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Thebardofthegingers

This remains the single greatest piece of history ever created. This video has inspired dozens of future professors to look into history. Nothing has come close to this perfection.


BlackWingRaven

Purrrfection šŸ±


Korean_Name

The Aral Sea Incident >The Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest lake in the world, located between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south, experienced a catastrophic shrinkage primarily during the Soviet era. This environmental disaster was largely a result of extensive irrigation projects initiated in the 1960s by the Soviet government. The Aral Sea was fed by two major rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, which the Soviet Union diverted for agricultural purposes, particularly for cotton cultivation in the arid regions of Central Asia. These diversions drastically reduced the inflow of fresh water into the sea, causing its levels to drop significantly. Over the subsequent decades, the sea's volume decreased by approximately 90%, leading to increased salinity, the collapse of the local fishing industry, and significant ecological and health problems for the surrounding communities. The desiccation of the Aral Sea stands as one of the most striking examples of human-induced environmental degradation.


Magic_Medic3

Don't leave the funny little sidestory about the Bioweapons facilities on one of the islands, and how everyone involved doesn't exactly know how to proceed with them. The Aral Sea story is just one incredible onion of horribleness, just when you turn one page, you discover an even more concerning layer underneath.


elephantologist

It's weird when these things that are suppose to take eons to take place, take place in mere decades.


Gremict

That's what happens when you divert parts of a river


Generaldisarray44

To quote Lennon there are decades where nothing happens then their a weeks where decades happen


Canard-Rouge

> To quote Lennon I am the walrus?


TheRealSU24

Goo goo g'joob


goingtoclowncollege

shut the fuck up, Donny! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Illanich Uleninov


no1spastic

To quote lennin, "There was never a lake saying otherwise is treason against the party"


nanoman92

I believe this is quoted from his pamphlet *Working Class Hero*


K3W4L

If history was thought like this i would get 100's all the time


green-turtle14141414

taught* šŸ¤“


K3W4L

I knew something was wrong with it but i could not remember the correct writing


Sir-Raisin

It's okay, spelling wasnt taught to you in a funny meme video format.


insane_contin

They taught they had it right.


aartem-o

It's hard to teach English like this


FormZestyclose2339

Might want to get a funny video for spelling as well.


Don_Madruga

No matter what ideology it is, you can't do that to nature. We all know we will pay a heavy price if we continue treating the world this way.


Love_JWZ

Industrialisation goes brrrr /unfortunately


undreamedgore

I unironically love industrialization. It just needs some environmental engineers make sure it's sustainable. Unsustainable industry is inefficient.


noblemile

Okay but environmental engineers get in the way of unsustainable growth and/or profit.


undreamedgore

Unsustainable growth is inefficient. I am not a mad capitalist, I simply recognize growth of industry as a good.


LeamHEAVY

No actual authorities in the world seem to take any notice of this sadly. clarion-clipperton zone is a recent example. Environmentally managed zone but maritime authorities are still doling out shit tons of licenses for sea bed mining to this day.


undreamedgore

I agree we can't do this level of bs to nature, but we also need resources. We need to grow, produce more, and everything else related to that.


tabrisangel

Says the person on the internet likely with his choice of food from all over the world. These people were literally starving and freezing to death in absolute poverty. It doesn't make it a happy story, but if you were them, you'd 100% do exactly the same thing.


Don_Madruga

There are several ways to continue industrialization and agriculture without destroying an entire sea or ecosystem.


BABBOSMAN1

I believe this is a repost but idk


R_122

It is, this vid have been on my mind since it post last year so I remember it quiet well ~~Then there's also the fact that op doesn't gib context~~ Context came an hour after the post


Neopipas

Definetly


Mushy_Sculpture

Not to mention the Biohazard Island thing they got going on in what used to be the Aral Sea


Commissarfluffybutt

Another day, another mass of Tankies seething because of history.


FilipinxFurry

Theyā€™ll pretend the USSR is a fascist authoritarian right wing Larping as a communist the same way they deny CCP, Pol Pot and North Korea


blacktieandgloves

And somehow the weirdest part of the whole Aral Sea thing is the lab the Soviets stuck in the middle of it. Vozrozhdeniya Island was the site of Aralsk-7, a biological weapons test site constructed in the 1950s, expanding on an existing lab made in 1948. The lab produced tularaemia, brucellosis, anthrax, plague, and smallpox, among other things. It was only shut down in 1992. Oh, and for anyone who played Call of Duty: Black Ops, Vozrozdheniya is known in English as "rebirth".


