I read about this in Ayn Rand’s ‘We the Living’. It was a very dark, sad story about her own experiences in the USSR’s early days. I have despised socialism ever since. Great video, as usual Anna!❤
It sounds like living in an apartment of that era was like being stuck in an elevator with strangers and a modern reality TV house. Super creepy. Another excellent video from Anna!
How do couples have sex with all them people living in the same apartment with no privacy? Super creepy!! Distant family members, roommates and strangers living with you? No thanks!! KGB members in your home!! It must of really suck living in Russia/Soviet Union!! Communist living really sucked big time!!
They still live like this in parts of Moscow I experienced living in a kommunalka, well I lasted one night my friends don't smoke but the other people living their constantly chain smoked it was horrible, no space or privacy thing's get stolen and arguments occur. And we found out one of the occupants just got out of jail. Loved this episode Anna. Slava ukraini! 🌻
The dreary living conditions might be a reason for seemingly mentally ill Russian society today. My own grandparents in Estonia had their house taken away and given to others when they were deported to Siberia to work and die as slaves for the Motherland. This is the stuff of nightmares for many millions of people. We must never forget. Thank you for discussing and teaching the world. Slava Ukraini!
The older one becomes, the more one appreciates having a personal bathroom. Another interesting video, Anna. Diakuiu! I've read of the Soviet "artist colonies" of course, but seeing only a few photos makes it a grim reality. No, I don't wish to live as a Soviet, either. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇲
I remember reading Andrei Sinyavsky’s description of living in one of those flats. No privacy, and no trust - they had to put a lock on their cooking pot so that their food wouldn’t get stolen by their roommates. It sounds like hell.
Nah, it's one myth being replaced by the another, an embellishment giving way to horror fiction. Unlike this charming young lady, I am no longer young, was never charming, but I had a first-hand experience with коммуналка (shared apartment). No material difference compared to any roommate situation. Can get a roommate from hell, can get a great flatmate. When I was a wee boy, we lived in such apartment in a lumpen suburb of Moscow (1970-1975). Typical Soviet mix - an alcoholic plumber, divorced nurse with a kid, a painter (as in artist), family of a subway engineer (on his way to alcoholism)... Add a few bathrooms and it's modern day Detroit. Wait, add drugs and it's modern day Detroit.
@@vladimirsvetlov1243 IIRC, I read it in “Soviet Civilization,” though it might have been in his class at University of Oregon in’95 or so. Regardless, I’m sure he knew his experience as well as you know yours.
@@sedacollier1602 Sinyavsky was a proper dissident, I wouldn't blame the guy for conflating personal experience and the endemic evils of the regime that imprisoned him. Did you have a chance to read Dovlatov? A bit more light-hearted and a better writer.
Once again, you are the best, Anna! I did not know much about the shared living arrangements. But, now that I do, I think it is a very bad idea! Thank you and have a nice week!! 💙💛
With this format you will most likely go viral. Using your professor mindset to educate. A documentary style structure. A streamlined audio visual approach. A classy looking set. And vengeance for setting the record straight. Good to see our donations are helping with the good fight . Go Anna ✊🏻🇺🇦
Oh wow!! Looking forward to this one. I have heard about these shared living arrangements but couldn’t believe it could be tolerated by the inhabitants.
Why not? People don't need all that much to sustain themselves, it's the state of mind that goes first. Looking back at me growing up in USSR, I can honestly characterize that life as dead-ass broke by American standards. Except for the books. Somehow you could share apartment with strangers, and need 2 sets of pliers - one to change the channels on TV, and the other to open the fridge (country that put a man into space couldn't figure out how to make handles that last), yet you had more books than a library in a mid-sized town in US. An American put in these conditions would get depressed and suicidal, because it's a failure. Soviet was born into this, and everyone was exactly the same. A common man routinely mistakes average for normal.
@@AnnafromUkraine we love your videos so much! We found them So educational, my friend told me she wants to come study in university at your classes! Sending Much support from your friends in 🇦🇺 💛💙🇺🇦Slava Ukraine
Tell me about it.. I'd like to think it'll get those that idolize the Soviet period to look at it critically, but that's probably too optimistic, considering they don't believe even people that lived through it.
I am amazed how professional the videos are recorded and edited not to mention the interesting subjects tackled with these informative 'Soviet Myths Debunked' Well done Anna!
What horrible housing conditions.... shocking! Thanks for informing me about this aspect of soviet "life" ( if that would be the proper word, I doubt )... Anna, stay safe, Slava Ukraini !! 💙💛💙💛
Bulgaria has a rash of thousands of Soviet-era apartment "blocks", fully inhabited but without a property owner / management to be found. So interesting things like building maintenance has fallen completely by the wayside. Building needs an exterior coat of paint? Nobody to call, nobody to foot the bill. Elevator needs work? Ditto. Electrical bill for lighting staircases & hallways? Nobody to hand the bill to... Utterly wild to consider what all needs to happen when the building is slated for demolition & make way for new construction.
Anna, I don't want to live in the USSR. I was totally unaware of this type of communal housing in the USSR. For an introvert like me it sounds even more terrible. One of the things about Lenin and others, it seems to me, is they had an idea of how "things should work" in theory, and even if it didn't work in practice they wouldn't give up on their ideal. They were, as so many are, simply convinced their way was the right way and nothing could change their minds.
