A teacher at my old Middle school had actually studied in socialist Bulgaria (in the late 70s I think) and had travelled to most of the old eastern bloc. He loved it so much that he visited Bulgaria on a yearly basis during the 80s After the fall, he went back once and never returned. He told me that the capitalists had destroyed his second home.
The communists bankrupted the country 3 times, including paying Russia for invading and occupying bulgaria. Capitalism, usually depicted as some sort of "different reality" is actually deeply connected to the former regime, inheriting a lot of it's problems from it. Continuing the corruption, the incompetence, the nepotism. So she only real difference is the curtain is no longer in front of the eyes of people. No economic system can live with these problems. It's not ABOUT that.
When I was a kid in the mid 80s, my grandparents visited the USSR. Apparently it was on the table for me to go, but I didn't, and *man* do I wish I could have gone!
I had a teacher in high school who once had this small publisher of science fiction books (he's unfortunately dead for a few years now and the publisher is now huge), he make a few visits to USSR to publish some Russian books and the way he talked about his experiences just made a tremendous impression on my young mind, I mean, factory workers reading more books per year that our university teachers, people working less hours a day than my father and being able to afford fine stuff, it was just too impressive.
Love your approach to history by digging up original sources rather than merely lecturing from the pulpit. It gives us a much more balanced understanding of the past. My own experience, married to a woman who grew up in the Soviet Union is with watching many Soviet and Russian war films. It becomes clear that it was the PEOPLE of the Soviet Union who won the war, not the Communist Party or the leaders. Those people had already been enabled in the 20s and 30s by building a new industrial economy from scratch. This gave them a certain kind of energy that is totally unlike modern people in the West.
The communist party *was* the people of the Soviet Union, and the people of the Soviet Union fought a civil war to put the communists in power. The illegal dissolution and fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy / crime in recent history.
One of my favorite books is Black Bolshevik by Harry Haywood. He was in the USSR in the 30s, even married a Soviet woman. I still remember the way he described Crimea back then-like some kind of paradise.
I read a book called 'an English lady visits the soviets. In which a writer is sent by her publisher to 'find funny stuff'. She does the full tour listed and adds more like spending 2 weeks at an international commune. She writes of various things, major complaint was the robotic/drilled nature of the guides, and all the waiting that she had to do, and needing to smuggle her notes out as she left Odessa.
I have this book! I know exactly what you're talking about. She's quite condescending if I remember correctly but overall was fine as a solo woman traveling! I believe at the end she mentions others leaving with undeveloped photographs had to abandon them.
I always wanted to travel on the Trans Siberian Express! I recall being very impressed that there are samovars on each carriage and you can just go and make yourself a cup of tea. The images of the party congress were very interesting - all those different people from all over the USSR taking part as equals! Would have loved to hear the speeches, as it was such an exciting time! Re the ox tongue - that is a fave of mine and I love it when I can get some, but not everywhere sells it!
My American born-and-raised great grandmother visited the USSR in the 80s because she wanted to see if for herself and meet the people. When I was a young child she told me about how interesting it was but didn't go into further details. She passed away when I was 19 but I really wish I could ask her about her travels in the USSR in a more in depth personal manner. She was extremely progressive outwardly but I truly believe she was a socialist but she just kept that to herself. Inshallah she was a comrade and may she rest in power.
I mean, why not? I'm Indonesian and my Dad was born in and had lived through the hellhole known as New Order for almost 30 years. He told me a fairly sharp recollection of his own upbringing living through it. I'll say it's balanced but still, a very objective picture of my country under Suharto and rule of iron fist. Propaganda, indoctrination, military holding significant political control and public presence (look up "Dwifungsi ABRI"), the silencing of political oppositions and dissenters by all means possible incl. shadow murder, you name it. But despite all this, mainstream media circulation, both domestic and foreign alikes, instead showed a completely different picture of what's happening in my country at the time. Flash forward today, looking back at my Dad's recollection of his life, I think there's no doubt that whatever foreign Western media have to say about Communism and Soviet Union, historically and present, obviously it's all projection of their own wrongdoings to my pov.
