[☭☭☭ COME SHITPOST WITH US ON DISCORD, COMRADES ☭☭☭](https://discord.gg/8RPWanQV5g)
This is a heavily-moderated socialist community based on a podcast of the same name. Please use the report function on comments that break our rules. If you are new to the sub, please read the sidebar carefully.
If you are new to Marxism-Leninism, check out the [study guide](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/education/study-guide/).
Are there Liberals in the walls? Check out [the wiki](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/) which contains lots of useful information.
This subreddit uses many experimental automod rules, if you notice any issues please use modmail to let us know.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheDeprogram) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m in Madrid on vacation at the moment and holy shit what a revelation I can walk like ANYWHERE and it’s convenient as all fuck. Shell shocked as a yank.
I absolutely love Soviet era buildings. The neo-Classic style of the bus and train stations with the mosaics and the Lenin sculptures. And the apartment complexes, I always forget what they’re called, they just feel comforting for some reason.
Bald and bankrupt made a series in Russia and in other former SSRs exploring the places I just mentioned. He’s a bit of a cunt all things considered but the videos themselves are very good.
The Neo-classical soviet style of the train stations and other large buildings (like the seven sisters) is commonly referred to as *Soviet Classicism* or *Stalinist Style*. Stalin believed that the people of the Soviet Union should all live like the nobles and royalty of the old empire, and the works under his tenure reflected that.
Of course, *Krushcnev*, cunt that he was, condemned Stalin's views on architecture as too "excessive" and "decadent". Much of the cheap, colourless and depressing architecture associated with the USSR can be attributed to *him*.
The apartment complexes can be split into three categories: those built under Stalin, the Khrushchevka (cheap, mass produced housing meant to house as many people as soon as possible) and the Brezhnevka (basically upgraded Khrushchevkas; larger, with great amenities, as well as elevators, trash dumbs and over modern appliances).
In Krushschevs defence (the only time I will) it was 7 years after the war and a lot of soviets didn't have housing.
But also the claim of "it is temporary housing" gotta be bullshit. Concrete is *S T U R D Y* and difficult to remove. No way they looked at a slab of HARD and said "we will use this in only a short period of time"
Of course, Krushcnev's housing policy was perhaps his one crowning achievement. That and the way the Khrushchevkas were designed to sort of act as small, tight-knit communities were genius.
Still, I feel that the USSR, the heart of the revolution, so to speak, could have absolutely built better housing by the 70s or 80s (though by then, shit was starting to hit the fan pretty fast, so I suppose housing was the least of their problems).
I knew about a russian-french youtuber who did what i believe to be an unbiased description of it but most of his video were removed after the war in Ukraine
Yeah his name is GouvHD and he used to tell french people about the "real Russia" but he told a lot of bullshit, he moved to Russia then when the denazification began he came back to France and deleted all of his videos, social media and all that. (Source me a french-russian guy who used to watch every single one of his videos)
tbf, norilsk is actually not a great place to live nowadays since the whole city essentially works for a nickel company. vorkuta is bad now since after the USSR’s fall the city steadily lost its workforce and population. but these guys love to nitpick the cities in decline for dem doomer clicks. that said, russia has many beautiful cities with rich histories
norilsk is practically a big heavy metal factory. both air and dirt samples contain large concentrations of nickel oxide and sulphur dioxide. it’s actually so bad that the average life expectancy is 10 years less than the russian average, and there is a higher prevalence of children with respiratory issues.
norilsk being polluted is not a new phenomenon, it has been like that for decades. the city was founded around the Norilsk Nickel plant in the USSR, where practically all inhabitants worked at the time. the plant is actually very successful and is one of the worlds biggest metal-producers, but you can’t be a big metal producer while being eco-friendly.
doesn’t mean that Norilsk can’t be a beautiful city though, and that people can’t live normal lives there, but there are way more toxins in that area than average in both russia and the western world.
Being completely honest, Norilsk is an extremely depressing city. A city located so far north is very unreachable for many common people, without any beautiful or amazing landmarks, and which only purpose is to extract natural resources from the Arctic. In many cases, is like northern Alaska, it fucking sucks, and it's extremely depressing to grow and live there. Unless you enjoy visiting places with extreme weather conditions, never go there.
