Gorbachev war against excessive drinking: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o72bmcWr0JmZe2g.html Moonshining with my grandpa video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fqdkZKeLs9WtqXU.html Hello, comrades! My name is Sergei. I was born in the USSR in 1971. Since 1999 I have lived in the USA. Ushanka Show channel was created to share stories as well as my own memories of everyday life in the USSR. My books about arriving in America are available at www.sputnikoff.com/shop (Russian or English versions) or on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B08DJ7RNTC Please contact me at sergeisputnikoff@gmail.com if you would like to purchase a signed copy of “American Diaries” Fan Mail: Ushanka Show P.O. Box 96 Berrien Springs MI 49103, USA You can support this project with tips by clicking a "heart" under this video, or: Via Patreon here: www.patreon.com/sputnikoff Viia PAYPAL: paypal.me/ushankashow Ushanka Show merchandise: teespring.com/stores/ushanka-show-shop If you are curious to try some of the Soviet-era candy and other foodstuffs, please use the link below. www.russiantable.com/imported-russian-chocolate-mishka-kosolapy__146-14.html?tracking=5a6933a9095f9 My FB: facebook.com/sergey.sputnikoff Twitter: twitter.com/ushankashow Instagram: instagram.com/ushanka_show/ Reddit: www.reddit.com/user/Sputnikoff
@carkawalakhatulistiwa Жыл бұрын
Hei! 22% Soviet citizens of the Soviet Union are Muslims. what should they drink (sweat water)
@covenawhite4855 Жыл бұрын
It has been speculated Drunks can't unite against the Government because they are too distracted by getting drunk. Which is a good tool for keeping the population loyal at the cost of people being less productive and dying young. Here is a video by a KZfaqr of this theory theory. I am not saying the video is right but I want your expert opinion. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rLFnn5hmv7W6eZc.html
@theRealJohnWayneGacy Жыл бұрын
If the USSR returned, would you?
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
@@theRealJohnWayneGacy I think I like to be exploited by an American corporation more than the Communist Party of the USSR. Americans pay better and I don't have to keep my mouth shut.
@kennethc2466 Жыл бұрын
Well, if we follow your logic that being poor and working too hard makes you an alcoholic, what about the billionaires and their children that are not only alcoholics, but hard drug users? They live the best of lives, yet turned to drugs. Seems like your work or money situation has very little to do with drug use. PS, I love your videos, and the candid talk about a place I've never been, yet have been told 50 years of propaganda about. Thank you, fine sir.
@ColonelSandersLite Жыл бұрын
"If life was so good, why was everyone drinking so hard?" Oh, that's an easy one. Life was *so incredibly good* that they couldn't stop partying to celebrate just how good it was.
@sixseven404 Жыл бұрын
Lol
@vgrepairs Жыл бұрын
I mean, american natives are given decent money to live for no work at all. All they do is drink.
@HagiaFantasia11 ай бұрын
If only they had THC gummies instead of vodka 🐱
@ChemEDan11 ай бұрын
@@HagiaFantasia Actually tho... and psychedelics would be even better.
@HagiaFantasia11 ай бұрын
@@ChemEDan exactly 💯
@efs83dws Жыл бұрын
I grew up on an Indian Reservation in Montana. The alcoholism rate amongst men was 85%. Even though they get lots of Government money so that they didn’t have to work much, they had empty meaningless lives. Suicide was common. My Dad renounced his membership in the tribe and we moved 1,000 miles away. We had a poor but happy life.
@grantglow4206 Жыл бұрын
redman cant handle alcy
@missano3856 Жыл бұрын
Which tribe? I live in Montana and one of the drunkest guys I ever saw was in Browning and I used to be a drunk.
@efs83dws Жыл бұрын
@@missano3856 my Grandparents lived in Polson. We lived in Trego, Stryker, and Foretine.
@tdoran616 Жыл бұрын
My dad told me that when northern native Americans were introduced to alcohol they called it “fire water”. Don’t know if it’s true or not.
@shenaniganshop3309 Жыл бұрын
@@efs83dws my grandparents have a home on dickey lake up near trego, I’m sure you’re familiar with it. Beautiful area.
@mattday8208 Жыл бұрын
I visited the Soviet Union in November 1984. Moscow was cold, bleak and depressing, and I've never seen so many drunk people in my life. To get back to hotel room I had to step over the sleeping drunks who were too hammered to get back to their own rooms. Some of reason for this may lie in that it was bleak and depressing but also, perhaps people had no personal agency over their lives. They had little control, little say and little responsibility.
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
November is not a good time to visit USSR. May-June were probably the best months. In November days are short and cold nights are long. Vodka sounds like a good idea to stay positive 😁
@steffenrosmus917710 ай бұрын
I am happy to inform you that 39 years later nothing has changed. 😂😂😂😂
@steffenrosmus917710 ай бұрын
@UshankaShow in May and June you see even more drunk head lying around out of city center where police "collect" them.
@mattday820810 ай бұрын
@@steffenrosmus9177 That's not good news.
@454FatJack9 ай бұрын
Do you think any change 2023? Njet
@WeeWeeJumbo Жыл бұрын
there's a lot of painful stuff in here. i'm sorry about the way alcohol harmed you and your family, and your nation. i think it's generous and important for you to share your stories. thanks, man
@JTA1961 Жыл бұрын
Extremely well said
@paperandmedals8316 Жыл бұрын
Not being able to set your own path in life and achieve your own education, career and wealth goals has a very depressing effect on people. It’s no different in the US. For whatever reason if someone doesn’t have the opportunities to pursue a fulfilling life depression and self medication can follow. I’m highly educated. Undergrad and graduate degree; plus one full year 45 hours a week in a department of defense school. I was unemployed some years ago for a month. Was shocked to find myself drinking and I was not a drinker, I don’t drink alcohol now. But the absence of worth and purpose was a deadly feeling.
@darrenwalley91 Жыл бұрын
Well said. 👏
@paperandmedals8316 Жыл бұрын
@@antonmayer3767 literally waiting to die. So yes, depressing.
@Libertyjack1 Жыл бұрын
This is what you gey when you have unbending systems for all. The relative poverty of the society doesn't help either. The same problems exist with market systems or whatever. This ain't the Garden of Eden, and there I'd no simple one-size-fits-all kind of governance. People differ in their strength, interests, and needs, so society has to adapt to this reality. Unfortunately, governments, whether communist, kingdom, or the United States, are controlled by oligarchs, whose interest is for the society to work for them, as opposed to the other way around. So far, the system that seems to bring the most for the most people is when oligarchs have their shills run the government through the democratic option of a vote, with a strong enough counterweight of strong, independent unions and a socialist option, for when these shill renege on their duty to represent the citizens who vote for them. In the case of the States, the Democrats are this party, which the Republicans being a Dumbo Jumbo presence to control any leftist discourse in that Country. Of course, this society must be wealthy enough so that the opposition isn't forced into the jungle when they lose. There may prove to be a better way to govern and to limit the powers of oligarchs, but none has been successful at the nation state level, at least, thus far.
@paperandmedals8316 Жыл бұрын
@@Libertyjack1 an oligarch is a friend of government elites who is handed over industry and acts at the pleasure of those elites. I have a problem when someone suggests an U.S. entrepreneur who created their own wealth is now an undesirable person. Amazon has provide thousands of jobs to people who would otherwise be unemployed or at minimum wage. Gates literally created wealth. Others didn’t have to lose for Microsoft to win. Musk’s wealth is largely in shares of companies that don’t turn profits. So what business people are you referencing in the US that you’re labeling as oligarchs taking advantage of society? Think hard. The US is a free market and people have an abundance of choice where to make their money and where to spend it.
@manfredconnor3194 Жыл бұрын
I do not drink or take drugs, but this may help me understanding my depression.
@bradstory7585 Жыл бұрын
Heavy drinking goes back to the Tsars and serfdom. Back then, it was one of the few pleasures that was easy to find, relatively plentiful, and affordable. It starts a cycle that's hard to break - parents to their kids, then their kids and so on. Frequent trauma, like wars, famine, disease, and terror from the state don't exactly help either.
@Yourmomma568 Жыл бұрын
It was also one of the few direct revenue streams of the monarchy. The tsar had exclusive rights to produce and sell vodka, and would often reward other nobles with a vodka production quota.
@unchosenid Жыл бұрын
@@Yourmomma568 If there's money to be made, some assh*le will supply that market no matter the consequences.
@bb5242 Жыл бұрын
A product of a demoralized civilization. The USA is there right now. Massive drug abuse in every state.
@christianterrill3503 Жыл бұрын
Legit everything about Russia makes it perfect place to make millions of alcoholics.
@jakefuck641 Жыл бұрын
when I saw the title, I litteraly said aloud "You have to go back to the tartars to understand russian alcoholism"
@deplorablecovfefe94899 ай бұрын
They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work....
@hubertley939 Жыл бұрын
Finishing college in Germany in 1990 and working at a research center, a Russin colleague invited us to take a road trip to Moscow and then down to Tblisi in Georgia. The USSR was still a thing at the time, and we jumped onto this chance to see the other side of the iron curtain. Vodka was like a currency. Gas stations had no gas until you handed over vodka. They had measuring cups. A tank of gas was 1/10th of a liter, plus a few rubles for whatever the price of gas was. Without vodka, no gas. Whomever we met, we had to drink with. Half liter capped beer bottles of vodka for lunch. No need to make them reclosable. We were shocked seeing one of the female colleagues drink a bottle of vodka for lunch. I made it back many times in the late 90s on business, and. Idea and cognac bottles came out in the offices for one celebration or another. Vodka made people give speeches, and everybody was just happy and excited and drinking, and it seemed to be a constant celebration of one thing or another. What I saw was mostly social drinking, and that included work events. We knew that there was no way that any of this was tolerable in the long term, but people drank so they could break down social barriers and anxieties, and it felt like a tool to make everybody happy. This was drinking on steroids, and I had never seen this before. Watching this video put everything into context.
