5 Weird Things About Everyday Life in the Soviet Union

Discover the WEIRD side of life in the Soviet Union! From the bureaucratic nightmare of car ownership to the quirky world of air travel, militarized education, grocery shopping, and the unexpected prestige of being a taxi driver. Get ready to be amazed by 5 Unusual Things About Life in the Soviet Union!
Biographics: / @biographics
Geographics: / @geographicstravel
Warographics: / @warographics643
MegaProjects: / @megaprojects9649
Into The Shadows: / intotheshadows
TopTenz: / toptenznet
Today I Found Out: / todayifoundout
Highlight History: / @highlighthistory
Business Blaze: / @brainblaze6526
Casual Criminalist: / thecasualcriminalist
Decoding the Unknown: / @decodingtheunknown2373

[@hughjass1044]

A friend who grew up in the USSR told me that used cars were in fact, more valuable than new ones since you didn't have to jump through any of the hoops to get one.

[@fffuuuu2]

that's true because you didn't have to wait many years

[@kingcosworth2643]

@@fffuuuu2 Common timeframe was around 8 years I believe.

[@sogerc1]

In a (back then) Soviet vassal state, Romania, my father put down the request for a car when I was 1 and I was 8 when we executed our dictator, still no car.

[@JeeVeeHaych]

@@sogerc1 Now there's a sentence you don't read every day

[@RalfSteffens]

This also applied to East Germany. If you wait ten years for a car, it's a treasure that you cherish and care for.

[@JackDecker63]

My father was a chair of a psychology department at an American university and once he sponsored three psychology professors from the USSR. This was in the late 70s. Just as he did whenever he hosted visiting professors, he took them for a tour of our college town. Part of this tour was of our local grocery store. It was a regional chain and we were very proud of it. That evening my father hosted a big backyard BBQ party for these honored guests with all his psychology professors and their wives attending as well as the university's other chairs, deans, and chancellor and their wives. Let us just say the booze flowed unimpeded. After sunset, the three Soviet professors cornered my father and whispered, "Where do you really buy your groceries?" You see the Soviet professors thought our local grocery store was a propaganda tool and not a real grocery store. My father assured them that was the only place he bought groceries. They loudly countered with, "Sure, you are the head of a university department BUT where do the professors under you shop?!" Everyone heard this and it got a huge laugh from all. The Soviet professors were confused and seemed a bit insulted. My dad challenged them, "Pick any direction you want. We will drive that way until we hit a town or city, and we will then go into the first grocery store there." The Soviet professors laughed and shouted, "The first?! The first?! Not the second, third or last?!" My dad smiled and said, "Any you wish." The lead Soviet professor said, "Challenge accepted! BUT we leave now! You cannot make any phone call that we are coming! Everyone must come so none can make a call after we leave!" [This was before cellphones existed.] Everyone cheered and the whole party stumbled into all the cars ... all the sober wives drove ... and off we all went. It was a blast. We got to the first major intersection downtown and the lead Soviet professor, my dad, his dean, and the chancellor walked right into the middle of it. The Soviet drank empty the booze in the bottle, spun it on the ground, and that was the direction we all drove. This was the first spontaneous road trip I ever took. Twelve miles or so later we entered a small town that had only one grocery store: a Piggly Wiggly. In we all went and the Soviet professors were stunned. Shelves all fully stocked. Meat department fully stocked. Liquor department fully stock. It even had a gal handing out free samples of a new pizza brand. All three Soviet professors were in shock. We then all the walked across the street and into a Pizza Hut for pizzas and beer. Sodas for us kids. The Soviet professors kept saying, "How is this possible?" My dad smiled and, over pizza, he explained capitalism to them. I was so in awe of my father. It is one of my most cherished memories.

[@Sniperboy5551]

This was an amazing story, incredibly well-written. Thank you for sharing it with us!

[@fainitesbarley2245]

Great story. I knew a Bulgarian professor who was allowed to travel for conferences. The benefits of being a professor were - she had a two bedroom flat for herself and family. She had an extra ration of yoghurt. She kept her head down and took no overt interest in comparisons or politics. One wrong statement and she would have been stopped travelling.

[@papabray4703]

And then everyone in the super market clapped

[@JackDecker63]

@@papabray4703 Actually the mob of us got some concerned looks from a few of the shoppers while most of the shoppers didn't give us a second look. Who was excited to see us was the Pizza Hut. It was dead empty when we arrived and roared into action with over 50 adults showing up unannounced. 😬

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

If you had told them about pizza delivery their heads would have exploded.

[@gungaldin]

A man was called to see his boss to be told he had been accepted to get a new car. He was to pick it up in 10 years' time. " Morning or afternoon?" he asked. Boss replied, "Why does that matter?" "Well, I have a plumber booked for that morning."

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

🤣

[@BamBamSr]

As it turned out, it didn't matter as I was that plumber and I will not work for rubles!!

[@ondrejkratochvil4589]

With the grocery shopping it reminds me of one of the Radio Yerevan jokes: - I've heard there was meat in Moscow - will it be in other cities as well? - Yes, it will be, it's a touring exhibition.

[@Olek-te4tn]

I love radio Yerevan jokes, but everybody that lived in the soviet union or most other socialist countries knows that except during the war no one hat to hunger. Maybe there was only chicken when you wanted beef, or the other way around, but you could always buy enough food or grow some in your garden or datscha. While at least 10% of the US households some times and nearly 4% often experience food insecurity TODAY

[@ronmaximilian6953]

​@@Olek-te4tnclearly you need to learn about the Soviet Union in the 1930s. There was plenty of hunger including mass murder through starvation.

[@Mikhail-Tkachenko]

@@Olek-te4tn The obesity crisis in the US is a sure sign of food shortage isn't it. The USSR had so much food that they also had obesity problems. Oh wait, no they didn't.

[@Mikhail-Tkachenko]

@@ronmaximilian6953 I was born in Ukraine and still have living relatives who remember the famines caused by collectivization. I remember my grandfather to the day he died absolutely hated communism with a passion. His father, my great-grandfather, was labeled a kurkul by the state (or kulak in Russian) and had his farm confiscated. I wished he were alive when I bought my farm in the US.

[@alanywalany6460]

​@@ronmaximilian6953Does your head not function properly? Why do you bring up the 30s? What's wrong inside you? You should fix it

[@timmy7201]

My moms uncle was the only family member who got stuck at the eastern side of the iron curtain. He didn't see or hear from his own sister (my grand-mom) for multiple decades, until the curtain's fall in 1991. Everyone in the family thought he had died, years prior. In 1991 he suddenly found out that his little-sister had a 31 year old daughter, and set daughter had a newborn child (me). When I was 12 he joked about east German parents of a newborn baby ordering a car for their child, hoping it would arrive by the time their child turned 18.

[@Abby_Liu]

I think it is 'said daughter', instead of set. they sound very similar.

[@SelenaSmith-op6fz]

The wall came down christmas eve 1989.

[@KennyNGA]

Den Witz kennt jeder

[@KawaiiKasai]

​@@KennyNGA I've literally never heard it before, so enjoy being wrong along with being a dick

[@twinmama42]

@@SelenaSmith-op6fz The 9th of November isn't Christmas Eve.

[@matejkovalcik9976]

To understand how it looked like in the USSR - My mom worked in the Central Bank in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia during comunism. Once they had a delegation from Moscow coming for visit somewhere around 1980. After work, she and her coleagues took those rusians to a "shoping center" nearby. Those people droped their jaws, saying that we have america here. You could actualy decide which piece of pork or cow you wanted, got a decent collection of sausages, and so on. As it was shitty comunism by us as well, this makes you wonder how miserable it had to be in the USSR.

[@Jin-Ro]

I remember the late 70's and early 80's news reports smuggled out of the USSR showing empty shelves, queues for bread, and people generally looking miserable. As soon as that wall dropped they were pouring over the border. Makes me wonder how some people in the East have a yearning for "The good old days". No one ever accused commies of being smart though.

[@annaclarafenyo8185]

Czechoslovakia made reforms in the 1970s allowing small business ownership, whihch the USSR didn't do until 1985-86. This simple reform also made China turn normal, it allows small businesses to distribute sausages without interference, and this pretty much removes the problems of distribution in communist economies. It also produces a class of people with an interest in toppling the state.

[@robot336]

The west is going to have the same who get's a care program as the soviets did = climate change excuse

[@d.e.b.b5788]

In 1998, I met a new Russian immigrant in Brooklyn, NY. She had just gotten to America, so I took her shopping. She stood at the supermarket's aisle, staring at all the different spaghetti sauces; she couldn't believe it, there were so many varieties. The rest of the trip through the market was similar. A later visit to the world trade center for dinner, and a weekend in Manhattan checking out all the different restaurants, she was stunned at everything we had available here.

