Creating a Perfect Citizen for a Perfect Country

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  • Опубліковано 4 лип 2024
  • Did the Soviets dream of engineering a new kind of human? They were trying to build a perfect country, so maybe also create a perfect citizen for it? A new type of man...A Soviet Man! Dive into the fascinating, and sometimes disturbing, world of communist education and social engineering in the USSR. This video explores how Soviet authorities attempted to mold their citizens into the ideal "Homo Sovieticus," perfectly suited for their communist utopia.
    00:00 - Introduction
    03:10 - Why was it necessary to create a new man?
    07:34 - What was the USSR criticized for?
    11:58 - So...what was this Soviet man like?
    Special thanks to my Patrons:
    Mike Pearce, Kirill Klimuk, Ravenghast, Yelizaveta Zakharova, Adam Stakhanov, Devon Hodgson, Sarah McMaster, Yuval Carmon, Jason Vanin, Simon Böse, Triskelia, Niels Dowgwillo, Michael, Jordan LaMothe, Eli, Jimmy Albin, Petar Ilic, College Russian, Bruce Eternick, Matei, Mhs.
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    💵 Patreon (early access to videos) - / setarko
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    🪙 Other crypto - nowpayments.io/donation/setarko
    Some additional articles and sources for those interested:
    arzamas.academy/materials/1499 (in Russian)
    www.economist.com/briefing/20...
    Krasovitskaya T. Y. Russian education between reformism and revolutionarism. February 1917-1920. - М., 2002. ISBN 5-8055-0091-4
    Molostova E.S. MODELS OF THE “NEW HUMAN” IN SOVIET TIME: TRAITS OF TRANS-HUMANISM. Nauchnye Vedomosti, Series: Philosophy. Sociology. Law. 175 2014. № 9 (180). Issue 28
    lenta.ru/articles/2016/04/06/... (in Russian)
    www.kommersant.ru/doc/3454472 (in Russian)
    rodina-history.ru/2016/11/17/... (in Russian)
    Fedosov E.A. “Soviet man: propaganda or reality?”. Rusin, no. 4 (38), 2014, pp. 139-151.
    www.gazeta.ru/science/2015/07... (in Russian)
    Links:
    Discord - / discord
    Twitter - / setarkoyt
    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.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 144

  • @yankeevictor9055
    @yankeevictor9055 2 місяці тому +68

    The most important quality of the Soviet man was optimism for the future: "It can't get any worse!"

    • @saintsrulz
      @saintsrulz 2 місяці тому +4

      Such an inaccurate statement.

    • @yankeevictor9055
      @yankeevictor9055 2 місяці тому +3

      @@saintsrulz Indeed. (in Morgan Freeman's voice) "It turned out, it could indeed, get worse."

    • @saintsrulz
      @saintsrulz 2 місяці тому

      @@yankeevictor9055 ahhh okay. You’re quoting celebrities. Your knowledge on life in the USSR or any historical time period is probably not capable of fitting into your cranium due to the overload of Hollywood movie quotes and fun facts about celebrities. I’ll let you be bro

    • @yankeevictor9055
      @yankeevictor9055 2 місяці тому

      @saintsrulz oh, the old insult as counter-argument. Really intellectual stuff. Feel free to educate me on the "real history" of comunism bliss: free gulag holidays, friendly visits from the secret police, cool trips to empty food shops and getting evicted from your house because of nationalization. Oh, those were the golden days!

    • @yankeevictor9055
      @yankeevictor9055 Місяць тому +1

      @@saintsrulz An insult as counter-argument. Very convincing. Well then, please enlighten us on the wonders of USSR life.

  • @Anton43218
    @Anton43218 2 місяці тому +44

    Could you do a video on social mobility in the soviet union?

    • @lekis873
      @lekis873 2 місяці тому +20

      Be corrupt and have conecions from friends and family to get good job posisions(politburo, police and so on).

