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I have always hated the west’s leftover fears of the Cold War and the lack of real information and not nationalistic propaganda. I find Russian people to be strong, committed to family. Honorable citizens trying to live in peace. Chernobyl makes me bawl.
I lived in USSR until 1985. From what I understand that was happening around me, the majority of population no longer believed the Communist ideals leading them to a more prosperous and just society. They looked at the West, and wondered why their own society was so far behind. The old excuse that "we're still rebuilding after WW2" was no longer convincing - WW2 was far too long ago at that point. Then came Gorbachev, and his opening-up policies, even if limited, allowed people to raise their heads and push for radical change - the republics split off, and mainland Russia threw off the Communist Party. Many say it wasn't his intention - but it surely was the result! Specific events like Chernobyl, or the Afghan war, surely played their part. However they weren't the underlying cause, but rather - catalysts to the inevitable.
@@jongxina3595 You can describe the whole situation in two sentences: If in the USSR children were treated for deadly diseases for free, now they are trying to collect money for treatment via SMS from all over the country. P.S. We do not consider this an acceptable life, I don’t know about you, I can’t say anything, but our citizens do not think that they are filibusters and they need luck to survive in the country, so pro-communist sentiments in the country only grow over time.
100% correct. Dallas and Dynasty were TV shows Soviets could get access to. They were amazed at the extent of wealth in the US. Even in news reports of protests and rioting in down trodden black neighborhoods, the Soviets were looking at the store shelves and how much the poor people in America could buy.
@@derekhajos3555 Yes, the Russians read between the lines in their propaganda news. "Hey, why can't WE loot a TV or a stereo like those Black gentlemen?" Romanians revolted because it was a kind of cottage industry to watch Western movies dubbed into Romanian with the voice of only one woman, on VHS cassettes, often recopied to the point of static. There's no comparison, Communism is BAD NEWS. Kids today are brainwashed by teachers trained in education departments run by Marxist professors. Kids hardly get any anti-Communist education.
This was purely ideological..By the time Russia has recovered it's independence from Tatar Golden Horde(1480) Byzantine was already extinct(since 1452)..but Russian ruler Ivan III who now represented the only independent Orthodox power yet needed Imperial ideology to cement his newly independent Muscovy to serve both as center of Orthodoxy and "beacon" to oppressed Christians..so he positioned Muscovy as "heir" to Byzantine to "legitimize" his claim to "Third Rome" Ivan married the niece of last Byzantine Emperor Sophie Paleolog and adopted Byzantine double-headed Eagle as new Russian State Emblem..it's still valid..if we bar Soviet period 1918-91..
@@KAD010900 I though it was Albania, another communist country, but refusing to take orders from Moscow? But given that Finland was allied to Germany in WW2, it was very luck to have got off with not being invaded by the USSR come the end of the war. I think Finland made a deal something along the lines of 'we won't join NATO or host foreign troops, and always vote with the USSR in the UN, and never do anything to upset you, and in return we don't get invaded'. And the USSR, busy with occupying 1/2 Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, 1/4 Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungry, Latvia & Lithuania, said 'OK, deal.'
@@dromankass8655 Enver Hoxha was a Stalin fanboy and did not split with Moscow until Khrushchev began the era of de-Stalinization. Albania was in step with the Soviet Union until Stalin died, and the invasion of Hungary in ‘56 was their cop out to leave the Warsaw Pact.
Communism and fascism only survive by either brute force or massive propaganda. They both have laughable flaws in their ideology that creates massive problems even if they dont have near limitless corruption (which they always do). Communism makes trickle down economics seem amazing by comparison. As soon as people can see how others actually live they demand change or flee, and that's why they have to rely on non stop aggression and repression to survive
@@arthas640 even under heavy sacntions and military threat, there are many communist nations that are thriving and even better on many aspects compared to capitalistic ones, examples being cuba, china and vietnam.
@@Jack-he8jv Pfft, Cuba is the only true example you gave. Vietnam, and China, are under no sanctions, and to call those countries communist, who have by now embraced much capitalist economies, is laughable.
The Soviet Union will go down in history as one of the few societies that prevented people from leaving the nation, most countries have to build to a wall to keep people out, the USSR had to build walls to keep people in.
Many of the soviet satellite states were heavily subsidized, and the military cost an enormous amount of money to run...the US recognized that the USSR was critically low on hard currency, most of which was obtained in oil trade on the open market. Recently declassified info shows that GHW Bush asked Saudia Arabia to drop the price of the OPEC oil to drive the USSR bankrupt...it had the desired effect...and this folks is why, regardless of their internal policies, that Saudia Arabia has the US as a long term ally.
Never mind the USA will be next, have you seen the division in that country? Too many stupid people running around with guns and they are allowed to vote.
The arms race also did them in, Regan spent them into oblivion with Star Wars. They were basically bankrupt but I can tell you living through that time I was more worried than during the cold war. People celebrated and thought the cold war was over but even as a kid I realized what happens to the nukes in those satellite states? Who's running the government? We knew the Soviets didn't want a nuclear war but now Gorby is gone. I was afraid of the unknown more than the enemy I knew.
@@MrSupernova111 I'm telling you from experience, I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80s. I lived through this and remember very well what was going on through the news and my parent's conversations.
This video leaves out a rather important fact - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania considered themselves illegally occupied sovereign states and they did not per se "declare independence from the USSR", but eventually declared the illegal Soviet occupation to have ended. This view of international law is supported by several prominent international organizations as well as by most sovereign states that exist since 1940.
@@Admin-gm3lc that's rather an internal thing. The Baltics were fully recognized sovereign states and the USSR occupied them in a clear breach of international law.
I don’t know, the continuing line of the current government is shouting about the Soviet occupation, if you trust the state line and their actions, then there is at least some point in relying on what they say, if you don’t trust, therefore why listen to all this.
Actually Lithuania was the first to declare it's independence way before the fall of Soviet Union. It caused a "domino effect" and undermined M. Gorbachev’s prestige and his reforms, which resulted in other countries wanting to regain their independence and put an end to these horrible events
10:17 The Soviet flag was lowered at the top of the Kremlin Senate, not the Spasskaya clock tower, though I understand why you chose the tower since it's more recognizable. And the Russian tricolor during that time had a lighter shade of blue
Yeltsin is the best proof that the fall of socialism was a bigger tyranny than socialism - he disbanded the russian parliament, disbanded every other elected representated body, abolished Russia's constitutional court, banned labour unions from political activities, outlawed parties and attacked the parliament building killing 2000 people. Yeltsins popularity rating before the 1996 elections had fallen to only 8%, the US had to rig elections to ensure his victory (super ironic considering Trumps elections were claimed to be rigged by russians).
if you want everything simplified: US successfully beat Soviet Union's peace by destroying its economy and working inside to divide the nation, since it was US's biggest enemy. US wants to control the world believe or not.
@@HassaanALal LOL what a bunch of bullshit Usa is money hungry state but Soviet union was a fucking atrocious state where people didnt have anything to eat ffs and no freedom of speech. Grow up "hassan"
What surprised me was the fact Gorbachev still lived after getting ousted. There was a time The Soviets were so scary with their KGB's insidious activities
Its shocking since the Russians even today arent shy about killing citizens for embarrassing the nation or hurting their autocratic regimes and Gorbachev did both.
Another factor in the demise of the USSR was the collapse of oil prices around 1979, which adversely affected the economy. The CEO of the oil company I worked at back then felt it was a deliberate action to damage the USSR, but ended up doing the same worldwide.
Russia's main export is oil. President Reagan asked the Saudis to increase oil production. When the Saudis complied, this lowered the price of oil and resulted in less revenue for the Soviet Union. It could not afford to do what it was doing.
One could argue Stalin is the reason the USSR collapsed. It cannot be overstated enough how utterly devastating his rule was to his own people. The effects of his rule are still felt in former Soviet nations to this day.
@@diabetusultrainstinct7737 Which is just sad. So they like a Georgian who was likely the cause of death to at least one relative(likely more) of most current Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians over an actual Russian who hasn't done even remotely close to the amount of damage domestically. Man, Tsardom/Communism really fucked up the Russian people forever.
@@alexhennigh5242 i dont know ow many people you think were caught in the terror, but i dont think its as many as you think. to a lot of russians he represents the system that made thir country go from a backwards semi fedual power to a space age one. thats just one explanation to the height of the current popularity though
@@diabetusultrainstinct7737 That is a fair assessment. You're probably right but enough people were affected between the purges, world wars, genocides etc I imagine I'm not too far off. However, that last part makes too much sense.
@@alexhennigh5242 well in fairness, the world war was held off for as long as possible with the infamous molotov ribbentrop pact, and even before that pact was signed the ussr requested britain and france to form an alliance to stop the growing nazi germany
@@sabakvetenadze6546 It's quite impressive how long the USSR lasted with all the odds stacked against it. In 1992 the neo-liberal new world order started but class consciousness is starting to rise again especially in the USA the heart of the imperialist world.
