Hearted Youtube comments on USHANKA SHOW (@UshankaShow) channel.

  1. This was my first episode of the ushanka show
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  2. Czech joke from the same era: "These days, socialism is very close to the final victory over capitalism. Now, only last four enemies of the socialist system remain: Spring,Summer,Autumn and Winter"
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  3. Here's another joke from communist Romania: In Ceaushescu's time, two brothers want to emigrate to the USSR. The big brother says to the least: -I go first to see how it is and I will write to you. But as the USSR's KGB and Securitatea (Romanian's KGB) are reading the letters, anyway I will write to you that it is good. But if I write with blue ink is really good, and if I write you with red ink, it's really bad. Said and done. The big brother arrives to USSR and writes to his brother. The little brother opens the letter and see it was written in blue ink. The content was as follows: "Dear brother, We got well into the USSR. Here life is good and I miss nothing. I have a nice home, the city is clean and the stores are full of everything you want. One thing I could not find: RED INK"
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  4. A guy who cuts meat is called a butcher in America
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  5. I like your matter-of-fact approach to these cultural topics, combined with the humorous anecdotes 👍
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  6. My friend told me a Soviet joke yesterday. What's 2 kilometers long and eats nothing but potatoes? The line waiting to get meat.
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  7. I asked my Polish friend why the former Eastern Bloc countries have such a bad reputation for crime and corruption. She said that it's because communism made everyone poor and desperate, and people had to learn to cheat the system in order to survive. That legacy permanently impacted their culture and still prevails to this day to some extent.
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  8. it seemed as if you had the best of both worlds - childhood in the USSR and your adult years in the USA. Don't forget, however, that some of the differences may be due to the differences in the decades. Before there were video games, which arrived in the 1980s, kids in the US also led more active lives. I grew up in the USA, and as a child, I was often on my bicycle riding around the neighborhood, and I often played with other kids. I also did a lot of reading.
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  9. Well done Jose. They should have a memorial or monument to this event.
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  10. Hello comrade Sergei. I agree that Khrushchev's placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba might have seemed to be reckless, but there's more to the situation than just that: I've been reading "Nikita Khrushchev: And the Creation of a Superpower" by Sergei Khrushchev (Nikita's son) and more or less he puts it this way: - Nikita Khrushchev realises that they can't keep up producing so much for the military (tanks, air planes, warships, etc.) - The economy needs revitalisation, people need more food, clothes, places to live - Khrushchev bets on the idea of mutual destruction: if we can show the Americans that we can all destroy each other, they won't dare to bomb us first - He starts big development of rocket forces and expands construction bureaus of Korolev, Yangel, Chelomei and others. - Khrushchev cuts down on troops (more young people who are able to work now), scraps the building of enormous warships (he asked the Navy chief of staff while at Vladivostok: "What are you going to do if the Americans hit this base with a nuclear weapon?" - and the admirals couldn't answer anything) - He puts the money into the civilian economy, starts building panel apartment blocks (Khruschovka) Up till then everything seems OK because mutual destruction is more or less assured (with inter-continental ballistic missiles). The USSR knows that the Americans don't have too many of them (and the soviets bluff that they have more than they actually do). Many problems arise with the mass production and use of soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles: the fuel used is corrosive, it takes a lot of time to prepare them, and they're generally expensive. The moment the Americans place rockets in Turkey, the whole game changes. The Americans no longer need to compete with the USSR in the production of ICBMs and can instead concentrate on producing mid-ranged missiles instead. This tips the balance of power to the side of the USA. Khrushchev has now two choices: - Scrap his economic reforms and put the money into making more expensive ICBMs (while waiting for scientists to improve their deployment capabilities): but make people poor(er) again. - Do the same thing as the Americans: place middle-range rockets near their number 1 enemy. In the end, I'd do the same as him. One could never have expected such a hypocritical response from the US - after all, with missiles in Cuba and in Turkey the scales were back to a level position. The US generals mobilised the whole armed forces (Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army) and prepared them for an invasion. And not quietly, they made a lot of noise so that the USSR could understand it's serious. According to the author of the book, Kennedy did not have that much power to stop the generals for a long time. Initially, he was willing to let the incident go unnoticed. Interesting fact: Castro believed in the Communist cause so much, he was ready for Cuba to become a martyr in the new war! Anyways, it was a gamble that did not pay off. With hindsight it would have been easier to just concentrate on ICBMs that could be launched from the USSR (as things progressed, TOPOL missiles for example). The Americans told Khrushchev that he could not mention Turkey in this report - and this made him look stupid and clumsy in front of the politburo. The hyenas there snatched the moment and took power.
