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Albania
ORIGINS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
The communists gained a foothold in Albanian politics during
World War II, when they became the founders and leaders of the
National Liberation Movement (NLM), which came into existence
during the Italian and German occupations. Hoxha, a former schoolteacher
who became first secretary of the Albanian Communist Party (ACP)
in 1941, was a prominent wartime resistance leader and was largely
responsible for the success of the communists in achieving a position
of political dominance towards the end of the war.
As leaders of the NLM, the Albanian communists were successful
in arousing active opposition to the Italian army and, after September
1943, to the German army. Toward the end of the war, the communists
worked unceasingly to ensure that they would exercise political
power in liberated Albania. In October 1944, the renamed National
Liberation Front transformed itself into the provisional democratic
government of Albania, with Hoxha as prime minister. By the time
German troops had withdrawn from Albania in November 1944, almost
all organized resistance to communism had been crushed.
Data as of April 1992
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