Author ORCID Identifier
Abstract
Following the victory of the communist regime in 1944, the new Albanian state built its institutions on a materialist worldview that stood in direct opposition to the universal principles of freedom of conscience and religious belief. The state progressively restricted religious practice until it banned it altogether. This anti-religious campaign proceeded along two tracks: anti-religious political propaganda and the adoption of legal acts prohibiting the practice of religion. A 1967 decree-law banned religious belief outright, and the 1976 Constitution declared Albania the first atheist state in the world. This paper is based on an analysis of legal acts, scholarly literature, archival documents, and contemporary testimony. Through these measures the regime banned religious belief and confiscated the property of religious communities, while subjecting clergy to harsh punitive measures: internment, imprisonment, torture, and execution. The study rests on comparative, historical, and normative methods. The ban on religion sought to replace God with the figures of communism, in the service of a world communist revolution. The results show that religious belief was not an obstacle to the development of communist society; the principal obstacle was the state-controlled economy.
Recommended Citation
Haxhiu, Sadik; Belegu, Besard; and Fejzullahu, Artan
(2026)
"Religious Persecution in Communist Albania through Constitutional and Legal Acts,"
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 46
:
Iss.
8
, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2796
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol46/iss8/5
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons