You should have included a conversation about how the quality of produced items suffered. For example t34s produced during the war and t34s produced after the war are completely different. Often times more production t34s had missing components, thinned or misproduced armor and other things. Laser pig did a great video on this
The BBC's iconic "world at war" series described the evacuation by saying: 'It was as if the earth tilted up, and everything human or mechanical rolled East, beyond the Urals." That's not an exact quote, but it's something close, and it always stuck with me. The series has an hour-long episode named "red star" devoted to Soviet war industries. The entire 20+ hour documentary is phenomenal, and a must watch for any one interested in WW2.
@@livethefuture2492 You'll probably have to order it on DVD. That's what I did. The series is old; it was released 50 years ago and the reruns stopped long ago. I haven't seen it on TV in years.
@@livethefuture2492 You can find some of the episodes on UA-cam but a lot of episodes are missing or only portions of episodes; most of this stuff on UA-cam is pretty low quality resolution as well. I haven't had cable for at least a decade now, but the military history channel played reruns fairly often. Its well worth ordering it on DVD though. It's been remastered and looks pretty good. It's by far the best documentary I've ever seen on any subject. I've watched it at least a dozen times and I learn something new with each viewing. Oh yeah, and it's narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. It was made in the early 1970s, so many of the top ranking diplomats, generals, officials, etc were still alive. The documentary is chock-full of primary source interviews and statements from participants and leaders of all of the warring powers.
@@stefanavic6630 Its aging, but it would be impossible to make a similar documentary in modern times. What makes the series so special is all of the primary source interviews from people that lived through the war.
I was just reading the comment asking for this topic on the Warographics channel! Operation Barbossa had lots of crazy numbers involved but these factories were something else for sure
Indeed IzhEvsk was one of those places. Incidentally, it's related to Izhmash that was involved in production of the AK's later on. I used to live in the Urals back in the 80's and 90's but now I get to see an odd Ural motorcycle with a sidecar on the streets of Melbourne, Australia. That brings back memories of riding one at the farm.
How about a video on the semi conductor value chain, especially the production part? Modern semi conductors are among the most complicated products ever made, and TSMC’s 5-nanometer factories in Taiwan are probably the most advanced production facilities in the world. The 3-nanometer factories they are currently building will bring it to the next level, at a cost of USD23 billion per factory. Semi conductors are everywhere, from coffee machines and electric tooth brushes to the most advanced computers, but making them is extremely complicated. A true mega project. And recently they have hit the headlines, due to insufficient supply
A video on the Galileo Project would be absolutely amazing, it's a scientific look into UAPs (UFOs) being done by scientists, ufologists (yes they're really involved in an actual scientific study for once), current and former politicians, funded partially by private investments and Harvard where a few of the scientists involved work.
I know the first 5 year plan video didn't exactly perform well, but I hope you cover the others that followed it Simon. WW2 and Cold War Soviet history absolutely grabs my attention
@@maxgross9728 Of course, anything we humans come up with has a potential to be abused and exploited. It comes down to whether you want to simp for the wealthy elite. I don't, but maybe you do.
I like the idea of considering projects of movement or social change as a megaproject! I never heard of this effort. Do the Tennessee Valley Authority!
Nicely done, Simon. I grew up in the Urals in late 70's / 80's USSR in then Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). So I got to see some of those factories turning into an industrial monsters, like Uralmash ('mash' not as in potato but 'machinery'). They were literally dropped off at sleepy little towns - or in the middle of nowhere for that matter - to set up and start delivering goods in a few months time, if that. I used to walk down the figure-8 test track for T-34's outside the city, some of it's still can be seen on Google Maps at 56.909348870372035, 60.56616242438256 It indeed turned into the war of resources at some point. Google 'manganese panther tank' for example to see the battle for manganese that affected Geman tank armour (warfarehistorynetwork). There're countless examples of that.
@M B paste the coordinates in Google Maps 56.909348870372035, 60.56616242438256 and it's there. Looks more like O\___/O than a literal 8, it stretches roughly north to south from AVS hotel to White Tower. The top loop is quite prominent in the forest.
@@russianhackee cool facts. I'm curious how many small towns in the Urals and elsewhere were affected badly by toxins from all the production and mining? Several small towns in the US were wiped out or close to it from mining poisons.
I'd love to see your research into the Monkton Farleigh mines, the largely forgotten massive ammunition dump built under a hill next to the city of Bath in England. It was mostly sold off for secure storage and a big wine vault but the place is massive, it had a centre for control for UK gov (Burlington Arcade IIRC, not the alley in London) in the event of nuclear war and also had siding from the local Box railway tunnel. Even today, in the centre of the tunnel you can feel the train going over the point into the sidings (quarry tunnel east IIRC) and as you are about 2 miles out from the tunnel towards Bath you can still see one of the loading siding that has tunnel 1 to 2 miles into the complex. There's also loads of conspiracy theories surrounding it and it's locality (beneath) Corsham Data Centre and also RAF Rudloe Manor. Even if you don't make a video about it, it's well worth the research.
