I work with an Albanian and cannot wait to poke a little fun at his country this time. Thanks! (Okay NVM I'm halfway through and now I just feel bad for the country)
When this eccentric states-man finally past away in 85, there was national grieving, and according to story the Soviets sent their condolences, but the paranoid comrades of Enver had learnt not to trust no-one, so they didnt bother to even open the letter. They promtly returned it to sender. Good episode ! Btw, I also have one of those bunker ash-trays.
To be fair, if nobody wanted to invade the country because it was financially a bad deal to do so. Perhaps spending 20% of your countries economic output was a great plan. I mean he did in a way keep the country safe from invasion by maintaining it's lack of value.
Hoxha was a paranoid psycho but his fear of invasions by Greece and Yugoslavia were not unfounded. He was a Tosk from Gjirokastra, a region that was on several occasions attacked and invaded by Greece. Nowadays documents have revealed that Greece had plans of Invading Albania and splitting it with Yugoslavia in the 1950 So Hoxha had massive hostility towards both states, but that didn't stop him from being their lackey to benefit his dictatorship. For example he famously gunned down Albanians who were escaping Yugoslavia and buried them in mass graves, and in the 70s ( if my memory is correct) he sent trucks full of grains and supplies to Greece, leaving his people to starve.
hmmm now that's an interesting setting for a story. Someone with more talent than me, make that happen! (and please don't use zombies, they're so overdone)
If these bunkers didn't existed, when the explosion at ammunition place in Gerdec happened, instead of 32 people dead would have been hundreds, but people hid in these bunkers and survived. So, they were really helpful at that time. They served their purposes, not from an external danger but an internal one.
As a kid in the mid 90s each student in my class was given a European nation at random to do a report on. I was given Albania. I knew nothing about Albania. Armed only with a 1969 World Book Encyclopedia, I learned what I could about this nation. My conclusion: "Wait, what?"
Why do Albanians only work making Pizza? Is the entire economy of Albania based around making Pizza, cause that seems the only skillet they seem to have when they come to America. That and cussing. Clearly classes on oratory are given in culinary arts school across Albania, you can always here them go at it from up front at the counter.
Louie Patouie Because making pizza and working in the kitchen is hard work ! Most of other nationality doesn’t like to do that ! Albanians are not afraid from hard work! And I guarantee you that 99% of this people who making pizza in America never been a chef before but I learned over there
thepantomimegoose ss well is not good thing but is better then homeless!! Tell to your government to put them in prison ! Unfortunately some Albanians do that but lots others work hard and respect the rules! I don’t know where are you from but I’m sure your country has criminals too
I can't believe you're in Albania! 2 years ago I took a year off a traveled through all the Balkan countries including Albania. I was fascinated with this region and in particular with Albania! People were amazing to me there. I am so happy you're making videos there. Can't wait for more of your extremely high quality work!
As an albanian, grew up around them. Great place as playground though. I don't understand this fascination of the outsiders with bunkers. There's more to albania history than bunkers. If you need bunkers pictures, please dont bother to travel here. I can send you plenty.
I feel I have to share some information about these bunkers from the people who actually did it. There were planned to be built 210 thousand bunkers, but in reality were built only 162 thousand bunkers, not 700 thousands as everybody claims it. If these bunkers didn't exist at the times of Gerdec explosion at ammunition fabric some years ago, instead of 30 people dead, could have been hundred ones. People hid in these bunkers around the area till the explosions ended. That's how they survived. They served their purposes not by external danger but internal one. Hoxha built these bunkers when he broke with Russia,and when Tito of Yugoslavia( double playing) informed him that the Russians had asked his permission to pass through Yugoslavia to invade Albania just to give us a lesson, but Cuba happened and this idea was dropped. Hoxha may have been paranoid, but there were some crazy timing those years....
Actually, it's kind of stupid to think that Albania was useless, maybe for the economic standpoint, but, geographically saying, well, it wasn't, they did fought 2 fuckin world wars battling for that region, Italy invaded not just one, but two times, it was geographically important, and well Yugoslavia also wanted the region, so as the USSR wanted to help to straighten their relation, so no, it wasn't exactly Hoxha's paranoia, his country was indeed encircled by possible enemies, but in the end the war didn't occur as he expected, it came economically rather than military.
@@Rrgr5 I agree. We have never been important economically, but geographically yes. When Russians were in The Bay of Vlora, Italians were in their highest alert during the Cold War. They breathed only when Albania left the Treaty of Warsaw and the Russians left. Our neighbours ( including Italy) wanted to swallow us completely. You can imagine why.This is the crossroads where all the empires have passed and fought, from the Romans, Bizantynes, Slavs, Venetians, French, Ottomans,Italians, well you name it. Through Albania pass Via Egnatia that Romans built it to connect the east and the west. So, not completely paranoid. This land has seen peace only when the WW2 ended. Before that people have endured battles after battles. You can not blame Albanians from being paranoid. We are the only country in Europe surrounded by his own people.( cut off).
@@liljanasufaj1643 my country is a mix of things, but the most important one is, we are easy, most of the things imposed by the other, we just accept or don't even care, it's maybe hard to imagine how is to live in pile of commodities, vast resources and just accept anything because how big it's your country, we can't actually say no, because everything here is more than enough, and you see some place like yours, that people say that is useless, but not to the people whom live and lived there, they fight with their teeth, build a complex of 162 bunkers to defend their home, even having "nothing" to give to the empires they sure risk their resources for that piece of nothing in the right spot on their continent, and we, we have everything, nobody came to harass us since our independence in 1822, most of the conflicts here were civil unrest, righteous civil unrest, but even when a external enemy came, in 1964, our own neighbour, our army just join with them, just accepted their influence.
I don't think that *supposedly* saving 70 people justifies 162 thousand bunkers. Wouldn't say that they served their purpose for sure. You'd save a lot more by investing in agriculture, medicine, education or almost anything else really.
A Montenegrin in New York is not something I have heard of before but at the same time i'm not surprised considering the very large variations of people in NY. For example in New York city I know a Jewish Uzbeki barber who left after the USSR collapsed and as I said somehow ended up as a barber in NYC. Never thought Judaism and Uzbekistan would be a thing that go together but I guess sometimes the world just finds one more way to surprise you...
The drivers there are really wild, and it has a middle eastern vibe, when you see videos of those crazy intersections with cars everywhere. But the people are really welcoming and warm towards foreigners. Whenever I told them i was from Bosnia they would take care of me and my friends.
Once I har the bad idea of getting a warming fire when hunting. 25 years later, they still call that part of woodlands by my name. It was a really, really bad idea. But I wasnt cold as the fire grew. And grew. Andra grew.
@ArmchairWarrior yeah, but there are a few caviats in my case: the laws are not the same in Sweden as in US. And there was no real damage since the area was schedueled to be cup down for firewood and wood chips about a month later due to insects that had damaged a lot of trees (it was to prevent spreading). And it was my fathers land. And no one called and authorities since the fire didnt spread more then maybe two acre before a rainstorm hit. Besides, rescue services in the inland of north Sweden are so bad, so you cannot count on them. And absolutley no one in that area would call the police, or anything like that for anything short of murder. You see, if the authorities and goverment ignore a region for long enough, people will sonner or later ignore the authorities to some degree. People judge you, and I was judged as a kid that did a misstake.
друг The smoking thing was just the tip of the iceberg with Zog. The amount of bizarre things he did and/or lived through was bizarre in its own right. Some highlights: he survived a *ton* of assassination attempts during his reign, he had his mother run the royal kitchen because he was paranoid about being poisoned, Ettore Bugatti refused to sell him a car because his table manners sucked, and more. Also, about the smoking thing: he reportedly set alarms at night so he could get up and smoke. What a guy.
And all that I know about it is what Coach from the old TV show "Cheers" taught me: To the tune of "When The Saints Go Marching In" - "Albania, Albania, you border on the Adriatic"
Hi! Albanian fan here. I've started watching a lot of your videos these last few months and I admire all of the production quality and effort you put into them. I was amazed to see this video appear on my feed and I feel bad to have missed the chance to see you at work since I pass by that park quite often. As I see that there are not many fellow Albanians in the comment section I feel obligated to mention that Hoxha's choice to build bunkers on it's own was definitely not enough to ruin the country's economy, but it did put a big dent on it (even with the drastically lower numbers that were actually built). To Albanian millennials these bunkers are of little meaning, except for being an artsy spot to take a picture. Anyway, loved the video and you MUST explore the darkness and confusion of the late '90s in Albania. Hope to see a new video soon. Cheers!
Prophett Mohamett Islam is not what you think it is in Albania. Albania might as well be an alternate universe to you. But if it makes you feel better there’s a lot of inter religious marriages in Albania and the kids always turn Christian or lean toward the Christian side because of Albanian history and current state of Albania being attached to Europe and all eastern ties have been cut off since 1912.
