I love your channel, but you really should clarify "Fuck Russia" with "Fuck the Russian government... I've got no problems with the Russian people. The people never have any say in shit like this. You know that.
I do not understand the relationship with alcohol and the Russian people as a whole, could you do a full long explanation please! It would get many views from America ♥️
@DavidStickneymaybe if you had to deal with another country oppressing your lifestyle and people until the fall of Soviet Union. Then constantly being screwed with since Putin once he took over. Then just randomly decides to de-nazify your country just to look better before an election.
@@purpleldv966 Soviet aviators were very respectful to American counterparts. Love of flight is the same, regardless the borders. I doubt that they would present anything they would not be happy to consume themselves.
I love the addition of the 'family archive' footage in these videos. It adds a personal touch that you don't see with many military focused channels. Also, the juxtaposition of old soviet things with upbeat narration always give me a smile.
Man the Soviet Air Forces ability to make cocktails puts the US Navy's Torpedo Juice to shame. Then again if there was more equipment that had alcohol I'm sure the USN sailors would have done the same. Never doubt young men's ability to make drinks out of whatever is at hand if they're far from home I guess
To be fair, it's not the normal sailors the Navy has to worry about, but the Seabees. Those mfs stole 9 North Korean trains AND took all the beer from a local brewery during the Korean War. My own Daddy, a Seabee, managed to get his hands on a live 155mm round and used it as a doormat during his deployment to Afghanistan. Sadly, Chief had Army EOD come by and take it a week after my Daddy and his buddies "tactically acquired" the 155mm round. Nevertheless, they'll steal yo' shit.
Its not about alcoholism. In Soivet times alcohol had more value then the ruble. It was currency. Even up to mid 2000s a bottle of vodka or wiskey can get you a good care in a hospiral for example. This is what happens when the population is poor. Bartering and bribes takeover.
@@Nyx_2142Hell, you could compare it to an economy based on chocolate. While yes it’d be a currency, it’d be an edible currency and then get stomach issues because of it.
One of the stories I have to think about regarding soviet soldiers and alcohol is the one by Michael Schlosser. He was an East German citizen who wanted to flee to West Germany. He builds a homemade aircraft to fly over the inner German border for that purpose. But he had to test if the plane was even capable of flying. So, in 1983, we went to a Soviet military base north of Dresden on a Sunday because he knew most of the personnel there were off duty then. Well, he arrives there with his disassembled plane in his truck, and suddenly, seven red army soldiers come out of the woods and, of course, ask him what the fuck he is doing. But he brought something with him: two bottles of vodka. They instantly become more friendly after receiving this welcome gift. He gives them some made-up story about testing the plane for a TV show, and they help him assemble the plane. He did a short test and took off with the plane just two meters, but that was enough to know he could fly with it over the border. Meanwhile, the soldiers sat on the grass, drinking the vodka and congratulating him on the successful test. Finally, they disassembled the plane with Schlosser, said goodbye, and returned to their base. Ultimately, one of his colleagues reported him to Stasi, and he was arrested, but the soldiers never reported the incident. The story's moral is that if you do illegal things on a military base, always bring alcohol with you.
@@andrewhammel8218 oof, to be so sure you are right and yet be so very wrong. Why don't you go ahead and Google "Inner German Border." Here, I copy pasted some for ya: "The inner German border (German: innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch-deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. "
@@brianfarley2388 mann o mann, was soll denn diese schwachsinnige Haarspalterei von so einem Angelsachsen, der versucht zu erklaeren, wie man Deutsch spricht 🙂
Pilots would also report encountering icing conditions and inform the ground that they were activating de-ice, but in reality, they were siphoning off the deice fluid when they return to base - the flip side of that same coin.
@AndyBonesSynthPro Mine too! The rum and scotch were easier. I got good with food coloring in order to mask the diluted hue. Thankfully, my parents were alcoholics so bottles never lasted too long 😂
My father told me a true story about two Romanian pilots who used to drink before flying. At the construction company where my father worked, there were also two "engineers" who were actually former military pilots, they were sent there after they had been disciplinary fired from the military aviation. What really happened. So the story took place in Romania in the 70s, and the pilots were MIG 21 pilots. They worked as military pilots at the air base in Brașov and always before flight training they drank about half a liter of vodka or brandy, then they got on the flight deck and took off . The drink caught them only when they were in flight and they "gained courage" and performed all the aerial acrobatic maneuvers stipulated by the regulations. One of the pilots told my dad that if he didn't drink he wouldn't be able to do the stunts in the training program because he didn't have enough courage. But one day they both made a big mistake, namely they competed with each other to dive and straighten the plane closer to the ground, the problem was that they did this above the greenhouse complex in Codlea near Brașov and after doing several drops like that due to the sonic bang and the noise created destroyed 4o hectares of greenhouses. After they landed they were immediately arrested, later they were kicked out of the army disciplinary and at the construction company where my father work they were sentenced disciplinary to work. I understood that due to the fact that they were very good pilots, Ceaușescu agreed to pardon them and they received this punishment at work because in Romania at that time if you caused damage to the state of more than 1 million lei (Romanian money equivalent 25 leu to 1$ at that time) you were sentenced to death, or 40 hectares of greenhouses were probably worth much more.
@@JoeRogansForehead No, I said that the capital punishment was given for a million lei damages and for the reference I gave the exchange rate 25 lei = 1$ I said backwards sorry, so 1 million lei was equivalent to 40000$
Not gonna lie, I immediately broke out into uncontrollable laughter when you mentioned how the MiG-29 which your father eventually picked was actually made by "Sukhoi" or dry with regards to its alcohol. I don't think I'll ever get away with mentioning the Flanker, Felon, and company without thinking of that translation anymore. (The Dry D-27 Flanker, the best fighter in the Soviet Union, everyone!) I still am blown away at the absolute wealth of first-hand experiences both you and your father had with regards to aviation in general, particularly at how your father flew highly-advanced fighter jets for a living. Like, come on; just receiving enough booze to fill up entire *bathtubs* and a jar collection filled on top of all that without paying several figures for it is virtually unheard of outside the Union! Definitely gonna look out for Comrade Kroupsky when he appears.
> I don't think I'll ever get away with mentioning the Flanker, Felon, and company without thinking of that translation anymore. An actual declassified nomenclature of soviet military aircrafts: Dry, Demi-sec, and Brut 🤣
Soldiers drinking alcohol meant for something else is definitely not a uniquely Russian problem, even the Nazis joined in on the fun. The V2 ran on ethanol, and the soldiers drinking the fuel was a problem the Germans never managed to solve.
Hey at least one time alcohol abuse lead to a positive outcome: Less fuel for the V2s. Then again the V2 was a pretty useless weapon anyway, but that's a different story ...
@@lordmontymord8701in terms of hitting a specific target instead of an entire city then yeah the V1 and the V2 were trash (compared to modern standards anyway) but as a weapon of terror and random mass destruction, the V1&2 did the job quite well.
@@TrolerWT There's at least one site on the web that claims it was a Syrian MiG-21 pilot that actually invented the Cobra Maneuver. No idea if the claim is accurate...
@@davidg3944 Im not saying Pugachev created the cobra since the first cobra maneouver was created by swedish J35 pilots in order to counter the drag force
My dad was at Checkpoint Charlie from 1986-1987. He used to trade alcohol and cigarettes with the East Germans. From my understanding, by this time, the East Germans really didn’t care anymore. The American personal could go into East Germany during the day as long as they were in uniform and followed set rules. He said Soviet cigarettes were terrible and their vodka was often watered down. He kept some of the bottles.
Beyond hand-made stuff that originally was there, Soviet cigarettes were divided into bad and not as bad, depending on who's making them. A joke my father told me: The director of 'Dukat' tobacco factory comes to director of 'Yava' tobacco factory and asks: "Why people want to buy your cigarettes?" "What do your cigarettes have?" "Well, we do the usual - we use ground bay leaf, stale coffee, factory dust and shredded old paper." "So, what we are doing, is that we take ground bay leaf, stale coffee, factory dust and shredded old paper, and throw a grasp of tobacco in there." "You're actually putting tobacco in there?"
@@TenositSergeich I'm starting to get the feeling that that missing Kholkoz tobacco would somehow end up in hand-rolled cigarettes. Call it seizing the means of production.
You know your authoritaian government is about to fall when alcohol and cigarettes - the two things keeping people from overthrowing their oppressive government - are being watered down. In the book 1984 mentions such problems. People misunderstand who the book is geared towards and don't realize it was written to tell wannabe technocrats and authoritarians that their society will fail once they find out its easier alienate and punish honest reformers rather than make painful reforms.
The last straw as it were for Victor Belenko, prompting his defection to the west in his (at the time) much feared Mig-25 Foxbat, was when he ordered a squadron readiness exercise, and only two of the interceptors were flyable, due to the consumption of alcohol based fluids for the aircraft. After his arrival in Japan, his aircraft was disassembled to the nut and bolt level and it was found to be basically a piloted missile. Belenko also was treated for burns on his legs due to lack of shielding for the radar system. Fear and concern about the nonexistent capabilities of the Foxbat, led to a crash design and construction of some very good US platforms, F-15, F-14, F-16.