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  11. Hear the one about the man who said " the Central Committee is incompetent and the Party members are all corrupt thieves"? No, well you wouldn't, because he was arrested by the KGB for giving away State secrets.
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  12. By far, one of the most underrated channels in YouTube! Comrade Sergei's channel should be a must watch for those interested in contemporary Soviet history & history of Socialist societies. I'd go so far as to suggest that this should be part of school curriculum or projects.
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  13. I did some research on gasoline in 1977. The median household income in the USA that year was $13,572 or $1,131 a month. The average cost of gasoline was $0.62 a gallon or $0.164 a liter. Therefore, the average Amercian household could purchase 6,896 liters of gas a month. This compares to 2,142 liters an average Soviet worker could purchase with a 150 ruble salary. If both members of a Soviet household made 150 rubles, then they could afford 4,284 liters.
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  14. Back in the late 70s and 80s, my friend's grandmother would go to thrift stores here in the US and find jeans which she would mail to relatives in Poland and they would sell them on the black market to supplement their income.
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  15. The story of Chernobyl and Pripyat fascinates me. Your impressions of life in Soviet Union in the '80's is so important to these stories. Thanks for your videos about this.
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  16. Your memory is like mine. I can remember details from my childhood, teens and young adulthood. Now I forget when I tell my husband something so I tell him again. He tells me "you just told me that 30 minutes ago". I'm 3 years older than you so I think it's our "advanced" ages.😁
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  17. That's crazy about the May 1st radiation levels! As an ex-nuclear worker, I can confirm the 5 rem per year limit. A big difference between a 5 rem per year dose that is spread out evenly over a year and a one day 24 rem dose is that your tissue does not have time to recover and attempt to and have time to heal itself from the ionizing radiation. So, 24 rem in one year, is far less dangerous than 24 rem in one day. However, you probably did not receive 24 rem, as many factors depend on that including the physical mass present in a city that could block much of the fallout. However, you are 48, and any bad long term effects from such a high acute dose might start to show up in your age range. If I were you I would consult with experts and start checking on yourself. The TYPE of radiation matters too. Alpha particle radiation is very heavily damaging, but has little penetration power unless ingested or inhaled. Gamma radiation has deep penetration power and can cause marrow cancers. Good luck my friend!
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  18. I think all of your videos are high quality, and to be able to upload so many is a great skill and gift, thanks for providing a window into your life Comrade John Wayne Cheeseburger!
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  19. For 14 years of my soviet childhood I’ve got bananas only one time in the end of 80ths. It was sold 2 kg for 1 person and cost 2rub per kilo. We went to buy it with my brother and had been able to buy 4 kg. Bananas were green and were getting ripe for 2 weeks on our wardrobe. Small provincial town in Pskov region.
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  20. A friend of mine had to drive his sisters Lada from Nova Scotia, Canada to Florida, during the height of the cold war. It was so bad..... gas stations wouldn't sell him gasoline. He had to remove the name from the car, and the decals in the back window that said "Made in USSR". It didn't help that it was red. Then he could buy gasoline. They would ask, "What make of car is this?" He would say, " It's a 1968 Fiat. They would say, "It's in great shape".
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  21. I only really know of Soviet cooking from Life of Boris. So Youtube recommending this video to me was nice.
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  22. Over here in Australia we had "party line" phone systems in the 50s and I think you would get a weak ring if it wasn't for you and a strong one if it was. But the other 5 or so families sharing the line could listen in and even talk.
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  23. I just found this Chanel and I love it! Thank you for making great content and thanks to YouTube for introducing us
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  24. I don't remember where I read this joke but it's set in USSR. A militiaman sees an Arab gentleman reading in the park and asks: "What are you reading?" The man answers: "The holy Quran so I can speak Arabic with my lord when I die and go to heaven." The militiaman is not happy and quips: "No way. You're going to hell." To which the Arab man answers: "Well that's okay, I already know Russian."
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  25. Best channel in ourtube
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  26. "Doppelganger" is right 👍 Your artwork is so much better than mine was (and better than mine ever will be! 😅). Thanks for another very interesting video, Sergei! 👍👍👍
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  27. fantastic insight into the old soviet union. great video
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  28. I worked as a paramedic in Russia on Sakhalin Island and also in Tajikistan, for various foreign companies. On Sakhalin my ambulance was a "Bukhanka". It was a beast. Uncomfortable as heck for any patient, and not much more than an empty box with a stretcher, but it could go just about anywhere. Only problem was we had to run it all winter long because if you turned it off, it was so cold it would freeze and it took a blast heater to thaw out the engine to start it. In Tajikistan I had a nice modern GAZ-el ambulance. Had everything my American trucks had, plus a small sink with running water for washing! We had an ex-Red Army medic, Ibrahim, as driver, as he knew some basic first aid, myself and a Tajik doctor trained in the USSR. Lots of crazy stories from then. Good times.
