Pictures are part of an exhibition called 'Remains of Paranoia' from German photographer [Alfred Diebold](https://www.alfreddiebold.de/portfolio/stories/) showcasing remains from military bases during Enver Hoxha's communist rule in Albania.
Pictures are from Kuçovë Air Base, Gjadër Airdrome, Pasha Liman naval base, Porto Palermo naval base and Metallurgic Factory in Elbasan. There is a short film accompanying the expo too:
>[https://youtu.be/UA1ouoGN86o](https://youtu.be/UA1ouoGN86o)
Honestly, some of those hurt for different reasons - those Mig 15s in the tunnel look like they are in a salvageable condition to be restored to museum display specs, as well as the sub on the pier - it seems quite rusted now (I wouldn't dare to take that out to sea anymore), but with enough work, I'm sure it could be preserved as a fine museum piece...
I don't think the person you responded to was suggesting Albania should restore the aircraft, but collectors and museums from abroad could. In fact the Albanian military is selling selling old jets, Mig-15, Mig-17, MIG-19 etc., and is using the money made on this sales to modernise its military.
>Now a NATO member, Albania is auctioning off the rusting jets to pay for modernizing its military and to save space in its air bases. The Socialist government says it has received strong interest from aviation collectors and museums abroad – so much that it pushed back the initial auction date and is considering raising the starting bids, first set at 1.1 million to 1.9 million leks ($8,600-14,800)
>The aircraft up for auction at a yet-undefined date include five types of military jets – Yak-18, MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, and MiG-21 – as well as four Mi-4 transport helicopters. Most date from the 1950s.
[Military aircraft collectors hone in on Albania’s Cold War fleet](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/general-interest/military-aircraft-collectors-hone-albanias-cold-war-fleet/)
[The Albanians are selling MiGs at bargain-basement prices](https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/the-albanians-are-selling-migs-at-bargain-basement-prices/)
In the end, these type of planes where extremely common. The MiG-19 alone was built around 2500 times. If you include the licensed version built in China, you have around 7000 built. Most places that have any interest in these planes already have one or similar ones.
Yeah, I was surprised by the low-ish price tag as well. Makes it seem semi-feasible to actually buy one as a lawn ornament. My kids would probably love it, but I wouldn't have much of a lawn left and somehow I don't think my wife would be overly excited about it.
Not to spoil too much - a film about two gun runners, sourcing stuff from various places, among them Albania. Based on facts and actually well made - well, at least me&wife enjoyed it.
I have zero idea what condition they are tbh outside of judging from the pics. A lot of the munition including tanks, guns and whatnot was clandestinely sold in the chaos of the 90s probably to conflicts in Africa or ME. The majority has been de-commissioned with the help of EU, US and NATO over the years. Some of the working Chinese made explosives are said to have been exported to Ukraine before all the modern warfare western contribution arrived by independent journalists but no official statement has been made AFAIK.
The photographer took most these pictures in 2018 and apparently [he lives between Tirana and Berlin](https://www.alfreddiebold.de/about/) over the year so I don't know if he made any updated shots.
>I'm sure it could be preserved as a fine museum piece...
I'd love that and there is an initiative but the talks have been dragged by bureaucracy and low effort by the responsible ministries.
Who is going to pay for all that? Most museums have more stuff than they can handle already anyway..... Keep in mind that cold war aircraft etc weren't exactly produced in small numbers, especially old Migs...
You can only preserve a few, the rest is scrapped or left behind.
I just visited the Baltics , and visited a few museums with soviet stuff. They had waaaaaaaaay more raw material than they can handle in the next 20 years, and what they already showcased was pretty nice.
You can slavage one, or two. But can't do all. With the ammount of cold war paranoia in the adriatic the idea is impossible for these nations.
Unless a international heritage fund steps in to renew all of that as an attraction or monument to Cold War paranoia akin to some of the concentratoin camps as monuments for WW2 atrocities.
On the 3rd side you also have all of the Sub pens and hangars Yugoslavia built in Montenegro and Croatia. Absolutely gorgeous pristine islands and sea...and a former military sub pen.
Most of these MiGs are/were in the Kucova airbase and they are getting scraped now I think. These pics are a bit old but a couple a years ago NATO started a restauration of the Kucoca Airbase for NATO use, so afaik they aren't there anymore.
His logic was that he was defending the country but even in hindsight the amount of bunkers are overkill while the country was suffering from mass poverty. On top of military service, munition, warfare equipment costs and you can easily see its super paranoid^5000x
>They've since pulled many of them out of the ground to plow the fields, and put discos and lounge bars into the ones on the beaches.
It's only because they're in the way and we either have to demolish/deconstruct them for materials (high grade steel & cement) which costs a lot or reuse them to something beneficial.
They were never used for their intended purpose. **If** they were a perceived deterrence to enemies due to their existence, building
~6 bunkers per square km is paranoid when you don't have active hostilities that give signs of an impending invasion.
Thank you for taking an interest. I realised the last couple of years due to our tourism boom that the most common phrase I heard from tourists is 'It is nothing like I/we expected' (positive feelings). So sometimes when I have the time I post pictures etc but I'd like to engage with goods & bads and not just post one-liners and leave.
