hat
post he rose rapidly to leadership of the group and through it became
the head of the Communist government that took over at the end of World
War II.

Albania's first Communist military forces were equipped, trained, and
modeled after Yugoslavia's. When Yugoslavia embarked on its separate
road to socialism in 1948 and was expelled from the Communist
Information Bureau (Cominform--see Glossary), Albania aligned directly
with the Soviet Union. This did not involve an immediate change in
materiel, organization, or training because the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia had had much the same relationship before their break.

Soviet aid included advisory personnel, a considerable amount of modern
conventional armament, a few small World War II naval vessels, and a
number of aircraft. This aid was halted entirely in 1961. The Soviet
submarine flotilla that had been based on Sazan Island, off Vlore,
passed Gibraltar in June 1961 on its way back to northern Soviet ports.

Communist China succeeded the Soviet Union as Albania's ally. Albania
can provide China with little of tactical importance, but its value as
an ally from a political standpoint has been sufficient to warrant
continuation of aid in quantities sufficient to maintain the armed
forces at about the same levels of personnel strength and equipment that
they had achieved when they were supported by the Soviet Union, although
interruptions in training are believed to have caused a deterioration in
technical skills and know-how.

THE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT

Position in the Government

The People's Army, which encompasses the ground, naval, and air arms of
the regular armed forces, is under the Ministry of People's Defense,
which, in turn, is within the Council of Ministers. The ministers are
selected from the People's Assembly which, with its Presidium, is at
the top of the governmental structure (see ch. 6, Government Structure
and Political System).

In mid-1970 the minister of defense, Beqir Balluku, was also a deputy
prime minister and a member of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the
Albanian Workers' Party. Balluku had a military career background and
held the rank of colonel general in the army before its ranks were
abolished in 1966. As defense minister he exercised direct operational
and administrative control over all elements of the military
establishment.

The People's Army

The army claims no antecedents in the forces of the pre-Communist
re