Czechoslovakia's "Socialist Miracle"

I want to thank one of my Patrons for suggesting this idea. Deep appreciations to K for his help and links
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[@Skawagon]

SO..... Both of my parents worked there in the second half of 80's Neither of them would describe it as a sweatshop. Trough both of them were employed in white-collar jobs, earning well above-average salary. Indeed, laziness and incompetence were not tolerated unlike in many state-run enterprises. First of all one thing one has to understand is that all JZDs were formally allowed by the state to have side production that didn't have to be agricultural - The reason was to keep people economically active in winter. Čuba was clever in both bending the rules to his favor and identifying areas of production to focus on. One example from the early days (as was told to me by my father): The JZD was building new cow sheds and it needed corrugated metal sheets for roofs and sidings. However due to the "greatness of the planned economy," none was available. However flat sheets were plenty abound and it took just a few days for a few tractor mechanics to weld together a metal breaker - then it is off to the races - because if you can't get corrugated metal, no one else can. It is this attitude to problem-solving - and there are plenty of supply problems in a planned economy - that can make you up lot of money. Others were doing this too, but no one was scaling up quite as fast as Slusovice did. With that being said, they also have a whole department focused on extracting government grants, and even favors. One major thing was that they established their own PZO - podnik zahraničního obchodu - Foreign trade company - This will need a bit more explanation: In communist Czechoslovakia, companies could not trade directly with foreign companies, the trade must have been routed through PZO. There were multiple reasons for this, The major one was keeping the balance of the internal economy where prices were set by the committee, and if free trade was allowed the system would collapse as the goods that were sold under value would be siphoned from the local market causing (or more likely worsening existing) shortages. However, through what I can imagine only as a bribery the JZD was able to set up its own PZO. This was in the early 80's and I believe that is the point when their revenues took to the stratosphere. This allowed them to set up a trade center in Vienna, where they sold raw goods such as timber for hard currency (and at a very competitive price), buying Class Jaguar combine harvesters and thus pushing yields above what was possible on comparable fields with eastern machinery. Combine that with Western pesticides and seeds... Anyhow they exported basic stuff and invested the hard currency primarily in technology, be it new kinds of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, or computer parts. Just like with anything else, they were forced to build their own computers because there were none available. And it was far cheaper to import parts and integrate them (i.e. build the computers) than importing whole systems. Also, I would like to dispute one of the closing segments of the video: That is that most of what was left of the collective went bankrupt, as that is simply not the case: The agricultural part of the business was the least profitable and was broken up to number of companies as well as a land being returned to its rightful owners. Some of them do well some less so. The Yoghurt division was sold to Danone in the 90's and was closed in the late 2000s. The joint venture with Austrian plastic maker Greiner became wholly owned by the Austrian firm and the Czech branch was instrumental in growing its presence in eastern europe. Two modular building manufacturers rose from JZD Slusovice, with Koma Modular being the leader in modular construction, now delivering its second fully modular airport to Senegal and with clients like BASF and Audi. Speaking of car manufacturers, BMW signed a contract with JZD Slušovice to manufacture wiring harnesses for their cars in the late 80s - this particular manufacturing activity was ceased, mostly due to its colorful privatization mr. Cach (but still lasted for some twenty years) However former employees of this factory found a new one, supplying harnesses for all Class 345 trains running on London's Elisabeth line among others. The construction business formed the backbone of Zlinstav building and development company. The SWS company - Microsoft and other SW as well as HW distributor, one of the largest in the country and direct descendant of TNS division of JZD was sold just this year to a Swiss multinational. Last but not least the TNS company also still exists and produces automotive electronics parts and production automatization tools.

[@SwissScenes]

Thank you for this added context, very interesting!

[@mx0r]

This should be pinned. Also, great additional detail also for me, evetho being born in CS in 80s. Thanks!

[@jeronimoagustinohanessianrau]

This might be the best complementary comment I've seen

[@JiubeiKibagami]

Thank you for your time!

[@timavoievodin3255]

Man, I live in central Europe, it's 1 am, and you releas new video about Czechia. What a legend

[@bongochicken8681]

its 01.15 am

[@typxxilps]

no, he released a video about Czechoslovakia. Later split in 2 countries. Big difference for sure for those who had lived there.

[@timavoievodin3255]

@@typxxilps big difference for those who live in former czechoslovakia, but for any outsider it was Czechia(with Slovakia somewhere behind)

[@olivere5497]

Bro, dont submit to pressure! Call your self Czech Republic. Trigger your enemies.

[@ArawnOfAnnwn]

​@@olivere5497 Nah. There's no Czech Republic. There's no Czechia either. They're all just Bohemians pretending. Reject Czech, return to Bohemia! 🤡😎

[@grimwaltzman]

> Socialist miracle > Looks inside > Capitalism

[@mach2223]

Literally, yes. We tried so so hard here to use socialism to succeed, yet the people have always had a deeply ingrained capitalist mindset, in the sense of seizing opportunities, filling gaps in the market. Czech people just work smart, not hard. That can be both good and bad, sure, but the times when it's good, it makes me proud of my country.

[@PainCreator]

It is always so funny to here JZD in english. Hello from Czechia.

[@vaclavtrpisovsky]

"Check Oslo Wacky Un" (the adjective is actually Czechoslovak) "Džejzídý" (yeah-zet-dah in Czech) "Slačevica" (actually Sloo-sho-vitzah, stress on first syllable like all Czech words)

[@_________________404]

What is “Czechia”? It’s spelled “Chechnya”.