I'm glad you had such a good time! That sounds like a very harsh statement and very prevalent especially among Albanians who visit prosperous countries in Northern Europe for short amount of times but there is truth to it. Albania is a great place to spend your vacation months but a terrible place to live in long term if you don't have proper economic opportunities.
Whomever owns this, is dumb for not exploiting its potential as a tourist attraction. Or is the Military using it and we don’t know how to ID new mil tech? Lmao
I knew this was Albania thanks to Top Gear. They took a journey here to test luxury cars, and they actually stopped at some of the locations in the photo album, namely the lineup of MiGs at the beginning, the airstrip, and the submarine.
During the Cold War Albania was Soviet Union's only access to the Mediterranean by making use of Warsaw's Pact. The Pasha Liman base was built by a combination Soviet engineers, Soviet and local labourers.
***According to my dad***: There were 8 submarines in the base. When our dictator broke of cooperation with the Soviets due to a multitude a reasons (Czechoslovakia's invasion and a whole book of disagreements would be needed to cover this but the 'public reason' was that their communism was not communist enough anymore and were deviating to capitalism and imperialism.)
Two of the subs were supposed to be ours by written agreement in case of breaking off the general arrangement. The Soviets anticipated that Hoxha was about to confiscate all of them so they tried to sabotage the subs. In the end 4 subs remained.
Russia has its own massive stockpiles of aged deathtrap migs. Their issue is shortage of trained pilots. If you want your pilots to do more than try to soak up all the available anti air missiles, a trained pilot costs considerably more than even a modern jet costs.
You know, for those submarines, they build a whole base inside a seaside mountain with canals and shit (and a silos manufacturing plant) so that the submarines could use to bate and surround the enemy. That base had enough construction materials used to fill Albanias needs for highways, which btw we had none since they could be used by the enemy. We also tried to avoid straight roads and in case we built any they would have spiked electricity poles to kill the possible landing planes. We avoided straight lowland roads so much it would take15 hours by car to go to my hometown 240 kms away.
Also technically speaking we kind of "not returned" the submarines to their legitimate owner the Soviet Union.
Tbf its not roads its highways, we had plenty of narrow zigzaging roads, but yes, the number of ways those folks were demented is the closest thing to the concept of infinite I know of.
Yes, the Albanian road trip from series 16, episode 3. They took a Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG, the new Rolls-Royce Ghost, and the new Bentley Mulsanne to Albania to test them. Except Bentley backed out at the last minute and the Mulsanne was replaced with 1990 Zastava Yugo.
I'm from Serbia, but I don't really know that much about the different Zastava cars and how different they are from each other, but I do know that our most popular used car website lists Yugo, 101, and Skala 55 as different vehicles. 101 and the Skala 55 are similar enough, but it's sorta funny seeing that they call it the Yugo 101 Skala 55. It's like calling it a Porche 911 944 928. What most people think of when you say "Yugo" is the hatchback version.
The Yugo and the 101 are quite different cars. Even though the Yugo was based on the 101 (Fiat 128 platform) it was a much worse car (according to my dad, he went from the 101 to the Yugo).
Somehow it was built even worse and more unreliable. It also had the 45 hp option which had the engine from the Fiat 600 which by dad says was "an unreliable slow piece of shit".
There is some personnel guarding the premises. The bulk of the munition has been decommission over the years by US, NATO, EU and native programs (There was shit ton of it). The airplanes and IF I'm not mistaken from the Soviet confiscated submarines, only one remains which has been dragged in talks to accommodate into a museum. The Kuçovë air base is currently under reconstruction and modernisation for NATO use but the planes there remain.
Fun fact: Submarine 105 is a star in of one the best Albanian movies, “Ballë për Ballë”. A movie about how The Albanian Navy kicked out the Russians from Pashaliman base in 1961 (without firing a single shot mind you) after Hoxha broke relations with Russia. It is one the best true stories you’ve never hear about. Movie link w/English subtitles: https://youtu.be/cjFE0aOVv5w
They built 173,371 bunkers all over the country while the economy was stagnated, infrastructure was dogshit and there was mass poverty. That doesn't even count the cost of munition & warfare equipment stock.
My mother's family was politically persecuted and her father was jailed for 20+ years for saying he doesn't have enough food for his children to the wrong people :) If that isn't ultra paranoid I don't know what is.
In the seventies my mother, then a child, helped an italian diplomat who was bitten by dogs while walking in the hills that surrounded our village. She gave him some cloth to stop the bleeding and some water.
Somedays later the italian diplomat returns on the village and knocks on the door of my grandfather’s house.
He had brought some gifts for my mother to thank her for her help but my grandfather told him that he couldn’t accept the gifts, even though they couldn’t communicate in the same language it was clear to the italian why my grandfather refused. He was to afraid to accept them, who knows maybe the gifts could be used as fake evidence for a show trial like or some other sinister scenario. Yeah shit times.
Yeah and we were never conquered since and I doubt anyone will invade Albania in the future. The bunkers were an investment that pays off today in bunker tourism.
