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👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
For centuries, Russia has told a carefully crafted version of its past—where defeats become victories, oppression is erased, and myths replace truth. In this video, Elvira Bary reveals how Russia’s rulers, from the tsars to Putin, locked history behind chains and rewrote it to justify their power. From the cult of the Great Patriotic War to the myths of Peter the Great and the Soviet era, discover the stories Russia doesn’t want you to question—and why facing them is crucial for understanding today’s Russia.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Russia’s Greatest Historical Myths Exposed
01:29 The Origins of Russian History
02:55 UPDF Promo
10:05 The Historical Myths of Imperial Russia
14:11 The Historical Myths of the Soviets
19:48 The Great Patriotic War Cult
24:23 Modern Historical Myths
👉 JOIN ME ON THE
👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN
For centuries, Russia has told a carefully crafted version of its past—where defeats become victories, oppression is erased, and myths replace truth. In this video, Elvira Bary reveals how Russia’s rulers, from the tsars to Putin, locked history behind chains and rewrote it to justify their power. From the cult of the Great Patriotic War to the myths of Peter the Great and the Soviet era, discover the stories Russia doesn’t want you to question—and why facing them is crucial for understanding today’s Russia.
Video Chapters:
00:00 Russia’s Greatest Historical Myths Exposed
01:29 The Origins of Russian History
02:55 UPDF Promo
10:05 The Historical Myths of Imperial Russia
14:11 The Historical Myths of the Soviets
19:48 The Great Patriotic War Cult
24:23 Modern Historical Myths
👉 JOIN ME ON THE
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00Everything Russia does is justified by history.
00:05But the state demands a single version of the history,
00:09one that speaks only in its voice.
00:12The official narrative becomes sacred.
00:15The history book is permanently locked,
00:18shut, chained by invisible hands.
00:22And anyone who dares say,
00:23wait, something doesn't add up,
00:25risks backlash, censorship, or even persecution.
00:30Official history in Russia does not spark questions.
00:34It demands obedience.
00:37School books don't explore facts.
00:40They enforce narratives.
00:42Soviet collapse, Western sabotage.
00:45Ukraine invasion, reluctant self-defense.
00:50Inconvenient truths, they've vanished,
00:53padlocked away by the state itself.
00:57But today, we are breaking that lock.
01:00My name is Elvira Barry.
01:02I grew up in the Soviet Union,
01:04raised on neatly packaged historical lies,
01:08and spent years untangling the truth from the myths.
01:12Now, together, we'll explore Russia's greatest historical myths.
01:17How they are constructed,
01:20why they persist,
01:21and what happens
01:23when an entire nation's past
01:25is hidden behind chains and silence.
01:33Before Catherine the Great ordered the first state archive,
01:37most Russians carried only scraps of the past in their hands.
01:40Saints' lives,
01:42the Tsar's name,
01:43a half-remembered battle.
01:46Towns built of pine and birch burned,
01:49rotted,
01:49and were rebuilt so often
01:51that little survived to anchor memory.
01:54Outside the church and the top aristocracy,
01:58the record of everyday life
01:59simply dissolved in time.
02:02Picture a Russian town
02:04in the Middle Ages.
02:06Chances are,
02:07what comes to mind
02:08is a 19th-century painting.
02:10That's because the real Russia of those centuries
02:14barely survived on the page.
02:16The version most of us know
02:18was dreamed up later,
02:20during the Romantic era
02:22when Europe was busy inventing national identities
02:25and Russia wanted its own pedigree.
02:28The Russian Empire was expanding.
02:30But how do you claim other people's lands?
02:33How do you justify occupation and exploitation?
02:37You build a narrative.
02:39One that declares you
02:41a great nation
02:43with a heroic past
02:44and a glorious future.
02:46A story where
02:47the ruler is always the main character
02:49and anyone who dares oppose him
02:52is cast as the villain.
02:55Back then,
02:56uncovering the truth
02:56meant slipping past censors,
02:58smuggling in banned books,
03:00and risking your freedom
03:02just to read something real.
03:05Today, thankfully,
03:06the danger's gone.
03:07At least for me.
03:09But the challenge of
03:11actual working with all those sources.
03:14That's still very real.
03:17When I'm preparing these videos
03:19and writing my books,
03:21I'm constantly digging through huge PDFs.
03:24Some are crisp digital files,
03:27others are faded scans of old newspapers
03:30or government records.
