What Life in the Soviet Union Was Like 

I had a history teacher who grew up in the Soviet union, she was mid to late 20s when it fell. She talked about all the issues and problems growing up in it and this one girl flat out called her liar and said the soviet union was the most prosperous and crime free society in exsistance

I grew up in communistic Czechoslovakia, I guess it wasn't that bad as in Russia or Poland, we never suffered with lack of food, but variety was poor, Bananas were available only on Christmas, oranges were not orange but green (from Cuba), Kiwi I've seen first time after revolution, for me as a kid, was no problem to buy alcohol and cigarettes for my parents, learning Russian language was obligatory, we had to choose a friend from Soviet Union, to write letters to each other, my letter friend from was from today's Kazakhstan, it was quite interesting, he described his ordinary life, I described mine, later, we could choose other language, but English was not available in my school, TV had 2 channels, everyone, completely everyone watched the same movies and TV series, colour TV we bought in 1988, 20 inch, the price was like 3 monthly wages of my father, and he earned well above average, because he was working with dangerous chemicals, listening to foreign radio was illegal, we did it anyway, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America(it was broadcasted on AM frequency in Czech language, but sometimes it was so heavily disturbed, you couldn't hear, what they say, we knew, our communism was one big lie, but my parents made it clear to me, I shouldn't talk about it in school, for landline people waited up to 10 years, same for car, the planned economy didn't work well, there were times, you couldn't get some essential stuff, like toilet paper, for months, so people used newspapers, wiping their @sses with communist propaganda, literally, to get other things, like spare parts for bicycle, was extremely hard, not going to work could get you to jail, so everyone had job and many people did nothing there, corruption was everywhere, the motto of ordinary people was "Who doesn't steal from state, steals from his family", holiday we spent in Eastern Germany, Poland (in these countries our family had good friends), Bulgaria, Hungary, but going to Yugoslavia, for our family, was impossible, for this,you needed permission, and my parents were not in Communist party, western music wasn't much played on radios, owning a LP with Depeche Mode and Alphaville was for me like winning lottery in that time 🥳

I am a live sound engineer. I have toured much of the world with various artists/bands.... I have been to former communist countries. Its interesting the stories people tell about how hard it was to get certain things. I met a Russian sound engineer. He said in the days of the Soviet Union, they did have lots of nice sound equipment. But he said it was impossible to get things like casters (wheels for road cases). So he said when equipment was loaded into a venue, it had to be entirely carried into the building. Whereas the rest of the world pushed cases on wheels... It was a seemingly insignificant thing, but made working with arena and stadium sized sound systems very difficult, and would require twice the labor to get a job done. He said if you figure across other industries, restaurants, hotels, factories, hospitals, warehouses, etc...just think of all the equipment that on casters in all those industries, and how hard they were to get... Just think of how many heavy things had to be lifted and carried instead of rolled or pushed. You could take that one example and expand it across many many things... And thats what life was like in Russia. His point was that no matter what you did, you may have 99% of what you needed, and it may have been excellent stuff... but that 1% that you lacked, could jack your whole entire way of doing things.

I have several soviet cameras from the 1950s and they're built so well and still work flawlessly 70 years later...

Not just cars were made to last but other machines as well. My grandmother has a Soviet-era fridge from 1976. It still works fine. We call it jokingly "the tractor". 😄

The use of x-rays for bootleg records was also because you could roll them up and hide them up your sleeve.

In 1973 visiting Prague me and a couple of my friends decided to buy Crimean Champagne. The Czech shops didn't sell the stuff, but we were finally pointed to a huge modern looking building in the middle of the city where we were told we can buy Crimean Champagne. What we were not told, it was a shop exclusively for the top Soviet brass in the city. We knocked on door and a sort of uniformed waiter opened to us. After a lot of explaining in a mixture of Russian, English, Czech and German we were finally allowed in. Inside, the place didn't look like a shop, more like a sort of club with thick red carpets, amazingly elaborate crystal chandeliers and full of exquisite furnishings. While we were waiting women wearing fancy evening dress (this was the middle of the day), a lot of jewellery and holding glasses of wine kept appearing and passing by us and there was music, conversation and laughter coming from some nearby room. At last the waiter returned with two boxes, each with 6 bottles of Champagne, and a bill. I can't remember how much we paid, but it was well within our means. I have always wondered what the place really was, clearly something more than just a shop. A club? A high class Soviet brothel? Surely not! Years later, working in the Soviet Union as an engineer for Siemens none of the people living there believed me, they were all certain that I'd had the wrong impression.

