Post WWII Reconstruction of the USSR - COLD WAR DOCUMENTARY

[@BarefootLorrie]

I have always wondered how the USSR was able to recover and grow from indescribable levels of destruction and human cost, whilst the British Empire, which was comparatively unscathed by the war, went into terminal decline.

[@draconite420]

basically, forced labour

[@КочкоровУмар]

​@@draconite420 What do you have in mind?

[@zoperxplex]

Britain lost its empire while the Russians expanded theirs.

[@draconite420]

@@КочкоровУмар what do you mean what do i have in mind.. how was ussr able to recover and also produce such war supplies... easy one word, gulags

[@КочкоровУмар]

​@@draconite420 I advise you to stop thinking in Cold War propaganda cliches. The prisoners of the "GULAG" purely physically would not have been able to restore the entire Soviet Union, especially in such a time frame. P.s. And the prisoners were not in the Gulag (GULAG is a ministry), they were in camps, zones, prisons, etc. P.s.s. I am writing through Google Translator, I apologize in advance for any mistakes.

[@umaransari9765]

Before this channel there was just 2 Kings and Generals videos a week but since the beginning of this channel there are 3 amazing videos a week

[@ibnyahud]

i think it's criminal that K&G still has less than 1 mill subscribers!

[@umaransari9765]

@@ibnyahud agree They deserve way more subscribers than they currently have

[@gregorygherkins1884]

The Soviet Union lost more than the current population of New Zealand And Australia combined

[@gromosawsmiay3000]

percentage of population this is better factor to calculate loses than numbers.

[@M8143K]

Not even close to production levels of kiwis or australians. Soviets are meh

[@Kuzitube]

Hiss ! Depends on the source you are using

[@Uhtred-the-bold]

They didn’t care how many of their own people died.

[@spqr1945]

@@Uhtred-the-bold not true. Most of them were killed by Nazis or starved to death.

[@cuhurun]

In relation to the German reparation payments (re : 4.35 mins) to the Soviet Union and it's allies, it should be pointed out that - According to the Yalta Conference, no reparations to Allied countries would be paid in money. Instead, much of this value consisted of German industrial assets, as well as forced labour to the Allies. The Allied demands were further outlined during the Potsdam Conference. Reparations were to be directly paid to the four victor powers (France, Britain, USA and the Soviet Union), for the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, the Soviet Union would determine its distribution. Germany did not, nor has ever paid reparation money for the damage caused during WW2, to any nation.

[@aneesh2115]

Didn't Poland ask for 77 billion more euros as war reparations just a few day ago

[@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714]

@@aneesh2115 Its was said mostly to say that we polish will not bow to the Germany dominated EU. Not in seriousness.

[@TreeBarkSide]

A note should be added that they did give money and support to Israel for the treatment of the Jews.

[@jeffreyschnedar8020]

@@baltulielkungsgunarsmiezis9714 glad to hear it was not serious from a few sane people. Saw others on social media going crazy over the amount due to Poland. They seemed pretty serious and sounded insane.

[@Markus-n3s]

Correct. Although Germany paid trillions to various countries and interest groups, these are not reparations. Reparations are a limited legal term stipulated in a peace treaty. The Federal Republic of Germany was never at war with the allies but is a semi-autonomous administration entity, a modulation of occupation. The German Reich legally still exists but is incapacitated. The FRGermany pays and pays and pays and it never ends, for there is no reparations stipulation in a binding peace treaty. The FRGermany couldn’t even sign this treaty. It’s a trust fund installed by the Western Allies and has incorporated the Soviet counterpart in 1990

[@Bruno_Wosniak]

The program is awesome, just stop with the side camera pls

[@wildazcat25]

Agreed!! Love this channel, I'm a brand new subscribed! But don't quite understand the significance/purpose of the side cam

[@HolographicTechSupport]

Side camera?

[@MrK1kk3r]

More side camera pls

[@BrunoHenrique-uz1vd]

I like the side cam ahahah

[@owand5017]

Just put in in the corner

[@marieantoinettescake9513]

I'm Loving this channel. The Cold War has much nostalgia for many like myself that grew up at it's height and finally witnessed it's ultimate demise. Fascinating history lessons here. 👍

[@richardsimms251]

Terrific channel and videos. RS

[@hidof9598]

Are you from the 60s?

[@allaroundarbiter4809]

Awesome documentary David. I have learned more from this channel about world history than anything that I've learned in any of my junior high ,high school and college history classes.Thanks Again

[@bismarck0052]

Make Chile in the Cold War we got the first elected by popular vote communist and first dictator that leave by vote!

[@ShamanMcLamie]

The comment sections for that video will be fun to read.

[@lukadinicc2229]

And project Cybersyn

[@notallopinionswerecreatede4465]

You mean Salvador Allende?

[@ThePuma1707]

not there yet, that was in 1970-73

[@jeronimoadames6624]

THATS rare

[@iraqimapper8625]

It amaze me how Russia managed to survived and rebuilt itself after 36 years of wars and starvation

[@KofteG61]

They had enough people to sacrifice. Stalin is responsible for millions of deaths, way more than Hitler.

