Cold War Comparison: United States vs Soviet Union/Russia (1950-2020)

This video will compare two countries from the Cold War: The United States and Soviet Union/Russia from 1950-2020. The subjects included in the comparison will be GDP, GDP per capita, military spending, and number of nuclear weapons. Hope everyone enjoys, and be sure to like and comment!

Datasources: IMF, World Bank, UNdata, Wikipedia, SIPRI

[RankingCharts]

Hope everyone enjoys, and be sure to like and comment!
Correction: the US had 7, 340 nuclear warheads in 1958, not 73, 400!

[yoinks]

It’s impressive how powerful the soviets were and how fast they rebuilt their country after ww2 considering most of its industry was destroyed during the war

[alexhussinger]

Its kind of Crazy to think that the Soviets were spending 25% of their GDP on Military Spending in the 1980s. Even with their involvement in Afghanistan, that's kind of absurd.

[ungusbungus]

“I bet I can disarm faster than you!”
“You’re on!”

[besacciaesteban]

Maybe is not a good idea to double the military spending of a rival that has a tenfold economic advantage over you.

[josephsmith]

We all talk about US military spending and how it's way too big (I generally agree) but it's crazy that the Soviet States for many years was over 20% of it's economy.

[mitsumikyoya]

Ah, one thing I like about Eisenhower : *balanced military budget*

[seashellbeesaveres]

It terrifies me that a single nation could possess tens of thousands of nuclear warheads.

[unconscious]

It's impressive how Japanese economy was bigger than USSR and was almost 3/5 th of USA economy during it's peak in late 80s to early 90s despite Japan being smaller than some of their states lol

[allykid]

25% of gdp for military spending in SU for about 30 years? What economy can handle this? Damn, politicians, kgb and military generals should be super rich in SU.

[bobbyswanson]

It’s incredibly scary how many nukes existed during the cold war. I had no idea the number was even higher than 10, 000 until recently but to think of both the us and russia having 30, 000 each is dreadful and disturbing.

[BobBob-cycu]

A graph showing population of the two countries as well would’ve been really helpful, either way, nice video

[medievalist]

I think if the USSR didn't spend its money in the arms race it could have maintain stability and probably still exist in a lesser degree

[Jake-rsnq]

The Soviets kept up their wartime spending for 50 years. It's amazing they lasted as long as they did.

[seashellbeesaveres]

Boris Yeltsin goes to power, Russia proceeds to decline real fast.

[yunwenzhu]

The arms race is completely wrong way for Soviet Union, and it costs Soviet Union almost everything they earned from WW2 and Russia lost half of population after the Soviet Union era.

[thatguy-xtdz]

Makes me laugh when I see an American say our military is falling apart

[nonsensevideos]

Brezhnev years are considered "age of stagnation" but here we have another perspective (for example gdp per capital 1964: 1100 vs 1978: 3500). I think that really the "end" begins with the crazy military spending and the invasion to Afghanistan (late 70s-early 80s).

[templar]

If anyone says that 2000-2021 are scary times, introduce them to the Cold War where 2 Superpowers was about to wipe out each other and Europe

[trihard]

Never realized how much the USSR spent on the military as a % of their GDP