the 'europe' at the start was a jumpscare

@tripsaplenty1227

19 күн бұрын

yuuURRRRPPPP

@pedrolax9275

19 күн бұрын

Glad it wasn't just me

@DarkGodSeti

19 күн бұрын

EeEURope!! Had scroll and see if I was the only as well hahaha

@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley

19 күн бұрын

Damnit, I have to rewind the beginning now because I heard Simon say it, instantly saw your comment, and was laughing too hard to hear anything else! 😂

@jkus49012

19 күн бұрын

@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley eurOPE

As an Albanian I am thankful that finally someone of your caliber (some other channels, with far less subscribers, have covered this but unfortunately they can cover such a wide audience as you do) on youtube decide to cover this topic. He was the incarnation of evil, made Albania become an hollow shell and a joke of a state. The world needs to know.

@fritzbasset8645

16 күн бұрын

Albania was better off under good King Zog, but Mussolini had to invade and wreck all of that in 1939.

@mottom2657

10 күн бұрын

@@fritzbasset8645 If Ahmet Zogu was really that good, he wouldn't have fled his country. Hoxha, Xoxe fought for Albania. Even though BK were Nazis, they also didn't flee away.

@AncientRylanor69

9 күн бұрын

thanks

@MrRezillo

8 күн бұрын

@@mottom2657 I just read a biography of King Zog. He was not a bad fellow. He didn't flee to go cavort on the Riviera. He (futilely) established a government in exile with the intention of coming back to Albania. Other countries did the same: France and other countries in WW 2, Chiang Kai Chek in Taiwan, etc. And of course, compared to Hoxha, he was an angelic saint.

@freshcancer713

8 күн бұрын

The world already knew albania is a shithole nothing new was learned

Simon saying "based and comradepilled" wasn't on my bingo card today.

@annemusekamp336

18 күн бұрын

The whiplash I got when he said that 😂

@M-_-O

17 күн бұрын

6:48 I had to pause after this 😂

@straightrippnable706

12 күн бұрын

I've read the phrase (in reference to Nickleback) "based and Chadpilled" so many times that I had to look at this sentence twice to perceive that it says in fact, comradepilled

"Enver Hoxha" sounds like a C-Tier Star Wars character name that gets killed off 5 minutes after being introduced.

@hazzardalsohazzard2624

19 күн бұрын

There is an extremely minor Star Wars character named after him. It's how I first heard of the guy.

@Jungoguy

19 күн бұрын

Savage😂😂😂

@maynardwayward12

19 күн бұрын

he does!

@TheBuckeyeHistoryGuy1776

19 күн бұрын

Sounds like a bounty Hunter name/someone associated with the Hutt clan

@SupremeInvigilator

19 күн бұрын

Misa agree wit dis!

my family is albanian who have been living in north macedonia since like forever. my dad remembers that they used to watch albanian state television showing albania as this advanced and beautiful country. after hoxha died and albania opened back up they visited it and were extremely disappointed with what they found. a country and a population that had exactly nothing. thanks for this video simon im looking forward to watch this with my dad :)

@howbizarrepodcast5421

19 күн бұрын

I'm from N.Macedonia also, and remember the wave in 1992 when Albanian people from pogradeci and korca came to Ohrid in their thousands it was a weird period

@howbizarrepodcast5421

19 күн бұрын

I remember they had better tv transmitters and the signal was wow Similarly with radio.

Albania was Europe's answer to North Korea. I live mere few miles from Albanian border and one can still see concrete bunkers and pillboxes across the Ohrid lake shore.

@blogdesign7126

19 күн бұрын

True.

@lcplaztec

19 күн бұрын

I was thinking that this sounds a lot like the DPRKs "Juche" ideology, with a smattering of Khmer Rouge focus on the rural peasantry.

@nisselarson3227

18 күн бұрын

was?

@Panzermech

18 күн бұрын

As a American my geography is not good, but Albania is surrounded by Former Yugoslavia? Except for the coast.

@howbizarrepodcast5421

18 күн бұрын

@@Panzermech Yugoslavia and Greece

As an Albanian, I have much to say and I don't know where to start. I'm young and born in democracy, but my parents and grandparents have told me everything about the communist era. What I can say in a few words is that if you want to curse a nation, you can wish them to try communism. Paranoia was Hoxha's biggest problem, which then brought many killings, destruction, moneys spent in bunkers etc. Anyway I would give credit to him only for one thing, because a nation like Albania who had been under Ottoman occupation for almost 500 years, then went through the Balkan Wars, then went through WW1, then through the Italian occupation, then it became a monarchy under a guy who just called himself King out of nowhere, and then through WW2 (all of this in just 33 years, so 1912 - 1945) needed a strong leader. As a leader (setting asside all the evil things he did, and he did a lot) in the first 10 - 15 years he was succesful in the electrification of Albania, he built many dams, a very efficient irrigation system and also a very good agriculture. Most Albanians didn't know to read and write and many normal things were taboo, so he managed to create a really good education system and abolish many taboos. But this lasted only for about 15 years, until Stalin was dead, because after his death, Kruschev started to communicate to the USA and that was the moment Hoxha's paranoia really started to kick in. He from the beggining killed a lot of people, but after falling out with the USSR he started detaining, killing and deporting to forced labour many more peoples left and right. All in all, I want to repeat what I said to the begginig, that if you want to curse a nation, just with them to try communism and the shock will endure for decades. It can be seen in East Germany for example, where the East continues to be significantly less developed than the West, meanwhile in Albania is extremely evident, because even after 33 years peoples are still mentally impacted from that era, fortunately long gone

@Stupididiot67

16 күн бұрын

cursing a nation with communism historically developed that nation faster than any others. literraly everywhere socialism has been tried it has been very succesful in improving living conditions, you said yourself the electrification, the dams and agriculture. Main reason why eastern europe is shit now is because of capitalist shock therapy.