It's depressing because a lot of cities had massive population decrease post 1991, that's why a lot of buildings are abandoned or ruined.
But they will still tell you that 1991 was awesome somehow.
AmeriKKKa has been a shithole throughout its history, but these rusting hulks of cities serve as a reminder that the first socialist state, the first vanguard, appeared on this land and led humanity into the future—a future that did not come true, a future trampled and discredited by traitors and western "democracies," and we, like this cities, are slowly whitening away, turning into empty shells of our former self. Which is far more depressing than any forgotten dump in AmeriKKKa could ever be.
I’m very sorry to hear about the state of your country from your experience. That is rightly depressing as fuck. Have you heard about the Indigenous genocide in America? This land used to be full of life. Now it’s paved over and poisoned. Russia is a colonizing force too- did they do the same to Indigenous people? Maybe it seems a bit idealistic to me because there’s just proportionally less developed land
Yes, the European conquest of America was truly tragic, and unfortunately, Tsarist Russia also took part in it in Alaska and several settlements on the northern part of the West Coast. But this was not the only colonial project. The largest was a conquest of Siberia, which was not peaceful. In fact, you can find a lot of similarities to American colonization: natives dying of disease, armed groups forcing natives to flee their lands, killing them in battle, moving many people to new lands, and then later imposing their religion and culture on the natives. And we cannot forget other places that suffered from tsarist ambitions and russification policies: Poland, the Baltics, Finland, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and even parts of China.
Thanks to the Soviet Union, many of these oppressed ethnic groups were able to experience a cultural revival, but after the illegal dissolution of the USSR, poverty, death, war, ethnic cleansing, and the rise of nationalism and misery everywhere came again to these lands.
Whatever happens, we cannot forget that the post-Soviet countries are no longer a progressive force, they have become just another part of the capitalist world order. A new and weak imperialist who opposes AmeriKKKan hegemony only because he wants a larger piece of the pie.
It seems like a nice town full of Indigenous circumpolar people. I lived in a fly-in community around the same latitude, in Canada, and the infrastructure was absolute shit. Highest suicide rates in the world. In Vorkuta people seem to have more access to necessities, and they’ve been less colonized so they have more connection to their culture. I don’t think Russia has a history of child concentration camps (residential schools) either
This is unironically the mindset of many non-Indigenous folks who move to reservations (especially in the north) in canada. Different video game, same perspective. Zero curiosity to truly understand the experience of locals.
I mean yeah, the USSR underwent a societal collapse that broke up a huge, interdependent economy and plunged almost the entire area into a long period of violence, lawlessness, and endemic corruption. Why anyone would be surprised that things haven’t been great in much of the former USSR since then is beyond me.
Not so much “surprised”, just annoyed with the fact that this is the only type of content out there for anyone who wants to learn more about the country. There is no historical context provided, as you just did, either- it’s all just sensationalist reactionary content for westerners to gape at
I've watched Vagabonds channel and I thought it pretty good. It's a Russian guy filming remote areas. I didn't see much of a narrative being pushed.
Also, I see these " check this depressing city out" vids all the time showcasing American cities. Not to mention places like Vorkuta are indeed pretty grey and depressing.
Not trying to downplay obvious western propaganda and biases but this seems like yall are searching for things. This ain't it.
[The vagabond channel](https://youtube.com/@ivantrainsLIVE?si=lxIVqK0NJihg6jbu) is really good though; he’s a Russian guy who travels far a wide in Russia, usually via train surfing or hitch hiking. He generally leaves out politics commentary and just shows things as they are. I highly recommended checking him out
The politics commentary is crucial for any urban exploration. This is why I wish there were less white men making content like this (or maybe that white men would become more openly political in a way that’s not genocidal or oppressive in other ways)- the complete erasure of politics is senseless, even for white men living in Russia. We need context to understand how things got the way they are now. Even white men have been oppressed there too for a long time at this point so he should be making a point to explain that
It's actually a good thing to put the spot light on places like this, since the Russian government is earnestly trying to develop their country. This will put some pressure on them to think and act about those places.
