What could you do for an idea? We know the answer perfectly. Everything. You could do everything for your idea. It depends of the level of your fierce and frantic belief in something. In our world, ideas are modern deities. People talk about ideas,
someone lives with ideas, and someone thinks of ideas like of some sacred temple you
may not encroach in any case. Some people believe in healthism and try to prove to everyone how sinful and deadly it
is to begin your morning with a cigarette and a cup of coffee. And if you don't meditate
and are not in the aware moment to acknowledge yourself, you
would definitely burn in hell. And some people don't
give a shit about it. About healthism, about meditations, about being in the moment. You could actually
shit in smoothie, too. Some people frantically
believe in different -isms. Communism, feminism,
socialism, sexism, and so on. And always, in all those ideas,
some bright future is waiting for us. But only if we join our forces and defeat those enemies that we hate. As soon as we mop up the floor with everyone who doesn't fit with our opinions and who
doesn't agree with them; as soon as communists mop up the
floor with all the capitalists; as soon as feminists
mop up the floor with all cis-gender and patricarchal scum, then we will be in heaven right away. And all of us will be sated,
infinitely happy and carelessly jumping on the green grass
in nightieswith teddy bears. Although, I think that even there would be activists who pity trampled grass or who would be insulted by a nightie with teddy bears. Because teddy bear on a nightie is a symbol of human domination over helpless animals
that, since childhood, implants a dominant
position of humans over dejected and helpless creatures. And so, let's shoot down everyone who wears nighties with teddy bears. No, at first, we
make them bend the knee, and then we shoot them down. No, first, we make them bend the knee, and then they should kiss us in the... But here's the thing. Our generation of humans isn't unique. The mankind lives with ideas
through all its life and history, and as a kind, from
generation to generation, we live with ideas
about better future and how to live the right way and
how not to live the wrong way. Depending on the country, constitution of society
and cultural background, ideas are different
in every time period. But actually, they are all the same. About some mythical bright future. And I have a question. Why don't we still live in
that bright and better future? On the one hand, our
modern life is a paradise for every human being
of XVIII or XIX century. No joking. We're living in paradise. We have hot water, central heating, medicine, social
security and tik-tokers. Isn't it a paradise? If you're born in V century, you're living in the middle of nowhere' you have only your family or some residents of your
commune or village, that's all. And those 15, 20,
even 200 people are most likely all the people you
would see through your whole life. The only new contacts you could have are those bunches of alien men
with bows and swords that could ride upon you at any moment, and
slaughter or sell in slavery all of you. And even in the X or XV century,
life didn't differ dramatically. The matters of
medicine were even simpler. If you have an ache,
you have two ways out. First, do not pay attention
and pray for you not to die. Second, cut it off. And you wouldn't
necessarily live after that. But that was the matter
of what you believe more, in our dear Lord or in the wood saw. That's the perfect tool to
work with my ex, you know. Today, we live in the
world where you have a grocery store in your
house, and if you're too lazy, the delivery guy would bring it all. Everything you could be in
need of is always accessible. You could earn money while sitting
in your kitchen in your underwear. You can drive a car or fly a
plane, we have actual trains riding underground every minute so that you could reach your favorite
places in the city with comfort. And if something is wrong, you always have phone numbers of social services; you can reach them,
and they will help you. Actually, we live such a life that
our grandparents couldn't even imagine. As well as our
stories about our travels. Today, all of us are like,
who's on Bali, who's in Thailand, who's in Turkey, who's in Europe. And 80 years ago, the travel was like, I went to the neighboring village, and I saw a cow udder
that was that large! And if you look closely around you, you couldn't notice many people who are perfectly happy. Only a few are really happy, I'd say. And they'd rather tell a fucking lie. And if a person is too joyful and happy, just like that, by themselves, that's not a reason to be jealous. That's some suspicious
shit and a strong reason to call an ambulance because that person is obviously going nuts. They're up to some joy! In
our times, hello, do you copy!? We're permanently
depressed, permanently tired, and hardly anything could bring us joy. Instead of enjoying life
with our loved ones together, we often want to be alone so
that no one could bother us. We are afraid to
tell about our feelings. We don't know what we're living for. And so, we live our
ground-hog day year after year, deadening inner pain with
TV-series, scrolling social media, impulsely buying of some useless
shit in the Internet and watching porn. And yes, some delivery guy with
sushi can't help you with those problems. Even if he brings you a
gift set for your repost. And so, on the one hand,
we have visible progress. And on the other hand,
things seem to have gotten worse. Why is it so? Because we are not fierce
and frantic enough while following the right
ideas about bright future? Or perhaps, all those
ideas could go to hell, and we could begin to live, finally? Although, refusing an idea and
living - that's also a fucking idea! It turns out, there's
no other way for us. We are forced to defend
and fight for those ideas we believe for some
reason, through the whole life. And we believe that's the
only way of arranging progress; and that we're actually
getting close to that bright future. Or could it be that we're just digging our grave even
deeper with all this fuss? You hardly expected
such words in this video. Perhaps, some of you are like, why are you so philosophical, Bottled? This is a car channel! Hello, hunk-hunk! Give us an interesting story about those cars riding here and there and engineers inventing
them, not all of this stuff. What did I open my chips for? Why do you spoil my evening? Fair enough. Fair point. But here's the question. Do you think that the car
world that is made up of exactly the same people like you and me
is living by some other rules? And no one of those people fights
for their ideas inside the car world? And there are never any
conflicts or intersection of interests? And it's never the case that
someone comes to a fine pass? And it's never the case that someone
could pay with his life for some idea? Everything I can say at the
moment is that I definitely have an interesting Rolling
R Story for you today. And after watching it, you would
see this world a bit different. I promise you that. And honestly, humanwise, I look at you with admiring envy. And I don't want to rain on
your parade so much that there won't be any standard
preview, like "today you'll know". Today, you'll get a
buzz.This matters the most. Happy diving! Asafiev. Rolling R Stories Divine Integration Yes, everything is ready. Yes, parts are already here, alright. You may come. I'm waiting. Hello... Hello, I'm Yuri. Yuri Moneykin. Vegetarian, numismatist, and
I don't like the purple color. I have an appointment in your service. Yes, that's right, you
have an appointment for today. Volkswagen Tiguan. Maintenance,
replacing of brakes and the wheel. Right? Yes, yes, I remember. But
first, let us settle the transaction. There's no need, that would be
after we finish all the repair... ...work. What is this? My payment. I counted everything.
