Uncovering The TRUTH: Exposing 8 Myths About The USSR
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
- Somehow, the USSR still has its supporters - and they likely believe one or more myths about Soviet Russia.
In this video, we debunk 8 myths that linger about the Soviet Union, even now, more than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
0:37 Myth #1: Nobody starved
5:43 Myth #2: There was no social inequality
8:33 Myth #3: The USSR was democratic
11:28: Myth #4: The USSR eliminated poverty
15:09 Myth #5: The USSR had excellent healthcare
17:35 Myth #6: The USSR had excellent education
20:21 Myth #7: Quality of life in the USSR was high
23:10 Myth #8: Minorities were protected in the USSR
25:46 Summary: “The Noble Pursuit”
#USSR #BerlinWall #communism #SovietUnion #myths
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Sources:
#1 Nobody starved in the USSR
The University of Warwick: warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/archives_online/digital/russia/famine/
League of Nations Report on economic conditions in Russia 1922: cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/russian/id/4092
University of Minnesota: cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor
FEE: fee.org/articles/the-hero-of-the-holodomor-who-exposed-stalin-s-horrors-and-paid-with-his-life/
The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/12/holodomor-famine-ukraine-stalin/
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine: www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CA%5CFamineof1946hD77.htm
Europe-Asia Studies: www.jstor.org/stable/23258307
Russia Beyond: www.rbth.com/history/335064-soviet-propaganda-posters-agriculture
#2 Social Inequality
Theory and Society: www.jstor.org/stable/656861
American Sociological Review: www.jstor.org/stable/2087305
Russia Beyond: www.rbth.com/history/335504-5-major-myths-about-ussr
Post-Communist Economies: www.iae.csic.es/investigatorsMaterial/a19145090357sp35282.pdf
Journal of Comparative Economics: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0147596780900499
The Guardian: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2016/jan/24/racial-harmony-in-a-marxist-utopia-how-the-soviet-union-capitalised-on-us-discrimination-in-pictures
Report [1984] - National Council for Soviet and East European Research/National Council for Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe [NCEEER]: www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1984-629-2-Johnson.pdf
The Wilson Quarterly: www.jstor.org/stable/40256927
Nintil - The Soviet Union: poverty and inequality: nintil.com/the-soviet-union-poverty-and-inequality
The Atlantic - World Today/1953: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1953/03/the-soviet-peasant/640322/
#3 The USSR was democratic
FEE: fee.org/articles/the-soviet-union-began-as-a-democratic-experiment-in-socialism/
The Review of Politics: www.jstor.org/stable/1404887
The State and Revolution (Lenin): www.marxists.org/ebooks/lenin/state-and-revolution.pdf
Soviet Democracy (H. Ward): stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1535&context=prism
#4 There was no poverty in the USSR
Soviet Studies: www.jstor.org/stable/150753
The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/05/20/millions-of-soviet-lives-pervaded-by-poverty/01fa67ab-7d05-483c-958c-21fc1db4e970/
Poverty in the Soviet Union: The Life-styles of the Underprivileged in Recent Years (M, Matthews): www.amazon.com/Poverty-Soviet-Union-Life-styles-Underprivileged/dp/0521310598
The NY Times: www.nytimes.com/1989/01/29/world/soviet-openness-brings-poverty-out-of-the-shadows.html
#5 USSR had the best free healthcare for all
Russia Beyond: www.rbth.com/history/334034-soviet-diseases-vaccination
Report [1984] - National Council for Soviet and East European Research/National Council for Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe [NCEEER]:
www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1984-629-2-Johnson.pdf
#6 Education levels were high for everyone in the USSR
Report [1984] - National Council for Soviet and East European Research/National Council for Eurasia and Central and Eastern Europe [NCEEER]:
www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/1984-629-2-Johnson.pdf
The Atlantic - World Today/1953: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1953/04/soviet-education/640302/
#7 Quality of Life
History: www.history.com/news/soviet-union-stalin-weekend-labor-policy
Russia Beyond: www.rbth.com/history/335504-5-major-myths-about-ussr
The Wilson Quarterly: www.jstor.org/stable/40256927
#8 Minorities were protected in the USSR
Penn Today: penntoday.upenn.edu/news/african-american-raceless-soviet-union
The Modern Law Review: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1993.tb01907.x
Phylon/Clark Atlanta University: www.jstor.org/stable/273752
Journal of Genocide Research: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713677598?journalCode=cjgr20#:~:text=The%20Stalin%20regime%20systematically%20deported,their%20national%20or%20individual%20rights.
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees): www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass
Digital Encyclopedia of European History: ehne.fr/en/encyclopedia/themes/wars-and-memories/movement-in-times-war/repressed-peoples-in-soviet-union
Journal of Contemporary History: www.jstor.org/stable/3180785
Journal of Homosexuality: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v29n02_06
European University Institute: cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/67530
The Collector: www.thecollector.com/harry-whyte-gay-communist-writes-to-stalin-soviet-union/
The Encyclopedia of Homosexuality: community.middlebury.edu/~moss/RGC2.html
The Moscow Times: www.themoscowtimes.com/2012/03/29/a-russian-history-of-homophobia-a13689
Conclusion:
Jacobin: jacobin.com/2023/01/soviet-union-memorials-nazi-germany-holocaust-history-revisionism
USSR was equal. You are equally poor comrad
I tried to copy this list of resources, but the RUclips political commissars give only the option to report it.
