Fred Abrahams: Postcard from...Albania
[Fred Abrahams's book on the fall of communism in Albania will be
published next year by New York University Press.]
Albania's communist regime was orthodox and extreme. When other East European countries liberalized slightly after Stalin's death in 1953, the Albanian ruler Enver Hoxha held firm, calling the Soviet Union "revisionist." Albania turned to China for aid. That ended with the Mao-Nixon rapprochement. Albania then embarked on an experiment of autarky and self-imposed isolation as the world's "only true Marxist state."
Hoxha died in 1985. His hand-picked successor, Ramiz Alia, inherited a crumbling economy and growing pressure for reform. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Alia introduced the "pluralism of ideas" to discuss the country's problems, which was distinctly different from the "pluralism of parties." The Albanian Party of Labor still ruled supreme....
Read entire article at Foreign Policy in Focus
published next year by New York University Press.]
Albania's communist regime was orthodox and extreme. When other East European countries liberalized slightly after Stalin's death in 1953, the Albanian ruler Enver Hoxha held firm, calling the Soviet Union "revisionist." Albania turned to China for aid. That ended with the Mao-Nixon rapprochement. Albania then embarked on an experiment of autarky and self-imposed isolation as the world's "only true Marxist state."
Hoxha died in 1985. His hand-picked successor, Ramiz Alia, inherited a crumbling economy and growing pressure for reform. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Alia introduced the "pluralism of ideas" to discuss the country's problems, which was distinctly different from the "pluralism of parties." The Albanian Party of Labor still ruled supreme....