I knew nothing about this topic. Thanks again for yet another fascinating glimpse into history. I can't imagine anything this complex happening today. Nationalism and patriotism seem to be watch words without any real meaning in modern society. You have to respect this kind of monumental effort and dedication to a cause.
I'm gonna go ahead and reply to my own comment: I had hoped for more honestly. But we, as Simon's viewers demanded this particular content. So can I really complain?
Excellent and well balanced post! Every war in last 200 years was indeed war of resources and ideology was just a paint job on raw concrete wall. If I may suggest post on German use of resources from occupied countries in own war effort during WWII? Another fantastic engineering effort was building of "SS Great Eastern" which was quantum leap in shipbuilding of the era. Brunels are barely known now but once did projects as big as Krupp if not bigger and would deserve own video as well.
You should do a video on the Red River Floodway in Winnipeg, Canada. After a flood in the 1950s destroyed much of the city, the Floodway was built, and has saved the city from catastrophic floods several times in the decades since. In the middle of an unusually snowy winter right now, so come the spring snowmelt, it's probably going to do it again
Good video, but oddly short considering the scope of the topic. The series "war factories" has an episode covering some of the industrial moving. I think it's 8 episodes, all of them are good.
Great Topic!! I always was fascinated how the Soviet Union moved so much industry after Germany invaded. I think some cool Mega Projects are in the United Arab Emirates. Maybe the Louvre Abu Dhabi would be a cool topic? I don't know a ton about it, but it seems like a big undertaking both with construction and the artwork they stocked it with. Moving ridiculously valuable art must be an interesting undertaking.
,,Evacuated?! Where should they be EVACUATED?? The City must be hold! That’s FINAL!!“ - Josef Stalin when a proposal was made to him to evacuate all Factories and Inhabitants/Civilians from the City of Stalingrad to Siberia (1942)
During World War II my father worked at a ordinance Depot. The largest one the United States had in North America which was located in South Dakota. He told of seeing many train loads leaving the ordinance Depot loaded with tanks, big guns. Bombs , shells and other war items leaving the depot. Those trains were clearly marked USSR as the destination.I’d like to see you do a show video on what America supplied to Russia during World War II it seems that we rearmed the country when they were unable to build quantities of war weapons to fight the Germans
US supplies to Britain was 12% (including pre-war normal trade, which was substantial). Mainly raw materials and machine tools. US supplies to USSR was 5%. (Opening of Soviet archives is running this down to 3%). - _British War Production_ by Postan, 1952.
@@johnburns4017 and these numbers are provided by the very same governments who initiated the corona bullshit! And of course you're a sheep you believe them the reality of it is is the US government has been trying to help the British government hide their disgrace and their shortcomings of WW2! If it wasn't for the United States they'd have lost their ass!!
The US lend lease program. It basically helped to make sure the Soviets didn't fall while reassembling their factories. Once they were running again, they produced around 80k tanks alone. 12551 in 1945 alone. Or for a better understanding they were making 35 fully operational and armed tanks per day in 1945. Comparison time: the USA sold the USSR around 5800 tanks from 1941 til 1945. Or less than half of what the USSR was producing in 1 year.
This in its self was mind-boggling which should have warned hitler of what he had gone up against. Lets hope that this teachers us how determined the Russians are to defend their nation.
One issue with Germany was their intelligence gathering was extremely poor compared to other main combatants in WWII and it was hard to get information out of the Soviet Union. The Germans thought they had burned through Russia's armies early on in Operation Barbarossa only to be completely surprised that forces continued to be called up and thrown against them (I can't remember for sure what the number was, but I think it was something like 13m conscripted Russian troops weren't expected by the time they closed on Moscow and the Soviets would eventually conscript something like 25m men in addition to their initial forces). They simply didn't know the truly massive size of Russia's military could become. Given that, I find it extremely unlikely that they even knew that Russia was able to redeploy 1,500 factories to the Urals.
@@jmill1334 Yep this and Russia had no qualms (well maybe at first) with putting women in the field and air to bolster their already considerable forces.
A couple of years ago, i read a book about this massive project. You may think what you want about the Soviet-Union, but THIS, was truly a huge achievement!!
I imagine a factory worker being offered a work schedule of twelve hours a day, six days a week, to transport and rebuild the factory a couple of time zones to the East. Knowing that the alternative is being given a rifle and sent West, he gladly accepts. He is part of the 10% of men born the year he was born who survives the war.
U could make this into like a four-part series of how every major country that participated in world war II. Reorganized their factories for war construction
Hoping to see a video on the Salt Lake City Temple, which took 40 years to carve by hand out of solid granite during the 1800s. It's now going under massive renovations to make it 100% earthquake proof.
It was a war winner. ! In one of Max Hastings books there's a quote, that basically says. In some cases the German spearhead tanks were literally shooting at the last trains rolling away, loaded with machine tools ,workers and their families in some of the western city's. The citizens of the destination areas got told to report for work at 6 o'clock . With pick, shovel and explosives they broke the Arctic themeforest and set to work. One week later an aircraft engine would raw into life on a test rig. In factory without walls or a roof. I'm sorry but there's absolutely no way the western society's could have pulled off such a feet as this. It's one of the reason's were not all speaking zee Deutsch yar ! So respect too them 💯👊💛
Except that western societies out produced the Soviets in every way possible, and while the Soviets watched their citizens starve through their own incompetence, the west sent the Soviets all resources imaginable from finished goods, to food and raw materials. All that whilst building defences, tanks, planes, et al. So of course they could have easily done it, and without the use of slave labour, threated by death of themselves and families.
