Tobacco Smoking in the USSR. Soviet Cigarette Brands
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- Опубліковано 17 чер 2024
- Smoking in the USSR. Russian cigarettes. Soviet cigarettes. What kind of smokes did the Soviet people like? Soviet brands of cigarettes. The average price for a pack of Soviet cigarettes.
0:00 Intro
0:20 Discussion of smoking in the Soviet Union, personal experiences, and family history.
4:44 Smoking prevalence in the Soviet Union and the use of homemade cigarettes.
8:59 Smoking experiences with Soviet and imported cigarettes.
13:29 Improvement in cigarette quality after foreign investment in Soviet tobacco factory.
18:18 Tobacco market in the USSR included Cuban, Indian, and American cigarettes, with high prices and black market options.
Recap by Tammy AI
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My dad still smoked prima in 2006. No filter as well.
Why did i read this with a russian accent
Generally I smoke filter less hand rolls with dried short leaf tobacco
The genocidal industries of alcohol and tobacco were Maidite legacies of communism :
ua-cam.com/video/0_l8zcULiv8/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/vUx-b89laPU/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/IaEzPBBApZk/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/5CLCl5uuZnU/v-deo.html
I would never live in a country that is the enemy of my country.
In 1989 I spent 3 days w. German girl in a Moscow blackmarket apartment. The girl asked our Russian host where she could buy a Tampon. He then found a ball of very rough wadded cotton and a ball of string. He rolled the cotton between his hands to make a cigar shape which he folded in 1/2 and fixed some string. He then said, “this is Russia girl, you have to roll your own”!!
Ussr
@@randomlyrelatable1372 Russia was still called Russia within the Soviet Union, if he had said, for example, “a Los Angeles blackmarket apartment” and “This is California” instead, you wouldn’t correct him by saying “America” or “USA”, because what he said is just as true as your “correction”.
@@randomlyrelatable1372 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic
That's horrifying. That poor girl.
Omg if that's true I'm in tears..😂
I was in St Petersburg summer 1996 with a church group. One evening a very drunk sailor came up and asked us for a cigarette. He spoke first in Russian, then German, and finally English. We told him that none of us smoked. He laughed, thought that was a funny joke. But then got mad, as he thought in not possible for a group that big to have no smokers in it.
alex carter your kinda a dick coming from someone that was homeless 15 yrs ago . Maybe those “zombies” should take you out
If hes speaking 3 languages hes not drunk enough 😂
Yeah, I stopped going cause I kept getting molested.
Speaking other languages while drunk is not that bad, you've got a lot of liquid confidence. Once you get too drunk, you can get stuck in a language. Was "sampling" some wine with French students, still tried to explain to my neighbours, in french that I lost my English at the bottom of some wine bottle - in french.
@@Jcaeser187 I was never able to have conversations in a second language until I got drunk around people who didn't speak English. For some reason everything comes across far more easily.
I like these kinds of videos. You will never read in a history book or hear from a historian what kind of cigarettes Soviets smoked, what laundry day looked like, what kind of jokes were had etc. And it's all important to painting a picture of what life looked like at a certain time. You'll always hear about battles of Napoleon Bonaparte or Alexander Graham Bells telephone, but that doesn't tell us what life was like
Thanks! Happy New Year!
@@UshankaShowhappy almost new , new year Ushanka!
I grew up on a farm in Kentucky and we raised about 25 acres of tobacco every year. When I was growing up (late 60s & 70s) I would guess that about 75% of adults around here smoked. Both my parents smoked and I started smoking in high school. We could smoke at school. There was a utility pole in the back parking lot of the school and students were allowed to smoke at what they called the smoking pole. We had a pretty big farm for the area and 25 acres of tobacco was worth about $45,000 in the mid-70s (a lot back then). The town near where I lived had a huge tobacco market with huge warehouses where the tobacco was sold during tobacco season (Nov-Jan). The warehouses were empty the rest of the year. Most all the warehouse are gone now. Many of them dated from the 1880s & 90s, and in the 1990s most of them were disassembled for the valuable timber frames inside them. The tobacco market is gone now and the few remaining warehouses are general storage warehouses now. A lot of the old farms are now subdivisions or have been converted into expensive horse farms. When I was growing up everyone with any land grew tobacco, now it's very rare to see any growing. When I was a teen cigarettes were $.25 a pack, now they cost about $7 or $8. I quit smoking in 1990. Now it's basically illegal to smoke anywhere in public and it's rare to see or smell anyone smoking an actual cigarette. Vaping is a little more common.