[@piermariobarozzi]

​@@d.e.b.b5788then the democrats brought communism to Murica

[@501Mobius]

I don't if it was one of your channels, but I heard the joke about the guy buying a car. He had to go through the bureaucracy for many years to get permission to buy it. Then they made him pay and wait for 10 years. So he asked when he had to pick up the car. In the morning or afternoon in 10 years? The salesperson asked what difference did it make? He stated that the plumber was coming that day in the morning.

[@TitularHeroine]

Okay, that's actually pretty good 😂😂

[@marcelogranja]

Ronald Regan once told this joke

[@LindseyLouWho]

Bingo, that's it, not OP but that's exactly where I'd heard this joke in the past. @@marcelogranja

[@501Mobius]

@@marcelogranja The YT video on him may have been the place I heard it.

[@Steve-GM0HUU]

Car insurance premium refunded at end of year if you don't claim. Can you imagine Western insurance companies adopting this practice? No chance - our reward for no claims is they keep the premium and then hike it up the next year.

[@BamBamSr]

True story, but I think I'll still have to take capitalism

[@johnstudd4245]

You are paying for the people who drive stupidly and irresponsibly.

[@romulusnr]

But but but there weren't nearly as many (overpriced) and different colored (similarly low quality) products on the pretty shelves!!11 /s

[@matthewa9911]

Simon is struggling not to do his Russian accent

[@ImmortalTreknique]

'Nuclear wessels'

[@matthewa9911]

@ImmortalTreknique great username! I i used to listen to immortal tech. back in high school.

[@odinsprophet8849]

You mean comrade Simon?

[@dickhardpicard]

​@@ImmortalTrekniquechekov. Star trek movie with the whales

[@dsxa918]

I saw one episode of one of his series the day before yesterday and he apologized and resigned himself to not trying to pronounce the languages words, after doing (I thought) 'respectably' with the first two - so much so I was surprised he wasn't going to try any others! What a presenter

[@skorzalonsdale4426]

My parents took a holiday to the USSR from the UK in the 1980 (my mam was a civil servant and had to be interrogated about her intentions before she was allowed to go, then debriefed on what happened when she got back). They were eating a communal dinner with all the westerners at their hotel and my dad accidentally ate 8 people’s worth of meat, it was such a small plate everyone assumed it was an individual serving and more would be coming……it didn’t. One guy in their hotel had brought a load of cheap jeans, biro pens and plastic belts to sell, but there was no way to get the money out of the country (you brought your rubies at customs, every item you bought was recorded and if you had more rubies than you should have when trying to leave there’s be some serious questions asked) so he invited all the westerners to help him burn through the massive amount of roubles he had acquired on champaign, caviar, trips to the bolshoi ballet, anything that could be bought and consumed there and then really. Must have been a crazy experience.

[@Neakal]

In answer to your question as to why Aeroflot (or any Soviet state monopoly companies) advertised, the way I understood in my Propaganda Studies class, it was essentially a way for Soviets to tell their citizens "hey, those products you see advertised in the West, we have them too." Essentially, keeping up a facade that looks comparable to the West to hide the deficiencies and differences between the systems.

[@ivani3237]

The was a competition between trains and planes. You could always choose a chip 7-days train to Valdivostok or spend the whole month salary been seduced by glamorous advertising of aeroflot

[@timur3505]

You do not answer anybody question - your don't know what you're talking about and simply misleading others. The reason was not that absurd as you present. Aeroflot had to compete with other means of transportation - trains, coach buses. Simply as that. For example, there was as well just one state bank, and there was advertising of deposits for citizens. Reason for advertizing is similar: for citizens to bring money to bank, that's it.

[@Neakal]

​@@timur3505 Yo why you accusing me of deliberately misleading? I said outright that this was an answer as I understand it from my class. I didn't give it as an objective fact or anything. Pipe down with the hostility Timurlane.

[@timur3505]

​@@Neakal What "hostility"? I do not "accusing" you of anything. My bad in that I don't read that part carefully. So, it was a teacher of that "Propaganda Studies" class, that doesn't known what he was talking about 🙂. Or he just doesn''t cares. Talking about indoctrination and propaganda...

[@Neakal]

@@timur3505 - You accused me of misleading others as if that was my intention. I was just giving an answer as I knew best. But yeah that teacher was a fuckwit in general so unsurprised he wasn't right about that. Hoped he knew better but oh well.

[@jordanpeters3746]

A friend of mine who was a teenager in Latvia towards the end of the Soviet Era told me about the tactics the authorities employed with youngsters who tried to avoid military service ... groups of them would be taken on a guided tour of a mental hospital.

[@Michael-590]

I’m assuming the implication was “join the military or we will beat you so severely that you’ll be brain damaged for life.”

[@Drak_Thedp]

Because mental illness was one of the easiest ways to avoid the draft. However, as in the Soviet Union you had a 'military passport' that stated the nature of the illness that prevented you from 'serving your country', and it was checked on employment, this kind of mark became a stigma on your whole life and was highly discouraged. The employers were often unwilling to give a job to a 'mentally unstable' individual, and actual psychiatrical practices were mostly referred to as 'punitive'.

[@eklipseRomania]

@@Drak_Thedp in Romania it was called "the red line" and it was a meme that lasted well into the 2000's, until we switched from ID booklets (called "bulletins") to ID cards. Everyone would avoid you like the plague if it was EVEN RUMORED you had a red line on the ID booklet, and nobody had the courage to ask a red-liner if they actually have a red line because it was believed that only the criminally insane would get one, so asking about it would make you a primary target for their murderous rage. It was a weird time...

[@arunassl876]

@@Drak_Thedp Besides, getting free from the military service this way, you would lose a right to drive any car. I do not know when it was introduced, but it was very discouraging to choose this way. Anyway, some people did.

[@TurquoiseInk]

I have friends who emmigrated from Cuba to the USA. Corruption, ridiculously low salaries, food shortages, long lines, they went through all of it.

[@therealkakitron]

Yup, the US surely crippled Cuba.

[@Intrusive_Thought176]

Curruption? Low salaries? Food shortages? Lol they're immigrants and sounds like they came during covid 😂😂😂. Half of what you said I guarantee isn't true 😂😂😂

[@edwardbateman3094]

Yep, I bet they wish they never bothered

[@Intrusive_Thought176]

@@edwardbateman3094 oh buddy have you seen cuba? 🤣. Just because you don't like the US doesn't mean it's the worst country in the world.

[@edwardbateman3094]

@@Intrusive_Thought176 yeah I’ve seen Cuba, and not from state department taking points like you, it’s not perfect but it’s doing great considering it has the strongest country in history doing everything in its power to prevent it from doing so. If it’s so bad, why doesn’t the US just leave it alone to fail on its own?

[@joedyhicks9415]

When I was young ( early 80’s ) we lived in CT and we got a new neighbor who had emigrated from Russia and he said that shortly after he came to the United States he went into a supermarket and found himself standing at the end of the meat produce isle he said that he just stood there and cried.

[@sarahissersohn5495]

I can’t imagine the “survivors guilt” of knowing there was no way to get any of it back to everyone he’d had to leave behind

[@lexprontera8325]

My guess is that the advertising wasn't to get people to pick the airline, but to get people to choose to fly... or even just to remind them their country had air travel.

[@utterlee]

Totally just a prestige thing. Most people would have taken the train as they still do.

[@kenmay1572]

I drove a Lada for one day but it seemed to me that the steering wheel wasn't connected to the steering rack.

[@oskarskalski2982]

Drive old cadillacs, they feel the same way;). TBH many US cars from 50's and 60's (and even 70's) drive more like a boat than a car.

[@BamBamSr]

You were supposed to pull on the reins, steering wheel was just for show

[@eekee6034]

Rack and pinion steering is for good cars, everything else gets -reins- (thank you @BamBamSr :D ) recirculating ball steering or worse. The thing about Ladas is they weren't trying to be good to drive at all, just get you around. But even in the West, vans didn't get rack and pinion steering until the 00s, if I remember right. Maybe the very late 90s.

[@facubeitches1144]

I was part of a student exchange with the Soviet Union. It was a very odd place. The one that got me most was when we were given "orange juice" for breakfast. I had never seen gray orange juice before, and have never seen it since. It didn't quite taste right, either. More like someone trying to recreate orange from memory and an imperfect set of ingredients. The other really insane thing was the vending machines that sold drinks - they had a communal cup that you spritzed with disinfectant before getting your drink, then put it back for the next guy. We were primarily in Moscow, but took trips to (then) Kiev and (then) Leningrad. People in both cities seemed far more friendly than in Moscow.

