How Capitalism Destroyed Russia

[@Emelia39]

My dad studies Russian history and lived in the USSR during the 70s. He came back right after shock capitalism was in full force. He said one of the saddest things he saw was old women who’d lived through famines, WWII etc. who got cheated out of their pensions at the last moment selling bread on the subway at midnight in the middle of winter.

[@jayz8839]

It’s amazing how this is so reminiscent of the Covid Warriors who now blame the global economic crash that has only just begun, caused by overspending on pharmaceuticals while locking down your own economy, they blame it on everything but their own actions and wants which directly caused it. They are not that dumb either, it’s subconscious rejection of responsibility like a dead beat parent who doesn’t want their child to live.

[@DrCruel]

A drunken psychotic drug addict has children who he rapes and abuses in the basement of his apartment. After a few decades he gets old and dies of an overdose and starvation due to poverty, and the surviving children escape. The police find them and try to help them, but with only partial success. Which means it was the ideology of the police that caused all the trouble.

[@DrCruel]

@@busterkeyl This was Russia in the 30's too. And East Germany in 1945. Why not tell me about the besprizorniki?

[@marius4iasi]

Cheated by who?

[@CeluiEtSeul]

@@marius4iasi their own Greedy Commie leaders obviously. Funny how people overlook tens of millions deaths cause by Communism and now want to blame Capitalism when things change because they are too dumb, brainwashed, manupilated and lazy to think and work for themselves.

[@kanadop473]

I'm from Kazakhstan, born in the late 80s, I'm afraid to watch this video because I'll get re-traumatized. The 90s were horrible horrible time, we barely survived, so many people quietly died, some from hunger, others from despair, alcoholism, drug addiction, murdered by bandits and so on. I freeze from pain when I think about that time and what our people were subjected to, including my parents.

[@romanchannel69]

the 90s compared to 80s was a time when people finally got an opportunity to fulfill the stomach Kazakhstan tried to conduct their free market reforms in a safe and slow, low risky way, so the economic growth was in the bottom of the CIS region for many years

[@quang2842]

@@romanchannel69 i thought the 90s was the worst time in like every former Soviet countries, was it different in Kazakhstan?

[@MenRot]

@@quang2842 you're right, we had shock therapy with 5 waves of privatization. It mirrored Russian experience, just without political violence. I don't know what he is talking about. We crawled out of poverty and population decline only because of oil prices increases in 2000's. To be fair it could have been worse. Civil War was actually an option given that majority of population was diaspora. We can thank Nazarbayev at least for that, that he prevented such things from happening. Still piece of shit, though.

[@B1sher]

@@romanchannel69 fulfill their stomach with what? with emptiness or bullets? c'mon, it's ridiculous, 90's were the worst time in the whole Soviet territory after the WW2. Deffinitely much worse than the 80's and im from Russia

[@DokesConspiracyNetwork]

90s in the USA vs Russia. The 90s was my favorite time of my life as a USA citizen. Sounds like it was hell for the Russians.

[@jamesdavis727]

I lived in Moscow in this time period. It did indeed happen very quickly. One thing I never forgot was the puzzlement of the 'True Believers' who really thought we are building Socialism for a better tomoro. Then it was suddenly all about money. They walked around stunned for a couple of years, then just went for the money. Overall, it was a fairly horrible period and I try not to think about it. I honestly believe I was the only non-Russian on the planet to be standing on Red Square when they hauled down the Soviet flag for the last time in history. The square was barren, dark and cold. Just me and some dude trying to sell souvenir cups to nobody (probably KGB).

[@mvk4343]

Who said it will be the last time?

[@hawaii5078]

Do you think that a counter revolution still possible? There are some organization trying to organize the working class a back ?

[@CharliRay]

I wondered as a kid seeing this unfold on tv and wondered to myself what are these people supposed to do now? They been told what to do for generations then suddenly you are on your own enjoy freedom and capitalism. I can’t imagine the crime and corruption during that time I remember a lot of Russian people moved to my town in Philadelphia Pennsylvania one day we had only Irish Greek Italian and German people then within a few months we had over 10,000 new Russian immigrated to our neighborhood and I even ended up marrying one that was my girlfriend from 14 to 23 when we got married still together today and live in Florida I did visit Moscow in 2006 to visit her family and let our kids meet their great grandparents and I was shocked to see how poor they were but how happy they were together beings my wife’s parents both made great money in America her dad was an engineer and her mom was a nurse Russia and Canada are the only country’s I’ve been to and stayed there for a extended period of time.

[@danielhutchinson6604]

@@CharliRay This Month the two largest Communist Nations will sit at the Directors Table, as over 170 Nations Trade representatives gather to discuss their next move. The Western Oligarchs may assemble in Davos in Winter, and at the Rockefeller ranch in Summer, The BRICS Trade association that has 75% of the world's resources meet later this Month. When we inspect the numbers of Humans who Capitalism serves today, we notice the numbers are pretty small and shrinking. The Poor and oppressed Masses, might have found a new Champion in Putin?

[@BrianFace182]

@@CharliRay that sounds like you fell for the propaganda and didn't bother to watch the video.

[@suchetachatterjee6089]

I was a kid when the USSR fell. I still remember the grief, shock and despair that surged through our family when it happened. I remember my parents calling Gorbachev a traitor and Yeltsin was seen as the incarnation of capitalist evil. I’m from India, for context.

[@lochnessmunster1189]

Is the title of this video correct?

[@inbuckswetrust7357]

@@lochnessmunster1189 Абсолютно.

[@srinathradhakrishnan]

Typical of a bengali, still in love with communism while your state dies a a painful death due to lack of any entrepreneurship and industries.

[@letsplaywithmegacyborg3098]

USSR was literally an epitome of evil. It was a shit country. Gorbachev was one of the best USSR leaders. Capitalism literally saved Russia. There was no way to continue the country as it was before. It was just shit. People were dying and starving. If not Gorbachev USSR would've collapsed sooner. He saw that being communist is impossible so he gave more freedom to people. Communism was shit

[@letsplaywithmegacyborg3098]

@@lochnessmunster1189 no, it's bs

[@hehehehehehheehhe]

As a Russian, everything you say in this video essay is so on-point, well-researched and non-superficial mainstream info it's kind of scary considering you're not an inhabitant of ex-ussr haha. Kudos man 🫡

[@SecondThought]

Thank you very much! I try my best

[@lordjj2549]

@@SecondThought wheres the figure of 80% of USSR members wanting it to continue? good video BTW

[@lordjj2549]

@@michimatsch5862 What were the reforms or changes they wanted?

[@Dianasaurthemelonlord7777]

@@lordjj2549 Gorbachev was slowly increasing Government Transparency, Freedom of Speech and Press, and repeeling more Stalinist-Era Laws

[@tasfa10]

@@lordjj2549 It refers to the 1991 USSR referendum. I'm quoting from wikipedia: "Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any ethnicity will be fully guaranteed?" (...) "The referendum's question was approved by nearly 80% of voters in all nine other republics that took part."

[@RustedCroaker]

As a Russian, who managed to lived through all of that in person (born in 1971 in the USSR), have to say: 1) The facts in the video are well researched and absolutely accurate. 2) I'm surprised to see such an unbiased, deep and qualitative analysis of anything related to Russian in the English-language segment of the internet. Especially nowadays.

[@ernstthalmann4306]

We exist bro, I'm an American communist and despise what this nation stands for. The Union was our best hope. Can we rely on China as a vanguard? I doubt it. We'll need to make our own revolution.

[@em_the_bee]

Not sure if trolling or just stupid. Do you really believe this perspective is unbiased? Do you really think the author did well on research? Like, really? Do you know what the word "unbiased" means?

[@em_the_bee]

@@ernstthalmann4306 right, China is an awesome example of communism coming to life xD You American communists aren't very picky, are you? I'd suggest your government change the flag to red and rename the leading parties to "communist democratic" and "communist republican", you'll be happy for the rest of your lives.

[@ernstthalmann4306]

@Piracy advocate you know China has less prisoners than America? Higher math test scores for students. Takes 2 weeks to build a skyscraper. What's the point of democracy if nothing gets done?

[@em_the_bee]

@@ernstthalmann4306 waaaaait, wait. Isn't communism the ultimate democracy? You American communists are even funnier than I initially thought xD

[@glebbak19]

This video can help to understand Russian society a lot. Putin’s popularity is not based on him being actually awesome but because people associate early 2000s when he became president with rapid economic growth that took place. The other significant reason for his enormous approval is that he managed to cope with constant terror attacks and to end the war (ironic, isn’t it) in Chechnya.

[@kubhlaikhan2015]

Only Putin could have hauled in the looting oligarchs, giving them a choice between investing in Russia, exile or the chop. Putin earned his reputation and even westerners acknowledge him as the greatest statesman of our generation.

[@SteveOnlin]

Same thing happened with Algeria during the 2000s but with Bouteflika, we were socialists who switched to a free market which caused poverty and a civil war with 2 terrorist groups, then Bouteflika came in, managed to stop the war and improved the Algerian economy, guy was a walking corpse before people stopped liking him.

[@kekkoinen]

"him being awesome" +5 roubles

[@glebbak19]

@@kekkoinen 🤦‍♂️

[@SteveOnlin]

@@kekkoinen his hear cold, his moves are bold

[@kurt1948]

I was born in 1948. I felt a vague sense of alarm when the Soviet Union dissolved. I remember the day in the late 1990s I was considering getting rid of my books about the Soviet Union and Communism. This Second Thought gives me a language to think about events.

[@anti-dope9608]

Wow you

[@mrantipatia1872]

Would you be so kind to describe us the Soviet lifestyle through the years? It would be very interesting and usefull to hear that from a wise man

[@Commielover69]

Bless you old man

[@menz223]

god bless you

[@RedFlagRevival]

I would love to hear about your story.

[@romantarasenko4900]

USSR: *dies* Pizza Hut: It's free real *Gorbachev* !

[@hurremhightower]

tankie?

[@yonyosef]

@@hurremhightower no, it's a "free real estate" meme variant

[@connectc.7181]

🤮🤮🤮

[@JoaoSantos-ur1gg]

Ironically that Pizza Hut ad was never aired in Russia.

[@hurremhightower]

@@realcanadiensneverdie no😊

[@Mavric315]

Thank you for helping people see what's really going on in a calm and respectful manner. I couldn't do what you do and I'm glad you're here to do it!

[@JP-br4mx]

can Ii also get ten bucks? I'll make out with you. Its really sad how Russia is always depicted as the bad guys when they have done so much to help Africa when Africans were trying to decolonized, they also offered citizenship to black Americans during the civil rights era

[@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917]

How can a Russian afford to give someone $10?

[@missiah_xvi]

@@JP-br4mx are you joking?

[@JP-br4mx]

@@missiah_xvi about what

[@j.ceasar]

A communist donating on KZbin, where a fraction of the donation goes to KZbin, is so extremely funny. Lil bro, you just directly supported an ultra-capitalist company.

[@cricketsounds3332]

I’m Lithuanian but my family is Russian. When the USSR ended, Lithuania still had it better economically than Russia. But even with this, my grandmother and grandfather, who worked in highly respectable factories as econometricians and engineers, lost their jobs due to the factories closing. They sold underwear on the street to make money. My mom was studying to be an engineer and could not finish her study because the factory she’d be working at closed down and she had nowhere to go.

[@davidstrelec2000]

Lithuania's gdp fell by 50% during the 1990s and today real term gdp is only 60% greater than 1989 level.

[@cannonfodder1984]

Surprise! If your family is Russian you're ethnically Russian too. Welcome

[@Nutipot]

No wonder why

[@karkevicius]

Russian with Lithuanian citizenship*

[@cannonfodder1984]

@@cricketsounds3332 of your family is Russian you're Russian too, mate. Welcome to the family

[@profilore]

I was born in Russia in 94. My family used to be fairly well-off before the dissolution of ussr, at least enough to live comfortably and provide for my parents once they got married. My mom got a free apartment provided by the government for working on railroads. My dad had a car, my grandfather had a nice apartment in the very center of the city (not Moscow), a dacha (a summer house with a bit of land), a personal fishing boat, an amazing for the time collection of photo cameras, and a shit ton of other useful stuff, and had a decent savings account. By decent i mean enough that i could buy an apartment right now for what it was worth, and i'd have enough for whatever work it needs, and maybe a used car too. My dad studied in Moscow to become an engineer, and was making decent money too. Guess what happened next? A few years before i was born inflation skyrocketed so much that all my grandparent's money poof-ed out of existence and my whole family almost starved. My mom and dad couldn't take me to go visit mom's side of the family until i was almost four years old because there was no car and travel became a nightmare. And then of course the roads were not being maintained for literally years, so we crashed our new car and i lost my mom to a ditch 300km from her hometown. My entire childhood i never had any clothes of my own - everything came from kind neighbors and distant family. My grandmother raised me, and she always had food on the table, but i distinctly remember not being allowed to buy anything in stores aside from milk and bread, and very very occasionally a chupa-chups. I hated myself for forcing my dad to work three jobs just to be able to buy and make livable another apartment to take me in again, and grew up to have a constant feeling of intruding on other people, always afraid of taking more then was acceptable in my mind. Rn im an adult married woman, but we still live in my mom's apartment and there is no way my husband and i could make enough to buy another property, not even if we double both incomes. We can barely scrape by without going too badly in debt just from groceries and necessities, and that's only because by last grandma gives me half of her veteran pension in exchange of me taking care of her health, working in her home and cooking. Oh, and we don't qualify as poor. I'm fully expecting that if i have kids they will have to learn to live off the land and make a fire by rubbing sticks together. I'm not saying everyone is this bad off, but my story is not out of the norm here.

