What Life in the Soviet Union Was Like

Seriously? Where do these people come from that think that? The Soviet Union wasn't always a famine hellhole, but even at its best it was corrupt as all heck, tyrannical and dysfunctional. Under Stalin it was one of the most horrifying places in history along with Mao's China, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

That's actually really sad. That a student believed that.

@@thunderbird1921 Soviet was good my family lived there you are talking about Stalin which was 100 years ago are you out of your mind? The actual Soviet after Stalins death was a good place to live and build a future. Everybody received Free Condos and good education. Watever they told you in the US about soviet was a lie

Had the same thing with a college professor who had escaped East Berlin before the wall came down. Talked about how awful things were & how friends & family would randomly disappear. How you hoped they'd escaped, but more often it was that the Stasi had gotten rid of them.
This girl in the class said another professor said that was all grossly exaggerated. SHM.

@@PharmacyAve The communists weren’t in power a hundred years ago and you say Stalin was 100 years ago? It’s plainly apparent who is the liar. Also, the way it collapsed beautifully explains how good it was.

My parents grew up in the Soviet Union. They are from Lithuania and we still feel the strong impact that Russia has left. Every single citizen that is above 30 knows Russian. Some older people, especially grandmas :) can only speak Russian and don’t know Lithuania. My dad told me that he too only saw, and bought a kiwi after the Union collapsed and he didn’t how to eat it so he ate it like an apple, with the skin :)
I myself grew up in an independent county but still I can feel the deep trauma that SSRS has caused the older generation and the whole country.
Most people outside of Western Europe whenever they hear the name Lithuania think that it is a part of Russia which couldn’t be more from the truth, so it sucks how a thing that no longer exists still holds a lot of power.

But atleast you learned how to appreciate some stuff. For example going to Yugoslavia would have been for you like going to Spain today. Today kids are so spoiled they have everything and still don't value neither appreciate that this capitalist abundance still comes at a certain price. So a little bit of the Old communist philosophy is not so bad to put some things on its right place.

@@Dusankk What a weird comment towards what he wrote.. I don't think it "was appreciated" by them.. Go outside and touch some grass dude.

@@Dusankk dude....learn to appreciate stuff? ...

Exactly the same thing in China back in 1980s

and what good is a camera without FILM? that is how the soviet EMPIRE worked!

@@jephrokimbo9050 you're delusional

@@jephrokimbo9050 Soviet Cinema was literally constantly awarded by International Film Agencies... Socialism is a time of art, intellectual development and productivity, because in real Socialism, the hard worker gets what they deserve: The full fruit of their labour.
I'm missing those times. The American media is lying to you! The workers can and have DEMOCRATICALLY CONTROLLED THE FIRMS WHERE THEY WORK AT.

@@schrodingerskatze2162 you sound like a college student so i assume you didnt live in the ussr

​@@revcanon5744 East Germany'
I've lived in East Germany. I have also been to Cuba and China.
I also live in a community of Croatians who all miss Yugoslavia too. They have lived there.

Many of the ACTUAL tractors are still going too.

My husband does appliances. Apparently the new freon is just butane. (Doesn't work well)

You should take pics lol

then wtf is wrong with their military stuff

@@sjsksgwkwksksjw3092 its just old

Great Info dude

So instead of bootlegs, they should be called glovearms.
-
Ermmm- Nevermind, that's dumb.

nice

@@Olkv3D they were actually called "ribs"

x-ray films, not x-rays.

Did he know the guy who was accidentally shot with a particle beam?

@@twistedyogertHmmm that sounds…strange…

@@dougie2fly511 its not that strange after chernobyl Russia took nuclear saftey more seriously the problem was Russia mostly had stolen plans to nuclear reactors (usually when stolen old or not build for a reason) and the plants were ran by disel machanics and engineers no one knew the science behind how things worked or even understood the machinary they operated they were just given basic manuals that read like
step 1 push button A
step 2 push red button A
step 3 wait for dial to read 350
these practices are what lead to chernobyl

​@@indeed8211Chernobyl is a city in Ukraine

Interesting! My Dad was also a physicist and went with two others in 1987 to advise Soviet scientists and “officials,” (probably KGB minders), regarding Chernobyl. Is it possible our Dads were in the same group? From NY? Mine also said it was like a time warp.

This is because NATO blocked so much trade that it was difficult to get next to anything that wasn't directly produced by your country. Then the things produced by your country were limited because the raw materials were restricted by capitalist countries trying to kill communism
Let's not forget who invented the term "third world" and relegated the USSR to the "second world". Those trying to make their "first world" as perfect as possible by taking from the other two at the threat of military intervention

And? That's pretty good compared to most capitalist nations of the time isn't it?

@@whythelongface64 ... Not having wheels on things is better?

@@scottrobinson9752 No you knave, I meant to say that contemporary capitalist countries did not have the 99% equipment and amenities available for the majority of their population anyway. USSR was doing far better than the majority of the world under the boot of Western capital.

