Soviet Bread. Shopping For Bread in the USSR. Prices and Types of Bread

Bread making and selling bread goods in the USSR. Kinds of bread the Soviet people could buy. Bread prices in the Soviet Union. Government subsidies for bread goods. Bread shortage in the Soviet Union.
My books about arriving in America are available on my site:
www.sputnikoff.com/shop
Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC
"Ushanka Show" is a collection of stories about life in the USSR.
SOVIET EDUCATION: • SOVIET EDUCATION
SOVIET LEADERS: • SOVIET LEADERS
CHERNOBYL STORIES: • Chernobyl's Dirty Litt...
SOVIET AUTOMOBILES: • Chernobyl's Dirty Litt...
SOVIET MUSIC: • SOVIET MUSIC
SOVIET MONEY: • SOVIET MONEY
SOVIET HUMOR: • Video
My FB: / sergei.sputnikoff.1
Twitter: / ushankashow
Instagram: / ushanka_show
You can support this project here: / sputnikoff with monthly donations
Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow

[@UshankaShow]

Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC You can support this project here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff with monthly donations Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/The_Ushanka_Show/

[@Donaldperson7]

Do a video on working girls in the Soviet Union? You know the hot girls that like men?

[@chazhoosier2478]

"Do you have carrots?" "No, this is the store with no meat. The store with no carrots is across the street."

[@UshankaShow]

Do you have any fish? That's actually how the joke went since we had stores called FISH and stores called MEAT. Carrots were sold in FRUITSV& VEGETABLES stores

[@ileanab9803]

In Romania everyone had bags made out of fabric. when plastic bags appeared people would wash them and reuse them over and over. we still have this habit of keeping a bag full of used bags

[@PNL-DJ-1]

My grandmothers would do the same thing. Waste not, want not!

[@Oryxification]

That's universal. They make great garbage bags.

[@hellion9547]

Yea, here to (Sweden). Also, plastic bags are now heavily taxed since the government believes they are a big environmental threat. You are forced to pay over 1€ for a single bag at the stores.

[@kiddankula5480]

@@Oryxification right I thought mexicans were geniuses when we reused bags

[@koolaidblack7697]

Bags inside bags is common here in some parts of the US too.

[@nakachangogo]

I'm a Japanese but lived in Soviet era Moscow (1968-72, 1978-1983) as a kid, I still remember how good russian breads were. My family used go to this large bakery store near our apartment and my favorite choices were handbag-shaped bread and sweet pastery with cheese cream which I think was very rare back then in Russia. By the way, we also went to Kiev in the summer of 1981, to visit family friend who was a ukranian citizen but his father was a chinese and mother was a japanese. So many good memories.

[@nakachangogo]

You mean photos of russian breads? I think there're photos of handbag-shaped bread but I need to search old albums at garage of my family's country house.

[@keithstark1]

nakachangogo it sounds like the USA Cheese danish, the sweet bread with cream cheese. They are also called cheese kolaches. Kolache bakeries have fresh ones that are amazing.

[@KaraCarsafliGelin]

That bread is called "kalach" kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnS1c3WZqb2pbJo

[@dennisyoung4631]

Was it made with Rye grain?

[@Yegorific]

