Albania in Occupation and War: From Fascism to Communism 1940-1945 by Owen Pearson Albania as Dictatorship and Democracy: From Isolation to the Kosovo War 1946-1998 by Owen Pearson (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 175 not only dissident figures such as A. P. Spunde and. S. la. Lur'e, but also S. B. Veselovskii, whom Dubrovskii identifiesas an 'outsider' whose academic eminence afforded him a degree of protection from persecution. Other case-studies deal with the treatment of historical themes in literature: A. N. Tolstoi's works about Peter theGreat, and Dem'ian Bednyi's libretto for the opera The Epic Heroes (Bogatyri). These examples convincingly illustrate the author's argument that the first signs of the ideological shift towards nation alism and statism in the 1930s came in official policy towards the arts rather than professional history-writing. Alongside itsmany strengths, the book has a fewweaknesses. Dubrovskii is a specialist on historiography, rather than on the history of themedieval period, and thismeans that his judgments of the professional merits of the historians he discusses are necessarily somewhat arbitrary and second-hand. In addition, his own unfamilarity with the source materials for the period, and with their limitations, sometimes leads him to unfair criticisms, as when he reproaches Grekov for failing to study the everyday lifeand spiritualworld of themedieval Russian peasantry. Finally, although the book is already very long, it is a pity that the author did not find space to examine the authorities' financial means of control over the historical profession. One assumes that Soviet academics received generous material incentives for compliance, not only in the form of differential salary levels, but also in selective funding for research projects. But ? as a good post-Soviet scholar ? Dubrovskii ismore concerned with the ideological superstructure of the historical profession than with its economic base. Centre for Russian andEast European Studies Maureen Perrie Universityof Birmingham Pearson, Owen. Albania in Occupation and War: From Fascism to Communism ig40-ig4j. Albania in theTwentieth Century: A History. Volume 2.The Centre forAlbanian Studies in association with LB. Tauris, London and New York, 2005. xxvii + 570 pp. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Indexes. ?49-50. Pearson, Owen. Albania asDictatorship andDemocracy:From Isolation to the Kosovo War ig4?-igg8. Albania in theTwentieth Century: A History, Volume 3. The Centre for Albanian Studies in association with I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2006. xv + 749 pp. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Indexes. ?49.50. The firstvolume of thishuge compilation was reviewed in SEER (85, 2007, 1, pp. 160-64). These two volumes continue the enterprise, record reports on Albania during the Second World War and theCommunist period, and con clude with a perfunctory 15-page treatment of the immediate post-Communist years. These mention Sali Berisha's reception in London by the Queen and Prime Minister John Major, the show-trial ofRamiz Alia, the deaths of 176 SEER, 86, I, 2008 Albanian scholars in theWest, but little else. To anyone who, like the reviewer, visited Albania in the critical years of transition 1989 and 1990, it will come as a surprise that there isno reference to the terribledroughts which ruined agriculture and undermined social stability, to the embassy sieges or to the great exodus of the young to Italy and beyond. Overall, themerits and shortcomings of these two volumes are largely those described inmy review of the first. What we have, for themost part, is a conscientiously maintained scrapbook ofmainly English newspaper cuttings, extracts from broadcast transcripts,publications of international agencies and ofAmnesty International, besides Albanian, Russian and other publications directed at the English-speaking world. This is theway a contemporary his torianmight well begin to construct a history; but in thiscase thework stopped with the collection of this, largely secondary, raw material. There is no refer ence to archives, no critical examination of the sources, no development, nor digestion of thematerial collected. This is the personal archive of an enthusiast forAlbania; and itsvalue must be judged in terms of itspotential use to others. But who exactly? For the general reader these are heavy tomes to wade through, though livened at points by mention of intrinsically interesting events, the occasional characterization or perception. However, most general readers will need some guidance on the context and some explanation. Yet only an occasional note is provided and one has to search the back of each volume for these. As a work of reference, itsvalue isvitiated by...