The Sovietization of Alb Education

8/12/2019 The Sovietization of Alb Education

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American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

The Sovietization of Albanian EducationAuthor(s): Joseph S. RoucekSource: The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring, 1958), pp. 55-60Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European LanguagesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/304697.

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THE SOVIETIZATION OF ALBANIAN EDUCATIONBy Joseph S. Roucek

University of Bridgeport (Conn.)Formal Education Structure

The pro-Soviet educational system was set up by thelaw of August 17, 1946.1 It was inspired by the Soviet sys-tem, and the new generation is now to be educated "in a pac-ifistic spirit, with true patriotism, and a feeling of love forthe Soviet Union, Stalin, and our Party "2 Article 28 of the1945 Constitution states that, in order to raise the level ofgeneral culture among the population, the state guaranteesto all classes the opportunity of attending the country'sschools and various cultural institutions. Primary educa-tion is free, and the law of August 17, 1946, states thatschool attendance is compulsory.The educational system is uniform; all the schools arecontrolled by the State; schools are undenominational, andthe Ministry of Education controls the whole system. Edu-cation begins in the nursery school. "Under the presentsystem, the children of war victims or cripples, as well asorphans and the children of needy workers and peasants,can be looked after free of charge." School attendance iscompulsory between the ages of seven and twelve; new high-er primary schools, with seven classes, have been opened.The secondary schools have four classes. There are twotypes of secondary schools-those which give a general ed-ucation, and the technical secondary schools; the latter in-clude financial, medical, and agricultural schools, and thetechnical school at Tirana (divided in 1946 into four sec-tionst mechanics, administration, agriculture, and elec-tricity). There is also an Art School with five sections:theory of music, piano, singing, violin, and plastic arts.Secondary professional schools were founded on Octo-ber 10, 1950, along Soviet lines; these "teknikums" aredivided into "low" and "middle schools," The first havecourses from six months to two years; the middle schools,55

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56 The Slavic and East European Journalfour years. The teknikums are run by various Ministries,and students with the background of a seven-year school areeligible to enroll. There are professional schools for med-icine (assistant to physicians), finance, commerce, the pe-troleum industry, and agriculture, and the graduates areassigned to appointments by the government.In 1951, the Council of Ministers founded three insti-tutes of higher learning, called "high institutes," to give"to science, culture, and technique in our country broaderperspectives and to create conditions for their further de-velopment, according to the example of science, culture,and technique of the Soviet Union, so that they may be ofservice to the working masses and factors in the develop-ment of the economy of our country, and in order to formthe intelligentsia of our land." A High Pedagogical Instituteand High Medical Institutes have been opened.Pre-war Albania could not boast of any learned society.The occupying Italians founded an Institute of AlbanianStudies, later replaced, after the departure of the conquer-ing armies, with the Albanian Institute for Sciences andArts, and, by the Communists, with the Institute of Sciences.It-has published some valuable studies of the flora and faunaof Albania, some geological studies, a valuable dictionaryof the Albanian language (1955), and a collection of histori-cal documents along Marxist-Leninist lines. The adminis -tration of the whole system is under the Ministry of Educa-tion and Culture, which in 1953 absorbed the Committee onArts and Culture, the Radio Broadcast Committee, and theDirection of Publications.Education of Teachers. The Senior Teacher TrainingInstitute, opened at Tirana in 1947, was the first higher ed-ucational institution in Albania. In addition to a generalteaching course, there are courses in three specializedsections: physics and mathematics, history and geography,and natural science. The Institute has a two-year coursefor training teachers for the seven-year schools (higherprimary schools); it has trained, since 1951, the teachersfor secondary schools, who take a four-year course equiva-lent to that in a university.