Thanks Anna for exploding the Soviet Myths. Look forward to the next episode. I'm from Hong Kong and new to your channel but I've been keeping an eye on this invasion since it was mounted. I have huge respect for courageous Ukrainians fighting for freedom and defending their country, first 'Winter on Fire' in 2014 and then Russian invasion this year. Please take care and stay safe. Slava Ukraini!
Never had teacher this pretty! I probably would not have cut class and learned more! But am learning now! Stay safe Anna! Stay strong Ukraine! You've got this! Viking prayer!
Looks like a Cozy Set... You look Great. 👀 // ! For the Dissertation, can you talk about property seized? I had a Polish Friend born in 1947? Her families House and Art were partially returned... some paintings; however the house in Łódź was never properly relinquished... She defected in the 1970's. Her brother a Prosecutor was Murdered before the Collapse. The loss and pain made a deep impact on My views of Soviet life; she was So Charming and Strong a real Gem 💎. Never felt right trying to talk about the ussr after talking with Yolanda.
Anna this is the best description of the soviet housing I have heard. I have been inside a Khrushchyovkka appartment in Dnipro it is exactly as you describe they dont have lifts so you walk and carry your provisions up to maybe 4-5 floors these were intended to be temporary accommodation but they ended up permanent. These vlogs on Soviet Myths Debunked are great very informative Anna
Funny thing tho. On one hand there's Russian youth catching Soviet nostalgia from their deranged and demented babushkas. On the other we got viewers of this here channel that get petrified by an idea of a shared apartment/flat. I think the point you should be getting (or maybe it should've been made more clearly) is that so called free housing under Soviets was literally housing, not free houses or even apartments. Housing riddled with problems and inequities, abused by those in positions of power and in many ways a mechanism of controlling population movement and even behavior beyond that.
Anna, what you do is extremely important for humankind and you do it brilliantly. Thank you for that. Unfortunately, Aldus Huxley came up with this truth: "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." As proof of that, the South African Government has just adopted a law destroying private property - They call it 'Expropriation without compensation.'
That is quite interesting. When I visited Russia early 2000s I also had to register every 3 working days... The police was usually always asking for your papers and looking for that or some other irregularity in order to extort from you some money.
I was only extorted once while driving into Biysk from Gorno-Altaysk. 6000 rubles for not having my headlights on during the daytime. I was given the option of appearing in court the following week, or paying him on the spot. I laughed, paid the cop, and told him to have a nice lunch.
@@RW4X4X3006 Moscow was more complicated than St. Petersburg. Few times stopped in the street, even by drunk cops asking for money for alcohol. Just once 2 cops were a little more decided in trying to get some money from us... but we had everything in order. One Italian that was passing by and living in Moscow understood what was happening and came to help. The cops understood that we wouldn't be intimidated so easily and just threw our passports away and left suddenly .
@@AlexdaCunha I've never had any problems like that in Moscow or anywhere else. Had a pissed off granny chase me down the street and a couple of cops and my companion saved my tail. Just when you think you have a working knowledge of Russian, the locals will surprise you. Different dialects, different generations - the older Soviet thing still going on. Only the one "traffic infraction' while heading into town to the supermarket. Was camping up on the Katun river. Sibir is a nature lovers paradise and the thought of never experiencing it again seriously depresses the hell out of me. Good folks living over there too. While in Gorno-Altai, sitting around the campfire talking shit, I asked my Siberian pals "Hey, ya'll ever seen or heard of Bigfoot or Sasquatch up here in these mountains? Any local lore or legends about it?" After a round of laughter one of the girls replied "The only thing stinking and howling up here in these mountains are old Soviets." Haha
@@RW4X4X3006 this happened to me in 2003. Was still a bit the complete "wild east". Police trying to rip off everybody to complement their miserable salary.
@@AlexdaCunha No different here. Municipal cops meet their monthly quota regarding traffic infractions, they get a bonus. They just don't shake you down at your car window.
Thanks for this newest episode of SMD, Anna. One of the highest quality content in educational matter in YT. Horrible, horrible life. Lets keep our borders very strong to avoid this pure madness.
Y'all know that Soviet Union is no more, right? And that no matter how His Putz try, it ain't coming back. I'm glad Finland is joining NATO tho, we are not dealing with Soviet Union reborn, we got a Russian Orthodox terrorist state to sort out.
@@vladimirsvetlov1243 Whatever you call it, russians have chosen it from 1240 till today with exceptions of very short time periods. Nothing indicates that the trend is going to change. # Evaluation of Russia by Finnish Intelligence Colonel (English audio) | December 3, 2018
@@puhistagram if you listened to Putz lately, you know he crossed from reality-based war criminal to the faith-based suicide bomber. The guy thinks he can win in the afterlife. This shit is new. Soviets didn't have this suicidal ideation, Tsars didn't have it.
Tyvm for this series, 'DSM'. So many Westerners have no idea of the absolute horrors of the Soviet Union. The USSR, & Stalin were responsible for the destruction of innumerable lives. 😔 There's a very good book on the Intelligentsia (academics, writers, artists of every stripe) called: "In the Labyrinth of the KGB: Ukraine's Intelligentsia in the 1960s-1970s" by Olga Bertelsen, that goes into great detail about this subject.
