Inside Gorbachev's USSR: Looking for Perestroika. This 1990 documentary explores the rocky (and ultimately ill-fated) progress of perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union.
It's amazing how people all want the same thing, no matter what Country they live in: Decent Salary, roof over their head, and a chance to provide a better life for their family in the future.
This is a priceless look into the final days of the USSR. It really sums up why it happened much better than just reading about it. Hearing the actual people talking about their problems and utter desperation to have a better life in contrast with the worthless -people- bureaucrats "in charge" is telling.
@@shinmen.takezoRegulated, I'd say a lot more opportunity to have one. Pure unregulated capitalism is or can be just as bad as communism with a few differences.
@@shinmen.takezo Anything is better than the hellhole depicted in here. Everything is so run down, shoddily constructed, mismanaged, incompetent and/or dirty, takes an animal to live like this. Or someone who has never known anything else. The supposedly terrible 90's were in a way a huge boost to quality of life of the horde. At least they gained food options other than rotten, trampled potatoes, smelly fish wrapped in pravda and a loaf of bread.
I was 6 years of age when this was filmed. I remember a little bit of USSR. The empty grocery stores my mother took me to. My footsteps echoed down empty halls and I liked running around there. It was sunny and empty. There were piles of milk cartons. The shelves were full of cans of some preserves and juice nobody wanted to buy but that was it. There was always bread though and it was always fresh. But aside from that buying something decent was a challenge.
И в то время я был ребенком в Греции, у нас был капитализм, но я рос из бедной семьи. Помню, что в 1980-х было хорошо как для богатых, так и для бедных. С 1996 года банки начали выдавать нам кредиты. К к 2007 году они задолжали всему миру. Тогда я понял, что падение Советского Союза было плохо и для капитализма. Анархия никогда не хороша. Китаю удалось изменить экономическую модель, не падая, как Советский Союз. Если вы все еще в России, хотел бы услышать ваше мнение о 1980-х. И лучше ли сейчас для многих людей, чем тогда.
@@user-gu8oe5ds4q я уехал из России в августе этого года. Разумеется сейчас люди живут лучше чем в 80х. Сейчас, даже не смотря на войну и санкции в России намного больше возможностей для простого человека, чем во времена СССР. В 80х нельзя было вести бизнес, нельзя было легально снимать или сдавать квартиру, нельзя было ездить за границу и даже в некоторые города внутри СССР. Переехать в другой город было очень сложно. Я уже не говорю о всеобщем дефиците и бедности.
I was a nerdy young girl taking Russian in college. Pretty sure I saw this when it first aired. I went to the USSR in 1988. Empty shelves were everywhere, even in Moscow. I wondered how everyone didn't starve...was not yet aware of the dacha & private garden plot culture of Slavic people.
Поэтому выживут те, кто имеет землю и непротив на ней работать. Поэтому наша семья обзавелась домом с большим участком земли, погребом, есть корова. В те годы мы выжили, потому что мои родители очень много работали, добывая пропитание. Теперь я обязана делать это, чтобы помочь себе и своим детям.
@@tat.1299 genuine question. Given the system at that time, how did hard work lead to increased pay? Was it black market or some sort of free trade that may not have been allowed? I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but really want to know how that works in situation like this.
I would love to see a documentary where we re-visit the same people today. I remember a documentary in where a journalist went to the DDR town Rostock and interviewed workers and others about their life. This would have been late 80s. She went back in the second decade of the 2000s and met a lot of the same people. The title: "From us to me" (2016)
Those two kids from the Uralmash factory workers room are around my age. They are in their late 30ies or early 40ies now. Hopefully they made a life for themselves by moving to Moscow or even abroad. Those students singing Katyusha in a bus on their way to a potato field reminded me of my mother. She is dressed like this on old photographs I had of her. The first man on the left from Abalkin in the Kremlin conference room is Grigory Yavlinsky. Then a young democrat and economic adviser to the government he later founded a liberal party Yabloko and has been in its leadership to this day. This party, once influential, is today nothing but a token opposition with no influence or public profile to speak of and is only allowed to exist as a decoration, a simulacrum of democratic institutions. Yavlinsky (born in Lviv by the way) condemned the war with Ukraine in its first days but hasn't been much heard from ever since. He is widely believed to be a spent force as a politician for a long time now. This documentary makes me deeply sad for my country. So much hope was in the air in those days, so much potential was unleashed in the 90ies. So much progress has been made. In 2000s and early 2010s I thought that everything will keep getting better and better. We were happy and content, enjoying life, buying cars, traveling the world. Who would have thought back then that it would all go up in flames. That it would all end in a bloody massacre. So many generations of Russians have despaired in their motherland before. We thought we were the generation destined to live happily at long last. Alas, that was not to be.
@@Ergilion I'm trying to find the right words to answer, without sounding shallow or using some cliché. It's not easy. I really appreciate your honest reflection and feedback - thank you very much! Russia seems to be a country with fantastic nature, resources, culture and people, so much potential. It makes me sad to think about all the suffering that people must endure, wherever it is. Clichè? Maybe, but it's also the truth. I wish you all the best!
I was 20 years old in 1990 and watched almost as much PBS as the networks back then and I don't know how I missed even hearing of this documentary then. but now, thanks to you Guardia, I can play catch up.
