The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Moments of Life in Soviet Union
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2016
- Good things about Soviet Union. Good moments of life in the USSR.
Life in the USSR had quite a few positive moments: free education, free medical service, heavily subsidized housing (some people call it free housing in the USSR but it wasn't actually free), and subsidized basic foodstuffs like bread.
My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC
My site: www.sputnikoff.com/
"Ushanka Show" is a collection of stories about life in the USSR.
SOVIET EDUCATION: • SOVIET EDUCATION
SOVIET LEADERS: • SOVIET LEADERS
CHERNOBYL STORIES: • Chernobyl's Dirty Litt...
SOVIET AUTOMOBILES: • Chernobyl's Dirty Litt...
SOVIET MUSIC: • SOVIET MUSIC
SOVIET MONEY: • SOVIET MONEY
SOVIET HUMOR: • Video
My FB: / sergei.sputnikoff.1
Twitter: / ushankashow
Instagram: / ushanka_show
You can support this project here: / sputnikoff with monthly donations
Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow - Розваги
![ПОЛНАЯ ИСТОРИЯ ЭКЗОРЦИЗМА [Топ Сикрет]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qBySr6Bt0B8/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello, comrades!
My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA.
Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR.
My book about arriving in America in 1995 is available on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC
My site: www.sputnikoff.com/
You can support this project here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff with monthly donations
Support for this channel via PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow
Ushanka Show merchandise:
teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop
If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below.
www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9
My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff
Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow
Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/
Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/The_Ushanka_Show/
Yes comrade ,everyone made very small rubles unless you where higher ups and party leaders and the fools in control. The people paid for the free education of other people wether they wanted to or not! So in other words, like your saying or I think that your saying, America isn't perfect by any means but obviously CCCP was pretty crappy.
Is better than india
Did a snake bite your chin?
I'd say 85% of the people that have television in American now but still have cable they don't watch commercials because they have a DVR last 5 years I had cable I didn't watch commercials I had a DVR I just fast forward through the commercials and more advanced TV are you can just skip them completely but the DVR I had you can just fast forward but but for the past 4 years I've just had Netflix and Amazon so I've only had Amazon for about a year two years but but I've had Netflix for about 4 years 5 years and UA-cam so I ain't watch commercials in a long time except UA-cam commercials
Instead of Sasha for your daughter you should have named her Natasha!
I stopped paying for and watching TV because of commercials as well. It’s literally like a 50/50 time split. Instead...I watch USHANKA SHOW!!!
*with ads, ftfy 🙄
I have an online friend who visited the USSR in the 1970's and he told me that the USSR made the best tasting ice cream ever because the USSR did not use a lot of chemicals or preservatives like the U.S or Western Europe.
How ironic as an American that the ice cream that tastes the best over there was not made with chemicals or preservations!
I haven’t been to Eastern Europe but I’ve been to Italy and their gelato absolutely demolishes our ice cream so I believe it
The thing about commercials cannot be overstated. I was lucky enough to be in Cuba during a FIFA World Cup. It was sooooo nice to be able to just watch the matches straight without interruptions for commercials every 5 mins.
You said a lot of things that my friends parents talked about when I was in high school. But they also said that they preferred Soviet times and referred to Gorbachev as “Suka”
This is one of my favorite channels.
I’m with you on commercials. This is why I love Netflix.
Americans are so indoctrinated by media we can remember specific commercials from our childhood. It’s ridiculous
Thanks for the video. It seems that it is really hard to find english content about life in the USSR without seeing a lot of obnoxious americans bleating "Death to Socialism", while I only want to know about the experiences these people had in such a obscure regime (most things we know here in the west are pure propaganda and exaggeration, even though all of the USSR problems existed).
Even in Portuguese there is more accessible content about USSR life, like from the Channel "Onde está o Wally?", where a brazilian living in Russia asks to his parents in law about it. What about this kind of content in English? Just this channel and a bunch of Soviet propaganda videos.
Cheers from Brazil.
LOL!
When I first moved to US from Moscow USSR, (1977) US media was a shock for me!
They presented life in USSR like utopian workers paradise.
Everything free, no homeless, no unemployed..... etc....
I couldn't recognize the country I just came from.
@Mikeshin
You are so lucky to live far, far away from USSR/Russia.. had you ever the "luck" to taste "pleasantries" of "socialist worker's paradise", you wouldn't really want to do anything with it.
Hey I was born and raised in America and I found plenty of books and documentaries on Russia that were objective about the history and life in Russia.
@@Haos666 I am not being an USSR apologist, nor am trying to paint myself as one. Maybe it's because I've changed my mind from 2 years ago to now, but I also agree that USSR was a terrible place to live in comparison to what I have now, but what I mean is what we learn from the USSR in the western lens can be hugely exaggerated and out of touch from the reality.
