Top-5 Myths About the Soviet Union #2 - Cold War Documentary 

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Can we get ten myths the Soviet Union thought about everyone else?

I would love to see future in depth videos on the other Warsaw Pact countries and their individual societies during the Cold War. Great Channel!!

Old Russian anecdote - A man is handing out leaflets in Red Square. It is not long before a KGB squad turn up and haul him off to the Lubyanka. The interrogating officer says "OK dissident scum, let me see the leaflets." The man hands them over but when the officer looks at them he finds they are just blank sheets of paper. "What is the meaning of this?" he asks. The man replies "Why bother wasting ink and printing anything? Everyone knows what the problem is."

Fun fact: at 15:30 you can see the slogan "For our freedom and yours" in Russian, a motto which originated in XIX century during the Polish uprisings against the Russian Empire, when the Polish insurgents (at least some of them) wanted to stress that they consider the tsarist despotism to be their enemy, not the Russian people (it was also used by Polish volunteers joining verious revolutions and uprisings abroad). Edit: actually in the version used on both transparents it's "For your and our freedom".

Regarding travelling abroad - it wasn't impossible, yet it was made to be so difficult that for the bulk of the population it sits next to impossible. It is human nature to view things that are really difficult to execute as impossible. On paper, these myths are one thing, but for a person who lived those myths as their reality, it felt 'slightly' different.

"Busy remaking the world, man forgot to remake himself" - Andrei Platonov

Many events in the video are related to Andropov. He had led KGB for 15 years and launched the afghan war . In addition, he played an important role in the Hungarian incident. HE is a mysterious leader. I've always wanted to study his story.

I made several two week business trips during Brezhnev-time from Finland to Moscow and even lived there one year 1992-93. I saw that Russian people learned to live in the system using the black market. For instance during the shortage in the state shops the they said "no light bulbs", but outside a person came to me and asked if I needed light bulbs. He had developed a stock of bulbs earlier or he was working for the shop management, meaning that shop already got the products but they could still get profit by selling it thorough black market.

I remember seeing a comment in the 70s or 80s that every Soviet citizen could legally receive 1 item of mail from a foreign country. The suggestion was that the US should send every citizen a Sears catalog.

I think that the "can't leave" part stemmed a lot from the Berlin Wall and people conflating that with the actual USSR. The main issue there being that the West would grant citizenship and was causing economic harm, and it was literally right there.

I recalled checking in a seaside resort at Romania in the early 80s and the couple in front of me holding Soviet passports clad in swimsuits only during check in, and they clad in the same swimsuits everywhere in the resort all day in the next few days. Their dream and enviable holiday.

I’d love to hear more about the China-Russia border and the types of conflicts that arose from it

A joke as heard at Radio Yerevan: Boris and Sergei were reading a newspaper. - Hey Boris, it says here that in 10 years every soviet citizen will be able to afford a helicopter instead of a car. - Wow! Can you imagine that? They stock boots at Kiev, you jump in the helicopter and go to Kiev. They stock shoelaces for the boots at Leningrad? You jump in the helicopter and go to Leningrad.

I was born in 1960 and the Cold War was a constant backdrop for the first 20 years of my life. I love this channel, it brings back the reality that people under 45 just haven't experienced.

These are incredibly interesting! Maybe it'd be interesting to make a similar video about misconceptions in the USSR about the US/NATO/the west? Idk if there are any major ones but it would be interesting to watch

It's always kind of surprised me that Austria wasn't split in half with the Soviets but instead allowed to stay "Neutral". I get it for Financial and strategic reasons, but for power hungry reasons it kind of surprises me all the same.

Nice video on a different aspect of the Cold War. Merry Christmas to us history nerds!

