How the Space Race Influenced Soviet Society - COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY

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Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on how the space race influenced Soviet society.
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[@TheColdWarTV]

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[@brokenbridge6316]

I have a question for your host of these video's. What if the War in Ukraine broke up Russia forever? What sort of effects would that have on the world? I hope he answers this question in his next talks about the war.

[@SDGrave]

You should specify when it's a North America-only product/service :( No EU shipping available.

[@davidhollenshead4892]

A couple of notes about the Soviet Space Program: Gagarin was chosen because of his smaller size, as he consumed less life support, as well as his parents occupation at a Collective Farm, Tereshkova was miserable in space, due to the lack of a vacuum toilet as her urine ended up floating around in the capsule, The fist picture of the surface of Venus was taken by Verena 9, and the copy given to NASA had an arrow in the print. Staff at NASA spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out what the arrow pointed to, and eventually asked. The response was "we just had an extra arrow in the darkroom and decided to add it", The first color Image of the surface of Mars made the surface appear somewhat greenish as NASA hadn't calibrated the camera yet, so their revenge for the arrow on Venus was to crop of the portion of the image with the American flag, which was used to calibrate the camera. Otherwise it showed the lack of calibration. The result was briefly the Soviet Media that Mars may have a greenish primitive life form,

[@scottkrater2131]

I'd never known there was an assassination attempt on Breznhev, I learned something new. Thanks.

[@ytcensorhack1876]

U left out the KGB dwarves on t moon. When t Soviets launched the Lunokhod rovers 2 t moon, some soviet citizens doubted they had t tech 2 remotely operate them on t moon. So an urban legend circulated that they were actually being driven by a crack team of KGB dwarves on a one way mission. Not sure how they hav crammed all t food & o2 4 that 2 work tho

[@andyreznick]

I always felt that the Soviet space program was the Soviet Union's one really bright spot. The space race visibly pushed us ahead as a species. It was a transnational competition that didn't involve killing off or displacing a couple of hundred thousand or millions of people for a change; something between sports and war. In the 60's, when kids were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, for the first time ever in history they could actually answer: Astronaut/Cosmonaut. I know I did in 1961 when asked in Miss Funky's Kindergarten class (really, that was her name, poor thing). Closest I ever got was driving by Goddard, mind you. Thanks David, for another excellent presentation. Appreciate your work. I'd say, in all, we all won the space race, in both achievement and inspiration.

[@chiensyang]

As a sane person who knows we live on a flat earth which is covered with an invisible dome, I can not believe the Americans became fearful of the *fake* Sputnik and jubilant of the *fake* moon landing. *PS:* If you are wondering, I was being sarcastic.

[@andyreznick]

@@chiensyang Yes! We are all trapped in an alien zoo! I knew it! Ha!

[@stischer47]

I can remember the launch of Sputnik and its effect on us in my school. While the adults were worrying about Soviet technologic superiority, my classmates and I were awestruck by the chance to go into space. Once into junior high, I found my first science fiction book (Missing Men of Saturn which the librarian gave me I checked it out so many times...still have it).

[@davidhollenshead4892]

A couple of notes about the Soviet Space Program: Gagarin was chosen because of his smaller size, as he consumed less life support, as well as his parents occupation at a Collective Farm, Tereshkova was miserable in space, partly due to the lack of a vacuum toilet as her urine ended up floating around in the capsule, The fist picture of the surface of Venus was taken by Verena 9, and the copy given to NASA had an arrow in the print. Staff at NASA spent a huge amount of time trying to figure out what the arrow pointed to, and eventually asked. Their response was "we just had an extra arrow in the darkroom and decided to add it", The first color Image of the surface of Mars made the surface appear somewhat greenish as NASA hadn't calibrated the camera yet, so their revenge for the arrow on Venus was to crop of the portion of the image with the American flag, which was used to calibrate the camera as it showed the lack of calibration. The result was briefly the Soviet Media that Mars may have a greenish primitive life form, Who won the Space Race The Soviets were first in Orbit, First Human in Space, First Space Station and First Successful Probes on Venus, First Rover [on the moon], While the US was First Humans on the Moon, and had the First Successful Space Plane, First Probes & Rovers on Mars, and First Probes to fly by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, So the Soviets won the Manned Space Race and the US won the Unmanned Space Race....

