Everything You Need to Know About Soviet-era Hygiene. Ushanka Digest #ussr

How were couples intimate in such tight quarters

Young Sergei looks like Alexei Mikhailichenko!

It was the same in UK when I grew up. We didn't have a shower but each family member would have a bath once a week. I don't remember noticing people with BO, although some did have bad breath. Our school uniform specified white or grey shirts but my mum bought me grey ones as they didn't get grubby so quickly. In UK we only got 6 weeks holiday for the summer. I've never used deodorant and I still only shower 2 or 3 times a week unless I'm doing dirty jobs. Americans tend to be OTT with everything, regardless of how wasteful that might be.

Sergei, I love your videos and I've watched many of them, but I don't recall if you ever did one that discussed your impressions of the USA when you were a kid. I assume you were taught that the US was the big bad enemy, that did awful things (which we did....sometimes) but do you recall what your impressions of it were?

I was born in the US in 1964 so I grew up with the Cold War. My impressions of the USSR (as a kid) was that it was always dreary, no sunny days. That wasn't true, but that was my impression. I was 16 when the US Hockey team beat the Soviets at Lake Placid and that was incredible for the US.

What were your impressions of the US when you were a kid and did you believe everything you heard/saw?

Who isn't a John Wayne Cheeseburger fan? I know I am.
Regards,
George Washington Ramones M2HB Heavy Machine Gun '66 Chevelle Super Sport Double Header Baseball Game In The Summer Jones Lincoln

Actually, I don't NEED to know any of this. Yet here I am because I WANT to know it lol.

Wait so you're saying that for 3 months every summer as a kid you were a .... and I apologize for this in advance... "dirty commie"? Oh I'm so sorry but I'm a dad and I couldn't resist the dad joke.

Oh my god they called Masha Marcia Marcia Marcia 😂 why were they throwing around inapplicable Brady Bunch references LMAO

It's interesting that in Russian, a straight razor is called a dangerous razor. In English, a straight razor is sometimes called a "cutthroat" — pretty much the same idea.

Would your parents have accepted a "small apartment" at the double or triple of price than they'd paid in the "dormitory" (=10% of the revenue)? I think they would have, just to get rid off their neighbors & roommates. This "popular kind of soap" they are still manufactured: everywhere in Africa it is the standard soap, also in Europe it's still made and sold, but soldered into plastic: Savon de Marseille. It works, does it's job.
By the way, the GDR Soaps were sold in East Germany at Mark 0,95 M (GDR Mark) to 1.20 M but I'm not sure in which years. The salaries in GDR where 800-1000 Marks (East) a month. Soap has not so much risen since; today you can find the cheapest soaps (90 gr) at 0.55€ in the West.

That commenter is dumb, but I must admit that “John Wayne Cheeseburger” is very funny and a great name.

Fun fact about shaving in the Balkans about shaving is that the groom is traditional shaved by his mates or some man from the family before the weeding. Meanwhile the bride and dressed by other ladies. Nowadays with beard trends going to the barber shop to get shaved by another guy is not that strange either.

I've found that using bar soap for my hair leads leads to no dandruff, while even the dandruff shampoos just cause dandruff

My mom grew up in rural North Dakota back in the 50's. The old farmhouse they had did not have running water, just a cistern and a pump. Every Saturday night, they would heat water on the stove and make a bath using a canvas army tub in the middle of the kitchen. Grandma would take a bath first, then the five kids would cycle in, then grandpa...one at a time of course....in the same water. The idea was to get cleaned up for church on Sunday morning. The farm did not have running hot and cold water until they build the new house in the early 70's and my mother and her siblings were off to college. I think this was fairly typical of the era in rural America, likely until recent times.

what happens if you dissolve that soap in water, can you make a liquid soap? I used soap as shampoo and shaving cream before when I was short on money. it causes damage

Evey year in August I go on a 4 day camping trip in Western Michigan, not far from Comrade Sergei. The dirt/sunscreen/bug spray ring that gets left in the hotel bath on Sunday is an annual rite of summer for me - and some poor hotel housekeeping staff.

Please make a video on Soviet tap water: taste, additives/chemicals, water treatment plants, etc.

Sir Do you like Soviet Union honestl

youXre cool

I always thought the cold shower was to stop vigorous rubbing lol. My family in the Magadan area hated the exercise time but they said working out and smoking cigarettes was 2 birds with one bullet more or less.

I dont know if this is a growing up on a council estate in the north thing or just from having older parents but I would only normally have a bath growing up on a sunday before school on monday where we'd often share the water or when we replaced the bath with a shower we'd only do it once or twice a week. This isn't an old thing either i'm gen z and was still doing this in the early to mid 2010's. Now i normally shower or have a bath about 3 times a week. With clothes its the sniff tests or normally just wear it for 2 odd days in a row if i'm at college if it comes in contact with the skin but things like hoodies or maybe trousers can go for longer... although i remember with school uniforms I'd wear the same white or blue polo shirt and black trousers for 5 days in a row and it would normally be fine.