Everything we will do. I checked in the Internet, that would be 30 rubles and 40 kopecks
cheaper than in other services. And what does the kopeck? It
makes rubles take care of themselves. Yes, but you have a
Kazakhstan tenge and Turkish lira. Small but precious. By the way, do you have an
imported oil? I don't need it. I have my one. I filtered my old oil and added a half-liter of the new one. The ready oil. Oh my God. Oil? Oil. 5 litres saving. Interesting saving. The most economical economy. And also, I can pay you
with gift certificates or what else you accept here. For now, I see a bunch of
coins and some strange gift cards. And if you had the Tinkoff
Drive card, you could have paid for the repairs, and some
money would have returned to you. What do you wanna say? I could save some money, couldn't I? Yes, and without all that fuss. With Tinkoff drive, you
don't only get to 1% cashback for every purchase, you could also get 5% cashback for purchasing parts and car accessories. And also, 5%
cashback would return to you after paying fines and parking fees. And also, there's 10% cashback after buying CMTPL in Tinkoff Insurance and in every car
insurance service at all. And also, 10% cashback for buying some things on fuel
station. Fuel included. It's quite a fortune! Well, yes. And so you could spare up to 25,000 bonuses per year. 1 bonus is 1 ruble. By the way, it's the cost of a tire set or some average maintenance. What should I do with it? I just take the card and tap it, and money come back in the app, right? Yes, just tap the card, and money will return to your account. And you will receive up to 1% cashback for all your purchases by card. Moreover, in the
Tinkoff Bank app, you will see offers from the
partners of the bank. In order to maintain
your car with profits, one Tinkoff Drive card is enough. Book the card per link in description, and the promocode ASAFEV1000 will return 1,000 rubles to you while
spending 3,000 rubles and more. Hurry, every detail is in description. You could use cashback to
earn back your money-box. Don't worry. I stole it. Rolling R Stories November 17, 1986. France, Paris, the
Montparnasse district. The prestige residential
area Boulevar Edgar-Quinet. About 8 p.m., local residents
heard some strange bangs outside. Just like fireworks. But what fireworks could be
displayed on Monday evening? When people peeked outside, they saw several people
running along the street, two prams standing on the roadway, and something
unidentified lying on the sidewalk. They realized quite
soon that it was a man with four bullet wounds to
the chest lying on the sidewalk. Security perimeter,
police, cameras of reporters and ambulance were not
slow in coming, of course. There was a crowd on the empty street right away,
made of shocked people, journalists, onlookers, law enforcement and other riffraff. But among those people who happened to be on the crime
scene, literally 20 minutes after shooting,
there was Jacques Chirac, the mayor of Paris at that time. And in the nearest future, Prime
Minister and President of France. The first question, right away. Why did Jacques Chirac
arrive at the crime scene? It's clear that Paris is
a capital of the state, a multimillion city, and murders happen in it as in any other
place on the planet, on an all too regular basis. But the mayor of the city would hardly
rush for each and every one of them so swiftly. And even if he would,
what would he do out there? I don't think it's fun
for the mayor of the city, looking at newly-minted clients
of the local morgue at nights. Obviously, if the mayor of the
city abandoned all his matters and soft sleep, and rushed out
there, the matter would be serious. And yes, it was. Because the man lying on the
ground was called Georges Besse. At that moment, he was
merely the head of Renault. One of the most influential and
famous executives in the country. The capital of one of the main European countries;
the prestige neighborhood that had housed Pablo
Picasso, Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway, Marc Chagall, and a bunch of other respected people. And right in the middle of
the street, some unknown guys very easily killed one
of the most important high-ranking functionaries
of the national business. The very idea that
something like that was possible, that someone could just kill
one of the high-ranking leaders just in the middle of the street -
no one could even think about it. Nemtsov, to begin with. As I've already said, at
the time of the murder, Georges Besse was the head of Renault. Not one of them but the
very main chief that could be. His being said, he assumed his office not so long
ago, in January 1985. That means he had been in his
office only 21 month, less than 2 years. And here's the question: why did somebody want to kill
a head of a car corporation? I could understand when somebody kills famous politicians or,
for example, druglords. And here's a company that produces
cheap hatchbacks, the national company. Yes, it's large. Yes,
with a lot of money. And it would be one thing if Besse was the owner of
Renault, and after his death, there could be some shady activities with his heritage, change of management, and steamrolling of a competitor. But the company was national. And although Besse was in a high
position, he was a simple hire. He wasn't even a stockholder. Just a manager. Yes, he
was smart and effective. But nevertheless, if one was killed, another would be put into place. But! If everything was so
easy, something tells me I wouldn't be
telling you this story now. And so, let us look a little bit closer. Chapter I. Files for the
Murderers and the Victim At first sight, Georges was a pretty dull and boring man, and not a proper person for our documentaries. Because, if being absolutely honest, between us girls, a man was killed - and to hell with him. A man was killed, nothing new! It happens to everyone. But the closer I looked at some details, the more questions appeared in my head. Although he was a
visible person in the scale of the country, more or less, I couldn't find very
much information about him. Even in French sources. He was born to the
family of a locksmith in 1927; he entered the Engineering
College to be an engineer, and after that, he studied
in the Paris School of Mines. The most part of his life, he
worked in mining enterprises, as engineer at first, a small executive
after that, and a normal executive further on. A bit remarkable was the fact
that he was assistant general manager of CIT-Alcatel in 1954. Alcatel, if you remember, that was a
cellphone brand in the early 2000s. That was the same thing
but with one small remark; Alcatel is a giant corporation
that originally produced entire telecommunications as
such, since the XIX century. Cables, telegraphs, phones, wires,
communication centers, and so on. And at some point, just
like Siemens, for example, they began to produce
everything they could lay their hands upon. At some point, they've
been producing even trains. 1964-1974, Besse was in the
head management of Alcatel. He was actually in
operations, and he worked on improvement of
business processes, optimization, and other boring things. 1974-1985, he worked as general manager in mining and energetic
sector, nothing interesting. And in 1985, he was
made the head of Renault. And he was killed 2 years later. That's it, that's his whole biography. Not kidding. Well, perhaps, he went
on vacation a couple times in his life. Who killed him and why? Who was displeased with a
manager of a national corporation? Where do you look
for killers? Not clear. But after the murder, a few
days later, widely scattered leaflets appeared all around Paris, and those leaflets said that
the responsibility for the murder was held by some
terroristic group Actione Directe. It means, direct action. They couldn't be more direct, actually. Aside of slogans, those
leaflets said that terrorists from that group killed Bessе for his
crimes against the working class and for his exploitation of
the same working class. And at that point, I'm like, okay. Exploitation of workers, I like it! Give it to me, we're going
to dig in that direction. Because all those things together
smell like a giant piece of shit, and I love something like that. Meet Jean Marc
Rouillan, Georges Cipriani, Nathalie Ménigon and Joëlle Aubron. The thought leaders and
heads of Action Directe. Technically, those were
far-left anarchists who professed the theory
of permanent revolution. In understandable terms, that meant
that whatever social structure existed, whatever order or whatever hierarchy existed, that was some absolute shit. If there was any social ladder where someone could be higher than the other, that had to be bombed down, definitely. Because any hierarchy, any governance, any rules with laws were
just horrible, horrible things. And if there was a glimpse
of money out there somewhere, everyone should be shot
down, buried in the ground, and you should take a big
pile of crap on their grave. That's all. That's
enough. That was the idea. What had to be built later
instead of the destroyed system? Those guys didn't
mention that, of course. If you look at the literature published by those gifted people - and
I looked at it right away - it's just impossible to find even some little piece of
common sense, that's for sure. For example, here's a
quote from one book. "We have to join forces and stand against the
floods of lies and swearing vomited by the cowardly bourgeoisie and those traitors
who fear our vengeance." And other 200 pages of such shit. If you want to go nuts
in some Sunday evening, I recommend it; you'd have fun
in the mental facility later. What did those guys do technically? Covering with ideologic slogans
with very unclear formulations, like the whole society were
rotten and demanded serious changes, they threw bombs
into national buildings, into airports, into road junctions; also they attacked police
departments and robbed banks. Wait, sorry. They didn't rob banks but they expropriated dirty
money of the bourgeoisie profitted off the
exploitation of workers. That's the right definition. In human words, they robbed banks. I should say, Action Directe wasn't the only European terrorist
organization of that time period. Beginning with the late 1960s and until the moment that we're
interested with, the late 1980s, there was a whole bunch of
similar organizations in Europe. The Basque Country and freedom in Spain. The Irish Republican Army and the
Ulster Defence Association in Northern Ireland. Red Brigades in Italy, Red
Army Fraction, and so on. There was a fricking bunch of them. Altogether, there were
several dozens of them. And all of them now joined their forces, now fought, now went to war because someone had not so ideal