[@nicholasmaude6906]

"Tereshkova was miserable in space, partly due to the lack of a vacuum toilet as her urine ended up floating around in the capsule, " That's the first time I've heard of this, where did you read it?

[@Bluegillbronco2]

I would argue that when the Soviets lost the race to the moon they were basically forced to take the focus away from the space program. Because then they would have to admit that they tried to send cosmonauts to the moon and failed. And later when they started focusing on space stations it didn't have quite the same propaganda value as all of the initial firsts.

[@petergeyer7584]

I live in the former East Berlin. There used to be a bar/restaurant in my neighborhood called Gagarin, after the Soviet Cosmonaut. It was filled with wonderful Soviet-era pictures and relics from the space race. My absolute favorite bar in the city, until Covid killed it.

[@odysseusrex5908]

All of the cosmonauts knew that Soyuz 1 was likely to be a suicide mission. Gagarin suited up that day and tried to go in Komorov's place.

[@SkywalkerWroc]

Fun fact - recently I been reading a Soviet aeronautics magazine from '60s, got it here in front of me, and... there's no mention of anything alike Space Race. In fact - they weren't even talking about N-1 DESPITE of reporting in quite a detail about the Apollo programme (it was funny to see how in 1960 they had only rough drawings, while in 67 they had nearly a full-page photographs of the Saturn V, astronaut training and the Apollo capsule). Russians instead of the ""space race"" were fixated purely on building space stations all through the period, and their vision was much more about developing from LEO onwards (they expected first Soviet station in 1970, cislunar station in '76, lunar outpost in '79 and first Soviet on Mars in 1986. In their schedule you couldn't even find first Soviet landing on the moon, they seemingly didn't care about it as far as the growth of their programme went)

[@old-moose]

I remember the in MAD magazine (I think) had the joke: "A cosmonaut returns to Earth and says 'I've seen God. First of all, she's black.' "

[@nicholaskelly6375]

My late father Maurice Kelly was very keen on the Soviet Space Programme and through friends in the USSR he managed to obtain several very interesting publications on the subject. When you think of classic science fiction films 'Solaris' has to be one of the finest examples of the genre. Certainly it is on a par with '2001 A Space Odessey' The concepts in the film being extremely interesting and thought provoking.

[@ca.elizabeth]

I have quite a collection of soviet stamps dedicated to interkosmos, roskosmos and any other space race related occasion. Thanks, my soviet dad for collecting them! As a kid I loved those stamps A LOT. To be honest they are still my favourite. The glory and the hype of the space race is reflected very well in them.

[@alexanderakh4955]

Thank you! Really, as I child I remember that space was still popular thing in the 80s, technical magazines were really highly popular as they were of high quality and utility value and published articles about technical achievements of the West being a kind of window in the different world, science fiction books and movies were highly popular, but I think this was the case elsewhere in the West.

[@ParabellumHistory]

I lived in the UK for a while. The first thing to caught my eye was at the Liverpool airport, there was a plaque commeorating the time Gagarin's visit to the city after being in outer space

[@kaptenhiu5623]

It doesnt matter who's the first to space as long as humanity wins!

[@homoe7976]

Gagarin might not have been a perfect new soviet sugar boy, but you certainly are!

[@b.w.22]

For anyone interested in learning more about this period, I highly recommend “Space Race” by Deborah Cadbury. It is engagingly written, exciting, and very informative while really putting the reader into that world, especially the one behind the Iron Curtain. I make this recommendation as someone who formerly worked in entrepreneurial aerospace, export control, and who has been to Russia multiple times on launch campaigns of US objects launched by ex-Soviet vehicles.

[@lornarettig3215]

Thank you so much for the recommendation! I‘ve always thought that indeed the Soviets did **everything** in the space race bar landing on the moon. Everything. How did we know that humans could get to space? The Soviets did it. How did we know humans could survive in space long enough for a moon mission? The Soviets did it. How did we know you could land on the moon and not plummet through to a sea of liquid nitrogen or something? The Soviets did it. I have nothing but admiration for what they achieved with so little resource.