Ok. so my family lived in Odesa, not the last city in the USSR. The common people there were like 2nd class of common people -- 1st class being Moscow and maybe Leningrad, and 3rd being the cities without ports and sailors with access abroad, 4th being the smaller cities and 5th being peasants (ok, it's subjective and I made it up on the fly but it's representative, I swear). The travel -- throughout all my family only 2 people ever were abroad -- my uncle was in Syria when one of his co-workers was killed because he violated a curfew. He brought back a pair of white jeans and some other goods which were not available in the USSR at the time. My mom (born as peasant, but climbing the ladder through the education system to become a student and Russian teacher later) also was in Communist Poland as a reward for her being a good student -- she lived in a dormitory with some Polish girls and she was very surprised by the fact that she was quietly hated because she was soviet. None of my family ever had any family members permanently living abroad. I should add that the travel to any First World country was next to impossible for the non-diplomatic reasons. One of my good friends actually was in the US as a son of a diplomat stationed there (different world it was, being a diplomat's son in the 70s, I'm telling you), and he's the only person I know that was on a US soil as a Soviet citizen. Some of my university professors participated in conferences in the Western Europe. One was nearly imprisoned for an unauthorized interview (he didn't say anything really) if not for the member of the USSR Science Academy who covered him up saying that he himself authorized it. The shortages -- once I asked my grandma if there was any period she remembers in the USSR without the long lines and she answered a sound "No" to that. In the port city of Odesa where the goods were unloaded and shipped to the various corners of the Union, shortages of everything were commonplace. The peasants didn't really know what is the shortage as most of the things they had were produced locally anyway. They had their own alcohol, their own food, and the only things they need to care for themselves (the machinery was distributed centrally and not bought privately) were crude instruments like shovels, picks, zinc buckets, sinks and so on. Those were actually quite abundant and you didn't need to be in a line for an hour over a zinc bucket. Life was more relaxed in a village -- not counting the fact that the population drank themselves literally to death. The city culture was overall drastically different from the village culture, and the latter was considered lower class. The protests -- my grandma quietly had some Samizdat books written by hand, some were written by her own hand indeed. Aside from that, no one ever dared to speak up, both in my extended family and beyond. The common understanding was that they will make your life very difficult and ultimately will get you in prison or out of the city anyway -- for no gain at all.

I lived in communist Hungary at the cold War ! So about travel, they let us travel to other commi countries, because our money was comparable ! However, when a Hun person wanted to go to west for vacation, what money would he pay with ? Western currency was very important to the communist economy ! They didn't have mutch over it ! If a person was lucky enough to get a blue passport , (blue was for west, red was for East ) he was allowed to purchase a 100 US dollar from the state bank ! Therefore currency exchange was a lucrative business in the black market ! By law, if someone had western currency in his possession, he had to sell it to the communist government in exchange for hun currency ! So that's why they didnt want to give us western passports, because we not even supposed to have western currency legally ! The same thing went for why didnt we have western records for sale ? Because if Elton John came out with a new record, Hungary would have to pay in dollars for the British label for the rights to print the records ! The Hun or other commi countries, simply didn't have western currency to buy records, movies, or allow their citizens to travel !

A great Christmas gift. Thank you.

"It's a myth they couldn't leave. All they had to do was only travel to select Soviet allies, get multiple permissions from political commissars, travel under guard, and make sure they still had family back in the country as hostages." Ahh, the sweet melody of the tankie tap-dance.

Merry Christmas, David and the entire crew!

That was interesting, thanks for posting it.

I watched the first video a week ago. excellent timing. merry Christmas for me!

Nice to see more video's like this. I wouldn't mind seeing another video like this one. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.

You've probably heard this one. I heard it from a Polish national who was teaching Polish at the Defense Language Institute in 1984. I was a young soldier then, So there were three men on a train going from Gdansk to Warsaw, an American, a Pole, and a Russian. They were affably sharing a compartment. The American pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, offers his companions a cigarette, and they sit smoking for a bit. The the American throws the pack of cigarettes out of the window. The Pole yells "What! That was nearly a full pack of cigarettes!" The American says, Niech sie pan nie martwi (don't worry) "In America we have so may cigarettes we don't know what to do with them all." Then the Russian pulls out a fresh bottle of vodka, and just happens to have three shot glasses. He. breaks the seal on the bottle, pours out three good shots, and the men toast to each others' health. The Russian then throws the bottle out of the window, and the Pole cries "What? That was a nearly full bottle of vodka!" The Russian says, "Niech sie pan nie martwi. In Russia we have so much vodka we don't know what to do with it all." After a thoughtful pause, the Pole grabs the Russian and shoves him out the window, then turns to the American and says "niech sie pan nie martwi, in Poland we have so many Russians we don't know what to do with them all."