It very much is, the confessions of former CIA guys is very telling. I remember one in particular basically said what the CIA did made the KGB look like angels
The closest my father got to Visiting the USSR was visiting Yugoslavia, however my Uncle and Aunt did when they were fighting in the Umkhonto we Sizwe, they were send there along to other Eastern Block Nations for Military Training.
I spot that you took your spouse suggestion like you said in making the format look a bit like news & I love how it turned out so much! Mashaallah Izdihar, hope you are healthy, warm & well rested.
The idea of “Property Rights” in the Soviet Union intrigued me. Have you covered that subject before? There’s got to be a lot there. Especially when discussing what the Soviet philosophy of that was.
Hello, I just wanted to say love your videos and how you focus on humanizing the USSR. but I also wanted to ask you if you have any sources on the legal/Judicial system of the USSR or other eastern bloc nations or if you are ever considering making a video about that?
great program opened up a fascinating social history that was completely unknown to me - going through your past programs has been very enjoyable you make scholarship fun!
Thank you for Sharing. Have you ever found anything about the soviet citizen ship test/process? I think the contents of that might be very interesting/enlightening and up you ally for content!
When talking about the ellipses, I feel it is as if when translating the original newspaper into English the translators forgot that the ellipses would be in different places and so the placing of the ellipses is how they were in the original Russian.
I have several Soviet Life magazines I have from my grandfather. They are from the late 1970s. I read them in that time period as a teenager. I'm 67 and want to give them away. I can send them to Lady Izdihar or anyone who will honor them. All I need is a mailing address or a mail drop address.
20:25 HECK YES! Both. I would visit, and if the ambient doesn't make me cronicaly sick (I get flu easily), live there would be a possibility. Bad thing, it was too early to find the job I like (because computers were in their early year) but I can't stop imagining I would like help to bring automation and smart grids. I could do it here, but it would take a revolution before that to make it viable.
My dad got a hat like you have in the back when we went back to Baku after we moved to the Netherlands. He was so excited. Then we got to winter in the Netherlands and he finally could wear and. First day he picked me up from school and he was wearing it. Some of the other dads apparently made jokes and I have never seen that hat since. It's both kind of sad but also a little funny.
A little remark about Dagestan info* . There's actually not so many languages that you've mentioned. There are about 5-6 language branches such as lezgin, dargin, avar etc which have different languages (the biggest language branch is lezgin and its language (lezgin language) is baically the base of some languages like agul, tabasaran and more, the can understand each other in their branches). Althought, avars IS the biggest nationality in Dagestan currently, there's similar approximate amout of other natinaloties such as kumiks, dargins, lezgins* that actually live more in Azerbaijan becuase of USSR distribution
Very interesting video. Most interesting part was hearing the testimonies of how people saw the soviet union. I recently found a travel guide of 1970s poland secondhand. It was interesting to see how tourism was presented by the USSR. I had never though of the topic before.
i know a man who worked in moscow in the late 80’s, but he didn’t speak any russian so he generally couldn’t engage in the city unfortunately but it’s still quite cool to me
I would love to chip in for that document scanner :^)This was such a cool video and I wish I could binge your others rn and look through other neat documents like these!
Germans were allowing their labor cruise ships but uk banned labor carrying cruise ships in british ports so as not to agitate british workers. Workers as tourists on cruise ships.
If the USSR still existed, I probably would have tried to immigrate there by this point. If the world is going to be on the brink of annihilation, I at least want to be able to fight for the good guys when the fighting starts.
