Communist Relations in Crisis: The End of Soviet-Albanian Relations, and the Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-1961

When in 1960 the Sino-Soviet split created a schism within the international Communist movement, Albania supported China, becoming Beijing's only European ally. The reforms of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, promoted in the aftermath of the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, had undermined the Stalinist regime of the Albanian leader Enver Hoxha. Hoxha perceived the destalinization process, Moscow's rapprochement with Yugoslavia, and Khrushchev's refusal to support Albania's heavy industrialization as a threat to his personal rule and to Albania's national security. Therefore, during 1960 when Beijing's dissent with Moscow manifested, Hoxha skilfully seized the opportunity to join Beijing in a united front against what Chinese and Albanian leaders called Soviet revisionism. For China's leader Mao Zedong it was a chance to establish a bridgehead in Europe and challenge Moscow's leadership of the Communist camp. For Hoxha, convergence with Mao's ideological positions, and Beijing's support for the Albanian economy together with the geographic distance between Beijing and Tirana, made the partnership with Beijing more advantageous and equal than the one with Moscow. Although Chinese relevant archives were inaccessible, in light of newly declassified Albanian documents, this article analyses Albania's role in important forums of the world Communist parties in 1960-1961. The article contributes to a growing field in Cold War studies that emphasizes the active role of small countries, which in pursuing their domestic and international agendas, shaped the global Cold War landscape.