@Hermann Goering That may be true, I'm not up on current Agriculture. I left the farm life in 1977, went off to college and then lived in Dallas and Indianapolis and then moved back to my old home town in Kentucky about 8 years ago.
Why did this happen?
@@Michael-pf8we I'm not sure what your question is. What do you want to know happened?
@@Thx1138sober why has production of tobacco ceased in your state? why doesnt your family farm tobacco anymore
@@Michael-pf8we My parents sold the farm shortly after I went to college in 1977. There is still tobacco production, but nothing like there once was. I guess there is much less demand now. Also, back in the late 70s farmers could get around $2 a pound and today the price is around $1.80 a pound, so there just isn't that much money in it anymore.
Here in Czechia we loved soviet cartoon show "Nu Pogodi" . You know, the one where the wolf is chasing the rabbit.
The 'bad guy' Wolf became kind of cult figure here, and he smoked those cigarettes with long empty "filter" -Such type of cigs were not typically sold in Czechoslovakia.
When they (rarely) imported batch of these from the SU, people here called these russian cigarettes "Vlkovky" literally "Wolf's cigarettes", and the batch was sold very quickly as everybody wanted to show his friends how he is smoking cig "like a wolf from Nu Pogodi":)
That's frigging awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Smoking "Vlkovky" true Wolf style.... like this= make Z-shaped "filter":) classic .... now when I googled it, the brand was "Belomorkanal":
sip.denik.cz/galerie/foto.html?mm=vlk_serial&back=129479358-8206-56
Czechia? You are like the first Czech person I have ever heard refer to the Czech Republic using that name.
@@badgerattoadhall My honor;)
@@letecmig I'm American; I spent 3 weeks last September traveling around the Czech republic. I stayed in maybe 15 cities and towns, some Whaaaay of the tourist route.
Thank your lucky stars you never smoked. I did from when I was about 16. I'm now 73 and quit five years ago, but it wasn't soon enough, so I'm now suffering from COPD. I first visited Russia in 1992, right after the collapse of the USSR. I brought in five cartons of Marlboros, the maximum allowed at the time. I didn't sell them. I gave them to friends I met and used them for tips to taxi drivers and tour guides. It was nearly impossible to get real US made Marlboros, and a pack of 20 was appreciated even more than getting dollars as a tip. Almost everyone smoked, and people smoked almost everywhere. We went to the Moscow Circus, and every seat had an ashtray in the arm rest, and almost everyone was smoking. Now that I think about it, the only places I didn't see people smoking was in museums and churches.
I tried some Russian smokes, including Apollo, Kosmos, Diplomat, Crest, TU-144, and Belomorkanal. The last were the weirdest I've ever smoked. They were in a cardboard tube and burned in an uneven way and produced an acrid smoke from the cardboard. They had the strongest tobacco I've ever smoked. I was so dizzy from one drag I had to sit down for a few minutes.
The Kosmos and TU-144 were about the closest to a US smoke, but even they were a lot stronger than a Marlboro. I liked the TU-144's because I was a private pilot, and it's the only cigarette brand I've seen named after a plane. The pack was beautifully printed with the gold panel and color picture of the aircraft on the front. I still have an unopened pack as a souvenir of that trip. I never saw the TU-134 brand or I would've gotten one of those too. The Moldovan made Marlboros were pretty good, but still didn't taste like a US made Marlboro.
I had 2nd hand growing up and smoked for like 15 years myself, It still makes me sick thinking about all that money and the risk to my health.
@@spencers4121 It was a terrible thing and I'm paying for it now. I was one of those kids that loved the high from the first cigarette I ever smoked. That's why it's important to encourage kids to never even try one. If nicotine turns out to be your drug of choice, you've picked up a lifelong habit.
COPD from the CCCP. Sorry, had to make a joke to lighten up the tragedy. I really am sorry about your health, I hope the best.
Sar Jim i started when I was 16, I don’t smoke cigs anymore but I do smoke spliffs sometimes and use snus
Sar Jim my grandma died from smoking and was about your age and I took care of her so I kind of know what you are going through, I hope you are ok and that you have things to take your mind off the health stuff
Ha ha ha, your theory about smoking in the army and getting smoke breaks, I was in the Marines here in the US when I started smoking. It was just like you said, they would call for people to do some work, I would start to put my cigarette out but someone would always say "just finish your smoke, there are other people who aren't doing anything."
I was already smokin before I joined the Navy but there was no way I was stopping once I was in. Smoking cigs gets you an almost guaranteed 10 min break every hour.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Everybody else, police (clean up) the area.
Thats why the bourgeois have since banned it they dont like not getting money off your labour for those breaks.