Yes, absolutely there was. But the bunkers weren't the solution to it. It's a bit like the tiger stick joke. I always carry my tiger stick. You can tell it works because I've never met a tiger.
@@RareEarthSeries Hard to say for certain the region has always defended itself by going to the mountains and fighting a guerilla style war (ex: Afghanistan ) Soviets tanks wouldnt have been able to do much . So bombing would have been a big issue , like it was for serbia during the Kosovo campaign and the bosnian war. Bunkers that where everywhere including mountains would have a great deal at neutralizing this thread to some degrees. I dont think Hoxha thought he can win against the soviets , he simply wanted to make the region unstable for foreigner so they would be forced to leave . That said great video and in the end this is just theoritical
no neighboring country threatened Albania. Greece as a member of nato at that time had its attention turned to the north in the countries of the warsaw pact, Tito's Yugoslavia had no claims on the territory of albania. The external threat was the regime's propaganda to frighten the people. and these bumkers would certainly not pose a real threat to any army, with an air force they could destroy them easily.
@@RareEarthSeries Deterence is a powerful tool. It's why North Korea builds nuclear weapons Nott many countries are going to want a war with a heavily armed mountainous country literred with defensive bunkers
As a species, we are nothing if not adaptable. It speaks to the resilience of Albanians that they can find some positivity out of a terrible past. However, as the old saw goes, those who neglect to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The paranoid ideology of being surrounded by enemies at every turn is alive and well, unfortunately. It would be nice if we could avoid the bunkers this time :(
Papa Blast: I agree. There's absolutely no way he could have built all of those bunkers without destroying the economy, just as there's no way he could have remained in power without being just as much a brutal tyrant as Somoza or Pinochet. Remember that one of the boasts of the Fascist regimes of the 1930's was that they made the trains run on time. There are three ways to accomplish that: A pure free-market approach would be to allow unfettered competition among railway companies and the one with the best service would win. This doesn't prevent corporate collusion or dangerous practices. The second approach would be to regulate the railways (or nationalize them) and provide rewards for good service and penalties for bad. This runs the risk of getting bureaucrats that no nothing about how to run a railway messing things up. The third method is to hold the train driver's family hostage and threaten to murder them if the train is late. Guess which method is the most effective? Simply building a railway or getting the trains to run on time is not a viable measure of how a country "flourishes". That is measured by the state of the citizens and under Hoxha's rule the citizens of Albania were in serious trouble. As Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government--except for all the others".
@@eneasota let me stop you at your first sentence, Italy and all the neighbouring countries wanted a piece of albania and they did have it in few ocasions.
@@eneasota I would say he did some good things, he built hospitals, free education ( there was no analphabitism ) and there was no crime, although he was cruel to the criminals he rly did a good job decreasing the criminality rate nearly to 0%
Albania had been conquered ever since the creation of it as a kingdom/state in 1444,so being paranoid is in our genes,as literally everyone around us burnt our country and did what they wanted to us.
@@Flat_Earth_Sophia : Nice is relative. :-) I rather would say interesting. However, the landscape and nature were nice, especially in the mountains coming from Macedonia. At the beaches, only if you filtered out all the bunkers. Ha, ha, ha
Interesting about this. I'm from San Francisco California, and the bay area along the coast is also littered with old watchtower and gunnery bunkers, NIKE missile bases, radar and huge gun emplacements, but most people don't see them anymore. They also mark a time between the civil war through the end of the cold war, and people here have almost forgotten all of that history. The bay area was very important with all of it's shipping and naval bases. I really am not that interested in visiting western Europe, I'm far more interested in the eastern European countries, their cultures and history. As a child of the cold war, what they went through and how they came out of the isolation of the west is far more interesting to me. Thanks for making this video, i learned something new about yet another former "enemy state" of ours.
"enemy state" better say enemy regime, because albanians have always been a pro american population and probably the best friends (eve thought small country) america has!
To be fair The U.S. had Fallout Shelters all over Granted, we actually had a enemy at the time, but fear of death and the will to survive is just human
Is it _really_ fair to compare these to the Maginot Line? That at least had logistics sorted out and an effective way to prevent armies from passing through its defenses. Not to mention that they were concentrated at what should have been the most important area to defend (until Germany tried blitzkrieging through a route too crazy for anyone to actually try invading through, let alone succeed). (...Though given that the Maginot Line was so imposing, to the point that invading through the Low Countries was probably a _less_ hilariously risky plan, leaving other potential invasion routes so much less fortified was probably a poor strategic move overall.)
Static defenses is the common denominator. You speak as if the Maginot Line was superior to these pill boxes, but you fail to consider that a well thought out failure was still a failure. No matter how much genius was applied to its design, the M.L. was stupid from the outset. WWI already proved that static lines were no longer effective. The means to defeat them was already clear by the end of the war, and even clearer 10 and 20 years later.
The construction of prefabricated bunkers alone cost an estimated two percent of net material product,[10] and in total the bunkers cost more than twice as much as the Maginot Line in France, consuming three times as much concrete.[27] The QZ bunker was designed by military engineer Josif Zagali, who served with the Partisans during World War II and trained in the Soviet Union after the war.[24] He observed how dome-shaped fortifications were virtually impervious to artillery fire and bombs, which simply ricocheted off the dome.[9] He used his knowledge to design the subsequently ubiquitous dome-shaped bunkers. He himself was places on one of these finished bunkers and it was surrounded by tanks who emptied all their magazines on it! After the attack he was unharmed so almost a million of these were built! Elsewhere, thousands of kilometres of tunnels were built to house political, military and industrial assets. Albania is said to have become the most tunnelled country in the world after North Korea.[24] The tunnels were built in conditions of great secrecy. Engineering teams were not allowed to see construction through to completion but were rotated from site to site on a monthly basis.[20]
Albanian tunnels are so vast that even the Albanian army does not have a clear idea how many they are or what they house! There is a fun fact that shows how ubiquitous these tunnels are; 16 tonnes of Chemical weapons were discovered by the Albanian Army in one of their tunnels after which they contacted Nato and reported it before destroying it! We Albanians still do not know the full extent of this labyrinth that connects mountains to mountains and provides different passages to different exits in each of the mountains sides and height levels! Albanian relief is very dangerous for infantry or helicopters, friendly or otherwise! Remember the Apache helicopters that were able to fly in any terrain until they flew in Albanian highland and crashed? Flying from the middle of the country to the border (less than 500km) they had to go through three different turbulent microclimates and reported that very few of these mountains ranges had passages wide enough that one could navigate a helicopter or any equipment through
Hello TWKNIGHT just wanted to let you know the specifications of these tiny shits: They are made from a series of concrete slices, each weighing eight or nine tons, which were concreted together on site to form an interlocking dome. Fully assembled, they weigh between 350-400 tons and are virtually impervious to artillery fire and explosives to the point that we have to live with them because it beats destroying them, however much we hate them! Oh and and in total these bunkers cost more than twice as much as the Maginot Line in France, consuming three times as much concrete.[27] WIKIPEDIA
Its pretty cool! If you like military tourism its a great choice. Go to Gjirokaster and check out that castle. Also keep an eye out for antique shops. They have some surprising goodies.
Maybe the bunkers didn't make sense from a military standpoint, but they make great sense from a nation building standpoint. They give a otherwise flavorless nation some character. Like Egyptian Pyramids or Japanese Temples. Plus they are actually functional. If you get caught in the rain, you've always got somewhere to hide! Totally worth it.
Enver Hoxha was not a paranoid man , he was very smart indeed .The man learned from the past .He was surrounded with enemy Slavic countries that wanted the divide Albania , so that the world would never know that there was a native nation in that area . after the world wars , Albania was divided in many pieces that even today are visible in balcan ,some were given to Serbia ,some were given to Greece ,some to Monte negro , some to Northern Macedonia.And that with the help of the European countries of that time .So no wounder that guy had to build 750 000 bunkers to defend itself , we years before the Albanians faced genocide during the WW1 and WW2 and before and before and before . In his time as a president -good luck invading Albania or good luck building 750 000 tomahawk missals.
You should, I spent a month there. There are some great things to see. Food is cheap and plentiful. Sub tropical. Lizards everywhere. Beautiful beaches. Greek Roman and Byzantine architecture. I will say though that Albania is dangerous and you should be careful.
When i was in Albania, i was in the Fire region and had the opportunity to check out the ancient Greek/Roman/Byzantine/Ottoman/Nazi/Communist fortification of Apollonia. As farms the eye could see, bunkers made for missile trucks. This hill had a vantage of the flatlands that saw up and down the coast to the horizon 16 kilometres away. I also had the pleasure to travel to Gjirokaster, a 2nd century castle used for all kinds of wars. In the midst of all the drives and walks I went on during my 1 month stay, I can attest to the fact that bunkers and pillboxes literally lie at every block and crossroads.