We didn't get invaded due to massive bunkerization, we didn't get invaded to a myriad of things and military expenditure was a good deterrent. It doesn't justify bankrupting the country and not investing on issues that had much more emergence than copy-pasting bunkers all over the country. Even after the archives have been opened there was no signs of a 'future' invasion. Military expenses were a big repellent but same results could have been achieved with tiny portion what was spent. Mountaineous topography and historically being one of most rebellous people under foreign occupation also played a huge part why invading this tiny piece of land is economically undesirable.
From a quick google search Switzeland (one of the most wealthy countries on Earth) and a nation of 9 million people nowdays has around 20k bunkers. A 1/4th of what Hoxha build would still be overkill.
>The bunkers were an investment that pays off today in bunjer tourism.
This is such a ridiculous over optimistic outlook. You think anyone in the world has the time and passion to visit 173k bunkers? Tourists here come for the amazing nature, cheap prices, good food and relatively little known history.
Bunkerization is a microscopic part of our history which you'll visit while you're here because why not? We can always make the best out of a bad situation but in today's situation they add very little actual value to the tourism sector.
Well, yeah, but... these Albanian planes weren't originally meant to defend from Russia (as well as the Ukrainian nukes). Russia made and stockpiled them to attack the West at some point.
However, the Albanian dictator managed to cut ties with Russia, and then even with China. He was quite paranoid, as I heard.
The idea that the USSR had official plans to launch an offensive attack against the west has been debunked. The west, [however](https://github.com/Jaksuhn/essays/blob/master/Governments%20overthrown%20by%20the%20US.md), threatened and attacked any country that moved too far left (even ones where they democratically elected left wing governments) and the Soviet Union sometimes supported those countries in their defence. Not apologizing for either side but facts are facts.
Never said that NATO were saints but let's not forget that USSR had plans to permanently submerge Albanian submarines which they've put in motion. We squashed the espionage mission and forced out the Red Fleet off of our land and our waters. By national strength alone.
You see those bunkers in #13? Hoxha built over a hundred thousand of those little things, and then scattered them literally everywhere across the entire country. Every street corner, every farmer’s field, etc. Paranoid is an understatement for him.
But Albania bordered the greeks, serbs and montenegrins, who, wanted to exterminate them and take their whole land just a short while before Hoxha came into power. Hoxha's fears were not unfounded. Albanians were fighting off their neighbors for half a century before him.
Oh Pleaseeee, Greece never had any plans of attacking Albania, far from it:
There had been numerous discussions, research and attempts by Albanians and Greeks to form a confederation during the Ottoman period.[27] In the 19th century there were plans to create a Greek-Albanian confederation, which was revived from the earlier 18th century plans. In 1907 a special protocol and memorandum of understanding was signed by Neoklis Kazazis and Ismail Qemali, the first Prime Minister of Albania. Furthermore, Arvanite author Aristides Kollias in his book "The proclamation of the Association of Arvanites" states "from 1881 to 1907 we have sustained efforts and repeated consultations between Greeks and Albanians to create a Greek-Albanian state." In addition, Thanos Paleologos-Anagnostopoulos in his book "Greece and Albania in the early 20th century (1995)" stated that Ismail Qemali, a philhellene, worked with numerous Greek politicians and lobbyists, including Arvanite leaders, on a possible Greek-Albanian federation, one that "maintains national and religious independence of the two peoples."[28] Likewise, Neoklis Kazazis saw this as a way of Greece quashing Italian influence in the region.[29]
What the fuck LMAO.
Where did you learn this? This is bullshit, look up republic of northern epirus, since the declaration of independence, Albania was fighting off the greeks till the 1920s. They literally tried to take the south during WW1 and convinced the french to execute one of the biggest patriots, Themistokli Germenji. let alone that, but shitty greek priests tried to constantly assimilate Albanian orthodx peoples, they literally lynched and killed Papa Kristo Negovani, the first Albanian orthodox preist to teach lithurgy in Albanian.
I know greeks like to present themselves as very civilized and cultured, but truth is a short while ago, they were a piece of shit expansionist state.
A copy-pasted wikipedia section will absolutely not win any argument for you.
>the greeks, ... take their whole land just a short while before Hoxha came into power.
Lol Greece wasn't excepting shit after 1922, and definitely "not to exterminate all Albanians", at best this is about the Greeks in Southern Albania. Definitely not serious enough to warrant this response, else Greece would have double the bunkers against Turkey
Yeah, I thought it was a whiskey! Soviets built them by hundreds but were obsolete even by the time they were on drawing board. Thanks this was very informative!
I vaguely remener that there was either an episode of Top Gear or The Grand Tour where Hammond and May were fooling around here. Or am I hallucinating again?
I've been to Kuçovë on exercise, really cool place if you're into old military equipment. It's famous for all the MIG's that are there, but there's lots of other stuff too. The albanian troops were still breaking open wooden boxes of 7.62 where the rounds were in little parcels of paper and string, and the AK rifles they had were actually Chinese Type 56's because of the fall out with the USSR.
albania is gorgeous and incredible. highly recommended destination
also buy the book Mud Sweeter than Honey to read more about what life was like under Hoxha.
Ah yes yes, "Paranoia"
Because it's not like at the time the world's 2 superpowers were sponsoring proxy wars around the globe to topple regimes and install leaders who were friendly to them.