When Sergei says the bread was good for 24 hrs, he means good for sandwiches. If you kept it in a bread box, or possibly in the fridge (nobody did this, fridges were too small and bread was cheap), it would stay a little longer, perhaps a couple of days. After this time the bread became dry like croutons, but was still safe to eat. Usually dry bread was crushed into breadcrumbs and added to ground meat (with egg as a binder) to make patties distantly similar to burger patties. The mix was usually seasoned with salt and pepper, possibly garlic, onions, and whatever else might be available, and softened with milk or other suitable liquid/semi-liquid dairy product. Then it could be rolled into balls to add to soup or stew, or shaped into fist-sized patties and pan fried. The patties could be served hot with potatoes (or similar hot sides), or cold on a slice of bread like an open-faced sandwich (often with a pickle). Alternately, the dry bread could be added to broth or soup. This was typically done for the sick, or children who were picky eaters. Soviet bread was engineered to sustain workers and soldiers, rather than to sit on a shelf. Most was leavened with yeast, often sour dough with lacto-fermented starter (for a nicer flavor). It tended to have a springier crumb (the inner part of the bread), and a crunchier crust. My family was also perplexed and disappointing by the tasteless, odorless, homogeneously textured mass that passes for western Sandwich Bread. Soviet stores didn't supply plastic bags, shopping carts (unless they were huge, or intended to serve a more privileged demographic like party leadership, or people in a secret city built for a strategic or otherwise important or dangerous purpose). The mesh "just in case" bag was for grocery stores, and people's markets where one might pick up a difficult to find item, something unusually cheap or high quality, or any other emergency/impulse item you might suddenly decide/remember you need. Pigs, once upon a time, were a semi-feral animal people all over Europe kept to dispose of food waste. Scraps left from cooking, something that spoiled, give it to the pig. The pig eats just about anything, and mostly doesn't get sick. In the fall, when the pig is usually grown up if it was young, and quite fat, you slaughter it and make hams, bacon and sausages of all sorts. This means you've collected all those calories from food waste in the spring-summer-early fall, and now have them available to eat in the winter (when the pig would be harder to feed anyway). The weather, at this time is also cooler, and excellent for salting and smoking meat. Pigs raised this way tend to have a lot of soft, velvety fat. Excellent for rendering into lard, or salting/cooking directly. In Ukraine and Russia (probably elsewhere as well), Pork fat is considered a minor delicacy. Other parts of the former Soviet Union prefer fat from sheep or goats. When Sergei says "one piece of bread per person", he means one loaf. Not one slice, or some portion of a loaf. Cutting the bread caused it to dry faster, so this was not usually done in times of temporary shortage. Shortages usually happened because there was some breakdown at the bakery, or the bakery did not get enough of some ingredient. The next few days was usually enough to fix the problem, or get supplemental shipments from neighboring bakeries. After WWII, famines became very rare in the USSR, though temporary shortages of almost everything continued to be common. Tvorog is a farmer's cheese, often made from sour cream. More or less, some sour cream could be added to heavy cream or even just milk, and heated until it curdles and separates into solid curds and liquid whey. The curds are then strained off through cheese cloth, and hung over a pot or sink for several hours to remove more liquid. Possibly salt could be added, and from there perhaps pressing and/or cooking could be done for more complex and longer lasting cheeses. But typically none of this was done. The result is fresh and milky, and somewhat tart. Sour cream could be used alone, Kefier or other yogurt-type products with or without sour cream may also work, and the addition of milk or heavy cream is strictly for bulk. Keeps for a few days to a perhaps a couple of weeks, suitable for sweet and savory dishes, probably freezes not too bad (may effect texture). The 3-kopek bulochki, were something like an artisan dinner roll. Perhaps slightly larger. If fresh, they made a nice snack on their own. Or could be eaten with soup, or made into a sandwich for lunch. Russians don't usually eat soup with sandwiches, because the soups are often fairly substantial and quite flavorful. Meanwhile the sandwiches were often less elaborate than some you might encounter in the west, especially in modern times.

[@Catire92]

Excellent comment. thank you

[@endcaps1917]

Sir this is the youtube comments section

[@noontimespender]

Ushanka Show is the best way to spend a Saturday night.

[@katehoctor9222]

I love this channel. It is the most honest, unbiased and legit information I can find about life in the Soviet Union.

[@UshankaShow]

thank you, Kate! Happy New Year!

[@mpingo91]

Here in Poland people of course buy bread in the supermarkets. But some make an effort and drive to the other city part to buy it in small traditional bakeries. The difference in taste is so COSMIC HUUUGE that I can't understand how some people can eat bread form the supermarkets. It's not because the supermarket bread is so shitty. It's just because the traditional bread is SOOO good.

[@curie3938]

My grandmother was from Poland, I remember her home made bread, I tried so hard to replicate it but never could. Some have told me it may be the flour was different or maybe the yeast. I so miss it.

[@mpingo91]

@@curie3938 Maybe there was no yeast at all. The best bread, and the Vilnius bread is considered to be such, is made with a sourdough base.

[@curie3938]

@@mpingo91 I had to look up Vilnius bread and I don't think it was that, mostly because that appears to be a brown or black bread. What I remember most is the yeasty aroma and flavor of the bread, it was also quite "holy". I need to use up some flour, so iI'm going to try out an artisan no-knead bread today.

[@dennisyoung4631]

Yes, *biodegradable styrofoam.* Of course, most “gluten-free bread” makes yucky store bread look good…

[@childofcascadia]

@Dennis Young "Gluten free bread" is an oxymoron. Its like saying "pebble free gravel". I once saw a forum post for someone asking about gluten-free shampoo. I laughed at them, and the person responded saying their son *needed* it because of gluten sensitivity. Im like...uh not how that works unless his head is made of intestinal lining.