Great Post, your English is getting better. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of how life is in Russia and how it was in the U.S.S.R. . I was in the U.S. Military for almost 10 years and the only housing that was worse than what you showed was when I was on a Ship. Once again great Post. Pleased keep making them. Slava Ukraine 😊❤️✌️🇺🇦
Anna, thank you for your efforts. I love the 'set dressing' that you have it perfectly illustrates the situation that the Russians found themselves in.
Really interesting video Anna. There is noway I could live like that. I don't have a big house, 2 bedroom 1200 sq ft. Big kitchen and living room. I live here alone so its perfect for 1 person and I have privacy. I have a grass to cut seperate garage for the car. I guess I would be a wealthy Russian in comparison. Small houses are easy to keep clean and heat and light on the monthly bills. Watching this video and comunal shared living with strangers would drive me crazy.
This was a fascinating episode; I knew so little about this reality. No, I would not have liked to live in the USSR. And definitely not in the criminal successor state, russian federation. 🇺🇦
That's exactly the point! The USSR is over. Now people pay high mortgage because of privatization and that's the reason why they hate everyone else and Gorbacev 😂 Some people have nostalgia of the Soviet. Putin couldn't care less for old communism and he surely doesn't want to make the whole world like old URSS! He just wants to conquer the world with violence, but he will be more than happy to leave you to your mortgage, as long as you still have a roof.
This is why even the famous figure skater Olga Urkova was working hard so that her family could have their own "home"... I did not understand it before. Thank you for sharing, Anna
There is an old prison in my town which dates back to the early seventeenth century, and was closed a few years ago. Some of the more infamous detainees included the Kray brothers. Throughout its' history it was notorious for insanitary and extremely poor living conditions and was regularly singled out for criticism by government inspectors. The walls inside were painted in exactly the same absolutely horrible colours as in your images of the shared kitchen in Soviet Russia.
🤣🤣 For a few days, I had to live in a St. Petersburg kommunalka. (I was a guest professor, but my assigned 19sqm flat wasn't ready when I got there.) This was in the late 1990s, but it looked just like the photos you showed. No one had done any renovations since the 1920s...1930s. I can't wait for part two, and the Khrushchev bunkers. (Lived in plenty of those.) An amazing look into the modern Russian sociology and culture can be seen in them.
Always good to see u, Anna. You are right, no one wants to live under the Soviets, let alone Putin. All the rich in Russia don't bank in Russia, their families have been living outside Russia, so if Russia is so good why do they not stay there, why do they buy expensive houses in the west.
"Do *I* want to live in the U.S.S.R.?" Well, if I could get a free flat, share a communal toilet with a couple of strange families and hang my underwear to dry on a rope in the kitchen, who wouldn't want to live there? 😆 Love your sweater! Where can I find these sweaters? 😊 Brian F.
Well depends on what you lived in before. For us that's a nightmare scenario, if your previous place was a wooden hut with no heating or electricity in genral it sounds like a dream.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be lumped into a little property with total strangers and expected to live like that.Its hard enough living in overcrowded conditions with your own family,but at least they are your family.It must have been akin to existing in a never ending nightmare for lots of people in the USSR. Keep up the really good work Anna!👍
Around the year 2000 I was able to visit a "Kommunalka" in St. Petersburg. It was "for sale". Privatization, I suppose. This was the most depressing experience I had in in my live as an Western European citizen. Even worse than an Izba in rural Siberia!
@@moestietabarnak Of Course even Ukraine has got myths to go debunked but as there is an elaborate system i Russia since Cath t.G. of myths, like the ones Anna is debunking, there is a greater need of debunking Russia. Anna is doing a splendid work in debunking Russia: Lucid and educational and at the same time personal. 🙏
Merci beaucoup Anna pour la vidéo, sa me surprendrait qu'il réussit a faire revenir sa ,je te comprends de pas vouloir vivre comme ça, sa l'arrivera pas, prend soin de toi Anna, passe une belle fin de journée, et comme d'habitude, a demain, ET GLOIRE A L'UKRAINE!!!!!🙂💙💛✊️👍💪👏👏👏👏👍🤞✌️👋
Wonderful episode, Anna! ( I like that you are getting more furniture for the apartment.) The photos are also remarkable - few people in the west ever sees many pictures like these. More photos! A story refugees here remembered from their childhood: Moscow had been very proud that by the sixties or seventies they’d gotten phones to almost every apartment in the city, and phone service for everyone was absolutely free : ) The only catch --> No Phone Books! Only very high officials in the Communist Party got any extensive listings. You could go around and collect a few numbers from shops in your neighborhood, and maybe give your own phone number out to friends, but then people said: “wait a minute…why do I want to give my number to anyone?..who are they going to give it to???” So phones became a source of paranoia. Also a source of many listening devices. (note: Apple, Siri, and Google - you’re acting like KGB with the eavesdropping.)
This was very interesting knowledge. Thank you! 👍🏻 Edit: the brickwork behind you is also very interesting. Half pieces, running joints, stacked bonds....I'm hoping that's just a background. Otherwise that wall isn't as strong as it should be. 😳
The Beatles do. Back in the USSR you don't know how lucky you are boy back in the US back in the US back in the USSR. Lol always educational to listen to your documentaries on how people lived thank you
Well done, Anna. As always, this is an excellent history lesson. I thought that I knew the Soviet Union well. But I continue to learn new things from your work.
The flats seem like an extreme form of dorm life in college, that's operating under a similar idea in regards to putting people from different walks of life.