We have to praise that content like Ushanka Show gives a true to life, first hand experience to what the USSR was. I know, some of those first hand experiences might have some nostalgia goggles in them, but it is far better trying to solve the puzzle by considering what those people, who did live in the time period, have experienced themselves, rather than purely from western sources that watched an enemy empire implode.
It was not as bad as we might expect, but it was not as good as people wished or said it was. The entire USSR is too complicated to simply say a single set result. While I personally agree that the USSR is not something I would like to experience myself, we have to listen to what the people who lived the thing itself have to say.
@@marciadurkee3532
I've always been curious about Soviet life. Thanks for that!
I explained to a Soviet exchange student, "I can say anything I want about President Reagan. I can call him a liar. I can call him a criminal. Nothing will happen to me,"
He joked, "Oh, I can do that in the Soviet Union too. I guess our systems are the same!"
Brocialist Party of America And I’d bet you’d love to see a leftist dominated system in the USA now that would prohibit speaking out against a leftist government. Regan was great and your countrymen were weak and your family a bunch of cowards for allowing a totalitarian military dictatorship to rule over you like you were surfs. Not Reagan’s fault it was YOUR FAULT. You get the government you deserve.
@Drake Coldman So that's what Stalin was doing when he was killing millions of his enemies?
Yeah, I think even Regan told that joke
@Big Robbie C Yes, that was Reagan's joke.
Ha ha
Thanks for posting this!
I've lived my whole life in the U.S. but have had the opportunity to make many friends who grew up in the U.S.S.R. I love to get their individual accounts on what life was like because most books and documentaries really only talk politics or have an obvious agenda in either direction. Thanks again for posting your perspective!
Really enjoying your videos ! Have always been fascinated by the USSR . Even as a kid I was. At a time when there was such a distrust between our two nations . Keep up the good work . Cheers !
Same here in Croatia, waiting for doctor to see you takes hours, free schools, free helath care for all. Great video keep up and thank's
According to my knowledge and experience nothing comes from free in real life...somebody got to pay for it.
UNLESS YOUR DYING OR IN GREAT PAIN YOU BE SEEN RIGHT AWAY
Imagine paying a million euro instead
Igor Kučević takes hours in America too. Last time at my eye doctor I waited like 3 or 4 hours at least, we went and got lunch and came back and I still had to wait.
Yeah, it takes hours in America as well. I had to wait 6 hours just to be seen in the er before. Another 4 hours after four my diagnosis which ended up being wrong.
I think the USSR deserves both enthusiastic praise as well as severe criticism. On the positive side it set up an ideology about universal equality and solidarity and it transformed some of the poorest countries on the earth into respectable and wealthier places which improved living conditions for millions through improvement in housing, healthcare, education, and employment (and it exported this improvement to other countries such as Cuba and Vietnam). However, it was also a highly violent state which exercised state violence regularly and extensively. Additionally, the collective system of agriculture and the command economy of Soviet socialism was unstable and prone to failure which impacted the lives of millions and, at times of crises, (such as collectivization under Stalin) the cost of the system was millions of lives.
TL;DR: Soviet Union is complicated. It did some things really right and it did some things really really wrong. We should take the good with the bad like we do with other countries' systems.
You really can get free college here in the US too at the community college level through Pell grants. These grants will also pay a substantial portion of a public 4 yr college if you choose one that’s not too expensive. Military can also get free college through GI bill money and many employers will pay for their employees to go to college through tuition reimbursement.
Another great video. I learned so much, and was reminded about some things you taught me before.
I bought a cheap ushanka with a Soviet badge on eBay last week, inspired by your awesome hat.
Still waiting for it to arrive.
I live in Australia’s coldest city so it will be great to wear in winter.
Great video, very interesting, thanks for taking time to do this.
Сергей - One thing I really love about America is that people can say anything they want about public figures and it’s illegal for our government to punish them. I think this is one of our greatest strengths because it allows people to vent their frustrations without resorting to political extremism or violence. Obviously, it’s not perfect, but it works pretty well. I’ve had Russian friends, Iranian friends and Arab friends and I never really worried about it.
It’s AWESOME that you can say “Здравствуйте товарищи!” and you don’t have to explain anything to anyone. We can all enjoy just hearing you say it. I think you made a good choice coming to the United States because I think you think like an American (that’s a compliment BTW). America is far from perfect, but I am optimistic about our future. I think it’s great that you are adding your knowledge about the Soviet Union to the collected knowledge stored on the internet for future generations. I imagine that teachers in 2119 will be showing your videos in history classes.
Dear Sergei - if adverts whilst watching television horrify you, move to Britain. The BBC - our beloved national television & radio institution - has no adverts. We also have a free health service, and free education up to age 16. We do, however, have the British weather, which might prove an unpleasant experience.
We have a jokes about weather in Saint-Petersburg i guess it can be related to Britain as well:
Announcement in local Saint-Petersburg's TV channel: People of Saint-Petersburg please don't panic this shiny thing in the sky is called the sun, soon it'll be gone.
