fly from these two groups
that Zog created the ruling elite that helped him to control the country
until the Italian invasion in 1939.

The clergy of the three religious denominations did not form a distinct
social group. The higher clergy was intellectual and upper class in
structure; it supported the ruling elite but did not mix in politics
after Bishop Fan Noli, leader of a short-lived reformist government, was
driven out of the country in 1924. The income from the fairly extensive
church estates and the state subsidies provided a good, but not
luxurious, living for the higher clergy. The rank-and-file clergy,
however, were derived from peasant origins, and most of their parishes
were as impoverished as the peasant households they served.

The events immediately preceding and following the Communist seizure of
power forebode the doom not only of the _beys_ and tribal chiefs but
also of most of the upper class and intellectuals, who had refused to
collaborate with the National Liberation Movement. In the summer and
fall of 1944, while civil war was raging between the Communist-controlled
partisan formations and anti-Communist bands, nearly all the influential
_beys_ and _bajraktars_ either fell in battle or fled the country; those
who remained were quickly rounded up by the Communist security forces
and subsequently tried as "enemies of the people" (see ch. 2, Historical
Setting).

The whole leadership of the two nationalist organizations, the Balli
Kombetar and the Legality Movement, fled to Italy. Influential patriots
and intellectuals who had remained neutral during the so-called War of
National Liberation but who were considered potentially dangerous to the
Communist regime were apprehended and tried en masse in the spring of
1945. Some were executed; others were sent to labor camps, where most of
them died from malnutrition and lack of medical care.

A new Communist social order was legally instituted in the country with
the adoption of the first Communist Constitution in March 1946, which
created a "state of workers and laboring peasants." The various
constitutional articles dealing with the new social order abolished all
ranks and privileges that had derived from reasons of origin (such as
the tribal chiefs and the _beys_), position, wealth, or cultural
standing. All citizens were considered equal regardless of nationality,
race, or religion.

Marriage and family were brought under the strict control of th