A Soviet Sailor. One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in the USSR - Plowing the Seas as a Seaman

[@UshankaShow]

Soviet Waitress video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpevgqh4bM9rirM Soviet Taxi Driver video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZaqpIuBm9eCq8k Albatross Sailors' Store: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3endZaVdtpnpK8 Thank you for watching the Ushanka Show! My name is Sergei Sputnikoff. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. The Ushanka Show was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My books about arriving in America are available at www.sputnikoff.com/shop (Russian or English versions) or on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNQR1FBC?binding=paperback&searchxofy=true&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tpbk&qid=1688731325&sr=8-1 Please contact me at [e-mail] if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” Fan Mail: Ushanka Show P.O. Box 96 Berrien Springs MI 49103, USA You can support this project with SuperThanks tips, or: Via Patreon here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff Viia PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show

[@Donaldperson7]

I wonder if the captain of those ships and security would take bribes and kickbacks if they loaded up the ships when in port and just before coming back to Russia unload the goods on another ship or port and unload everything and have their own stores or people to sell the stuff on the streets? Or the whole ships crew were notified to get as many foreign products they could and everyone got their cut when they got back?

[@UshankaShow]

@@Donaldperson7 Oh, I bet everyone was getting their beaks wet along the way

[@bodyloverz30]

So, those who bought Soviet Real Estate did the best of all.

[@bodyloverz30]

Can you do a program on "Political Officers" . What their pay and benefits were like, how you became one, and what happend after 1991?

[@jimurrata6785]

@@UshankaShow Our phrase is "Dipping their wicks" 😉 I hope you can see the humor in this Sergei

[@marekohampton8477]

When I was a child I lived in Cornwall, UK. There was a "pile it high, sell it cheap" department store called Trago Mills in Falmouth. It was a common sight to see Soviet sailors from ships in the harbour, carrying piles of blue jeans that they had bought there. No fancy labels, not Levi, Wrangler, Lee Cooper, just unbranded blue jeans.

[@SpliffOdyssey]

My father was in the Coast Guard in New York in the 70's. He told me a story or two about boarding Russian freighters coming into harbor. Crews were nice. Asking where they could get good cigarettes, electronics, and Playboy magazines. Or if my father had any of those items on hand and was willing to trade. ;) The first story of a vessel that had a very nice crew. Very welcoming. Would not let my father and his crew leave without trying some of their homemade vodka. My father described it as lighter fluid that was thick as molasses. Then on the return to base on their small boat the weather turned and they were fighting 6ft seas. My father and his crew were green in the face by the time they got back and all they could do was crawl into bed. The second one was during an inspection a radiation detector my father was carrying started alarming. He was thinking he was about to see how WW III starts by finding a bomb. More people get called in, crew questioned, boat is searched from top to bottom. They narrow the radiation down to the crew quarters. A small metal trinket is found in a sailor's personal items that is setting off the radiation detector. Sailor had no idea. He had traded for it with another sailor as it looked neat and he thought his wife would like it. International incident averted.

[@UshankaShow]

Very interesting, thank you!

[@alaskamark4562]

Do you know what the metal trinket was?

[@valdivia1234567]

@@alaskamark4562 Plutonium trigger?

[@WurledPeas]

My dad had a friend who was a fairly wealthy guy. He bought a yacht and a large house in Alaska. He would sail out to the Aleutians and just cruise around off the coasts of USA, Japan and USSR. He said now and then he would run into Soviet Coasties and fishing trawlers. As soon as they saw the Stars and Stripes flying they would hail him. He had all kinds of stuff he traded with them for stuff we totally take for granted. He got to where he was carrying loads of things like Jack Daniels, frozen steaks, recording cassettes, records, even ammunition and a gun or two. He said you could make a mint trading with Soviet Coast Guard and fishing fleet sailors. He got to know some of the coast guard well enough he could enter a couple different Soviet ports on the Kamchatka peninsula without being seriously inspected. One thing I remember he had when he finally settled down, got married, sold the yacht and moved to Bremerton was a Ural motorcycle with a sidecar.

[@kirgan1000]

So what did the Soviets pay him? Beside a Ural motorcycle?

[@JK360noscope]

Wait, he was rich & willingly moved to Bremerton?!