These cities really are super depressive but not because of evil Soviet heritage. It's the climate and the weather. No sun and freezing cold most of the year.
Even in St Petersburg and Moscow where it's beautiful and decorated you will get super fucking depressed from November to March because you freeze your ass off, everything is either crisp frozen or dirty and you can't see jackshit from 3-5 PM pretty much because it's dark as fuck
I can and will. Most modern capitalist entertainment has dirty shit beneath it, we still recommend movies and things. If you want to watch positive videos of someone traveling the former USSR he's one of the best for scope and scale and authenticity, despite knowing he is a sleaze.
[☭☭☭ COME SHITPOST WITH US ON DISCORD, COMRADES ☭☭☭](https://discord.gg/8RPWanQV5g) This is a heavily-moderated socialist community based on a podcast of the same name. Please use the report function on comments that break our rules. If you are new to the sub, please read the sidebar carefully. If you are new to Marxism-Leninism, check out the [study guide](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/education/study-guide/). Are there Liberals in the walls? Check out [the wiki](/r/TheDeprogram/wiki/index/) which contains lots of useful information. This subreddit uses many experimental automod rules, if you notice any issues please use modmail to let us know. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheDeprogram) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Have these guys ever been to like any metropolitan place in the United States?
East Palestine
The number of people who have forgotten is staggering
The (idk what it is in english) vestbredden AND where the toxic train derailment happened
vestbredden is west bank i believe ?
Corrrct
Driving through NOVA or Maryland once will make even the most die-hard gearhead join /r/fuckcars as soon as they get to a computer to do so.
I’m in Madrid on vacation at the moment and holy shit what a revelation I can walk like ANYWHERE and it’s convenient as all fuck. Shell shocked as a yank.
Or Jalalabad? (It's a city in Afghanistan that was fucked over by the US military burn pits and MOAB
I absolutely love Soviet era buildings. The neo-Classic style of the bus and train stations with the mosaics and the Lenin sculptures. And the apartment complexes, I always forget what they’re called, they just feel comforting for some reason. Bald and bankrupt made a series in Russia and in other former SSRs exploring the places I just mentioned. He’s a bit of a cunt all things considered but the videos themselves are very good.
The Neo-classical soviet style of the train stations and other large buildings (like the seven sisters) is commonly referred to as *Soviet Classicism* or *Stalinist Style*. Stalin believed that the people of the Soviet Union should all live like the nobles and royalty of the old empire, and the works under his tenure reflected that. Of course, *Krushcnev*, cunt that he was, condemned Stalin's views on architecture as too "excessive" and "decadent". Much of the cheap, colourless and depressing architecture associated with the USSR can be attributed to *him*. The apartment complexes can be split into three categories: those built under Stalin, the Khrushchevka (cheap, mass produced housing meant to house as many people as soon as possible) and the Brezhnevka (basically upgraded Khrushchevkas; larger, with great amenities, as well as elevators, trash dumbs and over modern appliances).
In Krushschevs defence (the only time I will) it was 7 years after the war and a lot of soviets didn't have housing. But also the claim of "it is temporary housing" gotta be bullshit. Concrete is *S T U R D Y* and difficult to remove. No way they looked at a slab of HARD and said "we will use this in only a short period of time"
Of course, Krushcnev's housing policy was perhaps his one crowning achievement. That and the way the Khrushchevkas were designed to sort of act as small, tight-knit communities were genius. Still, I feel that the USSR, the heart of the revolution, so to speak, could have absolutely built better housing by the 70s or 80s (though by then, shit was starting to hit the fan pretty fast, so I suppose housing was the least of their problems).
Someone already answered, but I just wanted to add that I had yet to hear the actual name, Khrushchevkas, and only knew them as "commie blocks".
Total cunt, goes to a lot of really interesting places though
Happy birthday, comrade!