@@whythelongface64 ..... Capitalism essentially takes the idea of a free market...and then adds a hist of regulations, and makes debt a requirement. But to say communism is better, is ridiculous. They're hardly even all that different. Capitalism fared a little better though. After WW2, the US was granted control of the emerging global economy, by the central banks. Which was just the completion of the plan that was started in 1913...the creation of the Federal Reserve.
Let's imagine that the US navy had been completely destroyed by the end of WW2...and that Russia still had a large navy remaining. If that had happened... the central bankers would have bestowed control of the global economy on Russia. The fact that one was capitalist, and one was communist ultimately makes very little difference. They are both based on debt enslavement.
I was simply noting that one system was more able to provide casters for equipment, and the other one was not. That simple difference was metaphor for a larger point.

Sounds like a "clip joint" where you hang out and chat with scantily clad women and be given alcohol that you have to pay before you leave, or else.

A man walks into a soviet store and asks if this is the place where he can buy no meat.
"No," the lady says, "this is the place where you can buy no bread. You can buy no meat across the street."

Reminds me of that Johnny Cash song, One Piece at a Time.

@@dennisyoung7363 a drone repeats it's script.

@@jedahn I know. Like the communist drones who don't think it will result in mass murder. Drones (useful idiots)

@@dennisyoung7363 Huh? Oh, buzz words.

Notice blm types burned down small businesses, and those not burned shuttered due to coof while Wal-Mart stayed open.

Yes, I remember those years. I attended a Soviet school from 1981 to 1990. The Soviet schools passed to the five-days week only in 1987.

It wasn't evil and terrible it was great

@@terrorgaming459 What was great? To be incredibly poor?

Nothing to do with the video but I guess bb...i mean blm is all you think about

"thin wafers of perfection"? Seriously?
Can't even imagine him spitting out something as poetic as this. He was way more close to the ground to say the least.
Sounds more like a fictional story made up by chips manufacturers which the one couldn't disapprove back then.

That sounds like some bullshit Reagan would spit out.

​@@ManOnHorizon its true , I was one of the "thin wafers of perfection " , jokes apart , this is highly possible as the Pepsi deal was also struck during his rule so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually said that and introduced it back home

I have a Russian friend who grew up in Russia during the Soviet era. She said life was good and essential public services were well provided for, despite the lack of consumer goods. Everyday people did not think about the KGB unless they tried to visit abroad - then they did. She said people resented being treated like children who could not make their own mind up about things.

@@aylabaer5324 what are you talking about? My family were Russians, tatars, ukranians and moldovans, they all lived the same.

@@aylabaer5324 But what you are saying is still not true. Russians never had it easier.

Do not forget that the USSR was a totalitarian dictatorship similar to China, Cuba or North Korea. People could not choose their leaders or representatives, could not freely travel abroad, could not criticize the Communist party or Communist leaders, had no access to truthful information (all media was strictly controlled by the government and broadcast only propaganda). There was an atmosphere of fear. The USSR was basically a huge concentration camp. Of course, if you were a very simple person who cared only about eating and sleeping, then everything was fine in the Soviet Union. But then you lived like an animal.

@@ihorperec4990 there wasn't any fear or feeling of being not free. People just lived their normal everyday lives, not thinking about kgb or anything like that. My parents never said it was perfect, but they can't stand all that anti-soviet propaganda bullshit either.

There's also a movie about the it with the same name!

By the way, speaking of Tsoi
Цой подавился мацой

Thank you for this amazing discovery!

Victor Tsoi! He was so ahead of his time! A brilliant musician! Love him!

I was looking here specifically to see if this band is mentioned!! Definetly want to see!!

Or today, but for the immigrants... 🙄

@@movement2contact ouch

Lawrence of arabia

My father grew up in a small village. People where happy but life was hard. My father went to school and after school to his father farm. In his free time, he went with his friends to water spring. They had TV and movies. During his childhood, he ate some bread that was used for livestock. He also ate yellow clay from hunger. Farms products were sent to markets or to the rich owners of the farms. Then later, his father managed to travel with the family to near by countries every summer by bus. Later on, many food brands where available in the market. Also lunch at school was free and pocket money from his parents.

😂😂😂😂

Well if he lives in Capitalism, and he's part of the weaker half of the population, he'll be homeless in 10 years

Yes, thats Reagan's joke about the Ussr, but he wouldnt come to a car dealer, in Ussr he would literally make an order from authorities, at work, mostly and then would be in line for it and wait for his chance. Yet, it would cost quite a lot. While an average salary was 150 r, the cheapest car cost 3500 r. , and others up to 7000 r and more

which country are you from?

@@stirlingblackwood lithuania

@@newlin83 You talk complete nonesense, no one is forcing you to "listen to top 10 pop songs" in fact nobody is forcing you to think in the certain way, that is the whole point.

