The Fabulous Life Of... Politburo members!

This article was reprinted at the beginning of this year and was originally printed in 1991. Nevertheless, many of these elites continue to take from the state and indulge at its expense... so I though posting it here would be fun...

New York Times
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1D6123DF936A1575BC0A967958260

They sent their daughters to Vienna "for treatment of migraine" at a cost of $3,400 or more. They secretly billed the Government for imported clothes, cosmetics, appliances, vacation homes and items as banal as camera film and soccer magazine subscriptions -- at a cost of $2 million a year. They enjoyed the best of food and drink.

They are members of the 26 families of the Communist elite that for more than four decades ruled Albania, the poorest country of Europe.

Now an item-by-item accounting of the indulgences of the former Communist leaders has been made public by a special investigating commission.

While considerable information has emerged over the last 20 months about the lavish living of senior party officials in Romania, Bulgaria and the former East Germany, the Albanian report appears to be the most detailed and comprehensive portrayal of the practices of a Communist elite.

Its completeness derives from the fact that the Albanian Communist leaders concentrated the bulk of their avarice in a single operation called the Directorate of Receptions, which recorded every transaction in detail.

The directorate was created in 1956 by Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist dictator who ruled for 41 years until his death in 1985. Its authorization was secretly decreed by the party Politburo.

Until early this year, when the Communist Party lost its monopoly on power, the directorate maintained a staff of 646 employees.

The 26 families, including those of Mr. Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia, were virtually all headed by members of the Politburo that ran the ruling Communist Party, including some who had retired.

As described by Genc Ruli, the Finance Minister of the coalition Government elected in June, the inquiry into the last three years of the directorate's work led to the conclusion "that the former party leadership created for itself every opportunity to acquire privileges and enrich itself while the people were deceived by bogus and cynical propaganda about a struggle against privileges, luxury and inequality."

For public purposes, Mr. Ruli noted, the Communist leaders said their salaries were the equivalent of $1,600 a year -- little more than twice the average factory wages in Albania.

In fact, the inquiry showed that in addition to many other benefits, the leaders and their relatives were given subsidies that kept their rent, fuel and electricity bills to a total of $25 a month per family.

Last year, when food was rationed for almost all of the 3.5 million Albanians, the priviliged party families received huge quantities of food free. The investigators estimated that the meat -- 136 pounds a day for the 26 families -- would have filled the quotas of 450 ordinary Albanian families.

The Hoxha family alone -- including his widow and three children -- was supplied last year with 2 tons of meat, 310 pounds of butter, 62 gallons of beer and over 80 gallons of brandy and wine.

The party families received other benefits ranging from the minor to the munificent. These included an annual vacation allowance of $19.20, entertainment subsidies of as much as $22,300 and up to $18,900 worth of private telephone calls abroad.

The elite lived in spacious houses set in a protected compound in Tirana. When its occupants were moved out to apartments last spring, they looted furnishings and appliances valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Mr. Ruli's report to Parliament.

Among the biggest spenders -- accounting for hundreds of thousands of dollars -- was Nexhmije Hoxha, the 70-year-old widow of the former dictator.

In addition to free medical treatment at a special clinic, the ruling families often traveled abroad for medical attention. Former Deputy Prime Minister Manush Myftiu's daughter-in-law was sent to Vienna at a cost $3,800 for treatment of migraine headaches, as was the daughter of Besnik Bekteshi, a Politburo member, at a cost of $3,400.

Mr. Ruli said legal proceedings had been instituted against members of the 26 families and that Albanian courts would determine their "legal accountability" and the "level of compensation these persons will have to pay."

They had similar tendencies in ex-Yu, too albeit I am not as familiar with their infractions to the extent of this post.

Well... you only have to look at how Tito lived...

The disparity of wealth is probably the same if not greater but life is improving for the majority of the population or at least those who live in or around the capital.
As for the net wealth its definitely greater now than 1990, not that Albania is so much more industrialized but also from remittances from abroad.