Soviet Tourist Describes US Deep South and Visits President Roosevelt (1936) // Ilf and Petrov 

In the original, right after the last strongly critical fragment from 16:19 to 17:42, Ilf & Petrov do say several very positive things about America, too. I wouldn't want people to be left with the impression that they're totally one-sided and negative, so I'll translate most of the omitted part. 'And yet we can learn a lot from America. ... We must study the methods of Americans workers, engineers, businessmen - especially businessmen, because ... many of our businessmen and economic workers are still lagging behind American businessmen in the precision and punctuality of their work. ... An American businessman always has time to talk business. He sits in his office, his jacket off, and he works. He works quietly, imperceptibly, noiselessly. He is never late, never in a hurry. He only has one phone. Nobody is waiting for him in the waiting-room, because an appointment is fixed with absolute precision and not a single minute of the conversation is wasted. He is only engaged in business, nothing but business. It is unknown when he has meetings. In all likelihood, he very rarely does. If an American says in a conversation, even in passing, 'I will do this', you won't have to remind him of anything. It will all be done. The ability to keep your word, firmly, precisely, at any price - this is the most important thing that we have to learn from American businessmen. We wrote above about American democracy, which in reality gives a man no freedoms and only masks the exploitation of man by man. But there is a phenomenon in American life that should interest us no less than some new car model. That phenomenon is egalitarianism in interpersonal relations. Admittedly, this egalitarianism also disguises social inequality and is a purely superficial form, but since we have achieved social equality between individuals, such forms of egalitarianism would only help by bringing into relief the justice of our social system. The outward forms of this egalitarianism are magnificent. They are very helpful in work, they strike a blow against bureaucracy and elevate human dignity.'

“War is coming” dude wasn’t wrong

The struggle to find parking is an eternal one.

"Why are we in America? I thought you said we were going to Georgia." "We are going to Georgia. Georgia, USA."

I love how Mr and Mrs Adams banter back and forth the way people used to in old movies 😂

“You must be from New York,” said the young man 🤣

“A city of angels, smeared in oil” ooh, that’s some good imagery

"He shows an interest in the life of the country once every four years, in the time of the Presidential Election." *sweats in American*

These were not ordinary tourists, but well established writers with good knowledge of how language works, and the translation is quite good.

Soviets: "we then went to the south" Me, a southerner: "well maybe it won't be TOO bad" "We entered through Louisiana" " *OH DEAR LORD!* "

The "This is Mississippi" conversation is one of my favorites in history atm

Crazy just 3 years before WW2 even the drunk hitchhikers could see war on the horizon.

So the hitchhiker was actually a time traveler?

"Los Angeles is a ponderous city with large buildings, dirty and populous streets..." Thought their journey was in 1936, not 2020?

The irony of him saying he will be able to predict exactly what state the Soviet Union will be in in 50 years...

God I love this channel. You learn more from these first hand accounts than a hundred dates and events.

Fyi, the Atchafalaya is a distributary of the Mississippi river, so he was half right.

Bruh, from the "looking for parking" to the "machines taking our jobs", this doesn't sound so out of time....

"We know what will happen 50 years from now in the Soviet Union" >1936 + 50 = 1986 > 5 years before dissolution Oh no

Resident of Los Angeles here - my god how far we've come.... is not very far at all. Except when trying to PARK THEN WE GO FAR INDEED HOW HAS THIS PROBLEM NOT BEEN SOLVED IN LITERALLY 100 YEARSS I wanna subscribe a second time...

You should read the travel journal of Aleko Konstantinov "To Chicago and Back". This is one of the most emblematic Bulgarian books, well familiar to every Bulgarian. It has been hard for the author to gather the money necessary for his trip, yet he managed to cross the Atlantic and visit the Chicago Exposition of 1893. Apart from a witty and interesting observation of the States. Aleko's subtle, at times harsh ironic style, is both appealing and provocative. He is one of the few Bulgarian geniuses of his time, who unfortunately couldn't fulfill his dream to travel round the world as he was untimely killed. This book also provides an interesting point of view of one European bourgeois on the American society.

"When the Baptist god, several years hence returns to earth in order to destroy Soviet atheists who help one another he will be delighted with these establishments in the South of America" I wonder if he was quoting the hitchhiker or if that burn had just developed over the years

The quality of that car amazes me. They went from coast to coast and back and they never talked about any type mechanical issue.