You don't need a color printer to print a photo of St. Petersburg
- Hey, boy, is it true that there no days without rain in St. Petersburg??
- How do i know? i 'm only six years old!
I'm enjoying your videos. My wife came here from Kazakhstan in 96. Her childhood was fairly similar to yours. I guess all working class citizens had the same basic life experiences in USSR.
Thank you man. Very interesting things. Keep telling us your story of life.
This was a really interesting description, thanks. It sounds like the Soviet union was much better than western propaganda had us believe when I was growing up.
@D Can
Nope, it was much worse than you can imagine. Source: I lived a good deal of my life behind the Iron Curtain.
@@Haos666 interesting, these videos are based on this guy's experience in the city - and to me dont sound anything like as bad as American propaganda made it seem. Did you live in a city or in the country? What do you think were the worst things (any any good things) about life in the USSR?
@@dcan911 The thing is, depending on who you talk to in the US, the USSR was some horrible country where people were starving holocaust-style and people were getting GULAG'd for nothing. That's obviously a silly exaggeration but the country was legitimately much worse than the West. I'll just say this: The first toilet paper factory was built in 1969. So you had a country that was allocated and dedicating manpower to a space program, meanwhile people have to wipe their ass with newspapers. Also there are some philosophical concerns too: In the US, if you don't work, you can receive unemployment, or worst case scenario, live in a homeless shelter, or just be supported by family - not too comfortable, but not awful.
In the USSR it was in the constitution that everyone was guaranteed a job, but the caveat was that work was required for every able-bodies soviet citizen - you literally had no choice. You could choose to work a job or be sent to work in a labor camp. You didn't have an option to emigrate from the country either, so I don't see how it's much different from slavery.
In a capitalist country, you have to provide for yourself, but you are free to beg or poll resources with friends/family, etc. This wasn't possible in the USSR.
Loving your videos so far! Oddly enough America seems to experiencing similar especially with teachers pay so low many have to work multiple jobs!
Сергей - I think you would have been impressed with my Russian language professors back in the early eighties because what you are saying now is basically what they were saying then. However, most of my teachers didn’t mention the nice stuff - like how food didn’t have chemicals. My teachers were probably afraid of saying ANYTHING positive about the Soviet Union. My teachers liked the Russian people, but most of what they talked about were the negative things, so I REALLY appreciate your balanced and honest perspective and VERY interesting stories.
Most Russian people living in America were VERY suspicious of strangers back in the early eighties. I did know some Russians who weren’t suspicious of strangers, and they were very friendly towards me back then. Now things are totally different (which is nice). I’m sure the Russians living in America back in the early eighties were mainly suspicious of a young man (me) who spoke Russian with a heavy American accent (and didn’t speak Russian very well). It was a little sad, but things are better now.
I am really enjoying your videos.
One of the things Americans (of ALL political persuasions) have trouble understanding is that all societies ration in some way or another. For most of the West as well as (apparently) the Soviet Union the method of rationing education is merit. In fact, the way that MOST things are rationed is merit in those countries. The method of rationing in the U.S. is money--those with it get, and those without do not. You can debate which of those is "right" or "better" but that is reality.
American conservatives have a tendency to lump in things such as health care and compare a country like France, which has national health care (and having lived there MUCH better care than the U.S.) with countries such as Russia. But the difference is that even in Europe, although health care is guaranteed for the most part likely has regulations and requirements from the government it is still privately owned and administered (except for the "insurance" aspect where the money is collected and redistributed at a small fraction of the administrative cost of this in the U.S.--leaving much more money left over for actual health care services vs. share-holder profits).
To me the bottom line is that all of us have something we can learn from others, and no country has a monopoly on "the right way" to do anything. I wish we still had traditional farms and unprocessed food and I would be willing to pay more for it--but as Ushanka says, there is ALWAYS a cost and for food it would be higher prices.
Good job. A topic I would love for you consider is why Russia has persistently over hundreds of years seen the West as their enemy. To me it is a very important issue and few have made any effort to understand it.
The wages were surprisingly small in SU although Brezhnev used to rise them. But people wanted to live and started to steal from state units. Brezhnev ordered to pay more, the living was rising but factories and agricutural unist were not able to produce more, the shops were sold empty, the directors of shops started to sell "under the desk". So it went.
Nice vídeo.
Cheers from Brazil.
We have an oligarchy here in the US and the West, just like the Soviet Union had an oligarchy of a privileged few at the top. No matter what system there's always been those few at the very top pulling the strings. It's whatever system does the least amount of damage to an individual, but we seem to be infatuated with socialism. It works great in a book but applied to real life it forgets one great flaw in people-greed. It also treats everyone like bricks-like they're exactly the same but every person is unique.
College tuition here in the US has gone up 1000% since 1980. Why? Government money in the form of loans that these colleges have greedily used to increase tuition costs. Same with healthcare-government money has given license to hospitals to jack up rates.