@elizabethclaiborne6461 Жыл бұрын
What you describe is not social drinking. Vodka at lunch is alcoholism.
@hubertley939 Жыл бұрын
@@elizabethclaiborne6461 Clearly, yes. There seemed to be a absolutely no concern with that. Alcoholism was a price willingly paid to escape from a drab existence. The depth of the damage to society and individuals was amazing.
@Naltddesha Жыл бұрын
So we’re you in East Germany in 1990? I’m assuming you were somewhere in Germany when the Wall fell?
@hubertley939 Жыл бұрын
@@Naltddesha I was born and lived in the mid-western are of Germany, close to Holland and Belgium. Being from the west, there was quite a fascination with being able to take a peek over the iron curtain and we did this very unusual car trip across the USSR when a unique opportunity came up. At the time we had no idea where things were going to go with the USSR, and we thought that a similar opportunity would never come up again. Well, I went back many times for business to the former USSR countries in the late 90s and saw a lot of the changes, good and bad. For the past 20 years I have been just a remote observer, and the countries went through an amazing change since I was last there. And wildly different changes, obviously. The people we met on that initial trip were all so excited about meeting with somebody from the West, because the experience was totally new for them as well. Meeting people from so many regions of the USSR, I was surprised how so many different cultures got along with each other. Man, was a wrong. The tough communist leadership totally suppressed cultural identities there, and once they became independent or felt less pressure, civil unrest and wars just flamed up in many places. It’s a deep lesson in politics and history.
@timokuusela5794 Жыл бұрын
In the Eighties, here in Finland there was a word "vodgaturisti", a vodga tourist. As we visited Soviet Union by school trips, as teenagers we noticed that we coud also buy alcohol, and as anything Western was worth a lot of rubles, we sold aftershaves and nylon stockings etc , and traded Finnish Marks to rubles. We ended up with two plastic bags of money, but as there was nothing to buy with rubles, we gave them to our local quide girl. She almost fainted and said that there is at least her two year's salary... There were shops that had nice things, but they were only for tourists and local elite as you could pay there only with foreign currency. Fo a Finn, Soviet Union was like a gray nightmare, like another planet. We also created a "backwards butterfly theory", as the young soviet girls were slim and pretty. Butterflys are first ugly fat maggots, but turn into beatiful butterflies. But in Soviet Union that seemed to go other way around... Russian people are warm, good people. We were sorry for them.
@joeysworldsewer Жыл бұрын
Thats kinda how it is too going across to Mexico from Arizona or California. Granted, us Americans have a really good relationship with Mexico. I'd go down there during college to get cheap medicines, alcohol, and some of the best tamales I've eaten in my entire life. A bit of the Mexican border economy relies on travel like this, and its always a blast to go down there. Mexicans are warm hearted and loving people. At cantinas, you can speak Spanish but a lot of the locals will want to practice their English too.
@paddington1670 Жыл бұрын
@@joeysworldsewer Same for we Canadians, used to go down to the USA for cheap shopping and to buy tires for cars because theyre half the price of tires here, but now with tens of thousands of firearm related incidents, im not going to the USA any more. I immigrated from Michigan in the 80s, i only consider the USA as a place for a shopping spree, but I dont really value that if my life is in jeopardy everywhere I go. Like developing country levels of firearm violence, NO THANKS.
@joeysworldsewer Жыл бұрын
@@paddington1670 i lived in Michigan almost my whole life, but retreated to Florida. Canada was always our weekend staycation spot, a place we went to shop for groceries, etc. But then COVID and politics hit and on both sides, the US and Canadian I have had more negative border interactions than in the past. Came up to visit my family. We went to Canada and both sides stopped every car and were asking for really detailed travel plans. I asked myself "am I crossing from US to Canada or Finland to Russia?"
@grundgesetzart.1463 Жыл бұрын
I heard that Finns used to do the same in Estonia during the late 1990's...they would be loaded onto a ferry, insanely drunk, and offloaded as if they were a piece of luggage. So it is not only the Russians who do this stuff.
@joeysworldsewer Жыл бұрын
@@grundgesetzart.1463 humans in general love our liquor. Some more than others. Some to excess. While America isn't as drunk as Russia, 2/5 of us are smoking weed legally.
@fencegecko Жыл бұрын
I worked as an ambulance attendant in a small northern Montana town while I was in college. Our biggest category of assistance was hauling drunks to the hospital. Some of them were so drunk and the temperatures were very cold that I couldn’t see them living. Some didn’t.
@malcolml3202 Жыл бұрын
I’m Australian and people think we drink a lot in fact now day’s drinking hard booz is not popular here I got drunk one time when I was 18 as 18 is legal here to drink never again I was so sick been ex army 17 years I’m 37 now I still don’t drink other then the odd beer I can count on one hand since I was 18 alcohol the smell of it makes me sick.
@petewarrell228 Жыл бұрын
Im a alkey but beer is my think Hi test allways leads to problems And a whasted day the next 👋👋👋✌🇨🇦 Montana must be nice Hi from canada
@rameshbhattacharjee437411 ай бұрын
OMG Drunk Catching Just Like Dog Catching
@piotr5338 Жыл бұрын
I'll tell you about Poland. 20 years ago, a lot of men has had drank on the front of the shop from the morning. Now, when they work, they see that they can buy a car, manage a house, They can achieve almost everthing to happy life . They don't drink. There is no one in front of the shop.( in small villages people buy and drink out of shops , small ones)People need to see the target in thier life .They need to know that work will change their lives. This is what happened in Poland.
@ronblack7870 Жыл бұрын
the welfare state in the usa has had a similar effect. the idea is to help the needy but it leads to dependence and lack of ambition. and those dependents will then only vote for more handouts which leads to more dependents.
@gryaznygreeb9 ай бұрын
@@ronblack7870Yep, I'm American and I have alcoholic family who somehow qualify for disability pay. They waste away drinking all day and doing nothing. On the other hand, a few weeks ago I met a man with 1 leg playing the guitar for money on a street corner. He claimed he was a veteran and had been denied disability 3 times because he's, "young and able to work" despite literally not having a leg. And I had no way to verify he was a vet but even still, how do you not get government assistance when you literally are missing a limb?
@blacklightredlight29459 ай бұрын
@@ronblack7870 It's because there's no target in america. It's not about welfare, it's that there's no carrot to work for. You'll work all your life and accomplish nothing, gain nothing. All the land is owned, housing is treated like stocks.
@joecaner Жыл бұрын
_"Drinking Hard And Hardly Working?"_ That sounds like every sales rollout meeting I've ever attended, and we weren't talking about socialism, I can assure you.
@trroland1248 Жыл бұрын
I don't know about other E. European countries, but in Poland the 1/2 L bottles of vodka kind of became like a currency for paying things off when you really needed to get something done.
@bigsilverorb3492 Жыл бұрын
One of the best moments of my alcoholic life happened in Essaouira, Morocco, where I found that exact 750ml bottle of Stoli in an underground liquor store, brought there by bright-eyed 7-year old who can tell a Western alcoholic at 50 paces.
@maxgilmore3170 Жыл бұрын
I think there was a lot of trauma from the massive amount of deaths in WW2 people drink to deal with it
@carkawalakhatulistiwa Жыл бұрын
examples in history. 1. in 1500 in the Ottoman empire when coffee was invented everyone drank it every day until everyone had the same bad breath 2.tea was so popular in England in 1800 that every household spent 5% of their income on tea only. and tea imports account for 10% of the England import value 3.with a campaign to reduce alcohol consumption. Man finds a new direction which is soft drink (which causes diabetes). led by Argentina (2022) (155 Liters Per Capita)
@Leningrad_Underground Жыл бұрын
I spent two years working in Azeraijan 2000 to 2002. Drilling in the Caspian Sea. Listening to the stories of the old soviet days with my Azeri colleagues. It sounded just as you are telling it, only much worse. the volume of Vodka consumed on the Oil drilling rigs. the inefficiency. the breakdowns the delays in logicistic supply. It occoured to me how the Soviet Union was collapsing from the inside. I had been working in the drilling business for 30 years , in many countries arround the world. Head down tails up. Bust Ass, Time is money. Most importantly NO BOOZE. If such was the state of this most critical industry that powered the whole economy. Then the rest must have been, or definatly was a shambles. To have supported the promised Workers paradise with care from Womb to Tomb. They needed to be working their BALLS OFF. Instead they were Jacking off and Pissed as rats. A society of WGAF "Who gives a Fuck". and CBFA "Cant be fucking arsed" Such a shame. They could have had it all. but they pissed it up against a wall. Interesting channel by the way. Thanks for your frank and honest accounts.
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
Well, you pretty much nailed it.
@cedricliggins75289 ай бұрын
Azeri women are so beautiful
@goforbroke44289 ай бұрын
The good men died keeping the Germans at bay in the war. Those were the men who worked as part of Stalin’s programs before the war.
@thamirivonjaahri6378 Жыл бұрын
In our country we also had same facilities for drunk ppl found on street by Public Security officers. It was called "záchytná stanice" (can be translated as detainment station or likewise) And ppl were imo mainly drinking because you were living in grey hell (Every single building was grey everywhere you looked. It is really depressive sight on its own right). You were stuck in dead end low paying job (unless you were good in sticking up to superiors, there was no hope for any promotion and for that meager salary you could buy vodka, bread and maybe meat if it wasn't already handed away by the time you got through the queue at local store). You couldn't buy any personal luxury stuff like cars (...well technically you could but it was 15-20yrs avg waiting time if you had a family not to mention it was usually worth 40-60times of your salary if not more). TV was almost mark of high social status (like 50% couldn't afford this kind of expense) and radio wasn't really for entertainment at the time. You were forbidden from traveling, there was no internet and radio+TV programs at the time totally sucked butt. And oh ye...there were no cellphones either and having line phone was also something not everyone had. You couldn't vote out government which was main cause of this crap...the heck you couldn't even say they are doing something wrong (cus it was quite few hard hits to yer lower jaw by apprehending officers and quite few years to be spent behind bars if you did). And as a cherry on the top there was literally NOTHING ELSE to do besides walks in the park and occasional physical activities, which for majority of ppl are either not very frequent, or (as in my case) outright boring AF and totally avoided for such reason. So if you weren't drinking, you were imo a hopeless optimist, one of upper strata, or high on something harder than booze...