[@justinian-the-great]

Well, it is the Russia after all, indestructible as it is.

[@mrsslav5593]

@Donald J. Trump if you call aid that they were buing trains and airplanes for tons of gold

[@mrsslav5593]

@@KofteG61 oh my god how can be people so stupid like you poor world

[@DmitriPolkovnik]

@Donald J. Trump The USSR probably would have defeated the Axis without Western aid although it certainly did help and speed up the victory. It had nothing to do with the speed of Soviet reconstruction. Considering how quickly the planned economy built up the industrial base of the country it's not surprising how quickly it rebuilt. Especially since it now had the industrial resources it pillaged from Germany.

[@ras573]

I wonder how much of the failure of communism should actually be blamed on WWI and WWII. Both wars were much worse in eastern Europe then in the west.

[@Damo2690]

Well Russia became Communist in ww1 because the Germans allowed a certain prisoner to go back to Russia *cough* Lenin *cough* . So maybe we wouldn't have a Soviet Union without ww1

[@neddyladdy]

And how much blame does the totalitarian system deserve.

[@billyaepicgamer8642]

A fact often forgotten by us Westerners is that THE ENTIRE POINT OF WORLD WAR 2 WAS TO INVADE RUSSIA!!! Mein Kampf Chapter 14 outlines exactly what he wants and why he wants to achieve "Lebensraum" or living space. The application of Hitler's plan meant sending in groups who killed Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian civillians by firing squad or starvation.

[@neddyladdy]

@@billyaepicgamer8642 Predominant reason, yeah sure, but the ONLY reason? surely not. Polish , Ukrainian and Belarusian people are not Russian. The spelling will tell you that. I don't think Japan was very interested in invading Russia, but I seem to recall that Japan was involved too somehow or other. cheers

[@billyaepicgamer8642]

​@@neddyladdy What other motives are there for Hitler to start WW2? At the end of the day, Hitler's ultimate goal was to bring glory to Germany. I don't know any other reason besides maybe invading all of Western Europe so he can install puppets friendly to his cause. The point is, going back to the OP, it's amazing Russia recovered the way it did considering they were at war with a man who advocated with their extermination, and secondly, having a Ioseb Stalin who wasn't exactly known for valuing human life.

[@nostraanus]

6:00 "Worlds first hydrogen bomb"? The first hydrogen bomb was Ivy Mike on November 1st 1952.

[@lukerhode8960]

I believe that he means the first deliverable hydrogen bomb. Ivy Mike was the first hydrogen bomb, but the Soviets made the first usable one.

[@leeharveyoslik]

Ivy Mike was ruther a hydrogen building :)

[@nostraanus]

Okay, I thought he meant the fusion part.

[@michaeldunne338]

@@lukerhode8960 Even if talking about deliverable, RDS-6 was a strange one, exploded in 1953 from a tower, yielding "only" 400 kilotons, and was deemed a technical dead end. Ivy Mike was 10 megatons. The U.S. detonated its first deliverable thermonuclear weapon in early 1954 at Bikini. The Soviets' first true hydrogen bomb - the RDS-37 - wasn't tested until late in the year of 1955 (like in November).

[@totnorbi]

ahh yiess, just in time for my weekly cold war fix! :)

[@Jesse_Dawg]

Excellent episode! I love the history. Great job covering the topics

[@TheColdWarTV]

Thank you for watching

[@devonalexreckon6048]

Wait a actual history channel not being super western bias ,God I never knew I'd see the day

[@pierresihite8854]

Its beutiful !

[@drewdavis8249]

i think it’s pretty obvious that this channel is ideologically against USSR policies

[@devonalexreckon6048]

@Claire AwesomeSauce no but saying "historical facts" that western media used to demonize communism is western bias

[@devonalexreckon6048]

@Claire AwesomeSauce I beg to differ

[@devonalexreckon6048]

@Claire AwesomeSauce even tho those numbers are very much disputed I will take it as fact, do you know what the death toll of capitalism is? Well it's 20 million , a year ,due to the lack of food clean water and vaccine curable deaseses ,

[@zabdas83]

I never knew the Soviet monetary system went onto a gold standard - post ww2. Very interesting information, MORE please? A lot more this is a big peice to me research. . .

[@nickhambly8610]

Who specifically designed the 5 year plan? It's kind of important to know this. But more important is some comment on why the focus on nuclear Dev became so important.

[@KaiserFranzJosefI]

The economic plans were decided by the Central Committee of the Communist Party with consultation from the Council of Ministers and the State Planning Committee.

[@ADogNamedStay]

Holy shit, the pitch changed. Nice.

[@austx290]

I heard Katysha playing in the background! GREAT video.

[@theblankettruth]

Could you cover why the Soviet Union focused so much on heavy industries vs. other economic development. Maybe you have already but I have not seen such a video so far. Love the content!

[@RamdomView]

As said in the video, the Soviet Government was operating under the assumption that WW3 was imminent. That led them to focus on the parts of the economy that served a future war effort better.