@@82726jsjsufhejsjshshdjso Yep, they are still doing the same thing today. Understanding that many Russian bases are pretty far away from town or settlements, is part of it. The other part is Russia has been an alcoholic culture for centuries, also, enlisted personnel are treated pretty badly by their officers.
The MiG-25 radar was no joke. Victor said that it could kill small animals from nearly a kilometer away so it was a crime to activate the radar on the ground.
The problem was a bit deeper than that - Alcohol was a big deal in Soviet culture. Not just as a beverage, but as a currency. The aviators weren't just getting the perk of some free booze, it was a literal social currency that added to their status.
they would still find a way; soviet soldiers in afghanistan made alcohol from boot polish and toothpaste. personally, i can't say i'd have liked to try it.
@@sergiykyivuaMany people often think Methanol (often used in car antifreezes iirc) is just Ethanol...until they get stuff like permanent blindness. Had the Soviets used that, a "Revolt of the Aviators" would have inevitably followed.
_My_ father was Royal Navy, _old school_ Royal Navy. He remembers being paid in alcohol each morning and the crew spending each day pretty shit-faced 😂 Rum and grog for breakfast. And it was used as currency too, with tots and it's sub divisions being traded for favours and other luxuries. (cigarettes, etc)
Decades after the practise ceased, I was about 10 to 12 years old at the time, my father and an old navy friend secured one of the bottles of the remaining Pusser's Rum, left over after "Black Tot Day", the last day of the Navy Tot. It tasted incredible, I'd never tasted anything that good before and I never will again (unless I buy one of the _very_ expensive remaining bottles) Indeed it was very moreish, I can see why they stopped.
@@jonathanvandermark5950 There is a company that still makes it to the original recipe, yes. Doesn't taste like that original bottle I tried though. No idea why.
@@MostlyPennyCat Age. Old ship booze was bulk stored in live wood barrels, because that was just what they had available to store it in. Science now knows that booze stored for long times in live wood barrels gets fucking ***good***.
My father had to serve his time in 1982 in the Czechoslovakian army as a doctor. When regular alcohol wasn't available the doctors were literaly prescribing "cough syrup". A solution of 40% alcohol with some phramaceutical herbal extracts which the unit pharmacy could mix. And when things got rough the unit pharmacy was always able to distil some technical alcohol. It still smelled of gasoline but was drinkable.
That's probably similar to the Italian drink "Fernet" it's 40% alcohol and herbs, originally made as cough syrup then used as an appetizer. Also common in the Czech Republic
A colleague of mine spent his mandatory service time in an infirmary. He was quickly schooled by senior coworker how to remove the gasoline from a mix used for dissolving the bandage glue (just set it on fire and watch the flame color - gasoline burns out first!), how to improvise a destilation station out of a standard eating kit and how ti mix the alcohol with various medicaments to acquire various flavors. He was also the one to supply the commanding officer with cough medicine (altough at first he thought the officer would really drink just a spoon every morning, not the bottle...).
I confirm partly from my own experience, my now former friend when he was here on a visit, he brought "wipers from a helicopter" He worked in aircraft repair shops that service Mil helicopters (Mi-8 / Mi-171 and other Hip derivates). As part of the supply of spare parts, they were also supplied with fillings for winter operation. Which included a de-icing compound for spraying the front windshield and main rotor blades - 99% pure alcohol without additives. They called it "The Yakutsk brandy". We drank it out of large shot glasses sprinkled with a bit of fizzy multivitamin powder...
And there we have the difference between western and the russian armies, my brother is in the Bundeswehr and he has a bunch of shell casings (I don't know what exactly) sawn of so that they have the dimensions of a shot glas. And tbh, I much rather drink factory made booze out of "recycled" military supply, than to drink literally recycled military supply out of a factory made glas. (All though the aviation nerd in me is now rather curious, wouldn't mind and I guess it can hardly be worse than the cheap vodka they sell in the stores)
@@cyberfutur5000 Great idea! :D I had a similar idea just this fall at a shooting competition when I met a guy there who reworks 12.5x99mm shells to historical black powder casings. The idea of a shot glass immediately came to mind... But as an aviation autist, I won't be satisfied with anything other than 20mm vulcan shells at least.
Here in Croatia we always had a myth about Russians drinking anti-freeze fluid when they ran out of Vodka. Thank you for confirming it! Although a more appropriate term would be "Soviet", since I'm sure everyone indulged in it
Fun fact: American commercial anti-freeze is usually made with ethylene glycol, and the antidote to ethylene glycol poisoning is actually ethyl alcohol. If you try to drink anti-freeze in America, the fucking DOCTORS will tell you to drink real booze.
The bathtub full of spirits was a common occurrence. But you kind of failed to imagine the reality of such storage of spirits: 1. The horrible eye-watering stench, that clung to skin and clothes; 2. Not only inability to take a shower (washing oneself is doable with a kettle and a washbowl), but also inability to wash clothes - soviet people had no washing machines and housewives washed clothes manually in a bathtub. 3. There were cases, when after a week or two of inconvenience, a wife would drain the bathtub to do the washing, and than risked being on the receiving end of a homicide by the enterprising husband! 150 liters of vodka was at least 2 months worth of salary! P.S. I always assumed that "шило" (piercing awl) was also named after Tu-22, as the plane had a shape of a tailor's awl and often jokingly called that way. P.P.S Glycerol should be easy to remove by distillation.
The US used alcohol in torpedo fuel, and it was also stolen in a similar fashion. Unlike the Soviets however, since US torpedoes already had problems with basic functionality (see "The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions") the brass would have it poisoned in various ways, ranging from "blindness or death" to merely "potent laxative".
I wouldn't mess with anything that A was not ethyl alcohol, and B was running through weird dirty pipes. Not everything is a safe drink you can muster up.
My dad was a Weapons Controller in the USAF, he retired a field-grade officer and had a great many stories about the Cold War, one of the things he mentioned to me was that, at any given time, up to 1/3 of MiG-25s stationed in the arctic regions were down due to crews drinking up all the de-icing fluid.
Please make a video of how Tu-95 pilots in Bila Tzerkva were dumping fuel into sewage and how later people of nearby villages discovered the "miracle of burning water" from their wells :)
Russian aviation reminds me of a classic Ronald Reagan joke that he heard from Russia/USSR. "There's only four things wrong with Soviet agriculture: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall."
@@TenositSergeich haha. This joke is still a thing, but now about city services. You know, each winter it snows, surprisingly, and they are never prepared for it.
Mig-25 was a plane designed to intercept the cancelled B-70 Valkyr (which is cancelled because USAF overestimated Soviet SAM capability. Soviet Air Force knew full well their SAM cannot hit Valkyr) with the ability to go very fast and very high to fire its missiles and return to base, and it's not good for anything else. However, the US Air Force misinterpreted the flight characteristic of the plane and thought it's a high maneuverable all around fighter, so they designed F-15 to counter that. It wasn't until a Soviet defector flew his plane to Japan that US Air Force finally realized what the plane was for. Mig-29 on the other hand is everything Western analysists thought Mig-25 was supposed to be.
As a rocket nerd I recall reading something about Wernher von Braun having serious problems with his workers at Peenemünde drinking the ethanol fuel used in his V2 rockets. As a deterrent they tried adding methanol to the fuel mix resulting in several cases of blindness and death.
That happened among early US Navy Submariners too, the alcohol fuel for the torpedos was part methanol, and sailors were going blind. So they switched to Croton oil as a deterrent. And submariners got better at constructing makeshift stills....
An elderly polish guy I worked with many years who fled the eastern block through East Germany told me many stories about drinking airplane fluids while on military duty far out in Siberia and I always wondered if that stuff wasn’t pretty toxic. But now hearing that stuff is all just alcohol it all makes sense! Man that old guy was legendary, the stories about his youth and „going dancing“ always cracked me up like nothing else! Also the story how he fled through eastern Germany beneath a train (and basically getting caught on the last station before freedom, but still making it on foot, all while shouting political insults )deserves a hell lot of respect! He also had 5 daughters and always wished for a son but one day his with said enough is enough haha.
@@mikoajmikoajczyk5505 he was a polish citizen. He told me he was there for a maneuver. According to his stories he was on a handful of maneuvers during his time in the military that were held with multiple Warsaw pact states. He has absolutely no political knowledge or interest (the only thing he says is that he hates „communism“ till death and would flee over and over again if necessary) so he couldn’t tell me anything about what they did there and which purpose those maneuvers had. He was a mechanic in a coal mine before joining the military so they put him in a maintenance position for vehicles and heavy equipment. That’s how he got access to all the fluids. He also stole quite a few parts to repair the old little tractor his father had to work on the little patch of land they had in their village. And of course fuel for the tractor, he said fuel was super regulated in those days and very hard to come buy as a regular low status citizen living in a small village.