[@petebondurant58]

@@JK360noscope Nowadays...Bremerton is better than Seattle.

[@janerkenbrack3373]

In 1982 there was a Soviet freighter docked down the pier from my ship in Seattle, Washington. We stood on the deck and watched the sailors go on shore leave. Three of four sailors would walk down the pier with one single man walking about twenty or thirty yards behind them. That night myself and another sailor ran into the Soviet sailors at a bar, and sat with them buying drinks and swapping cigarettes. One man spoke very good English, as his father had been one of those Americans who emigrated to the Soviet Union because it was a "workers paradise." He explained that the single sailor who followed them (and who sat alone at a different table) was the political officer sent to keep an eye on them. So I went over and made him come and sit with us and drink beer. He did, but still wouldn't talk to anyone. They were sailors just like all sailors, and we had a good time.

[@vilhjj]

Idk man as fun as it is to joke about the ussr I'd trade a vcr for an apartment haha

[@janerkenbrack3373]

@@vilhjj Sure. But you're not allowed to have a vcr.

[@vilhjj]

@@janerkenbrack3373 but I don't have one, It's wild how this guy just gifted me this apartment ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@janerkenbrack3373]

@@vilhjjI knew a Russian woman when I was in Georgia (The Republic, not the US state). She had been a Communist Party member and she missed the Soviet Union, complete with connections to someone in the Politburo. She was a shrewd woman, capable of broad thinking. I suggested that she liked the CCCP because she was in a privileged part of society, and had advantages that others lacked. She agreed that it was so, and said that was why she missed it. The other people I met were eager for a world with greater freedom.

[@przemekkozlowski7835]

@@janerkenbrack3373 My maternal grandfather was a member of the Polish Communist Party in the 40-70s. He was apparently a hardcore Stalinist and seriously connected. However, in the late 60s he fell out of favour and was purged. Afterwards the family was essentially blacklisted from any government or academic positions . So my mother grew up up hating communism. I wonder how her life would have turned out if my grandfather stayed in power and my mother grew up as part of the communist elite.

[@connarcomstock161]

Canadian here Export Ladas from the Cold War were more popular here than you'd realize, it's not that hard to find a 70s/80s lada that's only ever been in Canada. I had no idea how they got here, this makes a lot of sense.

[@kingchadthegigeth]

My dad was born in Sault Ste Marie, his family car growing up was a Lada until they moved to the US in the 80s where the car was vandalized at one of the steel mills for being Soviet.

[@queenofdramatech]

When I was three it was 1993. In NYC we have an annual Fleet Week the week of Memorial Day. This was the first year Russia was allowed in our waters. I got my photograph taken with a Russian sailor. He lifted me up so I could make it on camera. To this day I say I got picked up by a Russian sailor.

[@hildemoe9355]

Thank you for another briliant video ! Here is a suplimentary information on this trade : In Norway, we had a brief alkohol-prohobition period in the 1920ies. Since then, we have had pretty high tax on alkohol. Moonshining has been common. I have been informed that along the coast, buying alcohol from Soviet- and Polish sailors replaced moonshing. I think Sweeden and Finland had similar paterns. Yours Jens

[@KubaJ100]

I've known an older Polish ship captain and he told me that in USSR era he was smuggling so much vodka, from Poland to Sweden and Norway, he and other crew were making more money from it than their regular pay. They had people in those ports which would buy the booze in bulk. Ships sailing on those lines were the most sought-after by every seaman, for obvious reason. Nowadays it's happening on a lot smaller scale using ships that go to international waters just so duty-free alcohol can be legally bought onboard and coming back to port. There are limits per person of course, but people are creative.

[@JohnSmith-yt8di]

11:20 that's so funny, it explains in large part why the Soviet economy was slow and inefficient. Everybody was just trying to make as much money as possible or get by working as little as possible.

[@UshankaShow]

It's just a human nature, right?

[@kalantor100]

Which applies to 100% of world population. It’s called cleverness

[@admiralradish]

Iam so happy you are nearly at 100k . even at that you are UNDERSUBBED. the information on this channel is priceless. Thank you Mr John Wayne Sputnik Cheeseburger 🤣

[@jasonlancestewart]

Thank you, Sergei! My favorite video of yours yet! I’m glad those hard working sailors found ways to hustle.

