Relations with the Soviet Union thumb|Joseph Stalin and Hoxha in Moscow in the 1950s After the break with Yugoslavia, Hoxha aligned himself with the Soviet Union. From 1948 to 1960, $200 million in Soviet aid was given to Albania for technical and infrastructural expansion. Albania was admitted to the Comecon on 22 February 1949 and it served as a pro-Soviet force on the Adriatic. A Soviet submarine base was built on the Albanian island of Sazan near Vlorë, posing a hypothetical threat to the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Relations with the Soviet Union remained close until the death of Stalin in March 1953. It was followed by 14 days of national mourning in Albania – more than in the Soviet Union. Hoxha assembled the population of Tirana in the capital's largest square, which featured a Stalin statue, requested that they kneel and take a 2,000-word oath of "eternal fidelity" and "gratitude" to their "beloved father" and "great liberator".The Economist 179 (16 June 1956): 110.
Relations with the Soviet Union thumb|Joseph Stalin and Hoxha in Moscow in the 1950s After the break with Yugoslavia, Hoxha aligned himself with the Soviet Union From 1948 to 1960, $200 million in Soviet aid was given to Albania for technical and infrastructural expansion. Albania was admitted to the Comecon on 22 February 1949 and it served as a pro-Soviet force on the Adriatic. A Soviet submarine base was built on the Albanian island of Sazan near Vlorë, posing a hypothetical threat to the U.S Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Relations with the Soviet Union remained close until the death of Stalin in March 1953 It was followed by 14 days of national mourning in Albania – more than in the Soviet Union. Hoxha assembled the population of Tirana in the capital's largest square, which featured a Stalin statue, requested that they kneel and take a 2,000-word oath of "eternal fidelity" and "gratitude" to their "beloved father" and "great liberator".The Economist 179 (16 June 1956): 110.