Soviet Tourist Describes 1930s American Life // Ilf and Petrov's US Road Trip (Primary Source)

[@VoicesofthePast]

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[@torbreww]

Impressive they had the money to buy a car. More impressive is that they were able to find and hang out with Hemingway!

[@Denorads343]

"While we where there we felt an irresistible desire common to all soviet people to complaint and offer suggestions" I am dying hahahaha

[@htoodoh5770]

Lol

[@kellynolen498]

Well to be fair they were the well off sort being able to be torists internationally

[@blahblahblahblah2837]

@@kellynolen498 While you're correct to say they must have been well off, whats the connection with complaints?

[@kellynolen498]

@@blahblahblahblah2837 ohh just a a reference for those interested on the insights of there

[@SMGJohn]

@@blahblahblahblah2837 In USSR you could lodge complaints to the state or in Pravda in hope of change, obviously you can imagine when you set up a public complaint office you bound to get all sorts of bullsht in and they did but some where valid specially if a lot of people complained about the same things like heating, hence why newer Soviet buildings specially after WW2 had central heating systems.

[@mr.bluependant1871]

Suggestion: During the American Civil War, nations like Prussia would send military personnel to the United States as neutral observers on both sides of the conflict. They wanted to learn how both sides of the conflict functioned, from a strategic and technological standpoint so they could get some idea of what the next pan-European war might look like. It would be interesting to know what accounts have survived from those European observers. One notable example was a young Ferdinand von Zeppelin, but I'm sure there were others.

[@suryasishtalukdar210]

@Randy Mi compared to Prussian discipline they were poor but still they got the job done

[@jamesricker3997]

U.S. Grant figured out how to break the stalemate of trench warfare in 1865. Sadly if anyone in Europe had paid attention World War I would have ended in 1915.

[@hanz2904]

Ah i see a fellow armchair history fan.

[@tobruh4552]

@@SunshineFromWithin that would be cool

[@patrickcash864]

@Johnny Sinns America does not fight to win wars anymore... continuous war = continuous money flow

[@dr.zoidberg8666]

"... disturbed by its hugeness, its wealth, & its poverty." Some things never change.

[@petersmythe6462]

Unless you have *socialist revolution* then they change.

[@Lyle-xc9pg]

The us doesnt have poverty like that of everywhere else. you dont know what tf your talking about

[@evilchikennuggit]

@@Lyle-xc9pg you obviously have never been to either a) another first world country or d) a major american city 😂

[@costakeith9048]

@@evilchikennuggit I have, but I've also been to third world countries. The US doesn't have poverty.

[@WM-gf8zm]

@@costakeith9048 lmao

[@smnoy23]

I like how he takes a moment to take a swipe at the quality of the wine on the ship.

[@Sabrowsky]

"what is this shit? You cant even set it on fire"

[@joseph1150]

Well in the 30s the Soviets still had access to decent wine. The quality didn't drop off until later. There is a guy who talked about the quality of Sausage, a specific type called "Dr. Sausage" that was extremely popular there. It was by all accounts a high quality product created on Stalin's orders for people with sensitive stomachs. But by the early 60s the quality was gone and it was turning into mostly filler instead of the high quality it started with. Which is kind of what the entire Soviet experiment was. When the money and assets from the looted Tsar's treasuries and client states ran out, and the incentives to work and patriotic fervor from the "Great Patriotic War" died down, it just fell to shit. The extreme country wide alcoholism was a later development, in '88 is when the State run industry ramped up production (was one of the only industries that made enough to keep running on it's own merits). Before that Russia wasn't even in the top 20 in per capita consumption.

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

@@joseph1150 are you perhaps talking about "kolbasa doktorskaya"

[@joseph1150]

@@bogdanbogdanoff5164 Yes, that stuff. The stuff they sell under that name according to older people still isn't as good as their memory of it, but that needs to be taken within a grain of salt since it's just high quality baloney.

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

@@joseph1150 Isn't it the same thing everywhere? They are trying to sell the westerners the notion that their "individual rights", "personal accountability" and the mythos of a "self-made man" have ever existed at all, or even that they still function today! I can't even get mad when it happens to sausage, compared to when it's done to fundamental values and beliefs.

[@natanl1567]

The sarcasm is palpable, hearing American culture from a complete outsider's perspective is great, thank you

[@blahblahblahblah2837]

I liked the part where they point out that everything is profit-driven and that a plot of land would better go to weeds than be cropped simply because its not profitable. The child in me says, 'yeah! Why waste the empty land!' and yet it seems like such a foreign way of thinking now. In south Asia I noticed that people grew crops on the thin strips of ground between fences and the road and I thought that was insane, but with that soviet midset it makes sense.

[@anonb4632]

Remember these guys are Soviet satirists, and also towed the government line.

[@thomaswhite3059]

Jeez I had no idea I was a Soviet.

[@thomaswhite3059]

@@anonb4632 yeah but where's the lie tho

[@guilhermetomas1595]

@@anonb4632 well the government line is actually right in this case

[@petebondurant58]

From the Encyclopedia Britannica: "In 1937 Ilf died of tuberculosis. Petrov continued his literary work, writing for the newspaper Literaturnaya gazeta (“Literary Gazette”) and the magazine Ogonyok (“Little Light”). He died in 1942, when the airplane in which he was traveling from Sevastopol to Moscow crashed."

[@jevinliu4658]

You sure it was not shot down by the Germans during its siege?