Haha, same for me. I went to a hospital instead of the army in germany, and taking a cigarette break was basically the only way to get a breather for 2-3 min, when it was either super stressy, things got to you, or you needed to get your head together.
@@kilikus822 Camel non-filters-$3.00 per carton in US port (taxed), $2.00 per carton at sea in the early 1980s
Mundstück is a German word meaning mouth piece. It's usually used for instruments but I can see it working for smoking too.
there are many words in russian with german roots, it was cool once i started learning russian in university that i could recognise some russian words like мундштук or бутерброд. (from german Mundstück and Butterbrot)
It’s used for smoking too. Some come with filter some are only to appear more elegant. Jawoll.
Iratus Album
I thought it sounded similar to German and the Swedish word for it Munstycke
@@ThanTreeKull I also learned a bit of Russian and having quite a bit of fun doing it. I'd recommend to anyone really if you can bear the scary grammar.
My favourite word with German origin so far is Галстук, which in Russian means tie (or Krawatte in German). But it sounds like "Halstuch", which is something like a scarf. Then again a scarf in Russian is шарф, which sounds like the German word "scharf", meaning hot as in hot food. Perhaps it makes you look really hot I don't know ;)
@@bergtroll9393 My favorite russian word with german roots is "Schlagbaum", sorry I don't know the cyrillic for it, but mostly because it doesn't actually mean what the german root word means.
The cigarette going out several times is a sign that the tobacco inside is not treated with chemicals. You get the same experience with smoking a pipe and a cigar, both of which are made with untreated tobacco (aside from fermentation, drying, and aging). The cigarette not going out and continue to burn means it's treated with chemicals that keep it burning.
Thanks, I didn't know that
The cigarette continues to burn because of the small rings you can see on the paper. These rings are Laden with a type of burning agent AKA gunpowder to keep the cigarette burning evenly on all sides and stop it from going out.
Cigarettes cause fires in which children die.
@@walterkersting9922 thank you for informing us
@@walterkersting9922 thats probably one of the least important reasons to not smoke lol
Your insight into 70's and 80's USSR is fascinating
Glad I discovered your channel. Great content!
Fascinating look at Soviet smoking culture. Interesting the difference between the generations, my granddad and dad smoked but never chainsmoked my grandpa smoked a pipe and smoked only like 5 or 6 cigarettes a day, and rolled his own. Dad smoked too but lightly. Nowadays I mostly see people pulling hard on cigarettes and smoking more for addiction and not leisure.
Back then cigarettes didn't have all the shit they have now in them. Might have something to do with it ;-).
i would love to get to where i smoke purely for pleasure and or Ritual. I smoke too much even still....but nothing like the 3 or 4 packs/day as when young.
I think you can find the answer to that in Kino's Pachka sigaret
"As long as I have a pack in my pocket today won't be all that bad"
sending away a short story set in the soviet union for my final english exam to get into uni, a lot of your videos have been really helpful and especially this one, спасибо!
Good luck! It would be interesting to read your story )))
@@UshankaShow ah i'm not allowed to share it until the exam board give it back but after that then maybe! depends on if i get an A or not haha
@@dochka What?? You don't trust your friendly KGB officer?
I traveled the trans-siberian railway from Beijing to Moscow in 1989 and had a 3 day transit in Moscow. Flashing a pack of Marlboro Red was the sure fire way to hail a taxi or get a ticket to the ballet etc. It was highly desirable much like hard currency.
I thought it was kind of ironic to see Lenin’s image on a pack of cigarettes - I read somewhere that Lenin hated tobacco and refused to tolerate it in his presence.
Lenin had a couple of strokes and I think it is because he wanted not to die. Eventually he died from stress
Lenin's decline in health was extremely well and carefully documented. There are literally thousands and thousands of pieces of archival material on this subject. You're talking sensationalist nonsense. There were claims floating around in 2004 to this effect, however this claims is just that- a claim. A rather baseless one in fact as there are no records anywhere stating that Lenin was positive for syphilis. Even one of the more prominent Doctors which made this claim, has since retracted it, and replaced it with stronger explanations (see NY Times article "Lenin's Death Remains a Mystery"). The true source of Lenin's rapid decline in health is most likely three-fold; 1) an extensive familial history of cardiovascular disease, which had killed most of his siblings as well as his father at the rather premature age (even in Tsarist Russia) of 54. 2) The assassination attempt he suffered at the age of 48, which left him with one bullet lodged in his collarbone, and which caused a number of health issues in the years following. 3) Extreme exhaustion, which went ignored for years. This incidentally killed a number of Bolsheviks at the time, a notable example being found in Yakov Sverdlov who was known as being an absolutely tireless worker and who ultimately died from a neglected chest-cold at the age of 34. The combination of these three things ultimately culminated in his suffering a number of strokes which over time proved fatal.
