Sugarland – The Transformation of the Countryside in Communist Albania

In this historical monograph on rural communist Albania (2023), historian Artan Hoxha examines the ambitious development project that transformed a swampland into a sugar production hub after 1945. The author aims to challenge lingering stereotypes about Albanian communism, often labeled as aberrant, paranoid, hyper-nationalistic, and xenophobic.

Focusing on the agricultural and industrial transformation of a southeastern Albanian region, this micro-history addresses issues of modernization, development, and social, cultural, and economic policies. Hoxha not only analyzes agricultural collectivization but also highlights communism’s impact on the daily lives of rural people. As in other parts of the Communist Bloc, the Albanian regime adopted development projects from the past and implemented them through social mobilization and a command economy. Extensive archival research and field interviews reveal the authorities’ efforts to boost consumption and dramatically reshape people’s tastes. However, the book argues that, despite the oppressive political climate, those involved in the sugar project were not merely passive recipients of directives from the capital. Hoxha also shows that—despite Cold War tensions—technological needs and social policy considerations required a certain level of engagement with the outside world.

You can listen to Artan Hoxha’s interview on the Eurasian Knot here.

Communism, Atheism and the Orthodox Church of Albania

Another thorough study (2022) by Artan Hoxha explores the relationship between the Albanian communist regime and the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (AAOC) from 1945, when the communists took power, to 1967, when Albania became the world’s first officially atheist state, completely suppressing all religions. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book details the life of the Orthodox Church under communism and examines the regime’s strategies to control, exploit, and subordinate it. Rather than presenting a straightforward narrative of state oppression versus Church resistance, the book reveals a more nuanced reality, where both the regime and the Church were far from monolithic. Despite the regime’s brutality and persistent pressure, the Church was able to negotiate with the communist authorities and even benefited from cooperating with them. The regime, in turn, used the Church as a tool in its foreign policy, particularly to strengthen ties with its Eastern European allies.

Audible States: Socialist Politics and Popular Music in Albania

Ethnomusicologist Nicholas Tochka traces the auditory history of Albania’s government by closely examining the evolution and reception of light music at Radio-Television Albania’s Festival of Song. Drawing from extensive archival materials and over forty interviews with composers, lyricists, singers, and bureaucrats, Tochka illustrates how popular music became central to government efforts to shape society—a key focus for both state-socialist and postsocialist regimes from 1945 to the present. Tochka begins his narrative in the postwar period, arguing that state officials viewed light music as a tool for fostering a modern socialist populace. After the Cold War, postsocialist officials once again turned to light music, hoping these musicians could help guide Albania toward becoming a capitalist, “European” nation. Through a combination of archival research and ethnographic interviews, Audible States reveals that modern political orders influence not only what is seen but also what is heard.

Blending insights from ethnomusicology, governmentality studies, and post-socialist studies, Audible States offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between music and governance, exposing the fluid yet ultimately limited reach of state power in the modern era. This meticulously researched and compellingly written work stands as a foundational text in the growing field of popular music and culture in post-socialist Europe, appealing to those interested in popular music, sound studies, and Cold War politics.

Tales from Albarado: Ponzi Logics of Accumulation in Postsocialist Albania

In her book, anthropologist Smoki Musaraj revisits the enthusiasm and then turmoil of early 1990s Albania, when the collapse of numerous pyramid schemes threw the country into chaos, edging it toward anarchy and near civil war. To better grasp how individuals from diverse backgrounds became entangled in these fraudulent financial schemes, she explores their material, social, and temporal dimensions. She reveals how speculative practices were shaped not only by official financial infrastructures, such as post-socialist market reforms, but also by unofficial economies like remittances, and unique forms of entrepreneurship rooted in transnational networks and a desire for European modernity. Through these detailed accounts, Musaraj sheds light on neoliberal capitalism as a complex economic system, blending both capitalist and non-capitalist modes of accumulation and investment.”

False Apocalypse: From Stalinism to Capitalism

Through the diary of his alter ego Fatos Qorri, journalist Fatos Lubonja tells the crucial story of the year 1997 : the emergence of the pyramid schemes, the events that led to the civil war, the uprising in Vlora, the behavior of the government and the ultimate fall of Sali Berisha. It’s a beautifully written account of the terrible year of 1997. The translated book was published in 2016.

Fatos Lubonja is a writer and editor of the quarterly journal Përpjekja, a representative of the Forum for Democracy, and a prominent figure in Albanian politics. At the age of 23, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for “agitation and propaganda” after the police discovered his diaries, which criticized Hoxha. Later, without a trial, his sentence was extended, leading him to spend a total of 17 years behind bars, much of it in solitary confinement, until his release in 1991.

Ardit Gjebrea’s Projekt Jon

Musicologist Nicolas Tochka’s book (2024) is a refreshing and original analysis of the place and symbolics occupied by the most famous music album in Albania in 1997: Projekt Jon by Ardit Gjebrea.

As market reforms and migration reshaped Albania in the early 1990s, Ardit Gjebrea began blending traditional folk music with world music and Italian pop. His 1997 album, Projekt Jon, introduced a new musical style—cosmopolitan and Western yet deeply rooted in the nation’s cultural heritage—against a backdrop of increasing political instability and uncertainty over Albania’s future.

The album opened with the energetic beats of the daullë and the traditional calls of Albania’s highland shepherds. This ambitious collaboration, featuring singer-songwriter Ardit Gjebrea, folk singer Hysni Zela, producer Paul Mazzolini, and a team of skilled studio musicians in Italy, aimed to transcend the borders of the small postsocialist state, crafting an imaginative European home for Albania’s citizens through sound. However, as Gjebrea prepared to release Projekt Jon, Albania faced violent turmoil following the collapse of widespread pyramid schemes, threatening to unravel the country. For intellectuals concerned about the cracks forming in the symbolic foundation of the Albanian nation-state, the album became a referendum on the nature of postsocialist citizenship.

Tirana Modern: Biblio-Ethnography on the Margins of Europe

Anthropologist Matthew Rosen brings in a beautiful account of how a small independent publishing house Pika pa Sipërfaqe (Point without Surface) is allowing Albanian readers to access world litterature and philosophy which was forbidden under the socialist regime and neglected by contemporary and profit-oriented Albanian publishing houses.

Guided by the belief that literature has the power to transform social reality, Tirana Modern uses ethnographic and historical research to explore the public culture of reading in modern Albania. The book begins by asking: How has Albanian literature and literary translation influenced social action throughout the extended period of Albanian modernity?

Drawing on fieldwork conducted with a community of readers, writers, and translators connected to the independent Albanian publisher Pika pa Sipërfaqe, Tirana Modern offers a focused ethnography of Albania’s literary culture. It highlights the broader dialectic between social imagination and social reality as shaped by reading and literature.