@@michaelfoye1135 you can easily copy it on your computer by selecting with mouse and ctrl c
@@djri2984 I was using my phone and was not able to do so.
Thank you for posting your sources. Many youtubers that state facts do not do this.
The fact that marxism and all it's derivatives have not been completely relegated to the dustbin of history baffles me. Thank a teacher. 🙄
That is because it is fit to take advantage of altruism. It can do wonders (or horrors depending on POV) in society that values altruism.
No society is altruistic. So you will never see that.
German philosophy is our unhappiness.
@@mariussielcken Last I checked, Marx and his supporters were Jews, not Germans. The judeo bolshevik murdered millions of innocent Christian Europeans, stop blaming the Germans for jewish crimes.
My fellow Objectivists and I attribute that to Immanuel Kant and his utter pablum, "The Critique of Pure Reason".
It’s funny how one of the only good things historians can say about the USSR is that: “But…Agricultural output INCREASED from its previous levels!”- ignoring the fact that quite literally everyone was starving to death.
Everything you said is simply not true, there are many factors which ussr heavily improved. Im not going to argue with you here, go and educate, i can link some nice video if you want
If we look at agriculture's role in developed countries' economies, we can easily figure out why the USSR doesn't exist anymore.
@@bolan4185 Sure, I'm up for it. Link please.
Lmfao the only thing they improved was the massive number of drill presses they could pump out.
@@based8223 And also the life expectancy went from 34 to 69 years. Only to fall by 5 years after the dissolution, and not recover for 25 years.
My favorite joke about the USSR goes as follows:
In the days of Glasnost, the Soviet Union finally started allowing western economists to examine the country. Sure enough, an American economist was sent to Moscow. But, it was still the USSR and a government agent was assigned to escort the economist from place to place.
First stop was a shoe store, which had almost entirely bare shelves. The economist writes in his notebook, saying aloud "No shoes". The agent is annoyed but says nothing.
Next was the bakery, which is similarly bare. "No bread" the economist says as he makes the note. The agent is further irritated but again says nothing.
Then comes the butcher and once again: "No meat". Finally, the agent has had enough and he loudly protests.
"You know" he booms "In the old days, we would have shot you for this insult."
The economist looks down on his notebook and begins to write. "No bullets".
too funny!
I don't know about the person going... but the rest of the joke _is not a joke._ At the end the situation was so bad, that they had to outright limit people's purchasing ability (by using a talon system), so that the resources that _were_ available could be stretched. The only things that were abundant in the Soviet Union? _Oil, gas, nuclear material._ It's why they could afford gas guzzlers the likes of which you'd never imagine today. Hell, my father was a driver during those times, and he regularly partially drained the tank at the end of the day, so that 1. he could sell it on the side, and 2. they could note down how much gas was gloriously burned in righteous busywork.
The US has had an oversupply of bullets. They needed to dump some in a few hundred mass shootings. 😱
Its a classic "haha we are fucked" kind If joke like the ones coal miners or slaves made. He does'nt mean it as "just" a joke, theres irony in it.
What I don't understand about tankies is that while they're willing to go along with Lenin's redefinition of the word democracy. They are not willing to give that same luxury to the Nazis.
In Mein Kompft Hitler also redefined democracy. Hitler literally argues that his preferred form of government is more deomcratic than the Soviets or the US.
However this is ignored by people on the left who don't want to admit there communist has more income with Nazism then it foes the free market.
Not to mention, the man they fallow, Marx, also wanted jews to be wiped out. For an "equalizer" he sure tried alot to get back to his rothchild royal roots like a nobel (he was rich himself, never worked, got pissy pants over the support money not being infinete that he allways gambled away like a spoiled leftist and thus villanized capitalism). He even hated blacks, considering them demi-humans and gays as abominations, so much for "progress" lol
yes, because what happens in practice matters
A great way to judge a society is by how the government deals with people trying to enter or leave. A government that can't possibly accept every person who wants to enter and has to make it difficult clearly has something going for it. A government that has to make it hard to leave clearly has very little going for it. Short bursts of this aren't conclusive, but long, persistent trends are telling. The U.S. has had a high rate of immigration and a comparatively low rate of emigration for well over a century and we've never made it hard to leave. We're doing something right because lots of people want to come and those who get in are staying. Both the USSR and Communist China made it very hard to leave the country permanently but far less difficult to move in permanently.
An Estonian here - most genuine gratitude to you for the video and busting some of these myths.
Jou, ma ka "Estonian". Ameeriklastel on üllatavalt palju kommuniste, lihtsalt ignovad, et veteranid võitlesid natside ja kommude vastu. Veteranid kohe pahad kui see ei toeta nende väga habrast ja "tribalistic" käitumist oma enda poliitilisele poolele.
Excellent video! It's truly frightening how many Soviet apologists are out there. We seem to forget our history so quickly.
Glad you liked it!
Nazis: nad cause of the jews thing, and war, human experimental and eugenics.
Commies: "good" for wanting eradication of jews, blacks are demi-humans to them, gays are an abominations, capitalism bad cause you can't get an infinete amount of it, capitalism bad cause you have to earn it, food and deaths are totally not related to goverment and also human experimentation is fine..
Are we supposed to be capitalist apologists instead? The idea of living in a tent has always appealed to me. Oh, wait! I was thinking of living in a tent in nature, not in the middle of a big city! 😂
Great vid. Keep the ACTUAL history of that godforsaken hell-on-earth alive!!
