E lidor M ëhilli . From Stalin to Mao

Albania was the last country in Europe to witness the fall of Communism, which happened in early 1990s. Since 1944, it was known as the most isolated state in Eastern Europe. But this is true only for the last twelve years of Communism. During the initial three postwar decades, being small and poor, it was determined to overcome backwardness by insistently asking its fellow Communist states for more technologies, grants, and specialists. Elidor Mëhilli has dedicated his first book, From Stalin to Mao: Albania and the Socialist World, to these issues, focusing on the dynamics of the Cold War and on exchanges and confrontations within the Eastern bloc. In 1939, Albania was occupied by Mussolini’s Italy, and after 1943, it was occupied by Nazi Germany. The old political elites, known as nationalists and part of the National Front (Balli Kombëtar), collaborated with the occupiers, while the resistance movement was galvanized by the Communist Party of Albania, a tiny group in 1941. It grew stronger during the war with direct support from the Yugoslav government. In 1944, nationalists were compromised, and due to their lack of fanaticism, as Mëhilli points out, the Communists were the only political group to get the credit for the liberation. It was hardly a unique case in the European history of World War II (see France and Italy). But what was distinctive to Albania pertained to its geopolitical position and its particular history. It was the only country, besides Yugoslavia, in which Communism was not brought by the Red Army but was a result of the war.

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