@scottevans2685

16 күн бұрын

Thank you for sharing this. The maleducated little fools here in the West who think Communism is the answer to all of the world's problems need to hear from you and your family, people who lived through Communism and its aftermath and who know what it is really like.

@joel4535

12 күн бұрын

The question How do we stop or defeat these people before they become the leaders?

He was a monster. What angers me the most, is that our history books don't stress just how much of a monster he was.

@akhan4727

19 күн бұрын

I've always wanted to ask how life was during communism but the Albanians I've met they all refuse to answer or try to change the conversation. then I realize it's just too painful for them to speak about so I let it rest. there's such little information about life during the communist state

@freddthurman3935

19 күн бұрын

I wonder how Albanian perceive him. In our country, history is so distorted that we glorify dictators. I hope Albania is not doing the same mistake

@Alban-ux8jf

19 күн бұрын

​@@akhan4727 My dad has told me he'd often go to bed hungry, especially during winter, when he was a kid. His family had beehives, which helped a little. He's told me about relatives who'd chose to feed the cow instead of the infant, because having the cow meant fewer people would starve to death. I can't even imagine. I was born after Hoxha had died and with him the Party

@Alban-ux8jf

19 күн бұрын

​@@freddthurman3935I'm 37. People my grandparents' age were totally brainwashed and they feel nostalgic. Well, they felt. Now they're in their 80s or 90s and pretty vegetative. People my parents' age absolutely hated it. It was beyond terrible, especially in rural or remote areas. They're so many awful things that weren't mentioned in the video. I don't blame Simon. He'd need hour to describe the horrors of 50 years of Enver Hoxha

@shanbannan17

19 күн бұрын

it all ways ends the same one person takes all power and becomes a monster

The trauma didn’t even end with Hoxha. During the 90’s, their entire transition to capitalism and a market economy was built off of literal pyramid schemes that the government tricked its citizens into join. When the schemes inevitably collapsed after a few years, Albanians lost a collective $1.2 billion, and the country then basically descended into civil war for about 6 months, leaving at least 2,000 dead and the government nearly collapsed. Albania was practically just born to suffer.

@bigotutbigotescu4723

18 күн бұрын

Pyramidal schemes was part of our '90's, too. Salve from another 'Eastern Europe's block" country, too.

@alexlents4689

18 күн бұрын

@@bigotutbigotescu4723 It’s borderline cartoonishly evil. A government flat-out scamming its own citizens (which at the time were already some of the poorest in the world). How thoroughly and hopelessly rotten do you have to be to do something like that? Truly mind boggling.

@TabuBlog

18 күн бұрын

True

@Enraged-Gecko

18 күн бұрын

The scars of oppression almost always outlive a single oppressor. As no man is an island, neither is a tyrant. To survive, a dictator has to build a structure to insulate him from his victims, which means there’s a plan of succession in the event of the dictator’s death. This is a matter of necessity on the part of the cronies, who need continuity to protect them from the people they’ve aggrieved.

@danijuggernaut

17 күн бұрын

@@bigotutbigotescu4723 Yeah, i remember the Ponzi "Jam Connection" and Herbalife became legal.

My wife is from Albania , I’ve been there with her and it’s honestly one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to , that natural beauty is next level , it’s such a shame that it’s people have suffered so much

@neilreynolds3858

19 күн бұрын

I'm tempted to move there when I retire. The US is getting to be unbearable.

@charliereah4831

19 күн бұрын

If its so great why are so many in the UK running drugs and people trafficking? Sounds like a bunch of arse's to me

@it.snowig

19 күн бұрын

@@neilreynolds3858jesus the US can’t be THAT unbearable

@dougbennett8592

19 күн бұрын

​@it.snowig it's not. This is just talk from right wing extremists who truly hate freedom.

@jimtalbott9535

19 күн бұрын

@@it.snowigVery often places like Albania can be very attractive to US retirees, since the COL is so low. And it’s not as if it’s very far from a love of wonderful stuff.

Europe's Most Deranged Dictator- that is a very high bar, with a lot of competition.

@joecentral-o9984

19 күн бұрын

I could easily think of a couple others 😅

@Murray_Brown

19 күн бұрын

@@joecentral-o9984For whatever reason I think of Germany but don’t know why…

@michaelsurratt1864

19 күн бұрын

@@Murray_Brown to be figured this dude didn’t have control over nearly as many people Mr. mustache 100,000 people in Albania is pretty high percentage, considering how tiny it is

@Murray_Brown

19 күн бұрын

@@michaelsurratt1864 consider me figured! 👍🏼

@michaelsurratt1864

19 күн бұрын

@@Murray_Brown lmaoooo voice to text

And the race for Europe's Most Deranged Dictator is a crowded field.

