The Iron Curtain - A Perspective from the Other Side
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- Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
- Today we are talking about the Cold War and the Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet Union and socialist countries from the Western world for almost 50 years. Socialism vs. capitalism, reds vs. blues, tradition vs. revolution - you all know how the Cold War and the Iron Curtain looked from the perspective of the Western world. But how did the people of the Soviet Union perceive it? How did they see the distant and outlandish foreign world? Did they enjoy life in the relative isolation of the communist bloc, or did they want at least one glimpse beyond that impenetrable barrier?
00:00 - Introduction
02:09 - Before the Cold War
06:45 - "We Don't Need You"
10:15 - Tourism as a Window to Europe
12:18 - The Idealized West
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Hey there. Somehow you found my video and decided to watch it. So let me introduce myself. I'm Sergei and I'm from Russia. My channel is about my native country. I want to tell English-speaking viewers about the real Russia, about its past and present. Unfortunately, you can find a lot of propaganda about Russia on the Internet, both from the Russian media and from the Western ones. I want to tell you about Russia, as it really is, the country in which I was born, grew up, and lived all my life.
Free Stock Footage provided by Videvo.net and Videezy.com. - Розваги
In 1989 6 collective farm managers from all over the USSR came to my town in Canada for 3 months. I guess the objective was so they could see Canadian grain and cattle farming. They chose my town as there are a large number of Russian speakers for them to stay with and talk to. My father is an agricultural specialist and speaks Russian so one guy stayed with us. He was from Kurgan.
I was pretty young but what I remember about the soviets visit was:
- they were given Canadian money for expenses but they didn't want to spend it, they wanted to take it back with them
- they were fascinated by our garage door opener and remote
- they liked McDonalds
- they liked going to the supermarkets to look at all the products
- they were very committed to the ideology
They had a good time with us, they left with suitcases of western clothes people gave them.
They also bought a really expensive bull to take back with them for breeding.
Yeah, basically that's how it was for all people who went abroad - they tried to save as much foreign currency as possible and bring it back, it was more valuable back home
A lot of the baby boomer generation, where, I'm from, visited Russia before and after the collapse of the union. Some pantyhose or jeans could apparently get you all kinds of favours, so I imagine those people with the full suitcases had a fkn jackpot.
Good for them. Good for them.
@@Digitaaliklosetti In Poland we had quite affordable jeans in here, both foreign and domestic, cheap crap - father got good quality camera for one pair for his jeans during a trip to USSR
How would I go about finding out who in my town speaks Russian or is of Russian descent? I've been trying to learn the language and want to find somebody locally who speaks it.
Slightly off-piste with friends from the GDR in the early 90s. They both described how disappointed they were when they saw West Berlin for the first time. They thought it would be amazing, but it wasn't all that different in their eyes. Both of these people were doing quite well in the East.
If you are a bureaucrat, party official, or military officer in GDR, which is the *elites* in the Socialist country (the fact that they could travel to West Germany indicates this), you probably already enjoy same or higher standard of living compared to the average citizen of West Germany.
By 1980s, you probably already have decent car, color TV, washing machine, etc.
You should instead compare your standard of living with the *elites* in the West (i.e. the "bourgeoisie", like the successful entrepreneur, investor, and celebrities).
You most likely don't have boat, supercar/luxury car, or villa in the countryside, unless you the top elite, like a military general or a member of the Politburo.
Shows how humanity is still pretty similar and we may have a chance at everlasting peace
I was growing up in Czechoslovakia, after communism fell people were excited, many thought it's going to be amazing (but we lost a lot and majority people after years of 'democracy' felt robbed, betrayed and exploited by the west a local scoundrels who came out of woodwork) ..they didn't realise that a lot of the West facade was just glitters. Human nature right, the grass is always greener on the other side 🙂
An iron curtain is just a shutter.
That's made of mild steel if it's iron it's a fence or barricade
Nyet. Shutter is shutter, curtain is curtain.
Even curtains have openings and penetrable overlaps
@@Acidlib penetrable overlaps you need new curtains
@@gingernutpreacher when you shut your curtains do the two sides not create a small overlap? I know technology is progressing fast, but that is how curtains have worked my entire life, even in the finest hotels and residences.
A video about the different groups of natives in Russia would be great
There are so many different cultures, people from outside Russia have no idea about that
Honestly, I think it's pretty cool that my family is all from the iron curtain/former USSR states. Always cool to ask family about their history and experiences.