Hello, please tell me if communism is better or capitalism, I don't mean the Soviet Union, was it good or not I am 23 years old and Iranian and I think a combination of both is the best
This is another propaganda creation. There was lots of betrayal and organized sabotage from the people in the leadership. I have lived through those times and no good words for traitors like for gorbachev and yeltsin from me. Until gorbachev time we had pretty good and constantly improving life in the USSR.
I remember coming to the US in the late 90-ies and watching this type of bs propaganda creations, including on PBS. And it was shocking. They just painted the USSR in the darkest possible way, whereas me growing up over there I had the happiest childhood and experienced nothing as dark and gloomy as portrayed in these "documentaries". And I am from a very average Soviet/Russian family.
It blows my mind everytime I think about it, it always blows my mind that the party put people who knew NOTHING about certain industry in charge of those industries.
Thats how it used to be under communism, now you have a different type of socialism implemented mainly in America, and that is Corporatism, where untalented, uneducated imbeciles take high positions only because they are esasy to control and will obey every oder without questoning, and as long as they suck up to their boss they will have siccess guarantreed. While the taletned, dedicated employees with excellent KPI's are fired only because of a different opinion on politics or how the company operates.
Cabinet reshuffles ("ministerial musical chairs") in our democratic countries achieve the same result - ministers in charge of industries who know buggerall.
@@TomasFunes-rt8rd Yes exactly that's why you have career politicians as part of government positions they know nothing about, you can have a woman as minister of defense when women can't be conscripted into the military or a person as minister of education who has never been a teacher or university professor , ridiculous
Good luck with that no more McDonald’s now it’s Russian McDonald’s with some cheap logos ripped off same taste different design despite the sanctions Russians still love their McDonald’s even if it’s American and capitalistic or western despite Russia, closing them self off they seem to still like western delicacies
Mark Masarsky has sadly passed away Jan 27th 2021, at the age of 80. He also participated in working group of final edits of Russia's constitution in 1993.
In death, his corpse could probably mix more concrete than his enterprise ever did while he was alive, so rapidly must it be spinning on account of the liberties currently being taken, day in, day out, with that constitution! ( Even ignoring for the moment the fact that the hands that held the pens used to frame that constitution were guided firmly, pantograph style, by the iron grip of American Neo~Con and Big Business interests _anyway..._ Not that I would attach any blame to Mazarsky for that.
@Obiterarbiter One of the people in this show Mark Masarsky went onto help write the Russian constitution and was involved in companies buying up gold for the Russian government's gold reserves so his experience with the failed gold mining venture in the 70s and early 80s came in handy.
One other person who appeared in this episode Igor Stogonoff the guy who worked at Uralmash died of a heart attack 😳 in 1991 , it's mentioned in the other episode, called After Gorbachev's USSR Russia 1992. The guy in charge of the Soviet farming industry Starodubtsev's brother ended up being one of the people arrested for the failed coup of August 1991 that helped bring the USSR to an end & in 1993 he founded the Agrarian Party of Russia to continue to promote collectivism in the Russian farming industry, I'm guessing the Starodubtsev sibling who appeared in this episode from 1990 & in the episode from 1992 also joined that political party since their ideology is in line with his views.
I remember travelling to Moscow in the early-to-mid 1990's. Went to two types of food stores. Privately owned western styled grocery stories where most Russians coud not afford to shop and where the "day's" currency conversion rate in rubles to DM or USD was prominently displayed at prices on individual items were in either DM or USD. Then there were the Soviet style stores. I was amazed at the line system in the Soviet style stores with all the lines, one line to orde, one line to pickup and a final line at which to pay. Going in to the store I was assigned to get into the paying line while those I went to the store with got into either the ordering or picking up line. At that time, the Russians were experts at waiting in line. My wife's family lived in a smaller city and grew a lot of food at the Dacha.
@@100KeepIt100In socialist states of America. If you’re not in line, you just hurry to fund inflation. Must be fun counting your currencies in the thousands or millions when you check-out.
Currency conversion was the death of USSR. A closed economic system with foreign trade only done by gov can eliminate inflation. Under Brezhnev life wasn't bad like Gorby years.
@@medwayhospitalprotestthere is nothing to stop any American coal miner from becoming Senator or President either, if he can find the time and the supporters. That's not easy, but do you think the same exact thing doesn't apply to Soviet miners? How many coal miners became high ranking national leaders in the USSR, please give me a list. It's no less likely in either place. Mostly because people with the intelligence and ambition to end up in a place like that rarely end up being coal miners.
When Gorbachev visited the US for the first time, he thought we had built a bunch of fake things to impress him on his tour. So he requested a visit to a random supermarket during his trip, a random unscheduled stop so he could catch us lying and see what America really looked like. When they stopped he was astounded in disbelief at the sheer amount of stock and produce that market had for sale and that all the food was actually real. In the USSR, all of that was just propaganda, here in the US we were actually living the way they fakely bragged about…
For context on this: It was a rural grocery store in Kansas. Not a lot of people nearby. He was surprised at the following things: 1. The sheer abundance of food 2. The variety of foods 3. The fact that there was a freezer section 4. The fact that there was ice cream in that freezer section. He genuinely couldn’t believe a small grocery store in basically bumfuck nowhere would have the amount of random food it did, let alone the fact that there would be ice cream. It had 2 meanings: it meant there was an abundance of food that a luxury like ice cream could just…be bought at a fairly affordable price, and that people had enough room to store food that they could just throw a tub of ice cream in the freezer. I believe he had a quote about it, something along the lines of “the Russian people can’t know about this, or they’ll tear down the government.”