I would rather call your miserable country a godforsaken hell-on-earth! Where are you from?
BuT tHaT WaSn't ReAL CoMMuNisM.
Also I like the rearden metal shirt
noone says that
My favourite line. No true scotsman fallacy.
"[Insert communist party ruled country] wasn't real communism/socialism, it was state capitalism."
"[Insert capitalist country] isn't real capitalism, it's cronyism"
Yes they do. Its become such an old excuse New ways are found to say it
I'm from Georgia, ex-soviet country. I didn't get to see the USSR, but older generation often admires it. Listening to them, one would think USSR was a safe heaven. Actually, it was far from it.
There was corruption everywhere. People couldn't leave the USSR freely. We have an entire book, called "Jeans Generation". It's a real life story of a couple of Georgian young persons. It's still up to debate wheither it was right or wrong, but they sabotaged a plane trying to escape USSR borders. They were captured and shot later. The reason why we call them "Jeans generation" is because back than, getting jeans from USA was very difficult and people had to smuggle them in. Medicine was also on short supply.
EVERYONE was stealing from everyone. My uncle worked in a kind of steel factory. The amount of steel and material he stole, was in tons. It was very common for people to steal from each other but more often the system.
People didn't have free will. Depends on which era you take out of the history of the USSR, but anyone who was deemed a threat(meaning ANYONE who didn't have pro soviet thoughts) was labeled a traitor and was shot or was forcfully moved to siberia or some other desert wasteland. Listening and broadcasting USA radio could get you either on of those.
The most appaling thing was that many who even got returned from Siberia, still admired the system.
Georgia has suffered by many rulers. The Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols. Georgia was devided MANY times but we more or less, we maintained our culture untill 19-20th century when we were forced by russia. Communism was the WORST thing that has ever happened to this country. In about 70 years, this mindset rewrote most of Georgia's culture and mindset. Even today, many from my parents generation value full stomachs over freedom(No, it's not an exaggeration, many openly say it). Georgia has been free for 30 years, but it will probably take a few more generations untill that disgusting mindset is thrown out. (IF russia doesn't invade and take our freedom before that)
Thanks for sharing this story. Hope that these myths won't be relevant in Georgia soon.
I was born and raised in USSR, living in US since 1996. This video is 99% accurate, I can add a few details as color commentary.
People in USSR were literally government slaves, without any voice or rights. During election we were given a ballot with ONE candidate, which we MUST submit, since participation was mandatory. All candidates were appointed by communist party, the only one we were allowed to have as article 6 of constitution. Economy was run from central planning 5 year program, and was In fact a central distribution chain of bare necessity items, but even there we had perpetual 27:15 deficit of goods, from soap to toilet paper, from winter shoes to toothpaste. Central distribution led to total corruption since money itself had very little role- you need to have access to proper pint of sale to cash in, if not - you had to buy on black market from connected people. Based on my recollection 80% of your salary were spent on food and bare necessities, people were wearing same clothes, used same furniture and appliances for decades, then give it to their children. Car was extreme luxury, almost impossible to afford, basic car cost was 5000 rubles with annual average salary under 2000 rubles. As far as equality, there was a ruling class called “nomenclature”, communist appointees who were given leadership roles regardless of qualification. They used separate healthcare, had access to special stores ‘raspredelitel’, were given access to special resorts or travel- all at discounted prices, while regular people were waiting for 20+ years to get their first apartment - without any choice or option to own. Everyone knew about corruption and hypocrisy of ruling class, and were dreaming to leave USSR for any other place, even poor African or Middle East countries. The top privileges were to travel abroad, you should be well connected communist to be allowed, and as always at very low cost compared to regular peoples prices. Dreaming of socialism is like dreaming to restore feodalism in Europe like it was in 16 century. There is nothing liberal about it, you must submit to government or become exile and be persecuted, like Putin is doing now with navalny and other political opponents
"Georgia was devided MANY times but we more or less, we maintained our culture untill 19-20th century when we were forced by russia."(с) Georgia was made a socialist country by Dzhugashvili, Makharadze, Gegechkori, Ordzhonikidzhe and other real Georgians. You are just an ignorant storyteller.
@@usernamenameuser5551 What does that even has to do with anything? :)
And by what criteria are you calling them "real Georgians"?
Yes. Georgia was a socialist and than a communism country in the 20th century and look where Georgia is now :)
Buried in poverty and corruption.
And yes. Georgia was decided many times and yes, we managed to keep our culture and I am not talking about economics you moron. I am talking about mindset. It was Georgian culture to carry weapons. Russians made it so that people fear guns now and rely on government :) As if the russian and Soviet governments weren't the ones that killed millions of their own civilians.
You can tell how great a country is by seeing which way the border patrol are aiming their rifles: at their citizens trying to leave, or guarding their border from entry).
If the USSR was so good at engineering, why are they always suffering because they cannot import high tech?
Because they were very bad in business and if you want some tech you must allow some market economy at least (see Jugoslawien) or ideally be a normal market economy.
Example the entire Institut where my father was working copied electrinics with some delay (look minsk Computers aka big electrinic mashines), they did it from the "ground up", but the engineers who were doing it didn't benifit from these activities and didn't create new comercial products, instead they satisfied Red Army with devices functionaly similar to existing (so old) devices in the Western Military.
I love your T-Shirt! Awesome!