So was Soviet college anything like US college? As in togas, beer pong, smoking weed, killing brain cells, and going to ridiculous student protests egged on by ex-hippie professors? LOL just joking. I used an Army program to help pay for mine.
Tom Servo ya not really the same thing at all. I get what you are saying but I wouldn’t call it an oligarchy .
Woody Woodlstein I love how people with your way of thinking instantly attack the person. Very effective, and it really underscores your intellectual superiority. And for what it's worth, the difference between socialism and communism is a matter of degrees. They are similar systems, with the same demotivators mentioned in this video. God help us if your way of thinking eventually takes over this country.
Brocialist Party of America look at the satellite images of north and south Korea
End of discussion
Tom Servo, like they say, democracy is the worst form of government, exept for all of the others.
Emblem on your hat I used to buy from, oddly enough, Army Navy surplus stores in San Francisco when I was a teenager. Or my early 20’s. I walked around SFSU dressed some days like Soviet soldier and other days I dressed like a WWII Luftwaffa pilot, which concerned my German teacher. I still have lots of those doodads.
That's pretty funny, good for you. I think it would be odd but harmless and interesting. I hope you have some pictures of yourself in your different uniforms.
Learn and enjoy your channel. Great work. Thanks
Hey, I have been watching all videos of your show , I am truly loving them, they gave me so many information confirming what I already knew as well as making me discover new things... Thanks for that! I have a question that you may not have answered yet... Although I am agnostic and happen to find most ghost related stories ridiculous, I wanted to know if you could someday make a video about the USSR's relation to things such as religion, Ghosts, monster legends and things that alot of buzz have been made about back then in the US, and how it was like to Soviet citizens. I know the USSR was atheist by nature, but were those subjects still covered in literature? Was it forbidden? If so, how and why?
Thank you for sharing your life...it is fascinating to me as an American who is the same age as you. When did you move to the U.S.? What was the biggest change from your former life?
USHANKA SHOW Ahhh, love changes everything! Glad you are here.
I have herd so many people say so many things about life in soviet union. A man on youtube called Vladamir Jeffe says everyone was constantly miserable and starving, yet other people have said it wasn't that bad and they were just bored and had crappy stuff. Did different people in USSR have different experiences in different places? Were there super poor cities and wealthier cities? If so, do you come from a typical soviet life, or a poorer one?
Lord Stark
Well,that is something very common in any world power coumtry or Big focus of concentration population.
Take for example this type of countries:
EEUU
Argentina
Mexico
UK
USSR
Brasil
Chile
And so many others...
Just a few countries don't suffer for this.
For examples,in EEUU they make New york or california cities very confortable,but in the middle of EEUU something like washington or alaska or other isolated states....in there the state or the private business don't want to make a lot of stores or some little towns full of resources.
In argentina this is so bad,that the only cities that have the attention of the state or private business are:Buenos Aires,city of cordoba and bariloche...sadly when something new comes to Bs As it takes 10 years to come to our small citys.
This is so bad that even in the northen part there is a lot of poor people without services that look like nordic people!
Is crazy.
People in rural areas of Russia were much worse off than people in big cities. And Eastern European Soviet Republics like the Baltics, or Warsaw Pact countries like Poland were much better off than the interior of Russia.
_"People in rural areas of Russia were much worse off than people in big cities."_
So, like indigenous peoples in "North America"?
Vladamir Jeffe is an idiot. He's a Tea Party Trump supporter, enough said. People like him lie and exaggerate about the USSR.. One thing you got to understand is that all these "former Soviet citizens" were little kids in the USSR. And most of them are in the USA because they were the minority few who didn't like the Soviet Union, just how you have people here who don't like the U.S. I would suggest go talking to an old person in Russia who was an adult in the USSR and not some right wing ex pat who was a child in the latter days of the USSR
@Paulo Chan It was not a "colossal failure", and I say that as someone with some serious cold warrior creds.
It failed in the end for a number of reasons largely connected to the Chernobyl accident and military adventurism, and it was tyrannical and corrupt.
Communism also took one of the most backward nations on earth and turned it, in record time, into an industrial superpower (yes, with the use of slave labor-- I did mention it was a tyranny, yes?). Communism also provided its citizens with greater relative equality, which significantly improves quality of life (and yes, I know full well it was not anything close to truly "equal": I recall standing in the Moscow subway, marveling that in the special shops, everything was for sale cheap to tourists and party members, whereas the sweater I saw in GUM cost a month's wages for the women who swept the streets).
Life is never black and white, on and off. The Soviet Union, and Soviet-style Communism, was not a complete failure, and it is certainly possible to borrow the better ideas from Communism without swallowing the whole hot mess. Western democratic capitalism is not a complete success. It is vulnerable to sudden economic crashes, wherever it goes, inequality increases (see Picketty), and once inequality sets in, the wealthy can sabotage democracy by buying politicians. We can address those weaknesses, without throwing away our strengths.