My late husband grew up in the USSR. He told me that most Soviet citizens were incredibly poor and that operating an independent business could land you in jail. Both of his parents (with PhDs) ran an illicit business out of their apartment. They prepped students for their college entrance exams. Of course, everyone had to be careful not to get caught. He also told me that by the time he reached secondary school (what we in the U. S. call high school), he had on average five to six hours of homework every night. Students had to attend school six days a week. All work turned in had to be perfect.

4:24 is a Volga car. My father had one, and it was a tank! Here's a joke from that era: A young newlywed couple, the man works in the baby stroller factory that produces them for export. They're expecting a baby, but cannot afford the stroller, so the woman tells her husband to bring home small parts, and put it together when all the parts are there. He does that, and says, Honey, no matter how I put these parts together, all I get is a tank!

I remember a story that I heard long ago about a visit that Nikita Khruschev made to Washington D.C. in the 1960's. He was invited to a state dinner at the White House where potato chips were served. He sampled a few, and then described them as "thin wafers of perfection". Apparently, potato chips were an unknown commodity in the U.S.S.R. until Khruschev returned from his trip to the U.S.

My mother told me the story of her youth in the USSR, she studied in music institute, had a classmate that was dropped out of the institute because he played a Queen song and later on had troubles with authority because they found tapes of western music in his home. How lucky i think i am thay i was born in time when my country won it's independence

There is a very powerful Soviet-era rock band called “Kino” that I would like to see a video made about. I don’t believe that it gets enough credit for its contributions. Some of you have probably even heard of them without realizing it thanks to GTA: IV in the form of their song “Gruppa Krovi” on Vladivostok Radio. Definitely look into this band. It would be excellent if we could have a video dedicated to Kino and its singer who died tragically before his time, Viktor Tsoi.

With the car portion you forgot to mention getting one could take a decade, if you were important enough to own one. And one of the reasons they lasted so long was they were not driven tons of miles as fuel could be hard to get.

Me and my parents were born in Ukraine, so that means all of my relatives lived through the USSR. I was born a few years after the collapse of the USSR. Even though many were poor, many great memories were made. The old soviet cartoons, the soviet apartment I lived in, the food, the KVAS, etc. These all contributed to my parents childhood and even mine. Life was very simple, yet surprisingly enjoyable.

My mother tells me a lot of stories about her Soviet life and upbringing. It wasn't perfect for sure, many things people needed were in deficit and really expensive for an average person, but there were a lot of good things. Kids could do any education they wanted for free, when she wanted to learn how to swim, she just went to the pool and enlisted herself. The Soviet people were humble, very simple and hardworking.

How about life in Saudi Arabia before oil? (Or life in the Arabian peninsula in general before oil)

My Father was a nuclear physicist. After his retirement, he was privately headhunted by a Russian agency, to oversee the safe removal of sensitive components and materials from several well known facilities. Although being in the mid 1990s, on his return, he reported his experiences as being like from a bizarre 1960s time warp. He was paid insanely well but refused several offers of return trips.