03:32Many of them are hundreds of pages long
03:35and if I had to wrestle with clunky tools every time,
03:38I'd never get anything published.
03:41That's why I'm genuinely happy to introduce
03:45UPDF,
03:46the second ever sponsor of my channel,
03:49and to thank them for creating a special discount
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03:54You'll find it at the top of the description
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03:59I use UPDF 2.0 on my Mac almost daily now.
04:03It's not just a PDF viewer.
04:05It lets me edit text and images right on the page,
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04:16When I'm working with all the scanned documents,
04:20UPDF's OCR feature is a lifesaver.
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05:47And now, back to the video.
05:50And to the first professional chroniclers,
05:53Vasily Kluchevsky's course in Russian history
05:55stitched together a sweeping ZO-centric storyline,
05:59printed at state expense
06:01and read aloud in provincial salons
06:03to audiences who had never met a historian in their lives.
06:07Writers supplied the flesh.
06:10Pushkin, Lermontov,
06:11and others turned to historical themes
06:13because it was the demand of the time.
06:16The catch was that Russia's educated class
06:19was far closer to its Western colleagues
06:22than to the peasants and workers of its own land.
06:25They spoke French at the dinner table,
06:28quoted Goethe and Byron,
06:30and traveled through Paris or Vienna when they could.
06:33But the voices of their own serfs,
06:36let alone their ancestors, barely registered.
06:39The past of ordinary Russians
06:41was a foreign country
06:43when the nobility had no passport to enter.
06:46Pushkin's Eugene Onyegin
06:48feels as close to Byron as it does to Russia.
06:52Tolstoy seems to echo Trollope,
06:55Dostoevsky to Myra Dickens.
06:57Not because they copied,
06:59but because they shared the same cultural air.
07:03Writers across Europe borrowed,
07:06adapted, and reworked each other's themes and techniques.
07:09The parallels aren't proof of imitation.
07:13They are signs of a common literary landscape.
07:17The same was true for artists.
07:19They learned their craft in Italy and France,
07:23steeped in antiquity and religious themes.
07:26That was their model for what historical painting should be.
07:31Yes, they developed their own voices
07:35and contributed enormously to the arts.
07:38But the fact remains,
07:40when official historians, writers, and painters
07:43built Russia's glorious past,
07:46they weren't reviving memory.
07:49They were constructing a distorting mirror,
07:52one that reflected Europe's fashions
07:55and their own ideas far more
07:57than the lives of the people they claimed to portray.
08:00The public and the patrons of arts
08:03didn't care as long as the novel or painting was blazing.
08:08Censorship took care of the rest,
08:10making sure no dangerous work ever reached a wide audience.
08:14Economics played its part too.
08:16Imagine you're a writer
08:18who wants to tell the truth about the occupation of Poland.
08:22You spend years on a meticulously researched novel,
08:26but it will never see print.
08:28If by chance it did,
08:31readers would reject it.
08:33They didn't want their past shown as it really was.
08:36Publishing abroad?
08:38Impossible.
08:39You can't afford translation.
08:41And to foreign publishers,
08:43you're nobody.
08:45So, in the end,
08:46you don't really have a choice.
08:48You invest your time in what will pass the censor,
08:52sell to the public,
08:53and pay the bills.
08:54Cheap periodicals and the new railways
08:57spread the state-approved canon far and wide.
09:01So, this imaginary past was repeated so often
09:05it began to feel like heritage.
09:08Russia's view of Western history was just as distorted.
09:12Schools carefully avoided the dangerous chapters.
09:16Children copied maps from German atlases
09:19and memorized endless lists of monarchs.
09:22They studied Greek and Roman philosophers,
09:25but never the contemporary thinkers writing about economics,
09:30social injustice, or politics.
09:32The French and American revolutions were simply off-limits.
09:37Too risky for classrooms built not to spark ideas,
09:41but to manufacture loyal subjects.
09:43Anyone curious about serfdom debates or republican ideas
09:48had to learn French or English first
09:50and pray that a smuggled book slipped past customs.
09:55In imperial Russia,
09:56learning the truth was not a course of study.
09:59It was an expensive and often dangerous hobby.
10:08During the imperial time,
10:10Russian history textbooks present a seamless epic,
10:13but that glittering facade
10:15rests on a series of load-bearing myths.
10:20Strip away the ornament
10:21and you'll find a structure built for one purpose,
10:24to justify power, past and present.