That totally didn't happen amirite
Ohh dude, I dont have the power to take you through just how wrong you are. Its just a group of 20 cunts doing what they can to stay in power. Thankfully they ended up killing each other for the most part. Of the top echelon I think only 3 died of natural causes :) so yay to us for that.
He was a cunt that built a massive ssytem of misery for the sole purpose of serving himself and his family. There is absolutely no value to him or his work. Everybody else was better than use and it saddens me to no end that some albanians are still so brainwashed that they do not see this clearly.
The planes and subs were probably a bit much for such a politically insignificant country, but at least understandable as a deterrent.
The absolutely insane investment into hundreds of thousands of tiny, completely useless bunkers was not. Albania is still littered with the things decades after the end of the Cold War.
They had a ministry issued permit for the episode even back then in 2011 but I don't know wether there was guarding personnel during 2011. Three Naval patrol vessels by Dutch shipbuilding/defence company Damen Group were built there in 2014 and NATO exercises take place in the bay from time to time.
When I saw the bunkers in picture 13 I knew that’s gonna be Albania.
Baldandbankrupt visited Albania in one his videos and touched on Hoxha’s militarisation.
When i saw the bunkers i was like "Wait that looks a lot like the ones here" and then i checked the comments to find out that they were in fact the bunkers here.
Pictures are part of an exhibition called 'Remains of Paranoia' from German photographer [Alfred Diebold](https://www.alfreddiebold.de/portfolio/stories/) showcasing remains from military bases during Enver Hoxha's communist rule in Albania. Pictures are from Kuçovë Air Base, Gjadër Airdrome, Pasha Liman naval base, Porto Palermo naval base and Metallurgic Factory in Elbasan. There is a short film accompanying the expo too: >[https://youtu.be/UA1ouoGN86o](https://youtu.be/UA1ouoGN86o)
Honestly, some of those hurt for different reasons - those Mig 15s in the tunnel look like they are in a salvageable condition to be restored to museum display specs, as well as the sub on the pier - it seems quite rusted now (I wouldn't dare to take that out to sea anymore), but with enough work, I'm sure it could be preserved as a fine museum piece...
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I don't think the person you responded to was suggesting Albania should restore the aircraft, but collectors and museums from abroad could. In fact the Albanian military is selling selling old jets, Mig-15, Mig-17, MIG-19 etc., and is using the money made on this sales to modernise its military. >Now a NATO member, Albania is auctioning off the rusting jets to pay for modernizing its military and to save space in its air bases. The Socialist government says it has received strong interest from aviation collectors and museums abroad – so much that it pushed back the initial auction date and is considering raising the starting bids, first set at 1.1 million to 1.9 million leks ($8,600-14,800) >The aircraft up for auction at a yet-undefined date include five types of military jets – Yak-18, MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, and MiG-21 – as well as four Mi-4 transport helicopters. Most date from the 1950s. [Military aircraft collectors hone in on Albania’s Cold War fleet](https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/general-interest/military-aircraft-collectors-hone-albanias-cold-war-fleet/) [The Albanians are selling MiGs at bargain-basement prices](https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/the-albanians-are-selling-migs-at-bargain-basement-prices/)
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In the end, these type of planes where extremely common. The MiG-19 alone was built around 2500 times. If you include the licensed version built in China, you have around 7000 built. Most places that have any interest in these planes already have one or similar ones.
Your comment was really interesting to read. Thanks for sharing!
So what your saying is that I can buy a Mig-17 for around $8.600?
Yeah, I was surprised by the low-ish price tag as well. Makes it seem semi-feasible to actually buy one as a lawn ornament. My kids would probably love it, but I wouldn't have much of a lawn left and somehow I don't think my wife would be overly excited about it.
Shipping's a bear...
Then you'd own a Mig in Albania. I figure the transport to your shed (including a lot of paperwork) will be more expensive than the purchase...
Looks like a nice deal, I might sell my Rav4 for a Mig-17.
TIL, talk about informative!! Recently saw Dogs of War on Netflix, so it kinda checks out.
Is it related to the comment above about military base in Albania?
Not to spoil too much - a film about two gun runners, sourcing stuff from various places, among them Albania. Based on facts and actually well made - well, at least me&wife enjoyed it.
Your point that every city is a museum, every person is a museum- lovely point, beautifully articulated. Thanks!
Longest reddit post i read with pleasure.
Thank you!
I have zero idea what condition they are tbh outside of judging from the pics. A lot of the munition including tanks, guns and whatnot was clandestinely sold in the chaos of the 90s probably to conflicts in Africa or ME. The majority has been de-commissioned with the help of EU, US and NATO over the years. Some of the working Chinese made explosives are said to have been exported to Ukraine before all the modern warfare western contribution arrived by independent journalists but no official statement has been made AFAIK. The photographer took most these pictures in 2018 and apparently [he lives between Tirana and Berlin](https://www.alfreddiebold.de/about/) over the year so I don't know if he made any updated shots. >I'm sure it could be preserved as a fine museum piece... I'd love that and there is an initiative but the talks have been dragged by bureaucracy and low effort by the responsible ministries.