[@jelkel25]

They were lucky they escaped the purges, there were people sent to gulags for a lot less "franternisation" with Americans than what a journey from NY to Cali and back would require. The Georgian horse thief must have enjoyed the criticism of American food.

[@marius1004]

...it would explain their weak, decadent, Imperialist nature.

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

@@jelkel25 As you seem to have noticed, the charges in the great purge were generally fabricated. It didn't matter if they were abroad, or how much were they "fraternizing" if they were on the good side of the government, when it started being concerned about Trotskist sympathizers. Main part of the purge happened in the army and security apparatus anyway, so it's somewhat of a moot point when it comes to some writers.

[@jelkel25]

@@bogdanbogdanoff5164 I can't imagine the list of Soviet writers who criticized Stalin or his government and lived without leaving the Soviet Union was particularly long.

[@Dreammage1]

The drugstore critique is an interesting one.

[@RonJohn63]

How much of the criticism is valid, and how much is ideologically driven?

[@erik9036]

RonJohn63 Probably more a cultural thing . Doesn’t mean that ideologically driven critique can be valid as well.

[@mg4361]

I don't come from an ex-soviet country but i was still surprised by US drug stores. In most european countries, pharmacies concentrate solely on selling medication, not much else.

[@Rhodiac]

Pessimistic id say. Very Russian

[@RonJohn63]

@@erik9036 *ideological* critiques are -- by definition -- invalid, since they are not driven by facts. Any time they happen to be correct it's for the same reason that broken clocks are sometimes correct.

[@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901]

I like how some of the notes betray how strange practices that we take for granted were to these guys, like not searching luggage intensely (not so applicable nowadays but still)

[@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901]

and he really hates processed food xD

[@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901]

that story about the radio is odd

[@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901]

this guy just sounds like a country bumpkin, he clearly had yet to experience the concrete monstrosities of his own country. Wonder how his views changed with time

[@Peasant_of_Pontus]

@@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901 commieblocks didn't exist until the late 50s

[@jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901]

@@Peasant_of_Pontus that's why I wonder how his views changed over time. Once they had commieblocks did he yearn for the slightly less boring brick buildings? It's not unheard of. In the midiaeval period some people would paint brick patterns onto their walls

[@stevenfranks3131]

"...there was no such thing in America as a 'book of suggestions'...."

[@younglord7805]

Now we have a lot of them, yelp for one

[@meingaht6265]

@Hunter D a book of suggestions in every day society was made to make society better so people would be happier with what they had or more productive. Anything that wasn't a challenge to the party's rule was tolerated, you see that in a lot of communist authoritarian regimes.

[@NefariousKoel]

There were heaps of books that could be considered "suggestions" back then. Since the 19th century, books about etiquette, behavior, beauty tips, etc existed. Not just in the US either.

[@whiteeagle9769]

@Bill Jenkins silence evangelical

[@joemerino3243]

@Hunter D Sadly, I guarantee you that most people in this comment section have no idea what happened in Mao's Hundred Flowers campaign.

[@l.u.i.s._.8452]

“Their road were build like how the Romans build their road meant to last forever” Laughs in potholes😂

[@troyweatherford2428]

Roman roads never had to handle cars

[@xtremetuberVII]

@@troyweatherford2428 Are chariots laden with triumphs, not heavy enough to approximate small horseless/camelless chariot?

[@heresy8384]

@@xtremetuberVII Triumphs were only a very rare occurrence, not frequent enough to cause road damage comparable to having cars drive over a modern road practically 24/7

[@xtremetuberVII]

@@heresy8384 Hm, I'll have to do more research on the impact physics the science has, thanks!

[@takod323]

@@xtremetuberVII are you seriously comparing triumphs with everyday traffic? Lol

[@adamhbrennan]

~”We’re willing to die from a violent car accident, but having to listen to foxtrot for hours while we do so is a horror we dare not face”

[@tissuepaper9962]

idk I feel like if I'm gonna be laying in agony for a few hours after sustaining a mortal wound, I'd rather have the music.

[@doffrell]

LOL, yeah that got me too. Some music really is toture. For these guys Foxtrot was apparently that kind of music.

[@mikado6407]

The way they say california and texas like it's on another planet. Lol.

[@solidarityced9210]

@Timefliesbye they aren’t. I live in Texas and have visited Cali twice. They are literally all just “America”. The only difference I could easily tell was that the weather and ocean in Cali is beautiful, while Texas is a hot wasteland.

[@brandonbath6097]

@@solidarityced9210 lol clearly not what either of them were talking about 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@scottyj6226]

Moss-cow

[@billyteflon1322]

Ive dealt with foreigners before that know little about America. They spell Texas - Teksas.

[@queeniegreengrass3513]

@CROM the DNC is not pro-Bernie lol.

[@Growmetheus]

Wylcome two Cylyfornya. We yare two steyts awey frowm Teyxyes.

[@californiaball2599]

Imagine them saying Mississippi or Massachusetts.

[@olivercuenca4109]

Hullo! Hullo! I aspeak Eeenglish. I learn it frommaybook!

[@spergelord8401]

@@californiaball2599 Look up life of boris, pronouncing state names

[@mortuusunburied44]

@@californiaball2599 Actually its pretty easy: Миссисипи and Массачусетс. I can pronounce both and i believe i do it in quite similar way to how americans pronounce it. Texas not Tekhas thing was more interesting to discover when i firstly heard about it.