    • @More_Row
      @More_Row 2 місяці тому +14

      @@lekis873 He asked for a video from the video creator.

    • @Setarko
      @Setarko  2 місяці тому +37

      An interesting topic, i will add it to my list of ideas

    • @Commissar_4735
      @Commissar_4735 2 місяці тому +19

      @@lekis873 you just described today's world, lol

    • @tempejkl
      @tempejkl 2 місяці тому +11

      @@lekis873You don't have to be corrupt, though connections usually help. The USSR was more meritocratic than most nations though.

  • @Dafttar
    @Dafttar 2 місяці тому +9

    Another great video! I'm so glad that you're still producing content.

    • @Setarko
      @Setarko  2 місяці тому +9

      Well, I do hope that I will be able to do that for some more years 😅

  • @michaelboyd395
    @michaelboyd395 2 місяці тому +10

    Thank you for a new video dude!

  • @robertmyers6488
    @robertmyers6488 2 місяці тому +1

    Setarko that was a great video. A summary really. Hours could be spent on analyzing what you have brought up. Thank you!

  • @capslocked7274
    @capslocked7274 2 місяці тому +2

    excellent video

  • @astana3927
    @astana3927 2 місяці тому

    Great vid again

  • @singletona082
    @singletona082 2 місяці тому +21

    Personally I am of the mind People are People. Unless you can unravel hardwired behavior there are going to be constants regardless. 'Professional slacker' seems like a good term. A bit judgemental in a negative connotation but it fits. Do what you need but as doing more isn't going to earn you anything other than more work? Why bother? Help where you can but try not t obe noticed because too much attention can lead you into Uncle Stalin's freezer camps. Etc.
    I love yoru channel and the perspective you give. Russia is an interesting place with its own history and culture and I hope once the current troubles end things will get better. Til then, thank you for giving us a look on your homeland.

    • @badart3204
      @badart3204 2 місяці тому +5

      Ancient Mesopotamians even had a critique for such people saying something roughly along the lines of “do not pray for small fields so that you may work less. Cultivate large fields and you will be blessed”.

  • @baarbacoa
    @baarbacoa 2 місяці тому +68

    I have ties to Eastern Europe. I didn't think that anyone I have met from the formerly Communist countries was a true believer. Those that were communist were really just opportunists IMO.

    • @piotr.leniec-lincow5209
      @piotr.leniec-lincow5209 2 місяці тому +4

      And how many true believers ( for example among catholics ) you
      have met in the west?
      If they knew the modern psychology
      they would never even try this
      experiment.

    • @markcorrigan3930
      @markcorrigan3930 2 місяці тому +1

      😴

    • @badart3204
      @badart3204 2 місяці тому

      @@piotr.leniec-lincow5209such is the tragedy of modernist ideology.

    • @Matt_The_Hugenot
      @Matt_The_Hugenot 2 місяці тому +20

      The only communist true believers I know never lived under communism.

    • @piotr.leniec-lincow5209
      @piotr.leniec-lincow5209 2 місяці тому +4

      @@Matt_The_Hugenot in Paris

  • @thesperglord3376
    @thesperglord3376 2 місяці тому +3

    A new Setarko video is always a highlight of the day : )

  • @andrewselvo7878
    @andrewselvo7878 2 місяці тому +5

    My grandma was born in Lithuania in 1926 and fled from the Soviets as a refugee during WW2. That said, having studied around on the subject, I think there is a big distinction between the USSR and its constituent republics and the Warsaw Pact countries when talking about the success/popularity of the “New Soviet Man”.
    The Eastern European communist satélites (including the Baltic countries in the USSR), seem to have overwhelmingly disliked or despised the communist regimes. This makes sense, as communism was actively imposed on these countries against their will, and they all had experience with more developed market/capitalist systems that generally made their standard of living higher than the USSR.
    For the USSR, although Communism wasn’t “chosen” or voted for by the people, I think there is a valid argument that it evolved more organically from at least internal factions or struggles in the country. It wasn’t “imposed” from abroad. In addition, the poverty of the USSR, meant that most Soviets were exposed to the fruits of industrial society via communism, and not by a pre-existing relationship with capitalism.
    Thus, the cultural/social impact of the “New Soviet Man” seems to have been much more real in the USSR, and more positively received. Whereas in other countries it likely was just given lip-service.
    TL;DR: the “true believers” of communism were probably disproportionately in the USSR, and specifically the Slavic republics, because they did not have the same trauma of having communism directly thrust upon them by an external state.