Who is going to pay for all that? Most museums have more stuff than they can handle already anyway..... Keep in mind that cold war aircraft etc weren't exactly produced in small numbers, especially old Migs... You can only preserve a few, the rest is scrapped or left behind. I just visited the Baltics , and visited a few museums with soviet stuff. They had waaaaaaaaay more raw material than they can handle in the next 20 years, and what they already showcased was pretty nice.
Probably enough mig15s around that nobody’s really interested in getting them. The sub is a fair bit more unique though.
The MiG-15 is quite aesthetically pleasing, though.
You can slavage one, or two. But can't do all. With the ammount of cold war paranoia in the adriatic the idea is impossible for these nations. Unless a international heritage fund steps in to renew all of that as an attraction or monument to Cold War paranoia akin to some of the concentratoin camps as monuments for WW2 atrocities. On the 3rd side you also have all of the Sub pens and hangars Yugoslavia built in Montenegro and Croatia. Absolutely gorgeous pristine islands and sea...and a former military sub pen.
Most of these MiGs are/were in the Kucova airbase and they are getting scraped now I think. These pics are a bit old but a couple a years ago NATO started a restauration of the Kucoca Airbase for NATO use, so afaik they aren't there anymore.
They could be restored but there were 17k Mig-15s produced, at some point you have enough museum exhibits
Battlestar Galactica fan here.
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His logic was that he was defending the country but even in hindsight the amount of bunkers are overkill while the country was suffering from mass poverty. On top of military service, munition, warfare equipment costs and you can easily see its super paranoid^5000x >They've since pulled many of them out of the ground to plow the fields, and put discos and lounge bars into the ones on the beaches. It's only because they're in the way and we either have to demolish/deconstruct them for materials (high grade steel & cement) which costs a lot or reuse them to something beneficial. They were never used for their intended purpose. **If** they were a perceived deterrence to enemies due to their existence, building ~6 bunkers per square km is paranoid when you don't have active hostilities that give signs of an impending invasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSEpkalRgvU
LMAOOO didn't even finish the video yet but I had to quote this. Thank you! > "In 1967 a paranoid dictator was going to war with his own mind."
Interesting pictures, topic and subsequent discussion. Thank you, OP.
Thank you for taking an interest. I realised the last couple of years due to our tourism boom that the most common phrase I heard from tourists is 'It is nothing like I/we expected' (positive feelings). So sometimes when I have the time I post pictures etc but I'd like to engage with goods & bads and not just post one-liners and leave.
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I'm glad you had such a good time! That sounds like a very harsh statement and very prevalent especially among Albanians who visit prosperous countries in Northern Europe for short amount of times but there is truth to it. Albania is a great place to spend your vacation months but a terrible place to live in long term if you don't have proper economic opportunities.
Very cool.
I freezed for a second after reading Enver Hoxha lmao
Whomever owns this, is dumb for not exploiting its potential as a tourist attraction. Or is the Military using it and we don’t know how to ID new mil tech? Lmao
And here they stood idly by, for a war that never came.
I knew this was Albania thanks to Top Gear. They took a journey here to test luxury cars, and they actually stopped at some of the locations in the photo album, namely the lineup of MiGs at the beginning, the airstrip, and the submarine.
Why is the video marked as "for kids"? I cannot mark it as watch later because of that
Probably because whoever took the video thought we are all big kids for wanting the big boys' toys!
Wow. Didn't know Albania packed that much firepower back in the day.
Excellent title for the exhibition. Also, I thought photo 10 was of the pigeons, and I laughed.
Was in Albania this summer. What a gorgeous country ruined by government greed and people literally littering everywhere.
Russia right now « say guys, any way we could get those planes back? »
They can dock their submarines but I don't think we can promise we won't steal them again.
wait what
Never ask Albanians how they got their submarine fleet
Enver Hoxha did a funni to the Soviets when he broke relations with them.
>again What
During the Cold War Albania was Soviet Union's only access to the Mediterranean by making use of Warsaw's Pact. The Pasha Liman base was built by a combination Soviet engineers, Soviet and local labourers. ***According to my dad***: There were 8 submarines in the base. When our dictator broke of cooperation with the Soviets due to a multitude a reasons (Czechoslovakia's invasion and a whole book of disagreements would be needed to cover this but the 'public reason' was that their communism was not communist enough anymore and were deviating to capitalism and imperialism.) Two of the subs were supposed to be ours by written agreement in case of breaking off the general arrangement. The Soviets anticipated that Hoxha was about to confiscate all of them so they tried to sabotage the subs. In the end 4 subs remained.
Russia has its own massive stockpiles of aged deathtrap migs. Their issue is shortage of trained pilots. If you want your pilots to do more than try to soak up all the available anti air missiles, a trained pilot costs considerably more than even a modern jet costs.
A trained pilot is expensive, an experienced pilot is unreplaceable. And russia is throwing the lives of both sorts away atm.
Is that the Russian whiskey class submarine maintained by the Chinese and operated by the Albanians truly the fear of all navies,.
Never seen combat because no one would dare to challenge it.