Please do explaining properly or debunking myths what really happened in "Reaganomics"
That would educate alot of people including myself. Thank you
wait for it in the comments
We grew up and left the USSR, and this is a very accurate analysis.
We had a family friend that went to Russia under Soviet rule when he was the curator of birds for the San Diego Zoo. It was snowing and his driver kept stopping to get out and wipe the windshield. He asked the driver why he didnt use the windshield wipers. He said because it was so hard to get replacements he was saving them for if he had to drive a VIP.
Bet he felt special. 😅
Great Video. Very informative. Loved the shirt too.
This video reminds me of my Country, U.S. In other words I'm pretty sure some dude 100 years from now is going to be saying the similar things & debunking myths after the fall of the U.S. empire.
Probably more so on hypocrisy. Replace russia with US on the ukraine war and it goes from "Russia has committed war crimes in its illegal annexation and invasion of ukraine; NATO opposed and moving troops at their borders" to "the US will restore freedom and democracy to the Ukrainian regime with NATO assistance (no mention of war crimes)" 🤣
You clearly didn't go to a Teacher-Training college in USSR. Russia jumped from 30% educated people under the Tsar to 100% educated people during the Soviet Union. In addition to schools (K-12), bolsheviks were building Likbezes (liquidators of uneducatedness), SHRMS - schools for working young people, etc. Soviet pedagogy soared to new and unprecedented levels with such names as Makarenko, Vigotsky, Sukhomlinsky, who are known in the United States as well. The Soviet School of foreign languages was very strong and was churning out not only teachers, but also KGB spies and operatives. That is all I had to say!
It depends on what you call educated and to what standard.
@@ThePeachtree69 You clearly didn't read my comment, and are just trying to provoke.
Nothing beats education like replacing local teachers with random russians! Obviously education is only knowing how to read and write in Russian, nothing else is education, but propaganda of the west!!
Very nice, but I prefer bread.
15:11
"The 3 victories of the Revolution are Health, Education & Sport.
"The 3 defeats of the Revolution are Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner."
myth#9 ussr is environmentally better
It's a great idea to debunk myths, relying on obviously biased sources. I do not like the USSR (long dead), and even more so I do not like what is happening now on the border with Ukraine. But this video is the clearest example of how the Cold War propaganda nonsense, having passed through the works of several generations of secondarily engaged historians, begins to seem to society as an indisputable truth.
Ah yes, propaganda of Russian ghost towns that are still told by russians, the child labour that OBVIOUSLY didnt happen, just that theres alot of buried kids during that time period near coal mines
"If it saves just one life............."
Fun facts
Like the t-shirt.
So how similar to Oceania's structure was the USSR's?
They were very similar, only members of the government had a good life, and people who were against the system were exiled or executed.
I was halfway through the video before I realized he was wearing a Rearden Metals shirt!
Wonderful video, thank you
👍
Great video! Regarding your comment about Canada (15:10), my experience with our universal health care system has been positive. And I've never heard of someone going bankrupt or losing their house due to medical bills. It's definitely not perfect, but it's better than a privatized (for profit) system. 🇨🇦
While universal healthcare now works in Canada, it doesn’t mean it will always work, or it’s the best alternative for the country. Here is our video about the healthcare system and what we consider as a better option: ruclips.net/video/37yNVPFZmlU/видео.html
Plenty of stories about some kid with a broken arm having to wait for 8 hours to get treatment to the point the parents have to bribe the doctors.
Have you seen the series of EUROPA??
Thinking that bringing down everybody else to your level would bear equality and prosperity is ridiculous. It truly shows the selfish nature of people who think like this.
People who promoted socialism and were members of the government had a way better life than others.
yeah that's not what communism is about
I'm suddenly liking the Soviet Union just a little bit more after that article 121 bit.
Why?
@@LearnLiberty for calling homosexuality degenerate, and criminalizing it. hence, the article 121 bit. right there. in the comment. that you just read.
Hayek's knowledge problem is in my opinion, inferior to Mises' impossibility thesis. There is a counterargument from the collectivist side, that by the day comes more and more relevant:
"Given the advancements in technology, the knowledge required for economic central planning could be gathered and analysed in real time with assistance of computing and artificial intelligence".
Knowlegde problem becomes then a technical issue, but impossibility thesis can combat the counter.
The core of impossibility thesis is realization, that economic rationality is contengent property of human interaction. It could only exist when there exists non arbitrary prices on all goods, including most importantly capital goods. The formation of non arbitrary prices could come about only on unhampered free market of voluntary exchanges. Exchanges could happen only between different actors. Thus, in socialist regime, where capital goods are owned by a silngle actor, there is no exchange of capital goods, thus no capital good prices, thus no economic rationality. As economy by definition is a rational allocation of scarce goods, then socialist economy does not and could not possibly exist. Socialism is just identified as arbitrary power blindly screaming at the real world. No ammount of knowledge or technology could ever overcome this problem.
To ilustrate the difference, let's look at an example. Suppose that central planner was given a task of constructing a car.
Knowledge problem poses a question "How to build a car?".
Impossibilty thesis poses quesion "Should you even try to build a car?".
