In mid-1970 the minister of defense, Beqir Balluku, was also a deputy prime minister and a member of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Albanian Workers' Party. Balluku had a military career background and held the rank of colonel general in the army before its ranks were abolished in 1966. As defense minister he exercised direct operational and administrative control over all elements of the military establishment.

The People's Army

The army claims no antecedents in the forces of the pre-Communist regimes and dates itself from July 10, 1943, when a General Staff was formed within the guerrilla forces resisting the Italian occupation. Petrit Dume, its chief of staff in 1970, had commanded the People's Army for about twenty years. He was second only to Balluku in the defense hierarchy and was also a candidate member of the Politburo of the Party organization. Enver Hoxha, first secretary of the Albanian Workers' Party, held the rank of general of the army until rank designations were abolished but, although he could exercise personal direction of the armed forces as their commander in chief, he was not considered a member of the defense establishment.

All of the regular military forces are within the People's Army. The air and naval arms are usually treated separately because of their distinctive functions and equipment, but their men are sometimes referred to as naval and air soldiers. Major subcommands, such as the army's directorates of Political Affairs and Rear Services (Logistics), serve all service components. The same is the case with such organizations as the medical service that have functions applicable to all of the armed forces.

At lower levels, where the functions of the forces are specialized in relation to their weapons, organizational patterns appear to be similar to those in most of the other armed forces throughout the Communist world. During the post-World War II formative years, force structures were adapted from those of the Soviet Union. Realignments after 1961 to cooperate with the Communist Chinese are not believed to have affected them to any appreciable degree. Some unit designations, such as army division, are not used in the peacetime organization and, in other situations, the sizes of units may be scaled down somewhat from normal international practice.

Rank designations were abolished in 1966. Since then, according to the governmental decree that effected the change, position in the military hierarchy is based on the responsibilities stipulated in the relevant tables of organization of the armed forces. Most of the personnel who would have fallen into the lower rank categories are acquired by conscription. Men without highly skilled specialties are retained for two years; noncommissioned officers and others who receive special training are required to serve for longer periods.

The stated mission of the armed forces in general and the ground forces in particular is to defend the country and to secure its governing system. The stated mission notwithstanding, support of the system is primarily the responsibility of the security police forces and, against an external opponent, the armed forces are believed to have only a defensive capability. Unless Albanian forces engaged an enemy that was also committed against a third party in a more general conflict, they would, of necessity, revert to guerrilla fighting. Most of the training and much of the propaganda directed at the local population indicate that the leadership anticipates the possibility of guerrilla warfare.

The Party slogan, "the pick in one hand and the rifle in the other," also illustrates the dual use of service personnel in peacetime. They assist in the construction of industrial enterprises and hydroelectric plants and in land reclamation projects, crop harvests, and the like. They were used during the early 1960s, for example, in the construction of the oil refinery at Cerrik; in building a sugar factory, a lumber combine, and a textile factory; and in the draining of Lake Maliq to acquire additional agricultural land in a marshy lake district area north of Korce ([see ch. 8], Economic System).

Ground Forces

The ground forces contain about three-quarters of the regular personnel and are the backbone of the armed forces. Consequently, many of the People's Army functions that apply to all of the service components are administered within the ground force organization.