@Li F The US government literally polices this. It was only recently that we as Americans were even allowed to travel directly there, and still they disallow you to book at certain hotels or use certain forms of payment in Cuba (to contribute to the squeezing of their economy as part of sanctions that the rest of the world condemn). So much freedom! Why don't you become a billionaire with the American Dream? If you don't you must not be a real American
@Dennis The Red Menace oh yeah, that's right. I recall those years they nationalized a lot of industries, didn't allow capital to run the government by disallowing any form of lobbying, oh and my favorite where they executed financial criminals who ruined lives of thousands of people. Oh wait
@dennistheredmenace4537 bruh come to to china and talk to some CPC comrades. maybe we disagree on how to build socialism but no investigation, no right to speak
we just watched this on my twitch stream... We thought the tractor bit was interesting. We tried to calculate the value of the $204 in today's dollars... we think around $4,500... I thought the way the ... threw you off was interesting cuz I use them all the time in casual writing... and that Map blouse/top is pretty cool... and a viewer who is Muslim feels a bit closer to "the left" after seeing you and hanging out.
The rise of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the 1930's began a counter revolution. Stalin murdered Lenin's Party. He was the leader and organizer of revolutionary defeats starting in 1928. China then 1933 Germany followed by Spain and France in 1939.
USSR did some things right, as ?after 1989 NATO EU US lead aid to USSR implosion. many Caucasus peoples remained in new Russian Federation, in N Caucasus. while some in S Caucasus were forced to.leave new RF, but refused, +fought independence ears to remain free, but not allowed to.joim RF---Abkhazians + S Ossetians fought 2 wars to escape domination by NATO backed Georgian gov.due to RF military aid to the 2 nationalities, that secured present independence.
Commodifying USSR for tourism at a "low" price of 200$, the idea it self is hilarious, it makes more sense if those advertisements provided some kind of covers for people going to ussr for lectures or some secret spy stuffs.
Hmh, those commercials do not really appeal to me. On the one hand, there are luxury cruises, which do not even highlight the ... well, highlights. On the other hand, there is praising of the current achievements, without giving an impression, what it might mean as a visitor, what the experience might be. I would propably have visited the Soviet Union as a concious political act anyways - but reading those adds would not have caused me, to consider, that this might be related to vacation, to enjoying my life or to genuine "adventure". I guess, going on one of those journeys would have been ten times as interesting as the adds made it seem and I wonder, how successful they were back then.
Very interesting to see how soviets tried to advertise the country. Would've been cool to see the statistic of how many people actually travelled by intourist services. I wonder how it would've been done today.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
W rizz
Thank you for watching! Jummah Mubarak ✨
Strange to see you here
@@wizard_pirate_9085He is always there for us.
skibidi toil;et
She loves maps so much, she's wearing them now
She even beat Johnny Harris to it.
I could say that I want to see where my country is, but sounds kinda inapropiate.
A teacher at my old Middle school had actually studied in socialist Bulgaria (in the late 70s I think) and had travelled to most of the old eastern bloc. He loved it so much that he visited Bulgaria on a yearly basis during the 80s After the fall, he went back once and never returned. He told me that the capitalists had destroyed his second home.
They sure did...
The communists bankrupted the country 3 times, including paying Russia for invading and occupying bulgaria. Capitalism, usually depicted as some sort of "different reality" is actually deeply connected to the former regime, inheriting a lot of it's problems from it. Continuing the corruption, the incompetence, the nepotism. So she only real difference is the curtain is no longer in front of the eyes of people. No economic system can live with these problems. It's not ABOUT that.
@lif6737
^Wow, imagine being this brainwashed.
@lif6737
Lol.
Sure.
Because the EU has no problems.
(You’re just trolling, right?)
@Li F why is joining NATO good? Do you like the US having it's finger deeper inside Bulgaria?
When I was a kid in the mid 80s, my grandparents visited the USSR. Apparently it was on the table for me to go, but I didn't, and *man* do I wish I could have gone!
I had a teacher in high school who once had this small publisher of science fiction books (he's unfortunately dead for a few years now and the publisher is now huge), he make a few visits to USSR to publish some Russian books and the way he talked about his experiences just made a tremendous impression on my young mind, I mean, factory workers reading more books per year that our university teachers, people working less hours a day than my father and being able to afford fine stuff, it was just too impressive.