[@vaclavtrpisovsky]

@@_________________404 I hope this is sarcasm. Mistaking Czechia (Czech Republic), a country between Poland, Germany and Austria, for a troublemaking region in Russia is worse than calling us Eastern European.

[@_________________404]

@@vaclavtrpisovsky Chechoslovakia was always in Eastern Europe.

[@vaclavtrpisovsky]

@@_________________404 We're not Czechoslovakia anymore. Politically, we're very much west.

[@TymexComputing]

Few weeks ago I saw a flee market seller, Slovak in Cracow who had a special box with the name Slusovice PC or computer on it. He didn't want to sell it.

[@fffUUUUUU]

So why did he brought it to the flee market then?

[@TheSpecialJ11]

@@fffUUUUUU Wife might have made him. Or other person in his life. It's pretty common for "get that old garbage out of here" so then they set the price way too high and try their best to hide it. "Honey, it won't sell."

[@TymexComputing]

I also didn't want to buy it so didn't insist on it but it just catched my eye as something from the 80s. It was a very durable box , made from some indestructible polymer and he was keeping old postcard and photographs in it. He also told me the capitalist story of Slusovice as I asked him what was the purpose of that box.

[@shoora813]

Czechoslovakiabn province of Austro-Hungarian empire provided megatons of weaponry for European Union 3.0 of Adolf Hitler to attack on Russia. Very much as today’s nato pact “drang nach osten-2”

[@petterbirgersson4489]

​@@shoora813 What have you been smoking?

[@pac1fic055]

Last time I was this early Tito was sending threatening letters to Stalin

[@Look_What_You_Did]

You're still a loser though.

[@NoNameAtAll2]

commas, man, commas

[@notamoonraker]

Then Stallone.. err Stalin sent KGB agents in Yugoslavia to assassinate Tito but all failed.

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@NoNameAtAll2 Commas and punctuation, chaps...

[@ronmaximilian6953]

Commas are clearly means by which bourgeoisie oppress the proletariat. ​@@NoNameAtAll2

[@kyisin7457]

During my China studies years, I've studied Xiaogang's miracle, the village that kicked start the economic reforms in China but I didn't know an earlier precursor existed (perhaps more successful one) in the Eastern bloc. It's such an amazing story

[@guestaug6539]

Amazing story indeed. The video did not mention (or I missed it) the “Prague Spring” of 1968 and the economic reforms introduced by the Czech economist Ota Šik (aka Schick). Šik came up with the idea of the “third way” of economic development, which Šik believed would be better than both the Western-style capitalism and the Soviet-style centrally-planned economy. After the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968 had put an end to Šik’s reforms in Czechoslovakia, Šik emigrated to Switzerland. However, during the 1970s, Šik was a member of a group of Western economists advising the Chinese communist leadership on how to make their economy more efficient. Perhaps the success of JZD Slušovice and the ideas of Prague Spring of 1968 had in some way inspired the spectacular success of what is now called „socialism with Chinese characteristics“.

[@petrbelohoubek4971]

Nothing new, just special economical zone, and exceptional ability to bypass western sanctions ;-) (Not created by Comunist... Created against their will, by briliant man of power)

[@sammavitae114]

@@guestaug6539 Thanks for that interesting and informative comment.

[@miroslavhoudek7085]

It's fun that someone says Jay Zee Dee unironically, because people used to use the english spelling as a joke (stemming from one particular comedy skit, where a foreigner comments on idiosyncrasies of Czechoslovakia).

[@evior5215]

aký skit?

[@xenotiic8356]

I wish there was some way I could watch this skit and understand it! Sounds like it could be a fun watch.

[@xrysf03]

@@xenotiic8356 I recall some talk show / standup on local TV in early nineties... where comedians who could not speak foreign languages were making fun of themselves not being able to speak foreign languages (self irony). Never seemd very funny to me... owing that to my progressive parents, I mean the luxury of being able to study languages since childhood. Now I feel like a stuck-up undiagnosed autist speaking about those TV shows :-)

[@xrysf03]

@@evior5215 Matně si vybavuji grimasujícího Krampola a meme s první jarní brázdou, kterou vyorala jeho Yamaha. Už nevím jestli to byly rané devadesátky, nebo už konec osmdesátých - a podle mého si utahoval konkrétně ze Slušovic.

[@timavoievodin3255]

The end of video reminded the fact, that baltic countries used to produce electronics and other high-value products for whole soviet union, making them the richest in ussr. Of course after collapse it was all gone

[@dwarfplayer]

and now they have very high numbers of people leaving the country despite being technically way better socioeconomically than its neighboors... it just proves that jobs and cost of living per wage are way more important than anything else.

[@TymexComputing]

The Chrl market opening and rush for new versions of pcs made the market completely extinguished and uncopyable . I'm looking forward to hear the story about polish Elwro and unitra, zeto and all others

[@vaclavtrpisovsky]

Look up "the ultimate Galaksija talk" about the history and inner workings of Galaksija, an entirely Eastern-parts kit computer that was essentially a Slovenian C64 in terms of appearance and use, but with PET-like power and graphics. The designers worked very hard despite limitations, for example using the CPU's built-in DRAM refresher to draw video by clocking tile RAM and character ROM.

