The closure of religious institutions and the ban on religion in 1967 marks the beginning of a new phase of Albanian totalitarianism. Historically, as is well known, freedom of opinion as a human right originated with religious freedom in some Western European countries in the 17th century, i.e., the non-interference of state authorities in a sphere as deeply individual as that of religious beliefs. Thus, it is particularly important to stress a point not adequately stressed up to now, that the prohibition of religion in Albania constituted a severe shrinkage of individual autonomy, an attempt to deepen totalitarian control in people's consciousness, including indirectly non-believers, non-believers.
In this war against religion, more clearly than in any other area of the country's life, terror was intertwined with ideological propaganda, a combination that forms the very essence of totalitarian control, as Hannah Arendt explains. It can be said that it objectively prepared a suitable ground for one of the darkest chapters in the history of the communist dictatorship in Albania: the repressive wave of the seventies, during which, in parallel, the cult of the dictator rose to paroxysm.
With the prohibition of religion, Albania was declared an atheist state, which was also sanctioned in the country's constitution. During that period, not only was the exercise of religious rites prohibited, but also simply the expression of religious belief was considered a crime against the state, specifically included in an article of the penal code distinct from the article on "agitation and propaganda against the state", but with the same degree of penalization, i.e., three to ten years in prison. It is significant to note that the decomposition of totalitarianism in Albania led eventually to the decriminalization of religion and the restoration of religious freedom in 1990.