Life in the USSR varied a lot according to when you were born, where you lived and how privileged your family was. The voucher thing happened in the 80's, early 90s, and during wartime. The 70s were ok when it came to getting goods (and no vouchers needed), but during the 30s and 40s there was a famine (because of collectivisation and war), and in the 80's there was a big lack of certain products because of how the economy started opening up and how the planned economy system simply didn't work. For the alcohol one, people made their own alcohol (samogon), so getting alcohol wasn't much of a problem during the dry periods. Also, things that were sold weren't actually made to last, they were simply made to exist. People just kept them for a VERY long time because 1. they didn't know when they could get a new item (because of the planned economy - goods were produced only when the government said so) 2. there weren't any companies, since it was a closed economy, which meant there was no competition, just one "brand" for each product, and no incentive to make products with better quality. 3. some products cost a fortune (especially cars!). People couldn't just buy a new car when it broke down (and most people couldn't afford to buy one in the first place!), so they just did everything they could to repair their car. There were no services that could do the repairing for you, so you had to do it yourself with the help of books/manuals/a friend. By the way, to buy a car, apart from money, you needed to get an authorization from the right government people. For other products, people did everything to fix them up, they even mended torn up stockings!

Technically USSR wasn't a communist state. They were building socialist state and communism is the next step.

My father told me that when he was a child in a very remote rural area of Zacatecas, Mexico, he knew someone who claimed to be a soviet soldier, he had no home, he kept some soviet-looking military clothes near him and knew how to fight. He actually taught some local kids the basics of fighting. From what I remember he said he would never go back, that he rather be homeless in Mexico than going back. One day he was found dead near the river, nobody knew what happened to him. My father said that probably nothing nefarious, but it was suspicious regardless.

You should do What Life was really like in the French Empire with Napoleon in charge

Great video! One small note though: please don't use "USSR" and "Russia" as synonyms. There were 15 countries in the USSR and although Russia and Russian culture were indeed dominant, they are still not the same

There were difficulties, I was a child but remember. You forgot to tell that the government provided apartments almost for all the citizens of he country, there were not homeless people at all. And after 1991 all the people were allowed to turn these apartment into private ones.

Literally everyone I have ever met that lived in the soviet union just ignores the question when I ask them what their lived experience was like.

When it came to sports, all Soviet athletes were technically professional even though the IOC, other international sports federations & the state labelled them as amateur. This is because athletes were paid through the state sponsored sports program.

My mother and I visited Russia in 1979. What struck me was that vending machines sold a kind of sour beer in real glasses called kvaas. The glasses could be washed by the vending machine after every use.

I've waited on a queue for food from 4 am to 11 am. Just imagine the queue that was. All people have been given vauchers and they were arranged on a paper like small squares for cutting with a scissors. Monday, you cut for Monday and the Monday vaucher says: Today your family gets 1 bread, 4 eggs, 1 small bag of rice, 2 bottles of cooking oil, 1 sausage and 2 bananas. Tomorrow is something a bit different, Wednesday vaucher had 1 whole chicken, 1kg potatoes... I forgot what it was cause that was 35 years ago. My parents and grandparents said it was even worse during the 60's and 70's. My country was one of the countries under communist regime.

Damn! I learned stuff I didn’t know myself. I grew up in soviet Russia of 1984-1990. My mom managed to bring over some of her bootleg Beatles and Ella Fitzgerald albums, but I never saw bones on them. Lol. I was probably the only pro-American who hated jeans, because the Russian-style jeans the government sanctioned were so ugly and they made everyone’s butts look like they had diapers on. In Russia we drank Kvas (malt beer made from fermented bread, it’s actually amazing), and then I tasted Pepsi on the plane to Israel when we left in 1990, and I only tasted coke in Israel. My grandma, the Moscovite, was so excited to try cola and McDonald’s lol. I remember when I was a small kid, they said there wasn’t enough vodka available (is that what you were talking about when you were talking about Gorbachev?), either way, the alcoholics in Russia, AKA, most men and a few less women, resorted to drinking cologne. Imagine fat, sweaty, smelly Russian men, smelling of bad cologne, but also of vomit from that same cologne. 🤮🤮

No matter what the time or place, there have always been an elite class in every society who prospered while the general population suffered or made do with less of everything. This is still true today in many countries, ours included.