@Gehri_soch2.0

12 күн бұрын

Ceasescu was worse like hoxhe built more than Half a million bunkers but Ceasescu demolished villages to build the palace of the parliament

@mottom2657

10 күн бұрын

@@Gehri_soch2.0 Ceaușescu started fine but became fully (and actually) deranged after he had visited North Korea. Hoxha was oppressive but not deranged. These two aren't even comparable.

@Tybold63

9 күн бұрын

Indeed and Putin is still alive. Stalin, Hitler are perhaps the no1 shared place. Then we have a few more like Franco, Mussolini, Ceaușescu and possibly more that I missed.

@Goldenmid974

9 күн бұрын

@@Tybold63Putin is absolutely NOTHING compared to these leaders.

@Tybold63

8 күн бұрын

@@Goldenmid974 He is trying hard though or are you biased?

One of the most least known dictators.

@Murray_Brown

19 күн бұрын

Personally I’d say he’s one of the least most known dictators but that’s just me.

@aaabatteries9948

19 күн бұрын

He was a monster. Not only did he not care about his people, he didn't even care about those who were close to him. He even ordered the execution of his childhood best friend who sheltered and gave him money while they were both studying in France. I hope he is rotting in hell.

@jumpupdown2556

17 күн бұрын

Eh I've always felt he was one of the more overrated underrated dictators.

@Based_Stuhlinger

17 күн бұрын

@@Murray_Brown That's what I meant...

@MikeDindu

12 күн бұрын

I’d say he’s one of the least known dictators, but that’s just me.

At the end of the 1970s I sometimes used to listen to the shortwave English language broadcasts of Radio Tirana which comprised world news & views from an Albanian regime perspective in Marxist-Leninist jargon of mindnumbing sterility. In 1980 Queen Elizabeth II made a state visit to Italy and the Vatican. I've never forgotten how Radio Tirana described it: "Today at the Vatican in Rome the chieftain of British imperialism had a meeting with the boss of Vatican obscurantism."

@stevenrobinson2381

19 күн бұрын

What a perfect example of Marxist Leninist dogma. Utterly disgusting. No wonder why those kind endeavor mightily to keep the "proles" ignorant.

@chrishenniker5944

18 күн бұрын

I heard that Radio Tirana had a reputation for being very boring.

@Alban-ux8jf

18 күн бұрын

They got the last part right. Then again, even a broken clock tells the time correctly twice a day

@bartolomeothesatyr

17 күн бұрын

@@Alban-ux8jf The whole statement is accurate; British imperialism definitely was and remains a thing, if perhaps more culturally and economically than militarily these days; but yeah, broken clocks.

@Stupididiot67

16 күн бұрын

is the radio wrong though? an unbroken clock tell the time correctly 86400 times a day

I offer Albania's experience as a counter to that frequent assertion that "real / true communism has never been tried".

@mused89

17 күн бұрын

But it wasn't communism as Marx and Engels envisioned, so your offer is rejected I guess. Enver idolised Stalin. However, Stalin was hated by Lenin (he thought he'd given him a minor role in the party as secretary to keep him out of the way, that backfired spectacularly). Lenin never got to implement his plans beyond "take control" due to illness and death, so he might have been bad but he probably wasn't insane like Stalin. Trotsky was assassinated by Stalin for critcising his fascist version of communism, and who was himself closer to a Leninist interpretation of Marxism - but he still differed from Lenin in multiple ways I don't know enough about Chinese history to fully comment on it, but Maoism is different to Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, and Trotsky in multiple ways and included many of Mao's own ideas. In other words - "communism" isn't just one thing. It's complicated and has been adopted by people with wildly different views and intentions, just like other forms of political ideology. While history and politics can't be so glibly summarised, all Albania really proves is that brutal and insane people should be kept away from power at all costs, whatever ideology they claim to believe in. BTW, I'm not a communist or a Marxist, I just don't like wild generalities.

@4362mont

17 күн бұрын

@@mused89 Here's a wild one for you, then: No version or variation has ever worked for anyone but the Hutterites-- and their gene pool is way too small.

@Stupididiot67

16 күн бұрын

@@mused89 i can tell your not a marxist lol you dont know what the fuck your talking about

@willprot6752

9 күн бұрын

@@mused89That seems to be a rather convenient retort. If Marxism can be judged by what it wanted instead of what happened when it was tried, can we not say the same about Fascism or Liberalism? Why should they be judged by their results while Marxism can comfortably sit within its intentions?

