PCdoB responded to the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union better than most Western communist parties. PCdoB originally established itself as an organization historically linked to the Marxist-Leninist tradition of the Communist International. Its political and ideological identity was consolidated as opposing the so-called 1960s "revisionism", identified with the directions taken by the USSR after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. PCdoB then aligned itself with Maoism. After the People's Republic of China began making economic reforms in 1979, PCdoB decided to align itself with the Socialist People's Republic of Albania, an example of consistency and fidelity to Marxism–Leninism in the opinion of its leaders.