There's an old Soviet Jewish joke. Some background first. Where you see the word "Jew", it is the Polish word, which is derogatory in Russian. Son: Mom! I got called a Jew today. Mom: Get used to it. You will be called a Jew in school. You will be called a Jew in University. You will be called a Jew when you are in graduate school. You will be called a Jew when you are in the doctorate program. And when you finally make a scientific breakthrough, you will finally be called a great Russian (referring to ethnicity) scientist.

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

That sounds about right, good joke. Relevant aside (both regarding the video and Russia's invasion of Ukraine), but Trofim Lysenko is currently getting propped up as a great Russian scientific figure, yet he was ironically of Ukrainian ethnicity. Another sad instance of Russia basically Russian-washing certain figures to prop themselves up.

I listened to this without the visuals, and the script holds up without them, so good job

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

I appreciate it man, I do what I can to make my scripts engaging/informative

great video ciggy! dictators love being silly about science don't they? reminds me a bit of cultural-revolution china where many scholars, scientists, intellectuals were persecuted

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

Such full on dictators typically heavily filter reality through the lens of their ideology, or just replace reality with said ideology. Science, being an effort to better understand reality, is typically in friction with these efforts to alter reality, and is thus often on the chopping block in such cases. Another example of anti-science movements and the like is Pol Pot's Cambodia, just unmitigated persecution of sciencey types and straight up anti-intellectualism.

russian history is really fascinating, shame it’s gonna get erased at this rate

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

You're not wrong, on both counts. At least with the internet and the brief period of Russian openness (90's through the early 10's) the reality of Russian history can be preserved, even if not in Russia proper.

@DaTripper

5 ай бұрын

everything must be done to keep the West out of Russia and preserve it

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

What about modern russian society/politics should be preserved in your eye, what is Russia doing so well that the west is trying to interfere with?

@mynameismrsnrub

5 ай бұрын

@@CiggySnake well not so much of modern russia, I just hate the fact that a country with such a rich history in art and culture is in the hands of people who are willing to change it for their agenda (though I suppose this isn't the first time russia has been in bad hands I suppose lol)

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

That was directed more towards DaTripper, fully agree that Russia is a beautiful country with beautiful culture/art, but that it's being perverted by those in power.

Great video!

@CiggySnake

4 ай бұрын

I appreciate it

always a fan of the visuals you use especially in the science themed videos, all the chemical models and such. on another note the scientist exodus reminded me of a video detailing the lengths north korea goes to to keep its citizens from escaping and made me wonder if we'll see russia be doing anything along these lines in the future?

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

Just trying to use my degree in chemistry for something, I'm glad the science-y stuff appeals to you. Russia at present is at least semi-open, people can come and go with relative ease so long as they aren't considered enemies of the state (AKA people who mildly disagree with the current regime). Russia is also an authoritarian shit hole, so people not only have good reason to leave but many countries are likely to be open to fleeing Russians. If it gets bad enough they may clamp down on emigration, Putin has makes no bones about violating international norms after all.

Another interesting and informative video!

USSR fought Nazis. BUT only after being attacked in 1941. In 1939 and 1940 they collaborated (check up Ribbentrop-Molotov pact).

@genrihk164

3 ай бұрын

So what? The Brits and the French collaborated too. They fed Hitler Czechoslovakia. Ever heard of Munich pact?

@WielkiKaleson

3 ай бұрын

@@genrihk164 Call it hot and cold collaboration. Both criminal but absolutely not on the same level.

@genrihk164

3 ай бұрын

@@WielkiKaleson Stop talking nonsense. Noone lifted a finger when Hitler even annexed a whole country - Austria - in 1938, just a year prior to WW2. The western "democracies" were literally inviting him to start the war.

It's almost hilarious to hear Russian names pronounced like that. I don't think you've got any of them right. Though I wouldn't consider this a major problem, surely. It just made me smile. Overall, good video!

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

I did what I could and tried to get the pronunciations at least semi-correct, though with that being said I have no background or knowledge of Russian. In any event, glad you enjoyed the video.

Another based great ciggy snake vid👍 keep up the good work!!

@CiggySnake

4 ай бұрын

Thanks buddy

Just regular ol’ P. Roqueforti, however, is *excellent*

@CiggySnake

3 ай бұрын

Fellow cheese enjoyer

Хорошее видео, сигаретка

Mariupol is not in Crimea. Yes, it lies on the bank of Sea of Azov, but on the continent. Therefore it was fiercely attacked by Russia in 2022 and ~completely destroyed.

@CiggySnake

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, Mariupol is (I guess was) continental Ukraine, I spoke of it in the context of Russia's 2022 invasion of the mainland.

important to seperate the state of russia from all the sovereign countries of the former USSR -and not crediting the former with any of the acheivements of the later

it's sad to say, but this is, in fact, literally me :/

Video is wrong about many things. I wish KZread wouldn't shadowban for links so actual discussion could be had. But there is a lot of evidence to disprove your points. Very biased video.

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

What were some errors made in this video, what did I get wrong in your eye? Also yeah KZread is pretty trigger happy with links or "links" in comments, it's done to fight spam but is otherwise pretty annoying.

@ninenineninenine407

5 ай бұрын

@CiggySnake biggest thing was completely dismissing the idea of learned traits being genetic. There are some highly interesting studies about this topic that I wish I could link that prove there is actually some connection between what happens in life and what happens to a species genetically.

@CiggySnake

5 ай бұрын

Feel free to provide the names of such studies along with their authors, I'd be happy to look into them. I acknowledge that epigenetics is a thing and that actions taking during one life can have a genetic impact on one's genome and in turn their offspring. With that being said, epigenetics (as we currently understand it) cannot fully explain the excesses and extremes posited in Lysenkoism as a scientific theory. Furthermore, efforts to "prove" the scientific theory of Lysenkoism are often done to help justify/rationalize the terrible, political component of Lysenkoism as well, which is the really concerning aspect here.