Its interesting about Soviet citizens using tooth powder to clean their silverware, because I use toothpaste to clean my pocketknives and watches. I only use Arm & Hammer brand toothpaste with baking soda to do this. Just work in a dime size amount with a couple drops of water, and makes a stainless steel Seiko dive watch shine like new.

Well, pretty similar washing habits with Greece in the 1980s, then :-)

I want that soap!

Never would have thought you'd use an anime character for your video. Now that is sophistication sir.

When I was a kid we were lucky if we had a bath once a week, we would have a strip wash with cold water each morning before school, the only way to heat water was the coal fire so no hot water until fir was lit. Being British and of a certain age brushing teeth was optional and not really encouraged, my dad was a coal miner, that was a nationalized industry the same as the utilities were back then, oh and the busses and trains were owned by the state so ye they were shit lol
Actually I remember having a bath in front of the coal fire in a tin bath in the living room when I was a kid.

What is a Ushanka?

Black people mindlessly put in advertisement. Just like today.
Sign of totalitarian Marxist rule.

Sergei's parents were straight up midnight ninjas.

I can testify that the author of this blog is definitelly who he claims to be, because most things he says would know only people that lived in USSR. For exemple, only someone who lived in USSR would knoe that clothes from Yugoslavia and Finland were much appreciated.

"He doesn't look Russian either.." Er, Sergi looks like a white guy. You know like ethnic Russians. Now if the person commenting had said that he didn't look Slavic... Oh wait Slavic's are white peeps as well. Hey Sergi, I grew up in Tampa Florida and I recall a couple of Iranians that moved to Tampa and one of them was working in the grocery store I worked at. Man those guys were rank smelling. When questioned they stated that stinking was manly. I guess in their culture? I removed visiting Iran off my bucket list. Yes that was a joke. He didn't last long employed stocking shelves. Everyone including the paying public complained about him and apparently he would rather be fired than shower. Huh. This was in the 70's. I was born in New York in 1955 so I've got ya by 15+ years. Socialism, capitalism, not much different in the end. You know I would have loved to have a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Just because. Thanks for the blast to the past. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hahaha "I thought they had some sort of skin condition" Gotta love that cross-cultural misunderstanding.

I notice that very few of the children in the photos are smiling. I guess from Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, and now Putin there wasn't much to smile about. The dog moving following the man with the TV seemed happy.

From what I know. Back then we lived with greater harmony and understanding of each other. Now impossible. Media and commercial Internet is destroing us, normal people. Perhaps not in USA, but in former soviet area it is a different thing.

Most common word i heard from my mother and grandmother as teen in 80s was "wash you hands" it was before every meal or when i back home ,when i sit to eat it was always "did you wash your hands"

My parents chose an simular life style. In the summer we spent all the time at the countryside as living in our cottage.
I washed my self with cold water we used one big green soap bar, classic pine soap for everything.
It worked out just fine all these special products as to day well one can belive or not.
As young I did not like that place all that much I could not grasp why to live an very simple life but up in age I do understand and that it made good for me.
Man smell ok..the testosterone theory yeah our two dogs bitches will react turning as extra near soft and cosey, my wife she will go in opposite direction.

dude im polish but this story plots are striking memories in my brain.

My fellow metro detroit comrade!😎 Hes really from Kiev and he lives in my area so ms cheeseburger can eat it 😂

WHO LEFT A CODE BROWN IN THE 👑?!

I would suspect the choice of a black person for the packaging had to do with emphasizing the cleanliness of the teeth - more contrast in the colors make the teeth look that much brighter.

In Brasil we should take a shower everyday but in warm times, 2-3 baths at least!

The bathing every day thing really only happened for rural Americans after WW2 I believe. It depended on where you lived and access to indoor plumbing and hot water. A lot of water hookup in some places in America didn't occur until the 80s, and some people still use a cistern system. A lot of the Depression era recovery programs of the 1930s brought electricity to rural America

You forgot to answer the most important question!: HOW DO you drain a bathtub that's in the middle of your shared dining room??

Extremely interesting. Thank you. You’re plugging lot of holes in the average western knowledge of USSR. Keep up the good work! 👍🏻❤️👍🏻

To hell with net flicks and to hell with Hollywood and all who work there!

Isn’t your last name Russian? I was taught that a last name ending in “off” like “Sputnikoff” is a Russian name.. just curious!😊

Very nostalgic and genuine this channel.