ideals like everyone else. And it's a real mess of
that ideological nonsense, and the devil himself
would wrack his brain trying to understand what those guys meant. Beside their wish to kill
you. That was pretty clear. But if you'd try to explain any
basic principle of all those fuckers, I mean, horrible terrorists, then each group invented their own idea, some ideal that had to
be looked forward to. The ideal could mean
everything at all, from some new world order till right washing
the dishes clockwise. Whatever. But you mustn't wash dishes
counterclockwise by any means, because this is the method
human wrecks and our enemies! After the ideal is defined and
in some crooked way formulalted, you draw the white line
through all the people. And those who don't
feel those puppy feelings for your ideals, get some
granades into their hallway. And all of those who stand on the
other side of the line get some guns to wage your sacred war in the
name of the Spaghetti Monster. There is nothing in the middle. You're either with us or against us. Modern radical feminists are the
same piece of trash, just like it. Just change the exploitation
and oppression of workers for exploitation and oppression of women, and that would be the same thing, with the same formulations, only
adapted for modern times a bit. Like, you should click a
"like" if you're with us. And that's it. But if we talk
about Action Directe specifically, they had about 80 acts for
about 8 years to their name. Use some simple math, and
there were 10 acts a year. Practically, each month during 8 years, those guys created a stir
with their acts somewhere. And it's not some peas in
the store bought on sales. But some attack, bomb
exploding, robbery - that was typical Tuesday for the French. Although, the bomb because
of the peas from the store could be also very serious, you know. During those 8 years,
those guys were responsible for about 120 human victims. I should say that
making 80 different raids and not getting caught
is not a simple task. I should do them justice. You have to think
your operation through. You have to get explosives and weapons. You have to find allies
and like-minded people, pull off the attack and leave
the crime scene in such a way that they wouldn't catch you and
that you wouldn't catch a police bullet. And doing that on a constant
basis - well, there's a knack. And according to their
results, those guys were good. As they wrote in their memoirs - and
I've read those fruits of sick phantasies - training was the necessary routine
for all the members of the group. Something about 150-200
people in different time periods. The members had been training on shooting ranges,
running long distances and learning the extreme car
driving on special training grounds so that they could have all the
chances to get off their chasers. The first question that appeared
in my head was, how did they train? Who instructed them? You can't train your shooting skills and extreme driving skills on a
constant basis in such a way so that you wouldn't get any attention. You can't come to some
school and say, "Guys! We need your training
ground and instructors. Here's the deal, you should chase us, and we would drive
away while shooting off. Yeah, right. Why do we
need that? Don't sweat. Those are our family
ways of entertainment. By the way, we have a big family. That crowd of 150 bearded
men. Do you have any women?" I failed to dig out
some precise information, but the leaders wrote in their memoirs
that they'd been training in some fields, woods and marches under
the cover of the night. And the money for cars and weapons came from that loot they got in the banks. Romantic is great, of course, but I
don't believe that just as a businessman. If a large group of people produces results of their activities in
a sustained and projected way, that means that everything out
there is greatly regulated and tuned-up. Obviously, without some
serious connection networks that could support
all of that commotion, it would be impossible to
pull off something like that. Obviously, there had to be some
agent network, too, here and there, that could help you
to do anything at all. In their memoirs, I was able
to dig out only cordial thanks to their brothers in
arms and passionate people. Okay, fine, let's suppose. No matter, it's obvious that all
the members of the organization were more like well-trained gunmen
than a crowd of careless students with romantic ideals because it
was quite impossible to catch them. And in occasional shootings with the
police, only policemen were killed, and there were almost no
victims among the terrrorist. That fact also confirmed
they had been seriously trained. Such combat training
would hardly be possible when you were just thumbing books in
the basement or running through marshes. But although that organization had been doing terror for 8 years,
and no one could catch them, after Georges Besse's murder,
their leaders were caught as a whole, and they surrendered without a fight. Literally, when people came for them, the leaders were just sitting and
waiting for them to be arrested. They didn't shoot back,
they didn't take hostages, they didn't try to explode themselves; they were just sitting in the kitchen. That's another weird thing. For 8 years, you've been
waging war with the regime, killing people, killing the police. And when they come for you, you're like, "Okay, that's it, you
caught me, attaboys. You're cootie now." Somehow, the police nosed out
that the four leaders were sitting on some farm in the Parisian suburbs. Special forces appeared
on the scene right away, a whole bunch of people with guns,
and they took that barn by assault. The apprehension of the terrorists
was being broadcast on all channels. Journalists of the main
TV-channels of the country were on the helicopter live and shot
everything that was happening. Because helicopters
were so inconspicuous that they could never,
ever spook the criminals. They were sitting in their
house, suspecting nothing; then, they heard some
strange noise, and saw a helicopter coming for them, through the
window, and special forces, too, and they were like, "It's
time to drink some coffee!" Investigatory interviews made it clear how the murder was
performed specifically. Two women, Nathalie
Ménigon and Joëlle Aubron, were going along the street with
prams, and weapon was hidden in those prams. Jean Marc Rouillan and
Georges Cipriani were standing with motorcycles in the
adjoining neighborhood, in a pre-agreed place. By the way, that idea to hide
weapons inside prams - my respect! Even if police squads
were going through the city, they couldn't even think
that 2 friends with prams who were just taking a walk along the street were
really some terrorists who were going to kill a man. It was just impossible. Of course, the killers
knew Besse' schedule: at what time he came home,
where he lived, and so on. Although he was a high-ranking
executive, he didn't have any security. Georges Besse had a usual driver who drove him home, put
him off and drove home. And as soon as the car pulled off, two pretty girls with prams came up
to Besse, and put out some firearms; they shot 4 bullets
point-blank and broke into a run. And while the street was just
trying to understand what happened, the criminals were
already leaving on bikes in the unknown direction. During the investigation, the
terrorists didn't deny anything. They confessed
everything and continued to hold the frame as if they
were some sacred fighters with the rotten system,
and they didn't give up on their views; like,
they did everything right and didn't have any regrets. And those guys got their fill out. They went to some special
maximum security prison, and I didn't hear
about those things before. Each one had more 20
years prison sentence or even a life sentence; and
not just in any cell. Each one was held on a
separate floor in a teeny-tiny cell detached from the world, without any chance whatever to
communicate with anyone at all. The prison personnel was also prohibited to communicate with prisoners. I must say, this is a
whole new kind of brutal. Even in our prisons,
even with maximum security, you are allowed to have
short-term visitations by your relatives. And in the large majority of cases,
long-term visitations are also allowed. You may get parcels and wrappers,
you may write letters, and so on. You even live in your
cell not alone, very often, and that's important because you
communicate with people anyway. Yes, the question of crowd exists. But during a long time in prison, you would make some
connections with your inmates. And humanwise, it would be
easier to endure your penance. And those people were
stripped of all of this. No visitations, no
parcels, no communication. You're sitting alone on the
entire floor, and it's brutal. And weird. And the official history of Action
Directe ends at that point, seemingly. Those guys made some shit, they got what they deserved at full, and that seemed to be all. The story was quite clear. Actually, you will find such
an explanation of the situation if you'd read the first Yandex
page about Georges Besse' murder. And at first sight, you
couldn't even find any fault. But it wasn't enough for me. 2 questions bothered me. The first question: why Georges Besse
was killed exactly, and not someone else? The operation was
planned exactly against him, and they wanted to
kill him,and only him, not someone else from the Renault
management or someone from other large company. And the second question: why did
the government bother after his death and catch the criminals who were
hopelessly elusive for 8 years? That's why we need to unravel the
context and to find out the following: what strange things
happened in Renault at that time? Why is it exactly Georges
Besse who was made to its leader? After all, we should find out what
horrible crimes against the working class he managed to pull
during his 2 years of ruling? Divine Integration Did you even think about the fact how many smartphones a
year is sold in Russia? A million, perhaps? Or even 10 million? You may not Google it. Totally, they sell about
25 million pieces per year. Think about it: people in our country buy 25 million new
smartphones every year. But here's a question: what do
you do with your previous ones? More often than not, you
put them to the same boxes and put away into the farthest drawer. Provided that those
phones are often pretty new and work perfectly,
and they have now flaws. Sometimes, they even have cover-ups. But such smartphones
are easily sold on Avito. The common cause why people don't
sell their phones is their price. Like, what could I sell it for?