My grandpa was mig25 pilot-instructor, he told me a story when pilots were taking out of their planes dozens of litres of Alcohol that was used later for trade. MiG-25 was the most profitable because it had huge cooling system (250L of 100% alcohol), a big part of this alcohol was used to cool the radar, so pilots during the flight didn’t fly with always on radar, they were turning it on only when it was needed so this way they were saving up to 100 L of alcohol.
As a veteran and an Airman I can say that alcohol was a crutch almost all of us used to get through stress, grief, and fear. Sadly too many of us lost the fight with it. I can’t wait for your new channel! My prikrasny zhena is from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. I love learning about the Soviet Union.
If I remember correctly, a supersonic vodka bottle was something I truly enjoyed learning about...obviously I'd argue the soviet auto pilot was just less drunk...since the soviet who put it together was "less drunk" than the senior air crew. ...But that's just my take Another excellent upload mate! Cheers!
I've had the misfortune to drink straight backwoods moonshine on a few occasions (I was a very stubborn young man lol) and it makes my stomach turn every time I think of Soviet aviators drinking straight ethanol or ethanol and glycerine out of plastic cups🤢 I do not wanna know what that hangover was like...
Slavs are just built different when it comes to ethanol. I've read somewhere that genetically they have bigger quantities of liver enzyme responsible for dealing with alcohol. I've personally seen some of them drink lethal doses of alcohol in western standards, with no serious consequences apart from hangover
It was funny to watch, as my father also was a pilot (colonel) of USSR Air defence force. Flew Yak-28P, Su-15 and Mig-25 (mentioned in the video). He told me the story that personel who drank alcohol drained from radar systems of the aircraft (i don't remember if it was Su or MiG aircraft he was talking about) later had IMPOTENSE problems.
This has kept a big grin on my face all the way through! Brilliant story telling, and the image of a bathtub full of MiG coolant will stay with me forever 😆
I read a book about Victor Belienko's life and when he got sent to Asia to fly Mig-25s he said that is was even common for them to fake flight hours to get alcohol and they would dump tons of fuel into the ground and even put it on pilots log books so that they could keep the alcohol. It was pretty shitty for him but he dident drink much and he ended up just running after his wife left him with his son. He was basically just to honest to survive in the USSR and the only reason he made it was because of sheer performance or respect that prevented superiors from punishing him too severely when he would point out the very obvious bullshittery that was going on.
This adds credence to a story my old man told me about Soviets drinking the hydraulic fluids so much that the Air Force decided to swap out a more poisonous mix but they drank it anyway, leaving their crews poisoned and their aircraft grounded for a while, forcing the return of booze to the planes. Sounded sort of fanciful to me at the time but then 30 years later I see this...
I truly love how all these videos fully teleports us to those times. Is really nice that you will start the new channel based on other topics related with the soviet daily life. Congratulations for the great video and best wishes for this new project.
Another outstanding episode from Paper Skies, and one which touched me personally. During the late 1970's to mid-80's I was an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S.A.F. and as such had a very high security clearance (Top Secret SCI, SI or "codeword") and I worked Soviet Air Defense Forces (IA-PVO) for my entire career. I was stationed at Misawa AB, Japan with the 6920th ESG from 1981-1982. We were the unit that collected the intel during the terrible tragic shoot-down of Korean Airlines flight 007. Although I was not on duty when it happened, I did have access to all the raw data and reports from that night, and, years later, would read the final, very highly classified report issued by the NSA on that event. That was a long time ago, long enough for much of it to be declassified. I don't know if it's been a long enough time to joke about it, but when I heard the narrator describe the SU-15 interceptor as the "...infamous Boeing Killer" I literally laughed my ass off. Heck, I'm still laughing. Well done. Well done, indeed. Thank you.
Thank you for the super high-quality videos about Soviet aviation! My father was one of the leading investigators of aviation accidents in the Soviet Air Force in the 60-70s. He witnessed this story in the 70s - a MiG-25 arrived, technicians began to drain the coolant (it was "massandra" with 50% alcohol and 50% water). At this time, the Air Force commander, general, with accompanying officers approached the plane. They saw that the canister was already full, the liquid began to pour past, and the technicians were trying to put some improvised container under it. The commander suddenly said: Well, I have a question! ... There was confusion in the ranks of the officers, some of them immediately moved closer to the general, ready to answer any question, but the other part moved away (you never know what the commander will ask!). - Will the personnel have enough sandwiches? - asked the commander ...
@@Ob1sdarkside I have to admit, I thought the same. Either that or they’d go blind or have digestive issues! But I’ve got to admit that I still don’t understand how, once the issue of crew drinking the alcoholic deicer, hydraulic fluid or whatever was discovered by their superiors, they didn’t get the manufacturers to start including a highly toxic additive. Obviously they would have to slap on warning labels on the new batches and tell the ground crews and pilots that the new batches are now toxic but that would have effectively ended the practice of drinking the hydraulic fluid. At least that would be the case if the crews didn’t somehow discover a way to effectively remove the toxic additive. And frankly given that some of these men would have been aircraft mechanics and the general inventiveness of humanity when it comes to discovering ways to make drinkable alcohol, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they managed it. Several times. Until the manufacturers finally figured out how to stop the toxic additive being removed. Thankfully at the airport I work at, although I’m confident that there is a secret alcoholic somewhere in our ranks because that’s just human nature, most of us have a huge aversion to coming to work impaired. I mean it’s impossible to bring booze from home because we have to go through staff security every time we go airside. (It’s like passenger security except far quicker because we’re just going to work for the day and don’t bring luggage. Plus we know better than to put anything that won’t pass security into our bags. Even the pilots and flight attendants with their travel cases get through fast.) And although I suppose one could use his/her break or a lull in the shift to buy booze in the duty free area, we’re excluded from the duty free deal so booze would be hideously expensive and the staff would very quickly notice the same employee coming in almost every day to buy booze. Technical difficulties aside however… Most of us have a deep aversion to coming into work impaired is even if s/he successfully concealed their tipsy/drunken state from security and his/her colleagues, being impaired on the apron/ramp is very dangerous. Where personnel on foot can walk is very tightly controlled by painted lines of different colours on the ground. Remembering all the colours, hatch mark zones and double/single lines might be difficult if impaired. And walking into the wrong areas at the wrong times can pretty easily lead to injuries or unaliving yourself. Especially if you’re not fully paying attention to your surroundings. Trip over chocks, get hit by vehicles that can reverse but can’t see fully behind them, (almost happened right in front of me once, thankfully I saw the flash of a high vis vest and signalled the driver to stop) get run over by stepping into the equivalent of a road, get jetblasted off your feet or the worst case scenario, ingested into the jet engine of an A320 or even a 787. If there’s one piece of advice that I give to any newbie is. “Stay alert all the time while on the apron/ramp. Listen and look before you move.” It’s pretty obvious really but a drunk person could easily get it wrong. Heck, most of us tell the supervisor and rest of the team if they’ve taken any medication that might affect them such as codiene. Then the rest of us keep an extra eye on that person or they get assigned some or the “less risky” tasks. Consequently, I find the Soviet ground crew approach to be… interesting. Lol.
Your videos are wonderful and have a great mix of facts with humor but this time it was special with so much footage from your family. It's priceless!! Really appreciate you sharing them with us.
I worked for a very international Internet company from 2008 to 2012 ... I have always worked with a diverse group of people, but this time in my career allowed exposure to more ex-Soviet people I ever had the chance to meet. This is so real ... for a good dip into the past of another culture ...
There's other videos in this channel where he references that his dad was a pilot and shares family pictures, so I have no reason to doubt these pictures.
Another enjoyable and informative video. Thanks. I did read about some non Russian Soviet military supply drivers who got drunk drinking the antifreeze used in their trucks. Some of them actually got their eyesight back.
You did not just ignore the fact that they were a literal communist state for almost as long. They love red flags and failed social experiments, they were going out of their way to choose the wrong answer every time, so it is no surprise here.
Apparently there was a method to get rid of the Glycerine component of the brake fluid: You took a really cold metal pole, placed one end into a container, and then ran the brake fluid down the pole into the container. The Glycerine would stick to the pole, while the ethanol would continue on down into the container. Sounded like it reduced chances of the shits by some magnitude.
I love the family footage; that's a very... joyful affair indeed :D It's also a really interesting topic; whenever I mention it to people they always think I'm joking about stereotypes. I personally think this would happen in most other countries as well, as soldiers tend to be really bored and drinking is one of the few things you can do in that situation.
I like the picture. I was wearing the one like this for two years, being SU Air Force non-CO. Yes, we called MiG-21 “спиртоносец». I personally knew a jet pilot who drank up a bottle of brandy during a short flight. It was 1985 , there was nothing like an officer lounge so we drank a 90 degree alcohol with some water. It was terrible, I was just 21 years old kid, a second lieutenant. We shared the base with an army helicopter regiment, they were even worse drinkers, two or three deployments in Afghanistan. I am almost 60 now and these memories the things I’d like to forget.