@@nicosmind3 Even if all this is true (and I am rather doubtful of many of the things you say), it does not in any way make this mass evacuation of industry any less impactful or impressive. Moving over a thousand factories and millions of workers east (often several thousand kilometers away), in many cases just ahead of approaching Axis forces, is no mean feat, regardless of the nation which did it.
@@garystu9878 Agreed, between this mega evacuation and the back to back brutal Russian winters that froze the oil in anything not left constantly running, which let the Soviets regroup and rebuild, is the only reason why Nazi Germany did not conquer Eurasia and North Africa. It is like if the Nazis invaded the United States and some how Roosevelt convinced Detroit and Pittsburgh to dismantle and move everything, including the city's populations west of the Rockies, now multiply it by four and that is what the Soviets did, all while defending against the greatest military machine the world had ever know up until then, just mindbogglingly!
@@nicosmind3 lol no. USA was the only western nation that was even vaguely close to the scale of soviet industrial output, Soviet efficiency may not have been great, but the scale was unprecedented. Lend-Lease did ease the pressure in the mid war, by the end of the war it was largely unnecessary and more of a political tool to placate USSR's disappointment at the inability of the western Allies to open a second front. Most researchers agree that western aid shortened the war by a year, at the absolute maximum. WRT the failures of the first five year plan, by the 1930s food production was increased enough to allow for a large transfer of labour to industry. The famines were an expensive lesson, but they weren't completely ignored by the leadership - they just were not going to go take any responsibility for them. By the start of Barbarossa food production exceeded pre-collectivisation levels, produced by a much smaller number of workers - the way it was achieved might be unpalatable, but it was achieved. Ironically, the leading cause of inefficiency; the desire to create massive industrial projects, where a few smaller ones would have probably been the better option, helped in relocating production east of the Urals, the resources - both human and industrial were centralised and easier to coordinate. It's important to remember that the western countries were recovering from the Great Depression when Soviet Union was industrializing, so their development was stagnant for a decade or so. Try to avoid simplistic black and white thinking, the world is a complicated place. If you are going to look at USSR's failures, you have to place them in the global context and can't ignore their successes.
My grandmother(15 at the time) evacuted with factory#183 from Kharkov. Their train was bombed on the way out and she was thrown by the bomb blast into the barrel stove that was inside the railcar. Luckily she got pulled out with only minor burns. Anyway, she is still alive, lives in NY State right now :)
There is a lot more to this tale. For instance, the task was managed by, of all people, Lavrenty Beria. How did that come about? Didn't he already have his hands full, shooting people in the basement of the Lubyanka, schtupping little girls and so forth? I'd like to know more, much more than 11 mins. can accommodate.
Thank you for making another video featuring the 5 year plans. I enjoyed your first video on the first plan. Sadly you had mentioned in other videos that the original diddnt do very well view wise.
When china bought the remains of the Rover group in the UK, they did just this, dismantled everything, even the buildings in which the machinery to build cars with laid, and shipped it all off to the far east, toilets and all... :P
And again, wonderful entertainment. How about checking into the story of building the Fort Peck Dam in Montana. It's a story people would find into. Thanks for all your various channels and stories.
IDEA; The new Finnish nuclear powerplant, Olkiluoto 3 with an estimated cost of 11 billion euros, 8 billion euros more than originally planned and now 13 years late is one of the World's most expensive buildings.
The scale of this is simply mind boggling! Cannot be replicated in any country other other than the USSR, and possibly China. Not India. Not the US. 80 million people moved East. That’s like 1/3rd the entire Soviet population if I am not mistaken.
Mega suggestion: The Walls of Benin. Supposed to be longer than the Great Wall of China and contain over a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
I still feel like I'm missing something. You can't just take a factory and move it. It has workers, maintenance personnel, power plants, supply chains. To move a factory like this would be like moving an entire city. This would be difficult in peace time by a national government but you said this was mostly left up to local officials.
@@mickobinsotosworth9759 Hasn't cracked up great? All the Nordics, France, The Netherlands, Germany and to some extend the UK are variations of social democracy... It kinda works you know :P
@@andersjjensen no, they don’t work. wherever there is an economic system with inequality, people will end up suffering. socialist economies around the world shot up life expectancy, literacy rate, etc. in backwater countries like USSR, China, Cuba.. Backward societies and colonization create horrible conditions for the the regular people. Majority of european powers are rich majorly due to the countries they exploited for centuries. And P.S., most of Western Europe and the Nordic countries were on the Axis side. Thankfully, their “social democracy” didn’t win.