@williewonka66946 ай бұрын
This descriotion of Soviet life sounds exactly like the WEF's plan for our future.
@theitchyspot Жыл бұрын
I was born in East Germany and from my childhood memories I can acknowledge that heavy drinking habits were a common problem in socialist countries. My family came from a rural part of the country and I clearly remember the many times we were visiting our relatives and former friends once we were moving to Berlin and everytime I witnessed men who passed out in public on their way home from the kolchos. I believe that one reason amongst others for why heavy drinking habits were so common in socialist countries, is the fact that many people were feeling that their life's, their work or their ambitions were so limited by the oppressive nature of these societies and thus became less meaningful. In order to cope with this reality drinking heavily allowed many people to numb themselves, making the situation a lot more bearable for those who had troubles coping with the limitations of living in an oppressive society.
@malcolml3202 Жыл бұрын
I’m Australian and ex army I don’t drink I got drunk on my 18th birthday 🤮🤮🤮 never touched a drop of alcohol other then the odd beer I can count on one hand and I am 37 years old now can not even Stand the smell of hard booz.
@BlazingShackles Жыл бұрын
You've got cause and effect crossed up. Russians were heavy drinkers LOOOOONG before Marx and Lennon came along.
@grundgesetzart.1463 Жыл бұрын
komisch, meine Mutter ist auch aus Ostdeutschland (Magdeburg) und sie hat ganz andere Eindrücke/ Erinnerungen. Mein Vater ist Bulgare (aus Sofia) - dort war Alkohol erstens relativ teuer und nicht so leicht zugänglich. Für Jugendliche schon gar nicht. Auf der Uni war das Saufen und Fortgehen verpönt. Wie es am Land war weiß ich nicht, aber er war mehrmals auf "Brigaden" (das heißt, dass man im Sommer am Bau oder in der Landwirtschaft mithilft)...auch da wurde eigentlich gar nicht getrunken sondern tatsächlich gearbeitet. Warum erzählst Du solche Sachen? Unterdrückerisch war und ist dieser Corona-Dreck, samt der Klimahysterie und der ständigen Masseneinwanderung. Was sinnvoll und was nicht, ist Ansichtssache. Es gibt auch jetzt genug Leute, die keinen Bock haben und zuhause sitzen, sowie sich vom Staat aushalten lassen. Im Ostblock gabs sowas nicht, es war strafbar, nicht zu arbeiten. Alles klar? Das plus eine kostenlose Bildung, kostenloser Sport (inkl. kostenloser Wintersport - heutzutage unvorstellbar) sowie eine vernünftige medizinische Versorgung war eigentlich Anlass genug, einen Sinn zu sehen und das Leben gut zu gestalten. Man konnte sich halt nicht in Malle ansaufen oder sich in Thailand mit Kindern "vergnügen". Schrecklich!
@RobinTheBot Жыл бұрын
@@grundgesetzart.1463 Perhaps nostalgia is a factor for you.
@DerGottDesChaos Жыл бұрын
@@grundgesetzart.1463 average ostalgiker L
@peterblood50 Жыл бұрын
When I was in my 20's (1970's) the general feeling in America about working conditions in Russia was "You pretend to work, and we'll pretend to pay you."
@iDoTechOK Жыл бұрын
Happy New Year, Sergei!! Thank you for the most productive and time appropriate video :)
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
My pleasure!
@OndrejSc8 ай бұрын
People were not drinking because life was so good. Life was so good because people were drinking.
@royalsuperperson3652 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for sharing your story. My own family has dealt with a lot of alcoholism, and it's nice to hear from someone who's experienced similar things halfway across the world.
@adamsholzhaus8196 Жыл бұрын
The reason they drank so much is that their ability to choose for them self was severely impeded.
@prismpyre7653 Жыл бұрын
I mean, no doubt that is true to a certain extent, but then why were levels of drinking still low in the 1950s when De-Stalinization was happening and the NKVD/KGB was dramatically reduced in size and power and people were released from the gulags? The time when drinking goes way up is, according to Sergei anyway, the time that a lot of Russian and northern-Ukranian soviet citizens remember the most fondly, not the years when people could disappear in the middle of the night if they sneezed at the wrong time.
@aaaowski7048 Жыл бұрын
@@prismpyre7653 in poland people drank alot regardless of the era. i think it has to do with the fact that you can recycle even inedible stuff like paper into something your body can turn into energy- alcohol. (by fermentation, then distilation) theres also the fact that when food was scarce people drank themselves to sleep to cope with that. vodka is still called "liquid bread" in poland, alluding to the fact that hard alcohol alleviates the feeling of hunger, and makes you sleep reducing your energy consumption.
@kimoandrews5802 Жыл бұрын
Things are so much better here because we can choose amongst dozens of choices of toothpaste (all made by the same company).
@adamsholzhaus8196 Жыл бұрын
@@prismpyre7653 A fish born in water does not see the water until it goes up to see the air. You might be comparing water to water. Yin/yang
@b_wellyn Жыл бұрын
@@kimoandrews5802 there are so many products that are exactly the same ingredients just different brands and all from the same company. What a waste?
@mrn13 Жыл бұрын
Impressive how you find all the background material-photos, documents etc... Thanks for excellent content!
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
My pleasure!
@oscarosullivan4513 Жыл бұрын
@@UshankaShow Boris Yeltsin failed to meet Taoiseach Albert Reynolds at Shannon airport in 1994 allegedly because he was not feeling well, sleeping or having a heart attack when it was most likely he was drunk. Needless to say people in Ireland were not happy and in general not happy at the prospect of politicians being drunk or hungover when carrying out public duties or trying to carry out such duties drunk ( see Brian Cowen as Taoiseach when he did a morning Ireland interview on the 14th of September 2010). The Irish Times ran a cartoon afterwards showing a bottle of Vodka coming down the stairs for a plane saying “At last a message from President Yeltsin”. Over 31 of official vehicles were brought in, the army band from the southern command and 100 troops from the 12th infantry battalion were brought in.
@lokitukker Жыл бұрын
In the mid 90's I worked in a warehouse for soda, beer and other alcoholic beverages. Every morning I went to get coffee with colleagues before we started work and every morgen there was a colleague Russian sitting at a small table near the coffee machine. Every morning before he started work he first drank a bottle of vodka and we always knew when he ran out of money because then he drank methylated spirits with a bottle of water. We were always amazed how he could function at all.
@SteveTheGhazaRooster Жыл бұрын
I live in a town in Canada, alcoholism and drug addiction has been a problem here for many years now. It seems it's influenced my entire family, an has sure had its influence on me. Especially being a young dude in these uncertain times, it's hard to resist a drink. Takes everything, but in the end only creates problems, never fixes any.
@jimanderson7648 Жыл бұрын
im from rural Canada. in the early 1960s and before that it use to be worse some people made their own moonshine there was still some people that lived with no electricity or in door plumbing in fact there still is the odd one that lives that way . some chose to live that way now off the grid
@jakisfly Жыл бұрын
You seem like a smart guy, try this on for size . Just don’t do it. Drink a beer…. I used to drink a lot but watching everybody around me and how they acted while we drank disgusted me enough to not have any part in it
@jimanderson7648 Жыл бұрын
@@jakisfly i use to drink some but never lots. i would get drunk . i never used it as an excuse to miss work. i found some people can handle it most can't handle it
@djtall3090Ай бұрын
Jordan Peterson talks about growing up in Northern Alberta and excessive drinking, mostly out of boredom and due to the cold weather. At least try to limit your drinking, just drink beer and stay away from hard liquor. Good luck
@SteveTheGhazaRoosterАй бұрын
@@djtall3090 I'm quiting drinking now, as of a few days ago. Thank you :)
@GeorgeSemel Жыл бұрын
My Uncle Casper was a problem drinker, he farmed. And well he provided the whole town with vegetables all summer long, he could grow stuff. I remember my aunt asking to go over and get some eggplant. So my uncle said come take a walk and well he took me to one of the fields it was all eggplant and there were really good ones. He was so proud to show me this, I was maybe 28 at the time, a young working pilot. I was impressed. Then he died and the way he died alone with well a lot of empty bottles around his house. He would have been considered a moderate drinker by Russian standards. One of the Reasons Russia is in such a mess is well Vodka. To fix their problems they first need to fix the excessive vodka consumption. That is the hard part. So sad about your father.
@mikethespike7579 Жыл бұрын
The problem is easy to solve, just raise high enough taxes on alcohol. That works with sweets in Denmark and Norway, kids there have the healthiest teeth in the world, and it works with cigarettes in Germany, only 30% of Germans still smoke.
@radiozelaza Жыл бұрын
@@mikethespike7579 no, it would not work in societies like Russia. People simply would go buy illegal moonshine
@mikethespike7579 Жыл бұрын
@@radiozelaza Sure, it isn't as simple as I made out. The government would have to come down heavily on illicit distilleries for a few years. They used to have the same problems in Norway, Finland and Sweden. There are a lot of thinly populated parts over there in the sticks where illegal distilleries can be hidden from sight. It took years to stop illegal trade, but they managed it in the end.
@radiozelaza Жыл бұрын
@@mikethespike7579 ok, so you want a totalitarian government infringing on people's rights and liberties. You surely belong in Russia with such a fascist mindset
@mikethespike7579 Жыл бұрын
@@radiozelaza Are you implying that Norway, Finland and Sweden, just to name a few, which have high taxation on alcohol and strictly control the sale of alcohol, are totalitarian countries infringing on people's rights and liberties?
