Albania’s Stalinist purges

In the 1970s, Albania’s Stalinist leader, Enver Hoxha, launched a new series of purges against government ministers and officials, following numerous purges in previous decades.

Those accused of being ‘enemies’ of the ruling Party of Labour were executed or received lengthy prison sentences. Their families were punished too. Many were sent into internal exile and forced to work in the fields.

Rob Walker speaks to Kozara Kati whose father was imprisoned in 1975. She spent 15 years in a camp with her mother, brother and sister.

Rob also hears from Fred Abrahams, long term researcher and writer on Albania, who is the author of ‘Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe’.

(Photo: Enver Hoxha embraces Chinese Leader Yao Wen-Yuan 1967. Credit: Keystone-France, Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)