@gerdlunau8411

5 күн бұрын

@@willprot6752 Because other socialist countries had indeed their great achievements besides their limitations and cruelties (we should not forget, there is a lot of limitations in the so called Free World too, including cruelties). I grew up in East Germany (GDR) and got my complete (free) excellent education there as many of my peers. I had a very protected and nice childhood, peaceful youth without my family never to worry about not being able to pay the bills. In terms of materialistic things nothing was really missing, though many things weren't as modern as in West-Germany. But we (as a population) had private cars, TV-sets, furniture, whole houses, radios and tape recorders, fridges.... The materialistic level was probably better than Portugal, a country of the free West still harbouring a horrible fascist government at the time. Do not get me wrong, I have no sympathy for this guy. But the ideas of Marx were indeed something different than to build thousands of senseless (even in military means) mini concrete bunkers. Just in case someone sings the old songs again about the free world being so free during the 1970a - please do not forget fascist Spain and Greece at the time (both NATO members) and in Chile the CIA just ousted Pr. Allende against the will of the people in this country plus many more of these really not free and human "incidents" aligned with the Western free world; S.-Korea, Taiwan, Argentina, other S.-American countries, Indonesia, Philippines all nasty dictatorships - the list is very long. All during the same time period. Oh yes and do not forget the British gulag system in Kenya (Mau-Mau insurgence) during the 1950s. A very very dark chapter indeed. During the cold war no side was better than the other, and it depended very much on personal luck in which country you were born into. Peace! from Dresden / Germany

just got back from work time to learn about another brutal dictator from my boy simon

Hoxha's only saving grace was his appreciation of Norman Wisdom. And there's a sentence almost no-one would ever contemplate formulating.

@justonecornetto80

18 күн бұрын

I remember seeing the news clips of Norman Wisdom visiting Albania for the first time in the mid 90s. It was almost like the second coming. As I recall, he raised a lot of money for a children's charity that kept many fed and hired a team of paediatricians who saved the lives of hundreds of seriously ill kids across Albania.

@steved7961

17 күн бұрын

Apparently Hoxha's affection for Norman Wisdom's films was because he considered him a model socialist being the archetypal 'little man' who constantly manages to get one over on the rich and powerful. I often wonder what the Albanian cinemagoers thought as they watched a society where people were clearly well fed and well dressed, the shops were full of good things and Norman could be as irreverent as he wished towards authority figures without any consequences.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, we learned absolutely nothing about Albania. It was as if it only existed on the map. Otherwise, nobody bothered with it. The country really was closed. Few ever went in and few came out. So I appreciate this brief explanation as to why it is such a mystery to most Americans.

Simon's beard has started its escape attempt

During missions in Albania in the 90's, I noticed the borders, uphill empty rocky no-man's land topped by bunkers facing inward, while neighbouring Greece was where the treeline was. The bunkers were everywhere, useless even for storage... the cheapest way to destroy them was to fill them with timber, set it on fire, then, when they were red-hot, pour a truckload of water to crack them to pieces. The nature was pristine, the coastline savage, notwithstanding the autarchy mining monstruosities and military infrastructure here and there. The few trucks were imported from China, based on 1950's Soviet copies of 1930's US GMC trucks. The port of Durres held what seemed to be the biggest car sales black market in thr world. After 40 years of Orwellian dystopia, people were quick learners of any foreign tongue, hard workers and curious about anything technical or cultural.

What gets me the most about these insane dictators is never so you hear anyone close to them recognize they were supporting a Monster. Never once did they think that his paranoia could be the death of them all and so anything to stop them. We see it even now and that's worse, like we haven't collectively learned anything.

@andrewvelonis5940

18 күн бұрын

90% agree.

@bartolomeothesatyr

17 күн бұрын

@@andrewvelonis5940 I am curious, what is the basis for your 10% disagreement?

Bans facial hair yet his BFF Stalin had a bushy mustache not to mention Karl Marx and Lenin who had beards

@StoneInMySandal

18 күн бұрын

Hoxha couldn’t grow a beard.

@Dr.Mlieko

18 күн бұрын

really, he just did it to spite Muslims and Orthodox Christians and Jews

@nickmoser7785

18 күн бұрын

He banned it because he associated with religion due to many religious people whether they were Orthodox or Muslim had facial hair. Although it is kind of ironic considering that many famous Marxist leninist including his idols had facial hair

@DT-wp4hk

18 күн бұрын

Commies have double standards

@apokos8871

18 күн бұрын

@@DT-wp4hk is it commies or dictators of any ideology? i dont recall right-wing dictators being any better

Hoxha was never really a worldwide known and discussed example of dictatorship, and is now largely forgotten because he was the dictator od a small and globally insignificant country and had literally no bearing on world politics and economics. Basically, he was allowed to be the king of his own backyard. Growing up behind the iron curtain (in Hungary to be exact) we knew about him and some of Albania's weirdness (the banning of everything religious, the countless bunkers and the country's voluntary and total isolation), but Albania was by far the least discussed - or even thought about - Eastern bloc country. I guess, we basically thought of it as the poorest and most backwards country of the bloc - and that was all we thought about Albania.

@gerdlunau8411

5 күн бұрын

He even had no friends among other socialist countries. He was a maniac. Peace! from Dresden / Germany

Albanians used to swim across to Corfu in Greece the closest point is around 2 miles, when I lived there I remember hearing so many stories.

"Based" and "comrade-pilled" were not words I expected to hear in this video whatsoever 😂

Please do Nicolae Ceaușescu of Romania, unless you already have and I missed it. This is the only one of your channels I subscribe to, though I do occasionally watch other channels.

@Liquessen

19 күн бұрын

Ahem... I didnt know he died ages ago. I'm sorry.