Interestingly, you could argue that the only way USSR decided to manufacture cars was because their price and value was apparent when observing the market price of cars in a free market economy. Even with the non-absolute centrally planned economy, the USSR could not exist in vacuum without observing the market prices of goods on the free market, and then fixing them to a certain “fair” value internally
My issue is not with communication and coordination, it's with centralization. The reason it's not authoritarian is because of pluralism in the market. If only one corporation or govt controlled the economy, it can force changes it likes. You can see a taste of this now after the consolidation of many companies. Congress is controlled by and beholden to an Oligopoly, not the people. Imagine if it consolidated more and actually got the govt to write laws curtailing freedom of speech and press (there are some, and the press is controlled through 5 national & multinational companies).
Technically, you could have socialism or communism that wasn't autocratic by having multiple competing state owned (but independently run) conglomerates, each with all business sectors (eg groceries, Agriculture, heavy industries, automobile, light industry, etc), as long as the govt was an independent arbitrator and not directly in control. I wouldn't want to risk it, though.
Even better would be limited liability partnerships (worker co-ops?) And companies with one shareholder-one vote principle (this was actually the system used prior to 20th century, as opposed to the one share, one vote principle now) in a free market system. Shareholders can still exercise power in the company the same way businesses exercise power in the govt-threaten to not fund congressmen from lobbying/sell shares.
like many libertarian arguments, this is just so many words to say nothing. "should you even try to build a car?" well, you weigh the pros and cons of building a car, and then do it or don't.
also, people still buy things under socialism. the price of the car can be modified to account for demand, and for other factors too- it's just that the company is controlled by the state and ordered towards the common good, as opposed to owned by an individual and ordered towards profit.
@@arthur.greenwood I'm afraid you haven't grasped the weight of this problem. You say that you weigh pros and cons and make a decision. But that is precisely the problem. You have no way to make this comparison.
The cost of the car is not just the raw materials. The cost of the car is everything else you could have made with those materials, for instance a tractor. Now you can make arguments which one should be built, but it is just your opinion, making the final decision arbitrary.
Free market solves this by spontaneously generated prices - then there is something intersubjective on which we can ground our comparison. Socialism does not have that, because its essential characteristic is that means of production are owned by a single acting entity, and to generate a price there must be at least two actors.
It is true that under socialism it is possible to simulate prices on the consumer goods level, but there are no prices on capial goods, which in this problem are much more important.
@@karolgajko how is it an arbitary decision? it's not 'just my opinion,' it's an informed opinion based on reason.
The intersubjectivity of market prices does NOT make them correct. Our moral standards are not 'what the market says-' the market is only good insofar as it is conducive to human flourishing.
You can't just say 'capitalism good because it has prices,' you have to prove that having market determined prices is better than rationally determined costs.
On the race side, you got it completely wrong. There are tons of interracial marriages and my mom's friends moved to South America or Lebanon marrying students which studied at their university.
Did this happen during USSR?
@@LearnLiberty The USSR had special universities for the students from Africa, South America and the Middle East. One of them is the University of the Friendship of the Peoples by the name of Patrice Lumumba. You are either uneducated, or severely propagandized.
“Real Socialism” has never been tried in the same way that “Real Laissez-Faire Capitalism” has never been tried. The difference is ‘almost Socialism’ resulted in the impoverishment & death of hundreds of millions of people. While ‘Almost Capitalism’ has lifted billions from absolute poverty, extending life and making the life experience much better for all those involved.
Don't think pure anything is good. Best is a mix. Being an ideologue is dangerous ("it will work, you do not believe in the cause enough!"). Pragmatism is better ("if it works, use it; if not, scrap it").
Just as eating pure butter and pure potatoes doesn't taste good, mixing together makes a nice flavour.
Mixed market is best, let the people decide the proper mix.
@@yuki-sakurakawa The mixed economy welfare state is fascism. Govt control of property. Welfare state socialist Utopiaaaa.
Nothing is static, everything should be studied in its development. Yes, there were famines in 1930s in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan when USSR was passing from "capitalist" to "communist" ownership of land. However, the USSR lasted far longer than that. Food was plentiful and nobody was hungry after later 1940s, after we defeated Hitler in 1945. USSR started to develop by leaps and bounds!
That’s nonsense. Calorific intake in the USSR only began to catch up with that of the U.S. after Gorbachev allowed private enterprise.
@anSmith-kz2jo YOU are writing nonsense. Food shortages began in USSR in 1985, when Gorbachev came to power. God forbid catching up to the US caloric intake, especially on the East Coast! Obesity is rampant in the US.
I like your Shirt.
Your definition of Democracy is really more like: "Electoral".
That's not technically what Democracy means and you can have votes in other systems, no problem.
Does universal basic income work? it's so expensive,and company won't pay high tax,and cause high inflation. What r your views on it is there a different types of ubi
UBI would be better than our current system, as it would be more efficient than the many programs we have.
We'd likely get UBI and the current system, which would just make things worse.
If we managed to replace the current welfare system with UBI, then govt would likely enforce it via payroll tax.
Companies would then pay their workers less in turn, meaning we'd end up back where we were, with more overhead and inefficiency.
Disadvantaged groups would be taken advantage of, just as they are now. In fact, there would be more incentive for companies to pay people under the table, which means government would spend more resources on enforcement, creating more inefficiency.
Inflation wouldn't change unless money is created faster than the goods and services increase in the economy, so that's a separate.
It is just socialism aka theft.
@@LearnLiberty what if AI replace our entire job. In that case without job, no buying power. Which lead to less consumption and less growth. So overall the economy will collapse
24:49 Based Stalin
Apologists and advocates of Communism are no different than apologists and advocates of other forms of Socialism such as Nazism. Same totalitarian socialism, different mask.