[@notamoonraker]

Welp Estonia is still one of the most technologically advanced country in EU with high HDI

[@ShubhamMishrabro]

Being richer than your neighbours doesn't matter when you have freedom to go to West Europe which is more richer than east europe which was occupied by ussr. ​@@dwarfplayer

[@laylatrix22]

I haven't seen the video yet but the trick was JZD Slušovice functioned and invested like a special private bank without relying on central money allocation from government.

[@electron8262]

Wait, so they had their own money reserves which gave them a certain degree of economic independence from the communist party?

[@arnostmarks2853]

Not a miracle an experiment organised snd approved by the russian and czechoslovak commies and their omnipresent secret services😂😂😂😂

[@Feefa99]

If president Václav Havel called JZD Slušovice a mafia, that's all you need to know.

[@jindrichlnenicka7214]

@@Feefa99 It kinda was a mafia. The sole economical island practicing market principles in otherwise state ruled economy, kept only by series od personal connections and rule bending, that was otherwise impossible in the rest of the country. After the whole economy was transformed into the market one, JZD Slušovice lost their only advantage and inavoidibly went bankrupt.

[@Windward535]

​@@jindrichlnenicka7214 like what China did when Shenzhen especial economic zone. Except Shenzhen continued to prosper afterward as it evolved into a tech hub

[@user-glg20]

At those time I was a teenager, but from era of socialism I remember, that the most precious products from Czechoslovakia were: - cars: Skoda S100 (later: 105S, 120S, etc), - motocycles like Java (from skuter till 350 Sport) - tractors: Zetor - trucks: Tatra - sweets: Lentilki - cartoons ("Krtek", "Pat a Mat" "A je to") - Tv serie "Arabela" - Singers: Karel Gott, Helena Vondráčková - animals: czechoslovakian wolfdog Greetings from Poland 😀

[@ilyatsukanov8707]

I remember some of the wonderful things your country made in those days, including: - cars: Polski Fiats, FSO Warszawa , and FSC Zhuk - Unitra electronics: I still have a Unitra needle on my Vega 122S sound system and it works great after all these decades. I also found a Unitra electronic watch -very rare because they were never exported to the USSR. I know your first cosmonaut, Miroslaw Hermaszewski wore a Unitra LED watch when he went to space. - Cartoons: Bolek and Lolek, Reksio - Films and series: Va Bank, Adventures of Gunner Dolas, Dekalog - Stanislav Lem and Anna German. - Polish wall: a large piece of furniture filled with cupboards and cabinets to store tons of stuff in a small apartment. If you got one of these in Soviet days you'd made it. There were Soviet and Romanian versions of this product but 'Polish wall' became its common household name. Greetings from the ex-Soviet Union. 🙂

[@user-glg20]

@@ilyatsukanov8707 thanks for your comment. You really made me happy with name "polish wall", hahah 😀. Yes, Indeed they were wery common in Poland (practically at every house). Even today they exists in some houses with older people. BTW: I did not know polish cartoons were so popular abroad of Poland. In Poland we had only polish and above mentioned czech cartoons + soviet cartoon "Wilk i Zając" (original title: "Nu pagadi", also very funny). Have a good day 😀

[@ilyatsukanov8707]

​@@user-glg20 Thank you! You as well! ☺

[@osledmag6878]

In the 1960s, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) wanted to dam the Walawe river, for irrigation and power generation. The World Bank refused to fund the project, so GoSL turned to Ceylon Development Engineers (CDE), a private company. CDE obtained the services of a Czechoslovak corporation, which completed the project at a cost of US$ 10 million, only one tenth of what a US corporation had charged for a similar project. There was also technology transfer, which the US company had not done. We also had legendary Czechoslovak products, such as Jawa motorbikes and Skoda cars, while our beer was made with hops imported from there.

[@peterfireflylund]

Karel Gott’s cover (in German!) of Paint it Black is amazing!

[@Ethan7s]

What a breath of fresh air to learn about a topic that isn’t covered by 500 other channels. Almost sounded like the Singapore miracle, crazy to imagine what it could’ve been.

[@soupycask]

Under communism? Couldn’t of amounted to much more.

[@TheWedabest]

​@soupycask it did amount to something. The problem is ideology! Ideology shouldn't be used in any economic system!

[@Ethan7s]

@@soupycask what if he got to be the president though.

[@KekusMagnus]

@@soupycask under capitalism the entirety of eastern Europe hasn't amounted to much in 30 years. Pull your head out of your ass

[@StandaBlabol]

That was not miracle, that was simply bolshevik scam. Simply said, the JZD have strong ties to politburo and the can do, that others cannot. Like owning foreign currency, crime in russia occupied czechoslovakia. It is long story, so very quickly. In communist czechoslovakia, the only legal way how to buy diskette was to buy some nonensual sw from this JZD distributed on precious diskette and delete it. Price of the diskette was cca $100 in todays money. This is basic of this scam. The can do that others not, buy diskettes from BASF Germany, for example and sell it further with fairy tale margin. After end of russian occupation thus JZD qucikly disappears.

[@bobgroves5777]

Thank you, Jon. You have a fascinating network of patrons and contacts.

[@MrBar_]

Never expected my country to covered on this chanel

[@Frostbytedigital]

Ive learned to not doubt asionometry. American Economics /history videos are a dime a dozen. I appreciate their tendency to cover things that aren't covered regularly or even irregularly in the US.

