he Population of Albania 76

5 Summary of Educational Institutions, Pupils, and Teachers
in Albania, for Selected Years 92

6 Students Attending Higher Institutes in Albania 93

7 Selected Albanian Newspapers, 1967 130

8 Selected Albanian Periodicals, 1967 131

9 Albanian Radio Stations, 1969 133

10 Production of Field Crops and Fruits in Albania, 1960
and 1965-70 156

11 Livestock in Albania, 1960, 1964-66, and 1970 Plan 156

12 Industrial Production in Albania, 1960 and 1964-69 163

[Illustration: _Figure 1. Transportation Systems in Albania_]

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SOCIETY

The People's Republic of Albania was, in 1970, the smallest and
economically most backward of the European Communist nations, with an
area of 11,100 square miles located between Yugoslavia and Greece along
the central west coast of the Balkan Peninsula. Its population of
approximately 2.1 million was considered to be 97-percent ethnic
Albanian, with a smattering of Greeks, Vlachs, Bulgars, Serbs, and
Gypsies. Practically the entire population used Albanian as the
principal language.

The country officially became a Communist "people's republic" in 1946
after one-party elections were held. Actually, the Communist-dominated
National Liberation Front had been the leading political power since
1944, after successfully conducting civil war operations against
non-Communist forces while concurrently fighting against Italian and
German armies of occupation. The Communist regime operated first under
the mask of the Democratic Front from 1944 to 1948 and, subsequently,
through the Albanian Workers' Party; it asserted that it was a
dictatorship of the proletariat--the workers and the peasants--and that
it ruled according to the Leninist principle of democratic centralism.
In practice, a small, carefully selected Party group, which in 1970 was
still under the control of Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu, the partisan
leaders of the World War II period, made all important policy and
operational decisions (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).

In order to gain broad support for its programs the Party utilized mass
social organizations. These included the Democratic