[@dannya1854]

Experiences in the Russian Civil War, seeing what happened to failed socialist revolutions in Europe, and then experiences in WW2 were all contributors to the focus on heavy industry. The Soviet Union has been in a war for existence since its very beginning.

[@notbadsince97]

What could of possible played a factor in the 1946-47 famine? I don't know maybe losing those 37 million hectares of farmable land might of had something to do with it.

[@romelnegut2005]

One little thing : it's Moldova, not Moldavia.

[@aidabagirova4933]

During the period of being a part of the USSR Moldavia was called

[@petrov3411]

daniel halachev there is the country of Moldova and the region of Moldova . They have the same name

[@Saguser-jl7dr7wy9t]

We called it Moldavia. History of the USSR calls it Moldavia.

[@petrov3411]

Канат Байжолов as a Moldovan , I think the country and region is called Moldova . Maybe it’s a mistake in the translation between Romanian and English

[@romelnegut2005]

@@petrov3411 As a Romanian, I use the term " Moldova" when it comes to the country and "Moldavia" when it comes to the region, if I choose to mention them in a conversation like this one. In Romanian, "Moldavia" is "Moldova" and "Moldova" is "Republica Moldova" or "Basarabia" (the latter being used by some of use when it comes to the country).

[@АлександрНевельский-л2з]

7:32 those citizens were often disinterested in the results of their labor. Absolutly false. I talked to many people who had come to cities at this time and all they work as hard as possible. Their life was improved greatly and they built a new country to live in.

[@themidwestexpress708]

I was wondering if what he said was true, since one of Marx’s criticisms of capitalism was the workers being alienated from their labor

[@Debilas2007]

probably only in Russian SSR because all older people from Lithuania at least said that they didn't like working in the kulkhoz

[@Partalainen]

He said that the citizens left on the farms were often disinterested in the results of their labour, not the ones working in cities.

[@АлександрНевельский-л2з]

@@cydm2 , my grandparents worked at the farm that time. And I know that they and people around them did their best to achieve the required result.

[@12mkamran]

Great video guys, they get better and better

[@firebla2e]

"Victory cannot be achieve without sacrifice, we Russians know this better than anyone."

[@P4Tri0t420]

"Lives doesnt matter" -Stalin

[@ThapanDubayehudi]

Reznov

[@brokenbridge6316]

Had no idea that the Soviet Reconstruction was so mis-managed. Scary. My compliments to those who made this video a reality.

[@gabrielleordane4741]

"Oppress the bell button..." I love it.

[@MjaucastRenzhion]

Oof to all these politicised comments. At least the video is fantastically objective!

[@anushghosh4606]

The video ain't remotely objective.

[@abandonedchannel281]

transylvanian Anti-Stalinism isn’t Anti-Communism

[@FedulAis]

@@abandonedchannel281 the line of intentionally starving people of Ukraine in 1946 for feeding Poland, East Germany is what disgust me. You just can't satisfy this sort mindset. Soviets did something good? Well, it was for establishing communism and enslavement, of course! Im not saying it wasn't, arguably opposing statement is also not right. But as russian who despite our own government propaganda and just seeing similar one, but from other side, well, lets say its really disappointing. People don't realise, that they under influence and spreading their biased opinion, that what real harm.

[@hauntologicalwittgensteini2542]

But muh wEsTErN BiAs

[@hauntologicalwittgensteini2542]

@transylvanian ah yes anything thats beyond your ideological bubble is "reactionary propaganda"

[@theorypractice5162]

Pretty sure Poland had the highest population loss per capita.

[@Franfran2424]

Belarus

[@TheBucketSkill]

@Forklift Talk Technically its a sovereign republic!!! But i'm sure to Hitler it was all the same, just USSR. So yea, probably right.

[@racewiththefalcons1]

USSR got positively _decimated_ in WWII, still defeated Germany, had to rebuild most of their country, and STILL beat USA to space.

[@UlyssesSGrant-nt9pr]

no?

[@DarthVantos]

@@UlyssesSGrant-nt9pr Based USSR sputnik

[@amigoami2800]

the number of prisoners in the USSR never exceeded 2700000 people. What 9 million? Where did you get this number?

[@YiannissB.]

He said "gulag prisoners". He means Soviet political prisoners, criminals, and other unwanted peoples by the communist party.

[@noonespecial7784]

"none of the nations lost as much as the USSR" *laughs in Chinese

[@Damo2690]

That's what i thought as well lol

[@arsbekbek2588]

technology nations Italy ( Lamborghini Ferrari) Germany ( Mercedes Audi) Japan ( Toyota Nissan) were so cruel. and called "civilized" europe. I hat USA , but i admit that they should have military bases in Europe and Japan. to be peace in the world. because one Russia is not enough to be peice.

[@nationradical]

“Cries”

[@arsbekbek2588]

its ww3. Trade war China - US. Brexit no deal. game is over. your last speech

[@igorverevkin7709]

Well Nazi Germany was essentialy the country against which WW2 was fought. And China has nothing to do with defeating Germany. Pacific theater was secondary.

