the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt nine)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

The collapse of the Stability Government thrust Albania into a downward spiral of lawlessness that some have called the “time of dark forces.” The outgoing prime minister, Ylli Bufi, strangely announced that Albania had only one week of reserves for bread, causing frantic mobs to storm bakeries, warehouses, and shops. An estimated forty-five people died between December 1991 and February 1992 from riots and street violence. The all-powerful communist state had collapsed and nothing had taken its place.

Some villages organized the systematic dismantling of community centers and cooperatives, distributing the windows, roof tiles, wooden beams, and electric wires. But in many cases, thieves yanked up railway track, uprooted water pipes, and stole manhole covers. They ripped bars from Albania’s prisons. They felled the stately poplars that lined national roads and burned them for heat. “The trees are nice,” one man told a journalist. “But if we don’t cut them, the bandits from the next village will do it first.”

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt eight)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

The police action was a physical manifestation of Alia’s political strategy since 1989. Albanians’ desire for change had swelled like a wave, and no wall could withstand that force. Rather than build a useless defense, Alia channeled the flow into areas that could be managed and controlled.

Security forces waited in the square. Thousands of protesters milled about, some throwing rocks, thinking of Tiananmen Square, while looking at the thirty-foot-high bronze statue of Enver Hoxha, taller still atop his granite pedestal, standing like a lightning rod in a storm.

A crowd surged, was repelled by the police, and surged again, gaining confidence as its numbers grew. Proud and determined, Hoxha looked out over the square wearing a suit and long coat, with his left hand behind his back and right hand at his side. The crowd pushed. A boy climbed Hoxha’s coat and hooked a metal cable around the dictator’s thumb. Men pulled from the left, while others pushed from the right, and the Leader’s body began to tilt from side to side. Just after 2: 00 p.m., it separated from its base and came crashing down, predictably, to Hoxha’s left.

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt seven)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

The moderate-radical paradigm did not always explain the behavior of those involved. While two basic camps emerged, the individuals in those camps shifted their positions depending on the circumstances. Perhaps more than anything, the driving factor was not ideology or strategy, but the power struggles within the group. The Democratic Party was not Solidarity in Poland or Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, which had confronted communism on principle. The party founders were not dissidents who had challenged power at personal expense.

In retrospect, it is predictable that people like Berisha and Pashko rose to the top. These men spoke foreign languages and understood economics and international politics better than the others. They embodied the paradox throughout the former Soviet bloc that those equipped to govern in the new system were those who had benefited from the old.

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt six)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

At 7:30 the next morning, the student Azem Hajdari and drama professor Arben Imami left Student City, stopped for a breakfast of kebabs, and arrived at Pashko’s home. Other men soon arrived, many of them meeting for the first time. Pashko’s brother-in-law Genc Ruli came, as did the philosophy professor Eduard Selami, the drama professor Edmond Budina, and Dr. Sali Berisha. An acquaintance of Pashko’s unknown to the others also joined, the mild-mannered archeologist Aleksandër Meksi, who would become Albania’s first post-communist prime minister. Around 10:30, Pashko called Reuters in Vienna to announce that a group of students, intellectuals, and workers would present Albania’s first opposition party later that day.

“I’m very happy that we are able to show to the world that we are able to move to a democratic system without violence,” Pashko told the journalist. He praised Ramiz Alia’s decision to allow pluralism as a victory over party conservatives. “We are for Alia,” he said.

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt five)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

Six weeks later, the famous writer Ismail Kadare shocked the country by announcing that he and his family would not return from a trip in France. The request for asylum by the country’s cultural icon sparked fierce debate. Some Albanians felt betrayed that Kadare had abandoned ship. Others felt proud that he had stood against the regime. Many wondered if Kadare, long promoted by Hoxha, would still be studied in schools.

The defection hurt Alia, especially because Tirana was preparing to host a conference of Balkan foreign ministers in October, the first high-level international meeting ever in the country. “With this ugly act, which heavily offends the patriotic conscience of our people and citizens, [Kadare] abandons the people in the fatherland and puts himself in the service of the enemies of Albania,” declared Zëri i Popullit. Kadare defended his decision as a response to broken promises. “Because there is no possibility of legal opposition in Albania, I have chosen this course, which I never wished to take and which I will not recommend to others,” he wrote. Ten years later, back in his Tirana apartment, Kadare told me that his defection was intended to “stimulate the democratization of Albania.” He wanted to “unmask the hypocrisy of the regime’s reforms.”

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt four)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

Despite the threats, Alia reached out to the world. In New York two Albanian diplomats met secretly with U.S. officials at the United Nations to discuss reestablishing diplomatic ties. In May the government opened telephone lines to the West, allowing Albanians to speak directly with relatives abroad for the first time since World War Two. To Albanians’ surprise, the new telephone book included a list of international codes. That month parliament legalized private practice for lawyers and reopened the Ministry of Justice, which was closed in 1968. It removed internment and expulsion as punishments, and reduced the illegal crossing of Albania’s borders from a counter-revolutionary act to a criminal offense. Parliament also redefined the notorious Article 55 of the penal code—“Agitation and Propaganda against the State”—which the state had used for years to imprison and execute critics. An amendment abolished the death penalty for “anti-socialist agitation and propaganda” and narrowed the definition to acts aimed at “overthrowing the state and social order as defined in the constitution.” Criminalization of religious propaganda was removed.

the last book I ever read (Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe, excerpt three)

from Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe by Fred C. Abrahams:

Alia’s first major project was to honor his teacher and guide. Hoxha statues rose in Tirana and other towns. In the center of the capital came the colossal white marble pyramid to house the Enver Hoxha Museum.

As statues rose, the economy sank. The government rationed meat, cheese, coffee, butter, and oil, and the quality of those goods got worse. Shoppers stood in lines from 5:00 a.m., and often went home empty-handed. The only vegetable readily available was leeks, and it became a symbol of Albania’s despair. Collectivized to the extreme, the economy had exhausted its possibilities, like a human body burning muscle and fat to survive.