Albania in a Nutshell

Book excerpt: Albania is a small country in southeastern Europe. It is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the southwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula and borders on Montenegro to the north, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south. But a few decades ago, Albania was something of a curiosity on Planet Earth. Perhaps only North Korea was as isolated from the rest of the world as Albania was. For left-wing idealists, it was a distant Shangri-la where all social inequalities had been done away with; for those few individuals with concrete knowledge of the realities of the Stalinist regime that held power until 1990, and for the vast majority of people living in Albania, it was hell on earth. Despite its sombre past, Albania is, in essence, a European nation like any other and will soon, it is to be hoped, advance and take its proper place in Europe and the world. This book provides a short overview of the history of Albania for the general reader.