[@californiaball2599]

Thanks Артём and Mortuus Unburied.

[@maldoran9150]

Businessman identify where there are profits to be made and then they teach the consumers with advertising what to consume. That really resonated with me in its simplicity.

[@TheDarkIllumination]

No one is forcing the consumers to buy anything they do not want. We're not mindless drones or lost souls in need of salvation by Marx and his holy word.

[@Pheer777]

Profit potential only exists where there is a demand for something. “Profit motive” isn’t some sinister evil thing

[@quidnick]

Next video: American Tourist describes 1930s Soviet Life lol

[@VoicesofthePast]

😉

[@paz9963]

look up the personal accounts of Paul Robeson and Harry Haywood

[@SM-pv4sn]

Or look up Walter Duranty. There was a very recent movie based on him, Mr. Jones.

[@CompagnonDeMisere25]

@@VoicesofthePast GASP! :O

[@537monster]

“I want to go home” -American tourist in Russia 1930

[@oreodepup]

That story with the radio is like that one twitter post where that guy was afraid to have Ed sheeran playing in an accident

[@RobinTheBot]

@Gary.F. almost a hundred years later and Americans still think every russian tourist is a spy... You know sometimes people go on vacations....

[@RobinTheBot]

@Gary.F. Why do you think they were spies specifically?

[@RobinTheBot]

@Gary.F. hahahahahahaha. So your proof is that the soviet satirists were not capitalist, and proud of their country, and therefore spies? So literally any Soviet tourist is a spy? When you go abroad, do you stop acting like an American? What bunk.

[@Robb1977]

@@RobinTheBot I think the suspicion comes from that they don't write like most tourist letters. They're not there to see the sights, and they seem strangely focused on industry and classes. I suspect its mainly because they were from a communist country, and thus knew the rhetoric of "capitalists" from a communist perspective. Going to what was the hub of "capitalism" its understandable that was their focus. Rather than going for the delights of tourism, they were going to see a different culture, and as such, its understandable they wrote about things that confirmed their beliefs or surprised them about American life. For instance, rather than just "the food isn't good" they say "the food isn't good because of the monopolists"

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

@@Robb1977 They were most likely artists, writers judging from this short fragment, since they were interested in meeting Hemingway. The sort of writers that would be allowed to travel America, were of course communists themselves, not some sort of sissidents. But calling them spies, because they were interested in pharmaceuticals is beyond brainless. Soviet government was very modernist in nature, it educated it's citizens in industry, economics and science, soviet education made a point about looking into the scientific progress as a means of solving problems of the past present. Some mentions about food industry and pharmacies is exactly the sort of thing that soviet citizens would put into a book about America, to be published in the Soviet Union. Calling them spies on a basis of that is beyond paranoiac.

[@hanumanlesinge4472]

I found this travel account very well written, and then looking them up I realised that Ilf and Petrov are actually quite renowned soviet writers. Thanks for the reading advice !

[@Shinbaal99]

I just wanted to thank you for your amazing work! This channel is a window to the past. Hearing the voices of our ancestors, their thoughts, their mundane day to day troubles in their own words. No matter how old and dusty these texts are, they vibrate with life. I feel like I am there with them, seeing and feeling what they do. I feel connected to those people and see them like they are... humans just like you and me. A link through space and time. Brilliant!

[@TheLPRnetwork]

wait a second. This was during america's great depression... huh now things make a lot more sense.

[@nsq2229]

Ye fr

[@GeorgeMonet]

To be honest this has been America for over a century.

[@SeanDahlman1]

The music and sound design 👌 well done!

[@Nsaf_UKR]

Need more soviet voices of the past, this reminds me of my Dad coming to the US in 96 with my mom.

[@517342]

I remember watching documentaries where Soviet soldiers from rural regions were shocked to see the living standards in German cities and wondered why the hell they wanted to conquer their country. To them they already had everything.

[@CosineStdio.h]

@@henriashurst-pitkanen8735 I think you misread that. The Soviet soldiers were wondering why the Germans wanted Soviet land if the Germans were already so rich.

[@Nsaf_UKR]

@@517342 could u remember the name of yhe Documentary?

[@henriashurst-pitkanen8735]

@@CosineStdio.h Ah, so I did! Thanks for clearing that up there, mate!

[@chaos-fox]

@Nick.Roastem Something like this was in documentary that is called Soviet storm ww2 in the east in the episode The battle for Germany.

[@TheOneCalledSloth]

His critique of American food is still true, especially the tomatoes.

[@MenRot]

@eualadindeal ehh, chemicals are cheap, they weren't used, because they are prohibited by Government standards for healthy food, the EU have something similar, if I'm not mistaken.

[@RobinTheBot]

At least the fancy places use fresh food now! Back then the $50 green beans came out of the same can as the local cafe...

[@ricardomrv9409]

As a Latinamerican I can confirm this, if Americans don't add it a bunch of sugar or barbecue it's all bland.. Compared to food from other countries.

[@RobinTheBot]

@@MenRot Chemicalz are cheap for a modern 2000's chemical economy. Less so for a recently reformed 1900's pre industrial economy. The Soviets did in fact not do much in terms of chemical treatment due to lack of availability and economic conplexity.

[@NefariousKoel]

I always called store-bought tomatoes, "Soulless Tomatoes". They have no taste. Fortunately I grew up on farms with enough homegrown veggies and fruits to know what a tomato actually tastes like. Those are the only kind I bother getting anymore.