These people have nothing, yet they had hospitality. It's in a way, sad. We so so many russians here, who despite a hard century are hoping for a better tomorrow. Fighting for it. Today we see where it led, and it's a tragedy in 3 parts.
That's pretty common with farmers and nomads. Life was extremely hard so turning away guests could end in that person dying, so those cultures often had informal if not formal rules of hospitality. In many Slavic countries that involved offering guests bread and salt, in others it involved offering bread and milk or tea. Islam was a religion founded largely by nomads and they have laws both for the guests and the host, Jews and Christians are similar with the guest required to be thankful for aid and the host required to treat guests well and welcome them with open arms. Rural farmers and other hard working poorer people tend to observe those rules much closer, Ironically its often wealthier and less traditional people (especially middle and upper class city dwellers) who disregard those customs.
things were going so well, the better tomorrow had arrived and then one dictator decides its not enough and now the world can see the better tomorrow being replaced by russias current system
It's funny but I once read a story of a Native American visiting a city for the first time. He was shocked at how little went to waste with the factories using everything, even boiling down the hooves for glue. Despite the image of Natives putting everything to use it wasnt uncommon for most of the carcass to go to waste; they had a hard time boiling large bones since they had small pots and they couldnt really store broth or other things so they fed them to dogs or left them behind whereas the factories could put everything to use. In modern farming they're always looking at ways to improve yields so they even develop ways of making things easier to harvest and ways to make things more efficient. Communism tends to be extremely inefficient even down to farming in part because they lack entrepreneurialism, you cant criticize things or offer up ideas to improve things, theres no competition, and the rigid corrupt system is often resistant to change. You can see how inefficient things are under communism when you compare yields of Russian farmers to American ones, the Americans end up with yields several times that of their Soviet counterparts in similar environments. You cant see it when you compare East Germany to West Germany too: they started out similar prior to and during WW2, both were almost completely devastated and had to essentially rebuild from scratch so they started out very similar in 1945. By 1950 the capitalist West was already rebuilding faster and had a per capita income significantly higher than the communist East. The West continued to grow faster than the East and by 1989 the West's per capita income was several times that of the East. Communist apologists will often try to claim that things like welfare and benefits such as healthcare and housing were great under communism but you can see how poor healthcare and housing were by comparing average lifespans: capitalist countries like the US were slightly higher in the early 1900s until the 1950s, but countries like the US saw rapidly rising lifespans while communist countries like Russia rose much slower, stagnating in the 60s, 70s, and 80s while capitalists were living longer and longer. By the time the USSR collapsed the average Soviet was living around 67 years less putting them at roughly #90 in the world compared to the US at around #25 of the longest living people in the world.
Once communism is experienced, conceding to western interests is the path to capitalism. Then you have the 90’s, not a good time for the post Soviet world.
Communism has never been experienced 💀, this was Marxist-Leninist State Socialism, and even then, it was better than the way Eastern Europe is now, so many elders talk about how much better life was under the Soviet Union.
That’s bc most of the liberal media support socialism so they won’t speak the truth about how that form of government does nothing but create poverty starvation and death. But that’s bc they live in a capitalist country where they have all the benefits and freedoms to hate the very system that made them all wealthy
Fantastic and incredibly interesting content as always, thanks so much. In the intro to this film it says that this is part 3, do you have any leads on other parts of this apparent series?? =) Hoping you do and looking forward to you posting them. Thanks again for all the fascinating content man.
Most of the latter struggles of the soviets when it comes to economy is that they put all their eggs in two rigid baskets. The industrial production in Ukraine and Russia (as stated in the video) was the first. The second basket however, was that their food was mostly coming from East Germany and Poland. Low and behold, when the food leaves the country ceases to exist.
As they shut down more farmland to stop climate change and restrict use of fertilizers and GMOs to reduce yield. Surely if we just stop growing so much food it will solve all of our problems, people just need to eat less! Not like they won't just grow the same amount but elsewhere. And then ship it in on vessels and trains. Sounds very efficient.
I lived in Moscow (1992-1993), Ashgabat (1994-1995), and Vladivostok (1996-1997) and not much had changed yet while I was in each of those cities during those timeframes.
I have been to St. Petersburg, on a few occasions. And it’s a gorgeous city. Granted, it’s probably the most ‘European’ of all Russian cities, but it’s still incredible. And I’ve found there’s a real distinction between generations in Russia: the older folks tend to walk around more downcast-looking and less outwardly friendly, chatty etc. I’m told (by Russian friends) that this is generally a hold-over from Cold War days and a culture of general distrust. Neighbours were literally encouraged to turn in their subversive neighbours. Whereas younger Russians I see tend to be more friendly and open. But even then, there is a general Russian trait of ‘not smiling for no reason’. And I get it. It actually makes sense-and makes a real smile that much more impactful. But I’ve found that, regardless of which generation you’re dealing with, if you take the time to talk and get to know them a little, Russians can be lovely people. And the stereotype of women being beautiful? Well, Ive found it to be true…walking through central St. Pete’s was like a super model convention.
Are the rural towns where the bulk of the Russian people live doing as well? From what I see from Russian bloggers, too many rural areas forty years later are not much different than seen in this video.
After viewing thousands of them interviewed since Feb 2022? I've developed a negative opinion. In fact, they have no place at the table with actual civilized nations. Ostriches who stick their heads in holes while horrors are carried out by their own.