I think one of the biggest factors for the collapse of the Soviet Union, which you didn't mention, was the power struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin
Or the fact that soviets where the biggest tards that ever existed? They lasted 70 years because they were incompetent simpletons. They lacked decorum, culture, skill, thought, God, humanity. They sunk to the lowest depths humans could sink to. Why did they exist in the first place? Bavarians fought their British brothers. Could have teamed up, and melted Stalin and every single one of his followers into gold.
@@ultimateguy7641 ehat you say is very simplistic and full of propaganda brainwashing. After all havent you hread about Bolshoi ballet? And there are also people who say from their experience that in comparison to what came later in those areas , even though the state was in very big economic slump and would require to fontinue what it started and do similar change to what China did , that schools were better, wports trainings and aftivities were great, and people had some stuff. although this would still be far from satisfactory and would require to do what it started so to use market economy.
@@innosanto It really isn't, worst empire of all time. 70 years wasn't even a single generation. So bad. Mongolian empire, Chinese, Roman, Persian, British, French, Holy Roman Empire. Hell these guys last YEARS. Soviets? Damn, so bad.
They allways had a right to leave. If didn't know the ones, who wished to leave was not the people of USSR, it was national elites, who now owns what is left of soviet infrastructure and who made alot of money out of it. General puplic was not into the separation of USSR, but new liberal dimocratic states was not interested in what the general public wants
When speaking of Chernobyl one needs to be clear that it was NOT a nuclear explosion that happened there. It was a steam explosion as in a boiler blowing up due to excessive pressure. Yes that is still a very bad thing but not on the scale of a nuclear explosion, which is actually an impossibility in a reactor.
@@frankherthem1794 Look dummy...It's like this, a lot of people "think" that a nuclear explosion is a possibility in a commercial nuclear reactor. It's not and the video producer didn't specifically state that.
Steam explosion with a healthy helping of Uranium & the radionuclides. Remember all of that radiation was detected all the way to Sweden & other western European countries.
@@frankherthem1794if it was a nuclear explosion there won't be an Europe union in existence today. Don't believe everything you read. Steam explosion carrying radioactive material to atmosphere is not nuclear explosion 🤦
Excellent video. I worked in Czechoslovakia in the early 1990's helping privatize companies. I saw firsthand the results of communism - hugely inefficient factories (with about ten times the workforce for a comparable US factory), tremendous bureaucracy, and a pervasive decay due to lack of individual ownership and market incentives. For the USSR, the seeds of its collapse were laid in the beginning with its choice of a government controlled economy and major repression to enforce the system.
Napoleon did NOT "conquer" Europe. That concept is a perversion of history.....of truth.......written into the books by the victor's who often write the history we're taught. Remember what had happened......France.....England's arch enemy and chief competitor on the world stage...... became a democracy......George III......England's king.... had just lost what were formerly his colonies.....who became the United States...... to democracy. He and his minister's began a years long campaign to crush democracy in Europe.....fearing the same fate as France's monarchy....to his own. In the ensuing 20 odd year period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars....England induced the other European monarchies to war against now democratic France. No less than 7 coalitions were formed against France largely financed by England.....breaking many peace treaties in the process. While France/Napoleon fought across Europe.....France did not administer control of most of the area's that are said to be "the French Empire" in history books. That is one of the biggest lies still prevalent and taught today.
*first 20 years, my parents were from USSR and they said they had everything, medicine, schools, jobs etc. Streets were safe and people were prospering. Altough it was only on the big citys and after Stalins massacre, but other than that life wasnt bad at the USSR not until collapse
I've heard so much about "The August Coup" where Mikhail Gorbatjov got surrounded by soldiers around his summerhouse in Crimea, while hardliners tried to retake control. My parents said that he made a video and sent it to Europe showing he was surrounded etc. But i cant find that specific video, is it really true that he made it? I mean... It might be available to watch somewhere?..
@@ald1050 yep and with boris being anti-soviet, he did something that was the death nail to the Soviets....he made Gorbachev outlaw the Soviet party, which is where all Gorbachevs power rested.
I grew up during the time of the soviet union and collapse of it. The #1 reason it collapsed was because of starvation of it's citizens. The failed economy, the failed military and Government, were partners in this disaster, but not getting food for your family and seeing the other side with so much plenty destroyed the people's will to support their country.
@@dudebros6122 I visited the Czech Republic and the tour guide who grew up in the country (before it broke from the USSR) said that they used to use the Soviet propaganda newspapers to wipe their asses because there was no toilet paper. They could get fruits like one pineapple per person and two bananas per person at the store during the holidays, so you had better bring everybody in your family to stock up as much as you could get from what otherwise were empty shelves. Around 1970 a Latvian family moved next door to our house-moving from Minnesota but they came originally from Latvia. God only knows how they got out. The father clearly had at least PTSD &was paranoid, if not full out psychotic- God only knows what happened to him. it was a very stressed family & I think he was abusing his son- his arm was constantly in a cast and he cried easily. the parents eventually got a divorce.And I agree the Baltic states were absorbed against their by the Soviet Union when they had the opportunity to do that to small countries that had no real way of holding them off. I mean, Austria allowed itself to be annexed by Germany, rather than fight against Hitler and the Nazis. Now there was quite a bit of sympathy towards Hitler Who grew up in Austria, but they didn’t even put up a fight As the government was overthrown in a coup. Another friend of mine grew up in West Berlin before the wall fell and he reported that the East Germans who came after the fall were, after only 35 years of separation, were like hillbilly cousins so different from the modern Germans of West Berlin they would go to the grocery stores with jaws dropped open 😮 by the abundance they were seeing, were very simple dressed from another era, and had difficulty integrating with modern Germany. However, Angela Markel clearly did not. I find it ironic that she and Putin were both in Communist Germany at the fall of the wall and later became the leaders of their two countries. She developed a phobia to military dogs; he to large crowds & mob protests.
@@pbohearn sounds harsh. I complain about my childhood all the time. Abusive stepfather and i didnt get as spoiled as i could have been but that story sounds a bit worse than my childhood. Even if i got beat up by my stepdad. But my mom bought me nice fancy clothes and i was able to travel to 2 countries. She also bought me a few cars in my 20s. So yeah. That story sounds bad.
There were no famines in the USSR after 1947. There were shortages of certain _kinds_ of food in the USSR, but even according to the CIA, caloric intake in the USSR was on par with the US at the time. People in socialist countries have a better quality of life than people in capitalist countries with similar levels of economic development. Sources below. In the US, the lines for food banks a year ago stretched for miles, and 20% (1 in 5) children in the US are food insecure. 700 children die of poverty EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY under our current capitalist system. The majority of Russians believe that the USSR was the height of Russian civilization, and are nostalgic for what most considered better times. Russians went from being poor but having enough to eat, guaranteed employment, and affordable, high quality housing under the USSR, to being poor and having nothing guaranteed under the Russian federation and capitalism. Sources: (youtube buries comments that have working links) United States Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Research and Reports (1964) A Comparison of Consumption in the USSR and the U.S. A Comparison of Consumption in the USSR and the U.S. (CIA/RR ER 64-1) Congressional Research Services (1981, August 17) Consumption in the USSR: an International Comparison. Joint Economic Committee. (CRS Report No. 76-408-O) Cereseto, S., & Waitzkin, H. (1986). Capitalism, socialism, and the physical quality of life. International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation, 16(4), 643-658. www.cia dot gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85M00363R000601440024-5.pdf imgur dot com/a/2DTpqxh
The video focuses heavily on what caused the USSR to collapse at that precise moment, rather than what caused it to collapse. For example, suggesting Glasnost was a factor because it paved the way for Chernobyl to be uncovered and the military to speak out might be correct when looking at what caused the USSR to collapse in 1991. However, any govt that lacks transparency has a shelf life. Equally, suggesting the withdrawal from Afghanistan and others was a factor again only focuses on why at that point not why. The video almost implies that if the USSR had not done these things it wouldn’t have collapsed (I do recognise the side note on Glasnost). That would be an incorrect deduction. Think Jenga. Why did the tower fall. Was it the last few blocks that were removed or the faulty structure. The last few blocks determine the precise moment of collapse but not why.
I heard there was somewhat of a "free market" in the soviet even under Stalin. They were known as cooperatives and people could sell the usual products like clothes, cooking ware, food and sometimes rarer items that would immediately be snagged. It was canned under khrushchev's reforms and that sad dreary boring planned economic side of the ussr.......that's where it comes from. Imagine if that was never removed and it had further reform like markets under China today
I'm from Poland and I remember when my mom told me that she was tought in school in 70's that she should be proud that the name of Soviet alliance is "Warsaw pact". Why did the Soviet Union Collapse? Because we all deserve something far better.
@@carlramirez6339 As far as I know it was excluded; the narrative was that our countries were best buddies since always, and people could get in serious trouble for talking (not even teaching) about things like Partitions of Poland
@@Krolmir96 It sure beats being a Soviet puppet. Notice how many Soviet puppet states never recovered once the Soviet Union stopped supporting them? Cuba? Somalia? Ethiopia? Mongolia? North Korea? East Germany?
@@shauncameron8390 What do you think would happen to the puppets of the USA if they fall tomorrow? All our economies are bond to the Dolar. Japan and South Korea for example would literally die of hunger for not being able to import food.