Who would buy it from me? And so on. But this problem can be solved now. Those guys made their own
calculator of smartphone cost estimating. In this calculator, you could mark your
city of residence, brand, model, condition, and other information
about your smartphone. And Avito, based on the statistics and
similar ads, would offer you the trade For example, I have an iPhone 12 ProMax. And also, I have an 11
ProMax that I used before. Let's assume, I would like to sell it. We open the calculator, choose
all the parameters - that's it! Now we know that the selling range of
that phone is 43,000 - 49,000 rubles. The cost estimating takes a
couple of minutes, literally. And when you know the price, another couple of minutes will be
spent creating an ad about your ware. By the way, you could add
the delivery to your ad so that your phone could be sold not only
in your city but all over Russia. The link for the calculator of
cost estimating is in description. Don't keep your gadgets in the
drawer; people wait for them on Avito! Rolling R Stories Chapter II. Industrial Empire Renault is a giant corporation not only by car inustry standards but in general. What's important for our narrative, it's one of the
largest tax payers in France. Traditionally, that
brand's been dragging all the way the glory of the producer of small and low-budget city hatchbacks. And in the modern world, beginning with the late 1990s and till that day, Renault's been trying every way possible to get away from that reputation. But this stamp sticks to
the brand as seriously as my ex liked to be on meth. Relax, that's a joke. My ex liked to sit
on my face, of course. Being on meth. After the World War II,in 1947, when Renault was already
under control of the state, this car came out, Renault 4CV. That was the last car
the founder of the company, Louis Renault,
managed to take a hand in. It was a great man with
a very complicated fate. We spoke about him in our
documentary about the French car industry. Check it out, you'll like it. So, 4CV. Technically, it was the direct
competitorand tracing of the Volkswagen Beetle. The simplest, cheapest
and safest little car that perfectly responded the
inquiries of the post-war times. Half of the planet was lying in
ruin, just like the whole economy was,
Half of the planet was lying in
ruin, just like the whole economy was, and meanwhile, people
were trying to recover themselves and to think how to return to their normal human
lives after all of that. That's why those ultra cheap and simple cars were the only thing people could afford back then. Although, I must say, even
the French couldn't afford such cars because only 37,000
cars were sold in 1947-1949; and that result was pretty far
enough from the intended one. But the economic situation in
the country was so fucked-up after the war that even a
bicycle seemed to be a real luxury. But the factory delivered on the
task to make already elementary construction even simpler and cheaper, and reduced the price for 20%. And as the economy of France
began to move around a little to the 1950s, the
sales rose up, actually. The 4CV left the
assembly line in 1961, i.e. the car was being produced for 14 years, and 1.1 million of cars
were sold throughout that time. At that moment, the 4CV became the
first French car that reached through the mark of 1 million sold pieces. Renault 4CV was replaced in
1961 by that pretty monster that was called simply Renault 4. That was the first front
drive Renault vehicle in history; and it was built in such a way
so the car had to be like jeans. It had to be cheap,
comfortable and cross functional. And it had to be the perfect choice
both for the cityand for the countryside; both for weekdays and for weekends; both for men and for women. And if a hole emerged in the body of the car, you could
also say that was fashion. I must admit, those
jeans were a success. To say the least, they fit a
very large amount of asses, and that was already
some great achievement. There's nothing worse in the whole world for me than buying jeans. If I had to choose my
occupation for eternity if it wasburning on the
pan or trying on jeans, I would vote for Putin. 1961-1994, the car was
on the assembly line; it was being produced
in 28 countries and sold in any hicksville all over the planet where there was any sign of car market. And during 33 years - age of Jesus! - the assembly line produced
more than 8 million cars. Renault 4 is the most
popular French car and one of the most popular
cars on the planet in general. And together with Renault 4,
Renault 16 was being produced. That is the same
hatchback, only larger and more respectable that occupied
the assembly line in 1965-1980. Renault sold another 2
million cars like those. And there was Renault 5, too, and 5.5 million of those cars were sold all over the world. It's
a bit different hatchback. And no matter what car Renault was producing in the 1960-1980s, they made a hatchback in any case, and in any case, it was sold by millions. I think if some woman would have gotten pregnant on the
Renault factory at that time, she would have also produced a
hatchback to be sold all over the world. Anyway, runs were certain, and there was certain amount of money,
too, as we could easily guess. And whatever cute and mediocre
those little cars might have seemed, Renault built its own empire on them. In the 1970s, Renault owned
dozens of factories in different parts of the world;
totally, hundreds of thousands people worked in those
companies all over the world. But Renault produced not only
hatchbacks but also commercial cars, busses and so on and so forth. Before the World War II, they
were making trains and tanks. On the wave of success and
owning a great amount of resources, Renault began to
throw money right and left and created their own racing teams in Rally, Touring,
Formula 1 - in order to dominate in each and every department that was connected to
cars, one way or another. In each kind of racing, there
was different level of success. For example, for 8 years in
Formula 1, Renault managed to take the second place among
racing teams only once. And a huge amount of
money was pouring down there. Why Renault, the mass
producer of hatchbacks, needed car sports so
much, especiallyFormula-1? This question is practically rhetorical because most companies join
car sports just for one reason: to cling with their balls
out there for a high price. Like, look what we can do! But Renault had its logic. The company needed a very
high-quality PR of its brand. "Making cheap hatchbacks
isn't the only thing we can do. Actually, we are a strong and
high-technology car company, really, and this company can achieve
success anywhere and defeat anyone." They wanted to get
respect for the Renault brand, because aside from car sports
and other sham, there was the most ambitious and the main
project that demanded to strain all the company resources. That project was to enter the
fattest car market in the world - the American market. We do know that some little
hatchback wasn't the thing Americans wanted to buy at that time. And if you're directly
associated with a producer of small and cheap cars, you'd hardly
find success on the American market. Because in the 1960-1970s, the US market was dominated by long and wide
cars with the V8 under the hood. And it's always painful and scary, to go to the places with something long and dominating, if you know what I mean. Of course, Renault tried to sell
their usual cars on the Americal market. But comparing to the rest of the world, the sales in the USA were so
tiny that it was a real shame. Especially when contrasted
with the Volkswagen Beetle that was being sold in
the US in their millions. And later, Toyota and Hyundai came
to the USA with their rice waggons. And here, we have to
remember the context of what was happening in the world and in the American market in the 1970s. If you don't remember,
don't worry, I'll remind you. I'm not sitting here just because. And all of that happened because OPEC
members - those guys who produce oil - refused to ship the oil to the
USA and to the West for low prices. And they said, they'd got power
and would decide for themselves, how much oil and for
what money they would sell. The prices
skyrocketed, everyone was shocked. It wasn't clear how to
provide energy for countries. It wasn't clear how
to produce electricity. It wasn't clear where to get gas. They had to spare but sparing was
failing. That's was a nightmare. For common US citizen, it looked like
