Communist Albania Wanted To Be Self-Reliant

It was found later that Enver Hoxha's elaborate system of mini-bunkers were and ideal environment for growing mushrooms. Produce is grown in abundance with the surplus being shipped to the finest restaurants in Milan.

You forgot to mention that Albania was particulalry valuable to China because it was part of the UN. China used Albania to bring up the issue of Taiwan in the international scene and ended its recognision as the "True China"

You got to love a country with a King named Zog. What I remember of Albania is listening to Radio Tirana in the 1980s on shortwave telling us how the people live in paradise while the capitalist world is in decline.

A friend of mine played youth-league soccer in West Germany in the 80s when he was a teen. He told me that they once played an exhibition match against a team from Albania, and one of the Albanians defected. He told my friend that before going to Germany, government agents told them that all the wealth and prosperity they were going to see in West Germany was an elaborate capitalist deception created just to fool them. Imagine, all of West Germany making such an effort to deceive an Albanian youth soccer team, lol.

Ironically, this comes as Albania is having a moment, with record tourism, the main airport reaching twice its pre pandemic levels and its economy so strong that currency appreciation is actually an issue. Only took 35 years after the iron curtain collapsed...

That's not Khrushchev in the picture with Stalin at 17:18. That is Soviet Marshall Georgy Zhukov.

A lot of fun stories come from the football teams that were the very frew who were allowed outside the country (because its big here). During the late 80 a team from Tirana went to spain for a match with Barcelona, as per usual they wernt allowed to do anything free, the funding was so little, that they brought food with them from Albania, bread and chees and some tomatoes, the only things they were allowed to eat. One day after practice they managed actually visit around the place, as per usual they were stunded. Just imagine a dozen of skinny tall elegante and fit dudes walking around in their uniforms(unchanged). When they pasted a restorant, the owner notticed that they where the team that would play against Barca. Fortunately for you, he said, i am a Real Madrid fan and as their rival i invite you to my restaurant. As one of the players said. I hadn't feasted in so much food and in so much diversity my entire life, it was devastating to see how my friend and I were brought to this level of hunger...

Great summary here. As a sidenote, would have loved to see a mention of the stupendous amount of bunkers that were built during the Hoxa years, about 750,000 of them. Imagine what the money used to build them could have done to improve infrastructure.

I laughed out loud at "As you might expect, the Chinese love affair did not last for very long"

I’m Albanian. This was very good.

I met an Albanian once and asked him what it was like under Communism. He said 'we thought we were the most luckiest people on earth until it ended and we realised how duped we were by the propaganda". He was laughing as he said it.

Fun fact - one of the mountain ranges in Albania goes by the name "Accursed Mountains".

Albanian Alps is such a funny term, since both have the same Latin root word. It's like saying "mountains from the land of mountains"

As an Albanian myself im very surprised you touching upon this topic. Im curious how come you got into history of my country? I would suggest you to read the book called: Free, from Lea Yupi. Gives an interesting glimpse of what comes after as well. Great video. Very impartial datas are given. Much appreciated.

We lived in Albania for 1 year ....from Vlore to Schengjin . Our most favorite people of Europe are the Albania. Rakia & Peja camping at Plazh Dalan .................

Asianometry said forget the Asian theme I'm just going to talk and make a video about topics I find interesting 😂😂😂😂 I respect that

A country that tries to stand totaly alone falls totaly alone.

6:50 I would like to add that Yugoslavia too is often referred to as one of the countries who liberated itself Another note: Its Zukhov at 17:22 not Khrushchev. Sorry for being a nerd.

Self reliance was impossible for the third reich so it makes sense that a tiny country didn’t manage it. Even a huge country such as the USSR couldn’t truly achieve it. Yet I sometimes see individual people saying they are moving towards being self sufficient. It makes no sense to me. Trade and cooperation has always been essential. It makes everyone better off. It doesn’t matter if you are capitalist or socialist. You need trade and cooperation.

I visited the island of Corfu back in '86.I took a boat trip around the island and sailed past the Albanian cost.Through binoculars I observed a small town,complete with mid-rise apartment blocks,sports fields etc but not a soul to be seen. At night you could hear distant artillery being fired .Also,at that time Greek TV reception on Corfu was poor but Albanian TV reception was very good but in B+W.Albanian TV programming was limited to news,sports,folk music and political speeches.I became intrigued with the place from that time but there was very little in English to read on Albanian history,😮 especially the Communist regime under Hoxha.