We had a couple of pretty savage earthquakes here in Christchurch, NZ in 2010/2011. Still have vacant lots, rubble, pot holes, etc over a decade later. While not as useless as the Haiti government, much more useless than the Japanese (both had similar devastating quakes around the same time). An aside. When I was living in Bangkok a few years ago they laid repaired/relaid a new 1km road outside my place in just over a week, only working at night at that too. It was impressive to watch.
Hiya Si ! Just a request for an Amish Barn Raising . I live in the heart of Amish and Mennonite culture in Berks County Pennsylvania. Much Respect Brother
Suggestion: The rise of the steel mills in my hometown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, specifically, US Steel. Its logo was adopted by the American Football team The Pittsburgh Steelers.💛💙❤️
tbh I just left this comment on the most recent video released on the channel that day, the video I was interested in was something about aquaeducts on rome
Please can we have a Warographics special on the 1991 sieges of Vukovar and Dubrovnik, Croatia in 1991? The tank battles, urban fighting and tactical/strategic errors made are hugely relevant to today’s war in Ukraine. It was the biggest war in Europe since 1945 and seems to be repeatedly overlooked by experts and historians when various comparisons are made with Putin’s war in the media. Thanks.
Can you talk about Mao moving all the Chinese factories into tunnels within the mountains while creating underground tunnels and sniper points in the cities?
Please could you consider having your closed captions created by someone who knows what they're doing, or at the very least, someone to double check the automated ones (as these are often incorrect and have no grammar so is just a constant stream of words). An alternative is to publish your transcripts somewhere. Those who are deaf or hard of hearing should be able to access your content too.
@@andersjjensen True. But on the other hand, the recovery of former Nazi countries into working booming democracy proves that every country can do it, no matter the dire starting position. All it takes is the will and the right people in decision making positions, to make it happen.
That’s the sad part about today, atleast in the US, it is extremely rare to see an engineering spectacle that benefitted everyone like the Hoover dam or the (forgot their name lol) bridge that connects Michigans land to each other. Now it’s just maintence.
Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to keeps.com/Megaprojects to get 50% off your first Keeps order.
You should have included a conversation about how the quality of produced items suffered. For example t34s produced during the war and t34s produced after the war are completely different. Often times more production t34s had missing components, thinned or misproduced armor and other things. Laser pig did a great video on this
HOI4 players just know to build from East to West.
listen to your enthusiasm, you're a true Commie lover.
Man Putin could've used keeps
I’m glad this video is here, cause so many ww2 videos mention the fact that the industry was moved without saying how.
With great difficulty and probably at gunpoint.
@@ianbeel4887 the video didn’t mention anything about gunpoint.
@@Primal-Weed welcome to Russia.
@@ianbeel4887 sounds like western propaganda.
@@Primal-Weed unless you look the other way, Eastern then.
The BBC's iconic "world at war" series described the evacuation by saying: 'It was as if the earth tilted up, and everything human or mechanical rolled East, beyond the Urals."
That's not an exact quote, but it's something close, and it always stuck with me. The series has an hour-long episode named "red star" devoted to Soviet war industries. The entire 20+ hour documentary is phenomenal, and a must watch for any one interested in WW2.
is there anywhere specifically i can watch it? i've been meaning to for quite some time.
An iconic series, it's aging but still good.
@@livethefuture2492 You'll probably have to order it on DVD. That's what I did. The series is old; it was released 50 years ago and the reruns stopped long ago. I haven't seen it on TV in years.
@@livethefuture2492 You can find some of the episodes on UA-cam but a lot of episodes are missing or only portions of episodes; most of this stuff on UA-cam is pretty low quality resolution as well. I haven't had cable for at least a decade now, but the military history channel played reruns fairly often.
Its well worth ordering it on DVD though. It's been remastered and looks pretty good. It's by far the best documentary I've ever seen on any subject. I've watched it at least a dozen times and I learn something new with each viewing. Oh yeah, and it's narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier.
It was made in the early 1970s, so many of the top ranking diplomats, generals, officials, etc were still alive. The documentary is chock-full of primary source interviews and statements from participants and leaders of all of the warring powers.
@@stefanavic6630 Its aging, but it would be impossible to make a similar documentary in modern times. What makes the series so special is all of the primary source interviews from people that lived through the war.
I was just reading the comment asking for this topic on the Warographics channel! Operation Barbossa had lots of crazy numbers involved but these factories were something else for sure
My motorcycle was made in one of these factories that was moved during WW2 to the Ural mountains. Fittingly, it's called an IMZ-Ural.
Indeed IzhEvsk was one of those places. Incidentally, it's related to Izhmash that was involved in production of the AK's later on. I used to live in the Urals back in the 80's and 90's but now I get to see an odd Ural motorcycle with a sidecar on the streets of Melbourne, Australia. That brings back memories of riding one at the farm.
How about a video on the semi conductor value chain, especially the production part? Modern semi conductors are among the most complicated products ever made, and TSMC’s 5-nanometer factories in Taiwan are probably the most advanced production facilities in the world. The 3-nanometer factories they are currently building will bring it to the next level, at a cost of USD23 billion per factory. Semi conductors are everywhere, from coffee machines and electric tooth brushes to the most advanced computers, but making them is extremely complicated. A true mega project. And recently they have hit the headlines, due to insufficient supply
A video on the Galileo Project would be absolutely amazing, it's a scientific look into UAPs (UFOs) being done by scientists, ufologists (yes they're really involved in an actual scientific study for once), current and former politicians, funded partially by private investments and Harvard where a few of the scientists involved work.