[@lisaconnor4948]

I liked when you talked about your memories of freshed baked bread.

[@charlietallman9583]

Feeding pigs old bread was a thing in the 1970's in Indiana, USA, before factory farming became big. Very old bread was sold extremely cheap after expiration date from the Hostess and Dolly Madison bakery discount stores. Pig farmers would buy it by the truck load.

[@jamallabarge2665]

Where I lived we had a "discount store". Very poor people, like vagabonds, would buy day old bread to eat.

[@jamallabarge2665]

@@dkeith45 We used to have one where I lived. It was a Hostess thrift store. I used to buy old hostess pies, heat them in the microwave. Some of them are still on my fat butt. Today it's a brewery.

[@toomanymarys7355]

The discount store already sells expired but still good bread. So that had to be super old! Today, most pig farmers want to fine tune the diets of their pigs, so they don't like leftover food so much.

[@toomanymarys7355]

@@jamallabarge2665 lol. My parents were grad students when I was little, and we bought food at the day old bread store.

[@downychick]

My Grandpa worked at the Rainbo & later Dolly Madison bakeries until the mid 1980's. The outlet stores sold bread & pastries that were malformed or day old but still good. I do prefer homemade, of course!

[@687grayfox]

You know I never heard someone talk about the USSR who didn't have an agenda, it's really interesting to hear your perspective on things, and I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put all this together for us, even though I see that you catch a fair amount of flak from people who are displeased about your stories, for whatever reasons.

[@bumbul81]

I visited the USSR in 1974, and one of the positives I experienced was the simple sliced bread and butter served with our meals at our Intourisr hotels. It was simply outstanding, especially compared to the white bread I grew up on back in the States.

[@agbottan]

The crust of fresh bread is hard, but it's not "brick hard". It crumbles when you bite, so it works like a snack. My mom still makes bread once a week or two.

[@bluetoad2001]

excellent great photos of the old time

[@quadcannon]

Thanks for sharing all these memories, Sergei! I think it's important to preserve history and you're doing a FANTASTIC job of preserving that piece of personal history.

[@PNL-DJ-1]

Fresh, hard crusted bread is always much better than softer American bread in a plastic bag. In New Orleans, we have always had traditional French and Italian breads too, so we were spoiled compared to other Americans.

[@danner253]

Now I'm craving bread

[@paulaharrisbaca4851]

Ever read “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”? She writes about the joy about fresh bread and then buying day old bread to use to make certain dishes. Also a day old pie, for 5 cents or something (it took place in 1910).

[@toomanymarys7355]

They still called the discount grocery outlet the "day old bread store" when I was a kid. It mostly carried expired bread, but it had other things.

[@RonSommar]

I was born in the 70s in Western Germany and I remember that our bread changed from the early 80s on. It was small bakeries, high quality and natural ingredients based first and then quickly changed in the 80s to cheaper intraday baked bread mutants sold in super markets. Sad....

[@albinoman13bt]

One big thing I never realized till I began making my own was how plain bread here in the US is. Homemade bread is risen with yeast where sandwich bread uses baking powder, which releases CO2 when heated. I put on 10 pounds at first because it was so much better.

[@AllisterCaine]

It's quite typical for us citizens to be dumbfounded when they find out what bread is in basically the rest of the world. As a German (French, Danish etc) you just think "umm isn't it like this anywhere in the world?"

[@mikeischangingplaces]

The supermarket (bread isle) bread with a long shelf life is made with yeast. In fact, they add quite a lot of yeast so they shorten the fermentation time, which is one reason they have less flavor. The dough has a bunch of stuff added to keep the bread soft and mold-free for a long time. When wonder bread was new people loved it because of the convenience. I personally have only lived on the northeast of the us and there have always been bakeries around, but my understanding is that there isn't much of that in the middle of the country

[@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606]

One thing you have to remember pre sliced white “American” style bread was created to be cheap and mass produced it’s was never meant to be very flavorful.

[@roverworld7218]

Companero Ushanka: I did not live in a Communist nation but I lived in preNAFTA or pre1990s Mexico when it was a planned economy of a mix of government agencies, government funded companies, government sponsored cooperatives and private companies in which the federal government had some leeway in its decisions: banks were government owned and during the early to mid 1980s there was the "canasta basica" or basic basket of bread, milk, tortillas, rice, eggs, beans and several fruits and vegetables in which the price was supposedly controlled (though private retailers found a way around it) also you had a choice of supermarket chains that were private or government sponsored stores such as Conasupo, or you could go to the Market but that was in smaller villages and towns. And yes to this day Mexico is full of bakeries and even at big supermarkets you can get fresh, crusty hot bolillos, teleras or pan frances.

