Hi, I'm Matthew Lenoe's son. My sister and I have let him know about the video and, while he hasn't watched it, he's happy that his research is being shared to a wider audience. He remains convicted that Nikolaev acted alone and expressed disappointment to me in the past that his work on the murder would do little to sway public opinion, because it was meant for a scholarly audience. Now, over 100,000 people have seen this video! I'm also thankful that you did your homework and read his absolute tome of a book (over 600 pages!) to summarize it to an audience on UA-cam. Seeing my dad's work in this format was really exciting, and now I have something to show my friends what he actually does. If you are willing to deal with the length, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of the book if you have any interest in forensics since there is a really interesting section on analysis of Borisov's skull, for example. Finally, I think your conclusion to the video is exactly right: it's pretty clear that we often accept conspiracy theories to justify our own views of the world and of politics. Kirov's murder has come to my mind a lot in the past two weeks or so, for obvious reasons. Often, what political assassinations do is reveal a part of a society or ideology that is deeply flawed or difficult to confront. A conspiracy theory allows the public not to meet those flaws head on by providing simple explanations. I think what my father's and your work shows is that truth still matters in public discourse, no matter what others may say.
This is the coolest comment we've ever gotten. The number of times we exclaimed to each other, "what an amazing book!" or "I wish we read this earlier" -- too many to count. Our sincerest thanks to your dad for such incredible work. I'm afraid to say we found it a little late in our research and didn't make it through cover-to-cover, but it was an absolutely essential resource. Could not have made this video without it. If he has the chance to tune in, I hope he enjoys the video! And if he has thoughts, tell him don't hesitate to drop us a line. Thanks so much for sharing.
Nikolaev admitted he was part of the bloc of rights and trotskyites though. And all those he implicated confessed. Every defendant at the trials confessed wilingly and incredible detail ua-cam.com/video/TBY_aDd5knE/v-deo.html
In fact Kirov's death was so important that in my city the main street is still named after Kirov, and in the middle of it stands a big big beautiful monument of Kirov. And that is for many cities here in Russia, I think Kirov street is 2nd most popular street name after Lenin street. Oh and there is even a city named just Kirov
A nation founded on violent revolution mourns the death of someone killed by a violent revolutionary. Not much confidence in that country's cultural history
Kirov was getting popular and was becoming a threat to stalins rule. After Kirov died Stalin then used his death as an excuse to launch the great purge and get rid of his political enemies. I think its fairly obvious who ordered him to be killed.
What? Another American JFK mystery??? No way, it's not like JFK's brother would also be shot under, like, the most insanely suspicious circumstances ever.
No we weren't. It was just some dumb kid who can't shoot, JFK actually was a conspiracy 😂 the JFK shit was solid, Trump was a boo boo on the ear (for him)
No we weren't. It was just some dumb kid who can't shoot, JFK actually was a conspiracy 😂 the JFK shit was solid, Trump was a boo boo on the ear (for him)
this video was really good, until the monologue at the end. you say in democratic society, politicians are held accountable by the public through the voting system. so if a politician failed their promises, they would be ousted. yet in America, the bastion of democracy, corrupt politicians are at every level of government taking lobby money from corporations and implementing policies to funnel wealth to the top 1%. but when election season comes, they start yapping about how they care about the working class people, want to bring back jobs and solve all social issues and voters give their vote to these scumbags even though they failed to keep their promises and are actively working to fuck over the working mass to benefit the rich 1%. the reason is simple. voters are extremely docile and ignorant about their governments. after voting season is done, they go back to their lives not caring about any of the promises made by those politicians. corporations create monopoly to hike up prices and government does nothing because their career is literally funded by these corporations. there is not a single state in America where a married couple earning $100k a year would be able live a middle class lifestyle, not a single state. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, not being able afford a $500 emergency. so if your theory was correct, none of these issues would have happened if politicians were actually held accountable by the voters. western democracy is an illusion of democracy, where voters think they have a choice to elect their leaders. either vote for a capitalist party or vote for a blue colored capitalist party.
this video really reminds me of LEMINO. don't know if it was a coincidence or not but thanks for making me think of him. he does great stuff like this too. (No hate or anything to the creator of this video, just something funny that passed my mind)
considering LEMINOs videos on JFK and the title of this video... definitely not a coincidence lol and I think they could have mentioned him quickly to give credit
@@jurgnobs1308 I've followed Lemino for maybe 8 years now, and I only say this because I see no reason to give him credit. He had no hand in the video besides a mild amount of inspiration, but this is no different than many other true crime minidocs. This also is not even close to the first video in this series.
I think the fact his daughter testifies that Stalin would never have killed Kirov will forever confuse me. I can’t find a source but my Soviet Union history course said something like that.
There where two investigations into the matter by Kruzschev and later Gorbachev era investigators (who were very anti Stalin) and both, with full access to the archives couldn‘t find proof that Stalin ordered the Assassination on Kirov.
Stalin was PARANOID AF that he'd be betrayed in a coup de tat plot. He therefore not only had all dissenters worked to death or killed but he also killed anyone whom he thought wasn't fanatical enough in their praise of him. He was so paranoid that At his public speeches he would have spies in the audience watch to see whomever it was that was the first to stop clapping for him And have them interrogated tortured and killed . People began to catch on to this and no one would stop clapping and they would go on for 5 to10 minutes at a time and someone had to finally get someone to direct the audience when they could stop clapping. When Stalin was unable to find any one in the general public who was plotting his overthrow he began The practice of having his own officers in generals interrogated and killed and even his friends thrown in gulags to work a few months or some until they died . Merely on suspicion and paranoia. Joseph Stalin weakened his own country More than any coup d'état could have ever done. I am very confident that it was Joseph Stalin who had this person killed. Friendship didn't matter . In fact that would make a person more likely to be killed him. Why would his daughter publicly indite her father ?
