Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe

by Fred Abrahams

Overview

A “compulsively readable” account of the collapse of Europe’s last Communist regime and the dramatic events that followed (Los Angeles Review of Books).
 
In the early 1990s, Albania, arguably Europe’s most closed and repressive state, began a startling transition out of forty years of self-imposed Communist isolation. Albanians who were not allowed to practice religion, travel abroad, wear jeans, or read "decadent" Western literature began to devour the outside world. They opened cafés, companies, and newspapers. Previously banned rock music blared in the streets.

Modern Albania offers a vivid history of the Albanian Communist regime’s fall and the trials and tribulations that led the country to become the state it is today. The book provides an in-depth look at the Communists’ last Politburo meetings and the first student revolts; the fall of the Stalinist regime; the outflows of refugees; the crash of the massive pyramid-loan schemes; the war in neighboring Kosovo; and Albania’s relationship with the United States (it may be the only country outside the US that boasts a statue of George W. Bush).
 
Fred Abrahams weaves together personal experience from more than twenty years of work in Albania, interviews with key Albanians and foreigners who played a role in the country’s politics since 1990—including former Politburo members, opposition leaders, intelligence agents, diplomats, and founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army—and a close examination of hundreds of previously secret government records from Albania and the United States. A rich, narratively driven account, Modern Albania provides a front-row seat to the dramatic events of the last battle of Cold War Europe.
 
Includes photographs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479896684
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	11/21/2023
Series:	Goldstein-Goren American Jewish History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	217
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Fred C. Abrahams is a special advisor at Human Rights Watch and a writer who has worked for twenty years in areas marred by political crises and armed conflict, including the Balkans and Middle East.

Table of Contents

Contents 

Part I. Out of the Dark: The Leader’s Demise, 1985–1990 

1. Hoxha’s Heart 15 

2. Fences Fall 28 

3. The System Shakes 41 

Part II. Blinded by Light: The Democratic Movement, 1990–1992 

4. Student City 51 

5. A Democratic Party 65 

6. Vote for the Future 84 

Part III. Red to Blue: Democratic Party Rules, 1992–1996 

7. Rebuild the State 113 

8. One-Party Town 127 

9. The Fall 145 

Part IV. Blinded by Gold: Crash of the Pyramids, 1997 

10. Profiteers’ Pact 169 

11. Revolt 180 

12. A Horrible End 204 

Part V. Return to Red: Ex-Communists Rule, 1998 

13. Democracy 2.0 225 

14. Illegal but Necessary 232 

15. A Shot, a Coup 236 

Part VI. Red and Black: The Kosovo War, 1998–1999 

16. Argument of Force 247 

17. A Formula 256 

18. To War 266 

Part VII. Black and Blue: Battered Politics of Transition, 2000–2014 

19. Busts in Our Heads 275 

20. The Doctor Is Back 281 

21. Pendulum Swing 292 

Epilogue 297