[@mayormc]

Thanks for the comment, I found that quite interesting.

[@daddybutterunboxings2180]

Are the poor worse off with more privatization. Your story can't help but remind me of venezuela, with trump attempting to take over the country with the government's continued price fixing and "starvation"

[@opl500]

Cornbread? You had - cornbread? In the south, your mother made that at home right before dinner.

[@erichouse6091]

opl500 yeah I’m about some flour bread with some molasses

[@f123raptor]

opl500 Believe it or not, Khrushchev was into corn. Like... *really* into it actually. Like, went on a corn crusade for over a decade, hardcore, into it.

[@bluewater454]

You are right about the bread here in the United States. It sucks. You have to go out of your way to find good bread, usually at a small bakery.

[@mayormc]

100% sadly true.

[@workshopwednesdaykaraokeev9643]

ya its terrible

[@653j521]

So go out of your way. The people in the USSR surely did.

[@Custerd1]

Silly Sad You have to search. I don’t think it’s really worth searching for kirpich, but I know where to find it in my area at a little Russian grocery. I think it’s actually baked in Brooklyn, though.

[@haidengeary8277]

Why is it sad you had to go to a bakery for good bread? Thats how most of the wold does it. Also, many grocery stores have bakeries with fresh bread. We have good bread, you're just lazy as fuck.

[@SgtRocko]

SO MANY MEMORIES LOL Awesome. When we took my Olga's mum to a Yankee supermarket for the first time, after she was able to come out of her shock from the sheer size/availability of goods, she insisted on buying a loaf of W----- Bread. Within an hour, she STORMED back into the store, threw about 10 loaves on the floor & stomped on them "THEY ARE NOT COOKED! WHAT IS THIS?" LOL Luckily the store manager dealt with this a lot & just laughed

[@johnorlitta]

Wonder bread? White bread? Wheat bread?

[@tiborpurzsas5465]

Same thing in Hungary pretty mutch ! They baked the bread at night or early morning ! In industrial sized bakery than delivered to stores around 9 or 10 am . My mother would send me every day to get bread throughout my childhood the price never changed it was all ways 3 forint 60 filler for a Kg. (A couple cents ) it was fresh every day and very delicious! I grew up to be a fine specimen eating it all my life

[@frejafan]

Everywhere in Europe it was like that. I remember in Greece every morning the neighborhood near the bakery was smelling of fresh bread. There are still bakeries in every neighborhood but the bread doesn't taste as good as it did back then

[@reddevilparatrooper]

The round bread with a hole in it are called Bagels here in the US.

[@joshuawright6086]

I would like to see a video about plumbers, electricians and other home improvement contractors in the Soviet Union. If something broke in your home or needed repair did you have to repair it yourself or with friends/coworkers? Or was there a government/communal service for this kind of work? I would appreciate it a lot if you could cover this topic. I'm sorry if you have already covered this topic.

[@natashka1982]

No, there weren't government contractors. Just regular professionals. And they usually took payments in vodka

[@agxryt]

This video makes me think of how much of human history revolves around bread... These days, we talk about not eating too much bread.... Back then, for a lot of people, bread would be the only staple food

[@Tavinho502]

Talking about bread. You brought to me a lot of memories. Im from Guatemala and every neighborhood has one or two bakeries. They opens around 6am with fresh hot bread closes at 9am and reopens around 4pm again with completely fresh bread. Like.you said no preservatives so they last the most 48 hours. When i moved to USA I was so disappointed that almost nothing is fresh and everything at bags or pre-frosen. Well you can't have it all. But dont get me wrong there are other things in USA that are very good

[@toomanymarys7355]

The bakeries in grocery stores actually do bake bread fresh daily. They cool it in the back before they sell it to you, because they usually put in in plastic. Check the dates to see when it was made to get the freshest.

[@toomanymarys7355]

Oh, and we usually have crema, too. The french baguettes are a harder bread than in Guatemala. Go for an Italian bread instead.