[@retroas2683]

If you live near Peter or Moscow(or other big city) you should consider other towns/cities. I don't have a higher education and I alone cover my flat and all my necessities with pay of 30k + bonuses from work. I even help my parents cover my grandma's treatment bills sometimes. I even save up for my future flat/house (I hope for a house but it seems rather expensive to build, I'll wait until everything normalises or chose somewhere away from Moscow). The real estate prices are insane, probably one of the things our government has to look into to go in with their population increase plan. That's probably current major issue that needs to be addressed.

[@profilore]

@@retroas2683 try making 30k in Saratov. You need to be a man and have 2 bachelors degrees and 10 years of experience, and a lot of connections, or work 12 hours 5-6 days a week. I've never been paid more then 20k a month. Rent for a one-bedroom is 10-15. Utilities is 5k in winter. Even if I made 30 i'd never have enough money for anything aside from food living on my own.

[@profilore]

@@kennyshepard-ww1gk well my mom is dead, so is most of the family by now, but I'm actually a commie if it helps

[@profilore]

@@kennyshepard-ww1gk it will sound cliche, but here's what I genually think: a) the USSR didn't fall apart by itself, it was destroyed by decades long deliberate effort on part of both western interference and internal conflicts of interest. It's well documented that the majority of USSR citizens did not want a dissolution. Most people were perfectly fine to keep it. b) for a country that started as barely more then totally agrarian miserably poor monarchy with no education, technology or unity, USSR wasn't half bad by the end, or even by the middle. It still wasn't actually communist though. It was more of a state capitalism. There was no real dictatorship of the proletariat, tho it gave a better illusion of one then, say, USA. And it was still very much capitalist, though some things were socialised, like education and housing. There was still plenty of inequality, poverty and other capitalist bullshit - mostly for reasons of corruption, isolation and a horrible lack of democracy. Tl;dr: the ideal was good, but the conditions were unsuitable, so there was never real communism in USSR. It was destroyed by deliberate prolonged effort of combined forces within and without. It was pretty bad, but there are many ways in which it was better then market capitalizm. Ask people who actually lived in it.

[@Olga-de3ru]

​@@kennyshepard-ww1gkОни оказались бедными в результате распада СЭВ и СССР и краха своих политэкономий. Но при "социализме" (на деле госкапитализме с социалистическими элементами и обещанной перспективой) большинство жило хорошо, и раздражали только недостатки, которые, казалось, было нетрудно исправить (поэтому и купились на "перестройку", оказавшуюся мошенничеством). Правящий слой переродился, а народ перестройщики обманули. А когда люди осознали масштаб Бедствия - к 1993 г. - в Москве клика Ельцина просто разогнала парламент и Конституционный Суд, и расстреляла протестующих (в т.ч. в по-пиночетовски созданным концлагере Асмарал). Нынешняя поддержка Путина есть поддержка не столько капитализма, сколько возвращения элементов советской системы, ну и прежде всего, конечно, по контрасту с катастрофой и ужасом 90-х (ещё 00-х). Но перспективы смутны, я вот думаю, что надо исполнить проект Глушкова ОГАС. Сделали бы это в СССР - и Страна бы не распалась, и не пришлось бы пройти по Кавдинским ущельям бедствий 90-х - 00-х.

[@polyakoviv]

What happened not only literally ruined lives of working people in the former USSR (including but not limited to Russia), it also made a huge wound in lives and minds of the generation that is in its prime right now. That wound never healed fully so you get the idea

[@argonaut5617]

It started to inevitably happen when Kosygin was fired. Kosygin in fact was Prime Minister, Industry Minister and Minister of Economy, started his high-level career even with Stalin during War. Check the facts.

[@pantsedjuniorhayseed4816]

the fall of the ussr is the single largest collapse in human standard of living.

[@vadimk3484]

@@argonaut5617 Kosygin was the dude who advocated and actually began replac... Pardon me, "integrating" elements of market economy into the planned economy of the USSR, which in the end was one of the reasons (albeit rather an effect than a cause) of the collapse. Sounds like a "great" role model for modern communists.

[@rafaeltorquato2973]

I still hope for a Second Act. Social Media may have ruined a lot of brains, but it also exposed the intectual level of the right wing Worldwide.

[@cr4yv3n]

Boo hoo hoo Russia could not STEAL from its neighbors. Boo hoo hoo

[@Pedro-jy2fx]

in russia they're called oligarchs 👹 in the us they're named billionaires 💫

[@khalifa3335]

six of one, half a dozen of the other.

[@cavaleermountaineer3839]

Nothing could be further from the truth. You do realize this cute little boy is the new face of marxism. Lenin and Bernie didn't work so well so now they've developed a new toy to brainwash the youth.

[@reallyman6502]

a big price for making the "oligarch" word not as rude as it was in USSR

[@iche9373]

Oligarch is when you can co-rule a country, billionaire are just guys with a lot of capital.

[@Rose1312afa]

@@iche9373 do you really think billionares dont co rule the country?

[@evska2012]

I was born in 1978 in Yugoslavia, so not Russia, but the same goes for ex Yu countries. It was hell transitioning from socialism to capitalism and it's not much better now. Slaves it's what we are.

[@megadan66]

Ask your grandparents which was better?

[@b.t.peterson6429]

@@megadan66 In my experience and from polling I've seen, they would likely saw that the socialist era was better.

[@Shini1984]

You think thansition from feudalism was better?

[@evska2012]

@@b.t.peterson6429 yes. Ok, not everybody would vote for the socialist times (there is always someone who gets hurt by any type of goverment) but majority would say for sure that life in Yugoslavia during socialism was much better.

[@evska2012]

@@Shini1984 no, I do not think it was easier. I am just wondering whether this "transition" will end one day or not likely. I'm not saying it's not our fault that we cannot create a better (richer) society, I guess it is our fault, but I think at least for some countries capitalism is not the way, but world's policeman won't let us do anything else. They need markets and cheap labour so here we are.

[@goroch_thegreen]

I'm from Russia, I was born in 2000 but I understand why older generation redy to bearing everything if it saves us from returning to 90s my grandmothers told me how it was. Even when war and all the sanctions stated one of my grandmothers said to me: "Don't worry, we survived 90s, we will survive this".

[@birchparty]

то же самое! это буквально то же самое, что сказали мои родители! я ребенок нулевых

[@retroas2683]

Я родилась в те времена и от голода у меня был всю жизнь очень низкий рост (не было достаточно еды чтобы способствовать росту организма, мы из средне-низжего класса) после 20 лет, когда все наладилось, я за 8 лет набрала 15 сантиметров и достигла среднего роста. За 90ые как ребенок я увидела много смертей, трупы на улицах, человека раздавленного машиной сорвавшейся с эвакуационного крана, возле нашего дома наркоманы кололись ночью. Дедушка который раньше помогал родителям и сидел с детьми на площадке пока они бегали за продуктами однажды был найден мертвым в помойке когда новые русские наипали его на квартиру. Дедок великую отечественную пережил, не пережил 90ые. Почти ежедневно были новости о жестоких расправах над людьми, один раз видела как с дома сбросили девушку - потом когда взрослая уже была родители рассказали что это с ближнего востока рабочие изнасиловали, убили и сбросили ее. Не профукайте то что у вас сейчас есть. Никогда не доверяйте США и Западу. Наши родители не для этого откапывали страну из того г в которое нас погребли либерахи того времени. Запад никогда не меняется. Их целью всегда будет истребление и порабощение. Разделяй и властвуй, это их логика, а наша логика силы в единстве им противоречит.

[@oddjonsson2815]

​@@retroas2683stop invading your neighbour and we can be friends. The west had no ambition to "destroy" Russia, it was mainly the ambition of Western billionaires in combination with a weak Russian state apparatus. I'm very sorry for what you and most ex-ussr republics went through as it didn't have to be that way. The Baltic states are a good example (even though their economies were heavily subsidised by the Nordics and Germany). The idea of that "the west" wants to destroy Russia is simply false, it's actually a pretty terrifying prospect if you give it a thought. It does however don't want a return to the cold war with another iron curtain through Europe. It's also important to remember that the west is NOT a monolith. Interests fundamentally differs between different countries. Russia rolled the dice, so to speak, when it invaded Ukraine, there's a divide now between Russia and the rest of Europe that will probably take decades to heal, if that. If anything this confirms for the former Warsaw pact and USSR states that joined NATO that they made the correct decision, not to mention that Finland also joined and Sweden seems to be on its way

[@lukediceman1098]

@@retroas2683 "трупы на улицах" ты серъезно? хватит страшилки рассказывать 😴

[@retroas2683]

@@lukediceman1098 не рассказываю. Зимой приходилось видеть трупы бомжей. Но тебе, 4урка, этого не знать, ведь тебя даже в планах не было в то время.

[@btc54723]

Its extremely important that you put your citations and research into the description of the video. Im very glad youve been doing this. It helps convince people like me and gives you very solid credibility.

[@hbsupreme1499]

It's there, but true since people can't read up ti

[@boehrb]

This is critical. Nice.

[@tackytaco8133]

269 likes, unwilling to disrupt that. Lol.

[@BADCOMMENTSCOMEFROME]

Yeah cause Wikipedia is such a good source. Could as well have cited ”the library”

[@s0urce.ow0]

Every single one of those wikipedia citations comes with supporting citations from other sources specifically for people like you Id imagine.

[@redprincess4495]

My mother had two higher educations but in 90s she had to knit sweaters so my dad (an engineer) could sell them at marketplace. My father was paid apple juice and no money at the factory where he worked so he had to take different part time jobs to provide for the family. My eldest brother and eldest cousin had to work with him instead of playing like kids should do. We ate soy sausages because meat was too expansive. Mom made for us candies out of burnt sugar. My parents couldn't afford to buy Snickers or Mars for each of as and we could have only one bar for a family. We survived due to my grandma and grandpa. Grandpa used to steel some sunflowers in the local field to make some oil for us.

[@Vladik614]

It wasn’t problem of the 90s it was a problem of stupid team economy. They build the factories and then artificially supported the demand for its products. So after the collapse of Soviet Union they became useless as well as the knowledge and work of the engineers and other staff worked there.

[@redprincess4495]

@@Vladik614 I don't think i can give you a lecture about soviet economy in youtube comments. I'll just say that you're oversimplifying the problem. Если говоришь по-русски - смотри лекции Сафронова и не неси чушь.

[@Vladik614]

@@redprincess4495 я достаточно знаю про экономику и про устройство советского союза, чтобы сделать вывод почему были проблемы в 90-е. Командная экономика не работает, она идёт в разрез естественным потребностям людей и история это лишний раз доказывает. И это только один аспект, почему Советский Союз был не жизнеспособным. Был еще негативный отбор, когда у власти были не те кто умнее, а тот кто правильны с точки зрения идеологии, тотальная уравниловка, когда было плохо быть индивидуальным и предприимчивый и многое другое. Да я немного упрощаю, как раз потому, что в формате комментария сложно передать все что я знаю по этой теме. Просто тут очень много людей думают, что девяностые придумали Ельцин и Чубайс, а на самом деле это был долгий путь развала, к которому этот Титаник шел долгие годы. И мне кажется, что тот человек, которого вы мне посоветовали, говорит что-то другое, чем парень на этом видео. Все те же байки, что это все злой капитализм нам все испортил, а не 10-ки лет не правильных решений.

[@Vladik614]

@@redprincess4495 посмотрел я вашего Сафронова, что скать, очередной коммунист экспериментатор рассуждает почему не получилось и что нужно сделать, чтобы получилось. И когда он затеет очередной эксперимент на радость публике, которая слушает все эти сказки платить будут их дети, уже в какие-нибудь 2090-е. Хотя куда мне до вас, сверхразумов, которые из аргументов имеют только «не несите чушь» и апеллирование к авторитету.

[@redprincess4495]

@@Vladik614 Почитай тогда книжку People Republic of Walmart. Это про неэффективное планирование, которое не учитывает интересы людей.

[@hmmmm1040]

I was born in 1995 in Russia My family had no money and no food They managed somehow to get baby food for me, but my mother had to eat it with me sometimes, since there was no food for her My grandparents were paid by flour (many people of that time were paid by specific type of products). They lost their teeth due to lack of vitamins. In their 40s. Doesn't sound like a therapy.

[@Drunkle.]

I'm Прибалтика born 2 years before you and it's crazy how much worse parts of russia got hit compared to us. Your story sounds far more like my mothers childhood in 60s than mine. My parents where school teachers so no not really people who got rich from privatization.

[@hmmmm1040]

@@Drunkle. yes, my grandparents teachers as well. Idk honestly why they were getting paid by flour (better than being paid by textbooks though)))

[@romanchannel69]

Why do you blame the consequences but not the causes then? The bolshevik dictatorship had led the country to a disaster. New oilfieds that had been discovered in 60s just delayed the inevitable crisis. It supposed to happen much earlier

[@sergueileonardoafonin7950]

@@romanchannel69 because for the whole world to celebrate the fall of the Soviet Union my country had to suffer and people to starve. At the same time the West put lots of money into Poland for example. Now Ukraine. I lived through the 90ties, we hoped for better connection with the West and better opportunities. When nothing of it came to be, people reverted back to nationalism, que todays Russia.

[@GabrielGabeRodriguez]

The problem was not the neoliberalism of the country but the power grab by the oligarchs. Capitalism works because it doesn't require government intervention but it also needs a government that doesn't have a stake in the table.

[@Tabletop_ai]

Hello. I was born in 1990 in the USSR. I was a child, but I saw with my own eyes how hard it was for my parents to survive this terrible decade. People were not ready for capitalism and did not want it that way.

[@BusinessGamesAI]

I was ten when the change happened. I consider myself lucky to remember the USSR and still gotten the Soviet education. We emigrated in mid-1990s. I had been reviewing my attitude to socialism since 2008 and especially over the past 2 years.

[@temp_unknown]

As an autistic person, shock therapy does not make me think of good things lol.

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

As a trans AND autistic person that goes double for me.

[@trillionbones89]

I've seen shock therapies, they are not pleasant to look at.

[@Matzu-Music]

I was gonna say

[@JP-br4mx]

as a gay me neither lol

[@birdiewolf3497]

RIGHT??? I was like are we really surprised something called "shock therapy" didn't turn out so good? Did ECT have a good reputation in the 90s?

[@artemkhrulkov5498]

I was born in 1991 not so far (about 200km) from Yekaterinburg, Russia. To be clear, I don't remember that time as a complete disaster because I was a child. For me, everything at that time was pretty good. But after I turned 13, I had a conversation with my parents about their life in the 90s. And it was tough. My father was fired from institute of mechanical engineering and had troubles to get a new job. Finally, he found a vacancy in metallurgical plant in nearby city and it was amazing because otherwise he had to join the crime gangs. Our city was small and there weren't so much work places and that why some people was making money by racket, stealing or even murdering. Actually, my father had a conlict with one of gang member at that time. He got some injures during the fight but they were not critical, so everything was going fine in the end. My mother was teacher (in fact, she is still the teacher) and in period from 94 to 95 she received food supply instead money for her salary. And that food was kinda poor to be honest. So yeah, this Shock Therapy wasn't a therapy at all. It's like another wound on the soviet countries body. Many people in country felt this shock.

[@ВасилийСмирнов-ш3г]

Вы родились в Серове?

[@artemkhrulkov5498]

@@ВасилийСмирнов-ш3г нет , под Нижним Тагилом)

[@zyba3431]

Hello, I also live near Yekaterinburg, in the city of Serov. In our city, there were also huge layoffs of workers at the factory and severe unemployment

[@ernstthalmann4306]

Hence Putin's justified anger

[@artemkhrulkov5498]

@@ernstthalmann4306 don't know. Seems like he had his own purposes to start this bloody war. Maybe status and power is his choice. But in the end this decision still isn't a treatment, it's like making the wound bigger not smaller. I personally don't support what's happening in Ukraine right now. A lot of my friends are living there and I don't want them to suffer.

[@Foria777]

Being a person who is living in a place where each village used to have some local plant, dairy farm, fleet consisting of various agricultural vehicles or many other live forming unit types I can sincerely say that passing by shambles of formerly higher civilization makes me grief.

[@keiralum1797]

Держись, брат. Надо объединяться.

[@kindlingking]

Комплекс сельхоз строений размером с небольшой район, больше половины заброшено и напоминает скорее кучу строительного мусора, а то, что ещё используется, не обновлялось годов с 80-х. Богатство Дона/юга, нечего сказать.

[@RustedCroaker]

It's seem the swamp in Washington is hellbent to not allow it happen again. I'm with you my brother. Our childhood was rich in all meanings of the word. (born in the USSR in 1971)

[@Foria777]

@@RustedCroaker I'll tell you more. Swamp is everywhere. And that play happening in part of your collapsed motherland is nothing but a play. Play where ordinary soldiers die for swamp creators.

[@RustedCroaker]

@@Foria777 "Every frog praises its own swamp" - Russian proverb

[@miri9600]

This applied not only for Russia, many eastern Europe countries had this transition (some violent one), expecting better future, instead leaving future oligarchs split their own property into hands of few.

[@todorkerev1707]

None of the countries in the Warsaw pact had a planned economy before the coups of the Soviet Union, and pretty much every country has a higher standard of living than russia nowadays. Russia robbed those countries of 45 years of development

[@oliverpapai6011]

My parents and uncles lived through it, they were born in the early 70's and were my age when communism fell. In Hungary, it went peaceful and with great public support, and she said that being 18 at the time, she felt that things finally gonna go well during her prime years in this life. Then came the early 90's recession, which was nowhere as bad as in other ex-commie countries, and Hungary actually managed to fare the sparked up waters pretty well. Then came the era of governments switching every term, opposition and ruling party working together to pump every penny from the country, until one man became strong and popular enough to wreck this system, and keep all the money for himself, not giving anything to the then-opposition side of the organised crime syndicate called the hungarian government, significantly weakening and basically eliminating the only thing which could counter him. The 2010 election marked the beginning of his career of unrestrained power abuse and corruption which lasts until this very day, because this guy is Viktor Orbán, the current prime minister of the country. He is nothing more than one of the perestroika opportunists who happened to be at the right place at the right time, and gained significant wealth and power during the troubled years, and still profits off the connections he made during and after the commie years. Basically the hungarian Putin who still thinks we are living in 1992 and rules the country as such. When he confronted the latest prime minister and outed him from office, was the last time hungarians felt any hope towards the tomorrow. I think by 2018, literally everyone in this country had realised he is corrupt and evil, even his supporters, but the net of loyal oligarchs he built is so strong, and his blatant corruption is so everyday, that people have accepted it as "normal", and it became normal because everyone thinks so. -Note how he had the power to completely stop the organised government crime they had in the last 20 years. Hungary had a blank sheet to write on, but the new sheet became even dirtier than the previous one, due to him wanting it that way. if he would've felt any weak ray of patriotism or conscience, even the slightest bit, things could be so good, because Hungary really isn't (wasn't) a weak country, nor economically, nor mentally. A fertile soil for something beautiful to grow, but no..... Oh, and the best part: power doesnt just grow on the trees. You can't becaome powerful just by being smart and around well-positioned people, even during the wild-west like early 90's. You had to already be in position to be able to build up your career, just like the stable base of a giant mansion. And the very definiton of power before the 90's was: the communist party. It is kind.of a conspiracy ytheory, but everyone knows Viktor had his part with the communist party in the 80's, thats when he felt the direction of the wind change, then turned his sail on his previous superiors, riding the wave of the regime change and the death of the "ever watching big brother", who would've killed off any people with such ambitions very early in his ranks. So Hungary, and im literally sure every other ex-commie nation, is still ruled by ex-commies who switched Red and Gold to Navy Blue just at the right moment. But the past is always there to haunt you, the case is similar with him: His (supposedly ex-KGB) commie past echoes back to him from his former KGB Big Boss who still has the documents in his vault proving his guilt: Vladimir Putin. Notice how Viktor is Putin's dedicated NATO and EU cocksucker, even though that man shouln't be possible to have any hold on him, with him being part of the EU and NATO. He shouldn'T be afraid of Putin, but he is, very much, because he has something which could destroy him in an instant, even 30 years after Hungary said forever goodbye to the Soviet Union. My mom abandoned all hope of things ever changing in her lifetime (for the better) 13 years ago, and man, i don'T feel even half as bright about the future as she did my age.

[@chebysh8047]

The difference is that in post-Soviet countries politicians blamed Russia on the situation, and in Russia they blamed the USA and their “advisors”.

[@Adam1K750SvK]

Same as Robert Fico in Slovakia, sad :(@@oliverpapai6011

[@calicocat8213]

​@@oliverpapai6011In his youth, Orban was actually a so-called "dissident" and a Soros scholar.

[@luisvera8283]

Good video! I was a foreign student in the late 80s and finished my studies in Moscow in 1993. Those were shocking times. I remember hearing few Russians in Moscow admire Fujimori shock therapy in Peru, now he is in jail for crimes and murder. Later, I was able to visit and lived in other countries like Switzerland, Canada and USA for studies and work. I keep saying to myself that unfourtunately money is more power than solidarity among people.

[@TsugMt]

I keep hearing peolle say that we are greedy by nature...But if the game forces you to be greedy then it's no surprise people focus more on themsleves rather than helping others. Because it means that under our current system we are hurting each other Because that's the only way to move forward in this system.... I don't want that, in Mexico is the same, you cannot climb and grow ecnomically unless you are corrupt and corruption here in Mexico has killed way to many people.... I really think we need to change the way we do things like...Now, start talking to others about new stuff we can try, let's build something new instead of being miserable and stuck in this hole

[@spanishb1]

@@TsugMt mexicos problem is the culture not the economic system.

[@TsugMt]

@@spanishb1 It's thinking that we are gringos when we are not....And mind you, at least we have a culture unlike white gringos..... Our culture is about family...Is that bad? Our culture is about being open to other people's preferentes, be it as sexuality or just as liking something as simple as anime.... Our culture is about food, music and tradutions, is about making fun at EVERYTHING....Is that bad? We're not perfect, we still need to grow a lot but I truly think as mexican that one of our main problems is trying to think lile gringos, that more money and material is the goal in life....When that's bs....Financial stabiltiy is important but there's a difference between putting yoir entire identity in money and using money as means to have a chill life.... So yeah...Your arrogance is inpressove

[@TsugMt]

@hchdh The arrogance of thinking you kniw more about your culture than me is just....Such a grungo way of thinking....You're not the police of the world, and if we as mexicans choose a more socialist approach to our economy pkease leave us alone, we don't want your "freedom", we want something better for our communities and country and that is clearly stop thinking like gringos.... Greetings

[@spanishb1]

@@TsugMt lmao aww man you’re just a kid. I won’t be mean or rude then…. But Mexican culture is DEFINITELY NOT open to “sexuality” whether it be the lgbt stuff or like free and open sexuality, lol 😂. Btw I’m not a “white gringo”, don’t be so emotional in your response immediately throwing insults. Mexican culture is family centered with a light hearted approach to life which I very much like. But there’s definitely bad aspects of the culture that are currently keeping it in a criminally controlled stagnant state.

[@isixqueenxofxmadness]

I'm chilean and I was born after the Pinochet era, but all of this resonates a lot with what happened in Chile. The shock therapy is exactly what happened here too, the USA conspired to make a growing communist government fail, with armed forces. All chilean people know someone who was "disappeared" by the government ater Pinochet took over. It angers me how, before Pinochet, education was free everywhere, from preschool to doctorates. Many older people here got their degrees for free, while people my age who managed to get into higher education are covered in crippling debt. And these same old people tell us that they got what they have by studying and working hard! That is just one example of how our country was messed up by the USA because they were scared of communism. The worst part is, most people here say we were blessed with Pinochets coup, because otherwise we would be living like North Korea or China or worse. Andeven with our recent constitutional proposed update, people voted to keep the constitution written during dictatorship. Capitalism has fucked this country over so much. Our productive sector is owned by foreign companies and the 0.1%. And people blame immigrants for not having jobs. I'm so angry, and I feel there's nothing I can do.

[@bogdiworksV2]

this all happened so that international corporations could suck the wealth from everywhere and leave all of us impoverished.

[@Ajolago1]

Here in Brazil happened the same thing: the left were growing fast, the country was getting more and more industrial, the salaries were raising, but USA and the rich financed a military coup d'etat to maintain Brazil the big plow of the central captalism countries. The scars never healed. Just when Lula and Dilma's goverment started to challenge again the rich and impose national sovereignty, another coup were done against Dilma and the liberalism with Bolsonaro's facism tooks place. Now we are trying to bring Lula back, but the wounds are still bleeding.

[@memeyartist5591]

i feel the same way. its like a neverending horror story of existential dread, and it feels like theres nothing i can do to break through this nightmare because we will always be oppressed.

[@bigmedge]

like most socialists, you live in a world of make believe . During socialist rule , Chile was dirt poor , almost completely impoverished , & had sky-high inflation . But within a decade of Pinochet's coming to power , they were by far the richest country in south america , with a massive middle class

[@isixqueenxofxmadness]

@@bigmedge Guess who was boicotting Chile so that our economy went spiraling down.

[@Captain_FAIL]

Moscow resident here. The more i live the more i hear people from all walks of life calling for violent removal of oligarchs,in light of peaceful protest doing jack shit, the incredibly passive population had finally grasped the idea that they have no power and are cattle to the upper class. One can only hope that whatever will happen it will lead to oligarchs,their loyal puppets, their friends and families,being hanged. They practically turned themselves into nobility once more, nobility that was killed and disenfranchised for all their wrongdoings,and it was completely earned. Now,they seek the same fate.

[@khalidhayat6461]

Bro same in pakistan but worse in your country at lest putin has some control over them but in our country they control everything. Imagine only a handful of 20 to 25 families controlling the fate of 230 million people

[@Captain_FAIL]

@@khalidhayat6461 A decent pack of families straight up pulls the strings of globalised world structure itself, so its not that hard to imagine. Dont know much about Pakistan,wont lie,but all i can hope for is for you people to have easier access to weaponry than we ever will, better to try and die gun in hand than to live like this

[@LeftistUprising]

Hello Capital-Fail!!! I hope for the same things as you, and I hope that it inspires the world.

[@MrBassmann15]

I hope you take your country back. Glory to the Freedom of Russia Legion.

[@dirk-jantoot1029]

And if you finally manage a violent removal of oligarchs another socialist system is installed and you get another communist dictatorship again. Then it falls apart again 60 years later and the cycle repeats.

[@truthisfree7297]

Sadly, the US had an unfortunate role in shaping Russia into what it is today. George H Bush and the neoliberal policies that he and Reagan had been fleecing onto America for nearly a decade, were forced on Russia as well. Gorbachev wanted to transition Russia into a social democracy like Sweden or Norway, but the Bush administration pushed for full on unrestrained capitalism - the shock therapy as you put it.

[@Fillipok]

Rather, the United States was upset that it was not possible to completely destroy Russia. Ideally, Russia should have completely lost its political independence, turned into an exclusively raw material power and consumed American goods. I think the American authorities regret that they did not completely destroy Russia. And the lives of Russians are not the concern of the American Empire.

[@RosenetTV]

You've got to be kidding me. Clinton was President during most of this time. He effed it up.

[@Hamletbls]

Especially after the Pizza Hut ad, it is hard for me to believe Gorbachev is anything but a selfish sell out

[@heavysmoke1124]

Интересно читать все комментарии под роликом. Ни кому не пожелаю пережить 1990-е годы

[@АндрейРосовский]

Да, но увы, троллей с гадостями в комментах тут тоже хватает.

[@MultiHotFlash]

@@АндрейРосовский большинство из них просто не понимающие люди. Для этого и создан канал - для просвещения.

[@RustedCroaker]

Да. жопа была. хоть и детство.

[@Andrew-di7zz]

сейчас еще хуже

[@idopshik]

Да Лёшу навального вытащить с тюряги, и привет 90-е. Может и Кириенко сможет справиться, кто знает.

[@Bearded.Nobody]

Currently watching as my country's (UK) government collapses in on itself while they desperately try to preserve (and increase) the wealth of the ultra rich. Thank you for all that you do, love your channel! 🧡

[@sahar1213]

damn, stay safe

[@lovemusicbandchorus]

Sad part is, idk if you're talking about russia or the US

[@altosack]

It’s not clear where you’re from; there are many contenders.

[@sahar1213]

@@altosack i guess you could include England in that list (i live there)

[@Bearded.Nobody]

@@altosack It's the current UK debacle I'm talking about but it seems that capitalist governments in general are having a pretty rough time rn 🙃

[@copper4842]

When we were taught Russian history in school (I'm Canadian btw) they start in the late 1800s and carry on to the dissolution of the USSR. There is nothing covered after that. I forgive the textbook for not having more, it was years out of date and printed in the early 90s. I'm pretty sure the curriculum hadn't been updated since either, which is disappointing. Nothing we were taught about Russia covers these years and it's very much a blind spot in my understanding of the world.

[@Magnus730]

I became a socialist fairly early as an American and became very interested in the USSR. Which I think is sort of natural given my father was in the military and I was born the year the USSR fell. But it’s a love hate relationship with me as a historian that focused on Soviet and American history and the relations between them. Every time I read or hear about the destruction of the USSR I’m increasingly more infuriated with the United States. It’s also a mix of grief which is odd to me because I don’t actually have any ties to the Soviet Union.

[@sasho_b.]

Communists arent sad for what was, but what could have come to be. There are dozens of swatikas that litter my block. Would they be there had there been a system of education to give those who drew them some brains? I would like to believe so.

[@irinaenglish1111]

As a Russian it’s hard to watch this 😢although I was born in 1996, but I remember my childhood being poor and my mum and the whole generation suffered physically and mentally. Imagine your country just ended one day

[@MankindDiary]

To us, Poles, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a moment of joy. Probably not only to us, but to the entire Eastern Europe that Russia kept as their satelites. And now, thanks to the ongoing war that Russia started, this state will fell once more.

[@konstar6471]

@@MankindDiary Soviet Union liberated you from the nazi occupation (nazi wanted to destroy all poles like jews, gypsies and russians, but for your country Stalin = Hitler, and that's why you destroy monuments to the soviet soldiers). Soviet Union helped you to reconstruct Warsaw. On a soviet spaceship first citizen of Poland came to the space. After that USSR has fallen. Western capitalists destroyed Soviet industries, robbed russian resources, and that's why past 30 years were an age of unstoppable growth of consuming in EU and USA, when in Russia tens of millions of people lived in poverty. And when Russian economy started to grow in 00s, and RF has going to become an independent center of decision making, USA started to see in Russia a competitor. After that USA started de-stabilising post-Soviet states. Revolution in Georgia (after that started war in Abkhazia in 2008); 'Maidan' and, after that, civil war in Ukraine, started by ukrainian nationalists - successors of nazis; NATO expansion and nuclear weapons on a russian border - USA are guilty in war. Russia is right, and that's why Russia will win like 80 years ago. Russia will fall only in your dreams, my polish comrade

[@MankindDiary]

@@konstar6471 Soviets attacked Poland alongside the Nazis, killed thousands upon thousands of Polish intelligentsia ans military leaders. They've rebuilt Warsaw, although they could've stopped Germans from destroying it in the first place. To Poles, Soviets are just occupants and enemies of the Polish nation, we have few things to be grateful, and tons to resent and hate them.

[@danghoangluong2942]

@@konstar6471 Who invaded Eastern Poland in 1939 from 17th September? Did USSR save Poland from the Nazis or for themselves as a buffer zone.

[@danghoangluong2942]

@@konstar6471 Russia as a competitor for US? Lol.Russian economy smaller than that of South Korea.

[@katenpp]

Let me say an a Russian, this is incredible! Great summary, analysis and historical information. I will be saving it and sharing it with my friends who don`t know or understand the modern Russian history that well. You are doing a really great job!

[@SecondThought]

Thank you so much!

[@ВовнМорковн]

@@SecondThought can I ask you to watch a recently released animated film from a group of enthusiasts called The world we lived in( class struggle ror everyone)? This is their first attempt at making a video entirely in English. The rest of the films are still in Russian and they are very popular in the Russian-speaking segment of YT.

[@vadimk3484]

@@ВовнМорковн I second your request. That film is targeting an international audience (it's even dubbed in English on a very good level), and it's generally pretty darn good, so it would be great if JT and other English-speaking comrades watched and shared it.

[@argonaut5617]

Катя, вы, видимо, совсем молоды. Ещё раз скажу: вас программируют так же, как программировали советских людей, затем новых россиян, затем россиян постарше. Калька одна: старый руководитель в России - негодяй и заведомо действовал антинародно. Если вы не знаете, и советы сто лет назад пришли с такой же пропагандой. Затем меняли друг друга, убивая предшественника. Если вы действительно хотите разбираться в нашей истории и почему так много таких странных событий произошло за последние 40 лет - изучите, кто таков был Косыгин, как устроена плановая хозрасчетная экономика, чем известен МакКарти, кто такой Чазов и почему при нем генсеки и министры умирали пачками. Очень просто послушать о том, что один человек был ужасным негодяем, и все проблемы из-за него. Только вам не кажется странным получать такую информацию из Соединенных Штатов, ведущих с нами холодную, экономическую войну, а теперь уже и прокси-войны? Подумайте ещё раз, Катя.

[@argonaut5617]

Это война, которой уже более 100 лет. Было бы удивительно, если бы за 100 лет соперник не начал вести активную пропаганду.

[@anastasia7091]

Thank you for this video. As a person from Kazakhstan, it made me tear up 🥲 I know that my grandfather, who was WWII veteran and a committed communist, simply couldn't stand the collapse of the Union and soon passed away. Everything that they built with such sacrifices just fell apart before their eyes.

[@keiralum1797]

Stay strong, brother, we have to continue their fight.

[@anastasia7091]

@@keiralum1797 thank you ✊🏻

[@cratergaje]

Fuck communism.

[@bigben9056]

you realise that that holy Union was build on blood and suffer of milions,that was way worse then all that shit

[@cratergaje]

@Omar Khurshid it was over way before you were even born.

[@uberfeel]

My colleague is from Russia, when ever we talk about life in the 90's he physically looks disturbed because both of his parents were engineers during the soviet union and when it collapsed they lost their job in 1992. His parents had to sell almost all of their belongings so their 4 children don't starve. His family moved here in Spain, in the late 90's. He told me there was a old joke during that time and it goes "What did capitalism accomplished in 1 year, what communism couldn't do in 80 years? It made communism look good"

[@MJ_Convey]

I was about to say “somebody read The Shock Doctrine before making this video” then dude quoted Naomi Klein. (Claps of approval)

[@SecondThought]

It’s a great book!

[@MJ_Convey]

@@SecondThought yes it is. I’m about midway through. Reading about Sachs’ start destroying the Bolivian economy.

[@MJ_Convey]

@@PutXi_Whipped I definitely have my issues with Klein. I don’t really keep up with what her and Sachs have been up to recently.

[@LancesArmorStriking]

@@MJ_Convey Sachs (maybe not, since he has lied for appearances before) seems to have turned a new leaf-- spoken out about Russia's 30-year long warnings not to expand American military access to its border

[@BTin416]

I was about 10 years old when the Soviet flag was lowered during the Christmas season in 1991, and I remember that video clip you posted of the flag being lowered as it happened, live (or at least, freshly broadcast soon as it happened if not live). This, along with the first Gulf War coverage, are some of my first lasting memories of political issues, ones that I actually remember without having to see a history text. I became a teenager in the early 90's and was a very early online-Internet adopter, and some of my first chats were with people who lived in the eastern bloc soon after its fall. When I was chatting in 1994-1995 as a teen, I quickly came to understand the story from people who actually lived in these systems were vastly different from the western media storyline, including the Tom Brokaw/Peter Jennings/Dan Rather reports of the flag coming down and the world being a better place because of it. I think it was a unique time in history, because when I got online access and my own personal computer in 1994, only several months (24-30 months is a raw time frame for such a transition) had passed since the systems had changed and I had open unfiltered access to IRC chats and newsgroups of people who frankly and openly discussed the real differences fresh as it happened. Most of my experiences were not talking with former Soviet citizens, but rather East Germans and some others I got to know from Hungary and even Romania, as well as Yugoslavia. There are so many people who have experiences that do not match with the western storylines and "education" we received while I was growing up in North America. One thing I quickly learned is that all the eastern bloc people who immigrated to the United States and other western countries tended to give horrific accounts of the oppressive systems, and these are the people we westerners grew up listening to through our media. But these immigrants are people who left those systems specifically because they hated them, they shouldn't be relied on for an overall account. These were the less than 1% of populations in those countries that worked hard to escape, so they could market/sell their "horror" stories to doting western ears and media outlets eager to report for views and ad revenue. These are not the stories we should use to get a full historic context if we're looking for facts. Many of these people are ego-centric money seekers who want to get fame and fortune by marketing their "horror" stories, and western media were all to quick to give them a platform. In contrast: the real, genuine people I met online living in the eastern bloc, who didn't want to leave, gave accounts of how horrible the transition was and how they were better off before the fall of the wall. What I really came to understand is that the failure of the eastern bloc wasn't economic. They actually lived quite well, there weren't shortages of everyday products at the levels we westerners were led to believe (by the 1980's even most Soviet citizens could own a car, automobile production had ramped up so significantly in the 1970's that the years-long wait lists were over with; a used car was relatively easy to get with no wait by the late 1970's), what really was the downfall of the systems were their social controls and lack of mobility. Pensioners could travel, but adults below that age couldn't. I also came to understand the horrific photos of food shortages, stores with empty shelves, and etc. were real photography, western media weren't lying when they aired the pictures. But they didn't give context. Those empty food stores were mostly a post-communist phenomenon. The flies hovering around putrid meat droppings in broken fridge machines in stores from the 1990's was the result of shock therapy and conversion to capitalism. EVERY SINGLE PERSON I chat with in the 90's who was in a communist country that had access to the new Internet phenomenon reported the same thing: stores were actually stocked in the 80's, not with as many goods, but stocked to the point that people had what they needed. What we were seeing was what capitalism did after the fall. Western media didn't report that, they gave the context to believe that people were starving for 70 years (not true) and failed to explain they were going through what shock therapy devastation did in the 90's. That was the big "western lie" we were fed. And the 90's were a period of extreme arrogance, the western view was absurdly high and mighty. Those were interesting days to live in, and mature into adulthood in. I'll never forget it. It is my belief that if eastern bloc leaders would have been more into mobility: kept the border open to travel, reduced unnecessary social controls (which did fail), these systems might still be alive today. For example, China has had open mobility for most of the last 50 years, after a thawing in the relationship in the 70's. China still exists as a fairly socialist country. From the people that lived in the east and stayed and wanted to make it work, all they wanted was to travel across that wall to West Berlin for a few hours then go home. Or travel to Paris or somewhere for a bit and go home. They didn't want unregulated, skyrocketing rent and absurd prices on necessary items. Bananas were scarce in the DDR/GDR, for example, but that's because western governments and corporations dominated banana growing regions of the world. If the border were open, the eastern bloc people would have been more angry at western governments with blockades and sanctions and hoarding goods, rather than their own governments that couldn't change the western behavior. That's the sentiment I gather from those who actually lived those systems. Most all of the people in 1989 that showed up to the Berlin Wall did so because they wanted mobility and travel, not because they were seeking to destroy their system. They wanted to be reunited with family and friends, not pay 100x more for housing. The wall DID need to come down, but not for the reasons people often think. But the west soon took over and didn't leave people with the choice. I've learned to talk more and more about these issues, because now that I've turned 40, I realize that people won't know these things unless we talk about them. And when I die, so will the stories I got from that period. The more we talk, the more we inform, the better off we'll be.