Name of the publisher?
Love your approach to history by digging up original sources rather than merely lecturing from the pulpit. It gives us a much more balanced understanding of the past. My own experience, married to a woman who grew up in the Soviet Union is with watching many Soviet and Russian war films. It becomes clear that it was the PEOPLE of the Soviet Union who won the war, not the Communist Party or the leaders. Those people had already been enabled in the 20s and 30s by building a new industrial economy from scratch. This gave them a certain kind of energy that is totally unlike modern people in the West.
The communist party *was* the people of the Soviet Union, and the people of the Soviet Union fought a civil war to put the communists in power. The illegal dissolution and fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy / crime in recent history.
Those trips are like 1800.00 in 2022 dollars. Still pretty cheap compared to a tour like that today
no fucking way i just checked for 2024 $204 in 1936 is $4635.06 now (via the US Bureau of Labor inflation calculator)
One of my favorite books is Black Bolshevik by Harry Haywood.
He was in the USSR in the 30s, even married a Soviet woman.
I still remember the way he described Crimea back then-like some kind of paradise.
I read a book called 'an English lady visits the soviets. In which a writer is sent by her publisher to 'find funny stuff'. She does the full tour listed and adds more like spending 2 weeks at an international commune. She writes of various things, major complaint was the robotic/drilled nature of the guides, and all the waiting that she had to do, and needing to smuggle her notes out as she left Odessa.
I have this book! I know exactly what you're talking about. She's quite condescending if I remember correctly but overall was fine as a solo woman traveling! I believe at the end she mentions others leaving with undeveloped photographs had to abandon them.
English should be banned from visiting anywhere.
I always wanted to travel on the Trans Siberian Express! I recall being very impressed that there are samovars on each carriage and you can just go and make yourself a cup of tea. The images of the party congress were very interesting - all those different people from all over the USSR taking part as equals! Would have loved to hear the speeches, as it was such an exciting time!
Re the ox tongue - that is a fave of mine and I love it when I can get some, but not everywhere sells it!
My American born-and-raised great grandmother visited the USSR in the 80s because she wanted to see if for herself and meet the people. When I was a young child she told me about how interesting it was but didn't go into further details. She passed away when I was 19 but I really wish I could ask her about her travels in the USSR in a more in depth personal manner. She was extremely progressive outwardly but I truly believe she was a socialist but she just kept that to herself. Inshallah she was a comrade and may she rest in power.
During McCarthyism, that was a wise thing to do.
I mean, why not? I'm Indonesian and my Dad was born in and had lived through the hellhole known as New Order for almost 30 years. He told me a fairly sharp recollection of his own upbringing living through it. I'll say it's balanced but still, a very objective picture of my country under Suharto and rule of iron fist.
Propaganda, indoctrination, military holding significant political control and public presence (look up "Dwifungsi ABRI"), the silencing of political oppositions and dissenters by all means possible incl. shadow murder, you name it. But despite all this, mainstream media circulation, both domestic and foreign alikes, instead showed a completely different picture of what's happening in my country at the time.
Flash forward today, looking back at my Dad's recollection of his life, I think there's no doubt that whatever foreign Western media have to say about Communism and Soviet Union, historically and present, obviously it's all projection of their own wrongdoings to my pov.
It very much is, the confessions of former CIA guys is very telling. I remember one in particular basically said what the CIA did made the KGB look like angels
The closest my father got to Visiting the USSR was visiting Yugoslavia, however my Uncle and Aunt did when they were fighting in the Umkhonto we Sizwe, they were send there along to other Eastern Block Nations for Military Training.
Yeah, I salute the troops.
gonna get lured into not having wage theft
I spot that you took your spouse suggestion like you said in making the format look a bit like news & I love how it turned out so much! Mashaallah Izdihar, hope you are healthy, warm & well rested.
The idea of “Property Rights” in the Soviet Union intrigued me. Have you covered that subject before? There’s got to be a lot there. Especially when discussing what the Soviet philosophy of that was.