Keep in mind that the majority of the bunkers were destroyed after the fall of communism (in 1991) so you should have seen more bunkers during your journey but they were probably destroyed.. Ps: I live in tirana the capital of albania and in my yard there is an underground shelter made out of 5-6 rooms it was used to shelter people from air raids (bombs) for my neighbors I am thinking of building a house above it while connecting it with the shelter downstairs 😅 (5-6 free rooms)
The weird thing is, the bunkers have their own industry in Albania. I have a friend that lived in Tirana say that there are startup small businesses that sell them as real estate, some are used as art galleries, and guides that give tours. I really enjoy how you wrote this, I can feel your enthusiasm.
Hoxhaism: You are sick and tired of everyone making fun of you for living in a bunker. you are even more tired of the horrible internet speeds in your bunker.
We've never had 750,000 bunkers, not even 50,000, which is more than the number of all sorts of fortifications overall. 750,000/Albania's area= around 25/km2. Nigh impossible. Now, we have/have had real issues. It's not fun at all seeing foreigners competing on who's better at depicting our country crazier and more absurd than it already is.
There were about an average of 5.7 bunkers for every square kilometre. by 1983 a total of 173,371 concrete bunkers had been constructed around the country.
Living in South Korea for 2 years, I can tell you that there are bunkers all over that country. They're mainly hidden in plain sight though still very much ready to defend against an attack from the North. Many bridges, overpasses, and train tracks etc... are pre prerigged with demo, just requiring a few components to detonate them to block strategic infiltration routes. ROK is however a great country with amazing people. Talented, honest, friendly ,honorable above all other countries I've been to in Asia. As a bonus, the women are the prettiest and most respectable women on earth.
Good to mention but this video is not accurate.Also Albania is in a great position that connects east to west and a great place for trading purposes.Albania is also one of the countries where you can find every type of minerals and other worthy materials which only some big countries like USA,China or Russia have.Albania has the biggest fresh water reserves in Balkan considering the small size of its territory and has more and more values.That's why many countries especially those of Balkan have wanted and tried to invade Albania throughout the history.
Those who say Albania wasn't worth of invading know nothing. It has the most strategic position along with Kosova in the Balkans, high geo-political influence, the most beautiful beaches in the world and ports and canals that connect Albania to the rest of the world.
This was cool. One thing about the Maginot Line. I worked well enough to convince the Germans to go around and invade through Belgium, rather then try to break through it. That has to be some level of success.
Maybe Enver Hoxha forgot that flamethrowers were invented during WWI just for the job of clearing out bunkers and pillboxes. During WWII it became even more clear they did their intended job very well. Also, small bunkers without any kind of heavy artillery isn't going to bother a tank, let alone a whole armored division. It seems Hoxha only imagined a guerrilla style, static warfare in an urban setting with only infantry being involved. The only real use these bunkers potentially had were to protect civilians during aerial attacks, not that urban settlements are "high priority" targets in an aerial attack anyway.
never in my life have i seen as many little bunkers as we did when we visited albania in the 1980's it was incredible the place was destroyed but the people were lovely and friendly
Except... England also did this. There are pillboxes and bunkers "strewn about the country" here, too. So not a paranoid Commie thing, nor the inevitable breaking of an economy (we did this during WWII), nor a tactical waste of time. At one point, every single garden in England had a bunker in it.
@@kohterg3713 750,00 bunkers is too much for such a small country. It's ridiculous how much money you would need to build that many bunkers for a underpopulated nation.
Growing up in communist Albania me and my friends liked bunkers. Our favorites were the long bunkers located in residential areas in between apartment buildings. We would go in there exploring the inside of the bunkers with torches. My grandparents have a bunker in their back yard. This bunker was built for the neighborhood residents in case of an areal bombing attack. This bunker was dug in to the hill behind the house. It is around 50 metres long in to the hill underground. I remember going in there exploring the stalagmites wich would form on the ceiling. It was like cave exploration. Very interesting. One thing that comes to mind is the temperature in this bunker was constant. It felt cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Well in Albania you can see bunkers all over the country even in the sea because of the sea level rise but if world war 3 happens we are very safe so I think that's good
The Sino-Albanian Split happened due to Nixon's visit to the PRC in 1972, as Enver believed that Mao was capitulating to the West and turning against Marxism-Leninism. (Small correction)
The most educational and informative series on UA-cam. I have yet to watch one that wasn't well thought out and eye opening. I hope that you will travel across the USA at some point and help educate our population with some truth.
Great video. Big fan here. I recently visited Jaisalmer fort in State of Rajasthan, India ( I am Indian) and I think it has a story that if researched in depth would be worthy of your consideration.
Since WW3 kinda started and Sergei Lavrov said that the 3rd World War Will Involve Nuclear Weapons... You already know Albania is where I’m heading to.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in Albania Rare Earth. As you yourself have experienced , albania sells nowdays - and not only for the bad news-. We are on that right trajectory of economic & social prosperity as well as cultural convergece with the European values - given our 500 years forced divergence - . Ofc we need 2-3 more decades however it seems feasible. All in all , thank you for the advertisment and your objective representation - even flattering at times-. P.S By the end of this year Albania will have welcomed around 6 million tourists with a 20 % increase year to year. Same for the exports of physical products which have increased at 20% as well.
We road our Motorcycle through Albania. We played the spot the bunker game through the mountain ranges, on the beaches and in the town's. Really good game
Lol italy its us best aleat he helped us so much and the albanian love italy ....us enemy its greec serb and the edrogan (with they mentality to controll us state)
@Kokomiu the army was shit. You are just another Albanian dude who thinks his nation used to be dangerous. I used to be like you too until I left that shithole.
Rare Earth In the most polite way possible, your entire attempt to criticize the bunkers are based off of false conclusions and contradictory statements. For instance, you portray Albania as a useless country of no value and thus did not face the threat of invasion? However, you said yourself that Yugoslavia wanted to annex Albania, and the same about Greece. That means that either those countries want to invade a piece of useless land OR you are wrong about Albania's lack of strategic value. Either way, you kind of are incorrect. The most obvious advantage one could have through Albania is political influence and security for its neighbours. No matter how small, any unfriendly neighbour is a dangerous neighbour. Perhaps the bunkers were not good for "economic progress", but what good is ‘economic progress' to a country when focusing on it will likely result in the country no longer existing? ’Also, you portray the bunkers as primarily for "guerrilla warfare". Sorry, but that really is not true. For starters, it is better to have more than too little. Should the need arise, not every bunker was to be used, nor were all bunkers identical. Do you seriously think that each bunker has been assigned four people? The bunkers were constructed so that all parts of the country could be defended when necessary. Furthermore, it serves as immediate protection from potential air strikes. As we see, the government was quite accurate in that prediction, as Albania's neighbours were destined to get air raided decades later. What is wrong with building air raid shelters? Every country that could do so at the time did that. Albania simply added slots so that shelters could double as defense posts if necessary. Oh, and by the way, the rest of the world did not "move on" from WWII guerrilla warfare. WWII era tactics were still very much in use regions such as Vietnam and neighbouring countries. The NLF could only dream of having so many bunkers, so please do not misrepresent peoples you know nothing about. But most of all, you tried to obscure the fact that Albania was actually a country that needed defense plans. However, isn't that what so many in the west are so good at? After all, everyone said Vietnam didn't need worry about war... until it suddenly did. Hitler said that Poland need not worry... then he invades it. The west said the Balkan nations need not worry... then they bomb Yugoslavia and destroy the region. It is better safe than sorry. You really don't understand how dangerous it is to be a small country during the Cold War, do you?
Albania in so much places have underground city and underground a big tunnel to connect two cites from each one. Underground city with hopsital and everything
Using Afghani to refer to the people is an obsolete term now but it was still in use/applicable during the timeframe he is discussing, hence it's probably the term Hoxha would have used.
He does jump around a lot. While I hope he covers Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, etc...., I don't think he will. He may not cover any of them. I think he needs to find several special stories to commit to making a video about a country. In that sense, I think Bosnia has the most chance of being covered from all of our ex Yugoslav countries.
And they were not! They were very dangerous times and history has a way of repeating itself. When the war started in Ukraine we half jokingly told our grandpa to clean up the bunker and the underground shelter in his backyard at the village house. These people laugh but I don't think its funny at all!
You might consider adding longer pauses during your videos, especially when switching subjects/ideas and after an open question. This allows, us, the viewer to better grasp the content. Continue the great work!