@WielkiKaleson

4 ай бұрын

@@ninenineninenine407 Say you had an accident and limp since the age of 5. Do you expect your children to have gait problem?

@arifhossain9751

4 ай бұрын

and he was never seen again

I suggest looking into modern China's similar use of science as propaganda. There's a pseudoscientific myth taught to Chinese students that Han Chinese descend from a different Sapain ancestor than the rest of our species, instilling the same attitude of isolation and otherness that you identified here with Russian propaganda.

@CiggySnake

2 ай бұрын

Do you have any links or articles on this matter? I could only see forum posts related to this, but I am curious about it given the avalanche of propaganda the Chinese government employs.

@VallornDeathblade

2 ай бұрын

@@CiggySnake Happily. The myth mostly centers around Peking Man, a fossil hominid found in Northern China in the 1920s. Scientific American has a good article from 2016 which brushes around the subject titled; "How China Is Rewriting the Book on Human Origins". The key paper which really kicked this into nationalistic pseudoscience however is the 1998 study; "Study of Evolution of Early Hominid and the Related Environmental Background" where the ruling communist regime tried to create a fossil record to promote an Out Of Asia origin for humanity and compete with the prevailing Out Of Africa theory. Some other good resources include: Bae, C. 2009. “The People’s Peking Man (review)” in China Review International, 16:2. Cheng, Y. 2017. ““Is Peking Man Still Our Ancestor?” - Genetics, Anthropology, and the Politics of Racial Nationalism in China” in The Journal of Asian Studies, 76:3. Lambert, T. 2020. “Peking Man and Chinese Superiority” in The Rabbit Hole. Rukang, W. And Shenglong, L. 1983. “Peking Man” in Scientific American, 248:6. Sautman, B. 2001. “Peking Man and the Politics of Paleoanthropological Nationalism in China” in The Journal of Asian Studies, 60:1. Sui, C. 2020. “China’s Racism is Wrecking Its Success in Africa” in Foreign Policy.

@VallornDeathblade

2 ай бұрын

@@CiggySnake Seems KZread didn't like the first attempt at this comment. Allow me to try again; Some good resources include: Bae, C. 2009. “The People’s Peking Man (review)” in China Review International, 16:2. Cheng, Y. 2017. ““Is Peking Man Still Our Ancestor?” - Genetics, Anthropology, and the Politics of Racial Nationalism in China” in The Journal of Asian Studies, 76:3. Lambert, T. 2020. “Peking Man and Chinese Superiority” in The Rabbit Hole. Rukang, W. And Shenglong, L. 1983. “Peking Man” in Scientific American, 248:6. Sautman, B. 2001. “Peking Man and the Politics of Paleoanthropological Nationalism in China” in The Journal of Asian Studies, 60:1. Sui, C. 2020. “China’s Racism is Wrecking Its Success in Africa” in Foreign Policy. Qiu, J.2016. "How China Is Rewriting the Book on Human Origins" in Nature, 535:22. Hope this helps! And hopefully KZread doesn't decide to hide this comment again.

@CiggySnake

2 ай бұрын

Both comments came through on my end, though KZread is a strange entity that defies understanding. I greatly appreciate the sources and will look into them, thanks again.

@VallornDeathblade

2 ай бұрын

@@CiggySnake No problem! Glad they were able to get through!

Very surface level analysis. While Soviets did value science and education and this is why to this day Russia produces a lot of talent in hard sciences, the reasons for the spread of pseudoscience lie in the Soviet project itself which at it's heart operated on Marxist foundation with it's animosity towards capitalism, imperialism, idealism and it's promise of creating "New Man" which gave the Soviet State the necessary ideological scaffolding to push back against everything remotely un-soviet. If you want to dig deep into the subject you should read on the period Anti-cosmopolitan campaign, where they tried to reinvent everything from Arts to Sciences, to align it with Marxist dogmas, essentially making religion out of it, which is pretty ironic all things considered.Imagine pushing back against theory of relativity based on writings of the philosopher from 19th centrury? That's pure insanity. To this days there exist communist circles in Russia that defend aether theory because they think it better aligns with Marxism. And thank god for academic genius of great linguist and know-it-all sir Joseph Stalin for his masterful rebuttal of Marrist or Japhetic linguistic theory. A theory that tried to prove that languages have class-based nature and language evolve only to become a single worldwide language, it was supported on state level, including by Stalin himself as the only legitimate theory for close to 30 years, and opposition to which and many other soviet pseudo-scientific endeavors have costed lives for many legitimate Soviet scientists. Thank God the science has finally been settled by professor Stalin and no more linguists had to die, because as you know science cannot move forward without auspices of the great leader. People in the west don't realize how much the communist period have deeply eroded russian culture, intellectual tradition, the quality of the elites and made the period a favorite go-to for the state propaganda to let the people harken back to the good ol' days, further worsening the cultural space.

@CiggySnake

4 ай бұрын

I don't touch on it much in the video itself, but I'm familiar with the bizarre introduction of Marxist class ideology/analysis into other areas of science. Lysenko considered opposition to his theories (the support of classical genetics) a reactionary, western, anti-proletarian position, and in that framing it imparted an untouchable status to his delusional beliefs. It was also the grounds for the extreme regression in Russian genetics/biology/agriculture seen at this time. I feel the fundamental issue is just that both the soviet union and the modern Russian federation are highly autocratic and ideological organizations. The USSR's malapplication of marxist theory imparted a bizarre flavor to their state ideology, but in both cases, adherence to this state ideology was/is necessary to be a respectable member of society.