Anna you have out done yourself. If you were trying to dramatized and make this episode authentic, you sure did. Your hair style, sweater with those flowers are very authentic Ludmila style from the hey days of the USSR. You even match the ambience with that black and white TV. We like watching Anna from modern Ukraine and not "Ludmila" from USSR. Keep up the good work I strongly believe that Ukraine will prevail over evil Russia. Slava Ukraine.
I remember you from the Operator Starsky channel! I subscribed. The Usanka Show does alot of videos on this topic. Ushanka grew up in the Ukrainian SSR. 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧😊👍
Thank you, Anna, the architecture is very interesting to learn about. I've always seen those types of block buildings as too austere, but that macabre history you spoke of is even worse. That is tragic, for a nation to exert that level of control and execute such wonderful minds! It's actually quite interesting too, to see how russia developed into the type of nation it is and why so many have left it maybe? Imagine not being able to use a few words that are perfectly normal to describe things that have always had those names... if that is how the new ussr is going to be, they can keep it! Wishing you peaceful skies 💙🕊💛
The housing conditions of the Soviet Union that you are describing in this video, sounds exactly like the same terrible housing conditions that poor people from rural Denmark had to endure, when they moved to the large cities in search of jobs during the start of the industrialization. Except in Denmark, this not so glorious period with large families living in ramshackle housing barracks only lasted from ca. 1870 to ca. 1920 - and not for the larger part of the 20th century, like in the Soviet Union. I am so grateful that my parents were not born in Russia. What a shitty life they would then have had under Stalin's regime.
I found your channel after your appearance on Vlad Vexler's video. Your commentary is poignant, the settings in your videos are varied and interesting, and you are just a breath of fresh air among the fascist propaganda spewing from that part of the world. I hope you continue with your important mission and wish you much success.
Thank you, Anna, for another very interesting video. I wonder if you are considering doing a video on " Holodomor " It is shocking that few people in the UK have heard of this terrible famine ( including myself, until recently) inflicted on Ukrainian people,. I was truly Shocked!! Stay Safe x Kevin
This is like the scene in Dr. Zhivago where he comes back to find his house has been expropriated and this stern, frumpy looking commissar lady tells him they were able to house 5 families in his house. He just comments, "Yes, this is more just," and heads up to his one room that they left over for him.
Continueing my aformentioned anecdote.When Russions rushed into Germany to occupy the country with something they called the great patrotic victory,they came among other things to the house of my grandma.In order to clean themselves,they went and washed their hands and faces in the toilet bowl. Cool,ha! While a rifle was pointing on her chest,the old lady could barely avoid a loud laughter.
![Gunna - HIM ALL ALONG [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/w7Wf0h1Q8a4/mqdefault.jpg)
I read about this in Ayn Rand’s ‘We the Living’. It was a very dark, sad story about her own experiences in the USSR’s early days. I have despised socialism ever since. Great video, as usual Anna!❤
It sounds like living in an apartment of that era was like being stuck in an elevator with strangers and a modern reality TV house. Super creepy. Another excellent video from Anna!
It sounds like being in jail to me. Maybe not as good as being in jail though. In jail you also get free food and clothes.
The problem was that ,you could are living with One member of rhe KGB and you don t know 😄
Russia is a ridiculous, backward shithole.
@@rodrigogonzalogallegosgaja9566 Well, the toilets aren't private, so the KGB/FSB does know.
How do couples have sex with all them people living in the same apartment with no privacy? Super creepy!! Distant family members, roommates and strangers living with you? No thanks!! KGB members in your home!! It must of really suck living in Russia/Soviet Union!! Communist living really sucked big time!!
"The walls have ears!" popular catchphrase by my relatives who lived in Eastern Bloc!
That was also a very popular catchphrase in the Estado Novo. "Bufos" were always listening!
They still live like this in parts of Moscow I experienced living in a kommunalka, well I lasted one night my friends don't smoke but the other people living their constantly chain smoked it was horrible, no space or privacy thing's get stolen and arguments occur. And we found out one of the occupants just got out of jail. Loved this episode Anna. Slava ukraini! 🌻
The dreary living conditions might be a reason for seemingly mentally ill Russian society today. My own grandparents in Estonia had their house taken away and given to others when they were deported to Siberia to work and die as slaves for the Motherland. This is the stuff of nightmares for many millions of people. We must never forget. Thank you for discussing and teaching the world.
Slava Ukraini!
Your grandparents had it coming
@@themeerofkats8908 coming from a Ruzz a$$hole , no wonder your evil empire is about to crash.
That is a very lovely dress! This whole Soviet Myths Debunked series is coming together well.
The older one becomes, the more one appreciates having a personal bathroom. Another interesting video, Anna. Diakuiu! I've read of the Soviet "artist colonies" of course, but seeing only a few photos makes it a grim reality. No, I don't wish to live as a Soviet, either. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇲
The setting looks more authentic every week!
Kitchen sink and costume drama rolled into Anna, s commentary...
I noticed and enjoy watching that room progress.
I remember reading Andrei Sinyavsky’s description of living in one of those flats. No privacy, and no trust - they had to put a lock on their cooking pot so that their food wouldn’t get stolen by their roommates. It sounds like hell.