@@wile123456I disagree. If it was just his friend's death, sure. But then the NKVD started a huge wave of schizoposting about a huge conspiracy aimed directly at Stalin. And Stalin was paranoid at the best of times
@@wile123456 sure, but normal people also don't get the NKVD and others telling them that there is a huge conspiracy against you, and don't lose their friends in extremely suspicious circumstances which give a lot of credibility to said conspiracies.
Nothing happens in politics by accident. No comparison between JFK and Kirov. JFK was not shot in a hall way , JFK did not pick his vice president it was a requirement for him to pick Johnson to get Texas in the election. JFK was shot in Johnson's home state that would be the equivalent of Kirov being executed in Georgia. Nikolaev was complaining about needing work to Stalin, this would be an indictment of communism and Stalin. The body guard Borisov was 55 and he was being threatened with being replaced by better body guards indirectly. Who was the friend that Nikolaev was to have receive tickets from. Regardless of your dumb luck theory it was never far from Stalin's mind to have a massive purge of his political opponents not all executions can be public fake trials and a few eggs have to be broken to make an omelette. Do you know if the voting was secret ballot or open ballot? Not every execution Stalin had done was publicly declared in a court ;that is a ridiculous assumption. Russia was the creator of the Nagant M1895 the only mass produced six shooter in the world that can use a silencer; meaning the shooter has control of the spent brass and the report of the instrument. Nikolaev according to your own report indicated that he admitted to making a "plan" and, your conclusion was dumb luck ;that is contradictory. It is far more likely that someone gave Nikolaev a job; who did the hiring could have been Borisov. The NKVD did not have to have prior knowledge to later execute Borisov with an injection which would explain the "investigation" and torture session later. Stalin did not have friends his only daughter's mother "committed suicide " and his daughter's uncle (which would have been related to the same woman that was suicided by Stalin) Stalin had executed. A bunch of accidental death seem to surround these people all just one big accident. How many people do you personally know that died by gun shot? I have know zero who were shot and I am not under 50 years.
There is popular russian short folk song ( chastushka) about this murder: ''Hey lil' cucumbers and lil' tomatoes - Stalin ordered to execute Kirov in hallway''
A loose end is really nagging at me - we learn that Nikolaev fires two shots, and is found collapsed by Kirov. But there seems to be no evidence that Nikolaev's second shot was directed towards himself (or if it was, it missed). So why was Nikolaev found unconscious next to Kirov? Or indeed, was he actually on the floor unconscious at any moment? I can accept that perhaps the emotion of the moment was overwhelming and caused him to pass out, but it is an usual reaction by an assassin, even a disturbed one. And where did the second shot go? As for the truth? So difficult - clearly there are many possibilities, and whilst applying Occam's Razor leads us to Nikolaev, with a subsequent attempt by the NKVD to cover their own incompetence, it is possible that Stalin a) saw Kirov as a growing threat and, b) saw that Kirov's popularity meant he had to act circumspectly. Remember, this is Stalin during the time when his cult was only beginning, rather than the Stalin of later years who could act however he wanted. So, Stalin decided Kirov was a threat, following which his agents searched for, and found, the perfect 'lone assassin' who could then be manipulated into placing blame on Stalin's other targets. Or maybe not, and Nikolaev was just one, broken man with a grudge.
Kirov is one of those deeply understandable people from an era that is very not-easily-understood by most. As someone who came from Cuba, with a grandfather that worked as an engineer in the USSR - I think I understand the situation fairly well. But I’m almost reminded of when Cienfuegos had his plane shot down by Fidel’s orders
as a chinese gal, many here can also relate to both Kirov and Nikolaev as the same authoritarian system we inherited from the soviets starts to show its cracks post-covid and reveal its ugliness and human toll it incurred...
"Let's make a video about comminists.... I KNOW! Let's [aint the walls red, put the symbol on them, have tons of books on communism, get a mustash and brown suit, and.... why not a coffee mug for good measure?" Jebus, you go all out
As a historian specializing in the Soviet Union and its history. There is no question that Stalin had nothing to do with Kirovs death. He actually took it very painfully and lost all feelings for human life. That explains the repressions that where to come!
Hey specticals just so you know with the timeframe that this is set in the borders are wrong for finland and the baltics but for some reason not for poland
Wait... How exactly did the "assassin" end up unconscious feet to feet with Kirov? Did he feint? What does he say about going unconscious?" Did he feint? Was he drugged and drug from the restroom to the hall? It was of course justification for further pogroms and elimination of any and all opposition where if they had to kill 1 million people to catch 1 traitor (defined by Stalin as "everyone not Stalin ") utilized well and somehow even under this despair, they would be losing far more soon in a war against Germany yet maintained a stranglehold on the entirety of those within the borders of what was the USSR
The Bodyguard beat him senseless. He wasn't absent. They just pushed the blame off on him by claiming he wasn't there and then killed him when Sarlin demanded to speak to him.
Wow I had been wondering about this murder for a while now but hadn't looked into it in detail. This is an excellent video and I agree with the conclusions (he probably acted alone). Very well done.
The last chapter of this video was brilliant! I really the systemic look at how the Soviet system in the USSR could result in the deaths of millions because of Kirov's murder. In comparison you show how Democracies, generally, avoid this kind of results from the murder of an important official.