And yes, Lenin despised cigarette smoking. Wouldn't allow it in his presence to such an extent that it would be banned during congresses, meetings, etc., some of which could start in the morning and go on continuously into the night with few or no breaks.
There is only one way to settle Lenin’s alleged syphilis damaged brain, do tissue examination on his well preserved body in Leningrad...I’m just throwing it out there.
His brain, which is preserved separately from his body, under lock and key (also in Red Square) has been pretty thoroughly examined, though perhaps not explicitly in search of signs of syphilis. In any case, after this much time, given the quantity of information available on the subject, as well as the numerous modern studies conducted on his corpse, I have to imagine that if this were the case, it would have been discovered definitively by now. Not as though there is a state apparatus protecting the legacy of Lenin anymore, the current regime denounces him whenever they get the opportunity. If there was any chance that this might be true, it would have become very public, long ago imo.
Didn't he hate alcohol too? I seem to recall hearing he resented that the working class liked to drink.
Back in the 90s I worked in a port and we mingled with Russians and Ukrainians often. I've had Kocmoc cigarettes. One Russian friend had a grandfather who'd fought in WW2. I gave him a pack of Camel cigarettes and he told me his grandfather had smoked them in WW2, provided by America in wartime aid.
Thanks for sharing - you're a good storyteller.
The reason the cigarette kept burning after the factory was bought by the German company wasnt probably due to the dryness of the tobacco. It was likely due to the addition of potassium nitrate which was used by American brands and many others. The purpose is twofold...the western smokers didnt like to keep lighting their cigarettes plus with the cigarette buring so fast, the consumer was likely to consume more, boosting sales.
My thought as well.
I seen an ad one time for cigarettes in an old magazine in Grandma and Grandpa's basement. It advertised Kool cigarettes with a new and improved asbestos filter.
Lol!!! Mmmm, asbestos to go with the other bullshit. Get super cancer!
@@SonOfTheDawn515 yeah go ahead and get the old double whammy
I really enjoy your videos, they are incredible contribution to archiving Soviet life and history in English. Thank you!
When I was a correctional officer in Texas the inmates loved to get pocket bibles from the holey rollers who would come to the prison for a church service. The bibles were printed on thin rice paper. It made good rolling paper.
Incredible photographs. Particularly fond of the of your Grandfather in Red Cavalry regalia. Wish my familial history was half as interesting as this.
Sergei, thanks for the always fascinating presentations. Very interesting! Spacibo!
My pleasure!
я лювлю эта песня время впорёд. I used to smoke, from 16 to 32. Stopped right before my 32nd birthday. I loved smoking, but my left arm started going numb sometimes. I started vaping, and again, this year on my birthday, I stopped vaping so much. I just take a few hits at night now. I feel better than ever now. I look better and smell better. My hair got thicker, and stopped falling out. My teeth aren't so yellow now. And my Mom is much happier.
I liked those Prima Nostalgia w/ Comrade Lenin on the cover. Lenin didn't smoke, he hated it. He did start up, but his Mom yelled at him to stop, for he was receiving an allowance from her. I hate it now too, can't stand the smell.
Damn, as someone who usually smoke rolling tobacco, the fact that Sergey's grand father was rolling with one arm really impressed me 👍
grampas friend Mischa was the 1 armed man, but yeah very impressive
hand rolled for a few years myself, but never learned how to do it 1 handed
finally quit smoking cigarettes after 33 years last year and switched to a vape for nicotine
still roll stuff up, but it's not tobacco 😁
@@LoPhatKaoI used to roll a cigarette one handed to show off. I didn't find it hard at all, but I've never smoked a single puff in my life.
COOL! My old neighbor from Lithuania gave me a pack like the one in the thumb-nail years ago !!! It was hilarious :-) Never seen them since. No plastic wrapper or inner foil, just a cardboard box with "cigarettes" inside.
Amazing information , it must have taking you lots of time to prepare this video .Thank you
Excellent video, brings back memories from when I was teen I use to smoke a pack a day and party all night in Moscow those where the time my friend.
Damn those cigarretes! My grandfather, mom, and father use to smoke Prima and Astra cigarettes at home. Yes, inside the house three of them at once. Not to mention days when there was a "party" (drinking) at home when some other 3-5 friends of parents came... Smoke was constant at home, just fog hanging in the middle of the room...