Thank you for making this video but i disagree with some of your opinions. First off, Switzerland has even TODAY more Bunkers than us in Albania and much more expensive too, and they have never been invaded during their history. SO? Are they stupid too? We instead have been invaded differet times. So we had more reason than them to build these bunkers. Since we coudn't produce weapons of mass detruction for deterence. Buldings bunkers were the less worst idea i think. Second., stupid as it might sound but i don't know any country with this amount of Bunkers to have ever been INVADED. hahaha Unfortunatly it worked for our dictator since he stayed in power till his death. By the way Albania has also a lot of bunkers underground and inside the mountains too. Basically the little bunkers that you see at the coast or in the flat terrain were supposed to be just the first line of defense , the most ruthless and strongest line of defense would be in the mountains and in the hills in the inner country . It was not so ill thought as it might seem at first sight. . Given the fact that 2/3 Albania territory is mountainous . The problem with our dictator were not the Bunkers but the brutality of his criminal rule.
First, Switzerland has only around 20,000 bunkers while Albania has upwards of 750,000. Switzerlands are more expansive and had actual strategic planning while Albanian bunkers are sitting ducks and basically strategically useless. The issue with Albania is they didn't have the money for this and weakened their overall military and the bunkers were useless overall (only outcome was propaganda to the people). Also, the Maginot line one of the most complex and defensible lines with more than simple pill box bunkers didn't work
To be correct, there have been "only" 173.371 bunkers build . This is the exact number. The plan was to build 221.143 not 750.000. You are wrong too if you believe that there was not a strategic planning behind this. The bunkers were only a part of the overall strategy of the defense. At that time we had tanks, navy , artillery and airforce too. If the enemy was big and the communist failed to stop it with the convetional forces they would start the guerrila war. So it was a combination of things , It was not just the bunkers. You should know that there are underground tunnels and bunkers in Albania too that connect one part of the city with another, or a village and a mountain to another. They don't tell this part of the story anywhere. The communist had studied the Vietnam war and they had in mind that scenario for Albania.. A long and continuos state of guerrila warfare to make the cost of permanance of the invading enemy force unberable .Anyways i'm not saying that this strategy could guarantee a 100% success but there was a logic behind it. It was not just a creation of a sick and paranoid individual, as some would like to suggest.
problem is too many gullibble retards dont think to back up data with other sources and im disappointed this channel has resorted to a clickbaitish titles, makes me think he had no real intention of showing the actual reason and thought into why this and that is like that.
I agree. These mushroom bunkers are just the first line of defence. The real bunkers are in our cities and mountains where you enter at this side of the tunnel and you come up on the other side. When I was little and we had to do these kind of exercises, all the people had to leave the flats and go quickly into these underground bunkers. We were having fun with our friends down there for a while. When I remember these now, I think it was kind of funny and I'm glad to have experienced it. Can you imagine our mountain tunnels how scary they were? The tanks hidden completely on these mountains. You wouldn't see them. Even our ships and submarines were hiding under mountain tunnels, entering this side and coming out on the other side of the mountain. When the first NATO admirals Turkish and Americans saw these tunnels, their jaw dropped. They were state of art, they were built with the help of Russians.
my parents grew up in the reign of enver Hoxha. it was part of the school curriculum to have military training for days at a time in these bunkers. god bless America my friends.
I was in Albania in 99 I saw the bunkers it was pretty gnarly. Some of them were sealed and had weapons inside of them SKS s AKs RPGs and ammunition. They were booby-trapped and EOD had to use C4 to clear them. Then we spent weeks disposing of small arms.
We exist because of you: www.patreon.com/rareearth
I work with an Albanian and cannot wait to poke a little fun at his country this time. Thanks! (Okay NVM I'm halfway through and now I just feel bad for the country)
Don't the TeleTubbies still live in bunkers ?
Rare Earth You are well worth sponsoring.
I don't think Rare Earth is a bad idea, Keep up the good work Evan & Team!
When this eccentric states-man finally past away in 85, there was national grieving, and according to story the Soviets sent
their condolences,
but the paranoid comrades of Enver had learnt not to trust no-one, so they
didnt bother to even open the letter. They promtly returned it to sender.
Good episode ! Btw, I also have one of those bunker ash-trays.
To be fair, if nobody wanted to invade the country because it was financially a bad deal to do so. Perhaps spending 20% of your countries economic output was a great plan. I mean he did in a way keep the country safe from invasion by maintaining it's lack of value.
Hoxha was a paranoid psycho but his fear of invasions by Greece and Yugoslavia were not unfounded. He was a Tosk from Gjirokastra, a region that was on several occasions attacked and invaded by Greece. Nowadays documents have revealed that Greece had plans of Invading Albania and splitting it with Yugoslavia in the 1950
So Hoxha had massive hostility towards both states, but that didn't stop him from being their lackey to benefit his dictatorship. For example he famously gunned down Albanians who were escaping Yugoslavia and buried them in mass graves, and in the 70s ( if my memory is correct) he sent trucks full of grains and supplies to Greece, leaving his people to starve.
4d chess
dude is hated from west to east, from Soviet to China, From USA to Yugoslavia. It take tremendous efforts for that
No one robs your house when it's on fire XD
what a genius. I guess making the whole world a nuclear wasteland is the best defense plan against alien invasion.
Albania is going to be great after the zombie apocalypse
hmmm now that's an interesting setting for a story. Someone with more talent than me, make that happen! (and please don't use zombies, they're so overdone)
@@beskamir5977 iphone users can substitute for the zombies 😉
Anti Communist Westerner Lesbian Vampire Spies VS Hoxhas Communist State. Hoxha arms all bunkers with Wooden stakes, garlic, and a shitton of LED.
It will also be great once the third world war comes - only swiss and albanian people will be left
If these bunkers didn't existed, when the explosion at ammunition place in Gerdec happened, instead of 32 people dead would have been hundreds, but people hid in these bunkers and survived. So, they were really helpful at that time. They served their purposes, not from an external danger but an internal one.
As a kid in the mid 90s each student in my class was given a European nation at random to do a report on. I was given Albania. I knew nothing about Albania. Armed only with a 1969 World Book Encyclopedia, I learned what I could about this nation. My conclusion: "Wait, what?"
Wait what? - means... ?
???
lol 😆
you should visit...its beautiful
@@sheep.herder yess! i’m albanian
Switzerland: I have 20,000 bunkers
Albania: Amateurs
lol
😂😂😂😂
so true lol
Guessing no homeless worry in Albania about where to find shelter at night.
hahaha in albania you can't see homeless because they have to many shelters hahaha.
thepantomimegoose ss yes they did but in other country they are not homeless any more because Albanians are hard workers
Why do Albanians only work making Pizza? Is the entire economy of Albania based around making Pizza, cause that seems the only skillet they seem to have when they come to America. That and cussing. Clearly classes on oratory are given in culinary arts school across Albania, you can always here them go at it from up front at the counter.
Louie Patouie Because making pizza and working in the kitchen is hard work ! Most of other nationality doesn’t like to do that ! Albanians are not afraid from hard work! And I guarantee you that 99% of this people who making pizza in America never been a chef before but I learned over there
thepantomimegoose ss well is not good thing but is better then homeless!! Tell to your government to put them in prison ! Unfortunately some Albanians do that but lots others work hard and respect the rules! I don’t know where are you from but I’m sure your country has criminals too
750,000? Holy shit!
I guess the new world population will all be speaking Albanian....
Smart guys, those Alby's.
Lmfao we have bunkers but we dont really need them. We think that war will never happen in Albania anymore.
I can't believe you're in Albania! 2 years ago I took a year off a traveled through all the Balkan countries including Albania. I was fascinated with this region and in particular with Albania! People were amazing to me there. I am so happy you're making videos there. Can't wait for more of your extremely high quality work!
Thanks for visiting Albania friend!
As an albanian, grew up around them. Great place as playground though. I don't understand this fascination of the outsiders with bunkers. There's more to albania history than bunkers. If you need bunkers pictures, please dont bother to travel here. I can send you plenty.
Enver Hoxha is basically me whenever I played starcraft online. I thought it would work every time...
i shitted tears
😂😂😂😂
Thanks!
+Daily Dose Of Internet I _thought_ I knew where you got this from
Me too
Daily Dose Of Internet here after watching your video xD
Danis Benny same
I knew it!
no comment on all the history but I would love to have bunkers all over the place.
It’s literally everywhere
I feel I have to share some information about these bunkers from the people who actually did it. There were planned to be built 210 thousand bunkers, but in reality were built only 162 thousand bunkers, not 700 thousands as everybody claims it. If these bunkers didn't exist at the times of Gerdec explosion at ammunition fabric some years ago, instead of 30 people dead, could have been hundred ones. People hid in these bunkers around the area till the explosions ended. That's how they survived. They served their purposes not by external danger but internal one. Hoxha built these bunkers when he broke with Russia,and when Tito of Yugoslavia( double playing) informed him that the Russians had asked his permission to pass through Yugoslavia to invade Albania just to give us a lesson, but Cuba happened and this idea was dropped. Hoxha may have been paranoid, but there were some crazy timing those years....