[@dercooney]

i never hear about your country - it's great to get some detailed coverage

[@maxpower9979]

If your contry ever build any computer chip, it becomes Asian forever.

[@juliusraben3526]

​@@dercooney american?

[@TTbelis]

I much appreciat the diversity of topics on asianometry channel and newsletter. It intresting to dive in historical normatives that slow technological progress in central Europe.

[@Makimars]

Wasn't expecting to see my country on this channel. Two notes: Kudos on the pronunciation. It was great for a foreigner. When the communist party took over, it was still called Czechoslovak republic. The name change to add "socialist" into the name was done in the 60s with a new constitution.

[@SlickMona]

I'm Czech and I've never heard of this story, thank you!

[@mrkvickov]

how is this possible :D

[@Pidalin]

You never heard about JZD Slušovice? Do you live under stone?

[@IvanTre]

@@Pidalin He might be young is my guess?

[@Pidalin]

@@IvanTre I also don't remember it, I am 32, but JZD Slušovice is even part of popculture, they are reffering to it in a lot of movies and memes.

[@serebii666]

@@Pidalin I don't remember it either lol and I'm 28 😅😅

[@XxLIVRAxX]

Great subject, BTW the Mondragon Coop Group of Spain's Basque country is a great subject to explore.

[@hndrwn]

Rochdale in England also! Long live coops! 🎉

[@michalformanek2676]

Should be mentioned, that nearby Zlín city was one of the most progressive cities, before commmunists came to power. Zlín was headquarter of Baťa shoe company, it had first skyscraper in central europe and the company was famous for modern technologie. After comunist coup, Baťa company was nationalised. So region had both educated people and good infrastructure long before. Also there was propagandistic value in JZD success, that is the reason, why some activities were allowed in Slušovice, but not in other places.

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

no, the Bata office building is not skyscraper, it has no 100+ meters height. It is a high-rise building by floors. Also it was not first high-rise building in central Europe, not even in Czechoslovakia. In Bratislava is a high-rise building called Manderlak, which has 11 stories, while the Bata office building has 12, but Bata is much taller overall. The Manderlak was build 3 years earlier then Bata building.

[@johncourtneidge]

Thank-you: history in-forms future!

[@milanakik1539]

Ah, the former country of czech L' oslovakia

[@AttilaSVK]

Thanks for making a video on this topic. Fun fact: I visited Slušovice exactly 12 years ago before this video came out, and was in the former building of the JZD, where the TNS computers and later PC clones were manufactured. Since 1991, it's the headquarter of SWS a.s. (SoftWare Slušovice - one of the divisions of the JZD), which is an IT and consumer electronics distribution company. At that time I worked for Dell in Bratislava, Slovakia, as a tech support agent on their Alienware customer support phone line for the UK, Ireland and South Africa. A colleague came over from the Czech and Slovak support department with a strange case of an Alienware Aurora R3 (or maybe R4) doing some shenanigans (I can't recall the exact problem) and the customer being a distributor, didn't really had the time to do more trobleshooting with us, and I was not allowed to dispathch any parts without further troubleshooting. We were always told to think outside the box, so I went after my boss to get an approval for on-site diagnostics, a thing we, as phone agents didn't do, nor our service providers (who would just replace the parts dispatched with them). It got approved and on the 26th of April, 2012, we went to Slušovice with my colleague to diagnose the system, a thing which Dell would never do. It wasn't the only time I bent the rules in order to make a customer satisfied :)

[@JozefZemla]

Yeah, many thanks. There is a movie “Doktore co je Vám” on youtube about problems of Computer science sector in 80’ in Czechoslovakia and I love it. Thank you!!! ❤❤❤

[@AlejjSi]

Well, I'd say it was rather a film about "middle aged men falling for younger girls and losing all their senses" problems but yes, the main character did work in computer science :D

[@bighulkingwar_machine1123]

CHECK-O...CHECK-LOW...

[@jkobain]

He does his «check losovakya» every time.

[@cv990a4]

It's how you know it's an authentic Asianometry episode - he slaughters the pronunciation of many innocent words.

[@stevebabiak6997]

@@cv990a4 - and in many cases he does so deliberately

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

dunning-kruger at work

[@SebBrosig]

@@jkobain yes and I enjoyed it, thanks

[@madebi85]

This episode is going to be a winner!

[@fvallmi3]

Very nice work!! Watching the program I remembered a huge cooperative in Spain that had even worked in China, they had also a big fall and later recovery in 2013 its name is Fagor , keep up the good work!!

[@alexhubble]

Fucking hell! 17 minutes gone. That was awesome. And well done with that name. It sounded like you had to practice.

[@GoodFilmy]

Thank you for the video! Absolutely awesome to see my county mentioned. Please do a video on the Czechoslovak company Tesla.

[@SJ-eu7em]

There were many good companies in Czechoslovakia, too bad first Nazis then Russian fugged everything up ..........

[@godvonheaven2968]

One of the remnants of JZD Slušovice is IT distributor SWS, originally meaning Software Slušovice. We have been there in the college on a class trip in 1988 I think, asking uncomfortable questions in the debate with some local manager, like "Where did all the money come from?" or "How come that you can do otherwise forbidden things here?". Of course, he didn't tell us.

[@the-quintessenz]

Imagine that guy had lived in a market economy. He'd be known today like Warren Buffet.