Great suggestion✅
I know the first 5 year plan video didn't exactly perform well, but I hope you cover the others that followed it Simon. WW2 and Cold War Soviet history absolutely grabs my attention
Yeah maybe they need a bit more of a click baitish title, I thought that video was really good also, I was hoping for more!
Def one of the most impressive megaproject s ever thank you
Every time I remember this it astonishes me that they were actually able to do this
@E Van Even if that was true, relocating hunderds of factories is still an impressive feat.
@E Van every war economy is highly authoritarian, not that stalin wasnt a cunt
@E Van Nobody asked. Capitalism is for suckers that can't see it's obvious potential for immorality and corruption.
@@fromulus As if planned economy couldn´t have those traits aswell.
@@maxgross9728 Of course, anything we humans come up with has a potential to be abused and exploited. It comes down to whether you want to simp for the wealthy elite. I don't, but maybe you do.
I like the idea of considering projects of movement or social change as a megaproject! I never heard of this effort. Do the Tennessee Valley Authority!
Awesome thanks for the video Simon, so glad you saw my suggestion, the five year plan video you have is pretty awesome also!
Nicely done, Simon. I grew up in the Urals in late 70's / 80's USSR in then Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). So I got to see some of those factories turning into an industrial monsters, like Uralmash ('mash' not as in potato but 'machinery'). They were literally dropped off at sleepy little towns - or in the middle of nowhere for that matter - to set up and start delivering goods in a few months time, if that.
I used to walk down the figure-8 test track for T-34's outside the city, some of it's still can be seen on Google Maps at 56.909348870372035, 60.56616242438256
It indeed turned into the war of resources at some point. Google 'manganese panther tank' for example to see the battle for manganese that affected Geman tank armour (warfarehistorynetwork). There're countless examples of that.
@M B paste the coordinates in Google Maps 56.909348870372035, 60.56616242438256 and it's there. Looks more like O\___/O than a literal 8, it stretches roughly north to south from AVS hotel to White Tower. The top loop is quite prominent in the forest.
@@russianhackee cool facts. I'm curious how many small towns in the Urals and elsewhere were affected badly by toxins from all the production and mining? Several small towns in the US were wiped out or close to it from mining poisons.
I'd love to see your research into the Monkton Farleigh mines, the largely forgotten massive ammunition dump built under a hill next to the city of Bath in England.
It was mostly sold off for secure storage and a big wine vault but the place is massive, it had a centre for control for UK gov (Burlington Arcade IIRC, not the alley in London) in the event of nuclear war and also had siding from the local Box railway tunnel.
Even today, in the centre of the tunnel you can feel the train going over the point into the sidings (quarry tunnel east IIRC) and as you are about 2 miles out from the tunnel towards Bath you can still see one of the loading siding that has tunnel 1 to 2 miles into the complex.
There's also loads of conspiracy theories surrounding it and it's locality (beneath) Corsham Data Centre and also RAF Rudloe Manor.
Even if you don't make a video about it, it's well worth the research.
I knew nothing about this topic. Thanks again for yet another fascinating glimpse into history. I can't imagine anything this complex happening today. Nationalism and patriotism seem to be watch words without any real meaning in modern society. You have to respect this kind of monumental effort and dedication to a cause.
2:35 "World war.... ONE" . Good job sound editor :)
^ Proof Simon makes videos on request/suggestions from comments section
Omg. I'm so happy this topic was chosen.
I'm gonna go ahead and reply to my own comment: I had hoped for more honestly. But we, as Simon's viewers demanded this particular content. So can I really complain?
Excellent and well balanced post! Every war in last 200 years was indeed war of resources and ideology was just a paint job on raw concrete wall. If I may suggest post on German use of resources from occupied countries in own war effort during WWII? Another fantastic engineering effort was building of "SS Great Eastern" which was quantum leap in shipbuilding of the era. Brunels are barely known now but once did projects as big as Krupp if not bigger and would deserve own video as well.
2:30 - Chapter 1 - The home of the revolution
5:50 - Chapter 2 - Operation barbarossa
10:25 - Chapter 3 - Tides of war
You should do a video on the Red River Floodway in Winnipeg, Canada. After a flood in the 1950s destroyed much of the city, the Floodway was built, and has saved the city from catastrophic floods several times in the decades since. In the middle of an unusually snowy winter right now, so come the spring snowmelt, it's probably going to do it again
Mega idea, the silver mines of Central America under Spanish slavery.
Good video, but oddly short considering the scope of the topic. The series "war factories" has an episode covering some of the industrial moving. I think it's 8 episodes, all of them are good.
That is a great series that pulls no punches, esp on this topic.
Cuz it's soviets, the guy has a comical dislike for them.
@@TES99911 no he doesn’t. Soviet videos do very well.
