The sad and often omitted story of the factories shipped away to the Soviet Union from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European countries is that... many of them were never set up again. Due to bureaucratic mess and loss of technical documents during the shippment process, often the modern and advanced machines were unloaded at various train stations, where they would rot and rust under the elements, to the point they could not even be used for reverse engineering. It was also not unheard of that various elements of one factory were accidentaly shipped to different parts of the USSR, and could not be assembled again. The sheer waste of these machine's potential to lift Europe and the USSR from ruins is literally mind-numbing.

I'm from Germany and I love your videos. I can't get enough of the content that describes WW2 history and the cold war time. I hope that by telling it we keep it present in our heads and hearts and don't let it happen ever again. And I love the way you talk and explain things! Thanks!

2:33 After a few incidents with Russian soldiers, the British Army was instructed to not wear kilts.

Some wiseman once said: "Countries that have the word 'democratic' in their land title are the least democratic."

DDR *Dungeons and Dragons Republic*

Minor correction: the Soviet blockade was not on all of Germany but simply on West Berlin.

Soviet commanders: "That's immoral!" Soviet Soldiers: "We don't care about bourgeois morality!"

I would love to hear more about DDR's system. Great video as always!

Fun fact: Stalin did not only relocate people, he did the same with crabs 🦀

Awesome job once more, the way you guys balance the facts is what make this channel special, really special. I am proud to support your guys on Patreon, this is a prime historical channel and deserve all the help possible to self sustain. Thank you for what you do.

This two-part vídeos about Germany were a great job. Direcet to the point without being shallow. Maybe later you could make about South/North Vietnam. Keep up the excellent work!

I don't think there was any easy single way the Soviets could have reformed themselves to enable the Eastern Block's continuation or their own. I think Andropov was the most realistic and pragmatic of those in the inner ranks...on the eve of Solidarity in Poland, he declared that the Soviets had to accept the loss of Poland, as long as the direct communication line to East Germany was maintained. I maintain that one positive direction the Soviets could have gone further with would be to reduce the unsustainable size of their conventional forces, especially within the the army. This was the largest non-productive consumer of funds, and it would've made infinite more sense to redirect those funds to Research and Development instead.

Thanks for content warning. Ya’ll killing it with these videos cannot wait those subscriptions to match the quality of your content.

I appreciate your "telling it like it is" concerning "the dark portion" of this video. Thanks 😁 CWC.

The GDR from what I understand had the best army in the entire Warsaw Pact aside from the Soviet Union. They kept a lot of German traditions and uniforms. When the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968 the other Warsaw Pact countries threatens to withdraw from the invasion due to GDR involvement. In fact Czechoslovak opposition claimed that East Germany invaded and compared it to 1938. Even though it’s a lie, it scared a lot of people. Due to the German involvement in WWII they really didn’t have any real involvement in any major conflicts during the era. However they sent advisors to Africa and other countries who were having low to medium level conflicts and were very effective from what I understand

Thanks for the videos

@The Cold War Please consider covering East Germany's economic problems in the 1950s which led to at least one amazing story: One of the senior SED ministers responsible for economics shot himself at his desk rather than trying to make the ever-failing five-year plans successful.

if I'm gonna pass my history module on West Germany it'll only be thanks to this dude

This is so perfekt. Just bought my Trabant today

Well done, as always

Very interesting video. It would be nice to also hear about operation Gladio, the percentages agreement and the Greek civil war

Great you uploaded this video on my first day of German clases! :)

“Do not think that I’m a Nazi...”

Recently discovered your channel (as well as Kings and Generals) and am working my way through the videos. I noticed you have a playlist, but it's ordered with the newest video at the top of the playlist. Since it appears that your videos are structured in chronological order, would it be possible to reverse the order of the videos in your playlist? Unless I'm missing something, KZfaq does not make it easy to watch a playlist in reverse order.

I love your videos. Please continue these series with an brand new post cold war Chanel later. Greetings from Istanbul/Turkey 🤘😎

Great channel

Nice Episode.

I love the studio!

Stalin on voting: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this-who will count the votes, and how.

Thank you for the thorough coverage. I don't remember hearing about the mass rape back in school. I think I picked it up later on. This sort of thing deserves to be taught. Goes to show we're all people after all - and anyone is capable of wrongdoing.

In Capitalist America, they officially call it ”Federal Republic _of_ Germany”. In Soviet Russia, they unofficially call it ”German Soviet Socialist -Democratic- Republic”.

Very interesting thanks, do you have a bibliography?