10:28The first legend is the tale of the Varangians
10:31who, according to the 12th century primary chronicle,
10:35were invited to rule the Slavs.
10:37Modern scholarship paints a rougher picture.
10:42Scandinavian raiders, the Vikings,
10:45slipped down the rivers,
10:47fortified trading posts,
10:49and turned human captives into currency
10:51at the slave markets,
10:53just as they did in Britain and France.
10:56The chronicle's polite invitation
10:59looks more like a retrofit
11:01to excuse foreign overlords
11:03who came for silver
11:05and left behind a dynasty.
11:07Three centuries later
11:08came another extraction machine,
11:10the Mongols,
11:11and they did much the same
11:13as the Varangians before them.
11:15Medieval peasants
11:16did not care who robbed them,
11:18the Mongols or their own princes.
11:21And the princes made sure
11:23to keep the Mongols pleased,
11:25draining their lands for 200 years.
11:28Their thrones were safe
11:30as long as the caravans rolled east,
11:32heavy with silver, furs, and slaves.
11:36After 1453,
11:38the Constantinople in Ottoman hands,
11:40Moscow's rulers declared themselves
11:42heirs to Rome,
11:44first and second,
11:45and wrapped their throne
11:47in a mantle of divine succession.
11:50The monk Philoferus wrote,
11:52Two Romes have fallen
11:54and a third stands
11:56and a fourth shall not be.
11:58The slogan still echoes
12:00in today's presidential speeches
12:02about a spiritual civilization
12:04destined to unite
12:06all Eastern Slavs,
12:08even though the real Byzantium
12:10never assigned that role to Moscovy.
12:12The myth of peaceful expansion follows.
12:17Official textbooks show Siberia,
12:19the Caucasus and Ukraine
12:21sliding gently into the empire
12:23as if pulled by gravity.
12:26Contemporary accounts
12:27instead describe Kazakh muskets,
12:30epidemics that wiped out
12:32up to 80% of some Siberian peoples.
12:35And treaties invoked later
12:38to portray conquest
12:39as family reunion.
12:41Russia conquered on foot
12:43rather than by sail,
12:44but the logic matched
12:46that of London or Madrid.
12:49Extract resources,
12:51police the frontier,
12:53rename the landscape.
12:54Perhaps the most polished idol
12:56is Peter the Great.
12:58School murals still show
12:59a visionary in naval blueprints.
13:02Diaries record a monarch
13:04who lost an estimated
13:06100,000 serfs and prisoners of war
13:09in the swarms of his new capital.
13:12Foreign engineers paid in hard cash,
13:15built the fleet,
13:16conscripted peasants,
13:18supplied lives and lumber.
13:19This project enriched the treasury
13:22and hardened Peter's absolute power,
13:24but the bill,
13:26measured in broken backs
13:28and flooded graveyards,
13:30never entered the ledger.
13:32Catherine the Great
13:33borrowed Peter's stagecraft.
13:35She seized power
13:36from her reform-minded husband,
13:39tightened servdom
13:40with their charter to the nobility,
13:42and financed bloody wars
13:44from the Baltic to the Black Sea,
13:46including the partitions
13:48that wiped Poland off the map.
13:50Official portraits
13:52showed a philosopher queen,
13:55but peasants saw something else.
13:57Vodka monopolies
13:58handed to landlords,
14:00served them hardened
14:01until they were
14:02little more than cattle,
14:04an oppression so brutal
14:06it erupted into
14:07a real peasants' war.
14:14The 1917 revolution
14:16shattered the old narrative,
14:18but did not change
14:19the underlying architecture.
14:21Instead of those,
14:22the story now starred
14:24Lenin and the party.
14:25By 1937,
14:28Joseph Stalin
14:28had personally edited
14:30a new short history
14:31of the USSR
14:32exizing rivals,
14:34inflating his role
14:35and turning
14:36what had been
14:37a brutal civil war
14:39into a triumphant procession
14:41towards socialism.
14:42Soviet textbooks
14:43insisted that
14:45pre-revolutionary capitalists
14:46squeezed the masses
14:48without mercy.
14:49Forgotten were
14:50their merchant dynasties,
14:52the Morozovs,
14:54the Tretikovs,
14:55and many others
14:55who built free hospitals,
14:57opened art galleries,
14:59and funded schools,
15:00seeing philanthropy
15:01as a civic duty.