  • @sandrin0
    @sandrin0 Місяць тому +2

    i think i get why some people call the soviets "red fash" now, with all the nationalism and seemingly encouraged "subservience" to the state. i only wish that whatever success that the soviets had was more in line with the ideals of the early communists: of community, equality, and hope for the future, as opposed to what eventually became this internally contradictory state of things. very interesting video!

    • @pippadawg7037
      @pippadawg7037 Місяць тому

      The fix was in from the get-go. Marx, Ulyanov, Bronstein, Stalin; they were all cloaked fascists and tools of the industrialists. They were designed to infiltrate and thwart any real republican (in the sense of fairness for the common man) movements. They took an agricultural country and forced it to be industrialized; just like the industrialists wanted. They then saddled it with debt to Western banks. Just like the bankers wanted.

  • @EggPuff
    @EggPuff 2 місяці тому +2

    Please make a video of "firsts" and "historical uniqueness" of USSR...
    Could be just a list

  • @kirtknierim3687
    @kirtknierim3687 2 місяці тому

    My favorite!

  • @user-lz1yb6qk3f
    @user-lz1yb6qk3f 2 місяці тому +2

    And they said they are not idealists.

  • @1KosovoJeSrbija1
    @1KosovoJeSrbija1 2 місяці тому +5

    The Lord Farquad energy in the title.

  • @Lyndione
    @Lyndione 2 місяці тому +1

    That's why Soviet Union seemed like an utopia for most, the almost perfect "communist" state that have ever existed.

  • @EWGFus3r
    @EWGFus3r 2 місяці тому +1

    Please make a video about VDNH park

  • @Brick-Life
    @Brick-Life Місяць тому

    Awesome to have perfect citizens!

  • @BigChap117
    @BigChap117 2 місяці тому +2

    The age of ideology has been a cancer on humanity.

  • @hamster8449
    @hamster8449 2 місяці тому +7

    Becoming a model citizen is like becoming a model prisoner in a model prison. There are proshurki and tips given out from kindergarten and high school. The TV will help you. If something is wrong, the police will take you aside and help you.

    • @peterdenov4898
      @peterdenov4898 2 місяці тому +1

      China, Japan, and Korea quite literally have the same thing, th are you talking about

  • @msthing
    @msthing 2 місяці тому +4

    This duality of soviet human has been a great source for soviet comedy

  • @FlintIronstag23
    @FlintIronstag23 2 місяці тому +16

    The new Soviet man: A functional alcoholic. Gorbachev tried an anti-alcohol campaign to try to reign in some of the rampant alcoholism in the Soviet Union, but it met with limited success.

  • @Merle1987
    @Merle1987 2 місяці тому +5

    Do a half assed job, smoke as many cigarettes as possible, come home, get as crunk as possible, repeat.

  • @constantinethecataphract5949
    @constantinethecataphract5949 2 місяці тому +7

    Ofcourse the problem as to why the idea of the soviet man failed is because the more you "equalize" or improve the environment you aren't actually removing inequality, what you actually do is make the effects of *HEREDITY* and biology greater.

    • @ChrisAthanas
      @ChrisAthanas 2 місяці тому +1

      You can’t fool Mother Nature for long

    • @susangoaway
      @susangoaway 2 місяці тому

      And today we have "equity" xD

  • @constantinethecataphract5949
    @constantinethecataphract5949 2 місяці тому +5

    This soviet man idea is really simmilar to the idea of the modern progressive man.