The rusty staple was very interesting. I never knew that one

A man walks into a car dealership in Moscow, he buys himself a new car. The salesman says "great, it will be delivered to you 10 years from tomorrow" and the man asks "morning or afternoon?" "Why?" The salesman asks, "Because I have a morning appointment with the local electrician that day." 😆

Soviet Union always had a certain aesthetic to some people. Some describe this aesthetic as "future that never came".

❤️❤️❤️This is very interesting and mostly true. I remember growing up over there. I was super happy leaving Russia when my parents brought me to the United States back in 1989. I was only a little girl then but forever thankful to them to have such courage to leave their lives behind and start new ones in an unfamiliar to them country. Love your channel! 😁👌🏻

I went to ST Petersburg in 2000. It was a lovely place, but there was, as our guide explained, there was no certainty of tomorrow. Today, you have a job and are fine, but tomorrow, who knows? We had a canal ride, where we ended up giving the tour guide a few bottles of beer, then he asked us if we were really interested in the tour, or would we rather cruise a bit longer on his boat through the canals and enjoy the scenery? We had a great time with him, laughing and joking, chatting, swapping stories, etc. We tipped him well and gave him a few boxes of cigarettes. Easy tour for him and a chilled out day for us, learning about what life was like in Russia at that time, enjoying each other's company. Great experience and much better than the actual tour. He was a bit of a character.

Idiots think that a lot of money and everything to eat is the living goal. But it is not. The USSR had a very good upbringing of people.

In the mid 80s I would go with my grandpa for groceries, by then the lines weren’t as long, but we rarely had any fresh fruit and stuff that wasn’t processed chemicals, so if you wanted apples, oranges or bananas - you had to wait for the government to import it and then stand in looooong lines. Once we stood in a 200 person line and then realized they only had two cases of bananas left. When we came to Israel, we entered our first supermarket and ate ourselves into nausea. Bananas used to be my favorite food ever and after 3 months in Israel I couldn’t look at a banana without puking because I ate so many. Imagine a supermarket being the epitome of abundance.

My great-grandpa was sentenced to hard labor at the gulags for practicing Judaism - in declassified docs it said he was tried, put on a train but shot on the way trying to escape. May his memory be a blessing.

I had a Russian language professor in the 1980s who grew up in Leningrad. She said "Father Lenin" was worshiped like a god.

I asked my friends father what is was like there during the Soviet Union. When asked he took a good pause and said “Yes everyone was equal, it’s just some were more equal then others”

This is amazing should be shown in school. Kids these days will never know the struggle.

The quality control and longevity of the manufactured car surprised me. I always thought that USSR cars broke down or eroded quickly. Learn something new everyday.

Would like to see a video showing what different soup kitchens served around different countries. America, Russia, China, India etc

My headphones, I buy them for $20, and they last 3 months. We buy a refrigerator, it lasts 10 years before petering out. Computers barely last 3 years. Everything in my world is designed to break. Not that way in the Soviet Union. Products were good there - you bought something, you got it for a lifetime. I have come to admire Soviet manufacturing - there is a lot to be said for manufacturers that are not held to the whims of the market, where building things to break brings in more money, so that's what they do. The Soviet Union had problems, but in an era where everything is going to hell here in the United States, where the economy is collapsing, our wages are going down, debt is accruing, and every product we get increasingly worsens, and then we speak of totalitarianism, but the Soviets didn't do anything that the Americans didn't do, and usually it was a lot less extreme - so suffice to say, I can see a lot of positives to moving towards a Soviet type social order, we just have to get everyone involved, not have the censorship of media, and be extremely pro-libationary for all peoples (queer, straight, indigenous, Black, White, anyone and everyone needs social freedom to live their lives) - a reformed Soviet Union sounds like a pretty good deal to me, knowing what the alternative is.

@5:14, a little correction: in 60s and 70s there was no lines aspecially in big cities. The lines started in late 70s.