@xneapolisx Жыл бұрын
I remember reading a story in a newspaper (New York metropolitan area) towards the end of the Cold War, about Soviet soldiers stationed in Poland. They had abandoned their tank, fully armed and functional, for a case of vodka!!! I figured the end was near for the Soviet Union when I read that, but was somewhat skeptical about that tale. Well, this video confirms that the story was 100% accurate. Thanks for the history lesson, once again.
@brianjacobsen8878 Жыл бұрын
It's a problem everywhere. My father didn't drink. But my mother was a closet alcoholic. When he died she came out. I unfortunately as my 2 brothers got her gene. It was such a problem for me sent me to prison 3 times. 3 time straighten me out been sober Feb 19 2010. Life is so much better.
@Kajpaje Жыл бұрын
Good for you friend. Strength to you.
@hufficag Жыл бұрын
What did you get sent to prison for? Sometimes it's difficult when the whole world pushes you down and taunts you, it's hard to not fight back and end up in prison.
@brianjacobsen8878 Жыл бұрын
@@hufficag Vehicle homicide with a motorcycle.
@HeathenDance Жыл бұрын
When I visited Sweden in 2006, I learned that there was a big problem with alcoholism, as well. More binge drinking, though. Metalheads - like myself - have a love relationship with alcohol, too. And many other artistic and bohemian cultures. Alcohol can be irresistible and seductive, because of its effects. You drink to celebrate, you drink to forget about problems. I mean... there's not really one reason.
@HANKTHEDANKEST Жыл бұрын
The Swedes have aqva vit--'nuff said, man. That stuff is DEADLY.
@JH-lo9ut Жыл бұрын
Alcoholism is always a big problem for the people involved, and their families. But modern Sweden has some of europe's lowest numbers for alcohol-related decease and death. The problem of alcoholism in Sweden was rampant in the late 19'th and early 20'th centuries, not unlike the situation in the soviet union described in this video. This led to the birth of a widespread temperance movement and the adoption of strict regulation of the sales of alcohol, as well as high taxes on alcohol. Alcoholism is still somewhat widespread among some subcultures and in some areas. The mid 00's saw somewhat of a resurgence in heavy drinking among young people. If you visited Sweden in 2006 (and hung out with metalheads!), I am not surprised you saw a lot of binge drinking. This was like the crest of late gen-x'ers/ early millennials (like myself) who drank more than previous generations and way more than later. Drinking among young people is way down since 2006. Drug use, including weed, is way up instead.
@HeathenDance Жыл бұрын
@@JH-lo9ut Although I'm a metalhead myself I didn't go to metal bars or clubs, since the friend that I visited doesn't like metal. But drinking and drunk people were widespread, Fridays and Saturdays. People completely drunk everywhere, the subway and the trains smelling like alcohol, etc. I was quite fascinated, because I thought in Portugal (my country) we already drank a LOT, but Swedes really took it to another level lol. And their most common beers had a lot less alcohol than the Portuguese ones. Like, 2,8 to 3,5. Where in Portugal is 5,5. Then you have the hardcore stuff, of course. My friend even translated me some adds from the Government and other institutions, addressing the seriousness of such fact. But yes, during the week, this didn't happen. And in Sweden, in most clubs, you had to be at least 20 years old to get in. This was also interesting to me, because in Portugal, in 2006, you could drink at 16 years old already. Maybe the law is different today, don't know. In 2006 I was 22 years old, and drank heavilly, in Sweden was the first time in my life where I had to show my ID to get into a bar or club to drink. And at 3 a.m. they stopped serving drinks and sent everyone home. While in Portugal it's party till morning. Still, it didn't matter, people in Sweden drank till they were wasted lol. Not ALL, but half of them, for sure.
@sn5301679 Жыл бұрын
Some people have that one reason to not drink: religious belief...
@Blackadder75 Жыл бұрын
@@sn5301679 in my country the religious usually drank (since jesus also did serve wine, it must be good) but the socialists were the ones that more often banned all alcohol. but yeah in other religions, like muslim, they ban alcohol
@hossboss4551 Жыл бұрын
I think drinking was so prevalent in Soviet life was due to two main parts: higher latitude so dark cold winters, depressing and such. The other reason is the oppressive nature of life. Most people are poorer and have very little to their own name. It’s very hard to move up in society and people can find themselves in dead end jobs in a small home. They are faced with so much difficulty that they turn to the only relief they know.
@HeathenDance Жыл бұрын
Many alcoholics have/had dreamy and successful lives, though. As History of Art tells us.
@hossboss4551 Жыл бұрын
@@HeathenDance yes, I agree. My point is that alcohol is a coping mechanism. For successful people, it could be to cope with stress in a job or so on. For impoverished people, it could be to cope with the inability or difficulty to change their status.
@HotDogLaws Жыл бұрын
yeah there's similarly bad problems with alcohol and drug addiction all over the world in places with those types of environments. In the north of scandinavia, the upper midwestern US, northern Canada, Alaska etc. I mean it makes sense, if I lived in frozen hell and was cooped up in the dark for half the year I'd be drowning myself in liquor too!
@spannaspinna Жыл бұрын
@@HotDogLaws or if you live in a hot place icy cold beer helps with the heat
@cooltrades7469 Жыл бұрын
bULL sHITUS MAXIMUS. Read the history of alcoholism in Russia . USSR was as totalitarian as the tsarism , so there is a link there . Have you lived in socialism one day to understand how that feels?
@haeuptlingaberja4927 Жыл бұрын
My dude. This is actually a very old statistic, by which I mean that if you look back in history even a hundred years (well after the sainted Tolstoy and Kropotkin, who both railed against it in their own ways), you will see that Russia has always had this problem. As you know. Just consider what happened when the last Tsar before Putin tried to ban it in 1914... My friend Slava first went back to visit Russia maybe 5 years ago, after living in the US for 25 years or so, since he was a young boy. He knew all about vodka consumption. At his wedding, even though he had actually become a huge weed smoker and didn't actually drink much at all, the older generation drank so many gallons of it that neither he nor I could believe it. But when he went back to Moscow again for the first time since he was a kid, he was just very deeply shocked and depressed at the sight of all the vodka-men passed out at 8 am on the benches of all those lovely little parks in Moscow. Of course the answer to your question--why do Russians drink so much?--is very, very obvious. My wife grew up in Czechoslovakia in the 70s, and her stories are no different. I didn't actually even believe her (and Slava) until I lived in the wretched Khrushchoba building that was her home for so many years. In the West we have anti-depressants, many other pharmacological options and endless entertainments. When you live in a concrete shoebox and you know that you have no options at all, why not crawl into a bottle that doesn't yell at you or condemn you to a dreary, pointless existence? The only competing explanation is the peculiar quality of the soul-killing shade of gray that only exists in Eastern Europe and Russia. It's depressing enough in the UK and Germany, etc, but this grayness in the sky, the buildings and all relationships is absolutely lethal east of the Oder. Hard to describe to people who have never lived in these places, but it's fookin' true. It's the absolute antithesis of sunny California, where anything is possible. Instead, it's gray, cold and wet there, where nothing is possible. Nietzsche would have been even darker if he had to live in the Gray Lands. As sh*tty as the consequences are, who wouldn't seek even temporary escape in a bottle of clear poison?
@grundgesetzart.1463 Жыл бұрын
And I went to Russia too multiple times and we have some friends there and former colleagues of my parents. My parents both worked in the USSR in the late 1970s. Well, guess what, no one of the chemists and engineers there "drank vodka" or had time for it. They actually worked. OP is firstly from Ukraine (which is not the entire "USSR" and then from some Ukrainian village, most likely). Yes, in the villages people may drink. But to talk about all of the USSR as if he has been everywhere at the same time, and in the company of educated (and intelligent) people, while he obviously is neither, is a bit bold.
@bosnbruce5837 Жыл бұрын
Lack of sunny days, gloomy climate, historical habits, lack of quality leisure, lack of consumer goods, ie. bread yes, but games not so much, loss of hope connected with the objective situation(1960s onward) as well as the inability of piss-poor internal propaganda to inspire or to bring even an iota of hope, unlike scientifically driven approach to propaganda in the West starting in 1920s boosted by Austrian giants of psychology and by corporately driven efforts - all of this absolutely. But please... this concrete shoe-boxes of gloom nonsense needs to stop. Suburbia is far more scarier. These very same shoe-boxes can be a wonderful place of growing and inter-communal gathering. *BTW* ... today's West drinks more than the Soviet Union ever drank, yet when we think of drunkards en masse, we think of Soviet Union. Any explanation? Streets of Philadelphia, Detroit etc, look worse than the apocalypse. The places of urban decay, crumbling infrastructure, street drugs, prescribed drugs, crime, prostitution, homeless, parent-less minors fending for themselves etc... yet when thinking of these places of horror in the US no one thinks "oh that gloomy US or Pennsylvania and Michigan". But that "gloomy Eastern Europe".
@chrisschneiders6734 Жыл бұрын
@@grundgesetzart.1463. Hmm, bit touchy there.
@JohnSmith-ry7wh Жыл бұрын
The destruction of the Orthodox Church ☦️ by Soviets of course leads to atheistic materialistic Nihlist hell. But even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church.
@VicenteAlonso-ht8ui Жыл бұрын
Alcoholism was a big problem during the zarist regime too (not implying life was great during USSR), and still is in most postsoviet countries
@armenian5309 Жыл бұрын
Assumptions, assumptions... There were no "Vitryazvitel"s in Armenia, and we have a completely different drinking culture and social constraints. There might be various reasons why the winners' names are Armenian, but that list doesn't come from Armenia 100%. Fun fact: the world's earliest known winery has been discovered in Armenia.
@grundgesetzart.1463 Жыл бұрын
he does not know anything. He left when he was 24 or so. And he is Ukrainian. He hates Russia and makes $$$ off his hurt feelings. He can say what he wants, truth says otherwise. We both know that.
@narahman1 Жыл бұрын
It wasn’t Georgia?