@nickmoser7785

18 күн бұрын

Yeah he was a pretty fascinating guy. He fan boyed over Kim Il Sung so much that he literally modeled his whole entire leadership after him

“Stalin was pretty F*ing based, comrade pilled”. That was gold 😂 Thank you Simon.

Having lived in Albania from 1995-2002, the bunkers are a very real thing and litter the country side. Enver hoxha was a maniac and lived in wealth and opulence while his citizens barely survived. He was truly a 1984 big brother figure and I only hope the damage and horror he inflicted can stand as a strong reminder to the devastating failure that communism and Marxism is to humanity.

@passerby4507

19 күн бұрын

Yet the idiotic progressives in e.g. the US are still quite enamored with communism

@deanfirnatine7814

18 күн бұрын

That example has utterly failed sadly, go to any Western university, the Profs and students will tell you how awesome Marxism is, many of Western societies most blessed economically describe themselves as Socialists, media in the US ran PR cover for years for Socialist Venezuela until the collapse was too bad to hide, many of them still defend China and ignore show trials by Socialist governments that go around arresting their opposition.

@patrickkelmer6290

18 күн бұрын

Yup. My Grandfather fled East Germany in 1957 and told me very early on what evil Communism truly is. When I was 14, I was horrified to see how romanticised this filthy, anti-human ideology really is.

@DT-wp4hk

18 күн бұрын

Just like Rosenmoller and Timmermans in The Netherlands

@apokos8871

18 күн бұрын

the problem lies with him being a dictator, not with being a (supposedly) left-wing dictator. its not like right-wing dictators like Pinochet or Franco were any better. any if you knew anything about Marxist ideology, you would know that the Eastern Block had nothing to do with communism. communism according to Marx is the absence of a state, the complete opposite of what was happening. educate yourself

When I was in the hospital about 10 years ago, I noticed my nurse was speaking with a slight accent I didn't recognize. I politely ask where she was born. She replied, Albania. I mentioned the name, Enver Hoxha and she literally froze, with a look of terror that lasted more then a few seconds. She said I was the only person that ever ask her that. Clearly, the man's memory still haunts countless people.

@mikelamatria3610

4 күн бұрын

Bullshit

@mikelamatria3610

4 күн бұрын

Millions of albanians LOVE and miss Hoxha

@Gamesbozz

2 күн бұрын

@@mikelamatria3610and millions more hate him then lol

@gf2e

Күн бұрын

@@mikelamatria3610There are only about 1 million Albanians aged over 50. He died in 1985. So if every single Albanian old enough to remember him misses him, it’s still not “millions”.

@Gamesbozz

15 сағат бұрын

@@gf2e nah that’s untrue it’s more

My wife is Albanian and her family had a Sufi tariqa (in Albanian called something like techa) in their house. The government forced it to close and had his secret police montior it, but because it was run by her grandmother, a widowed elderly woman, they couldn't stop it from being open completely. During those times my wife's grandmother kept allowing people to pray there, both Muslim and Christian, so the government kept arresting and torturing her children, grandchildren, and relatives. They knew they couldn't get her as it would look awful, but they definitely got their pound of flesh. Talking to my wife and her family, it's obvious how awful those times were, and how traumatic. My wife was born the year Communism fell in the country, but the people from the previous generation who lived through it suffered so much. A lot of them turned to drinking and other vices to try to cope, and it is horrible to see. I just hope the future can be brighter for Albania. It is a wonderful country and the people there are extremely friendly and welcoming. It deserves and deserved a lot better than that tyrant.

@Unteragen-rg1so

9 күн бұрын

are there any countries that don't deserve a lot better than a tyrant?

@__Man__

5 күн бұрын

It is kind of ironic if you only know Hoxha/Hodzha/Hoca/Khwaja means a Sufi or tariqa teacher. Probably, Enver's ancestor was a Hoxha (tariqa teacher) and then, his descendant became like that. I also know about how Albanian Muslims did suhoor (pre-Ramadan fasting breakfast in the dark), because if the authority knew that they were fasting, it would be like that.

@Unteragen-rg1so

5 күн бұрын

@@__Man__ Enver Hoxha's father, with whom he didn't have a relationship, was actually a Muslim religious leader. On a related note, probably the neglect/abuse he experienced from his father (and mother) made him into the monster he was

@__Man__

4 күн бұрын

@@Unteragen-rg1so classic birth of dictator character, similar to Stаlіn and Ніtlеr. The only difference was Kim Jong-Il and is Kim Jong-Un, both were/are the son of dісtаtоrs, living in luxurious life, but still become dісtаtоrs.

I have met ethnic Albanians in the Detroit area, one lady runs a thriving breakfast nook in nearby Ferndale. She is hard working, speaks terrific English, and is a joy to meet!

I don't know for sure if this story is true but its worth telling. Back in the days of Hoxha an undercover Christian missionary travelled to Albania and distributed a number of evangelical tracts. When he left the country, he was handed all of the tracts he had distributed and the official said, "You seem to have lost these." Apparently, all the recipients were so afraid of retribution that they turned them into the authorities.

Simon was in rare form on this episode. Great work.

The Sigurimi are surely the most pervasive secret police in all of history; in 1989 they had 30,000 agents, in a country with a population of about 3 million; meaning 1 in 100 people in the country was a Sigurimi agent. By way of comparison, the Gestapo had approximately the same number of agents in total out of a population of over 80 million.

