Albania Sheds Last Vestiges of Josef Stalin

On Stalin’s 111th birthday, the government today said all statues and symbols bearing the name of the former Soviet dictator should be removed. Permission was granted for the first-ever legal opposition rally.

Authorities also said enterprises and institutions bearing Josef Stalin’s name should receive new ones, the state ATA news agency reported. It said this was decided “taking into consideration that historic circumstances have changed.”

Workers on agricultural cooperatives and residents in housing blocks named after Stalin should similarly decide on new names, the report said.

Clusters of Tirana residents watched all morning as workers toiled to dismantle the marble-covered pedestal in a central park on which a statue of Stalin had stood for decades. The statue itself came down at midnight.

A second Stalin statue at the Stalin Textile Combine in Tirana was also taken down overnight.

Stalin, who was born this day in 1879, was the father-figure of the harsh brand of communism that Albania’s founder Enver Hoxha imposed on his country for 41 years.

Demonstrators in northern Shkodra last week reportedly blew up that city’s giant statue of Hoxha.

The decisions to permit a rally Saturday by the new opposition Democratic Party and to remove Stalin statues indicated pro-reform forces are gaining the upper hand in the ruling Albanian Labor--or Communist--Party.

The rally would be the first officially sanctioned protest not sponsored by the Communists, who for decades suppressed any opposition.