that: they couldn't buy gas on any gas station. And even if it was there,
it costed like 3 horses. And with those prices,
horses were more preferrable. In Europe, the governments limited usage of personal
means of transportation, reduced heating, asked everyone to ride bicycles and stay at home in sweaters. 50 years passed, nothing
changed, all the same entertainment. But when your gas is
expensive and isn't always present, then some giant muscle car with 30
liters fuel consumption isn't the thing you wanted to find in your garage. Although, standing in
garage was just fine, but you wouldn't want
to drive that thing. It was obvious for everyone that the US car market was looking to global restructuring and
redivision of the market. And that's what happened. The Big Three of
American car producers - i.e. Ford, GM and Chrysler -
didn't know how to compete. And they couldn't quickly
redesign for the new reality and offer some actual cars with
small fuel consumption rate. They failed, and they paid for
that with their market share, and VAG and the Japanese
hijacked that share quickly and quietly. And also, the
Americans paid with Detroit which was the industrial capital of
the world but, literally after 10 years, it turned into the most dangerous
and criminalized ruins in the country. So, Renault wanted to
participate in that commotion very much, and to bite the share of the richest
and most premium market in the world of the Big Three. But they already fucked up the
competition in small cars to Volkswagen. Plus, no one needed the
Renault brand as it was. And it seemed that the
situation was stalemate. This way and that, but burger men still
went and bought their cars off your competitors. And if an American needed a normal car, they went to the Big Three. If they needed an
economy-type and safe car, they went to
Volkswagen and to the Japanese. But Renault wanted to go to the American market so much that they were like... "Well, they have the Big
Three, yes? Okay, let's suppose. But those aren't the only
companies in the country. They aren't just 3, right? Right. Is there a fourth
company out there? There is. Okay, perhaps, we buy it? How much money? A lot? Well, we have just the amount, no
more no less, just a lot of money. What paper do we sign?" And in such a way, the merge of
Renault and American Motor Company began. A.k.a. AMC. Divine Integration Okay, let's cut that piece,
and that oneshould be pulled. Or erased, already? Or not... Okay, I don't know about you
but I definitely need some coffee. You too, actually. Which minute of timing is it? About 43? You have 2 hours agead. Actually, we have it
simple with coffee here. We drink it. A lot. Of course,
everyone has different taste. Some drink with grain milk,
some drink with usual milk. But the main feature -
it must be delicious. And it could be
delicious only with fresh beans. And where are fresh beans? That's right, Tasty Coffee has it. We found out about Tasty Coffee this
year when we made our first integration. Before that, we heard
about them, but to be fair, we went on with single-serve
coffee containers in the office. Until the moment we received an
entire box with goods of all kinds. And that was it. Actually, Tasty Coffee
makes coffee in different kinds. They have beans,
ground coffee, drip bags. Drip bags are such
bags you hook on the mug, pour some boiling water -
and everything is ready. Not a literal
instruction but you got the point. The main thing is, we prefer beans. Because it's important to
have beans freshly ground. While coffee is brewing, I'll add a
couple of techical moments on work statement. Tasty Coffee has more than
50 sorts on their website We have Kenia today. But in our reserve, we have
Ethiopia, Brazil, and so on. On their site, those guys have
also teas, accessories, articles about coffee and many
other useful things. But it isn't the main thing. The main thing is their work. And they work 7 days a week. Just like us. And they roast coffee
exactly on the day of the order. Yes, Tasty Coffee don't
roast their coffee beforehand and don't storage it
in packages for months. If you made your order on
Wednesday, they would roast beans, package them and send it to
delivery on the same Wednesday. The package will go to you
whatever region of Russia you were in. That is that. One more moment. 95%
of orders are sent free. And if you don't like
anything, they'll either send you another order or bring your money back. But you'll like it. Chop-chop, put your
powdered-coffee aside, and click the link in description to
choose the right coffee. By the way, don't forget to use
РЕНО promocode to get a discount. That promocode is termless. Even if you live in 2023
right now, it will work anyway. And we will work, too. What's that? Chapter Three? Let's go. Rolling R Stories Chapter III. In Defiance Of Common Sense How could I put it in
brief what AMC looked like? Imagine, there are real
and normal German cars. Something like Porsche,
BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen. And there's Opel. And imagine, there isn't one
Opel in Germany but ten of them. And each of those 10 Opels
is horrible in their own way. One of them specializes on
the most fucked-up engines. One of those Opel skillfully
produces the most crooked mounting. And someone has a whole department of blind designers with their
hands shaking because of arthritis, and they draw what they draw. And there are 10 of those companies. It's a real car Mordor
with orcs on vectors. The whole nine yards.
Only not Mordor but Mordopel. And AMC was about just like that. AMC means American Motor Corporation, and technically, that company was a
catch-all soup made from those guys who couldn't manage to exist alone. Just like modern car alliances
only it was really fucked up. Originally, there was the Nash company that was selling
middling cars for middle class. And their volume of
sales was also middling. And that was just in the
middle of the time period between the World War
I and the World War II. Those guys liked to be
in the middle, actually. Although, at the
beginning of the World War II, it became obvious that
the middling strategy would bring the company only to the position in the middle of some buttcheeks. Perfect place in the ass. As soon as they
realized all that magnificence, of nothing else than buying the
controlling sharethose guys thought of the home appliance
manufacturer, Kelvinator. Like Terminator but the kitchen version. Because Kelvinator
mostly produced fridges. And as a matter of fact, that was a luxury article at the end
of the first half of the XX century. I think, that logic was awesome. Is the fridge made of iron? Of iron. You put it on the
floor, you add some wheels, you make the door more comfortable - and you can't distinguish it
from the typical American car. Don't you dare laugh out there or
giggle, like, Americans are dumb. Did you see the ZiL fridge
by your granny's? You did. Did you see the ZiL car? You did. Are they different? Yes, not so much. The only difference is
that with the fridge, only your hand is cold
when you put it in there, and when you see the ZiL car,
this sight is a real thrill. I'm joking now, of course. Nash was a real visible car company, and Kelvinator was a real cool
manufacturer of kitchen appliances. Originally, before the World War
II, their collaboration included that Kelvinator invented the foretype of the modern climate control for cars. And thanks to their common budgets, they began to produce
cars with such units inside. And that technology
was a real breakthrough. And then, around 1960,
some engineer from Nash realized how to make a bed inside a car. The back couch could lay out
and became an almost smooth bed, and you had the access
into your trunk so that you could stretch your legs out there. And in the car with such
an interior composition, the regulated climate control that
could cool the air was a very important function, if you know what I mean. Anyway, those guys. They merged into one
company in 1937, and they called themselves Nash Kelvinator. That's right. Concurrently, there was the Hudson company in Detroit. It appeared before the
World War I, in 1909, and before the end of the World War II in 1945, it didn't stand out. Everyone in Detroit was producing cars, and Hudson was producing them, too. And it did it so
marvelously that I couldn't even tell you anything about it. Everything changed
for Hudson in 1946 when NASCAR and drug racing began to
evolve in the country like hell. Hudson couldn't compete