15:03Their factories
15:04may have been
15:06paternalistic,
15:07but they kept
15:08the lights on
15:09and laid the foundation
15:11for Russia's
15:12first wave
15:13of industrialization.
15:14Without their efforts,
15:16Russia might have
15:17entered the 20th century
15:18in the same condition
15:19as China,
15:20fragmented,
15:22impoverished,
15:22and unprepared.
15:24When Bolshevik militia
15:27seized those factories
15:28in 1917,
15:30industrial output
15:31collapsed to less than
15:33one-fifth
15:34of pre-war levels.
15:35Wages were paid
15:37in potatoes,
15:38and barter
15:39replaced money.
15:41War communism
15:42proved that
15:43labor without management
15:44and capital
15:45is a will
15:46without an axle,
15:48useful only
15:49as firewood.
15:50When Russian classrooms
15:51describe the civil war,
15:53they show a red tide
15:54sweeping effortlessly
15:55across the map,
15:56as if every blacksmith
15:58and milkmaid
15:59had chosen Lenin
16:01over the Tsar
16:02on the same bright morning.
16:04Contemporary research
16:05tells a messier story.
16:06By early 1919,
16:08the Reds held
16:09Petrograd,
16:10Moscow,
16:11and rail hubs
16:12and two-thirds
16:13of the factories.
16:14The Whites
16:15clung to the grain fields
16:17and long frontier,
16:18but were marooned
16:20on Fred Beher
16:21branch lines
16:22and depended
16:23on feeding British
16:24and French aid.
16:26Most peasants
16:27prayed only
16:27that both armies
16:28would march past
16:29their villages
16:30without hanging
16:31the elder
16:31or stealing
16:32the seed grain.
16:34Victory
16:35belonged to the side
16:36that already owned
16:37the workshops,
16:39the rolling stock,
16:40and the guns
16:41left over
16:42from the Great War.
16:44The Bolsheviks
16:45didn't win
16:45because the people
16:46embraced them.
16:48They won
16:48because the nation
16:49was too exhausted
16:51to resist,
16:52too broken
16:53to survive
16:53another civil war.
16:54Between 1918
16:56and 1922,
16:58famine and epidemic
16:59killed more Russians
17:00than bullets.
17:02An estimated
17:027 million
17:03perished from
17:04typhus,
17:04dysentery,
17:05and the Spanish
17:06flew along,
17:07with another
17:076 million
17:08dead of hunger
17:09as drought
17:10parched
17:11the Volga basin.
17:12Entire towns
17:13dismantled
17:14their tram lines
17:15for firewood.
17:16Hospitals
17:17reused dressings
17:18until the
17:20gauze
17:20resembled
17:21limp
17:21grey parchment.
17:22In letters
17:23later opened
17:24by censors,
17:26nurses begged
17:26cousins
17:27for soap
17:28and kerosene,
17:29while village
17:30elders
17:30recorded
17:31the birth
17:32of every
17:33third child
17:33under those
17:34conditions.
17:35Talk of
17:36organized
17:36anti-Bolshevik
17:37risings
17:38is wishful
17:39myth-making.
17:41Out of the
17:41chaos,
17:42a new
17:43article of
17:43faith emerged.
17:45The
17:45Communist Party
17:46could not
17:47be wrong
17:47because
17:48Marxism-Leninism
17:50was a
17:51science.
17:52To question
17:53it wasn't
17:54dissent,
17:54it was
17:55heresy.
17:56Another
17:57myth took
17:57root,
17:57that anyone
17:59descended from
18:00nobility,
18:00merchants,
18:01clergy,
18:02or
18:02pre-revolutionary
18:03officials was
18:04automatically a
18:05villain,
18:06an exploiter
18:07at heart,
18:08no matter
18:08who they
18:09really were.
18:10These people
18:11were turned
18:12into second-class
18:13citizens without
18:14committing any
18:15crime.
18:16The state
18:17treated them
18:17like pests.
18:19I've made a
18:20video about
18:20this strange
18:21system,
18:22but if you
18:23want to go
18:23deeper and
18:24understand the
18:25personal stories
18:26behind it,
18:27read my
18:27historical novel
18:28The Prince
18:29of the
18:29Soviets.
18:30The link is
18:31in the
18:31description.
18:32Needless to
18:33say,
18:34the official
18:35version of
18:35Soviet history
18:36left out
18:37the Gulag
18:38entirely,
18:38its role in
18:39the economy,
18:40in power
18:41struggles,
18:42in wars,
18:42in shaping
18:43entire
18:44generations.
