I love your channel, but you really should clarify "Fuck Russia" with "Fuck the Russian government... I've got no problems with the Russian people. The people never have any say in shit like this. You know that.
I do not understand the relationship with alcohol and the Russian people as a whole, could you do a full long explanation please! It would get many views from America ♥️
@DavidStickneymaybe if you had to deal with another country oppressing your lifestyle and people until the fall of Soviet Union. Then constantly being screwed with since Putin once he took over. Then just randomly decides to de-nazify your country just to look better before an election.
@@purpleldv966 Soviet aviators were very respectful to American counterparts. Love of flight is the same, regardless the borders. I doubt that they would present anything they would not be happy to consume themselves.
I love the addition of the 'family archive' footage in these videos. It adds a personal touch that you don't see with many military focused channels. Also, the juxtaposition of old soviet things with upbeat narration always give me a smile.
One of the stories I have to think about regarding soviet soldiers and alcohol is the one by Michael Schlosser. He was an East German citizen who wanted to flee to West Germany. He builds a homemade aircraft to fly over the inner German border for that purpose. But he had to test if the plane was even capable of flying. So, in 1983, we went to a Soviet military base north of Dresden on a Sunday because he knew most of the personnel there were off duty then. Well, he arrives there with his disassembled plane in his truck, and suddenly, seven red army soldiers come out of the woods and, of course, ask him what the fuck he is doing. But he brought something with him: two bottles of vodka. They instantly become more friendly after receiving this welcome gift. He gives them some made-up story about testing the plane for a TV show, and they help him assemble the plane. He did a short test and took off with the plane just two meters, but that was enough to know he could fly with it over the border. Meanwhile, the soldiers sat on the grass, drinking the vodka and congratulating him on the successful test. Finally, they disassembled the plane with Schlosser, said goodbye, and returned to their base. Ultimately, one of his colleagues reported him to Stasi, and he was arrested, but the soldiers never reported the incident. The story's moral is that if you do illegal things on a military base, always bring alcohol with you.
@@andrewhammel8218 oof, to be so sure you are right and yet be so very wrong. Why don't you go ahead and Google "Inner German Border." Here, I copy pasted some for ya: "The inner German border (German: innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch-deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. "
Pilots would also report encountering icing conditions and inform the ground that they were activating de-ice, but in reality, they were siphoning off the deice fluid when they return to base - the flip side of that same coin.
@AndyBonesSynthPro Mine too! The rum and scotch were easier. I got good with food coloring in order to mask the diluted hue. Thankfully, my parents were alcoholics so bottles never lasted too long 😂
Its not about alcoholism. In Soivet times alcohol had more value then the ruble. It was currency. Even up to mid 2000s a bottle of vodka or wiskey can get you a good care in a hospiral for example. This is what happens when the population is poor. Bartering and bribes takeover.
@@Nyx_2142Hell, you could compare it to an economy based on chocolate. While yes it’d be a currency, it’d be an edible currency and then get stomach issues because of it.
Not gonna lie, I immediately broke out into uncontrollable laughter when you mentioned how the MiG-29 which your father eventually picked was actually made by "Sukhoi" or dry with regards to its alcohol. I don't think I'll ever get away with mentioning the Flanker, Felon, and company without thinking of that translation anymore. (The Dry D-27 Flanker, the best fighter in the Soviet Union, everyone!) I still am blown away at the absolute wealth of first-hand experiences both you and your father had with regards to aviation in general, particularly at how your father flew highly-advanced fighter jets for a living. Like, come on; just receiving enough booze to fill up entire *bathtubs* and a jar collection filled on top of all that without paying several figures for it is virtually unheard of outside the Union! Definitely gonna look out for Comrade Kroupsky when he appears.
> I don't think I'll ever get away with mentioning the Flanker, Felon, and company without thinking of that translation anymore. An actual declassified nomenclature of soviet military aircrafts: Dry, Demi-sec, and Brut 🤣
@@TrolerWT There's at least one site on the web that claims it was a Syrian MiG-21 pilot that actually invented the Cobra Maneuver. No idea if the claim is accurate...
