Article of the Ambassador of Russia to Albania A. А. Zaitseva to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Albania
By Alexey Zaitsev*
In 2024, it will be 100 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and Albania. During this time, bilateral relations between our countries have experienced ups and downs, including a period of active comprehensive cooperation in politics, economics, and culture in 1945–1961, as well as stages of their freezing (1924–1934, 1939–1944, 1961–1991), including in recent years.
The first diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the young Albanian state were established in 1924, but various types of bilateral contacts had taken place earlier. Thus, in October 1759, the Himariots, residents of the southern regions of Albania, following other Balkan peoples who fought under the Russian flag against the Ottoman Turks, expressed in a letter to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna their desire to accept the patronage of the Russian Empire in the hope that “Russian victorious weapons will be able to free the oppressed Orthodox peoples of the Balkans from the Ottoman yoke.”
When the next Russo-Turkish war began in 1768, the commander-in-chief of the Russian squadron in the Mediterranean, Alexei Orlov, called on the Himariots to enter Russian service. Many of them responded to this call and fought bravely as part of the Russian squadron. Some of the Himariots moved to Russia with their families after the end of the war.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian-Albanian relations expanded. During the expedition of Admirals Fyodor Ushakov and Dmitry Senyavin to the Mediterranean Sea and the presence of Russian troops on the Ionian Islands, a large number of Albanians fought under Russian banners. Thus, up to ,000 Albanians participated in the siege of Corfu in 1798–1799. Hundreds of Albanians served in the “Light Riflemen Legions” created by the Russian command on the Ionian Islands in 1805.
Russian-Albanian contacts became noticeably more active at the beginning of the 20th century, when the issue of establishing the Principality of Albania as a sovereign state independent of the Ottoman Empire was being decided. During the London Conference of Ambassadors of the Great Powers, including Russia (1912–1913), which determined the borders of the Albanian state, Russian diplomat Alexander Petryaev visited Albania several times, where he met with representatives of the provisional government of Ismail Chemali, and also informed the tsarist government about the state of affairs in that country.
After World War I, Soviet Russia supported the Albanian people’s struggle for independence and the right to decide their own destiny on their own land. In particular, the Soviet government, among other secret agreements, made public the London Treaty of April 26, 1915, which provided for the division of Albania and the establishment of a protectorate of Rome over it in exchange for Italy’s entry into World War I on the side of the Entente countries.
The issue of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries began to be worked out in detail in 1924, when the Albanian government of Fan Noli turned to Soviet Russia in search of international support. The corresponding agreement was recorded in the memoirs of the foreign ministries of the two countries in September 1924.
On December 16, 1924, having received Albanian entry visas in Vienna, a group of diplomats headed by the Soviet envoy Arkady Krakovetsky arrived in Tirana. However, given the extremely difficult domestic political situation in Albania and the strong political pressure on Noli’s government from the Western powers, which opposed the establishment of ties between Albania and Soviet Russia and the presence of a Soviet diplomatic mission in Tirana, Noli’s government spoke out in favor of temporarily postponing the deployment of a Soviet diplomatic mission in the Albanian capital. Three days after arriving in Tirana, envoy Krakovetsky was forced to leave the country. Diplomatic relations between the USSR and Albania were frozen for 10 years.
The actual resumption of bilateral relations occurred only in September 1934, when the Albanian government, headed by King Ahmet Zogu, agreed to the USSR’s proposal to unfreeze diplomatic contacts. However, they did not last long. Already in April 1939, when Albania was occupied by fascist Italy, Soviet-Albanian diplomatic relations were curtailed again. In 1944-1945, only Soviet military missions were in the country.
The question of restoring bilateral relations arose immediately after the end of World War II. On January 11, 1946, the first Soviet envoy Dmitry Chuvakhin presented his credentials to the Chairman of the Presidium of the People’s Parliament (Kuvend) Omer Nishani, and in December 1946, diplomatic relations between the USSR and the People’s Republic of Albania (PRA) were fully resumed.
It was in the post-war years (1946–1961) that the heyday of bilateral political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian ties between Albania and the USSR occurred. The Soviet Union helped the young socialist republic create the backbone of industry, supplying more than 90% of all equipment for the oil and mining industries, trucks, over 80% of tractors, and 65% of other agricultural machinery.
During the first five-year plan (1951–1955), with the direct support of the USSR, a number of large enterprises were founded: a textile factory in Tirana, a woodworking plant in Elbasan, a cement plant in Vlora. The average annual growth in industrial output was 28%. During the second five-year plan (1956–1960), more than 50 industrial facilities were built, including a hydroelectric power station in Ulza, a mine in Kurbneş, and oil refineries in the cities of Cerrik and Stalin (now Kuçova).
The Soviet Union supplied Albania with machinery and equipment, consumer goods, imported breeding cattle, grain and industrial crop seeds, fertilizers, and provided preferential loans. Soviet specialists were sent to the friendly country in large numbers. Young Albanians (about 10 thousand people) received higher education and improved their qualifications in the USSR, and the acquired knowledge and experience served as a basis for the country’s development.
The USSR helped to create scientific, educational and cultural centers throughout the country. Thus, in 1957, with the assistance of the Soviet Union, the first university was opened in Tirana, and in 1952, the New Albania (Shqipëria e Re) film studio was put into operation. One of the first feature films in the country was the Soviet-Albanian film The Great Warrior of Albania – Skanderbeg, directed by Sergei Yutkevich.
