tinny little country in Eastern Europe (Long life to your Children 118).
             The legacy of fifty years of Europe's most draconian communism is the darkest
             shadow of the past , that ended only in 1991. (16) Writing recent history is always
             problematic; an objective account of the past fifty years in Albania, where extremes and
             excesses of the communist regime are recent memory, is probably impossible. But
             everyone agrees in one thing: Albanian communism was not like the others. It brought this
             country overwhelming disasters and poverty. Albania's economy changed drastically in the
             early 1990s, as the government moved from a Communist system to a more democratic
             organization. Albania emerged from the Communist era as the poorest country in Europe.
             For the first time Albanians were granted the right to foreign travel. The country still
             relied on tens of thousands of Albanians who work in Greece, Italy, and Germany and
             send money home to support their families. (Jacques 294) Throughout 1990 thousands of
             Albanian citizens tried to flee the country through Western embassies. A multinational
             relief operation arranged for safe evacuation of more than 5000 Albanians, and 20,000
             more sailed illegally to Italy in vessels seized at civilian ports. ( Albania a country study
             From 1944 to 1991 Albania's government was under the complete control of the
             Communist Party. Power was consolidated in one man, Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albania
             with an iron fist and stifled any dissent. After Hoxha's death in 1985, Albania began to
             emerge from its isolation. As Communist rule in Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989, some
             Albanians demanded extensive reforms. In 1990 the government endorsed the creation of
             independent political parties. (191)
             Albanian citizens had few of the guarantees of human rights and fundamental
             freedoms that have become standard in Western democracies. According to Amnesty
             International, pol...