@@davidg3944 Im not saying Pugachev created the cobra since the first cobra maneouver was created by swedish J35 pilots in order to counter the drag force
_My_ father was Royal Navy, _old school_ Royal Navy. He remembers being paid in alcohol each morning and the crew spending each day pretty shit-faced 😂 Rum and grog for breakfast. And it was used as currency too, with tots and it's sub divisions being traded for favours and other luxuries. (cigarettes, etc)
Decades after the practise ceased, I was about 10 to 12 years old at the time, my father and an old navy friend secured one of the bottles of the remaining Pusser's Rum, left over after "Black Tot Day", the last day of the Navy Tot. It tasted incredible, I'd never tasted anything that good before and I never will again (unless I buy one of the _very_ expensive remaining bottles) Indeed it was very moreish, I can see why they stopped.
@@jonathanvandermark5950 There is a company that still makes it to the original recipe, yes. Doesn't taste like that original bottle I tried though. No idea why.
@@MostlyPennyCat Age. Old ship booze was bulk stored in live wood barrels, because that was just what they had available to store it in. Science now knows that booze stored for long times in live wood barrels gets fucking ***good***.
My dad was at Checkpoint Charlie from 1986-1987. He used to trade alcohol and cigarettes with the East Germans. From my understanding, by this time, the East Germans really didn’t care anymore. The American personal could go into East Germany during the day as long as they were in uniform and followed set rules. He said Soviet cigarettes were terrible and their vodka was often watered down. He kept some of the bottles.
Beyond hand-made stuff that originally was there, Soviet cigarettes were divided into bad and not as bad, depending on who's making them. A joke my father told me: The director of 'Dukat' tobacco factory comes to director of 'Yava' tobacco factory and asks: "Why people want to buy your cigarettes?" "What do your cigarettes have?" "Well, we do the usual - we use ground bay leaf, stale coffee, factory dust and shredded old paper." "So, what we are doing, is that we take ground bay leaf, stale coffee, factory dust and shredded old paper, and throw a grasp of tobacco in there." "You're actually putting tobacco in there?"
@@TenositSergeich I'm starting to get the feeling that that missing Kholkoz tobacco would somehow end up in hand-rolled cigarettes. Call it seizing the means of production.
You know your authoritaian government is about to fall when alcohol and cigarettes - the two things keeping people from overthrowing their oppressive government - are being watered down. In the book 1984 mentions such problems. People misunderstand who the book is geared towards and don't realize it was written to tell wannabe technocrats and authoritarians that their society will fail once they find out its easier alienate and punish honest reformers rather than make painful reforms.
Russian aviation reminds me of a classic Ronald Reagan joke that he heard from Russia/USSR. "There's only four things wrong with Soviet agriculture: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall."
@@TenositSergeich haha. This joke is still a thing, but now about city services. You know, each winter it snows, surprisingly, and they are never prepared for it.
I've had the misfortune to drink straight backwoods moonshine on a few occasions (I was a very stubborn young man lol) and it makes my stomach turn every time I think of Soviet aviators drinking straight ethanol or ethanol and glycerine out of plastic cups🤢 I do not wanna know what that hangover was like...
Slavs are just built different when it comes to ethanol. I've read somewhere that genetically they have bigger quantities of liver enzyme responsible for dealing with alcohol. I've personally seen some of them drink lethal doses of alcohol in western standards, with no serious consequences apart from hangover
warsaw pact country: no alcohol before training missions or alarm duty. Other than that was a vodkafest. Especially for fallen comrades that went down in flight accidents, which in the 90's was common, in particular for mig21. It really was a cultish brotherhood, with good and bad.
The bathtub full of spirits was a common occurrence. But you kind of failed to imagine the reality of such storage of spirits: 1. The horrible eye-watering stench, that clung to skin and clothes; 2. Not only inability to take a shower (washing oneself is doable with a kettle and a washbowl), but also inability to wash clothes - soviet people had no washing machines and housewives washed clothes manually in a bathtub. 3. There were cases, when after a week or two of inconvenience, a wife would drain the bathtub to do the washing, and than risked being on the receiving end of a homicide by the enterprising husband! 150 liters of vodka was at least 2 months worth of salary! P.S. I always assumed that "шило" (piercing awl) was also named after Tu-22, as the plane had a shape of a tailor's awl and often jokingly called that way. P.P.S Glycerol should be easy to remove by distillation.
There's other videos in this channel where he references that his dad was a pilot and shares family pictures, so I have no reason to doubt these pictures.
