Stalinism and the Stalinist model: Comparative study on its origins and characteristics in the communist regime in Albania

• Pages: 57-66

79

Vol. 9 No.2

September, 2023

Balkan Journal of

Interdisciplinary Research

E-ISSN 2411-9725

ISSN 2410-759X

Stalinism and the Stalinist model: Comparative study on its origins and

characteristics in the communist regime in Albania

Anelmo Spahija

University Luigj Gurakuqi, Shkoder, Albania

DOI: hps://doi.org/10.2478/bjir-2023-0009

Abstract

For more than 45 years, Albania was ruled by one of the harshest dictatorial regimes that

Europe has experienced during the 20-th century. The communist regime in Albania had

several special features, starting from its origins and establishment, and continuing further

with its special characteristics, the society and the economic-social system it built. These

features set it apart from other communist regimes in Eastern Europe. But what remains as

the primary feature of the communist regime in Albania is its loyalty and steadfastness in

following and further developing the Stalinist model, a model that was nally abandoned

in Eastern Europe and the USSR in the mid-1950s, and further in China after the death of

Mao Zedong (1978). This study aims to investigate the special characteristics underlying the

Stalinist model and the causes that enabled its implementation, adaptation and development

in the conditions of the rule of the dictatorial regime in Albania.

Keywords: Stalinism and the Stalinist model, Comparative study, communist regime, Albania.

1. Introduction

More than an ideological approach or position, Stalinism represents a special model

of the socialist state, which prevailed in the Soviet Union from the end of the 20s of the

20th century until its denunciation at the 20th Congress of the USSR in February 1956 ,

while it was imposed in Eastern Europe in the years 1945-1956, excluding Yugoslavia

that seceded in 1948, as well as Albania that adopted and further developed this

model, even after its denunciation. The factors that made possible the appearance of

the main characteristics of the Stalinist regime are primarily related to the particular

political situation in the Soviet Union. On the basis of the characteristics that the regime

received from the Soviet experience, new ideological approaches were built, which

led to the dogmatization of Marxism-Leninism in the function of regime propaganda.

The triumph of this model in the Soviet Union, as the rst socialist country, made

Research Article

© 2023 Anelmo Spahija

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