[@eddienom]

Great Work! You Guys are killing it!

[@objective13]

Love the channel but one small thing. At ~6 mins, Soviet Union detonated THEIR first thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb in 1953, but the WORLD'S first was detonated by the US in 1952. Just something that stuck out to me and made me go double check to be sure. Love the video though!

[@zivgerson738]

can you talk about oil?(iran) or about finland?

[@Kibalchish1917]

The Aral Sea catastrophe was caused by the irrigation projects required to boost the production of cotton in Central Asia, not production of crops. Otherwise, not a bad video.

[@qalette]

Correct. And another, virtually unknown factor was the shift from hemp to cotton for the textile industry in the 1960's. Unfortunately I don't know any details, all I know is that hemp was the main resource for the textile industry before it was made illegal in 1959, and that cotton needs like 10 times more water than hemp does. The Aral Sea catastrophe started in the early 1960's, some ten years after the canals have been constructed, and I suspect that the switch from hemp to cotton was a major contributor to the problem, if not even the main cause.

[@Kibalchish1917]

@@qalette This I didn't know, and I was born and grew up in Tashkent. I remember learning at school that cotton was used for a lot of things, including ropes, paper, alcohol, oil, etc., i.e. things that can be produced from hemp. We used this horrible cotton cooking oil as well. You have to understand that hemp was always frowned upon, not just in the USSR, as a potential source of marijuana..

[@Jarod-sm5rf]

It’s extraordinary that Russia managed to recover at all from the world war, my hats off to Russia 🇷🇺 love from 🇨🇦

[@MOCentrists]

It gets easier when you get to strip east Germany of its industry and suck out resources from eastern Europe thru its puppet regimes.

[@bjarkel.993]

Jarod, that is a thought mistake. Belarus was nearly wiped out, large tracts of Ukraine too, both fully occupied. Russia proper was occupied partially yes, but look at a WWII map with Belarus and Ukrainian borders drawn in and take in mind that those areas to the East of those republics were not occupied for an extended time. Yes Stalingrad was mauled and Leningrad was under siege, but physically Russia suffered not so much. Dying they all did. Ms Freeland would agree. 🇧🇾🇺🇦 read the “Bloodlands” by Timothy Snyder.

[@SonBui-de6qx]

Sean Siering it’s SATELLITE states. Puppets have no control over policy making and exists only for show. Satellites are heavily influenced by a power but have some control over their own nation.

[@Jake-oz3fy]

Jarod Farrant It really wasn't they did the heavy casualties to them selfs by mismanagement and if they managed there army better they would not have lost as much territory and men. They didn't rebuild the infrastructure them selfs they just took from there occupied lands and just used POWs to build there infrastructure

[@stanimirmn]

@@MOCentrists Eastern Europe was heavily subsidised by the USSR, in fact by the end of the 80s it was putting a huge toll on USSR's economy. So... bullshit alert !

[@EurasiaOnYT]

Great video!!!!

[@TheColdWarTV]

Thank you for watching

[@Leancle]

So interesting, thanks for the info! :D

[@FangAzi]

If anyone wonders whats the background music at ~9 min or ~10 min, it is "Katyusha", famous WW2 song.

[@markusz4447]

I like it. would love a few statistics and numbers here and there though! keep it up!

[@joshmaddy007]

Was the slaughter of the kulaks (sp?) Mentioned as contributing to the famine or did I miss it?

[@chatnoir1224]

it was 1946, not 1931. Kulaks didn't matter at this point.

[@maxmay2151]

Enjoying this, but the first Hydrogen bomb was the Ivy Mike test in 1952.

[@calebshonk5838]

In Soviet Russia, dark humor is like food. -not everyone gets it.

[@hidof9598]

It's the other way

[@Pablo-kx8wm]

Fuck USA

[@percamihai-marco7157]

From where do you have the videos which you are using in this clip?

[@stanleysmith7551]

By no means would l defend the USSR or communism, but you got to admire the country's commitment. More than 10 000(!) cities destroyed and they kept on fighting. Some countries don't even have 10000 cities or the population of 20+ million. That's like killing off most of Australia/Canada or the whole of Romania. That's insane! No country today would have the stomach or manpower to recover after a loss of that magnitude. One tiny drone attack and everybody is scared shitless. People have become soft. This was total war in every sense of the word.

[@deepalib3096]

I love these informative videos

[@stacey_1111rh]

Great work!

[@Kolokommouna]

The inefficiencies of the centralised economy of the USSR was countered and surpassed by the second feature of the Soviet economy: it being a "planned economy". That allowed it to allocate resources and prioritize production and construction on what is most necessary to reconstruct the nation. For example, more resources will be allocated to the reconstruction of the transportation network than the expansion of the consumer goods industry.

[@jessekauffman3336]

I grew up at the end of the cold war.love thisprogram

[@big131]

Worlds first hydrogen bomb was at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands tested by the USA 1952.

[@mathewkelly9968]

big 131 wrong the Soviets beat the US to it

[@justsomeguy3931]

9:19 Truly, humans pave paradise to put up a parking lot

[@georgequalls5043]

They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.

