Talk:Albanian–Soviet split/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Cerebellum (talk · contribs) 12:39, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Hello! I will be reviewing this article. --Cerebellum (talk) 12:39, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

All right, here are my comments:

• Origins: Albania furthermore was the only country in Eastern Europe which had liberated itself without the presence of the Red Army on its soil - I assume this refers to the Italian occupation, but could you specify what the country liberated itself from?
• Soviet-Yugoslav split: Within the Communist Party leadership - could you change this to Within the Albanian Communist Party leadership, since it comes right after a sentence about the USSR.
• Prose - tensions arose between pro- and anti-Yugoslav factions and personalities, with the former increasingly coming under attack by Koçi Xoxe, the head of the pro-Yugoslav faction. Right now "the former" seems to refer to "pro-Yugoslav factions" - is this correct?
• Beginnings of the split: a statement drawn up by Khrushchev - Why was this statement so inflammatory, and what was it about?
• to divide the world in to - Pretty minor, but should this be "into"?
• Soviet-Yugoslav split: I think a little more background here might help illuminate the ideological issues involved. I get the impression that the conflict between Russia and Albania after Khrushchev took power was primarily a Stalinism/revisionism thing, so I don't understand why the Soviets and Tito would split if both were Stalinist. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying things, but a sentence or two of explanation might be helpful.
• International Conference of the Communist and Workers' Parties: This section is quite long and contains many quotes, some of which seem to be there only to illustrate the general tone of hostility at this conference. It might be worthwhile to consider condensing or removing some of these flavor quotes.
• Vlora submarine base: In the fourth paragraph of the "Culmination" section, you quote two different accounts of this dispute at considerable length; is there any chance of condensing or combining these quotes?
• Supporting materials: Since few pictures are available, consider using quotes boxes to spice up the article's layout and highlight striking quotations - see Iraq War in Anbar Province for an example of this technique. You could maybe add pictures of Stalin and Krushchev or some maps of the region, which is only marginally instructive but would make the layout less monotonous, and I found some pictures of Krushchev and Hoxha here, though I don't know if they're free, and also this picture of the 20th Congress, though again I'm not sure if we can use it.

In general, the article is quite good, very well-documented and comprehensive. My only two critiques are the same ones that delldot made, the lack of images and the extensive quoting, which at times is distracting. I understand that it can be difficult or impossible to find appropriate images, however, and the quotes are not necessarily a problem, so I am happy to pass this article as GA, with the above comments as suggestions for further improvement. Good work! --Cerebellum (talk) 14:10, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for the reply.

• The Albanian partisans liberated their country from Nazi Germany, which had occupied the country following Fascist Italy's capitulation to the Allies in 1943. I modified the text a tad but I think it's pretty clear that they fought the occupation and liberated themselves from it.
• Koçi Xoxe headed the pro-Yugoslav faction within the party. He attacked the rival faction. The text doesn't make this clear?
• "In to" is how the source uses it.
• "Stalinist" is a vague term which could have various different meanings. As far as the Albanians were concerned Khrushchev was fundamentally opposed to Stalin and deviated from the principles established by his(and, in the Albanian view, Lenin's) leadership. To Khrushchev, Tito was a communist (i.e. Marxist-Leninist, aka "Stalinist") who had been unjustly condemned by Stalin. The article does link to the article on the Soviet-Yugoslav split. --Ismail (talk) 05:09, 5 January 2013 (UTC)