[@GalacticNovaOverlord]

Do those computer chat exist somewhere?

[@BTin416]

@@GalacticNovaOverlord Only in my memory. I had no idea of the historic context at the time, I was just a curious teen, interested in politics and culture at an early age. If only I had known to keep those chats from the day. Most of my interactions were with university students who had new access online (it was new for both westerners and people who lived in eastern bloc countries at that time), back then news groups and IRC was the big thing, the forms of social media we have today like the controlled environments of Facebook, Twitter, etc. are not the same thing.

[@florin-titusniculescu5871]

... all those moments , lost , like tears in rain yes sir , we will lose them , unless somebody invests a lot of money into gathering firsthand accounts into a huge Book Of Eastern Europe Transition Into Regression . from the former eastern bloc , my account is : those years were utter shit . from 1980 on , our elites , communist just in name , started to get their agenda from elsewhere . much of the funds they got from international trade , they funneled them into secret funds they got to use after 1990 . thus they started their own capitalism by stealing huge amounts , and then they took over the East , just by ceasing to do their job as state administrators , letting the country ruin and fall prey to anybody who paid them . much like a safari , where the rangers take a toll from the poachers and let them hunt at will . traitors within , that is . people of eastern europe don't fancy socialism anymore simply because they know that the socialist second-rank elite themselves ruined their countries willingly for a decade and then let the people fall prey to all sorts of modern slave masters . let's admit , the EU actually brought back a slim shade of socialist control , if only to avoid revolution , but before year 2000 it was all hunger games in the east . that's why easterners hate Russia : because they hate imperialism . and they like the EU just because it's the closest to socialism thing that's available . and we don't trust our elites at all just because they're literally the ones who owned that safari not so long ago .

[@mariusro1987]

China ? Really ? China that obligated people to make children ? People who died during Mao ? The killing of uygurs ? The prostests at the Polithenic University ?

[@michaelotieno6524]

I have similar memories for a 9 year old African watching the Berlin wall fall on CNN in 1989. I remember asking my dad why they had to destroy the wall instead of using the gates. As for shock therapy most Africans understood very well IMF/WB policies of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) which meant higher taxes and lower wages and privatization. Most government agencies were closed leading to massive job loses in the mistaken belief that smaller and private was better. That was 30 years ago we privatized our power generation and distribution utilities, when we realized the same was a mistake we had to incorporate new 4 utility companies. The reasons - in power generation the utility remained a monopoly in private hands that sold 100% of the power it generated. As an example it was making a profit of 10 million USD a month as the population grew it had no incentive to build new dams or power generation plants because such plants cost 800 million and the private shareholders would not agree to forego profits for the next 10 -15 years until they recoup the cost of building the power plant. It held back manufacturing and economic growth.

[@UdarRusskihPudgei]

The most prominent person behind shock therapy is Jeffrey Sachs' very own 'chicago boy' Yegor Gaidar. He was the one behind the process that was called 'the liberalization of prices' in late USSR. The scheme was following. During the late 1980s, when Perestroika was announced, soviet citizen were allowed to open their private companies, including private shops and stores. But the production of goods was still in 100% government hands, or better say, in hands of directors of government plants. It was common for a friend or a relative of such directors to open a private shop, and the plant started selling their goods not to a government distribution network, but to such a private shop. However, the prices were still controlled by the government, so state shops still got some leftover goods. Then, in 1990, the government announced, that the 'liberalization of prices' is coming, meaning that all government restrictions on price formation would be lifted in near future. This 'near future' lasted for almost a year, during which all plants literally stopped selling their goods, waiting to sell them at a new price. This even led to food factories throwing away their product to maintain the demand. This was the time, when major part of photos with empty shelves were made. You often see them today as a depiction of flawed planned economy unable to produce. Then, following the 'liberalization', the price for food and other vital goods skyrocketed. This effectively swept most of soviet citizens' savings in one year, and the inflation during 1990s killed the rest. Then came 'loans-for-shares auctions', which were used to split the state production facilities among few private owners, who made their money during Perestroika and early 1990s. You can find them in Russian Forbes list now - they're like 95% of it.

[@urrich5747]

Hold on, comrade! Let me just add that all citizens’ deposits in the state bank were stolen by scammers who, among other things, used these funds to seize the means of production.

[@Y_U_K_A]

i was born in USSR in 1974 and your video is the story of my life. hard life. thank you for helping people see the real face of capitalism.

[@asbest2092]

the crisis of 80-90 was started by the planned economy and stopped by capitalism. Just learn the history and don't prate nonsense.

[@Y_U_K_A]

@@asbest2092 ahha)) i was on your side before i learned the history.

[@asbest2092]

@Porky Propaganda pfp=your opinion is invalid. And I don't have an opinion, only facts.

[@asbest2092]

@@Y_U_K_A My side is the side of history. What books about the topic did you read?

[@Y_U_K_A]

@@asbest2092 are you kidding me? I see with my own eyes 3 factories in my city collapsed after perestroika. i see people work on outdated equipment and receive pennies for this not the huge salaries that they were paid in the USSR. i see many factories in Moscow have turned into business centers, clubs, exhibition halls, etc. they were built under the planned ecpnomy and fell apart under capitalism. how can a country prosper if production has been destroyed and only resourses exports remain? How can a country prosper where education and medicine are destroyed? Go around Russia and look at the situation. everything prospered during USSR and now these are deserted and dilapidated cities and deserted villages. start reading about Khrushchev to begin with. That's a lot of books, I won't list them. Maybe then you will understand how and why planned economy can become inefficient and what destroed my country.

[@noheroespublishing1907]

Teacher -"What did we learn today children?" Children In Unison - "Never let Pizza The Hutt take over your country."

[@Jinx-iw6zb]

one simply cannot out pizza the hut

[@Fallout3131]

@@Jinx-iw6zb facts 😔✊🏻

[@samtorruellas2879]

@@Fallout3131 so true king

[@pauljimerson8218]

He did eat himself to death ☠️ thpugh

[@manjelos]

And put pineapples on your pizza 😂 🤣

[@juzojuzo1806]

JT really is showing his hand and power level more and more lately, figured your audience is ready for it after you covered the basics? :D

[@RealNeutronStar]

From a libertarian point of view I don't agree, but Capitalism has problems, but not many, and State Capitalism even more! 🔥

[@komisar1568]

@@RealNeutronStar thats why we're communists and not state capitalists!

[@komisar1568]

@Hattie Lankford true, didn't notice at first, thanks.

[@jamilifunk6199]

@@RealNeutronStar Spoken like a bot.

[@komisar1568]

@@WampusWrangler That is in reference to the NEP, a temporary period of capitalist development under a dictatorship of the proletariat, to eventually advance into socialism

[@LogicGated]

That damn Gorbachev Pizza Hut commercial always gets me lol

[@Psyolopher]

It's so awful! xD

[@inbuckswetrust7357]

Imagine what kind of clown you have to be to dream in a pizza commercial being the secretary general of one of the most powerful countries in the world. Gorby was only a puppet of those who ruined the USSR no more. Like today's many presidents of countries ... They are clowns and nothing more.

[@Asrahn]

One of the more interesting things Parenti noted was a phenomena he called "cultural penetration", where western media, popular culture etc was allowed to paint an idealized picture that was entirely missing any of the actual downsides of Capitalism, to those living in Communist countries. Particularly pertinent was a radio interview he recalled, where some Polish factory workers were being interviewed, and when asked whether they were fine with the factory firing some excess workers (Communist countries often over-employed as to reduce work hours etc for individual workers in production) they nodded along and agreed that it would be better if things got more productive, efficient etc. When asked whether they'd still be fine with this matter if those workers who were being fired were themselves, they responded: "That's alright, the state will find new jobs for us." There's no job guarantee or similar safety nets built into Capitalism. It's worth noting how many of those who were actual proponents of a transition to a Capitalist system were utterly bereft of an understanding of how things actually worked under it. The rude awakening for those poor individuals must have been even more devastating, all things considered.

[@PapaphobiaPictures]

I think this is massively understated and part of the reason China has been relatively more successful. Soft propaganda projecting this idealistic life of the US and West more broadly and the fun of consumerism without showing the drawbacks, the poverty, etc is incredibly tantalising to a population that may be comfortable but yearning for more. By China inviting in some levels of consumerism they effectively cut off the upper middle class and upper class youth from looking to the US if they want opulence. Instead China can have those elements of consumerism and continue to sledge the increasing poverty in the US

[@LeftistUprising]

I'm astonished why there weren't people's revolts AGAINST capitalism in the former USSR. Also, i've seen nations divide over religion (ex. India in 1947), language (Pakistan in 1971), and other reasons. But I've never heard of a nation that split up because they all wanted their own Pizza Hut!

[@morro190]

And yet the living standard in the most successful Soviet states never reached a comparable level to even the poorest 1st world. Thats nice that people were given the jobs by the state, but those jobs payed very little compared to their capitalist counterparts.

[@zanesmith7727]

@@morro190 the cost of living was also significantly lower during those times in those countries. The same can be said for China today

[@morro190]

​@@zanesmith7727 And yet the closest the Rusisans came to America was in the 1970. While the HDI of the soviet union rose after the 40's, the people in the Soviet union never had the mobility of the capitalist countries. West berlin always performed better than East berlin and you can just ask the Germans who lived under Soviet rule.

[@TylerCWilliams]

Yeltsin was a horrible man. I can't understand why someone would destroy their people's high quality of life for cheap personal gain.

[@WebertHest]

I mean he is also quite crucial for the dissolution of the USSR not turning into a civil war.

[@Praisethesunson]

The check cleared and the liquor was decent.

[@RealNeutronStar]

From a libertarian point of view I don't agree, but Capitalism has problems, but not many, and State Capitalism even more! 🔥

[@nathanbrady8529]

In the United States, we would rather see people die than have the medical industry miss out on profits.

[@targe4070]

He got put there by CIA, to turn Russia into Gas station for EU.

[@radopon]

"Everything the Soviets ever told us about Communism was a lie. Unfortunately, everything they told us about capitalism was true." *- Russian joke*

[@Vsenorm]

Lol, there is no such a joke. The joke is "everything the Soviets ever LIED about the capitalism was TRUE"

[@lorsheckmolseh3345]

A plagiarist, rapist, racist and police snitch come into a bar. The bartender asks: "How is the new book going, Mr. Orwell?"

[@Anuclano]

​@@Vsenorm No, I heard the joke only in the variant by @rozod3135 (about socialism and capitalism)

[@OneFreeMan17]

@@Vsenorm LOL try harder next time, American Ignoramus 🤣🤡

[@allygotchannel3563]

Gorbachev is one of the most hated politicians in Russian history, if not the most. To the extend they love him in the West, he hated in Russia with passion.

[@林遼太朗-w2e]

But I think most of catastrophic things are caused by Yeltsin. Gorbachev is likely to wanted democracy with socialism.

[@hawaii5078]

@@林遼太朗-w2eGorbachev is the same a Yeltsin, the only thing is that he needed a discourse to convence people from he’s interests, with the Gorbachev plan done Yeltisin just needed to execute the real thing behind all that “better socialism” defended by Gorbachev

[@Domzdream]

So glad to see your channel growing and growing! Honestly, it’s one of the few channels on KZbin who tells it like it is, unapologetically.

[@SecondThought]

Thanks, I do my best!

[@leftykeys6944]

@@SecondThought -- You are amazing.

[@RadikalBanal]

@@SecondThought i once again offer u to translate those videos to the german audience!

[@Domzdream]

@@RadikalBanal Why? A perfect opportunity for you to learn English - the most common and widely used language throughout the entire world.

[@RadikalBanal]

@@Domzdream i speak english. i just want to provide a german translation to those who don't.

[@ilyatsukanov8707]

Incredible video; can't believe this kind of alternative perspective has reached so many eyeballs in English language KZbin. Thank you for your work. Literally millions of people died prematurely in the 90s and 2000s across the former Soviet space. And then some wonder why most people hate Gorbachev and Yeltsin as much as Hitler.

[@MarinKa214]

When the current regime falls, some who believe in television may have a heart attack.

[@markvolkov7744]

only commies hate gorbachev and yeltsin as much as hitler

[@mweskamppp]

Well, much less died than with Stalin at least. And they died because of the old russian problem - corruption. Putin got big because he managed to get his fingers on some decent donations from the west, when he was in StPetersburg. Stealing it from the starving babushka. With that he started his mafia network that is still in power, after he ousted Jelzin and his mafia network.

[@ilyatsukanov8707]

@@CousinBowling Ok thank you Dennis Prager.

