ALBANIAN RELATIONS WITH THE USSR AND COMMUNIST CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79S00427A000500030017-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 12, 2004
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: May 30, 1961
• Content Type: REPORT

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OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
Albanian Relations With the USSR and Communist China
30 May 1961
The ability. of Albania to flaunt Moscow's, leader-
ship of the Soviet satellite system in Eastern Europe and
yet, at the same time, to remain a member of the Sino-
Soviet Bloc, is symbolic of the altered and strained re-
lations between Moscow and Peiping, and reflects the
issue of discipline within, and leadership Of, the en-
tire Communist world. Also involved in the troubled
situation are Albania's relations with and fears of its
Balkan neighbors, Yugoslavia and Greece, both of which
would welcome any feasible opportunity to intervene.
Preoccupied with the maintenance of domestic
order, both public and party, plagued with the most prim-
itive economy in all of Europe, and pathologically sus-
piciou.s of Yugoslava, the Albanian leaders have been un-
happy with the trend of Soviet policies since the death
of Stalin. Inter alia,only lip service--and not much of
that--was paid to the post-1954 Soviet bloc campaign to
improve relations with Yugoslavia. An opportunity for
registering Albania's strong discontent arose in the
spring of 1960, when Peiping brought its growing dispute:.
with Moscow into the open. Here, for the first time,
was a potential center of support or $ militant' dissent.
from Soviet strategy. At both the Soviet-oonwened'
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Communist conferences at Bucharest, in June and at Moscow
in November, the Albanian leaders, Hoxha and Shehu, un-
equivocally, and seemingly irrevocably, cast their lot
with Peiping.
Since November they have reasserted their die.
pleasure with Moscow on numerous occasions, despite
the otherwise relatively quiescent relations between
the Soviets and the Chinese. They, alone of all the
conferees, sent a second-level delegation to the Warsaw
Pact meeting in March. They reiterated their opposi-
tion to Soviet policies during an Albanian trades union
last suer to purge the party of anti-Soviet and ps`o
congress in April and again during May Day celebrations-.
in Tirana. Their latest move against Moscow, however,
came this month with the holding of a public trial of
ten "traitors and spies" who were charged with seeking--
an agents of Greece, Yugoslavia, and the United States--
to overthrow the Albanian regime. Testimony during the
trial was,.in fact, directed against Sovidtpolicies,,
particularly those toward Yugoslavia. The coup itself,
far from being hatched in the Free World, represented--
according to all of our evidence--stn attempt by the 'USSR
Chinese elements.
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Since that abortive-coup, Moe' CNW.
Tiranagh economic pressures
~ ^ , innaent~o in pti
speeches, and direct criticisms of the Albanian par
by Fast German leader Ulbricht and Italian CoemunUt
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Party chief Togliatti. Most recently, strained rela-
tions may have affected Soviet-Albanian military rela-
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The Chinese Communists, on the other hand, have
in many ways indicated-their support of the "heretical"
Albanian stand. They, for example, replaced Moscow as
Albanian's principle supplier of grain, providing about
180, 000 tons since last September for credit (as Agallot 1,0.-
000 tons from the U88R,,at least a part of which required
'cssh)~-this despite famine conditions in China. And in
late April, they announced a new, long-term 8ino-Aibaaian
aid agreement granting $125,000,000 in credits for Al-
bania's Jive Year Plan (1961-1965). These actions sub-
stantially reduce the ability of Moscow to apply econo-
mic pressure against Tirana.
As a reflection of the larger dispute bet*eea .
Moscow and Peiping, the Albanian problem has almost-cer-
tainly achieved major proportions in Moscow _1111M.11:1111 doubtedly will continue to express its d*aitded displeasure
possible,to -eliminate th+ A'bilk
Tira i '.a ability so far to do, In. i
gary !ailed to do, has almost certainl
whams in "stern European partilds,
thoisq who would seek greater 11tde!
1e tit
those. others Who are sympathetic to the !
. tion of .the Chinese.
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 Approved For Release 2004/07/16 : CIA-RDP79SO0427A000500030017-4
Approved For Release 2004/07/16 : CIA-RDP79SO0427A000500030017-4