@lupusdeum3894 Жыл бұрын
On my summer vacation from San Clemente High School back in 1971, I met many un-sober folks on the streets of the Soviet Union. I spent a lot of time toasting to "international workers solidarity" & "to the friendship between our two northern countries", being as I was originally from Canada. The locals got a kick outta a foreign kid that spoke Russian with a Ukrainian accent. (Thanks, Roger!) For years thereafter, I called Stoli "Russian Antifreeze". Those experiences when I was 16 years old pretty much turned me off binge drinking alcohol. There's nothing like waking up in a forest after a night of heavy festivities , not knowing where you were or what you had done.
@RobKandell Жыл бұрын
I was told a story about these facilities by a Russian girl I met in LA. She told me how her father woke up in one to find the man in the bunk next to him was Boris Yeltsin.
@oscarosullivan4513 Жыл бұрын
Boris Yeltsin failed to meet Taoiseach Albert Reynolds at Shannon airport in 1994 allegedly because he was not feeling well, sleeping or having a heart attack when it was most likely he was drunk. Needless to say people in Ireland were not happy and in general not happy at the prospect of politicians being drunk or hungover when carrying out public duties or trying to carry out such duties drunk ( see Brian Cowen as Taoiseach when he did a morning Ireland interview on the 14th of September 2010). The Irish Times ran a cartoon afterwards showing a bottle of Vodka coming down the stairs for a plane saying “At last a message from President Yeltsin”. Over 31 of official vehicles were brought in, the army band from the southern command and 100 troops from the 12th infantry battalion were brought in.
@DianaDeLuna Жыл бұрын
Shut up. That's too hilarious.
@jed-henrywitkowski6470 Жыл бұрын
@@oscarosullivan4513 Irish... upset over drunkenness?! Literally lol.
@billbogg3857 Жыл бұрын
@@oscarosullivan4513 In Ireland I have heard many alcoholics are partial to toilet duck. Perhaps this unusual beverage was too much even for him.
@oscarosullivan4513 Жыл бұрын
@@jed-henrywitkowski6470 Yes people were not happy probably due to the cost of arranging everything
@genekelly8467 Жыл бұрын
The Russian government monopoly on vodka was set up by Tsar Nicholas' II's finance minister (Sergei Witte). It was the only feasible way to fund government projects like the Trans=Siberian RR line (which costs several hundred million Rubles). Witte worried about its effect on the Russian population-but there was no way to tax incomes in Tsarist Russia. The vodka monopoly was picked up by the Communist Lenin-and Stalin extended it..later, Gorbachev (AKA "lemonade Joe") tried to end it, but it was essential to government finance.
@genekelly8467 Жыл бұрын
Count Sergius Witte at the Portsmouth Conference which ended the Sino-Russian War, Witte is at the center rear:upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Treaty_of_Portsmouth.jpg/1024px-Treaty_of_Portsmouth.jpg
@garrydavis3475 Жыл бұрын
You’re father sounds like a good man just doing his best
@jaystrickland4151 Жыл бұрын
I would say they drank because there was a lack of other things to do. The state likely had an interest in limiting other social contacts.
@myleshagar9722 Жыл бұрын
Vodka was the opiate of the people. In Canada, it is other drugs. Much the same effect on society, but it looks better.
@jaystrickland4151 Жыл бұрын
@@myleshagar9722 Now I think we have a drug problem because we have limited how people may socially connect.
@janbrittenson210 Жыл бұрын
Russia didn't have prohibition. In the U.S. in the 1910s alcoholism was a huge problem before, deeply ingrained in working-class culture. While it was only temporary, prohibition really changed the cultural role of alcohol tremendously and in only what, 13 years. European countries with "soft" prohibition, like limits on how much you can buy from state liquor stores, accomplished the same except over a much longer period. It's often said prohibition was a failure, but from the facts it was massively successful and was repealed largely because alcoholism largely disappeared (statistically speaking), the culture changed, and people no longer understood why alcohol should be banned. Russia just never forcibly dealt with the problem.
So strange to think of the USA forcibly dealing with a problem, and then gold confiscation, right? People had no idea back then which country to place their bets on. So many Americans in 1930s Depression were looking whistfully at the full employment in USSR.
@unchosenid Жыл бұрын
Your honest analysis of your life earned you a subscribe. My grandfather was also a drunk. When we were kids we used to play a game of "find grandpa's bottles"... Interestingly they were always empty.
@apathtrampledbydeer8446 Жыл бұрын
World war 2 did a real number on people and the whole nation or rather nations(including the occupied countries) were suffering from PTSD. Only coping mechanism they had was to drink, no one talked as things didn't work that way back then. From my personal experience the wounds of WW2 in many of those ex-soviet countries, have not started to heal until recently with the great-great grandchildren of the people who lived through WW2. I believe the occupation made things worse and stunted the healing process as life in Soviet was hard in the way that you had no real incentive to be ambitious due to ambitions mostly leading you nowhere. Among other things. "Arbeit macht frei" could be applied to the whole union as hard labour was a virtue for virtues sake. Your father seemed like a pretty great guy I have to say, seen the worse part of alcoholism in the family myself and how people get messed up. Great video, and great channel. Take care!
@michaelboyd395 Жыл бұрын
Hello Sergei! I haven't seen a video of yours in a while but I decided to jump back in here. Wishing you a great 2023!
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
Welcome back! Happy New year!
@Chafflives Жыл бұрын
I think living in Russia would turn anyone to alcoholism.
@petemommo96226 ай бұрын
One Finnish historian said on a radio programme once that it all had to do with the Vikings and mead. The northmen introduced mead to what they called eastern lands. At some point (much later on) the authorities imposed a ration for mead. Then when stills became more affordable, distilled alcohol replaced (mild) mead but the volumetric ration remained unchanged.
@Nilshelppi Жыл бұрын
Thank you Sergei . I am 73 , and was always mystified by the Soviet Union . As a kid in the 1950s and 60s we were made to fear the Soviet Union . But then, once in awhile i would find Soviet photo magazines showing happy people who looked like us . By high school i realized that both the US & USSR had a propaganda operation going on . I really appreciate your videos . Keep up the good work !
@Blackadder75 Жыл бұрын
but on a scale of 1 to 10 of Evil the USA is at 5 and the USSR was at 9
@johngorentz6409 Жыл бұрын
There is a book, "Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State" by Mark Schrad that goes into detail about the conflicted relationship that the Russian governments have had between the need for vodka revenue and the detrimental effect vodka had on production and society. I listened to it on audio maybe around 2014. I don't remember that it had any of what you told us about the drying out services in Brezhnev days, though. I hadn't heard about them before, but maybe what you told us explains a scene in the movie Autumn Marathon. (The audible narrator's pronunciation of Russian words was terrible. I don't expect narrators to have a good pronunciation, but it would be nice if they made an effort. Even words that are commonly known to Americans were unrecognizable. It was a good book, though.)
@mr.145 Жыл бұрын
The late Chrostopher Hitchens was a young socialist ,against things like drugs and prostitution,within hours of visiting Cuba on a socialist student trip,he was offered both.he then reversed his views quickly.
@jukeboxdude Жыл бұрын
Our teacher in metal trades class would tell partial stories occasionally when class was almost over about his early life working in a steel mill and other machine shops. He had this one story I heard several times about touring a Russian factory with a small group. They stopped the tour for lunch and when they came back there were women running the equipment instead of the men they were introduced to earlier. He asked where all the men went and it was explained to him that the men would get drunk on their lunch break, so their wives would finish their shift. From his explanation it was so common in most industries that they usually had to do their demonstrations in the mornings before the workers were drunk. Of course we thought it was badass being high school kids, but now it just sounds like a miserable existence.
@chrissheppard5068 Жыл бұрын
On a visit to Russia I was impressed with how well they looked after their cemeteries. I made the observation that you had to die to get looked after properly! On looking at the headstones I was amazed at the young ages of death. Mainly due to doing stupid shit when drunk. Drowning seemed to be very prevalent. Note to self. Do not jump in the river when pissed.
@zeppelin0110 Жыл бұрын
Awesome channel. I was born just a couple years before the Soviet Union fell apart, so everything I know about those times is what my family has told me. This channel is allowing me to fill in the gaps.
@markadams8041 Жыл бұрын
One of the hardest working human beings that I have ever come across was a good ol'boy from Kentucky who drank a half gallon of cheap whiskey every day of his life. Seriously we moved trailers, I watched him use a chainsaw on a roofing system on a double wide. Functional alcoholism is out there. He long before lost his driver's license, but as far as working, I do not think many people could surpass him.
@BlazingShackles Жыл бұрын
many of them are chronic over achievers. compensating for their substance addiction.
@Bialy_1 Жыл бұрын
" ol'boy from Kentucky who drank a half gallon of cheap whiskey every day of his life. " from medical point of view your story ounds very unbelivable, including the part that he was able to work so well... There are different stages of alcoholism, if he would drink so much he would be dead before geting to the old age, more likely he started slow and you met him at the end of the road. Also the west is so rich becaise people trying to work smart not hard... and it is not posible when you are constantly drunk. And yes i saw my share of heavy drinkers in my life... girl from my highschool married an alcoholic, he died in hospital at age of 42... because he was not drinking for a week -> it was too much for his brain -> he ended in mental hospital and few days later he died->and your story sugest that you can function whole life normaly when drinking half gallon of whiskey every day of your life... I got a heavy drinker in my family that in communist times managed to change job 13 times in single year -> and geting kicked out of a job in a communist country was not an easy task. Never saw or heard about an alcoholic that got happy life... its always a constant strugle betwen staying sober and not getting into trouble when you failed to stay sober -> in the end there is zero joy from your life...
@matthewsatalic2751 Жыл бұрын
Addicts that can handle it are the hardest workers you will ever see because they are smart enough to know if they fuck up there on the street
@Tonyx.yt. Жыл бұрын
@@Bialy_1 half gallon of moonshine sounds like too much, but my father talked about a local heavy machinery operator that was very skilled and worked even better in the most difficult situations if he had a bottle of wine or two, still a lot of alcohol but much more reasonable. btw this man retired peacefully and never accidents at work.