[@SB-ok3xc]

Gorbachev was kidnapped and then forced to resign to avoid a civil war in Russia, he tried to save the USSR territorial integrity and its economy trough a smooth transition to social democracy during a period of reforms. He was a great man with excellent ideas and he's not to be blamed for the fall of the USSR.

[@Fire157_]

Man... I've been looking at the history of Russia for a while, and i must say, Russia after 1991 is a tragedy... Just that, a tragedy

[@liberty1827]

There was never a period of time in Russia when it wasn't a tragedy...

[@Future183]

The times befor werent really better

[@АндрейРосовский]

@@liberty1827 I do not want to disappoint you, but people under socialism lived much better than in Russia now and better than in the nineties.

[@liberty1827]

@@АндрейРосовский Жил я на Дальнем Востоке при социализме. Не лучше.

[@АндрейРосовский]

@@liberty1827 А я там жил в нулевые. И многие говорили, что при СССР было куда лучше чем тогда. Про сейчас, вообще молчу.

[@donnadong5837]

The USSR was born from the most noble human idea, crumbled from the most despicable human desire

[@j.ceasar]

Oh come on! Peak USSR saw the most suffering a "developed" nation has ever seen. There was nothing noble or human about the USSR during Stalin.

[@j.ceasar]

Just look at what the USSR did to people in the baltic states. They have preserved the soviet torture chambers that were used to try to keep the population controlled , so you can still go there and see for yourself.

[@klnsbl]

@@j.ceasaroh don't give me that, the usa today has a higher prison population than the ussr at the peak of stalinism. look at the 13th amendment, where it explicitly states that slavery is abolished, except as punishment for a crime. suddenly it makes sense why so many people get imprisoned.

[@yusouph2002]

​@@j.ceasarthe most rapid economic development was in the Stalin era. And that despite the World War, which took out the lives of 27 million people.

[@yusouph2002]

​@@j.ceasaryeah, look what the USSR did to the Baltic states. Not that it literally built all of their infrastructure which they use to this day. The baltics were literally dotation regions meaning they weren't self-sufficient and relied on the dotations from the center which USSR fulfilled. Also USSR never forbidden their language or national culture (that was an official policy in any SSR, not only in baltics). Yeah, those horrible times...

[@jasondrummond9451]

There is a large section on Russia in Naomi Klein's book 'The Shock Doctrine'. Tells the sad story of Russia and shows that it is part of a pattern that has been repeated across the globe.

[@melikechoc0]

If anyone wants another book like it, Washington Bullets by Vijay Prashad is another good read.

[@Midekai]

I'm so glad you have been covering Russia. The western world never gets a wholely accurate and truthful depiction of Russian history.

[@DrCruel]

Not getting one now. This is like listening to National Socialists blame WW II on the Jews.

[@DajaSlovakia421]

@MDKAI - not even the Russians themselves know that. Then they would not be able to admire their murderer of 30 million people, Stalin. Russia has always had a dictator. Why?

[@DrCruel]

@@DajaSlovakia421 Because they had the misfortune of transitioning from monarchy to socialist aristocracy, much like China.

[@asbest2092]

>"comunism killed the ussr" >truthful description Are you mad?

[@Midekai]

@@asbest2092 super mad bro. I need help. dose me with that capitalism.

[@eduardocolombres6717]

As a latinamerican citizen , Still Is hard for me magine you ,a US citizen, trying to speak about socialism to your society. I honor your efforts on such challenging taxi. Congratulations!

[@ОлегШелухин-ь8э]

Ого! От иностранца я такого анализа не ожидал.

[@antonstepbystep]

tbh I admired by my parents whom grown me in 90-s, many people died from starvation, organized crimes and drugs.I remember how we planted potatoes every year, then we were eating potato almost literally everyday until next year. Thanx my Mom and Dad, and other parents which were able to grown their children in those hard times.

[@22bendavis]

9:06 where people are wandering at an outdoor market surfaced a memory for me of my high school March 1995 visit to Moscow. I had totally forgotten about a time we visited an outdoor market like this nearby to our hotel. I thought nothing of it at the time, but realize it likely was a direct effect of shock therapy and the recent transition to capitalism. Amazing to be able to tie this interesting topic to a long forgotten memory.

[@russellhare3110]

Naomi Klein also wrote a great book about shock therapy, called the shock doctrine. It will give you a lot of understanding of how neoliberal philosophy was implemented but it's also quite disturbing because it was all so fucked up

[@izzmond3676]

Amazing book, might be the ultimate takedown of Milton Friedman and neoliberal philosophy

[@argonaut5617]

Thanks Russell, I want to read it.

[@Dogen70]

Will soon read

[@marcbuisson2463]

The biggest problem over what happened in Russia is similar in other european countries. The problem were not only the content of the reforms. But even worse were the political figures from the old soviet/communist establishment who implemented them. And did it the way they used to do things in the USSR. Using these changes to take a share of the cake. There are countries where the privatisations went well. Poland, the baltics, Czechia, Hungary. The common factor between them is not only that they did a milder version of the shock therapy. But that the entire old establishment was ousted and replaced by genuine political opponents. Not always immensely memorable people. But citizens with no political backgrounds. With professional but especially human qualities. What lacked in Russia, in ex-Yugoslavia, or even Romania or Bulgaria was a political clean up *before* the shock therapy. People like Merckel, Vaclav Havel or Lennart Meri were never given the possibility to take the leading roles in Russia or Serbia. Or perhaps even to be more precise, the most important were not these *people* but the political groupes of human rights, ecologists, journalists and researchers they represented and were put to power. These were not regime's apparatchiks.

[@nuvisionprinting]

Also a great documentary. Shouldn't be too difficult to find on youtube. A bit over 1 1/2 hours.

[@DeTofuKing]

I never knew any of this and never felt as much anger over capitalism as I do now.

[@gr4tisfaction]

my condolences

[@keycypress13238]

i only feel despair

[@j.ceasar]

Capitalism saved all of the eastern European soviet satellite states from russia, so that's a very good thing.

[@yukiakito3083]

@@j.ceasarsave from what? A stable life?

[@someonelivescash]

it only gets worse, i promise. capitalism is a cancer

[@Fair-minded.]

I was born in The Soviet Union. Thank you for your analysis. For English speaker it is very accurate non-biased. Subscribed. Best regards.

[@Rai2M]

"not biased" you say?

[@Hys-01]

@@Rai2M thats exactly what he said. Probably one of the most unbiased youtubers in this neoliberal hellscape that is youtube

[@owenlindkvist5355]

@@Hys-01 That's some bullshit.

[@owenlindkvist5355]

@@tomassakalauskas2856 He's basically a simp for communism.

[@ritemolawbks8012]

@@owenlindkvist5355 That didn't sound anything like attacking, or being biased against the West. You might need to spend more time learning how to properly use the words "communism" and "simp."

[@jackfordon7735]

I'm American, but I studied Russian at university, have spent a lot of time living and traveling around the former USSR, and am now a certified Russian language interpreter. It's incredible how much my view of events in the post-Soviet space have changed since learning the language and starting to hear first-person accounts of what life was like in the USSR. No matter where I've been, whether Siberia, Moldova, Ukraine, the Russian Far East, quality of life seems to have significantly decreased for people. The exception to this being Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but even there, many people struggle to make ends meet. There also seems to be a collective trauma amongst older people who have lost their homeland- I remember being on a bus with an older lady in Moldova, we had to stop at a checkpoint on our way to Transnistria, and she said to me "Как же грустно, раньше это все было одной страной, сейчас нас разделяют границы"- "It's sad, this all used to be one country, but now borders separate us." She was on her way to visit friends in Ukraine. Beyond becoming just poor, the region has become incredibly unstable. All of these recent conflicts, from the breakaway States of Transnistria and Nagorno-Karabakh, to the wars in Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine, all are direct or indirect consequences of the country's collapse. We really are spoon-fed propaganda in the West, and ever since the war in Ukraine started, it seems to have accelerated. People acting as if this conflict just came out of the blue, and not just a domino effect of the devastation this part of the world has experienced since the 1990s...

[@marinakaverina2864]

That is so true. Thank you for sharing. I’m one of those many people missing their home. My birth certificate says USSR, it’s so dear to me, you can’t imagine

[@vadimk3484]

@@marinakaverina2864 Same here. I was an infant when the USSR was demolished, but I grew up on Soviet books, and I'm incredibly pissed that our generation is forced to work meaningless unsatisfying BS jobs, mostly limit our dreams to a new gadget or a vacation trip to Bali, and be thankful for this largely pointless existence. In my early teens I thought that we might get to see a city on the Moon before we die. Nowadays I'm dead certain that we won't see one, and I'm not even sure if we'll even get to grow old and die from natural causes.

[@jmlkinc]

Except Ukrainians are no longer systemically murdered like they were during the Holodomor. Ukrainians were always abused by Russia. And now they are genocided by Russia. Fuck Russia.

[@BTin416]

Spot on: in 2022, some 30+ years after communism ended, people are doing worse today than they were under the old system. I think we've had enough trial and error to know capitalism doesn't really work for most people in the globe.

[@BTin416]

@Dmytro My words are my words, I never said what you wrote. I can speak for myself.

[@richr0b375]

In my history class (I live in the UK) we started a unit on the cold war and in the first lesson capitalism and communism were defined to us, capitalism was defined as "a system where everyone has a say because of democracy, and people enjoy many freedoms and wealth", then communism was defined as "where there is no democracy and everyone is poor. Many people starved under communism". I shit you not that's what my teacher said to a class full of impressionable children, it just makes me really angry that propaganda reaches to every corner of society, even education.

[@eladpeleg745]

Your teacher was objectively right ...

[@McHobotheBobo]

Oh it's in the children's cartoons and sitcoms, the West is a Panopticon with hidden chains.

[@DnBreakcoring]

If you believe in communism then I'm sorry but you're the one that's easily impressionable

[@davidjackson9680]

@@eladpeleg745dude if I’m gonna be tucked over at least I know who’s doing it and only have one person to blame there’s no one to fall back on in a dictatorship so in a way corruption is much less prevalent cause there’s really no way to have power besides being Joseph Stalin

[@eladpeleg745]

@@davidjackson9680 Corruption is less prevalent in Communism? Umm hard no. The whole point of Capitalism is that no one has the power to central plan the economy so we the people can vote for what we like. In communism those who get benefits are those who have ties to officials. It's probably the most corrupt system... I'd say

[@Humanistic_]

I remember deducing (early on in my studying Marxism) that the stereotype that Russians love to drink vodka came from normalization of this shock therapy period. Many Russians turned to alcoholism to cope with the turmoil

[@costasakellariou3530]

My friend Rory Peck, a film maker, was killed in the fighting outside the Ostankino television building in the fighting in 1993. It really made my day to come across your channel in this time of near black out of news except the daily talking points of Zhelensky...Very clear and on point throughout...

[@deifieddata4462]

I wish there was a way to make the average westerner even moderately curious about this subject

[@theatheistbear3117]

Capitalism is good. Neoliberalism is terrible. Communism is worse.

[@donaldhysa4836]

Its the average western that flirts with socialism so he can have another Holomodor on their side of the isle. THis guy aint from an ex communist country if you havent noticed

[@krejados1]

It's all in who you read. Malcolm Nance insists the Russian oligarchy was made purely out of Russian greed and a lust for power. He completely overlooks the IMF and World Bank's roles in devastating - and then, shaping these countries. By contrast, Naomi Klein lays out a fact-based, annotated narrative that describe what JT just talked about. (I suspect, for brevity's sake, he had to limit his topic to Russia. In fact, the IMF and the US deployed Shock Therapy all over the world.) Nance, a 6-generation military man, rah-rahs the US and everything it does, no matter how destructive. Klein, a Canadian-born activist (and female!) is given nowhere near the platform or credibility. Incidentally, neither are Chris Hedges or other such voices. If you're only ever fed one perspective, would you have any reason to believe there might be another?

[@warrengraham5145]

Right? Like you have to learn stuff the hard way before you can really uncover the festering filth boiling beneath the surface. People don't question things, think for themselves. Exactly why videos like this are important.

[@MrBassmann15]

Most of us already know about this.

[@tribinaaux4043]

East Germany, Czechia and Poland are closer to the centre of global capital accumulation, if they were farther away they would also be piss poor. DDR, Polish and Czech Republic's industries were also decimated in the 90s, they switched their economies to service and financial capitalism instead of producing real goods

[@samisami-qb5tl]

Hungary too. But we dont forget it and dont kissing @$$es of George soros. But you do

[@vzoryan1769]

this center, I assume, is somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

[@fainelia]

Thanks!

[@chrisgaming9567]

A video on advancements in scientific fields (such as zoology) in socialist countries would be cool

[@accountrandomnumber182]

No, biology ratio

[@Big1nz]

Cuba's lung cancer vaccine would be a interesting mention.

[@RealNeutronStar]

From a libertarian point of view I don't agree, but Capitalism has problems, but not many, and State Capitalism even more! 🔥

[@yosawin3018]

Zoology? Like those cute somewhat domestic foxes from Novosibirsk? Haha, that said, many achievements of socialist nations are quite impressive, even though some might be limited by ideology like the stupidity that was Lysenkoism.

[@hunterfinan7585]

@@RealNeutronStar here is the leftist response to the state capitalist claim, if you are at all interested!