Turns out true socialism was the friends we made along the way

The strange thing about Washington DC is that most of what you see is just for show. The majority of dc actually lies underground with the hidden parts of the various buildings. It’s kinda crazy.

Mr. and Mrs. Adams are depicted almost like 1930s radio sitcom characters.

Can I just give props for the pronunciation of Atchafalaya, great job!!

"We closed the dining room so that we don't have to eat with the black people." If that isn't the definition of petty...

The conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Adams about the Mississippi had me laughing out loud. So funny! But then...Louisiana...and shutting down the dining hall...oh my goodness. Heartbreaking.

"We can tell with certainty what will happen in 50 years" Oh, the Irony...1986 - Chernobyl, glasnost, Sakharov is invited to return, the end of the Soviet Union in essence...

His commentary stung, but the saddest part was his utter conviction he knew what the Soviet would be like in 50 years. If only he knew.

This is like the Soviet version of Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” or John Steinbeck‘s “Travels With Charlie” decades before either of the road trip memoirs that became those two literary classics, were ever published.

“We know what will happen 50 years from now” 1936 + 50 = 1986; would’ve been nice if they warned us about Chernobyl

"The average American cannot endure abstract conversations, nor does he touch upon themes too far removed from him. He is interested only in what is connected to his house, his automobile or his nearest neighbors."

"We know what will be in 50 years!". Laughs in Gorbatchev.

Last video with Ilf and Petrov this week folks! Hope you enjoy it. I am aware that these guys have been a little negative about the US so if anyone has any decent ideas for positive perspectives I'm all ears 👂

You should do a Civil War veterans view on the 1st World War.

I thought about the same thing when I visited America (Florida) very nice place much to do and see friendly people and all that , but home is home ...my heartbeat is synced with Serbia ...

I cannot tell you how much I enjoy the content of this channel! Great job, keep it up!!!

These are the best travelogues, very inspiring and encouraging.

Good job once again Voices of the Past! Ilf and Petrov nailed it when it came to LA and the South.

"And we can tell with definite accuracy what will happen with us 50 years from now" Bruh.

I love your videos, they are very interesting!

"dirty and populous streets." I see LA hasn't changed a bit.

“The average American cannot endure abstract conversation ….” Little has changed there-

This isn't even just a Soviet perspective, this is a disturbingly accurate perspective.

I think this is the best channel I’ve found this year! Great stuff!

It's actually very interesting to see the US through the eyes of a communist.

No Matter what people said about this video. This video give great insight about a views from a long past a culture long almost mostly gone because it's pretty different from Soviet and current culture. We can see the insights different in people rise in different time and culture 👍🏻

Certainly interesting, to see things from a Soviet perspective

This has been a really interesting series! Some really sharp insights.

Absolutely fascinating. Gem after gem. The More You Know! ;) An absorbing see--sawing between objectivity and subjectivity. Goes into a couple files I've been keeping. Excellent channel btw. :)

You guys are aware the authors are famous for their comedic novels and this humor and exaggeration is probably there too

I kept thinking of deToqueville while listening. Foreigners can always see us without rose colored glasses even if they cannot see us without the bias of their own lands.

This series was great. Love your channel. This is my favorite thing youve done.

This channel is an absolute gem

"The realest kind of poverty and the most disgusting wealth" Are you sure this was written nearly a century ago?

17:30 "America does not know what will happen with it tomorrow. We know, and we can tell with definite accuracy what will happen to us 50 years from now". Not that American capitalism is perfect or anything, but oh boy that comment didn't age well at all LOL

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to and seeing the old movie taken on their trip. Such a sad ending. Thanks.

This has to be fake, there's no way this dude was memeing LA parking 100 years ago.

That's interesting... he expressed with confidence that the Soviets knew what their country would look like in 50 years, whereas the US had no idea. But in reality, neither knew, and the Soviet Union would be close to falling apart in 1986. Still, while their confidence about socialist planning may have been misplaced, I can't help but feel they were right about the deep economic inequality and poverty that they witnessed in America. The consequences of which we see echoing through to the modern day.

Love vids like this.

