In a small village in the Soviet union the watersupply broke down.
So the mayor calls to Moscow: "Comrade, we need water. Please send some trucks"
Moscow promises to send 3 trucks with water, they will arrive the same morning.
So the mayor tells everybody in the village to gather at the village square, to await the trucks.
They wait, and wait, and even though they are quite used to waiting for stuff in the S.U., in the afternoon the mayor decides to call Moscow again.
"Comrade, what happened to our water trucks?"
"Bozhe-moi! One of trucks broke down! Probably sabotage by plutocrat capitalists. There will be only two trucks coming, but rest assured: they are on their way!"
So the mayor goes back to the village square, explains the situation and since there won't be enough water for everybody, he sends all the jews away.
The rest of the village waits, and waits, but it's getting evening and still no water.
So he calls Moscow again.
"Da, comrade, water is coming, but only one truck. Not enough petrol for other truck"
So the mayor goes back to the village square and sends everybody away who is not a member of the Party.
The loyal party-members wait on the village square, and wait, and wait. And it's getting dark and starts snowing, so again, the mayor calls Moscow.
"Terribly sorry, comrade mayor, but there has been administrative mistake. Water accidentally sent to different village. No water today, but tomorrow glorious and never failing Soviet Union will surely provide you with water!"
So the mayor goes back to the village square and sends all the loyal party members home.
Whereupon one of them says: "See? It's always the same with those damn jews! They got to go home first!"
The Soviet People: Ok guys, Lenin did some messed up shit to a LOT of people but at LEAST we got a lot of cultural and ethnic rights and autonomy to work with, which is much better than we had under the Tsar so that's not nothing, it's SOMETHING. We can move upward from here and make some real progress toward a freer society for everybody. At least it can't get any worse.
Stalin: Allow me to introduce myself, comrades...to gulag.
Khruschevv: We don't have a Jewish Problem, Communism already solved that! Different, but same comrades.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 if he did, Russia would have a lot more ethnic minorities today.
@@Marinealver Khrushchev was the most antisemitic of Stalin's Politburo, even threatening to start a pogrom when jews were flooding into Ukraine in the 40s
I did a really interesting assignment at university looking at Shostakovich's sneaky response to soviet anti semitism. He hid lots of jewish themes in his music (despite not being jewish himself) and wrote a score for Babi Yar
This anti-Semitism of the USSR is strange knowing that the Jews (Bolsheviks) helped a lot to create the Soviet Union
It was literally impossible for a Jew to apply for Moscow State University from 50s to, perhaps, late 80s. I can not give the exact numbers, as my information is circumstantial, but agrees with biographies of Jews - acquaints of my parents and those whose books and biographies I know, who were either shut from applying or got the math dept by exceptional circumstance, like winning Soyuz-wide math Olympics.
Also, there as much in common between a historian and a marxist historian as it is between democracy and people's democracy, realism and socialist realism, and so on, if you know what I mean.
as a American Jew with Russian heritage I appreciate your deep analysis in this important historical topic. thank you!
soviet emigration policy: you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave
As always a superb and informative work! My respects!
My jewish grandparents left soviet Ukraine in the 1988, during the final days of the soviet union. Even then, my mother faced discrimination and was forced to keep her emigration a secret under threat of violence
It's funny how the subtitles claim the video is sponsored by Squarespace, complete with an entire ad, when the video is completely different.
Can you do a feature Episode about the Philippines under Ferdinand E. Marcos from 1965 to 1986 and Under Martial Law from 1972 to 1981
Can't accept the economic recession, or the fact that the communists only got as strong as the 1950s because of martial law, or the fact they stole billions
And then they blame the succeeding administration for all the problems, forgetting the large debt to foreign banks, forcing the succeeding generations to NOT create alot of projects but to fix what was left of the tattered economy.
The Wayback history channel did a lengthy video on the (still-ongoing) Communist rebellion in the country
@mangonel2450 Be objective about it, the Cold War channel needs to stay politically neutral. For better or worse, we must be historically accurate to critisize and defend FEM.
There was the Jewish Autonomous Oblast and it's flag was the rainbow flag, something to do with the rainbow colours becauce after the flood with Noah, there was a rainbow and the 7 noahide laws,
The rainbow was considered a symbol of the covenant between man and God since ancient times…many peace organizations have used it.
I am super pro-LGBT, but that is one sacrifice that makes me sad. An entire sexual identity just took refracted light :/
@@dstinnettmusicthey “took” it?
🤔 So did Skittles but you’re not mad about that
Genial video, gracias.