I am from Slovakia. I was born into democracy but my parents were growing up during the soviet regime in our country. To be honest they have very fond memories of it. Of course it was a time of their youth so we can add a nostalgia factor to it but here are few things they are always mentioning. Everybody was more friendly a people were helping each other much more. No homeless people and drug addicts. Everybody had to work because if you were not working you went to jail. Education and supporting of sports were very important and the most of equipment you needed was given to you for free. Groceries were cheap but there were not many things you could choose from. Salaries were mostly equal for regular people. Young families got many benefits. You could even get a flat for free by signing working contract with company for x years. These are just some of the thing that come up to my mind. Of course there were negative things as well. For example it was almost impossible to get to certain universities without contacts. Traveling was very limited. Some families were moved because they had big properties and they were actually almost inpendent from state and this of course wasn't liked by the state etc. Don't understand this as a propaganda or something. These are just thoughts of my parents on soviet times in my country.

I had a Lada back in the early 90s Tbh it was a very reliable, practical car The only problem was incredible heavy steering Other than that it was fine 🙂

I had a world history teacher that went there during the 70s and she showed us some slides she had bought and they had lost their color after 20yrs and she also said that there was a guard outside the door and you had to give them your keys to your room

It’s interesting, I had no idea that the early Soviets banned figurines, because in the 80s, every Russian person had entire cupboards filled to the brim with figurines. Some even made their own and are now prosperous figurine makers to this day, making amazing money abroad and making exhibitions. (I loved eating hidden matzo in Russia as a Jew).

Humanity will forever be plauged with problems. You can never eliminate it but can only try your best to make it ok.

Your videos are fire. I watch these with son. Thank u. Keep it up!

My parents grew up in the USSR and moved to the US in 2001. Best decision they made, my father has his own roofing business and my mother works in the medical field. Capitalism is the best system (well the older capitalism)

Lines weren't that much of a standard. At least not after the 60s and depending on location. My mother born 1964 only ever stood in lines to buy bananas. Never had any issues getting other food. She never really went hungry, neither does she know of anyone who did. She regularily went to the disco and other parties as well. She only really went hungry when she went to University, but that was just after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

6:18 Those kitchens for the poor were replaced by the overall mandatory employment, and every enterprise had its own canteen for workers. It was even a criminal offence to live without a registered employment. Such system made many problems, because managers of enterprises often were obliged to hold and deal with completely undisciplined workers with destructive drinking habits. In a normal market economy such persons are filtered out by unemployment, but not in the Soviet system, where every and any person had a guaranteed employment.

4:40 It was similar in Poland till 89'. I remember one time my grandmother told how she had to wait 5 hours outside the store (it was middle of the winter) to get meat for christmas dinner or 18 h to buy 2 chairs and kitchen table

I once heard someone say - “Life in the Soviet Union was like driving a car with you pressing on the accelerator full throttle…. while the hand brakes are on!! “. And that makes a lot of sense … With the hand brakes on, there is safety. That means, you have a secure job for life, as a factory worker maybe. Your housing, food, education, healthcare etc are taken care of. The facilities aren’t great. But you will never reach your full potential because the hand brakes are on. You don’t have the freedom to do what you want.

I was told how on the Okhotsk coast of the USSR in the 1950s, potatoes were planted in the coastal pebble soil along with herring, replacing fertilizers. The potatoes have grown big! ... was a side dish for the everyday herring dish.

My neighbors who were from the Ukraine lived on a collective farm. They were in there 80s in the early 90s. The few stories they told were quite scary.

In the late 80's, I met a new Canadian from the USSR, we were both in our 20's. His stories of life in the USSR were not flattering ...

I'm American. I visited the Soviet in 1989 at the age of 19. It was opening up, but still very strange. We had a sort of monitor, but my brother and I slipped that guy one evening in Leningrad. Met a gorgeous Kazakh medical student, she took us out for fun with her friends. A strange and fun memory.

Why did the soviet union have poor people? Wasnt everyone supposed to have the same stuff?