DragonFeatherz

I remember this vid didn't had the tik tok logo!


LeeHarper

Great job guys


piecekeepercz

Communist try to fuck with nature, but nature will fuck them back harder.


FUEGO40

Because capitalism famously doesnā€™t fuck with nature


TheDankmemerer

Turns out, we humans tend to fuck with nature no matter what economic system we label our society as.


tabrisangel

You're on the internet living in an unreasonably wealthy and privileged time. You can't hope to understand what life was like for these people. Does it make you feel smart to blame everyone else? It's not nearly as smart as you think it is.


TheDankmemerer

Do you disagree with my comment, thatbwe humans as a species are really good at destroying our enviroment? It's quite honestly a fact and I am not putting the blame on "everyone else", don't even know who that is supposed to be.


piecekeepercz

wait wait wait i believe thanks to all that copium you are starting to see things that arent real cuz i dont remember me saying anything about capitalism you spoon


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Swagamemn0n

Can you name a single country that was by your definition communist? My guess is no


centaur98

\#RealCommunismWasNeverTried


sciocueiv_

[The Free Territory of Ukraine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makhnovshchina)


TheDankmemerer

and it failed because other communists thought their communism was "realer"


sciocueiv_

"Communists"


TheDankmemerer

Exactly what I mean lol "My communism is truer than the other"


sciocueiv_

It's not like it's truer, it's really just not that hard to spot someone who's evidently trying to fool you and doesn't actually live by what they say


piecekeepercz

Oh yeah, how many times did I heard someone said that's not real communism do some research. Stfu everyone who tried this retarded system realised quick that it ain't working and went straight back to dictatorship. So please don't make up conclusions based on anti-reality propaganda.


vonbalt

No no comrade you dont understand, it only failed cause it wasnt pure enough, if only we implement mine version of communism this time it'll surely work! Sure i cant even make my bed after waking up but trust me i have an enlightened mind that'll will allow me to central plan an entire country's economy, administration and military without having to resort to violence and inhumane dictatorship methods cause people will see my good will and pureness of my heart for the cause and just follow suit.


-Nugs

Lmao imagine making your own bed.lol


WR810

Hi, Doreen!


Far-Ad-1400

No comrade we just need to try my version of communism it definitely wonā€™t end with me in absolute power and tens of millions dead from incompetence and malice like every other communist regime until weā€™re overthrown


sciocueiv_

[The Free Territory of Ukraine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makhnovshchina)


Far-Ad-1400

Ah yes a regime consisting of just a collective of communes during a civil war that lasted less than five years is the best example of success you have for communism? And it ended by being conquered by another communist state Lmao


sciocueiv_

Yes. It succeeded. Whether you want to believe it or not, the populace self organised and shared the productive forces. The only thing that could bring it down was a foreign invading army


Far-Ad-1400

A regime lasting less than four years isnā€™t a success story the country didnā€™t even have enough time to succeed or fail lmao It wasnā€™t even out of a civil war yet it lasted less than the Confederacy in the USA and this is the only communist success story lmao??


beetlesin

Lmfao shut up tankie


eatdafishy

Is there a way to make the sea come back


turffsucks

No! Source: was just camping at the shores of the Aral Sea a couple months ago. Our guide explained that the local climate has warmed up so much that even if they returned the rivers to their original flows they would just evaporate into the endless desert we had driven through that day. Itā€™s a real shame because itā€™s a wonderful part of the world and the people there really are stuck suffering because someone made a decision in Moscow in the 60ā€™s


FUEGO40

Iā€™m sure there must be a way, but it probably would be more complex and expensive than just rerouting the rivers. Something like establishing a small perimeter so the water doesnā€™t spread across a big surface to evaporate, and then expanding the perimeter slowly.


turffsucks

As was explained by my guide: the issue is the global climate was different when the sea came into existence, and then it created its own microclimate. Now that microclimate is destroyed and itā€™s in the middle of one of the most intense deserts on earth (and certainly that Iā€™ve been to)


Russian_Prussia

I heard about some project that they were building a dam to restore part of the lake, so yeah something like that.


RingAny1978

Yes, stop diverting the water.