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi, very interesting, i grew up in Australia, but heritage is Greek, at are 10 i went with my grandmother back to her homeland for 3 months holiday. I distinctly recall waiting until 9am, and my auntie would ask myself and my cousins to go to the local bakery and get fresh bread, i think they start 6am and bread is ready by 8/9. The baker had a deformed or dropped loaf when baking, so he gave it to us for free, as you said the crust is very nice when fresh, we ate about 20% of it, but as the middle of the bread was soft we ate 50% of it. My uncle and auntie were upset and laughed that the free bread looked like it had been attached by mice Today, normal bread lasts 5 to 6 days and tastes like cardboard Today, fresh milk lasts 5 to 6 days and tastes like paint Today, cakes last 5 to 7 days and taste like wet cardboard with sugar Tomatoes taste like apples, apples taste like rocks, water mellon tastes like a wet kitchen sponge We call it progress Regards George

[@fefeg100]

Soviet bread - 1 USA imperialist bread - 0

[@Shonuff42080]

Try a real bakery lmao there even Russian bakery in the USA

[@timvanrijn8239]

Exual bread vs frozen dow bricks

[@JoJoJoker]

Only fresh food available in USSR was bread. We had amazing hand made fresh Italian bakery bread daily in NY.

[@JoJoJoker]

uncletigger yeah. The joke is the only food they had was bread.

[@Custerd1]

Except for “kirpich”

[@Attilah23]

Soviet bread=Sawdust...at least, that's what we kids thought in Hungary of Russian bread the soldiers ate... but they had wonderful teas with fruits cooked in it.

[@bettyswunghole3310]

The main thing I've learnt from the Ushanka Show is that all Soviet young women were very pretty!

[@tylerjirkovsky482]

I don't cair about hard breed as long as it's not moldy

[@bigdog4173]

well spoken,very informative thank you

[@ilyafilru]

I grew up in Soviet Union. There was a bread factory in my home town. My friend and I used to sneak in and steal fresh loafs of bread right from the conveyor belt. It was delicious.

[@avk100]

OMG Sergei, you can easily put Romania instead Ukraine and it was the same... It's like it was Copy-Paste habits beside (broken) political regime. Did you had back then cooking oil (sunflower mostly) pumped directly from a 200 liter barrel through a metal pump into half-liter brown or green bottles? How about the packaging paper white, brown or purple?

[@ileanab9803]

Listening from Romania here. the only market was the black market! :))))) but sounds just the same

[@TheBengalDragon]

That cottage cheese dessert sounds very interesting the one with the bread. Back in my country of Bangladesh we used to have cottage cheese desserts as well and it was absolutely fantastic. It is also very very hard to find here in the United States

[@ladycrystalr-u.s.a]

My fiance's grandmother was an Italian Gypsy from the old country, and she taught him long ago to always take napkins and tissues to put in his pockets and I always thought it's a good idea to keep a bag with you- just in case. I also like to get my hands on as many condiment packets as I can. Great minds think alike. 😊 But if I have reusable or washable things with me or at home, I won't bother. Like straws. I have steel straws at home. I shop with a canvas folding basket. Etc.

[@roopeseppanen9029]

6:07 Had someone shot through that window because there is a bullet hole in the glass in that photo.

[@jamallabarge2665]

Just noticed it. Guns were tightly regulated in the USSR.

[@kingjames4886]

most of the grocery stores around here have little bakeries in them making "fresh" bread. they probably still get it shipped in pre-mixed and frozen and just stick it in the oven, but it's better than that "sandwich bread" as you call it.

[@chrissheppard5068]

The bread going bad quickly shows it is real bread not pumped full of shite to preserve it.

[@hanknichols6865]

We lived in Eastern Europe in the 1990s. There was a bakery near by and we would get fresh bread every morning. Excellent bread!

[@davidchappell4759]

I love the bread I got in Russia. It was awesome. The stores were great.

[@Waterflux]

Sergei, you have posted so many very interesting shows into KZbin. Thank you for your time and energy. :) I have been slowly watching them for quite a while, although it will still take me a long time before I can catch up. Your complaint about bread in America reminds me of a roommate from Germany from over 20 years ago. He simply could not find the kind of bread he likes in Americans supermarkets. To be sure, he ate American bread, but he did not enjoy it that much. In more recent time, I heard of a similar complaint from an acquaintance from Switzerland. In my case, I tend to feel so and so about bread in general because I have a Korean background which prefers rice over bread. I used to shop for black rye bread (similar to German Pumpernickel), but could not find a good one in most supermarkets, so I had to order it online. So much for bread shopping in America ... oh, well!

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

Americans are used to commercial bakeries that use dough conditioners in their bread. It stays soft for several days. Yes it's soulless. Yes it's tasteless. It's designed to not offend anyone.

