It's really bittersweet to see how workers were viewed in the USSR versus in the US. It must have been incredible for ordinary people to really feel like they were part of the movement that was creating a new world with their own hands.
If we go all scientific about it, then alienation of labor makes people lazy - if you work 9 to 5 without seeing any tangible effect that your work yields to the society (and thus, to you as well), you naturally don't feel any desire to continue. Capitalism is always alienation. In the USSR thing varied in this regard, I'd say - while it was truly a people's state, governed for and by common folks, this insane enthusiasm was everywhere, because people actually saw first-hand that doing their part mattered. However, as the USSR degraded into a partocracy over the post-WW2 decades, the enthusiasm also mostly faded away, and sloppy unmotivated work slowly started becoming the norm. To me, it makes perfect sense - if you're both the one doing the actual work and the one who has a say in the planning of that work, as well as the distribution of the product, you're going to be directly interested in working hard. On the other hand, if you're only doing the shoveling, while some other dude decides everything for you, it's no wonder that motivation suffers.
Even as a history student at the most "left leaning" (so still not very leftist) university of my country I never heard these kind of stories about the Soviet union (or women tbh), thank you so much for this!
@@lindalastname6306 hopefully, your education is applicable in the modern economy to some extent) Your comment got my attention, because "left-leaning" is such an empty term, especially for the USA.
So hype for this series! The Soviet Union's treatment and portrayal of women has always been unique to it compared to the western mainstream and has gone under appreciated in modern times so I'm very glad you're sharing these stories! looking forward to more in the future
Thank you for this. Women are hidden from history and much more so of they are communists. If I might suggest a future protagonist for this series, I think that Grunya Sukhareva, a soviet psychiatrist and the first person to identify autism might be a good fit. Hans Asperger, the more famous discoverer (who was a fascist and sent thousands of childrens to their deaths) didn't quote her because she was a communist and because she was jewish
Absolutely, Sukhareva was much more advanced in reserching autism and many of her findings turn out to be true, even better than what Asperger achieved. She is a fantastic scientist. I agree that it would be great if you (Lady Izdihar) made a video about her work and life.
Dusya (Yevdokiya/Eudoxia) and Marusya (Maria) weren't sisters, they just happened to share the same surname. They would work in shifts, so they both worked on those record number machines. The constant increase of the number of machines was mainly inspired by the race the competing neighbouring factories would announce, that was why she said "if they take on 150 machines we will conquer 200" referring to her main rival Tasya Odintsova and that was an actual challenge and promise made in front of Stalin, so he declared "Let's see who wins." The initial increase in the number of machines was because the factory was actually doing worse and worse both in quantity and quality and rapid staff turnover. After they invested in improving the machines and staff qualifications, they got sets if 40 and 52 copying another factory near Moscow, and those were experimental at the time. Dusya was put on a set of 40, but when she demanded she to be put on a set of 52, her boss punished her to a set of 35. Dusya only got to work on the big set because Anastasia Boldyryova was getting more and more involved with her political activity so Dusya replaced her. The increase of the work volume per person that was created by the race of the Vinogradovy duo and Tasya actually resulted in job shortages and the factories had to add a third shift. Dusya was often referred to as an example of "the new man." She was very active as a kid, participating in the school plays, newspaper and gymnastics.
I subscribed for Yugoslav flag! 😃Greetings from Serbia for Donauschwabe from Banat! 😊Great story, didn't know about Dusya.. Thank you for sharing it! 👍My granfather was in Tito's partizans and was even decorated for bravery!
I'm happy to hear about the document scanner. Thank you for this video teaching me about a period in the history of the USSR that I had not known. It makes sense. I heard a phrase about the fall of the USSR "The end of the beginning". I look forward to a time in which the contradictions sharpen, capitalism is buried for good all around the world, and human dignity is restored.
@@LadyIzdihar You Should do a Few Posters !!! After All You are a Great Resourse and Inspire the Rest of Us Whom Keep Soviet Households....We Need Posters...
Wow, this story makes me emotional a little. Imagine actually liking your job? Imagine working hard for your people because you want to? It's so unreal it's crazy. I wanna go back in time.
I think that just like Dusya you too is very inspirational and so very enthusiastic, your love for the soviet people and history is very contagious! Learning about communism and world injustices sometimes gives me an awful feeling of fatalism and anguish, but then I watch you and your joyful and enthusiastic videos and is like a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. Keep on with your incredible and so very informative work, I'm very happy to have people like you on our side, comrad.