Thanks for this episode. I really do like watching this channel it's one of my old time favorites. Keep up the good work David, you and your research team
can you reorganise The Cold War playlist so the newest episode is down in the back and the first episode is up in the front? it'd make things easier to binge watch!
HBO did a movie on Stalin in the 90s with Robert Duval. Worth the watch.
One aspect that was missing from the video, imho, was the general suppression of Holocaust remembrance.
What? USSR was the country that literally one of the first countries to recognize the genocide of jews
@@envadeh There was a major turn in attitude towards Jews and Israel soon after the 1st War, i.e. after 1949. Major anti-Jewish campaigns in the Soviet media, the antisemitic "Doctor's Plot" conspiracy, political suppression of Jewish organisations in the USSR, and so on meant that _remembrance_ of the Holocaust was very much suppressed in the Soviet Union. No memorials (even though major events, like the Babyn Yar massacre near Kyiv, happened on the territory of the USSR), no official remembrance or even major publications detailing the events of the Holocaust. Stalin's paranoia in his last years, Khrushchev's crackdown on religion, and the close ties between the USSR and the Arab republics led to a heavily antisemitic climate in the USSR that continued until Perestroyka.
I will only press the bell button if it changes itself so much that it resembles a ham sandwich, yet retains its only useful function (as determined by my committee): remind me of all your uploads.
Thanks
As a fellow Canuck, I would love to see an episode about Canada. Considering we were smack in the middle of the Super Powers as far as going North or South between the two. I am curious to see how our country handled that reality.
"An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain.
There's no swimming in the heavy water,
No singing in the acid rain...."
Russia has named their current leader after a famous culinary dish from Canada…
Diefenbaker and the NORAD system are episodes I've been requesting for years
18:08 "The decision to even apply to emigrate from the Soviet Union was a momentous one".
I will never forget a hilarious, but also tragic, story told by P.J. O'Rourke about his trip to the Soviet Union in the mid-80s. He travelled with a your group of, as he described them, "Leftists and Peaceniks". As they were being questioned when entering the country, he recorded the following exchange between one elderly Leftist lady and the border guard:
Guard (G): "Place of birth?"
Leftist (L): "Kiev."
G: "Date of birth?"
L: "1917."
G: "When leave?"
L: "1919."
G (shouting by now): "Reason leave?"
L (crying by now): "I dont know, my parents did it!"
Nice video. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
One of the major reasons why Starlin was against Jews was the friction he had with Trotsky. He suspected that the Jewish community would be more loyal to Trotsky due to his Jewish background.
Can you do an episode of Soviet dissidents after Stalin's death? Or specifically how they were dealt with such as being incarcerated in Insane Asylums?
is this a reupload? i swear i've seen it quite a while ago
You should make a special video about "Kolyma Tales" by Varlam Shalamov.
This video does a great job of helping to debunk the myth that that USSR was a bastion of tolerance
Is it even a myth? They constantly tried to genocide and replace populations with Russians
@Alex Rennison the soviet government, and its apologists love to claim it was a bastion tolerance. It did so to Broaden and its international imagine
History teaches us that within every dictator lies the seed of their own downfall. The first step is to get rid of all intellectuals who have the knowledge and courage to protest wrong decisions, then it usually goes quickly....
Got to laugh at the western tankies who best refutation was 'many of my friends are Soviet Jews'.
i hate all of them for making communism look bad, communism is the natural enemy of judaism and zionism, to think otherwise is a thoughtcrime
Polina Molotov stud in the entrance of the Moscow synagogue when Golda Meir came for the Sabbath services and proclaimed proudly in Yiddish: I am a Jewish daughter!
Molotov was a massively pathetic man for his involvement in his wife's exile.
@@Ukraineaissance2014 Although I have no sympathy for the man, Stalin gave no alternative. There's a story that wife of Stalin secretary Poskrebishev (I think this was his name) was arrested and sent to the camps. When he begged Stalin for her release Stalin answered him "Why worry? we will find you another one"
2nd comment
BTW, can you do a video on the Cultural Revolution?
I love in the movie In The Death of Stalin when Stalin has his stroke and they’re like get a doctor and one says “Stalin killed all the good doctors.”
Does The Cold War series provide a list of historical sources? Anyone have any thoughts or opinions on Arkady Vaksberg's book: Stalin Against the Jews?