    • @CantoniaCustoms
      @CantoniaCustoms 2 місяці тому

      Except the idea of a progressive man is mysioginistic and instead it's the new modern progressive person of color.

  • @40kwarlord79
    @40kwarlord79 2 місяці тому +34

    The Soviet dream really was the closest thing we got to Star Trek's Federation...

    • @singletona082
      @singletona082 2 місяці тому +16

      the stated dream at least.
      Given those in power and how they treated anyone who even appeared to gain any influince they didn't approve of? I have a less than charitable view of the reality.

    • @johnadams3038
      @johnadams3038 2 місяці тому +4

      Lol nonsense

    • @mangomayhem609
      @mangomayhem609 2 місяці тому +2

      @@singletona082 Ofcourse they had to fight off threats to the system, i mean its literally just self preservation? It wouldnt make sense to let reactionary ideas to have a platform to threaten the stability of the system.

    • @singletona082
      @singletona082 2 місяці тому +2

      @@mangomayhem609 Keep in mind I am an anarchist and have the firm belief that Lennin's 'you are too stupid to getto whereisay we should be going' was very much a case of co-opting dissatisfaction and existing revolutionary elements to create for himself effectivly a dictatorship.

    • @thexdatabase
      @thexdatabase 2 місяці тому +1

      star trek is fascist

  • @MBP1918
    @MBP1918 2 місяці тому

    😮

  • @GeorgeSemel
    @GeorgeSemel 2 місяці тому +18

    The New Soviet Man was pretty much the Old Soviet Man who, in turn, was the poor bastard ruled by the Tsars going all the way back to the Princes of Moscovy and then some. Keep them dunk most of the time. The few that really excelled either left, or they managed to not get a chunk of lead to the nape of the neck. Men like Sergei Korolev, a genius who was so abused by his own government, still made valued contributions to the Nation. Most of the good ones that were not murdered or left to die in forced labor camps just left the country given the chance. The people who pushed this New Man business really was very good at "Word Salad". The country even in 2024 is in a mess, no different than "The Time of Troubles." The Russian People have never caught a break. Setarko, you put out really good stuff, and the narration grows on you. I know how to get a new Russian man, but I leave him alone for a couple of generations.

    • @briantarigan7685
      @briantarigan7685 2 місяці тому

      calling the current time in Russia the same as the time of chaos and deaths that are the time of troubles is exaggerating, you may hate Russia, but Christ.

    • @AstralLice83
      @AstralLice83 2 місяці тому

      You are wrong about the Tsarist times. The average person in the 19th and 20th centuries consumed less alcohol than other Europeans. Russian alcoholism as a phenomenon appeared only at the end of the Soviet Union and after its collapse

  • @DT-wp4hk
    @DT-wp4hk 2 місяці тому

    2:52
    Those subhumans always want your credit😂

  • @gagamba9198
    @gagamba9198 2 місяці тому +4

    The two unattainables.
    The first was communism itself. Not the dictatorship of the proletariat stage that the USSR remained perpetually mired in, but the end state of no government, no money, no police, etc and featuring the big pile of stuff from which all needs would be met freely. Having the monopoly over everything, failing to achieve the end state falls squarely on the Communist Party. 'With total power comes total responsibility.'
    Can't have the ruled blaming the ruler, can we? And can't have the ruler admitting it was bait-and-switch scam.
    The second unattainable is the Soviet man. It offers the ruler a scapegoat. The (unattainable) end state requires the (unattainable) perfect Soviet man. 'We have Marx's blueprint. A 'scientific' one at that. If only you workers would shape up. Clearly, more training is needed.'

  • @valiciprian2061
    @valiciprian2061 Місяць тому

    In Romania it was about The New Romanian Man😂😂😂
    I guess every communist country wanted to achieve the perfect man😅

  • @keitelfegelein6964
    @keitelfegelein6964 2 місяці тому +1

    Early!

