A History Teacher Reacts | "Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of Tetris"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Original Video - • Complete History Of Th...
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“The upper class who were resented a bit”
I would argue that’s a bit of an understatement
"A few people maybe didn't like the Tsar."
Argue away then.
I think he's trying to become an early contestant for the "understatement of the year" award.
That too is an understatement
@@fumeknightofshovelry3901 just a few
I'm at the point where any time I hear the Tetris theme, no matter which style or remix, I just go "I am the man who arranges the blocks...."
I can't like because you already have 69 likes, so cheers
+[1 2]
I find 12 squared to be much more impressive than 69, honestly. Also, recently I put a comment on another video at 2020 likes. Forgot which video it was, though, sadly.
But to each their own I guess.
Ahsim Nreiziev I fixed that for ya
I've been like that for 10 years.
If someone even as much as writes Tetris, Korobieniki or hands me the notation for the song, or someone even hums it... I go "I am the man who arranges the blocks that keep falling on me from up above, come Muscovites let the workers unite a collective regime of peace and love"
Same dude..
One of the most brilliant gags that was uncommented: "I am the man who arranges the blocks that are made by the men in Kazakhstan. They come two weeks late, and they don't tessellate..."
The factories made what they were ordered to make, so if you needed blocks you had to get them from the factory that was tasked to make them, no other option. They'll come when they come, and the quality was very variable because only quantity was important and the other factory had no stake in the finished product. In this case the blocks when they finally arrive late are so defective that they don't even fit with each other on the Tetris board (they don't tessellate).
Regarding what you said, there is also a wordplay with "tessellate" and "test select", they didnt do quality control.
"When government demanded that production be doubled, managers and overseers looked through their papers to see what could be done. They changed their reports to say that their productivity doubled and congratulated workers for their work.
Workers, though they couldnt remember doing more than before, smiled and congratulated themselves for hard work done, for surely management doesnt do mistakes like that.
When bureaucrats got reports and compared them to actual stocks, they saw that they had much less than they should have. They however decided, that surely, the rest were just somewhere else, out of their sight and passed the reports on to the secretariat.
Secretary of the State looked through the report and saw that all was good, and started the next phase of the plan to make Union great".
(source: I read this somewhere, trust me)
I heard once that the managers' wages were calculated as a percentage of their production costs. So if they wanted to earn more, they needed to *increase those costs*.
@@Vengir you were the 420th comment
@Dwarov 1 no they really werent. at all. and russian products were terrible quality uniformally.
Source?
I thought the part about building a wall was about Berlin too at first, but I looked into it and apparently it was common for the Soviet Union to give people useless jobs, especially towards the end. Essentially there would be people who build structures and then the next day others would deconstruct them, just so the government could say that everyone was employed.
huh thanks man
Not gonna lie that's pretty smart cheat by them.
@@thesixteenthstudent205 It's smart if the country is doing well, but if you are doing hard work that you are told will help the people and then see it be undone shortly after, I can see how people could get tired of doing it. Especially if the money you get doesn't help you get things like food any faster.
@@thesixteenthstudent205 Not really, since its a double waste of resources.
It was also a reference to tetris as you build a wall for it to disappear
You'll never hear the Tetris theme without thinking of these lyrics now
I actually think of the red army choir
So how's the country running
I can no longer hear the original song
Wha? Listen the original folk song "Korobeiniki" to read a lyrics
Yeah.....
I am the man who arranges the block
Tetris, I find, is like life. You keep trudging on with everything being faster and faster as you claw for breathing room as you are inevitably crushed by the weight of your own mistakes. There is no winning tetris.
Unless you don't play
Ok cool
talk to a therapist
Cannot lose if you don't play it in the first place. Just like politics.
I earnestly suggest mild amounts of LSD for this feeling. It's like lubricant for all the data blocks in your brain so you can defrag easily.
"I hope I was able to add a little bit of context."
*Uploads 4x the length of the original video*
He's a Teacher, of course its gonna be longer
@@Sinstarclair they're just pointing out the funny contrast with his statement, not commenting on the expectedness or goodness of the length
It's amazing that your students found this on their own time. My teacher in high school was so unpassionate and disinterested in history that I actively avoided studying history on my own time.
I studied with a someone in my class during class because we already knew all the subjects that would be on the test in our fourth year of high school (we don't have middle school but a longer period in primary and high school). Everything was taught that year was a rewind of year one, two and three.
So we had our little studygroup where we discussed history we found interesting, like the Russian revolution. It was kinda sad that our teacher never had any passion for teaching us the wonders that history holds.
Yet again, there are no bad students, only bad teachers.
Theturtleowl I was/am in the same boat. During my first year in high school I asked to take government and economics, but the faculty told me that was a fourth year class. Myself and three friends ended up studying whatever history we liked at the time. For a while it was WW1, then a year later, our final was a presentation on WW1. We all got highest marks because I said something like “the First World War was a massive feat of manpower, as well as being the first “modern” war. With planes and mechanized infantry, etc.” Even the teacher asked to elaborate, I did, and he goes “damn. No one ever explained it like that before”.
Our school systems mainly focus on the politics behind movements and wars and so on. So to explain how those goals were reached was alien to our teacher. But as soon as our group moved to a new topic, the old one was dead to us. If we’d moved on then gotten a project about a topic we’d already discussed, there would be no passion in it. The teachers knew we loved history (since that was the only class any of us passed lmao), so eventually they let us do whatever to keep us from failing. I miss high school.