Nah, it's one myth being replaced by the another, an embellishment giving way to horror fiction. Unlike this charming young lady, I am no longer young, was never charming, but I had a first-hand experience with коммуналка (shared apartment). No material difference compared to any roommate situation. Can get a roommate from hell, can get a great flatmate. When I was a wee boy, we lived in such apartment in a lumpen suburb of Moscow (1970-1975). Typical Soviet mix - an alcoholic plumber, divorced nurse with a kid, a painter (as in artist), family of a subway engineer (on his way to alcoholism)... Add a few bathrooms and it's modern day Detroit. Wait, add drugs and it's modern day Detroit.
@@vladimirsvetlov1243 IIRC, I read it in “Soviet Civilization,” though it might have been in his class at University of Oregon in’95 or so. Regardless, I’m sure he knew his experience as well as you know yours.
@@sedacollier1602 Sinyavsky was a proper dissident, I wouldn't blame the guy for conflating personal experience and the endemic evils of the regime that imprisoned him. Did you have a chance to read Dovlatov? A bit more light-hearted and a better writer.
Old buildings, communal bathroom with 10 people, small kitchen with padlocks, drunk people... Almost like college university in UK 😆
Once again, you are the best, Anna! I did not know much about the shared living arrangements. But, now that I do, I think it is a very bad idea! Thank you and have a nice week!! 💙💛
Thank you 🙏🏼
Stalin had a nice house though
With this format you will most likely go viral.
Using your professor mindset to educate.
A documentary style structure.
A streamlined audio visual approach.
A classy looking set.
And vengeance for setting the record straight.
Good to see our donations are helping with the good fight .
Go Anna ✊🏻🇺🇦
Oh wow!! Looking forward to this one. I have heard about these shared living arrangements but couldn’t believe it could be tolerated by the inhabitants.
Why not? People don't need all that much to sustain themselves, it's the state of mind that goes first. Looking back at me growing up in USSR, I can honestly characterize that life as dead-ass broke by American standards. Except for the books. Somehow you could share apartment with strangers, and need 2 sets of pliers - one to change the channels on TV, and the other to open the fridge (country that put a man into space couldn't figure out how to make handles that last), yet you had more books than a library in a mid-sized town in US. An American put in these conditions would get depressed and suicidal, because it's a failure. Soviet was born into this, and everyone was exactly the same. A common man routinely mistakes average for normal.
@@vladimirsvetlov1243 Wow....this is something else!
Another great episode Anna, thank you, look forward to the next one
Thank you for watching
As a retired teacher, I think this series should be shown in every school in the world. Very well done.
Thank you so much 😊
@@AnnafromUkraine we love your videos so much! We found them So educational, my friend told me she wants to come study in university at your classes! Sending Much support from your friends in 🇦🇺 💛💙🇺🇦Slava Ukraine
I agree very much so.
Tell me about it.. I'd like to think it'll get those that idolize the Soviet period to look at it critically, but that's probably too optimistic, considering they don't believe even people that lived through it.
I am amazed how professional the videos are recorded and edited not to mention the interesting subjects tackled with these informative 'Soviet Myths Debunked' Well done Anna!
Really I guess you need to get out more.
@@contactcommunication738 Eventually I am outside right now! 😉
Love the set design, and your flowery top. Pretty.
What horrible housing conditions.... shocking!
Thanks for informing me about this aspect of soviet "life" ( if that would be the proper word, I doubt )...
Anna, stay safe, Slava Ukraini !! 💙💛💙💛
Bulgaria has a rash of thousands of Soviet-era apartment "blocks", fully inhabited but without a property owner / management to be found. So interesting things like building maintenance has fallen completely by the wayside. Building needs an exterior coat of paint? Nobody to call, nobody to foot the bill. Elevator needs work? Ditto. Electrical bill for lighting staircases & hallways? Nobody to hand the bill to... Utterly wild to consider what all needs to happen when the building is slated for demolition & make way for new construction.
Great job as always Anna, looking forward to the next one
Anna, I don't want to live in the USSR.
I was totally unaware of this type of communal housing in the USSR. For an introvert like me it sounds even more terrible.
One of the things about Lenin and others, it seems to me, is they had an idea of how "things should work" in theory, and even if it didn't work in practice they wouldn't give up on their ideal. They were, as so many are, simply convinced their way was the right way and nothing could change their minds.
You are doing a wonderful job !
Thanks Anna for exploding the Soviet Myths. Look forward to the next episode.
I'm from Hong Kong and new to your channel but I've been keeping an eye on this invasion since it was mounted.
I have huge respect for courageous Ukrainians fighting for freedom and defending their country, first 'Winter on Fire' in 2014 and then Russian invasion this year.
Please take care and stay safe. Slava Ukraini!
always interesting and informative! keep up the great work Anna!
Slava Ukraine!!
Always look forward to these, keep them going!
Thank you so much for watching
Zolota rybka:) Anna you have lots of fans
Never had teacher this pretty! I probably would not have cut class and learned more! But am learning now! Stay safe Anna! Stay strong Ukraine! You've got this! Viking prayer!
👍👍👍Another great history lesson. Thank you Anna.👍👍👍
Excellent video. Outstanding looking set. Nice job!
That you Anna. Again, great video. Groet, Arjan
Beautiful work Anna, well done
Looks like a Cozy Set... You look Great. 👀 // ! For the Dissertation, can you talk about property seized? I had a Polish Friend born in 1947? Her families House and Art were partially returned... some paintings; however the house in Łódź was never properly relinquished... She defected in the 1970's. Her brother a Prosecutor was Murdered before the Collapse. The loss and pain made a deep impact on My views of Soviet life; she was So Charming and Strong a real Gem 💎. Never felt right trying to talk about the ussr after talking with Yolanda.