@@newlin83 for your information, USSR had a pop culture of it's own. Difference is, we are free to choose to follow it or not, something that you could never do in USSR

Long live the free Lithuania

"just one "brand" for each product, and no incentive to make products with better quality. "
Amen. People who think communism conforms well to human nature haven't thought it through. They want to model a society based on how they wish human nature worked. This is still prevalent today with the hatred of capitalism and the want to move to socialism.
As for the cars, in East Germany you registered for a car when your kid was born and hopefully it would arrive by the time the kid was 18. Yikes! I heard stories about how excited people got when bananas arrived and the long lines they created. Bananas are the cheapest fruit in the supermarket now.

As the owner of a classic car, this is why my fabulous mechanic grew up in a communist country!

@@jasondashney Please do not confuse "socialism" and "communism", or conflate communism with the Soviet regime. Socialism is actually good (I'm actually going to flip what you said around and say that hatred of the Soviet regime is what caused the US population to hate socialism deeply without really knowing that socialism actually means having a decent work life, healthcare, etc). The Soviet Union never achieved true communism (not that it would ever be possible, because this is an ideology that only functions on the premise that everyone's kind and good and with no greedy, ill intentions). Communism was merely used as ideology during the USSR and never was implemented well. People were exploited back then (now with capitalism, it's pretty much the same, except people outside your country are also being exploited for your benefit) and were made to believe they reaped the benefits of socialism or communism. There still were social classes, except a lot of people didn't even know about that (or have deliberately "forgotten"), because they never mingled with each other - each went to a different canteen, etc. During the Soviet Union, things that seem natural to a human being today, such as reselling an item, or getting paid for giving private classes were forbidden by law and you could also end up in prison (this was called "speculation"). Sure, these laws about so-called speculation are against human nature, but I highly doubt that was supposed to be part of socialist ideology. Such measures don't equal socialism, and yet people think this is what socialism is about, when in fact it's what the Soviet regime was about. (I'm assuming you're from the US because you aren't using the rhetoric most Europeans would use, as most European countries are capitalist but with certain socialist attributes)

I just commented the following:
Im an author who now lives in the former Soviet Union - I've interviewed hundreds of people who lived under communism and the BIGGEST mistake you can make is to listen to one person's story. Imagine asking a single mother working 3 jobs and having no health insurance and a sick kid what life in America is like???
Imagine asking a business owner making $250k a year what America is like.
It NO DIFFERENT with the USSR. The majority of people I interviewed really liked it, want to go back to it. But this tends to be geographically orientated - people in Bulgaria had a good time under communism 75% want to return to communism, people next door in Romania had a horrific time, even so 35% want to go back to communism...
It could literally differ down to the city you lived in, mayors had a lot of authority, they could abuse this or be incredibly good mayors.
The even bigger mistake you can make is to ask a person who left the USSR and went to the west - this is called "survivorship bias" - they had to REALLY hate the USSR to leave, so that group of people should literally be removed from any objective analysis.
The main thing about the USSR and communism is, it was DIFFERENT to western propaganda. Both worse and much better. The west was really lazy in its lies and propaganda, but we believed it... I believed it.

@@piccalillipit9211 finally someone with with a brain.

Indeed, because as far as I know Soviet cars are all absolute shit boxes. The Lada Niva is like the only good car the Soviets were able to build, but it's no good the Soviets weren't able to build anything better than a Fiat Panda 4×4.

And owners would often remove parts of their cars, for example wipers, when parked because shortages of such items caused theft.

@@gagamba9198 another great point! Isn’t communism just the best. Hard to believe so many think it’s a great system.

@@hendrikdependrik1891 great point!

Isn't that how Musky started Tesla?

Like most things in the USSR, the ample supply of something doesn't guarantee the distribution of it. There may have been plenty of housing, but that doesn't mean it was accessible to the people that needed it

There were no homeless people at all? Yeah, right - just like there was no AIDS in the Soviet Union.

@@Robert-qm7yi Did u live there or in the west?

@@alphamale2194clearly in the west. Doesn't know a damn thing Bout the ussr. I'm a historian i.e a history nerd. I can confirm this is fact, the government provided housing, free higher education, jobs among other things. The literacy rate is amazing, being nearly 99%. They didn't have much crime, even in bigger cities. Unemployment was 0% till gorbachev took control. They didnt allow religion tho, and its true it could take 10 yrs to get a car. One of the most impressive facts about the soviet Union was the rather high level of women's rights, and Africans were oddly enough rather welcomed into the country. The USSR was the first country to allow women to participate in all branches of the army and government. Economic equality was actually achieved in the ussr, even the richest known person in the soviet union had what was an equivalent of 420000 usd in the 80s. There were no millionares in the ussr. It only took 10 years after the collapse of the ussr for Russias equality standards to plummet, having 14 billionaires in 2000 with a poverty rate of 54% up from 1.6% in 1990. Truly the most impressive feat by the ussr was that they landed something onVenus, something the us couldnt. It's obvious the ussr was the real winner of the space race.

They do that in North Korea too (or so they claim), it's still a shithole though.

Kvass is usually very sweet, because 50% of the whole drink is just sugar. It's also not beer, kvass is made from bread, beer is made from grain and hops.