In the middle of the Russian winter, police come across a guy snoring with his face in the snow: - Hey, you,stand up and go home, or you'll freeze to death. - Worry not, I've been drinking antifreeze.
Looking forward to the new channel. Your perspective is greatly appreciated! Also, my girlfriend confirms the stories of the Supersonic Booze Carrier, which her father served on...
Про многое из сказанного отец намекал, но подробно не рассказывал. Жаль, что на этот канал я набрёл уже после его смерти (ковид). Он был военным лётчиком и можно было бы обсудить в деталях. Такова жизнь. Зато показанные кадры возвращают в прошлое - закрытый военный городок, аэродром, все знакомые - военные семьи.
Wojak.jpg. Тоже временами представляю, как с дедушкой можно было бы обсудить те или иные темы с Ютуба. Чувство ухода тех поколений вызывает тоску, уже и сам больше не спросишь и не послушаешь, да и в обществе контексты той эпохи превращаются из общепонятных в исторические, малоинтересные. "Мне сказали, в порядке исключения для поощрения" - чего?.. И умом понимаешь, что это не плохо, что так всегда было, - и сам бы не захотел разбирать шутки каких-нибудь наполеоновских времён, - но... воспоминания временами нападают :) А с другой стороны - если копать и копать прошлое, тоже... дисбаланс. Нового интересного тоже очень много, надо жить своё. Такова жизнь indeed.
Ok aviation side of RUclips, my man drank with Pugachev, the "who's the coolest" question has been answered. Thanks for coming, Paper Skies is the clear winner.
I’m not a flight nerd, but I really enjoy learning about how other people live. You have convinced me I need nebula. BTW- great video! My dad served on a Huey gun ship. He said he saw guys melting boot polish to try and get some “stress relief”.
I regularly return to binge Paper Skies - I'm grateful for the personal, familial context to your content. You add such a deeper level of understanding to the elements surrounding the pilots, the airframes and the design process. 👍🍻
I heard a joke a long time ago that back in the Soviet Union, a traffic stop involved the officer trying to determine how much blood was in the driver’s alcohol stream, instead of the other way around.
Thanks for comforting me that the alcohol used on Soviet planes was really ethanol, and not methanol as I presumed. Not as if methanol wouldn't have been guzzled just as well, as shows the recent success of Boyaryshnik "bath salts" in Siberia, or as Vissotsky sang "if we hadn't moonshined from sawdust, we could have drunk three times more". There was at least one tragic incident related by French pilot P. Sauvage, from the WW2 Normandie-Niemen fighter unit. It involved brake fluid consumption by the Russian soldiers guarding their Yak planes. The French regiment had brought over its own doctor, and its own mechanics, complete with their toolkits and basic supplies. So the mechanics, caring for their pilots planes, overhauled the Yaks' hydraulics, replacing the alcohol with their own Messier fluid - a pure synthetic detergent similar to Lockheed brake liquid. Because of that, a Russian guard, trying to warm up in a boring winter night duty, drank that stuff, and died of poisoning after several days in agony. 😢
I love this kind of content, and I think you did a great job making this video. Such an interesting part of history that I never would have known about.
If you see this, i have a video suggestion. I think a video about the MiG-23 would be cool, by my understanding your father was a pilot on the aircraft. And i love your videos😎
*"But why didn't they just use methyl alcohol?" I hear you ask.* The reason is pretty grim. Apparently the Soviets calculated that there would be enough alcoholics who'd try to drink it anyway so it was just cheaper/easier to deal with the steady stream of alcoholism then with a sharp uptick of methanol poisoning. (This is in regards to all "technical" alcohol uses, not just in aviation ).
Hey Paper Skies! Which Slavic/formerly Soviet countries should I visit?? I have been to Poland and loved it, but I don’t know what should be next on my list! The history is so cool.
Get Nebula using my link for *40% off an annual subscription* : go.nebula.tv/paperskies
40% alcohol?!
I love your channel, but you really should clarify "Fuck Russia" with "Fuck the Russian government... I've got no problems with the Russian people. The people never have any say in shit like this. You know that.
Hello there! You’ve already done a video on this very topic, old top. Why are we revisiting old ground? I ask as a curiosity rather than a grumble.
I do not understand the relationship with alcohol and the Russian people as a whole, could you do a full long explanation please! It would get many views from America ♥️
@DavidStickneymaybe if you had to deal with another country oppressing your lifestyle and people until the fall of Soviet Union. Then constantly being screwed with since Putin once he took over. Then just randomly decides to de-nazify your country just to look better before an election.
Suddenly my grandad's tales of gifting soviet bomber crew's whiskey and getting a bottle of vodka in return takes on a new meaning.
Yeah, he got ripped off! And God knows what toxic compounds and metals were in that "vodka"... :D
@@purpleldv966 Soviet aviators were very respectful to American counterparts. Love of flight is the same, regardless the borders. I doubt that they would present anything they would not be happy to consume themselves.
@@purpleldv966 Nothing. Its a pure ethanol, literally nothing else.
@volo870 Given the quality of what they were happy to consume themselves, this is not as shining an endorsement as one may think.
@@volo870 Unless you really like everclear, it's a bad trade.
I love the addition of the 'family archive' footage in these videos. It adds a personal touch that you don't see with many military focused channels. Also, the juxtaposition of old soviet things with upbeat narration always give me a smile.
Yeah very cool. Not just showing stock footage and reading off wikipedia like some "Dark" video producers. 👍
@@TurboHappyCar I forcibly ignore all those Dark channels. My god they are crap.
Agree in full. This channel is well presented and gives insights I can't find elsewhere. The "home movies" are a big part of that.
His pops was looking quite dapper is his gear. It reminds me of the photos I have of my dad and grandpa in their uniforms.
Not to mention in one of them sits Viktor Pugachev
Man the Soviet Air Forces ability to make cocktails puts the US Navy's Torpedo Juice to shame. Then again if there was more equipment that had alcohol I'm sure the USN sailors would have done the same. Never doubt young men's ability to make drinks out of whatever is at hand if they're far from home I guess
Except the US Navy made the alcohol in the torpedoes poisonous. The US Navy has been 100% alcohol-free for decades.
@@anzaca1Which was why they had ice cream barges in WW2 to compensate
@anzaca1 OH we have alcohol. 😉
To be fair, it's not the normal sailors the Navy has to worry about, but the Seabees. Those mfs stole 9 North Korean trains AND took all the beer from a local brewery during the Korean War. My own Daddy, a Seabee, managed to get his hands on a live 155mm round and used it as a doormat during his deployment to Afghanistan. Sadly, Chief had Army EOD come by and take it a week after my Daddy and his buddies "tactically acquired" the 155mm round.
Nevertheless, they'll steal yo' shit.
@@anzaca1if they had tried to do that in the USSR I suspect they would have lost half their pilots every year.
Picking a plane because of how much alcohol it typically holds, is another level of alcoholism I hope to never be at.
it's galaxy brain mindset lol
That’s some high level functioning alcoholism right there. If only we all could be that lucky lol
Its not about alcoholism. In Soivet times alcohol had more value then the ruble. It was currency. Even up to mid 2000s a bottle of vodka or wiskey can get you a good care in a hospiral for example. This is what happens when the population is poor. Bartering and bribes takeover.
@@mowtow90 "Its not about alcoholism." Lol. Yes, it is. And it was currency they would drink. Cope.
@@Nyx_2142Hell, you could compare it to an economy based on chocolate. While yes it’d be a currency, it’d be an edible currency and then get stomach issues because of it.
One of the stories I have to think about regarding soviet soldiers and alcohol is the one by Michael Schlosser. He was an East German citizen who wanted to flee to West Germany. He builds a homemade aircraft to fly over the inner German border for that purpose. But he had to test if the plane was even capable of flying. So, in 1983, we went to a Soviet military base north of Dresden on a Sunday because he knew most of the personnel there were off duty then. Well, he arrives there with his disassembled plane in his truck, and suddenly, seven red army soldiers come out of the woods and, of course, ask him what the fuck he is doing. But he brought something with him: two bottles of vodka. They instantly become more friendly after receiving this welcome gift. He gives them some made-up story about testing the plane for a TV show, and they help him assemble the plane. He did a short test and took off with the plane just two meters, but that was enough to know he could fly with it over the border. Meanwhile, the soldiers sat on the grass, drinking the vodka and congratulating him on the successful test. Finally, they disassembled the plane with Schlosser, said goodbye, and returned to their base. Ultimately, one of his colleagues reported him to Stasi, and he was arrested, but the soldiers never reported the incident. The story's moral is that if you do illegal things on a military base, always bring alcohol with you.
the fact that it ends up with the stasi coworker reporting him is how you know this is an authentic east german story
It's "inter German border". Not "inner German". It was the border between the two Germanies that existed at the time (so it was 'inter German').