And you think that the bunkers would actually prevent any army to invade?
Actually, it's kind of stupid to think that Albania was useless, maybe for the economic standpoint, but, geographically saying, well, it wasn't, they did fought 2 fuckin world wars battling for that region, Italy invaded not just one, but two times, it was geographically important, and well Yugoslavia also wanted the region, so as the USSR wanted to help to straighten their relation, so no, it wasn't exactly Hoxha's paranoia, his country was indeed encircled by possible enemies, but in the end the war didn't occur as he expected, it came economically rather than military.
@@Rrgr5 I agree. We have never been important economically, but geographically yes. When Russians were in The Bay of Vlora, Italians were in their highest alert during the Cold War. They breathed only when Albania left the Treaty of Warsaw and the Russians left. Our neighbours ( including Italy) wanted to swallow us completely. You can imagine why.This is the crossroads where all the empires have passed and fought, from the Romans, Bizantynes, Slavs, Venetians, French, Ottomans,Italians, well you name it. Through Albania pass Via Egnatia that Romans built it to connect the east and the west. So, not completely paranoid. This land has seen peace only when the WW2 ended. Before that people have endured battles after battles. You can not blame Albanians from being paranoid. We are the only country in Europe surrounded by his own people.( cut off).
@@liljanasufaj1643 my country is a mix of things, but the most important one is, we are easy, most of the things imposed by the other, we just accept or don't even care, it's maybe hard to imagine how is to live in pile of commodities, vast resources and just accept anything because how big it's your country, we can't actually say no, because everything here is more than enough, and you see some place like yours, that people say that is useless, but not to the people whom live and lived there, they fight with their teeth, build a complex of 162 bunkers to defend their home, even having "nothing" to give to the empires they sure risk their resources for that piece of nothing in the right spot on their continent, and we, we have everything, nobody came to harass us since our independence in 1822, most of the conflicts here were civil unrest, righteous civil unrest, but even when a external enemy came, in 1964, our own neighbour, our army just join with them, just accepted their influence.
I don't think that *supposedly* saving 70 people justifies 162 thousand bunkers. Wouldn't say that they served their purpose for sure. You'd save a lot more by investing in agriculture, medicine, education or almost anything else really.
My shiqpe brothers I got your back. Love from a montenegrian from NY 👐
A Montenegrin in New York is not something I have heard of before but at the same time i'm not surprised considering the very large variations of people in NY. For example in New York city I know a Jewish Uzbeki barber who left after the USSR collapsed and as I said somehow ended up as a barber in NYC. Never thought Judaism and Uzbekistan would be a thing that go together but I guess sometimes the world just finds one more way to surprise you...
I had plenty of bad ideas, just never had a good one
You clicked on this video that was a good idea
But was it?
theres a saying about paranoia: BETTER BE SAFE THEN SORRY
*paranoia
oops thank you
Pisslam County.
How about Safe and Sorry?
That would make no sense why would you be sorry for playing it safe?
I was in Albania for the first time last year, and wow that country is crazy, but I loved it! cheers from Bosnia and Herzegovina
Yeah its extremely pretty, especially the alps and southern beaches
@ albanian mountains are called alps. Lol
@
Lol What?
@ thepantomimegoose ss...learn some geography, they are called Albanian Alps.
The drivers there are really wild, and it has a middle eastern vibe, when you see videos of those crazy intersections with cars everywhere. But the people are really welcoming and warm towards foreigners. Whenever I told them i was from Bosnia they would take care of me and my friends.
Once I har the bad idea of getting a warming fire when hunting. 25 years later, they still call that part of woodlands by my name.
It was a really, really bad idea. But I wasnt cold as the fire grew. And grew. Andra grew.
Its like poetry
@ArmchairWarrior yeah, but there are a few caviats in my case: the laws are not the same in Sweden as in US. And there was no real damage since the area was schedueled to be cup down for firewood and wood chips about a month later due to insects that had damaged a lot of trees (it was to prevent spreading). And it was my fathers land. And no one called and authorities since the fire didnt spread more then maybe two acre before a rainstorm hit. Besides, rescue services in the inland of north Sweden are so bad, so you cannot count on them. And absolutley no one in that area would call the police, or anything like that for anything short of murder. You see, if the authorities and goverment ignore a region for long enough, people will sonner or later ignore the authorities to some degree. People judge you, and I was judged as a kid that did a misstake.
I vilken kommun ligger Erik's skog? ;)
Är det i Göteborg's området?
Göteborg? 100 mil för långt söderut!
All i know about Albania is that King Zogg (peace and lung cancer be with him) smoked a lot.
друг The smoking thing was just the tip of the iceberg with Zog. The amount of bizarre things he did and/or lived through was bizarre in its own right. Some highlights: he survived a *ton* of assassination attempts during his reign, he had his mother run the royal kitchen because he was paranoid about being poisoned, Ettore Bugatti refused to sell him a car because his table manners sucked, and more. Also, about the smoking thing: he reportedly set alarms at night so he could get up and smoke. What a guy.
He also had probably the best mustache of any leader. It was hilarious
NinjaSheep Ah yes, King Zog's beautiful miniature handlebar mustache
And all that I know about it is what Coach from the old TV show "Cheers" taught me:
To the tune of "When The Saints Go Marching In" - "Albania, Albania, you border on the Adriatic"
King Zog also killed with his hands the man who tryed to kill him.
This is a true story.
Midwest USA need these bunkers to protect them from tornados.
Haha they are called tornado shelters and a bunch of people have them. Tornados are also a big reason so many people have basements in the midwest.
Hi! Albanian fan here. I've started watching a lot of your videos these last few months and I admire all of the production quality and effort you put into them. I was amazed to see this video appear on my feed and I feel bad to have missed the chance to see you at work since I pass by that park quite often. As I see that there are not many fellow Albanians in the comment section I feel obligated to mention that Hoxha's choice to build bunkers on it's own was definitely not enough to ruin the country's economy, but it did put a big dent on it (even with the drastically lower numbers that were actually built). To Albanian millennials these bunkers are of little meaning, except for being an artsy spot to take a picture. Anyway, loved the video and you MUST explore the darkness and confusion of the late '90s in Albania. Hope to see a new video soon. Cheers!
Hope you can kick out the ISlam.
Prophett Mohamett Islam is not what you think it is in Albania. Albania might as well be an alternate universe to you. But if it makes you feel better there’s a lot of inter religious marriages in Albania and the kids always turn Christian or lean toward the Christian side because of Albanian history and current state of Albania being attached to Europe and all eastern ties have been cut off since 1912.
I have a feeling this is the place to go when you need to buy 100 million rounds of ak47 ammo
you bet, Greece is full of these thinks especially Crete. They bought all the stock
none of you are free from revisionism!
Other countries : We have too many bunkers...
ALBANIA : Hold my beer..
🇦🇱
Hold my raki*
Ciao Ciao Hahahaah yes
Bad idea? You kidding? Those bunkers might actually be useful one day.
Its just like Londons underground city.
You Sure mate?
London has already been conquered.. And without a fight
@@DrTiggy666 do u have a problem with my country " mate " ?
What?
Unlonden
HOXNA WASN'T IMAGING
THERE WAS A REAL THREAT
Yes, absolutely there was. But the bunkers weren't the solution to it.
It's a bit like the tiger stick joke. I always carry my tiger stick. You can tell it works because I've never met a tiger.
@@RareEarthSeries Hard to say for certain the region has always defended itself by going to the mountains and fighting a guerilla style war (ex: Afghanistan )
Soviets tanks wouldnt have been able to do much . So bombing would have been a big issue , like it was for serbia during the Kosovo campaign and the bosnian war.
Bunkers that where everywhere including mountains would have a great deal at neutralizing this thread to some degrees.
I dont think Hoxha thought he can win against the soviets , he simply wanted to make the region unstable for foreigner so they would be forced to leave .
That said great video and in the end this is just theoritical
@HUGO CHAVEZ U destroyed Venezuela like your socialist pal Hoxha destroyed Albania. U learned nothing from his mistakes.
no neighboring country threatened Albania.
Greece as a member of nato at that time had its attention turned to the north in the countries of the warsaw pact, Tito's Yugoslavia had no claims on the territory of albania. The external threat was the regime's propaganda to frighten the people. and these bumkers would certainly not pose a real threat to any army, with an air force they could destroy them easily.