Kvass usually has .5 percent alcohol and usually doesn't have sugar

Soviets built everything to last and reuse. Those kind of methods wouldn’t trash the Earth, Capitalists trashed it and caused Global Warming.

@@vkrgfan finally, a sane comment around here :D

@@vkrgfan the funniest comment ever

I read your comment and assumed this happened before he married your grandmother. I am sooo sooorry 😅

@@guangaotian6044 lol

Sounds like a courageous man. If only more people were like him, the USSR would never have come to power.

I guess commies weren't all bad.

@@ultimateguy7641 hail victory

Well, isn't it? A modern supermarket represents a miracle to almost all but the most recent of human generations!

It is in the US, for sure. You have to really focus or prepare to spend your day looking at everything.

Its called PALESTINE

מחוסר לשפע, גם אימא שלי הייתה ככה כשהיא עלתה לישראל

That's a pretty common thought, to see grocers as signs of abundance. Kruschev wanted two things when he went to the US: to go to Disneyland, and to go to a grocerystore. In the US, big grocery stores have always been seen as a sign of abundance - the fact we have the Midwest is what allows us to be so strong, because you need a lush, fertile breadbasket to feed people (like the Soviet Union had Ukraine, the Roman Empire had Egypt). Food is difficult to get, and if you don't have it, you die - so having a bunch of food around, even if it's of, often, questionable quality, people like that, and it's important. We saw during the pandemic, when anything went wrong, the first thing that went was our grocery supplies - and that is scary, to see so much abundance go down to nothing, and I think, one more instance of that, and that will cause an intense unease for us, as we've always had plenty of food, and it's very unsettling when you go back to being food insecure. Curiously, the USSR also solved their food insecurity problem, even if specific things were difficult to get - it is always amazing to me when a country, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, the US, the Soviet Union, China, fixes their food problems, and the famines stop - that is really a mark of a major point in a society's history, and is extremely important.

….

@@manicpixiecoffeelovr Life isn't about material positions and being able to eat whatever you want without consequence, the joy of life is people and nature, yes the USSR was insanely corrupt but the way of life brought people together, people in the western world are more dissociated from the real world than ever.

I think people have good memories just because they were young. Listening to their stories makes me anxious. I find life in ussr frightening

@@NatBKiev but did you live in the USSR?

nope.

^^
I notice way too many people make this mistake and call the USSR as "Russia", and that's wrong because like you said, there are 15 member states and Russia is only one of them.

Russia is trying to "take in" those countries again and is run by a member of the USSR's secret police, so I think we a splitting hairs a bit.

I don't care

Almost 60% of the population of the USSR were Russians. Saying that the USSR is not Russia is the same as saying that Great Britain is not England. 65% of the UK population is English

@@ComradeToeKnee Jesus 🤦 What's the difference HOW many countries were part of the USSR. The quantity doesn't matter. There are more than 200 nationalities in Russia. Does this mean that "Russians are only one of 200 nationalities"? No, because 80% of the population are Russians

Correct. They're called the bourgeoisie.

At least other societies were more upfront and honest about it. The USSR only pretended to care about the plight of workers and eliminating class differences in order to gain wealth, power, and influence for themselves. That’s usually the case for those who claim to fight for “equality.”

The World Economic Forum and their "You'll own nothing and be happy" campaign is terrifying. It's like "Hey assholes, SOMEBODY will own the stuff and you guys are the rich, private folks telling us we'll own nothing so lemme guess who will own the stuff then...."
It's so transparent it's beyond belief.

Yes but they were hiding their perks

You’re billionaires

don't you mean the *state-sponsored doping program.

I must break you...

EXACTLY!!! And that's why East Germany and USSR always cleaned out the medals in Olympics

A lot of it was because a lot of the top athletes they would send were technically military personnel competing in sport societies for their armed forces. They weren’t getting paid for athletics, they were getting paid for military service.

They were good but they did for free medals only , money ? forged about

Ofc, his polish

My parents lived in the PRL (Gdansk) most of their lives and I grew up their as kid. We came to Canada in the 90s after the system fell apart and the economy tanked.
My parents still have fond memories of the PRL and say in some ways it was a better system. I have nothing but fond memories as a kid.

polish had very bad times with both nazies and soviets, no wonder they dont like either. ask other countries who were in ussr about 60s 70s, most would say it was very stable, united and equal times.

Well poland is not a good Exempel because if your Master (the soviets) hate your guts and you thers it will end bad

Thats because its polish communism of you go to yugoslavia people say its 10/10 when you go to ussr its depending on the area and witch leader go to Czechslovakia its 8/10 romania 6/10 poland1/10 Bulgaria6/10

They still manufacture the same exact cars from Soviet era with very minor face lift

The biggest problem was replacement parts other than that those cars could keep on going like toyotas. Except really basic toyotas that take 5-20 years to get.

But only top government officials could afford to own a car. Everyone else had to walk or ride public transportation.

@@maryaltshuller885 Now I feel like my grandfather was top government official. Because he had one and it was on the road for over 40 years.