[@이동연-c6d]

I can't wait to see the Korean War episode!!!

[@TheColdWarTV]

We will cover it in detail.

[@Preuen-zs1fz]

Seems like somebody wants to take the north

[@hidof9598]

@@Preuen-zs1fz , it deserves to be taken

[@lisagreenwald8368]

Agreed about the excellence and the side camera

[@IsidorosEduardos]

Wasn't the first Hydrogen Bomb made by the Americans in 1952?

[@Muffin-kk7kt]

Ya, I though the castle bravo test was in 1952.

[@schr75]

@@Muffin-kk7kt Castle Bravo was in 1954. The test you are thinking of was Ivy Mike. The worlds first Thermonuclear test 1. November 1952.

[@Muffin-kk7kt]

@@schr75 Ah, thank you for the correction!

[@yunnoxxsrbenglish1694]

7:39 what music?

[@TheColdWarTV]

Smuglianka

[@hidof9598]

So not focusing on light industry and consumer goods, ruined the economy? Or did it just have a rough start?

[@LucidFL]

Why point out where Moldavia is? If someone doesn’t know where it is on a map I seriously doubt they know where Ukraine ans Belarus are.

[@luciuspaullus1948]

They might know where Ukraine is

[@julian3bk]

Big Daddy I thought he ment Moldova but he is right. I looked it up, Moldavia was a separate region today part of Ukraine, Romania and Moldova. He probably explained its location because it is not presently a country like the others.

[@ConorMcgregor322]

@@julian3bk Well it should all be part of Romania. Russians stealing our land as usual.

[@JonatasAdoM]

8:34 It gives the impression they are using the halftrack as a tractor.

[@aisir3725]

"New industry - hydroelectric power" Dnieper Hydroelectric Station: am i a joke to you?

[@tomau0506]

Well it was destroyed in war anyway.

[@excelexplained4443]

Good point but it was destroyed

[@Oxley016]

It was a new industry in the ussr

[@B1345-q2s]

The soviets didn’t make the first hydrogen bomb

[@TheColdWarTV]

The Soviets did test the first Hydrogen bomb, Joe 4, as in a deliverable thermonuclear weapon. The US triggered the first hydrogen explosion via the Ivy Mike before this but it was not a bomb as the setup to trigger the explosion took up most a building.

[@B1345-q2s]

The Cold War thanks for the reply I had no idea

[@ogeorgiou]

This playlist plays in reverse order. Any chance you'd be willing to flip it?

[@stressrelief3039]

Have you got a podcast?

[@christiannewaye7306]

This movie or documentary on the Soviet union is very biased the leaves out the massive GDP growth in distributive income amongst the Soviet Citizens and economics in trading with nations like recently made independent India this is something that this documentary never puts into perspective how to mention a massive scientific and technological advancements the Soviet union made without any form of help

[@vexintersect1312]

Only negative news! no talking about how east Germany had higher GDP growth than the west, better diet with more meat, no talking about industrialization.

[@dingo4079]

The sound capturing could be better, but great episode.

[@gilbertplays]

Now make a video on the reconstruction of Allies that are not part of the Marshall plan.

[@lukadinicc2229]

*oof*

[@allones3078]

Why not have a proper playlist in chronological order

[@grizla1895]

i wish this episode was much longer.

[@yuriantunes2916]

seriously I love your videos, they look like a documentary made by the HBO

[@vanoy13]

8:35 - remnants of war

[@TheLocalLt]

When is the 1946 Iran Crisis vid coming?

[@MohannadMamo]

nice video, I have 2 notes I think they would have been important to mentioned in the video (sorry for not mentioning a source, I am sure it is not hard for you to double check): 1. Stalin had hate against the farmers as he saw them kind of soldiers of capitalists as they are cheap to buy their opinion and make them follow you. He liked factory workers more. This had an effect on how the policy was conducted during Stalin time and therefore farmers took a huge hit. 2. the view of heavy industry in Moscow was that it is sign of modern economy, so the USSR as advanced country had to have heavy industry. They were aware of the importance of other industries but they way they did it was supporting developing countries to have that small industry to grow their economy, this allowed developing countries to buy heavy machinery from Soviet Union and pay for it from the income of small industry. if they did not do that, most developing countries would have been free to buy products from the western countries (also without that system some countries would not have got some modernization, those countries owe to that system and USSR a favor :)... )

[@simplicius11]

Where did you get this nonsense? You obviously don't have a clue about Russian and Soviet agriculture before the collectivization. Who industrialized Poland, Bulgaria, Romania? And I'm talking about heavy industry there, that is all vanished after the collapse of the Eastern bloc. They have no industry any more.

[@FrazzP]

The populations of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia have never recovered from the second world war.

[@Ridddigg]

Yes, Mother Russia has taken a heavy toll. But Europe received a mortal blow (Europe dies slowly and painfully).

[@napoleoniii8372]

Their populations are double the pre-war numbers, it only took a decade for the USSR to recover the losses. Compare that to the collapse in the 90s, Russia's population is still a few million below and Ukraine is ten million below, and that's 30 years later.