@@RareEarthSeries Deterence is a powerful tool. It's why North Korea builds nuclear weapons
Nott many countries are going to want a war with a heavily armed mountainous country literred with defensive bunkers
As a species, we are nothing if not adaptable. It speaks to the resilience of Albanians that they can find some positivity out of a terrible past. However, as the old saw goes, those who neglect to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The paranoid ideology of being surrounded by enemies at every turn is alive and well, unfortunately. It would be nice if we could avoid the bunkers this time :(
Papa Blast: I agree. There's absolutely no way he could have built all of those bunkers without destroying the economy, just as there's no way he could have remained in power without being just as much a brutal tyrant as Somoza or Pinochet.
Remember that one of the boasts of the Fascist regimes of the 1930's was that they made the trains run on time.
There are three ways to accomplish that:
A pure free-market approach would be to allow unfettered competition among railway companies and the one with the best service would win. This doesn't prevent corporate collusion or dangerous practices.
The second approach would be to regulate the railways (or nationalize them) and provide rewards for good service and penalties for bad. This runs the risk of getting bureaucrats that no nothing about how to run a railway messing things up.
The third method is to hold the train driver's family hostage and threaten to murder them if the train is late.
Guess which method is the most effective?
Simply building a railway or getting the trains to run on time is not a viable measure of how a country "flourishes". That is measured by the state of the citizens and under Hoxha's rule the citizens of Albania were in serious trouble.
As Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government--except for all the others".
@@eneasota let me stop you at your first sentence, Italy and all the neighbouring countries wanted a piece of albania and they did have it in few ocasions.
@@eneasota I would say he did some good things, he built hospitals, free education ( there was no analphabitism ) and there was no crime, although he was cruel to the criminals he rly did a good job decreasing the criminality rate nearly to 0%
Hoxha mondernized the country a lil bit the isolation part was definetly his biggest mistake and no everyone wanted a piece of albania, even italy.
Albania had been conquered ever since the creation of it as a kingdom/state in 1444,so being paranoid is in our genes,as literally everyone around us burnt our country and did what they wanted to us.
Some commando bunkers are linked with 5 to 10 other bunkers.
Was part of the first foreigners be able to visit Albania one upon a time. :-)
Was it nicer then?
@@Flat_Earth_Sophia : Nice is relative. :-) I rather would say interesting. However, the landscape and nature were nice, especially in the mountains coming from Macedonia. At the beaches, only if you filtered out all the bunkers. Ha, ha, ha
@@felixniederhauser7799 lol It's not too nice now either.
"Imagine having an idea so bad that it defines your nation" Hitlers hands start shaking
I want to go on record stating; Albania has the best flag.
Thanks bro!!
Thx
no that goes to seychelles
No way..the eagle looks creepy...black on red is ugly too
@Adem A the best name to the best comment...?! Thanks mate 😊
No you are NOT paranoid when what you believe to be happening is really happening...
And what happened?
People were really out to get him..
Kinda self-fulfilling prophecy
It’s not paranoia
Interesting about this. I'm from San Francisco California, and the bay area along the coast is also littered with old watchtower and gunnery bunkers, NIKE missile bases, radar and huge gun emplacements, but most people don't see them anymore. They also mark a time between the civil war through the end of the cold war, and people here have almost forgotten all of that history. The bay area was very important with all of it's shipping and naval bases. I really am not that interested in visiting western Europe, I'm far more interested in the eastern European countries, their cultures and history. As a child of the cold war, what they went through and how they came out of the isolation of the west is far more interesting to me. Thanks for making this video, i learned something new about yet another former "enemy state" of ours.
What's wrong with West-Europe? There are always more holidays, you can visit all places
"enemy state" better say enemy regime, because albanians have always been a pro american population and probably the best friends (eve thought small country) america has!
Some ideas may seem bad but you just gotta give them time, remember that.
bankers were a waste of time and money "remeber that"
To be fair
The U.S. had Fallout Shelters all over
Granted, we actually had a enemy at the time, but fear of death and the will to survive is just human
Is it _really_ fair to compare these to the Maginot Line? That at least had logistics sorted out and an effective way to prevent armies from passing through its defenses. Not to mention that they were concentrated at what should have been the most important area to defend (until Germany tried blitzkrieging through a route too crazy for anyone to actually try invading through, let alone succeed).
(...Though given that the Maginot Line was so imposing, to the point that invading through the Low Countries was probably a _less_ hilariously risky plan, leaving other potential invasion routes so much less fortified was probably a poor strategic move overall.)
Static defenses is the common denominator. You speak as if the Maginot Line was superior to these pill boxes, but you fail to consider that a well thought out failure was still a failure. No matter how much genius was applied to its design, the M.L. was stupid from the outset. WWI already proved that static lines were no longer effective. The means to defeat them was already clear by the end of the war, and even clearer 10 and 20 years later.
The construction of prefabricated bunkers alone cost an estimated two percent of net material product,[10] and in total the bunkers cost more than twice as much as the Maginot Line in France, consuming three times as much concrete.[27]
The QZ bunker was designed by military engineer Josif Zagali, who served with the Partisans during World War II and trained in the Soviet Union after the war.[24] He observed how dome-shaped fortifications were virtually impervious to artillery fire and bombs, which simply ricocheted off the dome.[9] He used his knowledge to design the subsequently ubiquitous dome-shaped bunkers. He himself was places on one of these finished bunkers and it was surrounded by tanks who emptied all their magazines on it! After the attack he was unharmed so almost a million of these were built! Elsewhere, thousands of kilometres of tunnels were built to house political, military and industrial assets. Albania is said to have become the most tunnelled country in the world after North Korea.[24] The tunnels were built in conditions of great secrecy. Engineering teams were not allowed to see construction through to completion but were rotated from site to site on a monthly basis.[20]
Albanian tunnels are so vast that even the Albanian army does not have a clear idea how many they are or what they house! There is a fun fact that shows how ubiquitous these tunnels are; 16 tonnes of Chemical weapons were discovered by the Albanian Army in one of their tunnels after which they contacted Nato and reported it before destroying it! We Albanians still do not know the full extent of this labyrinth that connects mountains to mountains and provides different passages to different exits in each of the mountains sides and height levels! Albanian relief is very dangerous for infantry or helicopters, friendly or otherwise! Remember the Apache helicopters that were able to fly in any terrain until they flew in Albanian highland and crashed? Flying from the middle of the country to the border (less than 500km) they had to go through three different turbulent microclimates and reported that very few of these mountains ranges had passages wide enough that one could navigate a helicopter or any equipment through
Hello TWKNIGHT just wanted to let you know the specifications of these tiny shits: They are made from a series of concrete slices, each weighing eight or nine tons, which were concreted together on site to form an interlocking dome. Fully assembled, they weigh between 350-400 tons and are virtually impervious to artillery fire and explosives to the point that we have to live with them because it beats destroying them, however much we hate them! Oh and and in total these bunkers cost more than twice as much as the Maginot Line in France, consuming three times as much concrete.[27] WIKIPEDIA
@deezynar
How can you call the maginot line a failure when you don't even understand its purpose ?
Great now I want to visit Albania.
Its pretty cool! If you like military tourism its a great choice. Go to Gjirokaster and check out that castle. Also keep an eye out for antique shops. They have some surprising goodies.
Unbearable Pain
You should come 🇦🇱
Ur welcome :)
You gotta be hardcore to rule Albania..
Out of all the beautiful landscapes Albania offers you choose to cover up the BUNKERS
I'm going to guess you don't watch this series? It isn't a show about beautiful landscapes.
But yes, Albania is lovely.
@@RareEarthSeries It's my first time watching a video from this channel
Maybe the bunkers didn't make sense from a military standpoint, but they make great sense from a nation building standpoint. They give a otherwise flavorless nation some character. Like Egyptian Pyramids or Japanese Temples.
Plus they are actually functional. If you get caught in the rain, you've always got somewhere to hide! Totally worth it.
Enver Hoxha was not a paranoid man , he was very smart indeed .The man learned from the past .He was surrounded with enemy Slavic countries that wanted the divide Albania , so that the world would never know that there was a native nation in that area . after the world wars , Albania was divided in many pieces that even today are visible in balcan ,some were given to Serbia ,some were given to Greece ,some to Monte negro , some to Northern Macedonia.And that with the help of the European countries of that time .So no wounder that guy had to build 750 000 bunkers to defend itself , we years before the Albanians faced genocide during the WW1 and WW2 and before and before and before . In his time as a president -good luck invading Albania or good luck building 750 000 tomahawk missals.
The leading military schools disagree with this assessment.
lol that outro card.
So that's why you went to Albania, Evan? :P
Yes, he wanted to pose to show us his crotch.
well atleast albania has cool tourist stuff now and thats cool, I wanne visit.
Albania has amazing mountains in the north, beautiful beaches in the south and thousands of years of ancient sites and artifacts to see.
You should.