Nothing cool about having a family from ussr states
USSR states? Like inside USSR or from Warsaw pact nations like GDR and Poland
@@h.hholmes.492 even less cool is the existence of a person with a worldview like yours
@@h.hholmes.492 I guess ur from Poland, the only country in Europe where government wants to ban abortion
My family is from yugoslavia. We got to be in the middle
Kennedy and Khruschev were on a path to accomplish so much for both nations and the world. Then both nations went down a dark path.
An excellent and informative video. Some anecdotage...my late sister stayed at a kibbutz in Israel in the 1970's. There were young American Jews working there and recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia. The Americans were highly individualistic and couldn't bear sharing living quarters. The Russians though were very collectivist and quite happy to bunk up together in shared accommodation. These Russian Jews still retained a high degree of loyalty to Russia and most of them still thought that the Soviet system had much to recommend it.
Living in the USA I grew up listing all the propaganda about how evil the Soviet Union was. When the Cold War ended it gave me the opportunity to learn how the the Soviet people actually lived and learned they(the people) were never our enemy. It's sad that Russia has a lot of potential and could have the same standard of living as the west. The Russian people deserve the right to have what the west has.
And yet, given the order, they would shed your blood in the most barbaric ways you would never imagine these ordinary people capable of. As they are doing EVEN RIGHT NOW, imagine how it was during the Iron Curtain times, when they didn't even just CHOSE to ignore the truth
@@kanadashyuugo873 It is the same with all the peoples. The west is lucky for having mostly sane leaders, but given the order, we would do the same. We are constantly searching for an enemy monster, the Russian monsters, the Chinese monsters, the NK monsters, the Western decadent Monsters, the "other race" monsters, the other religion monsters, when in fact there is a monster in each of us. Just give it the right push. If the Christian theory is true, there's no wonder Adam and Eve were kicked out of heaven. People are flawed and like any thing, without proper guidance they turn bad, extremely bad.
Ah fuck off soviets opressed and betrayed my people during ww2 not to mention they even worked with hitler soviet union was a empire a brutal one way worse than the current american empire
@@kanadashyuugo873you’re wrong. 95% of the Russian people are not in that camp whatsoever.
@@kanadashyuugo873 >EVEN RIGHT NOW
Ukraine? What's that got to do with us?
All russians I know played video games with us and dodge(d) the draft.
People who can't differentiate between the state and the people who have to live under it are stupid af.
'My' gov't remains my no1 enemy!
Greetings Comrade. Спасибо for making these fascinating videos. As a history nerd I have always been fascinated by the USSR.
These are the videos of yours that I love! Great job.
Fascinating. Thank you for your excellent content
Great content. Your channel deserves more views.
Fantastic video!
good to know you're doing well seporko ! Yesterday was scary for you probably, hope you keep doing well Sergei.
Seporko 10/10 😹🔥
Love your vids from Canada 🇨🇦
It is true that people growing up under the communist era had an idealized image of the West that however wasnt that close to reality. I mean, the Soviet people tought of Yugoslavia as part of Western Europe and really wanted to go there even if it was somewhere in the middle. Also, my parents still think that in the West people leave their cars and homes unlocked, even if the rate of robbery and theft is higher than where i live, and other sorts of utopian shit, like taking cars for granted while in most Western European nations people are starting to give them up in favour of public transport, which has been stigmatised since the 1990s as "for poor and unsuccessful people".
And its also true that people who were employed by the state also had this guilty passion of looking/listening at forbidden stuff. My grandfather worked with promoting Romanian goods abroad and therefore had the ability to go to places like Britain, France, Israel and he still listened to RFE/RL and watched JRT in the 1980s. He also used to bring back goods from abroad (for instance stuff like PIKO model trains from East Germany). Another thing, Ceaușescu himself personally enjoyed stuff like American police movies so they became very popular in the 1970s here. So even the leaders liked this sorta stuff.
Take them to London or Paris so you can cure their idolized western view. Damn, just show them how's LA doing
Grass is greener on other side
@@shivanshna7618 As far as the West is from perfect, their grass really is greener. My country has seen enslavement by the Soviets, wild capitalism in the '90s and successful road to EU. We have never been better than in the last 20 years, and we're still not even close to the wealth level of the West.
@@DanielGarcia-kw4ep i mean they already know from back then about the Bronx, Chicago, LA and other unpleasant aspects about the States... :P
@@DanielGarcia-kw4epLondon, paris and LA is still idealized in east asia
The need to control is what dooms these systems, when everything has to be dictated, that’s when you get oppression and suffering. It doesn’t matter what your ideology is, when life becomes heavily controlled, that’s when the average citizenry suffer, and rebel, and the system falls apart.