I’ll try to recall a story I heard long ago. Excuse any inaccuracies, but here’s the gist of it: When Perestroika began, two high ranking Soviet officials toured the U.S. and our food production systems. One of them asked… “What is the name of the agency which directs what quantity of products get sent to which areas of the country?” He had a hard time understanding the answer, that there is no such agency, that the free market takes care of itself in this regard. Now mind you… I can understand the average Soviet worker not fully grasping this concept, but these were two guys in top level positions responsible for food production and distribution in the USSR! It blew my mind how their political dogma blinded them to all this.
And there it lies the point. For all of his progressive policies, Gorbachev's flaw was to try to do too much, too fast. In the "West", such mechanisms of goods and services distribution had been perfected over more than a century of free market evolution. Now, trying to transition the USSR from planned economy into free market capitalism in a few short years was always going to end into situations as seen in this documentary. It was all well and good to develop policies on paper, but the country didn't have all of the many intricacies and systems required to put them into practice. So, it all ended up in massive corruption. Whole industries were sold, at a fraction of their value, to a few well positioned lucky citizens who became millionaires over night (now represented in the Russian oligarchy), while the rest of the population couldn't get access to goods, services or capital, even if they had the means to pay for them or fulfil its obligations.
It is a hard concept probably for somebody to grasp that had equal spread or Fair spread to make sure certain areas would get the same although that never happened to the Soviets either. But under capitalism it's not equalizer either for instance the cost of eating the North living remote area certain things will cost more. Nutrition of people can suffer. If you take away just to Walmart from area you can damage the nutritional health of people when they have other few choices for affordable groceries.
@@leoarc1061 Exactly. One problem with immediate privatization, is when a company has been run as inefficiently as they had in the USSR for so long, restructuring would have to take ages to occur; the result being, all enterprises restructure, are inefficient, with cost of restructuring being put on consumers through lower production and higher prices. In a market economy, if you can't provide the goods, another person can, and you'll be outcompeted; but here, when all enterprises are the one that can't provide the goods? Now what? Nobody can. Nobody can do anything. In the west, restructuring of privatized enterprises of course also impose higher costs, but we don't suffer because we already have markets and market institutions. What market institutions really existed in the USSR in the 1980s? It is important to note, that mixed evidence of shock therapy does exist; meaning it might work under certain conditions. But I'd note I am not well-versed in specifics on this. It's of course worth noting that methods of privatization also matters; Russia used voucher privatization, which is a form of privatization Associated with worsened firm performance overall, especially compared to to other strategies such as giving the enterprise to workers, selling it on the stock exchange or simply selling it off to strategic investors according to two recent meta-analysis from 2017 and 18 (I can give them if you'd like). Furthermore, the USSR lacked sustainable market institutions; Russia today, lacks this. There's no certainty that your property will be yours, or if it'll be seized by corrupt local officials tomorrow. Why invest in improving, when I can extract as much as I can and leave? That's the issue with a capitalism without sustainable institutions. No security, means no productivity. David Szakonyi notes several occurrences in his book "Politics for profit" where politicians in Russia use their power to force bribes out of businessmen, when they refused? Their Property was "accidentally" set on fire. This is why oligarchs, if we look at both Ukraine and Russian data, are more productive than other organizations; they're protected from these extractive methods through Putin's long-arm. But these things weren't prevalent in the USSR during this time. Mancur Olson goes into this phenomenon in "power and prosperity," a roving bandit has an incentive to take 100% of all goods, then leave, and return when it's regrown. People therefor has no reason to grow or improve their production. A stationary bandit, however, has a reason to protect his territory; allow people to grow their economy, so he can extract more over a longer period of time. Stationary bandits are efficiency enhancing. We see this with organized crime, while a petty thief has reason to steal everything he can, organized crime only take a fraction so they can grow the local economy and take even more over a period of 10 years.
good documentary. Now we can better understand microeconomics of MRTS Margina rate of technical substitution Most of the farms employed more labour and less capital to overcome shortages of machinery! That led to diminishing marginal returns or decreasing returns to scale as we study in Microeconomics 101.
Back in 1987 Gorbachev came to Romania in Bucharest, on his way to a big factory from my neighborhood together with Ceausescu he stopped at the local market and he also visited my block. Yep, Gorbachev entered my block where my parents still live.
@@alonelymockbird3899mixed. He was hated in the 90s and 2000s. These days there's nostalgia for him especially among Romanian nationalists. His brand of communism was a nationalist one so he's viewed the same as Stalin is among Russian nationalists and fascists.
@@independentthought3390 agreed. I think it's because people in Romania have lived under corruption and poverty that they want a return to dictatorship. Under Ceaușescu they had stability but no freedoms, I guess some people prefer that over freedom.
@@kaijudude_ Yes, people should look to the future, rather than past, especially when the past is as troubled and problematic as that of Romania. With all its problems, modern Romania is a ten times better country to live in than the Romania of the '70 or '80 ever was, and things are slowly, but visibly improving, so there are good reasons to be optimistic.
Hundreds of years of what culture? communism wasn't even around for a hundred years. Not in the USSR form anyway. Unless you are counting serfdom and communism as the same thing. But yes, weird how living in a certain way over many generations can't just be shaken off and changed over a few decades and an entirely new way of life and thinking adopted universally. Who would have expected that?