@@maryaltshuller885 being a well placed official certainly made things smoother in getting a car. Normal ppl could get a car however the Soviet Union did not promote a car culture. Little things like windshield wipers headlights and other consumable parts were often not available and stolen frequently from parked cars. Repair shops were not very common so god help you if it breaks. That is not to mention it was difficult to travel within the country, a passport of sorts was required no free movement. So even if a family did get a car the opportunities that it gave them were limited still if you had one it was an item that gave you leverage and prestige.
TLDR if you are interested in this stuff the YT channel Ushanka show has several episodes on Soviets cars along with hundreds of other videos on the life of the average soviet citizen in during the 70', 80's, and then the collapse. He lived in Soviet Ukraine so it is about as good a source as can be had.

On the positive side, workers could not be fired on a whim because at-will employment did not exist. Much like in France today, employers who had issues with “troublesome” employees had to bring their case before a council to determine if an employee absolutely had to be sacked. So firing someone simply because you did not like them was simply impossible, and poor performance alone was not enough of a reason. Even if the employer had a decent case against their employee, they still had to go through a waiting period while the council deliberated the matter.

In Soviet Russia, you don’t find job. Job find you.

@@ilovemuslimfood666 You can also have that in a non communism country. You know that, or? Yes you couldn’t be fired but because of that nobody really worked. They just said there and read books.

Which is why soviet products sucked.

In Soviet Russia employees pretended to work and employers pretended to pay them.

Have they played in Antarctica?

@@billy56081 krplus.net/bidio/YqyhZKVrao2vqZQ
They indeed have

@@swagmaster6922 That is really cool, thanks for posting.

@@billy56081 yes, they have for the express purpose of being the only band to play on every continent.

As a teenager I bought the binge and purge set and didn’t understand the Russia reference. As an adult I have a lot of respect for that performance.

I had a history teacher in college that grew up in the soviet union and she told us all the hardships she faced and one girl in the class told her she was a liar and that the ussr was the most prosperous and crime free and corruption free society to ever exsist

@@jarrodtedder919
I have a teacher here in Germany who lived in the GDR.
He was Georgian and he also told me how hard life was there.

Isn't it funny how these kids with a few courses in political science feel they know better than the people who've fled all of these communist "utopias"?
There's a reason why free market countries generally have floods of people coming in & communist countries have to stop their citizens from leaving.

@@kayvan671 I had a teacher who fled East Berlin. She was a child when the wall went up, & everyone knew that it wasn't to keep the West Berliners from escaping to the GDR, no matter what the Stasi claimed.

@@ggdail Capitalists countries have some of the most refugees and people fleeing them.

pretty ironic since the USSR was supposed to be a atheistic state

What about Stalin?

Father or grandfather Lenin? I remember it Dedushka Lenin

Atheist as it prohibited any made up religions, but worshiping actual people like the leaders was fine.

Yes, it was so cool to name cities after one's name.

If that was considered futuristic it'd give it a pass

thank you for this ❤. I have a friend from Russia and she says it wasn’t as dark and unhappy as propagandized in the west.

@Glennsten Bergkvist hm every household in my family had one. i have a big family. my grandpa has 9 sisters and brothers, grandma 3 and on the other side also 3 and 5

Russia never saw freedom and modern world, you're still the same as in the 17th century and that's why there's a war in Ukraine. big mistake was helping Russia during there 1990s....it should have Been let collapsed.

Don't order the rusty staple at the bar unless you are ready for a strange night.

i spent my entire childhood in a Lada :) honestly ive been trying to get a Lada 03 and a Niva here in the states.

@@butchcassidy7010 UAZ Patriot is available for you guys from the US

They where sold here in Quebec for at least 10 years. But after the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down it was a shame to own one for some time.

@@andrefiset3569 I remember that. A friend of mine had a Lada he would wind up with a crank.

@@andrefiset3569 in québec, we got one back in the '90 s ...Evryone laughed at us because it was considered "poor quality " XD i even remember my friend saying to me ; "you dont feel ashamed owning a lada?"

There is a popular beverage known as "квасс" which was derived from fermented bread. It was available on just about every street corner!

Is this true

@@tiggy7777 100% historical fact.

It's a myth, sorry. Historically, people dug wells and got their water from them. BTW, it's not the alcohol in beer that kills germs (beer can and will go bad given enough time), it was the boiling of water to make wort that killed the germs.

@@maksphoto78 It's okay, I forgive you. People drank beer instead of water. The alcohol in beer or other fermented drinks like cider and ale DOES kill germs. Of course it goes bad eventually, everything does, but even ground water had the potential for and the capacity to have organisms in it -- organisms that would have a harder time surviving in alcohol based drinks than water. I don't care if you got it from a medieval Brita tap water filter, still water of any kind become breeding grounds for germs and organisms of all kinds. The people back then didn't understand any of this let alone know what germs or the concepts of germs were, but they did view beer and other alcohol-based drinks not just safer (from experience as much as anything else scientifically speaking) but more nutritionally sound than drinking water. All they knew was they'd be less likely to get sick drinking that than water from any source they had available. Acting like ground water is somehow impervious to germs. What the fuck are you talking about?