18:45And from
18:46that silence,
18:47a convenient
18:48denial grew.
18:49Even today,
18:50many insist
18:51that Great
18:52Terror was
18:53exaggerated.
18:54After all,
18:55if I never
18:56heard about it
18:57as a child,
18:58it couldn't
18:59have been
18:59that bad,
19:00right?
19:01Archival
19:01tallies compiled
19:02by Oleg
19:03Hlevniuk
19:04show
19:05otherwise.
19:06Roughly
19:07682,000
19:09people were
19:11executed on
19:12political charges
19:13in 1937-1938
19:16alone.
19:17And at
19:17Stalin's
19:18death,
19:192.5
19:20million remained
19:21in camps,
19:22prisons,
19:23or exile.
19:24About 3%
19:26of the
19:27entire population.
19:28Millions
19:29more had
19:29perished
19:30earlier in
19:30collectivization,
19:31deportations,
19:32and tolling
19:33on Arctic
19:34rail beds
19:34that would
19:35never be
19:36finished.
19:37The GULAG
19:38was an
19:38economy
19:39within
19:39the economy,
19:41and its
19:41footprint
19:42stretched
19:43from the
19:43forests of
19:44Karelia
19:45to
19:45Sakhalin.
19:51Under
19:52Leonid
19:52Brezhnev,
19:53a new
19:53sanctum
19:54emerged.
19:54The Great
19:55Patriotic
19:56War of
19:561941-1945.
19:59Monuments
19:59to veterans
20:00multiplied,
20:02Victory Day
20:02parades
20:03grew more
20:04elaborate,
20:05and textbooks
20:06lingered
20:06lovingly on
20:08tales of
20:08battlefield glory,
20:10while skipping
20:11the famine,
20:12the GULAG,
20:13and the mass
20:14deportations that
20:15followed.
20:16Historians now
20:17call it a
20:18war cult,
20:18a way to
20:19manufacture
20:20pride without
20:21inviting dangerous
20:23questions.
20:24And it
20:25worked.
20:26As a
20:27child,
20:27I loved
20:28World War
20:29II stories.
20:30Heroism,
20:31sacrifice,
20:32noble deeds,
20:33soldiers rescuing
20:34children,
20:35dogs,
20:35and kittens
20:36from smoldering
20:37ruins.
20:38But no one
20:38ever told me
20:39about the
20:39execution of
20:40Polish POWs,
20:41or how the
20:42Soviets, while
20:43retreating,
20:44burned food and
20:45fuel so
20:45civilians had
20:46nothing left.
20:47No one
20:48mentioned the
20:49atrocities Soviet
20:50soldiers committed
20:51in the occupied
20:52territories, or
20:53the refugee
20:54ships sunk
20:55by Soviet
20:56submarines.
20:57And certainly,
20:58not the fate of
21:00Soviet POWs who
21:02survived Nazi
21:03camps only to
21:04be sent to the
21:05GULAG by their
21:06own government.
21:08The logic was
21:09simple.
21:09If you surrendered,
21:11you were a
21:12traitor.
21:13The war wasn't
21:13taught as a
21:14national catastrophe.
21:15It was presented
21:16like an epic
21:17fantasy, like a
21:18modern-day
21:19video game,
21:20war, where
21:21our beautiful
21:21heroes vanquish
21:23monstrous enemies.
21:25Official memory
21:26of the war still
21:26rests on one
21:27foundational lie,
21:28that it began
21:29on June 22,
21:311941, when
21:32Hitler treacherously
21:34attacked peaceful
21:35Soviet cities.
21:36Quietly erased are
21:37the 21 months
21:39before that, when
21:41the USSR invaded
21:42Finland and stood
21:44side by side with
21:45Nazi Germany,
21:46dividing Poland
21:47and occupying the
21:49Baltic states.
21:50The Molotov-Ribbentrop
21:52Pact carved out
21:53Stalin's ambitions
21:54long before
21:56Operation Barbarossa
21:57began.
21:58Historians still
21:59debate whether
22:00Stalin planned to
22:01strike Germany
22:02first, but no
22:04credible chronicle
22:05denies that Soviet
22:06troops were
22:07massing at the
22:08border.
22:08Today, Putin
22:09builds his ideology
22:10on the same war
22:12cult.
22:12In his version,
22:14the West has
22:15always wanted to
22:16destroy Russia for
22:17no reason at
22:18all.
