CHAPTER 9
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL SECURITY
The armed forces in 1970 were under the Ministry of People's Defense, and all elements were included within the People's Army. Total personnel strength was about 40,000. Most troops were acquired by conscription, and about one-half of the eligible young men were drafted, usually at age nineteen. All of the tanks, aircraft, and vehicles used by the armed forces were of Soviet design, but since 1961 all external assistance has been provided by the Communist Chinese. Military ranks were abolished in 1966, but the force organization at lower levels in all service components was conventional.
The modern armed forces grew out of the partisan units of World War II, during which they fought against the Italians, the Germans, and each other. By the time of the German evacuation of Albania in November 1944, the Communist-led National Liberation Front held the dominant position among the partisans and was able to assume control of the country without fighting any major battles.
The Albanian Workers' Party (Communist Party) had an active organization within the services. All or nearly all officers in the regular services were Party members in 1970. All cadets over eighteen years of age in the officer candidate military schools were also Party members. Younger cadets were members of the Union of Albanian Working Youth. Probably only a very few of the conscripts were Party members, but nearly all were members of the youth organization. In addition to the influence exerted by Party cells, political commissars throughout the armed forces structure enforced ideological conformity.
The Albanian fighting man has had an excellent reputation for 2,000 years but, with the exception of Skanderbeg, the fifteenth-century national hero—he was born Gjergi Kastrioti and renamed Skanderbeg after Alexander the Great—the military forces of the country have disclaimed any heritage antedating the partisan activities of World War II. Skanderbeg gained brief independence for the country during his opposition to the Turkish invaders, but his exploits in support of nationalism stood almost alone over the entire period between Roman times and the twentieth century.
Moreover, national independence in 1912 did not result from a major military victory. National feelings, aroused late in the nineteenth century, became more intense during the early 1900s but, although there were clashes between fairly sizable armed groups of Turks and Albanians, freedom was not attained from armed struggle involving organized military forces. Rather, in the interests of the balance of power the greater European powers recognized the declared independence of Albania ([see ch. 2], Historical Setting).
Police and security forces were under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. They were organized into three directorates: the Directorate of State Security, Frontier Guards, and the People's Police. Except for the fact that they were subject to the same system of military justice, they were entirely separate from the armed forces of the Ministry of People's Defense. The Albanian security police in 1970 were believed to exert more rigid controls over the population than was exercised by similar forces in any other East European Communist country or in the Soviet Union.
The Directorate of State Security contained the internal security police. Organized to protect the Party and governmental system, they were responsible for suppressing resistance to, and deviation from, Party ideology, and for combating crimes that had a national character. Frontier Guards, as their name implies, accomplished border security. The People's Police were the local or municipal police, with the typical routines and local interests of such forces.