[@KekusMagnus]

Perfect example of how market economies turn respectable citizens into parasites

[@joshuamitchell5018]

Maybe, it’s just as likely, frankly more that he’d have been deeply unremarkable businessman if he wasn’t doing his unremarkable but competently done economics in Chekia.

[@kentbetts]

or Charles Tandy (Radio Shack).

[@KarbinCry]

He did live in a market economy - and failed horribly. Čuba was not a genius entrepreneur, his best asset were his political connections and ability to forge such ties. Once the influence of the state on the economy waned, so did his success. Of course, he then turned to become a politician himself...

[@Yashodhan1917]

Warren Buffett, a famously useless and unproductive person

[@snap_oversteer]

Great video, didn't expect to hear about JZD Slušovice here :D Also small fun fact, Audi secretly tested their Group B rally cars in Czechoslovakia with help of JZD Slušovice in mid to late 1980s, even a prototype RS 001 which Audi to this day insists never existed. Photos which were mostly taken secretly by various workers can easily be found online.

[@jareknowak8712]

My favorite episode on this channel, and I've been here from the beginning. Thank You !!

[@tomasprokop4519]

Great work! I am amazed to hear about the country I was born in and about the Slušovice enterprise. You are an absolute legend!

[@MrMS1989]

What a video! It must have been so much work. Thank you for covering this part of history. It wasn't great times, but it happened nonetheless. And thanks to you, lot of people outside Czechia will learn about this. Really great Job!

[@josefludvikbohm5390]

Thank you so much for this story! I always heard about Slušovice being Czech citizen, but depth of this video amazes me.

[@exvils]

0:26 this reminds me as I live in SK, will there be something about Tesla (not Elon's Tesla, but Tesla (Strašnice) founded 102years ago in Czechia)? As I am only in beginning of video, lets find out

[@aurelije]

Did they produced 🎤 🎙, i think I saw one. We also had Tesla factory but they produced light bulbs in Pančevo, close to Belgrade (ex Austro-Hungarian territory)

[@mikolasstrajt3874]

@@aurelije they produced everything. It literally meant TEchnika SLAboproudá - low power electronics and it made everyting from basic electronic components like caps to crazy specialized equipment like TV transmiters.

[@serebii666]

Tesla was (well still is, since it still exists) a state company founded in 1946, it just cannibalized and swallowed older electronics companies, the most important of which was Electra that was indeed founded in 1921. Electra was however bought-out by Phillips in 1932.

[@serebii666]

@@mikolasstrajt3874 Tesla still exists too, though as devolved or spun off smaller companies. I know Tesla Lighting still makes LED lightbulbs, Tesla Liptovský Hrádok in Slovakia still makes telecommunications equipment, and Tesla Blatná makes resistors and heat sensors.

[@petermikus2363]

​​​@@aurelijethey produced everything electronics related. Chips, resistros, capacitors, displays, TV's, Cables, Computers,CPU's, Radios, Clocks, Connectors, Microphones, household appliences. If it had anything at all to do with Electronics Tesla was involved in some way or other. Mainly low powerd electronics stuff components tobwhole devices. Fun fact they still exist under the same name to nowadays the only sell headphones, reproductors and robo vac's as far as i know Elon paid them for the right to use the Tesla name.

[@Hortifox_the_gardener]

Wow! I wish I could give this video ten likes. And even that wouldn't be enough. This was as of yet the most fascinating video on you channel for my personal interest. Even beating out the GDR microchip industry one. I always like those stories in defiance of communist bullshit. Even if not always fully successful. In my home town in eastern Saxony we had a textile factory that managed to say private as one of the last factories at all in the whole country and it worked well. It was equipped with modern machines, was well maintained, work ethics were good and they constantly raked in hard currency for the failing regime. Which got greedy and took over the factory in the 80s - ruining it as fast as it did with every other factory. I live right next to the border and I have mad respect for the Czech. They are nice, open, the most atheist in the world, and they always were industrious. They built up their country to basically the same standard as I see it in Germany but from their own will and without a two trillion investment from West Germany. Of course the EU membership did a lot in that regard too. And I really love the reality of Czech people moving to Germany to commute to Liberec (feel sorry for the reason of unobtainable rents over there tho) and attending all the local festivals as a major part of the crowd. I also love how there are Czech signs and labels in supermarkets to help the important customer group as all as how well prepared Czech business is for German customers. If only the Poles wouldn't be that much different... we could be so strong together :/

[@xrysf03]

My favourite company repairing/refurbing all sorts of automotive electronics (ECU/BSI/ABS) is in Zittau :-) Very "german pro quality" and apparently they cater to quite a broad geographical area... BTW during late eighties, the German chip industry was slightly ahead of what we had in CZ, in terms of quality and product portfolio. It just all made better sense...

[@Hortifox_the_gardener]

@@xrysf03 - they recently grew to become the biggest industry employer in the city. They expand like crazy.