You should, I spent a month there. There are some great things to see. Food is cheap and plentiful. Sub tropical. Lizards everywhere. Beautiful beaches. Greek Roman and Byzantine architecture. I will say though that Albania is dangerous and you should be careful.
Trust me, you will be dissappointed. I used to live there. I don't want to go there ever again. It's an awful country.
@Kokomiu hahaha smundesh te pranosh te verteten
When i was in Albania, i was in the Fire region and had the opportunity to check out the ancient Greek/Roman/Byzantine/Ottoman/Nazi/Communist fortification of Apollonia. As farms the eye could see, bunkers made for missile trucks. This hill had a vantage of the flatlands that saw up and down the coast to the horizon 16 kilometres away. I also had the pleasure to travel to Gjirokaster, a 2nd century castle used for all kinds of wars. In the midst of all the drives and walks I went on during my 1 month stay, I can attest to the fact that bunkers and pillboxes literally lie at every block and crossroads.
Keep in mind that the majority of the bunkers were destroyed after the fall of communism (in 1991) so you should have seen more bunkers during your journey but they were probably destroyed..
Ps: I live in tirana the capital of albania and in my yard there is an underground shelter made out of 5-6 rooms it was used to shelter people from air raids (bombs) for my neighbors
I am thinking of building a house above it while connecting it with the shelter downstairs 😅
(5-6 free rooms)
Azerbaijan => Armenia => Albania => .....
Andorra, brace yourself, you're about to get your 15 minutes of fame!!!
I used to confuse Armenia and Albania all the time, because I'm a total shithead. Rest assured, I'll not do that as much in the future.
inb4 austria
Coumotep the Reluctant Libertarian just check up Caucasian Albania
Iberia and Albania are rightful Caucasian clay.
+BlueSquad yeah.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Iberia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_Albania
Uphold Hoxhaist-Posadist Thought!
as someone who has lived in Albania for the past 7 years I can say that you end up ignoring them
The weird thing is, the bunkers have their own industry in Albania. I have a friend that lived in Tirana say that there are startup small businesses that sell them as real estate, some are used as art galleries, and guides that give tours. I really enjoy how you wrote this, I can feel your enthusiasm.
Hoxhaism: You are sick and tired of everyone making fun of you for living in a bunker. you are even more tired of the horrible internet speeds in your bunker.
We've never had 750,000 bunkers, not even 50,000, which is more than the number of all sorts of fortifications overall. 750,000/Albania's area= around 25/km2. Nigh impossible. Now, we have/have had real issues. It's not fun at all seeing foreigners competing on who's better at depicting our country crazier and more absurd than it already is.
I say that in the video. :)
There were about an average of 5.7 bunkers for every square kilometre. by 1983 a total of 173,371 concrete bunkers had been constructed around the country.
well then its very misleading then especially for the channel he tries to be.
Maybe change the title then? It's a tad misleading to say the least...
Did the Koran tell you the true. 😂😂😂🐷🐷🐷🕋🐷🐷🐷
Living in South Korea for 2 years, I can tell you that there are bunkers all over that country. They're mainly hidden in plain sight though still very much ready to defend against an attack from the North. Many bridges, overpasses, and train tracks etc... are pre prerigged with demo, just requiring a few components to detonate them to block strategic infiltration routes.
ROK is however a great country with amazing people. Talented, honest, friendly ,honorable above all other countries I've been to in Asia. As a bonus, the women are the prettiest and most respectable women on earth.
Amazing at video games as well...
Their women have artificial faces...
Good to mention but this video is not accurate.Also Albania is in a great position that connects east to west and a great place for trading purposes.Albania is also one of the countries where you can find every type of minerals and other worthy materials which only some big countries like USA,China or Russia have.Albania has the biggest fresh water reserves in Balkan considering the small size of its territory and has more and more values.That's why many countries especially those of Balkan have wanted and tried to invade Albania throughout the history.
and every type of drugs and organs
+BlackEliteStudio lmfaoo00 😂😂😂😂😂
@@AmericanHairlines69 you nailed him😂😂😂
liking the video before watching it is big mood with this channel
Those who say Albania wasn't worth of invading know nothing. It has the most strategic position along with Kosova in the Balkans, high geo-political influence, the most beautiful beaches in the world and ports and canals that connect Albania to the rest of the world.
If we are speaking of balkans, I believe having access to the danube river or Marmara sea is more strategic.
This was cool. One thing about the Maginot Line. I worked well enough to convince the Germans to go around and invade through Belgium, rather then try to break through it. That has to be some level of success.
Maybe Enver Hoxha forgot that flamethrowers were invented during WWI just for the job of clearing out bunkers and pillboxes. During WWII it became even more clear they did their intended job very well. Also, small bunkers without any kind of heavy artillery isn't going to bother a tank, let alone a whole armored division. It seems Hoxha only imagined a guerrilla style, static warfare in an urban setting with only infantry being involved. The only real use these bunkers potentially had were to protect civilians during aerial attacks, not that urban settlements are "high priority" targets in an aerial attack anyway.
never in my life have i seen as many little bunkers as we did when we visited albania in the 1980's it was incredible the place was destroyed but the people were lovely and friendly
Except... England also did this. There are pillboxes and bunkers "strewn about the country" here, too.
So not a paranoid Commie thing, nor the inevitable breaking of an economy (we did this during WWII), nor a tactical waste of time. At one point, every single garden in England had a bunker in it.
Yes but when the commies do the same is bad. Shh you dont wanna spoil their rhetoric, it may expose them to the rest of the world's perspective.
UK also had tiny bunkers for watching nuke flashes and reporting them.
@@kohterg3713 750,00 bunkers is too much for such a small country. It's ridiculous how much money you would need to build that many bunkers for a underpopulated nation.
Man I love this show, both the writing and the cinematography. You guys are the best!
Growing up in communist Albania me and my friends liked bunkers.
Our favorites were the long bunkers located in residential areas in between apartment buildings. We would go in there exploring the inside of the bunkers with torches.
My grandparents have a bunker in their back yard. This bunker was built for the neighborhood residents in case of an areal bombing attack.
This bunker was dug in to the hill behind the house. It is around 50 metres long in to the hill underground. I remember going in there exploring the stalagmites wich would form on the ceiling. It was like cave exploration. Very interesting.
One thing that comes to mind is the temperature in this bunker was constant. It felt cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Well in Albania you can see bunkers all over the country even in the sea because of the sea level rise but if world war 3 happens we are very safe so I think that's good
most don't even work. they all have no doors most of the time
The Sino-Albanian Split happened due to Nixon's visit to the PRC in 1972, as Enver believed that Mao was capitulating to the West and turning against Marxism-Leninism. (Small correction)
The most educational and informative series on UA-cam. I have yet to watch one that wasn't well thought out and eye opening. I hope that you will travel across the USA at some point and help educate our population with some truth.
Great video. Big fan here. I recently visited Jaisalmer fort in State of Rajasthan, India ( I am Indian) and I think it has a story that if researched in depth would be worthy of your consideration.
Here after watching Bald and Bankrupt's videos on these bunkers!
Me too
Since WW3 kinda started and Sergei Lavrov said that the 3rd World War Will Involve Nuclear Weapons... You already know Albania is where I’m heading to.
Housing shortage? You have 750k bunkers!
lol there is no housing shortage in Albania. Every second building i saw was vacant.
Thank you for this video. 10 minutes well spent
I got the notification and read it just as it was going away..... I read..... "The 750,000 bunkers of Atlanta" 👀 😂🤣🤦♂️
Reduce the population to 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature🤦🏼♂️
Wake Up haha, ya I know right! Damn guide stones have me paranoid! Lol! 👌👍😂🤣👀😔
For real😄😅😓😬😨 I've never been but they sure seem to reflect an agenda 21moral☠️
Yo uploaded 1 min ago? Keep up the great work!
This "Enver Hoxha" fellow sounds very wise. - *Rogal Dorn*
Lorenzo Pagani I am fortifying this position
When my grandparents were looking to buy a new house in the late 90's we saw a lot of houses and a bunch of them had bunkers, this was in El Paso, Tx.
Hope you enjoyed your stay in Albania Rare Earth. As you yourself have experienced , albania sells nowdays - and not only for the bad news-. We are on that right trajectory of economic & social prosperity as well as cultural convergece with the European values - given our 500 years forced divergence - . Ofc we need 2-3 more decades however it seems feasible. All in all , thank you for the advertisment and your objective representation - even flattering at times-.
P.S By the end of this year Albania will have welcomed around 6 million tourists with a 20 % increase year to year. Same for the exports of physical products which have increased at 20% as well.
I lived in Albania for a few years and can't wait to go back. Each time I go back I notice so many changes.
We road our Motorcycle through Albania. We played the spot the bunker game through the mountain ranges, on the beaches and in the town's. Really good game
I knew absolutely nothing about 🇦🇱 but this was An amazing video that makes me want to learn more
Really enjoy these vids, so I've finally subbed.
love Albania! mir dita nga Spetses!
