Soviet Style Economics Was Insane and Here’s Why

The Soviet Union's Economy was once the envy of the world, But as rapidly as it arose the Soviet Union collapsed as a result of its crumbling Economy. but why?

While the rest of the world struggled during the great depression, The Soviet Union was quickly and rapidly industrializing under Stalin's command, but locked within the foundations of the country lie an unavoidable time bomb. In this video we travel all the way back to the 14th century to understand the fundamental forces and conditions that caused Communism to arise in Russia in the first place. Then we follow the economic story and evolution from the Russian empire to the fall of the Soviet Union.

--Contents of this video--------------------------------
00:00 - 1920's Global Economic Boom
00:50 - Great Depression
01:19 - The Soviet Economy Stands Alone
02:45 - The Roots of Economic Divergence
04:09 - The Black Death
06:40 - East Vs West European Economic History
07:55 - Industrial Revolution in the West
08:47 - The Russian Empire's Economy
11:55 - The Soviet Economy's Beginnings
13:42 - Soviet Industrialization - Stalin's 5 year plans
16:22 - Problems with Soviet Economy
21:00 - Cause of Soviet Union's Collapse
25:11 - Thanks for Watching!

--A Thank you to Viewers!--------------------------------
I really appreciate all those who watch my content, Thank you for being as interested in these topics as I am!

As this is the channels first video, Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated :)

please Like and Subscribe to follow up for more Economics, History, and Geopolitical videos coming soon!

--Sources-----------------------------------------------------
(Books)

-The Rise and Fall of the The Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945

-Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

(Scholarly Articles)

-Economics in the Former Soviet Union -The Journal of Economic Perspectives
Vol. 6, No. 2

-Soviet Economic Growth: 1928-1985 - Journal of Economic Literature
Vol. 25, No. 4

-The Soviet Economy, 1917–1991: Its Life and Afterlife - Vol. 22, No. 2

#EconomyExplained #Economics #SovietEconomy

[dynoosaur]

I thought you would have like 2 million subscribers until I looked at the number and realised you only had around 120. I hope you get more subscribes because you have very good content.

[thecursed]

"in capitalism, employers will reward you for working longer or harder" hahahahahaha good one.

[Kovione]

Also interesting is how people in USSR used to steal from their employers. We used to have saying in Slovakia “Who is not stealing is stealing from his family”. My grandpa built a whole tractor from parts he got this way lol

[ArianeQube]

The general joke in the Eastern Block was "We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us".

[paulrevere]

What to take away here: No matter what system is in place, if you allow crooks to control it, the people will suffer.

[talknight]

A story my grandfather told me about shopping in Soviet Russia:
If you walk down the street and see people queuing up outside a store, you just get in line. By the time you reach the front, you'll find out what they're selling - if it's something you don't need right now or doesn't fit, trade it to your neighbor later!

[Frozen_Lizard]

Babe it's 2am. Time to watch a half-hour long documentary

[jwoodrff]

This is a tiny side note to a really excellent presentation. While the 'Romanovs' held the throne for 300 years, they were not blood-related. This was not a family in the Patri-lineal sense, but rather members of the Romanov clan who happened to bull their way onto the throne. The bloodline had been broken several times since Peter the Great. I don't think the Nicholas clan held it for even a hundred years.

[deanjorgenson]

The eastern block had an old joke, What is the biggest difference between capitalism and communism? With capitalism, man exploits man. With communism, it's the other way around.

[MrFuckingKololo]

If you want to really understand how crazy Soviet economy was, consider this. My grandfather used to be an engineer at a factory and they had two assembly lines that all they did was when there was no work to be done one line would assemble a tractor frame and then the other line would disassemble it. And they'd just keep cycling through 3 frames worth of parts over and over untill more work came in and those workers became needed for an actual work. Or how every buhgalteria (financing department? Don't know how to call it in English) would have 10-20 people working there when all it needs was ~5 people so everyone would just do actual work for an hour or two and spend the rest of the day drinking tea and gossiping about love life of people from other departments.

[musashidanmcgrath]

That joke: 'what weighs 20 tons, guzzles diesel, belches clouds of steam and smoke, makes a ferocious noise, takes a team of 10 engineers and mechanics on round the clock shifts to maintain, and cuts an apple into 3 pieces?' - A Soviet machine designed to cut an apple into 4 pieces.

[chriskeller]

0:05 Fun fact: Bank of Italy is now known as Bank of America

[gerberjoanne]

I wonder what role the arms race played in the economic weakening -- and eventual collapse -- of the USSR. I heard that as spending in the US and USSR on weaponry increased, the Soviets had a hard time keeping up, and this expenditure deprived other sectors of the Soviet economy of needed resources.

[daniellassander]

One minor point i think should be added here, is that a lot of the industrialization of the USSR came from other countries, namely the western capitalist countries. They didnt have the know-how nor the engineers at the time to expand their industrialization as almost everyone was stuck working at a farm, so what they did was they sold off wheat and other food stuffs which they did have, and spend that money on hiring people from the capitalist countries that had the know-how the engineers etc etc, so they could grow their economy for them.

There is a very interesting historical examination of this but i cant for the life of me remember by whom, he examined the USSR's growing industrialization and how well it was linked with hiring people from other countries. And nearly all of their expanding economy at the start came from hiring people from capitalist countries, but it slowly changed over time as they gained the know-how and grew their numbers of engineers.

[MA-goee]

I think in videos like these it is very important to emphasize that rulers who tried to reform the feudal system were often assassinated.

People who live in comfortable modern-day societies and judge people of the past have no clue how difficult it was to change even the most obvious societal injustices.

For most of history, a reformist ruler was literally putting his life on the line

[alessioflammia]

We have always to keep in mind that Soviets were trying to deal with 1930 economic problems using a completely new economic system they built in under 10 years, out of the blue

[Ghostie_xv]

Funny you say russias economy was booming in the early 30s when 6+ million Russians died from 1930-1933 from starvation.

[WarSkills]

The analysis of the feudal system and how that indirectly led to such a long time of no technological developments was so well explained. You gained a subscriber just for that!

[Denzelidos]

"To understand Soviet economy we must go back to Romans". Holy shit that deep dive

[Gungho]

I came back to this video months later. I just love how it simply conveys the topic without overburdening a viewer, but gives them enough context on its own at each stage to understand the main conversation point. It is divided up well and dialogue flows effectively and purposefully. The voice, assuming yours, is soothing but not so to the point of inducing slumber. I very much enjoyed rewatching this video again, and wanted to make sure I left a comment this time!