Editing History of Albania (section)

=== Communism ===
{{Main|Communism in Albania}}

[[File:HODŽA druhá míza.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Dictator and leader of the Socialist People's Republic, [[Enver Hoxha]].]]

A collection of communists moved quickly after the [[World War II|Second World War]] to subdue all potential political enemies in Albania, break the country's landowners and minuscule middle class, and isolate Albania from western powers in order to establish the [[People's Republic of Albania]]. In 1945, the communists had liquidated, discredited, or driven into exile most of the country's interwar elite. The Internal Affairs Minister, [[Koçi Xoxe]], a pro-Yugoslav erstwhile tinsmith, presided over the trial and the execution of thousands of opposition politicians, clan chiefs, and members of former Albanian governments who were condemned as "war criminals."

Thousands of their family members were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later exiled for decades to miserable state farms built on reclaimed marshlands. The communists' consolidation of control also produced a shift in political power in [[Albania]] from the northern [[Ghegs]] to the southern [[Tosk]]s. Most communist leaders were middle-class Tosks, [[Vlach]]s and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]], and the party drew most of its recruits from [[Tosk]]-inhabited areas, while the [[Ghegs]], with their centuries-old tradition of opposing authority, distrusted the new Albanian rulers and their alien [[Marxist]] doctrines.

In December 1945, Albanians elected a new [[People's Assembly of Albania|People's Assembly]], but only candidates from the [[Democratic Front (Albania)|Democratic Front]] (previously the National Liberation Movement then the National Liberation Front) appeared on the electoral lists, and the communists used propaganda and terror tactics to gag the opposition. Official ballot tallies showed that 92% of the electorate voted and that 93% of the voters chose the Democratic Front ticket. The assembly convened in January 1946, annulled the monarchy, and transformed Albania into a "people's republic."

The new leaders inherited an Albania plagued by many evils: widespread poverty, overwhelming illiteracy, [[gjakmarrje]] ("blood feuds"), epidemics of disease and blatant subjugation of women. In an attempt to eradicate these ills, the Communists devised a programme of radical modernization. The first important measure was a rapid and uncompromising [[agrarian reform]], which dismantled the large estates and distributed the plots to the peasants. This reform destroyed the powerful bey class. The government also decided to [[nationalize]] industry, banks and all commercial and foreign properties. Shortly after the agrarian reform, the Albanian government began to [[collectivise]] agriculture, a process that continued until 1967. In rural areas, the communist regime suppressed the centuries-old [[blood feud]] and [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] structure of the family and clans, thus destroying the semi-feudal [[Bajraktar]]s class. The traditional role of women, confinement to the home and farm, changed dramatically when they achieved legal equality with men and became active participants in all areas of society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Albania - The Stalinist state {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Albania/The-Stalinist-state |access-date= |website=www.britannica.com |date=29 May 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Annual Rate of National Income Increase of the People's Republic of Albania.png|thumb|230px|Uneasy foreign relations resulted in a decline in the rate of income increase during the 1961 to 1965 period.]]

[[Enver Hoxha]] and [[Mehmet Shehu]] emerged as communist leaders in Albania, and are recognized by most western nations. They began to concentrate primarily on securing and maintaining their power base by killing all their political adversaries, and secondarily on preserving Albania's independence and reshaping the country according to the precepts of [[Stalinism]] so they could remain in power and develop the nation's economy. A total of 43,000 people have been imprisoned or executed in forty-five years by the Stalinist regime.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://apnews.com/general-news-0e903acb2a394a378d91817e9ae95d12 | title=Albania's broken men fear prison horrors will be forgotten | website=[[Associated Press News]] | date=19 June 2016 }}</ref><ref>15 February 1994 Washington Times</ref><ref>"WHPSI": The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators by Charles Lewis Taylor</ref><ref>8 July 1997 NY Times</ref> According to the Albanian Association of Former Political Prisoners, 6,000 people were executed by the Stalinist regime from 1945 to 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mejdini |first=Fatjona Mejdini, Fatjona |date=2015-10-14 |title=Albania To Open Communists' Secret Files |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2015/10/14/albania-to-open-communists-secret-files-10-13-2015/ |access-date= |website=Balkan Insight |language=en-US}}</ref> Albania became an ally of the [[Soviet Union]], but this came to an end after 1956 over the advent of [[de-Stalinization]], causing the [[Soviet-Albanian split]]. A strong political alliance with China followed, leading to several billion dollars in aid, which was curtailed after 1974, causing the [[Sino-Albanian split]]. China cut off aid in 1978 when Albania attacked its [[Chinese economic reform|policies]] after the death of Chinese leader [[Mao Zedong]]. Large-scale purges of officials occurred during the 1970s.

In 1967, the authorities conducted a violent campaign to extinguish religious practice in Albania, claiming that religion had divided the Albanian nation and kept it mired in backwardness.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kEIkDwAAQBAJ&q=A+Short+History+of+South+East+Europe+By+Ivan+Popovski|title=A Short History of South East Europe|last=Popovski|first=Ivan|date=2017-05-10|publisher=Lulu Press, Inc|isbn=978-1-365-95394-1|language=en}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{self-published source|date=February 2020}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}} Student agitators combed the countryside, forcing Albanians to quit practicing their faith. Despite complaints, even by APL members, all churches, mosques, monasteries, and other religious institutions had been closed or converted into warehouses, gymnasiums, and workshops by year's end. A special decree abrogated the charters by which the country's main religious communities had operated.

During the period of socialist construction of Albania, the country saw rapid economic growth. For the first time, Albania was beginning to produce the major part of its own commodities domestically, which in some areas were able to compete in foreign markets. During the period of 1960 to 1970, the average annual rate of increase of Albania's national income was 29 percent higher than the world average and 56 percent higher than the European average. Also during this period, because of the monopolised socialist economy, Albania was the only country in the world that imposed no imposts or taxes on its people whatsoever.<ref>{{cite web|last=Pano|first=Aristotel|title=Panorama of the Economic-Social Development of Socialist Albania|url=http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/archive/panorama.htm|publisher=Albania Today|access-date=11 April 2012}}</ref>

[[Enver Hoxha]], who ruled Albania for four decades, died on 11 April 1985. Soon after Hoxha's death, voices for change emerged in the Albanian society and the government began to seek closer ties with the West in order to improve economic conditions.
Eventually the new regime of [[Ramiz Alia]] introduced some liberalisation, and granting the freedom to travel abroad in 1990. The new government made efforts to improve ties with the outside world. The elections of March 1991 kept the former Communists in power, but a general strike and urban opposition led to the formation of a coalition cabinet that included non-Communists.<ref>"Albania." ''World Almanac & Book of Facts'', 2008, pp467–545, (AN 28820955)</ref>