I'd way rather learn how the locals experience vs what they are supposed to say on an approved tour.

9:18 fuck Iron Maiden, that's not music

By '89 that had largely faded. It was early to mid 80s where shortages were bad.

@@mbogucki1 Good times

@@eddiesroom1868 My parents and grandparents seem to think so. They give stories of people coming up with creative ways to make ends meet, how people helped each other and communities were closer. My family wasn't having steak every day but they sure weren't going hungry either.

@@mbogucki1 that's cool Homer, my grandpa fought in WW2, he didn't go hungry either.
I stand by that fuck Iron Maiden comment ✌️

Same with the show "The Great"

Well @8:05 at least they got something right

I imagine they toned it down for "tv" if anything.

cringest film ever watched

Love that movie

On the practical realisation, they were a autarky capitalist oligarchy, backed by all state powers, so even more extreme and unchecked than other nations that were considered capitalist oligarchies

@@emib6599 "autarky...oligarchy" ?

Would you care to elaborate? What stories did they tell?

I'm also interested in the tales. I don't want to hear propaganda. I want to know what life was really like.

@@jasondashney what era of the USSR I can recommend memoirs

@@bethklinger8105 I'm Canadian so I know very little other than a couple tales from East Germany my ex told me from when she was a little girl. I'm curious about life in Mother Russia, as well as other areas it controlled, and I'm sure it wasn't monolithic. I'm sure some times were better than others.

Wanna hear the American propaganda

Interesting how people have different experiences, my family would never leave SU , even now , when we traveled and saw a lot of countries nothing compares with SU to them

@@sjsj9106 That’s very interesting! 😁

US college student: "umm but leik that wasn't 'true communism' so umm like, yahh, it didn't leik work all those other times but umm leik, we'd make it leik better leik umm so, yahh"

@@sjsj9106 Ok and how well-connected politically were your parents then? lol

@@gram. To be fair, no "communist" country has actually ever been purely communist. That being said, no one could ever make it better since there isn't a population on earth that would actually go for pure communism.

It was called "The Law on Parasitism," article 209.1

probably because she was not a child but an adult who was employed by the government and was replying to tens of hundreds of pen pal letters every day.

@@mentalasylumescapee6389 Sure, it was probably Stalin himself writing back letters from the afterlife.

Because she was beaten by an NKVD agent until it was perfect you silly woman

China do not have soup kitchens
There is no need for soup kitchens in China

@@yourdeal2408 ah I gotcha. They probably just point a pistol at civilians heads and ask them if they’re hungry and if they say yes they pull the trigger and move onto the next person in line until they say they’re not hungry right?

@@iceviking8280 Why are you so demeaning to China? What do you know about China for you to say something so hurtful and untrue, the reason why there is no need for soup kitchen in China is because the family will always look after their own. It is in our chinese DNA to support, respect and help our relatives and family.
Please do not speak through your arse, if you do not have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut!

@@iceviking8280 that anti-China propaganda got to you?

@@Jade-sc7ne truth hurts doesn’t it?

thats not true, im from lithuanian ssr, we learned about whole world history, just bigger focus was on european history and obviously ussr history. today lithuanians are super russophobic and sovietophobic, sadly those are younger gen who didnt even lived in those times and only heard bad things or propaganda from west. those who lived in 60s 70s early 80s ussr post stalin times was very stable, united and equal among all.

@@NostalgicMem0ries everyone is sovietphobic, cause the USSR sucked

@@IceGnikDilf opinion varies a lot, i would say half of those who experienced ussr times think it was good, especially post stalin era.

@@NostalgicMem0ries Post stalin era was better but not by much, most people think that the USSR was terrible, especially the post soviet countries that arent Russia or Belarus.

@@IceGnikDilf disagree by a lot

1989 wall opened in Berlin
Gorbachev was General Secretary 85-91 then became the president of USSR.
Please do not distort historical fact. I’m not being rude but pointing out how accuracy is important. Our young need to know all the truest facts because it has been distorted for decades in our school system

@@DesdemonasSaoirse Corrected

@@KamboCan629 and it is Reagan not Reagon.

Me they got some of the coolest history. My family fought for them when Czechoslovakia was part of the Empire.

up.

Austro-Hungarian*

@Who Cares? Australius-Hungarius*

WBeNrr ok ok I changed it, I really like some of the other suggestions here 😂

@@wulfhere83 The north west and down under are headed there first. CSR and ASR. Canadian Soviet Republic, Australian Soviet Republic.