@@andrewhammel8218 oof, to be so sure you are right and yet be so very wrong. Why don't you go ahead and Google "Inner German Border."
Here, I copy pasted some for ya: "The inner German border (German: innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch-deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. "
@@brianfarley2388 mann o mann, was soll denn diese schwachsinnige Haarspalterei von so einem Angelsachsen, der versucht zu erklaeren, wie man Deutsch spricht 🙂
Soviet Aircraft had a chronic problem with icing. This was caused by a chronic problem with the ground crew diluting the alcohol deicing fluid
Good one 😂
Pilots would also report encountering icing conditions and inform the ground that they were activating de-ice, but in reality, they were siphoning off the deice fluid when they return to base - the flip side of that same coin.
When I was a kid my parents' vodka had a similar chronic problem of freezing solid in the freezer.
In turn caused by chronic alcoholism
@AndyBonesSynthPro Mine too! The rum and scotch were easier. I got good with food coloring in order to mask the diluted hue.
Thankfully, my parents were alcoholics so bottles never lasted too long 😂
If the computer is cooled by alcohol mixture then couldn't you say that the autopilot is ALSO drunk?
No, this would just be one of the ancestors of Futurama's Bender - and he has symptoms of alcohol consumption if he doesn't drink.
Only in Russia my comrade.
@@lordmontymord8701Otto what's wrong? You're stone cold sober!
Fly home Boris, you're not drunk enough!
Is the autopilot drunk? DA!
you know you're a paper skies fan when he mentioned the tupulev and you immediately remember the booze carrier episode before he brought it up.
Those words went straight through my head as soon as I saw the thumbnail.
I was afraid this was just a reupload! Paper Skies is such a great channel.
The moment I read the title, I thought this was an addendum episode to that.
My father told me a true story about two Romanian pilots who used to drink before flying. At the construction company where my father worked, there were also two "engineers" who were actually former military pilots, they were sent there after they had been disciplinary fired from the military aviation. What really happened. So the story took place in Romania in the 70s, and the pilots were MIG 21 pilots. They worked as military pilots at the air base in Brașov and always before flight training they drank about half a liter of vodka or brandy, then they got on the flight deck and took off . The drink caught them only when they were in flight and they "gained courage" and performed all the aerial acrobatic maneuvers stipulated by the regulations. One of the pilots told my dad that if he didn't drink he wouldn't be able to do the stunts in the training program because he didn't have enough courage. But one day they both made a big mistake, namely they competed with each other to dive and straighten the plane closer to the ground, the problem was that they did this above the greenhouse complex in Codlea near Brașov and after doing several drops like that due to the sonic bang and the noise created destroyed 4o hectares of greenhouses. After they landed they were immediately arrested, later they were kicked out of the army disciplinary and at the construction company where my father work they were sentenced disciplinary to work. I understood that due to the fact that they were very good pilots, Ceaușescu agreed to pardon them and they received this punishment at work because in Romania at that time if you caused damage to the state of more than 1 million lei (Romanian money equivalent 25 leu to 1$ at that time) you were sentenced to death, or 40 hectares of greenhouses were probably worth much more.
25$ is death. Lmao so literally any damage could justify a death penalty
@@JoeRogansForeheadHe said 1million lei is death . 1lei = 25 dollars so death would be at 25millions dollars.
@@maximek5616 whoops
@@JoeRogansForehead No, I said that the capital punishment was given for a million lei damages and for the reference I gave the exchange rate 25 lei = 1$ I said backwards sorry, so 1 million lei was equivalent to 40000$
@@eugeniusroMan, you should edit it.
Not gonna lie, I immediately broke out into uncontrollable laughter when you mentioned how the MiG-29 which your father eventually picked was actually made by "Sukhoi" or dry with regards to its alcohol. I don't think I'll ever get away with mentioning the Flanker, Felon, and company without thinking of that translation anymore. (The Dry D-27 Flanker, the best fighter in the Soviet Union, everyone!)
I still am blown away at the absolute wealth of first-hand experiences both you and your father had with regards to aviation in general, particularly at how your father flew highly-advanced fighter jets for a living. Like, come on; just receiving enough booze to fill up entire *bathtubs* and a jar collection filled on top of all that without paying several figures for it is virtually unheard of outside the Union! Definitely gonna look out for Comrade Kroupsky when he appears.
> I don't think I'll ever get away with mentioning the Flanker, Felon, and company without thinking of that translation anymore.
An actual declassified nomenclature of soviet military aircrafts: Dry, Demi-sec, and Brut 🤣
Soldiers drinking alcohol meant for something else is definitely not a uniquely Russian problem, even the Nazis joined in on the fun. The V2 ran on ethanol, and the soldiers drinking the fuel was a problem the Germans never managed to solve.
But the deadliest incident with contaminated V2 ethanol happened with the russians.
@@naamadossantossilva4736Now THAT'S a story we need to hear.
Didn"t they solved it with denaturalized alcohol?
Hey at least one time alcohol abuse lead to a positive outcome: Less fuel for the V2s. Then again the V2 was a pretty useless weapon anyway, but that's a different story ...
@@lordmontymord8701in terms of hitting a specific target instead of an entire city then yeah the V1 and the V2 were trash (compared to modern standards anyway) but as a weapon of terror and random mass destruction, the V1&2 did the job quite well.
I'm amazed that you have family pictures with no other than the one and only Viktor Pugachev, this channel never disappoints
Who is that?
@@Pioneer_DE Famous Soviet/Russian fighter pilot, created some maneouvers
@@TrolerWT There's at least one site on the web that claims it was a Syrian MiG-21 pilot that actually invented the Cobra Maneuver. No idea if the claim is accurate...
@@davidg3944 Im not saying Pugachev created the cobra since the first cobra maneouver was created by swedish J35 pilots in order to counter the drag force
My dad was at Checkpoint Charlie from 1986-1987. He used to trade alcohol and cigarettes with the East Germans. From my understanding, by this time, the East Germans really didn’t care anymore. The American personal could go into East Germany during the day as long as they were in uniform and followed set rules. He said Soviet cigarettes were terrible and their vodka was often watered down. He kept some of the bottles.
Beyond hand-made stuff that originally was there, Soviet cigarettes were divided into bad and not as bad, depending on who's making them. A joke my father told me:
The director of 'Dukat' tobacco factory comes to director of 'Yava' tobacco factory and asks: "Why people want to buy your cigarettes?"
"What do your cigarettes have?"
"Well, we do the usual - we use ground bay leaf, stale coffee, factory dust and shredded old paper."
"So, what we are doing, is that we take ground bay leaf, stale coffee, factory dust and shredded old paper, and throw a grasp of tobacco in there."
"You're actually putting tobacco in there?"
@@TenositSergeich I'm starting to get the feeling that that missing Kholkoz tobacco would somehow end up in hand-rolled cigarettes. Call it seizing the means of production.
You know your authoritaian government is about to fall when alcohol and cigarettes - the two things keeping people from overthrowing their oppressive government - are being watered down. In the book 1984 mentions such problems. People misunderstand who the book is geared towards and don't realize it was written to tell wannabe technocrats and authoritarians that their society will fail once they find out its easier alienate and punish honest reformers rather than make painful reforms.
The last straw as it were for Victor Belenko, prompting his defection to the west in his (at the time) much feared Mig-25 Foxbat, was when he ordered a squadron readiness exercise, and only two of the interceptors were flyable, due to the consumption of alcohol based fluids for the aircraft. After his arrival in Japan, his aircraft was disassembled to the nut and bolt level and it was found to be basically a piloted missile. Belenko also was treated for burns on his legs due to lack of shielding for the radar system. Fear and concern about the nonexistent capabilities of the Foxbat, led to a crash design and construction of some very good US platforms, F-15, F-14, F-16.
Cool.I never thought he snapped over something like that.
his wife also left him not long before along with his son although he had planned it for a long time he said, he just never told anyone ever
Is that true about the alcohol? I’ve never heard that
@@82726jsjsufhejsjshshdjso Yep, they are still doing the same thing today. Understanding that many Russian bases are pretty far away from town or settlements, is part of it. The other part is Russia has been an alcoholic culture for centuries, also, enlisted personnel are treated pretty badly by their officers.
The MiG-25 radar was no joke. Victor said that it could kill small animals from nearly a kilometer away so it was a crime to activate the radar on the ground.
You'd think that with all the decades of existing, the Soviet Air Force would've learned to not use ethanol in any plane fluids.
The problem was a bit deeper than that - Alcohol was a big deal in Soviet culture. Not just as a beverage, but as a currency. The aviators weren't just getting the perk of some free booze, it was a literal social currency that added to their status.
If you replace ethanol with something having similar proprieties but toxic, you will inevitably have fatalities.
they would still find a way; soviet soldiers in afghanistan made alcohol from boot polish and toothpaste. personally, i can't say i'd have liked to try it.