There was no advertising of cigarettes or vodka on TV as we know now advertising videos, but every Soviet movie had a scene where people were smoking and drinking vodka.
A candy and tobacco store here in our California town used to sell Russian cigarettes back in the 1970's and 80's, They had a card board tube that was 3/4's of the length with the tobacco rolled in transparent paper the final 1/4 of the length, They had a great flavor that was fairly harsh. Most of the teenagers and 20 somethings smoked Marlboros, but you only need to smoke one of these Russian cigarettes to get the satisfaction of smoking a dozen Marlboros, They must have had a lot of nicotine in them. One of the brands had a picture of what looked like the KGB office building on the box, the other brand had a picture of a rocket, I saved the boxes for years but my mom threw them away several years ago, I should have spanked her.
We could sell Soviet products? Didn't the US have an embargo against Cuba and the USSR? Maybe it was lifted at some point.
Those are just fake Pakistani cigarettes, I know because our corner shops are still plagued with them in 2023 because they sell them to kids for 50p for 2 50 gram packs, I’m literally being forced to die from second hand smoke inhalation in the back of a corner shop for asking them to stop selling it to my grandkids and now I’m stuck here waiting… sigh… do you have any cigarettes while I’m here I’m kinda bored…
You should have sat her down, gave her the lecture, and forced her to smoke the entire carton!
/s
@@josept9729 That embargo was only for Cuba
@@theceoofcrackcocaineandamp5961 Nope, they were Russian, You are probably thinking of Sher Bidi cigarettes from India or Kretek cigarettes from Indonesia, I have been a connoisseur of different brands ever since the early 1970's, such as Dunhill, State Express, 555, Rothmans, Shermans Sobranies, Gauloises, Gitanes , Export A's and several more.
Wow, such great stories! Perfect to listen to while I'm do laundry.
Cool!! I really enjoyed that. Thank You.
Another great video! I was a heavy smoker in Russia. The last time I was there, I brought over 2 cartons of Marlboro and a 1/2 carton of Camel. Just like in your video, I was told the best thing to smoke was American cigarettes that someone just brought over. I was also told that store bought American cigarettes in Russia were not that good. Once I ran out of American cigarettes, then I should smoke a brand called Russian Steal. In 2004, I had to finally quit smoking for the very last time. Two years later, I got a new girlfriend who smoked. It didn't bother me at first, however it became like kissing an ash tray just like you said.
7:05 i have a similar story from my family. my great-great grandfather who got into russian captivity during world war 1 once told a story that was passed down to me through my grandpa, one day during forced labor his friend from the same village was somoking and working at the same time, then, one of the guards saw him, and told him he doesn't have to work while he is smoking, so he started smoking constantly to avoid work, and when it was time to eat, the guard told him to go smoking because he haven't done anything.
Your story about your grandpa making you play cigarettes made me think about how when I was a child they used to have candy cigarettes in the U.S.
A few novelty candy stores still sell the candy cigarettes and bubblegum cigars. Also licorice pipes. They also have cherry-flavored hard candy made to resemble tomahawks and war-bonnets. They have a couple in places like Muskogee, Oklahoma and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. There's even several places that sell them in Branson, Missouri.
I remember candy cigarettes. IIRC they cost more than the real thing (before states and the federal government started taxing the hell out of cigarettes actual cigarettes were about a quarter a pack).
🤣 Each cig was wrapped in white paper and if you blew into it a little puff of "smoke" came out- yikes!
@poutinedream5066 Yes, the bubble gum one's! I remember the hard candy one's too, they were Penny candy in the early 70's. Penny Candy is a thing of the past.
The ones I tried were chalky
The thing about the smoke breaks really hit me. I'm the only guy I work with on a regular basis who doesn't smoke and when they're all standing around the truck smoking I don't really know what to do with myself.
Had a friend who used to send me Soviet cigarettes. My favorite of all was the Vatra brand. They made smoking an unfiltered Camel cigarette seem like smoking a light cigarette; but they were really good. 25 of them to a cardboard box. People would crimp the cigarettes in the middle with your fingers so your lungs wouldn't collapse on the first puff (Russian cigarettes are strong!) I got to the point where I enjoyed them un-crimped. Delicious flavor.
That was the hardest thing when I quit smoking. You think, "Oh, I'm not going to smoke, so I don't need a break" Wrong! You'll work yourself to your're exhausted and then the crave to smoke is that much worse. so, if you quit, take a break anyway, grab some chips or soda or something, Coffee is a great way to simulate a smoke without actually smoking, its hot, drink it slow, chat with friends, and yous still get that kick! ;)
This is very interesting, thanks for sharing
Those self burning cigarettes your father complained about did not have a drier tobacco in them. The paper and tobacco were laced with saltpeter ( potassium nitrate ) that kept the cigarett burning. It is bad for you, you burn out the cigarett faster so you have to buy more packages. Nasty marketing trick.