My niece is more interested in Russian history than American history nowadays.
All my teacher just put on youtube and sit in the back.
i beleive what he is referencing with "whats the point of it all when your building a wall...." and "pointless work for pointless pay" was the rumors (confirmations?) that soviet work crews would build walls or structures one day and the next tear it down, just do it again to show they had "work"
Dunno about the workers, but in the army pointless work is a very common practice to this day. As they say, the result isn't important, the task is to tire (obscene untranslatable Russian word is used instead of "tire") the soldier. Like literally painting the grass green or drying a puddle with a broom.
Terbin it also shows that they were right back where they started, but instead of capitalists and wealth hierarchies oppressing them it’s now the state and governmental hierarchies oppressing them. The lines are really similar too “I work so hard in arranging the blocks but the landlord and taxman bleed me dry” and “I work so hard in arranging the blocks but every night I come home to my wife in tears...”
Or, it could be in Tetris, when you successfully make a full wall, half of it disappears to make more room to continue playing that level
@@Literallykimiko Doubt it man, there's a lot of building back then
Or it could be both, but I think it's mostly about history than tetris
this happens outside of the USSR tho **caugh caugh** trump border wall **caugh caugh**
16:15 "The markets are free so much money for me. Tell me why should I care about peace and love?"
This is a reference to the rise of the oligarchs who bought state owned enterprises for very cheap and got really rich. It is also about a change in relations between people. During the Soviet Union people were said to be kinder to one another. With the introduction of capitalism without a proper court system, making as much money as possible regardless of the moral implications became the norm.
Not only was Tetris created in Russia, but also the Tetris theme's melody is actually a Russian folk song. In answer to the question about the possible metaphor in the early part of the video, I think it's referencing how the history of the USSR can be seen as a series of attempts by its people to improve their society, which they think is going to go great ("sometimes it seems like to move blocks is fine and the lines will be formed as they fall"), then tragically finding themselves in another bad situation ("I have misjudged it. I should not have nudged it after all."). So they believe their efforts are a failure, when in reality the reason for the failure is ultimately always down to the actions of the people in power raining down like endless Tetris blocks on the common man, who has nothing he can do except try to spin the blocks and situation as best he can to keep from drowning. This argument from the video, therefore, explains to the audience why Putin's bloodthirst is so popular with so many (not all) Russians. The Humble Worker of the narrative thinks all there is is pointless block spinning, and nothing they do can change the game, so might as well grab what joy they can by taking pride in it and reveling in borrowed bloody glory from their state conquering others in an attempt to prove to itself its own self-importance.
About that Moscow McDonalds...I was 3 years old on that very long line. It's one of my very first memories. My dad holding my hand, standing on that line for hours. Ppl were glowing with excitement. Amazing time.
Fun fact: Tetris was actually made by Soviet engineer software in 1984
Thats why they chose tetris song to the history of the USSR, also tetris theme is a russian folk song called korobeiniki
Its Ironic, a work made by soviets gets turned into an icon of capitalism.
Plus, Tetris was actually made to represent communism.
Literally 1984
11:00
“They had mass production of things and that’s how they were able to defeat the Germans.”
- Mr Terry, 2020.
big brain right here
Legit a better take than many out there, and that's before we even get into elite takes like "Stalin tricked the Allies into fighting Hitler-
Fusilier I think it’s more fair to say the Hitler tricked the allies into fighting Hitler.
@@greenmachine1987 Hitler tricked himself into tricking the allies to fight Hitler, than proceeded to trick himself into fighting the Soviets.
Michinomiya Hirohito Hitler trucked himself into fighting the snow.
I find the deeper themes running through this deceptively simple video interesting. It's not just a fun history lesson through set to tetris. By using tetris as a framing device it gives a sense that nothing ever changes, or that everything goes again. I particularly note that it beginning with the communist revolution and ends with a prediction of another rise of the reds.
If a state has a totalitarian regime, one totalitarian system tends to substitute another when it comes to "revolution"
People dont revolt to oust unfit dictators, they revolt to submit new ones
@@scouttyra so, Argentina?
@@TheDJBrojo Yep, pretty much
One can only hope.
Damn it Mr. Terry why do you not call your sub base your class and the comment section the class discussion
The channel members are the class!
If we got into an argument.... Would that be class warfare?
@@KrislLeon FOOD FIGHT!!!!
@@KrislLeon to quote Burnie Burns RoosterTeeth CEO. " god dammit Barb"
@@anarchomando7707 He is not a crook.
The part when he says "pointless work for pointless pay" reminds me of a popular soviet anecdote "They pretend to pay us so we pretend to work"
US Government pre-musk be like:
I dont think its entirely educational, but its more like something you show after being taught to review the basic points.
Koifish production Yes. You really need to know the Russian story and the Tetris game to fully appreciate this song. I like it a lot.
Yeah to understand most of the metaphors in the song you need to know many details about the soviet history.
It's really a lot more educational with Mr Terry's commentary
The history completely went over my head. Glad you covered it
That's what I'm here for!