@@sergiykyivuaMany people often think Methanol (often used in car antifreezes iirc) is just Ethanol...until they get stuff like permanent blindness. Had the Soviets used that, a "Revolt of the Aviators" would have inevitably followed.
making it fatal is a common tactic used in rubbing alcohol today. The danger is the point. Deterrence
_My_ father was Royal Navy, _old school_ Royal Navy.
He remembers being paid in alcohol each morning and the crew spending each day pretty shit-faced 😂
Rum and grog for breakfast.
And it was used as currency too, with tots and it's sub divisions being traded for favours and other luxuries. (cigarettes, etc)
Decades after the practise ceased, I was about 10 to 12 years old at the time, my father and an old navy friend secured one of the bottles of the remaining Pusser's Rum, left over after "Black Tot Day", the last day of the Navy Tot.
It tasted incredible, I'd never tasted anything that good before and I never will again (unless I buy one of the _very_ expensive remaining bottles)
Indeed it was very moreish, I can see why they stopped.
Yep, looked it up, £800 a bottle.
@@MostlyPennyCatI thought pusser rum was still making rum or is it a different formula now?
@@jonathanvandermark5950
There is a company that still makes it to the original recipe, yes.
Doesn't taste like that original bottle I tried though. No idea why.
@@MostlyPennyCat Age. Old ship booze was bulk stored in live wood barrels, because that was just what they had available to store it in. Science now knows that booze stored for long times in live wood barrels gets fucking ***good***.
My father had to serve his time in 1982 in the Czechoslovakian army as a doctor. When regular alcohol wasn't available the doctors were literaly prescribing "cough syrup". A solution of 40% alcohol with some phramaceutical herbal extracts which the unit pharmacy could mix. And when things got rough the unit pharmacy was always able to distil some technical alcohol. It still smelled of gasoline but was drinkable.
That's probably similar to the Italian drink "Fernet" it's 40% alcohol and herbs, originally made as cough syrup then used as an appetizer. Also common in the Czech Republic
A colleague of mine spent his mandatory service time in an infirmary. He was quickly schooled by senior coworker how to remove the gasoline from a mix used for dissolving the bandage glue (just set it on fire and watch the flame color - gasoline burns out first!), how to improvise a destilation station out of a standard eating kit and how ti mix the alcohol with various medicaments to acquire various flavors. He was also the one to supply the commanding officer with cough medicine (altough at first he thought the officer would really drink just a spoon every morning, not the bottle...).
I confirm partly from my own experience, my now former friend when he was here on a visit, he brought "wipers from a helicopter"
He worked in aircraft repair shops that service Mil helicopters (Mi-8 / Mi-171 and other Hip derivates). As part of the supply of spare parts, they were also supplied with fillings for winter operation. Which included a de-icing compound for spraying the front windshield and main rotor blades - 99% pure alcohol without additives. They called it "The Yakutsk brandy".
We drank it out of large shot glasses sprinkled with a bit of fizzy multivitamin powder...
And there we have the difference between western and the russian armies, my brother is in the Bundeswehr and he has a bunch of shell casings (I don't know what exactly) sawn of so that they have the dimensions of a shot glas. And tbh, I much rather drink factory made booze out of "recycled" military supply, than to drink literally recycled military supply out of a factory made glas.
(All though the aviation nerd in me is now rather curious, wouldn't mind and I guess it can hardly be worse than the cheap vodka they sell in the stores)
@@cyberfutur5000
Great idea! :D
I had a similar idea just this fall at a shooting competition when I met a guy there who reworks 12.5x99mm shells to historical black powder casings.
The idea of a shot glass immediately came to mind... But as an aviation autist, I won't be satisfied with anything other than 20mm vulcan shells at least.
@@jackfoxxbatt169120mm? That's basically the crystal glass shot glasses 😂
Gotta stay healthy 😂
Here in Croatia we always had a myth about Russians drinking anti-freeze fluid when they ran out of Vodka. Thank you for confirming it! Although a more appropriate term would be "Soviet", since I'm sure everyone indulged in it
Of course. Do you think comrades from another republic were missing out from fun?
anti freeze drinking is not a myth in russia. this is reality.
Tbf, if I'd be forced to live under moscows rule I'd be drinking anything that stops me being conscious.
be sure its not myth. they can drink alcohol for bath cleanings
Fun fact: American commercial anti-freeze is usually made with ethylene glycol, and the antidote to ethylene glycol poisoning is actually ethyl alcohol. If you try to drink anti-freeze in America, the fucking DOCTORS will tell you to drink real booze.
The bathtub full of spirits was a common occurrence. But you kind of failed to imagine the reality of such storage of spirits:
1. The horrible eye-watering stench, that clung to skin and clothes;
2. Not only inability to take a shower (washing oneself is doable with a kettle and a washbowl), but also inability to wash clothes - soviet people had no washing machines and housewives washed clothes manually in a bathtub.
3. There were cases, when after a week or two of inconvenience, a wife would drain the bathtub to do the washing, and than risked being on the receiving end of a homicide by the enterprising husband! 150 liters of vodka was at least 2 months worth of salary!
P.S. I always assumed that "шило" (piercing awl) was also named after Tu-22, as the plane had a shape of a tailor's awl and often jokingly called that way.
P.P.S Glycerol should be easy to remove by distillation.
The US used alcohol in torpedo fuel, and it was also stolen in a similar fashion. Unlike the Soviets however, since US torpedoes already had problems with basic functionality (see "The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions") the brass would have it poisoned in various ways, ranging from "blindness or death" to merely "potent laxative".
So like methanol, but with brass? Oh, that was a common problem in union too, when methanol was used.
@@alexturnbackthearmy1907"The Brass" refers to officers in command
@@chaosXP3RT Oh, ok.
Drachinifel has a video titled exactly that. He has hundred of great vids on ships including some on soviet warships.
I wouldn't mess with anything that A was not ethyl alcohol, and B was running through weird dirty pipes. Not everything is a safe drink you can muster up.
My dad was a Weapons Controller in the USAF, he retired a field-grade officer and had a great many stories about the Cold War, one of the things he mentioned to me was that, at any given time, up to 1/3 of MiG-25s stationed in the arctic regions were down due to crews drinking up all the de-icing fluid.
Please make a video of how Tu-95 pilots in Bila Tzerkva were dumping fuel into sewage and how later people of nearby villages discovered the "miracle of burning water" from their wells :)
Russian aviation reminds me of a classic Ronald Reagan joke that he heard from Russia/USSR.
"There's only four things wrong with Soviet agriculture:
Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall."
For your record, the joke is absolutely real, though I heard it about DDR.
A joke I know is "sordidly for kolhoz, a winter has suddenly started"
@@TenositSergeich haha.
This joke is still a thing, but now about city services. You know, each winter it snows, surprisingly, and they are never prepared for it.
😂👍
Thank you for sharing your family footage, Mr. Skies.
I must say, I absolutely love the creativity involved in the names for these concoctions.
Your dad definitely chose wisely by going with the Mig-29 over the Mig-25.
Mig-25 was a plane designed to intercept the cancelled B-70 Valkyr (which is cancelled because USAF overestimated Soviet SAM capability. Soviet Air Force knew full well their SAM cannot hit Valkyr) with the ability to go very fast and very high to fire its missiles and return to base, and it's not good for anything else. However, the US Air Force misinterpreted the flight characteristic of the plane and thought it's a high maneuverable all around fighter, so they designed F-15 to counter that. It wasn't until a Soviet defector flew his plane to Japan that US Air Force finally realized what the plane was for. Mig-29 on the other hand is everything Western analysists thought Mig-25 was supposed to be.
Like he had a choice
@@JoeRogansForeheadI thought he did....
@@JoeRogansForehead15:45
@@dyingearth i find it hilarious the US built the fucking f-15 because of misunderstanding what the foxbat was for
As a rocket nerd I recall reading something about Wernher von Braun having serious problems with his workers at Peenemünde drinking the ethanol fuel used in his V2 rockets. As a deterrent they tried adding methanol to the fuel mix resulting in several cases of blindness and death.
Happens every time when ethanol (or methanol!) is involved.
That happened among early US Navy Submariners too, the alcohol fuel for the torpedos was part methanol, and sailors were going blind. So they switched to Croton oil as a deterrent. And submariners got better at constructing makeshift stills....
@@mastsh12moral of the story: don't ever make high-concentration ethanol an ingredient in your military consumables.
An elderly polish guy I worked with many years who fled the eastern block through East Germany told me many stories about drinking airplane fluids while on military duty far out in Siberia and I always wondered if that stuff wasn’t pretty toxic.
But now hearing that stuff is all just alcohol it all makes sense!
Man that old guy was legendary, the stories about his youth and „going dancing“ always cracked me up like nothing else!
Also the story how he fled through eastern Germany beneath a train (and basically getting caught on the last station before freedom, but still making it on foot, all while shouting political insults )deserves a hell lot of respect!
He also had 5 daughters and always wished for a son but one day his with said enough is enough haha.
Dude must have some history. I wonder how he ended up in this Siberian base. Was he a citizen of the USSR?
