Marko Maljkovic

Hello. This is an Albanian army belt buckle from the time of Enver Hoxha, the late Albanian communist dictator. This belt buckle looks fairly old, but it might not be that old at all. The Albanians were very isolated during Hoxha's reign. They didn't even have friendly relations with the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. Hoxha was a Stalinist hardliner who considered the Soviet and communist Chinese governments too "liberal." He also insisted on Albania being as self-sufficient as possible, which meant that Albania produced a lot of its own weapons, military equipment, and uniforms, sometimes using outdated technology. This belt buckle is the result of Albania's self-sufficiency program in the domain of military equipment production. It looks older than it really is, because it was relatively poorly made. I hope this helps.