@p.strobus7569

19 күн бұрын

While the Stasi had about 90k official and another 144k informal for a population of 18M East Germans which means one agent per 77 people. Authoritarians are straight up evil.

Simon's no stranger to a good old dictator vid. He gives the people what they want. ALL HAIL THE PERSONALITY CULT OF THE FACTY FACT-BOOOOOY!

I visited Albania five years ago. One thing that I heard, which sticks in my mind, is that Albanians did not know of Elvis Presley's existence until 15 years after his death. That is a measure of the isolation imposed upon Albanians by their despised dictator.

One of those dictator nuts I haven’t heard as much about!

I have met a few Albanians in my life. What thay had to go through to escape this mad man

These documentaries should be showed in schools. Wonderful work!

@csmlyly5736

19 күн бұрын

Shown

@deanfirnatine7814

18 күн бұрын

YES maybe it would teach the kids not to listen to their teachers that tell them how awesome Marxism and Socialism are.

@ef7558

18 күн бұрын

The "school board" would never allow that to happen. Anyone that would dare to criticize these bums would be dealt with by their Gestapo known as "school security". Public schools are nothing item than tax payer funded brainwashing facilities

@csmlyly5736

18 күн бұрын

@@deanfirnatine7814 Have you ever even been in a school before?

@Nome_e_Cognome

18 күн бұрын

Why?

"This Hoxha fellow might be a bit of a wrong 'un''. Brilliant!

It's kind of freaky when you look at Europe as a whole, how different the countries that narrowly escaped communism are compared to the ones that didn't.

@thomasgrabkowski8283

19 күн бұрын

For example Austria. Parts of it were occupied by USSR including Vienna, but the west and Soviets agreed to make it an independent, neutral country and that it ultimately escaped communism thanks to it

@apokos8871

18 күн бұрын

"communism" that has a state isnt communism, by definition

Thanks For these

Great video. When I ask my Albanian friends about that period of time, they simply refuse to talk about it entirely.

As a teen in the 1970s I became fascinated with Albanian history. This was absolutely delightful.

In 1986 i had a substitute teacher who visit Albania. She had to ask for permit 5 years prior, a total sealed country to extern people. Man, visiting a museum, her boyfriend commented an exposed Foto, he said: Look sweetheart a MIG 21......wuuuuowwww the museum guide got alarmed and nervous and started to interrogate him, why he knew this fighter jet. Absolute demential.

Another very interesting video, Simon and crew, congratulations!!! There's a very good Italian film called L'America. It takes place soon after Hoxha's death. Apart from material wants, Hoxha kept the Albanians in the most abject ignorance. A movie well worth watching

Thank u 4 taking the time to expose this monster.

A thorough explicandum of a brief yet acrimonious spell of Albanian history.

Never heard of this bellend. Cheers from Tennessee

@fricku

19 күн бұрын

don't hear bellend enough

@Hillbilly001

19 күн бұрын

​@@frickuAnd probably not from an American either I'll wager. One of those great Britishisms. Cheers

@elliottdavies3528

19 күн бұрын

@@Hillbilly001 I've never heard or seen an American use that word. Funny, though! Wonder how it sounds in your accent since you're from Tennessee and I'm English. And yes, he IS a bellend!

@Hillbilly001

19 күн бұрын

@@elliottdavies3528 LOL! Picked it up when I was in the Army posted to W Germany in the mid 80's. Some fellows from the BAOR used it. Being an ignorant Yank, I asked. Have been using it ever since. Such a lovely word for a d*ckhead and most of the time they don't even know that you're insulting them. LOL! I probably don't sound as bad as a Brummy nor a Geordie, but I'll bet it's a close second or third. LOL! And yeah, my pals were those. I got used to the accent though. Cheers

@casinodelonge

19 күн бұрын

Jesus, you'll be saying "cockwomble" next!

Nice job dude

Thanks Simon! Literally never heard of him until this video

Well done, Simon and Team. This is context to pair with Rare Earth's pieces about Albania. A lesson we need to learn from history, look out for autocratic idealogues/demagogues. Once they get power, they're toxic to ordinary people and incredibly difficulty to remove. My heart goes out to the Albanian people.

I enjoy the videos on lesser known people/places. I’d like to hear about Nicolae Ceausescu and Slobodan Milosevic.

I recall reading that in the 1960s Albanians hoped to get a vacation in the USSR, where they could get a breath of fresh air.

I’m glad this video was uploaded. Hoxha is perhaps one of the most peculiar yet ruthless dictators of the 20th century. I was fascinated by his regime since last year, and I was surprised he was a pretty underground figure.

I never heard any of this before. Good work. Thanks

Hey Simon, love the video. You should consider making a video about only Latvian dictator- Kārlis Ulmanis (in power 1936-1940). Would be an interesting video.

I enjoyed this purely because I’d heard the name & read about him in history books ( pre-internet) and today I finally realised they were the same person.😅

Top video. The whole story explained easily.

thank you so much for this video.