Psst, kid. We have the best myths. And fantasy and Sci-fi!

Regarding that cash register at 18:35, was that aqua colour special in some way or super common? I swear I've seen it in heaps of soviet era pictures, even in stuff like helo cockpits and cars

Great topic!

I find anything about the Cold War fascinating. Especially, since I grew up with the Cold War! I would love to see a comprehensive video with a theoretical list of steps the U.S.S.R. could have taken that would have allowed it to remain in power today and remained a communist country and all that that entails. Thank you for the excellent content!!!

Macmillan didn't resign over Profumo, although Profumo did. Macmillan believed he was at deaths door (he was wrong) and resigned while in hospital three years later.

While not technically within the purview of a Cold War-based channel, a video clarifying Order #227 and the myth of human wave tactics wouldn't go unappreciated in .

Completely Independent as long as you don't anger us. -USSR to Warsaw Pact Okay, maybe they were separate but they certainly weren't peers. 13:39 Exactly

I'm so early, Ednis still thinking about retaking the Suez canal by force.... Thank you the correction

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I'd like to see a video of misconceptions and lies the US told about itself, and things other countries, including the Soviet union believed and was told about the US. And would love to see the lies and misconceptions of capitalism, especially neo-liberal capitalism.

An interesting video, however would it be possible that you or your team could cite the sources in the description? Otherwise its a bit hard to verify the claims made in the video.

Thanks David!

The best turn of phrase was from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn: “We know they are lying, They know they are lying, They know we know they are lying, We know they know we know they are lying, But they are still lying.”

Good day! what is the music in the background, at the endings of your videos? Thx! Greetings from Romania; Merry Christmas!

This video fits perfectly for the 30th anniversary since the dissolution of the "Evil Empire".

What is the percentage of US citizens that do travel abroad, I wonder. Sometimes people just dont have the means or simply the incentive to do tourism in other contries.

Wildly off topic but what is that red and black poster on the back wall of your set? It's so cool looking!

very interesting.... :)

My grandmother died 12 years ago at the age of 78 but i still remember her stories , she survived 2 famines ,ww2 and depirtations ... her mother used to make bread from leafs and grass in order to survive , soviets took all their grains and animals in 1946 ,there were cases of canibalism in her village , she was from a village in western part of ukraine ,populated mostly by romanians . When she was older they moved in Besarabia (Moldova) and lived here since . I feel so sad that when she and my grandfather died i was young and not interested in history like im now (i was 12 at the time she died) . One more thing , how my dad told me , the positive fact about ussr was that everything was kinda stable and calm,i mean everyone had a job , there was real presure by parents and schools (teachers) to make you to finish the school and get educated ,not like today, everyone gives a shit about kids education . Yes ,it was brainwashing but except from that at least your kid was not going around in the schools hours and drinking or doing drugs . There was modesty , especialy in small cities or towns , if there was a whore ,everyone knew her and her family reputation was ruined , today every second women is on tik tok showing but or onlyfans selling her nudes for money. My dad served 5 years in soviet navy on a cruise missle ship and then fought against russians in 1992 war in eastern Moldova when he was my age (25) . Realising all that makes me feel lucky that i didnt lived in USSR or live currently in Russia lol .

You just forget one the biggest barrier for travel aboard. Is money! Average income in Poland 1970/80 was around 50-60 DM per month. Western Germany demand minimum 25 DM per day in Western Germany for support yourself. And was necessary when you travel to Western Germany or just go to France and use West Germany as transit country. If you not proof in Germany consulate that you have 25 DM per each day you stay in West Germany, then Germany refuse to issue visa tourist or transit. So, at least 75% barrier to travel aboard was western demand to have enough money.

I always wanted to ask but always forgot, what is the name of the music that you play by the end?

Sometime ago I watched a video about an incident which happened in Poland after a huge Warsaw Pact exercise before the collapse of the Soviet Union and is a reference to the shortages in Russia at that time. The incident happened at a Polish railways station when Russian troops were getting ready to go home. A number of Poles started to talk to the Russians giving them things like chewing gum, things the Russians could not get at home. They started taking pictures of each other with the Russian troops, being very comradely. What the Russians were not aware of at the time was that the Poles, who did not suffer the same shortages as the Russians, were in fact mocking the Russians by giving them items they could not get at home but the Poles could. They were in effect saying that your country may be bigger then ours and you thing you are in charge but we are better off then you.