[@Drak_Thedp]

It was probably dry orange juice with added ascorbic acid. Used to be treated as cure-all back in the USSR - ascorbic acid and activated charcoal. Small tic-tac sized sour balls of acsorbic acid were one of soviet kids' favourite treats. And there were and still are ascorbic acid sugar pills for kids, also sold everywhere as a treat(not as popular nowadays).

[@whiskeyinthejar24]

Common long life orange juice is nasty reconstituted stuff too. They modify it to make it orange coloured again etc.

[@takuan71]

There was no desinfectant really, only a squirt of tap water.

[@facubeitches1144]

@@takuan71 Kindly leave me my illusions to go along with my tuberculosis.

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

My parents (not Russians) bought a juicer; regardless of what you put into it what came out was gray. This is why artificial food colorings were created. Also artificial flavorings and sweeteners.

[@anthonyfamularo8875]

In around 1990 or so, I had a relative who visited my family in Canada from Ukraine. His first day, I took him to a mall in downtown Toronto, and in addition to his wonder at the whole scene, he was very surprised to learn that we didn't need to show ID in order to *enter a store*. On the other side of the equation, he was also very surprised to learn that I had no idea how to fix a gas lawn mower.

[@Losangelesharvey]

Indeed, in any communist (or other dictatorship probably) country, you had to justify your presence anywhere at anytime

[@RalfSteffens]

"... no idea how to fix a gas lawn mower" - Scarcity feeds ingenuity. And then you get to work.

[@andrewallen9993]

@@Losangelesharvey like the constant demand by police in the US to see your ID and arresting you if you don't show it?

[@spaz7875]

When I was in elementary school in the 1980s, we hosted a group of Soviet elementary kids. They were all dressed in militant Boy Scout uniforms. And the looks on their faces was that of absolute confusion and pure Envy. A prime example of culture shock.

[@uingaeoc3905]

Sorry , which country where you hosting them in?

[@spaz7875]

@@uingaeoc3905 The U.S.

[@spaz7875]

@LTNetjak According to their chaperone/ political officer, we were not allowed to engage in unsupervised conversation. Years later, I realized they feared defection.

[@robot336]

The west is going to have the same who get's a care program as the soviets did = climate change excuse

[@debbylou5729]

Militant Boy Scout uniforms? Really? You poor thing

[@juliaspoonie3627]

I was born in East Berlin and my family history is a bit complex. My dad (who was forced at gunpoint to fight in WW2 as a teen soldier) was a Chemistry foreign trade CEO. He and his first wife lived abroad, basically like an ambassador. They lived in Finland, Egypt, Austria and other countries. When his kids were adults his wife and the kids had to go back to Berlin, my dad stayed in Vienna and fell in love with his secretary - my mom. She gave up her life in Austria and moved to East Berlin. He was allowed to divorce his first wife and marry my mom, yes the Gouvernement had to allow that. He was only allowed to leave the country alone, not with us (obviously we were always allowed to leave and went to visit family regularly -still have old plane tickets.) Regarding the DDR planes, they weren’t that bad according to my dad. He mostly traveled by train or car if it was Sovjet territory or flew with foreign planes. But he flew a few times with the regular DDR planes. You can see the interior in some KZbin videos! Because they were suspicious he could be spying for someone they actually gave us an apartment next to an elderly couple and THEY were spying on us for 6 years- until the Berlin wall fell. They were like grandparents to me, my mom was never able to trust anyone ever again. Still want to look at the Stasi papers they have from us, Vienna is just not near enough for a spontaneous trip. The cool thing was that mom could bring ALL kinds of things with her, she was one of 3 people in the whole country who drove a fancy Citroen ;) Retrospectively it feels a bit like cheating. But the people in East Berlin were generally treated differently compared to the rest of the country. Since I was only a child I can’t comment on certain things. Waiting in a line wasn’t too bad in my eyes especially if we went to the bakery. We didn’t have to wait hours for milk or other stuff tough. Yes we absolutely had the specialized stores (still do in Germany and Austria to a degree) but there wasn’t a real food shortage. More that very specific items were sold out early. Bread and other basics were never an issue. There were shops where you could pay with West-Mark and other foreign currencies and get overpriced West goods. Music/vinyl records were especially popular. I loved our house community, the inner courtyard and the freedom to roam around the house. Although we had enough other sweets I looooved that you got a cherry lolly in the pharmacy - the taste is unmatched. Some foods were unique (even if some were copy-cats) and my mom had many DDR recipe magazines. My dad was not a 100% a communist, more a socialist but he believed until the last day that the flawed system could work. His world was shattered after the wall fell, when all the corruption came out and the bad planning. He felt sooo betrayed. His family went through enough during WW2, they were refugees in Silesia and lost everything they had. He and many of his age wanted to never let a war happen again. They were the perfect people to manipulate. He was really smart, had an education as an engineer/mechanic, worked as a teacher, studied Chemistry and foreign trade economics. His heart was in the right place. What surprised me is that my parents officially earned a loooot of money. Much more than I had thought it was possible under a communist government. Sadly both of my parents are long gone but I found lots of income papers of the partly state-owned company. I still wonder what they did with the money and if my dad was involved as a spy. I know they helped their community a lot but they didn’t import much -mainly my diapers and milk powder and their cigarettes were from Austria. I still have most of the entry documents too. One of the things I cherish is the Order of Merit my dad got from the Egypt Government in the 60s and the small artifacts he took with him.

[@dlamagdeleine]

My mother in law told me about how right after Chernobyl, there was a huge delivery of cheap "beef" to Baku, where they usually never had beef.

[@Egor_Pronin_]

As a Russian, I can say that there are many remnants of these things in Russia and older generation still does things in the same way they used to do it during the Soviet Union. I was not born in the Soviet Union, but my parents lived many years there, and all this feels very familiar to me. 'You enjoy something a lot more when you had to work extra hard for it'

[@therealjammit]

To be honest I think all parents are the same. As I come from the land of "Free dumbs" my parents would say similar things. One come to mind "you'll get nothing and like it" when I would protest against something. Basically take what we give you or get nothing, and complaining is worse than nothing.

[@alphared4655]

Yea. My people from America worked hard too, but without the threat of imprisonment.

[@comradekenobi6908]

​@alphared4655 then why is america is the 2nd place at the most number of prisoners in the world?

[@1lovesoni]

​@@comradekenobi6908we're actually the number 1 nation for amount of citizens incarcerated (per capita). We in the US have been at the top of that list for a long time now.

[@comradekenobi6908]

@1lovesoni oh yeah I checked again and you're right wow

[@RalfSteffens]

As you mentioned that, I remember that as a West German teenager visiting our East German relatives. (Large family, visited at least once every year.) Looking back, I experienced a lot of strange things that I didn't comment on at the time. Strangely tough rolls, tough trips on bad roads on or in old-fashioned vehicles. Not to mention the service in department stores. But the people were always friendly and helpful in private.

[@igorudovychenko3446]

Speaking of Aeroflot: 1. The lion's share of its huge staff & fleet (primarily AN-2 biplanes) serviced local lines to small towns and even big villages. Due to poor road infrastructure this oftentimes was the only mean of transportation there, especially in Northern regions & Siberia. AN-2 requires only a small relatively flat lawn to land & take off. 2. 'Aeroflot chicken' used to be a meme denoting some inedible stuff. 3. The Soviet Union expectedly had strong paranoia concerning military things. This might be the reason of banning photo on board of civil planes because (surprise-surprise!) same constructor bureaus (Tupolev, Antonov etc.) produced military planes which utilized same concepts (like 'civil' AN-24 and its 'military' version AN-26, TU-114 airliner & TU-95 strategic bomber, ...)

[@Rekuzan]

4. Pilots have actually been instructed to land with some of the brakes disabled, relying more on the thrust reversers due to 'maintenance issues' (Mentour pilot just did a video about this!)

[@RichardLewisCaldwell]

Russia is big, sparsely settled, and has tons of permafrost, all reasons to avoid building roads. Planes, boats, ships, and trains are generally better solutions for Russia's size, climate, and terrain. Heck, maintaining toeholds on non-frozen shores has been a large concern for Russia forever.

[@rileyfaelan]

@@RichardLewisCaldwell For a big, sparsely settled country with tons of permafrost that manages to keep its remote communities connected without too much trouble, often by way of semi-permanent roads, look at Canada.

[@RichardLewisCaldwell]

@@rileyfaelan My wife was Canadian and I've lived on Vancouver Island, so I know you are being incredibly unfair. Using Canada as a comparison for anything is like using a demigod as your standard.