Realistically it was a ton of different factors but the failure of their economy might have been the biggest one. I've heard that as far back as the late-70's Yuri Andropov and other KGB higher-ups had secretly accepted that the Communist experiement was doomed and wanted to gradually reform the command economy to a free(r) market like China did. Gorbachev tried to do this but while China maintained authoritarian control and policies as it reformed economically, brutally repressing any opposition, the USSR abandoned their old brutal ways. As soon as the Eastern Bloc countries realized that Moscow wouldn't be sending any armies into their countries to keep the communist governments in power, as they used to do whenever a place like Czechoslovakia or Hungary displeased them, they saw their chance to break away. When that started happening the Soviet people stopped fearing their government and the individual ethnic republics started to want to break away too.
No mention of the 1991 January events in Lithuania? These are very important events that people should be aware of, and majorly contributed towards the collapse of the Soviets.
Beautiful, concise summary for someone trying to learn about this. This will make other documentaries a lot easier for me to follow I feel. Thanks very much mate.
1991 was a crazy year, for me personally, and for the rest of the world, it was oddly anti climatic for the great Soviet Union to fall on Christmas day, the "Evil Empire" that I was trained to hate for the previous 21 years of my life, who had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, so we were told anyway, just disappeared on a day when we were pre occupied with presents and Turkey dinners....
there are some considerable issues with this video: - 3:58: the ppl of the USSR aleady knew about the corruption going on since like... Breshnev. They knew about it beause that was the only way to get certain consumer goods in acceptable time, like a car within a year instead of 5-10 yrs. It started waaaaay before chernobyl or Gorbachev. - 5:37: the economy of the USSR was never successful... It alwys focused on miliary, not consumption. The things they achived during Stalin was from slave labor and western 'donations', durnig Hruschev it was okayish, during Breshnev it was from western loans... Okay, everyone had a job and 'got' a apartment for free, but did everyone really work for it? - 6:42: Yugoslavia was never a satelite state of the USSR. Tito broke the ties with them quite early, and Yug was not even a member of the Warsaw pact. Yug was a bit like Romania: not commie, not 1st world, only balancing in the middle (i mean politically).
Excellent and so very accurate in both depiction and information. 1985 -1990. Very accurate. Thank you for this production. Subscribed w/ notification.
I remember a different reason for the breakup. I do not contest all the problems, but the final nail was the elections. For the first time the president of the USSR was different than that of Russia. Gorbatjov became the president of the USSR, but Yeltsin became the president of Russia. Yeltsin then went to the other countries and plotted the breakup leaving Gorbatjov in the dust.
On december 8, 1991 The Alcoholicus Eltsin plotted Conspiracy along with two other traitors and some sort of narcomans : Stanislav Shushkevich (Belarus) and Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine) !..They third of them, together signted the dissolving the UUSR, in the Belarus-Poland Border , on Belovezhka Wood Forests .
it is interesting that all the troll saying they lived in the urss never, never absolutely never mention the part where the exfuncionarios turned in oligarchs
The Communist regimes in the Eastern Europe collapsed because the USSR explicitly told them that it will not support them. In 1988, Gorbachev made a speech in front of the UN, where he suggested he will not support them, and will withdraw troops. Without Soviet support, there was no point in continuing for the regimes, and all they were now concerned was how to transfer power without ending up like Caucescu.
Great job! As a person who was born and still living in a former USSR country (Kazakhstan), I'm happy not to witness the USSR existence. Of course, Kazakhstan is far from being called a modern democratic country as we have an autocratic regime and decaying economy. However, the situation and living conditions are way better than that of the USSR period. Hope to leave this country forever and never come back.
In Kazakhstan, thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants and Khrushchev buildings were built only under the USSR, of course without the USSR you will live worse, enjoy capitalism and democracy.
Gorbachev was an original member of the club of Rome,it’s amazing how members and their adherents fill the upper levels of every government of the world
The problem was not that the USSR collapsed, but the manner in which it did. Gorbachev was enacting plans for the USSR to dissolve into a confederation of _Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics_ by democratic means. The 3 Baltic States, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia were intent on moving towards full independence and boycotted this process, but a referendum in the other 9 republics including each of the 3 Slavic states, the 5 Central Asian states and Azerbaijan yielded positive votes in favour of this proposal. If this had gone ahead, the 6 republics that boycotted this, would've become independent anyway, but the 9 republics would've maintained an EU style trading bloc which would've greatly benefited the people in each country as they transitioned together to liberal democracy. Sadly, this wasn't to be and the economies and societies of many of these nations collapsed, even descending to civil strife and mass poverty. The Soviet Union as it was, was on its way out anyway. The collapse could have happened in a much worse manner, involving large scale civil war. However, it could have been a lot better, with far better managed long term relations between Russia and Ukraine and for each of these states to become modern prosperous European liberal democracies.
@@Admin-gm3lc Don't be delusional, the whole Russian (proper term is Soviet not Russian) economy was built around that its other occupied states would work for their demands.
@@Ромыч-х7и Yeah lol thats what they said but after they got independence it was obvious who worked for who as they became many times poorer. How you can still believe in this myth lol
@@Admin-gm3lc Lmao you have to be westoid or a vatnik coping. Obviously Eastern Europe was gonna start out poor, because they to rebuild the whole economy. Everything soviets built was outdated and could not compete in a western modern market. Eastern Europe is still recovering from the disaster that is socialist economy but it is by far richer under capitalism. Soviet Union had poor civilian industry.
The reality is..... Communism as a concept requires a lot more innovation in its reforms. When the USSR was formed in 1922, Soviet Russia was still backward in comparison to many other nations in terms of technology and overall GDP. It was still an agricultural land while most of east Europe and USA had crossed that age. The Soviet Union did get the nation out of the muck with advanced technology and using socialism, gave rise to equality. But there was no room for innovation under the concept of dictatorship with people like Stalin using their own power for individualistic reasons. Communism as a concept required more and more innovation which the nation failed to provide and in addition, the Soviet-Afghan war proved to be against USSR. Mikhail Gorbechov tried his best to retain the Union but things were already messed up enough by then which made it difficult for the General Secretary.
People need to relay on something greater than themselves to keep hope and the moral strong when everything fails. A secular society lacks of such thing.
Relying on God does nothing for people especially if they use "his name" to commit atrocities and ostracize others for their beliefs. Believing in fairy tales and praying to some nonexistent concept won't save humanity or magically make the world a better place than it already is. Only man, his mind, his morals and technology can do such a thing.
@@mishka5706 there was no "president" in the soviet union. There were many factors that led to the collapse. I study Marxist thought and I don't agree with many things done in the union but I see its many achievements in science, industry, war and endeavors like its space race. The approach to kulaks and the planning of agricultural could of been way better than just shooting every one of them and siezing the wheat. While I agree I revolution can't happen I white gloves or or a change in the system can't be sugar-coated, complete purges on the scale of Stalin was crazy and unjustifiable
Hi Knowledia I'm still waiting for your reply. I wonder if I am allowed to interpret the videos and share. There are so many persians who like to watch them. Thanks
The Germans built the soviet union. During ww1 while fighting russia they financed lenin's coup that toppled the Russian czar and formed the soviet union and they did it with the ideology of a German intellectual Karl marx. The soviets didn't truly become a superpower until after ww2 and obviously we wouldn't have had ww2 without germany. I blame the Germans for the soviets lol. Thats not tbe official text book explanation but its true.
Using voice recorder to type all of this down: "Grasp USSR Ally Garbage" When the sponsership happens: "Raid shadow legends is a multiplayer game that -" I think Google is doing some shady stuff ya'll
I was 6 when all of this happened, I kinda wish I'd been more aware of the world around me back then, at least enough to know that one of the largest and most powerful nations in history had disappeared.
It was mainly because of economic stagnation and corruption that was fully revealed after the failed invasion of afghanistan and a last ditch attempt to liberalise which only made things worse
The soviet union had ALWAYS been an empty shell. From the outside and on paper it looked powerful but truthfully it was weak. All that muster and they couldn't even build a decent car or a refrigerator. The standard of life was pretty poor for most inhabitants of the soviet union. Nothing like that is sustainable.
The very moment they ousted Khruschev was the beginning of the Union downfall. When Khruschev was in power the whole Eastern block not just the USSR was experienced a golden age with incredible economic achievements and raising in quality of life . Brezhnev was the constructor of the downfall under his leadership the USSR was slowly decaying, the stagnation , corruption and the inability to make reform was started to show its ugly face after his death , with every general secretary they buried the Union death bell rang ever louder each day. Gorby just had really bad luck to be the captain of a sinking ship , he was the youngest and the most willing to do reform politician in the party but it was to late. The moment that the Russians started to rebel in Moscow that was the final nail in the coffin.