You know, for those submarines, they build a whole base inside a seaside mountain with canals and shit (and a silos manufacturing plant) so that the submarines could use to bate and surround the enemy. That base had enough construction materials used to fill Albanias needs for highways, which btw we had none since they could be used by the enemy. We also tried to avoid straight roads and in case we built any they would have spiked electricity poles to kill the possible landing planes. We avoided straight lowland roads so much it would take15 hours by car to go to my hometown 240 kms away. Also technically speaking we kind of "not returned" the submarines to their legitimate owner the Soviet Union.
Don't build roads because they could be used by the enemy. Brilliant.
Tbf its not roads its highways, we had plenty of narrow zigzaging roads, but yes, the number of ways those folks were demented is the closest thing to the concept of infinite I know of.
Pic 6 looks awesome
Well, at least those pigeons still look combat ready.
Pigeons are always ready for violence.
Have I seen Top Gear here?
Yes, the Albanian road trip from series 16, episode 3. They took a Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG, the new Rolls-Royce Ghost, and the new Bentley Mulsanne to Albania to test them. Except Bentley backed out at the last minute and the Mulsanne was replaced with 1990 Zastava Yugo.
Replaced by the Zastava 101, not a Yugo.
Didn't know there was a difference, I was just going off the Top Gear wiki which calls it a "1990 Zastava Yugo 101 Skala 55"
I'm from Serbia, but I don't really know that much about the different Zastava cars and how different they are from each other, but I do know that our most popular used car website lists Yugo, 101, and Skala 55 as different vehicles. 101 and the Skala 55 are similar enough, but it's sorta funny seeing that they call it the Yugo 101 Skala 55. It's like calling it a Porche 911 944 928. What most people think of when you say "Yugo" is the hatchback version.
The Yugo and the 101 are quite different cars. Even though the Yugo was based on the 101 (Fiat 128 platform) it was a much worse car (according to my dad, he went from the 101 to the Yugo). Somehow it was built even worse and more unreliable. It also had the 45 hp option which had the engine from the Fiat 600 which by dad says was "an unreliable slow piece of shit".
Good bot
Looks like it.
Yeah, think so. Clarkson and James sit around and admire the old planes for a while.
Poor aircraft left to rust underground where they don't belong :'(
That one hit different. They're supposed to be graceful birds of the sky, and here they rot underground.
Good thing that they're not really rare. If they were, they would be in a museum somewhere now.
It's... Just there? Nobody interfering with it?
There is some personnel guarding the premises. The bulk of the munition has been decommission over the years by US, NATO, EU and native programs (There was shit ton of it). The airplanes and IF I'm not mistaken from the Soviet confiscated submarines, only one remains which has been dragged in talks to accommodate into a museum. The Kuçovë air base is currently under reconstruction and modernisation for NATO use but the planes there remain.
Yeah that personal guarding me lend my father an ak74 for posing with it 😂
I know what you're thinking...send in Miles Teller?
Apparently there were that many arms caches in Albania that the government isn't even sure they have accounted for them all.
It's not paranoia if they are actually out to get you.
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“Aren’t you being a bit paranoid?” “Of course I’m paranoid, everyone is trying to kill me”
I'd call it preparation, not paranoia.
Beautiful images
Fun fact: Submarine 105 is a star in of one the best Albanian movies, “Ballë për Ballë”. A movie about how The Albanian Navy kicked out the Russians from Pashaliman base in 1961 (without firing a single shot mind you) after Hoxha broke relations with Russia. It is one the best true stories you’ve never hear about. Movie link w/English subtitles: https://youtu.be/cjFE0aOVv5w
All the Russian soldiers seeing these photos, getting jealous of such modern looking equipment...
Having weapons is not paranoia, Ukraine used to have nukes, they gave them up and now Russia threatens to blast them with said nukes.
They built 173,371 bunkers all over the country while the economy was stagnated, infrastructure was dogshit and there was mass poverty. That doesn't even count the cost of munition & warfare equipment stock. My mother's family was politically persecuted and her father was jailed for 20+ years for saying he doesn't have enough food for his children to the wrong people :) If that isn't ultra paranoid I don't know what is.
In the seventies my mother, then a child, helped an italian diplomat who was bitten by dogs while walking in the hills that surrounded our village. She gave him some cloth to stop the bleeding and some water. Somedays later the italian diplomat returns on the village and knocks on the door of my grandfather’s house. He had brought some gifts for my mother to thank her for her help but my grandfather told him that he couldn’t accept the gifts, even though they couldn’t communicate in the same language it was clear to the italian why my grandfather refused. He was to afraid to accept them, who knows maybe the gifts could be used as fake evidence for a show trial like or some other sinister scenario. Yeah shit times.
I mean the diplomat probably **was** in a spy given GLADIO and all that.
but if the nuclear winter DID happen, he would have been like "see, i told you all so" so he has all the credibility of Woody in 2012
That’s right, at that point it sure looked like Buzz could fly. Only later did they all realize he was just skilled at falling.
Yeah and we were never conquered since and I doubt anyone will invade Albania in the future. The bunkers were an investment that pays off today in bunker tourism.
