Doctors told Albanian television he died of a pulmonary embolism.
A partisan fighter during World War II and student of Marxist-Leninist philosophy in Moscow, Alia climbed the communist hierarchy under Hoxha in isolationist Albania, then officially atheist and a foe of East and West.
After Hoxha’s death in 1985, Alia embarked on limited reforms as the Cold War began to thaw, but Albanians continued to be gunned down trying to breach the barbed wire on Albania’s heavily-patrolled borders.
In July 1990, UN mediation with Alia secured the departure to the West of thousands of Albanians who stormed foreign embassies in the capital Tirana demanding an escape from food shortages and poverty. As communist regimes fell across eastern Europe, Alia launched talks with Albanian intellectuals on reform and Albania finally adopted a multi-party system in December 1990 and allowed the country’s Muslims and Christians to practice again.
Alia’s party won the first multi-party elections in 1991 but he resigned as president in April 1992 after the opposition Democratic Party took power in a landslide.
He was arrested in 1994 and convicted of abuse of power but later released on appeal.
In his autobiography “My Life,” Alia said he felt the Communist Party should apologize to Albanians for failing to develop the economy enough to give them a better life.
“I am convinced that our country will not remain forever the black sheep of Europe,” he wrote.
“This optimism keeps me alive without repenting for working in the ranks of those forces that attacked the skies (God) to build a dignified society on earth, though we often failed.”