[@rileyfaelan]

@@RichardLewisCaldwell To paraphrase Biden, It's not that Canada is like a demigod, it's that Russia is like the alternative.

[@steel8231]

The airline probably had it's budget dictated to it by some state agency, with pre-loaded itemized bills. So they had to spend some money of ads or risk the "advertising" expense removed and realocated. You get it today with US government agencies scrambling to use up all of their department budgets.

[@ktm42080]

As a cold war child, always hearing about the "commies" and the communists were gonna get you, I find stories about the USSR interesting. There is nothing wrong with the people, they wake up and live with the same thoughts of family and happiness as the rest of us. Great video!

[@bobmyers7030]

I had the privilege of visiting Russia in 1990, when I was 9 years old. Our group was treated like dignitaries... amazing food, accommodations, it was awesome. My Mom and I got lost on the Metro (subway) one day, and got to see the real life... saw people standing in a butcher line around the block, the people just took what they were given, no choosing cuts of meat. Went to a shop, asked about a wooden potato masher on display, they sold it to us and it was the only one - we thought the display items were just displays, but nope... Made such an impression on me, even at that young age! I will say, the Russian people, even in poverty, had a spirit you rarely see - they did not get down about their situation, they were joyful, hard working, genuinely good people!

[@jimmahr.4665]

They didn't know any better, their knowledge was very controlled, only approved foreign movies (and there were very few), there was no internet at that time so none of that, travel was by permission too, you had to apply for a visa to LEAVE the country, unless it was a pre approved country. They didn't know any better, a lot of them still don't, similar to North Korea, "our nation is the greatest nation in the world". Stockholm syndrome all over the place. "I will make your life so miserable, you will beg me to help you", and then grateful for any help.

[@timur3505]

@@jimmahr.4665 Funny thing: permission to LEAVE the contry was a thing in SOUTH Korea up to 198x, as of my knowledge.

[@iansneddon2956]

One of my favorite jokes from the USSR was this one: A man walks into a shop and seeing empty display cases exclaims "What, you have no fish?". The man behind the counter answered "No, Comrade. We have no beef. The shop across the street has no fish."

[@alanywalany6460]

@@jimmahr.4665 They did know better, the late late 80's is when everything went to shit because of Gorbachev's reforms, it messed up the economy and then after the USSR dissolved Yeltsin completely destroyed it. The poverty westerners got to see Eastern Europeans live in in the 90s was not how the people there had been living for all that time, it was how far they had fallen.

[@rockstarJDP]

One of mams favourite stories is about backpacking during those days with my dad in what's now Czech Republic - they met some locals at a campsite that were willing to trade absolutely anything for my dad's Levi jeans because they were banned over there, being a Western brand. My dad said he'd happily give the jeans free of charge if it wasn't literally his only pair of trousers 😂

[@recoil53]

There was a black market for thing like jeans behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Enough so that some Westerners who actually had to travel there would bring some to trade.

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

"I'm the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off my back." "Actually, I want your pants."

[@rileyfaelan]

"Tips for time travellers: when visiting Soviet Union, take a couple spare pairs of jeans with you."

[@BilTheGalacticHero]

My wife grew up in Minsk (Byelorussian SSR) and got out in 1991 before the fall of the Soviet Union. Her father was a scientist and her grandfather a hero of the Great Patriotic War. They had a house (which the grandfather was allowed to build on land allocated by the State) and a car. No telephone or refrigerator through. She went through military training in school and was sent to pick potatoes on collective farms. Fun times. Life in the United States is MUCH better.

[@timur3505]

I don't know, why they don't have a refrigerator at that time - no big deal since seventies at least, and practically no one could imagine life without a refrigerator in eighties. The phone is other thing, though - had to wait in line for years, before new PBX in your area will be built or extended. Life in the US was better in one things - not so much in another. People tends to see only good or bad parts.

[@davidfinch7407]

I flew on Aeroflot in 1984. I can confirm the rule that no photography was allowed during the flight. My understanding was that they didn't care about pictures inside the cabin, they didn't want you to take pictures outside the window in case you were flying over a military base, or perhaps helping to plan the routes in for B-52 bombers. One memory I have was visiting a WWII military graveyard outside Kiev, back when they were pretending to be happy Soviets. I noticed that some of the soldiers died in 1946, so I asked the guide why; I then answered my own question that maybe they were wounded during the war, but died afterwards. The guide said no, they were killed in combat. I argued with her that the war ended in 1945, not 1946; she insisted the war went on for another year. It was only later that I realized that the Russians were fighting Ukrainian freedom fighters that had used the war to try and get their freedom, and hadn't totally been stamped out until after the war ended. I've thought about that a lot during the recent "Special Military Operation".

[@andyyang3029]

Similar things happened in Yugoslavia, they killed a bunch of German prisoners long after the war ended and then continued their own civil war for a bit

[@davidfinch7407]

I guess the difference is, the tour guide didn't admit that they were fighting Ukrainians, she said that they were still fighting Germans in the Ukraine in 1946. She couldn't admit there were native Ukrainians who didn't want Soviet rule.@@andyyang3029

[@ivani3237]

And as know several years after WWII Soviet military exercises were with 10% of live ammunition, not blank! So soldiers could be killed even in training after the war

[@RichardLewisCaldwell]

Yeah, and it was our fault. Remember the timing. The Manhattan project was successful and the USA had an assembly line ramping up to produce one to two Bombs per month. We had a choice: either test the Bombs on a prostrate Japan or use them to win WW2 by marching on Moscow. We chose to lose WW2 (but we called it a win) because we're bigots who decided that French and British people deserved freedom but Slavs weren't worth the effort, even though we had nukes! Right now we have the opportunity to correct the biggest failing of "the greatest generation".

[@eekee6034]

@@RichardLewisCaldwell In international matters, the USA can be very hypocritical. In the Iran Contra incident, the USA destroyed a progressive regieme to install a dictator who was more friendly to the USA. I'm not sure it was the only one. The petrodollar also has nothing to do with freedom or wellbeing of oil-producing countries or their people. It's all a little bit like politicians who promise things so they'll get elected then go back on their promises.

[@geodkyt]

The militarized high school education had another advantage (and that advantage was the official justification for it) - it *dramatically* reduced thr time and expense of the basic training of the new conscripts, as by the time they actually reported for real military duty, they had covered the first several weeks of Western basic recruit training already. But people often wonder how it could do so - after all, the same training is still occurring. 1. The Soviet Union didn't constantly intake new conscripts every single week or month. There were two conscript cycles every year, about 6 months apart (spring and fall, IIRC). Thus, your newly graduated young man being called up for mandatory service was arriving in a large lump of other draftees, and the lump of conscripts two years ahead of them was being discharged at the same time. Thus, the need to take the new draft into their units as quickly as possible because theres a gap where your usable force was reduced by 25% (until the fresh meat is actually serving in their unit). Likewise, while the term of service was strictly limited to 2 years (3 years for the Navy) outaide of a full mobilization war (like WWII), the less time "lost" to training, the more time the State actually got out of them as a soldier - high school time didn't count against the mandatory maximum service time, and so was "free time" to the military. 2. High school atudents don't have to be paid, nor fed or housed (aside from lunch, and any overnight field trips to a base or exercises). While Red Army pay rates for new privates were laughable by Western standards, it very much added up when you've got effectively universal male conscription. Additionally, it provided a secondary benefit. See, the USSR didn't use noncommissioned officers (NCOs) the way most of the world does. By and large there was very little re-enlistment, meaning that most NCO billets *had* to be filled by conscripts doing their 2 years of mandatory service. There really weren't a significant number of older, experienced junior enlisted nearing the end of their first enlistment to promote to become junior NCOs, except all those who would be leaving the service in a year or less anyway. Accordingly, new conscripts would often be designated as junior and mid grade NCOs right off the bat... and their school records (particularly their mioitary training performance and evaluations of "political reliability" would be used to identify those incoming draftees to sode track into a short course to become an NCO. Which is why peer prestige and discipline amongst the enlisted did not (as in most militaries) flow from the NCOs - it ran along seniority lines, with a private scheduled to leave within six months often being seen (regardless of what regulations stated) as effectively senior to his squad leader who was drafted six months ago. Thus is also why the Soviet Union needed so many junior commissioned officers - the *officers* had to provide detailed supervision and expertise in roles a Western army would have a corporal or junior sergeant doing.

[@luke5100]

I think the program sounds brilliant. Gave students a sense of civic pride and taught them a lot about humility and self-discipline

[@danielschick7554]

The funny thing is that nearly everyone that could avoided their national service, especially during the Soviet-Afghan War.

[@romulusnr]

Didn't they teach UK schoolboys to use machine guns in WWII?