What's more, black and white thinking is ultimately delusional. Those of us who worked towards the fall of Communism could not afford to delude ourselves. Communism was a formidable enemy with real strengths, as well as fatal -- I would say immoral -- flaws.
I find your videos very interesting, and I appreciate your openness and honesty on both the good and bad.
I would like to hear your thoughts on what Russian people thought about the KGB, if they were scared of them, and if they thought the Russian government lied to the people about America. Many Americans remember bomb drills in schools as a kid, duck, run, and cover, or kneeling down covering our necks. Many Americans think our government wasn't always truthful to us, or instigated in other countries business and problems. Good video's, Thanks, John
I hate to say it but I see allot of similarities to US hospitals and doctors. Years ago I either had the flu or zinc poisoning from welding on galvanized metal (long story). I called my doctor and it took him a week to see me. By that time I was starting to recover and was on the mend. I should have probably just went to the emergency room instead.
The average wait in an emergency room at my local hospital is at least 5 hours. However if they haul you in, in an ambulance, they take you right in and bypass the 30+ people in the waiting room. However the problem is, most of those people sitting there are there just to get drugs and don't have medical insurance because the emergency room can't deny people without insurance.
The local hospital set up an urgent care facility to cut down on people going to the emergency room or when your personal doctor can't see you within a reasonable time frame for non life threatening things like infections, lacerations, etc.. It's also cheaper than going to the emergency room.
My biggest issue in this country with health care (other than the out of pocket expense) is doctors tend to push medicine on people they don't need because they get a kickback from the drug companies. And people tend to complain about having a pain and the doctor automatically writes a prescription for some addictive opioid drug instead of suggesting something like therapy or something that is non addictive.
James S - Yes, doctor visits in the U.S. copay and wait. Sometimes a waiting room, the a smaller waiting room, the you get to go into an even smaller room and wait.
That part about the ambulance is not true. I have been brought to the hospital by ambulance where I was actually bleeding severely and was left in the waiting room for 11 hours before anyone would see me.
Maybe not yours but it is at my local hospital. My wife has been to the emergency room plenty of times over various things and whenever she was brought to the ER they always bypassed the waiting room. On the other hand this may only apply to people who have chest pains or having trouble breathing. Not bleeding to death. Although you are right, the average wait can be anywhere from 6 to 12 hours.
On a side note, the average emergency room visit is around $5000 at this hospital. If I go this same hospital's walk in clinic, I have seen the bill as low as $300. And the wait is less than one hour. So I guess if you can hold out long enough, the walk in clinic is the fastest and cheapest means for care.
The doctors are painkiller nazi's now. People like me in severe chronic pain are denied medications that will help us live a normal life. They would rather you suffer every day than have you become defendant. I would rather not suffer. I have tried all other medical options.
@@jgedutis It is a terrible situation.
I really like how you don't appear to have an agenda.
I don't know if you notice the word "appear", means that you are being ironic.
Well he want to make a living. This is good.
I think that cartoon in the intro is cute but I'd never throw my ushanka hat away I love my Soviet military Ushanka boiled wool and blue gray and the warmest thing you can put on your head! The ultimate winter hat ever and yes I go ear flaps back it's awersome
I had to get it cleaned and my dry cleaners are from North Korea and escaped to USA and they did an awesome job, they also got me a DPRK Ushanka it is awesome too.
Sergei, I LOVE the content of your videos! What a lot of very interesting info! Thank you for sharing. Мне это очень нравится 👍♥️
Thank you for the great video!
Watching tv channel without commercials sounds like paradise!
Right as you started talking about commercials an ad poped up
Thank you for this video!
I love your channel man your awesome. I'm American born in America always lived here but your life and your stories fascinate me. You're an awesome dude for giving us a view of both sides.
Thank you for the video :)
Thanks for a look into the soviet lifestyle it must've been major change coming to USA
Thank you! I think it is extremely important to see this.
Побольше динамики, может быть фоновое сопровождение советскими песнями ... А так сама идея замечательна! Успехов Сергей!
Great video I enjoyed your memories
Hahaha! As soon as you started talking about commercials, an ad popped up. It interrupted you right in the middle of a sentence!
your intro was so positive !
having lived under management by CCCP era brought you both happy, sad, difficult life. after listening to story, felt obliged to compliment you for appreciating the good life. socialist nations could have taken this factor to relive the citizens lifestyle, like creating larger socialist market among socialist nations without worrying much of capitalistic elements, i mean make use of the good side market systems. the things could have done but nonetheless too late as we only have ideas these days...
slava sozialisma!
Слава созиалисма!!
That's what china has done
Him, complaining about the commercial (gets interrupted by youtube ad)
the state should have paid instead
+ Ushanka Show
great stuff and info
I have a few questions , what happened to the peasants that didn't get Propiskas?
and what was the name of the place your citizens went to see the doctor ?