[@susim4503]

The more I understand about who, how and why things have historically happened, the more rage I feel. Rather than the people responsible for so much suffering be held accountable, they are rewarded. I can see the same rage everywhere now. I just hope when it all implodes, we can build something better.

[@DipayanPyne94]

Plato, my favourite human being, if I am not mistaken, talked about the problems with privatisation, more than 2300 years ago. So many of his points are spot on !

[@MeepChangeling]

We can't. It's too late. We don't have power anymore. Just fucking accept this and move on.

[@susim4503]

@@MeepChangeling Yeah, that is what the aristocracy thought. Without us, their power is meaningless. They are going to block meaningful measures to address climate change. That means that our economies, governments and current societal makeup will fail. Their power over us will disappear. We need to be ready to pick up the pieces. Move on to what?

[@americancommunist6076]

@@MeepChangeling found the fed

[@mikhailalmaz]

In other words Stalin = good (he was not worse than Churchill, so westerners, who will talk about the western bs numbers, which are anyway wrong, stfu), Gorbatshov = bad, Yeltsin = bad

[@michaaa9813]

so much love for you and your content, i recently discovered your podcast and i love listening to you three! ❤️

[@SecondThought]

Nice! So glad you enjoy it!

[@НастяТерещенко-я6м]

Greetings from capitalist Russia! It's very nice to watch such videos, and the fact that there are people all over the world who understand the situation!

[@KVPMD]

Even in East Germany we still try to process as a society the shock therapy we had. In a way this was the most alike to the SU as we also lost our country (thought not breaking into peaces but being united with the Western states). And even with a lot more safeties due to the West and also money for a build up (over 2 billions were transferred even though of course a lot got back via "investors") the impact on society was devastating. I can't imagine how much harder it must have been in Eastern Europe and especially at the core of the economic region, the SU. Shock therapy was no therapy at all. It was a bulldozer flattening all existing society. But there is another thing to know: capitalism tried things on the East they knew the western workers would not accept. Later parts of the changes went on to be implemented in the whole of Germany. And for all that it drained a lot of money from the state. What a masterpiece of capitalism.

[@argonaut5617]

Now the sincere answer made by you, so thank you for it. What about the therapy: as the saying goes: "don't treat me". Hold on! Best wishes!

[@vadimk3484]

Given that the DDR was a large country, how much influence does the ideological legacy of socialism have in modern Germany? Is there a considerable amount of nostalgic/positive opinions, or is it mostly "gulag red scare" stuff? Also, have the people from the ex-DDR completely integrated into modern Germany, or is there still a line of some kind between the former "ossies" and "wessies" (hope I got the jargon right)?

[@KVPMD]

@@vadimk3484 You got the jargon right. It is really complicated. Gulag and red scare is not a big thing, especially as there were gulags only in the SU. Here it is mostly about the "Stasi" and it's mass surveillance as well as the wall and missing democracy and freedom of speech (which are all valid and don't get it wrong: The GDR socialist party was morally bankrupt, it was no question the GDR needed a change). There is quite some positive view on the GDR nowadays, especially in the east. This is true for multiple fields including but not exclusive to: - Child care - Healthcare system - Recycling - Low social division and cost of base living - Parts of education - Women's rights On the other hand we had: - Really bad environment - Desolated economy overall (with good parts but there were to many areas with dysfunctional central command economy) - Mass surveillance - Missing freedoms (speech, media, music) If you find some you can get a really good view on the inner split in the people by Rammstein interviews on matching topics. They are all from the GDR but went to the US shortly after reunification. They were punks in the GDR, some were not allowed to play at all. If at all then often in churches (which sounds strange today). The GDR viewed such people as dangerous. Still at least some of them see it very ambiguous, miss the security and the order (to fight) but also the anarchy that can due to social safety (no unemployment for example). Overall the eastern population is well integrated. Germany is divided in regions anyway (Bavaria, Coast, Rhein-Ruhr-Area...) and cultural divers. On the other hand they are still heavily underrepresented in media, economy, military, justice, universities and so on. But it starts to change now that the first "Change" generation comes to power age (~40). This also drives the rethinking about the merging and how to use the best of both lives. Biggest political problem is the noticable drift to the far right in the crisis, first in the 1990s (multiple well known murders / riots), with a mixture of crisis, western media and a destroyed police. Then again after 2015 with the AfD attacking the refugees and later corona management. They have far more success in the east (about double the strength). This is by far the biggest danger for the East itself but also for the unity of Germany. But also the former state party of the GDR still exists and even leads one of the German states, Thuringia, but their prime minister Bodo Ramelow is indead from the West (Hesse) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodo_Ramelow In 1990 many people thought the unification would take only years and East Germany would flourish within 4 years. That didn't happen and the shock therapy was one of the reasons. But after it was mostly dropped in the East and on the other side a light variant established in the West in ~2000 both came closer. East Germany made some noticable investments since the late 1990s including Dow Chemical in the Leuna area (the chemical industry center of the GDR), the success of Jenoptik (Jena) growing from the GDR optic specialists, Solarworld (destroyed in the 2000s solar crash, now solar comes mostly from China), cars (BMW, Porsche) in Leipzig, Silicon Saxony in Dresden (Bosch, AMD, Global Foundries) build on the rests of GDR chip maker Robotron, Tesla (biggest non US factory, near Berlin) and just now Intel (biggest investment in Germany since the war) in Magdeburg. Also the nothern part of the East is one of the leading areas regarding renewable energies. Berlin (West and East) grew to be the cultural (arts, music, especially clubs) and political center of the country but also has a lot of digital start ups. Regarding media and sports the East does ok though football lacked financial power over a longer time. But where money is not so important (most other sports) the structures from the GDR still work and brought Germany a lot of Olympic metal. There are no bigger private media in the east but there is still the public broadcasting. This is still a big problem. Regarding acters the GDR made very good education (the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Busch_Academy_of_Dramatic_Arts is still with high level today) so they are present in German TV and movies. For music it's overall the same. The East have multiple incredibly successful band so overall it's at least balanced (Rammstein, Kraftklub, Silbermond, Tokyo Hotel). As said, it is complicated but it is on a good way now that the East established / establishes it's own subculture and get's back on it's feet and gets also more (positively) present in media due to the generational shift our biggest problems are the age (so many young people left in the 90s and / or did not make children) and the far right. So overall I am optimistic.

[@vadimk3484]

@@KVPMD thanks for clearing things up! It's nice to know that Marxist ideas are still popular and that not everyone is zombified with stone-age nationalism which the fascists and other bootlicks of the bourgeoisie are force-feeding to the public from every type of media known to man. Rot Front!

[@erinmcdonald7781]

I knew you also experienced upheaval in East Germany, but didn't understand the particulars. Thank you for sharing, giving us in the US a glimpse into how things really were. I know I remember being excited about The Wall coming down, opening up and reunifying Germany, but I naively didn't understand what effects that would actually have on people's lives. I haven't been able to make it back, but I was happy that my son was able to go to visit, getting to experience the cities in the East, as well. May we all seek our common ground and stand against the rising right together. 💜✌️😎🍀

[@judgemcnugget7110]

Hey JT, i LOVED the statistics you put onto the screen and i think you should do that more often. For one, it helps to remember the data and secondly we can take screenshots of it to remember it better, too.

[@SecondThought]

Thanks for the feedback! I’ll keep that in mind

[@squeezter]

This is literally the most accurate video about this time period from a non-russian in english ive ever seen

[@kurtcobain3720]

A friend I made during my college years told me about his father surviving this disaster and ultimately fleeing to the US. He said people in Russia began to say, "Everything they said about communism was a lie but everything they said about capitalism was true."

[@petrsukenik9266]

It was not, just russian transition to capitalism was plagued with corruption so much it resulted in catastrophe But look at Czech republic, in communist times, we were russian pupet and life was no so great Now, after transition to market economy, minimal wage here is higer than aweradge wage in Russia Don't look just at Russia to judge transition to capitalism, look at nations russia was colonizing

[@keiralum1797]

@@petrsukenik9266 because you are closer to metropoly and you participate ib co-expluatation of weaker countries.

[@petrsukenik9266]

@@keiralum1797 LOL, no

[@petrsukenik9266]

@@keiralum1797 imagine beliving russia is not exploiting other nations

[@kakoypsevdonimlol]

@@petrsukenik9266, lol, today you are american puppet. Did you needed to made accent on your position in politic? For some reasons, many citynes of countries of the formed socialist bloc believe that with the collapse of USSR, they position in the world is changing. They believe that they countries are now sovereign, than now they are not used as springboard for military equipment. And in fact, you have changed the owner, that's all. But you still living in illusions of «freedom». Yes, american occupation, of course, is muuuuuch softer than soviet, in which the czechs were crushed by tanks. The memories are fresh and therefore it is clear why now you consider yourself as «protected not-a-satellite». But it will hurt to destroy illusions.

[@Bread-O5-3]

As a Russian myself, I completely agree. My parents used to live in luxury but later both had empty stomachs. (English isn't my first language, sorry if my grammar is off).

[@almendra_od]

Were your parents living in luxury in USSR? My grandmother had an income of almost 200 rubles which is way above the average wasn't enough to raise her 2 children on her own

[@danielrumbo343]

I'm sorry to hear that mate. We all humans

[@ronald3836]

Both your parents must have been elites of the Communist Party.

[@ronald3836]

@@almendra_od Party elites were doing great in the USSR...

[@markznet7757]

@@almendra_od Maybe his parents were from kommunist Nomenklatura. They truly lived in luxury while most of people lived in poverty

[@philcollins5457]

“About as medical as a bath with a toaster” sent me, what a metaphor. Thanks for this, JT; unsurprisingly as someone in Americaland, lots of this was new to me.

[@emiliaerle6030]

A "shock therapy" - a neat name for accumulation by dispossession, which is a neat name for stealing

[@BizzeeB]

"Capitalist Realism" by Mark Fisher is a great, concise book on this issue.

[@georggator9948]

Thank you J.T, great video, on point, because mostly not even Russians remember what happened. The educational system also played a huge part, since no history book from any post USSR contry says anything remotely negative about the dissolution and all the people affected by it to this day. Most of the times it is just trying to cover for their own mistakes and straight up crimes with saying: ooh but the goolags, I'm goolagiiing.....

[@LancesArmorStriking]

Part of this is also the parents (now boomers) doing their best to shield their children from the horrible reality. There were some things they could not hide, like not receiving wages for a year(s), but they tried to make their childhood pleasant still. Of course, because of that the newer generation does not care, or believes that the boomers are over-exagerating. Their good deeds will never be appreciated as they should..

[@ilyalead4blade897]

thank you for your work of bringing the truth to the westerners. I was born in the USSR in 1989 and I've seen this poverty with my own eyes. the 90s in Russia were disgusting to say the least

[@lochnessmunster1189]

But are things worse in 2023 than they were in the 1990s?

[@ilyalead4blade897]

@@lochnessmunster1189 of course things are much better now, but the price paid for the switch to capitalism. while major western media demonizes Stalin with his "millions" killed in "gulags", they don't seem to care about actual millions died and suffered due to poverty, unemployment, gang wars, rise of nationalist movements, the millions you can actually see in the demographic pit of the 90s

[@retroas2683]

​​@@Cocoisagordonsetter I'd say Putin brought at a cost of liberahs who did nothing but being parasites on a country, so it's really not much of a cost. And Ukraine actually went to Chechnya and were cutting throats of civilians making the conflict worse that needed. Why do you think chechens are so eager to fight in Ukraine? They remember Ukraine banderites well for being Nazis.

[@thequant2817]

Finally a video about Russian 90’s that makes sense. Thanks a lot for this video. You have no idea how tired I am from western Gorbachev’s idealization.

[@hurremhightower]

yeah if it wasn"t for tankies maybe the state capitalism in ussr would still be here

[@guy-sl3kr]

@@hurremhightower Western oligarchs are tankies now? Goes to show how little this word really means lol

[@hurremhightower]

@@guy-sl3kr i mean tankies are f*scist so um take it how you want

[@guy-sl3kr]

@@hurremhightower Western oligarchs are fascist, I agree, but the leaders of the USSR definitely weren't. I think you're using the word "tankie" differently than everyone else haha

[@ViribusTheMapper]

@@hurremhightower The tankies that sent in the tanks were the supporters of Yeltsin that shot at the parliament in 1994

[@Bored4280]

As Anatoly Chubais (main liberal ideologist of privatisation in Russia) once said in interview - "for Jeffrey Sachs privatisation is a classical economic process of reallocation of resources in more effective way, but for us in first place it was a final nail in a coffin for communism, we were ready to give property for free, even to pay extra, so there could be a class of owners"

[@Janokins]

You really did summarise that pretty quickly about Gorbachev resigning. He was essentially tricked / coerced into doing it by Yeltsin, who then proceeded to mess everything up big time... to put it lightly.

[@ApollyonZKX]

This video honestly makes it easier to understand why Russia is the way it is now.

[@macrumpton]

And why the US is the way it is as well.

[@mrparts]

It’s more like Russia or whatever political entity is in power in that region never really changed from what it’s always been historically . But sure blame others, europe, IMF the West etc.

[@nirmalkumarsharma95]

Betrayed by the west always.

