Why Does Albania Have Hundreds of Thousands of Bunkers?

bunkers and small ones. Underground bunkers and bunkers scattered openly through the countryside, obvious bunkers and secret ones, all made of reinforced concrete, most with a domed roof, as though a strange spate of mushrooms had popped up all over the republic. The stated idea was that these bunkers would serve as defensive positions during an enemy invasion supposedly coming any day. Ordinary civilians were trained to rush to the bunkers in case of emergency, and conditioned by propaganda to

be ever vigilant against any and all foreign enemies. It was part of Hoja's strategy of a people's war, which relied on guerrilla war tactics executed by non soldiers. He wanted his citizens always ready, and most were required to do at least a little military training each year. Ultimately, though, what was really happening was that they were being conditioned

to obey the hard line regime. There's a story that says that after the first prototype bunker was built in the nineteen fifties, Hoja asked the lead engineer how confident he was in his creation. The engineer replied, very confident. Hoja then ordered the engineer inside the bunker and instructed a tank attack to test the building's integrity. The engineer walked out unharmed, but no doubt shaken. After that, Albania

began its bunker building frenzy in earnest. Because of the perpetual secrecy surrounding Hoje's administration, the bunkers were planned and built with few public details. Engineers were moved among different work sites to make it impossible for any one person to fully understand the scope of the project. As such, records are scarce and no one knows how many were constructed.

Numbers ranged from roughly one hundred and seventy five thousand to nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand at the top end, that would mean one for every four Albanians at the time. Factory employees worked around the clock to make the necessary materials. Some bunker designs were light enough to be carried piecemeal into the mountains by mule. Others had to be dropped into place by helicopter. Some expanded into entire underground towns

meant to survive nuclear strikes. The project was so massive that it may have required three times as much concrete as France's equally incredible Magino line, which tried and failed to dwart Nazi hordes, which we'll have to do a whole other episode about some time, and some experts estimate

that Albania's bunkers cost twice as much as the Magineu. Notably, the bunker's strategy didn't sit well with officials in the standing army, in part because the clunky and often cramped bunkers weren't actually useful for professional soldiers, but that, of course, was beside the point for the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke by email with Elidor Mheely, an associate professor of history at Hunter College, he said.

The bunkers were also about showing off the regime's military, technical and strategic ability at a time when Albania was increasingly alone geopolitically, and in that sense they did serve a function. They were concrete things, but they also cared read a kind of symbolic value. The official party propaganda spoke of Albania as a fortress. The regime meant that

metaphorically in the sense of defending communism. Indeed, Hoja had cut off relations with neighboring Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and even China, feeling these countries had either strayed from the hardline socialist path or else were warming relations with Western countries. Having no allies made Albania one of the most isolated countries on earth. The bunkers were allegedly to keep the country safe from its many enemies, but they were in

reality just another form of propaganda. The regime knew that they wouldn't have stood up contemporary war practices or technologies. At one site, what started as a series of bomb bunkers slowly evolved into what became an underground town. It had huge rooms, interconnected tunnels and command centers and it was meant to provide self sufficient shell for up to ten thousand people. For half a year, the government regularly

conducted drills in which townspeople rushed to this huge labyrinth. Eventually, they were so proficient in this exercise that the entire town could sequester itself within seven minutes. Yet, because of the way the underground city was intentionally segmented, no one had any idea of how large it really was, not even the construction workers who built it. Once inside, residents were forbidden to move around. The bunker project ended with

the dictator's death in nineteen eighty five. In nineteen ninety, the communist regime began to collapse. Two decades later, they had joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and applied for membership with the European Union. Today they have official candidate status. Mihili said, Albania has undergone dramatic changes. Albania has become an open society, which is a big deal since it was one of Europe's most unforgiving dictatorships. At the same time,

the transition has not been easy. Many Albanians have left the country since, seeking opportunities elsewhere, including here in the US. In the meantime, the old bunkers remain. Given their inherent ruggedness, it's too costly and time consuming to remove most of them. Instead, Albanians are converting them, often in spite of government opposition, for other purposes. In rural areas. Farmers use them to

shelter livestock or store grain around cities. Houseless people shelter in them, kids play around them, teens smooth in them, and beachgoers use their roofs as extra sunbathing space. Some bunkers now serve as memorials and museums, which put the horrors of the communist regime on display or bring beautiful new artwork to communities. Others have been painted with murals which were banned during the regime, or converted into coffee shops, bars,

pizzerias or lodging for tourists. And how do Albanians perceive the bunkers today, Miheli said, I am not sure most Albanians care about them. It's mostly tourists who are obsessed with the bunkers as a kind of curiosity. Most Albanians, i would say, are worried about corruption, poverty, and whether there will be a better future for their children. Today's episode is based on the article Albania's Doomsday bunkers fed a Dictator's Paranoia on how stuffworks dot Com, written by

Nathan Chandler. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.