Excellent video Anna I like watching these there simple informative and to the point 👍🌻🌻🌻🌻
This was good. There was much brutality and ruthless suppression of humanity under Stalin.
Great class. Thanks for your kind update miss Anna. Best wishes. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 !!
Anna I love these videos! I look forward to them. So educational!
Anna this is the best description of the soviet housing I have heard. I have been inside a Khrushchyovkka appartment in Dnipro it is exactly as you describe they dont have lifts so you walk and carry your provisions up to maybe 4-5 floors these were intended to be temporary accommodation but they ended up permanent. These vlogs on Soviet Myths Debunked are great very informative Anna
Funny thing tho. On one hand there's Russian youth catching Soviet nostalgia from their deranged and demented babushkas. On the other we got viewers of this here channel that get petrified by an idea of a shared apartment/flat. I think the point you should be getting (or maybe it should've been made more clearly) is that so called free housing under Soviets was literally housing, not free houses or even apartments. Housing riddled with problems and inequities, abused by those in positions of power and in many ways a mechanism of controlling population movement and even behavior beyond that.
Anna, what you do is extremely important for humankind and you do it brilliantly. Thank you for that. Unfortunately, Aldus Huxley came up with this truth: "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." As proof of that, the South African Government has just adopted a law destroying private property - They call it 'Expropriation without compensation.'
That is quite interesting. When I visited Russia early 2000s I also had to register every 3 working days... The police was usually always asking for your papers and looking for that or some other irregularity in order to extort from you some money.
I was only extorted once while driving into Biysk from Gorno-Altaysk. 6000 rubles for not having my headlights on during the daytime. I was given the option of appearing in court the following week, or paying him on the spot. I laughed, paid the cop, and told him to have a nice lunch.
@@RW4X4X3006 Moscow was more complicated than St. Petersburg. Few times stopped in the street, even by drunk cops asking for money for alcohol. Just once 2 cops were a little more decided in trying to get some money from us... but we had everything in order. One Italian that was passing by and living in Moscow understood what was happening and came to help. The cops understood that we wouldn't be intimidated so easily and just threw our passports away and left suddenly .
@@AlexdaCunha I've never had any problems like that in Moscow or anywhere else. Had a pissed off granny chase me down the street and a couple of cops and my companion saved my tail. Just when you think you have a working knowledge of Russian, the locals will surprise you. Different dialects, different generations - the older Soviet thing still going on. Only the one "traffic infraction' while heading into town to the supermarket. Was camping up on the Katun river. Sibir is a nature lovers paradise and the thought of never experiencing it again seriously depresses the hell out of me. Good folks living over there too. While in Gorno-Altai, sitting around the campfire talking shit, I asked my Siberian pals "Hey, ya'll ever seen or heard of Bigfoot or Sasquatch up here in these mountains? Any local lore or legends about it?" After a round of laughter one of the girls replied "The only thing stinking and howling up here in these mountains are old Soviets." Haha
@@RW4X4X3006 this happened to me in 2003. Was still a bit the complete "wild east". Police trying to rip off everybody to complement their miserable salary.
@@AlexdaCunha No different here. Municipal cops meet their monthly quota regarding traffic infractions, they get a bonus. They just don't shake you down at your car window.
Thanks for this newest episode of SMD, Anna. One of the highest quality content in educational matter in YT.
Horrible, horrible life. Lets keep our borders very strong to avoid this pure madness.
She is nutter spreading hate.
Let's build a huge wall with a moat full of crocodiles.
Y'all know that Soviet Union is no more, right? And that no matter how His Putz try, it ain't coming back. I'm glad Finland is joining NATO tho, we are not dealing with Soviet Union reborn, we got a Russian Orthodox terrorist state to sort out.
@@vladimirsvetlov1243 Whatever you call it, russians have chosen it from 1240 till today with exceptions of very short time periods. Nothing indicates that the trend is going to change. # Evaluation of Russia by Finnish Intelligence Colonel (English audio) | December 3, 2018
@@puhistagram if you listened to Putz lately, you know he crossed from reality-based war criminal to the faith-based suicide bomber. The guy thinks he can win in the afterlife. This shit is new. Soviets didn't have this suicidal ideation, Tsars didn't have it.
Tyvm for this series, 'DSM'. So many Westerners have no idea of the absolute horrors of the Soviet Union. The USSR, & Stalin were responsible for the destruction of innumerable lives. 😔
There's a very good book on the Intelligentsia (academics, writers, artists of every stripe) called: "In the Labyrinth of the KGB: Ukraine's Intelligentsia in the 1960s-1970s" by Olga Bertelsen, that goes into great detail about this subject.
You do such a wonderful job of explaining how the Soviet times were , thank you Anna
Great Post, your English is getting better. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of how life is in Russia and how it was in the U.S.S.R. . I was in the U.S. Military for almost 10 years and the only housing that was worse than what you showed was when I was on a Ship. Once again great Post. Pleased keep making them. Slava Ukraine 😊❤️✌️🇺🇦
Oh and the set is really cool, for the topic
Now we see your hard work preparing the set! Thanks good job Anna
Anna, thank you for your efforts. I love the 'set dressing' that you have it perfectly illustrates the situation that the Russians found themselves in.