[@Birdy890]

"Automobiles and Electricity" So perfect to encapsulate even modern America/Canada. Everything is built for the Car, every city is built bottom up for the car and marinated in lightbulbs.

[@stevethebarbarian9876]

It's so incredibly gripping to hear their smug, sarcastic criticism mix with breathless astonishment at their first sight of New York, it's wonderful. I'd love to have known these guys.

[@an2qzavok]

Haha, he complains about utilitarian ugly red brick buildings. Around two decades later, USSR launches a campaign of "борьба с архитектурными излишествами" ("war on architectural unnecesseties", if that's a word) and fills its land with now infamous khrushchyovkas.

[@BaggyMcPiper]

My impression was that the Khrushchyovki were built because of the housing shortage following WW2, when countless people were without homes due to the ravages of war and housing needed to be built as cheaply and quickly as possible.

[@josefstalin4532]

And complains about somewhat bland food in the middle of the worst economic recession ever, while millions are starving to death in Russia and Ukraine...

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

@@josefstalin4532 Do you really think these writers came from the southern rural provinces where a localized famine happened?

[@JamesTaylor-on9nz]

@Herdan Still isn't really talked about.

[@JamesTaylor-on9nz]

​@Herdan Sure but how many history pieces do people watch about the soviet union? Not a lot compared to history pieces, parodies, satires and movies about the nazis/holocaust. Walk up to anyone and ask if they know about the holodomor and 9 times out of 10 they'll say "the what?".

[@alejandrocrespo7633]

Wow, his comment about the owner of a drug store needing a baggage of education just to sell soda and sandwiches is real af... my wife is studying to be a pharmacist because in order to have her own drug store she either hires a pharmacist or becomes one herself

[@alejandrocrespo7633]

@@nateman10 yeah, proper pharmacy that fills prescriptions for even scheduled drugs. Still, if you check out small to mid-size pharmacies' books all over america you'll see that most of their revenue comes from sales of non-drug items. Basically, if you want to have a proper pharmacy that will survive and do well you gotta play the "sell sodas and chips" game. I guess the same has happened to gas stations in a way. You dont need to have a phd to operate a gas station though. Although back then pharmacy was a bachelor's, not phd. So, it wasnt as egregious

[@kuntosjedebil]

Aha! I was absolutely puzzled by Randy Santel's food challenge, where the restaurant owner was dressed to look like a hospital doctor. Must have been a drug store, or some parody of a drug store.

[@NecromancyForKids]

Soda used to be considered a health food way back. Because it used naturally carbonated spring water. Now we just make our own carbonated water.

[@viracocha6093]

That’s why I gave up becoming a real pharmacist and made myself a street pharmacist

[@Abhishek-sr2pu]

That's happens even in india.

[@grugnotice7746]

If you want good produce you have to go to a farmer's market, and in its proper season. If you want good, fresh meat, you have to go to a butcher. You will pay a premium for these products, but they are worth it. But beware of people reselling grocery store products as their own and harvesting the premium.

[@krishurlburt7375]

*laughs in Texan*

[@willkenny5687]

Having worked farmers markets for most of my life, our great enemy is always the resellers. But we have a secret weapon here in Illinois: the hmong farmers. When they find a reseller at a market they attend, they just undercut them until the market is no longer profitable for said resellers, and they leave.

[@ssjwes]

That was his problem though "premium". His distaste of the food really was just a critique of the system that produced it... Not so much the taste of the food, irregardless that he says he doesn't like the taste. He said nothing about the cooking of the food but the production of the food... It was more about an argument on capitalism without saying the word. Weird that politics could makes something taste different.

[@GeorgeMonet]

@@ssjwes No. His distaste for the food was the taste. And then they found out why it tasted so empty.

[@missjennemeg1]

The remarks about the roads in the US was my biggest first impression coming here. The roads here are amazing.

[@chaosXP3RT]

There is nothing good about the USA

[@panzerknackerauto8227]

@@chaosXP3RT looks like I found a jealous Euro hahahaha

[@Mystere1985]

Can't agree. I moved to the US and here in California the roads are terrible. Maybe better in other states.

[@PrezVeto]

@@Mystere1985 Yes, most states have better roads than California does and somehow they cost them less at the same time.

[@reallymentalpig1173]

@@Mystere1985it’s just here bro.

[@TheAntinowherelane]

This dude must have been at the worst damn restaurant in NY lol. Ye ole Applebee's

[@fasdaVT]

Canned food was huge back then and also over cooking stuff by boiling which saps the flavor of stuff

[@esobed1]

Also... They must not have gone south. Skipped all of the cajun, soul food, mexican grub and REAL Texas barbecue!!! ( yes, my bias is far, far worse than theirs!)

[@idudheebsbzdudbdhddh]

@@esobed1 Things must have been different a century ago

[@mattmexor2882]

If they had said anything other than Soviet propaganda we'd never have heard about it unless they dropped the manuscript off with Hemingway and then toured a gulag for their next grand holiday.

[@hassanabdulahi4705]

@@mattmexor2882 lol that’s true they came back to Russia in 1936, in the midst of Stalin’s purges and gulag sending.

[@JBGARINGAN]

I love how they describe electricity as being tamed into a circus animal in broadway to put on a show for passers by. It really is a beautiful way to put it.

[@Johnchinga69420]

This was actually really nice to watch. KZbin did something good in recommending this one!