при Горбачёве люди стали жить в 2 раза лучше, появились любые товары, машин на дорогах стало в 2 раза больше, - где разрешают Торговлю - там сразу появляется полно любого товара, - а с Заводов все сбежали в Кооперативы - зарплата в Кооперативах в 2-3 раза выше, - на Заводах пошли пустые цеха, все смеялись над ними - продаж не имеют, а зарплату ждут.
@@rinkashikachi - при Горбачёве люди стали жить в 2 раза лучше, - появились любые товары, машин на дорогах стало в 2 раза больше, -- - где разрешают Торговлю - там сразу появляется полно любого товара, - это Правило, -- - с Заводов все сбежали в Кооперативы - зарплата в Кооперативах в 2-3 раза выше, - на Заводах пошли пустые цеха, - все смеялись над ними - продаж не имеют, а зарплату ждут.
@@user-lu1ji4cl1m понятно. тупой бот, который умеет только методичку повторять. получать новую информацию, анализировать ее и критически мыслить не способен
@@rinkashikachi - Горбачёв - это вообще-то Перестройка, - пошёл Свежий Воздух, - разрешили Торговлю и Кооперативы, - разрешили читать Книги и слушать Музыку, покупать Джинсы и машины, -- - появилось Полно любого товара, - надой возрос с колхозных 4х литров до 9ти литров, - люди стали жить в 2 раза лучше, - машин стало в 2 раза больше, - все строили 6 соток - т.е. появились Стройтовары. -- если у вас что-то другое - значит вы Не жили при Горбачёве. -- Пустые полки пошли у Коммунистов - над ними все смеялись, были рады что бредовый Коммунизм наконец сдох, - на улицы выходили Миллионами, пели песни, подняли Флаг России - какой был до нашествия террористов 1917го, - Коммунисты стали выкидывать Партийные билеты.
00:44 🌾 The confiscation of land in the 20s and 30s alienated generations from owning land, impacting agricultural struggles for years. 03:40 🛠 Gorbachev's perestroika aimed to modernize the Soviet system but faced resistance, leading to worker strikes and disillusionment by miners. 09:09 🍞 Decades of agricultural failures led to massive inefficiencies in food distribution, contributing to widespread shortages despite agricultural potential. 14:33 💼 Gorbachev's reforms aimed to grant more autonomy to farms, allowing for leasing land and encouraging entrepreneurship, yet faced skepticism and hesitation from farmers. 23:23 🏭 Heavy industries like Uromash struggled with outdated methods, worker exodus, and conflicts between central planning and newfound managerial freedom. 29:42 💰 Central control over resources and fixed prices hindered industrial progress, leading to stagnation and worker disillusionment. 31:05 🏠 Inadequate housing, low wages, and poor working conditions were significant reasons for worker dissatisfaction and exodus from industrial plants like Uromash. 35:37 💼 Gorbachev's perestroika encouraged the emergence of "cooperatives" or private enterprises, allowing a new economic landscape in the USSR. 36:59 🏠 The concept of homeownership gained traction amidst Gorbachev's reforms, challenging the traditional state-owned housing model. 37:47 💸 Perestroika opened avenues for private ventures, allowing individuals like Masarsky to seek state loans and engage in private construction projects. 39:13 🔀 Masarsky faced risks operating in a communist state due to conflicting ideologies and the societal skepticism around private industry. 40:19 🏗 Various cooperatives contributed to the economy, engaging in different sectors like construction, highway building, and brick production. 41:22 🔨 Bartering became a norm due to shortages; Masarsky bartered bricks for equipment but struggled with a lack of lumber due to state control. 44:25 🏚 State projects suffered from material shortages, leaving unfinished homes and highlighting inefficiencies in the state's construction processes. 46:04 💼 The disconnect between state-approved projects and actual customer needs led to dissatisfaction among builders, renters, and the state itself. 47:36 💰 Calls for a shift to individual homeowners as customers emerged, challenging the state-centric approach to housing projects. 50:13 ⏭ Advisors debated the pace of reform, with some advocating for bold measures while others stressed caution to ensure economic stability amidst social upheaval. 53:31 ⛏ Miners voiced desires for ownership in their workplaces, seeking more autonomy and control over the profits, reflecting a growing demand for change within the Communist Party. 55:19 🔄 Gorbachev faced a crucial dilemma: pursuing bolder reforms risked economic turmoil, yet without significant changes, the economic crisis persisted, testing the success of perestroika.
This is an excellent documentary. At the 33:00 minute part you see an HR exit interview with a woman leaving a Russian state back enterprise. I have to say that a Russian HR meeting is exactly how I would have imagined, lol!
It was hilarious. "Why do you want to leave?" "They pay me based on how much I work, i get a better salary and flexible time to spend with my child". "Alright, we lost a worker" lmao
@@Immigrantlovesamerica Possibly a smart choice of hers. It is said Uralmash employed 50k employees; it barely employs ~2k nowadays. Staying there would mean losing the job or having a job in a few years without salary (often, in post-Soviet Russia, enterprises kept workers but paid no salaries or paid them in kind).
why was there such a shortage of sugar? Because Gorbachev made a strict anti-alcohol campaign, banning Vodka from most stores and making it very expensive in the remaining. What did people do? They bought sugar to brew alcohol at home until there was no more sugar available.