My uncle used to smoke Players English Ovals, they were not laced with saltpeter so they went out on their own.
That's very interesting information. I remember when I was a kid that my cousin and other boys were collecting cigarette packages here in Brazil.
I'm impressed by how much you know about Soviet cigarettes, their price and all if you weren't even a smoker. You must have a pretty good memory!
I just don't understand why there were so many brands if every factory was state owned. Or there was any of them in worker's control like in Yugoslavia?
Wow rolling cigs in newspaper..that reminds me of the Jamaican guys I grew up w who rolled blunts in brown paper bags..
great video! you guys had a lot of different cigarettes to choose from
I didn't say all those brands were available everywhere )))
"Mundstück" is actually german and means "mouth piece" but is in fact , as you said a cigarette holder.
When I was a kid in the early 50's, a lot of older men still rolled their own. In the Depression of the 1930's most poor people rolled their own because it was cheaper than "ready made". I remember watching them take a paper from the slim pack, crease it into a trough, shake in some tobacco, even it out, roll the paper into a tube, and lick the edge of the paper to "glue" it together. Their fingers were stained yellow from the tobacco. And of course they lit it with a match, (poor people couldn't afford lighters).
US army rations in WW2 included a pack of cigarettes. In retrospect, some statisticians say that tobacco killed more US soldiers than were killed by the enemy.
Really appreciate this information
A Good Friend was a Doctor in the old Soviet Union and emigrated here (by way of Israel) in 1989. One time in the ‘90s after he and his family had made a trip back to Ukraine where he was from, he brought back an elaborate cigarette dispensing machine that opened up like a big blooming flower, and he had filled it with Kosmos cigarettes. He offered me one ( I have smoked since I was 16 and then I was in my late 30’s still smoking) Well! I thought I was going to cough up a lung! He laughed and after I forced myself to finish it he offered me another, which I declined! I don’t think I smoked for the rest of the night those Kosmos cigarettes were so strong!
I used to frequent a tobacconist who often was given cigarettes people would buy while traveling, and he'd give them away (illegal to sell) to his favorite customers. I don't recall what all of the brands/companies were, but he gave me several packs of Russian cigarettes over time. He moved his shop to a part of town that I rarely have reason to visit--I hope he's managed to hang on--there was only one other tobacconist in town. I do photography, so I photographed a pack of the same brand as in the thumbnail here--and someone on YT used it without attribution for their thumbnail, but I forget who.
At 14:30 when you're talking about your father complaining about his cigarette not stopping burning, it surprised me that his cigarettes used to go out if he didn't puff them because of talking, because cigarettes here in America never go out, and it's not to do with their quality, it's because they have accelerants added to them to make them burn more (it also makes them a lot more bad for you)
In fact if you smoke a pipe and don't puff it you have to relight it because it's just tobacco in the bowl, no accelerants. It's interesting to me that cigarettes in the USSR didn't have accelerants added in.
Very cool, thanks.
Wow, those hand rolled cigarettes are the most hard core smokes I've ever seen lol
Good story. My grandpa smoked pipes too. I loved the smell of the apple plum flavored tobacco he used. I tried it one day to see what it tasted like and immediately regretted it. It was like sucking ashes from the fireplace. Cured me of any desire to smoke for the rest of my life, and it gave my grandpa a good laugh watching me gag.
I couldn't get the hang of smoking a pipe and was not happy about it, I liked the smell of pipe tobacco. I smoked cigars, not every night but I would sit at my desk and do whatever work I needed to do (I was a professor so probably grading papers/exams or preparing lesson plans) with a fifth of whiskey, a bucket of ice, an ashtray and a cigar at my desk. I usually only smoked one cigar if I smoked at all that night but occasionally I would smoke two.
@@mharris5047 This is how tobacco should be enjoyed. A long evening, relaxing with a nice cigar or a pipe.
W/ a dram or two of single malt.
Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1985 - 1990. He was the first to declassify, as Boris Yeltsin was bursting for sole power, how his rival Gorbachev one day stopped 26 tobacco factories “for repairs” of the 28 available! So cigarettes disappeared from the country.