The problem was a bit deeper than that - Alcohol was a big deal in Soviet culture. Not just as a beverage, but as a currency. The aviators weren't just getting the perk of some free booze, it was a literal social currency that added to their status.
they would still find a way; soviet soldiers in afghanistan made alcohol from boot polish and toothpaste. personally, i can't say i'd have liked to try it.
@@sergiykyivuaMany people often think Methanol (often used in car antifreezes iirc) is just Ethanol...until they get stuff like permanent blindness. Had the Soviets used that, a "Revolt of the Aviators" would have inevitably followed.
I heard a joke a long time ago that back in the Soviet Union, a traffic stop involved the officer trying to determine how much blood was in the driver’s alcohol stream, instead of the other way around.
Heavy drinking in the remote and bleak duty stations reminds me of being stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas. There was nothing to do but drink and get DUIs.
I confirm partly from my own experience, my now former friend when he was here on a visit, he brought "wipers from a helicopter" He worked in aircraft repair shops that service Mil helicopters (Mi-8 / Mi-171 and other Hip derivates). As part of the supply of spare parts, they were also supplied with fillings for winter operation. Which included a de-icing compound for spraying the front windshield and main rotor blades - 99% pure alcohol without additives. They called it "The Yakutsk brandy". We drank it out of large shot glasses sprinkled with a bit of fizzy multivitamin powder...
And there we have the difference between western and the russian armies, my brother is in the Bundeswehr and he has a bunch of shell casings (I don't know what exactly) sawn of so that they have the dimensions of a shot glas. And tbh, I much rather drink factory made booze out of "recycled" military supply, than to drink literally recycled military supply out of a factory made glas. (All though the aviation nerd in me is now rather curious, wouldn't mind and I guess it can hardly be worse than the cheap vodka they sell in the stores)
@@cyberfutur5000 Great idea! :D I had a similar idea just this fall at a shooting competition when I met a guy there who reworks 12.5x99mm shells to historical black powder casings. The idea of a shot glass immediately came to mind... But as an aviation autist, I won't be satisfied with anything other than 20mm vulcan shells at least.
8:00 - "This liquid was poured into the aircraft's landing gear braking system before each flight using a simple hose and nozzle." Trust me, this made it VERY easy for them take a few sips and pass the hose around! 😂🤣 I seriously believe the procurement department had a headache trying to keep up with the supply of this "tasty brake fluid"!
As a veteran and an Airman I can say that alcohol was a crutch almost all of us used to get through stress, grief, and fear. Sadly too many of us lost the fight with it. I can’t wait for your new channel! My prikrasny zhena is from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. I love learning about the Soviet Union.
In the middle of the Russian winter, police come across a guy snoring with his face in the snow: - Hey, you,stand up and go home, or you'll freeze to death. - Worry not, I've been drinking antifreeze.
pretty crazy how long they used ethyl alcohol for cooling, when other nations created and used specific purpose synthetic fluid cooling solutions made from fluorocarbons and polyalphaolefin (PAO), etc..
You did not just ignore the fact that they were a literal communist state for almost as long. They love red flags and failed social experiments, they were going out of their way to choose the wrong answer every time, so it is no surprise here.
Mig-25 was a plane designed to intercept the cancelled B-70 Valkyr (which is cancelled because USAF overestimated Soviet SAM capability. Soviet Air Force knew full well their SAM cannot hit Valkyr) with the ability to go very fast and very high to fire its missiles and return to base, and it's not good for anything else. However, the US Air Force misinterpreted the flight characteristic of the plane and thought it's a high maneuverable all around fighter, so they designed F-15 to counter that. It wasn't until a Soviet defector flew his plane to Japan that US Air Force finally realized what the plane was for. Mig-29 on the other hand is everything Western analysists thought Mig-25 was supposed to be.
I read a book about Victor Belienko's life and when he got sent to Asia to fly Mig-25s he said that is was even common for them to fake flight hours to get alcohol and they would dump tons of fuel into the ground and even put it on pilots log books so that they could keep the alcohol. It was pretty shitty for him but he dident drink much and he ended up just running after his wife left him with his son. He was basically just to honest to survive in the USSR and the only reason he made it was because of sheer performance or respect that prevented superiors from punishing him too severely when he would point out the very obvious bullshittery that was going on.