Finally a video about the collapse of the USSR finally mentions one of the most devastating point in its history. Chernobyl was not only costly in manpower and resources to fix, but during a time of Nuclear deterrent in the cold war massively impacted Soviet competence and reputation. Not only did the disaster badly influence the Soviet power and it's reputation amongst its allies and it's enemies, but I generally believe the people of communist regime lost Thier belief in the Soviet ideal and was the final tipping point
I remember the sadness from the faces of eastern Bloc Breadlines, as across the iron curtain, Reagan was talking about lasers in space. I imagine they were thinking how such technology could only be a product from a system which had magnificent bread cooking ovens .
"I remember the sadness from the faces of eastern Bloc Breadlines" (c) - Jake Dailey (news) - Typical soviet citizen. "I imagine they were thinking how such technology could only be a product from a system which had magnificent bread cooking ovens" - or magnificent stoves for burning people, well, right, where is the Soviet Union to these technologies that brought the first man into space. Poor Western id*ots were brainwashed so badly that they did not even hear about the splitting of the peaceful atom or the creation of computers in the USSR. Apparently, this propaganda was needed so that against the background of this propaganda, residents in the West would feel relatively better.
@@ratelarmonter4736 I'm sure if you ask people who are actually interested in history no one would deny soviet achievements. But the fact that it was a communist country didn't helped them to be innovators. Communism lacks competition and therefore creativity, which means they never had a chance (in the long run) in the 1st place. Not to mention the ability to finance such undertaking as a space program etc. Capitalism is simply superior. But one has to admit Soviet contributions in science for example.
@@mzudemartin In the USSR, there was competition, but not in what would make more money on its own citizens. Space was financed, rockets and related equipment were created. It's ridiculous for me to hear when people try to describe what they have no idea about.
Chernobyl didn’t take down the Soviet Union, the economy was already crumbling and the Union would have ended even if the accident hadn’t happened. Gorby likes to blame Chernobyl because it lets him deflect responsibility and point to a freak accident rather than the feedback loop of indefensible policy blunders (many of them his, but most of them his predecessors’) that ended the USSR
Btw Yougoslavia wasn't a satellite state of the USSR like Poland or Chechislovakia. They had their own version of communism and their own independent dictator
In December 1979 the USSR invaded a country of people that were never ruled by anyone. Not by Genghis Khan, not by the British, not by the Moguls, not by Alexander the Great and not by the Chinese. The Americans then used this blunder as an opportunity to start a proxy war (through the help of a strategically located Pakistan) and the rest is history. THAT was the main reason for the ultimate downfall of the USSR empire.
The night the Berlin wall fell, I was asleep (I was only like 9 years old, and Germany was about seven hours ahead on the timezone chart). I remember waking up the morning after, and being told that the Berlin Wall had been torn down. And my reaction, even as a little kid, was like: "Oh man! How did I miss this?!" Even back then I knew I was living through big history.
Do you think that perhaps President Reagan's "star wars" initiative could have had anything to do with the fall of the SU? This represented a shift from the idea of nuclear mutually assured destruction that kept the cold war going and the SU and US in check, and would enable the US to defend itself from an attack -- that way the US could prevail in a war. The SU economy was in the tank, they realized that they couldn't keep up with the US, and for many of the reasons discussed in this video the SU collapsed.
History repeats. Whenever Russia relents with its hard line attitudes the country changes dramatically. Weakness caused the Revolution and weakness caused the end of the Soviet era.
As I remember it, there was a fiscal crisis in the final years of the USSR. To make a very long story short, the Soviet republics refused to provide revenue to the USSR; the most important republics that refused revenue were Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. So, there was no other options left, except disintegration of the Soviet Union from within.
As an American, the sad part is that the US lost a great deal of its freedom and wealth "fighting" the cold war when the demise of the Soviet Union was inevitable. American academic Paul Samuelson (uncle to Lawrence Summers, notable Clinton admin. member and President of Harvard) thought the Soviet Union model was working right until it collapse in 1989.
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I don’t think i will
raid shadow legends sponsored the collapse of the soviet union
Hcfyfyccugitivib8h8g
Knowledgia please make a video on the collapse of British raj
You really need the money eh
"Empires are not brought down by outside forces, they are destroyed by weaknesses from within"
The people rise up
I have always hated the west’s leftover fears of the Cold War and the lack of real information and not nationalistic propaganda. I find Russian people to be strong, committed to family. Honorable citizens trying to live in peace. Chernobyl makes me bawl.
lets hope thats true for US. the most violent, barbaric, powerful empire in human history
The what is going to happen to empire of the US of the A
@@raaid85 no it is not
As a person from the post soviet state, I can surely say that corruption destroys any country.
That what happen one you give so much power to a single man
What ?
@@alonfizi4213 or corporations
No,no it doesnt.
@@taavi948 where are you from?
I lived in USSR until 1985. From what I understand that was happening around me, the majority of population no longer believed the Communist ideals leading them to a more prosperous and just society. They looked at the West, and wondered why their own society was so far behind. The old excuse that "we're still rebuilding after WW2" was no longer convincing - WW2 was far too long ago at that point. Then came Gorbachev, and his opening-up policies, even if limited, allowed people to raise their heads and push for radical change - the republics split off, and mainland Russia threw off the Communist Party. Many say it wasn't his intention - but it surely was the result!
Specific events like Chernobyl, or the Afghan war, surely played their part. However they weren't the underlying cause, but rather - catalysts to the inevitable.
Well, yes, and then democracy came in the 90s, and everything bloomed and smelled.
Don't powder people's heads. 70% supported keeping the Soviet Union in the vote.
@@ratelarmonter4736 what vote was that?
@@ratelarmonter4736 Soviet says how they felt in USSR.
Westerner: Actually here is how you all felt!
@@jongxina3595
You can describe the whole situation in two sentences: If in the USSR children were treated for deadly diseases for free, now they are trying to collect money for treatment via SMS from all over the country.
P.S. We do not consider this an acceptable life, I don’t know about you, I can’t say anything, but our citizens do not think that they are filibusters and they need luck to survive in the country, so pro-communist sentiments in the country only grow over time.
The real reason why:
Gorbachev wanted Pizza Hut
AMEN KEEP PREACHING
100% correct. Dallas and Dynasty were TV shows Soviets could get access to. They were amazed at the extent of wealth in the US. Even in news reports of protests and rioting in down trodden black neighborhoods, the Soviets were looking at the store shelves and how much the poor people in America could buy.
But why? He already had McDonald's
He's a fool
@@derekhajos3555 Yes, the Russians read between the lines in their propaganda news. "Hey, why can't WE loot a TV or a stereo like those Black gentlemen?"
Romanians revolted because it was a kind of cottage industry to watch Western movies dubbed into Romanian with the voice of only one woman, on VHS cassettes, often recopied to the point of static.
There's no comparison, Communism is BAD NEWS. Kids today are brainwashed by teachers trained in education departments run by Marxist professors. Kids hardly get any anti-Communist education.
Do one about Byzantine and its importance to Russia's rise.
+1!!!
Yes!
Please.
Manners cost nothing but mean everything
You do it; we will sub to you
This was purely ideological..By the time Russia has recovered it's independence from Tatar Golden Horde(1480) Byzantine was already extinct(since 1452)..but Russian ruler Ivan III who now represented the only independent Orthodox power yet needed Imperial ideology to cement his newly independent Muscovy to serve both as center of Orthodoxy and "beacon" to oppressed Christians..so he positioned Muscovy as "heir" to Byzantine to "legitimize" his claim to "Third Rome" Ivan married the niece of last Byzantine Emperor Sophie Paleolog and adopted Byzantine double-headed Eagle as new Russian State Emblem..it's still valid..if we bar Soviet period 1918-91..
One remark, Yugoslavia was never part of Warsaw Pact, nor was considered as Soviet satellite
One of only two European countries who defied Stalin and got away with it.
@@johnh.tuomala4379 The other one? Finland?
@@KAD010900 Yes.
@@KAD010900 I though it was Albania, another communist country, but refusing to take orders from Moscow? But given that Finland was allied to Germany in WW2, it was very luck to have got off with not being invaded by the USSR come the end of the war. I think Finland made a deal something along the lines of 'we won't join NATO or host foreign troops, and always vote with the USSR in the UN, and never do anything to upset you, and in return we don't get invaded'. And the USSR, busy with occupying 1/2 Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, 1/4 Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungry, Latvia & Lithuania, said 'OK, deal.'
@@dromankass8655 Enver Hoxha was a Stalin fanboy and did not split with Moscow until Khrushchev began the era of de-Stalinization. Albania was in step with the Soviet Union until Stalin died, and the invasion of Hungary in ‘56 was their cop out to leave the Warsaw Pact.
the soviet union's liberalisation just exposed all the problems it had
Communism and fascism only survive by either brute force or massive propaganda. They both have laughable flaws in their ideology that creates massive problems even if they dont have near limitless corruption (which they always do). Communism makes trickle down economics seem amazing by comparison. As soon as people can see how others actually live they demand change or flee, and that's why they have to rely on non stop aggression and repression to survive
@@arthas640 So what's the laughable problem in fascism? I am pretty sure all economies under it were fine if not much better
@@arthas640 true
@@arthas640 even under heavy sacntions and military threat, there are many communist nations that are thriving and even better on many aspects compared to capitalistic ones, examples being cuba, china and vietnam.