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  29. Thanks for the video. It seems that it is really hard to find english content about life in the USSR without seeing a lot of obnoxious americans bleating "Death to Socialism", while I only want to know about the experiences these people had in such a obscure regime (most things we know here in the west are pure propaganda and exaggeration, even though all of the USSR problems existed). Even in Portuguese there is more accessible content about USSR life, like from the Channel "Onde está o Wally?", where a brazilian living in Russia asks to his parents in law about it. What about this kind of content in English? Just this channel and a bunch of Soviet propaganda videos. Cheers from Brazil.
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  30. I don't think anyone would accuse you of being an American. As always great video.
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  31. I am from Uzbekistan, we left when was 7 in 1995, and my parents told me about how as Univ students in the late 70's early 80's went to the cotton fields to collect the cotton.
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  32. I found the book fascinating when I read it (in English translation) some 35 or so years ago. In fact, I was also intrigued by the film that was made based on parts of the novel to the extent that I tracked down the film's director and flew to Kiev to meet and interview him. The book is a truly "sweeping vision" of a very different kind of society. It had the feeling of a very nice, calm dream....and then you have to still wake up! Thanks for the comments and the images.. I am researching all of this for a book and documentary and all of this helps fill in the big story.
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  33. Grew up in Romania in the late 1980s, and the shortages were quite severe, but I remember the way they stacked the handful of items they still had in store in those pyramids. I guess Communism looked pretty much the same overall in Eastern Europe :)
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  34. What's 200 meters long and eats cabbage? The line for a butcher's shop in the USSR.
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  35. Well done. Being an adult and starting new life in another country with different culture and language is a big leap. I know that since I’ve been through that. You didn’t have a safety net to fall back if things didn’t work out. No family connections to help finding a good jobs and so on. Most people don’t understand how much determinations and hard work it takes to make it work in foreign country.
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  36. That bottle is just fine. Vodka doesn't spoil. I don't know if you have children, but one of their weddings, or maybe your own 25 year anniversary, come to mind as a nice occasion to open it.
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  37. You pretend to work and the government pretends to pay you.
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  38. I remember my first shave when I was 14. My Dad told me that my face was getting a bit unkempt and that I should shave. So we went to the bathroom and he should me how to wash with cold water, use shaving cream, and then had me use a vintage Gillette razor from 1965. It was honestly one of the most heartwarming experiences I have had with him as we don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye.
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  39. Sergey, my first job in Kiev was at the small plant where details of textile machines were renewed by plasma-spraying. And though I was a typist, I was still entitled to get this free milk and we got these triangle packets that you have shown!
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  40. GASTRONOM is not French, its Greek... Γαστρονομία... the rule, or art, of the stomach..
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  41. That was seriously interesting. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.
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  42. 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.
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  43. Telephones in the US in the 1970's operated similar to what you described. I remember my grandmother having a community telephone line where sometimes I would pick up the phone and I would hear someone else talking. Then you would have to wait for them to get off the line to make your call. The only difference was that almost everyone had a phone in their home.
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  44. This channel is golden, thank you so much for the history lesson Sergei and keep the “long and boring” videos coming!
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  45. One of my favorite western ukraine jokes was that one of them runs up to his grandpa after yuri gagarin went to space. "Grandpa, dod you hear? The russians are going to outer space!" And the old guy says "all of them? 😄"
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  46. Next time my wife gets pissed at me for something I'm gonna tell her that my action was Polish tradition and that I was forced.
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  47. Semolina is sold also as a brand called "Cream of Wheat". Many people I know we all grew up eating this and loved it. Now it is considered "Baby food" (yes babies love it too!) but it is a hearty breakfast, and even a good snack. Some like it lumpy, others like it smooth.
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  48. Haha excellent joke. KGB is everywhere! Just like you were saying about the USSR TV channels. You are switching through the channels trying to find something besides news and KGB officer is on the last channel looking right at you with a stern look.
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  49. "We can wipe our butts with newspaper as long as our newspapers say we are the best" - Brilliant
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  50. This was very interesting. My family are jews that immigrated from Kiev, but I never heard what life was like there. Thanks for the honest video and please keep making videos!
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