And what do the former soviet citizens think of Gorbechev today?
and is it true that those that had cars and brought it to the mechanics that they have to fill out a lot of paperwork, one for oil change, one for fixing transmission, one for replacing whatever failed and it could take days to get your car back?
Nobody really likes the interruptions of commercials, not even content producers when watching something at home, but it requires time, energy, talent, and money to produce news/entertainment content, and these efforts deserve not just compensation, but reward if the produce is of a quality that people enjoy. There are three main models of compensation for content producers in a market economy; voluntary contributions from viewers, subscription prior to viewing, or first or third party commercials. In a centrally planned economy, the model is involuntary contributions and/or a license fee, and of course, the central planners determine the subject matter of the content.
Thank you for the frank and direct explanation of how soviet life was like, it's incredibly difficult to find info on this that isn't just propaganda of one sort or another
One thing I think we can learn in America from the Soviet Union is. Higher quality but less quantity food.
You raised a good point about nothing being free-- somewhere down the line, it costs somebody something!
And many everything.
It cost the peasants in the end.
The hospitals in Canada are the same you sit for hours to see a doctor. One time a had a blocked ear. I went to the hospital at 5:00pm and by the time I got to see a doctor it was 11:00pm...... crazy, I know I don't have to pay but still ......
Good stuff!
The storey about the mayonnaise was very interesting. I have no doubt that the food in the USSR was better than in the USA. Did you know that in '83, the CIA even stated that the food of the USSR that children were eating was more nutritious than what their American counterparts were eating?
Yes, Soviet healthy calories came from potatoes and bread 😀😀😀
On commercials, you remind me of Alfred Hitchcock, he had a TV show from the mid 1950s to mid 1960s and everytime he would open up the show, he would comment in a roundabout way on how he hated commercials. A lot of TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s had product placements in their shows like "My Three Sons" would use mainly Chevy cars and in the early shows, would display the 1962/63/64 Chevy line as they rolled the credits in the end. Other times, like "A Family Affair,," Pontiac would be the car of choice, Beverly Hillbillies and later "Leave It To Beaver" episodes, Chrysler products and Andy GRiffith and Barnaby Jones, Fords.
Cartoons and song were THE BEST THINGS EVER
I hate commercials so bad, I finally threw my TV away. Best thing I ever did!
In Illinois, you have to pay to register for public school. For High School, the charge is $90.00, and that's for every year. And 4 years of HS result in paying about $360.00.
In Arizona, the public schools are such shit you're better of going to a charter/private school.
This video is highly underrated.
very informative
In USA, we have community colleges, which are pretty much open to everyone. It is a beautiful thing. But not everyone who signs up is open to learning. Many just want money, not knowledge or skills. This is a big reason why so few people, typically under 25%, who enroll do not finish their studies.
I'm grateful to have grown up with real food and no commercials on TV. :)
You are talking about life during the Brezhnev era and in the Ukraine. Actually there were huge differences between life under the different leaders and different places (not even between "republics" but even between counties) in SU. Especially at Brezhnev time because LB used to give more power to local officials.
You are talking you did not have commercials in radio and TV. But we in Estonia did! Really. There was even a special film studio to produce TV ads called Eesti Reklaamfilm. Check out. The commercials were shown between TV shows in every 30 minutes in Estonian TV.
And I can`t say there weren`t bad news in Sovie Estonian media. All the fatal crashes, accidents etc. were covered and talked about in radio and TV. I remember it well.
First time I visited Estonia was 1959.
Coming from Moscow main surprise was - bicycles everywhere.
By the shops, markets, restaurants, movie theaters - unlocked, unattended.
And nobody was stealing them.
Last time I was with concert in Tallinn was 1974, there was no unlocked, unattended bicycles anywhere.....
I am from tukey and Reklaam means ''add'' in our langueage(actualy it is Reklam) can you please inform me more
Linguistik gelisme karisik ve muthesem bisey. Ozelliklede Turkce gibi eski bi dilin dunyanin en eski dil guruplarindan biri olan slavik dillere benzemesi gayet olasi. Ozelliklede reklam gibi modern bi kelime. Globalizasyonunda etkisi var tabi. Umarim aciklayici olmustur.
The word "reklam" comes from French (Réclame) which used for all sort of commercial advertisements.Turkish language has lots of foreign words (Arabic,Persian,French,English,... even Russian).
What was the purpose of advertising in the Soviet Union? To increase spending on consumer goods and justify light industry and consumer goods production?
Quite interesting information in this show, but when you started talking about positive things in the USSR, it reminded me of my parents' stories about communist Poland. We had better situation in Poland than in the USSR. The terror was lighter so the Poles rebelled a few times (1956, 1971 and in 1980 - the last time so strong that the army had to establish the martial law) - but nevertheless everyone remembers the People's Republic as nightmare. Your story is... quite nostalgic...