[@Seventeen_Syllables]

These are really interesting. It seems that in some ways living in the Soviet Union was sort of like being in prison in that you needed a side hustle to really thrive.

[@dodieoinst4598]

Uhuhuh... He said semen.

[@johndouglass3377]

In the 1980s I worked on the docks in Melbourne Australia, and we would have Russian ships come i from Japan and they would have cars parked every where on the ship. They were doing a loop Russia Japan Australia Vladivostok, start over again.

[@boboman67]

Funny, this video recalled memories from my childhood in south east Denmark, i guess it must have been in the end of the 70’th or start 80’th, we were fishing in the harbour of my hometown and a Russian ship was in the harbour (maybe loading wheat) the Russian sailors of the ship had purchased a lot of old cars (many lada’s but also others) before they loaded them on the ship (deck was always seen with 6-10 carswhen they left) This day the sailors were very drunk and they tested the cars on the dockside, really scary and dangerous. One of the sailors borrowed my moped and in his drunk state he collided with a crane post. Bleeding like crazy and the moped had a bend steering wheel.

[@mesquitoful]

My dad was USA harbor and Panama Canal pilot His favorite ships were eastern block. They had decrepit ships but had the best crews. Nowadays the Philippines have the best crewmen.

[@buffdelcampo]

In a recent video you asked if we like the Russian words you teach us. Yes I do! I speak some Russian but not enough to have a good conversation. Every word I learn is good. Thank you!

[@out_and-about]

Instead of Albatross in Poland was chain of shops called Baltona, but the whole mechanism of paying additional money to sailors and ways for them to spend those money was kind of same thing.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

When there was epidemic bicycle stealing in my country we told each other there was a russian vessel in the harbour

[@mrandersson1082]

This happend i Sweden, once they found 300 bikes close hidden near a fance to a Russian ship.

[@faithlessberserker5921]

Thank you for explaining the waitress thing

[@UshankaShow]

No problem 😊

[@writerartist5822]

Can you do one on the lifestyle of Soviet policeman? much on like you do on other subjects. The small stuff like the cans stacked here, and lady making paper cone, to mink hat and gold teeth likely the store manager. When subject is covered it is about the organizations, never the man doing job. Thank you, I enjoy your videos.

[@rosmundsen]

Very good video. Thank you Sir.

[@UshankaShow]

You are welcome

[@knightsofjupiter753]

Love your videos

[@WiskerBiskit512]

Can you do a video on Soviet Railroad workers? As a railroad worker in the US I've always been interested in what it was like in the USSR but i have trouble findings information and pictures. Thank you

[@michaelbizon444]

Civilian merchant mariner. Ok I was thinking Soviet Navy. And was like what? Ok this makes sense. Good Vid TY.

[@jean-huguesbouchard1045]

15:16 "Those so call exported lada better made with more bell and whistle ..." while showing a lada with an Ontario plate from Canada. Who ever got rid of that car in Canada was 100% happy to find a buyer for that piece of crap 😂

[@captlazer5509]

Southern Ontario heavily salted roads mean the Lada got better gas mileage every winter as there was less metal in it.

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

You always cheer me up Sergei!🙂

[@sharky7769]

Love the channel been addicted since it popped up a week ago

[@tomservo5347]

I still remember the joke from the book 'The Hunt For Red October' in how one could tell which Soviet sailors belonged to the nuclear fleet-they glowed in the dark.

[@thedude9024]

Congratulation on 100k Sergiy!

[@lght5548]

I have always been fascinated with Russian history and culture. I have learned more from this channel than from years of reading. Your presentation style is so enjoyable as well.👍👍👍

[@alexfish3120]

My Grandpa used to be a commercial sailor! He went to the exotic nations that the USSR was working with including Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia

[@andrewwilkerson4973]

Sergei: Your videos inspired me to learn Russian, I can read and write in Russian, but, am very bad at spoken language. You have a massive insight on the “Soviet-isms”, words that are just Soviet, and lost in modern Russian. I love your “Lessons in Russian Language”. Have you considered making a Russian Language channel or videos where you teach some Russian? I am sure you would have an audience.