with the Big Three in general, and that's why they decided to become a symbol of American car racing and began to participate in each and every race they could get into. The racing community became
fond of them really quickly; plainly because those
guys happily gave them cars and poured down money
into the car racing regularly. And Hudson became really popular
among the whole racing community. But in a racing delirium, those guys
forgot that car racing was expensive; and that you should get into it when
you stand on your feet very steadily. Or else, you could tear
down something inside you. Financial balance, at least. And your investor would
tear down your ass later. And when everything that had
seams was cracking by Hudson someone cried out of
the fridge driving by, "Guys! Go do some business!" Why, it's fresh,
Hudson executives thought, and they merged with Nash Kelvinator. Thankfully, guys did have the
good sense to choose a real name, not something like
Nash-Hudson-Kelvinator or Nationator. All those fellas changed
their name plainly for AMC. Later on, they happily picked up
Kaiser Jeep that was lying on the roadside - that was the company that had been
producing military Willys-Overland. They also took in some pieces from the corpse of Packard
that went bankrupt in the 1950s, and a couple of
really small manufacturers. And all that gang together
presented itself as the fourth car company in the
USA after the Big Three. They were beaten,
dented, and non-competitive as each of them separately but they were strong because they were together. That was the state of
things in the company. Of course, Renault
would have wanted to see them all but there
was no one else to see. And they had to buy those guys. Why am I telling you all this? By 1978, the year of signing any
agreements between the companies at all, Renault and AMC were in
absolutely different positions. By the late 1970s,
Renault was in good condition. They had large circulations; they had money they
were ready to invest into some future projects
and into car racing. And AMC crawled on its
knees to make a deal, ass ahead. The energy crisis brought
down every car company in the US; but first and foremost, it pounded
small companies the most, and AMC in particular. The Big Three was
directly supported by the state. If they began to
stagger, people threw money back at them and helped them to stay up. And no one poured down anything on AMC. The only help they could get
were loan deferrals. That was all. But in order to service your
loans, you had to sell something. And that was tough. Since 1976, the company
had operated at a loss. They'd been losing 50-70
million dollars a year. Plus, the late 1970s were the spring of ecological
movement, introduction of first standards and
emission limitation, and when your company is sinking, like at all, the last thing you want to think is developing of new types of fuel systems and engines so that bunnies
were happier to jump on grass. And that's why AMC just blew
off all the limitations and produced cars without any changes. And they paid for that. In 1978, the
Environmental Protection Agency demanded to withdraw all the AMC cars that had been launched in 1976. I.e. 310,000 cars. And to file them till
perfection so that their emission could fit the
new ecological standards. And the file was needed because
AMC didn't have anything else. They needed about 3
million dollars for re-equipment. With modern money, it's
about 15 million dollars. You could think, that was a small
amount by standards of large companies. But still, it was more than the
quarterly nett profit of AMC at that time period. As the result, by 1978, the market share of AMC was smaller than 2% of total amount of cars being
sold in the country. Plus, the company was deeply in debt. Plus, it operated at a
loss, and shareholders hadn't seen any
dividends for 4 years already. One may ask, why the fuck
Renault needed all that magnificence? At that moment, it would
seem that throwing money out of the window was more sensible than investing it into such a company. But there was something
sacred inside AMC, still. That was a jeep the whole
company hinged on, basically. That jeep was the only
profittable brand of AMC, and Renault wanted to buy it
in the first place, actually. But it was impossible
to buy the jeep off AMC because everything else
would momentarily collapse. And because of that, they ahd to
negotiate with that crowd of orcs. So, look: you are Renault, and you need the US market outlet
you couldn't get into so easily. In order to get into the market and to
be some competitor in terms of price, you have to produce cars inside
the country if you want to sit in the lower or middle price segment. Renault didn't even
dream about the premium. And building your
factory is very expensive; it's super fuckety-fucking expensive. As if you would take out a mortgage to buy a whole section of
the building in March 2022. And even if you build it, there is no guarantee
that your production would find a quick sale because your
brand is unknown in the country. You see some pretty big
company that is crawling on the floor in death throes, but inside that company, there
is a brand that inspires hope. And that brand, that jeep, it's
already has its factory, and it's already found a quick sale by the
residents of the country. That brand has history, everyone
knows and respects it, everything's cool. What to you have to do? You can't buy the jeep
separately, they wouldn't allow it. And the whole company with
a fricking bunch of brands doesn't mean shit for you. But as you can't buy
the jeep separately, you have to savethe
whole company, all of it. Because if AMC dies, it would drag
the jeep into their grave altogether. And you can't put a
hold on your decision. When someone big begins
to moan and to go west, a bunch of vultures would
always gather around their corpse, wanting to plunder their assets and productive capacity and
to steal some market share. I'll tell you what Renault did. They decided to give money
to the company to cover their operating depts to keep it afloat, and that was 150 million dollars, plus 50 million with line of credit. With modern money, it's
a whole bunch of cash. And also, they gave them the
manufacturing license for Renault 5. As per Renault's calculation,
by competent usage of money, those resources had to be enough to close all the holes in the
financial balance in AMC, and plus, they could guarantee the profit off the
production and sales of Renault 5. Eventually, AMC would
stand on its feet steadier. And Renault would take the jeep and develop the new model and the new engine for it, and that
would give the French the market share on the American market they wanted. The market share on the American market. Live with those wordings, Jesus. For their money, Renault
received 22.5% of the AMC share. That didn't give them the
full control over the company but it gave them a fair share of
future profit provided that would exist. I.e., Renault, technically,
bought a quarter of the company but it stayed out of
the operations management because that was a
horrible pain in the ass. But still, Renault got an
opportunity to make the co-operative model in order to
share development costs, to launch the model to the market, and after that, to ripe the
fruits of successful sales. And as soon as AMC would
fully recover its feet, Renault would take the quarter of the
benefit of the whole concern to itself. Profit? Profit. But there was a small
miscount in that scheme. I'll explain it in simple terms. I bet, among the whole
amount of your casual friends, there is some guy who can
fuck off all of his money spectacularly, plunge in debt, and later, he would
look at that situation with very big, surprised eyes. That guy lives only
from paycheck to paycheck, and only in that
awesome case if he has a job. And even he has a job, he manages, in some fucking way, to lend
a thousand or two off anyone until the paycheck, but he
promises to return those money. Spoiler: no, he won't. You could think of
this money as irrevocable investments to that guy. And also, that guy has a fricking
bunch of very profitable credits and loans at 30
percent interest per annum for things that are
essential to his life: like a latest iPhone or a MacBook he couldn't really work without, or some super rare limited snickers. Like, am I a sucker to go
without them? And so on. And what will happen if
such a guy suddenly gets some benefactor that would be like, "Bro, you're handsome!
