Initially after Albania's liberation from
Nazi occupation, Yugoslav advisors were extensively involved in Albanian affairs.
Joseph Stalin supported
Yugoslav influence in Albania, but became concerned with
Josip Broz Tito's ambition in the region. Hoxha expressed strong support for Stalin during the 1948
Tito-Stalin split. The 13-day visit was the first time since the war that a major world leader came on an official visit to Albania. The goal of the visit was to pressure Albania into building Yugoslav–Albanian and Soviet–Albanian relations as well as, according to historian Miranda Vickers, "focus their economy on the growing of
citrus fruits rather than concentrate on industrialization". Khrushchev also visited the ancient southern city of
Butrint, where he remarked to Soviet Defense Minister
Rodion Malinovsky "Look how marvelous this is! An ideal
base for our submarines could be built here. These old things [reference to archaeological findings] should be dug up and thrown into the sea". The visit was clouded by mutual mistrust, which resulted in Khrushchev's departure from Albania two days ahead of schedule. By 1960,
relations between the USSR and China had substantially declined. Khrushchev criticized Albania during
Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Twenty-Second Party Congress in October 1961. Maintaining that Albania would not be subject to the Soviet Union, in November 1961, Hoxha famously stated that Albanians "would eat grass – if necessary – rather than sell themselves for thirty silverlings." Khrushchev lambasted the Albanians for executing a pregnant, pro-Soviet member of the
Albanian Labor Party's
Politburo, and the Soviet Union finally broke diplomatic relations with Albania in December. Moscow then withdrew all Soviet economic advisers and technicians from the country, including those at work on the
Palace of Culture, and halted shipments of supplies and spare parts for equipment already in place in Albania. In addition, the Soviet Union continued to dismantle its naval installations on Sazan Island, a process that had begun even before the break in relations. The split resulted in the loss of the Soviet Union's largest naval base
Pashaliman in southern Albania and the Mediterranean Sea.
Impact of Albania's relations with China China compensated Albania for the loss of Soviet economic support, by supplying about 90% of the parts, foodstuffs, and other goods the Soviet Union had promised. Beijing lent the Albanians money on more favorable terms than Moscow, and, unlike Soviet advisers, Chinese technicians earned the same low pay as Albanian workers and lived in similar housing. China also presented Albania with a powerful radio transmission station. For its part, Albania offered China a beachhead in Europe and acted as a partner at the UN. Chinese equipment and technicians were not as sophisticated as the Soviet goods and advisers they replaced. Because of language barriers, Chinese and Albanian technicians communicated in Russian. Albanians no longer took part in Warsaw Pact activities or Comecon agreements. The other East European communist nations, however, did not break diplomatic or trade links with Albania. In 1964 the Albanian seized empty Soviet embassy in Tirana, and Albanian workers pressed on with construction of the Palace of Culture on their own.
Later developments In October 1964, Hoxha hailed Khrushchev's fall from power, and the Soviet Union's new leaders made overtures to Tirana. It soon became clear, however, that the new Soviet leadership had no intention of changing basic policies to suit Albania, and relations failed to improve. Tirana's propaganda continued for decades to refer to Soviet officials as "treacherous
revisionists" and "traitors to communism," and in 1964 Hoxha said that Albania's terms for reconciliation were a Soviet apology to Albania and reparations for damages inflicted on the country. Soviet-Albanian relations dipped to new lows after the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, when Albania responded by officially withdrawing from the alliance. Sino-Albanian relations ended by 1978. Even with the
Sino-Albanian split, the Albanians refused to normalize relations with the Soviet Union, leaving their country virtually completely isolated from the outside world. ==Albania and the Russian Federation==