@@jeremytine Capitalisms fundamental mathematical issues and internal contradictions arising from those issues cannot be reformed away though. Capitalism can only rely on extensive imperialism for so long to secure more land, resources and labor that enable it to cover up it's own mathematical contradictions.
Consider this: Capitalism is often hailed as a "great" system when looking at western countries in isolation. The glaring issue with this deeply skewed picture, is that the western capitalist systems are only 'successful' by relying extensively on countries across the global south by effectively turning them into slave countries of the west. This neo-colonial conquest of the economies of entire countries, with western corporate interest taking over their land, natural resources, labor, industry and infrastructure, is to keep those countries in extreme depravation, squalor and under-development, while those third world countries create the conditions for western citizens to have luxuries that those third world people hardly get to enjoy at all. This is what capitalism relies on in order to appear like a "successful" system. It simply can't last.
In the end, no matter how you slice and dice it, the only solution will be for the people of each country to actually own their own societies as a whole - meaning all of the productive property meant to keep society functioning, and to actually establish democracies that directly serve the interest of all people on equal grounds to the fullest extent possible - proletariat democracies, which is in contrast to the sort of democracies common throughout the current world controlled only by corporate interest - which are Bourgeois democracies. In other words, the foundations for a socialist society, premised on society belonging to the people as a whole and a political democracy to match that.

@@jeremytine I'll ask a question: Do you think that if a minority of people own the majority of the land, resources, industry and infrastructure of society, that it is possible to have a democracy that actually serves the interest of the people on the whole? Why or Why not? I'm curious to see how you respond to this question.

@@wulfhere83 Capitalism is "success" in some countries, at the extreme expense of other countries through neo-colonialism, spear-headed by coercive politics, genocidal coups and sanctions and military invasion, and causing nothing but severe depravation, misery and under-development for most of the worlds people to serve the "luxury consumerist culture" of the west. But yes, go on pretending that the "success" of western countries built on the extraordinary suffering of most other countries somehow means that capitalism is a "good" system.

@@ufodeath u never see a country turn to capitalism and get poorer but u see that a myriad of times the moment they elect a socialist govt

Its like that everywhere at every point in time lol

@@SeedOilFitnessOfficial preaching to the choir fam

always w communism..2 classes poor and the rulers

@@thegrigs777 Sounds like America today

Really? That's so cool to know. It's odd - in our society, it's sometimes like that with theft, but, usually it's a bigger deal to steal from a business or an organization than to steal from another person. It's odd - you'd never, from an American perspective, expect the USSR to be like that - seems like, the USSR was holding to their values in a lotta ways, with more emphasis on the people, where stealing from them severely affects that person, rather than the state, who, if you steal from, it's just a minor inconvenience (as long as it doesn't happen too much). What else happened in the USSR? I love hearing these stories of other people, told first-hand, telling me both the good, the bad, and just how things worked - like hearing the insane amounts of school work you would have to do in universities.

I'm not sure that you understand what you're talking about and that you're from a post-Soviet country at all. On the contrary, education and medicine in the USSR were absolutely free. The Soviet education system was also the best in the world and was accessible to everyone. There was practically no theft in the USSR, people could safely leave their house keys under the rug or leave their bike in the open. The crime rate was low. I was particularly surprised by the part of your comment about the "consumer society". Conversely. Western society is a consumer society. Soviet society was creative. This is evident in all aspects of society. Watch Soviet films and American films. Soviet films about friendship, brotherhood, kindness and mutual assistance. American films about bandits, shootings, debauchery. The ecology in the USSR was clean, because unlike the consumer American society in the USSR, not everyone had cars. The only thing you're right about is corruption in the 1980s and the fact that workers were paid more than engineers. But this did not interfere with the fact that the USSR was the largest scientific superpower, the leader in space, and the fact that 25% of all scientists in the world were Soviet. That is, every fourth scientist in the world worked in the USSR

@@blessedandbiwithahintofmagic Are you doing your homework for university? Well, as a person whose parents lived in the USSR, I can tell you about the pros and cons. Pros - social guarantees, free education, medicine, apartments. There are no homeless and unemployed. Low crime rate. Cons - a low range of goods, a shortage of some goods, it is impossible to travel abroad. This is in short. In Russia in the 1980s and 1990s, after the transition to capitalism, corruption, poverty, crime, inflation began to reign, and there were difficult times. My parents were forced to engage in entrepreneurship (in the USSR there was a criminal article for this - speculation)

@@user-bp1di7br1r No, I'm an interested soul - I love learning, and understanding societies and their conditions, especially everyday lives of all sorts of people, is really important to me. Thanks for the record, I appreciate it.

@@user-bp1di7br1r omg , dude . Stop watching russo TV and travel.
Zhil ya v sovke , pomnu ocheredi za vsem . Ded moi v KGB rabotal hodil s mentom i pistoletom , ha v rifmu.
Travel, learn English and accept of other cultures. Lots of older people love USSR as they were young and full of life during those years.

Sounds like somthing the soviets wuld do

Please, I spent countless hours in bread lines in the late 70s, early 80s in a small village in Northern Ukraine. Bread was delivered three times a week, and people waited for hours in line

@@UshankaShow Yeah, UKRAINE. Says it all. Now use your head.