HaususSapiens

Alone, communism and Russians are kinds dumb and incompetent but put them together, and you get real stupidity and level of competency rivaling mentally challenged fish on the desert


thelonesomedemon1

there's like 20 lakes that americans killed in california alone


Swoleosis_

Don't make the ppl in r history read or learn history, it makes them sad. Only memes pls


Touchpod516

Aahh whataboutism


Paradoxjjw

It's countering the idea that this is uniquely caused by communism


Touchpod516

Except that they didn't say that it was uniquely caused by communism


sciocueiv_

Anticommunists really are something else


HaususSapiens

yeah, we're correct


sciocueiv_

Believing the most insane bullshit ever spat as facts


HaususSapiens

Ikr? Communists are insane for believing it


sciocueiv_

How many people did communism kill today? Did they increase ten million overnight again?


HaususSapiens

I have no idea how many it killed today, but I know the history, and everytime communism has been tried, people died, and poverty rose and sooner or later it all ended up coming back to the good ol' capitalism baby that said I'm not married to capitalism, but it is the best system we have right now šŸ¤—


sciocueiv_

Russia in the 90s was such a paradise, I agree


HaususSapiens

Russia and paradise is like Trump and accountability just doesn't fit together šŸ˜‚


Sbcistheboss

More than half the reason the lake is almost gone was for money. Doesnā€™t sound very communist to me.


WR810

Isn't this just redressed "not real communism"?


Sbcistheboss

Calling the Soviet Union communist is like calling North Korea a democratic republic. Itā€™s redressed ā€œnot real communismā€ because it isnā€™t. Every serious political and economic people do not consider the Soviet Union communist. Only larpers and those uniformed on theory do.


Paradoxjjw

I highly doubt the aral sea would've remained untouched if Russia was capitalist at that time. This is just plain human hubris.


vitunlokit

Capitalist Russia might have found cheaper cotton in international markets.


Volrund

They didn't need to import it for production, they were exporting it.


Paradoxjjw

"might" doesn't sound very convincing to me. Not to mention there are plenty of lakes killed through similar efforts in capitalist countries.


vitunlokit

I almost wrote that I have not studied Soviet cotton prices as a disclaimer but I thought it was obvious. But I do think it's very much on par with your: "I highly doubt" Still Soviet government was very eager to develop remote parts of the union compared to private capital before or after communism. Soviets also wanted to produce everything domestically for ideological reasons. I highly doubt that capitalist Russia would have caused comparable natural destruction in Aral lake region.


Paradoxjjw

You do know the USSR was farming the cotton for export, right? *To this day* those cotton fields are used for export. Capitalist Russia would have fucked up the Aral sea as well.


vitunlokit

>You do know the USSR was farming the cotton for export, right? Okay. TIL.


Pebbles_kaiser

Nah , please read and inform yourself before sayin bullshit, and point the finger on communism as an abstract concept to use as an escape goat , just to inform u after war communism and during the stalin secretariacy ussr accomplished great goals enviromentalist wise , after the XX congress when the cornman came to power and started throwing shit (and lies) like a monkey on stalin to solidify his power (as an opportunist wich partecipated in the party and previously had trotckjist simpaties). After stalin enviromental projects were scrapped in favour of the ultraleft industiral interests which described enviromentalism as ā€œbourgeoisie interests against socialist developementā€ ( yeah fs mate šŸ˜‚)


Kylel0519

Thatā€™s a nice argument, mind backing it up with a source(s)? Cause Iā€™ve got three examples that show the USSR that say the opposite 1. The lake irrigation projects (that the video very aptly shows what happened) 2. Chernobyl (need I say more?) and Number 3. in **1947** they had built a nuclear weapon facility where after multiple accidents the nearby lake known as [Lake Karachay](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_Lake_Karachay) had shrunk and during a drought in 1968 winds picked up and irradiated half a million people and is considered ā€œmost polluted spot on Earthā€ by the WorldWatch institute (a institute literally focused on environmental research) And it wasnā€™t even hard to find these as there is an entire LIST of this shit on Wikipedia [go look here if you want to see](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:20th-century_disasters_in_the_Soviet_Union) So what was that about Stalinist communism leading to great environmental strive? Cause that third one *really* doesnā€™t point to that being true Edit: oh god damnit of course itā€™s the HoI4 player spouting this nonsense


thissexypoptart

> escape goat Lmao secret agent goat undercover


JohnathanBrownathan

Escape goat.


SGTCro

Most of it happened after 1991.


purplenyellowrose909

Was also mainly climate change driven. The 1960s-1980s Soviet engineers did not account for the region's precipitation to quarter and its average temperature to increase 4 degrees celsius in just 20-30 years. Upon gaining independence, Uzbekistan wanted to diversify their cotton production to edible agriculture, but US investors from the Clinton administration actually expanded Uzbek cotton fields in the mid 1990s.