[@AYVYN]

I would have much rather taken War classes than Art, Wood Shop, Spanish, and AP Literature.

[@timur3505]

@@danielschick7554 That is not true. But of course a foreigner knows better 🙂. And just common sense suggests that only a part of the army was in the Afghanistan.

[@acts9531]

Heh ... You forgot to mention or intentionally left out a major source of income for taxi drivers, especially in Moscow. They were almost universally confidential informants for the KGB. A taxi operator could make good money snitching on things he'd seen or heard whilst tooling his taxi around Commieland.

[@Red_Lion2000]

Sounds like bullshit to me.

[@acts9531]

@@Red_Lion2000 Thanks for your uninformed ignorant opinion unsupported by reasoning or experience. Have a nice day, Skippy.

[@Metikoi]

M'mother was a customs officer at Heathrow in the 70s and apparently the Aeroflot crews were notorious for arriving and departing drunk.

[@jimtalbott9535]

There’s a lot of this and more I’ve learned from a channel called “Ushanka Show” - a man born in Kiev in 1974 named Sergi Soutnikov, now living in the US. Really in-depth stuff!

[@DartzIRL]

The USSR was such a strange alternate reality - one that might've been fascinating to visit, but probably not the sort of place one would want to willingly live.

[@comradekenobi6908]

Like Japan

[@Red_Lion2000]

As someone from Britain, this comment describes how I feel about the USA perfectly.

[@robert-rv8lo]

@@Red_Lion2000 take it from an american, stay away. and if you do come to america, don't get sick.

[@eklipseRomania]

You can always visit the USSR, it's still very much alive and well in Transnistria, there's even videos on KZbin made by travelling vloggers.

[@morstyrannis1951]

I had relatives who lived in Novosibirsk in the USSR. A joke from that time was, "You can pick up your Lada on today's date in seven years." "In the morning or the afternoon?" "Why does that matter?" "Because the plumber is coming in the morning."

[@reinikons3000]

Adding to the taxi part of the video, a similar story can be said about bus drivers. Practically all the money made from fares was pocketed directly by the bus driver, recieving a ticket after paying for the bus was actually rare and still did happen in my country well in to the 2000's

[@marinacollado7379]

When we came to the US in 1989 from the USSR, on our first trip to Pathmark - my grandma stopped and looked around in awe; “Why do they need all this food?” My brother and I were ecstatic. We’ve never seen real bananas before. :)

[@catherine_404]

I'm of Simon's age, so I was born in the USSR, but, obviously, don't remember anything but its aftermath. This does sound legit. The queuing is legendary, deficit was indeed the word of the times. Although lots of people praise soviet times, they do it MOSTLY either because they were young (and stupid, and healthy) then, OR because they never lived in the USSR. None of my relatives worked in a shop, but there were and are engineers, doctors, professional military personnel, my 86 yo granddad is a geologist. He did fly a lot, and he and my grandma visited the outside world because of his job. But he didn't pay for his flights, or was the ministry that paid for all the expenses. As far as I know, a commoner travelled anywhere and everywhere by sleeper train. I think, he did have a car, although I don't know the details, I think, he never had an expensive one. The thing that I find hilarious about Soviet society, as it was mentioned when talking about cars, you had to PAY for stuff anyway. My great-grandfather (who lived until the very early 90's) was a prominent architect, but he didn't "receive" an apartment. They took away their apartment when he left to build "army towns", and when he returned after participating in rebuilding Stalingrad he had to queue for a tiny apartment in a not yet built apartment tower, and pay for it all. Although there are tall tales about people receiving an apartment just because they became a new family, it was NOT that everyone got what they needed. People were promised so much, newspapers, movies, advertisements - every media screamed "progress and prosperity in the Soviet Union!", but in reality people were barely lower middle class. Most Soviet citizens who had any chance of using a plot of land (and it was tiny! The standard was 600sq.m) spent all the growing season growing potatoes and other crops. People had chickens, people had cows and sheep in almost every townhouse. Smaller apartment blocks often had vegetable gardens around. I wish I had anything to miss about the USSR. But, as I see it, or was about 80% shitty, 20% ok and good. If it was the other way round, yeah, but as it was - no wonder it crashed in the end. It was an experiment which maybe could have turned towards social capitalism, but it was nepotism and the "nomenclature" rule, so it was doomed. That experiment cost so many human lives, I shudder to think about it. That experiment eradicated any healthy farmer community, and that's just one of its disastrous consequences. My heart aches thinking of families crushed since the beginning of "communism" and during its rule.

[@GeorgieB1965]

And this is what today's American collegiate youth are now craving.

[@marktg98]

​​@@GeorgieB1965No they're not. They want democratic socialism, like seen in most of Western Europe. The 2 can't even be compared to one another.

[@GeorgieB1965]

@@marktg98 Not lately. I don't think that they can get actually grasp the concept of democratic socialism.

[@SkunkApe407]

​@@marktg98you mean the same West European countries whose economies kept failing, leading them to adopt a universal currency? The same West European nations whose sovereignty was sacrificed to make way for the EU, because their independent selves were constantly locked in poverty and conflict? Democratic Socialism, like every other form of Socialism, is a failed system.

[@catherine_404]

@@GeorgieB1965 even if I say "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", I don't mean what Marx and such meant. So I don't think modern American youth wants Soviet communism. They may want some of the best that the Soviet Union achieved, like universal free education from the crib to the highest level (you didn't pay at all, and you received a decent stipend on top of that if you studied well). But they don't want the worst that the USSR had like repressions, or inability to purchase private property, or severe deficit of household goods. Ask them if they want to queue for hours for salted fish or cereal grains, or not to have a legal right to travel freely, and not to have a hope of travelling outside their country (or to own a car), they'd say no. They do not want to have what Soviet citizens had even if they say they do.

[@arunassl876]

About the air travel it's worth to note the ticket unavailability despite their high price, especially for longer flights. It was normal to go repeatedly to the ticket office to check availability up to several times a day for days.

[@studuerson2548]

I laid over at the Russio, a Moscow hotel, upscale in '78. The menu was maybe 10 pages long. Turns out the only had a handful of entrees actually available. It was all eyewash.

[@ScionStorm1]

I need a short clip of just Simon voice cracking "Please, sir, can I have some car?" with no context.

[@eekee6034]

Yes! :D

[@skiveman]

I have to say that string bags were a thing in the UK back in the 50s and 60s. There was any number of old wifies scuttling about who used them. Not quite just a Russian thing. *edit* Also in the UK if you or a family member worked at an old state-owned factory (think British Leyland and the rest) then it was quite common for things such as paint, supplies and parts to go missing and end up being used by someone. Lots of people decorated their home in British Leyland paint colours of the time - a pale, sickly green or brown which were paints exclusively used in vehicle manufacturing. Birmingham was one such place that was nearly exclusively painted in British Leyland colours.

[@RichardLewisCaldwell]

I remember when a development near me went belly up. I don't know why it imploded, but all the appliances were already installed. A few days later you could drive down the neighboring streets (here in the USA) and damn near every house had old appliances sitting out by the curb. Folks are folks. This USA NUMBER ONE! shit is sophomoric at best. Rational people leave that sort of dorky claim to Father's Day cards and sports teams.

[@emty9668]

At the Halewood on Merseyside workers would buy the base model Ford and as it went through production extras were fitted such as the wiring looms for the top of the range models. When delivered these workers walked out of the gates with all the extras and installed them.

[@NJPurling]

We had a Morris Marina 1.8 The paint resembled the colour of a fresh turd. I think it was something so disgusting even Trabant wouldn't use it.

[@Anon54387]

The UK ground to a halt in 1978 because the UK economy was so socialized. This didn't stop Jeremy Corbyn saying that he'd again nationalize UK industry if he became PM, and millions thought that sounded great. I watched a documentary from before the Winter of Discontent where the guy giving the presentation illustrated how hard it was to come into contact with the private sector in the UK in the 1970s because it was so small. The mines, steel mills, locomotive works, car factories, airplane factories, railroads, airlines were all government owned. To come into contact with the private sector one had to find the odd privately owned grocery on a back street or in a village.

[@Anon54387]

@@RichardLewisCaldwell There is no question that a free market system is better. It's not the USA is better as such but we did have less government interference in the markets and economy than the UK. We really need to get back to free market capitalism in the USA. Federally we aren't close enough, and some states really have an extensive state government involvement in the economy.