[@TheDirtysouthfan]

@@napoleoniii8372 I don't think it's comparable because one is due to war and the other is due to people leaving and not having as many children.

[@AgentGWG]

Thank you Indy Nidell, very cool.

[@skylersneathen4799]

The concept of the Soviet's nationalized banks just perplexes me.

[@nicholasmwangangi6257]

i love how you conveniently forgot Operation Unthinkable

[@LibertarianLeninistRants]

6:36 Despite all the flaws the Soviet economy was way more effective than most market economies. Also, if anyone is interested how a centralized planned economy can work with today's technology (supercomputers, internet, big data,...) and in combination with direct democracy: There is a book called "Towards a New Socialism" by Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell freely available online

[@angela_merkeI]

So effective that it failed and contributed to mass starvation...

[@LibertarianLeninistRants]

@@angela_merkeI yeah, that wouldn't have happened in a destroyed country where markets exist...I mean, that never happened in devastated capitalist countries, did it?

[@pizzapicante27]

@@angela_merkeI To be fair its to the credit of their system that they recovered at all from that level of damage, 37 million hectares!, jeesh, my country, Mexico, one of the largest in the world, has 25 million hectares total today, I cant even imagine what its like to have that level of destruction.

[@ryanbell7877]

@@LibertarianLeninistRants Collectivization was an incredibly inefficient way of managing the agriculture sector, yes famines happen in capitalist countries too. But obviously if your farms are very inefficient and poorly managed it's going to make the famine a lot worse.

[@LibertarianLeninistRants]

@@ryanbell7877 it always depends on the kind of collectivization. a top down approach in combination with democratic rural organizations like in early maoist China proved very effective, the commune system produced more efficient than anything that existed before in China. But then there is also the possibility to do collectivization via cooperatives as was done in East Germany. That proved to be very effective as well, since the expensive machinery was shared among hundreds of farms. It always depends on the structure the collectivization happened in...and on the kind of collectivization. There were definitely mistakes in some countries, nobody is denying that. But there were very successful examples as well, but these facts don't seem to bother people...how convenient for capitalist defenders

[@LionKing-ew9rm]

4:36 4 Billion in our today money or theirs??!

[@Finkaisar]

possibly ours, because he said us dollars

[@miguelcamacho4595]

I would think in their time, cause in ours it wouldn’t represent the impact shown in the video.

[@faithlessberserker5921]

Side camera is great

[@deciver5]

I think your first statement is not true. The allied country who lost most in terms of population, industry capacity (in percentage) and also was the only country on winning side of the war which was smaller after the war than before it was Poland. Moreover Soviet industry production in 45 was already bigger than in 1939 or june of 1941. Oh and most of the industry loses was due to the scorched earth policy so basicly soviets destroyed themselves.

[@WillBeLater]

The first five minutes of the video were more or less objective. But after that... With each next second my disappointment only grew. Also, the list of sources used to create this video looks very strange. 4:58 - "as well as the eight to nine million prisoners of the GULAG"? Are you serious? 8 to 9 kk? Really? And there were no prisoners in the GULag... none. GULag is an abbreviation for the General Directorate of Camps (G - Glavnoe/General; U - Upravlenie/Directorate; Lag - Lagerei/of Camps). It's just a building in Moscow. The prisoners were in various labour camps, not in GULag. By the way, english speakers often make another very funny mistake. They use the plural for this term - GULags. GULag has no plural. And yes, for many of you it will be a revelation, but prisoners of labor camps were paid wages. Really, i don't understand this. This information is well known. At least in russian historiography. Author repeats several times that collective farms were ineffective, that the planned economy was unbalanced and inefficient. But, again, that wasn't confirmed by post-war reality. The Soviet Union canceled the food cards before the UK, although no soldiers of the Third Reich landed on the Islands. The economy skyrocketed. And it isn't surprising that the priority in development was made in favor of heavy industry. Before industrialization, Russia was an agrarian country. The goal of industrialization was to create a powerful industrial state. And the basis of any independent industry is machine-tool construction. Only after that it was possible to create a self-sufficient economy. Moreover, artels (analogue of joint stock companies in capitalism) - non-state collective companies - were a significant part of the economy of the USSR until Stalin's death. Artels produced a wide range of consumer goods: from clothing and food to furniture and home electronics. Artels were different: a small tailor shop, factory or even research Institute - they all could be in the form of artel. Kolkhozes were non-state collective farm (Kol - kollektivnoe/collective; Khoz - khoziaistvo/farmhold). Yes, kolkhoz was also a form of artel. And collective farmers WERE interested in their work, because the more they produce, the more they will be able to sell, and therefore the greater will be the profit. If you didn't know, during the Great Patriotic War kolkhozes and separate farmers bought tanks and planes for army. There was also the term kolkhoz-millionaire. On their own kolkhozes built schools, theaters, etc. in their villages and towns. As for the monetary reform of 1947, the author is still partially right. Yes, immediately after the reform, the people lost part of their savings, but the results and consequences of that reform were much more important. It was thanks to this reform that the post-war shortage of goods was overcome, and until Stalin's death, annual planned price reductions were carried out. As a result, people's wealth only increased. The deficit appeared much later, when the principles of the planned economy were violated as a result of incompetent reforms. But this is a completely separate, large and complex topic.