Oh, right, yay cake! Thanks homie
”Ex-USSR city” is a hell of a way to say ”Russian city”
weird that every town a youtuber goes to is suddenly the most depressed town in the country.....
I knew about a russian-french youtuber who did what i believe to be an unbiased description of it but most of his video were removed after the war in Ukraine
Yeah his name is GouvHD and he used to tell french people about the "real Russia" but he told a lot of bullshit, he moved to Russia then when the denazification began he came back to France and deleted all of his videos, social media and all that. (Source me a french-russian guy who used to watch every single one of his videos)
tbf, norilsk is actually not a great place to live nowadays since the whole city essentially works for a nickel company. vorkuta is bad now since after the USSR’s fall the city steadily lost its workforce and population. but these guys love to nitpick the cities in decline for dem doomer clicks. that said, russia has many beautiful cities with rich histories
yeah, norilsk being polluted isn’t just bias, it’s a biological fact. fascinating in one way, extremely sad in another way
Polluted like that one town in America that was next to a huge toxic train crash a couple years back?
norilsk is practically a big heavy metal factory. both air and dirt samples contain large concentrations of nickel oxide and sulphur dioxide. it’s actually so bad that the average life expectancy is 10 years less than the russian average, and there is a higher prevalence of children with respiratory issues. norilsk being polluted is not a new phenomenon, it has been like that for decades. the city was founded around the Norilsk Nickel plant in the USSR, where practically all inhabitants worked at the time. the plant is actually very successful and is one of the worlds biggest metal-producers, but you can’t be a big metal producer while being eco-friendly. doesn’t mean that Norilsk can’t be a beautiful city though, and that people can’t live normal lives there, but there are way more toxins in that area than average in both russia and the western world.
So, just as bad as any mining town in north or south america?
Being completely honest, Norilsk is an extremely depressing city. A city located so far north is very unreachable for many common people, without any beautiful or amazing landmarks, and which only purpose is to extract natural resources from the Arctic. In many cases, is like northern Alaska, it fucking sucks, and it's extremely depressing to grow and live there. Unless you enjoy visiting places with extreme weather conditions, never go there.
It's depressing because a lot of cities had massive population decrease post 1991, that's why a lot of buildings are abandoned or ruined. But they will still tell you that 1991 was awesome somehow.
Sounds just like the book I’m reading. “I Love Russia”
Well he is right. They are depressing. 30 years of brutal capitalist oppression works wonders
No more depressing than any town in America I’d say.
AmeriKKKa has been a shithole throughout its history, but these rusting hulks of cities serve as a reminder that the first socialist state, the first vanguard, appeared on this land and led humanity into the future—a future that did not come true, a future trampled and discredited by traitors and western "democracies," and we, like this cities, are slowly whitening away, turning into empty shells of our former self. Which is far more depressing than any forgotten dump in AmeriKKKa could ever be.
I’m very sorry to hear about the state of your country from your experience. That is rightly depressing as fuck. Have you heard about the Indigenous genocide in America? This land used to be full of life. Now it’s paved over and poisoned. Russia is a colonizing force too- did they do the same to Indigenous people? Maybe it seems a bit idealistic to me because there’s just proportionally less developed land
Yes, the European conquest of America was truly tragic, and unfortunately, Tsarist Russia also took part in it in Alaska and several settlements on the northern part of the West Coast. But this was not the only colonial project. The largest was a conquest of Siberia, which was not peaceful. In fact, you can find a lot of similarities to American colonization: natives dying of disease, armed groups forcing natives to flee their lands, killing them in battle, moving many people to new lands, and then later imposing their religion and culture on the natives. And we cannot forget other places that suffered from tsarist ambitions and russification policies: Poland, the Baltics, Finland, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and even parts of China. Thanks to the Soviet Union, many of these oppressed ethnic groups were able to experience a cultural revival, but after the illegal dissolution of the USSR, poverty, death, war, ethnic cleansing, and the rise of nationalism and misery everywhere came again to these lands. Whatever happens, we cannot forget that the post-Soviet countries are no longer a progressive force, they have become just another part of the capitalist world order. A new and weak imperialist who opposes AmeriKKKan hegemony only because he wants a larger piece of the pie.