Documentaires likes this should by all over youtube. This is how we learn... this is how our kids learn. Not the mindless crap they get in school and we used to have too. In school sheeps are created. Endless working from paycheck to paycheck not thinking big or for ourselves. We weren't made to fit in. We are made to stand out.
What is your highest level of education, and what do you do for a living? You sound like an unemployed incel beta male living in his mom's basement, surfing 8chan and complaining that is all someone else's fault.
What does that even mean? All 7,000,000,000 of us are "made to stand out"? How does that even work? Everyone just works really hard to do things differently from everyone else, so we don't have any sort of uniform culture or traditions anywhere in the world? You don't think it would get kind of hard to think of ways to make sure you "stand out" when everyone is doing something different already? And if everyone is standing out, that means everyone is uniformly doing the same thing, and you just end up with an even more homogeneous system than one with various cultures and traditions that different groups of people are absorbed into. It's like a club where the only rule is that no two members can wear the same clothing. It essentially becomes the uniform of that club. And the fact is that most people very definitely are _not_ "made to stand out". Humans are social animals and instinctively conform to the values of their group, are very uncomfortable being the one singled out as different. That's why they are so easy to control. You may wish that wasn't the case, but it absolutely is and wishing won't change it. And in my experience most people who talk the loudest about not confirming are actually the most inclined to conform into the ideas and values of their adopted groups. Like "punks" who claim individualism.. but all adopt the same manner of dress, the same music, the same political ideas. Try being a punk who chooses to dress in khakis slacks and a polo shirt, see how well you are accepted by your "free thinking" associates. Freedom is only acceptable within the prescribed boundaries. Humans are absolutely meant to be part of a larger group, has been that way though all of history, in every case, and until it became fashionable to pretend to do otherwise, those who didn't fit in were ostracized. And even after it became fashionable, even "being individual" was just alternative way to fit in. I dare you to go around and start openly advocating for taboo ideas. Start telling people that you are for elimination of age of consent laws, that Hitler wasn't so bad, say you stand with Putin. I dare you, you want to stand out, that's a great way to do it. But you won't because you won't want to be judged and ostracized for thinking outside the allowed lines.
I see a RU-vidr named Bald and Bankrupt who travels those areas today and many of the old timers say that life was better back then compared to now. It is interesting.
it was 100% better before soviet union collapse. It was not perfect. But. Imagine you have free place to live, free schools, free medicine, affordable food (but limited). Imagine you have no crime and it is safe to be anywhere any time. What would you choose? To have ability to buy anything (you cannot actually buy anything, supply is very limited nowadays and quality just awful) or to have some shortages but safe place to live? Iimagine we had music school in Ukraine (and have them now). To attend school monthly payment was around probably two visits to Mcdonalds nowadays. Very cheap and affordable. It was donated by government and government understood that they need to raise that kind of people, that quality. Take for example Ukraine, - when we had lots of research facilities and space rocket factories. Where are they now? Barely surviving. China tried to buy Motorsich and other companies. But now with the war country is looking more like Cambodia or others South Asia countries, - where people just scrambling bread crumbs to survive.
@@arishem555Finally someone who actually knows the history in the comments. People seem to forget that the West was trying to undermine the Soviet Union from its very beginnings. Our meddling and infiltration is what made life hard there, not the system of government. If America and other world powers left them in peace, I'm positive communism would've thrived. Capitalism and Imperialism ruins everything.
It is all illusion. People like to believe those best memories from childhood. Many people in Latvia believed that life was better before USSR when they lived in USSR, now some people think that USSR was better than what is now. It is useless to compare when USSR wasn't sustainable and that is why it fall. It takes time to rebuild everything new funds needs to be gathered and so on. Baltic and Poland managed this the best, Ukraine not so much. In Ukraine you couldn't sell land still before 2020. That is ridiculous.
This usually comes from a psychology of old people because they werent able to grasp on the new age of living where the goverment isnt going to take care of you anymore. And they couldnt grasp it not through their fault but because it had been going on for 70 decades and you cant just train your mind to fend for yourself within a year or so. So obviously the saying "Better the devil you know" comes to place. Ask todays generation if they think it would be better to go to that lifestyle again and they would laugh at you because they grew up with the eocnomy growth therefore where able to adapt to the current lifestlye. You cant teach an old dog new tricks.
@danielwoolman8969 Ukraine banned him cos of his connections to a Russian oligarch. Russia banned him for having opinions. He's generally a seedy character though, a small time crook, who tries to abuse women and steal money. See his campaign to raise money from the poor Kolya in Belarus, he kept all the funds for himself. He stole money in Britain several times. He got off on raping a woman in 2001 on a technicality. Hardly someone to ''learn from''.
I worked in a house and the owners were 2 doctors that were going to the USSR to exchange ideas and techniques in medicine. When they came back yhey wouldn't talk about it, they were shell shocked by the decrepit conditions.
37:00 Man I wish we could get an update on what what Mark Masarsky did in the 10 years after this video was filmed. And and update on his son growing up in such a changing world, probably about the same age as me.
@@cryptocsguy9282 I finally watched the follow-up to this one "After Gorbachev's USSR" and he is brought back in there, looks like he did pretty well. It's interesting because some of the other proto-magnates in this video do not fare so well. Seems some confused their belief in free-market, when they actually were thinking of their advantageous freedom within an otherwise restricted market.
What a beautiful and proud woman at 7:03 fighting for her dignity and integrity. As someone who has analyzed Russian society for almost a decade, these ordinary people and their stories were always of my primarily interest.