Finally this video is here. Prolly the most requested video ever
Great Topic!! I always was fascinated how the Soviet Union moved so much industry after Germany invaded. I think some cool Mega Projects are in the United Arab Emirates. Maybe the Louvre Abu Dhabi would be a cool topic? I don't know a ton about it, but it seems like a big undertaking both with construction and the artwork they stocked it with. Moving ridiculously valuable art must be an interesting undertaking.
Haha, I requested this about 6 months ago!!! So glad Simon finally did it!!!!
,,Evacuated?! Where should they be EVACUATED?? The City must be hold! That’s FINAL!!“
- Josef Stalin when a proposal was made to him to evacuate all Factories and Inhabitants/Civilians from the City of Stalingrad to Siberia (1942)
Fascinating. Great video..
Am I imagining or was there an Indy Neidell video on the same topic?
Can't find it anywhere
During World War II my father worked at a ordinance Depot. The largest one the United States had in North America which was located in South Dakota. He told of seeing many train loads leaving the ordinance Depot loaded with tanks, big guns. Bombs , shells and other war items leaving the depot. Those trains were clearly marked USSR as the destination.I’d like to see you do a show video on what America supplied to Russia during World War II it seems that we rearmed the country when they were unable to build quantities of war weapons to fight the Germans
US supplies to Britain was 12% (including pre-war normal trade, which was substantial). Mainly raw materials and machine tools.
US supplies to USSR was 5%. (Opening of Soviet archives is running this down to 3%).
- _British War Production_ by Postan, 1952.
@@johnburns4017 and these numbers are provided by the very same governments who initiated the corona bullshit!
And of course you're a sheep you believe them the reality of it is is the US government has been trying to help the British government hide their disgrace and their shortcomings of WW2!
If it wasn't for the United States they'd have lost their ass!!
The US lend lease program. It basically helped to make sure the Soviets didn't fall while reassembling their factories. Once they were running again, they produced around 80k tanks alone. 12551 in 1945 alone. Or for a better understanding they were making 35 fully operational and armed tanks per day in 1945. Comparison time: the USA sold the USSR around 5800 tanks from 1941 til 1945. Or less than half of what the USSR was producing in 1 year.
This in its self was mind-boggling which should have warned hitler of what he had gone up against. Lets hope that this teachers us how determined the Russians are to defend their nation.
One issue with Germany was their intelligence gathering was extremely poor compared to other main combatants in WWII and it was hard to get information out of the Soviet Union. The Germans thought they had burned through Russia's armies early on in Operation Barbarossa only to be completely surprised that forces continued to be called up and thrown against them (I can't remember for sure what the number was, but I think it was something like 13m conscripted Russian troops weren't expected by the time they closed on Moscow and the Soviets would eventually conscript something like 25m men in addition to their initial forces). They simply didn't know the truly massive size of Russia's military could become. Given that, I find it extremely unlikely that they even knew that Russia was able to redeploy 1,500 factories to the Urals.
@@jmill1334 Yep this and Russia had no qualms (well maybe at first) with putting women in the field and air to bolster their already considerable forces.
It can serve a a history lesson for USA mad NATO
@@felipe-vibor Who brainwashed you Mate. Nato has never been, and will never be, an aggressive force.
@@DikkeBetha Libya, serbia, Afghanistan.. admire your perception of facts or not
A couple of years ago, i read a book about this massive project.
You may think what you want about the Soviet-Union, but THIS, was truly a huge achievement!!
Simon didn't lost his hair - it just migrated a bit south... 😁😁😁
A video on the Holodomor would make for an very interesting topic on the “Into The Shadows” channel. Keep up the great work guys!
I imagine a factory worker being offered a work schedule of twelve hours a day, six days a week, to transport and rebuild the factory a couple of time zones to the East.
Knowing that the alternative is being given a rifle and sent West, he gladly accepts. He is part of the 10% of men born the year he was born who survives the war.
Many of the factory workers were women as the men were already sent to war.
U could make this into like a four-part series of how every major country that participated in world war II. Reorganized their factories for war construction
The bloodiest and most destructive war in human history...so far!
The Ural motorcycle factory is still in use to this day, making their sidecar motorcycles. I own one from 2014. :)
Hoping to see a video on the Salt Lake City Temple, which took 40 years to carve by hand out of solid granite during the 1800s. It's now going under massive renovations to make it 100% earthquake proof.
SUGGESTION VIDEO IDEA - future of rail, particularly freight, will freight rail replace semi trucks?
We request, Simon delivers! Gracias factboy.
It was a war winner. ! In one of Max Hastings books there's a quote, that basically says. In some cases the German spearhead tanks were literally shooting at the last trains rolling away, loaded with machine tools ,workers and their families in some of the western city's. The citizens of the destination areas got told to report for work at 6 o'clock . With pick, shovel and explosives they broke the Arctic themeforest and set to work. One week later an aircraft engine would raw into life on a test rig. In factory without walls or a roof. I'm sorry but there's absolutely no way the western society's could have pulled off such a feet as this. It's one of the reason's were not all speaking zee Deutsch yar ! So respect too them 💯👊💛
Except that western societies out produced the Soviets in every way possible, and while the Soviets watched their citizens starve through their own incompetence, the west sent the Soviets all resources imaginable from finished goods, to food and raw materials. All that whilst building defences, tanks, planes, et al. So of course they could have easily done it, and without the use of slave labour, threated by death of themselves and families.