[@noname-uf4je]

you already have your youtube chanel i probably can garanty you: 1- if you really want learn better - how to be better at "spoken language" - you can take ANY book on russial language (literally ANY - examples - «harry potter», «I, Robot» - just any) put your phone in fron of you - and sit and read russian book out loud on camera. 2-put this video on youtube 3- i can garanty - in your coments there will be many peples who point you where your mistakes. 4- i can garanty - after you finish read ANY book on camera - your ability at "spoken language" - will be much much better than before. Sadly very few people really "want to" and those who actually "want to" - now - technology is literally perfect for learning languages.

[@andrewwilkerson4973]

@@noname-uf4je I think he would be so good at highlighting a lot of words that, as I said, are Soviet words. Words that otherwise have died in ‘modern’ Russian.

[@stevengill1736]

You guys had an excellent merchant marine, wow! I did that for a few years in the early 80s, mostly far east run....I loved the ocean,vso beautiful.

[@mrkitty1997]

Please do not use AI. I'm learning from seeing authentic images connected to the topic, and seeing AI disrupts my understanding of history and context. Thank you.

[@IMDunn-oy9cd]

I really dislike AI.

[@CLK944]

i agree. the authentic pictures, especially those relating to the topic at hand, add insight though its important to consider the fact that its difficult finding many pictures and sergey deserves praise for finding so many for each video while avoiding repetition

[@americameinyourmouth9964]

Original images aren’t always available and properly labeled AI can fill gaps.

[@UshankaShow]

Thank you. That's exactly the problem.

[@americameinyourmouth9964]

@@UshankaShow You can see my comment? All my comments are auto deleted by KZbin.

[@icon-emerald9517]

Hi i like your vids man you sound crazy

[@petemommo9622]

In Finland the Жигули cars, once their original owners let go of them, just disappeared overnight. A precious few left on the roads. Ditto the Нива 4x4s.

[@jamesespinosa690]

Thanks for the video!!

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

When I was young I used to be a sailor, and I remember how we could always spot Russian ships as they would almost always have cars on the deck - and they were always willing to trade really good quality Vodka for things like western Cigarettes, movies, and even used Levi’s Jeans. Oh, and they definitely would accept dollars, especially if they had just left Russia, when they were about to head home they were usually more interested in spending dollars on stuff like Walkman, VHS players, VHS tapes/movies (especially if it was porn), and such…

[@algroyp3r]

Takeaway: if you just make up prices and wages, it results in absurdities.

[@RimfireAddicted70]

Excellent channel, very interesting!

[@UshankaShow]

Thank you very much!

[@Emanistan]

15:47 -I never realized how much Dear Leonid Illyich looked like Cameron Mitchell. Perhaps they were long-lost brothers.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

In my department they had a couple of men from Hungary, (many years ago now of course, but i worked with 2 of them) and they travelled back to Hungary each summer, with corn magazines, probably also a profitable trade

[@MichaelJohnson-tw7dq]

Corn magazines? Those must have been popular with farmers.

[@doncarlodivargas5497]

@@MichaelJohnson-tw7dq - porn

[@commanderjameson2708]

@@MichaelJohnson-tw7dq We have Cornhub now. Same deal.

[@ekesandras1481]

@@MichaelJohnson-tw7dq now Budapest is the Corn capital of Europe.

[@andrewdemos3009]

I really enjoy this channel

[@zappababe8577]

Maybe that's why they had to serve 3 years national service in the Navy, rather than 2 years. If the sailors are going to be coining it on the side, the Soviet state at least wanted to get a good amount of work out of them!

[@igerce]

Another hot item were the certain corn graphic magazines, sailors were smuggling them in and selling for very high rubles to the builders of socialism. It was also a dangerous enterprise, with a lot of troubles guaranteed if caught.

[@kaninnen]

Norway got emptied of Ladas in the early 90’s. The Russian sailors either bought or stole all the ladas and took them back to Russia to sell.

[@MyUtubeScott]

Everyone had a side hustle.