22:19The proof?
22:20Nazis came from
22:22the West.
22:23So, 80 years
22:24later, history
22:25repeats itself.
22:26And Putin simply
22:27struck first to
22:28save the nation
22:29from another
22:29invasion.
22:30What no one
22:32mentions is that
22:33the UK and
22:35the USA were
22:36Soviet allies
22:37during World
22:37War II and
22:38provided enormous
22:39aid.
22:40But that detail
22:42does not fit
22:43the script.
22:44The new story
22:46goes like this.
22:47Our glorious
22:48ancestors saved
22:50the world from
22:50the Nazis and
22:52the only ones
22:53protecting that
22:54sacred truth
22:55today are our
22:57current rulers.
22:58Which means
22:59anyone who
23:01opposes them
23:02is not just a
23:02political opponent.
23:04They are enemies
23:05of our ancestors,
23:07enemies of the
23:08truth and
23:09enemies of
23:10Russia.
23:11This cult of the
23:12Great Patriotic War
23:13is the regime's
23:14anchor.
23:14That's why it
23:15pretends to
23:16care about
23:17history and
23:17the fallen.
23:18That's why
23:19insulting a
23:20World War II
23:21monument is
23:22now a felony
23:23punishable by
23:25up to five
23:25years in prison.
23:27These laws
23:28aren't about
23:28protecting
23:30statues.
23:30They are about
23:32silencing even
23:33modest questions
23:34about the
23:35darker chapters
23:36of the war.
23:37And sacrifice
23:38follows naturally.
23:40Television anchors
23:41wrap reports
23:43of dead
23:43soldiers in
23:44the language
23:45of the 1941.
23:46Ukraine becomes
23:48the new
23:49Stalingrad.
23:50Hardships are
23:51rebranded as
23:52the prize of
23:53defending the
23:54motherland.
23:55In speech
23:56after speech,
23:57Putin casts
23:58Russia as the
23:58last bastion of
24:00traditional morality.
24:01Church, war, and
24:03regime folded
24:04into one
24:04sanctum.
24:05Dissent becomes
24:06blasphemy.
24:08Put it all
24:08together,
24:09cheap pride,
24:10manufactured fear,
24:11enforced sacrifice
24:12and sacred
24:13symbols, and
24:14you get a
24:15selective history
24:16weaponized for
24:17power.
24:17A tool of
24:18governess disguised
24:20as national
24:21memory.
24:26Seen from a
24:27distance, the
24:28pattern is
24:29unmistakable.
24:30Every Russian
24:31regime inherits
24:32the historical
24:33edifice from
24:34the one before,
24:36tears out the
24:37pieces that don't
24:38fit, repaints
24:39the facade, and
24:40declares the
24:41structure eternal.
24:42The furniture
24:43shifts, the
24:44slogans change, but
24:45the blueprint
24:46stays the same.
24:47History is a
24:48column of heroic
24:49leaders guiding a
24:51suffering people.
24:52And if you want to
24:53understand today's
24:54Russia, you have
24:55to see the cracks
24:56in that facade,
24:57the ones its
24:58painters work
24:59hardest to hide.
25:01Nostalgia insists
25:02that everyday life
25:04in the USSR was
25:05comfortable if
25:06modest.
25:07Ask the record.
25:09In 1965, only
25:12one urban
25:13household in
25:14three owned
25:15a refrigerator.
25:16Washing machines
25:18were so scarce
25:19that Khrushchev
25:20paraded space-age
25:21prototypes on
25:23newsreels to
25:24prove progress
25:25that few citizens
25:26would enjoy.
25:28Color photographs
25:29were a studio
25:29luxury until the
25:30late 1980s, and
25:32the family Sedan
25:33remained beyond
25:34reach of most
25:35engineers, doctors,
25:37or even army
25:38colonels.
25:38My grandfather, a
25:40plant director, still
25:41had to heat water
25:43on a wood stove.
25:45My parents, both
25:46engineers, borrowed
25:48money from their
25:49own parents almost
25:50every month just
25:52to buy food and
25:53clothes.
25:54Anything beyond
25:55that was a
25:56luxury we rarely
25:57even considered.
25:59Another cherished
26:00boss says the
26:01USSR was the
26:02world's most
26:03literate and
26:04therefore most
26:05enlightened society.
26:07Literacy rates
26:08were indeed
26:09high, but the
26:10Iron Curtain
26:11sealed off much
26:12of 20th century
26:13scholarship.