@@Jack-he8jv Pfft, Cuba is the only true example you gave. Vietnam, and China, are under no sanctions, and to call those countries communist, who have by now embraced much capitalist economies, is laughable.
It’s crazy that Gorbachev is still alive
And jimmy carter
The Soviet Union will go down in history as one of the few societies that prevented people from leaving the nation, most countries have to build to a wall to keep people out, the USSR had to build walls to keep people in.
@@rgsxyz1105 and other of the societies that prevent or prevented people from leaving the country have had some form of Marxism.
@@rgsxyz1105 Very untrue th-cam.com/video/Xej1FRgrtVo/w-d-xo.html
@Joseph Norm
History has shown that Marxism just doesn’t work
Many of the soviet satellite states were heavily subsidized, and the military cost an enormous amount of money to run...the US recognized that the USSR was critically low on hard currency, most of which was obtained in oil trade on the open market. Recently declassified info shows that GHW Bush asked Saudia Arabia to drop the price of the OPEC oil to drive the USSR bankrupt...it had the desired effect...and this folks is why, regardless of their internal policies, that Saudia Arabia has the US as a long term ally.
Never mind the USA will be next, have you seen the division in that country? Too many stupid people running around with guns and they are allowed to vote.
The arms race also did them in, Regan spent them into oblivion with Star Wars. They were basically bankrupt but I can tell you living through that time I was more worried than during the cold war. People celebrated and thought the cold war was over but even as a kid I realized what happens to the nukes in those satellite states? Who's running the government? We knew the Soviets didn't want a nuclear war but now Gorby is gone. I was afraid of the unknown more than the enemy I knew.
Never knew this. Fascinating. Thanks!
@@venomad77 . The video clearly stated that USSR cut back on their military so Regan's military spending had nothing to do with USSR's collapse.
@@MrSupernova111 I'm telling you from experience, I was born in the 70s and grew up in the 80s. I lived through this and remember very well what was going on through the news and my parent's conversations.
The Soviet Union collapsed because of Raid Shadow Legends.
I know I sure did
Very smart
It collapse because it created cold war , it murdered and annexed many countries forcing them to be communists
Thats a shlrter explaining than a 14 mins video
Funy
This video leaves out a rather important fact - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania considered themselves illegally occupied sovereign states and they did not per se "declare independence from the USSR", but eventually declared the illegal Soviet occupation to have ended. This view of international law is supported by several prominent international organizations as well as by most sovereign states that exist since 1940.
Then you may consider that Soviet union illegally occupied Russian Empire or something. That is true but makes no sense.
@@Admin-gm3lc that's rather an internal thing. The Baltics were fully recognized sovereign states and the USSR occupied them in a clear breach of international law.
@@eksiarvamus who cares about international suggestions.
@@lagartoverdebr6176 What?
I don’t know, the continuing line of the current government is shouting about the Soviet occupation, if you trust the state line and their actions, then there is at least some point in relying on what they say, if you don’t trust, therefore why listen to all this.
Actually Lithuania was the first to declare it's independence way before the fall of Soviet Union. It caused a "domino effect" and undermined M. Gorbachev’s prestige and his reforms, which resulted in other countries wanting to regain their independence and put an end to these horrible events
Also Gorbachev refused to enforce the Brezhnev doctrine and instead let the vassal states go their own way.
10:17
The Soviet flag was lowered at the top of the Kremlin Senate, not the Spasskaya clock tower, though I understand why you chose the tower since it's more recognizable. And the Russian tricolor during that time had a lighter shade of blue
Bruh
Yeltsin is the best proof that the fall of socialism was a bigger tyranny than socialism - he disbanded the russian parliament, disbanded every other elected representated body, abolished Russia's constitutional court, banned labour unions from political activities, outlawed parties and attacked the parliament building killing 2000 people. Yeltsins popularity rating before the 1996 elections had fallen to only 8%, the US had to rig elections to ensure his victory (super ironic considering Trumps elections were claimed to be rigged by russians).
@@meganoobbg3387 Never forget Black October 1993.
@@meganoobbg3387 Which makes sense as to why Putin bombed the apartment buildings to gain power.
@@Безумныйбольшевик By the way, propagandists like to forget about this event
Who else is here trying to better understand the Russia-Ukraine war?
if you want everything simplified: US successfully beat Soviet Union's peace by destroying its economy and working inside to divide the nation, since it was US's biggest enemy.
US wants to control the world believe or not.
@@HassaanALal whatever you say “Hassaan”
@@HassaanALal do go on ?
@@HassaanALal LOL what a bunch of bullshit Usa is money hungry state but Soviet union was a fucking atrocious state where people didnt have anything to eat ffs and no freedom of speech. Grow up "hassan"
Me… but not sure I understand it any more after seeing the video
Soviet Union collapsed after watching Delta Force starring Chuck Norris !
What surprised me was the fact Gorbachev still lived after getting ousted. There was a time The Soviets were so scary with their KGB's insidious activities
Its shocking since the Russians even today arent shy about killing citizens for embarrassing the nation or hurting their autocratic regimes and Gorbachev did both.
The US 'Democratic Party' welcomed all defectors, with open arms. Witness, 'Exhibit A' : The Biden Administration.
There where no reason to kill him after he lost his political power, no thread anymore
Yea the bastard eventually moved to california.
Do you think Gorbachev would overtake Putin?
Another factor in the demise of the USSR was the collapse of oil prices around 1979, which adversely affected the economy. The CEO of the oil company I worked at back then felt it was a deliberate action to damage the USSR, but ended up doing the same worldwide.
It damaged the USSR, because it had no real backup to compensate for all the revenues lost by the oil price collapse.
Russia's main export is oil. President Reagan asked the Saudis to increase oil production. When the Saudis complied, this lowered the price of oil and resulted in less revenue for the Soviet Union. It could not afford to do what it was doing.
@@rogerevans9666 no brother,not saudi arabia,,iran revolation in1979
One could argue Stalin is the reason the USSR collapsed. It cannot be overstated enough how utterly devastating his rule was to his own people. The effects of his rule are still felt in former Soviet nations to this day.
Stalins popularity rating is about 60% in modern day Russia. Higher than putin
@@diabetusultrainstinct7737 Which is just sad. So they like a Georgian who was likely the cause of death to at least one relative(likely more) of most current Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians over an actual Russian who hasn't done even remotely close to the amount of damage domestically. Man, Tsardom/Communism really fucked up the Russian people forever.
@@alexhennigh5242 i dont know ow many people you think were caught in the terror, but i dont think its as many as you think. to a lot of russians he represents the system that made thir country go from a backwards semi fedual power to a space age one. thats just one explanation to the height of the current popularity though
@@diabetusultrainstinct7737 That is a fair assessment. You're probably right but enough people were affected between the purges, world wars, genocides etc I imagine I'm not too far off. However, that last part makes too much sense.
@@alexhennigh5242 well in fairness, the world war was held off for as long as possible with the infamous molotov ribbentrop pact, and even before that pact was signed the ussr requested britain and france to form an alliance to stop the growing nazi germany
Its impossible to survive when half of world is against u and 14 countey wants independent.
No matter how strong are u
What kind of independence are we talking about? It's just that the countries were socialist, now they are capitalist. This is all done by hand.
@@ratelarmonter4736 that's independecedo what u want but dont damage other countries
@@sabakvetenadze6546 It's quite impressive how long the USSR lasted with all the odds stacked against it. In 1992 the neo-liberal new world order started but class consciousness is starting to rise again especially in the USA the heart of the imperialist world.
What it really comes down to us this....are the Russian people better off now then they were in the 1980s? I would say overall yes.
@@ericg4915 who knows?
I think one of the biggest factors for the collapse of the Soviet Union, which you didn't mention, was the power struggle between Gorbachev and Yeltsin
Or the fact that soviets where the biggest tards that ever existed? They lasted 70 years because they were incompetent simpletons. They lacked decorum, culture, skill, thought, God, humanity. They sunk to the lowest depths humans could sink to. Why did they exist in the first place? Bavarians fought their British brothers. Could have teamed up, and melted Stalin and every single one of his followers into gold.
@@ultimateguy7641 ehat you say is very simplistic and full of propaganda brainwashing.
After all havent you hread about Bolshoi ballet?
And there are also people who say from their experience that in comparison to what came later in those areas , even though the state was in very big economic slump and would require to fontinue what it started and do similar change to what China did , that schools were better, wports trainings and aftivities were great, and people had some stuff. although this would still be far from satisfactory and would require to do what it started so to use market economy.
@@innosanto It really isn't, worst empire of all time. 70 years wasn't even a single generation. So bad. Mongolian empire, Chinese, Roman, Persian, British, French, Holy Roman Empire. Hell these guys last YEARS. Soviets? Damn, so bad.