I remember many years back hearing a line that was supposed to be from Russian workers. "We'll pretend to work and you'll pretend to pay us". This was the "pointless work for pointless pay" or more specifically the line from the song, "the winter is cold, I have lots of gold, but I'm waiting in line for a loaf of bread". Everyone got paid on time. The problem was that there was nothing to buy. The black market was huge back then. East Germany of all places was a tourism hotspot because they imported western and asian goods there. A music machines, appliances, women's lingerie were all hot commodities.
''But tomorrow, I think I'll stay in bed.'' that line is just so powerful to me for some reason. Just how defeated he sounds is haunting.
Luke van Kleef you doing okay fam?
@@redthered3242 Yeah im fine.
Luke van Kleef okay dude. stay safe!
I managed to get quite a lot out of it without knowing much before, but generally on rewatches and noticing extra little things. It was introduced to me as just a funny tetris song though so I suppose I wasn't looking for it to begin with.
I can't believe you found this video but boy am i glad you did its a classic!
You never mentioned the line about crystal meth.... that’s just an interesting bit of Russian history
I mean he's a teacher so...
I mean the West mostly believes that in 1991 the evil regime fell and every Russian became wealthy and happy.
In reality it was a genocide worse than the World War II.
+[Charles P]
I might be judging Mr Terry too harshly based on limited information, but I got the distinct impression that he thought the "McDonaldization" of the Soviet Union was the best thing that ever happened to the country. The 2 men of Pig With The Face Of A Boy clearly view it in a far more ~ .....nuanced? perhaps? ~ fashion, and I suspect that this is the reason why Mr Terry didn't comment on the "crystal meth" line: it doesn't mesh with his view of History.
Ignores the meth bit, wanks over the McDonalds bit, even though Mcdonalds is a cancer upon this earth. I think mister Terry has a bit of a bias.
@@Klikoderat everyone has a bias that they can't see
*”HIP, HIP, HOORAH, FOR THE U.S.S.R!”*
Gotta be my favourite line yet.
Real
“THE FUHRER IS DEAD AND EUROPE IS RED” is my favorite line
Comrade Terry, You slightly question its educational value to someone who doesn't know much about the history of the USSR, and that might be a fair point. I already had known the history of the USSR when I found this video, so it didn't help me learn it. But it absolutely was a great refresher and reminder. Educationally this would not be a thing to show at the start of a unit on the history of the USSR, but it would be quite valuable at the end of the unit as both a review, and a decompression.
@Vlad the Inhaler And...what does this have to do with the comment above?
2:50 “Lenin, who lead the overthrow of the Tsar.”
WRONG!
I’m sure it just slipped your mind but but Bolsheviks overthrew Kerensky’s provisional government and not the autocracy, as Nicholas abdicated in February.
Just a small correction. ;)
Yeah a lot of people forget but Russia had two revolutions. Tsar was overthrown in the February Revolution, creating the Provisional Government led by Kerensky. And Bolsheviks led the October Revolution, which overthrew the Provisional Government.
I always hear different things about this, what was the provisional government’s actual plan? For governing the country, mean. What did they want Russia to be, in terms of government?
@@dashiellgillingham4579 I am unsure but I think it was either crowning a different Tsar and becoming a constitutional monarchy or becoming a republic.
Though kerensky forced the tsar to resign it was the bolsheviks who ended up executing the royals, so lenin overthrowing the tsar is still true, just not in the most literal sense, as the tsar was no longer the tsar at that point
@Dashiell Gillingham They wanted to hold fresh elections as soon as possible so that the people could choose. They knew they were quite literally a temporary, provisional government.
But on a personal level, they absolutely wanted Russia to be a liberal, constitutional republic, but might have been able to accept a Tsar returning to power in the future with a constitutional settlement.
I have watched the original video close to a hundred times. There are a lot of nuances and references that are easy to miss unless you constantly re-watch and focus on different parts. Here are a few of my takes:
* Not only was Tetris developed in Russia, but the song itself is much older than the game. It's called Korobeiniki, a pre-Soviet Russian poem turned folk song by Nikolay Nekrasov.
* At the beginning when he says he shouldn't not have nudged it after all, I think it's foreshadowing of what happens next, given the way the character changes by the end. BTW, yes, it is the story arc of one man who lived long enough to see both the revolution as well as the decline.
* When he says "why must these infernal blocks tease" he sits on a T that just fell, and he had to move it so it won't block where a long one should go.
* It's worth noting that right after that, pre-revolution, you can see all the workers are not synchronized. They hold the hammers differently, they have different postures, and they move out of turn.* There is also a guy standing there confused and possibly scared. He lost his hammer, or never had it, and he tries to fit in because he isn't sure what will happen if he doesn't. It's a metaphor for the idea that not everyone was onboard but they went along because they didn't know what else to do, or what would happen to them if they didn't.
* To go back to a previous point, as soon as the revolution starts, you see that all the workers fall in line, including the one that was unsure earlier. Everyone is synchronized, everyone is in their place, and there is no more individuality. This juxtaposition comes back again later in the bread line. When the soviet union starts falling apart, you can see the frustrated people waiting in the line once again being out of sync.
* A lot of people comment about the wall being regarding the Soviet practice of having people do things just for the sake of doing them. That is 100% true, but it was for a lot more things than just walls or houses. The line references both the practice of working for the sake of working and getting paid with money that can't be used, but it also references the Berlin wall at the same time, and the idea that they built that wall essentially to keep capitalism out, and then Gorbachev comes and just lets capitalism back in.