Visit? No. Move? Yes.
Hello,
I just wanted to say love your videos and how you focus on humanizing the USSR.
but I also wanted to ask you if you have any sources on the legal/Judicial system of the USSR or other eastern bloc nations or if you are ever considering making a video about that?
great program opened up a fascinating social history that was completely unknown to me - going through your past programs has been very enjoyable you make scholarship fun!
Amazing shirt
Thank you for Sharing. Have you ever found anything about the soviet citizen ship test/process? I think the contents of that might be very interesting/enlightening and up you ally for content!
11:46 204 dollars in 1936 would be 2105.40 in 2022
Wasn't expecting to see that piece on Paul Robeson. Very cool!
When talking about the ellipses, I feel it is as if when translating the original newspaper into English the translators forgot that the ellipses would be in different places and so the placing of the ellipses is how they were in the original Russian.
Ahh that's a great point I didn't consider!
Awesome
@LadyIzdihar Hell yeah, comrade!
I have several Soviet Life magazines I have from my grandfather. They are from the late 1970s. I read them in that time period as a teenager. I'm 67 and want to give them away. I can send them to Lady Izdihar or anyone who will honor them. All I need is a mailing address or a mail drop address.
love your vids!
20:25 HECK YES! Both. I would visit, and if the ambient doesn't make me cronicaly sick (I get flu easily), live there would be a possibility. Bad thing, it was too early to find the job I like (because computers were in their early year) but I can't stop imagining I would like help to bring automation and smart grids. I could do it here, but it would take a revolution before that to make it viable.
My dad got a hat like you have in the back when we went back to Baku after we moved to the Netherlands. He was so excited. Then we got to winter in the Netherlands and he finally could wear and. First day he picked me up from school and he was wearing it. Some of the other dads apparently made jokes and I have never seen that hat since. It's both kind of sad but also a little funny.
Well done, as always. Thank you, Comrade.
beautiful shirt!
A little remark about Dagestan info* . There's actually not so many languages that you've mentioned. There are about 5-6 language branches such as lezgin, dargin, avar etc which have different languages (the biggest language branch is lezgin and its language (lezgin language) is baically the base of some languages like agul, tabasaran and more, the can understand each other in their branches). Althought, avars IS the biggest nationality in Dagestan currently, there's similar approximate amout of other natinaloties such as kumiks, dargins, lezgins* that actually live more in Azerbaijan becuase of USSR distribution
Very interesting video. Most interesting part was hearing the testimonies of how people saw the soviet union. I recently found a travel guide of 1970s poland secondhand. It was interesting to see how tourism was presented by the USSR. I had never though of the topic before.
$204 in 1936 would be $4,121 today
i know a man who worked in moscow in the late 80’s, but he didn’t speak any russian so he generally couldn’t engage in the city unfortunately but it’s still quite cool to me
I would love to chip in for that document scanner :^)This was such a cool video and I wish I could binge your others rn and look through other neat documents like these!
According to an online calculator I used, the trip to the USSR would cost around 4200 dollars in today's dollars (aka v expensive)
Short answer: yes, I'd have loved to, and also strongly considered staying with them
So $204 is about $4,050.15 in 2022. So with the prices of average holidays, it kinda matches up.
Germans were allowing their labor cruise ships but uk banned labor carrying cruise ships in british ports so as not to agitate british workers.
Workers as tourists on cruise ships.
If the USSR still existed, I probably would have tried to immigrate there by this point. If the world is going to be on the brink of annihilation, I at least want to be able to fight for the good guys when the fighting starts.
China?
@Li F The US government literally polices this. It was only recently that we as Americans were even allowed to travel directly there, and still they disallow you to book at certain hotels or use certain forms of payment in Cuba (to contribute to the squeezing of their economy as part of sanctions that the rest of the world condemn). So much freedom!