@@chickenlover657 Yes Soviet Ukraine, the former "bread basket of Europe" had shortage of bread. Welcome to the socialist economy

@@UshankaShow Right, totally had nothing to do with the corruption of the local government, it was all the russian's fault, lol
Btw, you're pretty contradictory there, mate. You claim to have spent countless hours in a small village. Fact is, if the village was small, you could hardly wait more than an hour. Can't have it both ways. Not to mention this queue culture happens all over the world, even to this day, even in america.
Finally, your whole point is moot, because the USSR is long gone. The russia of today and the USSR have nothing in common.

@@keenbeans1133 Me too.

most sensible comment

You sound like u are reaching sir.......

This video is full of little lies and biases…I was born in USSR and lived there 43 years, so I can tell that not everything presented in this video is truth…!

I remember as a teenager in the early 2000’s, our high school’s maps and globes still had the Soviet Union on it. Wish I had figured out a way to buy them.

I remember coloring maps in 6th grade geography class (1980-81) and the USSR section was always easy because it was so large. I wish I had kept a globe.

and the border battles of Rhode island

@@carolynsilvers9999 Ooh! Good one!

Yo aiden! How bout learning about MAGA & Putler's love affair with greed, corruption, anything undemocratic

It still is. Guys have to join the army for 1 year. Unless they are getting their masters degrees.

They finally abolished mandatory military service in Ukraine in 2014 under Poroshenko and then.. yeah. Bad move, when your neighbor is fuckin russia

You realize hot water comes from water heaters, were they just shutting off peoples power?

@@vividfiber6668 big big industrial heaters, one per neighborhood, can continue to pump water to one building while water is shut off for "maintenance" for a month in another.

Oh no, the horror of paying union dues!!!

@@mariajaujou yeah, that's not how that works bud. Sorry lol. It makes zero sense to have one giant water heater per neighborhood as you'd be constantly wasting energy heating up large excesses of water, what your talking about is mostly used on giant naval vessels. Even hotels have on demand water heaters in each unit or your regular heater. Why? Because it conserves energy to have small amounts heated for people to use when they need. My source? I litterally install and repair water heaters for a living and what your talking about is entirely nonsensical.
There are lots of things you can use to shit talk the soviets, water heaters and union dues are so far down on the list of shitty things its unfathomable that you would even bring those up as negative points and also make something about water heaters up to sound smart.
Jesus Harold Christ

This film also missed that nobody was homeless, free education and health care for all, very little crime, very little unemployment, the USSR defeated Nazi fascism in WW2 and that the October Revolution in 1917 led to the end of WW1. Now how could Weird History miss all that?

Fascinating topic! Great idea! I'd love to see Weird History make a video about the Monument Men.

Dont worry im starting to dig. ⛏⛏⛏⚒

I fantasize about doing that. Only id hunny down any and everything stolen by the Nazis and return it to survivors synagogues and museum

krplus.net/bidio/qbuOpnqjkYm2l5Q
Mark Felton did a short bit on them, or rather one very specific mission.
And another:
krplus.net/bidio/gtyidYB6l2jPqoI

I saw the movie based on that

Way better days . No computers , no atms, no banks , no internet . Use a slide rule and paper and typewriter . No Sodom , Jesus is Lord

This video is propaganda. My parents lived in USSR

@@Anonymous-qj3sf How is it propaganda ?

@@lucillebluth2616 This pro-Western video is a manipulation of facts. For example, in the section on "poverty", the author chose 1989. Yes, then there really was poverty in the late 1980s because of Gorbachev's failed policy and the transition from socialism to capitalism, as well as because of the privatization of enterprises. At this time, homeless and unemployed people appear for the first time. Before that, there were no homeless and unemployed people in the USSR for the entire existence of the USSR. Absolutely all people were provided with work and housing. The USSR was a socialist country with many social guarantees. Or another example. The author talks about the "famine" in the 1960s. That's a lie. Hunger and lack of food disappeared in the early 1950s. There was no famine in the USSR in the 1960s. Also, queues for consumer goods did not last "forever", but 20-30 minutes. And I have something to compare it with. Because my maternal relatives are from the village. My paternal relatives are from city (Moscow region). Also, the author is silent about the advantages of the USSR. For example, education. The Soviet education system was the best in the world.

@@Anonymous-qj3sf I doubt it’s propaganda . It was better times … no fax … a REAL FACTORY … with no EPA rules . Coal and coke like it should be . No cell phones … a real retirement … it wasn’t that bad ! Maybe buy a comic book and a coke and play chess on the street .

Yeah, I'm sure you did bud.

@Bill Bombshiggy
That my friend is very typical of the proponents of Communism. Especially one's that have never experienced it for themselves or knew people that had. They just speak utter nonsense and when they feel threatened they act dismissive like our friend Natalie here.
These losers are always the leaders of their own revolutions in their minds. They think if Communism were to take hold (it's not) they will be instrumental in the new regime. In reality it will be they who are lined up and shot first in the glorious revolution they seek while clutching their brand new iPhones.

@@nataliekhanyola5669 Idk. I actually believe him