The militia of the UPSh was the Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense (FVVP), and affiliate military structures included the Armed School Youth (RSHA) and Civil Defense of the Republic (MCR).

Concerned that Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Chairman Leonid Brezhnev were liberalizing their foreign policy approach to Yugoslavia and after condemning the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia the UPSh withdrew entirely from the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliance on behalf of the country.

In February 1991, during a meeting of hardline communists at the local military academy, rumors of a possible coup d'état by the UPSh came up, which resulted in a pro-democracy crowd gathering outside the school, prompting soldiers to fire on civilians, killing four.

According to the 1976 Albanian Constitution, the People's Assembly (the unicameral legislature) had the ultimate authority to declare a state of emergency or war.

[13] In the 1980s, the number of infantry brigades in the ground forces was reduced from eight to four and had shifted from fully manned units to the mobilisation of reserve soldiers.

Its precursor, the People's Defense Division, was formed in 1945 by Haxhi Lleshi's as a uniformed internal security force of reliable resistance fighters.

The Republican Guard of the UPSh was established after World War II as the Special Battalion of the General Staff within the People's Defense Division (DMP).

[19] On 4 February 1984 the Presidium of the People's Assembly awarded the "Order of the National Flag" to the Republican Guard Regiment.

The Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense (Albanian: Forcat Vullnetare të Vetëmbrojtjes Popullore, FVVP) assisted the UPSh in combat operations on the front.

[10][12] After the World War II when the Enver Hoxha regime took power, military ranks were radically changed in looks and in naming.

To further increase its political control, the PPSH enlarged the conscription system by enlisting in UPSh personnel from some Albanian rural areas that were extremely loyal to the state.

Hoxha did this to give the UPSh the ability to defend the country from any external threat, especially the Yugoslav People's Army and alliances such as NATO and/or the Warsaw Pact, warning that "If we slackened our vigilance even for a moment or toned down our struggle against our enemies in the least, they would strike immediately like the snake that bites you and injects its poison before you are aware of it.

"[22] Colonel Joseph Zagali, the Chief Engineer of the Albanian Ministry of Defence during the bunkerizimi period,[23] was responsible for the creation and maintenance of the bunkers and came up with most of the designs for the structures, all of which were mostly dome-shaped.

[25][26] Hoxha had based the UPS's entire military doctrine on the actions of the Albanian resistance during World War II[27] and the fact that Albania was one of only two European countries which liberated itself without the direct intervention of foreign troops.

[citation needed] Unlike the Partisans' strategy being grounded in the mountain-based guerrilla warfare, the UPSh and Hoxha as the commander-in-chief aimed to only utilize the UPS's resources to defend Albania's national integrity and sovereignty "at all costs".

[28] During the socialist period, the secret services purged individuals and notable alumni of western military academies, especially those in Fascist Italy from 1927 to 1939, due to that country's occupation of Albania during World War II.

Alumni from these academies would also be purged, including the following: The following educational establishments operated in the country:[10] The equipment of the UPSh had lacked in modernization.

The Soviets had once attempted to threaten the Albanians with force, with Supreme Commander of the Warsaw Treaty forces and Soviet Defence Minister Andrei Grechko remarking to an Albanian UPSh delegation that they would not get military equipment agreed upon beforehand, saying, "You are only in the Warsaw Pact for the time being, anyway.