14:26 actually unbelievable lol
"I'll bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you"
It seems the USSR didn't learn the lesson in time
David, great video. I would love to see an episode about India. Enjoy your weekend! 🙏
it's ridiculous to try to separate out the jewish religion from "judaism" or jewish culture or what have you. jews existed before these separations between religion, culture, and peoplehood did. you can't just take the religion out. same as how you can't take the hebrew out of yiddish. incredible that you can't see how anti-jewish it is to decide on what terms jews can be jewish, and how supporting the creation of a 'secular yiddish culture' but oppressing the practice of "the jewish religion" (which, again, is ridiculous to conceive of as separate from judaism more broadly) is an anti-jewish assimilationist tactic, not a sign of goodwill towards jews.
edit: lmaoo not this huge section of marxist apologia for soviet antisemitism
Video starts at 2:15
Why is your sponsor Megellan but the closed caption is for a SquareSpace ad?
Two Hundred Years Together is worth a read
"You killed Lenin! You killed Jesus!" Same troupe, different master
the difference is that lenin was neither a jew nor a rabbi, so it's not contradictory and nonsensical
@@mrtee3988 no he wasn't, lenin was a russian atheist, far from a religious jew (and no, his wife wasn't a jewess either, she was also a russian atheist)
@@NBrioDaZueraRules Time of ignorance has passed. It's not even a hidden fact, just type it in any search and you will be bombarded with jewish sites that tell you he was one of them, including the jewish virtual library. I did the search just now, it's now time for you to do it.
What do you mean? The Soviets _loved_ Jewish people! They gave them their own oblast….on the exact opposite side of the country
Exactly. Have you noticed that every other ethnic group in the Russian Empire or the USSR that got sent to Siberia saw it as a punishment, but Jews were supposed to see it as a gift?
@@ZetaFalangist2 if you're trying to be funny, it's not working. For Jews, the Soviet Union was only the lesser of two evils in comparison to the NAZIs.
How in the name of god was Klitschko reinstated after that?
I would like to hear more of México during this period
I was born in Russia. I'm Catholic, my mother is Russian, my father is Irish, and I really don't understand anyone, who's antisemitic... Jews are absolutely nice. I respect Jews, the Jewish culture and Israel 🇮🇱 Peace to everyone from Europe ❤🇪🇺
The jewish community was more edicated in early stages of USSR only because, edicated russians were part of old elite, and those who left in country were punished for that. Many edicated Russians left Russian Empire during civil war.
You said nothing about how antisemitism skyrocketed after six day war and breaking of diplomatic relations. For example, when compared to antisemitism in 1972, antisemitism in 1962 was very mild.
👍
Is there any relationship between a person's ethnicity snd the part of the Soviet Union a Soviet citizen lived?
Russian soviets would normally live in Russia, poles in poland, czechs in czechia, and ect
@@adaywithsmator Actually, I was referring to the Soviet Union itself, and not members of the Warsaw Pact, such as Poland. Actually, I believe Ukraine was a separate State of the USSR, (the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), which I believe even was a member of the UN.
Although, it might not have been the same in practice.
There would be a whole slew of other republics within the USSR other than Russia.
Ur missing a logical advancement. The 1956 number of 450 is clearly a vast exaggeration. A number provided to the UN(!)
20:19
"There's no Islamophobia in the EU, they accepted millions of Muslim immigrants."
What a completely idi otic claim. Those "scholars" should be deprived of their degrees.
👏👍
The Russian jews are mostly Tatar Jews of Turkish heritage
One of these days, I hope Russia manages to settle down and level itself out. I would like to visit and see some of this history and these places firsthand. Thank you for another interesting video!
Stay well out there everybody, and God bless you, friends. ✝️ :)
It’s heart wrenching listening to this. Socialism/communism must never ever be allowed to spread again.
@@mohammedisaa9952 move to Russia for a few years and tell me how that went and try to be a moslem in public.
So we must shut down the conservative party because it supported colonialism for decades, even post ww2.
1st comment
Stalin tried to finish what Hitler did not, but thankfully died before completing the plan.
You forgot to mention soviets being against "cosmopolites" which Was a synonym for jews
Totally left out how the Israelis and Americans lured Jews to join their society, and incentivized them like crazy. It wasn’t all antisemitism; there were in-group preference and economic reasons as well.
Lol. "Economic reasons to Israel". The GDP per capita of Israel was much lower than the Rsfsr and the USSR. Israel was a poor country until the 90's.
Don't speak on behalf of us. Especially don't spread bs that you just made up.