"What's the point of it all when you're building a wall and in front of your eyes it disappears?" This is a reference to the gameplay of Tetris. Rows disappear when they are completed.
columbus8myhw Tetris, and the fact that, to make sure everyone was employed, Soviets would have people construct something only to be torn down by other people the next day.
Or it could be a reference to the berlin wall being torn down
JRR Gimli
Nah it’s a reference to the useless jobs in the Soviet Union
+[DrRobux]
Why couldn't it be both? Or, if you include the obvious Tetris reference, all 3?
@@AhsimNreiziev Technically, the referenced the Berlin Wall coming down later in the song. The "pointless work" was referencing the busy work during the Soviet years, and the "pointless pay" was in reference to the fact that they had nothing to spend the money on.
So THAT’S how Putin stays in power! Thanks Mr. Terry!
Well he also doesn’t allow any opposition candidates to run in the election, and his party’s has the majority, so elections aren’t really fair. The constitution thing just allows him to justify it.
Even the USSR has a very democratic voting system, but we all know how that turned out.
Macanada to re-elect him again. If you think this rewriting is liberal or fair-nope. It’s just to allow him to stay longer, cause he’d have to leave in 2024. And the new government is chosen by the parliament, where Putin’s party has absolute majority, so nothing would change actually.
Macanada not really from shadows, he would be a direct ruller. According to the new constitution, being Russian president would be like being English queen or German president. You could call it “from the shadows” if this would be some kind of secret, but that’s just common knowledge.
Putin stays around for a simple reason: The 1990s were a horrifically bad decade for the average Russian. Yeltsin is effectively a western backed pushover and is reelected due to Western interference in the election. (To be fair, Yeltsin was dealt a bad hand with what he had to work with.) Freedom of speech means absolutely nothing when, in exchange, your sister and mother have to become prostitutes in order to afford food. Putin comes in and creates the environment for Russia to finally recover from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Living and working conditions quickly start improving for the average Russian under Putin and have more-or-less continued to improve over the last two decades.
The 1990s are still well within living memory. Anyone in Russia born before the mid 1990s will have at least some memories of it. Are there problems in Putin's Russia? Yes. Are those problems worth rocking the boat and possibly risking another decade like the 1990s? Oh hell no.
For an added cherry on top, people think that once Putin is gone, a more pro-western leader will emerge. Anyone who looks into Russian politics honestly quickly realizes that Putin IS the pro-western Russian leader. He spent a large part of the 2000s trying to be friendly to and build good relations, but NATO leaders kept pretending it was still the 1960s. Anyone who might replace him is going to be far less tolerant NATOs provocations.
'I'm reacting to this because I'm a history teacher!'
**Sits in front of a wall of NES cartridges**
The Story of Tetris by Gaming Historian is a pretty good watch btw!
Love Norm
As a fellow history teacher, I have played the Tetris video in my classroom.
Very sad you missed Friedrich Engels. I was practically screaming his name when you seems to struggle remembering it. Poor Engels gets no respect.
Cant wait for kids in 2050 telling us what they learned in meme / videogame class that day
At today's age Video Games is probably the only form of media that still partially free spoken. Different ideologies and points of view are explored in interactive stories. Something that is not happening in schools today.
The only people who consistently argue that particular set of points are under the impression that any person with a proper education in a verity of ideologies would select a naturalistic, nationalistic, and theological one to educate children in, and only raise said ideologies as examples of ones left out of the education system. Tell me I’m wrong, this argument could be broken by a single example and no-one has even tried.
@@dashiellgillingham4579 No true. The is value in all human knowledge. All of it is from experience of living out life, passed on by generations. Naturalist looks at the order of life, that in bonded to the entire universe. Nationalist brings people to unity and community. Theology teaches us, we are good, not perfect. And that's because we are not Gods. (In term of Christianity). Everything has it's extremes. But none of those human ideas are wrong. It's just part of Human Condition. If you can't understand that, then you are ignorant.
@@Kintizen dlight issue with your comment christianity tells us we are broken depraved sinneres who are supposed to burn forever if not for believing in a dead guy who people despute even exists and if revelations is to be believed will force people into the bloody wine press so i dont think it teach us that we are good
@@Kintizen yeah, I'd drop the Christian part of your pitch. Some people arent interested in the amoral pit of vipers that is the abrahamic religions.
I think this could *definitely* be used as a supplement to teaching about the USSR. It’s a great way to get kids invested, and perhaps to be used as a review. Putting things to a catchy song is one of the best ways to remember them!
Problem is most kids wont understand what the lyrics mean...
it was really funny listening to the knowing that the OG tetris theme was made by the Red Army Choir known as korobeiniki. love it when things come full circle. and the metaphor for "i should not have nudged it" may be in refrence/ foreshadowing to the working class realizing that they screwed up big time and everything falls into chaos
Not originally a Red Army Choir song, but a folk song! But yes, their version of Korobeiniki is very nice to listen to.
1:50 song, 25 minutes of references. Jesus, it’s like a Jojo anime opening.
This felt a like a "What's in an OP?" video from Mother's Basement. I can't wait until they adapt the end of the Putin arc to see how it goes.