In the summer of 1990, the Soviet Union's terminal economic crisis descended upon the product that many Russians considered their most irreplaceable: cigarettes. Faced with mass shortages of Soviet-made brands, angry smokers in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and other Soviet cities staged the protests that became known as the tobacco rebellion. A desperate President Mikhail Gorbachev fired the minister in charge of the industry and pleaded with the West for help.
To the rescue rode Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.
In return for cash and barter goods, the American tobacco giants agreed to deliver 34 billion cigarettes -- the single biggest export order in their history. The crisis abated, and Gorbachev and the old order helped buy themselves an extra year in power. And the companies achieved an important foothold in a vast market that for decades had kept them tightly restricted or had shut them out altogether.
I hardly ever subscribe to any channels. I’m subscribing to yours. Your videos are so interesting, especially the one about TV in the Soviet Union.
Thanks!
hi! liked and subscribed. good videos! you are a great writer and very funny, also. I like you. good luck!
Wow - home made cigs rolled with newspaper - hardcore
ky le soviet cigarette so tough if you don’t smoke it fast it will smoke you.
@Kristie C you spent time in the clink kristie?
@kie Hahahaha!!
No King James Versions available in that Godless Country
Thats because they add sodium nitrate to the cigarette to keep them burning not because they dry it. Chemicals that was the answer.to them goin out. Rich/San Jose
Cool video!
Your awesome and awesome video be safe out there 😎👍
In finland home grow tobacco was named "kessu". It's popular before tobacco industry. 1/3 Gigarette "tupakka" "sätkä" is paper by prosess. I smoking three year as young age. It`s not for me. 3/4 men smoking that time. My first brand was Dunhill. Mild, fine and expensive. Brands: Marlboro "mallu" and Camel "kameli" (YEAH! "JEES"). When I stopped, it was a cheap (not really. For regulating, tax rate is high. Today`s value 2 $ ) pipe "Aroma" tobacco pack. Then i tried be a man without tobacco. Hard but i can manaced.
8:20 If she smokes, she pokes
Thankx mate that's interesting
Thanks for the video, really interesting. One more thing about smoking is that it actually dampens the hunger so might also have been why soldiers did smoke so much.
The best soviet cigarettes I had were "Kaunas", from the former Lithuanian SSR, with Belomorkanal and Kosmos coming close second.
Great video! There’s a novel by Nelson DeMille set in the 1980s Soviet Union that has a minor plot point involving cigarettes. Supposedly, Soviet cigarettes (no brand names are mentioned) would sag after being lit. Do you know if any brands of cigarettes were known to do this?
Probably "Prima"
That black and white box w the viking longboat on it is really cool looking art.
Having watched some UA-camrs do videos on old military rations with cigarettes in them, I've had an interest in them. After watching this video, I wonder if I could eventually get some of the cigarettes mentioned in this video (for collecting not smoking), particularly the ones with the Tu-144 and Tu-134 on them, since I am an avgeek. Interesting video.
Check out Etsy. Sellers from Ukraine offer empty packs and you may talk to them about getting one that is not empty
I spent several weeks as an Observer aboard the Soviet hake trawler “Mys Kurilski” in 1982. I’d quit smoking 2 years earlier. I got one whiff of a “Bellomorcanal” papparosa tried a puff & was hooked for another 3 years. The cigarettes were a cardboard tube just exactly as he described. They were stuffed with horse dung & old mattress stuffing but I managed about a pack a day.
😂
Wow, My father would tell us about my great uncle who was a WWII veteran and lost an arm below his elbow. He would roll his cigarettes using his stump too! I wonder how many men learned this way.
Союз нерушимый республик свободных
Сплотила навеки Великая Русь.
Да здравствует созданный волей народов
Единый, могучий Советский Союз!
I like the channel! I was curious about this topic..I think that I grew up in the tail end of cigarettes being socially acceptable here in the USA in the 1980's early 90's. Magazine and billboard advertisement was still big like "Joe Camel" but it had already been taken off television commercials. By mid to late 1990's it was not really the thing to do anymore. 😃
If she smokes she pokes! Family guy taught me that
If she smokes she'll put anything in her mouth. High School.
@ 6:47 - my dad was telling me the same thing. he smoked or faked smoking in the army just so he can have a break (Romania - 1985)
I spent 3 years in the US Navy from 74 thru 77. The navy sold cigarettes in the ships store for 20 cents a pack. Even then that was dirt cheap.
Very cool video
I truly love how your grandpa was disconcerted about almost burning his fingers chit chatting away with friends, the new smokes after 1990, and how he complained about how they would burn out without really smoking it at all...I have to admit I started smoking in the late 70s because it was cool even though there were no TV or radio ads, but if one measures how much each cigarette I have consumed, I reckon atleast a 35 percent wastage component!