The error of Stalin returns in the form of Putin
Thanks for an excellent two part series. One of the most lasting aspects of Soviet antisemitism was the creation of most of the tropes and canards of the anti-Zionism movement. The promulgation of the Zionism is Racism UN resolution was the doing of the USSR. The military support of the most virulently antisemitic Arab groups came from the Soviet Union. The most violent Palestinian terrorist groups were armed and trained by the Soviets and their allies in the East German Stasi. We continue to see the rotten fruit of this Soviet antisemitism today in things like the BDS movements continued attack on the Jewish State.
@@jamestelford45 I've heard that nonsense before. It is a case of semantics. If you don't want to call it "antisemitism" then call it "anti-Jewish" - the meaning is the same.
Well, calling Zionism racist isn't that weird, at least nowadays. With the recent reports by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty calling Israel an apartheid state. I don't know if it was that clear back when the UN resolution accepted, but still. Also support for violent Palestinian groups makes sense if you believe zionism and by extension Israel is racist in nature. On top of that support for BDS movements when it comes Israel seems to me as the moral right thing to do to an apartheid state (aswell as not antisemitic). By the way, not trying to say that the Soviet Union wasn't antisemitic, because I think this video pretty clearly shows it was, but I am saying that their opposal to Israel wasn't antisemitic.
@@Twinzje Thanks for attempting to answer my question with a brilliant example of circular reasoning
@@fredaaron762 You didn't ask a question? And I didn't use circular reasoning. Please read before you type anything
@@Twinzje you based your entire case on HRW (whose director just stepped down after it came out he took bribes from Saudi Arabia to ignore anti-LGBTQ violations & criticism for focusing on Israel while ignoring human rights violations in Rwanda and People's Republic of China) and Amnesty, which has stated that they don't believe Jews should have their own country. Not the most objective sources. Then you say that committing violent acts (ie, terrorism) is fine if the country has been deemed Apartheid, again without any substantiation for the charge. BTW, the deliberate targeting of civilians is a War Crime and Crime Against Humanity, which no circumstance can justify. It is circular reasoning because two tainted groups say Israel is Apartheid, so therefore terrorism (in your opinion) is justified. Israel retaliates in self defense, thus "proving" the false charge of Apartheid.
Now to get back to my point about Soviet propaganda creating the myth of "Zionism = Racism" which is now reflected in Leftist antizionism, you should probably check out this article. It is a bit long, but very well researched and supported by facts, not innuendo. fathomjournal.org/soviet-anti-zionism-and-contemporary-left-antisemitism/
I would like to see a program about the role of the Jews in the revolution.
@@ZetaFalangist2 Not intierly, but they played a big role in that desaster.
Russians try not to be terrible to people who aren't like them challenge. (Impossible)
It's not a "lie" that the Bible preaches hatred against other beliefs. It's absolutely true.
@@mohammedisaa9952 - I'd rather be wary of those who say are not Jews but actually are, namely Christians and Muslims.
So you tell the correct history in the first half of the episode, then spend 10 minutes quoting Marxist historians’ revisionist history propaganda, totally absolving the Soviet Union with completely false claims? This will make me (and I’m sure others) think twice about watching any future videos from this channel…
He gave that perspective but came to the opposite conclusion at the end. I'm certain anyone watching this will understand that antisemitism existed in the USSR.
@@zackperez3479 giving that perspective for half the video lends credence to the idea that it is in some way legitimate.
Citing anti semitism apologists without any elaboration or context is irresponsible and gives power to anti semites.
Very disappointing content for what is overall a fairly decent channel.
Agree. As you saw, I was disgusted by their citing Herbert Aptheker, an apologist for Soviet crimes. Notice at the end they essentially skipped that over that most of the USSR'S Jews moved to Israel.
@@alexplotkin3368
"The Cold War" Channel has a very Pro Socialist slant to it, IMO. They're quick to point out Western Failures while glossing over Stalin and his Blood Soaked Cronies Misdeeds.
@@alexplotkin3368 It seems they mostly cited one pamphlet from the guy too. Crazy that I can just ask my mom questions and debunk him/get way more intimate answers on the spot.
The thing about 'jews can choose if their internal passport says if they're jewish or not' is totally false. Unless of course they had a jewish/non jewish more possible to put non jewish. Also possibly with bribery or just bureaucratic errors. That is very different than it being allowed however.
Anyone stopped to think why the jews have be disliked and supposedly persecuted from time immemorial?
The reason is the same that Buddhists were persecuted and discriminated against in China since at least 5th Century CE till the modern day communist state
1: they are capitalists and money lovers
2: they were the first of the abrahamic religions
3: they created christianity
4: they are reactionaries and fascists
5: zionism
Judaism, along with Christianity and Islam, are incompatible with other religions because they're strictly monotheistic. As for why Christians and Muslims target Jews, it's because their faiths are different, same reason they target each other. And also that Jews don't believe that Jesus is the last prophet, which is fundamental to both.
