Corruption Scandal That Shook the USSR - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video in on the Uzbek Cotton Scandal, the corruption affair that shook the USSR in the 1980s.

#ColdWar #USSR #Corruption #Cotton #Scandal #uzbekistan #uzbek

Sources:
Riccardo Mario Cucciolla, “Legitimation Through Self-Victimization: The Uzbek Cotton Affair and its Repression Narrative,” Cahiers du Monde Russe, Vol.58, No.4 (2017)
Gregory Gleason, “Fealty and Loyalty: Informal Authority Structures in Soviet Asia,” Soviet Studies, Vol.43, No.4 (1991)
Riccardo Mario Cucciolla, “Sharaf Rashidov and the international dimensions of Soviet Uzbekistan,” Central Asian Survey, Vol.39, No.2 (2020)
William A. Clark, “Crime and Punishment in Soviet Officialdom, 1965-90,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.45, No.2 (1993)
Derek Edward Peterson, “When a Pound Weighed a Ton: The Cotton Scandal and Uzbek National Consciousness,” Ohio State University, Thesis (2013)
Neil Melvin, Uzbekistan: Transition to Authoritarianism on the Silk Road (Harwood Academic, 2000)

[greengeck]

My Grandpa told me stories about Lithuanian SSR times in the mid 50-60's, when Kruschev was in power, he was in charge of a local collective farm near our village. One story he recalled will always stick with me.

When Nikita found about corn he became obsesed about growing it in the USSR, and since Lithuania was primarily exporting food directly to Moscow they quickly received orders to produce and grow insane ammounts of corn. Given the fact that he had no clue what corn is (not really a stable crop for the region back then), they did not really know how to grow it and the seeds they were provided with were not a good fit for the soil and climate, the harvest were horrid. Food started to became a problem in the region, so to not have everyone starve or get shot by the newly renamed KGB for calling the decision by the supreme secretary stupid they began to plan 1-3 meter perimeters of corn around the totally not rye or wheat fields so when inspections happened they could not see that far back.

[travisinthetrunk]

“Corruption Scandal That Shook the USSR”

Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

[dmitriybozhanov]

Before Uzbek cotton was Fish "Ocean" network scandal, before that was a Leningrad vegetable and fruit scandal, before that was Ryazan cattle scandal... the list goes on.

[John-vpjq]

"Stabbed himself seven times in the chest"

Is this the origin of the common Russian meme "Suicide. Two shots to the back of the head."

[Stakan]

My father, as a KGB officer with a degree in economics, took part in the investigation of this corruption case.

[befeleme]

Another such affair worth mentioning is that of the Czechoslovak army general Jan Sejna, who was involved in a similar corruption scandal involving agricultural products. He defected to the US in order to avoid prosecution, the highest ranking official to escape from Cold War Czechoslovakia.

[CelloPerspective]

I am from Uzbekistan, and to this day in Uzbekistan no one really talks about these events. Thank you for the informative video.

[michaelsinger]

Boris Yeltsin criticizing corruption is, ironic.

[rrai]

Even as an American born in '99, I heard about this one. Probably the only thing out of Uzbekistan that anyone outside of it even knows about

[creatoruser]

Just think how far this would have to go. Hundreds of thousands of tons of cotton were put on the books which didn't exist. But those amounts had to go somewhere, and industries which used that cotton knew that a good chunk was non-existent. So they were in on the ruse and had to lie about their outputs, too.

[jesseberg]

So Stalin personally just sat down and drew lines on a map to decide the borders of Muslim nations he knew nothing about, but tell me more about how the Soviet Union wasn't a colonial power.

[trizvanov]

"Cotton picking" in Central Asian republics, just like potato picking in more temperate climate, was a mandatory thing that ALL high-school and university students participated in.

The most amazing thing in this video for me is the "upt to 90% Water loss" in the canal. What a waste :(

[shlomomarkman]

The "Uzbek affair" was indeed a big scandal but scandals of this type were common in the years 1978-1983. Things were on the books but not in reality and things in reality "went left" and disappeared somewhere. 20%-50% of every item disappeared before it went on the shelf and everyone stood in line for hours despite their city, town or Kolhoz being "supplied according to plan".
Nobody gave a damn unless it involved military production.

[randomchannel-pxho]

"As seemingly harmless as cotton"

I think the script writers forgot about something there lmfao

[ralfgroh]

I am a devoted student of Cold War history and would like to thank you for your competent coverage of that most interesting era. Thanks, and keep it up!

[Gaben]

I wish more people knew how truly evil Brezhnev really was.

[sittinandthinkin]

Another reason not to allow big government to operate without checks.

[FelipeGarcia-chiw]

Let’s not forget how Uzbek government got the cotton in the first place. According to some investigations the Uzbek authorities went to schools and got people out of their jobs in some days just to go and harvest cotton with zero pay, in other words, forced labor, so even when the Uzbek government was having good quotas we must bear in mind that those come up with force labor in cotton fields and yes I know how uncanny that sounds. To this day the Uzbek government exploits cotton using very weird methods. And although the Uzbek government claims they have stopped doing that practice…who’s to say that regional elites are not still forcing their citizens for that

[kalomboC]

We shall pretend to work, so they can pretend to pay us...