Why don't you become a billionaire with the American Dream? If you don't you must not be a real American
@Dennis The Red Menace Oh. Right. I can't wait for the USA to implement that form of "Capitalism" then
@Dennis The Red Menace oh yeah, that's right. I recall those years they nationalized a lot of industries, didn't allow capital to run the government by disallowing any form of lobbying, oh and my favorite where they executed financial criminals who ruined lives of thousands of people. Oh wait
@dennistheredmenace4537 bruh come to to china and talk to some CPC comrades. maybe we disagree on how to build socialism but no investigation, no right to speak
Astonishing work! Keep going, comrade!!!
Yes! I’d love to go. When are we going? ; )
Very nice cheburashka toy :)
I would but then id return to help my country
Amazing content!
Are there partial remaining areas,
like still existing collective farms,
"Trans Dniester", etc. regions?
சோவியத் ஒன்றியம் வாழ்க
Seeing and learning more about the Soviet Union makes me really angry that it doesn’t exist anymore
You and me both brother, we really had an alternative means to live and now it’s all the same with some cultural differences.
Yes. Yes I would visit if I had the chance.
I’m not interested in traveling to a place where I wouldn’t want to spend the night in jail.
Absolutely
we just watched this on my twitch stream... We thought the tractor bit was interesting. We tried to calculate the value of the $204 in today's dollars... we think around $4,500... I thought the way the ... threw you off was interesting cuz I use them all the time in casual writing... and that Map blouse/top is pretty cool... and a viewer who is Muslim feels a bit closer to "the left" after seeing you and hanging out.
yes
The rise of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the 1930's began a counter revolution. Stalin murdered Lenin's Party. He was the leader and organizer of revolutionary defeats starting in 1928. China then 1933 Germany followed by Spain and France in 1939.
Ofc I would have gone
$4,387 in 2023 money. Not bad when you consider a trip to China is $5,000+
Would i visit the Communists ? Girl i already know you
What was, according to you, the golden era of USSR?
Сталинские времена.
USSR did some things right, as
?after 1989 NATO EU US lead aid
to USSR implosion. many Caucasus peoples remained in new Russian
Federation, in N Caucasus. while some
in S Caucasus were forced to.leave new RF, but refused, +fought independence
ears to remain free, but not allowed to.joim RF---Abkhazians + S Ossetians
fought 2 wars to escape domination by
NATO backed Georgian gov.due to RF
military aid to the 2 nationalities, that
secured present independence.
Commodifying USSR for tourism at a "low" price of 200$, the idea it self is hilarious, it makes more sense if those advertisements provided some kind of covers for people going to ussr for lectures or some secret spy stuffs.
I'm someone from the UK and I would love for the USSR to be resurrected
I wonder which was the average reaction from the people of 1930's U.S.A. to canned ox tongues...
Hmh, those commercials do not really appeal to me. On the one hand, there are luxury cruises, which do not even highlight the ... well, highlights. On the other hand, there is praising of the current achievements, without giving an impression, what it might mean as a visitor, what the experience might be. I would propably have visited the Soviet Union as a concious political act anyways - but reading those adds would not have caused me, to consider, that this might be related to vacation, to enjoying my life or to genuine "adventure". I guess, going on one of those journeys would have been ten times as interesting as the adds made it seem and I wonder, how successful they were back then.
i really liked the liberty means responsibility article. oh how i yearn to be able to visit the soviet union just once.
No because I am not visiting I'm going and I ain't never coming back.
I was born too late
I would love to live in USSR, I miss it so much especially - like you- the 30s.
Love your videos ♥️♥️♥️
I would love to visit Catalonia in the 1930's during the CNT-FAI reign.
_the greatest goddess 💕💕💕_
Very interesting to see how soviets tried to advertise the country. Would've been cool to see the statistic of how many people actually travelled by intourist services.
I wonder how it would've been done today.
I really wish I had the opportunity to visit USSR and Romania before the fall, but alas I was born too late.
No thanks I choose life.
what?
4 th agro. 🚩🛠🏳️🌈❤