|
Albania
The Communist Takeover of Albania
The communist partisans regrouped and, thanks to freshly supplied
British weapons, gained control of southern Albania in January
1944. In May they called a congress of members of the National
Liberation Front (NLF, as the movement was by then called) at
Pλrmet, which chose an Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation
to act as Albania's administration and legislature. Hoxha became
the chairman of the council's executive committee and the National
Liberation Army's supreme commander. The communist partisans defeated
the last Balli Kombetar forces in southern Albania by mid-summer
1944 and encountered only scattered resistance from the Balli
Kombetar and Legality when they entered central and northern Albania
by the end of July. The British military mission urged the nationalists
not to oppose the communists' advance, and the Allies evacuated
Kupi to Italy. Before the end of November, the Germans had withdrawn
from Tiranλ, and the communists, supported by Allied air cover,
had no problem taking control of the capital. A provisional government
the communists had formed at Berat in October administered Albania
with Enver Hoxha as prime minister, and in late 1944 Hoxha dispatched
Albanian partisans to help Tito's forces rout Albanian nationalists
in Kosovo.
Albania stood in an unenviable position after World War II. Greece
and Yugoslavia hungered for Albanian lands they had lost or claimed.
The NLF's strong links with Yugoslavia's communists, who also
enjoyed British military and diplomatic support, guaranteed that
Belgrade would play a key role in Albania's postwar order. The
Allies never recognized an Albanian government in exile or King
Zog, nor did they ever raise the question of Albania or its borders
at any of the major wartime conferences. No reliable statistics
on Albania's wartime losses exist, but the United Nations Relief
and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30,000 Albanian
war dead, 200 destroyed villages, 18,000 destroyed houses, and
about 100,000 people left homeless. Albanian official statistics
claim somewhat higher losses.
Data as of April 1992
|
