana in terms of their total number
of volumes. In addition to the district libraries, there are several
hundred houses of culture, cultural circles, and clubs that subscribe to
the libraries in order to make books more accessible to the population.
CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Intellectual and Artistic Expression
In 1944, when the Communist regime came to power, there was little or no
heritage in the various areas of cultural activity--literature, music,
drama, or painting and sculpture--upon which the Communist leaders could
build. Since the end of World War II, however, a consistent effort has
been made to foster the growth of an Albanian cultural tradition and to
generally raise the cultural level of the people. Writers and artists
are supported by the state, and cultural institutions have been
established throughout the country to ensure maximum cultural exposure
of the masses. In 1967 there were 35 houses of culture in cities, 395 in
villages, and 1,266 cultural circles throughout the country. In
addition, there were 24 national museums and 25 local museums.
The various cultural institutions sponsor plays, concerts, and literary
readings; subscribe to libraries; arrange trips to museums; and direct
other such activities. Often courses in the arts, such as music lessons,
are conducted. The activities of the houses of culture and the cultural
circles are not restricted to cultural recreation, however. They also
have been assigned the general task of educating the masses.
Special cadres of culture are trained to direct the cultural
institutions. Their preparation extends beyond the realm of culture to
Marxism-Leninism, however, and they are generally trained to enable them
to become involved in all aspects of the life of the community. The
various cultural institutions, while genuinely serving to expose the
masses to culture, are also important instruments of political and
social indoctrination.
In practice, the principles of socialist realism require that literary
and artistic works actively promote the goals of the Party and reflect
Communist ideology. Besides generally being "a weapon for the education
of the new man with the ideals of socialism and the principles of
Communist morality," literature, drama, music, and art must inspire
nationalism and allegiance to the Party and stimulate the people to work
toward fulfillment of Party plans, whether they are in the economic or
the social spheres. The criterion used to evaluate cultural works is the
degree to which they further the goals of the Party and socialist
development.
In conjunction with the initiation of the Cultural Revolution, Enver
Hoxha expounded upon the vital role of the various aspects of culture in
a speech to the Fifth Congress of the Albanian Workers' Party in
November 1966. The task set by the Party is that "literature and art
should become a powerful weapon in the hands of the Party for the
education of the working people in the spirit of socialism and
communism; that literature and art should stand at the vanguard of the
struggle for the education of a new generation ideologically and morally
pure; that all artistic creation should be of a high ideological level
and be permeated by both the Party's militant revolutionary spirit and a
healthy national spirit."
Such demands have been made of authors, artists, and musicians since the
inception of the Albanian People's Republic. Since 1966, however, when
the Cultural Revolution was initiated, the importance of culture has
received greater emphasis and the demands for ideological purity of all
creative works have increased. The Cultural Revolution was still in
motion as of the early months of 1970.
The dominant themes of Albanian culture under communism have concerned
the history of Albania, the struggle of the Communist-led partisans
during the War of National Liberation, and the transformation of the
backward, superstitious society into one that is modern and governed by
progressive, socialist principles. In the mid-1960s, however, the Party
called upon writers and artists to go beyond these themes and to portray
the contemporary struggles for the creation of socialism. Party guidance
stipulates that it is not enough to describe the past struggles and
achievements. The ongoing hardships faced by the peasants and workers
must be reflected in artistic works. The heroes are to be workers,
peasants, and engineers, as well as the partisans.
Throughout the period of the Cultural Revolution, artists and writers
have been going to the mountain villages, industrial centers, and
agricultural cooperatives to live for varying lengths of time. Living
and working with the people provides the writers and artists with
insights into the life and problems that the various types of people
must face. These experiences are designed to help them create themes
that reflect the contemporary developments more accurately and to make
cultural works more relevant to the masses.
Given the influential role of culture in society, it was imperative that
the Party establish strict control over all creative activities.
Authors, dramatists, musicians, and artists must belong to the Union of
Artists and Writers. This organization is nominally independent of the
Party, but in reality it is firmly under Party control. Another source
of control is the Ministry of Education and Culture, which has close
ties with the Directorate of Education and Culture under the Politburo
of the Party. Furthermore, all individuals involved in cultural pursuits
are dependent upon the state for their income as well as for the
financing of their various projects.
The twofold task of the Party leaders in the cultural field--that of
fostering cultural development while maintaining control over the
content of the cultural works--was difficult in many respects and easy
in others. The lack of a firmly established tradition in many cultural
fields, as well as the lack of a substantial cultural community,
facilitated the establishment of Party control. Writers and artists who
received their training under the Party's tutelage know only the
socialist realist approach. On the other hand, the lack of experience
and personnel in many fields, such as drama, meant that the developments
in these areas would be slow. Furthermore, the leaders were dependent
first upon the Yugoslavs and, after 1948, on the Soviets to train people
in the areas that were totally lacking in Albania's cultural heritage.
The paucity of artistic and intellectual achievements, compared with
those of other nations throughout the world, was basically the result of
Albania's long history of foreign domination and of the rugged
topography of the country, which facilitated the isolation of many
communities for centuries. During the several centuries of Turkish rule,
the Albanians were forbidden to develop a written language. Furthermore,
there were no schools that conducted classes in the Albanian language;
there were only Turkish schools for the Muslim population and Greek
schools for the Orthodox population. To compound these difficulties,
there are two major dialects of Albanian--Geg, spoken in the north, and
Tosk, in the south. Albania did not have a uniform alphabet until
November 1908, when a congress of intellectuals agreed upon the use of
the Latin alphabet. It was not until the Communist regime came to power
that it was decided that Tosk would be the official literary dialect
(see ch. 2, Historical Setting; ch. 3, Physical Environment; ch. 4, The
People).
An additional obstacle to the development of a substantial intellectual
and artistic community and tradition was the fact that until 1957 there
were no universities in the country. The State University of Tirana,
Albania's only university, was not established until that year. Before
World War II Albanian students went abroad, primarily to Western Europe,
in the pursuit of higher education. After World War II students were
usually sent to the Soviet Union or other Eastern European countries to
attend universities and other institutions of higher learning (see ch.
5, Social System).
In 1970 there was still evidence that the Communist leaders were not
entirely satisfied with the cultural works produced in the past
twenty-six years. There were also indications that many creative works
were not ideologically pure. Few cultural works produced during the
Communist period are known in the West owing to Albania's virtual
isolation. Evaluation of literature, drama, music, and art can only be
made on the basis of criticism and praise of such works that appear in
the press.
Literature
Albania has a strong tradition of folklore, which had been transmitted
orally for several centuries. At the end of the nineteenth century and
in the early twentieth century, much of this lore was written down in
anthologies and collections. The folklore consists of heroic songs,
lyrics, tales, and proverbs. The predominant themes are the heroic feats
of the mountain tribes in the north against the Slavs across the border,
the important role of the Albanians in the Ottoman Empire, and the
glorious resistance led by the country's national hero, Gjergi
Skanderbeg, against the Turks in the fifteenth century. There are also a
large number of love songs and wedding songs found in the folk
tradition.
An oral tradition was also developed by the Albanians who had left their
homeland in the second half of the fifteenth century, during and
immediately after the wars against the Turks led by Skanderbeg. The
songs and poetry of the Italo-Albanians reflect fifteenth-century
Albanian society. The most important theme is the heroic resistance
against the Turks. There are also lyric songs that portray love for
one's mother and wife. Lyric songs were also developed in the Albanian
settlements in Greece, although less is known about them. There were no
heroic songs from this area until the nineteenth century when the
Albanian communities fought to preserve their independence and Orthodox
Christianity against Muslim incursions.
The first written literature found in Albania dates back to the
fifteenth century. Until the nineteenth century such literature was of a
religious nature. Nationalist literature was not developed until the
nineteenth century and, because of the restrictions imposed by the
Turks, such literature first appeared in the Albanian settlements
abroad. The most outstanding writer of the nineteenth century was Naim
Frasheri, who played an important role in the awakening of Albanian
nationalism.
The literature of the early twentieth century also was produced outside
Albania. The writers were instrumental in the development of the
movement for Albanian independence, and their works were increasingly
nationalistic. After independence was achieved in 1912, Albanian writers
were able to return to their country to work. Several volumes of lyric
poetry were produced by such people as P. Vincenc Prennushi, Dom Ndre
Mjeda, and Asdreni. Bishop Fan S. Noli lived in the United States most
of his life but made important contributions to Albanian literature. In
1907 he published a three-act play entitled _Israelites and
Philistines_, and he later translated several world renowned literary
works into Albanian, including Shakespeare's _Macbeth_, _Hamlet_, and
_Othello_; Ibsen's _Inger of Ostrat_; and Cervantes' _Don Quixote_.
In the 1920s and 1930s Albanian literary and philosophic periodicals
appeared both at home and abroad. The journal _Djaleria_ (Youth) was
published in Vienna by Albanian students. It was in this journal that
the poetry of Lasgush Poradeci first appeared, and his works made a
tremendous impact on Albanian youth. Two periodicals appeared in the
1930s, _Illyria_ and _Perpjekia Shqiptare_ (The Albanian Effort), which
reflected the intellectual fervor of the decade. New ideas were spread
throughout the country by students who returned from universities in
Italy, France, and Austria. The depression and Italian penetration of
Albania also incited intellectual ferment.
During World War II the Balli Kombetar (National Front), a democratic
resistance movement, was founded by Midhat Frasheri, a prominent
nationalist writer. The first resistance literature to be openly
published, however, was found in the periodical _Hylli i Drites_ (The
Star of Light), published by the Franciscan Brothers in Shkoder. The
Fascist occupation forced the publication of this review to cease in
1941. Beginning in 1942, clandestine resistance literature began to
increase in volume. It was published by the Balli Kombetar and by the
National Liberation Movement (Communist front organization).
After World War II literature came under the control of the Communist
regime and, consequently, all literary works were made to conform to the
principles of socialist realism. The predominant theme of literary works
in the early postwar period was the War of National Liberation. A few
works also dealt with the reconstruction after the years of ravaging
war. Among the writers of the early Communist period were the poets
Mark Ndoja, Llazar Siliqi, Gjergi Kominino, Ziza Cikuli, and Vehbi
Skenderi. Zihni Sako, Fatmir Gjata, and Jakov Xoxe wrote short stories.
During the 1944-48 period translations of Serbo-Croatian works were
published, and several books were translated from Russian. At the end of
1949 the Soviet Union and Stalin, in particular, became additional
themes for Albanian literature; after 1960 the Chinese were substituted
for Soviet heroes.
Theater and Cinema
There were no professional theaters before 1945. Sokrat Mijo, an
Albanian who had studied drama in Paris, tried to set up a professional
theater in the 1930s but was unable to generate interest in the project.
Occasionally, amateur groups performed plays, but that was the extent of
theatrical experience before the Communist era. The people objected to
the presence of women on the stage, and in most amateur performances men
played the feminine parts. The plays performed by the amateur groups
were primarily of a romantically patriotic nature.
The absence of repertory theaters did not inhibit the emergence of
Albanian playwrights and, although their works were rarely performed,
they did have readers. The first playwright to appear on Albanian
territory was Pasko Vasa Pasha, who wrote _The Jew's Son_. Pasha was
able to write in his native land because he lived in the city of
Shkoder, which was the only area to enjoy some immunity from the rigid
restrictions imposed by the Turks against cultural activity in Albania.
His play was produced in 1879 by an amateur group at Xaverian College.
Several playwrights emerged in the Albanian settlements abroad, and a
few within Albania, but their works had to be published abroad before
1912. Two of the most prominent of these writers were Sami Frasheri, who
wrote _Besa_ (The Pledge), and Kristo Floqi, who wrote _Religion and
Nationality_. Ernest Koliqi made significant contributions to Albanian
dramatic literature after independence was won.
The potential of the theater as an instrument of political and social
indoctrination was recognized by the Communist leaders, and in 1945 they
invited the president of the Society of Yugoslav Actors to come to
Albania to establish a professional theatrical group. With the aid of
Sokrat Mijo, who had become the director of the school of drama in
Tirana, such a group was formed. Their first performance, in September
1945, was a presentation of _The Lover_, which was adapted from a play
written by Yugoslav playwrights.
In 1949 a professional theater was created in Shkoder, and in 1950
another theater was founded in Korce. Since then numerous professional
and amateur groups have sprung up throughout the country. They perform
serious drama, comedies, variety shows, and puppet shows, the themes of
which must conform to the principles of socialist realism. In 1964 it
was reported that there were twenty-two professional drama and variety
theaters.
There is evidence that the lack of experience in the theatrical field
created problems for the political leaders' efforts to foster its
development. Periodically, articles appear in the press that criticize
various shortcomings in the production of drama and variety shows. The
targets of criticism range from content to the skills of the performers
to the management of the stage and theater.
Cinematography is another field that was not developed until after World
War II. There had been a joint Italian-Albanian company established in
Tirana during the Italian occupation that produced mostly documentary
films, but the film industry did not actually begin to develop until
1949 and 1950. The Soviet Union was instrumental in the foundation of
this industry, and it initially provided the Albanians with the
necessary equipment. Since that time great efforts have been made to
increase the number of films produced and to expand facilities for
showing them to the public.
A few full-length, artistic films are produced each year, and a greater
number of short films and documentaries are completed annually. Often
literary works are made into art films. Figures are not available as to
the exact number of each type of film produced. Films are also imported,
under the direction of the Ministry of Education and Culture, mostly
from Communist countries, although a few Western films are shown after
careful editing. The foreign films are usually dubbed into Albanian.
Few, if any, Albanian productions have been seen in the West.
The film industry has been nationalized since its inception. The
Ministry of Education and Culture controls the exhibition and
distribution of motion pictures. In 1967 there were 50,000 performances,
which were attended by about 8.25 million people.
Music
Albania has a rich tradition in folk music. Heroic and lyric songs,
usually accompanied by folk instruments, were passed down from
generation to generation over the centuries. In the mountains of the
north the _lahute_ (lute), which is a stringed instrument, is popular.
Other Albanian folk instruments are the _roja_, which is a bagpipe, and
the _tupan_, which is similar to a tambourine. Orchestras, called
_saze_, are found in many towns in the southern part of Albania. These
are usually composed of about five instruments and often provide music
for folk dances at weddings and on other special occasions.
Western music was first spread throughout the country in the 1920s by an
Albanian brass band that had received training in the United States.
After touring the larger towns, it established itself in Korce, giving
regular popular and classical concerts. The Royal Band was later
established in Tirana, whose repertoire consisted of Western music but,
generally, indigenous music predominated and Western music made little
impact.
Western-trained Albanian singers appeared in the mid-1930s. Tefta
Tashko, Gjorgjija Filce, and Maria Paluca were well-known sopranos who
sang both operatic music and folk tunes. Kristaq Antoniu began his
career as a tenor before World War II and continued it under the
Communist regime. Filce and Paluca also remained musical stars after
World War II.
Kristro Kono was the only composer of significance in pre-World War II
Albania. He remains a highly rated composer under the Communist regime.
In the 1950s he wrote several songs, some of which were dedicated to
Enver Hoxha and Stalin. Some of his orchestral pieces are "Fantazi
Shqiptare" (Albanian Fantasies) and "Agimi" (The Dawn). Konstantine
Trako is another popular composer of the Communist period.
The predominant musical creations are songs with lyrics because they are
effective means of inspiring patriotism and pro-Communist sentiments.
All activity in the musical field is controlled and supported by the
Party, primarily through the Union of Artists and Writers and the
Ministry of Education and Culture. There are state-supported music
academies and institutions for training in this field. Besides the many
local musical groups, there are the state-supported Opera and Ballet
Theater of Tirana and the Song and Dance Ensemble of Tirana (see ch. 5,
Social System).
Fine Arts
The first art school was established in Tirana in the 1930s. The
curriculum of this school did not go beyond the fundamentals of art and,
consequently, talented students had to go abroad. Vangjush Mijo and
Androniqi Zengo were the first to introduce modern art to Albania in the
form of impressionism. Mijo had studied in Italy and Zengo in Greece.
Odhise Paskal was the only notable sculptor of prewar Albania. He had
received his training in Florence. His creations include the Skanderbeg
monument in Tirana and the National Warrior monument in Korce. Paskal
and Zengo continued to work under the Communist regime.
Courses in the fine arts have increased since the end of World War II.
Artists and sculptors are supported by the state, and the main themes of
their creations are workers, peasants, partisan heroes, youth working on
agricultural and industrial projects, soldiers, and liberated women in
their various activities. Examples of artistic creations praised in the
Albanian press are: "High Revolutionary Spirit" by M. Dhrami, "The Adult
of the Republic" by K. Rama, and "The Partisans of the Revenge
Battalion" by S. Shijaku. Besides Paskal, J. Paco and A. Mana have been
cited as distinguished sculptors.
CHAPTER 8
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
In mid-1970 the economy, which is wholly controlled by the Albanian
Workers' Party, approached the conclusion of the Fourth Five-Year Plan,
during which it made a further advance along the road of industrialization,
in line with the totalitarian leadership's goal of transforming the
economy from the stage referred to as agricultural-industrial to a more
advanced industrial-agricultural level. The Fourth Five-Year Plan
(1966-70) actually called for a more rapid growth of agriculture than
that of industry and for an increase in the share of agriculture in the
national product by 1970. This departure from proclaimed policy was
dictated by the failure of agriculture to meet the goals of the Third
Five-Year Plan (1961-65) and by an overriding need to increase farm
production in order to reduce to the maximum extent possible the
perennial food deficit.
Despite government efforts, the five-year plan goals for agriculture are
not being achieved, even though substantial advances in production have
been made. The agricultural output target set by the annual plan for
1970 is significantly below the five-year plan figure for that year. By
contrast, the five-year plan goal for industrial output was reported to
have been surpassed in 1969 and to have been raised in the annual plan
for 1970 substantially above the original level.
The basic reasons for the failure to attain the planned farm output
targets, apart from their magnitude, lie in the difficulty of inducing
peasants to relinquish age-old traditions in favor of modern scientific
farming methods and of motivating them to work industriously in a
collective farm system that they strongly reject. Although problems of
adaptation and motivation are also present in industry, the much smaller
size of the industrial labor force and the presence of foreign
technicians in key areas mitigate the difficulties and make possible a
somewhat more rapid rate of growth.
Reliable information on Albania is scarce. Few foreigners capable of
observing and evaluating conditions objectively have been able to visit
the country in the past twenty-five years. Articles from official
journals or newspapers available in English translation, which
constitute the major source of data, provide only a partial coverage and
must be used with caution because of a lack of means for verification.
Published statistics, available in detail to 1964 and nonexistent after
1967, leave many important gaps. Because of apparent shortcomings in the
underlying statistical methods, only data in physical terms can be
accepted with some degree of assurance as to their accuracy.
The economy is administered through a small number of specialized
ministries, and most information about it comes from Communist sources.
Control over labor is maintained through trade unions, which constitute
a political arm of the Party (see ch. 6, Government Structure and
Political System). Economic activity is governed by a series of
five-year and annual plans prepared by the State Planning Commission in
accordance with Party directives.
Agriculture is organized into state and collective farms, which are
dependent upon machine-tractor stations for the performance of
mechanized farm operations. Industry is poorly balanced with regard to
the country's domestic needs and is heavily oriented toward exports.
Foreign trade primarily serves the purpose of obtaining needed resources
for the development of production. Limited domestic resources are only
partially developed, and the economy depends heavily on foreign economic
and technical assistance. The country's political orientation has
restricted the sources of such aid to other Communist states, and its
alignment with Communist China in the Sino-Soviet dispute brought about
the loss of Soviet support with severe repercussions to the economy.
After twenty-five years of forced draft economic development, the
country in 1967 was described by a correspondent of a European journal
as a mixture of the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, where oxen and
buffaloes were to be seen side by side with modern foreign-made
tractors, and where a policeman directed traffic in the main square of
the capital city like a conductor waving his baton at a nonexistent
orchestra.
After a visit in the fall of 1969, a specialist on Balkan affairs
reported that austerity and regimentation were still the rule despite a
substantial measure of economic progress achieved during the period of
independence. He also expressed the view that Albania undoubtedly
remained the poorest country in Europe but that the economic and social
advances attained could be envied by the countries of the Near East.
LABOR
Although economic development is still in its infancy, growing concern
has been officially expressed about the adequacy of the labor force to
meet the needs of industrialization and of expanding social services
without adversely affecting agricultural production. The main cause of
the incipient labor shortage is low productivity owing to a lack of
industrial experience, a low level of mechanization, and the survival of
backward traditional methods in agriculture. Officially, low
productivity has been ascribed to poor labor discipline and inefficient
management arising from an inadequately developed sense of political and
social responsibility. It has also been blamed on a failure of manpower
planning and on the relaxation of central controls over enterprise
funds.