Not exactly related to this but i had to search peddler malls for 3 years to find a old globe that had the USSR on it for my reading room. I found many they labeled antique trying to sell for 80+. I got mine included a 2 ft stand for 30. It has been a wonderful addition to my history themed area. It raised questions with my children so it sparked curiosity and allowed a home history lesson. Well worth the 30.

Hence why when Metallica played for the very first time in Russia over 1.6 million ppl showed up. Metallica was the first metal band to play in Russia and the only band to play on every continent on Earth.

I’m from Russia btw, but haven’t lived a day in the USSR. My parents told me that it was not good in the last days of the USSR, but it got much WORSE after it had collapsed. I was just born. My mom used to work at a coil factory and haven’t been paid for months, but the workers were able to go to the factory’s grocery shop and take food instead of money. And she took whatever she needed. We have never experienced shortages of food. Though, there were people who actually didn’t. They took very small amount of food for their children, like the cheapest macaroni or undrinkable tea. They chose saving money for better times, when everything would be back as it had been before. They kept telling everyone that one day they would be rich. You can guess that it was a poor decision. Sorry guys if I got all this grammar fucked up. I hope you got the point.

Free housing which you had to stay in queue to receive.. my grandfather received his in the late 80s, despite having been promised said housing 40 years prior cause he was a red army veteran who participated on the assault on Berlin (heavy artillery)

Live in Soviet Union was pure misery!! From someone who unfortunately lived in that beast!!

My anatomy and physiology professor was born in Ukraine and was in the Soviet Army. He didn’t volunteer but service was mandatory.

The fact that anyone wants to still practice this shit is ridiculous. Whenever someone says they're a socialist or communist, I walk away.

Ha, I lived in the former USSR and I didn't know about rusty staples in passport. Live and learn. What a tricky move from the Soviets!

My dad grew up in communist Poland before coming to the UK in the early eighties as an 18 year old. 1/10 he does not recommend communism.

I’d like to see a video on the border disputes between the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania during the 18th century. It’s sometimes referred to as “Cresap‘s War” (not to be confused with the Cresap’s War during the Seven Year’s/French and Indian War), which was named after an aggressive instigator in Maryland named Thomas Cresap. It’s a fascinating footnote in history that has little information known on it-and it eventually lead to the formation of the famous Mason-Dixon Line.

People are obsessed with focusing on the final years of the USSR and saying that its entire history was like that. Literally anything you hear about the USSR after the mid 80s is a terrible representation of what it was.

Gorbachev was leader way before 1990. He met with President Reagon throughout the 80s and eventually in 1989 brought down the berlin wall.

Would love to hear about the Austro-Hungarian Empire

We lived in Moscow from 2000-2005. Even kids could buy beer, you could drink a beer on the streets or the tram.

I lived in the Soviet Union for 10 years and I was only allowed to drink Hot Dog water.

Whenever I see this bullshit about endless food lines in USSR I just roll my eyes. Bread lines had not happened since WWII in USSR/Russia. From the 1950s onwards, food was not scarce anywhere in the country. Contrary to Stalin, the communist rulers that came after him, considered preventing hunger an essential part of their contract with the populace. Especially bread was considered a necessity. Failure to provide enough bread to the people was considered enough reason to sack a local party boss in charge of a territory. And anyone who lived there at that time and who is not a liar will confirm this.

X ray lps with bone inprints sound like some kind of super rare and expensive special edition honestly! would totally wanna get my hands on some of those bootlegs!

Thanks for this video. The staples part was fascinating. #godisinthedetails

I'm 53, I grew up in a Soviet province. I don't regret the collapse of the USSR. In our small town there was a shortage of almost everything except bread and green tomatoes in glass jars. We lived poorly. Although my grandparents lived even poorer on the collective farm during Stalin’s times. They worked without salary, for 2-3 bags of grain (a year!) . It was not allowed to make business. We lived a little bit better in the 70-80s.