@@RoyalFusilier end of putin arc? you a mistaken comrade
Nobody expects Constitution referendum
He is explaining the song. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.
About the first part:
After some googling it seems that most farmers reduced their crop yield due to fear of enemy's army invading & raiding for supplies during WWI. These actions were approved by the government.
But the military strategists didn't account for total mobilization or increased army logistics
not just that... look up what they did to the farmers... kulaks
@@afuzzycreature8387 what the fuck is a kulak
@@basil9973 I think a kulak is a wealthy, land-owning farmer
Now i want a t shirt with stallin saying “you’re all equally worthless” on it
That how I always interpret the communist ideal of us all being equal. If everyone is equal then no one is of value. You can’t climb up if the steps don’t rise above each other and in that same logic Soviet Union was historically stagnant. Economy was basically pointless because the money was of no real value, workers felt no pressure to do their job efficiently because the pay was equal and jobs were secured. It’s a dead end system
I'm very late on this, but when it says "I've got plenty of gold." It's talking about how the Soviet Union stole the Spanish gold reserves during the Spanish Civil War. Just wanted to say cus I haven't seen any comments on this.
The gold which the Spanish stole from the Native Americans?
@@HungarianHighFive you’re trying to kidnap what I’ve rightfully stolen
@@HungarianHighFivenot stealing, they won it multiple wars.
Remember how the USA wanted to not take part in the conflicts of the other countries?
When did that happen? USA pushes their nose on everything. After Trump I was so happy that they would stop playing the World police, but that didnt happen
@@jarskil8862 He's talking about USA isolationism after ww1 ending with ww2 and the start of the cold war
@@jarskil8862 Really I thought he pulled out of syria
@@jarskil8862 He's also referring to the policies of the earliest American leaders, particularly George Washington (in a farewell essay he had published in a newspaper, Washington warned the US to stay out of foreign politics).
Pepperidge farm remembers
I was at the first McDonald's in the que with my mom. We were there to get our Visas to come to the Uninted States.
Do you mean there was a time were you could get american Visas at Mcdonald's ?
America 100
You could teach a 3-hour class on about every frame of this video. The ques, clothing, fonts, sepia tone, type of vignetting, hammer type, colors, background architecture, the way words are displayed, facial expressions, mentality shifts, social cues, changes in military tanks, colors, consumer product styles, subtle references to soviet film, and so on displayed. You can tell which part represents 1915, 1917, 1920, 1942, 1950, and so on just by the sepia, vignetting, (simulated) type of film degradation, and camera angles. This is truly an underappreciated work of art. Even the seasons are appropriate. Stalin pushed hard for the development of mines and camps in Siberia. Building railroads and infrastructure in inhospitable conditions with workers essentially at gunpoint.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how _amazing_ the cinematography of this video is?
"What's the point of it all of you're building a wall and before your eyes it disappears?"
Not just The Berlin Wall, but this is literally the gameplay of Tetris. Genius analogy
6:47 - If I'm not mistaken that's the cruiser Aurora firing it's shot to signal the storming of the Winter Palace
When I first saw the video, I think a lot did go over my head. But having you there to explain it actually really helped and I understand a lot more now.
That song sparked my fervent interest in learning about the USSR, I grew up with globes and world maps that had East and West Germany, and was already in grade school when Chernobyl happened. Crazy stuff, some of these lessons are coming to pass in our own nation...
hu
h u
hu
h u
Not sure what all the 'hu' is about, I'm often old and confused xD
I think the more of the history you know, the easier it is to follow what's going on, but the first time I saw this video I barely knew anything about the history and I was still basically able to follow it.
My daily routine consists of listening to this
Thought you had an outlaw to catch
The Alright Tank Historian
Texas Red has been dead for a long time. I say the ranger deserves a break.
As someone with a working knowledge of Russian history from 1900 to present, I found that their video filled in some gaps while being very entertaining. Nice analysis of it.
I think the metaphor about misjudging the blocks and maybe not nudging them in hindsight may have alluded to them going from a bad situation to another bad situation in the end without realizing how it would turn out.
Classic video, watched it back at its release, when I had very little knowledge of history(especially (Soviet)Russian history) and pretty much sparked my own interest to learn more. It's by no means detailed/accurate enough for a true historical depiction, but makes for an easy access point, even for people who are not as interested in history.
*It goes over most people's heads the first time but its so catchy that people listen to it many times and the details will start sticking.*
*The added context and insight from your input was also helpful for those of us that want more depth.*
I think the video balances information saturation very well. It's a lighthearted presentation with a lit of facts that can easily be missed or glossed over. Each time you see it you can find something new.
Fun fact: there was a plan to drop in first aid kits on the Soviet Union but the catch is that the first aid kits had really big condoms in it that were labeled medium.
So glad you found this!
"This was fantastic. This was great."
Agreed, yo. It's such a fun video. The song is catchy, the visuals are outstanding, the mix quality is outstanding, and the subject material is fascinating. Awesome stuff.
Im a bit late but I saw this comment from the original video stating that the line at 4:22 is wordplay with “why must z’s infern-L Blocks(Squares) T’s”
The History of America...Told in 27 Rap Styles...would love to see your input on this one...also great video as always
oliver poof, suggestions go in the discord. discord.gg/qNAxF9
As russian person was interested to hear the history of Russia and the USSR from the lips of a foreigner. I would never thought that foreigners will interesting about russians history. So, wow.