[@KIEV7385]

Yes the Bread was Excellent...Nice slice of White bread and butter it was Great...When I would return to the States the Standard soft bread ("Wonder Bread") was such a let down I would have to search for something more substantial something more firm ....

[@haidengeary8277]

Oh poor you, had to actually search for bread. Its called a "bakery", lazy.

[@worldtraveler930]

I remember how Great the bread was in Kyiv when I visited back in 2002!! And I also enjoyed the Kavas!

[@Angloman2000]

Our small town Walmart has its own bakery inside , and it’s good! But memaws homemade bread is best

[@toomanymarys7355]

A lot of people don't realize that grocery store bakeries really bake bread!!!

[@toomanymarys7355]

The bread delivered to Aldi is most likely baked the same day. Bakers keep them in the bakery until they cool, though, so you can't get hot bread. Before plastic bags for bread, people used the stale bread for french toast, various soupy breakfast dishes, and bread pudding.

[@jonlouis2582]

Extremely interesting.

[@MrTheevilmage]

Dude I can actually understand where your coming from when you mentioned fresh bread and pepsi cause I used to (and still do) sometimes have fresh bread with a fizzy drink, there is something quiet tasty about it.

[@zoranjankov5438]

In Serbia we still have bakery stores everywhere, they are private buiznises now but we still like it more then bred in plastic packeging.

[@among-us-99999]

Damn I want to eat a piece of bread now. i don’t even like bread.

[@D5quared91]

Very interesting to watch all these videos about Soviet life. In some ways, it seems like a less wasteful way to live, with less thought put on materialism. In others, it seems worse as it would be harder for an individual to express one's self.

[@KaraCarsafliGelin]

it wasn't a concentration camp. Every country has its own censor policies and USSR was no different.

[@MrAnonymousRandom]

Less wasteful? The system itself was wasteful, hence the shortages.

[@KaraCarsafliGelin]

I`ll quote from Azerbaijan again (because the place I know).It was on TV recently, how local agriculture died and why the farmers are plunged into poverty? The farmers said; - in Soviet times the state was doing transportation and distribution of the products. Now they have to transport their products themselves to the cities and towns,rent stands in market places and sell it cheaper prices to compete with imported products. They ended up making huge losses and stopped agricultural production.

[@DialecticalMaterialismRocks]

This is wrong. In socialism you don't want to be individual. You get more socialised with people

[@maxmagnus777]

​@1manuscriptman Also, good text. I never thought as labor intensive work as subsidies. I never calculated work hours as a factor as well as the land needed Were types of potatoes produced in SSSR of lower yield compared to those of US and Europe? Also if they were how would they compare with nutritional values and minerals, vitamins etc. And last how much fertilizer was used, and pesticides compared to the rest of the world.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

Your stock pics at the beginning are of german and french bakeries. Understandable, even when they have seen a huge drop in quality through modernization but there is really no good bread in the US or in any Anglo country.

[@NarnianLady]

Yay, we still have 'Vatruska' rice pastry in Eastern Finland :) It even looks the same as in your picture. Personally, I like the Piroggi more. Karelians have one way to make them, and then in Savo, my tribal homeland, they are prepared a bir differently and are sturdier.

[@jarikinnunen1718]

20:37 "Rahkapiirakka" looks familiar to me.

[@Sasquatchvideos38]

It's always fascinating to learn about soviet union life. I give you guys kudos for things you were superior for.

[@notapplicable6611]

Fascinating thanks!

[@AmazingGrace945]

I’m surprised people didn’t make bread, did you not have flour available to you?

[@mikeemery2484]

Love your videos, very interesting and informative, it's like I'm asking questions of a relative.

[@howardjohnson2138]

In Germany they refuse to eat bread hot out of the oven. I've never known why. My Germany landlady would not eat my bread fresh from the oven until it had cooled out on the balcony. I like mine hot and slathered in BUTTER

[@autofox1744]

There is really no substitute for fresh made bread. Warm, crusty bread is the best!

[@jarikinnunen1718]

During the Soviet era, Finnish made this type of bread. Selling big round type rye bread in half. Brick-type bread was made from blended flour. Both were very tasty when fresh. One good one was the flat type with a hole in the middle. It was fried for a longer time, at a lower temperature. This era vas tasty but big part of heart desease also. Now when bread eating and cardiovascular disease dying curve turn down, is easy see connection.