[@romaneremian7192]

Roman, thanks for your time. Brilliant and precise facts and arguments

[@georgerasmutin699]

@Steve Arthur very skewed plus most people only care to know Stalin, madman dictator, 60 million dead and that about sums up the first half of the history of the ussr..it's interesting to have some details load out in the video/comments

[@dickiller2199]

Никакие принципы планового хозяйства нарушены не были. Для административно-командной экономики СССР дефицит был нормой. Единственные года без дефицита - это 1952, 1960-1972 и 1974-1977. For western partners: No principle of planned economy was violated in USSR. Deficit was standard situation for soviet command economy. There were no deficits only in 1952, 1960-1972, 1974-1977.

[@chaosXP3RT]

Nice Soviet Propaganda comrade

[@jangrosek4334]

@@georgerasmutin699 In fact, 30 million Soviet citizens (including 10-15 million dead) suffered from Stalin. Not 60 million. Stop repeating anti-communist tales. So you will not help the communists. Thanks to people like you, the Communists in Russia managed to restore their reputation when they were able to prove the facts of the lies of anti-Communists. Don't make the same mistakes

[@DABViktor]

Thank you for the English subtile, i can translate my hungarian language.

[@bernatsort6233]

Conclusion of the video, the improve of urss becoming the second largest economy in the world being in 1890s one of the more ineficient (feudalism) is because of magic . Not because stalin did a great job or socialism.

[@anushghosh4606]

Okay. This time I think you have lost all sense of objectivity. God, as much as I praised you for your analysing of the opposing ideologies of the Cold War, I guess I have to deconstruct every thing that you say: 1) As I mentioned earlier, the Soviet penal system was not retributive, it was rehabilitative in intent. The maximum prison sentence that could be awarded to anyone convicted of a crime was 10 years. Only those who had committed serious crimes like treason or those who were deemed impossible to reform through the penal system were subject to capital punishment. Also, the gulag population had reached its height in 1939 at 2 million. After the war began in 1941, all the resources were diverted from maintaining penal and other kinds of non-essential services towards the war effort. Imagine, when the free Soviet citizen suffered horribly due to the lack of basic amenities during the duration of the War, how would the population in the gulag would survive when all the resources required to maintain this population was devoted towards driving the Nazis out? As a result, the mortality shot up from 2% to 5% (in 1939) to 10 to 15% (by 1945-46, when the War ended and peace-time production re-commenced). As a result, by the 1950s there could not be "millions" languishing in the gulags due to the sheer number of material deprivation these imprisoned people had to go through. Again, it is factually wrong to state that the gulag population was "not paid" for being made to put in reconstruction work. Of course since the folks in the gulag were imprisoned out of being convicted for crimes committed by them, they were certainly "forced" into service (as you mention) but they were definitely paid. A gulag inmate had to work for ten hours (as opposed to the eight hour work-day of free Soviet citizens) and they were paid the half of what a free Soviet worker was paid; this was changed in 1952, when the pay of a gulag inmate was made equal to that of a free worker. Quaint, how you are talking upon Soviet reconstruction efforts but you aren't relying upon actual practices in the USSR and consciously decide to choose anti-communist narratives. Where is objectivity in that? 2) You have yourself mentioned the human and material losses that the Soviets had to suffer in the War. About a third of its wealth was either destroyed or looted by the invading Nazis. In fact, you have failed to mention what the Nazis intended to do with Eastern Europe and the USSR under the Generalplan Ost. Therefore what the Nazis did was not an unconscious act of callous destruction. It was a very deliberate campaign to cripple and dismantle Soviet power and this was fuelled by their rabid anti-communism, anti-Semitism and their racial ideology which saw the Slavs - especially those living in the USSR - as subhuman. Therefore when the USSR stripped Germany off of its assets and used it to fuel its own reconstruction efforts, how dare can some call it "looting"? If India had won her independence from Britain, would it be considered "looting" if the Indians demanded monetary and material indemnities for about 2 centuries of colonial rule? By not mentioning the whys and wherefores of Nazis destroying Soviet industries and settlements, you are now showing the USSR in a criminal light for doing what they needed to do? 3) As if liberal democracies don't practice political repression? Seriously, who are these people you talk about who wanted these "political reforms"? People like counter-revolutionary scum who had managed to hide within the Party or opportunists who had been blinded by the ill-gotten wealth of the West (like Nikita Krushchev)? Again, as I said earlier, the nations of the West created their wealth through imperialist plunder and colonialist brutality on the third world while the USSR - before 1949, the world's first socialist state - could not rely upon the exploitation of foreign raw materials and the labour of foreign peoples to create its wealth. Also the West had a leading start of about 200 years in terms of developing its economy (and that too, leeching upon the resources of colonized nations) while the Soviets had ten to fifteen years before the War to reach the same level of technological development. You can't compress centuries of development into a period of a decade or two, which causes relative backwardness with regards to the West. So if liberal "democracies" can exercise political repression and get away with it, I don't see why is it suddenly proper to criminalize the Soviets for doing what a state in the Marxist sense is supposed to do: suppress an overthrown class by the class that has seized political and state power? 4) Lastly, I am afraid you don't know how economic planning works. It is not inherently inefficient or slow because "everything is planned from the centre". No. How could you imagine a country as big as the USSR solely rely on planning everything from the centre and not allowing some form of decentralization? Does it not occur to you while researching for this video that the economic centre can do absolutely nothing without consulting local economic units? Anyway, in a planned economy the centre creates a general plan for the entire country based upon the estimated rates of production and distribution by local economic units. After this plan is finalized and passed the centre consults the local economic units in order to determine how much of a something can actually be produced and distributed, upon which targets and objectives of the plan are either re-adjusted or revised. Is it a relatively slow system compared to the free-market? Yes. But is it inefficient? If GDP is indicative of economic growth then sure it is inefficient, except GDP is not the true measure of a country's economic development. Seriously, I thought you would be better than the dominant anti-communist drivel that is passed off as "history" on KZbin (and elsewhere). Alas, this is not to be.