Really interesting video Anna. There is noway I could live like that. I don't have a big house, 2 bedroom 1200 sq ft. Big kitchen and living room. I live here alone so its perfect for 1 person and I have privacy. I have a grass to cut seperate garage for the car. I guess I would be a wealthy Russian in comparison. Small houses are easy to keep clean and heat and light on the monthly bills. Watching this video and comunal shared living with strangers would drive me crazy.
Excellent video Anna, thank you for your hard work! 💙💛
I never heard of these Anna. No I don't want to live under anything like that at all.
Once again a interesting and informative video.Keep on the good work,Anna!
Your tone and facial expression towards the end quite scary! No I do not want to live like that !
Much love from Australia 🇦🇺
Your videos are becoming more polished and professional, and your logic and explanations are right on the button. Well done, and all the best.
This was a fascinating episode; I knew so little about this reality. No, I would not have liked to live in the USSR. And definitely not in the criminal successor state, russian federation. 🇺🇦
Thank you for watching
That's exactly the point! The USSR is over.
Now people pay high mortgage because of privatization and that's the reason why they hate everyone else and Gorbacev 😂
Some people have nostalgia of the Soviet.
Putin couldn't care less for old communism and he surely doesn't want to make the whole world like old URSS! He just wants to conquer the world with violence, but he will be more than happy to leave you to your mortgage, as long as you still have a roof.
Hello Anna , excellent work and very well spoken. Regards Wally.
Thank you, Wally
@@AnnafromUkraine
you are most welcome Anna.
Great content. Factually based. Beautifully delivered. 🇺🇦
Factually based what a load of tosh.
@@contactcommunication738 Well at least you agree that it's Great Content and Beautifully Delivered. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
This is why even the famous figure skater Olga Urkova was working hard so that her family could have their own "home"... I did not understand it before. Thank you for sharing, Anna
Lovely lady. Great content. True ambassador of Ukraine.
The stench of nicotine smoke must be awful in those soviet flats.
So glad I gave up the smoking...frees me up for a glass of merlot...slainte...
Thanks, Anna. Super interesting. Thank you
Thank you for watching
@@AnnafromUkraine wouldn't miss it for the world. Take care, stay safe
There is an old prison in my town which dates back to the early seventeenth century, and was closed a few years ago. Some of the more infamous detainees included the Kray brothers. Throughout its' history it was notorious for insanitary and extremely poor living conditions and was regularly singled out for criticism by government inspectors. The walls inside were painted in exactly the same absolutely horrible colours as in your images of the shared kitchen in Soviet Russia.
🤣🤣 For a few days, I had to live in a St. Petersburg kommunalka. (I was a guest professor, but my assigned 19sqm flat wasn't ready when I got there.) This was in the late 1990s, but it looked just like the photos you showed. No one had done any renovations since the 1920s...1930s. I can't wait for part two, and the Khrushchev bunkers. (Lived in plenty of those.) An amazing look into the modern Russian sociology and culture can be seen in them.
Always good to see u, Anna. You are right, no one wants to live under the Soviets, let alone Putin. All the rich in Russia don't bank in Russia, their families have been living outside Russia, so if Russia is so good why do they not stay there, why do they buy expensive houses in the west.
"Do *I* want to live in the U.S.S.R.?" Well, if I could get a free flat, share a communal toilet with a couple of strange families and hang my underwear to dry on a rope in the kitchen, who wouldn't want to live there? 😆
Love your sweater! Where can I find these sweaters? 😊 Brian F.
Sounds like Birkenhead and Scotland in the 1960,s...tenements a plenty
I loved it too. It’s MAINE, New England
@@AnnafromUkraine nice...biased as an Irishman...Aran sweaters for me at Clabby Towers...
@@AnnafromUkraine Thanks! Will check it out. Brian F.
Well depends on what you lived in before. For us that's a nightmare scenario, if your previous place was a wooden hut with no heating or electricity in genral it sounds like a dream.
Thank you
Very interesting Anna, thanks.❤
I can't imagine what it must have been like to be lumped into a little property with total strangers and expected to live like that.Its hard enough living in overcrowded conditions with your own family,but at least they are your family.It must have been akin to existing in a never ending nightmare for lots of people in the USSR.
Keep up the really good work Anna!👍
Around the year 2000 I was able to visit a "Kommunalka" in St. Petersburg. It was "for sale". Privatization, I suppose. This was the most depressing experience I had in in my live as an Western European citizen. Even worse than an Izba in rural Siberia!
Your 'debunked videos' are addictive 😊
waiting for Ukraine's myth debunking...
@@moestietabarnak Of Course even Ukraine has got myths to go debunked but as there is an elaborate system i Russia since Cath t.G. of myths, like the ones Anna is debunking, there is a greater need of debunking Russia. Anna is doing a splendid work in debunking Russia: Lucid and educational and at the same time personal. 🙏
@@moestietabarnak She constantly debunks Ruzzian myths about Ukraine.
@@larsvanderheeg4305 indeed so, Lars....
@@moestietabarnak wasn’t Ukraine in the Soviet Union genius
Thanks Much !
Thank you so much.
Very interesting Anna, i do like your debunked
Thank you so much for watching
Thanks again Anna for an excellent production 👍🙏🇺🇦🏴
That explains the whole vodka painkiller thing...
