Albania, a small country located in Europe, always seems to be in an awkward position. Despite 15 years of generous support from the Soviet Union and 20 years from China, it remains mired in poverty. What's going on here? One sentence is enough to summarize "Adou who can't be helped".
Albania is adjacent to countries with prosperous economies such as Italy and Greece. Theoretically, it should have a good environment for development. But what is puzzling is that, despite the long period of assistance from the great powers, the country has always been poor.
The country is not rich in natural resources, and the terrain is mostly highland and mountainous, which brings considerable challenges to its economic development. However, in the face of such a predicament, Albania did not choose to change poverty and improve living standards through its own efforts, but pinned its hopes on external assistance and hoped that it would be able to get something for nothing.
After the end of World War II and the outbreak of the Cold War, in order to gain more allies and strengthen its own camp, Albania became the object of the Soviet Union's struggle. When Soviet aid rained down in time, the Albanians seemed to see a glimmer of hope.
At that time, the Soviet Union sent it a large amount of rice, grain, cotton, steel, and all other necessities of life. In order to help its development, it has sent experts and technicians in various fields and various production equipment to help it develop its industry. However, instead of cherishing this hard-won opportunity, they took aid for granted as a gift and squandered it instead of using it for real development and production.
At the end of the Cold War, with the collapse of the Soviet economy, aid to Albania also stopped, after all, he couldn't eat enough, and he had no spare money to support other people's children. At this time, in the face of the sudden "cut off of supply", the Arab side did not reflect on its own problems, but instead slandered the Soviet Union in the international community. This move can be described as a "white-eyed wolf". At the same time, they turned their attention to China for help.
Although China's own economy was not ideal at that time, we still extended a helping hand to Albania and hoped that the two sides could have friendly exchanges. After all, at that time, China and the Soviet Union were in a stalemate, and we also needed to make more friends in the international community. However, as it turned out, our expectations were disappointed.
The 20-year-long aid is longer than that of the Soviet Union, but the situation of the Afghan side has not changed in the slightest. At that time, we contributed money and efforts to the Afghan side, repaired bridges and paved roads, and sent materials ranging from rations and daily necessities to military industry, including tanks, fighter planes, and artillery. There is no shortage of production equipment, including tractors, transport vehicles, textile machines and so on.
The result? Chilling. The Afghan side takes all assistance for granted. The equipment we provide is directly abandoned and unmanned. Even important military equipment such as fighter planes can be thrown directly into the field and left to corrode. What's worse? The seeds provided were not used to sow seeds, but were directly divided and eaten.
When we reduced our support for economic development, they not only did not understand, but instead complained about us, and even slandered and smeared us internationally, saying that we were more dangerous than the Soviet Union. Eventually, in 1978, we had to stop helping them.
Albania's experience can be said to be self-inflicted. If they had cherished the help of other countries and used it for real development and production, perhaps they would have been a different story now. But unfortunately, they chose to profligate and depend, which eventually led to the current poverty and backwardness.
Now, Albania is trying to turn to the West, but unfortunately, they do not seem to have been accepted. This may be because their past behavior has caused other countries to lose trust in them. If they can't change their attitudes and practices, then their future may still be the same.