My parents were able to travel abroad to visit family that lived abroad. The catch was that my parents couldn't do it together. First my dad went. After he returned, then my mom was able to go.

17:08- Constant shortages You guys mentioned that there wasn't shortages all the time in the USSR. I was wondering wether it is fair to say there was constant regional shortages, e.g. although there is no shortage in one area at this time in another there is. Idk I'm a A level student and need a overarching comment on Soviet agriculture. I can't think of a time where there wasn't a shortage anywhere in the USSR. I really appreciate your videos they have saved me in a few exams this year @The Cold War

Thanks

Great episode! Happy Holidays!

Will you make a video about the development of the Soviet economy from the early days to the last days?

Regarding travelling outside of the Soviet Union: Polish background here. My parents went to France and worked as janitors, nannies, and made 80 years’ worth of money compared to working in Soviet-Controlled Poland. That allowed them to buy a car. Edit: the car was bought when they returned to Poland and for what it’s worth, they worked for cash in France as they weren’t officially immigrating to France. Suffice to say in the 90’s we left all that behind.

I understand that this video is important because of the general mystery of the USSR to western people, but I sincerely hope you guys put out a video about myths surrounding the US rather than just letting American propaganda stand dominant after beating down Soviet propaganda

Solidarity lucked out; if brezhnev had not died when he did, it would have been flattened by tanks.

The USSR Travel seems not much easier than North Korean Travel Today based on the way you told it. If so, not sure that is a real "myth" since so tight and with a babysitter the whole time.

Brilliant! No Bokksu ad this time.

Honestly... not a terrible video, concise and informative, well done

Great documentary! Well done!

I feel like number 1 in this video is more of a technicality than anything. Like yes, *technically* Soviet citizens could travel, but functionally, an overwhelming majority couldn't.

You forgot SMERSH

The cold war from the margins is s great book and is freely available as a pdf on the publishers website, strongly recommended.

Atleast in the 80's, tourists from Soviet Russia, Soviet Estonia and Soviet Poland would travel to Finland to sell alcohol, cigarettes and other various things, to earn that extra money.

Fun fact: Bulgaria was so loyal to the USSR(more so to russia than to communism) that we didnt host any soviet bases or troops despite being at the border with turkey and greece

Questions I dont have the answer but I think you guys might now: 1-) did France and italy had mandatory military service during the cold war?? 2-)How big was the JSDF in 1984?? 3-) How did the germans felt about the fact they were prohibited to be nationalistic, yet they were conscripted in the army?? Didnt they felt they were just a cannon fodler for the US (an old enemy) 's interests? 4-) which was the strongest NATO country in continental europe during the 70s and during the 80s?? 5-) which country was more anticommunist and nationalistic during the cold war? Italy or France (both government and people) Feel free to answer, or if you dont know the answer, you can give an opinion Thanks

You should do a whole video on the Prague Spring and the Russian attempts to stomp it out and what happened after with Dubček. What am I saying, that would be 2 videos if not more.

The shortages were so common in USSR in the '80s. For example there were no carrots in the ABC "supermarket". But there were old ladies selling their produce at the entrance, one of them sold carrots, 5 kopeks a kilo. As a 10y old kid I wanted a kilo of these carrots, it cost about the same as a big jug of kvas, but I was willing to sacrifice it to make the lady's day and to be a serious customer. But I didn't have any money on me, so I ran home, took the money and my bicycle and came back. She was about to leave, but I bought the carrots and she seemed relieved that she had less to carry back home with her. Ever since that day, if I have some change on me and I see an old lady in a random place trying to sell something she has (probably) grown herself, something I could use in the kitchen, I take the time and buy some from her.

I need to know the name of the ost played at the end of every episode

Your subscription plug was especially inspired.

At what point was toilet paper readily available?

Fun fact: the F in Communism stands for food.

Yes

Very interesting documentary! The picture used for the Chechyens uprising is wrong though. It is from the East German protests of June 17th 1953.

Could you do an episode on the Soviet-Afghan war?