[@Notyourphone01]

So just because you were a Soviet sailor on an international route you got a 33 ruble per diem? Does that per diem apply to all Soviet republics. Or just the actual forget ports

[@UshankaShow]

Only international routs had per diem in the "special" rubles that could be resold for a hefty profit

[@mitchyoung93]

1100 a week in W Los Angeles will barely keep you off the streets

[@SnarkyRC]

Unless you have a couple roommates lol

[@jeffsnider3588]

The sailing ship at 10:31 is named "Comrade" ? 😄

[@andershansson2245]

Da, Tovarishch. Originally a German navy training ship, it was transferered to the USSR as war reparations after WWII. The bark was laid down in 1933 named Gorch Fock after the writers pseudonym of poet Johann Wilhelm Kinau who perished in the Battle of Jutland 31 May 1916. Kinau's body was one of loads of corpses that eventually landed on the Swedish west coast, shere he is buried on a small island north of Gothenburg. "Fun" fact: Kinau's widow was a special guest on the Nazi propaganda leisure cruiser Wilhelm Gustloff's maiden voyage in 1938, on January 30 1945 it was torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic sea, upwards 9000 persons, civilians and military, went down with her.

[@olgajoachimosmundsen4647]

In the film operation y the project leader/foreman is talking about plowing space as he is talking about to the achievements of the space programme of the USSR

[@admiralradish]

I still stand by that comment on waitresses in Texas.

[@lp9280]

I think it needs to further be clarified about waitresses in soviet union. Whereas on surface level the math checks out i.e. 2,000 rubles for average worker and 12,000 rubles for some waitresses, the reality is as always more complicated. First of all you are comparing official salary of the worker vs. "shadow" salary of the waitress, but as we know everyone stole everything that wasn't nailed down, so average worked was not earning 150 rubles a month, average worker was stealing 100 rubles worth of stuff everyday, and only because of that they were willing to pay "under the table" for waitress to bring something nice to the table and waitress could earn 12,000 rubles. Same reason why they would be paying taxi driver 50 roubles for a ride on top of 1kopeik/kilometre, despite that technically being a week worth of work. In some degree yes - waitress was a lucrative profession and they could get above average wages both including and excluding "shadow" economy, but it was not 6 times more. So it is not right to say that it is comparable to waitress nowadays getting $300,000 in US, because they were not only ones stealing or taking cash under the table. In my opinion, apart of being some sort of party leader the most lucrative position was factory/warehouse security or so called "warehouse stockman". These people were taking bribes for turn blind eye on all the stealing going on, the going rate depending on product stolen was 5-10 rouble per person trough the gate. So in factory with 500 workers the average night would bring 2500-5000 roubles. Obviously, this was shared money... so in small factory with 100 workers "stockman" probably would take 5 roubles per worker, earn some 500 roubles per night, pay 100 roubles to security and take home 400 roubles. In large factory there may be 3 or 4 people looking after it, more security etc. so perhaps they take 10 roubles from 500 workers making 5000 roubles, than pay 1000 roubles for security and split remaining 4000 between 5 or 10 people. Still bringing ~400-800 roubles per person per night. The kicker is that - they would get cash and at very low risk, the workers stealing product would still have to sell it and be at risk of being caught, whereas the only risk for security or "stockman" was only that of hiding the money and somehow hiding their wealth. I know few people who were earning like 80,000 rubles per year, even when we were redecorating my grandmothers apartment we found like 10,000 roubles hidden under the floor an in the walls, and when I was mall kid I remember playing "shops" and I was playing shops with roubles. There was this whole huge suitcase of them, I don't know how much was inside, but it must have been at least 100,000... and by that time ~1993/1994 they were totally worthless, I remember my mom saying it would be cheaper to use them as wallpaper than exchange and buy wallpaper. or something along those lines.

[@zperdek]

I started laughing hard when you said moryak. Because in my language (Slovak) we have word moriak. We call that turkey (bird).