[@b.w.22]

@@lornarettig3215 - It’s true. Their achievements in space really was something to be proud of. Their lunar mission was really undone by competition between the various “design bureaus” that worked in aerospace (another interesting history described in that book) and left Korolyev without the large engines needed for the N1 rocket. As such, he had to use dozens of smaller engines in his design that just didn’t work. Had Roscosmos not allowed such competition and had acted more like NASA, there’s no doubt that they would have succeeded in putting men on the moon. So not merely did they succeed with fewer resources, they did so in spite of different factions within their space program trying to undercut the others. I really hope you get that book if you’re interested in this history - I learned a bunch from it, especially about the Soviet effort.

[@samwill7259]

Reminder. The Soviet reaction to the moon landing Was WAY more friendly than the American reaction to sputnik

[@ted356]

One of your best videos. Appreciate the excellent research and presentation.

[@alexandruchira184]

Dosent metter where I am when Cold war is posting I open it :)

[@sebastianhalmagean7037]

Si eu frate 😁

[@scottkrater2131]

Breznhev has a look on his face like. Don't get too comfortable Comrade Nikita, I'll be running the show soon.

[@robertsansone1680]

Another excellent documentary. Thank You. To add a reverse example, I was born in 1959, in the state of Michigan. I vaguely remember the Mercury Program. I definitely remember the Gemini & Apollo programs. I never looked up to any public figure as much as the NASA astronauts. No rock star, sports star or actor has made me prouder. Thanks again. "One small step---"

[@jwenting]

I felt much the same thrill about the Shuttle program, being born in the 1970s. Too young for consciously experience Apollo, the Shuttle came just in time when I was in high school. Was glued to the television for every launch, shattered when Challenger blew up on life television.

[@robertsansone1680]

@@jwenting I know how you felt. I was working when a coworker came into the tool room & told us that the Space Shuttle blew up. I felt like I lost my family members & in a way, I did. Those people still inspire me.

[@NeverlandSystemAngel]

This channel just makes me so intrigued and fascinated. I have learned so much and love it.

[@FirstLast-di5sr]

Incredible content always always, thank you!!

[@torgeirbrandsnes1916]

Great vlog as always! Did you know that Norway thought that the USSR was going to invade Norway in aug 1968? Suddenly, on the other border with Norway/USSR there was 500 tanks and thousands of troops. Look it up. A video to be made? Please!

[@bigred5125]

6:55 Pioneer 4 wasn't meant to land on the moon, it was a flyby mission. It was still off track passing by 37,000 miles away instead of it's planned 20,000. It was also launched on March 3rd 1959 before the Luna 2 on September 12th 1959. Maybe you were thinking of the Luna 1 which was launch on January 5th 1959 and missed the moon by 5900 km. I got this data from Wikipedia and Nasa after your video got me interested in the pioneer 4 mission. Keep up the good work!

[@iKvetch558]

The problem with saying that the American people were shaken by Sputnik is that they were not...not until the panic regarding "Soviet moons" was whipped up by the people who saw Sputnik as an opportunity to increase their funding and power. Like the earlier "bomber gap", the idea that the USSR had gained a huge lead on the USA and created a "missile gap" was always mythological, and was widely promoted by JFK as he campaigned in part on a platform of being tougher on the Commies than Ike & Nixon had been...even after he had been briefed on why the USA KNEW that there was no missile gap.

[@kaptenhiu5623]

Makes you wonder why fear is such a powerful emotion in human history. Fear above all else pushes us to the moon.

[@carkawalakhatulistiwa]

but the gap missile is the true rocket technology of the United States in 1957 5 years behind the Soviet Union

[@Hillbilly001]

Can you say, military-industrial complex? Eisenhower warned everyone about it. Cheers from Tennessee.

[@davidingle8983]

@@Hillbilly001 cheers from Tennessee from me as well

[@Hillbilly001]

@@davidingle8983 LoL, well, Howdy. East, Middle or West Tennessee? I'm in West Tennessee. Cheers.

[@brokenbridge6316]

Nicely informative video.

