er the Communist seizure of power. In
1961 and 1962, however, books and pamphlets began to be published
praising nearly all those, irrespective of their social backgrounds, who
had played a role in the national awakening and in the declaration of
the country's independence in 1912.

Intensive preparations were made in 1962 to celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the country's independence, and on November 28, 1962, all
the top leaders of the party and government went to Vlore, where
independence had been declared, to stage one of the biggest patriotic
celebrations in the country's modern history. Among the many books and
documents published on this occasion to glorify the country's past was
one entitled _Rilindja Kombetare Shqipetare_ (Albanian National
Awakening), which included photographs of most patriots who had taken
part in winning the country's independence, even those of the landed
aristocracy (_beys_--see Glossary), whom the regime had previously
branded as the "blood-suckers" of the peasants.

This appeal to the past was also accentuated in 1968 in connection with
the 500th anniversary of the death of the country's national hero,
Skanderbeg. The regime sent a number of scholars and historians to
search for historical documents in Vienna and Rome in preparation for
the celebration.

With the exception of these efforts to resurrect the past after a hiatus
of fifteen years, the primary function of the country's historians, all
under the control of the Party, is to glorify the country's achievements
in the period under communism. The Party is given credit for all that
has been done in the economic development of the country, in
improvements in the people's health, and in expansion of educational and
cultural facilities, all of which have been considerable. In 1970 Enver
Hoxha, first secretary of the Party, like Stalin in his day and Mao
Tse-tung in 1970, was daily quoted and glorified.

ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES

The modern Albanians call their country Shqiperia and themselves
Shqipetare. In antiquity the Albanians were known as Illyrians, and in
the Middle Ages they came to be called Arbereshe or Arbeneshe, and their
country Arberia or Arbenia. The present European forms, Albania and
Albanians, are derived from the names Arbanoi and Albanoi or Arbaniti,
which appeared in the eleventh century.

In antiquity the Albanians formed part of the Thraco-Illyrian and Epirot
tribes that inhabited the whole of