[@Xycomm]

It would appear being a seaman in the Russian navy isn’t as lucrative as it used to be

[@UshankaShow]

Yes, the Black Sea swallowed a lot of Russian seamen in the last two years

[@captlazer5509]

​@UshankaShow I see what you did there, Sergei

[@UshankaShow]

My American co-workers corrupted me horribly so here we are

[@busboy262]

I always find stories about trading within the USSR fascinating. Upon the event of the Soviet collapse, There was the "shuttle trade". The dwindling USSR made it legal for citezens to travel. Also legal was the their ability to procure consumer goods and bring them home for sale in the USSR. There are photos out there that show passenger jets jammed full of makeup, cigarettes, OTC meds, jeans among all sorts of things in-demand, but not available domestically. It was the evrything version of the sausage trains. This was a very important trade because even necessities normally available were dwindling because all of the manufacturing was going offline or in limbo until the industry was to be stolen by the oligarchs. And how about covering the story of how almost the entire leadership of Soviet Pacific fleet was killed on takeoff on their flight home from a meeting in Moscow because they had overloaded the plane with things bot available in the east.

[@Notyourphone01]

I didn't know ladas were sold in Canada

[@UshankaShow]

What? kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYC5oYJqe6t9esUsi=6jRgfhn6C--DSF1W

[@JTA1961]

Just not a Lada them...

[@bongwelll]

Wages have stagnated since the 70's $60k is hardly a living wage.

[@UshankaShow]

It depends on your lifestyle. For years I lived on way less than $60K

[@jimurrata6785]

Can we talk about the Pepsi Navy of 1989? 🤔 Soviet frigates, a destroyer and something like a dozen submarines. 🤯. ETA: This was from the Vodka (Stolichnoya) trading debt. Imagine soda pop worth more than all those warships! But, such was the demand for American goods at the dusk of Soviet Union

[@UshankaShow]

There was no Navy. Just a bunch of rusty decommissioned ships with weapons removed to be sold for scrap.

[@jimurrata6785]

@@UshankaShow That's just the sarcastic phrase we use to describe the unfortunate result of a trade imbalance. I guess I should have put it in "quotes" 🤔 It's still a very interesting situation (to me) and id appreciate your perspective and insight. I have some inside information about how a certain infamous South American pharmacist approached Don Kendall about purchasing those boats. 😂

[@kcgunesq]

TraditionalAnglican's numbers are way off. Service staff at Applebees in the 90's could make well over $100 a shift in tips. At a higher-end restaurant (e.g., Capitol Grill) today, I'd be surprised if they aren't clearing at least $500 a shift on weekends and $250 mid week. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't more.

[@thomasnelson6161]

Whats long, hard, and filled with soviet seamen?

[@leftsidenetwork3075]

You should make a video on drugs in the Soviet Union

[@UshankaShow]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Zma9d36XgMeAjtU

[@leftsidenetwork3075]

@@UshankaShow Thank you !!

[@icascone]

Really interesting video, makes me wish I was sailor in Soviet Union lol

[@UshankaShow]

Based on my research, they were doing fantastic

[@user0307]

@8:53 😂😂🤣

[@floro7687]

The affluence of the Soviet seaman cannot have been that impressive. In the ports they seldom ventured ashore. If they had any vodka they would sell it in the West for hard cash. Home they would bring jeans, and western records were popular. Later when I worked as a pilot I remember a sturdy woman who was a captain on one of the VOLGOBALT tankers, she was strict, everybody had to behave. She could not understand why I always turned down 3-4 slices of cured sausage some bread slices and a generous glass of vodka, probably 3-4 deciliters.

[@UshankaShow]

It was back home. Soviet sailors were probably in the top 1% income-wise. It was a well-known fact.

[@floro7687]

@@UshankaShow They stuck out like sore thumbs when they ventured ashore. Soviet clothes, always correct haircut. Very frugal, would sort through stores for bargains.

[@UshankaShow]

Because they were on the mission. )))

[@legoeasycompany]

With how much the Soviet Sailors were able to make on their overseas time was there any kind of corruption or official things done to try to dissuade their activities like so or more of some officials "getting their cut" and looking the other way?

[@UshankaShow]

There were many factors: which ports they visited, how long was the trip and so on. Going to Africa was usually not profitable, besides some local souvenirs our guys couldn't find any goods to resell. Obviously, some beaks were wetted along the way. Ship captains were probably getting a cut

[@legoeasycompany]

@@UshankaShow ah so was it basically unofficially tolerated (besides the greasing of some palms) like how the black market was in the USSR?