Thousands of other minority groups have faced similar treatment throughout recorded history. All that is unique about the Jews is that they haven't gone extinct or been assimilated as a result.
Once again in Soviet History, Stalin only makes things worse
May Almighty God Bless Orthodox Russia.
No, orthodox christianity is shit and russia needs to be atheist and communist
One of the few good policies of the Soviet Union was banning the circumcision of minors, with harsh punishments for anyone who cut a child or let their child be cut. That policy resulted in thousands of boys being protected from harm, although some were unfortunately tricked or pressured into circumcision when they emigrated to Israel later on. I wish every country had laws to protect all children from genital mutilation. No one's religious beliefs ever give them the right to harm children.
Circumcision is widely used in the US for health and hygiene reasons. Got nothing to do with religion. Only an antisemitic person would think it is. People of Christian religions as well as Jews, and other groups do it in the US.
@@scottkrater2131 There is nothing healthy or hygienic about circumcision. It is intended to permanently damage sexual function, and that's exactly what it does. Christians don't circumcise, and circumcision is explicitly condemned multiple times in the New Testament. A lot of the people working to end circumcision are Jews, because circumcision harms them more than anyone else. Cutting apart the genitals of healthy Jewish babies is anti-Semetic. Fighting to protect them from harm is not. The only reason circumcision is still common in the US is for profit reasons. Unethical doctors lie about the damage caused by circumcision in order to make a quick buck. In every other developed country, circumcision of minors was either stopped decades ago or never started in the first place. No medical organisations recommend circumcision, and many doctors and medical associations support an age limit of 18 on circumcision. No one's religious beliefs give them the right to harm children. Do what you want with your own body, but anyone who cuts a child belongs in prison.
@@joshklaver47 Bs. Christians do it all the time in the US. It didn't damage my sexual function I had 3 kids. 9 out of 10 Doctors will tell you so. Ama does. Your plainly just antisemitic if you think it's a Jewish thing and isn't hygienic and healthy.
@@joshklaver47 did you ever know anyone who got circumcision after they were an adult? Friend of mine from Columbia did it. It was very painful. Should have gotten it done as a baby, like every else does in the US. My family was Catholic by the way.
@@scottkrater2131 Men almost never choose to get circumcised. They only force it on minors because they know they would never consent to it as adults. The likelihood of needing a circumcision for medical reasons is less than 1 in 15,000. The rare issues with foreskin are easily treated without surgery. Your friend got scammed.
Herbert Aptekher, who 'discusses Jewish life in the USSR' at the end of the documentary was a Marxist historian who wrote a book in 1957 condoning the Soviet invasion of Hungary. And he wrote a book condoning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. That makes his assertions about Jewish life in the USSR very questionable.
His saying there were 100 Jewish generals in the Red Army in 1960 is laughable. It has been historically documented that senior Jewish officers were mostly purged from the Soviet army by the late 1940s. From the 1950s to the fall of the USSR in 1991, it was very hard for Jews to pursue viable careers as officers in the Soviet armed forces.
This is still a sore point among Jewish families from the USSR.
There is as much in common between a historian and a marxist historian as it is between democracy and people's democracy.
для евреев всегда большая проблема когда им приходится жить жизнью простых людей из коренных наций
они все мнят себя сверхчеловеками которым все должны и карьеру им должны и хорошие места евреям должны и высокие зарплаты евреям должны а когда они всего этого не получают то начинают вопить об антисемитизме )
как будто люди из других наций не хотят делать карьеры в армии или на государственной службе или в науке по мнению евреев всех кто не еврей нужно уволить со всех хорошооплачиваемых мест и нанять на них только евреев
поезжайте на родину в израиль недрузья там вам все дадут чего вы стоите и бесплатно как вы любите
If the Soviet Union was such a paradise for Jews, why have the vast majority of Jews emigrated? The left en masse as soon as emigration became a realistic possibility.
Herbert Aptekher is as much of a prevaricator as Noam Chomsky who argues that Holocaust Denial "has nothing to do with antisemitism" and even asserted that the Khmer Rouge AVERTED a humanitarian catastrophe in Cambodia.
@@TinTaBraSS777 calm down Hitler
@@TinTaBraSS777 That's what we did ,thank G-d, and we live in Israel with much higher GDP than Russians in Russia.