[@alexandruflorea5988]

It was EXACTLY as „Simon says”. I lived my whole life in Romania (I still do), I was nine when Ceaușescu and his wife were summarily executed on Christmas Day 1989. But all the grey, dullness, humiliation endured in food stores back then remained fresh in my memory. It was so true about how expensive cars were back than: 100,000 lei (I do not know now how many dollars were, those information were almost classified, you knew only rumours about value of foreign currencies). It is enough to say that the highest salary my mom and dad had was 2000 lei. About taxies, My God, you only saw them but I do not remember somebody I knew to have ever rode in them, especially as I lived in a small city in Transylvanian province. I remember that EVERY NIGHT there were power failures, in fact intentional power flow cuts and we all knew were a candle stick and the candle were in the house. Back to the food stores: every communist builder (we all were building communism stronger, farther and greater in those times) had a „food card” that allowed them to buy quantities of bread, milk, oil, sugar an so on, limited to: half a bread/day/person, half a litter of milk/day/person etc. And the lines, oh, the lines...to buy food. Any food. I remember as I had my parents` apartment where we all lived in (mom, dad, me, my 2 bros and granny) right behind a fruit and vegetable store. Whenever a big truck came out in the back with merchandise almost instantly a line and almost a mob was gathered everyone having with those kind of bags shown in the clip, even before they knew what the merchandise was.

[@Rekuzan]

'Everything I need to know about surviving in Russia I learned from watching dashcam videos.' 1. Don't take a taxi in Russia. 2. Pray you never need an ambulance because they tend to roll over more often than not. 3. *Everyone on the road is drunk, hungover, or doing it wrong. This includes, but is not limited to the other drivers, commercial vehicles, police, firefighters, EMT's, the people in the crosswalk, and probably half of the dogs as well. (*Editors note: sadly, not an exaggeration in the slightest and I really wish it was. It's actually the cultural norm over there and explains why Russian dash cam footage is always the most over the top dramatic.) 4. You take your life into your own hands trying to cross the street, and using the crosswalk will only increase your chances of getting hit, doing the Wilhelm scream as you go flying through the air. 5. Half the accidents are caused by other drivers over-reacting and over-correcting, actually causing the accident they are trying to avoid by steering. 6. The natural habitat of an older Lada is upside-down in a ditch & their drivers are the equivalent of Florida-man in Russia. 7. Russian law enforcement is the longest running joke at INTERPOL. 8. [Directed by Robert B. Weide ]

[@daehr9399]

Interesting about the planes. I've a friend who snuck a full Moscow police uniform out of the USSR aboard a flight under his clothes back in the 70s. Ballsy.

[@philcannon91]

I always assumed gas for taxi drivers in SU was rationed. But I guess if they had the coin they could just buy more from whatever back door seller they found.

[@recoil53]

There was a black market for everything and a lot of bartering of skills. Want that plumbing fixed this year? What do you have to trade?

[@maidomelker1063]

My parents in 85 (I was 4yo) bribed my mother's head of the factory to win a "lottery" to buy a car. It was LADA 01 pickup for 6 or 7k rubles and sold it 2 years later to someone who wasn't that lucky in lottery I guess and we bought an apparent with that money. Such a capitalist thing to do 😇

[@artursandwich1974]

The car acquiring system was spread over most of Warsaw Pact countries. Yet, there was also the second -hand car market, which simplified a lot of the bureaucracy, yet it still required the prospective owner to produce the car assignate for the purchase to be legal. And then the police and the IRS might dive int an inquiry on how you managed to accumulate this kind of cash.

[@daughterofyith5393]

I am Polish, and my parents lived at the time Poland was communist. They've showed me the coupons citizens were issued for their allowance of basic goods like meat or milk. They showed me censored correspondence. My mum told me about the queues, about a time she talked to her father on the phone and the line was cut mid sentence. She told me about the cars with plating so weak it bent if you pressed on it, about sausages that squirted water when you pierced them. If something was available it was horrifyingly low quality. Oranges were Christmas food because that's the only time she could get them, and that's only becuause she studied in a major port city. Everything everyone did was under the shadow of someone spying. She told me stories of all those bizarre and risky ways people fled west. It was a truly fascinating, but endlessly horrifying time.

[@alextrigger8199]

and to think that Poland was still freer and generally better off than most other soviet republics... and now russia wants all of that back

[@timur3505]

@@alextrigger8199 None of that happened in Soviet Union, at least in Brezhnev or later era. Food stamps appeared in Gorbachev era due to shortages. Oranges and tangerines where winter fruits - that's true, but not only on Christmas. And some other downsides where there, but far from grim picturing here. Nobody "was under the shadow of someone spying", for example - if you not some kind of dissident. For what reason? I don't know, maybe such atmosphere was in Poland, but not un the USSR. And Russia do not " wants all of that back" - I don't know, where you get this from.

[@alextrigger8199]

@@timur3505 dude, I was born in USSR and experienced these firsthand. And russia is already half way there and speeding up. Go preach your commie wet dreams elsewhere.

[@iustintarachiu9326]

I thought that oranges were considered Christmas delicacies only here in Romania. I was born a few years before communism fell and me and other people of my age (or older) still mentally associate the smell of oranges with Christmas. I tried once to explain this to a Spanish friend and he just couldn't comprehend the idea. And yes, I know many people who say life was better then and contemplate the return of communism, even though they now have more than they were allowed or dreamed to have in those years... Humans have short-lived memory, it seems.

[@timur3505]

@@iustintarachiu9326 You comparing southern contry just north of Africa with your country? They had oranges, but back then they doesn't have many things much more important, that people in the Soviet Union taked for granted. You also forgot bananas, for that matter. But people are not monkeys...

[@KvapuJanjalia]

My grandfather's VAZ-2101, which he got in 1970s, served our family well into 2000s, both on-road and off-road. It needed frequent servicing, though.

[@andrewallen9993]

Every 3000kms like my 60 year old VW and Mercedes Benz cars?

[@tpauofvulcan]

i grew up in Moscow until we moved to the US in 1989, so all USSR time. It all sounds maybe... 85-90% correct? Like, yes school uniforms, but no school gun training (in college there was though. My dad had some basic training at University, and that was instead of mandatory military training. University excused you)

[@AerialEmber]

I was in Russia in the 80's. A taxi could be procured with a pack of cigarettes bought at the "foreign money only" store in the hotel lobby.

[@ThexBlackxKitty]

As someone born in the Soviet Union, I can attest much of this is still accurate.

[@vauchomarx6733]

"Still" accurate as in, still applying to post-soviet capitalist Russia, or simply accurate for the time?

[@ThexBlackxKitty]

@@vauchomarx6733 never lived in Russia, but in at least one of the other 14 SU countries that Russia screwed over, the same continued for many years and even now, to a lesser extent. The car thing, for example. Nobody can afford that on a state salary. The stealing of goods from work and bartering instead of payment, too. Luckily, the queues are only a distant memory at this point. There are young adults nowadays who don't remember them at all.

[@BamBamSr]

Not now, in Pitler's utopia!

[@LagrangePoint0]

@@ThexBlackxKitty What kind of job would make possible to own a car where you live?

[@BojanMilic84]

You gotta dig up another 5 things for next video, this was fun!

[@zaytsevand]

Bottles of vodka were a real currency in the country. It was used to pay for almost any kind of goods and services. I have no idea how you missed the opportunity, Simon, especially after the "hypersonic booz carrier" video you made.

[@msthing]

So true! The saying "с тебя бутылка" (a bottle from you) was still going around years later, meaning "you owe me"

[@aliseezerina7200]

My parents grew up in USSR Latvia and oh boy, my parents constantly remind me of the possibilities I have they wished they had at my age. As they said- you graduated, got married and had a kid as there was literally nothing to look forward to- no future. My mum had my sister at the same age I am now and I just can’t grasp that that was the norm. Absolutely insane

[@christinafacts444]

Simon! Tip! If there is an ACRONYM in any Slavic language (with over 0 vowels, excluding translations ex USSR), 99.9999% of the time you should read it like an actual word. G.A.Z. = "gaz" and V.A.Z. = "waz"

[@catherine_404]

It's "vaz", but the tip is legit. Soviets loved acronyms, and modern Russia also gravitates towards acronyms, and they are mostly read as words, not letter by letter. And I find it funny because it's difficult to make an acronym which sounds ok in Russian, it's much easier for the English language. In Russian acronyms there are too many consonants, for example, road police are GIBDD; my mom worked in PKB VNIIZhT.

[@JA-zx1np]

The Grapes of Wrath movie was banned, because while it showed the depths of an American family living in poverty brought about by the Dust Bowl, the family packed all their belongings into a car to drive away, and this level of wealth was not something the USSR wanted seen as a depiction of poverty from the West.

[@MidnightIam]

Better than begging your employer for healthcare

[@Intrusive_Thought176]

Everyone gets healthcare in the US tho

[@tayjaytesla1142]

​@@Intrusive_Thought176That's a funny joke.