We are against all forms of socialism.
@@LearnLiberty That's why I like you.
Nazism isn't socialism you dipshit. All members of the nazi party that believed in socialism either left or were killed.
Didnt both hate blacks, jews and gays lol?
So much for lefties calling others nazis.. they arent far off from it themselves
My name was forcefully changed to Romanian. Westerners just don't know, nor do my Romanian friends. It's a bit weird when they apologize for something I don't blame them for.
Welp, here I am, and here goes; you're a nerd. You're welcome.
So you're saying that USSR was just a bootleg version of US?
He might not mean it or even apply it, but yes, alot of it was. Like the whole "corn" farming idea that they got from the US, also Coca cola and Mac. Even now they have bootleg versions of KFC or McDonald's
You can tell how great a country is by seeing which way the border patrol are aiming their rifles: at their citizens trying to leave, or guarding their border from entry).
About class inequity in the ussr.
1. Peasents didn't have and couldn't get a passport to even move to the nearest city without approval which was far from automatic until 1960s.
2. Nomenclatura (Party) had access to goods which others couldn't because of... social standing.
Those are just few examples.
North Korea is a Democracy, so maybe this word doesn't mean what we think it means.
If People create the State and Democracy means Peoples Rule, does this not mean that Democracy is State Rule.
Democracy was a preferable way to govern the people in lieu of the Monarchy. Now rather than being governed by the King they are governed by The People, "The People"=The State.
Democracy is Totalitarian just like North Korea.
Voting is voting and that is why you can do it in a Constitutional Republic or a Constitutional Monarchy.
The Soviet Union dissolved because of the Cold War.
The United States basically outspent them and they couldn't keep up.
The United States supported the USSR as long as it was possible and got upset in 1991.
Soviet Union dissolved because Gorbachev was a traitor and he sold us to the US.
More like their dumb leaders that don't know shit about farming or plants competing for nutrients, like the case with corn
@@achatcueilleur5746 The US doesn't "support" anyone. It just gives out credit.
@@uglaegilsdottir The US is not financial hub. It takes credits increasing own debt. You should see that, it's on the surface. The US executes orders of financial hub located on the other side of the pond.
So... what myths.. i don't see any myths here...
All i see are jokes i fins dificult beliving anyone actually belived...
What next are you going to debunk the myth that water isn't wet
USSR could make ballistics missiles but it couldn’t make toilet valves. This thing about good education and good health care system is the same thing told about Cuba’s systems. Same fairytale, same poverty, same illusions., same lies.
It's sad some people still believe in these myths.
sources?
Added all the sources to the pinned comment!
@@LearnLiberty we could really argue about some of them like the report from 1922, during very turbulent times and a fact that starvation happened regularly around those regions and only soviet union stopped it after ww2. Also ukrainian encyclopedia as a source could very well be revisionist with anticommunist bias but i did not check that
@@LearnLiberty i would really love to see some deeper discussion about this video tho. I do not have the time and willpower but im sure some marxist ytber will get involved. Of course USSR was not some utopian paradise but the western propaganda around it is also pretty strong. Ive only watched the part of the video talking about "no democracy!!!". I mean, there was democracy, just different from the west. And thats a good thing since western democracies are basically rule of wealth, in other words, bourgousie dictatorship (not sure if i spelled that right, im polish) and for example in the US, there is no democracy. People do not vote for USA to go to war and both parties are lobbied by same corporations
@@bolan4185
This is an excellent point about war.
Technically, the people elect their representative to Congress who is responsible for voting to go to war.
However, Congress has blatantly abandoned their duty to be the sole declarer of war and has basically handed the reins over to the Executive Branch to do whatever they want while operating under dubious AUMFs (Authorization for Use of Military Force). Shameful!
@@cleverwitticismhere6922 Yeah, all in the name of imperialism, which is the highest stage of capitalism, have a good night!
I was good until you talked about Russian education as though the US education system was any good. Well rounded education=useless. And love for the motherland? You never took the pledge of allegiance?
I'm back; I don't know why you're blathering on about the family, family is bad, the news tells me so, especially families with fathers in them. Very bad. CNN said so. And the BBC.
This whole video is propaganda. Why? I’m sitting next to a man who is 92, he lived in Soviet Union. I asked him many questions and I realised… we are living in the age of propaganda.
Why do you think the video is propaganda?
@@LearnLiberty "Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented." - this is the definition of propaganda and this video is exactly that, especially "selectively presenting facts". I mean, is this what you really think?
@@muba000 you just defined what is the meaning of propaganda which everyone already knows, you didn't answer how did the video became propaganda like you claimed
@@JeyC_ I repeat: "selectively presenting facts". Let me give you an example, imagine I make a similar video about US. By only showing videos, images about great depression times and continue with videos about homeless people today, drug users etc. By selectively presenting these facts, I can shape a very negative opinion about USA. By the way, this doesn't work on people who have a good knowledge about US.
@@muba000 you still haven't pointed out the lies in the video or the specific misleading parts. If there is one or more tho, you also haven't pointedout what's the actual truth
The topic is about debunking common myths and misconceptions about the USSR, how is it propaganda when the issue at hand is debunking these myths?