[@romanchannel69]

@@macrumpton let's compare average salary in the US and Russia then

[@arsic094]

@@mrparts Of course one should blame the US and it's puppets. They did all in their power to pull all Russian pathologies to the surface. Not blaming West perpetuates the idea that you are good, blaming only Russians perpetuates the one that only they are evil. For us in the rest of the world there really isn't much difference between superpowers.

[@CommonVVealth]

Honestly, its weird (in a good way, tho) to see an accurate take on these events from American. Not trying to offend anybody with this, just stating the truth - not many on the other side of the ocean ever tried to think twice about what they were told about this time in history of Russia. I am Russian myself, i experienced all this firsthand, and i can tell with confidence, it is pretty much on point... So cheers, my friend. Can't say i had fun recalling it all, but it is an important lesson for us all, Russians or not - one we should never forget.

[@ronald3836]

People in the West are well aware that the 90s were a disaster for Russia (and other former USSR countries), in particular because of how the economy was "privatised" and fell in the hands of a few oligarchs. However, we are also very aware of the empty shops and long long queues in the USSR in the 1980s. The USSR had no functioning economy anymore when it collapsed. One way or another, the collapse was inevitable.

[@CommonVVealth]

@@ronald3836 Fair enough, USSR's economic model was very outdated and needed a lot of work, but that wasn't exactly a secret back then. It was a work in progress, and, even tho i still despise Gorbachev for all his misdeeds, he did few things right. There was a chance to make it more open and diversified, similar to what China have now, but alas, it didn't work, mostly because of very active greed of selected few who knew how to exploit the system barely anyone in USSR had any knowledge about. I am not saying it was all the fault of some malicious foreign power, we still did it to ourselves and shouldn't place any blame; i am saying that other countries should learn from our mistake and do it right - hopefully it will work someday for someone else.

[@abetterfuture4787]

13:12 "I don't think it's being a wacky political extremist to say that an international organization paying for a country to change their economy is maybe not the most democratic process" I'm glad we can agree that the World Economic Forum are a problem.

[@madskristiansen]

This might be too much to ask of you, but could you make a video talking about all of the major socialist/communist states in the world through history? I mean talking about how they succeed and fail in the promises of socialism and democracy. I really would like to hear your views on the states of Cuba, China, USSR etc. Both their good and bad. I agree with your criticism of capitalism through history, but I would like to hear your take on socialism through history also. It is probably too much to ask, and would likely take several episodes.

[@joeblow3990]

Socialism means that the means of production are owned in common. In no country in the world today are the means of production owned in common. Not in Cuba, not in North Korea, not in China. In all these countries there is a despot that runs the country in dictatorial ways and just claims that the country is socialist. And you are the idiot that believes their lies and thinks that the system in those countries is "socialist".

[@yuliusseraph4973]

I think it's out of scope for this channel, as it main goal is being a gateway to baby leftists. viki1999, Hakim have done good videos, Luna Oi as well, she focuses on Vietnam, her home country

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

@@yuliusseraph4973 You forgot Socialist Swann, he's done some good videos on East Germany.

[@madskristiansen]

@@joeblow3990 What country is and isn't "really" socialist is a very difficult question due to the interpretations of the ideology. I come from Denmark, which along with the rest of Scandinavia has a long history of socialism and strong socialistic policies (free education, health care, strong unions etc). I did not say I personally thought my chosen examples were perfect socialistic democracies, I just asked Second Thought's opinion on the matter. Please refrain from insulting people in the comment section. You come of as mean.

[@independentthought3390]

​@@madskristiansen Scandinavian countries are the true socialist countries (or social democracies, if you like that term better). USSR was a totalitarian horror show of the communist party, nothing to do with real socialism.

[@HistoryforThinkers]

Rich people in Russia: oligarchs Rich people in US: job creators

[@feister2869]

Job creators who don’t let their workers piss.

[@bootstraphan6204]

"Job Creators" who lay off tens of thousands of workers on a whim ...

[@Y0NI]

Job creators who rather would you starving homeless then paying a single cent to you (if they could)

[@missk1697]

Rich people in China: Industrialists, technological innovators

[@solankijimmy]

@@sterlingmarshel6299 B B B Bootlickerrrr

[@alals6794]

Whoa... as a well informed American I have long known about the "untold history" of the Cold War and the restoration of capitalism in the former USSR but did not believe that such a source of this material would exist on youtube, owned after all by Alphabet, a mega capitalist creation. This is great stuff, and a new sub.

[@theunkindnessofravens]

As a Russian, love your video, it’s well-researched and put together! Thank you for you hard work on this one. I think the crisis in the ‘90 also led a lot of people who lived through it, to be glad and happy about Putin’s reign, because he talked a lot about stability, making change for the “small man” and “making the country strong”. I’ve even heard my own mother defend him because “he is better than what happened in the 90s”. Which is … messed up, honestly, since he did not deliver on any promises and consolidated his power to extreme on the backs of people who STILL live below the poverty line or slightly above it.

[@c4explosivesinyourcartrunk817]

If putin let go of power in 2010, he'd be considered a genius. If putin let go of power in 2014, he'd be considered Russia's magic man. If putin let go of power in 2017, he'd be feared forever because of what he did in the 2016 US elections. And then.....this shit happened

[@ЛягушонокЛёша]

Все верно сказала :)

[@fepeerreview3150]

Hitler's appeal to the Germans of the early 1930s was similar. This was before it was obvious how cruel he really was. He offered Germans a sense of community, pride and strength. Together they could bring Germany back on its feet and recover its economy and its place of power and respect in the world. That was his appeal. But he, of course, had his own plans. And those were the plans he carried out, only for the Germans to suffer death and destruction. This is an old lesson, one that your mother's generation should certainly have learned.

[@carl4243]

They elected putin because of USSR nostalgia, due to the brainwashing and programming of the USSR dictatorship, russians didn't bother deposing putin because of the old USSR doctrine of shut up or we will send you to the gulag policy which putin perfectly instilled.

[@AstroAndi]

Yeah, making the change for the small man, like drafting them into a certain death war.

[@yemax85]

All that is true. Greetings from Kazakhstan, former USSR republic. Thank you, comrade!)

[@СоняШарабакина]

привет последней союзной республике)

[@yemax85]

@@СоняШарабакина и Вам привет! Откуда бы Вы не были)

[@j.ceasar]

Poland and the Baltic states were very happy whe the USSR collapsed. They tried to escape communism for so long and the USSR just wouldn't let them.

[@marinaseaniez1287]

Love it! Fantastic description of how things have really happened. I wish more sources like your channel would be available and promoted to people.

[@tadeusz.kozlowski]

Dziękuję za świetny odcinek! Brakuje takich materiałów po polsku.

[@tadeusz.kozlowski]

@Porky "odrodzenie k." i sam p. Michał to patologia. Niestety

[@ВасилийСмирнов-ш3г]

Вы там ещё живые? Нам говорят, что левых в Польше больше нет.

[@tadeusz.kozlowski]

@@ВасилийСмирнов-ш3г есть, но не много

[@asbest2092]

@@tadeusz.kozlowski потому что поляки знают свою историю

[@tadeusz.kozlowski]

Капитализм достучиться до самых упоротых, не беспокойся

[@2298839082508923859]

There's a joke over here in russia, that became quite popular in recent years: "Everything that communists were lying about capitalism, was true all along". Looking at soviet propaganda posters about "american imperialists" is like looking through your window or at your phone screen. Both side are doing this crap now. Common people do not like all of this madness, but distrust to each other was (and still today) so ingrained to people at 90's, that they are literally scary to collectivise against it. All of this is quite saddening and depressing...

[@IgNantTelevision]

Right wouldnt a person transitioning from a capitalist framework also experience shock therapy

[@carpo719]

both ideals fall short

[@a_man_from_nn]

А всё, что коммунисты говорили о советском социализме, было ложью. Именно так.

[@sergeiepatov7683]

@@a_man_from_nn False. Everything that capitalist Russia still has and still capable of is just a Soviet time inertia. Heavy industries, United electrical systems capable of transporting electricity by 10000 km, steel, grain, fertilizers, other commodities and fundamental assets. Saying that communism was a lie is pure consumerists BS.

[@TeeDee87]

best way to go is somewhere between and from russia you don't need to go far to find out what is it.

[@GrgLuz]

American here who watched it happen in the 90s. So sad when I saw it unfolding, I especially remember people getting the company "shares" while wealthy people offered them a good price for something that they didn't really comprehend the value (most having just exited the soviet economy) but knew they get a little more food in the moment. Regular Americans never wanted such a faye for the soviet people.

[@MarinKa214]

And if from pluses? Soviet citizens have never tried burgers, they did not know the taste of chewing gum. They were given the opportunity to dress the way they dressed in the West, they began to drink Coca-Cola. Although I know that the Soviet people still looked to the West, after the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Western fashion slowly began to take root, for example, there were dudes in the USSR. And somewhere since the 80s, Western culture, Western values, the promotion of sex began to penetrate ... Something like that.

[@kakoypsevdonimlol]

...«never wanted»... ehehheehe. «good communist is dead communist», remember? :)) This is what you chanted right after the WW2, when these «fucking commies» knew the hell that you americans would never have known and, i pray for God, will never know. At that time, the "communists" did nothing to you. Don't make excuses or whitewash yourself. You've always been like this. always wishing for us the most bad things.

[@kakoypsevdonimlol]

@@MarinKa214, то есть, жвачка и бургер - это плюсы 90-х? На фоне всего того хаоса, голода, войны, разрухи, нищеты, повальной депрессии? Ну зато жвачка есть и кока-кола. Ну зато мы дружим с Америкой.

[@MarinKa214]

@@kakoypsevdonimlol Плюсы - свобода, не было роста цен, заводы ещё работали, хочешь на завод, хочешь иди в бизнес. Закон о свободной торговле вам что-то говорит? Работать не пробовали?) Это любимая фраза кремлёвских троллей. Нищета возможно была в начале, меня ещё тогда не было. Про плохие 90-е - это всё пропаганда. Я просто интересуюсь, поэтому такое мнение. Сейчас у людей нет никакой свободы, её отняли, раньше были умнее, сейчас деградировали. Москва одна процветает за счёт регионов. Поэтому адекватные жители не любят ни город, ни её жителей. Там с жиру бесятся. И да не крутили раньше гайки, чем сейчас. Сейчас нет надежды на будущее, а раньше у людей была, что настанут лучшие времена. Просто чем отличаются 90-е, от нынешнего времени? Практически ничем, меньше прав, отсутствием свободы, отсутствием промышленности, бандиты в органах на законодательном уровне прессуют граждан. Это всё показано в мультфильме "Незнайка на Луне". Не должны люди так жить!

[@nataliaamelina4803]

@@MarinKa214 detka, yesli tebya togda yescho ne bylo, kak ty mozhesh rassuzhdat; o tom, chego ne videla i ne ispytala? Ty vidat; iz mazhorov

[@francescoresente6913]

The fall of the USSR is the greatest tragedy since WW2

[@dkblack1289]

TJ you are an absolute genius. You have the voice, the tone, the humour, and the substance. This to me is THE FIRST UNIVERTY OF SECOND THOUGHTS and I am willing to be its fisrt student.

[@SecondThought]

You’re too kind 😁

[@svrnclv]

I'm glad you didn't let Sachs off the hook and held his feet to the fire on this. Keep up the great work!

[@angiebear8727]

Ty for this and also regularly explaining how socialism and democracy are more compatible then most Americans have been taught(mostly through fear)

[@AmosArtmaster]

“Mccarthyism” and “The Red Scare” make sure of that sadly.

[@angiebear8727]

@@AmosArtmaster exactly and that’s just the giant tip of the iceberg. They made any economic system besides capitalism synonymous with dictatorship and theocracy in the minds of most Americans

[@vadimk3484]

In fact, the collapse of the socialist bloc proved that socialism must be democratic in order to exist, and that the people must actively participate in political decision-making, because otherwise, if governance is delegated to an "elite" of any kind, then socialism is doomed. The universal responsibility to participate in politics under socialism is actually pretty self-evident even from the basics of Marxist-Leninist ideas, which basically outline a communist society as a collective of equal free people that team up for mutual benefit.

[@n6rt9s]

Socialism is democratic by the very definition. USSR was not socialist, but rather state capitalist. Instead of a few billionaires controling the economy, you had a few party members doing it.

[@vadimk3484]

@@n6rt9s that's not true. State capitalism is when most or all means of production are owned by the government, but at the same time the mode of production is capitalist - with exploitation, labor market, extraction of surplus value, profit as the main goal of the economy, and a few filthy rich bourgeois as the ruling class. The USSR did have a progressing problem with democracy after the war, which ultimately lead to its destruction, but it was certainly not a capitalist country, since it lacked the most crucial elements of capitalism - there was no labor market (employment and an adequate salary was guaranteed by constitution), the industry wasn't working to generate profit but rather to produce stuff according to plan, and the ruling bureaucrats didn't privatize surplus value generated by the industry. Yeah, sure, those guys in the end turned into traitors and formed the new class of bourgeoisie, however while the USSR was still standing, ruling bureaucrats were only hired managers who worked for a relatively modest salary. Brezhnev didn't own a 500-foot yacht, and Gorbachev didn't have a palace with a golden toilet in it, like modern oligarchs do. It was socialism, even if it had large flaws and failed in the end.