Growing up as a kid in the US in the 1980's but of Eastern European decent i had a few relatives who would visit the USSR with a suitcase full of Levi's jeans, Marlboro cigarettes, and those stockings that were sold in an egg.
There is easy answer who closed the iron curtain. All the borders restrictions, barbed wire, zones of millitary control were on the eastern side. But there were there not to protect east from western attack, but to stop people from east to go to west. Berlin wall was the finest example.
Yeah because you got free education , child care, healt care, etc. - the state invested in you so you could run away.?! Ironically eatern europe is experiencing brain drain to west and eastern politicians are not happy, you can't built prosperuous country without inteligencia.
Wrong,the west started it all,see the US invasion of Russia in the 1920s or operation unthinkable
Stay safe brother
From what I've heard Valio Viola was hot stuff in the USSR back in the days :D And finnish cheeses and dairy products overall.
With the current threat of a new iron curtain is that, even with their pitiful attempt at censoring it (VPN's exist), I'm more than confident that the internet will be the Moscow-Washington hotline of the average person. Separated, but completely isolated from it all.
Another banger from Setarko!
Greetings from Bulgaria :)
Edouard Khil what a man...
My childhood calling me in nostalgia
In the 1960s and 70s my family in America, Jugoslavija, and Israel would send us big parcels of Western items. The majority DID actually get through to us... my uncle was a retired Red Army Colonel AND then a Party makher in our city - they would send the parcels to HIM, at his OFFICE, using his Army rank AND his Party title in the address. Even with his pull, books never got through - though my Israeli cousins (who'd escaped) would wrap each item in a newspaper, and use newspaper as cushioning... amazingly, that actually worked, so we had access to some (crumpled up) news that wasn't Party approved LOL For meat... we rarely saw fresh meat, except for chicken, duck, or goose (the ducks and geese came to us from cousins outside our city whose Kolkhoz raised them). Most of our beef was either frozen minced or Tushonka (stewed in tins). To this day, I am meh on steaks and chops... and most of my friends/family from the USSR also aren't that big on such meat. I got some WONDERFUL ribeyes once, and my Olga chopped it for Stroganoff, Soljanka, and Makaroni po Flotski. It's okay, she can't figure how to cook them, anyhow.
16:15 the woman here is wearing one of the traditional costumes of the province of Zeeland, The Netherlands. ( the old Zealand)
This footage is from the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students. And as far as I know, there was quite a large Dutch delegation there. There is even a video of the people of Amsterdam seeing them off to Moscow.
@@Setarko thanks for that information, I already wondered how they managed to get in your video. I think there was russian influence in our country. Sometimes it’s like I’m watching a video about The Netherlands in the fifties. The neighborhood I live now, is very similar to the one you lived in.
I wouldn’t be surprised that the Dutch socialists were influenced by the Russian communists. Plus the old communists party was small, but loved and respected.
@@jannetteberends8730 All communist parties in west were under direct control from Moscow. In 20s-30s it was cominterna, after WWII it wasnt so obvious, but it continued.
man, Why aren't you getting more views and subscribers? sometime youtube feels unfair
🙏💜⚡
Make a video about post-Soviet Georgia plz thank you
You know the abstract concept Zagranitsa sounds like the modern western use of the phrase Soviet-Era, to me.
A concept, kind of like Synthwave music is to the 80s.
Many Americans went to the USSR during the depression. Unfortunately many of them did not return. Swallowed up during the purges in the 1930s.
When I was young [now I 42], my grandmother was believed that in America streets are made from gold, trees are palms that giving you free bananas and coconuts. Everyone is happy, good looking and healthy. R.I.P. babcia Apolonia
The dilemma between the iron curtain is imagined what we look west while we have been doctrinal from Official Commune Government, while the West also same imagines what we look the east while they also get doctrinal if the East worse in Official West Liberal (Nah I don't think liberal because they become paternalist same as even Orthodox Stalin).
Meanwhile, they forgot if East and West don't have a different same as East Asia between PRC and Japan or simply again North and South Korea. The irony is behind their accomplished rewards and even superpowers have a dark side between the economy, society, culture, education, and so many illegible.
That means this is happening in the present when so many people from South Korea decide to get out of their land to Southeast Asia and even the people from PRC because of their doctrinal and chauvinist. In the end instead proud they just feel depressed and shame because they desperately want to get better lives in both countries even in the Commune dictatorship and Liber-or-Partenalist (even could be corporate) dictatorship. But their minds and heart is changed and feels they can't hold it anymore so they decide to leave, going to a place can live in peace. Even ironic is the country also has a problem internally and is even under bloody hell between 2 pacts or sides meanwhile the country decides neutral...the third-world country...