@patszer8314 Жыл бұрын
@Bialy_1 Right on, brother!
@joeywall4657 Жыл бұрын
I love your compositions. You have a great narrative style and it's very personable. Rather than listening to an academic video about Soviet sociology, I get to hear actual stories about your life. It's more relatable this way. You paint a real human picture of your society.
@ralfbaechle Жыл бұрын
Back in the 80s I read an article in a (West-)German magazine about Soviet stores running out of sugar because it was all being used for moonshining. Moonshiners had switched to candy which was still available but was also getting short due to the moonshining demand. Back then I was wondering if some bored editor had invented that story - as unlikely as it may be. No longer.
@annoyingbstard940710 ай бұрын
No. It’s unthinkable that the media would just make up stories about Russia. Never happened.
@andrzejadamowicz3753 Жыл бұрын
We had such facilities in Poland. They were called "Izba Wytrzeźwień".
@stukafaust Жыл бұрын
The infamous Polish drunk tanks still exist
@caseycu Жыл бұрын
I’d suppose people drank so much because even if they have a job and being poor was comfortable, people had little opportunity to make substantial improvements to their lives. What was there to really strive for? Additionally, there was little to distract people from thinking about this reality. In the US, we have a huge entertainment industry and consumer culture distracts people. If you can afford to go to dinner and a movie and buy a cheap new gizmo it serves as a decent distraction from economical inequality.
@thelegion_within Жыл бұрын
imagine being forced to pay to sober up when all of your money goes to vodka. they must have really hated that.
@TTFerdinand Жыл бұрын
As a kid in then a part of USSR I used to spend my summers at my granny's in the countryside. I used to take my bicycle to the local shop to help her out with groceries. One day I noticed a tractor idling in front of the shop, with the driver nowhere to be seen. And the next day. And the day after that. It later turned out that the driver had been in in such a hurry to get his afternoon vodka, he had left his tractor running, thinking he'd be back soon enough, but ended up getting into a drinking spree with his buddies forgetting all about his tractor with its engine running for three whole days. There were also serious incidents, the one I witnessed was that a tractor had veered off a perfectly straight road into a ditch, rolled over and caught fire with a massive trailer of hay rolls in tow. Me and my dad rushed over there just like everyone else. It's still the biggest vehicle fire I've ever witnessed with all the hay rolls in flames. As a kid I was told back then that the driver got out safely, but many years later I heard that he actually got trapped inside and never made it out, and that vodka had been the main reason of the accident.
@upstating Жыл бұрын
I'm a father who drinks occasionally (maybe once or twice a week, depending on social circumstance) who's siblings are full-fledged alcoholics, I feel the need to tell you: Your father very likely hated himself every time he got drunk because he loved you and knew how much it hurt you, but at the same time, he felt powerless to avoid drinking. I don't know what it is exactly, but I've acutely witnessed love ones who don't want to drink their families miserable but struggle knowing they've already hurt their families and children so much to the point the only respite from the deep seated guilt, and ability to even function without bursting into tears every moment of their lives, is four fingers into a bottle. It's not an excuse, I'm just letting you know (from what I've seen) they aren't so much choosing booze over their family, often they are choosing to nudge themselves and everyone just one more day forward without tears, knowing consciously the risk but hoping dearly they have the strength to hold themselves just below that threshold until tomorrow when they may have the strength they don't have today.
@Kajpaje Жыл бұрын
Thoughtful post. The pain and the tears are indeed so bitter that the instant relief by alcohol provides a way out. Ratpark shows the damage of isolation.
@richardgrimbleby7853 Жыл бұрын
Wise and comforting words
@knmo2642 Жыл бұрын
You just said something I have never been able to put in words by it's true. Thanks for this
@HANKTHEDANKEST Жыл бұрын
Wonderful post, thank you for the insight. Alcoholism seems very much to be like the Dutch boy with his finger in the dike: it kinda "works" but it's not remotely sustainable, and indeed isn't a solution to the problem--it just kicks the can down the road. Sorry about your family bro, my grandpa drank himself to death and I can promise you his reasons were exactly this. You drink to flee your problems, which are many, but drinking brings SO MANY more problems. He was haunted by the way he treated his wife and daughters--never abusive physically, just a dick, never present--typical "bad" 50s dad. Really though, he was suffering, too. He died young, in pain and full of regret. Seeing him go out like that definitely shaped how I feel about booze--when you're 10 and you see your fat, jolly granddad reduced to a skeleton in a couple years as his body totally fails? That stuck with me.
@Kajpaje Жыл бұрын
@@HANKTHEDANKEST Haunted is a good word to use. Like hating yourself or reliving a misfortune or humiliation with constant ruminations. I'm convinced because my grandfather was an alcoholic, as was my father a violent alcoholic, that the poison is not merely in the bottle. All the inconsistent emotion is something the drinker gives his/her children. When I realised these patterns, also on my mother's side, I could see all the failed relationships, and the most painful was my own, and separation from my daughter. After a crisis, and almost 1.5 years of trying to pull up the runaway horse, I finally confronted that abuse. 5 years sober, and although I had made a mess, things are so much clearer and better. Really have a second chance. Something those guys in our past never had the science to deal with. Australian health guidelines now state that 4 standard drinks in one setting is binge drinking. 14 per week is the maximum, recommending days free from drinking. I'm glad there's no calculation involved, which works for me. For anyone hoping to moderate their intake I hope that helps.
@RobKandell Жыл бұрын
It sounds like Russians drink to a level that makes the Irish say, “Goddamn. Are you trying to kill yourself?”
@carkawalakhatulistiwa Жыл бұрын
Is cold in siberia
@HeathenDance Жыл бұрын
Another problem is HOW they get drunk. VODKA is nasty shit. If you're going to drink, drink good whisky, good beer, or good wine. But Vodka, like another alcoholic beverages (absynth, brandy, vermute) is always shit. Regardless how top quality it may be.
@joebrennan.4389 Жыл бұрын
You know nothing about the Irish, you arsehole...
@covenawhite4855 Жыл бұрын
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Freezing to death due to alcohol making you feel warm is dangerous. Alcohol thins your blood and numbs your sense of pai. which gives you the illusion of being hot. So, you don't seek shelter from the cold. So, sleep while drunk and snowing is a major cause of death for homeless people.
@mrmc2465 Жыл бұрын
Everything is more extreme in Russia, and alcohol is definitely not an exception
@randomwhitedude4331 Жыл бұрын
I think the drinking was mainly the government being able to control a majority of its citizen's while making a profit at the same time. Almost pushing alcoholism with the amount produced, it seemed almost impossible not to drink in the ussr; great video!
@PAI93 Жыл бұрын
Part of the reason i think is BECAUSE they didn't need to worry about those basic necessities. I think it's important to have enough and the right type of responsibility in life.
@hufficag Жыл бұрын
I was just thinking about that. Pushing yourself to be the number student in high school so you go to the best university for whatever program they give you (chemical engineering) even turning down a scholarship from the second best university (aerospace). And then graduating during the Great Financial Crisis, no jobs, nobody is hiring. And now 37 years old, houses are so expensive, you can't afford to buy a house and have no place to live, and still haven't started doing professional work. That just sucks. Zero human value. You push yourself so hard and then nobody is hiring. If only you could live in a cheap communist country where housing and employment is guaranteed. Put up some nice wallpaper, put flower planters on the windowsill, get out the record player, play some cheerful music, get to know some local people over glasses with tea. Yeah, to just recover your mental, physical and spiritual health that you sacrificed in the rat race to be the number one student. Because that race was all for nothing. You pushed yourself so hard, all for nothing, you get no jobs in the end, you can't afford the rent in Vancouver or Toronto.
@PAI93 Жыл бұрын
@@hufficag yeah it sucks when your future is limited by things beyond your control :/
@dzonikg Жыл бұрын
@@hufficag I heard Vancouver rents are crazy..one thing socialist did good at least in Yugoslavia..was housing..was not prettiest from outside but you still got descent apartment FOR free..so you had some peace off mind for basic stuff..even if you did not work you were not in danger to live on streets..no one lived on street ..for everything more then basic you had to work.
@SuperFunkmachine Жыл бұрын
@@hufficag We all know some one that just drank more an more in the covid lock downs and its the same reason, no hope for tomorrow.
@xpatsteve Жыл бұрын
Happy New Year Sergei! I hope you and you family are doing well. My wife and I visited Ukraine in 2002 and loved everything about it! Ever since, Nemiroff has been our favorite brand of Vodka. In moderation, of course.
@worldtraveler930 Жыл бұрын
Now that's really Cool as I also have had myself the opportunity to visit the Ukraine, Kiev to be exact in 2002 and my favorite drink when I was over there is Nemiroff is well !!! 🤠👍
@1991jiub Жыл бұрын
This video reminds me of when I worked on a hospital floor from early 2021 to mid 2022. A third of the patients were there for alcohol related issues mostly cirrhosis and pancreatitis. The protocol for these patients was to remove the hand sanitizer from the wall before they even set foot in the room because they would instantly start drinking it the second we left the room after admitting them.
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
Your comment reminds me how our homeless alcoholics smelled: old piss with the aftershave. They drank that stuff
@erniebuchinski3614 Жыл бұрын
Privit, Sergei & thank you for the great video - outstanding commentary, pics & footage! I gave it all up 16 years ago myself after a “long & successful” 35-year relationship (kind of a dysfunctional relationship, ha, ha) with alcohol. Many a bottle of Stolichnaya passed my lips. Fortunately I never reached the “heights” of these characters in the video, however. Thanks again. Buvai!
@wesseallik9991 Жыл бұрын
Also from former Soviet Union. Answer for your question have many sides : you were more or less an slave and there were impossible to follow your dreams (like there were very hard to choose your career, even place where you lived etc). Smaller places were nothing else to do ... work, maybe cinema and that's it. Overall culture - drinking was good hobby for men. Also there were maybe some genetical propensity for alcoholism. Know few guys, who went full alcoholics less then a year. Overall stagnantion, just nothing happened with in people's lives usually.