    • @frenzalrhomb6919
      @frenzalrhomb6919 2 місяці тому

      I see by you avatar name why you're here . . "Know thy enemy, as well as you ķnow yourself"

  • @Muonium1
    @Muonium1 2 місяці тому

    An almost unbelievable catastrophe of mass delusion cultism resulting in the shameful decrepitude of millions for decades on end.

  • @GrafEisen1
    @GrafEisen1 2 місяці тому +5

    When the Soviets put down the Kronstadt Rebellion, they proved just how unimportant they considered revolutionary spirit. They cut down heroes of their revolution, and with them any chance the New Soviet Man could be an independent man.

  • @ericvantassell6809
    @ericvantassell6809 2 місяці тому +4

    I wonder if the cat Lenin was holding got sent to the gulag the first time it hacked up a hairball on the carpet

  • @wertelka_1
    @wertelka_1 2 місяці тому +3

    Where would thinkers and scientists come from? Somehow it was the case that the quarter of all world's scientists lived in the USSR...

  • @Solaire_au_Frohmage
    @Solaire_au_Frohmage 2 місяці тому

    Which of the charges against Korolev were fabricated?

    • @burtbacarach5034
      @burtbacarach5034 2 місяці тому +1

      Korolev was arrested by the NKVD on 27 June 1938 after being accused of a variety of charges, including false charges extracted from Kleymyonov, Langemak and Glushko. He was tortured in the Lubyanka prison to extract a confession. Glushko and Korolev had reportedly been denounced by Andrei Kostikov who became the head of RNII after its leadership was arrested.
      Wiki is your friend.

    • @Solaire_au_Frohmage
      @Solaire_au_Frohmage 2 місяці тому

      @@burtbacarach5034 Brother, can you read? I asked *which* were "fabricated", not what happened.
      Also, wiki is not a source, even though we can find some sources there.

    • @xsc1000
      @xsc1000 2 місяці тому

      @@Solaire_au_Frohmage All of them, Korolev was never against regime, but he still ended in gulag.

    • @RainerMichelle
      @RainerMichelle 2 місяці тому

      all charges were fabricated, what our Russian friend Setarko lies about is that Korolev was prosecuted because he was UKRAINIAN, and there would have been no Russian Space program without captured German engineers and Ukrainians, Russians only steal from others, they have never developed anything significant themselves, all their military complex and shipyards were located in Ukraine, this is one of the reasons why they so desperately try to enslave the Ukrainian people

    • @Solaire_au_Frohmage
      @Solaire_au_Frohmage 2 місяці тому +2

      @@xsc1000 Being deemed a criminal doesn't usually mean yo have to be against the regime though. Oligarchs of modern capitalist countries actively partake in bribery and getting rid of unwanted people/competition, yet they actively benefit from supporting the current regimes that let them do that.
      In case of Korolev, he was accused of wasting research resources on useless things - as my friend who studied aviation in uni told me, he started to research some obviously unusable or impossible to build rockets or engines and that's what got him in jail/gulag.

  • @piotr.leniec-lincow5209
    @piotr.leniec-lincow5209 2 місяці тому

    People are only the souls of dead monkees.

  • @forsis80
    @forsis80 2 місяці тому +5

    In reality, what's the difference between this and some of the opposing fractions ideology?
    Collectivist ideology that comes from the same minds have the same ends.

    • @yulusleonard985
      @yulusleonard985 2 місяці тому +1

      They are the same. H guy used to be a member of Bavarian Communist Party.

    • @forsis80
      @forsis80 2 місяці тому +1

      @@yulusleonard985 I know. Therefore you will see a lot of the same behavior.
      The philosophy is also from the same minds.