[@anushghosh4606]

@transylvanian Thank you Comrade. Yes, I could have mentioned how economic growth under socialism is stable but then it is easier to dismiss GDP as a measure of economic growth in the first place.

[@jayantasen2406]

Thank you for your effort Anush. I wish more people would read stuff first before spitting out propaganda lies against USSR (and communism in general). Have a good day.

[@anushghosh4606]

@@jayantasen2406 Thank you Comrade

[@richardburns420dale3]

world revolution is imperialism and gulags and forced labor is slavery uncontinued economic growth means nothing u seem to read only communist sources i read robert service they had poor labor quality didnt have half the technology usa had during 1980s soviets wanted to buy milking machines for their cows for they had no technology ro build them bot gorbachev nad shevardnadze saw japan and it is productivity in 90000 sovıet workers were needed to do the job 5000 japanese workers did(robert service) (end of the cold war)researchers per 1000 workers were ridicilously low

[@richardburns420dale3]

they exploited foreigners where did the machinery in east germany and checzhoslovakia went what happened to the collectivized ukranian grain thats the fact and communist killed 100 milliom people and azerbajiani gas and oil were exploited as well stalin killed 7.5 million ukranians and took their money and everything and u actually supported stalin who killed more than hitler

[@handsomegeorgianbankrobber3779]

Germans in 1945: Our country is completely fucked Russians: Holy my vodka

[@emirrasic7247]

3:42 Do you mean Moldova?

[@朱雀桥上]

Chinese subtitle added. Please review, thanks!

[@qbbruno8279]

Haha! Just in time! A hug from Brazil ;)

[@DakuHonoo]

i thought the USSR just gained industrial capacity during the war, after the initial transport to the ural mountains

[@command_unit7792]

It developed it before the war

[@DakuHonoo]

i mean, sure, they've been getting it from germans for letting them train pilots and tank drivers in the ussr, but didn't lend lease to russia also include industrial help?

[@socialsinapse9298]

It's like he doesn't know what to do with his hands

[@pookey6905]

Is this made by the same people at The Great War?

[@jrfjhh5636]

Why invest so much heavy industries

[@fedorevdokimenko3978]

Cold war started, heavy machinery was needed to survive. Also heavy industry was needed as an engine of other industries. For example tractors and harvesters are needed for agrarian sector, machine tools for clothing and so on.

[@leeharveyoslik]

nuclear program. the soviet nuclear program was estimated to consume as much resouces as the greate patriotic war itself.

[@rfvtgbzhn]

I think one thing said in the video is wrong: that the standard of living of soviet citizens didn't increase much during the reconstruction compared to the pre-war period. Maybe the consumption of consumer goods didn't increase much, but this is just one aspect, I know that the housing conditions for many workers were much better in the late 50s than in the mid 30s.

[@rylanmcclanahan1328]

Rip Aral Sea lost but not forgotten

[@tothemaxgaming8240]

9:25 promise you won’t cry Me: yes Ok here Me: cry’s

[@mattanderson6336]

It was before the Cold War but how about a video about the Ukrainian Holomodor in the early 1930’s.

[@britisheastindiacompany6031]

"Construction complete"

[@ilyaelric9539]

3:50 haha It must be so upsetting that most of people didn't hear a thing about Moldova and the ones who heard know that it's as poor as any Sub-Saharan country

[@ilyaelric9539]

70.000 villages tho. It's mind blowing and terrifying

[@ShamanMcLamie]

Moldova makes Bulgaria look good. Well at least Albania makes Moldova look good.

[@SirDerpofCamelot]

Ww2 was a disaster for central and eastern europe

[@affentaktik2810]

Mr.Paddle but western europe japan and china were fine or what

[@johnwales9842]

I would argue that The British and the Soviets were the biggest losers of WWII. Neither fully recovered from the War.