fair. that could explain why he treated it differently to other killings. he generally was very open about killing political opponents and completely trashed their memory. he didn't do that with Kirov. which makes it seem like it wasn't stalin. but it is possible that he had it done and specifically did not trash Kirovs memory in order to use it for the purge. it's essentially impossible to say today. all records we have are either likely from tortured individuals or from people with motive to lie
U should do Colombia next with Jorge Gaitan. His mysterious assassination during his presidential campaign in the 1940s caused the largest spontaneous riot in history El Bogotazo and led to a decade of soft civil war in the 1950s called La Violencia which displaced millions of rural Colombians and lead to much of Colombias problems today
Does every other video have to be compared to JFK? Why not just call it a political assassination? Not like JFK was the first or even most notable one. Great videos nonetheless
The way this assassination is described at the beginning of this vid reminds me of that Russian ambassador who was assassinated at that art gallery in Turkey iirc around 10 years ago
There is NO NEED to lie about numbers man, it’s a tactic the far right use to make the nazis look better than the ussr which is wholly untrue. Really hope you don’t claim that Stalin orchestrated the whole thing because nothing concrete has been proven to implicate him, it is most likely that Nikolaev was a mostly lone actor
Stalin had Kirov killed because he became too popular, Stalin then in turn pretended to be outraged that his dearest friend was murdered. Stalin was a level of evil that has no equal in modern history. But lets not act like Kirov was a good person. Kirov was a communist true believer who had thousands put to death as well. Stalin used Kirov's death as his way of gaining both power over the State as well as the party which he already controlled making Stalin the unchallengeable dictator of the Soviet Union. The Stalin era purges or "great Terror" were started based on this one event and Stalin used this oppertunity to purge the party of all those who were not loyal to him. Kirov just happened to be the catalyst for this atrocity!
I think the guy’s problem is he simply didn’t understand Communism ie “You are a nobody under Communism. Do nuttin not authorized. Including breathing, feeling, and living. Now, get back in the Commune, pal, …..with your vodka.”
True about Kotkin’s non-conclusive approach to Kirov’s murder. He is a Great Historian, so he exercises extreme caution when drawing “conclusions”. I love the guy (Platonically!! you weirdos…). His painstaking approach using real documents in a chronological order is awe inspiring. When I was deep into Waiting for Hitler, I decided to glance at the works cited portion of the book. That’s when I discovered how truly fucked my fifty-something year old eyes were. It looked like microscopic ink specks. Wow. The good news is that about a year later I got me some reading glasses. Good. Lesson: you Can Teach an Ol Dog (diogenes???) New Tricks, but You Will Have to Wait Around For A While 🇺🇸🇸🇻🇸🇪🦈👣🎵
Good video overall, don't like the innacurate analysis of 'communism' and 'democracy' near the end though. Looking at western democracy through an uncritical lens and ignoring the effects capitalism has on the equation whilst being unreservedly scrutinous of STALINIST communism is disingeneous, additionally communism isn't inherently authoritarian especially in ideology. Trotskyism and to an extent Leninism aspoused democracy, atleast ideologically, in the form of councils (Soviets) and an argument could be made that the loss of democracy in the early USSR was a symptom of hostile environment rather than ideology. Also, communism is more than just the Soviet Union. Just like capitalism, there a variety of flavours: Anarchism, Marxism-Leninism, Reformism, Market Socialism etc... Note: I'm not defending Stalin here, i'm just critiquing the unfair generalisation of communism and the ommission of capitalism and it's incentives etc... within the comparison
I had been recommended your videos for quite a while but never clicked through. Something gave me the impression that this was another AI slop channel as is unfortunately common in history vids, especially with the similar look to Lemmino’s animations. Once I started watching and you, a real human, appeared I was immediately on board. I don’t know if this was just a “me” problem or if others have gotten a similar impression. Now that I’m here and the quality of your creations is apparent, I’m looking forward to my deep dive into your catalogue.
There is also a version of events that claims that Nicolaev was motivated by sexual jealousy. According to this version, Nicolaev and Kirov were rivals for the love of Nicolaev's ex-wife, and the KNicolaev believed that Kirov had 'stolen" her from him (Nicolaev). Perhaps you should look into this "motivation" theory.
Hey, the video is great, but there’s one small thing that should be corrected, or at the very least mentioned: at 1:46 there’s a map of ussr visible on the screen, the western most part is painted red as well, but at the time that region was home to 3 sovereign, different and independent countries - the Baltic states. They got occupied in June of 1940 and held captive under soviet authoritarian rule for decades after that, but beforehand they were free. Especially considering today’s events going on in Ukraine, it is necessary to not give inaccurate and misleading suggestions to the audience about Russian influence in the surrounding region.
If you try something and it happens to work even though it shouldn't, that's luck. If you try 100 times and one of those times it works, that's not just luck anymore.
Dressing up as Stalin? To me it's equally outrageous as imitating Hitler or any other dictator with a death toll of millions of people. Personally, I would hesitate to do it, even for a UA-cam video.
First time the alogirthm has suggested your channel to me. Pretty interesting. If you're going to rip off someone's style, you could do worse than Lemmino. I like it.
I’m gonna get GPT to write out the transcript and use her voice to tell me this one. That character with the pipe at the start, I’m sorry, it’s so over the top, I just can’t.
This is maybe the second or third time you've used the 'country JFK mystery' title incorrectly. I understand it gets you more views but please, try to be genuine.
This is the first video I've seen on the infamous Kirov murder. The mustache, pipe, and military shirt are a nice touch, in my opinion. Nice work! Joel
I was very enthralled by the video. I would like to point out, (based on my limited understanding), that communism, as a theory, is significantly more complicated than the soviet's supposed iteration of it. Communism/socialism was originally theorized to be inherently democratic, if not outright devoid of hierarchy, and given the way the totalitarian, soviet government forced workers and co-ops to exchange services/produce for necessities, with no opportunity to trade with other parties, it's argued that the soviets practised state-capitalism, wherein workers were the contractors, and the state was the only employer in town. The soviet union achieved what every major american corporation wishes it could- a monopoly. The difference is, Stalin was a psychopathic madman who got his way with blood. Suits, naturally, like to keep their suits clean. So they prefer to carry out their tyranny with extra steps, and enough pressure to squeeze the most out of their employees, while providing them juuuuust enough to keep most of them off the streets. Would I rather be in the Soviet Union? Of course not. All of that was a hellish nightmare I hope I'll never have to experience. But am I saying late-stage capitalism and authoritarian hierarchies have more in common than the rich and powerful are willing to admit? Yah. I most certainly am. And I think we can do better. But to do that, it might be worth considering whether the USSR, Cuba, and China are _actually_ true to socialist ideology, or merely authoritarian governments that _used_ the concept of socialism to gain power and do, well, anything but actual socialism. Or write this off as a no true scotsman fallacy and carry on with your day.