At the end of 1969 the Central Committee of the Party adopted a decision
on means for correcting this situation. An important element of the
program is the education and political indoctrination of the workers.
This task is a major function of the trade unions, which are primarily a
political arm of the Party for the control of labor, without any
significant responsibilities in the field of labor relations (see ch. 6,
Government Structure and Political System).
In 1967, the last year for which official employment data are available,
the working-age population comprised 932,000 persons, 739,200 of whom
were actually employed. The number of employed did not include roughly
6,000 peasants working on the private holdings still remaining in that
year. Including these peasants, the participation rate in the labor
force was 80 percent.
Two-thirds of the labor force was employed in agriculture, the remainder
in a variety of nonagricultural pursuits, chief among which were
industry, construction, trade, and education. Apart from the peasants
working their own land, farm labor included about 427,000 persons on
collective farms and 64,000 on state farms. The industrial labor force
of 105,300 accounted for 14.1 percent of total employment, and 40,000
construction workers, for 5.4 percent. The nearly 32,000 workers in
trade and 25,000 workers in education constituted, respectively, 4.2 and
3.4 percent of the employed manpower.
The officially reported labor force, which comprises nonagricultural
labor and state farm workers only, increased by 53 percent between 1960
and 1967, from 203,800 to 312,400 persons. The increase represents an
annual growth rate of 6.3 percent. At this rate, the labor force in 1970
would be about 375,000 persons. It has been informally reported as
400,000. Collective farm employment rose, in round numbers, from 282,000
in 1960 to 336,000 in 1966 and to 427,000 in 1967. The unusually large
increase in 1967 resulted from an intensive drive to collectivize the
remaining privately owned farms and also from a government policy of
reversing the population flow from the farms to the cities. With the
major reservoir of individual farms exhausted, the number of collective
farm workers could increase up to 1970 by roughly 45,000 to 50,000
through natural population growth. Absence of data on rural-urban
population shifts precludes any firm estimate of the size of the
collective farm labor force in 1970.
According to preliminary estimates by the planning authorities, an
increase of between 120,000 and 130,000 workers outside the collective
farm sector would be needed to implement the industrial and social
programs of the five-year plan for the 1971-75 period if productivity
remained at the level of the 1965-69 period. The natural growth of the
able-bodied urban population during this period was estimated not to
exceed 29,000 persons. An outflow of up to 100,000 persons from the
rural areas would therefore be necessary to meet the estimated manpower
needs. Such a contingency could not be countenanced because of the
severe damage it would inflict on the rural economy. Attainment of a
higher rate of participation in the labor force and of a substantial
increase in labor productivity has therefore been considered by the
Party leadership of utmost urgency to ensure sustained economic
development.
The latest evidence of the leadership's profound concern about these
basic labor problems was provided by the Party's Central Committee
plenum held at the end of December 1969, devoted to a discussion of
means for raising productivity and tightening labor discipline. In its
report delivered to the plenum, the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the
Central Committee expressed strong dissatisfaction with what it
considered an unsatisfactory rate of participation in employment by the
collective farm population. It placed the blame for this situation on
local government organs, which had become reconciled to the backward
traditional concepts that keep homemakers and some young girls in the
home and that require a member of the family to look after the family's
privately owned livestock and thus be unable to seek outside work.
The Party's report also called attention to the prevalence of a petty
bourgeois attitude among many families of workers, employees, and
servicemen that keeps their members from accepting employment. To
facilitate the employment of women, the Party urged more widespread
provision of amenities, such as nurseries and dining halls, that would
free them from household duties.
Meaningful information on labor productivity is not available because
statistics on this subject have not been published and because essential
details of the methods used in calculating the percentage rates of
increase in productivity that appear from time to time in official
public statements are not sufficiently known. Based on physical output
and labor data, Western observers believe that the published data
overstate the actual advance achieved.
According to the Politburo report, productivity in industry rose 2.2
times between 1950 and 1968, and this growth accounted for 60 percent of
the increase in industrial production during that period. In agriculture
67 percent of the increase in output during those years was attributed
to the growth of productivity. These figures indicate a slightly faster
advance in agricultural productivity, but in absolute terms productivity
in agriculture has been very much lower than in industry.
During the Third Five-Year Plan (1961-65) labor productivity reportedly
rose by an annual average of 2.1 percent in industry, 4.6 percent in
construction, and 2.7 percent in automotive transport. Data for the
years after 1965 had not been published by mid-1970 except for official
statements that the planned levels had not been reached.
The lag of productivity has been attributed by the Central Committee to
a pronounced shortage of skilled manpower and to various manifestations
of poor labor discipline and faulty management. Chief among the cited
shortcomings in the field of labor are excessive absenteeism, resulting
in part from inadequate medical and public dining facilities; loafing on
the job; and a generally negligent attitude toward work that entails a
loss of time and a low quality of the product. On the management side,
the main shortcomings include poor organization of production,
acceptance of unjustifiably low work output norms, and labor hoarding.
Both workers and managers have been accused of a reluctance to adopt
progressive production techniques and of frequently putting their own
personal interest or that of their enterprise ahead of the public good.
A disorganization of the material supply arising from frequent
noncompletion of production assignments and poor coordination among
plants and industry branches has also been cited as an important factor
responsible for substantial losses of worktime and, consequently, of
reduced productivity.
Enterprise managers have been repeatedly accused of irresponsibility in
the use of resources, which has entailed a wasteful use of machinery and
labor. Inadequate planning of production schedules and poor maintenance
are said to cause an inordinate loss of machine time. Managers have also
been charged with abusing the legal provision that allows them to employ
up to 2 percent more workers (presumably to meet emergencies or to
increase output) than are called for by the enterprise plan. Such abuse
has been facilitated by the elimination sometime in the middle or late
1960s of the control by banks over enterprise funds allotted for the
payment of wages.
A change in the method of productivity planning, which involved a
redefinition of productivity as a calculated index, is reported to have
been widely misinterpreted as downgrading the importance of
productivity. This misconception has been reinforced by the circumstance
that productivity levels are planned for only about 70 percent of the
nonagricultural workers.
In many enterprises labor norms--that is, the minimum amount of work a
worker in any given job is required to perform per unit of time--are
officially said to be inordinately low. There are reported to be many
enterprises in which the established norms are substantially
overfulfilled despite the fact that the effective workday does not
exceed 6 to 7 hours. These norms, it is said, require only about 5-½
to 6 hours of work per day and are thus responsible for a 25- to
35-percent loss of output or, conversely, of labor wastage. Yet, despite
the low norms, about 14 percent of the workers fail to complete their
assigned tasks. Although a Politburo decision in April 1967 called the
attention of Party, government, and economic organs to the importance of
correct labor norms, this matter has been generally neglected and little
has been accomplished. Many of the existing norms have become obsolete.
The Politburo's program that was adopted toward the end of 1969 for
raising productivity is based essentially on an appeal to the social
consciousness of all participants in the economic process and calls for
improved performance in all aspects and at all levels of production
through greater self-discipline and more stringent controls. A practical
difficulty faced by the leadership in the execution of its program is
the lack of a precise concept of productivity and of an effective
methodology for establishing sound productivity targets or for measuring
actual performance. The problem is particularly pronounced in
agriculture. Experimentation with new concepts and methods has been
underway for some time under the joint guidance of the State Planning
Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Mining, and the Ministry of
Construction. Results of the experimentation are to serve as a basis for
further decisions by the Council of Ministers in 1970.
A distinctive feature of the country's labor scene is the practice of
mobilizing large numbers of the population for so-called voluntary work
on various types of construction and agricultural projects, including
the building of railroads, housing, and irrigation canals; land
improvement; harvesting; and the planting of trees. Thousands and, at
times, tens of thousands of individuals from all walks of life,
including members of the armed forces, are assembled by the government
to carry out specific jobs with simple tools or with their bare hands.
Party dogma holds that these projects, which use vast numbers of people,
reflect the Party's strength, the might of the masses, and the great
reserves to be found in their midst. The projects are considered to be
not only of great economic and social importance but also of great
ideological, political, and educational significance because, among
other things, they reflect the determination and readiness of the broad
working masses to implement the Party's line. Official complaints about
flagging enthusiasm for housing construction in 1968 suggest a less
favorable public acceptance of this practice than that proclaimed by the
Party dogma.
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture is organized on the Stalinist Soviet model: all activity is
centrally planned, and farm operations are carried out by state and
collective farms. Government policy has accorded a high priority to the
expansion and modernization of agricultural production as a means of
attaining self-sufficiency in foods. In an effort to obviate the
historical dependence on grain imports, the government has placed
special emphasis on increasing the output of bread grains, which furnish
the bulk of the people's diet, and on a rapid rise in the production of
potatoes as a substitute for bread.
Great importance is attached to the expansion of industrial crops, such
as cotton, tobacco, sugar beets, and sunflowers, in order to provide raw
materials for the growing domestic industries, in addition to
maintaining traditional exports. Expansion of grape vineyards, olive
groves, and other fruit and vegetable growing has also been promoted to
develop larger exportable surpluses. According to official data, farm
output increased half again as fast as the population between 1950 and
1967, but it is still inadequate to supply the country's minimum needs
for bread and livestock products.
The government's ambitious farm modernization program has been imposed
on tradition-bound peasants averse to rapid change. A large part of the
land improvement and irrigation work has been accomplished through mass
mobilization of peasants and of the urban population for so-called
voluntary work on the model of the Chinese coolie system. Socialization
of the land has had a deleterious effect on work incentives, with a
consequent lag in the planned growth of agricultural production.
Measures adopted by the government to ensure better work performance on
the collective farms did not prove sufficiently effective, and a
scaling down of the five-year plan target for agricultural production
could therefore not be avoided.
To provide the additional acreage needed for crop expansion, large-scale
programs of land reclamation and melioration have been executed. At the
same time, heavy stress has been laid on the improvement of farm
techniques and on mechanization as means for increasing yields and
production. A planned expansion of livestock herds and of the output of
livestock products has been hampered by inadequate incentives for
peasants and by a shortage of fodder. The agricultural potential is
limited by the predominance of rugged mountain terrain and by frequent
spring droughts that cause extensive damage to crops. To minimize the
adverse effects of the droughts, an extensive irrigation system is being
developed.
In 1967 the area of land in agricultural use, excluding forests, roads,
and homesites, amounted to about 3.0 million acres, or 43 percent of the
country's total area. More than half of the agricultural land was in
unimproved natural pastures, with an additional small acreage in natural
meadows. Cultivated land bearing field and tree crops totaled about 1.4
million acres, of which about 1.1 million acres were arable land,
equivalent to about two-thirds of an acre per capita. Almost half of the
cultivated land was located in hilly and mountainous zones, which are
less productive than the coastal plains. The agricultural acreage was
expanded by 3 percent between 1950 and 1967, but a significant further
expansion is precluded by the country's rugged terrain.
A high priority has been placed by the leadership on expanding the
cultivated area and raising its productivity through land reclamation,
soil improvement, and irrigation. Most of this work has been
accomplished manually, through mobilization of large numbers of people
for massive projects and with the participation by members of the armed
forces. Between 1950 and 1969 the area of cultivated land rose by almost
one-half to a total of more than 1.4 million acres, at least 185,000
acres of which have been reclaimed since 1965. The bulk of the increase
in cultivated land was achieved at the expense of natural pastures and
meadows, the area of which has declined by about 265,000 and 50,000
acres, respectively, since 1950. About 70 percent of the increase in
cultivated land was added to arable acreage.
By the end of 1969, however, the reclamation work had fallen behind the
five-year plan schedule. In early 1970 the government therefore took
special measures to ensure that the entire 285,000-acre reclamation
program would be completed as planned, bringing the total cultivated
acreage to about 1.5 million acres. Very substantial progress in this
endeavor was reported to have been achieved by the end of March, largely
through the mobilization for this task of about 200,000 persons from
urban and rural areas.
Expansion of the irrigation network has proceeded somewhat more slowly
than planned, with the use of the same mass construction methods. As
reported by the State Planning Commission to the People's Assembly in
mid-February of 1970, about 140,000 acres had been brought under
irrigation during the 1966-69 period, and approximately 55,000 more
acres were to be added in 1970. These figures imply a total irrigated
area of about 645,000 acres in 1969 and about 700,000 acres planned for
1970--an increase of 2,470 acres over the original five-year plan
target. Attainment of this goal would require a construction volume in
1970 equal to the total achieved during the first two years of the
five-year period and almost half again as large as the volume in 1968.
About half the arable acreage was irrigable in 1969.
The agricultural organization consists of two types of farms: state
farms, operated under the direction of either the central or the local
government, and collective farms. State farms, modeled after the
_sovkhozes_ of the Soviet Union, were established beginning in 1945 on
lands confiscated from large landowners and foreign concessionaires and
contain some of the most productive land in the country. Managers and
workers of state farms are salaried government employees, who may
receive special bonuses for superior production achievements.
Collective farms were organized through the forcible consolidation of
private holdings. Begun in 1946 against strong peasant resistance,
collectivization did not assume major proportions until 1955 and was
virtually completed only in 1968 with the consolidation of remote
mountain villages. The basic features of the collective farm are:
complete government control; collective use of the land and other
principal means of production; obligatory common work by the members,
based on established minimum work norms and enforced through economic
and other sanctions; and distribution of the net income to members on
the basis of the quantity and quality of work performed.
With regard to income distribution, collective farm members are residual
claimants entitled to share whatever remains after completion of
compulsory deliveries to the state; provision of prescribed investment
and operating funds for the farm; payment for irrigation water,
machine-tractor station services, and other outstanding obligations; and
setting aside 2 percent of the income for social assistance to members.
Information on farm income levels is not available. Nominally, the
General Assembly of all the members is the highest ruling organ of the
collective farm, but actual control rests with the farm's basic Party
organization (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System).
An important feature of the state and collective farms is the small
private plot allotted to a member family for its own personal use. Since
1967, when these allotments were reduced in size, the maximum legal size
of the private plots, including the land under all farm buildings other
than the family dwelling, has ranged from 1,000 to 1,500 square meters
(about 10,750 to 16,150 square feet, or one-quarter to three-eighths of
an acre), depending upon the location and availability of irrigation.
The collective farm statute also entitles each family to maintain a few
domestic animals privately. Only one cow or one pig is authorized, but
up to ten or twenty sheep and goats may be allowed. In typical cases a
family may have a cow or pig and a few sheep or goats. More liberal
allowances for poor mountain farms may include both a cow and pig as
well as the maximum number of sheep and goats.
In 1964 there were thirty-eight large, centrally controlled state farms
with an average of about 7,700 acres of farmland, including about 4,800
acres of cultivated land. In 1968 the average size of the state farms,
the number of which had remained stable, was reported to be about 7,350
acres, a reduction of almost 600 acres since 1964. This decline in
acreage was brought about by a transfer of some state farmlands to small
collective farms as a means of increasing their viability. In 1964, 250
locally administered state farms were reported to average about 380
acres and have probably continued unchanged. In 1970 state farms
cultivated 20 percent of the total acreage under cultivation, and
collective farms worked 80 percent.
The number and average size of collective farms have varied widely as a
result of the continuing creation of new farms and the consolidation of
existing units. In the fall of 1969 there were 805 collective farms,
compared with 1,208 in 1967. The consolidated farms included 568 units
consisting of two to three villages each, eighty farms of six to ten
villages, and another five farms of eleven villages each. Eighty-seven
percent of all collective farms had less than 2,470 acres of cultivated
land each, and only nine percent had more than about 6,200 acres.
Highland farms were among the smallest, many being smaller than 750
acres. In 1968 the average size of all collective farms was reported to
be about 1,400 acres of cultivated land. In 1967, before
collectivization was completed, the population on collective farms
consisted of 184,400 families--an average of about 150 families per
farm--which provided about 427,000 farmworkers. As a result of further
consolidation, the number of families per farm increased significantly.
Although available statistics are inadequate for a comprehensive review
of the crop and livestock situation, five-year plan data and fragmentary
information contained in annual official reports on economic plan
fulfillment provide a reasonable approximation of the production volume
of major crops but only a rough approximation of the size of the
livestock herds (see tables 10 and 11).
Published data on total agricultural production claim a virtual doubling
of output between 1960 and 1969. During this period the share of field
crops in total output is reported to have increased at the expense of
livestock production--a direct result of the government's emphasis on
bread grains. The share of field crops is reported to have risen from 44
percent in 1960 to 59 percent in 1967, whereas the share of livestock
output declined from 43 to 29.5 percent. Fruit production contributed
about 10 percent of total output during the period, and collection of
wild medicinal plants, another 1 to 4 percent.
Bread-grain production, including wheat, rye, and corn, increased by 80
percent in the 1966-69 period, but attainment of the five-year plan
target requires a reversal of the downward trend in annual output
increases since 1966 and a tonnage increase in 1970 from 20 to 38
percent greater than those obtained in the 1967-69 period. The output of
potatoes in 1969 was eleven times larger than production in 1965 yet was
only half the volume planned for 1970. The required doubling of the
output to meet the five-year plan target is roughly equivalent to the
increase in production achieved during the preceding three-year period.
Nevertheless, the substantial rise in the output of bread grains and
potatoes achieved during the first four years of the five-year plan
significantly, although not entirely, reduced the need for grain
imports, which amounted to about 110,000 tons of wheat and 20,000 tons
of corn in 1963 and 1964.
Production of rice, cotton, and tobacco was reported to have lagged
through 1969, and the output of cotton actually declined in 1967 and
1968. This and other reported information about these crops indicate
that the possibility of attaining the 1970 target is precluded for rice
and is questionable for cotton. In the case of tobacco, however,
reported production in 1969 was already about 1,000 tons above the
five-year plan goal, in spite of the reported lag. As early as 1967 the
output of sugar beets approached the volume planned for 1970, but
subsequent developments regarding this crop have been cloaked in
official silence. According to officially reported data, the production
of vegetables in 1969 surpassed the 1970 target by some 60,000 tons, or
nearly 27 percent, yet no mention of this fact was contained in the
report on plan fulfillment for that year.
_Table 10. Production of Field Crops and Fruits in Albania, 1960 and
1965-70 (in thousands of metric tons)_
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plan
1960 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grains 216.7 324.6 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 659.0[*]
Breadgrains[**] (197.1) (296.6) (389.3) (445.0) (494.0) (533.4) (593.0)[+]
Potatoes 23.4 21.2 108.0 115.9 166.0 238.8 475.0
Rice 4.6 10.2 10.5 11.3 n.a. n.a. 24.0
Cotton 16.1 24.6 24.7 21.9 18.5 25.0 34.0
Tobacco 8.1 13.3 13.7 13.1 14.9 17.1 16.0
Sugar beets 72.7 90.2 132.9 138.5 n.a. n.a. 140.0
Vegetables 71.3 140.9 156.5 172.2 180.8 283.8 224.0
Fruits, deciduous 25.3 39.7 47.8 40.7 58.6 n.a. 69.5
Fruits, citrus 1.7 2.0 2.2 2.6 n.a. n.a. 5.6
Grapes 22.3 42.9 54.1 48.5 61.1 n.a. 94.4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
n.a.--not available
* Except for the data on fruits, all figures in this column are rounded to
the nearest thousand tons.
** Wheat, rye, and corn.
+ The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1966-70) calls for more than this amount.
In the absence of information on the planting of fruit trees and vines,
the fruit production trends of recent years provide the only indication
of the extent to which the fruit production program of the five-year
plan may be realized. Available data through 1968 for deciduous fruits
and grapes and through 1967 for citrus fruits indicate that the 1970
goals for grapes and citrus fruits may not be reached. Production of
citrus fruits would have to more than double in three years, whereas an
increase of only 53 percent was achieved in the 1961-67 period.
Similarly, grape output would have to rise by 54 percent in two years,
compared with an increase of 42 percent in the preceding three years.
The outlook for deciduous fruits is more favorable. The needed output
increase of 20 percent over two years is well within previously attained
limits.
_Table 11. Livestock in Albania, 1960, 1964-66, and 1970 Plan (in
thousands)_
------------------------------------------------------
Plan[*]
1960 1964 1965 1966 1970
-------------------------------------------------------
Horses 49 44 44 44 n.a.
Mules 17 20 20 21 n.a.
Donkeys 57 60 60 60 n.a.
Cattle 420 427 424 427 475
Cows 146 157 156 158 n.a.
Oxen 100 87 n.a. n.a. 139
Buffalo 7 5 5 5 n.a.