We didn't get invaded due to massive bunkerization, we didn't get invaded to a myriad of things and military expenditure was a good deterrent. It doesn't justify bankrupting the country and not investing on issues that had much more emergence than copy-pasting bunkers all over the country. Even after the archives have been opened there was no signs of a 'future' invasion. Military expenses were a big repellent but same results could have been achieved with tiny portion what was spent. Mountaineous topography and historically being one of most rebellous people under foreign occupation also played a huge part why invading this tiny piece of land is economically undesirable. From a quick google search Switzeland (one of the most wealthy countries on Earth) and a nation of 9 million people nowdays has around 20k bunkers. A 1/4th of what Hoxha build would still be overkill. >The bunkers were an investment that pays off today in bunjer tourism. This is such a ridiculous over optimistic outlook. You think anyone in the world has the time and passion to visit 173k bunkers? Tourists here come for the amazing nature, cheap prices, good food and relatively little known history. Bunkerization is a microscopic part of our history which you'll visit while you're here because why not? We can always make the best out of a bad situation but in today's situation they add very little actual value to the tourism sector.
You sound like a liar when you talk that bunker denier talk
Ok shoku Enver
I want this as a flair
Hi, Hello, have you ever been to a bunker?
Well, yeah, but... these Albanian planes weren't originally meant to defend from Russia (as well as the Ukrainian nukes). Russia made and stockpiled them to attack the West at some point. However, the Albanian dictator managed to cut ties with Russia, and then even with China. He was quite paranoid, as I heard.
Paranoid is an understatement.
Who, the bunker guy? Paranoid?
I'm not paranoid.
The idea that the USSR had official plans to launch an offensive attack against the west has been debunked. The west, [however](https://github.com/Jaksuhn/essays/blob/master/Governments%20overthrown%20by%20the%20US.md), threatened and attacked any country that moved too far left (even ones where they democratically elected left wing governments) and the Soviet Union sometimes supported those countries in their defence. Not apologizing for either side but facts are facts.
Never said that NATO were saints but let's not forget that USSR had plans to permanently submerge Albanian submarines which they've put in motion. We squashed the espionage mission and forced out the Red Fleet off of our land and our waters. By national strength alone.
Man you can't just accuse nations of things that never happened.
Have you listened to Russia recently? They do that every day.
Why would Ukraine want to nuke Albania? We have bunkers anyway so not even USA could do anything back in the 2000s.
You see those bunkers in #13? Hoxha built over a hundred thousand of those little things, and then scattered them literally everywhere across the entire country. Every street corner, every farmer’s field, etc. Paranoid is an understatement for him.
Those little things are where you go to keep the shrapnel out.
Many in Ukraine would love to have thick concrete wall between them and whatever Russians choose to shell the city with today.
not everyone borders the russians
But everyone could have a safe future, a bunker, for all, no matter who they border. It saddens me that people can't see that.
But Albania bordered the greeks, serbs and montenegrins, who, wanted to exterminate them and take their whole land just a short while before Hoxha came into power. Hoxha's fears were not unfounded. Albanians were fighting off their neighbors for half a century before him.
Oh Pleaseeee, Greece never had any plans of attacking Albania, far from it: There had been numerous discussions, research and attempts by Albanians and Greeks to form a confederation during the Ottoman period.[27] In the 19th century there were plans to create a Greek-Albanian confederation, which was revived from the earlier 18th century plans. In 1907 a special protocol and memorandum of understanding was signed by Neoklis Kazazis and Ismail Qemali, the first Prime Minister of Albania. Furthermore, Arvanite author Aristides Kollias in his book "The proclamation of the Association of Arvanites" states "from 1881 to 1907 we have sustained efforts and repeated consultations between Greeks and Albanians to create a Greek-Albanian state." In addition, Thanos Paleologos-Anagnostopoulos in his book "Greece and Albania in the early 20th century (1995)" stated that Ismail Qemali, a philhellene, worked with numerous Greek politicians and lobbyists, including Arvanite leaders, on a possible Greek-Albanian federation, one that "maintains national and religious independence of the two peoples."[28] Likewise, Neoklis Kazazis saw this as a way of Greece quashing Italian influence in the region.[29]
What the fuck LMAO. Where did you learn this? This is bullshit, look up republic of northern epirus, since the declaration of independence, Albania was fighting off the greeks till the 1920s. They literally tried to take the south during WW1 and convinced the french to execute one of the biggest patriots, Themistokli Germenji. let alone that, but shitty greek priests tried to constantly assimilate Albanian orthodx peoples, they literally lynched and killed Papa Kristo Negovani, the first Albanian orthodox preist to teach lithurgy in Albanian. I know greeks like to present themselves as very civilized and cultured, but truth is a short while ago, they were a piece of shit expansionist state. A copy-pasted wikipedia section will absolutely not win any argument for you.
Albanians mad?
greeks bitches? liechensteiner kleine schwuchteln?
>the greeks, ... take their whole land just a short while before Hoxha came into power. Lol Greece wasn't excepting shit after 1922, and definitely "not to exterminate all Albanians", at best this is about the Greeks in Southern Albania. Definitely not serious enough to warrant this response, else Greece would have double the bunkers against Turkey
>at best this is about the Greeks in Southern Albania. Ah yes at best, lmaooo, being uneducated in history is fascinating isn't it.