[@Intrusive_Thought176]

@@tayjaytesla1142 it's not a joke tho. Every one gets healthcare in the US and some of its free. Trust me europe does not have free healthcare. It's 20% cheaper than American healthcare if anything.

[@luke5100]

💯

[@luke5100]

@@Intrusive_Thought176 interpreting your statement as generously as I can, all I can come up with is if you show up at the emergency room on deaths door they can’t turn you away. That doesn’t mean you won’t get a bill for your care when it’s all said and done, that is if you survive. Otherwise, healthcare is most certainly not free and there are plenty of people who don’t have access to it

[@Wyldfoxx]

So... what you're saying is cab driving in the Soviet Union was exactly like taxi driving in Vegas today?

[@zappababe8577]

Pripyat wouldn't have been a "sausage city"; it was closed off to outsiders unless they had permission to do so.

[@catherine_404]

Right! There was a class of "closed cities/towns", which you couldn't enter unless you were registered there or got a document which requires you to be there. Such were mostly military or scientific towns. Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad region was definitely one of them (my uncle worked and lived there as a military person).

[@recoil53]

Secret cities, they supposedly had it better with actual good food.

[@chezsnailez]

Recalling how President Reagan noted... The man goes to the official agency, puts down his money and is told that he can take delivery of his automobile in exactly 10 years. ''Morning or afternoon?'' the purchaser asks. ''Ten years from now, what difference does it make?'' replies the clerk. ''Well,'' says the car-buyer, ''the plumber's coming in the morning.''

[@TerribleMuriel]

I appreciate the purple light isnt facing the camera sm. Also, you have really refined your skill! So fun to hear you speak.

[@dsxa918]

That was fun, and I don't mean that necessarily 'positively', thanks Simon and SideProjects. I was thinking about the comparison part - specifically in terms of car prices. It's not funny but it's the way it goes. I suppose we have a preferable way/era.

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

Except today a ruble is worth 1 cent.

[@dsxa918]

One thing I accept preeminently at this time is that I have good reason to not trust everything I hear....

[@christopherconard2831]

No photography while on an airplane could be explained by the Soviet's paranoia levels security. The aircraft would often fly over military installations and even cities that didn't appear on maps. The fact that most of these places were well known in the west didn't seem to matter.

[@gestaposantaclaus]

Now I want a taxi driver video game set in the Soviet Union.

[@danielwolf6875]

Just hearing Simon saying "Pimpmobile" has just elevated my life to a new level.....!!!!! XD 😂 ❤️‍🔥👏 Cheers mate!

[@Olek-te4tn]

OK didn't know that the basic car in the UdSSR was that expensive (will check that later). The basic car in the GDR (Trabant or Trabi) wasn't really expensive, less than a yearly salary, but the waiting period was also long. Therfore a used one bought from someone private would sell for a lot more than what a new from the factory. But the need for a car was also not nearly as compared to the west of Germany or even the USA

[@oskarskalski2982]

Yeah, in Poland was the same with used car being more expensive than from factory, just because of availability.

[@Olek-te4tn]

@@oskarskalski2982 good old polski Fiat :D

[@oskarskalski2982]

@@Olek-te4tn Oh yes, I was learning how to drive on my grandfather's Fiat 126p. And the procedure of starting it up with special throttle linkage was something else:D. It wasn't simple "put a key and rotate or even push a key".

[@harouttorkomian5897]

Ok. I gotta ask. Is Simon Armenian or have relatives that might be? This dude has never disappointed when it comes to discussing topics related to Armenians or Armenia. He mentioned the sausage train and how Kiev and Yerevan would benefit from it. There were much larger republics than Armenia in the USSR, but our guy decided to mention it. Thanks Simon.

[@eekee6034]

Perhaps one of the writers might be Armenian or known Armenians. I don't think Simon writes his content.

[@shlomomarkman6374]

You could buy a car faster and without any bureaucracy if you were ready to pay double price in the used market. Airlines were expensive but still possible to use. Majority of flight were not to Vladivostok and most that flew there were paid by the employer. The product deficit was legendary but what isn't mentioned is the poor and inefficient service. In a western supermarket you stand one line at the cash register and even then they will usually staff enough to shorten the line. In the Soviet store it's 3+ lines even when deficit is not a factor. One to get product, one to write the cheque and one to pay.

[@ClayGreen]

Enjoyed this

[@ATomRileyA]

Collectivism not even once :) Crazy stuff, i met a lady that came from soviet union and she told me about what happened when it fell and she was living and working in the US but her parents and family were still stuck in soviet union. After it fell they came to all the local shops and just took all the food to feed more important people, but locally no one had any food, her family nearly starved to death and only survived because she could send money home which was enough to help them out. Also after it fell many just drank themselves to death as they could not cope with the changes.

[@johnstudd4245]

And that is the direction our govt is trying to take us in the US. Not educating us in the schools to become competent productive citizens in the real competitive world, but indoctrinating the children to tow the "party line" and depend on the govt to take care of them and give them everything. So we will all be "equal". Just like everyone was equal in the workers paradise of the old Soviet Union. Equally hopeless for a decent lifestyle. That is what Communism/Socialism does, just drags everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

[@RichTapestry]

Individualism not even once :) Crazy stuff, i met a lady that came from united states and she told me about what happened when her insurance wouldn't cover the operation she needed, and her parents and family already had their own medical debt too... If you think my comment is dumb it's because there' a good chance the original is too!

[@johnstudd4245]

@@RichTapestryIn the old Soviet era many operations would have not even been available to the average person. And if it was available there was a good chance it would have ended with bad results.

[@romulusnr]

one thing soviet communism and american capitalism have in common is how the "important" people manage to leech so much off for themselves

[@rashedusman9717]

It reminds me a lot of how people described the situation in Romania before 1989. Especially the long lines in front of stores, really bad and overpriced food, and overall corruption. Some of the wealthiest people worked in grocery stores and charged the triple price for things that would be thrown away in normal conditions. Even socs where patched numerous times. Comunism isn't a fun thing and younger people saying othervise should be gratefull for all they have.

[@kevwills858]

It was just like buying toilet paper here in Australia 2022 when our government told everyone to panic for the pandemic 😄

[@rashedusman9717]

@@kevwills858 Well, speaking of toilet paper, that was also rare in Romania before 1989.

[@kevwills858]

@@rashedusman9717 and I presume that there's not many Banana leafs in Romania either 🤔?

[@rashedusman9717]

@@kevwills858 No, but that's what newspapers where mainly used for. I guess Ceausescu's face seen a lot of backsides.

[@kevwills858]

@@rashedusman9717 😄😄✌ (especially Hunter Bidens lately)

[@Ciborium]

I get the feeling that George Colclough watched some videos on The Ushanka Show YT channel. If you wanted to get perspective on regular life in the Soviet Union from a Soviet native, Ushanka Show is the channel for you.

[@KulshanStudios]

Haha! There's still specialized shops for stuff all over the place here in Georgia. Agrohub for veggies, Satskhobi for bread and baked goods... When I was here 11 years ago, individual butcher shops also were where you got meat - it's still kinda like that in the villages Supermarkets and stores that offer multiple forms of goods have become more the norm here, especially in Tbilisi and Batumi, but when you venture out into the countryside, it totally winds the clock back a couple decades in some ways You can still get a Coke and a Snickers even in the most forgotten village though 😅

[@claywest9528]

One of the more interesting foreign films I have seen was "Taxi Blue" about a Moscow cabbie and a Saxophone player.

[@catherine_404]

Although Soviet movies are biased as heck, there are many true masterpieces among them. I don't love Soviet movies, but there are so, so many worth watching. Sometimes they are worth watching just to see the technologies of the past.

[@AndyJarman]

I flew Aeroflot in the mid 90s. It was perfectly understandable why photography was not allowed. Because my green hessian covered seat was so badly buckled I spent the trip leaning and staring at the ceiling. Every 12 lights in the cabin ceilung had two blown light bulbs. The airconditioning vents were emitting dry ice fog. I was allowed half a blanket. I was awoken at 1am and presented with a dented and buckled aluminium drinks trolley. The beefy died blonde stewardess told me I could have Fanta, or I could have Fanta. Not complaining though, it can with ice, dug out of a huge polythene sack perched on top of the trolley and leaking water into the floor. As we arrived at our desinatation all the window blinds were drawn up and everybody sparked up their first 'gasper' of the day. There was no non smoking part to the cabin. It was all very Soviet.

[@barrygower6733]

Most grammar schools, including mine in Tooting, had combined cadet forces for all pupils. I did one year army training before transferring to the RAF. We learned rifle drill, shooting skills, square-bashing etc. There were field days with mock battles on a Surrey heath and annual camps at airforce bases for flying training and where we learned about NBC warfare.