Sheep 1,546 1,682 1,637 1,670 1,800
Goats 1,104 1,199 1,175 1,200 1,400
Hogs 130 147 141 142 n.a.
Poultry 1,580 1,671 1,722 1,746 3,000
-------------------------------------------------------
n.a.--not available.
*Fourth Five-Year Plan (1965-70).
Information on livestock numbers is much more sketchy. The dearth of
published data and repeated official pronouncements indicate
unsatisfactory progress in this farm sector, particularly with regard to
the high-priority target for cattle raising. An important cause of this
lag has been an acknowledged shortage of fodder. Another major reason
has been an officially induced transfer of livestock from individual
peasant ownership to the collective and state farms, where it is subject
to the much-criticized negligent attitude of the peasants toward state
and communal property. About 60 percent of the cattle and sheep and 85
percent of the hogs were kept on state and collective farms in 1969, as
against only about 36 and 64 percent, respectively, in 1964.
Collective farm managers and local government officials have blamed the
fodder shortage on the diversion of pastures and meadows to the
production of bread grains. Statistical evidence indicates that the
output of feed grains declined by about 40 percent from the mid-1950s to
the mid-1960s but that the loss of fodder from grazing lands and meadows
was compensated fourfold through increased production of forage crops.
The validity of the explanation offered by the farm and village
officials was vigorously denied in the theoretical monthly journal of
the Party's Central Committee, which attributed the fodder shortage to a
failure by collective farmers to adopt improved methods of crop
production and to exploit all available fodder resources. In January
1970 all basic Party organizations in farming areas were urged to
eliminate distrust and every conservative idea and harmful tendency that
stood in the way of the rapid development of cattle raising and to see
to it that the existing gap between the collective farms and private
plots was gradually eliminated.
Government efforts to improve livestock breeds and yields through
selective breeding, artificial insemination, and better management
practices have also been impeded by peasant apathy. Although yields of
up to 5,500 pounds of milk per cow were obtained on some state farms in
1966 and yields of about 3,300 pounds to 3,950 pounds on the more
efficient lowland collective farms, the average yield of milk per cow
on all lowland collective farms in that year was only about 1,750 to
2,200 pounds, and a large number of upland farms obtained even less.
The latest available official Albanian livestock statistics are for the
year 1964. Data for 1965 and 1966 have been published by the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The Fourth
Five-Year Plan indicates the numbers planned for some of the livestock
categories in 1970 through percentage increases expected to be attained
over the numbers in 1965. In the case of cattle, the largest increase by
far has been planned for draft oxen--60 percent as against only 12
percent for all cattle--in an effort to reduce a draft power shortage.
This increase would inevitably be at the expense of the growth in the
numbers of cows and young stock.
The growth of productive livestock herds, excluding draft animals,
lagged very substantially in relation to the increase in population, at
least through 1966. This has entailed a significant worsening of the
initially very meager supply of livestock products. According to
estimates published by the FAO, total annual meat production, including
all types of meat in terms of carcass weight but excluding edible
offals, increased from an average of 40,000 tons in the 1952-56 period
to 50,000 tons in 1967. The output in 1967 implies a per capita daily
meat availability of only about 2.5 ounces, including bones. A similar
situation prevailed with regard to dairy and poultry products because
there were only about 75 low-production cows per 1,000 population and
one head of inferior poultry per capita.
Total agricultural production, which was planned to increase at an
average annual rate of 11.5 percent or from 71 to 76 percent for the
five-year plan period as a whole, consistently fell short of the targets
in the 1966-69 period and was not likely to attain the 17-percent
increase planned for 1970. Thus, for instance, the actual output
increase achieved in 1969 was only about 10 percent as against a planned
rise of 22.1 percent and in 1968, similarly, about 1.6 as against 12
percent.
This persistent lag in farm output has been extensively and publicly
discussed by the leadership, which is intent on raising the general
level of performance in agriculture and ensuring an adequate domestic
supply of food products. Although some blame has been attached to
unfavorable weather conditions, the lag has been ascribed primarily to
the reluctance of peasants to adopt modern production techniques, poor
farm management, insufficient effort to use available resources to best
advantage, widespread indifference and negligence, and an excessive
preoccupation with personal interests leading to an irresponsible
attitude toward work in the collective sector. These shortcomings were
said to exist not only among the peasantry at large but also among
Communists, who should be serving as models of responsible behavior. The
basic reason that clearly emerges from public discussion is a widespread
opposition of peasants to the collectivization of farms and an
associated tendency to devote their best efforts to the cultivation of
their own private plots.
Impressive evidence on this point is provided by official production
statistics for 1964, the latest available on this subject. These data
show that output per acre on the small private plots of collective
farmers and state farm workers was four times larger than output on
state farms and six times larger than that on collective farms.
Constituting only 6 percent of the cultivated land, the private plots
produced 23 percent of the total farm output. Nevertheless, the
leadership has publicly credited the advance in agricultural production
to the collectivization of farms.
In 1967 the government proceeded to reduce the size of the private
plots, with a view to their eventual elimination, both for ideological
reasons and as a means of forcing peasants to devote greater efforts to
work on collectivized land. Subsequent steps were taken to transfer to
collective ownership some of the livestock allotted to the farm families
by the collective farm statute.
This action did not measurably improve agricultural performance.
Shortfalls in the production of several important crops, including
cotton, tobacco, and rice, were admitted to have occurred both in 1968
and 1969, and the situation in the livestock sector continued to be
unsatisfactory. A scaling down of the original production goal for 1970
could therefore not be avoided. The farm output target set by the annual
plan for 1970 was 12.5 percent below the minimum and 15 percent below
the maximum five-year plan figures for the same year.
INDUSTRY
A few primitive plants producing consumer goods had been built before
World War II, but industrial development began only in 1949, when
construction was undertaken of a 50,000-kilowatt hydroelectric power
station, a textile mill capable of producing 22 million yards of cloth
per year, and a sugar mill with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons of
sugar. Industrial construction continued under the first and second
five-year plans (1951-55 and 1956-60, respectively) during the 1950s,
with substantial financial and technical assistance from the Soviet
Union. This development was temporarily interrupted in the wake of the
political break with the Soviet Union in 1961 but was soon resumed with
aid from Communist China (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System). The interruption was said by the Albanian leadership to have
retarded industrial growth by three years. Disinterested foreign
observers, however, reported that the equipment acquired with the aid of
Communist China was better suited to the needs of the country and of
better quality than that supplied by the Soviet Union.
Among the major industrial projects completed or under construction in
1970 with the assistance of Communist Chinese technicians were: copper,
chromium, and iron-nickel mines; an oil refinery at Fier with an annual
capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil, a 225,000-kilowatt hydroelectric
power station at Vau i Dejes on the Drin River; a 100,000-kilowatt
capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil; a 225,000-kilowatt/thermal
power-plant at Fier; a copper-ore dressing installation and a
copper-wire drawing mill; a steel-rolling mill at Elbasan; cement mills
at Elbasan and Kruje; large textile combines at Tirana and Berat; and a
knit goods factory at Korce.
Of special benefit to agriculture was the construction of a nitrate
fertilizer plant at Fier, a superphosphate plant at Lac, and a plant for
the manufacture of tractor spare parts at Tirana. A variety of smaller
plants were also built for the production of such items as caustic soda,
sulfuric acid, rubber products, electrical equipment and light bulbs,
footwear, and vegetable oils.
Along with the construction of technologically up-to-date plants, others
were built with outdated technology through the lack of construction
experience or knowledge of more advanced methods. At the same time,
obsolete plants and workshops remained in use. In 1969 these
technologically backward plants produced less than half the total output
but employed more than half the industrial labor force.
Available information on the structure of industry is ambiguous because
of uncertainties regarding the pricing methods underlying the relevant
data. According to the official figures for 1967 based on 1966 prices,
the food industry accounted for nearly one-third and light industry for
almost one-fourth of the total industrial output. The balance of 44
percent was produced by some fourteen or more industry branches, the
relative shares of which ranged from 8.0 percent for metalworking and
for timber and wood processing to 0.3 percent for the bitumen industry.
As a group, six industry branches engaged in oil production and mining
contributed about 15 percent of the output. The building materials
industry accounted for 5 percent and electric power production, for not
quite 4 percent.
The relationship between the output of capital goods and that of
consumer goods is equally ambiguous. The share of capital goods in the
output of 1968 was officially reported as 55.5 percent, as against 44.5
percent for consumer goods. The apparent discrepancy between the
reported shares in total output of consumer goods as compared with the
production of the light and food industries may be explained, in part,
by the fact that a portion of these industries' output is usually
included among capital goods as, for instance, textiles used by the
clothing industry and leather used by the shoe industry.
Foreign observers have reported the country's industry to be poorly
balanced not only in a technical sense but also in terms of essential
domestic needs and the availability of foreign outlets for its products.
The metalworking industry, for example, which is limited to the
production of automotive and industrial spare parts, apart from a few
types of simple agricultural equipment and household utensils, cannot
even ensure the maintenance of the existing machinery inventory because
it is able to supply only about 60 to 70 percent of the country's needs.
Industrial production is substantially oriented toward capital goods and
exports, whereas the manufacture of products for domestic consumption
continues to be severely restricted.
The leadership is aware of industry's structural shortcomings and is
intent on overcoming them through a program involving the reconstruction
and modernization of old plants and the concentration of small shops
into larger, more efficient specialized units. Progress in this
direction, however, has been hampered by inadequate investment resources
and by a reluctance of managers and workers to cooperate with this
program. It has also been handicapped by a lack of effective planning
and by an inability to organize comprehensive studies that would provide
a basis for both overall and detailed plans.
Nevertheless, a few plants for the manufacture of machine spare parts
and of simple equipment were formed through the concentration of milling
machines previously installed in maintenance shops of various
enterprises, and a step toward the consolidation of small artisan shops
was taken in May 1969 by transforming artisans' cooperatives into state
enterprises.
Owing to the lack of prior industrial experience by both managers and
labor, industry also suffers from poor organization of production and of
the material supply, low labor productivity, and generally inferior
quality of product. Extensive discussion of these problems in the
official press indicates that government efforts toward reducing the
magnitude of these problems are slow in bearing fruit, despite programs
for vocational training and intensive campaigns of political
indoctrination aimed at generating productive enthusiasm and innovative
initiative among workers and managers. A major campaign is being waged
to eradicate artisan traditions and to replace them with industrial
production line methods. The basic difficulty in achieving greater
efficiency lies in the continuing severe shortage of skilled manpower
and of personnel with adequate training in the economics and mechanics
of industrial production.
Because of the underlying pricing methods, officially reported data on
total industrial production in value terms overstate the actual rate of
growth attained. Substantial industrial progress is, nevertheless,
indicated by physical production data for a number of commodities (see
table 12). Since production had started from nothing or from very low
levels in the early post-World War II years, the rates of growth in
output were substantially higher during the 1950s than in the following
decade.
The highest rates of increase during the 1960s, ranging from five to
three times the initial volume, were achieved in the production of
copper, electric power, and cement. Increases of from 69 to 80 percent
were attained for coal, oil, and iron-nickel ore. Production of textiles
and footwear grew by more than half, and that of knitwear more than
doubled. A substantial advance was also made by the food-processing
industry. Least progress was made in the production of cigarettes and
bricks--only about 6 to 7 percent--and the output of timber actually
declined from 6 million to 5 million cubic feet. Most of the mining
output and a substantial share of the food industry production are
exported.
Rapid electrification of the country has been a major goal of the
leadership. Electrification is intended to meet the needs of industrial
development and help attain a higher standard of living in rural areas.
A crash program has been underway to bring electric power to every
village, even in the remotest areas. This project was originally
scheduled to be completed in 1985, but the date has been advanced to
November 8, 1971, the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the
ruling Albanian Workers' Party. The program is being carried out by the
prevailing method of mass mobilization for voluntary work.
Installed capacity in 1969 was reported to be 210,000 kilowatts, of
which 128,000 kilowatts were in thermal powerplants and 82,000 kilowatts
in hydroelectric power stations. This capacity reflected a fourfold
increase since 1960, a large part of which was accounted for by a single
thermal plant of 100,000-kilowatt capacity put into operation in late
1969. The country's hydroelectric power potential has been estimated by
Albanian technicians as roughly 3 billion kilowatt-hours per year, half
of which is represented by the Drin River. Development of this
potential has barely begun. The first major plant on the Drin with a
capacity of 225,000 kilowatts is scheduled for completion at Vau i Dejes
in 1971, and a second station on that river with a capacity of 400,000
kilowatts is to be built at Fierze during the Fifth Five-Year Plan
(1971-75).
_Table 12. Industrial Production in Albania, 1960 and 1964-69_
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commodity Units 1960 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Electric power million
kilowatt-hours 194 288 322 433 589 712 n.a.
Crude oil thousand
metric tons 728 764 822 887 984 1,137 1,310
Petroleum
products do. 369 476 509 590 692 n.a. n.a.
Coal do. 291 292 331 393 434 491 n.a.
Chrome ore do. 289 307 311 302 327 369 n.a.
Copper ore do. 82 145 219 228 267 304 326
Blister copper do. 1 2 4 5 5 n.a. n.a.
Iron-nickel
ore do. 255 351 395 395 403 440 n.a.
Cement do. 73 127 134 139 221 n.a. n.a.
Bricks million units 130 121 112 106 139 n.a. n.a.
Ginned cotton thousand metric
tons 7 9 8 9 9 n.a. n.a.
Textiles million yards 28 33 33 37 44 n.a. n.a.
Cotton do. 27 31 ... ... ... n.a. n.a.
Knitwear million units 1 2 2 3 3 n.a. n.a.
Leather thousand square
yards 109 126 124 161 158 n.a. n.a.
Footwear (other
than rubber) thousand pairs 1,365 1,835 2,103 2,259 2,103 n.a. n.a.
Shoes and
sandals thousand pairs 831 955 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
Rubber boots do. 155 201 191 211 248 n.a. n.a.
Flour thousand metric
tons 125 145 152 161 157 n.a. n.a.
Cigarettes million units 3,436 3,990 4,390 3,310 3,620 n.a. n.a.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
n.a.--not available.
Electric power production is reported to have attained in 1968 the level
planned for 1970. Output of power rose from 194 million kilowatt-hours
in 1960 to 324 million kilowatt-hours in 1965 and almost 800,000 million
kilowatt-hours in 1969. The distribution system has also been rapidly
extended and in 1969 included about 800 miles of high-tension
transmission lines of 35 and 110 kilovolts. Distribution and use of
electric power were reported to be very wasteful, with losses as high as
115 million kilowatt-hours in 1969--almost 15 percent of total output.
Information on the pattern of electric power consumption has not been
published.
FINANCE
Financial operations have been shrouded in secrecy, and little
information can be gleaned from the limited published data. These data,
nevertheless, reflect some of the leadership's basic economic policies,
such as its emphasis on rapidly increasing production while restraining
a rise in consumption, its preference for industrial development as
against agricultural growth, and its drive to mobilize domestic
resources for economic development.
The Budget
Information on budgetary practices is not available, and statistics
relating to the budget are incomplete. The relation between three
different budgets approved annually by the People's Assembly on
recommendation of the Council of Ministers is therefore unclear. There
is a state and a national budget and a budget for local government. The
budget for local government has been growing slowly in relation to the
state-budget--from 16 percent in 1955 to 17 percent in 1960 and 20
percent in 1969 and 1970.
Only about one-fourth of local budgetary revenue is derived from local
taxation, which implies a substantial subsidy from the central
government budget. The amount of this subsidy is roughly double the
usual 7- to 8-percent difference between the state and the smaller
national budget. A surmise that the state budget represents an overall
budget and that the national budget serves to finance central government
activities only is therefore not warranted.
Except for a slight decline in revenues in 1961 and 1963, coincident
with the country's political and economic break with the Soviet Union,
the annual state budget has been rising steadily to a level of 5.21
billion leks (5 leks equal US$1--see Glossary) in revenues and 5.11
billion leks in expenditures for 1970. By comparison with the budget for
1960, revenues increased by 85 percent and expenditures by 102 percent,
with a corresponding decline of 65 percent in the budgetary surplus. On
a five-year basis, comparing the Fourth Five-Year Plan with the Third
Five-Year Plan, both revenues and expenditures rose by about 40 percent,
with a slightly higher increase in revenues.
A relatively greater stringency of funds for budgetary purposes after
the break with the Soviet Union is reflected in the planned annual
budgetary surplus, a permanent feature since 1946 and a matter of great
pride for the leadership. From a level of almost 24 percent in 1950, 15
percent in 1955, and 10 percent in 1960, the surplus dropped to 1.1
percent in 1962 and 1.5 percent in 1963. Despite a slight recovery in
subsequent years, except for 1968 when it declined to only 1 percent of
revenues, the planned surplus did not again approach its earlier size.
Partial information on sources of revenue is available to 1967.
Published statistics listed a turnover tax on all goods produced,
deductions from enterprise profits, direct taxes on the population
(primarily income taxes), and social insurance premiums. These sources
yielded, on an average, 60 percent of the total revenue in the 1960-65
period, and their share rose steeply to 74 percent in 1967. The balance
of the revenue, omitted from official statistics, consisted primarily of
income from agriculture in the form of compulsory deliveries, proceeds
from state farm operations, payments to machine-tractor stations, and
taxes.
The most important among the listed revenue sources were the turnover
tax and deductions from profits. Together their yields ranged from 50
percent of total revenue in 1960 to almost 69 percent in 1967, but their
relative weights changed markedly during this period. In 1960 the
turnover tax yielded 40 percent and profit deductions 10 percent of
revenue; by 1967 their respective shares were 43 and 26 percent. Social
insurance premiums contributed between 3.2 and 4.5 percent, while the
yield from direct taxes on the population declined from 2.7 percent in
1960 to less than 1 percent in 1967. In 1969 income taxation was
abolished for individuals and for some poor collective farms in hilly
and mountainous areas.
The leadership has claimed that the abolition of direct taxes on the
population with the concomitant improvement in public welfare was made
possible by the country's economic advance based on the Party's correct
revolutionary policy, and it contrasted the progressive nature of this
measure with an alleged intensification of exploitation and misery of
workers in what are officially called imperialist and modern-revisionist
countries. This comparison ignores the existence of the turnover tax,
which is particularly heavy on consumer goods, and of the enterprise
profits deduction, both of which are reflected in the sales price of
commodities and, consequently, represent a hidden form of sales taxes.
This method of taxation is known to be regressive, in that it takes no
account of differences in income and places the heaviest burden on those
least able to pay.
The published budget laws usually specify the amount of revenue to be
derived from the socialized economy, including collective farms and
cooperative enterprises. The proportion of this revenue was reported to
have been 85.5 percent in 1960 and from 88 to 89 percent in the 1968-70
period. This information cannot be reconciled with the published revenue
statistics, particularly with the data concerning the taxation of
noncollectivized farm enterprises, the proceeds from which were reported
to be less than 0.5 percent in 1964. The revenue from the nonsocialized
sector consists mostly of taxes imposed on the output from personal farm
plots of collective and state farm workers and, to a lesser extent, of
taxes on some private artisan and other activities still tolerated by
the government within narrowly prescribed limits.
Information on budgetary expenditures is also incomplete. Published
statistics failed to specify the use of 17.5 percent of the total
outlays in the 1960-65 period, and no explanation is readily at hand for
the decline of the unallocated residue from that level to between 3 and
4 percent in 1968-70. The published data included outlays for the
national economy, social and cultural needs, defense, and
administration.
The proportion of total expenditures devoted to social and cultural
needs and to defense remained remarkably stable between 1960 and 1970.
Annual outlays for these two categories fluctuated, respectively, only
from 22.6 to 25.1 percent and from 7.6 to 9.9 percent of total
expenditures. The share of administrative expenditures declined steadily
during this period from 2.7 to 1.7 percent. Outlays for the national
economy were also shown by the published statistics to have been quite
stable in the 1960-65 period, with an annual variation of only 2.6
percent. Coincident with the decline and virtual disappearance of the
unreported expenditure residue after 1965, however, the share of
industry rose sharply from 46 percent in 1965 to more than 64 percent in
1968 and remained above 61 percent through 1970. The reasons for, and
the implications of, this change in reporting practice are not known.
An average of 47 percent of the budgetary expenditures in the 1960-67
period was devoted to investment, with annual fluctuations of this
category between 39 and 55 percent. The lowest rates of investment
occurred in 1962 and 1963 as an aftermath of the abrupt cessation of
Soviet aid deliveries. In absolute terms the volume of investment
increased from 1.1 billion leks in 1960 to 1.8 billion leks in 1967.
