Between Subordination and Symbiosis: Historians’ Relationship with Political Power in Communist Albania

Abstract

Studies on Albanian historiography during communism have so far focused primarily on its main narratives. This paper shifts the research focus towards the actual conditions under which historiography was produced, paying particular attention to historians’ relationship with political power. It shows that Albanian historiography went through five stages, each of which substantially shaped historians’ positions, and that the relationship between the Party and historians was complex and bi-directional. The regime intimidated historians and strictly controlled their work, but also bestowed on them immense resources and high cultural authority. Historians, for their part, were interconnected with the regime in many ways and loyal to it, while simultaneously determined to make use of the conditions they found themselves in to advance their own interests. On the whole, historians’ relationship with political power was multifaceted and predominantly shifted between subordination and symbiosis.