Do not read Hastings. He writes history comics.
@@nicosmind3 Even if all this is true (and I am rather doubtful of many of the things you say), it does not in any way make this mass evacuation of industry any less impactful or impressive. Moving over a thousand factories and millions of workers east (often several thousand kilometers away), in many cases just ahead of approaching Axis forces, is no mean feat, regardless of the nation which did it.
@@garystu9878 Agreed, between this mega evacuation and the back to back brutal Russian winters that froze the oil in anything not left constantly running, which let the Soviets regroup and rebuild, is the only reason why Nazi Germany did not conquer Eurasia and North Africa. It is like if the Nazis invaded the United States and some how Roosevelt convinced Detroit and Pittsburgh to dismantle and move everything, including the city's populations west of the Rockies, now multiply it by four and that is what the Soviets did, all while defending against the greatest military machine the world had ever know up until then, just mindbogglingly!
@@nicosmind3 lol no. USA was the only western nation that was even vaguely close to the scale of soviet industrial output, Soviet efficiency may not have been great, but the scale was unprecedented. Lend-Lease did ease the pressure in the mid war, by the end of the war it was largely unnecessary and more of a political tool to placate USSR's disappointment at the inability of the western Allies to open a second front. Most researchers agree that western aid shortened the war by a year, at the absolute maximum. WRT the failures of the first five year plan, by the 1930s food production was increased enough to allow for a large transfer of labour to industry. The famines were an expensive lesson, but they weren't completely ignored by the leadership - they just were not going to go take any responsibility for them. By the start of Barbarossa food production exceeded pre-collectivisation levels, produced by a much smaller number of workers - the way it was achieved might be unpalatable, but it was achieved. Ironically, the leading cause of inefficiency; the desire to create massive industrial projects, where a few smaller ones would have probably been the better option, helped in relocating production east of the Urals, the resources - both human and industrial were centralised and easier to coordinate. It's important to remember that the western countries were recovering from the Great Depression when Soviet Union was industrializing, so their development was stagnant for a decade or so. Try to avoid simplistic black and white thinking, the world is a complicated place. If you are going to look at USSR's failures, you have to place them in the global context and can't ignore their successes.
Your shiny bald head opening with a Keeps ad kills me every time
Now THIS was a megaproject.
My grandmother(15 at the time) evacuted with factory#183 from Kharkov. Their train was bombed on the way out and she was thrown by the bomb blast into the barrel stove that was inside the railcar. Luckily she got pulled out with only minor burns. Anyway, she is still alive, lives in NY State right now :)
You're Gran sounds like a legend. Bet she's still tough as nails.
Hey Simon, kindly make a video on the Karakorum Highway. As always, stay blessed.
Still waiting for the rest of the videos on the Soviet 5 year plans. The first one was excellent!
Excellent stuff bro
Interesting fact: Holodomor basically translates to "hungerplague"
Great Video, Simon.
There is a lot more to this tale. For instance, the task was managed by, of all people, Lavrenty Beria. How did that come about? Didn't he already have his hands full, shooting people in the basement of the Lubyanka, schtupping little girls and so forth? I'd like to know more, much more than 11 mins. can accommodate.
Unheard of conditions? Sounds like building Canada trans country railway or the Klondike days or even setting up the fur trade in NA
Thank you for making another video featuring the 5 year plans. I enjoyed your first video on the first plan. Sadly you had mentioned in other videos that the original diddnt do very well view wise.
FASCINATING!
When china bought the remains of the Rover group in the UK, they did just this, dismantled everything, even the buildings in which the machinery to build cars with laid, and shipped it all off to the far east, toilets and all... :P
I asked for this one like five times! Thanks, Fact Boy! ❤️❤️❤️
And again, wonderful entertainment. How about checking into the story of building the Fort Peck Dam in Montana. It's a story people would find into. Thanks for all your various channels and stories.
Production on the Collective farms was far higher than on the small private farms after all they took the large farms in America as an example.
Hey Simon, seriously, look into the bagger excavators and Bingham Canyon Copper mine! They are both very interesting!
Another excellent presentation. 😃👌👏👏👏👏
IDEA; The new Finnish nuclear powerplant, Olkiluoto 3 with an estimated cost of 11 billion euros, 8 billion euros more than originally planned and now 13 years late is one of the World's most expensive buildings.
I am watching Mega, I can't watch Brain at the same time Simon. Lol
2:35 don't think I didn't catch that! I laughed way too hard
How is 11 minutes including advertisment a MEGAproject...
The scale of this is simply mind boggling! Cannot be replicated in any country other other than the USSR, and possibly China. Not India. Not the US. 80 million people moved East. That’s like 1/3rd the entire Soviet population if I am not mistaken.
17 Million People were moved to the East. Not 80 Million.
But is was still a huge accomplishment.
Good video 👍
Mega suggestion: The Walls of Benin.