Total investment for the years 1966-70 was planned at 6.5 billion leks,
an increase of 34 percent over investments in the preceding five-year
period. Actual investment in the years 1966-69 was reported to have
exceeded the plan for those years by 12 percent. In line with the
Party's policy of promoting a rapid growth of the country's productive
capacity, from 80 to 82 percent of the investment has been devoted to
the construction of facilities for material production.
Industry has received the largest share of investment--48 percent in the
1961-65 period and 50 percent under the plan for 1966-70. On an annual
basis, industry's share ranged from a low of 36 percent in 1962 to a
high of 61 percent in 1965. The proportion of agricultural investment
was much lower--only 15 percent of the total in 1961-65 and less than 19
percent of the total planned for 1966-70. During the first two years of
the 1966-70 period, actual investment in agriculture lagged
substantially and amounted to only 11.7 and 16.2 percent, respectively.
The lack of adequate investments has been a contributing cause of poor
agricultural performance. There has been no consistency in the pattern
of industrial and agricultural investment. The respective shares of
these two sectors in total investment fluctuated widely from year to
year in the 1960-67 period. An adequate explanation of the reasons for
this fluctuation has not been found.
Investment in housing and for social and cultural purposes has been
minimal--8.1 and 3.7 percent, respectively, in the 1961-65 period and
6.1 and 8.1 percent, respectively, under the plan for 1966-70. As in the
case of agriculture, actual investment in 1966-67 was substantially
below the planned levels and amounted to less than 5 percent for housing
and 2 percent for social and cultural needs. This capital starvation has
been largely responsible for the dismal housing situation and for the
inadequacy of other essential amenities.
Money and Banking
The lek, divided into 100 quintars, is a nonconvertible paper currency
with multiple official exchange rates. The basic official rate since
August 10, 1965, has been 5 leks for 1 United States dollar, a rate that
has no applicability in practice. Up to 1965 the exchange value had been
50 leks per US$1. The change in par value had no economic significance
because prices, wages, and all other monetary values were reduced by the
same ratio.
There are two types of so-called tourist or support leks. A rate of
12.50 leks per US$1 applies to the official exchange of Western
currencies by nonresidents and to support payments received by residents
from Western sources. A rate of 7.55 leks per US$1 applies to the
exchange by Communist country residents of their national currencies and
to support and other noncommercial payments transferred by them from
Albania to Communist states. A third variety of official exchange rates
consists of the rates used to balance clearing accounts under special
trade and payments agreements with Communist countries. An illegal black
market rate of about 60 leks per US$1 from early 1968 through early 1969
was reported by reliable sources.
All currency matters are administered by the National Bank jointly with
the ministries of finance and trade. Albania is not a member of the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or of the
International Monetary Fund.
Adequate information is not available on the nature of the relationship
between the State Bank and the Ministry of Finance or on the bank's
financial operations beyond some outdated statistics on credits and
savings deposits. As the principal financial institution, the State Bank
carries out the financial policies of the Party and government. It
issues currency, provides credit to all economic sectors, accepts
savings deposits, and serves as the country's treasury. In addition to
these functions, the State Bank helps prepare the financial plans for
the economy, is called upon to assist enterprises in completing their
planned assignments, and is responsible for controlling all economic
activities through the use of its financial levers.
In mid-1969 the State Bank was severely criticized for poor performance,
particularly its failure to exercise adequate control over unauthorized
use of funds and waste of materials by the enterprises it helped to
finance. The bank's failure was largely precipitated by uncertainties
created through a decentralization of economic authority, decreed by the
Party, and a dilution of the bank's control function.
A specialized system of state savings and securities banks was
established within the Ministry of Finance in November 1968, for the
purpose of mobilizing the population's savings for investment through
loans to the state and the sale of its securities. The text of the law
that created this institution contained no provision concerning the
relation of these new savings and securities banks to the State Bank.
Further information on the new banks was not available in mid-1970.
The only available information on the State Bank's financial operations
consists of partial data on loans to agriculture and for housing and on
the number and amount of savings deposits. The total volume of farm
credits, exclusive of credits to state farms for which statistics have
not been published, increased from 95 million leks in 1960 to 252
million leks in 1964, including long-term loans of 38 million and 44
million leks, respectively. By 1967 long-term loans had increased to 56
million leks. The statistics do not indicate whether the published data
refer to the annual volume of loans granted or to the total amount of
outstanding loans. A small fraction of the loans after 1960 was granted
to individual peasants for the purchase of livestock.
Loans for housing construction and repair declined drastically from 17
million leks in 1960 to only 7 million leks in 1964. The distribution of
the loans between urban and rural areas fluctuated widely, but urban
loans predominated by a large margin and constituted from 69 to 93
percent of the total. The number of savings accounts increased from
235,400 in 1960 to 445,000 in 1968, and the volume of deposits rose from
119 million to 247 million leks. Interest paid on these amounts totaled
3.6 million and 4.8 million leks in the respective years, which implies
a reduction of the interest rate from about 3.0 to 2.5 percent.
FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS
Foreign Aid
The country's foreign economic relations have been conditioned by its
leadership's economic goals and political persuasion. As a poor,
undeveloped country intent on modernizing and expanding its economy at a
rapid pace, Albania has had to rely heavily on foreign economic and
technical assistance during the post-World War II period. The
leadership's extreme Marxist orientation and hostility toward the
Western nations have precluded a recourse to non-Communist sources of
aid and have made the country entirely dependent upon contributions by
other Communist states. But even within the Communist sphere political
disagreements have had a disruptive effect on aid arrangements (see ch.
6, Government Structure and Political System).
From 1945 to 1948 economic and technical assistance was received from
Yugoslavia. After the political break between that country and Albania,
the Soviet Union assumed the role of major aid donor, and smaller
contributions were made by some of the East European Communist states.
Since 1961, when the substantial support of the Soviet Union was lost in
the wake of the political schism within the Communist world engendered
by the Sino-Soviet dispute, Albania has been able to obtain assistance
only from the People's Republic of China (Communist China). The
readjustment necessitated by the abrupt withdrawal of all Soviet aid and
technical advisers was said by Albanian leaders to have retarded
economic development by three years.
The extent of aid received in the form of long-term loans, some of which
became grants through debt cancellations, is only partially known. The
amount of total loan commitments by the Soviet Union in United States
dollar equivalents for the period of 1945 through 1961 was estimated by
one Western source at US$246 million. Another Western source reported
the amount of loans promised by the Soviet Union and the East European
Communist states for the 1961-65 period to have been in excess of
US$132.5 million. These loans were cancelled in their entirety in the
spring of 1961. A partial list of Soviet loan commitments, compiled by a
Western student from Soviet economic literature, totaled US$172 million
for 1957-61. The actual amount disbursed, however, was much smaller.
Aid deliveries, as reflected in official Soviet statistics, totaled only
US$39.4 million for the years 1955-61. Similar information on aid
deliveries from 1949 to 1954 was not readily available. Western
observers believe that the economic crisis created by the Soviet
withdrawal of aid forced Albania to default on the outstanding loans.
Loans granted by East European Communist states and outstanding in 1965
(in terms of United States dollar equivalents) were given by a Soviet
source as follows: Bulgaria, US$11 million; Czechoslovakia, US$25
million; East Germany, US$15 million; and Romania, US$7.5 million.
Information about repayments of these loans was not available. Only a
fraction of the outstanding amounts could have been liquidated through
Albania's trade surplus with these countries. Some Western estimates
placed the debt to the Soviet Union and East European Communist states
at the end of 1968 at a minimum of the equivalent of US$500 to US$600
million.
Economic aid by Communist China dates back at least to late 1954. Stated
in United States dollar equivalents, Albania received in that year a
grant-in-aid of US$2.5 million and a loan of US$12.5 million. An
additional credit of US$13.75 million was made available in early 1959,
and a loan of US$123 million for the purchase of industrial equipment
during the Third Five-Year Plan (1960-65) was extended in early 1961,
after Albania's break with the Soviet Union. Two more loans, for
undisclosed amounts, were negotiated in June 1965 and November 1968 to
finance the fourth and fifth five-year plans, respectively. In public
references to the 1968 loan, Party and government officials gave the
impression that it was substantially higher than the loan of
US$123-million obtained in 1961. Aid has been provided by Communist
China free of interest.
A Western scholar reported unidentified sources to have suggested that
the 1965 loan amounted to about US$214 million, a sum substantially in
excess of the credits granted up to that time. Another Western source
estimated total direct credits for the 1960-68 period to have been more
than US$450 million, exclusive of substantial grants. Yet, other Western
sources thought at the time, and also in 1970, they had discerned
evidence of disappointment on the part of the leadership with the extent
of the financial assistance, delays in the supply of machinery, and an
unwillingness or inability to supply much-needed consumer goods. The
leadership's awareness of the inadequacy of foreign aid in relation to
the planned development program has been evidenced, in its appeals for
greater productivity, by the high frequency of references to the Party's
principle of reliance on the country's own efforts and in its continuing
campaign for the utmost economy of resources.
The country's cumulative clearing debt to Communist China on the
commodity trading account at the end of 1968 was estimated at roughly
US$300 million. This amount did not include the substantial additional
costs of assistance in the form of technical advisers who have guided
the construction and operation of major industrial projects. Estimates
of these costs or of the number of aid technicians in the country were
not available.
Foreign Trade
Because of the dearth of domestic resources in relation to the needs for
economic development and consumption, foreign trade has consistently
shown a negative balance. A marked improvement in this respect has taken
place since 1955, even though the absolute deficit has been growing with
the rising trade volume. In the 1960s exports covered 60 percent or more
of imports, compared with 47 percent in the 1956-60 period and 31
percent in the preceding eleven post-World War II years. This
improvement in the trade balance has been achieved through a consistent
policy of diversifying domestic production with a view to import
substitution, developing all possible resources for the production of
exportable goods, improving product quality, and severely restricting
domestic consumption. The annual trade deficit in 1967 and 1968 was
about 200 million leks.
The volume of trade has been rising quite steadily from 140 million leks
in 1950 to 950 million leks in 1968. During this period imports
increased from 110 million to 580 million leks, and exports rose from 30
million to 370 million leks. The Fourth Five-Year Plan calls for an
increase of 31 percent in total trade over the volume of the preceding
five years, including an increase of 36 percent in exports and 28
percent in imports. These figures imply a planned average annual trade
volume in the 1966-70 period of 885 million leks, of which 355 million
leks were exports and 530 million leks imports. Although the rate of
trade expansion during 1966-68 exceeded the target, the export-import
ratio was not as favorable as that called for by the plan.
The directional pattern of the country's foreign trade has conformed to
the general observation that trade follows aid. The assumption by
Communist China in 1961 of the major aid donor position previously held
by the Soviet Union had an immediate and pronounced impact on the
direction of trade. In 1960 Communist China accounted for only 7 percent
of the total trade volume, as against 54 percent for the Soviet Union.
By 1962 trade with Communist China had grown to 51 percent of a somewhat
smaller total volume, whereas trade with the Soviets had ceased
altogether by 1963. In 1964 Communist China's share of the trade was
equal to that of the Soviet Union in 1960, and the actual volume
represented by that share was 23 percent larger. During the 1962-68
period trade with Communist China amounted to about half the total trade
volume, but the share of Communist China declined below that level
toward the end of this period. This decline was the result of a
successful effort by the leadership to expand the country's trade with
both Communist Eastern Europe and the non-Communist West.
Trade with the Communist countries of Eastern Europe, other than
Yugoslavia, continued after the break with the Soviet Union and
increased by 66 percent from 226 million leks in 1960 to about 375
million leks in 1968. The share of this group in total trade rose during
this period from 35 to 40 percent, almost entirely after 1964. Albania's
most important trade partner in this group has been Czechoslovakia,
second only to Communist China with a volume of 118 million leks in
1968, equivalent to about 12 percent of Albania's total trade volume in
that year. Following Czechoslovakia in order of importance were Poland,
East Germany, and Bulgaria, with trade volumes ranging from 69 million
to 53 million leks. Trade with Hungary and Romania amounted to about 40
million leks and 32 million leks, respectively. With the exception of
Poland and Romania, Albania's trade balance with the countries of
Eastern Europe was positive between 1960 and 1968. The excess of
exports over imports during this period totaled about 65 million leks.
During the early years of the country's dependence upon Soviet aid,
trade with non-Communist countries and with Yugoslavia had been
discontinued, but it was resumed on a very small scale by 1955. In 1964
this trade amounted to only 65 million leks (equivalent to US$13 million
at the official rate of exchange), or 8 percent of the total trade
turnover. Fully two-thirds of this trade was accounted for by Italy and
France. During the following four years trade with the West and
Yugoslavia increased 2-½ times to 160 million leks in 1968, and the
share of this trade in the total turnover doubled.
Italy continued to be the major Western trade partner, with a turnover
of 66 million leks in 1968, but the largest advance was made in the
trade with Yugoslavia. The total trade turnover with that country rose
fiftyfold in one year, from 400,000 leks in 1965 to more than 20 million
leks in 1966. Under the 1970 trade agreement the trade volume is
scheduled to reach 50 million leks. In 1968 Italy and Yugoslavia
together absorbed four-fifths of the combined exports to the West and
Yugoslavia and supplied more than half the imports from that area.
Another striking example of the country's trade expansion effort is the
agreement with Greece, a country with which Albania has had no political
or economic relations for thirty years. Signed by the chambers of
commerce of both countries in January 1970 and effective for one year,
this agreement provided for an initial turnover of 7.5 million leks, of
which 4 million leks were in imports and 3.5 million leks in exports.
Commercial orders worth about 1.5 million leks on both sides were
reported to have been placed by mid-1970.
In 1969 trade relations were officially reported to have been maintained
with forty different countries. Relations with thirteen of these
countries, both Communist and non-Communist, were formalized by trade
agreements.
Imports have overwhelmingly served the needs of production and
industrial expansion. Almost 50 percent of the imports in 1964 consisted
of machinery, equipment, and spare parts. More than 23 percent was
accounted for by minerals and metals, chemical and rubber products, and
construction materials. Another 16 percent was made up of agricultural
raw materials, about two-thirds of which was destined for the
food-processing industry. Only 11 percent of the imports consisted of
finished consumer goods and ready-to-eat foods. Continuing Party and
government emphasis on increasing production and the improved domestic
output of foods suggests that the production-oriented nature of imports
did not change significantly by 1970.
Exports have consisted predominantly of minerals and mineral products
but have also included significant amounts of agricultural products and
manufactured consumer goods. In 1969 petroleum and natural bitumen,
chromium and ferronickel ores, and copper (including copper wire),
constituted 55 percent of exports. Another 25 percent comprised
processed foods, such as canned fish and vegetables and preserved
fruits; light industry products, including cotton and linen textiles and
some readymade clothes; and a few chemicals. The balance of 20 percent
was represented by fresh fruits and vegetables and by agricultural raw
materials, such as hides and skins, tannins, and medicinal plants.
Exports of fruits and vegetables to central and northern Europe have
been growing rapidly.
The share of manufactured and semiprocessed products in exports was also
officially reported to be increasing and to have constituted 51 percent
of the export volume in 1968. Students of Albanian affairs have reported
that some of the country's exports are not competitive in world markets
and that Communist China has been willing to absorb them at a good price
only for political reasons, as did the Soviet Union before 1961.
CHAPTER 9
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SECURITY
The armed forces in 1970 were under the Ministry of People's Defense,
and all elements were included within the People's Army. Total personnel
strength was about 40,000. Most troops were acquired by conscription,
and about one-half of the eligible young men were drafted, usually at
age nineteen. All of the tanks, aircraft, and vehicles used by the armed
forces were of Soviet design, but since 1961 all external assistance has
been provided by the Communist Chinese. Military ranks were abolished in
1966, but the force organization at lower levels in all service
components was conventional.
The modern armed forces grew out of the partisan units of World War II,
during which they fought against the Italians, the Germans, and each
other. By the time of the German evacuation of Albania in November 1944,
the Communist-led National Liberation Front held the dominant position
among the partisans and was able to assume control of the country
without fighting any major battles.
The Albanian Workers' Party (Communist Party) had an active organization
within the services. All or nearly all officers in the regular services
were Party members in 1970. All cadets over eighteen years of age in the
officer candidate military schools were also Party members. Younger
cadets were members of the Union of Albanian Working Youth. Probably
only a very few of the conscripts were Party members, but nearly all
were members of the youth organization. In addition to the influence
exerted by Party cells, political commissars throughout the armed forces
structure enforced ideological conformity.
The Albanian fighting man has had an excellent reputation for 2,000
years but, with the exception of Skanderbeg, the fifteenth-century
national hero--he was born Gjergi Kastrioti and renamed Skanderbeg after
Alexander the Great--the military forces of the country have disclaimed
any heritage antedating the partisan activities of World War II.
Skanderbeg gained brief independence for the country during his
opposition to the Turkish invaders, but his exploits in support of
nationalism stood almost alone over the entire period between Roman
times and the twentieth century.
Moreover, national independence in 1912 did not result from a major
military victory. National feelings, aroused late in the nineteenth
century, became more intense during the early 1900s but, although there
were clashes between fairly sizable armed groups of Turks and Albanians,
freedom was not attained from armed struggle involving organized
military forces. Rather, in the interests of the balance of power the
greater European powers recognized the declared independence of Albania
(see ch. 2, Historical Setting).
Police and security forces were under the control of the Ministry of the
Interior. They were organized into three directorates: the Directorate
of State Security, Frontier Guards, and the People's Police. Except for
the fact that they were subject to the same system of military justice,
they were entirely separate from the armed forces of the Ministry of
People's Defense. The Albanian security police in 1970 were believed to
exert more rigid controls over the population than was exercised by
similar forces in any other East European Communist country or in the
Soviet Union.
The Directorate of State Security contained the internal security
police. Organized to protect the Party and governmental system, they
were responsible for suppressing resistance to, and deviation from,
Party ideology, and for combating crimes that had a national character.
Frontier Guards, as their name implies, accomplished border security.
The People's Police were the local or municipal police, with the typical
routines and local interests of such forces.
It is difficult to ascertain the overall effectiveness of the various
police and security forces in the maintenance of public order because no
official crime statistics are published. Official statements in the
press provide little or no information on the extent of crime other than
the inordinate coverage of those crimes that are political in nature and
considered threatening to the Party or the state. Statements by the rare
Western visitors to the country concerning the police state atmosphere
have led to the assumption that public order is rigidly maintained.
Although military and security forces were small in proportion to the
size of the military age male population, they were nearly double the
per capita average maintained by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) or by Warsaw Pact nations. Whether or not the people recognized
the armed forces as a burden, the country has never had the industrial
or economic base to maintain them. Since World War II it has relied, in
turn, on Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and Communist China for aid.
Chinese assistance since 1961 has been sufficient to maintain equipment
previously furnished by the Soviet Union and to replace some of the
older weapons as they became obsolete.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The free-spirited and hardy Albanian mountaineers have had excellent
reputations as individual fighters. The Romans recruited some of their
best soldiers from the regions that later became Albania. In succeeding
periods many Albanians became famous in the military service of the
Ottomans.
Nationalism was rarely necessary to motivate these men. Before 1912 the
country had independence for only one brief period. It was gained then
by the national hero, Skanderbeg, and freedom evaporated almost
immediately upon his death in 1468. The history and legends attached to
him make up a large part of the national military tradition. Other than
in his day, freedom was rarely fought for except in the context of
defense of tribal areas against the incursions of marauding neighbors.
There were few occasions when Albanians rose up against occupying
foreign powers. Conquerors generally left the people alone in their
isolated mountain homelands and, as a feudal tribal society persisted,
there was little if any feeling of national unity in the country (see
ch. 2, Historical Setting).
Organized military action also played an almost negligible part in
attaining independence. Some revolutionary activity occurred during the
rise of national feeling in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. There were clashes between insurgents and Turkish forces as
early as 1884 but, at the same time that the Albanians were resisting
Turkish practices they considered oppressive against themselves, they
were defending the Turks in their hostilities with the Greeks or the
Slavs. They continued to be recruited into, and to serve in, the Turkish
army.
By 1900 about 8,000 armed Albanians were assembled in Shkoder, but they
were unopposed, and a situation resembling anarchy more than revolution
prevailed in the country during the early 1900s. There were arrests,
incidents of banditry and pillage, and many futile Turkish efforts to
restore order. Guerrilla activity increased after about 1906, and
several incidents occurred, which produced martyrs but which were not
marked by great numbers of casualties. Nevertheless, although it was
unorganized and never assumed the proportions of a serious struggle, the
resistance was instrumental in maintaining the pressure that attracted
international attention and led the great powers, when they intervened
after the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, to recognize the independent
state of Albania.
