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This paper aims to examine the role and activities of the Ministry of Education of Albania during the Italian occupation (1941–1943). By analysing official documents such as laws, decisions, and circulars, it explores how the Italian regime transformed the existing functions and structures of the Albanian School System to promote fascist ideology. The Italian occupation regime employed two strategies: the first was to create a positive image by presenting itself as a regime that supported education and sought to improve-the lives of the poorest members of society, hoping to gain the support of the Albanian people. The second strategy was to introduce fascist values and morality into the school curricula, censoring certain books, introducing new textbooks, and intimidating Albanian teachers while replacing them with Italian teachers and directors. With the onset of Italy's involvement in World War II, the Albanian education system suffered the consequences of the war. This article aims to address the gap in existing research in this field and provides valuable insights that can be used as a reference point for drawing comparisons with developments in education in many Eastern European countries after the Second World War, during the communist regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of relations during the Second World War between Italy and Albania, including the Albanian claim to the region of Kosovo in the Balkans. Among other topics addressed are relations between Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and Albanian king Zog I, Italian policy in regards to irredentism and the region of Kosovo-- with respect to Albania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey among other nations--, and Albanian nationalism.

The article discusses the history of the figure of Albanian monarch Zog in Italian historiography. Topics discussed include background on international relations between Italy and Albania, the relationship between Fascist Italy and the role of Zog in Italian historiography, and the Italian invasion of Albania in 1939.

This article uses the case of Albanian nationalism during the period of Italy’s occupation of Albania (1939–1943) to challenge prevailing conceptions of nationalism that define it primarily as a political doctrine that espouses national self-rule. Using archival research, the article discusses the nationalist discourse of Albania’s pro-Italian political and cultural elites during Italian domination and examines the discursive strategies employed by these elites in reconciling nationalism with foreign domination. Among other techniques, the article shows how both empire and fascism’s claim to universality enabled such reconciliation. More fundamentally, the article shows how nationalism’s historical power does not primarily lie in the enunciation of a political doctrine of national self-rule, but rather its constitution of the “inner” cultural sphere of the nation around the problem of split temporality, in which tradition and modernity co-exist disharmoniously. The resolution of this cultural problem requires the exercise of state power within both the political and cultural realms, a solution that Albanian nationalists saw in empire and fascism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]