[@goodforyou3000]

They wrote the book "The Twelve Chairs" which is also my favorite Mel Brooks movie.

[@steadmanuhlich6734]

I saw that film. Wacky stuff! (Mel Brooks!) It was very interesting to see the location where filmed. And Frank Langella was soooo young!

[@SN00PICUS]

This would be a much better world if people tried to understand each other and their thoughts instead of judging them for their faults. This Channel is a true gift and takes us one step closer to that world.

[@bigcat5348]

"Father cat is hungry" "We will buy another cat"

[@JoshuaMarshallofficial]

Certain foods from America are explained exactly like it's described here. But I found amongst my travels southern states, like Florida, New Orleans and Texas has amazing food!

[@joshuaortiz2031]

mom and pop restaurants in the south are the best food you'll eat in this country. I live in florida and have been to Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, S carolina, N carolina, Missouri, all these places have great spots to eat. Also the midwest like Illionoise and Ohio have good food too.

[@AlexanderosD]

Ooh dang, the food critique is dead on. And the drug store review, the description of towns, were interesting. And specially the driving across the country! "Both magnificent and monotonous" Too true! Some things never change.

[@LuisAldamiz]

Things do change: you're at the end of a bracket that began roughly when those folks wrote this. It had a beginning, it will have an end, things do change.

[@jmitterii2]

@@LuisAldamiz The monotonous does. Every town in the US looks almost identical. With few landmarks that set it apart... you can be dumped in any commercial or residential street in the US, and if you couldn't look to the horizon and not at any signs that have the town's name on it, you wouldn't know if you were just in a neighboring town, middle of the country, or on the other side of the country from your home town. I think that was their point. That and this country is gigantic. Driving across it... a lot of nothing in some places... particularly Wyoming... Courage the Cowardly Dog where they live no trees not even pushes or grass... a couple hundred miles of that... only dotted with natural gas pumping stations to add texture I guess.

[@2712animefreak]

@@jmitterii2 I don't think the size alone is their problem, they came from a country twice as big and with a lot more empty space. If you think Wyoming is empty, try driving across one of the Asian oblasts and krais or a place like Kazakhstan.

[@rj6683]

Well, travel by plane then.

[@JohnSmith-nz1vj]

Fascinating video! Loved the statements regarding the vast wealth and poverty that both contrasted New York

[@jacobs2099]

@Stephen Jenkins wdym? If u were a high ranking communist party member you had better stuff then everyone, while u worked anyway, the contrast between the american slums and palaces is ridiculous, something you never see in any other wealthy country.

[@1mag1nat1vename]

If the alternative is Gulags and mass famines of rural landowners and even simple farmers just because the authorities confiscated your crops, I'll go with wealth inequality.

[@1mag1nat1vename]

@Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicolvocanoconiosis Well, I suppose that, as long as the only problems in a Communist states are the ones that the party engineers to suppress undesirables, make itself look better, and/or encourage perpetual revolution, then it doesn't matter how much misery you cause. PS. No one who was forced to work was ever considered unemployed, but we don't force free people to work. PPS. You can always find some period in history where people "had it worse" by any given metric. There is a lot of history, across the whole world, to draw from. PPPS. In the book and in the movies, Gandalf rules.

[@subutaynoyan5372]

I loved how he compares city signs with advertisement billboards. The author really tried to see the two sides of the coin.

[@RedMatthew]

The problem with this road trip is it began in new york

[@thishonestgrifter]

Truly a terrible mistake

[@LuisAldamiz]

The gate to the USA... unless you come from the Pacific rim, I guess.

[@visorij3374]

@@LuisAldamiz San Francisco

[@bonda_racing3579]

Hey !! What are you trying to say about my city? Mhmm?

[@thishonestgrifter]

@@bonda_racing3579 That it sucks, I figured that was obvious ;)

[@Casavo]

Splendidly fascinating. Keep up the good work.

[@coconutfleetsleeper5717]

Oh to bare eyes on "Hemingways mighty chest" :) On a more serious matter, quality in craft runs strong in your family, both you and your brothers channel is top tier!

[@MG-kg9vx]

That is amazing! But I can't help and wonder who in Stalinist Russia will be allowed to and can afford to travel around the US for 3 months...

[@juancarloshernandez2333]

To be fair, before 1939 the relationship between the U.S.A. and the USSR was fairly amicable. Another notable Soviet figure who stayed in America for a while was Anastas Mikoyan, who made several visits as a to the USA both before and after the start of the Cold War. A lot of the ideas he would later implement as food industry administrator in the USSR came from his obsvervation of the American food industry.

[@steirqwe7956]

USA-soviet relations nosedived in late 30s, before that soviet goverment was quite friendly and eager to do business with US, and US engineer was portraited as a "man of the future" (well educaated working class man) in soviet propaganda.

[@alexnickolaev]

They were writers and went there as journalists

[@taan1424]

They were famous writers in the USSR and this book is as much a travel account as propaganda.

[@kapitankapital6580]

I'm always amazed when I read anything written by Soviet citizens, particularly from the 20s and 30s. They seem to have such a robust political and economic worldview, such that even ordinary citizens can make erudite analyses of socio-economic systems they observe. It's really wonderful to read (or in this case listen to), I wish I could have met some people from that generation.

[@avancalledrupert5130]

Let's make that flag official mate.