[@xrysf03]

A couple more notes maybe, in response to your praise (which I'm not so sure is all substantiated): We did and we do still receive a fair share of subsidies from the EU, and the effectiveness of their use on our part was/is sometimes questionable. The most successful manufacturing company in CZ is Skoda the auto-maker. As you probably know, it is owned and managed by the VW Group. In the context of the post-commie privatization in CZ, Skoda Auto is exceptional in two aspects: 1) unlike many other dinosaur companies of the commie era, its shares of stock were not given away to the public (AKA the coupon method) but, it was sold to an interested foreign partner = VW. There was quite a furror about this decision early after 1989 among our political elite, and this way was pushed through for Skoda by particular people. 2) unlike many of the other dinosaur companies, who often did not survive after the markets got open, Skoda flourishes under the new owner, contributing a hefty portion of our national exports and our GDP, pulling our currency up etc. There's a whole ecosystem of automotive subcontractors / component suppliers around the nominal auto-maker company. We could comment on various aspects of that "marriage" and prospects for the future, but overall the net result is awesome. Overwhelmingly positive. Apparently, Carl H. Hahn, the CEO of VW at the time of the acquisition of Škoda, had a bit of a soft spot for the Czech company... after all, his father was Sudeten-Deutsch and of humanist persuasion, which probably played a role. Which would conveniently segway us to some even older history, which to the best of my knowledge was not nearly black and white... off topic here. The fact that here in Usti, the first proper highway route that has reached us was the one from Dresden (only a decade later we got connected to Prague), that's just a funny cherry on top of the cake... I'm sticking to English for the audience here... anders hätte ich kein Problem auf Deutsch weiter zu schreiben.

[@user-cn4do5lw1h]

Midnight Eastern Europeans rise up!

[@chinesesparrows]

But Kraur says eastern Europe isn't real, and some say it's central Europe anyways

[@TymexComputing]

Author is deleti ng comments about eastern political systems:)

[@rustix3]

8:02 Wow, now I finally now how to use this tool to peel potatoes. That's a pro of being subscribed to the tech channel 😆

[@pranavmanie1479]

wonderful video, as always. thank you. would also love for you to do a video on Tomas Bata - they're huge in my country, India!

[@Nickxis]

Video about my country? And by Asionometry? Is this a dream?

[@valentinpedersen6144]

Really really cool topic I would have never heard of if it wasn't for you. Also loved the video about Italian semi conductors

[@petepeterson5337]

Absolutely terrific content! On a side note about computers; when the rest of the world is going to 16 bit and beyond while you have nothing, an 8 bit machine gets you handily into the game.

[@delfinigor]

Thank you for bringing such gems of content.

[@branislavcunta7763]

I live in former Czechoslovakia and I constantly get surprised by how a country can be simultaneously so unassuming and yet so influential. Like you can name any random industry and you always find some lone Czech guy between bunch of western pioneers. And the "prestige" doesn't come from inventions or technology mastery. Rather it comes from the quirky takes on the technology in question. Like, theres some inherent need to do things differently for some reason... This is truly the land of obscurity, the home of niche

[@holycrap88]

i agree, the czech spirit is something hard to find in the rest of the world, nothing is good for them there if its not made in their way. Probably caused by milenia of german superiority and orders, revolts and refusal of submission to whatever was dominant thorough history but sadly its governed by non czechs claiming they are. For example, PM claims to be czech while hes jewish.

[@SmartK8]

Communist reporter: "Comrade president, in JZD Slušovice they actually found a way to bring us prospective communism..." Communist president: "These are great news, we have to replicate it everywhere, what is in the heart of the miracle?" Communist reporter: "It's profit and something called capitalism, never heard of these." Communist president: "FUUUUU.."

[@joaovictorschererwauters1847]

must be nice to have 12yo huh

[@HenryKlausEsq.]

Great video. I'm glad you don't feel constrained by your channel name. Your content, no matter where it takes the audience, is pure gold.

[@ericpmoss]

It would be interesting to see a comparison between this and the Mondragon cooperative in the Basque region. I bought hiking clothes from one of the companies in that cooperative, and they are world-class.

[@ryanclarke2161]

That was actually super interesting

[@gosoftcz]

Hi, just a bit context about JZD Slusovice. In communist Czechoslowakia, average income that time was 500CZK, so income 2000CZK was "fortune". Also it has to be kept in mind, that average productivity was very low, plenty of people show at work, but were not actually working, also they could not be fired. So, hardly any intention to carry out actual work. Further more, average person could not buy a house, so, majority actually build them themself, very often during work hours. In JZD Slusovice it was different, people were incentives to carry out actual work, salary was up top and instead of building your house yourself, JZD has build it for you. And JZD was tolerated by regime, because was one of few companies to export goods to "west" generating income of much needed foreigner money (=read as US dollars).

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

Honestly a perfect way of representing that this is a perfect video just to watch casually

[@zhuzhou]

Wow there is nearly nothing about this in English. Thanks! We need to know more. It seems like the questions you asked actually have definite answers if we had enough translations of the Czech language info on it

[@pudzian9943]

If you’re into Eastern Block technology i can recommend you to dig into polish ELWRO company and their Odra computers line

[@adamlove706]

Its nice to have some info about our countries :)

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Czechoslovak IBM compatibes? Probably DOS compatible too? Dang, I need to put more things on my wishlist of collectors items then.

[@Pidalin]

good luck with finding one of these computers 😀

[@weepingscorpion8739]

@@Pidalin Oh, I am pretty sure, that they are unobtainium these days. But I will at least try. :D

[@honzaplachy5040]

@@weepingscorpion8739 I've seen one TNS with 8088 clone last time in 2008. Was working & in nice condition.

[@LeonardoCavalcante]

It would be a good idea next video about "Goulash-communism" in Hungary.