I've been to the country many times and found the Albanians a hard working lot, intelligent, fast learning and ambitious. But all that is negated by an utter lack of understanding by most Albanians of how businesses work. It's common there to see 5 or 6 gas stations next to each other along a road with hardly any traffic. A hotel in the middle of a field with nothing for miles around to see is normal. Furniture stores were once a thing. 10 of them next to each other, as big as IKEA, all offering identical chairs, tables, wardrobes etc. Rows of huge highly modern hotels charging 160 euros a night while the usual clientele comes from eastern Europe and can hardly afford 20 euros a night. Needless to say a lo t of these businesses go broke and the buildings are left abandoned. I know of towns there where half the buildings are unfinished hotels, their owners gone bust. All that said, don't let that put you off, Albania is a wonderful country, well worth visiting.

Oy vey!! The Albanian people I met here in Toronto, Canada, so many years ago, were so wonderful!! I identify as Christian (baptized in an Albanian Orthodox mission church over 30 years ago) and a libertarian communist! My Albanian friends and Albanian Christian sisters and brothers told me of Hohxa's horrors! Disgusting! Whether Muslim, Orthodox, or Catholic, Hohxa pursued the faithful without mercy, not to mention his own Communist allies. Everyone is better off without that f-ing tyrant, and his regime! It is certainly not perfect today, but what human society in the world is? Good riddance! I look forward to someday visiting and hopefully spending a good amount of time in Albania. Thanks for the brief documentary about Hojxa and his horrible regime! May we never see its likes again! 😊

I went to Cofu in the late 1980's and remember watching all the lights going off at the same time every night across the sea in Albania.I went to Shkoder, in Albania in 2019, the city was still very poor and run down but you could detect that change for the better was slowly happening,and people I met were very friendly and keen to interact.The red wine was pretty good too ! It'll take a long time to undo the damage EH caused but 🤞they've begun the journey to a better and safer future and ill definitely go back when I get the chance.

Great video !!! It's amazing how some individuals can accumulate so much power to the point to put a whole population in a such degradable position.

He was to Albania what Ceauscu was to Romania.

Enver Hoxha's rule over Albania was in many respects an utter disaster, for which his people suffered terribly. However he himself did not suffer, materially at least, He and his family and cronys lived in great comfort and even luxury in special districts off limits to "ordinary people", with special shops, restaurants, apartments, housing and servants. (Enver Hoxha imported top tier Chefs to cook his meals etc.) With special clubs for the elite and lots and lots of special expensive goodies for the "Vanguard of the Working Class". Enver Hoxha himself had a huge library in which you could find many, many books that were officially banned in Albania has "reactionary". Brazen hypocrisy was also one of Hoxha's traits. Bizarrely there was before the Albanian State collapsed a cult among some Western Leftists, (So-called), who thought that Albania was a Socialist paradise, with "true" freedom etc. In other words these people were very much like the idiotic Fellow Travelers, and idiotic Stalinists who worshiped the most Holy State and it's God like leader Stalin. In this case it was Enver Hoxha rather than Stalin. While going to University there was a club that thought Albania was just perfect and even while visiting Albania these idiots thought it was paradise. The desire to submit to the most holy state and most holy one never dies it seems. (If you can find I recommend an hilarious, unintentionally, documentary called An Albanian Journey from 1990 put together by a true believer in the wonder of pure, perfect Albania it is hysterically funny in retrospect.)

@DT-wp4hk

18 күн бұрын

What you describe is basically the left everywhere

@RobertoAlvarezGalloso

15 күн бұрын

I saw one group in the Dominican Republic with a sign that said "40 years of New Albania" in 1984.

Great job, kudos to you! Is it not funny that most were never told the bloody horrific history of Communist Albania and Enver Hoxha...

Discovered another Simon channel 😂 this man is everywhere

He was precisely what every socialist leader wants to be and got away with it because Albania was such a low profile country that it literally was insignificant.

I never knew any of this 😮 crazy.

Thank you Simon ,now I have to translate this to my Albanian parents that have been living in Greece since 1996 and see what thus video and their POV shows .

Moral of the story: Crazy ideologies make crazy people who do crazy things that causes terrible outcomes.

I approve of the use of the term 'Wrong'n' at 8:07. Scriptwriter must be from Manc.

I visited Albania two years ago. The country is in the process of recovery from the trauma of the Hoxha regime. It's still very poor compared to the rest of Europe, but is improving. And it's a beautiful country, one that is still not overrun with tourists.

My grandma still misses these days worse enough

I have heard vaguely of Hoxa and his Albanian experiment, but, tbh it's not a subject that is much discussed. Growing up in the 70s, I didn't learn a thing about the place, and as far as I know, it was never in the news. So, what I am saying is that your video was great. I learned more during the.duration of this, then I learned from reading books, so thanks for uploading

fun fact there is now ironically a KFC open opposite his former house (1 of only 2 in Albania)

@Gamesbozz

2 күн бұрын

There’s more then 2 you know

@theslidemappers4470

2 күн бұрын

@Gamesbozz really? Fair enough last time I checked there was only 2 probably is more now though

There's the story about how he ordered a man who bared a striking resemblance too himself be kidnapped and given a full facial reconstruction so the resemblance was so perfect that the man became an official body double, then kept the man in an actual dungeon in the basement of his presidential palace and treated him like a pet labrador retriever.