Hello buddy, are you arvanites??
@@eneashini9911 po, po!!!
@@ΓιώργοςΜπέκας-ν8ψ this is my Facebook account: Euglen Sulmina, if you have one send me your request.
@@eneashini9911 i did just
Omg I've been there 2 weeks ago, thank you for making this video
"Why would anyone want to invade Albania, the cost would be greater than the benefit."Italy looks nervously around the room.
Many countries tried to make us extinct but none of them could
@@1444-y8u 💪 lir (free) 🇦🇱👐
Lol italy its us best aleat he helped us so much and the albanian love italy ....us enemy its greec serb and the edrogan (with they mentality to controll us state)
This channel is a gem, how did I discover it only now...
well now we know if Russia invades western europe, albania will be a place for NATO to bunker down and fortify easily lol
"An idea so bad, I made a video about it"
That is the defining feature of this series!
I've seen Albania under Hoxha referred to as Europe's North Korea.
@Kokomiu the army was shit. You are just another Albanian dude who thinks his nation used to be dangerous. I used to be like you too until I left that shithole.
@@djg5644 dafuq is wrong with you?
Rare Earth
In the most polite way possible, your entire attempt to criticize the bunkers are based off of false conclusions and contradictory statements.
For instance, you portray Albania as a useless country of no value and thus did not face the threat of invasion? However, you said yourself that Yugoslavia wanted to annex Albania, and the same about Greece. That means that either those countries want to invade a piece of useless land OR you are wrong about Albania's lack of strategic value. Either way, you kind of are incorrect. The most obvious advantage one could have through Albania is political influence and security for its neighbours. No matter how small, any unfriendly neighbour is a dangerous neighbour.
Perhaps the bunkers were not good for "economic progress", but what good is ‘economic progress' to a country when focusing on it will likely result in the country no longer existing?
’Also, you portray the bunkers as primarily for "guerrilla warfare". Sorry, but that really is not true. For starters, it is better to have more than too little. Should the need arise, not every bunker was to be used, nor were all bunkers identical. Do you seriously think that each bunker has been assigned four people? The bunkers were constructed so that all parts of the country could be defended when necessary. Furthermore, it serves as immediate protection from potential air strikes. As we see, the government was quite accurate in that prediction, as Albania's neighbours were destined to get air raided decades later. What is wrong with building air raid shelters? Every country that could do so at the time did that. Albania simply added slots so that shelters could double as defense posts if necessary. Oh, and by the way, the rest of the world did not "move on" from WWII guerrilla warfare. WWII era tactics were still very much in use regions such as Vietnam and neighbouring countries. The NLF could only dream of having so many bunkers, so please do not misrepresent peoples you know nothing about.
But most of all, you tried to obscure the fact that Albania was actually a country that needed defense plans. However, isn't that what so many in the west are so good at? After all, everyone said Vietnam didn't need worry about war... until it suddenly did. Hitler said that Poland need not worry... then he invades it. The west said the Balkan nations need not worry... then they bomb Yugoslavia and destroy the region. It is better safe than sorry. You really don't understand how dangerous it is to be a small country during the Cold War, do you?
Albanians that have not coped with their past going mad in 3, 2, 1
Whats the problem with bunkers? I own 7...in my backyard
what a lovely presentation, very professional , thanks
Those bunkers are so cool :)
Albania in so much places have underground city and underground a big tunnel to connect two cites from each one. Underground city with hopsital and everything
I love my babies!
Just bumped into your very interesting channel. The quality of your content is excellent. Thank you
History is the recording of human progress, many steps forward and backwards.
Zombie apocalypse: happens
World: goes to albania you have to do something
Albania: yes
Afghani is the unit of currency in Afghanistan. If you mean to refer to citizens of Afghanistan, you need to use the word Afghan.
Using Afghani to refer to the people is an obsolete term now but it was still in use/applicable during the timeframe he is discussing, hence it's probably the term Hoxha would have used.
@@llynellyn It is just "obsolete" because some SWJ wants to invent a new term every 20 years.
Man, if you dig Bunkers, that's the place for you!
Great episode dude's & dudette's.
Thanks.
Wow. Albania got its video. When is slovenia getting one 😜? Keep up the good work!
I know, I cant believe it.
He does jump around a lot. While I hope he covers Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Slovenia, etc...., I don't think he will. He may not cover any of them. I think he needs to find several special stories to commit to making a video about a country. In that sense, I think Bosnia has the most chance of being covered from all of our ex Yugoslav countries.
Yeah. But it just feels nice to have him covering stories close to us
It does :).
It would take a whole year to do the balkans, a lot of history there.
I actually don't think the bunkers were a bad idea at ALL.
And they were not! They were very dangerous times and history has a way of repeating itself. When the war started in Ukraine we half jokingly told our grandpa to clean up the bunker and the underground shelter in his backyard at the village house. These people laugh but I don't think its funny at all!
You might consider adding longer pauses during your videos, especially when switching subjects/ideas and after an open question. This allows, us, the viewer to better grasp the content.
Continue the great work!
Thank you for making this video but i disagree with some of your opinions.
First off, Switzerland has even TODAY more Bunkers than us in Albania and much more expensive too, and they have never been invaded during their history. SO? Are they stupid too? We instead have been invaded differet times. So we had more reason than them to build these bunkers. Since we coudn't produce weapons of mass detruction for deterence. Buldings bunkers were the less worst idea i think.
Second., stupid as it might sound but i don't know any country with this amount of Bunkers to have ever been INVADED. hahaha Unfortunatly it worked for our dictator since he stayed in power till his death. By the way Albania has also a lot of bunkers underground and inside the mountains too. Basically the little bunkers that you see at the coast or in the flat terrain were supposed to be just the first line of defense , the most ruthless and strongest line of defense would be in the mountains and in the hills in the inner country .
It was not so ill thought as it might seem at first sight. . Given the fact that 2/3 Albania territory is mountainous .
The problem with our dictator were not the Bunkers but the brutality of his criminal rule.
First, Switzerland has only around 20,000 bunkers while Albania has upwards of 750,000. Switzerlands are more expansive and had actual strategic planning while Albanian bunkers are sitting ducks and basically strategically useless. The issue with Albania is they didn't have the money for this and weakened their overall military and the bunkers were useless overall (only outcome was propaganda to the people). Also, the Maginot line one of the most complex and defensible lines with more than simple pill box bunkers didn't work
To be correct, there have been "only" 173.371 bunkers build . This is the exact number. The plan was to build 221.143 not 750.000. You are wrong too if you believe that there was not a strategic planning behind this. The bunkers were only a part of the overall strategy of the defense. At that time we had tanks, navy , artillery and airforce too. If the enemy was big and the communist failed to stop it with the convetional forces they would start the guerrila war. So it was a combination of things , It was not just the bunkers.
You should know that there are underground tunnels and bunkers in Albania too that connect one part of the city with another, or a village and a mountain to another. They don't tell this part of the story anywhere. The communist had studied the Vietnam war and they had in mind that scenario for Albania.. A long and continuos state of guerrila warfare to make the cost of permanance of the invading enemy force unberable .Anyways i'm not saying that this strategy could guarantee a 100% success but there was a logic behind it. It was not just a creation of a sick and paranoid individual, as some would like to suggest.
Enlightening information, all of you, for this partially-ignorant American right here (me).
problem is too many gullibble retards dont think to back up data with other sources and im disappointed this channel has resorted to a clickbaitish titles, makes me think he had no real intention of showing the actual reason and thought into why this and that is like that.
I agree. These mushroom bunkers are just the first line of defence. The real bunkers are in our cities and mountains where you enter at this side of the tunnel and you come up on the other side. When I was little and we had to do these kind of exercises, all the people had to leave the flats and go quickly into these underground bunkers. We were having fun with our friends down there for a while. When I remember these now, I think it was kind of funny and I'm glad to have experienced it. Can you imagine our mountain tunnels how scary they were? The tanks hidden completely on these mountains. You wouldn't see them. Even our ships and submarines were hiding under mountain tunnels, entering this side and coming out on the other side of the mountain. When the first NATO admirals Turkish and Americans saw these tunnels, their jaw dropped. They were state of art, they were built with the help of Russians.
my parents grew up in the reign of enver Hoxha. it was part of the school curriculum to have military training for days at a time in these bunkers. god bless America my friends.
Love how such a small country has broken a world record
Im from albania btw
Illyrian master race
I was in Albania in 99 I saw the bunkers it was pretty gnarly. Some of them were sealed and had weapons inside of them SKS s AKs RPGs and ammunition. They were booby-trapped and EOD had to use C4 to clear them. Then we spent weeks disposing of small arms.