[@Vict0r1984]

@@avancalledrupert5130 All for it comrade! ✊ As an Eastern European Marxist living in the UK, that would definitely finally make England worth supporting in the Euros or World Cup at last! (with all the racist right-leaning and arrogant football fans it has now, I genuinely found myself cheering even for another monarchy, Denmark, to beat them at the Euros... 😂😂😂) Jokes aside, I truly believe the fallout from Covid and worsening climate change might eventually trigger a socialist revolution somewhere in the first world, but we'll have to do a lot of work, organise and be far less sectarian and far more pragmatic if we are to build a communist movement that can lead a revolution in an important 1st world power like Britain, France, Germany, Italy or Japan (they didn't traditionally have a strong left but these days the Japanese communist party is one of the biggest in the world in terms of government seats, obviously barring the CPC, so there is a bit of hope for the future even in the world's 3rd biggest economy...) in the 21st century! Solidarity, and hopefully we can unite all the Marxists, ancoms, Trotskyists, Maoists and Marxist-Leninists under a coherent communist platform and in a large united movement that can stsnd up to capitalist hegemony! ✊(with all the polarisation of politics that happened in the past few years, I honestly think it would genuinely be possible, especially as unemployment keeps going up due to AI replacing more and more jobs and climate change and lockdowns keep wrecking economies, to convert a lot of progressives and mild soc dems into socialist revolutionaries if we manage to build a strong united movement in even ONE first world country, so there are opportunities ahead!)

[@bigdingus7198]

Ilf and Petrov were not “ordinary citizens”…

[@laptv2144]

@@Vict0r1984 Do you realize what a massive hypocrite you are for being a Marxist who’s living in England likely because it has better opportunities, higher paying jobs, a better economy, and higher quality of life than your home? These metrics were largely achieved through capitalistic policies.

[@Vict0r1984]

@@laptv2144 Those metrics were also largely achieved through plundering the 3rd world for centuries (either through direct colonialism or nowadays through banking institutions and international law that make sure most 3rd world countries stay cheap labor markets and raw materials suppliers - Ha Joon Chang's "Bad sanarytans: The myth of free trade and the secret history of capitalism" is a great book on this phenomenon, and he is a Cambridge-educated Keynesian development economist, not a socialist) and it was also capitalist, and especially neoliberal capitalist reforms, that wrecked my country's economy in the 1990s, as they did all over eastern Europe. Yeah, I'll take a better-paying job in the Uk rather than starve unemployed in my home country and so would any rational human being, but the idea that I owe something to the system that actually even perpetuated 90% of the economic issues Romania has is so dumb and paternalistic that if people in the 18th century genuinely thought like you, we'd still be living in feudal absolute monarchies! "Hey, it's the lord of the land that gave you your job, so be grateful - who cares he whipped that other peasant to death for stealing an apple?" This is exactly the kind of stupid argument you are making here... Oh, and btw, the UK is overrated and worse than Eastern Europe in plenty of ways - the health care system has way too many GPs and way too few specialist doctors, so while in Romania it takes you maximum 2 or 3 weeks to see an expert in anything here it can take over half a year, rent is overpriced as hell, and the food is so awful it's probably among the worst in Europe... (both restaurant food and groceries, but especially the latter) Yeah, it's got higher living standards and better wages, so a good place to earn some savings, but 100% I'll retire either back in Romania or somewhere else in Europe, as other than money and career opportunities there's literally no reason to live in the UK. (and a lot of expats, myself included, wouldn't have even come here if economic opportunities did exist back home, which is again a consequence of the system you are currently deepthroating and demanding gratitude towards...)

[@MrUndersolo]

This page is excellent! I teach at a college and may use you work in my classes (and I will admit that I needed to hear this, even as a Canadian 🇨🇦!)

[@error5202]

"The roads, like the roads of ancient Rome are built, practically for all eternity" Buahahahahahahahahah!

[@MicheleBohmke]

ikr?

[@zpepp4364]

in russia they would last forever for the lack of commerce.

[@DerDop]

Russia has (almost) no roads.

[@BaggyMcPiper]

This account was written before the rise of car culture and before the rapidly-built massive freeway system existed in America. Brick roads were much more common, and asphalt less common.

[@hereisyoursign6750]

@@BaggyMcPiper Car Culture exploded in the early 20's, but yes the freeway system was much more modern

[@ricardomrv9409]

This video basically describes every complain an immigrant/tourist has had arriving to the US especially the "sameness" part

[@andrewlankford9634]

...apart from the edited out bit, "we were hoping to defect, but our minders succeeded in changing our minds".

[@digitalbrentable]

@@andrewlankford9634 The 1930s is still early days for the USSR. There was a lot of optimism, hope, and revolutionary spirit at that time - socialism was popular and sincere, and intellectuals like these guys were very interested building the world's first socialist society. The political purges didn't begin until the end of the 1930s, which of course was immediately followed by WWII and the related hardships.

[@shabut]

@@digitalbrentable laughs in Ukrainian

[@tescomealdeals4613]

I like how these people complain about sameness in architecture while they are from the USSR.

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

@@tescomealdeals4613 USSR only started building prefabricated blocks of flats in the 1960s, when it rapidly urbanized. Soviet 1930s cities looked very much like the rest of European architecture of early XX century. Please learn your history.

[@novohispana]

Another wonderful video, this time I found the prose particularly good; these men, whomever they were, had the hearts of poets.

