The
People's Socialist Republic of Albania was the official name of
Albania from 1976 until 1992. From 1946–1976 it was known as the
People's Republic of Albania and from 1944 to 1946 as the
Democratic Government of Albania. Throughout this period Albania had a reputation for its
Stalinist style of state administration and for policies stressing national unity and self-reliance. Travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or to travel from. In 1967, it became the world's first
atheist state. It was the only
Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action occasioned by the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The first multi-party elections in Socialist Albania took place on 31 March 1991 – the communists gained a majority in an interim government. The People's Socialist Republic was officially dissolved on 22 March 1992 with the first parliamentary elections.