World War I began before the country could establish a viable
governmental body--much less form, train, and equip a military
establishment. During the war years it was occupied by the warring
parties, and the last of them remained into 1920.
Ahmet Zogu--as minister of the interior and minister of war until 1922
and prime minister from 1922, except for a brief exile in 1924, until he
became King Zog in 1928--created the first national forces of any
consequence. Before 1925, so that he would have some assurance of their
loyalty, these consisted of about 5,000 men from his home tribal
district. Starting in about 1925 with Italian assistance and a
considerable degree of Italian control over the forces, men were drawn
through universal conscription. The first drafts called about 5,000 to
6,000 annually from the approximately 10,000 young men who became
eligible for the draft each year. Italian aid equipped the forces, and
Italian officers provided most of the training and tactical guidance, to
the point that they had effective control over their employment.
At about the same time the Gendarmerie was formed with British
assistance. It had an Albanian director, a British general who served as
its inspector general, and a staff of British inspectors. The
Gendarmerie became an effective internal security and police
organization. It had a commandant in each of the ten prefectures, a
headquarters in each of the subprefectures (up to eight per prefecture),
and a post in each of the nearly 150 local communities. Its
communications network was for many years the most complete telephone
system in the country.
Although the Italians objected strenuously, King Zog used the
Gendarmerie as a safeguard against the possible consequences of Italian
domination of his regular armed forces. He kept the force under his
direct control and retained its British advisers until 1938. Zog also
retained a sizable armed group from his old tribal region.
King Zog's efforts to reduce Italian control over his forces were
insufficient to save them from quick humiliation before World War II.
The Italians attacked on April 7, 1939, and, although annual
conscription had created a trained reserve of at least 50,000 men, it
was never called. Resistance was overcome in about a week. Later in 1939
the Italians incorporated Albanian units into their forces. Little
benefit was derived from the Albanians, who could see little point in
fighting for the Italians, even against their traditional enemies, the
Greeks. They deserted in large numbers (see ch. 2, Historical Setting).
Resistance to the occupation grew rapidly as signs of Italian weakness
became apparent. At the end of 1942 guerrilla forces had numbered no
more than perhaps 8,000 to 10,000. By the summer of 1943, when the
Italian effort collapsed, almost all of the mountainous interior was
controlled by various resistance groups.
The Germans took over the occupation from the Italians and inflicted
near-decisive defeat upon the guerrillas in January 1944. Resistance
grew again, however, as final defeat for the Axis powers appeared
certain, and by the end of 1944 guerrilla forces probably totaled about
70,000 men. In addition, by their count, they had suffered about 28,000
casualties. The Communist-controlled National Liberation Movement had
then solidified its hold over the guerrilla groups and was able to take
over the country after the war. Enver Hoxha had been the chief political
commissar of the General Staff that was created in July 1943. From that
post he rose rapidly to leadership of the group and through it became
the head of the Communist government that took over at the end of World
War II.
Albania's first Communist military forces were equipped, trained, and
modeled after Yugoslavia's. When Yugoslavia embarked on its separate
road to socialism in 1948 and was expelled from the Communist
Information Bureau (Cominform--see Glossary), Albania aligned directly
with the Soviet Union. This did not involve an immediate change in
materiel, organization, or training because the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia had had much the same relationship before their break.
Soviet aid included advisory personnel, a considerable amount of modern
conventional armament, a few small World War II naval vessels, and a
number of aircraft. This aid was halted entirely in 1961. The Soviet
submarine flotilla that had been based on Sazan Island, off Vlore,
passed Gibraltar in June 1961 on its way back to northern Soviet ports.
Communist China succeeded the Soviet Union as Albania's ally. Albania
can provide China with little of tactical importance, but its value as
an ally from a political standpoint has been sufficient to warrant
continuation of aid in quantities sufficient to maintain the armed
forces at about the same levels of personnel strength and equipment that
they had achieved when they were supported by the Soviet Union, although
interruptions in training are believed to have caused a deterioration in
technical skills and know-how.
THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT
Position in the Government
The People's Army, which encompasses the ground, naval, and air arms of
the regular armed forces, is under the Ministry of People's Defense,
which, in turn, is within the Council of Ministers. The ministers are
selected from the People's Assembly which, with its Presidium, is at
the top of the governmental structure (see ch. 6, Government Structure
and Political System).
In mid-1970 the minister of defense, Beqir Balluku, was also a deputy
prime minister and a member of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the
Albanian Workers' Party. Balluku had a military career background and
held the rank of colonel general in the army before its ranks were
abolished in 1966. As defense minister he exercised direct operational
and administrative control over all elements of the military
establishment.
The People's Army
The army claims no antecedents in the forces of the pre-Communist
regimes and dates itself from July 10, 1943, when a General Staff was
formed within the guerrilla forces resisting the Italian occupation.
Petrit Dume, its chief of staff in 1970, had commanded the People's Army
for about twenty years. He was second only to Balluku in the defense
hierarchy and was also a candidate member of the Politburo of the Party
organization. Enver Hoxha, first secretary of the Albanian Workers'
Party, held the rank of general of the army until rank designations were
abolished but, although he could exercise personal direction of the
armed forces as their commander in chief, he was not considered a member
of the defense establishment.
All of the regular military forces are within the People's Army. The air
and naval arms are usually treated separately because of their
distinctive functions and equipment, but their men are sometimes
referred to as naval and air soldiers. Major subcommands, such as the
army's directorates of Political Affairs and Rear Services (Logistics),
serve all service components. The same is the case with such
organizations as the medical service that have functions applicable to
all of the armed forces.
At lower levels, where the functions of the forces are specialized in
relation to their weapons, organizational patterns appear to be similar
to those in most of the other armed forces throughout the Communist
world. During the post-World War II formative years, force structures
were adapted from those of the Soviet Union. Realignments after 1961 to
cooperate with the Communist Chinese are not believed to have affected
them to any appreciable degree. Some unit designations, such as army
division, are not used in the peacetime organization and, in other
situations, the sizes of units may be scaled down somewhat from normal
international practice.
Rank designations were abolished in 1966. Since then, according to the
governmental decree that effected the change, position in the military
hierarchy is based on the responsibilities stipulated in the relevant
tables of organization of the armed forces. Most of the personnel who
would have fallen into the lower rank categories are acquired by
conscription. Men without highly skilled specialties are retained for
two years; noncommissioned officers and others who receive special
training are required to serve for longer periods.
The stated mission of the armed forces in general and the ground forces
in particular is to defend the country and to secure its governing
system. The stated mission notwithstanding, support of the system is
primarily the responsibility of the security police forces and, against
an external opponent, the armed forces are believed to have only a
defensive capability. Unless Albanian forces engaged an enemy that was
also committed against a third party in a more general conflict, they
would, of necessity, revert to guerrilla fighting. Most of the training
and much of the propaganda directed at the local population indicate
that the leadership anticipates the possibility of guerrilla warfare.
The Party slogan, "the pick in one hand and the rifle in the other,"
also illustrates the dual use of service personnel in peacetime. They
assist in the construction of industrial enterprises and hydroelectric
plants and in land reclamation projects, crop harvests, and the like.
They were used during the early 1960s, for example, in the construction
of the oil refinery at Cerrik; in building a sugar factory, a lumber
combine, and a textile factory; and in the draining of Lake Maliq to
acquire additional agricultural land in a marshy lake district area
north of Korce (see ch. 8, Economic System).
Ground Forces
The ground forces contain about three-quarters of the regular personnel
and are the backbone of the armed forces. Consequently, many of the
People's Army functions that apply to all of the service components are
administered within the ground force organization.
Because the active personnel strength of the ground forces is around
30,000--sufficient to man only about two divisions--the brigade has been
chosen as the basic tactical unit. The brigades are manned with
approximately 3,000 men each, and there are probably one tank and five
infantry brigades. The infantry brigades are believed to contain three
infantry battalions and a lightly equipped artillery regiment. The tank
brigade has Soviet-built weapons. Most of them are World War II T-34
medium tanks, but there are a few of the later model T-54s.
Almost all artillery is light and small caliber, since movement of
heavy equipment is nearly impossible over much of the terrain. In
addition, heavy weapons, their transport, or even their ammunition could
not be produced locally, and little resupply from external sources could
be expected in any lengthy conflict. In so small an area the rapid
movement of forces would serve little purpose. The minimal amount of
transport equipment available includes small numbers of Soviet-designed
armored personnel carriers, command cars, and a few types of trucks.
Before 1961 training was based on Soviet methods, and specialized
schools were scaled-down copies of those in the Soviet army. Training
manuals were translated from the Russian. Although external support of
the forces has been transferred from the Soviet Union to Communist
China, the Chinese have apparently not required basic changes in the
training programs. Most conscripts have been exposed to a considerable
amount of drill and elementary basic training in school and in Communist
youth organizations, permitting the forces to concentrate on tactical
exercises. These consist mostly of small unit activities and involve
fighting techniques appropriate to the defense of the mountainous
interior. Physical conditioning, tactics involving light weapons, and
operations using a minimum of materiel support are emphasized on a
continuing basis. Political indoctrination, conducted or supervised by
the political commissars, is heavily administered in all training
programs.
Naval Forces
Naval units are subordinate to the Coastal Defense Command which,
although a part of the People's Army, is operationally responsible
directly to the Ministry of People's Defense. None of the pre-World War
II navy survived the occupation and, as with the other branches of the
service, the navy forgets any earlier ancestry and celebrates August 15,
1945, as its founding date. The senior naval officer is commander of
naval forces, a deputy commander of coastal defense, and deputy minister
of defense for naval affairs. In late 1969 Ymer Zeqir held these
positions. As deputy commander of coastal defense he coordinated naval
operations with those of the air defense and ground forces that would
participate in defense of the coastal area. As deputy minister of
defense he represented the naval forces in national defense planning and
coordinated personnel, logistic support, and matters that are common to
other branches of the armed forces.
Naval forces are divided into three commands: the Submarine Brigade, the
Vlore Sea Defense Brigade, and the Durres Sea Defense Brigade. All
combat ships are assigned to one of the three. The Submarine Brigade is
based at the Pasha Liman anchorages south of the city of Vlore, at the
extreme southwestern point in the bay. Main facilities of the Vlore Sea
Defense Brigade are located on the island of Sazan, in the mouth of the
bay about ten miles west of Vlore. This was the site of the Soviet
submarine base before 1961. The Durres Sea Defense Brigade controls the
units stationed at Durres and those that are locked within Lake Scutari.
The Buene River is navigable between Lake Scutari and the Adriatic, but
only the smallest of the ships in the lake can pass beneath the Shkoder
city bridges.
The officially stated mission of the naval forces is to provide for the
military security of coastal waters; to prevent smuggling; to prevent
submarines from approaching the coast or harbors; to lay and sweep
mines; to intercept enemy forces; to escort convoys along the coastline;
and, together with police patrol boats, to control entries to, or exits
from, the country. Original Soviet support for the navy was provided in
order to secure a submarine and minelaying base with access to the
Mediterranean Sea.
Forces available are considerably weaker than those of any one of the
potential enemies and, with the exception of Vlore, Albanian harbors
provide little natural protection. It is therefore probable that the
leadership thinks in terms of peacetime shore patrols and would hope, in
wartime, to use what units they were able to preserve to prevent totally
uninhibited use of the seas adjacent to the country.
In mid-1970 naval ships included three or four submarines, eight
minesweepers, twelve motor torpedo boats, one or two oilers, and perhaps
twenty-five or thirty more ships, about one-half of which were classed
as coastal patrol and one-half as auxiliary types. The submarines are
obsolescent medium-range boats. Two of the minesweepers are oceangoing
vessels; the other six can sweep harbors or inshore seas only. Most of
the miscellaneous vessels were formerly Italian, of World War II and
earlier vintages. Albanian sources claim that a dozen newer torpedo
boats have been supplied by the Chinese, six of them hydrofoil types.
Naval personnel number approximately 3,000. Since many of the ships put
to sea infrequently, many of the navy men do part-time fishing or
agricultural work. Familiarity with ships helps a new conscript get a
naval assignment, and many of those drafted are from the vicinities of
Vlore or Durres and may serve their three years being only rarely out of
sight of home. Their morale is only fair.
Officers are required to have a general education that includes at
least some university credits. They receive specialized courses before
going to sea. Before 1961 most officers and some of the higher
noncommissioned officer ratings received some training in the Soviet
Union. Without this training or a Chinese substitute for it, there has
probably been some degradation in the technical capabilities of the
officer and noncommissioned officer personnel.
Air Force
The Albanian Air Force is the youngest of the service branches, founded
on April 23, 1951. As is the case with the navy, the air force is also a
part of the People's Army, having organizational and logistic
individuality only insofar as its equipment is different and requires
different techniques and skills in its use. Arif Hasko, chief of the air
force in mid-1970, was also a deputy minister of defense and, as was the
case with his naval counterpart, advised on problems peculiar to his
force and coordinated on matters of general interest to all branches of
the service.
Air defense artillery and missile units are usually included with the
air force and account for about two-thirds of its 5,000 to 7,000
personnel. Air defense units received Soviet equipment between 1948 and
1961, including that required at a few surface-to-air missile sites.
Their Guideline missiles were paraded in Tirana on Army Day of 1964 and
have been shown on occasion since. The original missiles supplied by the
Soviets would have outlived their storage lifetimes by 1970. If a
surface-to-air missile capability did exist at that time, the Chinese
would have supplied the necessary replacements.
Aircraft in 1970 included sixty to seventy fighters and fighter-bombers
and about the same number of transports, trainers, and miscellaneous
noncombat types. All were of Soviet design. Fighter-bombers or ground
attack aircraft were the jet MiG-15s and MiG-17s provided by the Soviet
Union before 1961. Spare parts necessary to keep them operating since
then have been supplied by Communist China. MiG-19s for the air defense
interceptor role have also been furnished by the Chinese.
It is believed that the 1970 force included four ground support
squadrons and probably two interceptor squadrons, with about ten or
twelve aircraft per squadron. Air-to-air missiles are an integral part
of the MiG-19 armament and are presumably being furnished in small
quantities by the Chinese. Transport squadrons contain a few
Soviet-built piston-engined Il-14s and AN-2s, some Soviet-built
helicopters, and possibly a few helicopters built by the Chinese.
The five principal airbases are located near Tirana, Shijak (about
twenty miles west of Tirana), Vlore, Sazan Island (at the mouth of Vlore
Bay), and at Stalin (about forty miles south of Tirana). The base on
Sazan Island that was built and used by the Russians has been used
intermittently, if at all, since the Russians evacuated it in 1961.
Helicopter bases have been, or are being, constructed at several inland
cities as well as at Tirana, Shkoder, and as a part of the major base at
Vlore. The forces had no surface-to-surface missile capability in 1970.
The missions assigned to the combat elements of the air force are to
repel an enemy at the borders and to prevent the violation of Albanian
airspace. Because the force is small, could not easily be resupplied,
has exposed bases, and possesses no appreciable area to retreat into,
however, it could not be expected to contribute significantly to any
sustained combat effort. It serves mainly to provide the regime with
ostensive evidence of its power and technological progress.
Mobilization Potential
In the event of total mobilization there are just under 500,000 males
between the ages of fifteen and fifty. Of the total group approximately
75 percent, or nearly 375,000, are physically fit. More than half of
these have had some military service, and a sizable group participates
in military reserve activities (see ch. 4, The People).
Information as to how the existing establishment would be expanded is
not available. Units active in 1970 could be enlarged to about double
their peacetime strengths because all units are usually maintained at
considerably below combat readiness strengths. New units would probably
be created in infantry or guerrilla forces. Additional tank, air, and
naval units would require more of their special equipment before they
could become operational. Some women probably would be mobilized. The
national economy, however, could not provide logistic support for the
number of male personnel available, and external support would be
necessary.
Political Indoctrination
At the time of the Communist takeover in 1944 and in the years
immediately thereafter, political commissars were an integral part of
the military organization. They were considered essential in order to
assure that ideological beliefs were constant and were adhered to
without deviation. As the years passed they lost their early importance
and were eventually done away with, but they were reinstated in 1966
when alignment with Communist China brought renewed revolutionary
fervor.
How much their organization and operations in 1970 differed from what
they were in 1944 is not clearly understood, but the fact that they were
still called political commissars was a strong indication that they
performed basically the same functions. There is no question but that
the justification for their existence was the same--that is, to ensure
that the ideological and political orientation of the troops and of
their leaders did not deviate from the Party line. The decree that
reinstated the commissars stated that they would be assigned in all
units, subunits, and military establishments. This presumably means that
there are commissars in all base organizations and in tactical units
down at least to the company level.
It is also known that Political Directorates in both the Ministry of
People's Defense and the Ministry of the Interior control the commissars
in the armed forces and the security forces, respectively. Political
commissars are carefully selected from the standpoint of ideological
reliability. Those appointed since 1966 must have had five years of
unblemished Party membership. Those in the armed forces who are attached
to the lower levels of the organizational structure are responsible to
the Political Directorate and the Party organization rather than to
superior officers within the military command channels. Hito Cako was
chief of the People's Army Political Directorate in 1970.
In addition to the military court system, discipline is enforced as part
of the educational and ideological training program by the political
workers who act in conjunction with the Party organizations in service
units. They are invited to take measures necessary against individuals
whose attitude or conduct is considered harmful to the effectiveness of,
or discipline within, the army.
Military Schools
Other than those that are set up for specialized training, there are
three military schools providing curricula aimed at producing officer
personnel or offering advanced military theory. The Skanderbeg military
school is a secondary or preparatory school. It is attended by children
of top Party, government, and military leaders and prepares them for
entrance into the Enver Hoxha United Army Officers School. The Hoxha
school is the oldest military educational institution in the country. It
started a formal curriculum in 1945 but, according to Party claims, was
in operation before the World War II occupation forces left the country
in 1944. It is the military academy that provides a university level
curriculum and whose students become commissioned officers upon
graduation.
The Mehmet Shehu Military Academy is named for the man who in 1970 was
premier (chairman of the Council of Ministers) and also a member of the
Party Politburo. Shehu was a lieutenant general before 1966 and was
considered one of the country's most capable military leaders. The
academy is the advanced military institution that offers career training
equivalent to that of command and staff or war college institutions in
Western military establishments.
Military Medicine
The medical services were organized during the 1950s along the lines of
those in the Soviet and East European Communist forces in order to
facilitate cooperation among them. Although there has been no such
cooperation since 1961, the basic organization was unchanged in 1963 and
probably remained basically the same in 1970.
The head of the medical establishment has the title of chief, Albanian
Armed Forces Medical Service. He is responsible to the chief of the Rear
Services, which is one of the unified directorates directly beneath the
Ministry of People's Defense. Naval, air force, and ground force staffs
are responsible to him, but the naval and air force groups appear to
have a largely advisory capacity, except as they work to secure the
services required by their branches of the service. The hospital,
pharmaceutical, and personnel sections, however, are operated by the
deputy chief of medical services, who is also head of the ground forces'
medical department.
Albanian sources state that there is close cooperation between the
military medical service and the Ministry of Health. The forces' medical
personnel, facilities, equipment, and medicines have been used to
improve sanitary and medical conditions in less developed areas and to
provide assistance in flood, earthquake, and other emergency situations.
Decorations
Recognition for high standards of conduct, exceptional effort, or
noteworthy accomplishment is bestowed lavishly. Highly prized
decorations include the Partisan Star, Order of the Albanian Flag, Order
of the National Hero, and Order of Skanderbeg. Other decorations that
are worn by a few of the highest military and Party officials include
the Memorial Medal, the Order of Liberty (or Order of Freedom), the
Liberation Medal, Order of the People's Hero (or Hero of the People),
and Order of Valor. Some of the decorations, including the Partisan Star
and Order of Skanderbeg, are awarded in three classes. This group of
decorations is usually awarded individually, but on rare occasions some
can be presented to a group.
The Order of Labor (or Hero of Socialist Labor) and the Red Flag Order
(or Red Banner) may be presented to individuals, usually civilians, but
are most frequently reported when awarded to a group or an enterprise.
Typical recipients would be a factory for overfulfilling its quotas, a
ship after completing an unusual voyage, or a military unit that had
performed well in some civic project or in an emergency relief
situation.
Paramilitary Training
In November 1944, when partisan resistance forces were at their peak
strength of about 70,000, about 6,000 of them were women and 1,000 were
boys under fifteen years of age. Formal paramilitary training was
undertaken in 1945, shortly after the Hoxha regime gained control, and
was made obligatory for all young people in 1953. Training has been
developed to the point that fifteen- to nineteen-year-old youths can be
organized into their own auxiliary units in emergencies.