[@mr.carguy654]

Czechoslovakia made some of the best cars, trucks and motorcycles in the whole soviet union. Skoda, Tatra, Jawa. Jawa motorcycles in particular were very innovative and well made and many sold in the West along with the East. To this day the highest selling 50cc motor scooter in Hungary's history is the Jawa Babetta.

[@salkjshaweoiuenvohvr]

Okay so it was just mostly communism, but a pinch of capitalism and good connections with higher powers?

[@alanywalany6460]

No capitalism at all actually

[@StephenGleason0]

@@alanywalany6460 I dunno, the trading of goods and services between individuals sounds a lot like a market

[@alanywalany6460]

@@StephenGleason0 Markets are not capitalist

[@StephenGleason0]

@@alanywalany6460 The defining characteristic of capitalism is the right to private property. Without private property in the factors of production, they cannot be traded. If the factors cannot be traded, there is no market

[@alanywalany6460]

​@@StephenGleason0 Markets predate capitalism and market socialism is a thing. So go figure.

[@Uterr]

It’s Czechoslovakia, not CzechLoslovakia

[@CatnamedMittens]

No one cares

[@svendgalli4808]

@@CatnamedMittens, I do.

[@ragnagordragnagord5342]

My father in law started his IT carrer in Software Šlusovice as an intern. He was a high school student at that time.

[@micgalovic]

It's very cool that you go back to the primary sources of information. You painted the reality of JZDs well.

[@xgf122]

Didaktik computers from Žilina was legend here in Slovakia, back during Czechoslovakia, better Commodore 64 than original itself.

[@ragnagordragnagord5342]

The Didaktik computer was a clone of the ZX Spectrum, not the Commodore 64. However, it launched the careers of many young programmers in Czechoslovakia.

[@xgf122]

@@ragnagordragnagord5342 ah yes I forgot, sry I had old 80's computer magazine that I found in my school back in 2006, there was tons of things for didaktik,PMD and others :D

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

Anything powered by a Motorola 68000 is 32-bit, because that microprocessor's internal registers, a0-a7 and d0-d7 are 32-bit. Instructions can operate on 8-bit bytes (.b), 16-bit words (.w), and 32-bit longwords (.l).

[@madigorfkgoogle9349]

yes it is 32-bit by registers, but has just 16-bit data bus so you need double the cycles for fetching longword, and 24-bit address bus which is limiting the RAM addressing to 16MB only. There was no copy of MC68k in eastern block, just intel8088, Z80 and similar CPUs.

[@richardhrubes4585]

as czech citizen living here for last more then forty years i am really suprised how well made this video actualy is , true is that JZD Slušovice was not socialist miracle , and even it was no excepion , but it was exceptional proof how imortant for us calitalism has been , because as you mentioned this miracle was not about socialistic way of life but to make living through folloving capitalistic rools ( paying for what was achieved not what was promissed , .... ) and what was most important this company was growing because they copied and was stealing what they could from west and they sold it to partners who could not buy it from any other place - and anyone can understand to do business this way is really very easy - no competion and you can make any price . And finally after year 1990 when free business model came back to my country so we could buy anything else from common market this model gone bancroupt not because of capitalism but because they lost their monopol , what made JZD Slušovice poor , but our czech sociaty made very rich . any way thank you for well made video about .

[@nikola4362]

right... the country absolutely didnt go to shit after the fall of communism.. not at all. Long live capitalism

[@shitlordflytrap1078]

​@@nikola4362 yeah, it has improved in essentially every way. Your whining is irrelevant to that fact.

[@jamesstuart3346]

Great content...post more!

[@JurajGrossmann]

i can not help myself, but the speaker is a legend. the innocent asian pronounciation slaughters enhance the vidjo exponentialy. did I just hear: "Czecklessovakia"? the Slusovice success is like 1921 ussr nep

[@daghtus]

@JurajGrossmann: Aaa, teba poznám. Tuším pozeráme rovnaké videá. Či uhádneš, kto som.

[@JurajGrossmann]

@@daghtus most of respectable men present their faces when asked. with whom do i have the pleasure to have the conversation?

[@rrajan5476]

HE COULD BE AN ASIAN FROM UK

[@viznut]

I thought I knew something about the computer history of Socialist countries, but I had never heard about JZD Slušovice or their computers. It seems that the 8-bit ones are based on the East German U880D processor and run a CP/M-derived operating system. A really unique and inspiring story, thank you!

[@ReddoFreddo]

I'm so glad I found this channel.

[@mrkvickov]

I would expect TESLA (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_a.s.) story on this channel, but JZD Slusovice, man you such a legend!

[@dvlachy]

That's a good one! Well covered.

[@Notchlings]

What a wonderfully succinct and well-written presentation

[@michag5561]

0:28 nice keyboard with extras😂

[@great.933]

This is the best content producer on You Tube, thanks 🙏🏻

[@qdeqdeqdeqde]

do you plan making a video about the PMD variants like PMD-85 ?

[@pere_gt__stgtsport5467]

There is so much about the industrial achievements of these two countries that is not well known.

[@Walczyk]

thank you john!

[@MrDragannn77]

5:35 Beautiful Defterdar's gate in Belgrade fortress. Tnx.

[@Keefan1978]

A very cool story. Interesting. Made me think of the Kirov Collective Fishing Farm in Estonia - it was also a kind of a capitalist experiment inside a socialist framework, running one fleet in the Atlantic and another one in the Pacific during its peak years and investing in all kind of innovations and side businesses.