im about to get a lot of hate for what im about to say but whatever fuck it. Years ago i would have never imagined i would say what im about to say but the seeing the books on your desks it made me think about this. I actually read Capital as a left leaning libertarian because I was arguing with insane tankies calling themselves marxists online and i wanted to be able to understand what i was talking about when they would quote marx out of context to justify their positions. I put it on as an audiobook of Capital by Marx to go to sleep for a few months because reading through the first few chapters was VERY hard to get through and actually almost isn't totally necessary to understand the book but still couldnt do it. The first few chapters are basically just painstakingly and unquestionably showing that he actually did the calculations necessary to explain why eventually the extremely unequal distribution of wealth, constant crises, etc of our economy will eventually look like it does today, and once I understood what it was saying it was an extremely profound and humbling experience. I thought I was a relatively free thinking informed person but I had no idea what marx actually wrote and believed. He wrote almost nothing about what a future socialist society should look like. What Marx and Engles really did was try to give people an effective set of tools to be able to analyze economics, history, geopolitics, current events, sociology, and the world in general in a way where you can understand it in a way where you are better equipped to change it. It really gave me a lens to help me analyze the world in a much clearer way. There is a book thats (unfortunately) called Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton (that has nothing to do with state Communism or really any communism whatsoever) that I would recommend if someone wanted a simplified way to understand this stuff.
Access any device, any time, from anywhere for FREE with AnyDesk: anydesk.com/spectacles
---
Corrections:
At 01:49, map borders are inaccurate
Idk. I feel Anydesk wouldn't have saved Kirov back in the 1930's. Just a hunch, though
Anydesk saving me from death is one of the best way to advertise it.
PS: Next time please do say "Super easy barely an inconvienence"
"Caucasus", not "Caucuses". ♥
Is that a fake moustache??? Man just grow it out
Correction suggested: 100'000'000 of working age @ 17:30/40:56; spoken text is correct already
We're going around the globe learning about each country's JFK lmao
What do you think the UK’s is?
Princess Diana?
And I love it!
The world tour I meant. Not princess di getting squished 😬
I wonder when he is gonna cover the american jfk
@@SirGoose64 -_-
Take my upvote and GTFO.
I can’t even knock your formula for using “x countries JFK mystery” because you know what, it’s gets my attention and I love these videos, well played
Popped up in my suggestions based on other political scandal/assassination content I've viewed, and immediately grabbed my interest.
Hi, I'm Matthew Lenoe's son. My sister and I have let him know about the video and, while he hasn't watched it, he's happy that his research is being shared to a wider audience. He remains convicted that Nikolaev acted alone and expressed disappointment to me in the past that his work on the murder would do little to sway public opinion, because it was meant for a scholarly audience. Now, over 100,000 people have seen this video!
I'm also thankful that you did your homework and read his absolute tome of a book (over 600 pages!) to summarize it to an audience on UA-cam. Seeing my dad's work in this format was really exciting, and now I have something to show my friends what he actually does. If you are willing to deal with the length, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of the book if you have any interest in forensics since there is a really interesting section on analysis of Borisov's skull, for example.
Finally, I think your conclusion to the video is exactly right: it's pretty clear that we often accept conspiracy theories to justify our own views of the world and of politics. Kirov's murder has come to my mind a lot in the past two weeks or so, for obvious reasons. Often, what political assassinations do is reveal a part of a society or ideology that is deeply flawed or difficult to confront. A conspiracy theory allows the public not to meet those flaws head on by providing simple explanations. I think what my father's and your work shows is that truth still matters in public discourse, no matter what others may say.
This is the coolest comment we've ever gotten. The number of times we exclaimed to each other, "what an amazing book!" or "I wish we read this earlier" -- too many to count. Our sincerest thanks to your dad for such incredible work. I'm afraid to say we found it a little late in our research and didn't make it through cover-to-cover, but it was an absolutely essential resource. Could not have made this video without it.
If he has the chance to tune in, I hope he enjoys the video! And if he has thoughts, tell him don't hesitate to drop us a line. Thanks so much for sharing.
"The New KGB" is worth looking into
It’s also convenient for a govt to call something a conspiracy theory as a means to discredit something
I'm going to look up your dads book!
Nikolaev admitted he was part of the bloc of rights and trotskyites though. And all those he implicated confessed. Every defendant at the trials confessed wilingly and incredible detail
ua-cam.com/video/TBY_aDd5knE/v-deo.html
1:49 the map is wrong, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were independent in 1934, Finland has 1940 borders, and the Polish border looks hella sus.
Thanks for the input. I will add a note
@@spectacles-dm i think the caucas region might also be wrong? i feel like they own to much of turkey
The USSR didn't own part of northeastern Turkey at any point in time either.
@@elpintokiito946 Poland checks out.
@@blackcatbazaar yeah, the polish border is just a bit weird for me personally, I feel like the panhandle is too thin
In fact Kirov's death was so important that in my city the main street is still named after Kirov, and in the middle of it stands a big big beautiful monument of Kirov. And that is for many cities here in Russia, I think Kirov street is 2nd most popular street name after Lenin street. Oh and there is even a city named just Kirov
Would to admit I am from Russia. I have worked there. Also with the Ukraine invasion atrocities and more I could go on about.
Not to mention the Kirov-class light cruisers and Kirov-class battle cruisers that were named after him.
There are multiple cities named after him and also a whole Oblast!
yes. and that, in my opinion, makes it unlikely that he was killed by stalin. because stalin tended to essentially erase powerful people he had killed
A nation founded on violent revolution mourns the death of someone killed by a violent revolutionary. Not much confidence in that country's cultural history
I think being Stalin's best friend is probably as risky as being his worst enemy.
Kirov was getting popular and was becoming a threat to stalins rule.
After Kirov died Stalin then used his death as an excuse to launch the great purge and get rid of his political enemies.
I think its fairly obvious who ordered him to be killed.