Thanks for this, Mike Guardia, I subscribed ! But please do tell : regarding that thumbnail of the McDonalds devushki, is that anywhere in this video...? I know one of the original Moscow McDonald's girls, and hope to give her some hard-hitting nostalgia !
@@SalvadorButtersworth Sorry, no - I was waiting for the answer to my question : "is that thumbnail pic of the McDonalds girls anywhere in this video" before I contact her (in Syria nowadays).
Это очень символично, начать фильм с голой ж..ы. Именно в таком состоянии мы находились в тот момент. --- It's very symbolic to start the film with a bare butt. This is exactly the state we were in at that moment.
Maybe they should do something about it, then. Russians are too enamored of great men and 'saviors'. If they keep praying for another, they just might get one - good and hard.
@@HaroldNick69the west is aware that the vast majority of Russia is regular people just like us. Don't confuse the fights of leaders of countries with countries themselves
there's a very peculiar and fascinating psychological trait you often see in people who have been in prison systems for very long periods of time, they gain their freedom and then very quickly repeat their offence or do something to get themselves back into the prison system. the thought of freedom scares them. they've had their lives dictated to them for so long its overwhelming to them. you see the same thing in people who have escaped from north Korea. that's what this reminds me of. these people were having freedom thrown at them and they didn't know what to do with it. and I've worked in and around the lumber industry for over a decade. in 2010 us dollars a mill that size in America would profit more than one million dollars per week easily. that's per week. the soviet system must have been insanely inefficient.
I was born in 1990.. in America. It’s amazing how different my life would be if I’d been born I almost any other country on earth. I think most of Americas youth should watch this. To see what life could be like… And I am not saying America is the best. We need to save our own before trying to save the world. And we’ve got a lot of work to do here… Much love to all humans who call this planet home. ❤️🩹
Sadly,..."promoted, curriculum"....such as this, will _NEVER_ be shown or encouraged by our school systems, today. Instead, public institutions are hell-bent on topics of *DIVISION* , such as *Critical Race Theory* ,... *defund the police* ,.... *racial inequality* ,.... *reparations* ,....etc. Instead of _TRULY_ educating our youth, and demonstrating to them just how *BLESSED* & *FORTUNATE* they are to live in/be an America[n] , they attempt to *DESTROY* our country! #disgustinglysad
If you were born in ANY other civilized country in the world aside from the US, you’d at least have healthcare. In most cases, you’d have better wages/salary, more vacation time, a far better education, etc. The US has the bottom of the barrel in terms of civilized societies.
@@geoffstockton Perhaps, presumptuous on my part, _but_ ,...based on your grammatical conjugation, I'm gonna' go out on a limb, here, and say that you're from/live in the US...? If you're sentiment(s) are that of America being such a ...."rotten place",...(comparatively-speaking), and that other First World nations are _SO MUCH BETTER_ than we are,...might I *GENUINELY/SINCERELY inquire; why not *PACK UP & LEAVE* ,... _PERMENANTLY_ ,... *SURRENDER YOUR CITIZENSHIP* ,...and work towards becoming a citizen of (example) Germany,...South Africa,....Spain,....United Kingdom,...etc.? After all,...according to your implications/suggestions,..." *LIFE* " .....is _EXPONENTIALLY, MUCH BETTER_ ,... _THERE_ ,...than it is, here!?! Lemme' guess; because of "work....family,...etc.", right? The same ole' _lame azz excuses_ that *EVERYONE* who wants to _BASH_ , America, will use,...when posed with this very same question!?! Ya' know what we call people who *CHEW FROM BOTH SIDES OF THEIR MOUTH* ...(aka. talk outta' their arse)??! *HYPOCRITES* ! BTW,...I'm...."one of those folks" that you *DESPISE* , @georrstockton ; a military veteran! Been around the world,...3 times,...been to 13 countries & 46 major/international cities. From First World to Third World! And I can _HUMBLY, CONFIRM_ ; you're *COMPLETELY DISILLUSIONED* , "sir",.... just like the rest of the majority of the masses who are _strictly dependant_ on *Cunning News Network, Faux News, Twitter, & Social Media* ,....for their...."Current Events", ed-ja-ma-kay-shun! You'd be hard-pressed to find any rational-thinking person who'd posit that America's,..."perfect"; not at all!! But, conversely,...you'll find _PLENTY OF US_ who'll admiently state; if you think the rest of the First World nations are _REALLY_ paved in gold & they eat peaches-and-cream after every meal,...well,.... *THERE'S THE DOOR, JACK* !! *DON'T LET IT HIT YA', WHERE THE GOOD LORD, SPLIT YA* "
@@KMVS8686My wife works at a US hospital that takes Canadian patients, because often Canada lacks the equipment. Canada puts a dollar on their citizens head for how much their life is worth and when they hit that amount, they return the patients who often die. No thanks
Imagine going to your local store and not having any meat with the exception of some fish. But then you notice flies landing on the employee's head. (6:39)
I once saw a comparison of the average diet of a Soviet Russian (who were often the second wealthiest group in the USSR behind East Germans) compared to the average American. The Russian ended up getting something like 10-20% of the meat, 10-20% of the fruit, a fraction of the fish, a fraction of the dairy, and a fraction of the sugar while consume several times the grain, beans, and root vegetables and cabbage. As someone who likes to study pre-modern diets it was like comparing a modern diet to a medieval peasants. The meat Russians did get was often pretty low quality too, things like Doctors Sausage and salt pork/bacon was common while beef and chicken wasnt, and real chunks of meat were much less common than sausages or similar ground meats (which were often extended with fillers, trimmings, and organs).