I wish I had a teacher like you when I was in high school. All my teachers did not care about their jobs. They would just give us assignments, briefly touch on subject, and send us home. You seem like someone who actually has a passion for teaching.
Hadn’t seen this video before and I’m glad my first time seeing it was with your more detailed explanation because I wouldn’t of understood the majority of it without you 😂
the tetris theme is such a good choice, outside of being russian in itself the whole point of doing the work and seeing no results as the work just disappears and moves on to more and more work which is just coming from above its not even your choice what comes next.
13:30 I think the wall that you work hard to build and then disappears are a reference to the five year plans
11:25 Two videos with a Doctor Strangelove reference in less than a week.
every HS student should know all of this information. It might be too late for those already in college. lol
The metaphor for Tetris, I believe, is the top-down centrally-managed economy: your work falls from above and it’s on you to make of it what you can AND it’s your fault if the pieces don’t align.
As others have pointed out the underrated gag about blocks coming from Kazahkstan references the fact that since *everyone* is just arranging the blocks falling from above it’s Not My Job-ism at its finest. The Russian factory may need 2x2 blocks but the Kazahk factory was ordered to make 3x3 blocks so “not my problem.”
When you see the long view of Russian history as having to arrange whatever falls from above no matter who or what is in charge…….even in 2024……….a lot of things make sense.
Im surprised that he did not mention PIZZA HUT! that is probably one of the best ads off all time.
The one where Mikhail Gorbachev goes into the Pizza Hut with his granddaughter, and the old Russians start talking about how Gorbachev was bad for Russia while the young Russian guy starts talking about all the good that Gorbachev did? Then the old lady basically says "Gorbachev gave us Pizza Hut" and instantly shuts the argument down?
I love that ad too! I wonder if Mr. Terry will ever have a look at it. :-)
@@BloodyBay he has mentioned it in the past, but id love a whole episode devoted to JUST THAT!
@@trinalgalaxy5943 Then there's only one thing to do: *TO MR. TERRY'S DISCORD CHANNEL!* :-D
Quick basics of what the worker is talking about here: Romanovs (imperial Russia) - All the commands came from above and the worker never had a say on it but if they made a mistake they got punished. Lenin Communism - pure totalitarism but his endgame was to give the power to the workers. The workers still got told what to do by the high ups. Stalin Communism - just him trying to stay in power no matter what. Again no choice for the workers. Gorbatzhev Communism - Kinda social democrasy but via government control. Workers had little to no say. The current regimen is very far of communism but has some of the totalitarian styles from Stalin. Workers have a say, but whether or not it matters is questionable
I AM THE MAN WHO ARRANGES THE BLOCKS WHICH CONTINUE TO FALL FROM UP ABOVE
I am brazilian History teacher and this video is very fun! :D
Im so happy to see this video! Im enough of a nerd, that this is one of my favorite songs! And I especially enjoy seeing Mr. Terry explain and expand on historical references!
Who would have thought the cold war wouldnt end with bombs or an assassination but with a cultural victory
Sad it wasn't a scientific victory, eh at least not a domination victory!
@@LaLiTi Thankfully Ghandi wasn't set as a world leader or we would have gotten one turn away and then all out thermonuclear war
I felt like I was in a classroom.
I think it was pretty educational. Like ERB, they hint to things, make some statements, which piqued curiosity to find out more.
Yes, I am so glad to reacted to this.
Now I can sing it again for days on end!
The government didn't cut Ukraine's supply line: Ukraine WAS the supply line. The famine happened because low food production in the region (a vital area for the USSR's agriculture) during the aftermath of the collectivization. According to many scholars (for instance, Stephen Wheatcroft), there is no evidence of the event being intentional. It is often said that the government established unreasonably high grain quotas and that the USSR exported grain abroad with the intention of starving the population, but, although they did the first two things at the beginning, it was only until the central government realized what was going on and could respond to it. Afterwards, they lowered the quotas many times and actually imported grain to help the shortage. It's just that, once you realize you have a famine is hard to stop it, and the government didn't do a good enough job about it.
Santiago Romero also there were problems with collectivization, there weren’t always conditions ready, logistic problems
And propaganda made it even worse
Well when you have a government taking food from an area that is underperforming from previous years and actively saying they don't have food you think the government would figure this out before Holodomor. The famine was made worse by calling any farmer that kept food for their starving family a kulak and promptly executed. So yes it isn't genocide just like the Armenian removal to a desert wasnt genocide.
@@OscarDirlwood Ok so it isn't genocide but the Armenian genocide is. But seems like we can agree it was massive killing by a government neglecting its people's needs.
Fronic, “the documents that we do have on the famine show him reluctantly, belatedly releasing emergency food aid for the countryside, including Ukraine. Eight times during the period from 1931 to 1933, Stalin reduced the quotas of the amount of grain that Ukrainian peasants had to deliver, and/or supplied emergency need. [....] These are the decisions that, once again, were made grudgingly, and they were insufficient-the emergency aid wasn’t enough. Many more people could have been saved, but Stalin refused to allow the famine to be publicly acknowledged. Had he not lied and forced everyone else to lie, denying the existence of a famine, they could have had international aid, which is what they got under Lenin, during their first famine in 1921-23. Stalin’s culpability here is clear, but the intentionality question is completely undermined by the documents on the record.”