[@Nikolay_Slavov]

For the Soviet Union it was a chance to demonstrate not only to their advisory - United States but also towards the rest of the world how technologically superior was the soviet society. However, the entire technological and scientific progress was under military and political supervision which in some cases had catastrophic consequences such as the death Vladimir Komarov and the Nedelyn rocket disaster. Most of the time both the politburo and the military would set very short dates for finishing certain rocket launches and project completion which was always accompanied by shortages of materials and electronics, sometimes not available in the Soviet Union. The Buran program for me is such engineering feat that even the Americans were again stunned to realize how advance was the Buran - the first space shuttle to be remotely operated and landed. At the time if there was no struggle between the United States and Soviet Union a man could wonder what achievement we could of achieve at that time.

[@novat9731]

The US space shuttle was literally public domain. Soviet ''spies'', if you can even call them spies. Would simply request the documentation, and receive it. And no one batted an eye when it was requested, since a lot of universities and interested parties, as well as private citizens were often requesting details on the space shuttle for educational purposes, or even to just satisfy idle curiosity. Funny that the Soviet space program, didn't really question the feasibility of the space shuttle as a concept. Re-using a rocket engine, was far more expensive and technically challenging than first envisioned.

[@Toxic_Man_]

​@@novat9731If the Soviets still wanted to copy the Shuttle, it still didn't work! At that time, the USSR was very much left in terms of technology and electronics for 10 years! The engineers were well aware of this and wanted to solve the problem creatively!

[@treverblanco]

PLEASE do an episode on Intercosmos! 🙏

[@firstcynic92]

2:14. If you had said the first animal in orbit you wold have been right. USA has the claim to the first animal in space with fruit flies on a V2 sent to 42 miles high in 1947, and a rhesus monkey on another V2 to 83 miles in 1949. Note that the US monkey died in the landing, but then the Soviet Union dog died in orbit. Are you going to do an episode about Sergei Krikalev?

[@Neversa]

Sergei Korolev

[@alex4863]

Cosmonaut one could argue would be the “ideal” individual on both sides do to obsessively because of the fixation of outer space. The difference would be in the Soviet Union women to have a chance to match it at the same time, Khrushchev is becoming more and more of Soviet’s “golden age.”

[@karacop78]

There is another influence photographers know very well. "Helios", "Jupiter", "Mir" were some of the branding of photo lenses during that era. It is interesting to note that they were on par or better than western lenses until the late '60s, when soviet space program started to decline.

[@jonnyohiggins6969]

A video about Stalker and it's influence might be cool.

[@Yassified3425]

The City of Riga actually requested a name change to Gagarin or something like that in honor of the victory in the space race, but it was thankfully denied by Moscow.

[@TheJamieRamone]

I THOUGHT THOSE WERE SHOTS FROM SOLARIS!! I just recently (meaning at the start of this year) discovered Tarkovski's work and am still being blown away!

[@qus.9617]

There is something very Roman about winning over the people with statues and monuments

[@Mrgunsngear]

Thanks

[@theMultiJawee]

Just the sponsorship proves how we must have central planning or we will cease to exist on this planet

[@eugeneandkatiemckinnon5052]

I remember reading a short story where a Soviet boy dreamed of being a cosmonaut. But then he was issued glasses and was disappointed because the space program required 20/20 vision.

[@Game_Hero]

The subtitles are sometimes weird, with words that shouldn't be there, who is Dayton, the Kom small and Landon Brezhnev? 21:32, 22:21, 0:30, 5:46, 7:41 among an abundance of weird capitalization (or lack thereof) sometimes.

[@johnb7046]

"The last Soviet citizen." Fascinating concept. Love the imagination of this time period.

[@pestomystic]

Gagarin was actually a strong orthodox believer, and the Boga Net poster is a fabrication in more ways than one!

[@FREAKYTURK1903]

Another great video, thanks. Just a sidenote, I was also expecting you to touch how the US success of being the first nation to lend in the moon and come back had affected the soviet society and soviet space policies overall. Was it a big letdown for them, did they not care about it too much or what?

[@martinlisitsata]

Fun fact Yuri Gagarin was banned from visiting American back then and his name removed from Space Fundraiser this year . Booth for political reasons .

[@Game_Hero]

Source?