Sorry for the delay; life got a bit hectic. I’ve just finished the first script, and the video will be about 34 minutes long. I’m aiming to have it ready to upload in the next two weeks.
@@Ob1sdarkside I have to admit, I thought the same. Either that or they’d go blind or have digestive issues! But I’ve got to admit that I still don’t understand how, once the issue of crew drinking the alcoholic deicer, hydraulic fluid or whatever was discovered by their superiors, they didn’t get the manufacturers to start including a highly toxic additive. Obviously they would have to slap on warning labels on the new batches and tell the ground crews and pilots that the new batches are now toxic but that would have effectively ended the practice of drinking the hydraulic fluid. At least that would be the case if the crews didn’t somehow discover a way to effectively remove the toxic additive. And frankly given that some of these men would have been aircraft mechanics and the general inventiveness of humanity when it comes to discovering ways to make drinkable alcohol, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they managed it. Several times. Until the manufacturers finally figured out how to stop the toxic additive being removed. Thankfully at the airport I work at, although I’m confident that there is a secret alcoholic somewhere in our ranks because that’s just human nature, most of us have a huge aversion to coming to work impaired. I mean it’s impossible to bring booze from home because we have to go through staff security every time we go airside. (It’s like passenger security except far quicker because we’re just going to work for the day and don’t bring luggage. Plus we know better than to put anything that won’t pass security into our bags. Even the pilots and flight attendants with their travel cases get through fast.) And although I suppose one could use his/her break or a lull in the shift to buy booze in the duty free area, we’re excluded from the duty free deal so booze would be hideously expensive and the staff would very quickly notice the same employee coming in almost every day to buy booze. Technical difficulties aside however… Most of us have a deep aversion to coming into work impaired is even if s/he successfully concealed their tipsy/drunken state from security and his/her colleagues, being impaired on the apron/ramp is very dangerous. Where personnel on foot can walk is very tightly controlled by painted lines of different colours on the ground. Remembering all the colours, hatch mark zones and double/single lines might be difficult if impaired. And walking into the wrong areas at the wrong times can pretty easily lead to injuries or unaliving yourself. Especially if you’re not fully paying attention to your surroundings. Trip over chocks, get hit by vehicles that can reverse but can’t see fully behind them, (almost happened right in front of me once, thankfully I saw the flash of a high vis vest and signalled the driver to stop) get run over by stepping into the equivalent of a road, get jetblasted off your feet or the worst case scenario, ingested into the jet engine of an A320 or even a 787. If there’s one piece of advice that I give to any newbie is. “Stay alert all the time while on the apron/ramp. Listen and look before you move.” It’s pretty obvious really but a drunk person could easily get it wrong. Heck, most of us tell the supervisor and rest of the team if they’ve taken any medication that might affect them such as codiene. Then the rest of us keep an extra eye on that person or they get assigned some or the “less risky” tasks. Consequently, I find the Soviet ground crew approach to be… interesting. Lol.
As a rocket nerd I recall reading something about Wernher von Braun having serious problems with his workers at Peenemünde drinking the ethanol fuel used in his V2 rockets. As a deterrent they tried adding methanol to the fuel mix resulting in several cases of blindness and death.
That happened among early US Navy Submariners too, the alcohol fuel for the torpedos was part methanol, and sailors were going blind. So they switched to Croton oil as a deterrent. And submariners got better at constructing makeshift stills....
When I was in the British Army there was a well known, but falling into disuse by then, practice of pouring Brasso (brass polish) through half a loaf of bread as a filter and drinking the clear liquid that came out of the other end. Almost pure alcohol.
МАСАНДРА: Микоян Авиацию Снабдил Алкоголем. Народ Доволен Работой Авиаконструктора. (Mikoyan Supplied Aviation with Alcohol. The People are Happy with the Engineer's Work).
My dad was a Weapons Controller in the USAF, he retired a field-grade officer and had a great many stories about the Cold War, one of the things he mentioned to me was that, at any given time, up to 1/3 of MiG-25s stationed in the arctic regions were down due to crews drinking up all the de-icing fluid.
I've heard first hand accounts of US army soldiers in Iraq pulling out the internals of TOW missiles and filling it with beer. It'll be warm by the time they got to their posts but beer is beer.