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

We don't have that kind of state-sponsored training in the U.S. because we are wary of government militarism and kids already have guns anyway.

[@andrewallen9993]

@@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music What's ROTC or military schools then?

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

@@andrewallen9993 My comment may not have been a 100% serious non-comical statement of straight factual reality.

[@ExodentalCADAcademyofNorth]

16:39 that is a funny "Deja vu" because right now in Lithuania we have alcohol sales restrictions for probably 5th year already and taxi drivers are making same business with bootleg sales of liqueur at night.

[@themadmoderator8465]

growing up in romania my father owned 2 dacias both give in state lottery as no one could buy them

[@MikeSimoneLV]

I'm so glad I found your channel! I always learn something from you, and your delivery is masterful.

[@PollokPoochesDogWalking]

If you like this, you'll love the other 3,796 channels he has! 😂

[@MikeSimoneLV]

@@PollokPoochesDogWalking Yes, I've stumbled across a couple of them, and they are all gems.

[@stanleynowak9325]

Dude, you're good!

[@OffGridInvestor]

I have heard Russians saying the food was TERRIBLY plain. And not much meat. Many had never even seen oranges before.

[@balazsvarga1823]

Comrades, I will get the flak and say that at least first aid and chemical/nuclear/natural catastrophe training in school isn't a bad idea. Taxi driving was a very prominent way to get loaded in eastern europe. Just ask any old timer in a taxi in Praga.

[@999theeagle]

Took Aeroflot from Copenhagen to Moscow back in 1987 and they tried to serve alcohol to the 16 and 17 year olds. The guards at the airport were very intimidating with the AK-47s.

[@PrimericanIdol]

Based.

[@eekee6034]

In Britain, the same year, you couldn't buy alcohol unless you were 18 I think, but it was legal for your parents to serve you alcohol if you were 5. That's not a typo. Five years old.

[@ryvyr]

I recall Basic Training fondly, so that much relates I think in the way many or most people might relate to something enduring and, later, endearing, if even romanticized.

[@fauzirahman3285]

Can't speak for the Soviet Union, but when I was in Vietnam, there was a hire driver the hotels and other tourism companies would hire. I asked the driver if he gets to used the car on his days off but apparently he has to return this to the depot, and would go home on his personal motorbike. Felt bad too because I left my phone by accident in the car after being dropped off and when I rang he picked it up and had to come back on his personal motorbike (at the end of his shift) to return my phone. I think I gave him a considerable tip for his troubles.

[@foracal5608]

I remember my neighbor ran over to our apartment knocking and saying to change to the news (he is from the union and fled) and started crying in joy when the union fell apart then terror as he realized how much blood would be shed. Still keep in touch with him on Facebook. Oh the stories he told about why he fled to America some bad and some joyous of his home land

[@migmit]

Still, the dissolution of Soviet Union was much less bloody than it could've been.

[@BatCaveOz]

I was in Moscow for a couple weeks circa 2016 visiting a local friend. Her family are pretty wealthy, her father being a foreign diplomat, and had a very expensive apartment. When she mentioned something to me about "central heating" in their apartment, I assumed that it referred to what I know as a type of ducted heating with a furnace or similar providing heat for the whole residence. I eventually realized that in Russia, "central heating" applies to the entire building... not each apartment. There was a Byzantine committee somewhere that determined if there had been 8 days of below a certain temperature... they would turn the heating on. Elements of the Soviet Union live on.

[@catherine_404]

Unless an apartment building is built upon a different scheme, central heating is for everyone to have and to pay for. A building (or several) gets heated water running through all its radiators from a central boiler. You can't have one apartment heated, and another turned off because in winter there are months with temperature below freezing, a cold apartment would be a disaster for all the building. I've been to Kaliningrad, which is significantly warmer than Central European Russia, and they have new apartment buildings with individual gas boilers, so in that model there is no central heating, you pay for every degree you get. I don't know how they protect the building from freezing in case an apartment turns off heating completely. Concerning that "8 day's below certain temperature" - that's true even today. There is a certain median daily temperature upon reaching which the central heating is turned on (or off in the spring) in a region. I'm glad I bought a conditioning unit with a heating function because otherwise it can be chilly inside when the temperature outside is cold, but not quite in the determined interval.

[@BatCaveOz]

@@catherine_404 Plenty of apartments in Canada have their individual ducted heating all of the time... no one has to wait for the building management to turn their shared heating on.

[@oskarskalski2982]

You know what, in Poland it's still pretty common (those number of days with certain temperature). I live in such a building, a somewhat souvenir of the bygone era. But you know what, it is even convenient and I've never complained about it. An we haven't been hit so hard with the price hikes after the Russia-Ukraine war hit, when my friends from one family houses energy costs sometimes even tripled. It was a whole political thing last year.

[@ericg7044]

My apartment just north of New York City has the same. Building was built in the 50's. It's not bad, there's an automatic thermostat that turns on the heat for the entire building when the outside temp reaches a certain level. Of course you can always turn the valves on the radiators to shut them off if you really want to. But it's never been a detriment.

[@kaunas888]

In 1990 I was in Moscow with a couple of girls who decided to pick up a bottle of vodka in the taxi we were in. The driver suddenly produced a bottle for us, which I thought was interesting, since American taxis do not normally sell vodka from their cars.

[@schalitz1]

Even to this day, being a taxi driver is the best job in Cuba.

[@sajteapot]

I went to USSR in 1984. Travelled by Aeroflot and an internal flight that was basically a plane fitted with metal school chairs bolted to the floor and the wings held together with, what looked like, giant safety pins. The citizens were NOT allowed in the hotels which were rather lovely. The subway system was gorgeous and our train ride was awesome made even more special by the lady in charge of our carriage who we shared hers/our suppers with. She couldn't speak English and we didn't speak Russian but it's the best train journey I've ever had. And I'll never forget the free drinks dispensers dotted around the cities which had proper glasses and a way to clean them. The street food minced meat doughnuts were lush. I'd love to go back and see how it's changed. Personally I doubt it'll be for the better.

[@sajteapot]

Just to add the citizens we met were absolutely lovely and very friendly.

[@Red_Lion2000]

@@sajteapot I would have loved to visit, that must have been amazing. Unfortunately I was born in 93, right after its fall. Such a shame. Would have been nice to see how it actually was, and not how Hollywood propaganda teaches us.

[@jasonwomack4064]

If hand grenade throwing was a course in US public education, the dropout rate would become zero overnight.

[@deforged]

d'awww. you seem triggered. show us on this Stalin doll where capitalism has touched you

[@jasonwomack4064]

​@@deforgedhow the hell did you get that, from an expression of how awesome chucking grenades is.

[@just1rando]

@@deforged What

[@PrimericanIdol]

If weapons training was normalized the way driver's education is, mass shootings would actually almost disappear completely.

[@Intrusive_Thought176]

It exists in Belarus

[@ninehundreddollarluxuryyac5958]

I was surprised by how awesome the food was on Aeroflot, until I realised that it was for politicos and no peasant would ever be in there except to fix something. Their subway stations are elaborately decorated like a palace, mostly with world war 2 themes. The art is shockingly aggressive. American war memorials show the soldier helping the injured, with the rifle over his shoulder. Russian subway stations depict soldiers charging at you with bayonets on the end of their rifles. The faces are angry, like they are going to kill you right now.

[@kaunas888]

Buying a car in the Soviet Union reminds me of buying a Rolex watch today: extremely high prices, murky multiyear waiting lists with no guarantee of actually getting one, and possibly needing to bribe the Rolex shop with bribes to expedite the process.

[@DannyHeywood]

My guess is they advertised air travel to show off how amazing the Soviet Union was compared to everyone else

[@osirisrexx2336]

'Everyone in the West can afford a car and a plane ticket' - tell me you're middle class, all your friends are middle class, and you've never talked to a person who wasn't middle class unless they were serving you without telling me...

[@luke5100]

Yeah that did come off as rather tone deaf and smug. A rare L from my man Simon. To be fair though, many people can buy at least a cheap functional clunker on craigslist that will last them a bit, especially if they are handy with a tool set, and if you fly on a budget airline like Spirit you can actually fly for pretty cheap, though you’ll be forfeiting many amenities most people consider standard. Then again, I can afford to fly and I hardly ever need to, so I wouldn’t say it’s all that necessary for most folks

[@duckyj7241]

everything described in the military training chapter was likewise available in Canadian army cadets (12-18) during the 80s. actually, a lot of these examples are easily paralleled in the west for those not in the socio-economic middle/upper classes. From costs of living vs income to the lack of groceries and other basic needs.

[@multiyapples]

Fascinating.