I remember through my school, I had a pen pal in the Soviet Union for a while. Her English penmanship was way neater than mine, that's all I remember. 😂

"because we all know cooking brings....sorrow?..." What a ridiculous thing to say after just acknowledging it could take many hours to get basic staples. If someone was too tired too cook, they couldn't pop something in the microwave or order out. They did not eat. Get a bag of rice, a few onions, celery, and a small piece of chicken. Walk to your supermarket, stand in front of it for 3 hours, go in and buy one more item under $5. Now, only using most basic appliances/kitchen tools, eat only those things for the next 2 days. Now, do that with 3 young children, and imagine doing it for the next 5 years, and yes, COOKING WITH BRING YOUR SORROW.

Khrushchev, on his visit to NY to the UN, was greatly impressed by the industrial mess along the Jersey Turnpike outside of NY, oil refineries, steel mills, the wonderful view from the skyway.

I went into Communist East Berlin (‘behind the Wall”) for only 1-day in 1985. It was a fascinating experience. Given the possibility of propoganda, I tried to not have any assumptions going in … but we in the USA weren’t hearing propoganda. The place was spooky. There was no spirit and people seemed to behave like robots. I can only imagine what it was like in Russia.

It used to be that beer wasn't considered alcohol per se in some really old societies because it was difficult to purify water to be safe enough to drink. They discovered that people would be less likely to get sick after drinking what is technically beer because it had just enough alcohol in it to kill any organisms in the drink but it was such a small amount of alcohol it didn't really get you drunk the way modern beer does.

I had a Lithuanian prof who grew up there while the Soviet Union was still a thing. I was curious asked her what she was taught in history class, about the other side of the iron curtain, and she said she was hardly taught about anything at all. These regimes really do make an effort to keep its people in ignorance as much as possible.

Interesting video, thank you.

Gotta love how the movie "The Death of Stalin" barely had to exaggerate when portraying the behaviour of the Soviet ruling elite.

I grew up in USSR . The above video is very good. I would defy "meschanstvo" as materialistic non-spiritual living or Conspicuous consumption . There were clearly defined "casts" among Soviet population as the result the society was stratified. An average Westerner would not understand how a meat packer or cashier could have more rubles or power than a doctor or an engineer or a scientist, but it happened in USSR. Breaking the rules or stealing from the state was not a big deal in 70's or 80's , as long as it was low key and in small amounts. Stealing from A PERSON would get the thief in trouble including street justice. One's access to goods and services, including medical care and education , was based purely on connections. The last point is that life in USSR varied a lot based on the era. For example , life in 80's was very different from life in 30's or 40's. Spasibo

Can you do a vid on Melungeon people of the Appalachia. I was told by my dad we are, and it's such a sad sad story. One more story about a group of people being treated horribly in early America. Regardless it's very interesting. Thanks so much!

What's the music playing at 0:31

Love the videos you put out. Any chance you would make a video about the fast food industry?

I know this will probably be buried but I really love your videos! There’s one topic I would love to hear about. It’s this group of people called the monument men who went around the world to find stolen art that the Nazis took in WWII.

Since prices were fixed and enforced by the State, Soviet shops were not allowed by law give discounts in get rid of excess goods. So they simply created "bundle purchases": in order to purchase something in high demand, like condensed milk or canned meat, you also had to also purchase something they were trying to get rid of: fish that was already near or past expiration, packets of salty soup mix or dried dill, etc...

I’m happier I haven’t been in that era! Life was so gray and depressing!

One mistake, Gorbachev was the leader from 1985 to 1991

I actually bought one of these bone records for a gift! It’s pretty neat to see it on one of your videos!

in from russia. mother and my older relatives all say the soviet times were much better. not because of material things or because life was easy, because everyone seemed to be much more friendly in those days. now everyone thinks of himself and not about the others. also if you want to describe "how people lived in soviet russia" you left one important thing out which is "Datcha" pretty much everyone had a weekend house where they grew their own food to supply themselves over the year.

In 1984 Iron Maiden was one of the first heavy metal bands to play behind the iron curtain.🤘

I have lived in Albania for the last five years. All the history is fascinating here, including the recent communist era.

The staple fact blew my mind ! So simple yet so effective