Communist ControlAs in all satellite states, the duty of the Albanian



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Roucek: The Sovietization of Albanian Education 57schools is "to furnish the new generation with Marxist-Len-inist learning." "To educate pupils ideo-politically meansto endow them with the scientific ideology of communism,"proclaimed an Albanian educational leader. Furthermore,"since education is a phenomenon of social life and as suchreflects the ideology of the class in power, pedagogy in theschools cannot be treated separately from the political lifeof the country and from the problems which pre-occupy ourparty today . ..In 1944 Albania had probably the highest rate of illiter-acy in Europe-some eighty percent.4 A law of 1949 re-quired every citizen between the ages of twelve and forty tostudy. By 1952 more than half a million Albanians had beentaught how to read and write, a decided advantage for thesuccessful operation of the propaganda agencies.All teaching, on all levels, is carried on within theMarxist-Leninist ideological framework, which is the sinequa non of all cultural activities, on the premise the educa-tion, the arts, and the sciences are Communist weapons,and that intellectuals who practice them are to be soldiersof Communism, inspired by the militant philosophy of Marxand Lenin. The task of the Albanian teacher is to educateyouth to hate the "instigators of a new imperialistic war, "the Anglo-American "imperialists " and their roles in theBalkans. Bedri Spahiu, Albanian Minister of Education,proclaimed in September 1952: "The schools now give allof you a Communist education. That is why you have agreat love for your Fatherland and the Soviet Union and whyyou hate the American imperialists--your enemies." In con-trast to Albanian education, American education is evalu-ated as follows: "The system of teaching in Americanschools is based on chauvinism and hatred of other peoples.The theory of racial superiority, as in Hitler's Germany, isthe main theme of American education today.... Copyingthe methods of Hitler, the reactionary Americans are burn-ing the books of scientists, distinguished writers, and pa-pers and magazines showing a progressive spirit. At thebeginning of this year all the books of Howard Fast were re-moved from all school libraries in New York City.... Inthe books which American students study, every referenceor page which speaks about successes or ideas in the pro-gressive countries is carefully taken out ...sPeriodically teachers must attend political seminars



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58 The Slavic and East European Journalwhere everything Russian is extolled, and where the indoc-trination is so slanted as to lead the listener to identify him-self with the world Communist movement, and to concludethat Communism represents the inevitable development ofAlbania's national heritage and culture. Outstanding teach-ers are honored with titles as ar8stimtar i dalluar (distin-guished educator), m8suis i dalluar (distinguished teacher),mgsues i merituar (meritorious teacher), or m8suas i po-pullit (teacher of the people). During the Yugoslav-Albanianhoneymoon many Albanian teachers were granted fellowshipsin Belgrade (and the Serbo-Croat language was introducedin Albanian schools by visiting Yugoslav instructors). Butsince 1948, the Russian language has been introduced intoall secondary schools. The High Pedagogical Institute hasa department of Russian language and Literature headed bya Soviet educator, Olga Smirnova. Russian languagecourses are offered in various industrial plants by Sovietinstructors. Most Albanian students wanting to studyabroad are allowed to go to the Soviet Union, or to otherPeople's Democracies.

Adult EducationThe Russification program is also promoted by the Al-banian-Soviet Friendship Society (founded in 1945) whichmade its influence felt after 1948 and claims some 210,000members, in 3,200 local branches; it sponsors each Sep-tember the "Albanian-Soviet Friendship Month." Its appealin rural areas comes from the showing by mobile movieprojectors, donated by the permanent representative inTirana of the Russian All-Union Society for Cultural Rela-tions with Foreign Countries (VOKS), of all kinds of propa-ganda movies.The government has been straining itself to promote allother forms of adult education among the rebellious subjects.There are twelve daily newspapers and fourteen periodicalspublished; about 83,000 copies are issued daily, with theleading newspaper accounting for 25,000. The Albanian Tel-egraph Agency (governmentally controlled) supplies thecountry's newspapers and radio stations with material. TheAlbanian Radio is a state system, operating seven transmit-ters. The forty-kilowatt Radio Tirana station was openedin 1952; the local stations at Stalin Town (Kucove), Korcha,