[@ethandoomerzoom4052]

Great video I hope there's more of this to come

[@muratemkuzhev1958]

Ilf and Petrov!!! Their writing is always great.

[@trevorredden2244]

You have outdone yourself, yet again. Your piece on Polybius and Scipio was a very worthy find!

[@georgehenry76]

The description of having to run around everywhere in NYC made me literally laugh out loud.

[@johnnzboy]

This is fascinating and the footage is a nice touch (though often somewhat anachronistic) but at 14:20 when the ubiquitous red brick houses are mentioned, could you not have found some stock footage of a red brick house rather than the grey wooden house which you show instead? (o;

[@YSLRD]

Maybe pointing out the current mass produced architecture?

[@ktiemz]

Except the houses at 4:18-4:23 are brick. Whoops.

[@johnnzboy]

@@ktiemz There aren't any images of houses at the timecodes that you mentioned. Whoops. It's true that there are images of brick houses at 14:18-14:23 but since these are black-and-white images, we can't tell what colour brick is used. Yes, they're probably red brick houses but that's my whole point - why not get colour stock footage of red brick houses, which is no doubt readily available, rather than the two non-red wooden houses which are shown between 14:23 and 14:27 when the narrator says "...all the houses were brick, and all were red"?

[@AmazingPhilippines1]

Love these historical recounting of history.

[@alcyonecrucis]

Incredibly amazing!!! A favorite time period of history for sure!! Can’t wait for part 2!!

[@0therun1t21]

Wow! He just described my grandfather's drugstore, I didn't know why drugstores sold all that other stuff until just now, I thought it was just so the communities had a nice place to go and hang out while waiting for their prescriptions to be filled. I'm learning a lot from this channel.

[@smoaky123]

The fish Hemingway described is an Atlantic blue marlin!! He was a very avid pelagic fisherman and being one my self I find that small bit extremely fascinating!!

[@steven2212]

Well done, just a fantastic representation of what once was.

[@255ad]

so in person Ernest Hemingway was basically a standard boomer dad, gets drunk and lies about the fish he's court. nice to know

[@mrrichardgray6405]

No Ernest Hemingway did catch a fish as big as a sperm Whale. Lol.

[@zeuso.1947]

Except he wasn't lying about the size of fish he caught. They really were much bigger than outstretched arms. Much like the 300-400 lb. halibut caught in Alaska

[@harsangeetkaur3677]

Thank you so much! ❤️

[@Kynareth6]

Thank you for providing accurate stories about the past gone by.

[@melanphilia]

This looks very fascinating to me as a person born in late period of the soviet world... definitely subbing

[@ChocolateMilkCultLeader]

So well done

[@fedecano7362]

you sir are amazing and I love your work, pls keep on keeping on!

[@saulchapnick1566]

I read their book. So interesting. They gave a sincere perspective of 1930s America.

[@leopoldopetrieska6564]

this was so damn interesting, the one who wrote it definitely knew how to write. i wonder where did they get the money to pay for the trip?

[@Josh729J]

They basically worked for the government, hence why theyre afraid to speak ill of communism

[@thishonestgrifter]

Someone in another comment said he was a (somewhat) well known author.

[@cocindaucocindau354]

@@Josh729J This is why he explained in great Detail how the People Complained and Revolted in the USSR and trough literature, right?

[@Josh729J]

@@cocindaucocindau354 saying you're government has a listening ear for your issues yes that's propaganda

[@cocindaucocindau354]

@@Josh729J You are saying that, not me, and what you did is truly the Propaganda here, as i put no words in your name or the sentence "oh you are saying"...So yeah...And we are not even talking about the government, because even then as now, US disagree that the Soviet Union ever even had one....And now, that i call Propaganda..

[@NerdOutWithMe]

Growing up near NY, the part about wanting to walk and take in the sites is funny. Still true. Nobody in NY walks, they run. Stay to the right! Lol

[@TheMadisonHang]

awesome channel! i love this content and its intent!

[@Psychol-Snooper]

Did they turn down a radio in their new car for fear of being distracted and crashing? Was that the subtext?

[@Josh729J]

I thought it was because ppl were pinned in an accident and had to listen to it or something but i was also confused

[@Psychol-Snooper]

@@Josh729J Well that's what was said. But that does not suggest any simple explanation. Did they hate "foxtrot" pieces? It seems like great "waiting for rescue" music to me!

[@danieldelavalle5639]

@@Psychol-Snooper yeah something like that but I also think maybe the music prevented other people from hearing theyr cries for help maybe.

[@digitalbrentable]

They found the idea of dying to the soundtrack of a foxtrot morbid. I suppose you could make an analogy to pop music today. Keep in mind the radio was a novelty. Imagine being able to install augmented reality holographic projections in your car, and deciding that the last thing you want is to die watching Kanye rap.

[@danieldelavalle5639]

@@digitalbrentable That will be hell indeed my friend.

[@deathsheadknight2137]

basically any video with historic enemies sharing opinions of each other is guaranteed to be good

[@FedulAis]

Hey, any plans to expand on this theme? I mean book, you didnt mention authors views on Americans. Would be quite interesting for those who haven't read it. They liked Americans in general, with some downsides. Honest people, true to their word and promises. A bit racist in those times, there was line about how some people drove behind them, cause they thought that Mexicans, that authors helped to, would scam authors. They liked Afro-Americans, in their mind life in America would be twice as colorless without them. P. S. All that rage in comments, lol wtf? Chill out guys it was almost 100 year ago, besides, book was redacted state officials and some part were removed completely. Btw pre-sliced bred is still shit.

