In the wake of recent news regarding Russia and Ukraine, I thought this would be a good time for a brief history of Vladimir Putin's rise to power- and I mean BRIEF. Patreon: / georgrockallschmidt
Just so you know, I'm going to mention the Chechnyan war and 90s apartment bombings in a future video about Putin's consolidation of power. They happened during the time frame covered in this video, but I think they are more relevant to the next part of the series. Cheers
Thanks, Georg! BTW your videos are absolutely wonderful, deeply insightful, and nearly technically flawless... except for the audio. Any chance you could crank it up a bit on the next one?
All art is political, so Georg's channel doing videos on film, society, and politics is really just a more honest form of art critique than you get from most.
@@gnarlestongnu637 Come on, how is a still life, forest landscape or a nude figure political? Only inept artists *have* to employ politics to get response out of people.
From what I've read about Yeltsin's transfer of power to Putin, I don't think Putin necessarily needed to have any dirt on Yeltsin. Yeltsin was an incredibly unpopular politician with a ton of ongoing corruption investigations. His term was almost up and it was practically guaranteed that he'd lose and whoever came next would score some easy political points by prosecuting not just him but also much of his family. He just needed a successor who could protect him, and Putin seemed to fit the bill.
This channel has such a distinctive vibe to it from the visuals to the sound. It's cynical of society but for me without cookie cutter feel that much of the video essays on RU-vid have. You don't necessarily know the man from his art.. that said I know your doing alright George.
I feel cold war anxiety fits your style very well. We kind of thought it was gone for a long time, and now it is re-emerging, but having undergone a change. I feel your work, no matter how tangentially related, all seems to be directed toward that anxiety. A very peculiar western "end of history" anxiety. I look forward to seeing your film.
"end of history" ? More like History is finally starting again after we stuck our heads in the sand and pretended it was going to be 1999 until the sun burnt out
Please do a video on Vladislav Surkov. He is regarded as the father of Putinism and the brain behind "non-linear warfare" I think him and his actions are very important to Putins power and modern Russian politics.
05:01 "A Dog's Heart" is also the name of a short novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, an early Soviet-era writer and a man hounded by Communist Russia for most of his life. It's a satirical sci-fi story about turning a dog into a man who then becomes a blind party follower and a typical average Joe (or Vasya, if you like), despite his creator's best efforts to educate him.
Props for knowing this excellent story. But Mikhail Bulgakov was never hounded by the "Communist Russia" (what's that? RSFSR?), he was highly regarded his entire carrier (even by uncle Jo himself)
@@StanislavG. I admit the wording was incorrect; however Bulgakov's relationship with the regime was at best complicated, some of his work banned and some relentlessly destroyed by critics. Which is no wonder given his frequent portrayal of an average Soviet citizen as ignorant and cowardly.
@@RatSitnov You need to understand the historical context for things to make sense. Let's just say "The Communists" weren't a bunch of barbaric Borg-like creatures the western propaganda painted them to be. Let's just say 1. Bulgakov wrote about the esoteric, which was "antithetical" to the Soviet realism at the time. Sounds silly now, but consider this - it was a highly religious region living by medieval standards couple of years back. 2. Тhe critique of his work was mostly coming from the intelligentsia, trying to suck up to the current regime (as they do to this day). The Master and Margarita is basically one long (sometimes pretty dark) satire, lampooning the intelligentsia and the ex middle class. 3. His portrayal of the average Joe (i.e. Sharikov) was employed by the Soviet regime to shame the ignorant, uneducated and reactionary parts of the society, displaying them as a ridiculous opposite to the "Kommunist", The Komsomolets - the young, educated and active communist. It kindda worked, USSR did some pretty cool shit before apathy and greed took over. 4. As we can see today - the alternative to the USSR is... whatever the fuck it is we're seeing now :/ But i dunno, i'm not a politician
@Immortal Science of Hauntology I read this book a couple of years ago and it's pretty scathing of the non communists too. The whining doctor who needs more rooms, and a maid etc.. great book all round
Yes, most of Putin's appeal stands on the memory of the shameful collapse of the Yeltsin years and the long descent into chaos of Soviet Union in the later 1970s and 1980s.
Gotta say, I’m really getting tired of living through major historical events. Thanks for shedding some light on this Georg. It always seemed like an open secret, but current events have without a doubt only raised scrutiny. Staying tuned for more.
can't overstate how great your videos are, except for the volume. it's WAY too low. I kind of have to post this because I just caused a small audio explosion after finishing it and switching to a different video.
Just a suggestion that may or may not be helpful, but In direct response to said "low volume" quality which seems to be prevalent on youtube with the varying levels of quality of recording equipment used by content creators , I've recently downloaded a volume booster app and I have to say its incredibly useful especially when using ear buds which seems to effect the sound quality even more. I didn't hold out much hope so was pleasantly surprised to get the boost in volume that I did. Some have equalisers to tailor the sound even better as I like a lot of low end (bass) and less high end (treble) but it's worth a try... Oh, and the "auto volume" function is a must for keeping the volume level the same across all sources, so no "audio explosion" when the adverts begin lol.