@grundgesetzart.1463 Жыл бұрын
a slave. You are a slave now as well. And they can kick you out of your job and apartment as they wish, unless its your property. In Western Europe, most people dont own the place they live in. In Bulgaria for example, 80% of the people do. It depends on what your "dreams" were. If they were to do what you want, change your gender, rob people, get paid for babbling instead of real work (as it is with "youtubers" and all kinds of "influencers" and other useless people)...yes these dreams were not permissible. If you speak about travelling, yes, this was a huge downturn. But nowadays....I work two jobs and still cannot travel much. Living in Austria has become unbearably expensive. Choosing the place where you live - you could move. It is correct that some people were sent to specific places for a number of years, not forever. For example dentists or some other doctors could be sent to a small town for a 3year term, so the medical care of the locals would be ensured.
@ultimatecorgi3392 Жыл бұрын
Honestly I think the Stolichnaya redesign is a bad idea. It's just vodka, but it's still destroying history over politics. I hope in 50 years people will look at it and laugh, like "Freedom Fries" or "Police Dogs" (assuming people are still around in 50 years.)
@karlshorstzwei Жыл бұрын
It's because a lot of stores, especially state-affiliated ones in the US, have stated they won't retail Russian alcohol for the duration of the war. It's hard dollars and cents to not want to spook retailers.
@vihavoittamaton849 Жыл бұрын
@@karlshorstzwei It's not even Russian lmao. Times we live through, people going mad over names
@karlshorstzwei Жыл бұрын
@@vihavoittamaton849 I mean it's stupid, I'm just explaining it. Like I think the only major Soviet-associated alcohol in the West actually made in Huilostan is Soviet champagne.
@SnakeHelah9 ай бұрын
To be fair, I would be drinking myself numb too if I had to live in a communist regime. Can't imagine the stress of not knowing what batshit crazy policy is gonna happen the next day.
@TwoTreesStudio9 ай бұрын
sounds like living in a red state in the US lmao
@postmortemarg9 ай бұрын
Yet too many useful idiots still long for socialism/communism.
@simonescelsa9 ай бұрын
@@TwoTreesStudioprojecting much?
@crackerjack47909 ай бұрын
I read "Vodka Politics: Alcohol, Autocracy, and the Secret History of the Russian State"by Mark Lawrence Schrad by a few years back. It broke my heart for for the Russian people. Alcohol is a world plague. AA saved my life at 28, am now 77. My last drink remains my last drink. I pray for you.
@somethingelse4424 Жыл бұрын
A bottle every two days? Sounds about right. I mean it's not good, but that is probably reflective of the reality of being a functional alcoholic. Speaking from experience, drinking much more than that daily over very long of a period really runs you down and you cease to function. Like hitting rock bottom and backing off 5% so you don't die, instead of doing the rational thing and quitting entirely.
@Z8Q8 Жыл бұрын
Great episode! My mother was an alcoholic and ruined my life from age 12 on. The only good thing about it was that it made me HATE any wine, hard liquor and even beer; so it's like i was vaccinated against it! (which saved me from wasting thousands of dollars in my life, which i used for important things instead.) i'd say in RU vodka was used so you could forget the winter cold, the life you led if poor and of course, male peer-pressure. And the only good thing i read about Pootin is that he wants RU to quit drinking (tho' i want them to wait until they lose-the-War, ha-ha!)
@gryaznygreeb9 ай бұрын
Putin's efforts to make Russians quit drinking amounted to nothing more than "Лев Против", a state sponsored youtube channel/citizens initiative where they smack people's drinks out of their hands in public places, or take alcohol away from young people in public parks, and then try to start fights over it. They use the ensuing drama for views and ad revenue. They even had Nurmagemedov on the channel. If you don't know, he is arguably the world's greatest MMA Fighter. It almost seems like a good thing except it's executed in the most asinine way possible. And it's not even a government program, just like government approved/sponsored. Policing actions are often performed by citizen groups, they enforce rules or collect evidence to bring to court because the police won't. I saw a documentary where citizens went into a pharmacy with hidden cameras to prove they were selling drug precursors because the local police weren't doing anything about it, for example.
@rang930 Жыл бұрын
really enjoy your videos, it is amazing to hear first hand experience on how soviet culture, and era was.
@sbblans1 Жыл бұрын
In anyplace in the world where people feel limited to their free will, they'd easily take to drugs and alcohol as an escape.
@zargonfuture40469 ай бұрын
Then America must be one big gulag...?
@johntitor7989 Жыл бұрын
These videos are invaluable! As a young person that lives in a post cold war world it's very difficult understand what life was like in a society that no longer exists. Your perspectives on ethic identify are incredibly insightful!
@deanronson6331 Жыл бұрын
What is ethic identify?
@DogmaticAtheist Жыл бұрын
I would suggest watching the KZfaq vid titled "How Vodka ruined russia" by Kraut
@landlord5552 Жыл бұрын
does exist until now, live and ,,fine,,
@grundgesetzart.1463 Жыл бұрын
his perspectives are his and his only. It does not mean that it was like that. In East Germany and Bulgaria, where my family comes from (both countries) we had a totally different experience. The Russians and Kazakhs we know also had a different experience. Yes, for example in Bulgaria there were people who were not allow to study because their grandfather's brother fled to England or BS like that. Or people who were in actual camps due to their beliefs. It was disgusting and it is a fact. But it was one aspect, of many others.....And I bet this man was not persecuted. I rather suspect that his family profited off the system before 1990, later they switched sites and miraculously became "dissidents"....good joke. They always scream the loudest how bad everything was, although they had more than others.....opinion in his videos is subjective, but he does not say that. He acts as if he knows everything and anything and was everywhere at the same time....lol. He lives in the US, he lives off youtube (so he does not really work).....and he has to say what Americans want to hear. In the end he himself is someone who lived at the expense of the Soviet State and now smears it. Wonder what he will do when Murrica erodes one day. Maybe do videos smearing America for a Chinese audience. Pecunia non olet, money has no smell. Always doing what the highest bidders want to hear. The oldest profession in the world has a similar motto and a similar procedure. Service for cash. The service here is to badmouth the Soviet Union. Maybe he is bitter because his family did not manage to steal enough during the 1990s.
@deanronson6331 Жыл бұрын
@@grundgesetzart.1463 You can take some Soviet turds out of the behind-the-iron curtain countries, but you can't take sovietism out of them. Sad.
@eduardosuarezalvarado1467 Жыл бұрын
When they say everything was free it meant everything was accessible & affordable
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
1 : not costing or charging anything a free school a free ticket Well, they need to go back to school.
@FlintIronstag23 Жыл бұрын
I think Soviet people drank so much in the late Brezhnev era because it was the Era of Stagnation and Developed Socialism. The cheap housing, cheap public transportation, and 100% employment left people with too much extra money and not a lot to do with it. If the Soviet Union had put a bigger emphasis on producing consumer goods, at least some of that vodka money could have been spent on other things. Better entertainment options could have also siphoned off some of that extra money. Video game arcades, rated R movies, and magazines like Playboy could have enticed some men to spend a part of their disposable income on something other than liquor. True alcoholics will drink regardless, but it could have prevented at least some of the drinking due to boredom.
@hufficag Жыл бұрын
I totally agree, consumer goods were an antidote, not more ICBMs. Just imagine, you're in the West and you're tired of being bodrerline homeless, unable to afford housing, pounding the pavement looking for a job. If only you could live in a cheap socialist country with guaranteed housing and employment. Finally get a daily routine going, where you shower, shave, go to work, it's something you've dreamt of. Finally being able to come home at dusk and not stress yourself to death with homework and assignments. Just enjoy a civilian life, cook dinner, take a walk. Put up some wallpaper, get out the record player, open the windows, play some music, talk to your neighbours, invite them over for biscuits and tea. The trauma of sleeping on the streets, not getting enough to eat, of war, of constant ruin, is over, the good civilian life begins now.
@mattanderson6336 Жыл бұрын
Everyone had the right to be equally drunk.
@plhebel1 Жыл бұрын
Thank you Sergei for your video. I find stories or how common people lived in what was once the Soviet Union. You asked the reason why people back then drank so much from the minds of Americans and I will give you my opinion. First off I feel that the society when you grew up were proud people. They saw so much tragedy in the war, so much death, and the ones that made it thru were the winners or at least I feel that is how they might have felt. I think I read or am aware that the leaders, the important people made lots of speeches always telling the populist how great the communist party is, How great the housing was, how other countries (like the US) was always trying to keep the country from advancing or threating the peace of the people (Maybe yes, maybe no?). I feel many things the speeches was telling everyone wasn't true (sometimes or many times). Now if you make a society frightened, and lie to a society ( or realize it's lies after time) the trust is dissolved and maybe boredom, the want to have things but seeing no way to get those things, seeing pictures or movies from other places (unauthorized type) the people long to travel and see those things,,,, Freedom to make peoples own choices? Self worth I feel is very important,, Working hard to make something for ones self is much more gratifying than being given something, feeling like people count,, Maybe that's why in WW2 the people all worked towards a common goal,, to win to feel worth, pride. Now Growing up poor is fine if you no nothing else,, Same with me, I didn't grow up in USSR so I can only really comment on things how I see it and I'm not collage educated so I maybe very wrong about everything. I will say when I saw unfair or bad things happening to the people or when Russia tries to make things work out well,, and it goes bad I feel bad, like I would for anyone trying and it fails, speaking mostly from the 1980's onwards,, Don't know much about things before then. Everyone needs a uplifting history, Pride, Strength in what they are and where they come from. If that image is looked thru a mirror that unclear it's hard to have that feeling? Booze can make things look in focus for a while anyway, or takes worry away, or getting drunk the people could get angry and tell it how things are, not the way they say it is,,? Thank you, I'll keep watching your channel.
@bannisher10 ай бұрын
American here. I have an alcoholic father as well, decades of family drama as a result. Alcohol is a terrible drug.
