Albania: the Development of a Developing Country

At the beginning of the Atomic Age, the Soviet Union was perhaps one of the greatest superpowers in the world. By 1991, it had completely collapsed, splitting into 15 independent states, each with their own unique national and cultural identities. There were a multitude of factors that led to the Soviet Union’s downfall. Economic stagnation, anti-communist sentiment, and nationalist movements finally brought the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union.

The essay States, by Edward Said, describes the trouble for Palestinians to find their identity due to the loss of their homeland. He also describes the situation of the Palestinians and the isolation that they feel through photographs that he had taken. Said has many different pictures throughout this essay and each of them play a part in supporting the main point of this essay. Said believes that, without a homeland, the Palestinians cannot have an identity and the Palestinians should not be content with being exiles forever. So the purpose of the pictures is to support and further strengthen this idea. The photographer wants the viewer to understand the struggle that the Palestinians are going through.

The erupting Balkan Wars in the 1990‘s stumble on Albanians occupying the United States. The Albanian community plays a strong role in the highly concentrated population within the boroughs of New York City and it’s Metropolitan area. Albanian Americans ethnic homes generally consist of Montenegro, Kosovo, and Albania. In previous years, dealing with economic struggles in these poor Balkan countries, and social and ethnic discrimination from Serbia, Albanians made movements away from the home they once resided in. Immigration within the Albanian community into New York City was due to issues leading up to the Balkan war in Kosovo in the 1990s. Through immigration, the Albanian ethnic group has accomplished many lifestyle changes, and will

The population of Kosovo is approximately 1,895,250. The most populated area is their capital Pristina. It has the population of about 400,000 people which is way more than any other city. The capital is the most populated area in Kosovo because it is easy to get things distributed to other places. The population is diverse as it includes ethnic backgrounds of the Albanians, Serbs, Bosnians and Gorani. There are not many immigrants, but there are some.

Which quickly led to the dissolution of the Soviet bloc. But more importantly, these reforms contributed to the spread of nationalist oppositional groups which further weakened the Soviet Union. As a result, Gorbachev’s reforms undermined both communism and the Soviet Bloc leading to its rapid demise, contrary to his intentions. Consequently, hard-liners within the communist party attempted to stage a coup against Gorbachev in order to reassert their control over Eastern Europe. This coup, failed resulting in the Baltic states’ demands for independence. By December 1991, all 15 republics had declared their independence and subsequently, the Soviet Union seized to exist.

This subject is also important for Poland as a country to come to grips with the last decade of the 20th century when it entered onto the path of social dialogue and bilateral relations with Israel. Understanding each partner’s collective memory and identity and confronting it with our own mental images seems to be the only path of future dialogue. Study of memory and identity building in Israel can also help

Before World War II, Soviet troops occupied most of Eastern Europe. Stalin promised to hold “free elections” in these Eastern European nations. Later he broke that promise. By 1948, Communists controlled the governments of every Eastern country except Yugoslavia. In each country the Soviets placed dictators.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union 1991 many changes have been brought to Europe. After the fall of the Soviet Union newly formed countries of Eastern Europe found themselves brought into a new era, many of the people had relied on the Soviet Union’s system of socialism to help them with every detail of their lives and to dictate their lives but with this newfound freedom citizens had many changes forced upon them. All they once knew had been taken away so suddenly most didn’t know what to do with themselves. The Government, Economy and Marxist Idealism had all fallen with the Soviet Union. Citizens had no choice but to move on with their new lives because it was as their past lives

Immigrants have come from within Europe as well. Poverty in the nation of Kosovo has driven its members to seek economic refuge inland. Kosovo has a nearly forty percent unemployment rate that affects women and children in a disproportionate manner. Kosovo remains Europe’s poorest country with a per capita GDP of £2,700, or about 2,900 US dollars. Approximately one-third of the population lives below the poverty line (Poverty Spurs).