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Roucek: The Sovietization of Albanian Education 59Gjirokaster, Shkoder, and Viore are operated by the Com-mittee on Radio Broadcasting, since 1955 under the Councilof Ministers as the Directorate of Radio Broadcasting.There are only some 17,000 radio sets in Albania (sincethere is no electric current in many rural areas); the re-gime uses loud-speakers in town squares and in work cen-ters, and battery-operated sets in villages.The home broadcasting day is divided into three parts,starting at 5 A. M., and ending 7:30 A.M.; the broadcasts areresumed at 1 P.M. for 2 hours and then again in the eveningfrom 3:30 until 11 P.M. The broadcasting formula is news,music, political indoctrination, descriptions of Russianachievements, and tedious programs devoted to specialmeetings, parades, and congresses. Before going to work,the early-morning Albanian listeners may participate inmorning gymnastics, have the day's editorial from the Partyorgan Zeri i popullit read to him, and may listen to music.6The theaters and movie houses are all government-con-trolled and operated. A "People's Theater" in Tirana isrun by a Soviet Director. In 1949-50, "thanks to the helpof the Soviet Union, " the Albanian film industry was givenprojectors, sound equipment, and cameras, and started toproduce documentaries. In 1948-49, Ilya Kopalin shot therea technicolor documentary, "New Albania," which wassmuggled into the United States by an Albanian special mis-sion to the United Nations and shown in American-Albaniansettlements. The first film studio, New Albania, was builtnear Tirana with Soviet help, in July 1952, and much of thework for the technicolor film Skenderbeg was done there (al-though the film was produced by Mosfilm in Moscow). NoWestern films are shown, only Russian ones and those fromthe People's Democracies.Albania's youth is grouped in a large central organiza-tion, the Union of Working Youth Organization. Under itsstatutes (Chapter 11, Article 8), the purpose is "to furtherthe general education of young people and to raise their po-litical and cultural level." It has been especially active inthe public literacy campaign. In 1947 it owned six weeklypapers, over 310 Youth Houses, and 1,220 Pioneers' rooms;considerable attention is paid to physical education and ca-det training. The Working Youth controls Albanian Pio-neers, a communist organization for all children fromseven to fourteen years of age. The Union is also assisted



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60 The Slavic and East European Journalby the Red Workers, who promoted "socialist culture" inco-operatives, offices, plants, and schools.Party Education. Before the Tito-Stalin break, Tiranatook its orders from Belgrade. Hence it was only in 1949that a Central Party School was organized in Tirana to traingood Communists for party leadership and for work in thegovernment and unions. The curriculum, featuring Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist teachings, the history of the BolshevikParty and of the Albanian Worker's Party, and participationin active propaganda work, imitated similar schools in thesatellite regions. (Cultural-educational work is also car-ried on by the professional unions.)

Notes1. For details, see UNESCO, World Survey of Educa-tion: Handbook of Educational Organization and Statistics(Paris, 1955), pp. 62-63. Some supplementary informationcan be found in UNESCO, International Yearbook of Educa-tion, XVII (1955) (Paris, 1956, No. 169), 58-62; Albanie,Ministbre des Affaires Etrangbres, Section de presse,L'Instruction publique dans 1'Albanie nouvelle (Tirana, 1948);and Conseil General de la jeunesse populaire d'Albanie,L'Education, principale tache de la jeunesse populaired'Albanie (Tirana, 1947).2. Speech by Dhori Samsuri, General Inspector of Al-banian Secondary Schools, January 7, 1952, reported in"Pragmatic Approach to Culture," News from Behind theIron Curtain, I, ii (February 1952), 37.3. Dhori Samsuri, loc. cit. See also "From Disci-pline to Diversion," News from Behind the Iron Curtain, II,iii (March 1953), 48; Stavro Skendi, ed., Albania (New York:Frederick A. Praeger, 1956), p. 17 and section "Education,"pp. 269-284; and in S. D. Kertesz, ed., The Fate of EastCentral Europe (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of NotreDame Press, 1956), Stavro Skendi, "Albania," pp. 12, 297-321, "Education and Scholarship: General Remarks," pp.568-576, and "Culture," pp. 576-580.4. No statistics are available, and Albania is notlisted in UNESCO'S Basic Facts and Figures (Paris, 1956),p. 13, the section showing the percentages of illiteracythroughout the world.5. "From Discipline to Diversion," News from Be-hind the Iron Curtain, II, iii (March 1953), 48.6. "Captive Communications," News from Behind theIron Curtain, I, vii (July 1952), 36.

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