Atleast being his worst enemy you have the west on ur side....theres basically no1 on ur side as his best friend cuz u know damn well stalin trust no1
We were an inch from having “this is americas other JFK like mystery” .
And how lucky we are.
What? Another American JFK mystery??? No way, it's not like JFK's brother would also be shot under, like, the most insanely suspicious circumstances ever.
No we weren't. It was just some dumb kid who can't shoot, JFK actually was a conspiracy 😂 the JFK shit was solid, Trump was a boo boo on the ear (for him)
No we weren't. It was just some dumb kid who can't shoot, JFK actually was a conspiracy 😂 the JFK shit was solid, Trump was a boo boo on the ear (for him)
murder is illegal
this video was really good, until the monologue at the end. you say in democratic society, politicians are held accountable by the public through the voting system. so if a politician failed their promises, they would be ousted. yet in America, the bastion of democracy, corrupt politicians are at every level of government taking lobby money from corporations and implementing policies to funnel wealth to the top 1%. but when election season comes, they start yapping about how they care about the working class people, want to bring back jobs and solve all social issues and voters give their vote to these scumbags even though they failed to keep their promises and are actively working to fuck over the working mass to benefit the rich 1%. the reason is simple. voters are extremely docile and ignorant about their governments. after voting season is done, they go back to their lives not caring about any of the promises made by those politicians. corporations create monopoly to hike up prices and government does nothing because their career is literally funded by these corporations. there is not a single state in America where a married couple earning $100k a year would be able live a middle class lifestyle, not a single state. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, not being able afford a $500 emergency. so if your theory was correct, none of these issues would have happened if politicians were actually held accountable by the voters. western democracy is an illusion of democracy, where voters think they have a choice to elect their leaders. either vote for a capitalist party or vote for a blue colored capitalist party.
The consistency this channel has in telling stories that I should know but don't is remarkable.
We know for a fact that Stalin had nothing to do with Kirovs death. This chapter in history has been closed!
this video really reminds me of LEMINO. don't know if it was a coincidence or not but thanks for making me think of him. he does great stuff like this too.
(No hate or anything to the creator of this video, just something funny that passed my mind)
considering LEMINOs videos on JFK and the title of this video... definitely not a coincidence lol
and I think they could have mentioned him quickly to give credit
@@jurgnobs1308 Lemino sucks
@@jurgnobs1308 I've followed Lemino for maybe 8 years now, and I only say this because I see no reason to give him credit. He had no hand in the video besides a mild amount of inspiration, but this is no different than many other true crime minidocs. This also is not even close to the first video in this series.
lmao imagine just making a youtube documentary and somebody comments this. the thumbnail is probably inspired by lemino though, that's fair.
I think the fact his daughter testifies that Stalin would never have killed Kirov will forever confuse me. I can’t find a source but my Soviet Union history course said something like that.
There where two investigations into the matter by Kruzschev and later Gorbachev era investigators (who were very anti Stalin) and both, with full access to the archives couldn‘t find proof that Stalin ordered the Assassination on Kirov.
Stalin was PARANOID AF that he'd be betrayed in a coup de tat plot.
He therefore not only had all dissenters worked to death or killed but he also killed anyone whom he thought wasn't fanatical enough in their praise of him.
He was so paranoid that At his public speeches he would have spies in the audience watch to see whomever it was that was the first to stop clapping for him And have them interrogated tortured and killed .
People began to catch on to this and no one would stop clapping and they would go on for 5 to10 minutes at a time and someone had to finally get someone to direct the audience when they could stop clapping.
When Stalin was unable to find any one in the general public who was plotting his overthrow he began The practice of having his own officers in generals interrogated and killed and even his friends thrown in gulags to work a few months or some until they died .
Merely on suspicion and paranoia.
Joseph Stalin weakened his own country More than any coup d'état could have ever done.
I am very confident that it was Joseph Stalin who had this person killed.
Friendship didn't matter . In fact that would make a person more likely to be killed him.
Why would his daughter publicly indite her father ?
@@jimwednt1229The neoliberal propaganda is going nutty with this one. You got your Soviet history lessons from memes and TikTok 😂
@@jimwednt1229 or ... the death of his closest friend caused him to be paranoid? Which one make more sense to you?
@@Clippidyclappidy what? do you not think the guy that killed 20 million people was a dumbass?
i feel like this adds a completely different context to stalins purges
Normal people isolates and mourns when losing a friend.
Stalin purges 1% of his nation's population.
@@wile123456I disagree. If it was just his friend's death, sure. But then the NKVD started a huge wave of schizoposting about a huge conspiracy aimed directly at Stalin. And Stalin was paranoid at the best of times
wait until you actually study the evidence and trial transcripts, it all can be found online
@@wile123456 sure, but normal people also don't get the NKVD and others telling them that there is a huge conspiracy against you, and don't lose their friends in extremely suspicious circumstances which give a lot of credibility to said conspiracies.
@@amogusenjoyer As if Stalin was a normal person before he took power.
Nikolaev seems to have a lot of similarities to James Garfield's killer Charles Guiteau, pretty much the same motive for both of them too
Does JFK have a clone in every country or something?
No, jfk is a clone of the Austrian pre ww1 guy
The sets you create are brilliant.