@@ultimateguy7641 it wasnt an empire, in fact it brought Empires down
Soviet union fell on deepest shit during Brezhnev, hardly anyone could recover the country after it...dude just made nukes..
once the soviets began giving people freedom, everyone wanted to leave now that its problems were obvious
Agreed
They allways had a right to leave. If didn't know the ones, who wished to leave was not the people of USSR, it was national elites, who now owns what is left of soviet infrastructure and who made alot of money out of it. General puplic was not into the separation of USSR, but new liberal dimocratic states was not interested in what the general public wants
"This is the best video I have ever seen"
-Every person from ex-soviet country
except russia , still accurate comment , hi from Ukraine
exept Russia, because many russians are salty that their russian dominated union collapsed
@@gamer228r Hello from Lithuania
Some actually really like the USSR
Nah, as always - too many lies.
But the United States and the Soviet Union had so much in common! After all, what two other nations both had a state called GEORGIA?! lol
That's a true fact lol
Did the Reds (the Soviets, not the baseball team) have a Midnight Train to their Georgia? :D
@@JohnSmith-zw8vp More importantly, did the Devil go down to the right Georgia? Or did he mix up his destinations?
I was born in Georgia.
@@jacob4920 the devil came from Georgia and his name was Joseph stalin
When speaking of Chernobyl one needs to be clear that it was NOT a nuclear explosion that happened there. It was a steam explosion as in a boiler blowing up due to excessive pressure. Yes that is still a very bad thing but not on the scale of a nuclear explosion, which is actually an impossibility in a reactor.
Not helpful.
The fall didn't kill him. It was the rapid deceleration.
Don't be dense.
@@frankherthem1794 Look dummy...It's like this, a lot of people "think" that a nuclear explosion is a possibility in a commercial nuclear reactor. It's not and the video producer didn't specifically state that.
Steam explosion with a healthy helping of Uranium & the radionuclides.
Remember all of that radiation was detected all the way to Sweden & other western European countries.
@@frankherthem1794if it was a nuclear explosion there won't be an Europe union in existence today. Don't believe everything you read. Steam explosion carrying radioactive material to atmosphere is not nuclear explosion 🤦
Reactor 4 core did explode. The lid flew off about 10 feet.
Excellent video. I worked in Czechoslovakia in the early 1990's helping privatize companies. I saw firsthand the results of communism - hugely inefficient factories (with about ten times the workforce for a comparable US factory), tremendous bureaucracy, and a pervasive decay due to lack of individual ownership and market incentives. For the USSR, the seeds of its collapse were laid in the beginning with its choice of a government controlled economy and major repression to enforce the system.
It's bureaucracy failed it.
You should do a video on Napoleon's Conquest Of Europe
Probably not if major factors isn't mentioned.
Napoleon did NOT "conquer" Europe. That concept is a perversion of history.....of truth.......written into the books by the victor's who often write the history we're taught. Remember what had happened......France.....England's arch enemy and chief competitor on the world stage...... became a democracy......George III......England's king.... had just lost what were formerly his colonies.....who became the United States...... to democracy. He and his minister's began a years long campaign to crush democracy in Europe.....fearing the same fate as France's monarchy....to his own. In the ensuing 20 odd year period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars....England induced the other European monarchies to war against now democratic France. No less than 7 coalitions were formed against France largely financed by England.....breaking many peace treaties in the process. While France/Napoleon fought across Europe.....France did not administer control of most of the area's that are said to be "the French Empire" in history books. That is one of the biggest lies still prevalent and taught today.
Why? Epic History already did a phenomenal job, and they're still churning out Napoleonic content as we speak
@@stephenmichalski2643 calm the heck down, you said everything yet nothing
@@stephenmichalski2643 not to sound rude or anything but an essay wasn't that necessary
Love your videos, keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for your support!
I remember that coup d'état. The west was holding its breath back then and feared a retaliation of an authoritarian Soviet regime.
This is really, really well made and objective. Wonderfully made, Knowledgia!
Thank you so much! I am glad that you liked it :)
A short 70 years? More like an eternity for the poor suffering people
*first 20 years, my parents were from USSR and they said they had everything, medicine, schools, jobs etc. Streets were safe and people were prospering. Altough it was only on the big citys and after Stalins massacre, but other than that life wasnt bad at the USSR not until collapse
@@GoofyCheeks
Criminality was down played by government?
I've heard that late Prigozhin robbed a woman, beat her and even took her boots to sell.
I've heard so much about "The August Coup" where Mikhail Gorbatjov got surrounded by soldiers around his summerhouse in Crimea, while hardliners tried to retake control. My parents said that he made a video and sent it to Europe showing he was surrounded etc. But i cant find that specific video, is it really true that he made it? I mean... It might be available to watch somewhere?..
@Rollo37 Yes the video is true. There was an attempted coup but Gorbechev was saved by Boris Yeltsin.
@@ald1050 And i know that much already, but me who wanna study history are very interested into seeing the video. But i cant find it anywhere...
@@Rollo37 Ok I understand. You might see the clip maybe in a bbc documentary series on the fall of the USSR from memory.
@@ald1050 yep and with boris being anti-soviet, he did something that was the death nail to the Soviets....he made Gorbachev outlaw the Soviet party, which is where all Gorbachevs power rested.
@@seansimms8503 Yep he sadly did. Then Boris dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the CIS which was a big mistake.
I grew up during the time of the soviet union and collapse of it. The #1 reason it collapsed was because of starvation of it's citizens. The failed economy, the failed military and Government, were partners in this disaster, but not getting food for your family and seeing the other side with so much plenty destroyed the people's will to support their country.
@@dudebros6122 I visited the Czech Republic and the tour guide who grew up in the country (before it broke from the USSR) said that they used to use the Soviet propaganda newspapers to wipe their asses because there was no toilet paper. They could get fruits like one pineapple per person and two bananas per person at the store during the holidays, so you had better bring everybody in your family to stock up as much as you could get from what otherwise were empty shelves. Around 1970 a Latvian family moved next door to our house-moving from Minnesota but they came originally from Latvia. God only knows how they got out. The father clearly had at least PTSD &was paranoid, if not full out psychotic- God only knows what happened to him. it was a very stressed family & I think he was abusing his son- his arm was constantly in a cast and he cried easily. the parents eventually got a divorce.And I agree the Baltic states were absorbed against their by the Soviet Union when they had the opportunity to do that to small countries that had no real way of holding them off. I mean, Austria allowed itself to be annexed by Germany, rather than fight against Hitler and the Nazis. Now there was quite a bit of sympathy towards Hitler Who grew up in Austria, but they didn’t even put up a fight As the government was overthrown in a coup. Another friend of mine grew up in West Berlin before the wall fell and he reported that the East Germans who came after the fall were, after only 35 years of separation, were like hillbilly cousins so different from the modern Germans of West Berlin they would go to the grocery stores with jaws dropped open 😮 by the abundance they were seeing, were very simple dressed from another era, and had difficulty integrating with modern Germany. However, Angela Markel clearly did not. I find it ironic that she and Putin were both in Communist Germany at the fall of the wall and later became the leaders of their two countries. She developed a phobia to military dogs; he to large crowds & mob protests.
troll
detected
@@ladislavjonas977 Do you understand you can create a youtube account with whatever name you want?
@@pbohearn sounds harsh. I complain about my childhood all the time. Abusive stepfather and i didnt get as spoiled as i could have been but that story sounds a bit worse than my childhood. Even if i got beat up by my stepdad. But my mom bought me nice fancy clothes and i was able to travel to 2 countries. She also bought me a few cars in my 20s. So yeah. That story sounds bad.
There were no famines in the USSR after 1947. There were shortages of certain _kinds_ of food in the USSR, but even according to the CIA, caloric intake in the USSR was on par with the US at the time. People in socialist countries have a better quality of life than people in capitalist countries with similar levels of economic development. Sources below.
In the US, the lines for food banks a year ago stretched for miles, and 20% (1 in 5) children in the US are food insecure. 700 children die of poverty EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY under our current capitalist system. The majority of Russians believe that the USSR was the height of Russian civilization, and are nostalgic for what most considered better times. Russians went from being poor but having enough to eat, guaranteed employment, and affordable, high quality housing under the USSR, to being poor and having nothing guaranteed under the Russian federation and capitalism.
Sources: (youtube buries comments that have working links)
United States Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Research and Reports (1964) A Comparison of Consumption in the USSR and the U.S. A Comparison of Consumption in the USSR and the U.S. (CIA/RR ER 64-1)
Congressional Research Services (1981, August 17) Consumption in the USSR: an International Comparison. Joint Economic Committee. (CRS Report No. 76-408-O)
Cereseto, S., & Waitzkin, H. (1986). Capitalism, socialism, and the physical quality of life. International journal of health services : planning, administration, evaluation, 16(4), 643-658.
www.cia dot gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP85M00363R000601440024-5.pdf
imgur dot com/a/2DTpqxh
The video focuses heavily on what caused the USSR to collapse at that precise moment, rather than what caused it to collapse. For example, suggesting Glasnost was a factor because it paved the way for Chernobyl to be uncovered and the military to speak out might be correct when looking at what caused the USSR to collapse in 1991. However, any govt that lacks transparency has a shelf life. Equally, suggesting the withdrawal from Afghanistan and others was a factor again only focuses on why at that point not why. The video almost implies that if the USSR had not done these things it wouldn’t have collapsed (I do recognise the side note on Glasnost). That would be an incorrect deduction.
