The Communist regime was still striving in 1970 to alter the traditional tribal and semifeudal social patterns of the country and to restructure the whole system to fit Marxist-Leninist principles of a socialist society. Until after World War II the strongest loyalties of the people had been toward family and larger kin groups, which have been the most important units in Albanian society. Kin groups had been held together by strong spirit and loyalties, as well as by economic factors. The head of the family, usually the eldest male member, historically exercised patriarchal authority, with general responsibility for the welfare and safety of the members. In this patriarchal society, respect for parental authority was dominant.
Local autonomy and suspicion of central authority had for centuries been a way of life for Albanian society. This way of life persisted until the twentieth century, despite the foreign cultural and political influences to which the society was subjected during the long domination by the Ottoman Turks.
Of particular social importance during this domination was the conversion of the majority of the people to the Islamic faith. Even before this conversion, however, the people had been segmented by the schism between the Roman and Eastern Orthodox churches. The people in the north were usually Roman Catholic, and those in the south, Eastern Orthodox. Tolerance, however, has been a marked feature of the people and, accordingly, religious divisiveness has had no great effect on the tribal and semifeudal structure of the society. Indeed, the three religious faiths in the country—Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox—have represented traditional loyalties rather than living creeds for the Albanians.
Until the Communist takeover in 1944, there had been two broad social classes in the country, an upper and a lower class. The upper class was composed of the landowning beys (see Glossary); some bajraktars (relatively well-to-do tribal chieftains); and a smaller number of rich Christian farmers, merchants, small industrialists, some intellectuals, and the higher clergy. The lower class, amounting to about 90 percent of the population, was composed of a small group of workers, the peasant masses, livestock breeders, and the lower clergy.
The Communist regime's political, social, and economic measures aimed at redirecting the traditional social patterns have resulted in more social transformations than at any time since the Turkish invasions in the fifteenth century. Collectivization of agriculture, industrialization and the consequent migration from rural to industrial areas, and a widespread educational system have done much to transform the tribal character of the society.
Although in 1970 the patriarchal system was still a way of life in the countryside, especially in the highlands, the authority of the master of the house had been considerably reduced. Marriage customs in particular had changed. As a result, the position of the close-knit family had been altered. Radical changes had occurred also in the life of women. Many of them have had to work outside the home to compensate for the generally low wages of their husbands. Day-care nurseries had been set up to make it easier for mothers to work and also to give the regime an early opportunity to indoctrinate the children.
Despite such transformation, however, the family was still the most significant unit in the society. The allegiance given to the family, coupled with the individualism characteristic of the people and the traditions of political autonomy in local affairs, had made it difficult for the regime to fully implement its policies for restructuring the society in general and the family in particular.
Reflecting the influence of the standard Marxist-Leninist dogma, the regime officially recognized only two classes—one composed of workers and considered the leading class and the other consisting of the working peasants, a third group usually being referred to as the people's intelligentsia. Actually, a distinct new upper class, constituting less than 10 percent of the total population, emerged under Communist rule to replace the upper ruling and middle classes that existed before the Communist takeover. This new upper class was composed of the top ruling elite that controlled all facets of society and its supporting echelons, made up of officials of the Party and state apparatus; mass organizations; and professional and technical people, such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, and managers of state enterprises.
Membership in the Party or sympathy toward communism was the chain that linked this upper class together. All its segments had benefited from the Communist system, having enjoyed considerable advantages over the rest of the population; they formed practically the only social group with a vested interest in the perpetuation of the system. The rest of the population—peasants, workers, and remnants of the upper and middle classes—were only cogs in the Communist apparatus, all used for the purpose of implementing the Party policies for the building of a Communist society.
Under Communist rule the stabilization of the class differentiations had lessened social mobility both upward and downward. In 1970 it was difficult to alter one's social status except through a long process of training and education. Educational opportunities, however, had been greatly expanded, although they were still limited in the rural areas. The best opportunities were offered to the children of the Party elite and Party faithful. But because of the great demand for qualified personnel to manage the growing socialist sectors of the economy, some children of worker and peasant backgrounds had opportunities to continue their education to the highest levels and to fully develop their abilities and capacities. The whole educational system, however, was geared to the demands of the Party, and its first objective was the inculcation of the youth with Communist ideology.