..."Keeping records of Deep Purple " ...
... At least he didn't say "Records of Culture Club"
Countries in the Eastern block, that were behind the iron curtain were NOT soviet, some as Romania even had a non-subordinate relationship with the Soviet Union.
Hope you don't mind, but what was the atmosphere in Moscow yesterday?
I was not in Moscow yesterday tbh. Everyone was pretty shocked tho. Things are back to normal, as of now, almost no signs that anything happened at all. And hey, we all got Monday off! Thx mr. Sobyanin, very cool.
@@Setarkoall i heard while in the train that they were destroying the roads on the outskirt of Moscow lol
@SkyGlitchGalaxy I see your point, but at the same time I'm afraid that it is coming from a place of tribal belligerence
The time period when a banana was considered western influence/propaganda.
Not without reason - Guatemala didn't even get to eat the bananas they were producing, cuz the American fruit company literally owned their whole country.
@@meganoobbg3387the americans hade ressources because they have always been imperialists
strong borders make it easier to project values outward. No border control usually leads to having to take in the worst aspects of another nations culture. And while some people may say just debate them. That strategy hasn't really been working to well when the ruling class wants it, unlike how they used to feel about it.
a topic i cannot find much information on: did people in the USSR smoke weed? was there a 'stoner culture' in the 60s, 70s like we had in the West? i understand it was illegal but it was in America too ))
1) it was, and still is, seen as a threat to the whole nation/society and a heavily prosecuted crime. It usually comes to here along with even worse things. So, there's no subculture around it for obvious reasons.
2) historically, in Russia there has been growing a different species of the same plant, which practically doesn't contain the chemical content used for the crime above. Mainly used for making ropes, textiles and oil.
3) the species you're talking about is known to have come from Afghanistan and around that. If it's associated with any culture, it's not western. It comes from the same place the plant comes.
That ending line is bloody poignant mate
literally didn't hear a single word you said 10:20 to 11:54, all I could focus on was Mr. Trololo
Was that Robert Robinson in the video montage?
Yep! He was quite a star in the 30s.
I hate to do this, but what's your take on this Wagner rebellion
Wasn't even rebelion. It looked like a stupid attempt to transport the troops to Belarus disguised as a rebelion. I would call it "Trojan Horse".
Torn down the walls! Sadly, no signs of a counterculture, to fuel the process, quite opposite
Now write about repression and samizdat, censorship and internal class structure of party members and non party members.
The Russians are people just like me.
What happened to all of the American emigrants to the SSR during the Cold War?
Well, to be honest most of them went back long before that - even before the WW2, because the USSR became more hostile towards immigrants.
But some of them stayed, the black guy from this video - Robert Robinson - stayed in the USSR until 1974, even though he literally tried to apply for visa every year since like 1950.
many also disappeared during the purges. Considered spies. Robinson book, Black on Red is a great read. But hard to find now. Another good book on this is subject is “The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis”
Coming out of the ice, by Victor Herman. Another great book about an Americans survival in Soviet Russia. Was called the Lindbergh of Russia for his parachuting records in the USSR.
Or you could read “Dear America, by Thomas Sgovio.”
Imagine how bad your country had to have been to make the US and USSR form an alliance to stop you.
Also, как ситуация в Москве?
President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, or how foreigners like to call him "The Last Dictator of Europe" saved the whole world again. Wagner returned to the fields to fight for Mother Russia, and Belarus now has Prigozhin, Russian military instructors and nuclear arsenal. The craziest part of it is that I'm not lying lol.
@@андрей_свиридов Шизик
"and it turned that america is the boring, diserted and dusty streets of some pheonix arizona" they thought that too huh
3 sides.
Papa pig 🐽 🎉
9:12 lol. I have heard arabs say the same about Western science, literature and other achievements.
With out Russia germany would have never been able to start ww2
Even before the pact Germany had been using Russia as its private weapons testing ground then germany taught Russia how to make chemical weapons even building the largest factory in Russia for its production in the world pre ww2 and Germany built the largest aircraft factory for itself in Russia and trained Russian air crews
The only possible up side was they came to the reality that chemical weapons and blitzkrieg dont work well together from testing battle tactics in Russia
@12:00 Goddamit the communists where right...
Главный вопрос: Ваня+кто?
+Саня
12:56 Is it still propaganda if everything he said is correct, and has been for the 40 years since then?
The idealization of the western world was a result of Khruschev's revisionist counter-revolutionary tendencies - he and Brezhnev (who were ukrainians), didn't care about communism. They actually started the "perestroika", that Gorbachev simply finished. Khruschev and Brezhnev purpously allowed pro-capitalist ideals, cultural values and materialist propaganda to enter the USSR, they also implemented capitalist revisions in the soviet economy.