Think Jenga. Why did the tower fall. Was it the last few blocks that were removed or the faulty structure. The last few blocks determine the precise moment of collapse but not why.
I heard there was somewhat of a "free market" in the soviet even under Stalin. They were known as cooperatives and people could sell the usual products like clothes, cooking ware, food and sometimes rarer items that would immediately be snagged. It was canned under khrushchev's reforms and that sad dreary boring planned economic side of the ussr.......that's where it comes from. Imagine if that was never removed and it had further reform like markets under China today
Its because of democracy
Wow! Hard to find videos as good as this one. Not biased, precise, and consice. Excellent work! Well done!
I think failing economy and corruption is the causes. Investing in your own nation is more important than anything.
I'm from Poland and I remember when my mom told me that she was tought in school in 70's that she should be proud that the name of Soviet alliance is "Warsaw pact". Why did the Soviet Union Collapse? Because we all deserve something far better.
Did they teach about pre-communist Poland's history of conflict with Russia? Or did Russia order Poland to exclude that from the history books?
@@carlramirez6339 As far as I know it was excluded; the narrative was that our countries were best buddies since always, and people could get in serious trouble for talking (not even teaching) about things like Partitions of Poland
Being a puppet of the USA is better?
@@Krolmir96
It sure beats being a Soviet puppet. Notice how many Soviet puppet states never recovered once the Soviet Union stopped supporting them? Cuba? Somalia? Ethiopia? Mongolia? North Korea? East Germany?
@@shauncameron8390 What do you think would happen to the puppets of the USA if they fall tomorrow? All our economies are bond to the Dolar. Japan and South Korea for example would literally die of hunger for not being able to import food.
Realistically it was a ton of different factors but the failure of their economy might have been the biggest one. I've heard that as far back as the late-70's Yuri Andropov and other KGB higher-ups had secretly accepted that the Communist experiement was doomed and wanted to gradually reform the command economy to a free(r) market like China did. Gorbachev tried to do this but while China maintained authoritarian control and policies as it reformed economically, brutally repressing any opposition, the USSR abandoned their old brutal ways. As soon as the Eastern Bloc countries realized that Moscow wouldn't be sending any armies into their countries to keep the communist governments in power, as they used to do whenever a place like Czechoslovakia or Hungary displeased them, they saw their chance to break away. When that started happening the Soviet people stopped fearing their government and the individual ethnic republics started to want to break away too.
No mention of the 1991 January events in Lithuania? These are very important events that people should be aware of, and majorly contributed towards the collapse of the Soviets.
Beautiful, concise summary for someone trying to learn about this. This will make other documentaries a lot easier for me to follow I feel. Thanks very much mate.
1991 was a crazy year, for me personally, and for the rest of the world, it was oddly anti climatic for the great Soviet Union to fall on Christmas day, the "Evil Empire" that I was trained to hate for the previous 21 years of my life, who had enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, so we were told anyway, just disappeared on a day when we were pre occupied with presents and Turkey dinners....
there are some considerable issues with this video:
- 3:58: the ppl of the USSR aleady knew about the corruption going on since like... Breshnev. They knew about it beause that was the only way to get certain consumer goods in acceptable time, like a car within a year instead of 5-10 yrs. It started waaaaay before chernobyl or Gorbachev.
- 5:37: the economy of the USSR was never successful... It alwys focused on miliary, not consumption. The things they achived during Stalin was from slave labor and western 'donations', durnig Hruschev it was okayish, during Breshnev it was from western loans... Okay, everyone had a job and 'got' a apartment for free, but did everyone really work for it?
- 6:42: Yugoslavia was never a satelite state of the USSR. Tito broke the ties with them quite early, and Yug was not even a member of the Warsaw pact. Yug was a bit like Romania: not commie, not 1st world, only balancing in the middle (i mean politically).
9:56 Worst Christmas ever!
Interesting aside here, but Kazakhstan was actually the last member of the Soviet Union. Ironically Russia wasn't the last to withdraw from the union.
This ancient history documentary has me thinking: Did ancient Romans ever argue about pineapple on pizza?
Excellent and so very accurate in both depiction and information. 1985 -1990. Very accurate. Thank you for this production. Subscribed w/ notification.
I remember a different reason for the breakup. I do not contest all the problems, but the final nail was the elections. For the first time the president of the USSR was different than that of Russia. Gorbatjov became the president of the USSR, but Yeltsin became the president of Russia. Yeltsin then went to the other countries and plotted the breakup leaving Gorbatjov in the dust.
On december 8, 1991 The Alcoholicus Eltsin plotted Conspiracy along with two other traitors and some sort of narcomans : Stanislav Shushkevich (Belarus) and Leonid Kravchuk (Ukraine) !..They third of them, together signted the dissolving the UUSR, in the Belarus-Poland Border , on Belovezhka Wood Forests .
it is interesting that all the troll saying they lived in the urss never, never absolutely never mention the part where the exfuncionarios turned in oligarchs
The Communist regimes in the Eastern Europe collapsed because the USSR explicitly told them that it will not support them. In 1988, Gorbachev made a speech in front of the UN, where he suggested he will not support them, and will withdraw troops. Without Soviet support, there was no point in continuing for the regimes, and all they were now concerned was how to transfer power without ending up like Caucescu.
Great content!
Enjoyed the video that played in between the ads
Nicely explained.
A great work as always, i swear i did learn more things on your Chanel compared to school !!! Keep Going on
Great job! As a person who was born and still living in a former USSR country (Kazakhstan), I'm happy not to witness the USSR existence. Of course, Kazakhstan is far from being called a modern democratic country as we have an autocratic regime and decaying economy. However, the situation and living conditions are way better than that of the USSR period. Hope to leave this country forever and never come back.
No hope for Belt and Road initiative? One of my best college friends was Kazahh, he's doing well in Germany.
Why do you say that? What is it that you'd deny security and prosperity under a Soviet Union solely because it is the Soviet Union? It is irrational.
In Kazakhstan, thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants and Khrushchev buildings were built only under the USSR, of course without the USSR you will live worse, enjoy capitalism and democracy.
Please do videos longer that are minimum 14 minutes! We love to hear it but it ends wayyyy to quick!
Gorbachev was an original member of the club of Rome,it’s amazing how members and their adherents fill the upper levels of every government of the world
2:15 START
The problem was not that the USSR collapsed, but the manner in which it did. Gorbachev was enacting plans for the USSR to dissolve into a confederation of _Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics_ by democratic means.
The 3 Baltic States, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia were intent on moving towards full independence and boycotted this process, but a referendum in the other 9 republics including each of the 3 Slavic states, the 5 Central Asian states and Azerbaijan yielded positive votes in favour of this proposal.
If this had gone ahead, the 6 republics that boycotted this, would've become independent anyway, but the 9 republics would've maintained an EU style trading bloc which would've greatly benefited the people in each country as they transitioned together to liberal democracy. Sadly, this wasn't to be and the economies and societies of many of these nations collapsed, even descending to civil strife and mass poverty.
The Soviet Union as it was, was on its way out anyway. The collapse could have happened in a much worse manner, involving large scale civil war. However, it could have been a lot better, with far better managed long term relations between Russia and Ukraine and for each of these states to become modern prosperous European liberal democracies.
USSR promoted nationalism in republics but NOT in Russia. So republics thought that they are "feeding" the Russia. Very bad planning
How did you come to this conclusion
@@Admin-gm3lc Don't be delusional, the whole Russian (proper term is Soviet not Russian) economy was built around that its other occupied states would work for their demands.
@@Ромыч-х7и Yeah lol thats what they said but after they got independence it was obvious who worked for who as they became many times poorer. How you can still believe in this myth lol
@@Admin-gm3lc Lmao you have to be westoid or a vatnik coping. Obviously Eastern Europe was gonna start out poor, because they to rebuild the whole economy. Everything soviets built was outdated and could not compete in a western modern market. Eastern Europe is still recovering from the disaster that is socialist economy but it is by far richer under capitalism. Soviet Union had poor civilian industry.
Was i the only one that noticed Latvia draw on the berlin wall?
I saw that too, but maybe it was Austria, I'm not sure
It was Latvia
The reality is..... Communism as a concept requires a lot more innovation in its reforms. When the USSR was formed in 1922, Soviet Russia was still backward in comparison to many other nations in terms of technology and overall GDP. It was still an agricultural land while most of east Europe and USA had crossed that age. The Soviet Union did get the nation out of the muck with advanced technology and using socialism, gave rise to equality. But there was no room for innovation under the concept of dictatorship with people like Stalin using their own power for individualistic reasons. Communism as a concept required more and more innovation which the nation failed to provide and in addition, the Soviet-Afghan war proved to be against USSR. Mikhail Gorbechov tried his best to retain the Union but things were already messed up enough by then which made it difficult for the General Secretary.
People need to relay on something greater than themselves to keep hope and the moral strong when everything fails.
A secular society lacks of such thing.
Relying on God does nothing for people especially if they use "his name" to commit atrocities and ostracize others for their beliefs. Believing in fairy tales and praying to some nonexistent concept won't save humanity or magically make the world a better place than it already is. Only man, his mind, his morals and technology can do such a thing.