I believe in you, here's some money to pay your debts; here's some more for starters. Okay, clean up your act, grab my hand, and let's runto the new
life. Success awaits us!" Of course, such benefactor
is a dream of anysimilar dude. But all of us understand perfectly where that dude will happen to be
in a year with such a way. Right you are, he will get
into some deeper financial ass. Because his original
actions he's been committing during his life lead him there, exactly. I don't know what
Renault counted on by doing the same thing as
that mythical benefactor, but they did exactly
what I described before. Only not with your friend-dude
but with a large corporation. They just gave them money and thought that if they
closed their financial hole, those guys would make it. And everything would be alright. But AMC was fucked-up not because the financial system was unfair, or circumstances turned out that way - but because they produced
some shit on some shitty, ineffective and obsolete factories. And their production wasn't popular not because people were clueless about magnificent cars or just
couldn't get a taste of them. They were just noncompetitive. That's all. No magic,
no conspiracy theory. They just made shit
out of shit on shit - and became what they became. That's all. No one worked upon efficiency. No one developed new technologies. No one adopted
practices of other countries. Those guys were just
holding out a tin cup looking pitiful and wanted for
some saint to come and save them. Because they did their best! And that saint was Renault. The first year, 1979, when
agreements with Renault kicked in and investments were paid; of course, AMC proudly reported something like, well, we're doing really better now. Here are
record-breaking profits for 1979, 84 million dollars. Look, what great and
smart people we are! But in the next year,
1980, their floating capital for
developments wasn't enough again; banks refused to extend their
credit lines for some reason; and their market share
continued to plummet for some reason. In 1980, their sales reduced for 19%. AMC came up to Renault
again, and they were like, we need another 90
million dollars to close a couple of little holes, and that's it. Then, we will fly! But thankfully, Renault
didn't buy those songs that time because they knew that the
problem was not only money. In order for all of
that to have some sense, the company had to be fully rebuilt. They needed to remake
all the logistic chains, to refuse those parts
vendours who missed deadlines or delivered flawed articles. They needed to rebuild
all the assembly lines, to make processes more effective; to fire all the lazy and bloated
employees and to hire new ones. They needed to buy modern equipment, to remake the sale
system, and blah blah blah blah. As you know, the
process of remaking could be even harder that
building from scratch. And AMC was just the case. Because however you slice
it, the company wasn't small. And inside that company, there was a catch-all soup with a
bunch of brands, and each of them was ruled and
controlled in its own way, organized in its own way. And they had to
investigate, to stir the waters, to structurize, to invent the strategy, to roll up their sleeves and remake it. All in all, I understand why Renault didn't want to mess with
operations in the first investment round because that was a
very difficult process. But nevertheless, I don't know what they counted
on with just giving them money. It was clear beforehand
that wouldn't work at all. And you mustn't forget that Renault also wasn't some garage store, and they had their fair share
of operational pain in the ass. Also, you have to fully
rebuild the non-affiliated company. But the stage was set. They decided - they had to deliver. And their wish to capture the American market didn't go anywhere. That's why, in 1980,
they signed a new agreement between Renault and AMC anyway. The French still poured down another additional 90 million
dollars into the company. With modern money, this is about
300 million dollars and one tractor. But for that, Renault
got 59% of AMC shares, and they technically
became company owners. And in December of the same 1980, on the final meeting
of AMC shareholders, all the folks up top decided
to turn over the full control over the company to Renault. Like, the barn has burned
down, so let the house burn, too. We have nothing to lose. What if the French would
manage to do something worthy? Well, they'd manage to
build a hatchback, anyway. And you could think that
everything would be fine. Yes, Renault would have
to work their ass off. Yes, they had to kill tens of thousands person-hours of smart people to put AMC back on their feet. But Renault were big,
successful, and they understood business strategies; and so, they would moand
and groan but they'd make it. And the company also had a serious factor of
safety, a lot of money, saleable cars - it's
gonna be hunky-dory! But there was a problem: despite their success and large volume of sales, not everything was so
calm and cheerful in Renault. There were problems inside the company. Pretty serious problems, I should say. Although, the matters
of France itself weren't so cheerful, calm and merry. Chapter IV. The Red May In truth, the French are a pretty
interesting and peculiar nation. For example, American
national entertainment are American football,
turkey for the Thanksgiving and Sunday visits to church. Ours are barbecue for May games after we ritually burnt a straw
puppet a couple months before that, and kitchen conversations
about global world structure. And the French national
entertainment is coffee with croissants in the morning, and in the evening, they
go wrecking their town, smashing shop-windows,
turning over a couple of cars, and by the way, on their road,
overthrowing their government. Such an amount of regular street demonstrations and shattered little shops in the city
center is nowhere to be seen, if we take civilized countries. As those guys took the run since the French Revolution, they
can't stop until this day. And they don't give a damn
what they protest against. The main thing is
delight in the process. And beautifully burning cars. Yes. Jokes aside, if you just Google photos of regular property riots in Paris, it's always a very spectular sight. I wouldn't want to live in such a city, but it's a sheer pleasure to
watch pictures in the Internet. And of course, in the 1960s, the 1970s, and in the 1980s, the
situation wasn't any different. As for our current story, it's important to understand one thing about those folk
festivals with Molotov cocktails. The late 1960s were
pretty significant times for France, because in 1968, there were protests of untold
proportions all over the country. Even by French standards, they were like wow, like la fuck! And history even has a
special name for those events - the Red May. At first sight, those were
just fricking large protests the French were no strangers to. But in truth, it was a
full scale social crisis; and eventually, that crisis
resulted in the shift of power. If we'd decide to tell
about specific events that happened back then, and about reasons of that bad boom, we would have another separate documentary
for a couple of hours inside the current documentary. It turns out that we should insert a documentary into
the documentary so that you could watch a documentary while watching the documentary. That's right, it seems. And so, stretch your fingers, and we'd run over the key
moments, just the high points. We won't miss anything
important, don't worry, I'm a pro. After the World War II, France had a pretty strange government. During the war, France
was divided in 2 parts. One part of the country
was occupied by Nazis, it was the so-called Vichy France. And the other part would have
seemed to stay the ordinary France. After the country was liberated, they had to gather all of that anew into a united country. That period is called
the French Fourth Republic that existed just after the war. And during that time, communists and socialists
were at the helm of the country. Although technically,
that was a bunch of strange people and rascals,
and they didn't quite understand what to do with the country. Concurrently, there
was Charles de Gaulle who was the war hero and the symbol of the nation liberation. He represented the opposition. He believed communism
not to be an option; he thought the country needed a strong leader who could lead the way. But by combined
efforts, they put him away from power and political
life, very accurately, and so he lived in the countryside and wrote his memoirs quietly. For some time, he
represented some kind of opposition, he had a party, and blah blah blah, but when he realized that he was dead in the water, he said
the hell with it and went to the countryside. During those 14 years when socialists and
communists had power, they unleashed a murderous war in Algeria that sucked resources out of the country and reduced
its weight in the eyes of the whole world. They nationalized half of enterprises but still, they fucked
up the whole economy. And the life of average people didn't become any better, at all. The country arrived at the 1960s being in a hard political crisis. At that time, there were
enough reasons so that any country would feel fucked up and in deep shit. And the weak government
didn't help it in any way. The situation was so bad
among the powerholders that no one could agree with anyone, and the government couldn't even form the council of ministers. And at that moment, de
Gaulle came out of his hibernation and made a fuss in the public field. He gathered his party and
began active propaganda. And as the memory of the
war hero was still fresh, and everyone was sick and
tired with the government that couldn't handle
anything beside slogans, Charles gained support, and he managed to take
power into his hands. Of course, socialists
did resist for quite some time, but they didn't
do any shit, anything at all. And at first, de Gaulle
became Prime Minister in 1958, and a year later, in 1959, he
was the President of France. De Gaulle held the
office for about 10 years. He remade the half of the state machine; he rewrote the Constitution; he ended the war with
Algeria, and as the result, Algeria became an
independent state, after all. At the moment of the
beginning of the war, Algeria was considered to
