Fall of communism in Albania

Background

Enver Hoxha, who ruled the People's Socialist Republic of Albania for four decades, died on 11 April 1985. Ramiz Alia succeeded Hoxha as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour, and gradually softened the edges of what had been one of the most unreconstructed Communist regimes in Europe. Alia introduced economic reforms and opened diplomatic ties with Western European countries.

During the revolutions of 1989, many Albanians remained unaware of events because of state controlled information in the isolated country. Some Albanians did not know that the Berlin Wall had fallen in November 1989.

In January 1990, the first revolts started in Shkodra, where a few hundred people wanted to demolish Joseph Stalin's statue, and from there they spread to a few other cities. Eventually, the existing regime introduced some liberalization, including measures in 1990 providing for freedom to travel abroad. Efforts were begun to improve ties with the outside world. Nevertheless, it was clear that the transition to democracy could not be stopped.

Mikhail Gorbachev had adopted new policies of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union in 1985. After Nicolae Ceaușescu, the communist leader of Romania, was executed during the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Alia knew that he might be next if radical changes were not made. He then signed the Helsinki Agreement which then forced conformity to Western European human rights standards. Alia also organized a meeting with leading intellectuals of the time on ways to reform the Albanian political system. In December 1990, the Party of Labour gave up its "leading role," clearing the way for the first pluralist elections since the communists took power in Albania in 1944. Alia's party won the election of 31 March 1991.

Many leading members of the newly formed Democratic Party wore light trench coats during demonstrations, while Sali Berisha, then still a Party of Labour member, was heard thanking Ramiz Alia when addressing the students protests, and was seen driving around Skanderbeg Square with a government vehicle. Meanwhile, a student demonstration was crushed by the state police in Tirana's Student City dormitories. Ramiz Alia invited a delegation of University of Tirana students to discuss their concerns and come up with a compromise.

The communists managed to retain control of the government in the first round of elections, but fell two months later during a general strike. A committee of "national salvation" took over but also collapsed within six months. Alia resigned as president and was succeeded by Berisha, the first democratically elected leader of Albania since Bishop Fan Noli.