Where I’m from people think they’re pretty hard cuz they roll their own out of a can with papers one at a time. Lol. And to save money. Great episode Serg
In the mid '80s I could buy Kazbek at a newsagent/tobaccanist in Berkeley, California.
The pack had a sticker slipped on the back indicating it was imported by a company in New York, A. Georgopoulos Co. if I remember correctly.
They were $5 a pack, certainly expensive relative to regular American brands of course, and more expensive than other imports.
They surprised me by how aromatic and good they were, easily one of my all time faves. Similar smell to another fave Balkan Sobranie.
The 'paperossi' format was quite a novelty to me, had never seen that.
An older German fellow I knew showed me how to crease them properly to hold, as he had learned to do during the Soviet occupation after the war.
Thanks for this look at other brands!
Awesome video, I have always been curious what they smoked in Russia!.
Everyone in my family smoked but I hated it so much and never picked it up just like you. Funny how that can happen.
I'm no fan of smoking but the design on the packages is on point.
Thanks!
Appreciate your support!
Years ago, I worked on hardware that would eventually be installed in the Russian Service Module. We travelled to Moscow to test our hardware in the actual vehicle. We'd go inside a clean-room that contained the flight Service Module to do our work wearing booties, lab-coats, and linen hats. There was a bathroom off the clean-room, and that had a room between the clean room and the room with the bathroom. In this room is where people smoked. There was always a bunch of folks there smoking. I think it was a social thing - folks gathered there not only to smoke, but to chat. Always amazed me that this same air from the smoking room was going into the "clean room" with the actual Service Module.
Forgot to add.... That mouthpiece you have in the video. Is the design for males. Females used a long thin one. You can see them in old hollywood movies from the 1920's and 1930's. In high class, the males used one made from silver. The one you are showing, is one that would have been used by nobel people. Like dukes and semi-royals. It is a fine piece of art, in the same class as a fine pipe.
Iron curtain comes down
*complains that he doesn't have to relight cigarette* 😂
It's funny, but it makes sense too, he had been smoking his whole life and had built his habits around how the smokes behaved, as said, the flow of conversation formed around the smoke going out and him relighting it.
Habit is a funny thing in itself.
I am looking forward to one on tea and or coffee and cigars. Great fan of the program! State Cigarette factories!
ua-cam.com/video/5lIFavHOqkQ/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/ORiImk6WsiU/v-deo.html
I'd love to try those
"Mundstuck" sounds german. In Denmark we call it "mundstykke", and a direct translation would be "mouth piece".
Same in Sweden. Munstycke
well, it sounds too similar to be an indoeuropean cognate, so it's probably been borrowed from German. Slavic languages have borrowed many words from German (and vice versa)
same in Iceland. Munnstykki
Oh damn, I miss Belomorkanal... Friend brought some years ago and I got one pack, and I felt like that bad wolf from Nu pogodi! I wonder if they can be purchased online...
I bought a pack a few months ago just to keep it on my shelf - because the pack have a cool "self-destruction" demotivation message and image. I wouldn't smoke that, no thanks.
Thank you.
You no smoke?! GOOD FOR YOU, COMRADE 👌💯✅
I remember visiting Lithuania as a 16 -year old in 1996. You could get russian papyrosses in tiny newspaper stores. Dont know if you can nowadays but I doubt it. My recollection is Lithuania was trying to be more western oriented than the western nations themselves. So papyrosses are probably washed away since long (?)
One pack was about two swedish kronor (like 20 cents on a modern Euro) in 1996, so basically they cost nothing for a tourist asshole like me. I bought all brands I could find for the fun of it. But they were very strong. Felt like my lungs were bleeding.
wow, that's a huge variety of cigs, the smoking culture was something man.
Smoke breaks are what got me hooked..... actually had a booth for employees to smoke at😂
My great grandfather was from a town called Tomsk in Siberia. He left Russia waaaaay before the USSR came to be. He used to smoke like a chimney according to my grandmother. Also do you know if Pescoff is a common Russian last name by any chance?
Pescoff is a Russian surname, a high class name
@@juk4333 It name of one of Putin's assliskers
I heard once the reason for the long tube on some cigarettes was so the Tzar wouldn't burn his beard. I don't know if that is true.
Could be. I heard that the long filter was because you could easier smoke them with thick gloves (with only the thumb kind of gloves).
Fascinating look into tobacco use in USSR. But yeh, good you didn't start. Last year I lost the love of my life to smoking. But she loved smoking...
Привет Сергей .Отличное видео!