Thanks! We were super happy with this one
It’s fantastic,
Though I suspect the soviets might have eyes on France from his book collection
Nothing happens in politics by accident. No comparison between JFK and Kirov. JFK was not shot in a hall way , JFK did not pick his vice president it was a requirement for him to pick Johnson to get Texas in the election. JFK was shot in Johnson's home state that would be the equivalent of Kirov being executed in Georgia. Nikolaev was complaining about needing work to Stalin, this would be an indictment of communism and Stalin. The body guard Borisov was 55 and he was being threatened with being replaced by better body guards indirectly. Who was the friend that Nikolaev was to have receive tickets from. Regardless of your dumb luck theory it was never far from Stalin's mind to have a massive purge of his political opponents not all executions can be public fake trials and a few eggs have to be broken to make an omelette. Do you know if the voting was secret ballot or open ballot? Not every execution Stalin had done was publicly declared in a court ;that is a ridiculous assumption. Russia was the creator of the Nagant M1895 the only mass produced six shooter in the world that can use a silencer; meaning the shooter has control of the spent brass and the report of the instrument. Nikolaev according to your own report indicated that he admitted to making a "plan" and, your conclusion was dumb luck ;that is contradictory. It is far more likely that someone gave Nikolaev a job; who did the hiring could have been Borisov. The NKVD did not have to have prior knowledge to later execute Borisov with an injection which would explain the "investigation" and torture session later. Stalin did not have friends his only daughter's mother "committed suicide " and his daughter's uncle (which would have been related to the same woman that was suicided by Stalin) Stalin had executed. A bunch of accidental death seem to surround these people all just one big accident. How many people do you personally know that died by gun shot? I have know zero who were shot and I am not under 50 years.
16:22
This piece of film doesn't show a Soviet trial from 1937 but rather a German trial from 1944.
There is popular russian short folk song ( chastushka) about this murder: ''Hey lil' cucumbers and lil' tomatoes - Stalin ordered to execute Kirov in hallway''
34:51 taking off the mustache as a tool of storytelling is one of the most epic thinkgs Ive ever seen
If the only tool you have is a hammer, suddenly you treat everything as if it were a nail..
They didn't really use the sickle that much, do they?
@@rustomkanishka in fact they’ll murder you if you do
@@rustomkanishkaIf the only tool you have is a hammer, suddenly you treat everything as if it were a grain
A loose end is really nagging at me - we learn that Nikolaev fires two shots, and is found collapsed by Kirov. But there seems to be no evidence that Nikolaev's second shot was directed towards himself (or if it was, it missed). So why was Nikolaev found unconscious next to Kirov? Or indeed, was he actually on the floor unconscious at any moment? I can accept that perhaps the emotion of the moment was overwhelming and caused him to pass out, but it is an usual reaction by an assassin, even a disturbed one. And where did the second shot go?
As for the truth? So difficult - clearly there are many possibilities, and whilst applying Occam's Razor leads us to Nikolaev, with a subsequent attempt by the NKVD to cover their own incompetence, it is possible that Stalin a) saw Kirov as a growing threat and, b) saw that Kirov's popularity meant he had to act circumspectly. Remember, this is Stalin during the time when his cult was only beginning, rather than the Stalin of later years who could act however he wanted. So, Stalin decided Kirov was a threat, following which his agents searched for, and found, the perfect 'lone assassin' who could then be manipulated into placing blame on Stalin's other targets.
Or maybe not, and Nikolaev was just one, broken man with a grudge.
That's more or less how my mind went. Sadly, we just can't say for sure what happened. Was, most likely, Nikolaev alone, but...
At 17.30 you say 100 million but show one hundred thousand?
What do you thinks in the pipe?
Kirov is one of those deeply understandable people from an era that is very not-easily-understood by most. As someone who came from Cuba, with a grandfather that worked as an engineer in the USSR - I think I understand the situation fairly well. But I’m almost reminded of when Cienfuegos had his plane shot down by Fidel’s orders
as a chinese gal, many here can also relate to both Kirov and Nikolaev as the same authoritarian system we inherited from the soviets starts to show its cracks post-covid and reveal its ugliness and human toll it incurred...
@@pluieuwu if Chinese people were allowed to know their country’s history then it would have been very apparent before covid
@@TexboyGamer it's not that we were not allowed to know of our history; it's that we were misled to think that we were right throughout history
Which they were
You guys should do a video on Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's JFK
"Let's make a video about comminists.... I KNOW! Let's [aint the walls red, put the symbol on them, have tons of books on communism, get a mustash and brown suit, and.... why not a coffee mug for good measure?"
Jebus, you go all out
Not entirely inaccurate lol
Knock knock
Who's there?
Trotsky
Trotsky who?
Congratulations Comrade, you've passed my little test.
Actually lol’d hard at this
+1 Order of the Red Banner!
As a historian specializing in the Soviet Union and its history. There is no question that Stalin had nothing to do with Kirovs death. He actually took it very painfully and lost all feelings for human life. That explains the repressions that where to come!
I think it was Trotsky
Any idiot knows Stalin had nothing to do with it.
Best intro u could have done straight to it pls keep it like that
what a good video
you posted this four minutes after the video was uploaded
@@surelyredtime traveler 👽👽
I posted this 3 hours later, and i can confirm it is a good video.
Oprah to the Countries of the World: YOU GET A JFK MYSTERY! YOU GET A JFK MYSTERY! EVERYBODY GETS A JFK MYSTERY!!!
India's jfk mystery could either be of rajiv gandhi or his mother indira gandhi
Indira Gandhi is on our list!
now THIS is peak entertainment
Bro the fuckin mustache I’m dead
They were CITIZENS of the Soviet Union, not “subjects”
horribly subjugated 'citizens'
Subjects is correct mate.
Thank you for posting such high quality content. I know I can trust that your videos are accurate and enjoyable
300th comment. "Who oofed Stalin's best friend" is the same as DORD
Edit: (a same energy comment)
Do you guys think Kirov and Stalin ever explored each other's bodies
Why would you ask this?
They def fxcked
@@jamesamos6565 Because he's asking the real question everyone wants to know.
If you're doing all jfks, might as well do Ninoy Aquino
Who was he? How did he die? What makes you think conspiracy?
@@kiddeath96 well we'll see in the video
seems like LEMINO was a heavy inspiration here😄
Do Serbia JFK Mystery :) you will like it because of the connections to the Serbia Secret Service or whateever ir is called
Ah, the secret service angle makes it even more JFKish
"Leggio"
Guess you have to be more specific as the UDBA deleted more than 200 people
Gotta love the uneducated spiel about socialism at the end in an otherwise good video…
Why are Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania shown as being part of the USSR in the maps? They were not annexed into the USSR until 1940.