Supposed to be longer than the Great Wall of China and contain over a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
I would like to request a video on the ship USS Constitution. Oldest ship still in active service, originally constructed in 1794.
You should do Spindletop
Simons on the ball minus the locks...
I love how Simon pronounces China as Chiner. 😁
How about the 5 year plans. They would be good topics.
Very interesting video 👍👍
I still feel like I'm missing something. You can't just take a factory and move it. It has workers, maintenance personnel, power plants, supply chains. To move a factory like this would be like moving an entire city. This would be difficult in peace time by a national government but you said this was mostly left up to local officials.
In the same vein as this, you should do a video on Khosrau's Better Antioch.
"Stalin was dangerously ignorant.."
I think that's a common trait among those that embraced communism.
@@mickobinsotosworth9759 They needed to stop at social democracy.
@@mickobinsotosworth9759 Hasn't cracked up great? All the Nordics, France, The Netherlands, Germany and to some extend the UK are variations of social democracy... It kinda works you know :P
@@andersjjensen no, they don’t work. wherever there is an economic system with inequality, people will end up suffering. socialist economies around the world shot up life expectancy, literacy rate, etc. in backwater countries like USSR, China, Cuba.. Backward societies and colonization create horrible conditions for the the regular people. Majority of european powers are rich majorly due to the countries they exploited for centuries. And P.S., most of Western Europe and the Nordic countries were on the Axis side. Thankfully, their “social democracy” didn’t win.
The Soviets managed to pull that off, while in a full year my city hasn't managed to finish road works outside my house haha
We had a couple of pretty savage earthquakes here in Christchurch, NZ in 2010/2011. Still have vacant lots, rubble, pot holes, etc over a decade later. While not as useless as the Haiti government, much more useless than the Japanese (both had similar devastating quakes around the same time).
An aside. When I was living in Bangkok a few years ago they laid repaired/relaid a new 1km road outside my place in just over a week, only working at night at that too. It was impressive to watch.
@@StefanMedici yeah man, I'm talking about the road works on riccarton road haha
Simon any chance you could do a longer one on this and lend lease thanks john
Hiya Si ! Just a request for an Amish Barn Raising . I live in the heart of Amish and Mennonite culture in Berks County Pennsylvania. Much Respect Brother
Suggestion: The rise of the steel mills in my hometown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, specifically, US Steel. Its logo was adopted by the American Football team The Pittsburgh Steelers.💛💙❤️
If you haven't done it yet, do the CN Tower in Toronto.
Did it a year ago on this channel
I didn't know that you could dismantle a factory 😳😲
How about a video on the vulcan bomber
No matter the context, when I hear "5 year plan", the first thing I think of is "Big Daddy" when Sonny finds out his gf is banging a really old guy.
brick by brick
tock by tick
no matter how thin
no matter how thick
Very interesting.
I'd love to see some sources. It could help finding out more about the topic.
tbh I just left this comment on the most recent video released on the channel that day, the video I was interested in was something about aquaeducts on rome
@user-ox9pz2xm5n you can try the documentation @MrGouldilocks mentioned
I am very keen to do some further reading on this subject. Do you have list of your sources for this video available anywyare?
Please can we have a Warographics special on the 1991 sieges of Vukovar and Dubrovnik, Croatia in 1991? The tank battles, urban fighting and tactical/strategic errors made are hugely relevant to today’s war in Ukraine. It was the biggest war in Europe since 1945 and seems to be repeatedly overlooked by experts and historians when various comparisons are made with Putin’s war in the media. Thanks.
Where are factories being reassembled now, or are well away from current turmoil?
Can you talk about Mao moving all the Chinese factories into tunnels within the mountains while creating underground tunnels and sniper points in the cities?
Please could you consider having your closed captions created by someone who knows what they're doing, or at the very least, someone to double check the automated ones (as these are often incorrect and have no grammar so is just a constant stream of words). An alternative is to publish your transcripts somewhere. Those who are deaf or hard of hearing should be able to access your content too.
Ha, they did the same after the end of the war, but with German/Austrian factories 🙂
Well they just earned a good skill the hard way, so why not use it? :P
@@andersjjensen True. But on the other hand, the recovery of former Nazi countries into working booming democracy proves that every country can do it, no matter the dire starting position. All it takes is the will and the right people in decision making positions, to make it happen.
Awesome
Imagine trying something like this today, anywhere. Only thing that would shift is political opinion, from dumb, to stupid.
Also health & safety regulations would delay the process by like a decade lol.
That’s the sad part about today, atleast in the US, it is extremely rare to see an engineering spectacle that benefitted everyone like the Hoover dam or the (forgot their name lol) bridge that connects Michigans land to each other. Now it’s just maintence.
@@mikeymike9926 Simon recently did a Megaprojects video on that bridge lol.
ua-cam.com/video/Ncub6_RWZVA/v-deo.html
2:35 ....sorry everyone i had to laugh, it sounds like one of those meme dub edits lol
I asked for this and I got it!
Gonna keep suggesting THE BIGGEST MACHINE ever created the power grid
show starts at 1:20
How about The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel - 17.6 miles long in Virginia, USA