Another outstanding episode from Paper Skies, and one which touched me personally. During the late 1970's to mid-80's I was an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S.A.F. and as such had a very high security clearance (Top Secret SCI, SI or "codeword") and I worked Soviet Air Defense Forces (IA-PVO) for my entire career. I was stationed at Misawa AB, Japan with the 6920th ESG from 1981-1982. We were the unit that collected the intel during the terrible tragic shoot-down of Korean Airlines flight 007. Although I was not on duty when it happened, I did have access to all the raw data and reports from that night, and, years later, would read the final, very highly classified report issued by the NSA on that event. That was a long time ago, long enough for much of it to be declassified. I don't know if it's been a long enough time to joke about it, but when I heard the narrator describe the SU-15 interceptor as the "...infamous Boeing Killer" I literally laughed my ass off. Heck, I'm still laughing. Well done. Well done, indeed. Thank you.
Oh yes I am from Slovakia and I work in aviation, and here is very famous drink Yakutsk Brandy, its alcohol from L-410, mixed with šumák (šumák is powder with flavour orange, citrus etc. for non alcoholic instatn lemonade something like a TANG :D)
Another enjoyable and informative video. Thanks. I did read about some non Russian Soviet military supply drivers who got drunk drinking the antifreeze used in their trucks. Some of them actually got their eyesight back.
I know I’m late, but I didn’t subscribe until you mentioned the second channel and as a fellow Soviet American I subscribed solely for the purpose of leaving the following comment: Make that second channel. The fangs are all friends among one another 🤙🏼
Looking forward to the new channel. Your perspective is greatly appreciated! Also, my girlfriend confirms the stories of the Supersonic Booze Carrier, which her father served on...
Про многое из сказанного отец намекал, но подробно не рассказывал. Жаль, что на этот канал я набрёл уже после его смерти (ковид). Он был военным лётчиком и можно было бы обсудить в деталях. Такова жизнь. Зато показанные кадры возвращают в прошлое - закрытый военный городок, аэродром, все знакомые - военные семьи.
Wojak.jpg. Тоже временами представляю, как с дедушкой можно было бы обсудить те или иные темы с Ютуба. Чувство ухода тех поколений вызывает тоску, уже и сам больше не спросишь и не послушаешь, да и в обществе контексты той эпохи превращаются из общепонятных в исторические, малоинтересные. "Мне сказали, в порядке исключения для поощрения" - чего?.. И умом понимаешь, что это не плохо, что так всегда было, - и сам бы не захотел разбирать шутки каких-нибудь наполеоновских времён, - но... воспоминания временами нападают :) А с другой стороны - если копать и копать прошлое, тоже... дисбаланс. Нового интересного тоже очень много, надо жить своё. Такова жизнь indeed.
Название "ликёр Шасси" в фильме отчасти пародирует французский ягодный ликёр Crème de cassis. Правда, он из смородины, а в фильме по-моему использовали малиновый сироп )
Your videos are wonderful and have a great mix of facts with humor but this time it was special with so much footage from your family. It's priceless!! Really appreciate you sharing them with us.
My ex's dad lived in east Germany and told me about how he worked in a shop but they never had anything to work on so they would drink the ethanol used for cleaning
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe goes into some detail about American test pilots and their drinking habits. I will give this to the soviets by comparison: most of them after a night of drinking, didn't also have access to fast cars.
Hey Paper Skies! Which Slavic/formerly Soviet countries should I visit?? I have been to Poland and loved it, but I don’t know what should be next on my list! The history is so cool.
I have to say that every video of the Soviet Union and modern Russia that I watch just fill me with dread and temporary depression. Its like the place's population was made up of the equivalent of American fast food workers with some nerds in the background keeping things from completely falling apart. A real crabs-in-the-bucket kind of place where suffering was shared one bottle at a time.
@@volo870 I understand C4 is really stable, that it won't explode without a detonator, but I can't imagine it tastes good. Same with Torpedo juice and the Soviet Airforce Wine-list, they all sound like they would taste absolutely vile... but then, I get the sense that these are people who really don't care what it tastes like...
Apparently there was a method to get rid of the Glycerine component of the brake fluid: You took a really cold metal pole, placed one end into a container, and then ran the brake fluid down the pole into the container. The Glycerine would stick to the pole, while the ethanol would continue on down into the container. Sounded like it reduced chances of the shits by some magnitude.