The first few times I watched the video I only liked it because of the Tetris theme song, but now I'm very much intrigued by how detailed this video actually was, which made me appreciate it even more.
The tetris metaphor is on point in that video.
I remember back when I was in middle school and one day we had a substitute teacher that let us suggest TH-cam videos to watch. Other kids yelled out "Epic Rap Battles of History" and "Charlie the Unicorn," but I patiently raised my hand and, when I was called on, suggested this video. Unfortunately, the class didn't quite like it, and the sub stopped it right about the slow part in the middle and moved on to the next silly suggestion. I swore I'd never forget, Mr. Ericson!
He does not get a great deal of metaphors and references. Building a wall that dissappears is probably the best example. It's simply about working really hard, trying to be richer and still getting nowhere. Still getting everything taken away.
In fact many people claim that Andropov launched the "Great Perestroyka", and Gorbachev just kept working on it.
its a song i can still quote with a 90% accuracy the lyrics make it extremely memorable which really helps me when it comes to learning, as a overview for russian history i think it does its job well
NOw you need to do we didn't start the fire, would love to see that!
Every line needs an explanation; he’d have to pause it constantly.
Super late to comment, and sorry for the long text but I think it's an interesting point: A lot of the popular history of the USSR in the West is intermingled with anti-communist propaganda, as it was written during the cold war or cites history written during the cold war. Historians writing later, with access to classified documents from the era, have found that the reality differed in a lot of ways from what it's been presented as, or assumptions made. For example, in 2004, the book "The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933" by Wheatcroft and Davies came out, and it's by far the most thorough history of agriculture of the region and the period. It manages to really separate the actual problems and successes with the collectivisation efforts from propaganda (both Western and Soviet), and goes really deep on sussing out what happened with the famines at the time (they were pretty widespread all over the USSR, but had in fact been a recurring phenomenon that was ended after the collectivisation and industrialisation efforts.) The idea that the Ukrainian famine specifically was man-made and an attempt at genocide is found to be inaccurate, but rather an enormous tragedy caused by a number of factors occurring at the same time, compounded by the conflict between collectivisation efforts and the attempts by some farmers to resist collectivisation by destroying crops and machinery, as well as poor communication and ineffective bureaucracy. The idea that it was man-made and an attempted genocide was popularised by Robert Conquest's book "The Harvest of Sorrow" from 1986, and "The Years of Hunger" actually contains correspondence between the authors and Conquest where he admits in the light of their evidence and research that it was likely not man-made ("just" worsened by leadership prioritising poorly, and relying on inaccurate harvest estimates).
You also have interesting stuff like declassified CIA documents reporting in 1983 that the general population of the USSR had roughly the same caloric intake as US citizens, but that it was likely a bit more nutritious, or the fact that the dissolution of the USSR was quite literally the result of a coup (the first referendum held in the history of the USSR was in 1991, asking the population if they considered the preservation of the USSR necessary, and 77.85% of the population were in favour with a voter turnout of 80% which is pretty impressive -- compare US voter turnout for Presidential elections, which tends to be between 40% and 70%, generally somewhere in the middle.)
What's funny is that, as a history enthusiast and someone who studied the USSR, I was able to pick up on everything about the USSR/Russia before and after in this video even when it just came out and I was still a teen.
But only recently have I started picking up on the extent of the Tetris metaphors, lol.
*Commenting time!* Teach, if I may...
1:16 / 1:38
This remark is a two or three fold.
First off, he said that he moved to Moscow to get work. Moscow & St. Petersburg were the prime centres of administration & as close any Russian could get a touch of cosmopolitanism, and a lot more opportunity for a young farmer if he wanted to move up the social class (in terms of labor), switching from farming to working to a steel mill for example. Not only those two cities _(Petersburg was the capital initially, before their revolution, before WWI)_ because there were other provincial ones that had one or several importance for a particular industry, they were the alternative to a different working environment.
By comparisson, think of this: you're a Montana boy and you moved to Seattle. It's not a big deal (compared to the big metropolises like LA or NY or D.C. or the rest; what is Seattle, right?) but it's still an overall improvement.
Secondly, even if there were more opportunities, it was more of a marketplace for labor force than a marketplace for jobs. Meaning, companies could've done away with things like safety protections or shorter work hours (standard 8, while working like 10 or more). There were more provincial people willing to work in miserable conditions than were enough jobs to satisfy a parity for what we & history considers humane treatment of the workforce in the beginning of the 20th century. It's the 19th/20th centuries' ”rat race”, of industrial countries or in development.
It's also not a coincidence the urban centers, during the revolution, were more pro-communist than the rural areas.
Thirdly, just the casual frustration, working hard for scrap, while the ”wiseguys” at the top are defying the working man, like in the asinine joke: ”Hey boss, nice car. ; Thank you. If you work just as hard, I'll be able to a buy another one.”
He mentions that people are starving, which reminds of the situation in 1917 because Tsarist Russia was fighting in WWI, and things weren't looking good for the populace in cities. That's why one of the Bolshevik slogans implied bread for everybody.