I think that maybe the reason behind this is that in the USSR communism reigned the longest. People just forgot what normality is. They treated the symptoms of normality as something strange (like advertising, for example). Wojciech Młynarski, the Polish equivalent of Vladimir Vysotsky, wrote a ballad about the circus. It was an "inverted" circus, where the most ordinary things were shown as a sensation. For example a tiger handler was showing a tiny (domestic) kitten licking gently milk from his finger. The clowns were gentlemen dressed in suits from Pierre Cardin, they were drinking coffee and talking about high culture. The magician... ate bread with ham... And the main event were the acrobats walking on the floor - without safety harnesses. The punchline was: who is kicked in the ass again and again, who's balancing on a tightrope every day, he thinks a clown is a well-maned man, and an acrobat is a man walking on the floor. Because, dear, who lives in a circus every day, he thinks the circus is a normal life...
@mpingo91
Now this is all true, but stating that living behind Iron Curtain was ok is a plain lie. Did you watch "Mis" movie from your famous filmmaker Bareja? It might look funny for many nowadays, but not for someone who had to spend few hours of one's life every day, standing in lines to get anything to eat.
Beside Public television. In the early days of Cable television. It was commercial free also. In fact that was one of the selling points to get people to link up with cable. That world is long gone.
"The Soviet Union separates the Great Patriotic War from World War II for some reason." Yeah. It's a big mystery that the USSR would have made such a distinction. I enjoy the insights into Soviet life that the Ushanka Show provides. There are now so many installments. To sit through them all would be like waiting for a Lada or a telephone. :)
I am older than you Sergei. While you lived in the Soviet Union I was in India. Even though India was behind the USSR in the 70s and 80s we always had an abundance of food. Good doctors got paid more than bad ones so good quality medical care was always available.
I don’t know where I heard this joke, it might’ve been from one of your recent videos but just in case it wasn’t I’ll tell it here for at least the other people in the common section
A drunk man in Lou Bianka was complaining about all the deficit and all the shortages in the Soviet union. A KGB officer went to him and told him to stop otherwise he’s going to pistol whip the drunk man. The drunk man laughed and said that see Mr. officer, you don’t even have bullets even ammunition is a deficit
4:20 the people who failed the test turned into gopniks
@Lasse Riise russian for hoodlums
We have the same problem here in Sweden with free healthcare.
The joke is when you get a bad doctor is "well you get what you pay for....."
In US it’s the same, in a way. My father payed like $10,000 to Patch his hernia despite having insurance only to have the patch burst one year later.
@@juansandoval5715 yes but in the US you can sue you can't here.
A doctor here kan kill off or injure a whole bunch of people due to malpractice the worst that can happen is that his license is taken away.
You as the victim might get something equivalent to 1000 dollars but that is if you are truly lucky.
Most just get's an apology.
Here's one in English this genius is still not convicted and so his victims still haven't got any money or an apology.
forbetterscience.com/2020/09/30/paolo-macchiarini-indicted-for-aggravated-assault-in-sweden/
I hate commercials too! I watch streaming channels online (Netflix, Amazon Prime) or I watch stuff on UA-cam (where, often, there are only commercials before the video) and that is it! TV shows on cable channels are annoying and not even good quality anymore, I find, to make the commercials bearable.
Anyone else realize its the same thing in American school? In a group, one person does most of the work, one does some of the work, and one person doesn't do anything but they all get the same grade
Very simplistic.-you don’t have to watch commercials if you don’t want to ( subscribe for fee)-you were taxed in cccp-
-you can buy any kind of mayo you want to-
(If it spoiling fast doesn’t mean is good (!!
- A lot of logical fallacies in your reasoning-
-I do enjoy anecdotal facts- keep it up
May the First is a public holiday pretty much everywhere my man.
Patavinity yes. Isn’t that what he said? He said it was international.
My first glimpse into life in the Soviet Union was when a McDonald's restaurant opened in Moscow. The news reporter said that the McDonald's employees were making as much as Russian doctors. 😨
BTW, I also found that incentives and a "laisser faire" approach to life works far better than having strict centralized controls because I've been exposed to both methods.
Actually there's a phrase to describe the phenomenon in Welfare states where people don't work because there's no incentive (i.e. they can't be fired for working poorly), it's called the "free rider problem"
Is this the reason why the gypsies do not want to work?
It is an almost non-existant problem. Welfare often allows workers to be more productive as a result of being happier and healthier.
Even your own video has those damn commercials. I can't watch TV for the same reason and I grew up here.
Originally the Grapes of Wrath was translated for the Soviet Union to demonstrate poverty in America and the failure of capitalism. However, it was later banned because despite the family in the story be destitute and losing everything, they could still afford a car.