Stop being salty NATOboy.
@@sleepyjoe7518 NATOboy? Since when is the truth being salty?
Average republican be like@@sleepyjoe7518
They werent annexed, but joined voluntarily.
@@Красиваясоветскаядевушка LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4:39 Turkey is smaller than it should be.
For next JFK style video, please do Chris Hani
Hey specticals just so you know with the timeframe that this is set in the borders are wrong for finland and the baltics but for some reason not for poland
Thanks for the input. I knew I didn't have it quite right but wasn't sure what. I'll add a note.
Wait... How exactly did the "assassin" end up unconscious feet to feet with Kirov? Did he feint? What does he say about going unconscious?" Did he feint? Was he drugged and drug from the restroom to the hall?
It was of course justification for further pogroms and elimination of any and all opposition where if they had to kill 1 million people to catch 1 traitor (defined by Stalin as "everyone not Stalin ") utilized well and somehow even under this despair, they would be losing far more soon in a war against Germany yet maintained a stranglehold on the entirety of those within the borders of what was the USSR
The Bodyguard beat him senseless.
He wasn't absent.
They just pushed the blame off on him by claiming he wasn't there and then killed him when Sarlin demanded to speak to him.
16:22 and 37:03 That shot is not from Soviet show trials but from the People's Court trials following the July 20th, 1944 plot in Germany
Ok and?
Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand knows exactly how much dumb luck can suck
Please pay a bit more attention to the pronunciation of last names, it hurts my ears 😭
4:49 USSR has lost northern Sakhalin
Yu know they tortured the shitoutta the assasin
Wow I had been wondering about this murder for a while now but hadn't looked into it in detail. This is an excellent video and I agree with the conclusions (he probably acted alone). Very well done.
This is (INSERT COUNTRY NAME)'s JFK mystery.
The last chapter of this video was brilliant! I really the systemic look at how the Soviet system in the USSR could result in the deaths of millions because of Kirov's murder. In comparison you show how Democracies, generally, avoid this kind of results from the murder of an important official.
Really cool that they got Bird Person to narrate this vid
that was stalins reistag
fair. that could explain why he treated it differently to other killings. he generally was very open about killing political opponents and completely trashed their memory. he didn't do that with Kirov. which makes it seem like it wasn't stalin.
but it is possible that he had it done and specifically did not trash Kirovs memory in order to use it for the purge.
it's essentially impossible to say today. all records we have are either likely from tortured individuals or from people with motive to lie
Comment for support! Glad you joined Nebula, always enjoyed your content. Keep up the great work. 🔥
U should do Colombia next with Jorge Gaitan. His mysterious assassination during his presidential campaign in the 1940s caused the largest spontaneous riot in history El Bogotazo and led to a decade of soft civil war in the 1950s called La Violencia which displaced millions of rural Colombians and lead to much of Colombias problems today
Does every other video have to be compared to JFK? Why not just call it a political assassination? Not like JFK was the first or even most notable one.
Great videos nonetheless
hes dressed like stalin, lmaooo
Such incredible content, and YT's monetization system is so broken that he has to shoe horn ads into the middle. I wish it would change.
The way this assassination is described at the beginning of this vid reminds me of that Russian ambassador who was assassinated at that art gallery in Turkey iirc around 10 years ago
10 million?! The highest number possible by actual academics is around half that !
There is NO NEED to lie about numbers man, it’s a tactic the far right use to make the nazis look better than the ussr which is wholly untrue. Really hope you don’t claim that Stalin orchestrated the whole thing because nothing concrete has been proven to implicate him, it is most likely that Nikolaev was a mostly lone actor
Nice ad transition.
Stalin had Kirov killed because he became too popular, Stalin then in turn pretended to be outraged that his dearest friend was murdered. Stalin was a level of evil that has no equal in modern history. But lets not act like Kirov was a good person. Kirov was a communist true believer who had thousands put to death as well. Stalin used Kirov's death as his way of gaining both power over the State as well as the party which he already controlled making Stalin the unchallengeable dictator of the Soviet Union. The Stalin era purges or "great Terror" were started based on this one event and Stalin used this oppertunity to purge the party of all those who were not loyal to him. Kirov just happened to be the catalyst for this atrocity!
Woah man i love how your videos get titled more and more creatively
There is WAAAAY more than just 1 Russian JFK story
Do you really smoke or is just for the video?
Tf does that matter nerd
the ad...
13:40 Torture is a hell of a thing.
40:16 "Meow"?
I think the guy’s problem is he simply didn’t understand Communism ie “You are a nobody under Communism. Do nuttin not authorized. Including breathing, feeling, and living. Now, get back in the Commune, pal, …..with your vodka.”
True about Kotkin’s non-conclusive approach to Kirov’s murder. He is a Great Historian, so he exercises extreme caution when drawing “conclusions”. I love the guy (Platonically!! you weirdos…). His painstaking approach using real documents in a chronological order is awe inspiring. When I was deep into Waiting for Hitler, I decided to glance at the works cited portion of the book. That’s when I discovered how truly fucked my fifty-something year old eyes were. It looked like microscopic ink specks. Wow. The good news is that about a year later I got me some reading glasses. Good. Lesson: you Can Teach an Ol Dog (diogenes???) New Tricks, but You Will Have to Wait Around For A While 🇺🇸🇸🇻🇸🇪🦈👣🎵
Good video overall, don't like the innacurate analysis of 'communism' and 'democracy' near the end though. Looking at western democracy through an uncritical lens and ignoring the effects capitalism has on the equation whilst being unreservedly scrutinous of STALINIST communism is disingeneous, additionally communism isn't inherently authoritarian especially in ideology. Trotskyism and to an extent Leninism aspoused democracy, atleast ideologically, in the form of councils (Soviets) and an argument could be made that the loss of democracy in the early USSR was a symptom of hostile environment rather than ideology.
Also, communism is more than just the Soviet Union. Just like capitalism, there a variety of flavours: Anarchism, Marxism-Leninism, Reformism, Market Socialism etc...