Thanks for the video. You are doing quality work here.
Thank you Anna. Great post! 😊
Great work. Your channel is a very important weapon in this unjust and illegal war. Keep up the fight.
Thank you so much for your support
A little tip....come to the northern part of Sweden, the companies are looking for people and offer high salaries!
Merci beaucoup Anna pour la vidéo, sa me surprendrait qu'il réussit a faire revenir sa ,je te comprends de pas vouloir vivre comme ça, sa l'arrivera pas, prend soin de toi Anna, passe une belle fin de journée, et comme d'habitude, a demain, ET GLOIRE A L'UKRAINE!!!!!🙂💙💛✊️👍💪👏👏👏👏👍🤞✌️👋
Wonderful episode, Anna! ( I like that you are getting more furniture for the apartment.) The photos are also remarkable - few people in the west ever sees many pictures like these. More photos!
A story refugees here remembered from their childhood: Moscow had been very proud that by the sixties or seventies they’d gotten phones to almost every apartment in the city, and phone service for everyone was absolutely free : ) The only catch --> No Phone Books! Only very high officials in the Communist Party got any extensive listings. You could go around and collect a few numbers from shops in your neighborhood, and maybe give your own phone number out to friends, but then people said: “wait a minute…why do I want to give my number to anyone?..who are they going to give it to???” So phones became a source of paranoia. Also a source of many listening devices.
(note: Apple, Siri, and Google - you’re acting like KGB with the eavesdropping.)
This was very interesting knowledge. Thank you! 👍🏻
Edit: the brickwork behind you is also very interesting. Half pieces, running joints, stacked bonds....I'm hoping that's just a background. Otherwise that wall isn't as strong as it should be. 😳
The Beatles do. Back in the USSR you don't know how lucky you are boy back in the US back in the US back in the USSR. Lol always educational to listen to your documentaries on how people lived thank you
Very well done!
Subbed cause this was great! I always wondered what it was like and the pictures say it all!
Well done, Anna. As always, this is an excellent history lesson. I thought that I knew the Soviet Union well. But I continue to learn new things from your work.
Excellent video, and a stunning ending! (And NO, I don’t!) Thank you. Les in UK
The flats seem like an extreme form of dorm life in college, that's operating under a similar idea in regards to putting people from different walks of life.
still same in some parts of Shanghai for instance
Anna you have out done yourself. If you were trying to dramatized and make this episode authentic, you sure did. Your hair style, sweater with those flowers are very authentic Ludmila style from the hey days of the USSR. You even match the ambience with that black and white TV. We like watching Anna from modern Ukraine and not "Ludmila" from USSR. Keep up the good work I strongly believe that Ukraine will prevail over evil Russia. Slava Ukraine.
NO I don´t!!!!! 😤 Thank You Anna, and Slava Ukraine!!! 💪💛💙💛💙
I remember you from the Operator Starsky channel!
I subscribed.
The Usanka Show does alot of videos on this topic. Ushanka grew up in the Ukrainian SSR. 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧😊👍
Thank you, Anna, the architecture is very interesting to learn about. I've always seen those types of block buildings as too austere, but that macabre history you spoke of is even worse. That is tragic, for a nation to exert that level of control and execute such wonderful minds! It's actually quite interesting too, to see how russia developed into the type of nation it is and why so many have left it maybe? Imagine not being able to use a few words that are perfectly normal to describe things that have always had those names... if that is how the new ussr is going to be, they can keep it!
Wishing you peaceful skies 💙🕊💛
The housing conditions of the Soviet Union that you are describing in this video, sounds exactly like the same terrible housing conditions that poor people from rural Denmark had to endure, when they moved to the large cities in search of jobs during the start of the industrialization. Except in Denmark, this not so glorious period with large families living in ramshackle housing barracks only lasted from ca. 1870 to ca. 1920 - and not for the larger part of the 20th century, like in the Soviet Union. I am so grateful that my parents were not born in Russia. What a shitty life they would then have had under Stalin's regime.
I found your channel after your appearance on Vlad Vexler's video. Your commentary is poignant, the settings in your videos are varied and interesting, and you are just a breath of fresh air among the fascist propaganda spewing from that part of the world. I hope you continue with your important mission and wish you much success.
Excellent dear Anna!!
Great chapter of the series.
Congrats Anna!!!
I'm scared to ask what they did to the country to make folks move to the cities.
Great show, very informative as usual. Really like your sweater. My nana had one like that.
Thank you, Anna, for another very interesting video.
I wonder if you are considering doing a video on " Holodomor " It is shocking that few people in the UK have heard of this terrible famine ( including myself, until recently) inflicted on Ukrainian people,. I was truly Shocked!!
Stay Safe x
Kevin
This is like the scene in Dr. Zhivago where he comes back to find his house has been expropriated and this stern, frumpy looking commissar lady tells him they were able to house 5 families in his house. He just comments, "Yes, this is more just," and heads up to his one room that they left over for him.
The television behind you must’ve come from One of those😢 apartments
Continueing my aformentioned anecdote.When Russions rushed into Germany to occupy the country with something they called the great patrotic victory,they came among other things to the house of my grandma.In order to clean themselves,they went and washed their hands and faces in the toilet bowl. Cool,ha!
While a rifle was pointing on her chest,the old lady could barely avoid a loud laughter.