Interception of foreigners constituted essentially an extension of control and repression within the country. A feature of the communist dictatorship in Albania was the ever-complete self-isolation from the world, by proclaiming Albania as the only socialist country in the world, which was under siege and comprised the target of the two superpowers and their blocks: the entire world against a small country. At the same time, in the totalitarian mentality of the time, the external enemy appeared as inseparable from the internal enemy. Ultimately, self-isolation aimed at maintaining Albanian society under total control. The control of the foreigners and the [...]

Perception of enemy determines the control and repression manners. Conversely, these ways reinforce the perception on the enemy. The vicious circle of totalitarian dynamics. In the rooms of this sector, visitors will get acquainted with some of the most sensational trials during communist dictatorships accompanied by photos of these court proceedings. One of the rooms is dedicated to the long list of innocent people who were imprisoned or executed for political reasons.  In Albania, during the dictatorship (in a population of 1 million in 1945 and about 3 million in 1990), around 18,000 people were imprisoned for political [...]

The electronic interception work is closely linked to Security agents, the living microphones. Usually, they preceded the electronic microphones with information, and in many cases, they carried the bugs in talks with potential to be arrested. A statistic presented in one of the museum rooms shows about the four categories of collaborators, the number for each category over the years, etc. Related to this statistic, visitors will be acquainted with declassified documents for some collaborators under pseudonyms: “Big cupboard”, “Artist”, “Mountain”. Their respective files indicate the recruitment methods of the agents, and show that they have often been carriers of [...]

The House of Leaves was a maternity hospital at the beginning. It was built in   1931   as   an   obstetric   clinic   at   the   initiative of   the   distinguished physician Dr. Jani Basho and it was run by him. It is the first of this kind in Albania and this has been its function during the thirties. During   the   early   postwar   years,   the House   of   Leaves was   used   as   an investigation center, thus also as a place where tortures were made. The practice   of   tortures   and   other   terror   forms   was   accepted   also   by   the official communist   propaganda   but as if   they   occurred until   [...]

The technique is neutral only when it is not in use. Electronic   interception   is   a   technique   used   to control people.  Control   purpose depends   on the   type of regime. Interception is as the regime is. Special funds were provided for the purchase of costly surveillance equipment and protocol agreements between allied states were signed for the specialization or training of employees of the technical and scientific branch. In this sector visitors will be acquainted with the features of the tapping devices such as: mini cameras, recorders, video projectors, recording devices, audio recorder, measuring apparatus, transmitter detector,   headphones,   microphone   transmitter,   [...]