26:14Foreign journals
26:15vanished into
26:17special collections
26:18accessible only
26:19with secret
26:20police permission.
26:22Surveys of
26:22adult reading
26:23habits in the
26:241970s found
26:26that most
26:26Soviet citizens
26:27turned to
26:28detective stories
26:29or patriotic
26:31historical fiction.
26:32Meanwhile,
26:33non-fiction books
26:34on philosophy,
26:35sociology, and
26:36modern economics
26:37were simply
26:38unavailable.
26:39Mathematicians and
26:40physicists did
26:42excel, but only
26:43because their
26:44textbooks weren't
26:45subject to
26:46ruthless censorship
26:47like humanity's
26:48works.
26:49Fast forward to
26:50the present and
26:51another myth
26:52prevails.
26:53Vladimir Putin
26:54raised Russia
26:55from its knees.
26:57The ledger reads
26:58differently.
26:59Independent
27:00talis put
27:00Russian dead
27:01and wounded
27:02in Ukraine
27:03at more than
27:03790,000,
27:06with the
27:06national wealth
27:07funds liquid
27:08reserves down
27:09by 70%
27:10since the
27:11invasion.
27:12Finland and
27:13Sweden,
27:13spooked by
27:14Kremlin rhetoric,
27:16abandoned
27:16decades of
27:17neutrality
27:18and joined
27:19NATO.
27:20The alliance
27:20now guards
27:21an additional
27:221,300 km
27:24of Russian
27:25border.
27:26Western sanctions
27:27have slashed
27:28technology imports
27:29and forced
27:30the finance
27:31ministry to
27:31plug its
27:32budget with
27:33domestic debt
27:34while inflation
27:35chews through
27:36household savings.
27:38What looks
27:39like revival
27:40is, on
27:41closer inspection,
27:42a mortgaged
27:43future.
27:44One of Putin's
27:45propaganda's
27:45favorite fairy
27:46tales is that
27:48the West is
27:48rewriting history.
27:50Translated,
27:51that simply means
27:52our neighbors
27:53refuse to accept
27:54the version of
27:55history that
27:56flatters our
27:57ego and
27:58pleases our
27:59rulers.
28:00But the
28:01habit of denying
28:02uncomfortable
28:03facts is as
28:04strong as
28:05ever.
28:05Mention the
28:06Lithuanian
28:07civilians
28:08crashed by
28:08Soviet tanks
28:09in January
28:101991 or
28:11thousands of
28:12Chechen
28:13civilians killed
28:14in the
28:141990s and
28:16many listeners
28:17respond with
28:18charges of
28:19Russophobia.
28:20In Russia,
28:21the self is
28:22fused so
28:23tightly to
28:24the state
28:24that criticism
28:25feels like
28:26treason, even
28:28when directed
28:28at long-dead
28:30authority figures.
28:31Yet, history
28:32ignored tends
28:33to return as
28:34a crisis.
28:35Whether the
28:36reckoning arrives
28:38through a
28:38military mutiny,
28:40a fiscal
28:41collapse, or a
28:42slow descent
28:43into isolation
28:44like Iran's,
28:46the outcome
28:47will punish
28:48ordinary Russians
28:49first.
28:50Myths make
28:50comforting shelter,
28:52but sooner or
28:53later, the
28:54storm blows
28:55through the
28:55cardboard
28:56walls.
28:57If this
28:58video opened
28:58your eyes to
28:59the hidden
29:00truths behind
29:01Russia's
29:01historical myths,
29:03please like,
29:04share, and
29:05subscribe.
29:06It helps this
29:07message reach
29:08more people who
29:09need to hear it.
29:10To support my
29:11work directly,
29:12you can click
29:13join, send
29:14us super
29:15things, or buy
29:16me a coffee
29:16using the link
29:17or PayPal
29:18button below.
29:20At the end
29:21of this video,
29:22you'll see a
29:22special thank
29:23you to my
29:24supporters from
29:25PayPal.
29:25It's your
29:27generosity that
29:28empowers me to
29:29tell these stories
29:30honestly and
29:31without compromise.
29:32Thank you for
29:33watching, and
29:34remember, history
29:36belongs to those
29:37brave enough to
29:38question it.
29:47people who
29:49don't
29:50know.
29:50We'll see you
29:50next time.
29:52Bye.
29:53Bye.
29:54Bye.
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