The Albanian People's Army (Albanian: Ushtria Popullore Shqiptare, UPSh) was the national army of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania from 1946 to 1990. Like the militaries of other Communist states, the UPSh was subjected to the nation's ruling party, in this case the Party of Labour of Albania. In fact, as in other Communist states, the Party considered the military to be a creation of the Party itself.[2] The UPSh consisted of the Ground Forces, the Navy and the Air Force. The militia of the UPSh was the Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense (FVVP), and affiliate military structures included the Armed School Youth (RSHA) and Civil Defense of the Republic (MCR).[3] After the fall of communism in Albania, the UPSh was replaced by the Albanian Armed Forces.
History
Early years
After 1946, Albania became a part of the Eastern Bloc and under Soviet influence. In its early years, it consisted of ex-Partisans associated with the Albanian National Liberation Army(UNÇSH). Most communist party elites had high ranks in the UPSh. The ideology of Marxism–Leninism was enforced strictly by political commissars to increase government control over the UPSh.
In February 1991, during a meeting of hardline communists at the local military academy, rumors of a possible coup d'état by the UPSh came up, which resulted in a pro-democracy crowd gathering outside the school, prompting soldiers to fire on civilians, killing four.[4][5]
The First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania was the de factoCommander-in-Chief of the UPSh despite the role of head of a nation's military traditionally being vested in the head of state or head of government. According to the 1976 Albanian Constitution, the People's Assembly (the unicameral legislature) had the ultimate authority to declare a state of emergency or war. Under the same constitution, the office of First Secretary was attributed the title of Commander-in-Chief of the UPSh and Chairman of the Defence Council.[7] The minister of defense was traditionally one of two Deputy Prime Ministers and a member of the PPSH Politburo.[8][1]
Components
The combined strength of the UPSh by 1990 was 48,000 troops, half of which were conscripts, with over 375,000 suited for service.[9][10]
The largest branch was the ground forces, which took up three-quarters of the UPSh. Most of its equipment was Soviet, domestic and Chinese weaponry. The infantry brigades lacked mechanization, operating only about 130 armored vehicles. Army units were vulnerable to attack by modern fighter-bombers. Due to it being based on the original partisan war model of infantry, 75% of the regular forces and almost all members of the reserves were trained in infantry.[13] In the 1980s, the number of infantry brigades in the ground forces was reduced from eight to four and had shifted from fully manned units to the mobilisation of reserve soldiers. Every infantry brigade consisted of three infantry battalions and one lightly equipped artillery battalion, while the armoured forces consisted of one tank brigade. Artillery forces were increased from one to three regiments during the 1980s, with six battalions of coastal artillery being maintained at strategic points along the Adriatic Sea littoral.[14]
Navy
The UPSh Navy was the second branch and exclusively was the coastal defense forces of the country. In 1945, a shipyard was built in Durrës to repair Albania's remaining ships. In 1954, a torpedo boat unit was established on Sazan Island and a submarine unit was established in 1958. In the 1960s, Pasha Liman Base, which was the country's main maritime base,[15] was abandoned by the Soviets,[16] giving the Albanian Navy full control of the area. The Naval forces numbered about 2,000 men, with almost one-half being conscripts. Patrol craft included six Chinese-made Shanghai-II fast inshore gunboats and two older Soviet Kronshtadt-class patrol boats.[17]
The Air Force of the UPSh was founded in April 1952 and consisted of 11,000 personnel. The mission of the air force was to repel the enemy at the country's borders and to defend the national airspace. In 1970 the UPSh switched from Soviet to Chinese made aircraft, which the Albanians would only use for a short period of time before the collapse of relations between Albania and the Chinese, which as a result made maintenance even more difficult as the UPSh relied on Soviet/Chinese specialists who were more experienced in military technology. The number of deadly air incidents involving Soviet-made MiGs began to rise despite initial Albanian efforts, all of which claimed the lives of 35 Albanian pilots from 1955 to 2005. Jet fuel for these planes also began locally, with the first attempt being in 1961 when the Kuçova factory produced the special kerosene for jet aircraft called TSI. These attempts were notably low-quality with the fuel shortening the lifespan of the jet engines.[18] In 1990, the air force had 200 jets and 40 helicopters, and four Il-14 transport planes.
Other units
Sigurimi
The Directorate of State Security (Sigurimi) was the Albanian version of the Soviet KGB responsible for state security, intelligence and secret police. Despite being an independent service, it still had affiliations with the UPSh. Of its 30,000 officers, approximately 7,500 of them were assigned to the UPSh. Its precursor, the People's Defense Division, was formed in 1945 by Haxhi Lleshi's as a uniformed internal security force of reliable resistance fighters. By 1989, the division had an organization of five mechanized infantryregiments. In both of their existences, they were responsible for the execution and imprisonment of more than 600 UPSh officers and the neutralization of a military coup d'état.
Republican Guard
The Republican Guard of the UPSh was established after World War II as the Special Battalion of the General Staff within the People's Defense Division (DMP). In 1951, it was transferred to the Albanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which charged it with securing the security of high-ranking state officials and performing public duties. Over the years, the battalion and in 1976, became the Republican Guard Regiment.[19] On 4 February 1984 the Presidium of the People's Assembly awarded the "Order of the National Flag" to the Republican Guard Regiment. It is continued in the modern Republican Guard.
Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense
The Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense (Albanian: Forcat Vullnetare të Vetëmbrojtjes Popullore, FVVP) assisted the UPSh in combat operations on the front. After the Peza Conference, every large village saw the establishment of territorial detachments. After the war, their structure was refined in the UPSh. All men and physically fit women (except school youth or youth veterans) participated. They were trained in the possession of weapons and the acquisition of military and partisan warfare tactics. In 1977 the Defense Council approved the following for the FVVP: 11 Brigades (of which 3 were in Tirana), 1 brigade in Gjirokastra, Vlora, Fier, Berat, Elbasan, Durrës, Korca and Shkodra. This made the number of volunteer units total 110, increasing its personnel number from 175,000 to 265,512, of whom 39,672 were men.[10][12]
After the World War II when the Enver Hoxha regime took power, military ranks were radically changed in looks and in naming. The original design for ranks for the UPSh came from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. In May 1966 military ranks were abolished following the Sino-Soviet Split switching over to the Chinese example. Like all other branches of the state, the military was subjugated to the control of the Party of Labour of Albania, with all high-ranking military officers being members of the upper echelon of the PPSH. The political system was re-enforced by the introduction of political commissars similar to the Soviet Red Army within the military to promote an extensive political education alongside regular military training. To further increase its political control, the PPSH enlarged the conscription system by enlisting in UPSh personnel from some Albanian rural areas that were extremely loyal to the state.
In terms of culture, the UPSh took steps to differentiate itself from the Soviet Army or the People's Liberation Army in the late 1960s. The People's Army used a different type of military salute to render honors to high ranking personnel. Known as the Hoxhaist Salute, it involves soldiers curling their right fist and raising it to shoulder level.[20] It replaced the Zogist salute, which was used by the Royal Albanian Army under the regime of Zog I of Albania. By the 70s, the UPSh had utilized a full dress uniform similar to that of those in the PRC and the USSR in the 1930s. A peaked cap similar to the Chinese Type 65 was used all the way for ground personnel and naval officers until 1991, while sailor caps were used by the junior ratings of the Navy.
The UPSh was primarily responsible for maintaining the various bunkers that were built by order of the Hoxha government. They were built during a 19-year period from 1967 to 1986, with a total of 173,371 concrete bunkers having been completed around the country by 1983.[21] It coincided with Hoxha's policy of "bunkerization" (bunkerizimi) which resulted in the construction of bunkers everywhere, ranging from mountain passes to city streets. They were built in every strategically feasible location, ranging from mountains to the inner workings of villages and towns. Hoxha did this to give the UPSh the ability to defend the country from any external threat, especially the Yugoslav People's Army and alliances such as NATO and/or the Warsaw Pact, warning that "If we slackened our vigilance even for a moment or toned down our struggle against our enemies in the least, they would strike immediately like the snake that bites you and injects its poison before you are aware of it."[22]
Colonel Joseph Zagali, the Chief Engineer of the Albanian Ministry of Defence during the bunkerizimi period,[23] was responsible for the creation and maintenance of the bunkers and came up with most of the designs for the structures, all of which were mostly dome-shaped. Although the government spent a large amount of money on the various bunkers, it had little military value compared to an organised professional army, with one commentator pointing out the flaws in the project by saying, "How long could one man in each bunker hold out? How would you resupply each individual bunker? How would they communicate with each other?".[24]Defence Minister and member of the PPSH Politburo General Beqir Balluku publicly criticized the system in a 1974 speech and disputed the notion that Albania was under threat from its neighbors, which resulted in his accusation of a coup d'état attempt, arrest, and execution within a year of that speech.[25][26]
Military doctrine
Hoxha had based the UPS's entire military doctrine on the actions of the Albanian resistance during World War II[27] and the fact that Albania was one of only two European countries which liberated itself without the direct intervention of foreign troops.[citation needed] Unlike the Partisans' strategy being grounded in the mountain-based guerrilla warfare, the UPSh and Hoxha as the commander-in-chief aimed to only utilize the UPS's resources to defend Albania's national integrity and sovereignty "at all costs".[28]
Military education
During the socialist period, the secret services purged individuals and notable alumni of western military academies, especially those in Fascist Italy from 1927 to 1939, due to that country's occupation of Albania during World War II. The UPSh often sent personnel to the Soviet Union, specifically the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR in Moscow to pursue a higher military education. After the Albanian withdrew from the Warsaw Pact in 1968, all UPSh personnel returned to Albania. Alumni from these academies would also be purged, including the following:
The following educational establishments operated in the country:[10]
Enver Hoxha United School of Officers, established in the People's Socialist Republic in 1945 as the chief military school in the country[1] (it was closed in the early 1990s to be converted into an academy of higher education)[1]
The equipment of the UPSh had lacked in modernization. Soviet and Chinese artillery in the ground forces inventory was towed rather than self-propelled. The Soviets had once attempted to threaten the Albanians with force, with Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Treaty forces and Soviet Defence MinisterAndrei Grechko remarking to an Albanian UPSh delegation that they would not get military equipment agreed upon beforehand, saying, "You are only in the Warsaw Pact for the time being, anyway."[30]
RPK 7.62×39mm – produced locally as the ASh78-2. A marksman rifle variant is also produced and is similar to the ASh78-2 but features a scope and is known as the ASh78-3.
^Hoxha, Enver (1974). "Instructions on the Functions and Tasks of the Party Organizations in the National Liberation Army". Selected Works, November 1941 – October 1948(PDF). Vol. I. Tirana, Albania: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. p. 286. Our Party, with its correct stand towards the war and with its political and organizational work, has been able to create a regular army.
^Albert, Zholi (January 13, 2019). "Pse dhe si u shkatërrua ushtria shqiptare?" [Why and How Was the Albanian Army Destroyed?]. Albanian Free Press (in Albanian). Boulevard "Petro Nini Luarasi", No. 101, Tirana, Albania: Independent Balkan News Agency. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-05 – via Internet Archive.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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