"We know where we will be in 50 years." Soviet Union Nearly 50 years later:

That little argument about whether or not this is the Mississippi River warmed my heart

I identify with the woes of this man. First time I went to la the question I always came back to was "how is everyone parked and driving at the same time?"

Fascinating. It's always interesting to see an outsider perspective, especially an historical one.

Being from Louisiana, and hearing how you pronounced Atchafalaya made me chuckle. You was close! Not quite though! Love your content!

These old foreign perspectives on America are awesome. I love these videos. Stay well out there everybody, and Jesus Christ be with you friends.😊

You should do some passages from Tahtawi’s Rihla! He was an early 19th century Egyptian scholar who headed an academic mission to France circa 1825 and wrote of Paris in his memoir. I haven’t read it myself but it’s supposed to be a foundational text in the understanding of (modern) Egyptian-Western relations and the advent of modernity.

Fascinating and well preformed!

Usually I can watch these videos with a healthy degree of detachment, but a lot of the stuff in this one is so recent and still so alive that it's deeply upsetting.

17:55 "and we can tell with definite accuracy what will happen to us 50 years from now" - 1936+50=1986, the year of the Chernoyl disaster, 2 years later the Soviet Union collapsed lol

5:27 It's the Atchafalaya River (where the Mississippi River *wants* to flow, but is prevented by The Old River Control Structure). 5:48 Ah-CHA-fuh-lie-uh (where CHA is pronounced like CHAmpion). 17:22 Scientific Communism and Historical Materialism.

Such astute and objective comments from these two!

“City so full of automobiles,” somethings never change.

Man, even in 1936 there was no parking in California

It's very funny to see how a hundred years ago people thought machines took their jobs

Absolutely fascinating.

This was bone-chilling in how identical the description was to the CA of today.

Very Nice! Just woke up, I'm rolling my first joint. Love from Brazil!

19 minutes of a Soviet roasting the South

And to think the Soviet Union turned into a hell hole and America only got better. Their sarcasm is better with that context.

Soviets threw a lot of shade... just to collapse. Lol

I think it is worth noting that if a Soviet publication were too positive toward American society, I don't think we would be reading that publication.

Wow! Amazing! Maybe the USSR people where they would be exactly at in 50 years (obviously an exaggeration) but they would never believe where they'd be at in less than 60 years after this text. Still amazing narration, very especially the part about Apartheid in the South which I myself observed when I traveled to Virginia in the 80s (ameliorated maybe but still deeply entrenched in culture and behaviors, to my own shock).

That dude they picked up is a time traveler

Mr. and Mrs. Adam's remind me of the Luteces from Bioshock Infinite

so they knew about chernobyl 50 years in advance and did nothing to prevent it?

17:35 “...and we can tell with definite accuracy what will happen to us (Soviets) in the next 50 years” Not that capitalism offers balance nor is it perfect but him alluding to the stability to that their system offers (in 1936) is interesting....Since the Soviet Union fell all together

Can you please just make an audio only version of your podcast? I would listen more if I didn't have to run out my data plan when out and about streaming videos of still images.

I have enjoyed this particular series, do you know of any good Western travelers behind the Iron Curtain to mirror this?

It's interesting that he could see America's faults with great precision but was utterly incapable of seeing any of the Soviet Union's.

This wasn't a tour through the US, this was actually just them looking for a place to park the whole time.

These videos are perfect for ASMR.

This would make a delightful television series.

“We know where we’re going in the next 50 years,” guess they didn’t see the fall of the USSR coming lol

50 years from now 1986 we will be stuck in a hopeless war in Afghanistan and also witness the worst nuclear disaster of contemporary history... my comrades suspect I might have jinxed it.

After the Roosevelt cameo comes a brief shot supposedly representing the continuation of their road trip, and featuring several vehicles ascending an incline towards the camera. The first car is prewar, the bus following is contemporaneous. The next two cars are from 1951-53, as near as I can tell, unless they were Soviet cars from the Sixties. Somehow it seems to have taken the marvelling Soviet journalists five or six years, minimum, to complete the drive from Washington to New York. Plenty of time to obsess over car factories in Tajikistan, the cotton production miracles of Shamama Gasanova, and the ubiquitous free air of Siberia.

karel čapek wrote some travel books too. letters from italy, letters from england, letters from spain, letters from holland and travels in the north...

Interesting that the general vacuity of the American public was just the same back then.