@@mikoajmikoajczyk5505 he was a polish citizen.
He told me he was there for a maneuver.
According to his stories he was on a handful of maneuvers during his time in the military that were held with multiple Warsaw pact states.
He has absolutely no political knowledge or interest (the only thing he says is that he hates „communism“ till death and would flee over and over again if necessary) so he couldn’t tell me anything about what they did there and which purpose those maneuvers had.
He was a mechanic in a coal mine before joining the military so they put him in a maintenance position for vehicles and heavy equipment.
That’s how he got access to all the fluids.
He also stole quite a few parts to repair the old little tractor his father had to work on the little patch of land they had in their village.
And of course fuel for the tractor, he said fuel was super regulated in those days and very hard to come buy as a regular low status citizen living in a small village.
In the British Army we heard rumors of Soviet troops drinking coolants, which we thought were just urban myths, but it seems it was real.
My grandpa was mig25 pilot-instructor, he told me a story when pilots were taking out of their planes dozens of litres of Alcohol that was used later for trade. MiG-25 was the most profitable because it had huge cooling system (250L of 100% alcohol), a big part of this alcohol was used to cool the radar, so pilots during the flight didn’t fly with always on radar, they were turning it on only when it was needed so this way they were saving up to 100 L of alcohol.
As a veteran and an Airman I can say that alcohol was a crutch almost all of us used to get through stress, grief, and fear. Sadly too many of us lost the fight with it.
I can’t wait for your new channel! My prikrasny zhena is from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. I love learning about the Soviet Union.
14:26 is why i love this channel
I always need to watch these videos twice because one round is just appreciating how well made these videos are
Thanks!
Thank you for support!
If I remember correctly, a supersonic vodka bottle was something I truly enjoyed learning about...obviously I'd argue the soviet auto pilot was just less drunk...since the soviet who put it together was "less drunk" than the senior air crew.
...But that's just my take
Another excellent upload mate! Cheers!
I've had the misfortune to drink straight backwoods moonshine on a few occasions (I was a very stubborn young man lol) and it makes my stomach turn every time I think of Soviet aviators drinking straight ethanol or ethanol and glycerine out of plastic cups🤢
I do not wanna know what that hangover was like...
Slavs are just built different when it comes to ethanol. I've read somewhere that genetically they have bigger quantities of liver enzyme responsible for dealing with alcohol. I've personally seen some of them drink lethal doses of alcohol in western standards, with no serious consequences apart from hangover
It is one of the main reasons why russian men have an average lifespan in the 50s, as if they are stuck in north Korea or the Kingdom of Wessex
@@charlesc.9012Fr it's not like they don't suffer for it
I’m sure they diluted it with water or juice or something, but that glycerin drink sounds disgusting
@@bartoszrybinski29 Yea in town 10 mins away police stopped somoene trying to drive with like 7 or so promile
It was funny to watch, as my father also was a pilot (colonel) of USSR Air defence force. Flew Yak-28P, Su-15 and Mig-25 (mentioned in the video). He told me the story that personel who drank alcohol drained from radar systems of the aircraft (i don't remember if it was Su or MiG aircraft he was talking about) later had IMPOTENSE problems.
This has kept a big grin on my face all the way through! Brilliant story telling, and the image of a bathtub full of MiG coolant will stay with me forever 😆
I read a book about Victor Belienko's life and when he got sent to Asia to fly Mig-25s he said that is was even common for them to fake flight hours to get alcohol and they would dump tons of fuel into the ground and even put it on pilots log books so that they could keep the alcohol. It was pretty shitty for him but he dident drink much and he ended up just running after his wife left him with his son. He was basically just to honest to survive in the USSR and the only reason he made it was because of sheer performance or respect that prevented superiors from punishing him too severely when he would point out the very obvious bullshittery that was going on.
This adds credence to a story my old man told me about Soviets drinking the hydraulic fluids so much that the Air Force decided to swap out a more poisonous mix but they drank it anyway, leaving their crews poisoned and their aircraft grounded for a while, forcing the return of booze to the planes. Sounded sort of fanciful to me at the time but then 30 years later I see this...
I truly love how all these videos fully teleports us to those times. Is really nice that you will start the new channel based on other topics related with the soviet daily life. Congratulations for the great video and best wishes for this new project.
Those stories are always fascinating...
Also the slogan at 14:26 should be repeated daily several times
Another outstanding episode from Paper Skies, and one which touched me personally. During the late 1970's to mid-80's I was an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S.A.F. and as such had a very high security clearance (Top Secret SCI, SI or "codeword") and I worked Soviet Air Defense Forces (IA-PVO) for my entire career. I was stationed at Misawa AB, Japan with the 6920th ESG from 1981-1982. We were the unit that collected the intel during the terrible tragic shoot-down of Korean Airlines flight 007. Although I was not on duty when it happened, I did have access to all the raw data and reports from that night, and, years later, would read the final, very highly classified report issued by the NSA on that event.
That was a long time ago, long enough for much of it to be declassified. I don't know if it's been a long enough time to joke about it, but when I heard the narrator describe the SU-15 interceptor as the "...infamous Boeing Killer" I literally laughed my ass off. Heck, I'm still laughing.
Well done. Well done, indeed. Thank you.
Thank you for the super high-quality videos about Soviet aviation! My father was one of the leading investigators of aviation accidents in the Soviet Air Force in the 60-70s. He witnessed this story in the 70s - a MiG-25 arrived, technicians began to drain the coolant (it was "massandra" with 50% alcohol and 50% water). At this time, the Air Force commander, general, with accompanying officers approached the plane. They saw that the canister was already full, the liquid began to pour past, and the technicians were trying to put some improvised container under it. The commander suddenly said: Well, I have a question! ... There was confusion in the ranks of the officers, some of them immediately moved closer to the general, ready to answer any question, but the other part moved away (you never know what the commander will ask!). - Will the personnel have enough sandwiches? - asked the commander ...
That's incredible! You've got to admire the ingenuity of the ground crews and pilots to craft cocktails
As a civilian ground crew, I had no idea some of my far-flung Soviet counterparts had such a deep relationship and access to alcohol.
@@mikoto7693 it's quite amazing. When I heard about the hydraulic fluid drink, I thought they would kill themselves, no, just a nice cocktail
@@Ob1sdarkside I have to admit, I thought the same. Either that or they’d go blind or have digestive issues! But I’ve got to admit that I still don’t understand how, once the issue of crew drinking the alcoholic deicer, hydraulic fluid or whatever was discovered by their superiors, they didn’t get the manufacturers to start including a highly toxic additive.
Obviously they would have to slap on warning labels on the new batches and tell the ground crews and pilots that the new batches are now toxic but that would have effectively ended the practice of drinking the hydraulic fluid.
At least that would be the case if the crews didn’t somehow discover a way to effectively remove the toxic additive. And frankly given that some of these men would have been aircraft mechanics and the general inventiveness of humanity when it comes to discovering ways to make drinkable alcohol, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they managed it. Several times. Until the manufacturers finally figured out how to stop the toxic additive being removed.
Thankfully at the airport I work at, although I’m confident that there is a secret alcoholic somewhere in our ranks because that’s just human nature, most of us have a huge aversion to coming to work impaired. I mean it’s impossible to bring booze from home because we have to go through staff security every time we go airside. (It’s like passenger security except far quicker because we’re just going to work for the day and don’t bring luggage. Plus we know better than to put anything that won’t pass security into our bags. Even the pilots and flight attendants with their travel cases get through fast.)
And although I suppose one could use his/her break or a lull in the shift to buy booze in the duty free area, we’re excluded from the duty free deal so booze would be hideously expensive and the staff would very quickly notice the same employee coming in almost every day to buy booze. Technical difficulties aside however…
Most of us have a deep aversion to coming into work impaired is even if s/he successfully concealed their tipsy/drunken state from security and his/her colleagues, being impaired on the apron/ramp is very dangerous. Where personnel on foot can walk is very tightly controlled by painted lines of different colours on the ground. Remembering all the colours, hatch mark zones and double/single lines might be difficult if impaired.
And walking into the wrong areas at the wrong times can pretty easily lead to injuries or unaliving yourself. Especially if you’re not fully paying attention to your surroundings. Trip over chocks, get hit by vehicles that can reverse but can’t see fully behind them, (almost happened right in front of me once, thankfully I saw the flash of a high vis vest and signalled the driver to stop) get run over by stepping into the equivalent of a road, get jetblasted off your feet or the worst case scenario, ingested into the jet engine of an A320 or even a 787.
If there’s one piece of advice that I give to any newbie is. “Stay alert all the time while on the apron/ramp. Listen and look before you move.” It’s pretty obvious really but a drunk person could easily get it wrong. Heck, most of us tell the supervisor and rest of the team if they’ve taken any medication that might affect them such as codiene. Then the rest of us keep an extra eye on that person or they get assigned some or the “less risky” tasks.
Consequently, I find the Soviet ground crew approach to be… interesting. Lol.