Famous Soviet artists came to the country. In November 1953, the team of the National Opera and Ballet Theatre, with the help of their Soviet colleagues, staged the first opera performance in the history of Albanian art, Rusalka, by the Russian composer Alexander Dargomyzhsky. This became the cornerstone in the development of the theatre, on whose stage other Russian and Albanian operas were soon staged.
Cooperation in the security sphere was actively developing. In accordance with the agreement “On the naval base in Vlora”, signed in August 1957, the conditions for the presence of the Soviet fleet on the Adriatic coast of Albania were stipulated. According to this agreement, the USSR’s warships and submarines had the right to freely deploy in Albanian ports. The main obligation of the Soviet side was the transfer of new ships and submarines to Albania, as well as the training of sailors to work with the new equipment.
In today’s city of Kuçovë, there was an airbase of the Warsaw Pact countries. Dozens of fighters modern for the 1950s and 1960s were based there, including the MiG-19. Albania had a full-fledged Air Force, combat pilots who were trained, among other things, in the flight schools of the USSR.
Close political contacts were maintained between the two countries. Albanian party and government delegations headed by the country’s leader Enver Hoxha visited the USSR on several occasions. And in May 1959, the head of the Soviet state Nikita Khrushchev visited Albania on an official visit that lasted almost two weeks.
However, due to ideological differences between the NRA and the USSR, in November 1961 the USSR government was forced to recall the entire Soviet embassy from Tirana, which led to a freeze in diplomatic relations for 30 years, until 1991, when the embassies in the capitals of both countries resumed their activities.
After the restoration of contacts in the 1990s, Russia made efforts to establish normal interaction with Albania. The contractual and legal framework of the two countries in the spheres of culture, education, tourism, health care, trade and economic, investment and scientific and technical cooperation, environmental protection, etc. was actively formed and improved. The 1990s saw bilateral visits by members of the governments, as well as parliaments of the two countries.
In April 1995, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania paid an official visit to Russia. On the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the victory of the USSR over fascism, the President of the Republic of Albania was present at the ceremonial events in Moscow (May 1995). Contacts were maintained between the ministries of foreign affairs of the two countries. In December 2004, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid a working visit to Tirana – the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the two countries was initialed. For many years, the Intergovernmental Russian-Albanian Commission on Trade, Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation, established in 1992, successfully functioned. Mutual trade turnover grew.
Unfortunately, the state of Russian-Albanian relations in recent years is in sharp contrast to what was described above. Official political contacts have been reduced to a minimum. And this state of affairs has arisen not through our fault and not on our initiative. In their foreign policy, the Albanian authorities fully identify with the positions and approaches of the NATO and EU leadership, including with regard to the Ukrainian crisis, not even wanting to listen to what Russia says. They support the illegal anti-Russian sanctions of the West (let us recall that only restrictive measures imposed by the UN Security Council are legal), participate in various pro-Ukrainian actions and initiatives within the UN and other international organizations, and support such obviously failed projects of Kyiv as the “Crimean Platform” and Zelensky’s “peace formula”.
For many years, official Tirana has refused to acknowledge the obvious facts of mass violations by Ukraine of the rights and freedoms of the Russian and Russian-speaking population, essentially declared illegal in its own country. The discrimination of citizens on ethnic and linguistic grounds, unleashed by the Kyiv regime since 2014, the physical extermination of journalists and politicians who dared to have an alternative opinion, as well as the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, are not noticed.
We live in an era of revolutionary changes in international relations. We are witnessing the emergence of a more just, multipolar world order. Unfortunately, these positive changes are causing fierce resistance from a group of states accustomed to thinking and acting according to the logic of global domination and neocolonialism.
Russia pursues a peaceful and pragmatic foreign policy course and strives to form a system of international relations that would ensure reliable security, the preservation of cultural and civilizational identity, and equal development opportunities for all countries.
Our perception of other states and interstate associations is determined by the essence of their policy towards the Russian Federation. Russia will defend its right to exist and develop freely, concentrating its creative energy on those geographic vectors of foreign policy that have obvious prospects. We note with satisfaction that the majority of humanity is interested in constructive relations with Russia.
Today, Russia is a high-tech country that builds machines and cars, airplanes and space rockets, ships and submarines, discovers new ways to treat diseases and develops advanced nuclear energy technologies. Russia was one of the first countries in the world to offer its Sputnik V vaccine to international partners during the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection. By the way, it was successfully used in Albania.
Our country is developing a global IT industry and has the highest level of digitalization: the sphere of commercial
and public services has been largely transferred to the electronic plane. This allows increasing the profitability of business and makes life much easier for ordinary citizens.
A huge amount of opportunity has been missed. It seems that Tirana’s pursuit of a more balanced foreign policy, taking into account its true national interests, could at least contribute to the restoration of pragmatic and mutually beneficial cooperation. And there are serious prerequisites for this. An important encouraging factor is the commitment of the Russian and Albanian peoples to traditional values: family in the classical sense of the word, careful attitude to history, respect and peaceful coexistence of traditional religions, love for one’s country.
*Author: Russian Ambassador to Albania
The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the editorial position of Argumentum.al
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