@bigloo609 Жыл бұрын
Sergei, have you done a video on insurance? I'm curious if car insurance was something you need to have when you owned a car. And, also, if people bought life insurance (if it even existed). Another topic is telephones. Did many people have them in their homes? Love your videos and Happy New Year!
@TheLakabanzaichrg Жыл бұрын
I think he already did one on telephones
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
Telephones: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iK2TZrt5z7DRqH0.html Car insurance was available but not required. The same with home insurance. I will add this topic to my list, thank you!
@gabrielferrer2400 Жыл бұрын
@@UshankaShow AllState must be the name of the USSR State Insurance lol
@vargr198 Жыл бұрын
Oh, this brings back memories. One of the forms was "child insurance". It was almost like college money, every payment not spent on premiums got returned to parents interest free after the child turned 18.
@johngorentz6409 Жыл бұрын
@@UshankaShow Don't forget to mention the Eldar Ryazanov movie, "Beware the Car." It was my introduction to the idea that the Soviet Union even had insurance.
@Obzcuraa Жыл бұрын
I always thought that it was just my house where Mom and Dad were playing "hide and seek" with vodka to dilute it. I really enjoyed the video and the comments--everyone is coming together and sharing their trauma.
@davidmajer3652 Жыл бұрын
Easier to control drunks, they do not do a lot of thinking.
@mollymollie6048 Жыл бұрын
I’m sorry that your father wasn’t there for you most of the time because of all of the depression and alcohol use. That’s really challenging and difficult. I’m glad you had some good times in the countryside in the summer…seems to me from watching your channel over the years that your summers at your grandmother’s cottage were your best times. It’s amazing how bad the alcohol problem was! Not surprising that Gorbachev tried to control it…it must have been a national crisis at this level. I wonder with everything going on now (and hearing how much alcohol is with the ‘mobilization’) how bad the alcohol problems are in Russia now compared to Soviet/Breshznev times?
@joeysworldsewer Жыл бұрын
Gorbachev tried to save the USSR but the people rejected him. History is kind to him, every moment passed proves him right a little more. Just wish by the time he took over, it wasnt too late. Imagine a democratic USSR/Russia like Gorbachev and Yeltsin envisioned. Its a future many of us hoped for, but a future that didnt exist.
@joeysworldsewer Жыл бұрын
As for modern Russian alcoholism rates, it got worse after the fall of the USSR. Russian troops are routinely observed drinking or are caught by Ukrainian security forces nearly blackout drunk. Their life expectancy tanked to 65 for males. Its really not a good situation right now unfortunately. They're literally drinking themselves to death, and for young people they see even more despair. The Russian population has been shrinking consistently since 1991 and its safe to assume in 20 years, Russia wont be recognizable demographically.
@luked2767 Жыл бұрын
My father was a drinker but not a daily one and he only drank standard strength British larger about 4 percent. But I actually have some very fun memories of him when I was a child he would let me stay up late and we would watch 18 rated movies and TV shows while eating fast food. He would only ever drink socialy and only kept a few bottles of wine in the house, if he drank at home it was 2 cana. He did own a hotel with bar and it was the only bar in Cardiff, Wales that was open 24/7 even on Christmas, Christmas eve. Any day or time it was open. I worked in their as a child and teenager and I would let people smoke, when the smoking ban started I thought it would be a really bad idea to get rid of the smell of smoke as the smell of stale beer and other bad stuff in bars is worse. Especially outside of the summer people would only come in when I worked. I really did not care what others did as long as they did not hurt each other so I did see alot of cray stuff but I only ever drink a measure of single malt whiskey or good quality spiced rulum, or something fancy for the taste. I lived in East Asia nearly all of my adult life but would spend some months back home and usually live with my father. He would visit me quite often and he was like the tank in Tianamon Square but he did not stop, he was an usually tall man and when he was drunk after going to a western bar all eyes on us. He was never nasty but sometimes if the police pissed him off on other nations he would threaten to break their legs or even push them out of the way or give them a slap when they try to extort him. He came really close to being shot my a policeman in Mexico while drunk after punching him for trying to shake us down. He had a gun pointed at him and he just said shoot you coward ..... Sometimes u would pick him up from the bar he would ask me for fried chicken. This was at 3am usually but quite often he would talk his mind and tell me some of the familys dirty laundry and things from his life I think he only ever told me. From a young age my father treated me like an adult, we would go on vacations twice a year or more. Even though he was divorced to my mother I would see him every day as a child. I have chronic pain and take opiate medication so too much alcohol could kill me, that and working in a bar really puts you off it. A few times after drinking vodka or cider he would be passed out on the floor but it was very rare. I only see it twice and hear about it 1 time. I feel so sad that he died suddenly for a strange poison when I was 28. I was on vacation in America and I was the last one to talk to him but at least put last conversation was good. He said I love you son see you soon I said the same back. I was the last person that he knew that he talked to as 6 hours later he was put in a comma by medical staff. On the way to jfk driving like crazy when I learned what the poison was and he would surely die I had a breakdown and all I knew is I have to go to a doctor and get some diazepam or xanax or something to calm me down as they won't let me on the flight like this. A doctor was pretty understanding seeing me sleep deprived and suffering but wow was it expensive. I hated the medical staff for keeping him alive in a vegatative state, My father asked me to promise him if he is ever a vegeatible to kill him ASAP and that his body should be buried at sea. He only told me about the sea burial and I hate my family wanted him buried and I nearly punched the fu eral director for embalming him as he thought that was the worst. He only wanted his body to rest in the place he most love and be fish food. I come from a small family at that was the first death of a family member u had to get over. I still bring beer and cigarettes to his grave. When i was a child he was the strongest man I knew even as an adult I knew that people that really pissed him of. Most would have a really hard time to take him down. Some people used to think he was a fool as he was kind and would smile often. He never once hurt me physically or even with words. Thr worst thing is the police are useless and I have no answers. If he died in a motorbike crash at least I would know he died doing what he loved and no whys. I'm sure your father maybe had some burdens you never knew about, fathers usually hide that especially from sons. Peer pressure is very powerful.
@goodgood99559 ай бұрын
Thanks for sharing.
@moehoward019 ай бұрын
I don't think anyone in the West ever thought the Soviet Union was a "workers paradise".
@ressljs9 ай бұрын
I see young people online that seem to believe that. And it would have worked if it weren't for those meddling capitalists!
@rocmsocem Жыл бұрын
Have you ever done one about hard drug use in the soviet union?
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZpuKea6SsMixiKc.html
@fetijajasari9522 Жыл бұрын
The causes for drunkenness could be trauma, sadness, depression, genetical disposition, boredom, hopelessness, I guess.
@MietoK Жыл бұрын
Also one will get addicted to alcohol quite easily. Especially when you hit vodka daily like water it will get on to you so hard. And yeah, it will cause the things you mention additionally to addiction.
@HeathenDance Жыл бұрын
I had an uncle who was an alcoholic, died before 70 because of booze. The man had everything: A nice house, plenty of money, early retiremenet with benefits, good looking guy, positive person, social dude, generous, married with a daughter. It didn't matter. He loved to drink. Lived for the booze. Ruined his marriage before ruining his health, of course. But he kept drinking to the end. When he was drunk, he seemed genuinely and immensely happy.
@jamesewanchook2276 Жыл бұрын
What an interesting well presented show you have. Cheers from Vancouver!
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
Thank you very much!
@HotelMari0Maker9 ай бұрын
17:42 “why do you think Soviet people were drinking so much?” The first answer that comes to mind is boredom. I used to have a binge drinking problem and it was in large part due to boredom. I also watched a video yesterday that said the cold dreary climate of Russia causes many people to get depressed (and bored) and drink.
@Falke615 Жыл бұрын
If all one does is work with few abilities to get away, then of course alcohol becomes an option. I had one workplace that encouraged this behavior as a way to cope with 12+ hour days, never being able to be home with the family, and few days off.
@elmonte5lim Жыл бұрын
Yeah. This brings back memories. I spent three weeks in Poland, in 1977 and every other day, I got hammered. They liked to play this game: Let's get the new guy shitfaced! When the regular wódka ran out, there was always samogon, somewhere. And hardly anyone bothered with beer - I had to acclimatise quickly. I've never drunk so much alcohol, so quickly, before or since. Left me with a lot to think about, while I was recovering.
@Barock.Johnson9 ай бұрын
My family is from Afghanistan, when the Soviets were occupying there, they would give out bags of beer or some hard liquor because my dad said people would go blind from that. But from my understanding is leaders like Stalin heavily encouraged drinking in the now post soviet states so the people grow a dependency on alcohol. I don't know about Tajikistan but in Kyrgyzstan they drink and it's basically traditional although they're supposed to be devout Muslims.
@attackfive8659 Жыл бұрын
This is really funny. Thanks much for being so honest about life in Soviet Russia.
@darrensussex1153 Жыл бұрын
Great video. Great honesty
@UshankaShow Жыл бұрын
I appreciate that!
@mr.pavone9719 Жыл бұрын
My buddies and I went to an old, abandoned Soviet military base in the countryside of former East Germany. We got into the housing units and they were: A. All exactly the same, no big surprise. B. They were littered with empty vodka bottles. Like, literally (yes literally) no less than 100 per apartment. The hallways were just as bad.
@edwinwise6751 Жыл бұрын
After the American Revolution , Washington expressed concern about the rampant alcoholism , especially among war vets. He actually thought the young republic would not survive if the trend continued
@paulbedichek51779 ай бұрын
No one ever said life was good in the Soviet Union,or in Russia. Bit I lived in the great US and I also drank a lot of Vodka,so environment is not the only variable in heavy drinking.
@GnosticAtheist Жыл бұрын
Your father was on the light end of it, no doubt. The fact that he fully provided without dipping into the main income is as good as it gets given the cultural situation, with the exceptions of those who drank little/did not drink. Hard to imagine how a worker could have a social life if they did not drink back then.