Glad to see happy videos of Paper Skies family.
Your videos are wonderful and have a great mix of facts with humor but this time it was special with so much footage from your family. It's priceless!! Really appreciate you sharing them with us.
I worked for a very international Internet company from 2008 to 2012 ... I have always worked with a diverse group of people, but this time in my career allowed exposure to more ex-Soviet people I ever had the chance to meet.
This is so real ... for a good dip into the past of another culture ...
I loved to hear about your connection to your passion for Soviet aviation, really cool to hear that you're father was a Soviet Pilot
"For subsequent non-technical use." Is the most fancy way to say, "get drunk," I've ever heard. Keep up the classics man, you make great videos.
14:25 cought me off guard:D nice message
Hands down - best video, best channel, family archive melts my heart
Were those actually Paper Skies' family videos? If so, very cool.
There's other videos in this channel where he references that his dad was a pilot and shares family pictures, so I have no reason to doubt these pictures.
Another enjoyable and informative video. Thanks.
I did read about some non Russian Soviet military supply drivers who got drunk drinking the antifreeze used in their trucks. Some of them actually got their eyesight back.
Alcohol lovers when methanol walks in:
Dude, the last sentence is dark. LMAO.
@@davydovua It may be dark but it is true. Several of them did go blind.
22:18 Sorry, did the Soviets not know that the US had tried Prohibition roughly 60 years earlier, and that it completely failed?
The Soviet Union would not be the Soviet Union if not for for copying failures.
You did not just ignore the fact that they were a literal communist state for almost as long. They love red flags and failed social experiments, they were going out of their way to choose the wrong answer every time, so it is no surprise here.
They did. And they tired. Now russia have no proper alcohol culture AND good alcohol.
Apparently there was a method to get rid of the Glycerine component of the brake fluid: You took a really cold metal pole, placed one end into a container, and then ran the brake fluid down the pole into the container. The Glycerine would stick to the pole, while the ethanol would continue on down into the container. Sounded like it reduced chances of the shits by some magnitude.
Love your family films. What a treat
This channel keeps getting better and better.
I love the family footage; that's a very... joyful affair indeed :D It's also a really interesting topic; whenever I mention it to people they always think I'm joking about stereotypes. I personally think this would happen in most other countries as well, as soldiers tend to be really bored and drinking is one of the few things you can do in that situation.
Indeed, soldiers have been finding new ways to get shitfaced for as long as we've had both war and booze.
Wow a New DCS trailer and à New Paper skies video on the same day. I'm really happy 💪💪💪
14:25 that's always a good reminder.
Now moving on trying these drinks myself...
I like the picture. I was wearing the one like this for two years, being SU Air Force non-CO. Yes, we called MiG-21 “спиртоносец». I personally knew a jet pilot who drank up a bottle of brandy during a short flight. It was 1985 , there was nothing like an officer lounge so we drank a 90 degree alcohol with some water. It was terrible, I was just 21 years old kid, a second lieutenant. We shared the base with an army helicopter regiment, they were even worse drinkers, two or three deployments in Afghanistan. I am almost 60 now and these memories the things I’d like to forget.
To add "spice" to the photo at 4:46, the letters on the jerrycan spell "poison". 😆
In the middle of the Russian winter, police come across a guy snoring with his face in the snow: - Hey, you,stand up and go home, or you'll freeze to death. - Worry not, I've been drinking antifreeze.
Looking forward to the new channel. Your perspective is greatly appreciated!
Also, my girlfriend confirms the stories of the Supersonic Booze Carrier, which her father served on...
Paper Skies is such a great channel. This video is a great gift for Christmas/The New Year!
2months already passed
Withdrawal comsumes me from the inside
Cheers!
"the only one not drinking in russian aviation is autopilot"
Про многое из сказанного отец намекал, но подробно не рассказывал. Жаль, что на этот канал я набрёл уже после его смерти (ковид). Он был военным лётчиком и можно было бы обсудить в деталях. Такова жизнь. Зато показанные кадры возвращают в прошлое - закрытый военный городок, аэродром, все знакомые - военные семьи.
That's is life 😢 I would love to know my grandparents' story escaping China. But they are either dead or have dementia now
Wojak.jpg. Тоже временами представляю, как с дедушкой можно было бы обсудить те или иные темы с Ютуба. Чувство ухода тех поколений вызывает тоску, уже и сам больше не спросишь и не послушаешь, да и в обществе контексты той эпохи превращаются из общепонятных в исторические, малоинтересные. "Мне сказали, в порядке исключения для поощрения" - чего?.. И умом понимаешь, что это не плохо, что так всегда было, - и сам бы не захотел разбирать шутки каких-нибудь наполеоновских времён, - но... воспоминания временами нападают :) А с другой стороны - если копать и копать прошлое, тоже... дисбаланс. Нового интересного тоже очень много, надо жить своё. Такова жизнь indeed.
Ok aviation side of RUclips, my man drank with Pugachev, the "who's the coolest" question has been answered. Thanks for coming, Paper Skies is the clear winner.
Much awaited, much appreciated looking forward to excellent insights as always from you.
I’m not a flight nerd, but I really enjoy learning about how other people live. You have convinced me I need nebula.
BTW- great video! My dad served on a Huey gun ship. He said he saw guys melting boot polish to try and get some “stress relief”.
I had no idea Soviet Pilots were so very creative when it came to making booze using alcohol from their planes cooling systems.
Lets not get into Soviet/Russian tank crew. Tank transmission and brake fluid are also alcohol base.
Second channel explaining Soviet history? Yes please! Your unique style and knowledge would be an amazing gift to we viewers!!
This was in the book, "MIG Pilot", the story of a Soviet detector.
Viktor Bellenko.
@@scarecrow108productions7 yup, that's him 👍
Love how Paper Skies shows him with Pugachev as if it's no big deal. :D
Thanks for producing these videos! Please continue!
I regularly return to binge Paper Skies - I'm grateful for the personal, familial context to your content. You add such a deeper level of understanding to the elements surrounding the pilots, the airframes and the design process.
👍🍻
I heard a joke a long time ago that back in the Soviet Union, a traffic stop involved the officer trying to determine how much blood was in the driver’s alcohol stream, instead of the other way around.
Thanks for comforting me that the alcohol used on Soviet planes was really ethanol, and not methanol as I presumed. Not as if methanol wouldn't have been guzzled just as well, as shows the recent success of Boyaryshnik "bath salts" in Siberia, or as Vissotsky sang "if we hadn't moonshined from sawdust, we could have drunk three times more".
There was at least one tragic incident related by French pilot P. Sauvage, from the WW2 Normandie-Niemen fighter unit. It involved brake fluid consumption by the Russian soldiers guarding their Yak planes. The French regiment had brought over its own doctor, and its own mechanics, complete with their toolkits and basic supplies. So the mechanics, caring for their pilots planes, overhauled the Yaks' hydraulics, replacing the alcohol with their own Messier fluid - a pure synthetic detergent similar to Lockheed brake liquid. Because of that, a Russian guard, trying to warm up in a boring winter night duty, drank that stuff, and died of poisoning after several days in agony. 😢
1 minute in, so I'll take this opportunity to say it now! Keep up your vids man! i absolutely love your stuff!
BABE WAKE UP! NEW PAPER SKIES UPLOAD!!!
My god, imagine the collaboration videos that could be made between Paper Skies and Ushanka Show.
I had a buddy who drank brake fluid too much. We told him he had a problem. To which he replied, "I can stop anytime I want to!".
"Chassis" liqueur being a pun on _Cassis._
I love this kind of content, and I think you did a great job making this video. Such an interesting part of history that I never would have known about.
Your history videos are so freaking good! Already subscribed to your 2nd channel. =)
Paper Skies elevates irony to new heights!
Did Viktor Pugachev listen to the now exiled Pugacheva?
BTW, a required touchdown speed of 350kmh is crazy!
14:24 earned you my like on this one. 😂
If you see this, i have a video suggestion. I think a video about the MiG-23 would be cool, by my understanding your father was a pilot on the aircraft. And i love your videos😎
*"But why didn't they just use methyl alcohol?" I hear you ask.* The reason is pretty grim. Apparently the Soviets calculated that there would be enough alcoholics who'd try to drink it anyway so it was just cheaper/easier to deal with the steady stream of alcoholism then with a sharp uptick of methanol poisoning. (This is in regards to all "technical" alcohol uses, not just in aviation ).
Paper Skies is the best and of course the Russian alcoholic stereotype in the vid nice
I'm so glad I found your channel
Hey Paper Skies! Which Slavic/formerly Soviet countries should I visit?? I have been to Poland and loved it, but I don’t know what should be next on my list! The history is so cool.
2:32 "the only one not drinking is the auto-pilot" 😂
19:00 “let’s make a stateless classless society and abolish hierarchy!”
*creates a class-based hierarchy*
As a Cold War Junkie... this might be the most interesting video I have ever seen on RUclips. Well Done!!