Museum of Marxism

The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania is a lonely witness to the fact that dictatorship of the proletariat will always fail, anywhere. Here, the shabby slavery cannot be blamed on Russian history, Slavonic muddle, Chinese tradition, or American blockades. Indeed, the bankrupt regime shuns Western credits, long after losing subsidies from Moscow and Peking in turn. Albania has not even the excuse of being a Balkan backwater, for, as any traveler can see, the standard of living (and level of freedom) is much higher in neighboring areas of liberalized Yugoslavia.

The problem is spelled out right at the border, where armed guards stand beneath a sign displaying a typical slogan by Enver Hoxha, who is now the world’s longest-ruling dictator, in Europe’s most isolated and impoverished nation: “Even if we have to go without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles. We do not betray Marxism-Leninism.”

JB

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John Burke

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The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania is a lonely witness to the fact that dictatorship of the proletariat will always fail, anywhere. Here, the shabby slavery cannot be blamed on Russian history, Slavonic muddle, Chinese tradition, or American blockades. Indeed, the bankrupt regime shuns Western credits, long after losing subsidies from Moscow and Peking in turn. Albania has not even the excuse of being a Balkan backwater, for, as any traveler can see, the standard of living (and level of freedom) is much higher in neighboring areas of liberalized Yugoslavia.

The problem is spelled out right at the border, where armed guards stand beneath a sign displaying a typical slogan by Enver Hoxha, who is now the world’s longest-ruling dictator, in Europe’s most isolated and impoverished nation: “Even if we have to go without bread, we Albanians do not violate principles. We do not betray Marxism-Leninism.”