Enver Hoxha: Europe's Most Deranged Dictator

Discover the dark reign of Enver Hoxha, Albania's elusive tyrant. From his rise to power to the horrors of his brutal regime, this deep dive uncovers the forgotten dictator's devastating legacy.

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[BeaannnsGM]

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

[jkus]

the 'europe' at the start was a jumpscare

[Elongated_Muskrat]

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

[howbizarrepodcast]

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.

[alexlents]

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.

[spook]

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 :)

[ZolaClyde]

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.

[Alban-uxjf]

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.

[IamAvni]

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.

[GrievousReborn]

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

[mineown]

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

[eltoneagle]

I'm glad that Simon did a documentary about Hoxha. As a man born and raised in Albania the world needs to know about this cruel dictator and how horrible life the Albanian people endured under his regime. Thank you Simon

[archezza-ipfd]

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."

[leonardkarp]

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.

[John-rom]

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!

[alexanderhikel]

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

[Walruhunter]

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.

[rodionxhafaj]

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

[thefacts]

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

[alexuberti]

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.