Area Handbook for Albania
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Title: Area Handbook for Albania
Author: Eugene K. Keefe
Sarah Jane Elpern
William Giloane
James M. Moore
Stephen Peters
Eston T. White
Release date: April 25, 2010 [eBook #32129]
Most recently updated: January 6, 2021
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AREA HANDBOOK FOR ALBANIA ***
Produced by Barbara Kosker, Juliet Sutherland and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
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
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