    • @bobdollaz3391
      @bobdollaz3391 2 місяці тому +1

      ​@@yulusleonard985 Stalin was an Orthodox Christian at one point......... Thomas Sowell and Robert Conquest were communist at one point. I'm guessing that makes them lifelong Commies and thereby, Nazi's too? This makes FDR a Communist and by extension, his voters too, eh?

    • @peterdenov4898
      @peterdenov4898 2 місяці тому

      ​@@yulusleonard985they are not the same and you have no idea what are you talking about.
      H-guy openly wrote "eat the poor” in his book + had spend tremendous amount of effort into *PRIVATISING* ALL SECTORS OF GERMANY. That's complete 180° on what the SU did, but sure man, if “Muricans” don't like two things it must mean that they are all and the same, right?

    • @peterdenov4898
      @peterdenov4898 2 місяці тому

      US also had this idea of the ideal “American dad” living the “Ideal America dream” in the exact same model during the cold war.
      If you really want to learn what's the ideological differences between countless regimes just get off YT and bother to invest 5 minutes into actually learning what those regimes ware all about.

  • @CarterFeldman
    @CarterFeldman 2 місяці тому

    second

  • @bledniyman6747
    @bledniyman6747 2 місяці тому +3

    In short, the Soviet Man project failed and backfired. Instead of raising the Superman of Tomorrow,the state raised an obedient cog. The betrayal of the Superman project by Stalin was the death blow to the Soviet Union and can be one of the primary reasons of its collapse.

  • @squiremuldoon5462
    @squiremuldoon5462 2 місяці тому

    We Americans knew all this, we saw Rocky IV.

  • @Anton43218
    @Anton43218 2 місяці тому +1

    1st

  • @Matt_The_Hugenot
    @Matt_The_Hugenot 2 місяці тому +1

    Stalin reverted to conservatism at every opportunity.

  • @TheFuryKnight
    @TheFuryKnight 2 місяці тому +6

    Ideology only works in fiction in reality it doesn't 😂

    • @haywoodyoudome
      @haywoodyoudome 2 місяці тому +6

      Same with diversity and inclusion....

    • @TheFuryKnight
      @TheFuryKnight 2 місяці тому +3

      @@haywoodyoudome indeed that's why we have countries instead of world...

    • @constantinethecataphract5949
      @constantinethecataphract5949 2 місяці тому +2

      ​@@haywoodyoudome
      Cut from the same cloth or more like an offshoot from the same branch. Just like boomer marxism this also is showing cracks and will collapse under its inherent contradictions.

  • @eskanderx1027
    @eskanderx1027 2 місяці тому

    Soviesapiens rule!

  • @marshallgrek997
    @marshallgrek997 2 місяці тому +5

    Why does this remind me of sth? Guh "aryan man" guh

    • @redcrown5154
      @redcrown5154 2 місяці тому +7

      that has nothing to do with communism

    • @kaiserchaoui6143
      @kaiserchaoui6143 2 місяці тому +4

      Soviet or Nazi. both red both products of the lodge.

    • @marshallgrek997
      @marshallgrek997 2 місяці тому +4

      @@redcrown5154 both ideologies derive from the same ideas. A new breed of man that has certain characteristics and ideas that go in par with the state and stays loyal to that. Be aryan or soviet.

    • @redcrown5154
      @redcrown5154 2 місяці тому +2

      @@kaiserchaoui6143 except one is far better then the other

    • @marshallgrek997
      @marshallgrek997 2 місяці тому +2

      @@redcrown5154 the aryan or soviet?

  • @More_Row
    @More_Row 2 місяці тому

    Just herded people. Like anywhere else.

  • @dvosburg1966
    @dvosburg1966 2 місяці тому

    You cannot create gold from dross.

  • @kenseitakesi4521
    @kenseitakesi4521 2 місяці тому

    Tovarish

  • @user-kd2cd2ip1o
    @user-kd2cd2ip1o 2 місяці тому +2

    This video just seethes with liberast cope.