Major revisions to the secondary school and university military training
programs were announced in 1969 in preparation for implementation during
the ensuing school year. The extent of training, what it would include,
and aims of the new program were given wide publicity throughout 1969 in
order to ease the transition. The purpose of the programs is to provide
the armed forces with conscripts who are in good physical condition and
who have sufficient basic military training to permit them to step
directly into a military unit and perform usefully with a minimum of
adjustment and little additional training.
Beginning in 1970 the secondary school year was to consist of 6-½
months of academic work, 2-½ months of physical work in agriculture or
industry, 1 month of military training, and 2 months of relaxation.
According to official guidance, however, the youths are encouraged to
use their relaxation period for "ideological and physical steeling." The
university year would consist of 7 months of academic work, 2 months of
military training, 1 month of physical work, and 2 months of ideological
and physical steeling.
Physical training of the type that contributes most to future military
service is encouraged. Specific goals to be derived from it are basic
physical improvement in speed, agility, strength, and resistance and the
moral attributes of bravery, strong will, and personal discipline. Light
sports, such as volleyball, are discouraged. Track, wrestling, and body
contact sports are advised. Swimming and skiing are also considered to
have military applications. It is recommended that calisthenics and
physical culture activities be carried on in large groups.
Military instruction includes close order drill, crawling and obstacle
penetration, storming techniques, and hand-to-hand combat. Academic
courses in the military area train in the care and use of various types
of weapons, the theories of military art, and the techniques of
conventional and guerrilla warfare. Schools organize marches and
excursions that are combined with tactical military exercises to give
them a wholly military character. Most of these are designed to teach
guerrilla warfare tactics. Overnight stalking exercises feature searches
for intruder groups, a simulated target demolition, or some such
objective. Girls as well as boys are required to participate. Tirana
press photographs have shown some groups of girls engaged in mortar
training, others in target shooting. In the 1969 Tirana May Day parade
girls, in ranks of fifteen abreast, carried submachineguns.
When the programs have been completely implemented, students in the
first and second years of secondary schooling will receive all of their
physical and military training at their schools. It will be supervised
by teachers and military officers assigned to the schools. Third- and
fourth-year students will have part of the training at their schools,
but with entire day or week periods devoted to the program. They will
also spend a part of the allocated month in military units to which the
school is attached for the purpose.
Facilities are not adequate in many schools, and in many areas military
units are not immediately available to assist in training. It will be
several years before the complete revised programs can be implemented.
The first year's effort, however, involves about 10,000 university
students and about 170,000 other people. The latter figure includes
schoolteachers, military personnel who cooperate in the training, and
others who provide miscellaneous voluntary or part-time assistance, in
addition to those who receive the training. Students in the program have
been compared with those in the Communist Chinese Red Guard, but the
organization of the Albanian program is designed to keep it closely
aligned with the school curriculum and with active military units to
prevent large-scale independent action by youth groups.
Paramilitary programs of Party-sponsored youth organizations are similar
in many ways to those in the school system. Pioneers take children, both
boys and girls, between the ages of seven and fourteen. A group of these
young Pioneers carried rifles and submachineguns in the 1968 Tirana May
Day parade. From ages fifteen to twenty-five they may belong to the
Union of Albanian Working Youth, frequently called the Communist Youth
Movement. The Union of Albanian Working Youth had 210,000 members in
1967. Nearly all personnel drafted into the armed forces fall within the
youth movement's age brackets, and its units within the services are
active. Political and ideological indoctrination is intensive in these
organizations and prepares the youth for possible membership in the
Party in later years (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).
Military Justice
There is no distinction between the civil judicial order in general and
the military order in particular, but military crimes are treated in a
separate chapter of the penal code. That chapter treats those acts,
committed by persons under the jurisdiction of military courts, that are
directed against military discipline, military orders, and the like.
They include a broad variety of violations against persons, property, or
the state.
A military crime, in the Albanian system, has two characteristics
distinguishing it from nonmilitary crimes. The crime is committed
against regulations established for the performance of military service,
and the defendant is a member of the armed forces. For criminal justice
the security forces under the Ministry of the Interior and all local
police are considered armed forces and are subject to military law and
to trial in military courts, as are reservists or persons called to
military or police duty for short periods. Also, military violations are
believed to include a variety of crimes against the state that might not
be classed as military in Western countries, including some in the
so-called socially dangerous category. As is the case in the Soviet
Union, persons who fail to report on others committing crimes are
themselves liable.
Military courts are selected by the People's Assembly or by its
Presidium when it is not in session. Members are military personnel and
ordinarily serve on a court for three years. Each court has a chairman,
vice chairman, and a number of members called assistant judges. The
chairman and at least one of the assistant judges must be military
superiors of the defendant.
In exceptional circumstances the People's Assembly may appoint a special
court for a particular case or a group of cases. A special court may be
all or only partially military. Such a court was appointed, for example,
when Vice Admiral Teme Seyko, commander of the naval forces, was accused
in 1961 of "having been in league with the imperialist Americans, Greek
monarcho-fascists and Yugoslav revisionists." The admiral was executed.
When crimes are committed during military operations, sentences are
heavier than when the same offenses are committed under conditions where
duress is not a factor. During combat or wartime circumstances,
legislative acts call for the most severe penalties.
THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMY
According to official government pronouncements relating to the state
budget, 471 million leks (5 leks equal US$1) were appropriated for
defense expenditures in 1970. That amount is 9.2 percent of the total
planned expenditures of 5,110 million leks, or about 225 leks per
inhabitant during the year. Whether or not all expenses that would fall
within the defense category in Western countries are included in these
figures is not known. It is the practice in some Communist governments
to distribute peripheral defense costs among other agency appropriations
(see ch. 8, Economic System).
The defense budget was increased drastically in 1969 and 1970 over the
levels of earlier years, apparently in reaction to the Soviet invasion
of Czechoslovakia. The midyear calculated expenditures for 1969
represented an increase of about 38 percent over those of 1968, and 1970
projections showed another 12.2 percent anticipated increase over 1969.
The burden represented by 225 leks per person can be illustrated by
relating it to income and costs of living. In 1967, for example, a
typical head of family worker earned about 7,200 leks per year. The
average family group consisted of between five and six persons, and
about 90 percent of its earnings was required for food and housing. In
the preponderant majority of situations where there was only one wage
earner per family, therefore, per capita defense costs exceeded
everything that the family had available for all uses except food and
shelter.
The 50,000 men in the regular and security forces represent about 2.4
percent of the population, but each annual draft takes a number that is
equal to roughly one-half of the young men that become nineteen years
old during the year. There is no reliable information as to how
willingly the average citizen performs his military service or whether
or not his contribution is appreciated by the remainder of the people.
The controlled-communications media do everything possible to promote
good morale among those in the service and to show that the public
supports them.
FOREIGN MILITARY RELATIONS
Small, underdeveloped, and suffering continually from an unfavorable
balance of trade, Albania has always needed assistance to maintain even
a small military force. Accepting aid from Italy before World War II
resulted in a severe curtailment of national initiative in the
employment of the forces and probably contributed to their immobility at
the time of the Italian invasion in 1939.
Between 1945 and 1948 Yugoslavia's control over Albania's forces was
tighter than Italy's had been. In addition to technical advisers and
instructors in regular service units, the Communist Party organization
provided an effective vehicle for controlling the reliability of
personnel, particularly the military leadership.
Because the Soviet Union, like Italy, was physically separated from the
country it was a more desirable ally than neighboring Yugoslavia had
been. It was nonetheless able to maintain tighter controls over Albanian
forces than either Yugoslavia or Italy had achieved. General Petrit
Dume, who was commander of the People's Army during its dependence on
the Soviet Union and still was in 1970, had said in November of 1952
that his force was an integral part of the Soviet Army.
Albania became one of the original Warsaw Treaty Organization members in
1955. Separated from the other signatories, its forces were unable to
participate in the pact's field exercises and after 1961, because of its
rift with the Soviet Union, was not invited to attend the organization's
meetings. In 1968, protesting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia,
Albania formally withdrew from the pact.
Communist China was Albania's only military ally in 1970. In 1970 the
Chinese were believed to be enabling Albania to maintain its forces at
approximately the same levels that had been reached by 1960 with Soviet
assistance (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System).
SECURITY FORCES
Albanian sources publish little concerning the security police except
for some articles expressing gratitude for their services and a
smattering of information relative to their responsibilities. Few of the
observers who have visited the country since 1945 have been in positions
to see, or have been qualified to judge, their actual performance. It is
undoubtedly true that the Albanian leadership emulated many of Joseph
Stalin's techniques for controlling the population, that it modified its
attitudes and practices less than did the other East European Communist
countries after Stalin's death, and that it has maintained a high degree
of Stalinism since its break with the Soviet Union and alignment with
Communist China (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political System).
There is probably credibility in reports stating that no other Communist
country has as extensive a police and security organization relative to
its size as that which operates in Albania. Hoxha has regarded the
security police as an elite group, and they have been the mainstay of
his power. By 1961, although arrests had tapered off from earlier
levels, fourteen concentration or labor camps were still in use. Foreign
visitors in Tirana have reported that it is impossible to move around
the city without escorts and that conversations with ordinary citizens
are discouraged. Local police, servicemen, and security police are in
evidence everywhere.
All security and police forces were responsible in the governmental
structure to the Ministry of the Interior. The minister in 1970 was
Kadri Hasbiu. Each organization--the Directorate of State Security, the
People's Police, and the Frontier Guards--constituted a separate
directorate of the ministry. The total regular uniformed security
personnel numbered approximately 12,500. This figure did not include the
plainclothes security police, informers, or the citizens who were
performing their two months of mandatory auxiliary duty attached to
local police units.
A larger proportion of personnel in the security forces are Party
members than is the case in the regular military forces. In the state
security organization, nearly all of those who serve in important
positions are believed to be Party members. In the Frontier Guards the
officers and many of the men are Party members.
The Directorate of State Security
The Directorate of State Security (Drejtorija e Sigurimit te
Shtetit--commonly abbreviated to Sigurimi) is organized into four
battalions and has more plainclothes personnel than uniformed. It
celebrates March 20, 1943, as its founding day and is credited by Hoxha
and others of the Party leadership as having been instrumental in the
victory of his faction of the partisan effort. Actually the People's
Defense Division, from which the Sigurimi evolved, was formed in 1945.
Composed at that time of some 5,000 of the most reliable of the
resistance fighters, it was headed initially by Koci Xoxe, who was
executed as a Titoist four years later. Mihalaq Zicishti was its chief
in 1970.
The stated missions of the security police are to prevent
counterrevolution and to eliminate opposition to the Party and
government. Its interests are directed toward political and ideological
opposition rather than crimes against persons or property unless such
crimes appear to have national implications.
In the late 1950s the Sigurimi had seven sections: political,
censorship, public records, prison camp, two sections for
counterespionage, and a foreign service. The political section's primary
function was the penetration of opposition political factions. One of
the counterespionage sections was specialized and had only a
responsibility for eliminating underground organizations. The censorship
section operated not only with the press, radio, publications, and other
communications media but with cultural societies, schools, and
schoolteachers. The public records section was also charged with
ideological supervision of economic agencies.
Sigurimi personnel at labor camps attended to the political reeducation
of the inmates and evaluated the degree to which they remained socially
dangerous; camp guards were local police. The foreign service section
placed its personnel as widely as possible in order to maintain contact
with aliens or foreigners in the country and in diplomatic and visiting
groups.
Sigurimi personnel may be conscripts called during the annual draft or
may be career volunteers. Personnel are screened, and the conditions of
service are made sufficiently attractive to secure as reliable and
dedicated men as possible.
Frontier Guards
The Frontier Guards are organized into five battalions. Individual units
are manned with fewer personnel than Sigurimi battalions, however, and
the total strength of the force is lower. Although the force is
organized strictly along military lines, it is under the Ministry of the
Interior and is more closely associated with the security police than
with the regular armed forces.
The stated mission of the Frontier Guards is to protect the State's
borders and to take action against spies, criminals, smugglers, and
infiltrators along the boundaries. In the process they also prevent
Albanians from leaving the country.
Frontier Guards personnel, like those of the Sigurimi, may be acquired
during the annual conscription. Career personnel are often those who
have served tours in the regular services. A guards' school was
established in 1953 in Tirana. Its students, as well as others allowed
in the force, are carefully screened for political reliability.
People's Police
The People's Police has five branches--the Police for Economic
Objectives, Communications Police, Fire Police, Detention Police, and
General Police. The Police for Economic Objectives serve as guards for
state buildings, factories, construction projects, and similar
enterprises. Communications Police guard bridges, railways, and wire
lines. Firefighting is a police function, accomplished by the Fire
Police. Detention Police are prison and camp guards. The fifth branch,
the General Police, attend to traffic regulation, local crime, and other
duties usually performed by local or municipal police.
General Police functions overlap those of the security police to some
extent, but the force operates in the local, as opposed to the national,
environment. Headquarters in the larger towns have security sections
that maintain records on suspected anti-Communists, an alien section
that maintains contact with Albanians outside their own districts as
well as aliens, and a political commissar who is so placed as to assure
the proper political orientation of all other personnel.
Citizens are required to carry identification cards. These contain
family and employment data and, as they are needed even for intervillage
travel, constitute an effective control over movement of the population.
Minimum service on the police force is for three years. Individuals with
earlier service in the armed forces, security police, or Frontier Guards
are preferred.
Auxiliary Police
A 1948 law requires that all able-bodied men serve two months assisting
the local police. They perform with the regular People's Police of their
localities, wear the police uniform made distinguishable only by a red
armband, and serve without pay. The auxiliary police program serves a
dual purpose. It provides additional help for the police forces. Of more
overall value, it gives a sizable portion of the population some
familiarity with, and presumably a more sympathetic understanding of,
police activities and problems.
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"Abuses of Principle of Compensation According to Labor," by
Dervish Gjiriti, in _Puna_ (Labor), Tirana, 1970. (JPRS:
50,847, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 310, 1970.)
"Advanced Technology: An Important Factor in Surmounting the
Artisan Stage of Industrial Production," by Koco Theodhosi,
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Industrial Affairs_, No. 114, 1969.)
"Against the Handicraft Method of Management in the
Engineering Industry," by Vangjush Gambeta, in _Zeri i
Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS:
47,544, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 92, 1969.)
"The Agricultural Tasks of 1970 Demand Greater Use of
Organic Fertilizer," by Xhemal Barushi, in _Bashkimi_
(Unity), Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 50,065, _Translations on
Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 265,
1970.)
"Bank Activities and Bank Control as a Component Part of
State Control Must be Improved," by Zeqir Lika, in _Ekonomia
Popullore_ (People's Economy), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 48,892,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 186, 1969.)
"Concentration and Specialization Cannot be Accomplished
Without a Struggle Against Outdated Concepts," by Fejzo
Rino, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana,
1968. (JPRS: 46,647, _Translations on Eastern Europe,
Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 41, 1968.)
"Control by the Working Class and Problems of Finance and
Accounting," by Mensur Saraci, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice
of the People), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 46,647, _Translations
on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 41,
1968.)
"The Country's Power Resources and the Ways to Use Them More
Economically," by Harilla Nishku, in _Ekonomia Popullore_
(People's Economy), Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 50,784,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 305, 1970.)
"Development of the Machine Industry," by Thoma Afezolli, in
_Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1969 (JPRS:
48,685, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 171, August 26, 1969.)
"Disappearance and Reduction of Social and General Diseases,
Great Victory of the Party in the Health Field," by Josif
Adhami, et al., in _Shendetesia Popullore_ (People's
Health), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 50,302, _Translations on
Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, 1969.)
"Elements of Internal Democracy in the Agricultural
Cooperatives in Berat District," by Omer Mero, in _Bashkimi_
(Unity), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 46,439, _Translations on
Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 34,
1968.)
"Expansion of Mechanization in Agriculture," by Xhelal
Shkreta, in _Ekonomia Popullore_ (People's Economy), Tirana,
1968. (JPRS: 47,515, _Translations on Eastern Europe,
Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 90, 1969.)
"The Extension and Protection of the Forests is the
Responsibility of All the People," by Thoma Dine, in _Rruga
e Partise_ (Party Path), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 48,096,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 129, 1969.)
"For the Implementation of the Tasks Concerning the Further
Revolutionization of Our Schools," by Mehmet Shehu, in _Zeri
i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1968 (JPRS:
45,432, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 256, 1968.)
"The Great Revolutionary Transformations in the Development
of Our Socialist Health on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of
the Victory of the People's Revolution and the Establishment
of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat," by Ciril Pistoli,
in _Shendetesia Popullore_ (People's Health), Tirana, 1969.
(JPRS: 50,345, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Political,
Sociological, and Military Affairs_, No. 207, 1970.)
"Immediate Interests Must be Correctly Combined With
Long-Term Ones," by Perikli Samsuri, in _Bashkimi_ (Unity),
Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 49,222, _Translations on Eastern
Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 221, 1969.)
"Improper Use of Investment Funds," by Andrea Nako, in
_Bashkimi_ (Unity), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 46,570,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 38, 1968.)
"The Improvement of Fodder: A Fundamental Condition of the
Development of Livestock," by Andrea Shundi and Petrit
Disdardi, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People),
Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 49,941, _Translations on Eastern
Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 256, 1970.)
"Increased Savings Deposits: An Index of Growing
Prosperity," by Ramadan Citaku, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice
of the People), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 49,222, _Translations
on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No.
211, 1969.)
"Labor Productivity in Industry Must be Raised," by Jonuz
Drishti, in _Ekonomia Popullore_ (People's Economy), Tirana,
1968. (JPRS: 46,163, _Translations on Eastern Europe,
Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 21, 1968.)
"Let Us Expand and Perfect Our Labor Force Plans," by Besim
Bardhoshi, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People),
Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 46,940, _Translations on Eastern
Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 57, 1968.)
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of Work Processes," by Pjeter Kosta, in _Zeri i Popullit_
(Voice of the People), Tirana, 1969, (JPRS: 48,647,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 166, 1969.)
"Let Us Further Intensify the Participation of the Working
Masses in Reinforcing the Savings Regimen," by Aleks Verli,
in _Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS:
48,349, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 143. 1969.)
"Let Us Strengthen the Movement of the Working Class for the
Overall Development of the Villages," by Sotir Kamberi, in
_Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 45,815,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Political, Sociological,
and Military Affairs_, No. 9, 1968.)
"Let Us Take All Necessary Measures to Organize Better the
Export of Vegetables and Fruit," by Thechar Fundo, in _Zeri
i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS:
45,432, _Translations on Eastern Europe_, No. 256, 1968.)
"Massive Scientific Experimentation is an Important Factor
in the Socialist Transformation of Our Agriculture," by
Pirro Dodbiba, in _Bashkimi_ (Unity), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS:
47,948, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 118, 1969.)
"The Maximum Utilization of Labor Time Demands Regular
Material and Technical Supply," by Pjeter Kosta, in _Zeri i
Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1970, (JPRS:
50,112, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 286. 1970.)
"On Fulfillment of the 1969 State Plan and Budget and on
Tasks of the 1970 Draft State Plan and Budget," by Abdyl
Kellezi, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana,
1970, (JPRS: 50,060, _Translations on Eastern Europe,
Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 264, 1970.)
"On Some of the Problems of Setting Work Norms in
Agricultural Cooperatives," by Lefter Peco, in _Zeri i
Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS:
49,190, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 209, 1969.)
"On the Work of the Party and Mass Organizations and of
Economic and State Organs for a Further Increase of
Productivity and Strengthening of Proletarian Discipline at
Work," by Xhafer Spahiu, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the
People), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 49,716, _Translations on
Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 242,
1969.)
"Powerful Fraternal Aid in the Spirit of Proletarian
Internationalism," by Pupo Shyti, in _Ekonomia Popullore_
(People's Economy), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 47,677,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 100, 1969.)
"Problems of Mechanization in Raising Livestock and of Farm
Machinery Repair and Maintenance Bases," by Xhelal Shkreta,
in _Ekonomia Popullore_ (People's Economy), Tirana, 1968.
(JPRS: 47,677, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 100, 1969.)
"Progress of the Machine Industry" by Tago Adhami, in
_Ekonomia Popullore_ (People's Economy), Tirana, 1968.
(JPRS: 46,163, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 21. 1968.)
"Proper Utilization of Work Time: An Important Factor for
Fulfilling and Surpassing Planned Tasks," by Hajredin
Celiku, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana,
1969. (JPRS: 47,550, _Translations on Eastern Europe,
Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 93, 1969.)
