Anti-religious policy in communist Albania

The article studies the features of the Albanian Labor Party policy regarding religions, which proclaimed its goal to build a society of “full atheism”. The Albanian communist regime declared the religion illegal and conducted a long campaign of oppression of Christian and Muslim believers imprisoning and sentencing clergymen to death and harassing their families. The relevance of the research has been determined by the fact that its study allows a deeper understanding of the features of the Albanian totalitarianism. The author identifies two main periods in the party anti-religious activity. At the first stage (1945-1967) an ideological campaign aimed at establishing a scientific and materialistic worldview in society was the main tool for overcoming the religious worldview. Within this campaign the Albanian Labor Party launched an extensive scientific and atheistic propaganda through the media, education, and art. At the second stage (1967-1990) the Albanian authorities launched an active campaign to completely eliminate religious beliefs and their vestiges, declared Albania the first atheistic country in the world, introducing a ban on religious faith in the Constitution and providing for sanctions, including criminal ones, for participation of people in religious ceremonies, keeping religious books, etc. The article analyzes the reasons that have determined the tough course in relation to faiths and defines the role of the party leader Enver Hodja in this process. The author has concluded that the anti-religious policy of the Albanian communists pursued two main goals: firstly, the formation of a new communist worldview based on scientific materialism. Secondly, it was one of the instruments of rallying society before the “external enemy”, since the leader of the ALP E. Hodja perceived all religions as “the law of foreign invaders”.

диктатура, коммунизм, партия, государство, тоталитаризм, религия, Албания, воинствующий атеизм, dictatorship, communism, party, state, totalitarianism, religion, Albania, militant atheism

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