Hello there, thanks for downloading the Winner's History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Rob Walker.

Today, what it was like to live in Stalinist Albania in the 1970s, a time of extraordinary

fear and paranoia, when the dictator Emvahodja ruled the country with an iron hand, and

opponents real or imagined were frequently arrested and sometimes executed, will be hearing

from someone who survived one of those purges.

We had a good life, my mum was working as an economist, my father was a minister, we

were all working with quite a decent salary.

In 1974, Kazara Cassie was 26 and married with a two-year-old son.

Her father was a senior government official responsible for foreign trade, and for families

like hers, many aspects of life in Albania were good.

I was a young teacher and I was a lovely teacher to my children, and I can see that now, because

now I'm old enough to see the respect they pay to me now, I love that.

But even for those close to the inner circle like Kazara and her family, danger was always

present.

The control of the state was pervasive with a very elaborate security structure, so essentially

zero dissent was tolerated.

Even the slightest act, saying that the shop has no cheese today, could land you in prison.

Fred Abraham's works for human rights watch, he's been researching and writing about Albania

for many years, and he says that back then, everything in the country revolved around

its leader.

The dictator and indisputed a nipotent leader, Enver Hoja, controlled everything in the

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