[@UshankaShow]

@@legoeasycompany How else would you get enough people to work the high seas for a meager 150 rubles?

[@JTA1961]

After collapse of USSR sailors to Wakkanai Japan (very top) became unwelcome as Most were problematic, bar districts became off limits & now locals are glad they are gone

[@loismiller2830]

I'm confused by that map. I'm fairly certain Soviet ships were not going to Nome, Alaska. They have very limited ability to load and unload ships there. With no roads, let alone railroads connecting Nome to the world, all cargo has to go in and out on planes. That amount of cargo planes in and out of Nome is unlikely. If I'm wrong about that I'd lovecto know.

[@UshankaShow]

That map was from some cruise line. I just wanted to show shipping routes between the USSR and Japan

[@j.c.bernardo7967]

Was that a Toyota Lite Ace or were my eyes deceiving me?

[@UshankaShow]

Possibly. It was a ship heading to Vladivostok from Japan

[@j.c.bernardo7967]

A good chance that it was, then. We used to own one of those back in the 90's. Can't help but be nostalgic whenever I see that model.

[@Super_Synthesis]

$57k a year in LA is not much at all. I wouldn't want to live there earning so little money. Just consider the cost of housing. One would need a roommate.

[@svillethomas]

So even if you had what was equivalent to 300k yearly earning, what was the ability to purchase or spending power of that money in the Soviet Union?

[@UshankaShow]

Buying a Lada car without waiting for 9 years for about 15-20,000 rubles (reg price 9K) and a cooperative apartment (10-15K for 2- or 3-room apartment) was pretty much it. No fancy yachts or other extravaganza. It was boring (and dangerous) to be rich in the USSR.

[@svillethomas]

@@UshankaShowDid becoming a member of the party make a difference in being able to spend that money?

[@Kynos1]

Being a Russian sailer, on the other hand, is not enviable. Especially if you are stationed in the Black Sea.

[@FlintIronstag23]

All the grey market trading activity back in the Soviet Union probably gave Russians good practice for avoiding a lot of the sanctions that the world has imposed on them due to the war in Ukraine.

[@karlshorstzwei]

Most sanctions avoidance I think is mostly due to development of domestic industry (the goods may or may not be as good as imports, but they're good enough) and import-substitution.

[@IDT69]

I can’t imagine $1100 a week gets you very far in LA lol

[@iandaniel1748]

How about smuggler side job fall Soviet union or before ❓

[@UshankaShow]

What do you mean?

[@iandaniel1748]

@@UshankaShow Does people now each other so can work together . If want do smuggler ask u said there are market for that . Most think fall Soviet union can take advantage simple lord of war

[@CarlosPEnis]

Is the word "seaman" synonymous with the word for "man sauce" in Russian as well? I'm a grown man now but I still smile whenever I hear the word "Seaman". Surely there's some sort of comprobable word or phrase that also means something dirty?

[@UshankaShow]

Nope. Sperma for semen, moryak for seaman

[@CarlosPEnis]

​@@UshankaShow well that's one way to avoid confusion. Maybe that's why the US sailors have a "particular" reputation...lol

[@TheBearInTheChair]

Stop using AI generated images​, @@UshankaShow, the look wrong and throw off the video

[@UshankaShow]

I look at the views count and it seems as the artificial flavor is doing a good job. It's extremely hard to find decent quality Soviet-era photos on many topics

[@UshankaShow]

@@CarlosPEnis I was told about a kid who made a mistake joining the US Navy. His last name was Swallow. So it went downhill from there

[@zappababe8577]

Yeah, but the waitstaff had nothing to spend it on, no cars, no computers, no cool clothes etc

[@skynetnetworks]

How the waiters clean there extra income when the wanted to by somethings in cash?

[@noname-uf4je]

>How the waiters clean by "clean" you mean - taxation? ha ha ha - taxation - and "russian waiters" exist in separate universes. And these universes don't overlap.🤣🤣

[@Hosstache]

Where do you get the art work?

[@UshankaShow]

www.fotor.com/referrer/7vu6k6by

[@edwardpi9852]

Wrong not apples and apples. They must be making shaddy deals with slim shaddy. Slim shaddy deals might be illegal in USA.

[@zaxarispetixos8728]

First rule about the rules of the soviet sailor, is you do not talk about it.