If there was a misconception about the USA about being drug-free or close to it(illegal drugs), then presenting the fact by showing addicts at many cities isn't propaganda either, that's just presenting what is true
About the "democratic" part.. technically it is true, because it means rule of the people. Since communists defined themselves as the people and they were in charge, it was the final form of democracy. Fascists claimed the same thing btw.
What we currently call "democratic" or "democracy" is far removed from its original meaning. We should call for a republic, not a democracy.
Sure, the Russian Empire could have been worse for the average serf, but it was still a raging feudalist state when the commies took over. Also it was devastated by war at that time...
So I don't think it is fair to say that they were better off with communism.
It is just left and right, same tree just a different branch.
On the left side off the religion you find communist
On the right side off the religion you find fascists.
All the best
There wasn't any democracy in USSR, don't you think so?
@@LearnLiberty - Again, technically it was a democracy. Totalitarians are known for redefining words, but that's the only case when they didn't really. For the modern sense of the word, yes you are right. But that's not really what the word means. You see, in a republic, you have rights, in a democracy the people have the right to do anything. So a lynching is a perfectly democratic thing, the local populus decides who lives and who dies. In contrast, in a republic, people can't do that, because you have the right to a fair trial.
Your answer is very controversial. If everything was decided by the ruling party and not by the people, how could there be democracy in the USSR?
Point about holodomor isn't accurate. Crop failure and famine occurred in the West too, even in USA. But Soviet state-controlled system didn't help the situation at all, that's for sure. But other than this and some standard propaganda about war in Ukraine, it is accurate. I think I can tell because my ancestors lived in similar regime.
How many ppl died from the famine in the West ?
I'm not going to teach you about famines in ussr in 1921-22, 1932-33, 1946-47, and the famine, which almost happened in 1962
But how many people died in ussr compared to the west?
I can't find any pictures that shows starvation in the west during the great depression
God bless USSR! I lived there. I got education for free. I got medical care for free. I got apartment almost for free. Every family I knew in USSR have 2 kids (now in capitalist Russia it's one kid or none).
>bragging about almost hitting replacement birth rate
😂
Free things don't exist. Those "free" things were prerequisites that led to the dissolution of the USSR.
@@LearnLiberty In my humble opinion the dissolution came out of people like you, who propagate so called 'Liberty' and 'freedom'. We, soviet people, were lied to that we'll be better in 'free economy'.
Oh, if we only be happy with what we had then!!!
@@LearnLiberty Of course they do. You are merely a prisoner of your capitalist mindset! 😂
Ahh yes, "randomly" getting treated like a king, even for rich capitalists.
You do realize "de westarners" had a bounty over their head or those who didnt praise Stalin? Seems your parents arent being honest with you
Tankies are gonna hate this one
You think 3 times more pay is big inequality? Hmm, let's check the US....
*CEO-to-worker pay: 400:1*
I think the point is that communists say everyone is equal and yet some people received more.
Capitalism makes no promise that everyone will earn the same. (Indeed, that would be destructive because it would ignore a huge number of factors.)
Pointing out inequality in a system which is supposed to have none by definition is a salient point.
@@cleverwitticismhere6922 I don't think anyone really holds the view that everyone made the same money in the USSR. You can have fun debunking it, but it's a straw man.
3 times more, *is* quite equal, compared with the rest of the world.
@@Isvakk
You've completely missed the point. It's not whether anyone believes that everyone was paid the same; it's that the system is supposed to ensure equal outcomes and didn't. It's not a strawman to point out the hypocrisy of the situation.
@@cleverwitticismhere6922 Even if I grant you that perfect equality of outcome was a goal of the USSR. (Although in reality the closest idea would be equal compensation for equal work time). You have to understand that you can't just achieve a goal like that in 10 years, or a few decades. Especially not in a pre industrial country. It takes a long time to develop socialism. And as I have shown you, they were indeed doing better than the alternatives in that regard.
Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦✌🏼
I was born and raised in USSR, living in US since 1996. This video is 99% accurate, I can add a few details as color commentary.
People in USSR were literally government slaves, without any voice or rights. During election we were given a ballot with ONE candidate, which we MUST submit, since participation was mandatory. All candidates were appointed by communist party, the only one we were allowed to have as article 6 of constitution. Economy was run from central planning 5 year program, and was In fact a central distribution chain of bare necessity items, but still we had perpetual deficit of goods, from soap to toilet paper, from winter shoes to toothpaste. Central distribution led to total corruption since money itself had very little value-you need to have access to proper point of sale to cash in, if not - you had to buy on black market from connected people. Based on my recollection 80% of your salary were spent on food and bare necessities, people were wearing same clothes, used same furniture and appliances for decades, then give it to their children. Car was extreme luxury, almost impossible to afford, basic Lada aka fiat 1 was 5000 rubles with annual average salary under 2000 rubles. As far as equality, there was a ruling class called “nomenclature”, communist appointees who were given leadership roles regardless of qualification. They used separate healthcare system called 4th division, had access to special stores ‘raspredelitel’, were given access to better housing, resorts or travel- all at discounted prices, while regular people were waiting for 20+ years to get their first apartment without any choice or option to own.
Everyone knew about corruption and hypocrisy of ruling class, and were dreaming to leave USSR for any other place, even poor African or Middle East countries. The top privilege was to travel abroad, you should be well connected communist to be allowed, and as always at very low cost compared to regular soviets.
USSR was openly discriminating gays, political opposition was considered mental illness and was treated in specialized institutions which were worse then prisons. There were discriminatory policies against Jews, small nations like Chechens, non native Russian speakers, all higher education was in Russian.