[@nicolino.cichetti]

ohhhh wonder I didn't know about Czechoslovakia thanks for the video

[@OranCollins]

Suggestion: video on 2000's chinese 🇨🇳's history getting on the internet Love the videos! Thanks!

[@teodorrelovsky6273]

OOO Československo u asianometryho pecka

[@yousifalniemi6660]

Please do a video on RCA!

[@OverG88]

Hi. Here's one idea since you're covering E. European countries - a story about Galaksija. It's a story about computer made in Yugoslavia by a guy called Voja Antonic.

[@tomas.bednar]

Wonderful video. Imagine if we were not part of soviet block. We had the human capital for wonderful things but much potential was wasted due to regime constraints. 40 years is a long time, will we ever catch up?

[@delfinigor]

If you were not part of the Soviet bloc, you would be like Yugoslavia. Just a little better.

[@tomas.bednar]

@@delfinigor My guess is we would be like our non-soviet neighbours, but we will never know.

[@Anti-CornLawLeague]

The Czechs decided to introduce “market socialism”(co-op capitalism) in 1968 with the Prague Spring. It was pulling teeth for Gorbachev to do the same in the USSR two decades later.

[@manekrit2417]

Co-op capitalism is oxymoron. Czechs did their coop way better then Soviet Union.

[@shingshongshamalama]

@@manekrit2417 Very much this. This isn't capitalism, it's socialism. It's just that worker cooperative business functions way better than a centralized command economy model like the USSR was so obsessed with. Of course they could have just _funded the damn farmers_ if they really wanted to socialize farming. Nobody ever seems to draw attention to that bit of hypocrisy.

[@Pidalin]

@@shingshongshamalama "cooperative business functions way better than a centralized" I am not sure about that, what I see in work now in captalism - the wast majority of peopel don't want to have any responsibility, they just want to spend their 8 hours in work and then earn money for nothing. Give such people responsibility and possibility to manage company and it will go bankrupt very fast. Ofcourse it would be nice to have more money when company is profiting, but you can't really make that mythical system that each worker is partly owner, I don't really believe it can work.

[@Feefa99]

​@@PidalinProblem is not people don't want to work, give them partial ownership of shares of firm and decisions about their job and they'll be motivated. Issues comes always with CEOs and other types of centralised leadership, you can't rely they make rational decisions. I mean Elon Musk is great examples of f*ck ups with false hype and basically scams of half-baked products, If only such people wouldn't hoard shares and capital for themselves. Oh wait he just laid off 14000 employees for own bonuses and he's still hyping outside shareholders for Mars colony, yet product for governmental project Artemis is in serious doubts by NASA. Privatisation bad, just say it.

[@TheLeftPath]

@@Pidalin your esoteric belief is disproved by many cooperatives that exist in europe (especially France, Spain and Germany) which function quite well. Even in the US some of them exist. Every worker is seen as a functional part of the company and is given more trust in his abilities. The reason for "not wanting to do any work for a lot of money" is just a symptom under bullshit jobs in todays capitalism which are created just to keep people working. For the vast majority of people under capitalism the only incentive to work on their job, is not to get fired. Great incentive....

[@aalb1873]

This is incredibly interesting!

[@OldFArt-gx9fh]

Excellent documentary

[@johncourtneidge]

What a remarkable story. It exemplifies the Second Law of Thermodynamics, along with what I might term 'The Law of Life'. The first says that 'Good goes to Bad' (ie, 'That order decays to disorder'). While the seconf indicates thet, 'Chaos/disorder goex to Order/wealth when a) effort is applied to difficulty (ie, Work is performed) but *only* if greater disorder/Chaos/Entropy is created elsewhere. Our plan for Co-operative Socialism recognises both. As does its Process for, both, Implementation and Annual Audit.

[@simongrushka983]

do some Polish inventions in cybernetics too :)

[@robertkalinic335]

Can we get video on Vaclav Havels or Husaks explanations why they didn't love JZD, i kinda suspect some shady market influence and control common today didn't sit well with them.

[@Salt_and_Peroxide]

Genialne video velmi dobre spravene a vola sa Jednotne hospodarske druzstvo po slovensky

[@cocik]

There is a really good Czech movie about a young engineer who went to work there and got shocked about what it meant to "work for real" and the fact that he could be fired. It's called Hauři.

[@tylarb3864]

Is there somewhere i can read more about Cuba's activation factors?

[@HajdaMCZ]

Some commercial for TNS computers from around 1987: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaG8kGarodeWfNk Or longer document about production plant from same year: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKKlnpaEeJuKers

[@schonetesla5278]

7:52 Now there are disco partys in that barrel

[@sean_vikoren]

An incredible story, thanks.

[@outopos3598]

There is no so much F words to express my feelings how best you are .! ❤

[@BlaBla-pf8mf]

JZD sounds a lot like what Deng did in mainland China in the late 70's and early 80's.

[@Vermilicious]

The "free" markets aren't all good.

[@erikziak1249]

10:04 Gustáv Husák. Not Gustav Husar.

[@georget8008]

the 6 "activation factors" sound like the manslow's pyramid

[@jaorlowski]

"Chechlosovakia"... though, you did get "Chechia" right... Apart from this little death every now and then, an excellent video. And no, this is not the usual "butchering of foreign names, please be lenient". It's already the English name and pronunciation.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Now you know how I feel as a near 50 year old.