[@JosephKeenanisme]

My mom squeezed me out a month before the first moon landing :). The space race on both sides of the Iron Curtain pushed science (much like the technology push during WWII) ahead. In the west a good deal of the NASA stuff was either open to the press or has been declassified in the past decades. It's cool seeing the "evil empire's" side. The US & Soviets looked at their space programs differently. Sadly in the long run the Soviets, via the Russians won out when it comes to human launches. In another 50+ years will be fun to see what people will make of the Lex Lugar, Russian, and Chinese space programs. Hopefully by then some team working in material engineering will make carbon nanofiber easily enough to make a space elevator feasible.

[@Neversa]

My neighbor is named Yuri, despite being Kazakh. He was born in April 12th, 1961 and no Russian in the local administration cared what Kazakh name he was about to be named with. He was born at the right time to be named Yuri, and Kazakhs were second-class citizens in the Kazakh SSR.

[@Bearkiller72]

15:30 Logo is not accurate. Should be showing "Интеркосмос". 😄✌️🤫

[@-JA-]

👍👏

[@hylacinerea970]

every time I think of the space race, specifically the Golden age of soviet advancement I think of my grandma. she really wanted to know about space, and what the soviets were up to as that's all the adults in public ever talked about at that time, yet she went to a Roman catholic school run by nuns. was never taught about the big bang, biology, geology, any science, evolution, physics or lifestyle sciences. only rhe bare minimum needed to be a federally legal school. she got to watch the apollo series launches at home... and the challenger. but she's lost her love of looking up. I am going to see her soon, I will bring her my cheap, bad telescope and show her jupiter. I can do that much for her.

[@Shinkajo]

Personally I don't see decrease in religion as a negative.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Most informative video about USSR efforts in Space fields researchers & progressive stepped 👍🏻..thanks for sharing..Mr khroshov was a semi illiterate man about scientific enlightening ( even he was a sprime leader of USSR he was a politician not scientists & neither a religious man for that he misunderstood both fields...in reality there is serious difference between two fields..science is liberating human minds from Myths- frightened imaging/ legends& severing humanity desires & humanity benefits - designing weapons..while religions acting as prisoner's of human minds inside religious coops & exploiting human powers for serving religion classes members for ever & directing humanity conscious as warriors of (Holy wars-Aljehads) its a kind of political businesses & covering- pretext authorities tyranny every where ...allot thanks it was most informative and interested video .. I hope a day is coming that all superpower countries are cooperating for humanity & saving earth lives by Sciences power

[@28ebdh3udnav]

The American school system doesn't want to give the Soviets any credit what so ever. When i was going to school, i would ask, "who was the first person in space". They would say, "The first American in space was" but i would ask them again, "Not him, somebody else was there first. Who was that?" Same would go for other questions. They didn't want to answer it.

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

Long live Space Race! Long live.... *MOLVANIA!*

[@zaeemameer8701]

Hi, first comment here!

[@alexandruchira184]

Liar first was Daivid himslef

[@skeetrix5577]

no I am first fuck y'all:)

[@joeyfitz9]

@0:18 "...a vigorous debate over who won the space race" Is there? The USA landed on the Moon and the Soviets didn't. The USA won the space race.

[@beachboy0505]

Excellent video 📹 Russia 🇷🇺/ USSR did indeed make excellent space machines

[@Neversa]

At the expense of doing everything else poorly

[@mat3714]

Algorithm

[@robanson32]

0:24 I didn't realize there was a debate on who won the space race.....

[@relut3633]

Maybe... just maybe... a person that did not live in communism might not know what they are saying, whenever uttering statements about pure communist issues. ... it would be like... fervent commies judging pure, American capitalism. I'm just saying... I mean, do you know what I'm just saying...?!?...

[@stevenpetranyi2902]

Nixon

[@derekatkins4800]

When the narrator said there’s a vigorous debate about who actually won the Space Race, I couldn’t help laughing….Who put the first man on the Moon? It certainly wasn’t the Soviets!

[@robanson32]

Haha I was thinking the same thing, who's debating that one? In a race, you can win the first lap (to space), the second lap(man in space) and still lose if you're not first across the checkered.

[@Mr_Stav]

Krushev should have concentrated on building housing (hrushiovki): people had nowhere to live Sputniks and especially corn could wait

[@lordcolinb]

Safe to say the USSR won the space race

[@scottkrater2131]

So they got a head start, couldn't get a moon landing the finish line, so I guess they lost in the long run.