There is nothing liberal about socialism, you must submit to government or become exile and be persecuted, like Putin is doing now with Navalny and other political opponents
Golodomor - is not "death by hunger in ukraine"!!!
In Russia and Ukraine!!!
Most of people who died in holodomor were ukrainians
And also, russia haven't recognized holodomor, so russia doesn't believe in death of russians during 1932-33
18:00 #6 education. This touches on one of the fundamentally false premises of the Left, namely that anybody can become anyone, so the commissars could just 'order' children into neat career paths, whereas in fact, genetics, tradition and other non-malleable things predispose one to certain interests.
Moscow internationally traded confiscated grain for industrial goods with Germany in the 30s. Industrialisation was good for industrialists.
Moscow simply dumped confiscated grain while been eating the grain from the USA.
Agreed! There was a time when the USSR exported products while there were shortages of the same products in the USSR. They just needed money to finance the government.
@@LearnLiberty The USSR didn't have the government. Only average Joe needs money. GULAG as any prison didn't need money. Prisons receive all the necessary stuff to be always operational regardless of existence or absence of the financial system of the State..
USSR's government was full of bureaucracy, and its leaders lived in way better conditions than the rest of society.
These weren't mere food shortages but deliberate genocides conducted by the Soviet Union. When there was a humanitarian catastrophe, Stalin closed down the borders. Holodomor and Kazakh famine killed almost 10 million people, and the areas most affected were repopulated with ethnic Russians. And these aren't the only examples. Stalin loved to play the game of politics with ethnic displacements.
There weren't enough ethnic Russians to "repopulate those areas". Russia lost a lot of people during WWI, the Revolution and the Civil War of 1917-1919. Your comment holds no water and is pure propaganda.
The tankies are right.
literally nobody says that the USSR eliminated poverty
The main US myth is that the USSR is Russia. The USSR also did a lot for ethnic minorities. Actually Russia was the main reason why USSR collapsed.
I soon realized how bias you are when you said the “country” of Ukraine😂
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
As a pro-Ukrainian shill, you should know that the USSR: 1) built up the modern-day Ukraine completely 2) gave/gifted it a bunch of today's lands (including Crimea in 1953) 3) created heavy production plants (AzovStal, AzotStal, etc.), 4) helped preserve Ukrainian culture, history and language even more 5) made Ukraine one of the richest states in the former Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks basically made Ukraine its own country! You should be thankful to them for propping up this stillborn child.
@uglaegilsdottir lol,
1) Ukraine could achieve this without USSR, like Finland did this(not allowing commies to capture the country during russian civil war), like Greece did this, like everybody did this, and it's not ussr, who have built Ukraine, it's their own ppl under communist control
2) Crimea was given to Ukraine in 1954 due to economic reasons:1) after deportation of crimean tatars in 1944, russians came to Crimea, but they didn't know how to create grape farms, but ukrainians were doing this near Odesa for a long time, so ukrainians adapted faster, second reason was water channel, that connected Dnipro river and Crimea
3) Those industrial complexes were built using american(!!!) engineers and also money for industrialization came from selling wheat, and we all know how many ppl died in 1932-33 when ussr was desperately trying to find wheat
4) lol, russification in Ukraine during 1930-1985 was insane, the amount of native ukrainian speakers left the same, despite the growing population, also falsification of history etc
5) richest in ussr=poor in the west
Almost all the myth you “debunked” were true
10:58-11:17 literally pure propaganda
How?
@@bennittotheburrito9606 no communist believes that 'the government comes before people' or that people don't 'count' as people unless the government declares that.
These are ridiculous strawmen, part of the propaganda campaign to paint communism as a collectivist dystopia where 'everyone has to be the same' and individuals don't matter. it's very silly and sophomoric.
The UdSSR only called itself communist, but was in fact very far away from Marx’s communism
So you're saying there's a chance
@@Judah_P Mmh I doubt it. Humans are too selfish and therefor prioritize their personal gain over the community. I subscribe to the view on humans as egoistical utility maximizers, meaning an individual will always chose the option, that gives him the highest value in utility, according to his or her knowledge. If the individual gains more information, it might change its order of values., but most of the time this axiom holds, even though there are ofc exceptions.
So you say, when you would be in charge it would be better….very very dangerous thoughts.
All the best.
@@EarnestBunbury I'm only joking but I think because people are not primarily rational it's not that difficult to convince people that the community is paramount over the individual. This is Brave New World and Attack on Titan
@@notapplicable8957 Marx’s ideas never got really used, so we can’t say for sure, wether they would work. But I doubt it. Homini homo lupus and everyone would rather make a personal profit, than work for others (the profit isn’t necassarily monetary, but usually, as stated before)
I came here to learn about the USSR not to see Ucrainian propaganda. Thumbs down after 5 minutes of watching and close.
NOT ukrainian, but Russian and ukrainian!!!
STOP saying Ukrainian!!!
It was Russia and Ukraine!!!
The communism was horrible, but debunking myths with other myths is just as bad.
This material is almost as inaccurate as soviet propaganda.
In order to get real insight - read! Read historical materials.
What do you consider to be a myth in the video?
You have so many mistakes in this video that it hurts me
Propaganda repeats same fiction 333 times a year.
Which mistakes did you find?
People don't like it when you question their religion. Marxists are no different.