Note: I'm not defending Stalin here, i'm just critiquing the unfair generalisation of communism and the ommission of capitalism and it's incentives etc... within the comparison
I had been recommended your videos for quite a while but never clicked through. Something gave me the impression that this was another AI slop channel as is unfortunately common in history vids, especially with the similar look to Lemmino’s animations. Once I started watching and you, a real human, appeared I was immediately on board. I don’t know if this was just a “me” problem or if others have gotten a similar impression. Now that I’m here and the quality of your creations is apparent, I’m looking forward to my deep dive into your catalogue.
The CIA hired Oswald to kill Kennedy, who was then killed by Jack Ruby, also hired by the CIA, who was then convicted and executed to tie loose ends.
*Authoritarianism is the enemy of humanity*
Not always.
There is also a version of events that claims that Nicolaev was motivated by sexual jealousy. According to this version, Nicolaev and Kirov were rivals for the love of Nicolaev's ex-wife, and the KNicolaev believed that Kirov had 'stolen" her from him (Nicolaev). Perhaps you should look into this "motivation" theory.
you should make a video about andrew cunanan and title it "this is the usa's jfk mystery"
Hey, the video is great, but there’s one small thing that should be corrected, or at the very least mentioned: at 1:46 there’s a map of ussr visible on the screen, the western most part is painted red as well, but at the time that region was home to 3 sovereign, different and independent countries - the Baltic states. They got occupied in June of 1940 and held captive under soviet authoritarian rule for decades after that, but beforehand they were free. Especially considering today’s events going on in Ukraine, it is necessary to not give inaccurate and misleading suggestions to the audience about Russian influence in the surrounding region.
How did the assassin manage to knock himself out?
That seems like an important point but it's never mentioned again.
If you try something and it happens to work even though it shouldn't, that's luck.
If you try 100 times and one of those times it works, that's not just luck anymore.
Dude's doing every country's JFK Mystery.
Dressing up as Stalin? To me it's equally outrageous as imitating Hitler or any other dictator with a death toll of millions of people. Personally, I would hesitate to do it, even for a UA-cam video.
First time the alogirthm has suggested your channel to me. Pretty interesting. If you're going to rip off someone's style, you could do worse than Lemmino. I like it.
I’m gonna get GPT to write out the transcript and use her voice to tell me this one.
That character with the pipe at the start, I’m sorry, it’s so over the top, I just can’t.
Pure reactonary bullshit
classic negative comment with no substance
This is maybe the second or third time you've used the 'country JFK mystery' title incorrectly. I understand it gets you more views but please, try to be genuine.
This is more like Ernst Röhm than JFK
Although obviously a LEMMINO clone-channel. Its still a good one 👍
This is the first video I've seen on the infamous Kirov murder. The mustache, pipe, and military shirt are a nice touch, in my opinion. Nice work!
Joel
the map of ussr is worng, the baltics weren't occupied, they were free until 1941
I was very enthralled by the video. I would like to point out, (based on my limited understanding), that communism, as a theory, is significantly more complicated than the soviet's supposed iteration of it. Communism/socialism was originally theorized to be inherently democratic, if not outright devoid of hierarchy, and given the way the totalitarian, soviet government forced workers and co-ops to exchange services/produce for necessities, with no opportunity to trade with other parties, it's argued that the soviets practised state-capitalism, wherein workers were the contractors, and the state was the only employer in town.
The soviet union achieved what every major american corporation wishes it could- a monopoly. The difference is, Stalin was a psychopathic madman who got his way with blood. Suits, naturally, like to keep their suits clean. So they prefer to carry out their tyranny with extra steps, and enough pressure to squeeze the most out of their employees, while providing them juuuuust enough to keep most of them off the streets.
Would I rather be in the Soviet Union? Of course not. All of that was a hellish nightmare I hope I'll never have to experience. But am I saying late-stage capitalism and authoritarian hierarchies have more in common than the rich and powerful are willing to admit? Yah. I most certainly am. And I think we can do better. But to do that, it might be worth considering whether the USSR, Cuba, and China are _actually_ true to socialist ideology, or merely authoritarian governments that _used_ the concept of socialism to gain power and do, well, anything but actual socialism. Or write this off as a no true scotsman fallacy and carry on with your day.
Israel's JFK (Rabin) when? Even if it the perpetrator's current position makes it more of an open secret.
im about to get a lot of hate for what im about to say but whatever fuck it. Years ago i would have never imagined i would say what im about to say but the seeing the books on your desks it made me think about this. I actually read Capital as a left leaning libertarian because I was arguing with insane tankies calling themselves marxists online and i wanted to be able to understand what i was talking about when they would quote marx out of context to justify their positions. I put it on as an audiobook of Capital by Marx to go to sleep for a few months because reading through the first few chapters was VERY hard to get through and actually almost isn't totally necessary to understand the book but still couldnt do it. The first few chapters are basically just painstakingly and unquestionably showing that he actually did the calculations necessary to explain why eventually the extremely unequal distribution of wealth, constant crises, etc of our economy will eventually look like it does today, and once I understood what it was saying it was an extremely profound and humbling experience. I thought I was a relatively free thinking informed person but I had no idea what marx actually wrote and believed. He wrote almost nothing about what a future socialist society should look like. What Marx and Engles really did was try to give people an effective set of tools to be able to analyze economics, history, geopolitics, current events, sociology, and the world in general in a way where you can understand it in a way where you are better equipped to change it. It really gave me a lens to help me analyze the world in a much clearer way. There is a book thats (unfortunately) called Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton (that has nothing to do with state Communism or really any communism whatsoever) that I would recommend if someone wanted a simplified way to understand this stuff.
Lee Harvey Oswald did it. This is how they knew to have him take out Kennedy. Oswald acted alone.
Let’s be real, it was Stalin lol
Trotsky
Next up: "This is Germany’s JFK Mystery”.
His bodyguard could not walk three flights of stairs as a bodyguard age 54? What?