Good video, and with 20 20 hindsight.... here's an April 1st idea for next year. When you said, 'led to the creation of the Berlin Wall' I heard this little voice say, 'don't you also mean the Anti-Fascist Wall? 'Cause that's what the DDR called it.' So next April 1 how about an episode from the POV of a stanch Communist. As an American, with a strong Canadian connection (I grew up receiving regular Canadian propaganda broadcasts across the border, from CKLW broadcasting Motown, to the CBC's shows about nature and the environment, to free form FM rock...) I grew up wondering if those Canadians weren't a bit too soft, but also that us Yanks might be a bit too strident. I'm sure most Canadians have understand this dissonance. (When I lived in NYC there was hardly any news from outside the five boroughs. When I moved to Montreal things happening in Africa regularly made the news. It was less narcissistic and far more interesting.) . In season 8 of Homeland, Carrie finds herself in a village she'd called in a drone strike on. She and the CIA were trying to kill a Taliban leader Haqqani, but instead killed two dozen people at a wedding party. She was in the village this time to help Haqqani. The Russian GRU spy Gromov says, "Every time the Americans get involved, they blow up a place. Then we come in, rebuild the mosque. We make friends. That's how it works." I found this a really good point, but it goes both ways. How much support for the west and America in eastern Europe came from the Soviets acting like fascists so that anything the Americans did was seen in contrast as positive. Remember when Solzhenitsyn moved to the United States, he got off the plane and condemned Americans for being selfish hedonists. (I think the west won that debate, but we laughed and wondered just how right he was, not 'he should be silenced!') Okay enough Stay at Home random thoughts.

I love these videos on cold war and post war conditions

I love how objective your videos are

Great video like always! 😊

Thank you so much for another great video. Could you recommend me any great book or books that talk about the "retaliation" german women suffered from the Red Army and allied forces? Or the best book on it. Thanks a lot!

Thanks for your neutrality. It really shows how mature you and the production team are

10:01 Where is this footage of Stalin from? I've never seen it before.

Dance Dance Revolution

References and sources in the description would be appreciated.

you should put the merch link in the description of the video guys

Please put a link to your store in the descriptor

I'm just glad I had the opportunity to visit East Germany including East Berlin on a number of occasions. The BBC series 'Frontiers' made an excellent documentary in1989 called Gone Tomorrow with John Wells. I have a copy on VHS but do not own a video recorder which is a shame. If anyone can find the documentary online it is well worth watching.

Looking foward to vid about more work for the same pay.

Really hope to hear about operation gladio on this channel

Anyone else who keeps thinking about Hong Kong while watching this

What a vast difference between East n West Germany. Heck Eat n West in general had such vast differences. Ones that persisted for a very longtime. And in some ways still do to this day. my compliments to those who made this video a reality.

I often wonder if the Soviet Ural motorcycle wasn't created using BMW machines

Thank you for the perspective from the other side, sad as it unfortunately often was. Nobody wins in war. God be with you out there everybody. ✝️

Comment for algorithm.

i find ddr to be the most interesting part of the cold war. many east germans mis aspects of life in ddr, altiough they dont want the system back. hope you make more episodes on ddr, as there was much more, then the wall and stasi to explain life under comunism. it should not be glorified, but at least be understood what east germans mis about the gdr, that disapeard and was consumed by the bundesrepublik.

Quite the party when the wall came down in Fulda. ALLONS!

No

0:21 the dance dance revolution

Weird, I remember that fact of sexual assault from Allied forces from a movie. It tried to portray it as consensual but I have doubts, lots of it....

Thank you for providing people a digestible history of the Cold War without demonising the USSR or lionising the countries under American hegemony.

Oh the soviets take over and the quality of live drops? I am totally not surprised.

The territorial shift of Poland's eastern and western borders is rarely spoken-of, nor the ethnic cleansing of former Polish and German lands after 1945. "Oops".

10:35 The Cold War channel now has merchandise available... Why did you have to spoil the end?

Was there a 1946 election in the Eastern Zone? There was in Berlin.

It’s sad how when we talk about the assault on women in this time period in Germany, the fingers are almost always pointed at the Russians. But when info comes up that US soldiers were just as guilty, people scream ‘That didn’t happen because we wouldn’t do that!’

Victors just literally split the world... 🙄🙄

Is that Frank Schöbel at 3:15?

Great

The appreciation of the Dark Portion of History they way you did alone draws appreciation. Well done!

Change vodka to kvass in intro and matreshka to worker and kolhoznitsa.

Can I know from where did you guys get the photo of Stalin hung on the wall,I would like to buy that Mamma Stalin photo with frame.

lemme get uhhhhhhhh german pomerania and silesia?