Actually Estonian TV had commercials. You can see them on youtube.
what is the song used in the intro? Good video by the way :)
moskva parti estek
pod moskovnuje vechera
I have to thank you, because the idealism of Star Trek is so much harder to make happen than I thought, thanks to you. How can we make that middle ground between the NATO and WARSAW, and take the best from both, because that seems to be our future. Hope to hear from you.
Thank you for getting back to me. I have really enjoyed your videos. I have found them both entertaining and informative. I have been getting into as much Russian and Ukrainian stuff as possible, because I am planning on going to Ukraine to study in the near future. Do you have any interest in being a language tutor? Either way, thank you for the videos, and I hope you make many more.
I've seen soviet commercials... I've seen commercials for Lada, Pinguin Ice Cream, some portable radio, a small TV set (I don't know the brand but the model was called 402) and one for mince meat...
USHANKA SHOW That's very interesting, thanks!
Oh yeah, there he is! Thanks!
Here in Iran it's the same!
I'm talking about higher education
i don't understand why the 'manager' or person in charge of whatever place of work couldn't recognize the workers who do better work and put in a request that they get paid more. How hard is that? That way everyone has at least guaranteed income that's enough to live on and people who don't want to work hard can live, but people who do want to go the extra mile can be recognized and rewarded for their harder work.
Almost 600 comments on Ushanka Show
The Ivy League schools here in the U.S. have really gone down hill, the stuff they push makes the mind scream in agony. Many people are going back to trades and to other universities/colleges to escape the propaganda and brainwashing. A lot of people get into these schools simply because they're loaded, not necessarily because they're smart. The only reason why I got into a good graduate program was because I worked extremely hard, and I'm not someone a reasonable person would call wealthy (at least not yet). I do have to say though, I've always been curious as to what life was like in the USSR. I may not like their politics being a far-right constitutionalist, but seeing all these videos of ordinary life made me wonder what the typical day was like.
You may not like them, but you're still interested. That's a good thing.
As a socialist myself, I'm always interested in critically examining both the positive and especially, the negative aspects of past socialist regimes. I definitely understand the lack of incentive that a someone such as a doctor may have with being inadequately compensated for their skills. I don't agree that people should have the same wages.
I think how wages should be decided is through a process of democratic deliberation within the context of a workers cooperative. A worker's cooperative is basically exactly like a capitalist firm, except it's owned, managed and operated by the workers who decide what/how to produce, resource allocation/distribution, what to invest profits in, etc. So it would function something like this, the workers of the Worker Co-Op would gather around and vote for an increase in wages for Dr. Bob. This would be based on his skills, the quality of healthcare he's administered and so forth.
You could even have state-owned healthcare facilities competing with the workers cooperatives. So that it would provide an additional motivation for innovation.
I think that if they were the ones to collectively invest in their respective worker's cooperative assets, they'd be less inclined to treating them as disposable items and more likely to appreciate them, since they were the ones that contributed to the funds into acquiring them in the first place. Workers cooperatives are very practical, there's many examples of them throughout the world, including the U.S. The most famous example is the Mondragon Corporation in northern Spain. Imagine, there would be no incentive for offshoring, replacing human workers with automations or environmental destruction, since the workers themselves reside in those neighborhoods.
so aint really a sociaist if you dont believe everyone should have equal wages
Its Americas fault, all of it
it doesn`t work in big countries imho.
The one you describe to me seems more similar to the italian fascist "socialization" or, if I remember correctly, the jugoslavian self-management system than the soviet collective farming, for example....
I tried my first banana when I was around 13 in 1992. First thing I did, I tested the banana peel for slipperiness, like in old cartoons. Was very surprised and disappointing that it's not slippery. A few years ago I mentioned this to my coworker and he told me those old bananas were different they don't exist any more a fungus killed them. Mystery solved :)
I don't watch tv as well. I hate commercials. Few years ago the people figured out how to put commercials to internet. This what the ad blocker is for. Internet used to be faster as it was requiring less resources from the client device. Some pages won't even load because the device has not enough ram.
7:28 Doctors who quickly rush through as many patients as possible are the best doctors.
What was that first commercial you ever saw? I'm curious
I believe it was a toothpaste
@@UshankaShow That must've been a weird introduction lol
Wanna see some fake American ads on soviet TV?
ua-cam.com/video/QGXBpc84NeE/v-deo.html
Interesting. I hadn't known that the Great Patriotic War referred only to what I suppose we would call the Eastern Front. I think I can understand the separation. No one else was fighting the Germans on that front. I will bear this separation in mind when talking about these wars in the future.
I retired with men from Croatia and Serbia. Here in the Midwest. They done very well in life. But some of these kid's not so well. They all said it was American commerical. Buy buy. Even no money down. Horrible
Commercials paid for the advancements in television. How would NBC have developed color television for continuous telecast since 1958 without commercials to pay for it? Nowadays one nearly wishes NBC didn't still telecast, but it was really something back in the day.