[@VoicesofthePast]

Yes. Next week 😁

[@JAGzilla-ur3lh]

Man, these guys were hilarious! I'd have gladly sat here and listened to the whole book if you'd read it. Too bad it's so expensive now...

[@steadmanuhlich6734]

Here is the book he is reading from. www.amazon.com/Revival-Little-America-Routledge-Revivals/dp/1138567515/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=%27Revival%3A+Little+Golden+America%27+%281944%29+%28Routledge+Revivals%29&qid=1604769456&sr=8-1 and there is a link or title under the video (see notes) Also, the producer of this video (VOICES OF THE PAST) has produced TWO more videos from this same book. Look for them on his channel. Both are VERY good!

[@valentinventures]

Funny how their description of the New York of 90 years ago is still so accurate today.

[@tomkuptz6374]

Wow, that was really fascinating. Thanks.

[@ploptart4649]

Hahaha the reason they didn't get a radio in their car is hilarious.

[@MariaCKouto]

Awesome video. Interesting how the life changes since those days.

[@Numba003]

Another fascinating take on the west from an outside observer. The bit about the overgrown lot not being used because it couldn’t be profitable makes me want to plant a garden. Stay well out there everybody, and Jesus Christ be with you friends.😊

[@zaneknowlton]

This was great thank you!

[@SwordTune]

To the comments saying "lol, salty Americans," I must ask where. I can't see these salty Americans people are talking about, your comments regarding them have completed flooded the comments.

[@EvillBob]

I guess they wanted to be first to the punch and succeeded so well they even beat the salty comments.

[@Michelle-Eden]

@@EvillBob Salt in America is tasteless. Only Soviet salt has true savor.

[@SwordTune]

@Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicolvocanoconiosis From user Error633 ,10 hours ago: "The comments from Americans are saltier than the butter." And there are others as well. Fortunately, we have since regained the comment section and they are rarer now.

[@olivercuenca4109]

The salt is mostly in the butter

[@MichaelS-vy1ku]

flat earther effect

[@OrbitalAstronaut]

Amazing video comrade.

[@zarkomodric6509]

One of the best travel books on America by two famous Russian authors.

[@bryan4823]

Wonderful video

[@spartanx9293]

2:36 as any foreigner who's used to a colder environment can tell you you are going to learn to hate that sun

[@SwordTune]

My family has only ever lived it hot, or hot and humid, climates. You merely adopted the sun. We were born in the heat, moulded by it. and I still hate it.

[@spartanx9293]

@@SwordTune I'm a Hoosier you learn to hate the humidity more than you hate the sun

[@spartanx9293]

@@wernervoss6357 I like dry heat it's a lot more tolerable than humid heat

[@wertiadreams7949]

lovely channel

[@AlienAbles420]

More of this please. I want to here about their experiences in the South.

[@brodieknight772]

You kind of sound like the guy from Horrorbabble that reads HP Lovecraft. It's a very soothing, noble voice that makes me feel like I'm hearing something important.

[@aisimined521]

Hello. I myself am Russian and all Americans and not only, I recommend this book, it tells about America of those years, and now you can find something similar to America 30 and present. All good day and read the guys books, they will help you in everything and read them very interesting)

[@RonaldMcPaul]

Как дела, you look British

[@mishapurser7542]

Watching this video I'm really happy that I learnt to read Cyrillic. I've learnt some interesting vocabulary as a result.

[@lakesheppard5466]

Ha my great grandma was 9 at the time of this story

[@elhombredeoro955]

So was my great grandma

[@MustacheDLuffy]

My grandma was like 14 but she’s dead now

[@Primitarian]

Fascinating how a foreigner in some ways know you better than you know yourself.

[@NefariousKoel]

"In Soviet Russia, Party Finds YOU!" Guess they were looking to drink if they partied with Hemingway.

[@Eridelm]

Interesting video, love your channel for throwing some ideas what to read

[@abnegazher]

Talks about food being tasteless: This is becoming depression Noises.

[@oskardelitz5651]

I love your content so much

[@F343x2]

I'm surprised he didn't talk about the massive depression that the US was currently in. Arguably, the 30's were some of the worst times in the US.

[@LW1Tok]

Worst time in America and probably still better off then in Soviet Russia.

[@GayFurryFromROA]

Depression was everywhere. In Europe USSR, Asia and USA. So it was pretty much given that whole world economy had crushed and ppl killed each other for 10 years straight

[@pgancedo9299]

This to me is so interesting! I wonder if his observation would have been the same if he traveled through western europe at that time

[@SuperNintendawg]

I would have done literally anything to hang out with Ilf, Petrov, and Hemmingway D:

[@Sheerspeechcraft]

This was pretty awesome to listen to

[@loszhor]

11:25 Тяжелый перерыв, КАРЕН!

[@My-Name-Isnt-Important]

It seems many people aren't understanding the food critique. Its mentioned the meat is frozen and shipped across the country, its not from cows kept near NY. This was before preservatives and other methods of food storage that we have now. So the meat and many other foods would be a few days or even weeks old by the time you ate it. Unlike now where food is extremely fresh and able to be shipped overnight. So the food not tasting as good was due to the staleness of the food being older and not fresh. Which actually, even then during the 30s there were markets in NY that would have had fresh meat and vegetables.