[@Sputnik812]

I live in South Korea, where bread is the most expensive in the world. Rye bread is rare at the bakery here and you will pay 5.00 to 7.00 USD for 500g. I don't buy packaged white sandwich bread from the supermarket because it has no flavor and is loaded with preservatives. 🤮 The bread sold here at the bakery is covered in butter, sugar and chocolate, which is not good for your health. Most of the breads on the shelves are for snacks, not meals. 🧁🍰🍪🍩👎 When I go to the bakery, I always buy only baguettes. (Because it's long and cheap, and French bread is better than American bread. 🥖👍) I hope to see cheap, simple and healthy bread from Eastern Europe in more countries. All Slavic friends, be proud. You are eating the best bread in the world! 💪

[@andrewhdz]

BD Cakes and Pies were popular or available in the USSR? 3 kopecks bread seems very similar to our Mexican "teleras", a good and cheap bread used for make dishes like "Tortas" (a cathegory of Mexican sandwiches) and "Pambazos" (the same but full of potatoes, sour cream, lettuce, marinated with peppers sauce and toasted in oven)

[@steliosarvanitis5606]

I live near a bakery, the bread is always fresh or freshly baked.

[@jhoughjr1]

6:16 look slike a bullet hole in the glass.

[@incoref]

Funny thing that you can still buy all the mentioned kinds of bread in any Ukrainian supermarket aside from maybe the first and the last one, Kirpich and Pletenka, which are less popular, and "Ukrainian" bread is still sold in halves and sometimes even in quarters

[@BB-iq4su]

I have a bread machine. $79. So far about 100 loaves so far. So much better than store bread. My cost, about $1/loaf, store bread, $4/loaf. My recipe is flour, red rye, egg, sea salt, sugar/honey and yeast. Sometimes raisin bread.

[@lupusdeum3894]

Bread buying was quite an experience in the good ol' Soviet Union. In Moscow or other big cities you'd walk past the line of people waiting at the "khleb store" to where the bread was displayed, inspect the types available, get in line to get a price ticket for the loaves & rolls you wanted, then get in line to pay for your picks, Then after paying, you get a receipt for you selections & get in line to collect your items in exchange for your receipt. Organised chaos! I much preferred buying in the small village stores. Less lines.

[@sterhax]

Re: shortages, it’s worth remembering that the only reason US grocery shelves can remain full is by throwing away about 1/3 of it. Whole Foods temporarily adopted a more efficient system that didn’t involve over-stocking (followed necessarily by throwing 1/3 away), but the empty shelves and inability to immediately serve spikes in demand for certain items put an end to it. It would still serve all your basic needs but some item that was popular that day might have been temporarily out of stock. That was too much hardship for American consumers. So we’re primed to see any empty shelf as a catastrophe. Gets in the way of seeing things accurately,

[@m2heavyindustries378]

Give anyone a choice and they'll prefer abundance over poverty anyday. That's why supermarkets do far better internationally than 2nd hand stores.

[@TheBengalDragon]

THIS! THIS IS THE VIDEO! Now whenever I go to Wallmart, pass by the Bakery section, somewhere in my mind, ushanka show guy keeps saying how good savietski khleb was. Now I started buying artisan sweet bread from Pan Sobao. At least, my purchasing inventory expanded. LOL! In all honesty, I'm rewatching your videos. Love the detail! However, I'm not trying the bread pepsi combination though!

[@Doenerprophet]

Good video!

[@korpifox5445]

my family is from finland though im american, my grandma makes this sweet coffee bread called nisu in the holidays which taste great when its fresh out of the oven. Looks just like that bread from 10:08

[@Asptuber]

Nisu is a dialect word for what is most often called "pulla" (from Swedish "bulle"), if you want to google for recipes. Nisu is also the Estonian word for wheat. (Yes, my brain collects weird stuff.)

[@Copeandseethe822]

The term "bread and circuses" comes to mind.

[@awittyusernamepleaselaugh7481]

So how much was the three Kopek bread?

[@hoobaguy4311]

The ватрушки looks so good. I'm an American but i love Russian food. I'd really like to try it.

[@SD-co9xe]

I have a bread baking husband thank goodness. Jewish rye home made is the best .

[@paulaharrisbaca4851]

I heard someone say Soviet bread was fantastic and it was what they missed the most.

[@patobrien6364]

bought it many times in and outside Moscow . After noon it was ideal for holding a door open, during a bank robbery !! ( Chli-ep !) Rye was your only man !!