Not much. You know, taking us Russians back into Stone Age, attacking the neighbouring country, threatening to use nuclear weapons... The usual shenanigans.
If I had a thought bubble that appeared over my head during someone's conversation about Vladimir Putin it would show the wide Putin walking meme from a few years back.
Everyone should go watch Oliver Stone’s documentary about Ukraine that RU-vid all of a sudden decided couldn’t be up on the platform anymore. It’s up on Rumble.
I would say he is biased, so I wouldn't trust much. Because his infamous "interview" with geezer was so damn ridiculous, it was obvious for any russian it was payed by russian gov for pp looking cool and intimidating, being asked wright questions. So, personally, I wouldn't believe one word about Ukraine from him and his crew.
Omg totally reissuing that sweater joke at the end! And this was great, excited to hear the next one. So glad I found your channel all those years ago, and that you came back to RU-vid making new videos!
I could sense an upload from you, and lo and behold search your name and you have uploaded and it is a topic I expected. Thank you again for sharing more excellent content.
You should have mentioned how the US kinda helped in putting Putin in power. The US had interfered in the 1995 Russian elections to elect Yeltsin, which is one of the reasons Putin is incharge today.
Can we all have a look down the back of our sofa’s for Georg’s missing “e”? You’re one of my favourite RU-vidrs. I still reckon referring to someone as RU-vidr is basically calling them a potato. Not that you’re a potato. I’ll get my coat.
I bought a knock off Tommy Hilfiger polo shirt in China. It was so good I bought a real one back in my home country for about 20 times the cost of the knock off. The real one lasted 6 months before the stitching came out. I still have and wear the knock off nearly 20 years later.
Russia is leaning towards the Chinese approach, industrialisation and one party rule, not communist per se but not turning away from communist and tsarist Russia ideals. Leaning but not running since people are not as oppressed by the upper classes as pre revolution and times are different, globalisation and all. If I was living in Russia I would beat the drum of democracy or just leave, the alternative is a police state.
@@ennuied China and Russia had totally different approaches. The Chinese Communist party very slowly and in a very controlled (even oppressive) manner allowed SOME privatization, as long as the big industrialists remained loyal to the party. Russia on the other hand had no plan at all when the Soviet Union fell, but swiftly privatized everything under the advise of Western financiers that was hoping to dominate a new market. This instead created the opportunity for a limited group of influential former Communist officials and managers to scoop up all the assets very cheaply, crush any domestic or foreign contenders by criminal means, and then become the oligarchs of today. This of course left the Russian society in chaos and poverty, but that created the opportunity for "a firm hand" leader like Putin to ascend to the throne as a sort of guarantor of "order" - supported by the oligarchs but pretending to keep them in check for the benefit of the public. So totally opposite stories.
@@54tisfaction different stories, but stories have a continuation, I think Russia is looking up to how China is managing its population, and fat pockets are more spies than anything, their freedom is relative. I might be insane but I will not be surprised if China Russia and North Korea will become ideologically closer in the near future.
Really love your videos for being well researched, and only started watching this one, but please, don't use Vlad as a short form of "Vladimir" - it's actually Vova. Vlad is short for Vladislav. Not supposed to be a hater comment, just pointing out a common mistake made by non-slavic people.
Before i watch this: This video appeared as the very first thing in the top-left corner of my screen, as I opened my youtube page. My initial reaction: Oh boy. I am going to love this. EDIT: The first four minutes strike especially hard, i would say.
I admit, as an American (and also still a teenager) I wasn't paying attention much to the post-fall Federation. But I do clearly remember the Kursk event in 2000. And how the leaked video of that distraught mother of a submariner who was demanding to know what happened -- if her son was still alive -- was openly drugged during the highly restricted media event and yanked out forcibly. And it was like, holy crap, Putin just watched as this happened, this guy is bad juju. Still sticks out to me this day, and here we are, 20+ years later, watching him invade yet another country.
Very Interesting perspective, from what i could gather in the russian community the ,,consensus,, seems to be that he got his position mostly by happenstance, since he was basically some nobody in the KGB and Jelzin needed someone to safe face since russia was basically doomed after him.
Despite how "Pro-Russian" folks see me; this is a great mix of humorous jabs and attention to detail and nuance that I feel is tremendously lacking from a lot of people. I will catch up to the next part, but I still truly dig your work. Keep it up.
7:27 The FSB is not all; it is half of the old KGB, the domestic intelligence wing. The SVR is the foreign half ("First Chief Directorate") and NOBODY IN THE WEST TALKS ABOUT IT. There is also the GRU (military intelligence) and that has been around since Catherine the Great. NOBODY IN THE WEST TALKS ABOUT IT EITHER.
Because when you try to sell a narrative (as media does), you need to keep the story simple and to the point. Too many acronyms and historical context would just confuse the average Joe, hence the focus on the "antagonist", the evil KGB (or whatever)
I had to briefly stop the video to check if Shirehorses' frontman, Mark Radcliffe actually has a second career as a movie producer. "Fancy a brew?" Hopefully, next week's video will be, "Where are they now? Vladimir Putin: Yesterday's Man."
