Albania the Eagle Spreads Its Wings

By Thomas A. Sancton

Known to its citizens as the "land of the Eagle," Albania is notable on two dubious counts: it is Europe's poorest nation and a relic of the Stalinist era. For four decades, doctrinaire Dictator Enver Hoxha ruled the country with a monomaniacal determination and a fanatical brand of xenophobia. He proclaimed Albania to be the only true Marxist-Leninist state and pursued a program of "national self-reliance" that cut off virtually all ties with East and West. The country has no diplomatic relations with either the Soviet Union or the United States.

Although Hoxha died last year, his isolationist policies still guide the current leadership, at least on the surface. In a speech to the Albanian Communist Party Congress earlier this month, Hoxha's handpicked successor, Ramiz Alia, 61, said, "Our party will apply his teachings with courage and wisdom." Yet even before Hoxha's death, Albania had begun to crack open its doors, and today there are signs that the eagle may be ready at long last to spread its wings.

Albania's quirky defiance of the rest of the world is rooted in a long history of foreign domination. After Communist partisans led by Hoxha defeated German occupiers and internal opponents in 1944 and grabbed power, Hoxha imposed a centrally planned economy and established total control through the feared secret police, the Sigurimi. In the years that followed, he distanced Albania from other Communist countries. Enraged by Nikita Khrushchev's de- Stalinization campaign, Hoxha broke with Moscow in 1961. When the Chinese began to experiment with reform in the late '70s, he denounced them as "revisionists," and effectively cut off economic ties.

Albania is a small (11,100 sq. mi., pop. 3 million) mountainous country of great beauty. Fewer than 300,000 inhabitants live in Tirane, the capital; 85% of the people reside in towns and villages. Small factories produce such goods as rough textiles, canned foods, glassware and machine parts. The economy is stagnant, in part because of an almost pathological aversion to debt. The constitution outlaws acceptance of foreign credits, thus making Albania's outside trade dependent on barter deals or the cash sale of its exports, which include chromium, oil and agricultural products. The economy is also crippled by a disintegrating industrial base. Chinese- and Soviet-built steel mills, power plants and tractor factories, between eight and 25 years old, are falling apart.

Economic self-reliance has gone hand in hand with militant nationalism. Beginning in the early '60s, Albania sprouted bunkers with narrow gun slits -- the result of a Hoxha-inspired defense campaign trumpeting the threat of imminent invasion by East and West. The regime has iron control over its population. In 1967 Hoxha launched a purge in which Muslim mullahs and Christian ministers were stripped of their duties and sent to farm and labor camps; some Catholic priests who resisted were killed. Result: the suppression of organized religion.

For all its flaws, the regime can rightly claim to have given its citizens, who pay no taxes, a higher standard of living than ever before. Most prices have not risen since the '50s, and some have actually fallen. Extreme poverty has been obliterated. Some foodstuffs, such as meat and meat products, are rationed, but supplies of most staples are adequate.

No longer are the people totally cut off from the outside. Their main exposure to the West comes through tuning in to foreign radio and TV broadcasts. Young people wear blue jeans and Italian sunglasses. As Albanian society grows younger -- the majority of the population is now under 30 -- some social problems, including crime, are on the rise, and there are signs of disaffection with Hoxhaism.

Albania's economy cannot improve, however, without an opening to the outside world. Toward the end of the Hoxha era, Tirane began to accept that fact by increasing diplomatic contacts. Albania now has formal relations with 104 countries, double that of the late '70s. And at the party congress, Alia called for further increases in foreign trade. A key step in this direction came earlier this year when the Albanian stretch of a 40-mile rail link, for freight trains only, was opened between the town of Shkoder and the Yugoslav city of Titograd. The Albanians have also made deals with West European firms to obtain factory and telecommunications equipment, as well as diesel trucks.

Apparently in an effort to strengthen such contacts and introduce some internal reforms, Alia has reportedly brought more pragmatic men into the party leadership and has hinted that he may introduce labor incentives. The hard-line Hoxhaists, who still dominate the regime, are likely to resist such changes. For Alia, who is thought to have only four strong supporters on the 15-man Politburo, it is a time to tread cautiously.

With reporting by Kenneth W. Banta/Munich and David Schwartz/Tirane