[@matejmatej3554]

We still have the same bread over here in my country of slovenia and our bread is really good and tasty I just bought corn bread few minutes ago and it's soooooo goooood you don't need anything on it

[@Davidlp70]

So if every item had its own store, grocery shopping must have taken all day and a lot of exercise going place to place

[@toomanymarys7355]

It's still that way in lots of large cities and in NYC in the US.

[@AlexCab_49]

Ah a great present for my 18th birthday! thanks!

[@goatheadone5412]

Did they make homemade bread? Was flour and yeast available?

[@freedomfirst5557]

I've seen many of your episodes and I never thought that Mexico and the USSR had so many things in common. Other than the political system, your upbringing was just like mine in Mexico. Especially in the 80's and 90's. I have never eaten any bread or pastries in the USA that can compare to those in Mexico.

[@shannonmichael9570]

I went to Moscow & Vladimir in 94 & 95. I brought some bread back and my Dad ate the whole loaf as soon as I unpacked. I liked Churney bread, I think that’s what it was called. It was like Whole wheat and dense. My translator put oil and salt on it & we ate it with water. It was so good and we ate it right before going to sleep. Bread was the first Russian word I could see and read by myself.

[@SqrlyJack]

Хлеб

[@jamallabarge2665]

American sandwich bread is horrifying. It's mushy. Real bread is fine. There is a "bread etiquette" in Russia? Friend of mine who grew up in the USSR told me that one time he "stabbed" the bread with a knife. His grandma gave him hell about it. She said to him, "You stab me in the heart". They were supposed to break the bread very carefully.

[@shaunw9270]

I started getting so hungry watching this ... I'm now munching Morrisons "The Best" Sunflower & Pumpkin seed thick sliced loaf 😊

[@jamesb.9155]

Good bread costs a lot in the U.S. Now about $7 for 'Dave's Killer Bread'. So even bread which is hard can be used with soup and can be revitalized in the oven or microwave! When it is dry it is preserved too. Corn bread heated with honey is so nice. Corn meal pancake batter with fruit like Bananas and mangos, served with butter and honey or maple syrup are a favorite!

[@ladysemphia007]

Have you ever been to Panera Sergei? They sell fresh bread every day as they have a baker who bakes their bread every night. and anything not sold by the end of the day is donated. It’s a bit more expensive than the store but it’s not frozen and it’s fresh. :)

[@banks3388]

People forget that the old way of doing things was that you'd buy bread that was baked fresh with no preservatives, that means it has a short shelf life i.e. 24hrs It's definitely a lot better for you than the "enriched" sandwich dough you get in heavily industrialized societies, I'm serious try to find a loaf of bread in a Western supermarket that doesn't either have canola oil or additives you've never even heard of before...

[@howardjohnson2138]

I like the two girls with the fancy round loaf of bread.

[@allenhill1223]

Not knowing anything about Eastern Europe I can't get over o my breads here😮. Now I know how good I had it. I wondered if mom was making fried chicken or Swiss steak or meatloaf ext.. I didn't know people lived on bread😮

[@bosnianswede]

It never made any sense to me how a massive empire with what is probably the biggest arable areal on the planet could be experiencing a shortage of bread. Corruption? Mismanagement?

[@fl0atpvnk]

Being American and growing up with the squishy and crusty kind of bread I’ll eat both since I’m used to both. No preference at all. Some people are really drawn one way or the other though. I feel like I’ve seen the mayber bag somewhere, I think in some countries these still exist. Not the best for the environment but it’s pretty good to reuse and if you’re buying a lot, I’d think since it stretches.

[@MarkHurlow-cf2ix]

I never had good bread until I was an adult in the United States. Your right bread is awful. I got fresh bread in Central America and found out I loved bread that’s real bread from fresh ground wheat and baked fresh. Omg it was good. I wouldn’t eat bread until I got real fresh bread made from real wholesome ingredients.

[@Mike-tg7dj]

Though Mr. Khrushchev didn't realize that corn doesn't grow well at all latitudes and geographical locales. Also you need to make some good old southern corn bread. Southern style corn bread my mother use to make. I remember her making it for supper, hot with a pate of butter. You let it melt, I can almost taste it. I'm trying to imagine Russian cornbread and by the way slice bread does suck this coming from someone born in this culture. I think that was a gimmick that never went away. I love corn bread.

[@jimtalbott9535]

At 17:40 - 3 Kopeck bread? In US we have 6 dollar burger! Of course, it costs over $7 now......