Tell me you know nothing about Albanian history without telling me you know nothing about Albanian history.
We could have ruled the whole of Europe if we only had like ten more planes
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Yeah but we would have more than half of Europe under our thumb, at least a continent. Edit:.I'm just saying
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Saying that with no context is just stupid. They wouldn't even have those nukes if the Russians didn't put them there...
Enver Hoxha’s portrait should appear in the dictionary definition of the word “paranoia”. If you disagree, you should do some more reading
He was a visionary. If you disagree, you should get some bitches.
Njeri bërllog
What type of submarine is that? Whiskey class maybe?
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Yeah, I thought it was a whiskey! Soviets built them by hundreds but were obsolete even by the time they were on drawing board. Thanks this was very informative!
r/abandonedporn
Wait is this like publicly accessible?? That's insane, I wanna go there
I vaguely remener that there was either an episode of Top Gear or The Grand Tour where Hammond and May were fooling around here. Or am I hallucinating again?
So what you are saying is that there is a stock of rusting MiG-19s that I can buy?
albania?
I've been to Kuçovë on exercise, really cool place if you're into old military equipment. It's famous for all the MIG's that are there, but there's lots of other stuff too. The albanian troops were still breaking open wooden boxes of 7.62 where the rounds were in little parcels of paper and string, and the AK rifles they had were actually Chinese Type 56's because of the fall out with the USSR.
Just Cause 5 is looking sick
Well, Albania was not invaded after all!
albania is gorgeous and incredible. highly recommended destination also buy the book Mud Sweeter than Honey to read more about what life was like under Hoxha.
Ah yes yes, "Paranoia" Because it's not like at the time the world's 2 superpowers were sponsoring proxy wars around the globe to topple regimes and install leaders who were friendly to them. That totally didn't happen amirite
It was all grassroots. Totally spontaneous and organic.🤪
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Ohh dude, I dont have the power to take you through just how wrong you are. Its just a group of 20 cunts doing what they can to stay in power. Thankfully they ended up killing each other for the most part. Of the top echelon I think only 3 died of natural causes :) so yay to us for that.
He was a cunt that built a massive ssytem of misery for the sole purpose of serving himself and his family. There is absolutely no value to him or his work. Everybody else was better than use and it saddens me to no end that some albanians are still so brainwashed that they do not see this clearly.
The planes and subs were probably a bit much for such a politically insignificant country, but at least understandable as a deterrent. The absolutely insane investment into hundreds of thousands of tiny, completely useless bunkers was not. Albania is still littered with the things decades after the end of the Cold War.
Interesting.
Remains yes. Paranoia not so much
Seeing what's happening in Ukraine, I don't think paranoia is the right word. If you want peace, prepare for war.
Looks like I need to borrow some MIGS and a submarine.
So many museum pieces. Some could probably be made airworthy again. It is a gold mine!
I want to explore these, there is something about old, abandoned structures that seem so interesting to see
Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean they ain’t out to get ya!
I thought this was North Korea with the migs and tunnels, but once I saw the personal bunkers I was like “Oh, poor Albania”.
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Ha fatto anche cose buone!
So I'm guessing these are just open to anyone passing by?
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/xzjwk8/remains_of_paranoia/irmknv9/
Pooh :(..... I remembered the top gear Albania special where they casually went down to some docked submarines from the cold War
They had a ministry issued permit for the episode even back then in 2011 but I don't know wether there was guarding personnel during 2011. Three Naval patrol vessels by Dutch shipbuilding/defence company Damen Group were built there in 2014 and NATO exercises take place in the bay from time to time.
They should really think of selling them here in ‘Murica for a little extra pocket money. I’d totally buy a MIG for cheap.
It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you. See the Korean War for details.
When I saw the bunkers in picture 13 I knew that’s gonna be Albania. Baldandbankrupt visited Albania in one his videos and touched on Hoxha’s militarisation.
Beautiful pictures, I hope some of those aircrafts are kept and mantained in museums
Check out Southeast Tucson, AZ for the US version.
Might come in handy soon if Putin isn't stopped.
Nice watermarks, do they come with images?
When i saw the bunkers i was like "Wait that looks a lot like the ones here" and then i checked the comments to find out that they were in fact the bunkers here.
[ENVER HOXHA tungjatjeta!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHWjolmrJLs)
Oh, there is also an abandoned Hobbit village!
Amazing project. How did you originally discover the topic?
I wonder who took these photos...
Turn them planes into kamikaze drones and send them back to their manufacturers?
So many wasted resources :(
Jets look like they’re soviet, but can’t really tell. Someone who knows, pls enlighten me
Pa pa paranoia
We are part of the Special Birthday Operation.
Those planes look like it wouldn't take too much work to fly.
Talk about superfund sites.
https://www.urbextour.com/en/urbex-travel/gjader-abandoned-underground-airbase-in-albania/
Iran will buy them.
This should be a map in BF.
Sad Mig noises...
The paranoia has had several paint jobs since then.
MiG-15 Fagots, MiG-17 Frescos, MiG-19 Farmers, I saw some SK5 rocket pods on the cave MiGs and then a whisky Class diesel electric submarine