@@bradleysmith9431 Interesting fact: would have tasted terrible but sometimes people ended up eating soap during famines. Depending on the time period and who made it some soaps were mostly plant oils or rendered animal fat mixed with surfactants, sometimes even something as simple as potash. When my mom was young (late 60s or early 70s) her grandma made some of her own soap out of rendered tallow and sometimes with natural perfumes like mint, sage, or lavender.
Not having meat was the truth most of humanity lived for thousands of years. Meat was a rare treat for most people, it's way to expensive and hard to get compared to grains and vegetables. So I think you would survive. I'm not in any way a vegan or whatever but I do think most of society would not be harmed at all by a huge decrease in meat consumption. We funny really need steaks and burgers every day. Especially not if fish and dairy are available.
@ 8:45 "not enough food is available in the entire country..." Is she means entire country USSR, she is wrong! Food was plentiful in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. Usually, Russians used to say that Georgians live better than us. On the other hand, Russians called "Spekuliant" to Georgians. "Spekuliant" means when someone sells something high prices on the black market. Georgian farmers did not depend on government. Did not follow the Soviet rules.
Удивительно, как люди из западного мира, имея лучшие учебные заведения, пишут такую чушь в комментариях. Уважаемые, это период после перестройки, когда СССР сошел на капиталистические рельсы Очереди и пустые полки появились в 80 годах
My first memory of Russia was when the Berlin Wall fell. After that, the media wouldn't report anything from Russia because of just how bad things were. I was just a small child when this documentary was released, so I'm just now getting a better understanding of the struggle that families had to deal with back then & unfortunately the government was just as horrible back then as I'm sure it still is now.
Berlin is not in Russia (and was not in Soviet Union), you should check it out. It is as if I said My favorite American city is Paris (no it isn't, it stinks)
In a shellnut: the Soviet Union keeps screwing over the guys trying to help fix and improve it. From the Director General from the factory who wants to sell things people actually can use while improving his people’s living conditions, to the guy who runs his cooperative.
@@caiolima5016 what do you mean “no”? Govt officials were trying to persuaded farmers to rent land, but the latter don’t want to because the govt controls the prices for agricultural goods, meaning that there’s no guarantee they’ll make a profit big the govt mandates a price lower than what they spend. The Director general of the factory is given the task of reinvigorating the business and increasing the work force, but is forced to manufacture unprofitable products by being held hostage with raw material supply. Not only that, when he willingly tried to improve the housing conditions of his workers with money out of his own pocket, Communist red tape prevented him from doing so and his “friends” in the Party conveniently disappeared when he called them for help. When opportunities of modernization for the outdated factory come by, the Soviet govt squanders them by delaying decision-making and they go on by. The construction guy can’t improve the quality of the houses he makes because the guys in charge of the lumber mills refuse to sell him wood nor enter in a partnership, because they got “quotas” to meet for the communist govt.
@@caiolima5016 Yes. Communism was socialism only in name. The economy of the USSR was centrally planned, in other words, controlled by the party in its entirety.
For all the problems that existed in 1990 USSR, things were definitely heading in the right direction. The hardline coup that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union was the beginning of a tragedy that haunts us to this day. Gorbachev's government, if it had survived, would never have permitted Oligarchs and the wild wealth inequity that exists today. Gorbachev would have embraced dissent...not crushed it like Putin. Gorbachev would have continued disarmament and Glasnost...without invading his neighbors and returning to nuclear sabre rattling. And yet, Russians love the brutal strongman and despise the memory of the man who set them free. We humans are strange and self destructive creatures.
Putin’s Russia now + 14 other “states” are a gift from Gorbachev and his team of “liberators” who finally finishing off the remnants of the Stalinist USSR and destroyed the destinies of tens of millions of people (if not even hundreds of millions). We do not need such liberation - not then, not now. Thanks to them, we have been living in poverty since 1985 - all 100% of the population in any of the 15 former republics. P.s: There was democracy in the USSR - until 1985 (in the CPSU) and until 1989. in parliament and the Council of Ministers (before Gorbachev falsified the elections in 1989 to the Congress of People's Deputies - the successor to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
Russia really went through it in the 90s. No wonder Putin is so protective about Russia now. He loves his country. I remember playing soccer ⚽ as a kid here in LA ca USA in the 90s to early 2000s. Grown folks speaking about politics and world 🌎 news and them speaking about how people in Russia are starving. I'm now catching up. I guess it's true. Putin is the savior of Russia.
This is exactly what we're experiencing right now. Over extended fiscal policy, followed by an atrocious military budget and falling confidence in our currency throughout the world. It won't be long now until the president does a national address letting us know our money is worthless
We had no grass on our tiny peace of land at our family dacha, cause all was planted with vegetables and berries, and it was in Siberia. Cause we didn't know what the winter will look like, my granparents and parents were afraid of hunger. We had to work hard to have something to eat in the winter.
Hedrick Smith also wrote a very interesting and highlighting book in 1976 about the Russian's everyday life, aptly called "The Russians" and published by Readers Digest.
When the one woman was going through the exit interview “Do you think this private enterprise will survive?” Well gee I haven’t gone through their books yet and checked their profit margins