[@luckyea7]

@@scottkrater2131 The United States decided to land a man on the moon only because it had lost the space race to the USSR and had no chance of winning anything from the USSR (On April 29, 1961, Wernher von Braun wrote about this in a note to L. Johnson, in which he tried to give answers to questions posed by President Kennedy in a memorandum dated April 20, 1961). And in view of the fact that the USSR did not plan to land a man on the moon, the United States decided to do it. In the USSR, they planned to explore outer space with automatic weapons, since it was more efficient and had a lower cost. And sending a man to the moon did not make sense. The only supporter of the landing of man on the moon was Korolev. But he died before the Americans did. After his death, the new chief designer, who was opposed to sending a man to the moon, closed the manned flight program to the moon.

[@paulskimina925]

To think. If only our society were not strangulated by the capitalist oligarch class. Imagine how far we would be by now

[@b.w.22]

Man, I hate to say that a “capitalist oligarch” is currently and single-handedly advancing affordable access to space, that being the dubious but effective Elon Musk. In some ways, it has been the anti-capitalist practices of NASA (edit: and Air Force) contracting that has kept space access so expensive and therefore out of the reach of all but enormous publicly-traded corporations and governments.

[@paulgaskins7713]

12:36 it’s funny because none of those qualities can be used to define a communist

[@GrinderCB]

I never understood the American response to Sputnik. It was known that we could've started launching satellites a year or so before but we held back, not wanting to appear as an aggressor toward the East Bloc. So if we didn't go first, we were in fact waiting for the Russians to. Then the panic about their rockets and space program happened and suddenly we're in a space race for the moon.

[@jaydenclowers2616]

The Soviets Dis a lot things such as rights that The U.S fail to implement

[@b.w.22]

Um, I’d say the Soviets were pretty terrible on the old “rights” front, given how many otherwise innocent folks were sent to Gulags for political reasons, to include the father of the Soviet space program Korolyev. I mean, they literally built a wall in Berlin to stop people exercising their right to free movement.

[@dimpap3847]

This is an anti-communist channel, sorry

[@tng2057]

It is interesting that the USSR never managed to bring an African to space. Yes there was a Cuban guy of African decent who went to space with the Russians but he was Cuban. Imagine the propaganda value of an African guy / gal did go to space with the Soviets. No N Korean joined the Soviet space program either. Maybe the Soviets knew that it would have been very risky - he / she might turned feral in space.

[@Drunken_Master]

The first SF novel I red as a boy was Alexander Belyaev's "The Star KETs".

[@Ciborium]

Thank you for educating us Americans on the superiority of Socialism and Communism. We have made great strides under Comrade 0bama and Comrade Biden to liberate the American people with Socialist Democracy. Soon America will be as liberated as the USSR and Russia.

[@tokyosmash]

Why yes, it did influence the Soviet Unions failure 😂

[@mikets42]

There is, actually, no proof that Gagarin was in space, and many valid questions are still unanswered, like How come so high-risk mission was reported in real-time? Why Gagarin was not in a capsule on landing? How could he jump out of it without breaking any bones, on 5+M? etc...

[@haroldjedrzejczyk9449]

The early Vostok spherical capsule wasn't designed with retro-rockets, parachutes, or any way of allowing a soft landing, (either on land or water), without killing a human occupant. Gagarin instead ejected from it some 40,000ft above the mid-southeastern USSR.

[@mikets42]

@@haroldjedrzejczyk9449 The altitude of his stepping out of the capsule was 20,000ft or 7km. Air pressure is about 40% of sea level. The speed of the capsule had to be huge, about 5 Mach or more. Could you explain how he came out without a single broken bone?

[@haroldjedrzejczyk9449]

Gagarin didn't jump from the Vostok 1, he ejected from it in a specially-designed seat after re-entry at altitude. When he landed, he encountered a farm girl and her family and informed her and them who he was and asked to use their telephone.

[@mikets42]

@@haroldjedrzejczyk9449 Very interesting! I have never read or heard about that specially-designed seat. Where did you learn about it? Are there open publications on it?

[@haroldjedrzejczyk9449]

@@mikets42 Try this on KZbin. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3yscpibrqlsg8k