"Protection of Mother and Child Health, the High Expression
of Socialist Humanism, Realized by the Party During the 25
Years of People's Power," by Vera Ngjela et al., in
_Shendetesia Popullore_ (People's Health), Tirana, 1969
(JPRS: 50,302, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Political,
Sociological, and Military Affairs_, No. 204, 1970.)
"The Ratio Between Means of Production and Consumer Goods,"
by Besim Bardhoshi, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the
People), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 47,242, _Translations on
Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 77,
1969.)
"Rebuilding: One of the Most Important Ways to Modernize
Industry," by Harilla Papajorgji, in _Rruga e Partise_
(Party Path), Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 50,304, _Translations on
Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 378,
1970.)
"Relations of Collective Ownership in Agricultural
Cooperatives are Improving," by Munir Como, in _Rruga e
Partise_ (Party Path), Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 50,304,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and Industrial
Affairs_, No. 278, 1970.)
"Rising Labor Productivity: An Economic Law of Socialism,"
by Zeqir Lika, in _Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People),
Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 50,201, _Translations on Eastern
Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 272, 1970.)
"Shortcomings of the Vegetable Supply," by Avni Oktrova, in
_Zeri i Popullit_ (Voice of the People), Tirana, 1968 (JPRS:
46,205, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 22, 1968.)
"Some of the Problems of the Socialist Organization of
Labor," by Koco Stefani, in _Bashkimi_ (Unity), Tirana,
1969. (JPRS: 49,305, _Translations on Eastern Europe,
Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 214, 1969.)
"The Strengthening and Growth of the Various Branches and
Sectors: Important Factors in Cooperation Between and the
Overall Development of Cooperative Villages," by Baki
Karalliu, in _Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path), Tirana, 1968.
(JPRS: 47,134, _Translations on Eastern Europe, Economic and
Industrial Affairs_, No. 71, 1968.)
"The Struggle to Raise Healthy Children and Reduce the
Mortality Rate: A Great Social and Medical Problem," by Sh.
Josa, R. Cikuli, and Xh. Basha, in _Shendetesia Popullore_
(People's Health), Tirana, 1969. (JPRS: 50,345,
_Translations on Eastern Europe, Political, Sociological and
Military Affairs_, No. 207, 1970.)
"Why are Unnecessary Materials Imported?," by Gaslli
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Europe, Economic and Industrial Affairs_, No. 53, 1968.)
"The Youth Discharged from the Army: A Great Force for the
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Protected by All' and What Should be Done to Solve Them," by
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Serious Hindrance to The Complete Triumph of the Socialist
Way of Life," by Kol Gjoka and Lluke Pashko, in _Rruga e
Partise_ (Party Path), Tirana, 1968. (JPRS: 46,588,
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Military Affairs_, No. 32, 1968.)
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Struggle," by Hysni Kapo, in _Rruga e Partise_ (Party Path),
Tirana, 1970. (JPRS: 50,200, _Translations on Eastern
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198, 1970.)
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Affairs_, 1967.)
(The periodical, _Ekonomia Popullore_ [Tirana], November to December
1965, was used in the preparation of this book.)
GLOSSARY
Albanian Workers' Party--The Communist Party of Albania. This name
adopted by the First Party Congress in 1948.
basic party organization--The Albanian Workers' Party unit established
in state enterprises and institutions, on collective or cooperative
farms, and in military organizations. In some Communist states--for
example, the Soviet Union--the equivalent is a primary party
organization.
Bektashi--A dervish order, offshoot of the Shia branch of Islam,
emphasizing abstinence from violence and charity to all people.
_besa_--A pledge to faithfully fulfill an obligation or promise.
Formerly used to effect a truce during hostilities involving clans or
conflicts between individuals.
_bey_--The head of a feudal estate or an administrative official under
the Turks. Became the dominant class after Albanian independence in
1912. Also formerly used as a title of respect.
CEMA--Council for Economic Mutual Assistance; members: Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, and the Soviet
Union.
civil war--The hostilities from September 1943 to November 1944 in which
partisans of the Communist-led National Liberation Front fought the two
principal anti-Communist organizations, Balli Kombetar (National Front)
and Levizja e Legalitetit (Legality Movement).
clan--An organization that included several families and provided
controls as stipulated by unwritten codes. In 1945 the clans were broken
up by the Communist regime.
collective or cooperative--An organization in which members retain only
their personal effects; all other belongings become community property.
Production from group efforts goes into a common fund. Members are paid
on the basis of their contribution of work units.
Cominform--Communist Information Bureau. International organization of
Communist parties, established in 1947 and dissolved in 1956.
Democratic Front--The largest and most important social organization
utilized by the Albanian Workers' Party to gain the support of the
masses for their objectives. Its work includes political, economic,
social, and cultural tasks. It succeeded the National Liberation Front
in 1945.
district--The major subdivisions of the country. There were twenty-six
in 1970.
Gegs--The larger of the two subgroups of Albanians. They inhabit the
area north of the Shkumbin River. Differentiated until World War II by
their tribal organization and primitive life style; also have
distinctive physical features.
Kosovo--An autonomous region within the Serbian Republic of Yugoslavia.
This area previously called Kosovo-Metohija and frequently referred to
as Kosmet.
lek--The standard monetary unit. Does not have an international official
exchange rate. Nominally valued in Tirana at 5 leks to 1 United States
dollar; the tourist rate in early 1970 was 12.5 leks to US$1. Devalued
in August 1965 by exchanging 1 new lek for 10 old leks.
Marxism-Leninism--From the Albanian Communist viewpoint, the ideology of
Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin as reflected in the experience of the
Soviet Union until the death of Joseph Stalin.
mass organization--Generally of a social or professional nature with
broad membership designed to link the Party with the masses and to gain
support for Party objectives.
National Liberation Front--Created in 1942; Communist-led; fought
Italian and German occupying forces and immobilized other Albanian
factions to seize power in 1944.
Ottoman--Relating to the Turks or to Turkey. Derived from name of
fourteenth-century founder of the Ottoman Empire.
party cadre--A thoroughly indoctrinated and reliable Party group.
Utilized wherever deemed necessary to maintain efficiency and
performance. Frequently specially trained in management.
_pasha_--A person of high rank; formerly used as a title of respect;
title given to appointed provincial heads during the Ottoman period.
People's Army--The armed forces of Albania. Composed of ground, air, and
navy elements.
People's Council--The highest government organ at district and lower
echelons. Members are elected for three-year terms.
Politburo--The highest and most powerful executive body of the Albanian
Workers' Party. In early 1970 it consisted of eleven full members and
five candidate members.
Presidium of the People's Assembly--Administers and conducts
governmental functions between Assembly meetings. Issues decrees and
judges constitutionality of laws. In early 1970, composed of a
president, two vice presidents, and ten members.
revisionism--As interpreted by Albanian Communists, the actions and
ideologies of Communist states that are inconsistent with Albanian
interpretations of Marxism-Leninism.
Sigurimi--Name applied to state security police under the Communist
regime; derived from the Directorate of State Security (Drejtorija e
Sigurimit te Shtetit).
Sunni--One of the two major branches of Islam.
Tosks--The smaller of the two subgroups of Albanians. They live south of
the Shkumbin River. Differences in social organization between the two
groups lessened under Communist rule. They abandoned their tribal
pattern of life earlier and were more influenced by foreign cultures
before 1945 than were the Gegs.
Zogu, Ahmet--Served as prime minister and president during the early
1920s; then ruled as King Zog from 1928 until 1939. Was leader of
conservative forces composed of landowners, former Ottoman bureaucrats,
and tribal chiefs.
INDEX
Abazi, Dede (religious leader): 98
administrative divisions: vii, 33, 34 (fig. 3), 35
adult education: 87, 88, 90-91
agas: 95
agrarian reform: 15, 16, 75; law, 21, 96
agreements. _See_ treaties and agreements
agriculture (_see also_ collective farms, crops, state farms):
deterrents to goal attainment, 145;
exports, 151, 174;
five-year plans, 145, 152, 155-59 _passim_;
imports, 173;
investment, 167;
land use, acreage, 152;
mechanization, 146, 152;
new methods, 145, 152;
pattern of organization, 146, 151, 153;
production, 145, 151-52, 155-56 (tables 10, 11), 157-59;
productivity, 149;
share of labor force, 147;
summary, viii
aid, foreign (_see also under specific country and under_ Communist
countries): 3, 4;
economic, 146, 169-71;
military, 175-79 _passim_, 190;
summary, ix
air force: 180, 184-85; chief, 184
air transport: ix, 46-47
airbases: 184-85
Albanian (language): 55-56, 137
Albanian Party Political Bureau. _See_ Politburo
Albanian Telegraphic Agency (news agency): 131-32
Albanian Workers' Party (_see also_ Central Committee, Central Commission
on Education, Directorate of, Politburo, Secretariat): v, 1;
activists and agitators, 107, 125, 128, 129;
book publishing, 134;
communication channels, 125;
Conference, 114;
Congress, 113;
control over people and institutions, 2, 93-94, 111, 135, 137, 140, 142,
146, 147, 176, 185-86, 192-93, 194;
and the courts, 107;
discipline, 114;
economic goal, 145;
founded, 17;
institutes, 117;
mass organizations as levers of, 117-18;
members in security forces, 193;
membership, 115;
national and regional organization, 111-15;
operations, 115-16;
organization within armed forces, 175;
political power, 103-04, 106;
religious policy, 100;
schools, 116-17;
slogan, 181;
Stalinist methods, 121;
statutes, 113-14, 115, 116, 118, 128
Albanian Writers' Union: 56
Ali, Hafez Musa Haxhi (religious leader): 98
Alia, Ramiz (Politburo secretary): 111, 112
alphabet, Albanian: 49, 56, 83
American Agricultural School (Kavaje): 84
American Junior Red Cross: 84
American Technical School (Tirana): 84
anti-Communists:
organizations, 18;
records on, 195
Antoniu, Kristaq (singer): 142
Apponyi, Geraldine (wife of Zog I): 16
area: vii, 1, 25
armed forces (_see also_ People's Army): chief of staff, 180;
civilian activities, 152, 181;
decorations, 187-88;
defense budget, 191;
equipment, 175, 179, 181-82, 183, 184;
foreign aid, 175-79 _passim_, 190;
historical background, 177-79;
medical services, 187;
military courts, 108;
military schools, 186-87;
mission, 181;
mobilization potential, 185;
Party control of, 111, 185-86;
Party organization within, 115, 175;
political indoctrination of, 185-86, 190;
rank designations, 175, 180;
resistance to Italian occupation, 178-79;
strength, 175, 181, 183, 184;
summary, ix
Army of National Liberation: 18, 64, 111
arts, fine: 142-43
Asdreni, ---- (poet): 139
Austria-Hungary: 14
authority:
under communism, 68;
traditional attitude toward, 67, 71
automobiles: 65
Bajraktari, Muharem (chieftain): 72
_bajraktars_ (tribal chieftains): 67, 71, 74
balance of trade, 171
Balli Kombetar (National Front): 18, 74, 139;
supporters, 72
Balluku, Beqir (min. of defense): 111, 180
banking: 168-69
_Bashkimi_ (newspaper): 129, 130 (table 7)
Bektashi (religious group): 97, 98
Belishova, Liri (former Politburo member): 23
_besa_ (pledge): 53
_beys_: 2, 5, 10, 13, 17, 72, 73, 74;
creation of the class, 95;
during civil war, 74;
seizure of their land, 21;
social position, 67, 70, 73
bibliography: 197-207
bicycles: 65
birth rate: 51
books: publishing and distribution, 133-34
boundaries: 25, 26, 31-33;
border security (_see_ Frontier Guards);
potential for dispute, 4, 9, 31;
settlement (1913), 14, 25
Broz, Josip (Tito): 19, 21, 22, 122
budget (_see also_ expenditures, revenue, taxes): 164-67;
defense, 191;
responsibility for preparing, 106;
social and cultural sectors, 58
Buene River: 39, 47, 183
Bulgaria: aid and trade, 170, 172
Byron, Lord: 96
Cako, Hito (chief, Army Political Directorate): 186
capital goods: output, 160-61
Carcani, Adil (Politburo member): 112, 120
Central Commission on Education: 92, 94, 112
Central Committee: 92, 94, 105, 113, 116, 117, 127;
composition, 77, 112;
functions, 114;
and labor situation, 147, 148, 149;
members in Council of Ministers, 106;
publications, 129, 131
Charles I of Anjou: 11
children: welfare provisions, 64
China, Communist: aid, economic, 122-23, 160, 170, 171, 172;
aid, military, 175, 176-77, 179, 184, 190;
debt to, 171;
economic effect of alignment with, 146;
education and training in, 92;
influence, 23;
jointly owned shipping line, 47;
relations with, v, 3, 104, 121-23;
trade, 172, 174
Christianity: introduction, 11, 95
chrome: 44
Churchill, Winston: 19
Ciano, Count (Italian Foreign Min.): 16
Cikuli, Ziza (poet): 140
cities: growth, 75; population, 49, 50, 51, 56
civil war (1943-44): 18-19;
fate of anti-Communists, 74
clans. _See_ tribes and clans
clergymen: 73;
Communist actions against, 96, 97-98, 99-101
climate: vii, 4, 26, 35, 36 (table 1), 37
collective farms: 145, 146, 151;
basic features, 153-54;
labor force, size, 147, 148;
number and size, 154-55;
patriarchalism, 80;
personal income, 153-54;
private plots, 154, 157, 159, 166;
work performance, 151-52
Cominform. _See_ Communist Information Bureau
communications (_see also_ press, radio, television): 125-35;
ownership, 110;
summary, ix
Communist Information Bureau (Cominform): 21, 179
Communist countries:
aid, 21, 169, 170;
education and training in, 91;
trade, 172
Communist Party. _See_ Albanian Workers' Party
Communist regime:
attitudes toward population growth, ethnic differences, and blood feuds,
51, 53;
consolidation of power, 20-23;
efforts to alter social structure, 67-69, 73-83;
gains claimed, 6, 45, 50, 53, 58, 59, 75, 91, 94, 145, 149, 151, 155,
159, 165-66;
goals, 2;
installation date, 9;
policy toward religious groups, 96, 97, 100
Communists: seizure of power, 17-20
concentration camps. _See_ labor camps
cooperatives: agricultural, 136
copper ore: export, 44
Conference of Peze (1942): 17
Constituent Assembly: People's Republic proclaimed by, 20
constitution:
first Communist, 20, 74, 86, 96, 113;
independence, 14;
provisions, 101, 104-08 _passim_
consumer goods: output, 161
cotton: 151, 155, 156 (table 10)
Council for Economic Mutual Assistance (CEMA): 21;
member, 121
Council of Ministers: 132, 134, 150, 164, 179;
description, 106;
and religious control, 97
courts: 107-08;
military, 108, 190;
summary, viii
crime: 79, 128, 176;
military, 190
crops (_see also specific crop_):
industrial, 151;
production, 155, 156 (table 10);
yields, 41
culture:
achievements, 137-38;
development, 135-43;
dominant themes under communism, 136;
indoctrination through institutions, 135;
Party control of activities, 135, 137, 140, 142
currency: viii, 167-68
Czechoslovakia: 123;
aid, 170;
trade, 172
Dako, Kristo (school founder): 84
death rate: 51
defense: budgetary expenditures, 166
Deljana, Thoma (Min., Education and Culture): 88
Democratic Front: 1, 103, 109, 117;
described, 118-19;
newspaper, 129;
NLF renamed, 19
Dhrami, M. (artist): 143
diet: 62
Directorate of:
Agitation and Propaganda (Agitprop), 112, 127;
Cadres and Organizations, 112;
Education and Culture, 92, 94, 112;
Mass Organizations, 112;
Radiobroadcasting, 132;
State Administrative Organs, 112;
State Security, 111, 176, 193-94
disease: 59-60
divorce: 79-80
doctors: 61
drainage. _See_ lakes, rivers
Drin River: 37, 39, 47, 160, 164
Dume, Gen. Petrit (army chief of staff): 180, 192
Durres (port): 11, 183;
facilities, 47;
population, 51, 57;
transportation, 46
East-West conflict: position in, 2, 121
economic planning: Communists view of, 110
economic plans (_see also_ Five-Year Plans): responsibility for
preparation, 106
economy:
major objective, 7;
status of, 146;
summary, viii
education (_see also_ schools): 83-94;
discrimination, 77;
eight-year, obligatory, 88-89;
first objective, 69;
function of information media, 126-27;
indoctrination of youth, 69;
medical training, 61;
military, 88, 90;
Party control, 93-94;
pre-Communist period, 83-85;
reform, 88;
and social mobility, 69;
status of, 6;
summary, viii;
system, 87-89 (fig. 5), 90-94;
technical, 86-87
Educational Reform Law (1946): 86
Elbasan (city): 46, 49, 57
elections: 1, 19, 20;
Assembly representatives, 105;
candidate selection, 103, 104, 107, 109, 116-17;
character and procedure, 108-09;
mobilization of voters, 128
electricity. _See_ power, electric
elite: Party, 64, 69, 77, 78, 106;
ruling, 2, 10, 68, 73, 96, 121
employment: 147
ethnic groups: 5, 6, 9, 49, 52-55; minor, 54-55
European nations: relations with, 123; trade, 174
expenditures: 165, 166-67; defense, 191
exports: 172, 173-74;
agricultural, 151, 174;
industrial, 161, 162, 174;
principal, 44;
summary, viii
Faja, Baba. _See_ Martaneshi, Baba Mustafa Faja
family:
under communism, 74;
efforts to revolutionize, 68, 81-83;
rate of increase in number of, 75;
role in politics, 77;
as social force, 6;
traditional organization, 67, 70-71
farm credits: 169
farms. _See_ collective farms, state farms
Fejzo, Baba (clergyman): 98
fertilizer: 160
feuds, blood: 6, 53-54, 71
Fier (city):
oil refinery and power plant, 160;
population, 49, 57
Filce, Gjorgjija (singer): 142
films: 141
finance (_see also_ currency, banking, budget): 164-69;
summary, viii
Five-Year Plans:
First (1951-55) and Second (1956-60), 159;
Third (1961-65), 145, 149, 165, 170;
Fourth (1966-70), 145, 152, 155-59 _passim_, 165, 171, 172;
Fifth (1971-75), 164, 171
Floqi, Kristo (playwright): 140
food:
prices, 64;
processing, 162
foreign aid. _See_ aid, foreign
foreign relations: 121-23
forests: 26, 41-42
France:
relations with, 23;
trade, 173
Franciscans: 97, 100, 139
Frasheri, Midhat (political leader): 18, 139
Frasheri, Naim (writer): 139
Frasheri, Sami (playwright): 140
Frontier Guards: 111, 176, 194
fruit:
citrus, 30;
exports, 174;
production, 151, 155, 156 (table 10)
Fuga, Myqerem (Institute head): 117
gas: reserves, 44
Geg (language): 56, 137
Gega, Lira (former Politburo member): 22
Gegs (ethnic group): 6;
