Albanian Nationalism - National Myth Under The People's Republic of Albania (1945-1991)

National Myth Under The People's Republic of Albania (1945-1991)

In Communist Albania, an Illyrian origin of the Albanians (without denying Pelasgian roots a theory which has been revitalized today) continued to play a significant role in Albanian nationalism, resulting in a revival of given names suppposedly of "Illyrian" origin, at the expense of given names associated with Christianity. This trend had originated with the 19th century Rilindja, but it became extreme after 1944, when it became the communist regime's declared doctrine to oust Christian or Islamic given names. Ideologically acceptable names were listed in the Fjalor me emra njerëzish (1982). These could be native Albanian words like Flutur "butterfly", ideologically communist ones like Proletare, or "Illyrian" ones compiled from epigraphy, e.g. from the necropolis at Dyrrhachion excavated in 1958-60.

At first, Albanian nationalist writers opted for the Pelasgians as the forefathers of the Albanians, but as this form of nationalism flourished in communist Albania under Enver Hoxha, the Pelasgians became a secondary element to the Illyrian theory of Albanian origins, which could claim some support in scholarship. The Illyrian descent theory soon became one of the pillars of Albanian nationalism, especially because it could provide some evidence of continuity of an Albanian presence both in Kosovo and in southern Albania, i.e., areas that were subject to ethnic conflicts between Albanians, Serbs and Greeks. Under the regime of Enver Hoxha, an autochthonous ethnogenesis was promoted and physical anthropologists tried to demonstrate that Albanians were different from any other Indo-European populations, a theory now disproved. Communist-era Albanian archaeologists claimed that ancient Greek poleis, gods, ideas, culture and prominent personalities were wholly Illyrian (example Pyrrhus of Epirus and the region of Epirus.).They claimed that the Illyrians were the most ancient people in the Balkans and greatly extended the age of the Illyrian language. This is continued in post-communist Albania and has spread to Kosovo. Nationalist theories developed during communism have survived largely intact into the present day.