Finally someone actually said this. And even though khrushchev removed stalin from Socialist songs, post soviet Russia went right back to Stalin's Arms after the collapse fulfilling his prophecy "Load of garbage will be brought to my grave but the wind of time will ruthlessly blow it all away"
LONG LIVE OUR STALIN.
Oh no they allowed their ideas to be challenged and the people naturally gravitated to what they believed was better 😨😨😨
Before USSR: There was no middle class in the West
After USSR: The Middle Class disapears from the West
USSR improved the the life of ordinary people in USSR and in the West
Its not true. Life of ordinary people was improving during 19 century too. Even Marx had to fake statistics in his Capital, because workers became reacher than his theory predicted.
@@xsc1000it was improving so much that the countryside was dying from hunger 😊
@@Kievskaya-Rus In Russia, maybe, but not in west.
Awesome USSR!
I don't think our world is even capitalist, it's actually protectionist\mercantilist. After all, isn't capitalism all about the free trade?
Not really. Capitalism is really who owns industry and trade. Is it the state or private individuals. Capitalism is private individuals control industry and trade instead of the state(ie government). Notice this says nothing about free trade. Free trade is commonly associated with Capitalism bc it increases profits for the owners but it's it own thing and is juxtaposed to the protectionism/mercantism you mentioned. Note protectionism and mercantism can be Capitalist or some other system
It is meant to be this way. There's no free market really
No, the last thing you mentioned is economic liberalism (however capitalism usually depends on privatization & free market).
And according to Marxist theory = *Capitalism* is the economic system where the *bourgeoisie* / privileged class who employ (or explote) workers are the (private) owners of the meanings of production. While the *proletariat* / working class just receive a minimum part of the capital / richness generated, being the employers the ones who benefit from the work of their employees.
And for radical marxists / socialists, the only real solution for this systemic economic oppression is the *proletarian dictatorship* (which in theory would let proletarians be the real owners of the industry against capitalists & counter-revolutionary elements), which would serve as a temporal stage until the arrival of developped *communism* (= a stateless society / situation where isn't radical difference between poor and wealthy people).
@@TheFirebird123456Never lived in a capitalist or socialist state, where individuals are capitalist but share some costs?
Free trade - as in colonizing whole countries, and forcing them to "freely" trade all their resources and labour in unequal exchange. That was british capitalism - the purest form of "free market" capitalism.
I see you're not very politically aware...
Gah, I get so tired of that.
YOU are a carbon based lifeform and you don't look like coal or diamond.
I hope Russia can become part of the European Union. Only with integration into normalcy and prosperity, people in Russia can become more self aware and happy. Russian people already suffered for so long even though they are not aware of it.
Рядом с самой богатой страной в мире есть Мексика. Рядом с ЕС есть Россия. США = ЕС, Россия = Мексика. Хотя возможно это говорит мой внутренний сталинист.
my brother in christ why are you wishing globohomo upon them then?
@@SusanWSucks Russia should raise children who likes to play with each other. Not murder machines who are killing people who could be their family. Viva Russia
Sorry, but Russia is not European.
@@PskovCybercat Russia is a failed state. It doesn't matter if they are on a different continent. Russia just needs peace and prosperity
Товарищ Сталин, пожалуйста, проснись
The end of the ussr imo was a tragedy. The iron curtain was mostly a result of the west anyways.
It says *A LOT* about how *UNsuccessful* A county is when they have to *literally prevent people from leaving, and literally imprisoned &/or straight up murder anyone who made even the slightest of criticism of the government/politicians/Stalin.*
😉😊🙃
USSR was very successful though. The ones being oppressed were american communists. Also, post-Kruzchev the state began to print anti-Stalin propaganda.
You could buy an airplane ticket and leave bro - just like Yeonmi Park left North Korea, to escape her rich family and become even richer in the west by making a business of making up weekly horror stories, about her country.
@@footisman2059ya just ignore the purges of the 1930s, the gulags. Equivalent of denying the holocaust.
@@45-Subscribers Its not and you dont know what you are talking about. Shut up.
You monkeys divided Germany 😂
HEY BRO HOW'S YOUR CIVIL WAR GOING???
Civil war ark was underwhelming it stopped before things were getting hot
they got a burger and went back home
@@shivanshna7618 Didn't even get to watch swan lake!
It was Netflix adopted civil war
Putin gave prigozhin some vodka he went to Belarus
Life was beter in soviet union