You should mention the uprise of the counter-revolutionary group leaded by Nikita Khurschev which resulted in a sharp decline in each and every sector of the mighty USSR.

Everyone who's played MGS3 knows about the GRU.

13:51 yes, this is technically true, however there was a lot of oppistion within the Bolshevik party against stalinism, until Trotskys left opposition was finally crushed in 1927 (the Russian civil war ended in 1923).

in Soviet Union, Myth imagines You.

So there were shortages, but shortages are myth because when people say constant they *definitely* mean literal 24/7 365/year and it's not just a figure of speech....? And yeah there were constant shortages (and they were hardly limited to food), just the item of what was in short supply tended to change every couple of years because that's planned economy for ya.

Fact number 2 is not fully true, at least regarding 1960’s Poland. A couple of examples: The soldiers guarding the Polish borders were mostly soviet, spoke Russian and very limited Polish Poland always used beetroot sugar up to the Cuban revolution when they were forced by Moscow to buy Cuban sugar in exchange for Polands best resources

Refuses to press button, gets sent to gulag

14:14 people protesting FOR Stalin? Something i wouldn’t have expected.

You're dead wrong about 2nd point. First of all, you directly contradict yourself with "satellite states had autonomy" and "Soviet Union did exercise broad high-level control, staging military interventions and had economic influence". Second of all, even despite all your examples, Soviet Union might gave some appearance of autonomy but at the end of the day would still assign people to government, approve laws and force economic decisions that would benefit Soviets, not necessarily satellite states.

16:38 Yes they did happen but you forget about something very important they did happend after stalin death before this any protest=certain death or gulag

Shortages were a huge thing! As were queues! The evidence is ask anyone who lived through will tell how inconvenient it was and how difficult it made life.

I’ve heard of the GRU, they tried taking Sokolov from the KGB.

Can you please do a video about the local government of Russia at that time

I was hoping you would mention how Ceausescu publicly condemned the invasion of Cehosloakia.

I'VE ALREADY PRESSED THE BUTTON

Everybody’s heard of the GRU since Salisbury.

6:20 Thank you- its so pervasive and even people from those nations do not seem to realise just how big a difference it made. Compare say, Poland to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (who, btw, were the only nations whose independence wasnt restored after ww2 until collapse of USSR in 1991). While both were under very much control of moscow, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania suffered lot more, including attempts of Moscow of killing local languages and cultures, plus mass importation of russians and ukrainians. 14:00 There were protests, but it was always very risky business. I'd also add the youth protests of 1980 Estonia, which was fairly unique in sense that it came as direct response of soviets banning peformance of one of first punk rock bands Propeller after football (soccer) match between Estonian TV and Estonian radio. About 7000 people took part in these. 17:30 while famines were not a thing troughout most of post ww2 ussr, shortages *were* a very real thing troughout. You had to jump trough hoops to get most of what you need. The situation was better in major cities, but if you lived in smaller place? yeah, keep dreaming.

According to "Gorbachev, His Life and Times" the Pulitzer prize winning work in 2017. Gorby often said (I've read it twice) that many years, though not famines per se, were having such shortages that it risked Soviet collapse; his words not mine

One very persistent "myth" (said by many people, even by those who lived in Communist states) is that *every product* made in the USSR (or in the Eastern Bloc for that matter) was utter crap and nowhere near the "Western" equivalents. When in reality, this both disregards the context of those products (you don't "need" the Oreo taste if you never had Oreo in the first place) and the products that were comparable to "Western" ones. Consumer goods might have been lower quality in general, but the Eastern Bloc vehicle (eg. offroad vehicles) and computer industry (eg. minicomputers) sometimes rivalled the West, not even mentioning the space industry.

I know it's very hard to imagine, but what would the response had been if a Russian and a Non Russian wanted to marry? An American and a Russian for example?

Can you do something about the Baltic states.

can you guys do a video on Mongolia during the 20th century? 🇲🇳

I think that only in East Germany an annexation would have made a very small difference.

Regarding shortage of food, although not part of the USSR, Albania certainly must have had a problem. As a kid I experienced first hand the refugee albanians that fled to Greece when the communist regime there fell. For many years I was under the impression that albanians were very very thin. Little did I know that this was just them being malnourished.