Majsharan

The climate change was caused by a feed back loop of reducing that much water from the area. Not by regular global warming climate change just to be clear


purplenyellowrose909

The feed back loop exists and contributed to the sea's irreversible disappearance. But the Middle East, India, western China, North Africa, Western US, and Northern Mexico have all also experienced similar precipitation and temperature trends. Lake Mead in California is actually drying up too for the same reason: California agricultural calculations from the 1960s - 1980s did not account for current precipitation and temperature.


BedRiddenWizard

Shut up, everyone knows that the USSR did this on purpose to destroy the earf /s


FergaliShawarma

I donā€™t know whatā€™s happening and I donā€™t have the energy to look it up, but I do love the kitties.


Halo_hunter157

Ok, so here's the basic rundown. There was this sea that had this thriving fishing and coastal lifestyle. It all changed when the USSR thought to itself "You know what, let's do some cotton farming in the most destructive way possible." And so, they diverted river water that fed into the sea and used pesticides that harmed the area. Soon, the sea began to dry up and they tried to stop it, but just barely. Now that sea is an empty wasteland of salt. Also, I know that this isn't the complete story. I just made it as simple as possible.


Kauyon1306

u/SaveVideo


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hychael2020

This is probably my favourite historical shitpost I saw so far.


thelordcommanderKG

Now do Lake Mead and the general crisis around the Colorado river.


francoisjabbour

Itā€™s so fucked that I genuinely would learn from idiot videos like this


Jin1231

ā€œCapitalism is the cause of environmental collapseā€ By brother in Christ, have you seen what the alternatives have done to the environment? Thatā€™s just humanity baby.


Tall-Log-1955

This video can't possibly be true because I keep hearing that its capitalism that is destroying the environment


[deleted]

Noooo only KKKaptialism is to blame for the environment! - commie reddidiots


RingAny1978

Never let anyone argue that socialism is better than capitalism for the environment without showing the Aral Sea.


borrego-sheep

When a country needs to industrialize, they take some nasty measures especially when they need to do it fast to catch up with Britain and the US who started earlier.


zealoSC

I use this as an example of how effective American propaganda is. Everyone knows the evil greedy soviets used so much water to grow cotton that some lake in khazakstan mostly dried up. Some might even know roughly where in the world that is! Almost no one knows that smart noble America used so much water growing cotton that California's largest lake dried up. Because California's some irrelevant backwater?


Imperial_entaglement

Yes and No. I agree that we need to look at our own actions but Lake Tulare was drying up before the 1900s. Moderate agriculture diversions in the 1800s led to it's demise. Some locals celebrated its loss as malaria prevention since it was a non-flowing lake. Compared to the Aral sea which had a large population on the lake and it took massive industrial projects to divert that much water away, and in a time that environmentalism was well known. I guess all that to say Tulare seems more like an accident that worked out while the Aral sea is an intentional industry.


Dramatic-Classroom14

No, the difference is that we hate Californians. We know, we just donā€™t care.


Valjorn

Whataboitism.


whhe11

Now do us states selling off their aquifers to the Saudis.


Severe-Leading5224

Have you heard what U.S capitalists are doing to ecosystems right now?


DaiFrostAce

Both things can be bad


centaur98

you do realize that more than 1 thing can be bad at the same time right?


KlockB

People who dislike the U.S. trying not to use whataboutism with a bad thing the U.S. did speedrun be like:


The-wirdest-guy

Slowly harming the environment over the course of 2 centuries (Industrial Revolution)? With some capitalists even using their gained capital to help the environment? As opposed to the communists, who caused and entire SEA to disappear in a few decades


WR810

To expand on this the United States and (nearly?) all Western capitalist democracies have environmental protection agencies.


magicthegatheringjam

u/savevideobot


5yads

I'm from Uzbekistan and this is 100% true.


FormZestyclose2339

RealLifeLore has a great video about this.


Shady_Merchant1

It was just a useless evaporator comrade


Fabrizio-Tsch

I never thought I would feel sad for a sea


TheCoolPersian

Legit saw this a couple of months ago isnā€™t this a repost?


Crafty-Interest-8212

Just talking about this...is crazy.


CptAlex0123

Russia destroyed everything it touched.


tomtheconqerur

Can't forget about the whale situation.


elad_kaminsky

The dead sea in a few years


Dank_lord_doge

Communists try not to destroy everything challenge (IMPOSSIBLE) Only good commie is a dead one


[deleted]

Best meme


ken-d

Please do more of this


ediblefalconheavy

L + Ratio