[@tripsaplenty1227]

Soviet Seamen plowing the seas...

[@phyarth8082]

Moscow on the Hudson always on ships been KGB agent who been wear distinctive (non -official uniforms) expensive Italian shoes and Armani tuxedo and smoked non soviet cigarettes, KGB apparatchik keep Soviet citizens morale high but always prefer decadent western life style for him-self lol.

[@Ellfman]

What do Rod Stewart and Navies have in their belly?

[@Auggg11]

No AI, please!

[@stephenaulds2925]

Step one...sign on to ship and take as many large one ruble coins as you can hide. Step two, sell large ruble coins for many cases of lipstick and return to Soviet Union with paid off apartment. Step three, return next time with nice car and start luxury taxi service where you again make bank! Step four, use taxi service to purchase enough hotdog carts for every street corner in Stalingrad. Step five....do not cross Putin!!

[@prismpyre7653]

those people saying most waiters make a good living are clearly not waiters and have no idea what they are talking about-- and in civilized places they don't make anyone depend on the whims of individual customers ie 'tips'

[@rcf1878]

When I was young 9 years old. I used to take seamen from the ships to town and fix women for them. They give us money sometime beer and cigarette. When the Russian ships come. We keep away from them. They don't have money. In 1965. Nigeria sapele. When I tell the story. They call me pimp at 9 years old. That how leave Nigeria. I spend 10 years in Russia in and out smolenk and Tula I speak Russian. My wife Belarusian I married in Belarus village. Border with Lithuania Vilnius.

[@captlazer5509]

I think a Russian fisherman would not make as much unless they were sightseeing for the Kremlin.

[@howardroark7726]

Seems like everywhere you scratch capitalism was flourishing in the USSR. I guess this is why seamen didn’t defect. What about the officials who granted admission to the merchant seamen schools? Surely they got huge bribes from each candidate admitted?

[@UshankaShow]

Their family were at home for once. They were the kings of their little hills as well. Why to defect?

[@howardroark7726]

@@UshankaShow Well that's my point. A seaman earning far above the average salary doesn't have much incentive to defect. As for having families, that didn't stop Viktor Belenko from defecting.

[@abrahamschaal5875]

funny money

[@MaxSMoke777]

The average US citizen does NOT make $60k a year. That's a complete lie. In large cities people can make $150k to $180k for a starting job in certain industries. This throws off the average income, which is more along the lines of $30k to $40k a year. I had a full time minimum wage job, and a second side job, and still never broke $40k a year. There is a MASSIVE income gap in America, these days.

[@UshankaShow]

It's just a math, nothing else. You, and people like you added to Elon Mask and Jeff Bezos make on average $60K per year

[@ChrisSmith-kw4gn]

Soviet waiters made $300k in todays dollars 😂

[@davidreeves-turner6572]

It’s spelt “ploughing” in English

[@UshankaShow]

Are you sure? Which English?

[@davidreeves-turner6572]

@@UshankaShow certainly not the American version!

[@UshankaShow]

@@davidreeves-turner6572 That's what Google told me. British English is "plough"

[@SerenityMae11]

Eww they had stores full of semen? Sick!

[@user0307]

😂

[@josezamora2290]

Love the inclusion of anime girl

[@Notyourphone01]

Could you imagine a communist Terminator

[@Notyourphone01]

Give me all your labor and your farmland

[@davidhudson5452]

Your papers please, your papers are not in order

[@dirkbonesteel]

HATE the language parts, slows down the video to crap

[@UshankaShow]

😳 You can speed up the whole video by clicking on the wheel in the bottom right corner

[@noname-uf4je]

actually - the language part is important - because many words are difficult to translate "meaningfully". so it's much easier to explain what the word means in the author's story. And of course, many words in russian language have one meaning in the dictionary and people use them differently "in life". and if the author will not explain words - ALL you (those who do not understand russian language - well) - will understand in his stories even less than with explanation of words. so the only person you can be mad at is yourself. for your stupidity.😂

[@peterpanini96]

In soviet union ships were floating tanks were driving and planes were flying .. in putin russia tanks are flying ships are playing submarine games and planes are driving... 😂😂😂