ethnic characteristics, 53;
population, 52;
social structure, 70-72
Germany: resistance to occupation by, 179
Germany, East: aid and trade, 170, 172
Gjata, Fatmir (writer): 140
glossary: 209
government:
appointment of officials, 116;
character of, 1, 103, 104, 108;
local, 106-07;
Party control of, 103, 104, 106;
structure, 104-07;
summary, vii
grain: bread grain production, 151, 155, 156 (table 10)
Great Britain: 178
Greece:
Albanians living in, 55;
boundary claim, 14, 26;
relations with, 9, 123;
shared border, 25, 31, 32;
trade, 173
Greeks (ethnic group): 54
gross industrial product (GIP): minerals share, 44
gross national product (GNP): per capita, 50
Gypsies: 54, 55
harbors: 183
Hasbiu, Gen. Kadri: 77, 111, 193
Hasko, Arif (air force chief): 184
health and medicine:
facilities, 61;
military medicine, 187;
mobile medical teams and equipment, 61;
personnel and training, 61;
services, 58;
status of, 6, 50, 59-62;
summary, viii
history: 9-23
Hitler, Adolf: 17
holidays: 10, 78
hospitals: 61
houses: description, 63
housing:
investment, 167;
loans, 169;
status, 51, 62-63
Hoxha, Enver (Party first secretary): 1, 3, 11, 17-23
_passim_, 53, 62, 77, 80, 84, 88, 100-05
_passim_, 111, 115-27
_passim_, 136, 142;
relation to defense establishment, 180;
relation to security police, 193;
rise to leadership, 179
Hoxha (Enver) United Army Officers School: 186
Hoxha, Nexhmije (Party official): 77, 93, 112, 117
Hoxha-Shehu duumvirate: overthrow attempt, 22
Hungary: 172
Hunyadi (Hungarian king): 12
hydroelectric power:
potential, 40, 162, 163;
station, 159, 160, 164
identification cards: 195
illiteracy: 7, 86, 94, 126
imports: viii, 172, 173
income:
collective farm workers, 153-54;
national, major source, 7;
taxes, 165
independence: 2, 3, 9, 10, 13-16, 139, 176, 177;
proclaimed, 14
indoctrination: political and social, 69, 126, 135, 140, 147, 185-86, 190
industry: 146, 159-64;
budgetary expenditures, 166, 167;
construction projects, 159, 160;
deterrents to development, 161;
exports, 161, 162, 174;
five-year plans, 159, 164,170;
imports, 173;
nationalization, 21, 110;
production, 160-63 (table 12);
productivity, 149-50, 161;
progress toward goal, 145;
structure, 160;
summary, viii
infant mortality: 50, 60
information media (_see also_ press, radio, television): functions,
ownership, and control, 2, 125-29
Institute for Economic Studies: 117
Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies: 117
Institute of Party History: 117
intellectuals: 73, 76-77
interest rate: 169
investment: budgetary expenditures, 167
iron: 44
irrigation: 40, 152, 153
Islam. See Muslim religion
Italy:
aid, military, 178, 192;
and Albanian independence, 13-14;
invasion and annexation by, 3, 9, 16-17;
relations with, 9, 16, 23, 121;
resistance to occupation by, 178-79;
trade, 173
Jakova, Tonin (trade union officer): 120
Jakova, Tuk (former Politburo member): 100
Jesuits: 83, 97
judges: election of, 108
justice (_see also_ courts): summary, viii
Kapo, Hysni (Party official): 77, 82, 112, 117, 118
Kapo, Vito (women's organization head): 77, 119
Kastrioti, Gjergj. _See_ Skanderbeg
Kastrioti, John of Kruje (tribal chieftain): 12
Kellezi, Abdyl (chmn., People's Assembly): 105
Khrushchev, Nikita: 22, 23, 122
Kisi, Archbishop Kristofor: 98
Koliqi, Ernest (playwright): 140
Kominino, Gjergi (poet): 140
Kono, Kristro (composer): 142
Korce (city): 51, 57
Kosmet: disposition of, 18
Kosovo area (Yugoslavia): 31, 33
Kryeziu, Gani bey (chieftain): 73
Kupi, Abas (founder, political organization): 18
labor (_see also_ labor force):
summary, vii;
voluntary, 150-51, 162
labor brigades (youth): 118
labor camps: 20, 74, 77, 98, 193, 194
Labor Code: 110
labor force:
adequacy, 146-47;
attitude toward employment, 148;
attitude toward industrial modernization, 161;
education and indoctrination, 147, 161-62;
effect of socialization of the land, 151;
labor norms, 150;
nonagricultural workers, 73;
Party control over, 146, 147;
productivity and discipline, 147-50 _passim_, 161;
size and distribution, 147-48;
working conditions, 78
lakes: 31, 32, 38 (fig. 4), 39, 47
land:
in agricultural use, 152;
arable, 26, 41;
private plots, 154, 157, 159, 166;
reclamation and melioration, 152;
seizure and redistribution, 21;
socialization, 151
language: 49, 55-56;
foreign broadcasts, 132-33;
official, 56;
summary, viii
League for Defense of Rights of the Albanian Nation: 13
Legality Movement: 18, 74;
supporters, 72
lek (currency): exchange rates, 167
Lenin (V. I.) Institute: 117
Leshi, Haxhi (head of state): 72, 105
libraries: 134-35
life expectancy: 51
limestone: 30, 31, 44
literature: 138-40
livestock and livestock products: 154;
production, 152, 155, 156 (table 11), 157-58
living conditions: 49-50, 58-65
loans and credits: 169, 170-71
machine tractor stations: 146, 153, 165
machinery: 161
malaria: 59
malnutrition: 60
Mana, A. (sculptor): 143
management:
attitude toward industrial modernization, 161;
and productivity lag, 149-50
marriage:
under communism, 74;
customs, 68, 71;
laws and rate, 79
Martaneshi, Baba Mustafa Faja (clergyman): 98
Marxism-Leninism: 67, 68, 104, 121, 122;
teaching of, 86, 87, 88, 94, 117, 119, 126, 128-29, 135
medical services. _See_ health and medicine
midwives: 61
migration: 51, 75, 148
Mijo, Sokrat (theater entrepreneur): 140
Mijo, Vangjush (artist): 142
military training (_see also_ schools, military): in school system, 88, 90
minerals: 30, 31, 44, 160, 173
Ministry of:
Education and Culture, 87, 93, 134, 137, 141, 142;
Foreign Affairs, 134;
Health, 59, 60, 61;
Interior, 115, 176, 190, 193, 194;
National Defense, 134;
People's Defense, 115, 175, 176, 179, 186
Mjeda, Dom Ndre (poet): 139
Mugosha, Dusan (Party founder): 17
Mukaj agreement (political parties): 18
museums: 135
music: 141-42
Muslim religion: 7;
conversion to under Ottomans, 12, 67, 94-95;
number of members, 95
Mussolini, Benito: 16
name of country: vii, 11
National Liberation Front: 1, 175;
seizure of government, 19
National Liberation Movement: 103, 139, 179;
created, 17;
supporters, 72, 73
nationalism: 5, 9, 126, 136, 139, 175, 177
nationalization:
effect on social structure, 75;
of industry, 21, 141;
information media, 126;
of schools, 84
naval forces: 180, 182-84;
commander, 182
Ndoja, Mark (poet): 140
Ndreu, Dalli (former Gen.): 22
Near East Foundation: 84
_Nendori_ (literary monthly): 100, 101
news agency: 131-32
newspapers: 129, 130 (table 7)
Nigris, Monsignor (apostolic nuncio): 99
Nikon, Bishop: 99
Noli, Bishop Fan S.: 15, 16, 73, 139
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): 176
nurseries (day care): 68, 148
nurses: 61
Nushi, Gogo (president, trade unions): 120
nutrition: 62
oil:
production, 163 (table 12);
refinery, 160;
reserves, 44
organizations:
anti-communist, 18;
mass, 117-21
Orthodox Church of Albania: 7, 67, 98;
members, 95
Ottoman rule: 3, 12-13
Paco, J. (sculptor): 143
Paisi, Archbishop: 99
Paluca, Maria (singer): 142
paramilitary training: 188-90
Pasha, Mehmet Ali (governor of Egypt): 12
Pasha, Pasko Vasa (playwright): 140
_pashas_: 2, 5, 13;
creation of the class, 95;
social leadership, 70
Paskal, Odhise (sculptor): 142
pastures: 41, 152
patriarchalism: 67;
efforts to eradicate, 68, 80-83
peasants:
attitude toward collectivism and modern methods, 145, 151, 157, 158,
159;
conditions under communism, 78-79;
religion, 95
People's army (_see also_ air force, naval forces): ground forces, 181-82;
organizational patterns, 180;
position in government, 179-80;
rank designations, 180-81;
strength, ix, 181, 183, 184;
training and paramilitary training, 182-90 _passim_
People's Assembly: 106, 108, 116, 164, 179-80, 190;
aim and sphere of action, 109;
description, 104-05;
power and influence, 110
People's councils:
description, 106-07;
as Party levers, 117-18
People's Police: 111, 176, 195
periodicals: 130, 131 (table 8)
Pioneer organizations: 118
pipeline: xiv (fig. 1), 44, 46
Plasari, Ndreci (institute head): 117
poetry: 139
Poland: 172
police. _See_ Directorate of State Security, Frontier Guards, People's
Police
Politburo: 21, 105, 112, 113;
communication media policy, 127;
composition, 77;
and the educational system, 92;
and the labor situation, 148, 150;
members in Council of Ministers, 106;
Secretariat, 111;
top executive branches, 111
politics:
and creation of the modern state, 15-17;
historical background, 5-6;
locus of power, 2, 103, 108-11 _passim_;
role of family connections, 77;
the system, 108-21
Popovic, Miladin (Party founder): 17
population:
control by Party and police, 2, 93-94, 137, 146, 176, 192-93, 194;
ethnic composition, 1, 5, 6, 9, 49, 52-55;
growth rate, 49, 51;
rural character, 50, 56;
social composition, 76 (table 4);
statistics, 1, 49, 50-52 (table 3);
summary, vii;
working age, 147
Poradeci, Lasgush (poet): 139
ports: ix; facilities, 47
potatoes: 155, 156 (table 10)
power, electric (_see also_ hydroelectric power):
extent of use, 50, 58, 162, 163 (table 12);
insufficiency, 44;
production, 163 (table 12), 164;
thermal plant, 160, 162
Prennushi, P. Vincenc (poet): 139
Presidium: 108;
description, 105-06, 111;
president, 72, 105
press: 125-28 _passim_, 129-32;
use for Party purposes, 126-27
prices: consumer commodities, 64-65
proletariat: dictatorship of, 108-11
_Puna_ (newspaper): 129, 130 (table 7)
radio:
foreign broadcasting, 132-33;
receivers and stations, 132, 133 (table 9);
use for Party purposes, 126-27
Radio Tirana: v, 132
railroads: ix, xiv (fig. 1), 45-46
rainfall: 4, 26, 27, 29, 35, 36 (table 1), 37
Rama, K. (artist): 143
Red Cross: 61
regions, natural: 26-31
religion (_see also_ clergymen, Orthodox Church, Muslim religion, Roman
Catholic Church): 5;
under Communists, 96-102;
eradication efforts, 7, 69, 96-102;
law to control, 96-97;
summary, viii;
traditional attitudes toward differences, 67, 96;
wealth confiscation, of religious bodies, 96
resources, natural: 41-44;
ownership, 110
revenue: 164, 165-66
rice: 155, 156 (table 10)
rivers: 37, 38 (fig. 4), 39-40 (table 2)
roads: ix, xiv, (fig. 1), 25, 27, 45
Rockefeller Foundation: 59
Roman Catholic Church: 7, 67;
actions against, 99-100;
membership, 95
Romania: aid and trade, 170, 172
_Rruga e Partise_ (Party monthly): 117, 127, 131
Russia: 13, 14
Sako, Zihni (writer): 140
salt: 44
sanitation: 58, 62
Sazan Island:
air base, 185;
Sea Defense Brigade, 183
schools:
Catholic, 99;
enrollment, 91, 92 (table 5), 93 (table 6);
higher institutes, 86, 90, 93 (table 6);
military, 186-87;
nationalization, 84;
number of, 92 (table 5);
paramilitary training, 188-90;
Party, 116-17;
pre-Communist period, 83-85;
secondary, 90
security forces (_see also_ Directorate of State Security, Frontier
Guards, People's Army, People's Police): 175-95;
control of population by, 176, 192-93;
Party control of, 111;
summary, ix
Sejko, Teme (former naval commander): 22, 190
Semen River: 39
settlement: patterns, 4, 49, 56-58
Shehu, Fiqrete (Party school head): 77, 117
Shehu, Mehmet (Prime Minister): 1, 22, 77, 84, 88, 90, 92, 103, 104, 105,
111, 116, 122
Shehu (Mehmet) Military Academy: 187
Shijak: airbase, 184
Shijaku, S. (artist): 143
shipping: 47
Shkoder (city):
population, 51, 57;
theater, 140
Siliqi, Llazar (poet): 140
Skanderbeg (national hero): 5, 10, 12, 138, 175, 177
Skanderbeg military school: 186
Skenderi, Vehbi (poet): 140
social insurance, 63-64
society (_see also_ authority, divorce, elite, family, marriage, peasants,
tribes and clans, women, youth):
character of, 1-7;
under communism, 68, 73-83;
structure, 67-102;
traditional patterns and values, 67, 69-73;
by type of employment, 76 (table 4)
soils: 26, 41
Soviet Union:
aid, economic, 7, 122, 141, 154, 169, 170;
aid, military, 175, 176, 179, 183, 184, 192;
break with, 122;
debt to, 170;
de-Stalinization campaign repercussions, 21;
education and training in, 61, 87, 91;
farm model, 153;
relations with, v, 2, 3, 21, 23, 104, 112, 121, 122, 123;
trade, 172
Spahiu, Xhafer (Politburo secretary): 111
Stalin, Joseph V.: 19, 22, 121, 122, 140, 142, 192, 193
Stalin (formerly Kucove): pipeline from, 44, 46
Stalin-Tito rupture: 21
standard of living: 7, 49-50, 58
state farms: 146, 151, 153;
labor force size, 147;
number and size, 154;
private plots, 154, 157, 159, 166
State Planning Commission: 58, 146, 150
State University of Tirana:
enrollment, 91;
established, 137-38;
Faculty of Jurisprudence, 74;
Faculty of Medicine, 61;
Library, 135;
Linguistics and History Institute, 56;
paramilitary training, 188
status: social mobility, 69
steel-rolling mill: 160
Stratoberdha, Llazi (Directorate head): 112
sugar beets: 151, 155, 156 (table 10)
sugar mill: 159
summary: vii-ix
Sunni (religious group): 97, 98
Tashko, Koco (former Party Leader): 23
Tashko, Tefta (singer): 142
taxes: 164, 165-66;
and property confiscation, 20;
turnover tax, 165, 166
teachers:
number of, 91, 92 (table 5);
Party membership, 94;
training, 83, 87
television: 125, 133
temperature: 36 (table 1)
Tepelena, Ali Pasha (Lion of Yannina): 13
textbooks: 86, 87
textiles:
mills, 159, 160;
production, 163, (table 12)
theater: 140-41
Tirana (capital city):
airbase, xiv (fig. 1), 184;
description, 57;
population, 51, 56, 57;
transportation, 46
Tito. _See_ Broz, Josip
Tittoni-Venizelos Agreement: 15
tobacco: 151, 155, 156 (table 10)
topography: vii, 4, 26-27, 28 (fig. 2), 29
Tosk: official language, 49, 56, 137
Tosks (ethnic group): 6, 52;
characteristics, 53, 54;
social structure, 70-72
tractors (_see also_ machine tractor stations): spare parts, 160
trade, foreign: 146, 171-74;
agreements, 173
Trade Union Workers:
Agriculture and Procurements, 120;
Education and Trade, 120;
Industry and Construction, 120
trade unions (_see also_ United Trade Unions): 120;
administration of social insurance activities, 63;
and control of labor, 147
Trako, Konstantine (composer): 142
transportation:
problems, 4-5;
status, 44-47;
systems, xiv (fig. 1)
treaties and agreements, international:
boundary, 14, 15, 32;
defense, 16;
summary, ix;
trade, 173
Treaty of San Stefano: 13
trials: accessibility, 107
tribes and clans:
description, 70;
social patterns and values, 69-73
tuberculosis: 60
Turkey: Ottoman rule period, 12-13
Union of Albanian Women: 117, 119
Union of Albanian Working Youth: 1, 93, 115, 117, 175;
described, 118;
newspaper, 129;
paramilitary training, 190
Union of Artists and Writers: 137, 142
unions. _See_ trade unions, United Trade Unions
United Nations: Communist China mouthpiece in, v; Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA): 59
United States:
Albanians living in, 55;
relations with, 23, 122
United Trade Unions: 1, 117, 129;
description, 120
university. _See_ State University of Tirana
urbanization: 56, 75;
government policy, 50-51, 147-48
values: traditional, 69-73 _passim_
vegetables:
exports, 174;
production, 151, 156 (table 10)
vegetation: 26, 41
Vijose River: 37, 39
villages:
description, 57-58;
electric power, 58;
health services, 61-62;
population, 49, 56
Vlachs (ethnic group): 54-55
Vlora, Ismail Qemal bey (independence leader): 3, 14
Vlore (port):
airbase, 185;
facilities, 47;
pipeline to, 44, 46;
population, 51, 57;
Sea Defense Brigade, 183;
transportation, 46
vocational and technical training: 86-87
Vodica, Pashko (clergyman): 98
voting: constitutional provision, 108
wages: 64
Warsaw Pact: 121, 123, 176, 192
West, the:
East-West conflict, position, 2, 121;
relations with, 23;
trade, 172, 173
Wied, Prince Wilhelm zu: 15
wildlife: 43
Wilson, Woodrow: 15
women and girls:
attitudes toward, 81, 82, 148;
and blood feuds, 6, 71;
mobilization potential, 185;
paramilitary training, 189;
part in production and government, 119;
position in society, 54, 119;
rights, 119-20;
social changes under communism, 68;
union of women, 117, 119;
welfare benefits, 64
workers' compensation: 64
World War I: 3, 15, 32, 121, 177
World War II: 45, 50, 62-63, 175, 178-79
Xoxe, Jakov (writer): 140
Xoxe, Koci (government official): 21, 22, 193
_Ylli_ (periodical): 131
youth (_see also_ Pioneer organizations, Union of Albanian Working Youth):
antireligious mission, 100, 118;
attitudes toward, 82;
organizations, 118;
paramilitary training, 188-90
Yugoslav Communist Party: 17, 18, 19
Yugoslavia:
aid, economic, 169;
aid, military, 176, 179, 192;
Albanians living in, 55;
influence, 21;
relations with, v, 2, 3, 9, 22, 23, 104, 121, 122, 123;
shared border, 25, 32;
trade, 173
Zengo, Androniqi (artist): 142
Zeqir, Ymer (commander, naval forces): 182
_Zeri I Popullit_ (Party's official daily): 80, 81, 91, 121, 129
_Zeri i Rinise_ (newspaper): 129, 130 (table 7)
Zicishti, Mihalaq (chief, State Security): 193
Zogu, Ahmet (King Zog I): 15, 16, 70, 72, 73, 178
PUBLISHED AREA HANDBOOKS
550-65 Afghanistan
550-44 Algeria
550-59 Angola
550-73 Argentina
550-20 Brazil
550-61 Burma
550-83 Burundi
550-50 Cambodia
550-96 Ceylon
550-26 Colombia
550-60 Communist China
550-91 Congo (Brazzaville)
550-67 Congo (Kinshasa)
550-90 Costa Rica
550-22 Cyprus
550-54 Dominican Republic
550-52 Ecuador
550-28 Ethiopia
550-29 Germany
550-78 Guatemala
550-82 Guyana
550-21 India
550-39 Indonesia
550-68 Iran
550-31 Iraq
550-25 Israel
550-30 Japan
550-34 Jordan
550-56 Kenya
550-41 Republic of Korea
550-58 Laos
550-24 Lebanon
550-38 Liberia
550-85 Libya
550-45 Malaysia and Singapore
550-76 Mongolia
550-49 Morocco
550-64 Mozambique
550-88 Nicaragua
550-81 North Korea
550-57 North Vietnam
550-94 Oceania
550-48 Pakistan
550-92 Peripheral States of the Arabian Peninsula
550-72 Philippines
550-84 Rwanda
550-51 Saudi Arabia
550-70 Senegal
550-86 Somalia
550-93 Republic of South Africa
550-55 South Vietnam
550-95 Soviet Union
550-27 Sudan
550-47 Syria
550-62 Tanzania
550-53 Thailand
550-89 Tunisia
550-80 Turkey
550-74 Uganda
550-43 United Arab Republic
550-97 Uruguay
550-71 Venezuela
550-75 Zambia
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the |
| original document have been preserved. |
| |
| Page 109 In the paragraph starting "All meetings |
| for the selection of candidates" the second |
| line from the end is a misprint. No correction |
| is available. |
| |
| Typographical errors corrected in the text: |
| |
| Page 4 county changed to country |
| Page 11 thorfare changed to thoroughfare |
| Page 12 Christiandom changed to Christendom |
| Page 14 Adriatric changed to Adriatic |
| Page 29 stablized changed to stabilized |
| Page 39 Semen changed to Seman |
| Page 46 Skhoder changed to Shkoder |
| Page 55 be changed to by |
| Page 70 ancester changed to ancestor |
| Page 84 scare changed to scarce |
| Page 96 At changed to As |
| Page 102 plenun changed to plenum |
| Page 134 Shtypshkonjave changed to Shtypshkronjave |
| Page 162 hydrolectric changed to hydroelectric |
| Page 178 Ahmed changed to Ahmet |
| Page 184 betweeen changed to betweeen |
| Page 186 dicipline changed to discipline |
| Page 197 Drejte changed to Drejta |
| Page 198 Rezhep changed to Rexhep |
| Page 199 Metejshme changed to Metejshem |
| Page 201 Furthur changed to Further |
| Page 202 Bardhosi changed to Bardhoshi |
| Page 202 Pjetar changed to Pjeter |
| Page 214 Bektash changed to Bektashi |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
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