Former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the disintegration of a country based on an uncompromising ideological dogma, the unlikely inheritor of Marxist/Leninist communist philosophy. The Soviet Union’s unwieldy economic superstructure left it vulnerable to Ronald Reagan’s aggressive economic/military policy, an approach based on the belief that a military build-up would force the Soviets to spend to keep pace, an effective strategy because it pushed the Soviet economy over the edge into ruin. The subsequent implosion ended communist domination in Eastern Europe and opened the way for democratic elements that radically altered the political landscape in Moscow. When the Soviet Union officially came to an end in 1993, it briefly recalled the end of tsarist rule in 1917, with the potential for the kind of chaos and violence that turned the Russian Revolution into a bloodbath. President Boris Yeltsin used the military to disband parliament but his call for new elections moved the country toward a more open, democratic form of government. Lacking any real background in representative government, Russia ultimately proved incapable of fulfilling the promise of democratic government and descended into a form of anarchy riddled by increasingly strong criminal elements. In recent years, the rise of Boris Putin, a new strongman in Moscow, helped restore a sense of order and allowed the resurgence of communist elements. The government that now holds power, and which

Ever since, Palestinians have had to adapt to new places and cultures in order to survive, which makes it more difficult for them to preserve their own. Said presents several examples of transculturation throughout the essay. For instance, the use of the Mercedes, even though Said describes it in negative terms, the use of the Mercedes has come in handy for Palestinians. Enduring one disaster after another, Palestinian identity is arduous to preserve in exile. It is a struggle of having no country. Our country is a big part of who we are. As we are born, we are destined to become a part of it. It becomes part of our identity. Things that we grew up with meant something to us. We usually treasure things that became part of our lives. Even unconsciously, we take hold of it. Home brings us memories, memories that we want to hold on up to our last breath.

Socialism offered an ‘ideal’ and classless society in which the state controlled everything, yet the people utilized the practice of controlling politics. He formed a highly centralized government, which was furthered to totalitarian goals by his successor, Joseph Stalin. Stalin focused on military and industrial gains which, by his death in 1953, had “crippled the Soviet state” because his successors could not make any reforms without undermining the CPSU—the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (367). A heavy reliance on secret police and a militarized economy was already in place when Mikhail Gorbachev came on the scene. He was elected General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985 when the USSR was in middle of continually diminishing economic productivity; it became stagnant. With his powers as secretary, he saw room for reform to change the USSR drastically. He planned to do this through instituting glastnost, or openness, in society, which he believed would ameliorate levels of corruption. Corruption was a detriment to democratization, which he believed would heal the economy. He brought back the first contested elections in many years. With democratic procedures in place, Gorbachev lost his power to Yeltsin. Notwithstanding the amended constitution, Yeltsin took liberty to control parliament to “cope with the country’s economic problems” (369). Yeltsin’s successor was chosen as Vladimir Putin who has severely radicalized the

Communism was a pretty brutal party first introduced in Russia. Since people in Russia were not satisfied with their position in society and Tsar’s work, they began to lose trust in the power of usual government to solve their problems, they wanted a quicker change and they thought that that would maybe be the easiest to achieve if they would have a brutal leader. Communist party took control and their

The land of Kosovo has been plagued with tension for hundreds of years being claimed by several surrounding countries. The two biggest contenders, Albanians in Kosovo and Serbia have been fighting for the land, which culminated in a full war from 1998-1999. The war brought international attention to the war crimes committed by both sides, and proved that the two countries had years to go before coming to a solution. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) led by Kosovo Albanians, and the Serbian militia led by President Slobodan Milošević committed heinous crimes against their enemies. Crimes range from ethnic cleansing to rape and destruction of whole villages. The violence created a serious refugee problem that is still relevant today.

Yugoslavia was a very successful country under the lead of Josip Broz Tito. Yugoslavia was made of 6 Republics and those were: Croatia, Montenegro ,Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo together with Vojvodina which at that time were recognized as provinces. After the death of Tito Yugoslavia began to demolish. The collapse of Yugoslavia began in 1980, and it continued until the 27th of April 1992, which in history is known as the date when Yugoslavia totally collapsed. In my opinion, the reason that the disintegration of Yugoslavia happened was because of the decline in absolute sovereignty. In this paper, I am going to talk about the definition of sovereignty, different perspectives about the disintegration of Yugoslavia from some authors and the decline in absolute sovereignty which led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.