3:34 / 4:00 and 4:11 /4:43
These are a dense and subtle criticism to the view of the working man & the communist ideology. It fits if you combine with the 9:50 / 10:02
Esentially, the ”situational awareness” of the working man is limited only to his view, his area. More than that, this is before the revolution, he still mismanages the -building- blocks but could still fix it and not have to deal with a centrally-controlled economy. Even so, he doesn't sees his mistake, but the errors of the system as a whole than to understand that the mistakes are his & his alone.
The second bit from 9:50 just reiterates the same mistakes the working man saw during the pre-revolutionary times but he can't do anything else to improve. The economy is centrally-controlled, the state says & goes. Therefore, the working man starts to realise that, _maybe_ , it wasn't the fault of the system, but he's too clumsy to put the pieces together & realise what a grave, bloody mistake they've did by turning into the Soviet Union, instead of being a free-market republic or something.
A free-market republic would have been annihilated by the Third Reich, that's all.
History is full of irony.
♫I am the one who arranges the blocks, that continue to fall from above...♫ ~Every Tetris Player Ever
That last melody is based on the melody one hears from *_Tetris and Dr. Mario_* (SNES), during the high score sequence. It would be hilarious if the video were updated with a part two with the next part being set to a rendition of Tetris Theme B.
13:05
that always amazes me. No doubt having put a man on the moon was a great technological achievement by Werner van Brauns team and NASA in general. and i'm not trying to downplay that. its just amazing that the SPACE race was basicly won by the soviets (first sattelite, first living being, first human, first space station, even the first lunar (probe) missions) and then once the US managed to beat the soviets by landing a man on the moon, it was kinda declared to be over. i think the soviets lunar program was the first that didnt go at all according to plan and then was scratched afterwards
The same way that all the backbone technologies of our space program, and a lot of modern advances, were funded with public money. People talk about the free market driving innovation, but most advances nowadays are funded with some variation of public money (the military is a huge mover there) and private companies follow along later, popularize and mass-produce things, etc.
By the time of the moon landing it really was over, since the Russians were spending more money than they had on the manned spaceflight program. The US had better industrial output and better technological development, so once it was kicked into high gear by the USSR's early moves, it surpassed them. People also forget about the much more important unmanned spaceflight program: Surveyor, Mariner, Viking, Voyager. NASA is superdominant on this front to this day. About 3/4 of successful missions are NASA, as they were in the 70s. A lot can be attributed to the collaboration between private enterprise and federal programs when it comes to stuff that doesn't get you an immediate return.
On the space race, I've seen it referred to as a competition between Russia's German scientists & the US's German Scientists.
Great video. A small suggestion: some sources for further reading when you make a point on history. I know I'd love to know more.
I only just watched your video and really liked a real history teachers take on the video. I studied the USSR at secondary school (you guys call it high school) and watched this video. I knew most of the history but re-watched because of the current troubles with Ukraine and it was really interesting what you said about the Ukraine being the agricultural powerhouse of the old USSR (might explain a lot about todays invasion and Putin's designs for it). Also I had no idea that the reference about Kazakhstan's being 2 weeks late was with regards to steel fabrication. Your reaction video was an interesting watch and I enjoyed it!
Random Fact you'll love:
The First and Last McDonalds in The Soviet Union was built 2 years before it collapsed (1989)
Edit: this was mentioned at 18:28 (thank you Sir Terry)
Had a Russian history teacher that lived in the Soviet Union for a while, and he said that if you didn't take your windshield wipers off your car and bring them with you, they'd be gone by the time you got back to your car because there was no market for new ones.
I really wanna see him react to the Soldier of 3 armies, Larry Thorn
MagdaH97, suggestions go in the discord. discord.gg/qNAxF9
You should check out their video "Climate Change Denier". It's not particularly history related, but it's rather impressively put together. They even have an overhead view video showing everything going on during the single take of the video.
Suggestions go in the discord. discord.gg/qNAxF9
Single take of a rehearsal for the video, but still impressive
A lot I''d like to add but I'll only add one thing (BTW great vod)
On the topic of the "lots of gold, waiting in line for bread", not only does that show the long lasting effects of the quotas (people would just lie and say they met production so often what the Soviets had vs what they thought they did was off), but also the big oof that was Lysenkoism and his bizarro idea for making better crops. Also Cornboi Khruschev's obsession with Corn which wasnt nearly as easy to grow as wheat in Russia, the massive spending they USSR had to do on the military 1) to exert influence and power and 2) to make sure that the nuclear balance was maintained, the huge amounts of money sunk into the Space Race, foreign/proxy wars, etc. But really it comes down to the fact that say, farmers/factory managers were too scared to admit that they couldnt double production, and the higher ups often tried to enforce massive quotas. It's hard to basically completely industrialise a country that is a huge, cold wasteland and that had been essentially feudal up until the late 1800s.
I love history, but I didn’t know to much about the Soviet Union
But I’ve heard about Lenin and Stalin so having the basic understand still allowed me to enjoy it
Even though I didn’t know the in-depth history
Dude, we're prolly the same age, and even I learned a few things from this. You are a great educator!
10:00 no it refers to pyatiletkas which literally translate to 5 years-ers, which was a part of the planned economy, they were 5 year long periods with set goals which were supposed to unite people