"Many narratives don't cover how the USSR took a harder hit than any single country in Europe to defeat fascism." Are you kidding me? That's all I ever hear! 'The Soviets lost the most in the struggle and destroyed most of the German divisions! Lend-Lease helped but the Soviets did most of the work!' The glorification of the Soviet effort and loss is not an 'untold story.' The narrative that isn't covered is reminding them that Stalin co-invaded Poland with Hitler and gave him supplies to continue fighting in exchange for 'non-aggression' towards him and letting him take over eastern Europe, then ignoring warnings about an upcoming German invasion. Hitler was only able to inflict such damage upon the USSR because Stalin gave him the materials to do so. If he hadn't traded oil and food, Germany would have been too undersupplied to have even tried Barbarossa.

The soviet also joined the nazi in the beginning and attacked Poland so they were not heroes in ww2

Davin and indie nidel are the guy

Good video!!! Got to visit East Berlin in 1982 while stationed in West Germany when in US Army. Remember that we traveled by train; and when we traveled through East Germany, it was strictly at night. We had to have Soviet and East Germany paperwork (though do not remember what type). Spent a week in West Berlin with a day spent in East Berlin. WOW!!! the differences of both sides was definitely an impression. Also, a very good book to read about the final days of Berlin during WWII is, "The Last Battle", by Cornelius Ryan. that book is quite brutal and holds no punches. It also goes deeply into the rapes that the German women endured.

I literally had no idea that it was that previlent on the western front Also,

That You, David S. , were brave and bold enough to mention that rapes and sexual assaults committed by the Soviet Troops ,and ,even Allied Forces, over and against German Women and Girls, is commended, for not letting the Offenders get away with such inhuman crimes and sins. Sadly but Truly, Our Armed Forces face not only Toxic Leadership, but also, Sexual Assault on Our Military Forces Personnel, some Males, but mostly Female Personnel. Other than that dark and sinister chapter in History, I AM impressed with the Cold War Channel on You Tube. Bravo Zulu, Sir,and, Well Done.

The Western occupation was and is just as totalitarian as the Stalinist one. It’s just a multifaceted decentralized uni-party and not a one party state. Both systems were installed to root out national socialism and in the West, all parties unite against the popular will of the people if they express any points of a nationalistic program for their own country. As metaphor: you can pick McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box or Taco Bell and you can eat as much as you want of either of them. That’s your choice in a democracy, but they won’t let you have whole foods, organic rich nourishment that actually benefits you and makes you strong and independent

45 years

Fellow Germans - unity in chat. . . . Zis is ours nau!

Epic Dance Dance Revolution Germany.

4:16 "...how the USSR [...] defeat facism." Spain: "Didn't expect that reaction, but that's ok."

The losses on soviet side incurred by stalin's own action or rather inaction

What an informative video, it is sad to see this blind revenge ruining entire world. Blind revenge does not fix anything, it only destroys. Had the soldiers (of all fronts) been decent, maybe the world would be a better place.

Russian napkin is called soviet !

How does a communist country making sure fascists and capitalists do not stand in an election differ from a capitalist party making sure that even a very mild socialist does not win a primary, or how in the general election the two parties on offer to voters are strictly capitalist? I would think that to non-capitalists it would look like capitalists rigging the game to make sure only capitalists have power.

In soviet union food is a luxury, and ritch people are not alowed

One good thing the Russians are good at: Just ask Germany, Finland, and Japan just a few examples...

4:23 With the only exception being Poland.

You forgot the time stamp for the sexual assault trigger warning ⚠

Please do a Romania episode! 🚩✊🇷🇴

Comparing East and West Germany is just not fair

No mention to "Stalin Notes", dissapointed.

Where in the hell are getting these numbers for sexual assault? Please list some sources. Not one source listed.

love the channel but the change in camera perspectives is really distracting

pls Help Me

There was no propaganda that said that soviet troops to rape and slaughter civilians. None whatsoever, the frontline soviet troops treated the civilians as human beings and even had them fed. The problem came from the rear guard of soviet troops who started committing all sorts of crimes including rape. It can be argued that the soviet union leadership didn't realize the urgency or simple didn't care about the German civilians to put a stop to the raping of civilians by their own troops. However, once it became clear, and the urgency was prevalent in soviet society that the war needed to end; The soviet union made official ban on any crimes committed against civilians with punishments including executions of any soviet soldier that tarnished the image of the soviet army.

Goddamit stop leaning your head back! You'd get more viewers!

ihr

dodnes neexistuje žiadna odpoveď ako prežil bombardovanie Adolf a Bombardovanie a 25 atentátov WW 2 fakt neprekonateľný generál

After what nazis have done to Soviet Union, East Germany was lucky Russia didn't obliterate the entire country, with all the people.

Would like to see a video on expulsion of Germans after WW2