You can compliment the good work of a woman without shaming others. Only a few years before Dusya's time many women had to engage in sex work for survival. I am not the kind to shame or judge.
@@LadyIzdihar I know what you mean. I'm shaming the social standard that makes heroes for the looks, and not for work or intelligence. For this time, I will carry that weight. And I will edit.
Really appreciated this episode and look forward to the addl series. I had named my cat Koshka way back in the day. Now decades later finally have another and she's The Cat (full name is The Cat who shares her home with humans).
It would also help if you could do a video on Russian feminists and their work. Often when universities teach theories and waves of feminism, it’s very constricted to just white women and their contribution and I only came to know about 1-2 feminist scholars through some random thread online
Thank you for your work. I first heard about you on The Deprogram podcast. It's good to see people bringing forth the truth about the USSR. That it was a place that brought immense good, but also made terrible mistakes. It was a nation, not a Looney Toons character.
I love that with every story you tell you always have at least one neat little pamphlet to read from. Also, more generally, I want to say that it's these sorts of stories that give me hope that a better world is possible. I know, revolutionary optimism and all that, but it gets a little easier through these stories
Very nice and informative video, thank you very much! I am wondering though how people who couldn't over perform and struggled to meet their plan were treated and viewed by the public. Does anyone know something about that perchance?
Can I recommend a vídeo about the history of one of the most underrated and interesting water sport? Yeah, the origin of finswimming in the old Soviet Unión.
Came here on the recommendation of the Brazilian communist collective Soberana "hasta la victoria siempre" comrade !!!!! PS: I loved the video, your speech is very cauma so even though I have difficulty with the language I can understand the video ❤❤❤❤❤❤
When I work hard and effectively I just make work harder for others and drive down wages. I have never gotten a raise, but have taken pay cuts. I am very angry with the culture I have been raised in.
What's the name of the song from the outro music? I've heard the Marxist Project use it but they never linked the original. Excellent job with the video, thank you for all the hard work you put in!
This story completely disproves the capitalist claim of "no innovation" in socialist systems as people feel inportant and want to help their comrades. Incredible video!
im learning to sew and wish to be a seamstress. shes such an inspiration! i would love to learn about soviet photographers and photography as a whole in the ussr. anyone know of where i can find information (good books preferably)
I do not remember Vinogradov movement but i do remember movie inspired by it, and i have to say that real Dusya is much more alive and interesting than bronze character played by Orlova.
It's pretty bittersweet to hear and read about such optimistic attitudes knowing how cynical and disenchanted the public would be much later in the 80's
Didn't the USSR transition from a planned economy to a market economy? I believe this started with Khrushchev and the Kosygin reforms of 1965. Market reforms, I understand, undermined the work of the planned economy by reintroducing capitalist arrangements. The expanding influence of the market and the abolition of the state monopoly on foreign trade, I hear, also led to the fact that the bulk of the goods, which were produced primarily for the satisfaction of domestic consumption under the planned economy, were then, under the market reforms, exported at higher prices for the generation of profit, depriving citizens of their basic necessities. So, I guess it's not surprising people became cynical and disenchanted.
Wow thats great to glorify a worker of such "basic job". To make the foundation of our civilization a hero instead of any random millionaire is so much more, ahm, inspiring, i think. I'm not sure which word describes my feelings best.
Yo, it's so fucking sick that people in the soviet union became famous just for being good at their jobs...and here in the US you become famous for not needing a job :(
If you point this out they pivot and say "B-but the few hard workers got the same as everyone else so they were carrying the lazy majority on their coattails" which is funny, because workers were actually paid according to the quality and quantity of their work.
Alright, I think it's been about 15 minutes since the video finished... It's hard to tell through all the tears lol... not to mention type! Damn you comrade - in the nicest possible way *grin* This is my first video of yours and it's unleashed a tidal wave of emotion... such a sense of loss and sadness, of what is gone, of what might have been, the yet to come. Damn it.. still getting waves of tears lol There is joy too... In your work, what you are creating here... shit I'm going to have to stop soon.. the emotional overload is getting too much... What you are creating ... artistically, intellectually is so beautiful ... and hopeful, I'm 67 and finding your work gives me at least some hope lol. Thank you - Oh, and I subscribed 😇 🤘Ӝ⚢Ӝ🏳🌈🦘