@@mishka5706 there was no "president" in the soviet union. There were many factors that led to the collapse. I study Marxist thought and I don't agree with many things done in the union but I see its many achievements in science, industry, war and endeavors like its space race. The approach to kulaks and the planning of agricultural could of been way better than just shooting every one of them and siezing the wheat. While I agree I revolution can't happen I white gloves or or a change in the system can't be sugar-coated, complete purges on the scale of Stalin was crazy and unjustifiable
Hi Knowledia
I'm still waiting for your reply.
I wonder if I am allowed to interpret the videos and share. There are so many persians who like to watch them.
Thanks
It would be interesting if they made a video about Germany hyperinflation in 1920 (maybe)
A video explaining the rise of the USSR would be cool!
The Germans built the soviet union. During ww1 while fighting russia they financed lenin's coup that toppled the Russian czar and formed the soviet union and they did it with the ideology of a German intellectual Karl marx. The soviets didn't truly become a superpower until after ww2 and obviously we wouldn't have had ww2 without germany. I blame the Germans for the soviets lol. Thats not tbe official text book explanation but its true.
Wonderful presentation. Very structured with great commentary.
Awesome as always
Using voice recorder to type all of this down: "Grasp USSR Ally Garbage"
When the sponsership happens: "Raid shadow legends is a multiplayer game that -"
I think Google is doing some shady stuff ya'll
2:20 "he's delusional"
-Dyatlov
I was 6 when all of this happened, I kinda wish I'd been more aware of the world around me back then, at least enough to know that one of the largest and most powerful nations in history had disappeared.
Well-balanced and thoughtful explanation worthy of leaving to posterity.
An 11 minute video featuring a one minute ad 🤯
I’m from the USA and this is still interesting to watch!
Sup USA guy :)
@@ttwwoo22 you should be in the us too! And don’t say guy that’s weird!
@@robloxiangamer2.013 oh okay sorry merican boiii 😳
@@ttwwoo22 ok your not from the USA and you spelled American wrong! Do you have to go to spelling school? LOL!
@@robloxiangamer2.013 I was just joking my friend :)
It was mainly because of economic stagnation and corruption that was fully revealed after the failed invasion of afghanistan and a last ditch attempt to liberalise which only made things worse
The soviet union had ALWAYS been an empty shell. From the outside and on paper it looked powerful but truthfully it was weak. All that muster and they couldn't even build a decent car or a refrigerator. The standard of life was pretty poor for most inhabitants of the soviet union. Nothing like that is sustainable.
The very moment they ousted Khruschev was the beginning of the Union downfall. When Khruschev was in power the whole Eastern block not just the USSR was experienced a golden age with incredible economic achievements and raising in quality of life . Brezhnev was the constructor of the downfall under his leadership the USSR was slowly decaying, the stagnation , corruption and the inability to make reform was started to show its ugly face after his death , with every general secretary they buried the Union death bell rang ever louder each day. Gorby just had really bad luck to be the captain of a sinking ship , he was the youngest and the most willing to do reform politician in the party but it was to late. The moment that the Russians started to rebel in Moscow that was the final nail in the coffin.
Finally a video about the collapse of the USSR finally mentions one of the most devastating point in its history. Chernobyl was not only costly in manpower and resources to fix, but during a time of Nuclear deterrent in the cold war massively impacted Soviet competence and reputation. Not only did the disaster badly influence the Soviet power and it's reputation amongst its allies and it's enemies, but I generally believe the people of communist regime lost Thier belief in the Soviet ideal and was the final tipping point
Amazing channel.
I remember the sadness from the faces of eastern Bloc Breadlines, as across the iron curtain, Reagan was talking about lasers in space. I imagine they were thinking how such technology could only be a product from a system which had magnificent bread cooking ovens .
"I remember the sadness from the faces of eastern Bloc Breadlines" (c) -
Jake Dailey (news) - Typical soviet citizen.
"I imagine they were thinking how such technology could only be a product from a system which had magnificent bread cooking ovens" - or magnificent stoves for burning people, well, right, where is the Soviet Union to these technologies that brought the first man into space. Poor Western id*ots were brainwashed so badly that they did not even hear about the splitting of the peaceful atom or the creation of computers in the USSR. Apparently, this propaganda was needed so that against the background of this propaganda, residents in the West would feel relatively better.
@@ratelarmonter4736 I'm sure if you ask people who are actually interested in history no one would deny soviet achievements. But the fact that it was a communist country didn't helped them to be innovators. Communism lacks competition and therefore creativity, which means they never had a chance (in the long run) in the 1st place. Not to mention the ability to finance such undertaking as a space program etc. Capitalism is simply superior. But one has to admit Soviet contributions in science for example.
@@mzudemartin
In the USSR, there was competition, but not in what would make more money on its own citizens. Space was financed, rockets and related equipment were created. It's ridiculous for me to hear when people try to describe what they have no idea about.
Lasers in space was completely made up technology by some sconfo authors. The Americans wanted to scare the USSR.
Man, I still remember the first decade after the collapse when the mafia took over everything. That was a wild childhood.
Chernobyl didn’t take down the Soviet Union, the economy was already crumbling and the Union would have ended even if the accident hadn’t happened. Gorby likes to blame Chernobyl because it lets him deflect responsibility and point to a freak accident rather than the feedback loop of indefensible policy blunders (many of them his, but most of them his predecessors’) that ended the USSR
Great video comrade
Music name 7:50 ??????
Btw Yougoslavia wasn't a satellite state of the USSR like Poland or Chechislovakia. They had their own version of communism and their own independent dictator
And to be more specific, it was not part of the Warsaw Pact.
The reason why the Soviet Union had collapse is because of... *RAID SHADOW LEGENDS*
It didn’t collapse, but disintegrated and fmr republics (except for Russia maybe) became successful independent states.
What do you use to make this?
In December 1979 the USSR invaded a country of people that were never ruled by anyone. Not by Genghis Khan, not by the British, not by the Moguls, not by Alexander the Great and not by the Chinese. The Americans then used this blunder as an opportunity to start a proxy war (through the help of a strategically located Pakistan) and the rest is history. THAT was the main reason for the ultimate downfall of the USSR empire.
I still know what the shouted when the berlin wall fell, we are the people !
man its still inprinted in my soul, up to this day...
The night the Berlin wall fell, I was asleep (I was only like 9 years old, and Germany was about seven hours ahead on the timezone chart). I remember waking up the morning after, and being told that the Berlin Wall had been torn down. And my reaction, even as a little kid, was like: "Oh man! How did I miss this?!"
Even back then I knew I was living through big history.
Yes, then this veil of euphoria quickly subsided.
Don't u miss the glory of east Germany?
I liked the part where he said “this video was sponsored by raid shadow legends”
The real question is not why it collapsed but how this inhuman regime survived that long...
Becouse it wasn't "inhuman" and if you will not be so susceptible to propaganda, you will no longer have such questions.
@@DreamWalkerVl found a commie
@@falloutjay5005 You make it sound like it’s something bad.
It managed to survive because all rebelions against it were met with a military intervention
@@DreamWalkerVl Because it is lol All of the annexations are inhumane
You should reupload the video with an ending phrase saying: "And now... it happens again".
Informative!
There was also a lot of pressure from the west with Reagan and his policy to outspend the Soviets militarily.
@Robert Ortiz-Wilson Absolutely!
Let's be real, how many people really play Raid Shadow Legends
Shadow man
It wasn't an union, it was an annexation.
Nah it was a decent union, just as the former Confederate states are in a union currently (even though they were annexed by the federal government).
10:28 If there were 15 new countries, with Russia being one of them, then Russia had 14 new neighbors, not 15.
Do you think that perhaps President Reagan's "star wars" initiative could have had anything to do with the fall of the SU? This represented a shift from the idea of nuclear mutually assured destruction that kept the cold war going and the SU and US in check, and would enable the US to defend itself from an attack -- that way the US could prevail in a war. The SU economy was in the tank, they realized that they couldn't keep up with the US, and for many of the reasons discussed in this video the SU collapsed.
Correction: Yugoslavia was not a Soviet "satellite state". It was communist but not Warsaw Pact, unlike the other Eastern European nations
i'm lucky that gorbachev is still alive, cuz i want to know more about the soviet union and it's darkest secrets.
History repeats. Whenever Russia relents with its hard line attitudes the country changes dramatically. Weakness caused the Revolution and weakness caused the end of the Soviet era.
As I remember it, there was a fiscal crisis in the final years of the USSR. To make a very long story short, the Soviet republics refused to provide revenue to the USSR; the most important republics that refused revenue were Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. So, there was no other options left, except disintegration of the Soviet Union from within.
As an American, the sad part is that the US lost a great deal of its freedom and wealth "fighting" the cold war when the demise of the Soviet Union was inevitable. American academic Paul Samuelson (uncle to Lawrence Summers, notable Clinton admin. member and President of Harvard) thought the Soviet Union model was working right until it collapse in 1989.
Has the US not been at war in any decade?