The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika Popullore Socialiste e Shqipërisë), officially the People’s Republic of Albania from 1946 until 1976, was the one-party communist state in Albania from 1946 to 1991. It succeeded the Democratic Government of Albania (1944–1946).
In October 1941 a small Albanian communist group, established in Tirana, was being lead by Enver Hoxha and an eleven-man committee. The party had little appeal until 1942 when Albania’s youth joined in mass to liberate Albania from Fascist Italian occupation.
During this time period, the country was ruled mainly by Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania. They ruled Albania by establishing an Stalinist, and later Hoxhaist, style of state administration and adhering to policies which stressed national unity and self-reliance. In November 1944 Enver Hoxha’s new communist government took immediate, forceful measures for total power.
In January 1945, a special court was set up in Tirana for trying war criminals and sentencing many to death or long imprisonment. Months later private property was confiscated, industry was nationalized, and communist propaganda hardened it’s grip.
By June 1948 Albania sought Soviet ideals and Albania’s alliance with the Soviet Union brought several advantages. The Soviets offered food staples, economic assistance, and military protection from “Western powers” and neighboring Yugoslavia. By 1955, newly isolated Albania had become the epitome of a Stalinist state with Soviet models being copied or adapted for virtually every sphere of Albanian life.
As the early 1960s arrived, Albania was no longer an interest of the Soviet Union and diplomatic ties with Enver Hoxha’s Albania were cut. This then lead Albania to look for aid and The People’s Republic of China provided Albania with open arms. Industrial goods flowed into the country, low-interest loans, and surprisingly the Cultural Revolution that China was experiencing; Albanian writers and intellectuals were harshly pressured to follow Albanian communist ideals.
From 1966 to 1967 Albania experienced a Chinese-style cultural revolution. Administrative workers were suddenly transferred to remote areas and younger cadres were placed in leading positions. Travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or travel from. Being Europe’s only Muslim-majority country, it declared itself the world’s first atheist state in 1967. The collectivization of agriculture was completed and organized religion banned. As the decade passed on into the 1970s and beyond, Enver Hoxha’s leadership greatly isolated the country, grew more dark in operations, and fell out of favor with the people.
It was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action which was occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The government implemented reforms which were aimed at modernizing Albania and they resulted in significant gains in the areas of industry, agriculture, education, the arts, and culture, which contributed to a general increase in the Albanian population’s standard of living. However, these developments coincided with political repression by the secret police, the Sigurimi, for the purposes of preventing a counter-revolution, which included dismissal from employment, imprisonment in forced labor camps and executions.
The End of Albanian Communism
On April 11th,1985 the heavy handed Enver Hoxha died and his successor Ramiz Alia of Shkodra does little to change policy.  Ramiz Alia, sought to preserve the communist system while introducing gradual reforms in order to revive the economy, which had been declining steadily since the cessation of aid from former communist allies. To this end he legalized some investment in Albania by foreign firms and expanded diplomatic relations with the West. But, with the fall of communism in eastern Europe in 1989, various segments of Albanian society became politically active and began to agitate against the government. The most alienated groups were the intellectuals and the working class—traditionally the vanguard of a communist movement or organization—as well as Albania’s youth, which had been frustrated by years of confinement and restrictions. In response to these pressures, Alia granted Albanian citizens the right to travel abroad, curtailed the powers of the Sigurimi, restored religious freedom, and adopted some free-market measures for the economy. In December 1990 Alia endorsed the creation of independent political parties, thus signaling an end to the communists’ official monopoly of power.
The first multi-party elections in Socialist Albania took place on 31 March 1991 – the Communists gained a majority in an interim government. The Republic of Albania was proclaimed on 29 April 1991 and the country’s first parliamentary elections were held on 22 March 1992. The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania.
Democratic Albania
Albania’s progress toward democratic reform enabled it to gain membership in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (now the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), formally bringing to an end its isolation. Efforts to establish a free-market economy caused severe dislocations, but they also opened the road for Albania to obtain large amounts of aid from developed countries. Albania thus began integrating its politics and institutions with the West, which Albanians have historically viewed as their cultural and geographic home.
In 1997 the economy collapsed when many Albanians lost their savings in various pyramid investment schemes. United Nations peacekeeping troops were brought in to quell the resulting civil disorder, and the Albanian Socialist Party won by a landslide in legislative elections later that year (and maintained power in elections in 2001 at the head of the Alliance for the State coalition). In 1999 some 450,000 ethnic Albanians sought refuge in Albania from the war in the Kosovo region of Serbia. Ethnic turmoil also strained Albania’s relations with the Macedonian republic in 2001, when that country’s large Albanian minority staged an armed rebellion. Tensions had cooled by 2003, and the two countries, along with Croatia, agreed to join together to fight organized crime.
Power shifted back to the Democratic Party following the 2005 legislative elections, and former president Berisha was named prime minister. He worked to implement economic and social changes in order to gain membership in the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including taking measures to lower Albania’s high rates of crime and deterring corruption and drug trafficking. In 2008 Albania was formally invited to join NATO, and on April 1, 2009, it became an official member of the alliance. Berisha remained prime minister following legislative elections that June, when the Democrats defeated the Socialists by a slim margin. The official results came almost one month after the polls had closed, because the Socialists had demanded a recount. Some international observers also stated that electoral irregularities had occurred. The Socialists responded by boycotting the parliament and organizing street protests against the Berisha government. In January 2011 a demonstration outside the prime minister’s office turned violent, and four protesters were shot and killed by guards. The ongoing tension between the government and the opposition undermined Albania’s attempts to obtain candidate status for succession to the EU. While Albania’s political class struggled to restore voter confidence and establish transparency in the country’s election procedures, a sluggish economy plagued Albania. Trading partners such as Italy and Greece were at the centre of the euro area’s debt crisis, and exports and foreign remittances suffered accordingly.
The campaign leading up to the June 2013 general election was largely peaceful and orderly, but it was marred by a shooting on election day that left a Democratic candidate wounded and a Socialist supporter dead. The results of that election signaled a dramatic change in the Albanian political order. The Socialists, led by former Tirana mayor Edi Rama, captured a sizable majority of seats in parliament, and Berisha, who had been the dominant figure in Albanian politics since the fall of communism, conceded defeat. In 2014 Albania was granted candidate status for accession to the EU, but the country’s progress toward full membership depended on the enactment of significant political and economic reforms. The coalition led by Rama’s Socialist Party triumphed in local elections in June 2015, winning 46 of 61 mayoral races. The event signaled a welcome turning point in the country’s postcommunist history, as it was largely free of the irregularities and violence that had marked previous elections.