@petebondurant58

18 күн бұрын

That's a screenplay you wrote that Netflix rejected, isn't it?

@Hammerhead547

18 күн бұрын

@@petebondurant58 Nope. As insane as it sounds it actually did happen. The man in question bore an exceptionally strong physical resemblance too hoxha and would prank local factories by showing up pretending to be the man himself and saying he was there for a "surprise inspection" of the place. When hoxha found out about it he decided that he could use a body double for "security reasons", ordered him kidnapped and had the best doctors in the country to "transform" him into a prefect body double of his, he spent the next 30ish years being kept as hoxha's human pet.

@petebondurant58

18 күн бұрын

@@Hammerhead547 . The story turned out to be an infamous fit of fiction courtesy of New Zealand novelist/travel writer Lloyd Jones. It isn't true.

Now THAT’S a beard! Great video. Thank you 🙏

So glad we are being mentioned, so sad being about him,,,,

Got to say going in all i knew about Hoxha going in was his paranoid impulse of building a billion defense bunkers in the country, i figured there was more to him for how long he ruled

It strange when you watch that early The Simpsons episode where the kid is sent to America to spy on for Albania 🇦🇱. They are referred to in the episode as an " unfriendly nation "

@zeropoleziax

16 күн бұрын

And funny thing is, the kid’s name is Adil Hoxha.

I love Simon's new heart shaped glasses.

No mention of his famous new year message to the Albanian people in 1967, that still holds true for many today? - "This year will be harder than last year. On the other hand, it will be easier than next year"

Incredible how the great writer Ismail Kadare managed to survive and artistically thrive in such a hellhole.

@user-tq6oz8kv7m

10 күн бұрын

Hoxha liked Kadare. Kadare was never a dissident. He just stayed away from Party politics.

@tomislavblazevic2742

10 күн бұрын

@@user-tq6oz8kv7m ofc he wasn't an overt dissident, he would have been iced instantly.

@brucehamilton5609

5 күн бұрын

He defected.

@tomislavblazevic2742

5 күн бұрын

@@brucehamilton5609 but only at the very end

@brucehamilton5609

5 күн бұрын

@@tomislavblazevic2742 And your point is what exactly? That he defected because he could see the end of the regime coming and didn't want to be there when it happened? (Of course, no one foresaw the end, no more than they did in the Soviet Union.) Seriously, please explain what you mean. I can make no sense of it.

Oh, well. Yet another country to add to the "Not The Real Communism" list.

I love this stuff

I think knew can all agree with the mullet ban.

Guten Täg

Oh my. Europe has produced some real winners... Stalin was a paranoid sum beach...

@stevenrobinson2381

19 күн бұрын

UN !

“Wrong Un”! Absolutely love the cricket reference. For those that don’t know, a wrong’un is a type of delivery (pitcher throwing the ball) that spins the opposite direction than it’s meant to.

@Real-Ruby-Red

18 күн бұрын

Hmm in england, wrong en means peadophile or sex pest

@OF01975

18 күн бұрын

I doubt thats what he meant.. wrong un is british slang for a bad person

@Wantabe2188

18 күн бұрын

@@OF01975 oh ok. I didn’t know that

I read about this horrid man in the late 90s. Right around the time that Wag the Dog came out, though not actually BECAUSE of that movie. Maybe just a couple paragraphs - I didn’t know much of this actually - awesome video Simon!

Out of all the communist dictatorships in Europe, Hoxa was the wackiest duckling in the flock. The man was truly a nutcase when you look at what he did to his country and own people.

@weirdshibainu

19 күн бұрын

He had a nice haircut

Are you saying he was MAGA: Make Albania Great Again?

I am right now traveling through Albina. First we wanted to skip Tirana but fortunately we changed plans and visited. It is an amazing place with a mix between a European flair and post socialist country. Lots of young people and scale-up restaurants, bars and very modern architecture. We loved it and can just. You should visit! Thanks for the good Video.

When I visited Albania I was shocked to see many souvenirs with Hoxha’s face and name on them… I love Albania and its people, and I hope for a brighter future to come. It’s still a long road ahead, but recovery from such travesty is always a challenge and I respect the progress that has been made in the years since ‘91

Simon don't ever use based or pilled memes ever again in a serious video. It's cringe.

@victordauphin2949

19 күн бұрын

Based and CringePilled

Enver Hoxha turned Albania into the North Korea of Europe, quite literally in fact because he actually directly moddled his regime after that of Kim il Sung...

@csmlyly5736

19 күн бұрын

Modeled

@blogdesign7126

18 күн бұрын

I look at another one, and Hoxha also allegedly modeled his country after China under Mao Zedong, too.

All I knew about him before this is that he was very good friends/allies with North Korea, and I now understand why. I almost wish I didn't, since hearing about this deeply paranoid man enforcing a Stalinist fairy tail/delusion upon his people is just so horrifying and disheartening. The 20th century as a whole just sucked in so many ways.

@bartolomeothesatyr

17 күн бұрын

I'm not saying the 20th century didn't suck in a whole lot of ways, but judging by archaeological remains and preserved judicial records, the twentieth is almost certainly the least traumatically violent and most materially prosperous century our species has yet managed to live through.

Banning the mullet - this is an initiative I can get behind! 😂😂😂