Talk:History of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania

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The section 'Post-communist Albania' sounds more like democracy report, not history. Not as much the events are reported but Albania's development towards democracy is evaluated. Andres 23:43, 12 Aug 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: It is a product of the US government. I guess this is what to expect. Please change as needed. --Jiang
Yes, I am going to change it. Andres 00:00, 13 Aug 2003 (UTC)

message: I don't think it is correct to say that it was due to Albanian inexperience with capitalism that led to the proliferation and collapse of the pyramid schemes. Those schemes are/were operated even in the United States, but they are illegal in most countries I believe. Most Albanians knew they would collapse, but they were hoping to make some money before they did (and some did profit). Also, the government was involved (i.e. probably bribed), which is why they were not made illegal. I would say the poverty, lazyness, and corruptness more than inexperience brought on those events. --Dori 14:03, 12 Sep 2003 (UTC)
thread_title: Pyramid Schemes

message: Most of the article appears to have been copied from the Library of Congress Country Studies.
:Official works of the U.S. government are free from copyright in most cases... AnonMoos 16:26, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyright 

message: ::The years of the Socialist People's Republic of Albania 
From 1944 to 1991, Albania became a Communist country, suffering a StalinistAlbania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,page 222,"the French Communist Party, then ultra-Stalinist in orientation. He may have owed some aspects of his political thought and general psychology to that" totalitarian regime classified as one of the most repressiveAlbania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,,page 138"Because of its association with the years of repression under communism, Albanians have developed an aversion to collective life in any form, even where it". A one party-state political system was adopted, and Enver Hoxha promoted himself 1st Secretary of the Albanian Communist Party, Head of the State and Commander in Chief of the Armed Foces. In 1961, he broke with Albania’s closest ally, the Soviet Union, accusing Nikita Khrushchev of abandoning Stalinism. Subsequently, Albania’s closest allyAlbania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,page 210,"with the split in the world communist movement it moved into a close relationship with China" became the People’s Republic of China. However, the Chinese established diplomatic relations with US in 1978, Hoxha denounced even the new friendship and decided to pursue a policy of self-reliance. The result was an extreme isolationAlbania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,page 2,"Enver Hoxha's regime was haunted by fears of external intervention and internal subversion. Albania thus became a fortress state"Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,page 190,"When ethnic Greeks were caught attempting to escape to Greece,penalties were severe for the actual offender execution was common and his whole family might be condemned in internal exile for many years usually in the mining camps of northern and central albania" that led to misery, further financial, psychologicalAlbania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,page 116,"what Enver Hoxha did; brainwashing young people, but to the other extreme." and material ruin for the Albanian citizens.Even imaginary Illyrian names were added to the populace Miranda Vickers, The Albanians . "Albania Isolates itself" page 196 ,From time to time official lists were published with pagan, so-called Illyrian or freshly minted names considered appropriate for the new breed of revolutionary Albanians.(see also Also Logoreci "the Albanians" page 157..All minorities were suppressedhttp://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,onset in 1967 of the campaign by Albania’s communist party,the Albanian Party of Labour (PLA), to eradicate organised religion, a prime target of which was the Orthodox Church.Many churches were damaged or destroyed during this period, and many Greek-language books were banned because of their religious themes or orientation. Yet, as with other communist states, particularly in the Balkans, where measures putatively geared towards the consolidation of political control intersected with the pursuit of national integration, it is often impossible to distinguish sharply between ideological and ethno-cultural bases of repression. This is all the more true in the case of Albania’s anti-religion campaign because it was merely one element in the broader “Ideological and Cultural Revolution” begun by Hoxha in 1966 but whose main features he outlined at the PLA’s Fourth Congress in 1961http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"the area studied was confined to the southern border fringes, and there is good reason to believe that this estimate was very low"."Under this definition, minority status was limited to those who lived in 99 villages in the southern border areas, thereby excluding important concentrations of Greek settlement in Vlora (perhaps 8000 people in 1994) and in adjoining areas along the coast, ancestral Greek towns such as Himara, and ethnic Greeks living elsewhere throughout the country. Mixed villages outside this designated zone, even those with a clear majority of ethnic Greeks, were not considered minority areas and therefore were denied any Greek-language cultural or educational provisions. In addition, many Greeks were forcibly removed from the minority zones to other parts of the country as a product of communist population policy, an important and constant element of which was to pre-empt ethnic sources of political dissent. Greek place-names were changed to Albanian names, while use of the Greek language, prohibited everywhere outside the minority zones, was prohibited for many official purposes within them as well."Albania: From Anarchy to a Balkan IdentityISBN 1850652791,by Miranda Vickers & James Pettifer, 1999,page 201,"They suffered the same cultural repression as other small minorities, in so far as their language had no official status" and their ethnic charakter altered. Huge funds were spent between 1974 and 1986 to build approximately 700,000 concrete bunkers (pill-boxes) to defend the country against a hypothetic multi-front attack. Upon Hoxha’s death in 1985, Ramiz Alia succeeded him as State and communist party leader. Alia was Hoxha’s protégé, but was less repressive than the former leader and tolerated minor insignificant reforms. The process was accelerated due to following changes in other communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.Megistias (talk) 17:30, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is good and referenced