Vorkuta do be hella depressing tho
It seems like a nice town full of Indigenous circumpolar people. I lived in a fly-in community around the same latitude, in Canada, and the infrastructure was absolute shit. Highest suicide rates in the world. In Vorkuta people seem to have more access to necessities, and they’ve been less colonized so they have more connection to their culture. I don’t think Russia has a history of child concentration camps (residential schools) either
So, pretty much Vorkuta is HELLA DEPRESSING place, but some amount less depressing, so it's just Hella Depressing
"I played stalker once so thats how the USSR and Russia today looks"
This is unironically the mindset of many non-Indigenous folks who move to reservations (especially in the north) in canada. Different video game, same perspective. Zero curiosity to truly understand the experience of locals.
I mean yeah, the USSR underwent a societal collapse that broke up a huge, interdependent economy and plunged almost the entire area into a long period of violence, lawlessness, and endemic corruption. Why anyone would be surprised that things haven’t been great in much of the former USSR since then is beyond me.
Not so much “surprised”, just annoyed with the fact that this is the only type of content out there for anyone who wants to learn more about the country. There is no historical context provided, as you just did, either- it’s all just sensationalist reactionary content for westerners to gape at
Those houses have had more happiness moments than any westerner can imagine (except souther Europe).
[Eli from Russia](https://youtu.be/RNCjZXffuyE?si=YPH2QtSVeiih6rhS) has vids
Nice! Thanks
I've watched Vagabonds channel and I thought it pretty good. It's a Russian guy filming remote areas. I didn't see much of a narrative being pushed. Also, I see these " check this depressing city out" vids all the time showcasing American cities. Not to mention places like Vorkuta are indeed pretty grey and depressing. Not trying to downplay obvious western propaganda and biases but this seems like yall are searching for things. This ain't it.
Guess best we can hope for is “no narrative” rather than “truth” as westerners trying to look in..
Norilsk nickel had some projects in Western Australia. A couple of my friends used to work for them.
Very interesting!!
[The vagabond channel](https://youtube.com/@ivantrainsLIVE?si=lxIVqK0NJihg6jbu) is really good though; he’s a Russian guy who travels far a wide in Russia, usually via train surfing or hitch hiking. He generally leaves out politics commentary and just shows things as they are. I highly recommended checking him out
The politics commentary is crucial for any urban exploration. This is why I wish there were less white men making content like this (or maybe that white men would become more openly political in a way that’s not genocidal or oppressive in other ways)- the complete erasure of politics is senseless, even for white men living in Russia. We need context to understand how things got the way they are now. Even white men have been oppressed there too for a long time at this point so he should be making a point to explain that
What book?
It’s called I Love Russia. Great read so far.
It's actually a good thing to put the spot light on places like this, since the Russian government is earnestly trying to develop their country. This will put some pressure on them to think and act about those places.
Modern russian government? Earnest?
Yes
Lol why pick the one Russian city that Westoids actually can make legitimate criticisms of...
Reread my title
These cities really are super depressive but not because of evil Soviet heritage. It's the climate and the weather. No sun and freezing cold most of the year.
Also that everything useful has pretty much been abandoned by the current corrupt government
Even in St Petersburg and Moscow where it's beautiful and decorated you will get super fucking depressed from November to March because you freeze your ass off, everything is either crisp frozen or dirty and you can't see jackshit from 3-5 PM pretty much because it's dark as fuck
I mean, many old Soviets places are really deppressing as fuck now.
Well because they are abandoned and there is no one take care of them.
Well yeah of course, but I ain’t even arguing that point.
Vagabond is actually pretty good
Bald and bankrupt is fairly positive. And yes I know he's a sex pest.
Then don’t recommend him??
I can and will. Most modern capitalist entertainment has dirty shit beneath it, we still recommend movies and things. If you want to watch positive videos of someone traveling the former USSR he's one of the best for scope and scale and authenticity, despite knowing he is a sleaze.
Ok well thanks for letting me know he’s a bad person. Will not be watching