be the French territory. And the main task the
new president set himself was the economical and social
transformation of the country. Speaking in human tongue, so that people lived better, so that they had jobs, worthy salaries, blah blah blah. The second main task was to return the independence of
politics and defense. That meant to end the influence of the USA and of the UK. The US and Great Britain suffered far less than France during of the World War II,
and because of that, they were trying to
manipulate it constantly because France was weak
and couldn't defend itself. And the third task was to return both France's glory and
influence into the world. Technically, Charles de Gaulles
achieved almost all of his goals. The best demonstration of that was the economical growth in
the country under de Gaulles. Suffice it to say, that
France under de Gaulles became the second European country in the world in economic growth-rate after Germany. And the average GDP growth rate was 5.5% a year, and that's very much. During 14 years, 1954 - 1967, the economy duplicated, and the quality of life of average people was one of the best in the world. That happened after 10 years, literally. Really, what was
happening to the economy of France in the 1950-1960s could be compared only with German and Japanese economical miracles. But reverse of the coin
was the fact de Gaulle had severe control methods, total censorship and
control over all the media, and a bunch of different limitations. And when your citizen are
French, plus, there is a strong opposition in the
country, you mustn't relax. Even if the country is doing well. Moreover, you shouldn't even try to censor each and
everyone, and everything. The situation was following. Everything seemed to
be alright, no joke. The quality of life was good, the economy growth,
this and that, and so on. But still, the society
was living in such tension! The censorship was irritating; there were minor scuffle with police going on here and there. And plus, after the
World War II, the new, young and quite numerous
generation began to grow. As we know, after the
war, there was a baby boom all over the world, and
France wasn't an exception. By 1968, the country had a lot of young students who were living
with ideas of global equality, peace, cookies, bubble
gum, cola, and so on. And all of them were dreaming about the ideal society of
equality, love and peace. Young and naive, the whole nine yards. They saw de Gaulle as an old geezer and outdated dictator who was holding the power for a very long time and knew nothing about now,
and with his censorship, he choked their sacred
right to live in total freedom. Plus, despite a very good economy development rate, there was growing unemployment in the country in the middle of the 1960s. That happened because the French
economy was growing not only thanks to its own manufacturing but also because of colonies
that worked for France. Here's an important thing. France was a colonial
power, and that meant it had its own bunch of countries
with full control over them. And those countries, technically
and plainly, worked for France. In the XVIII and in the XIX century, the most bright colonial powers were France, Great Britain,
Spain, Portugal, and so on. Those guys went with
their navy all over the world, conquered native population
and established their own order. Plus, there was slavery, human trafficking and
capture of all the recources, trade submission, and so forth. You went all over the world, put your gun to everyone's head, made them work for you, and
then you were sitting in your capital,
drinking coffee and talking about democratic values. That was their system. But the World War II showed to the world that the model of
oppression of whole peoples couldn't do any good, and
something had to change. In 1960, they signed the
Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries. A bunch of people with
difficult faces gathered in the UN; they discussed very worriedly that colonization was
a bad thing and no way, that was
exploitation, and blah blah blah. And they signed the document. In fact, the USA and the
USSR pushed it through in order to weaken the British
Empire because it was showing off too much back then. And France was nicked, too, because France was a colonial power. The paper meant that they had to offer independences in
1960, and if they would be late, it was pow pow and
sanctions against their lazy ass. But although that law was implemented, and independences were given, the
significant part of colonies continued to work for France. No one even cared about the paper. Because technically, there was a fucking bunch of businesses and companies in colonial countries that were making money for France. That stuff could be not yours on paper, but everyone knew
perfectly to whom it belonged and what it was doing. That was the reason you could
have your economy growing and employment inside the country
reducing, that was the thought. That could be if you
were a colonial power. And beside students who were always, with any regime and at any time, against the existing power, the existing order and rules, workers also began to bother because factories began to shed jobs, and there were no new workplaces around there. And as we know, when the
nation's pearls are clutched, one insignificant spark could be enough for everything to go ablaze. And the Red May was no exception. It began with some small demonstrations in a
couple of universities, just groups of students
wanted to stretch their legs and to yell something outside. Later, the nearest
universities supported them, and in the couple of days, all the political activists
and followers of some or other ideas added to
the students: communists, socialists, anarchists,
maoists and other riffraff. Workers and their unions saw something interesting going on without their
participation, and they were like, "It's time!"
And they went to go crazy with those students, just for the sake of it. Eventually, after a coulpe of days, absolutely all young people were on the street, like all
the workers in the country. Really, all the
country was on the street. But there was a problem. When you go to the demonstration, you usually follow some leader, and you have demands aside some meaningless slogans. You could say anything
to people on the street, that doesn't matter
and didn't matter ever. But under the carpet of every protest, there is always some
specific goal and purpose so that some specific guys could discuss them privately and shake what they like to shake to each other. Whatever anyone told you, the point of any demonstration was exactly that. And here, there were no goals, no one to negotiate with. People just went on the
streets because why not? Here's some commotion,
right? Should I stay home? No, no way! And the Red May is the ideal example for every mom and teacher who told us since
childhood, like, if everyone would jump from the
roof, would you jump? Yes! Yes, they would. And you would jump
because people do that. Yes. Learn it, finally,
and leave people alone, don't ask that fucking question. The crowd was absolutely colorful. On one side, someone voted for the world
peace - because there was the Cold War going,
the war in Vietnam going, and other wars going God knew where, and that was definitely very, very bad. Next to them, someone voted for France to get it together, to punch its enemies and to create the new
world order and the new empire. It was a pretty funny sight. Some part of radicals asking
to create a new empire with more colonies, more influence and more power, and other
radicals yelling for you to withdraw troops
from everywhere, to give everyone
independence and to lose control over your own territories. The thing about declarations that you should strenghten your country, take more resources and all of that - I could understand that. But declarations of people who wanted for their
country to become weaker and with less power and control - I couldn't quite grasp that thing. Someone was yelling,
"All power to the people!". Someone next to them was
yelling, "Fuck the power itself!" That was a very funny picture. In one place, communists were standing and waving red banners, and near them, anarchists were standing, and you don't want to
know what they were waving. And a bit further, students were standing who were
sick and tired of waving and wanted to puff a smoke and go to their dorms and ladies because revolution is a revolution, and dinner with tacos was on schedule. On the parallel street, workers
were sitting and pounding with their helms on the
asphalt because they had helms and they knew how to pound them. A real clusterfuck, clashes with police,
barricades, demonstrations, and all that shit was strange, anyway. No one to negotiate with, no
specific leader or, at least, some distinct majority;
everyone was just going crazy. Those students invented
their slogans just for fun. The most popular one was
"It is forbidden to forbid." It was the main slogan of that party, and it's strongly
associated with the Red May. Among all things, there was a slogan "It is hard to obey your superiors but it is more stupid to choose them." Also a popular one. And you're trying to ponder about it but you don't understand a shit. "It is hard to obey your superiors but it is more stupid to choose them." I mean, you don't want
to choose your superiors, you want for them to come and take you; but it's hard for you to obey them. Fuckety fuck, what's the point? And why "hard" stands
at the beginning, and "more stupid" - later? Didn't they teach you Russian at school? Another famous slogan - "Workers of all countries, have fun!" And my favorite, "We don't want to live in the world where you're certainly not to starve but you pay for that
risking to die with boredom". Try to think about it. You'd get a buzz, I promise. Once more. "We don't want to live in the world where you're certainly not to starve but you pay for that
risking to die with boredom". It's so fucking funny! We're sated and satisfied but we're bored, and because of that, let's smash half the country! Such a demonstration. Of course, I'm overdoing a bit. Of course, the country had its problems like any other country. There are no perfect
countries, regimes and all of that. There were fired workers in the country, there were
slums full with poor people where life was no bowl of cherries. There were political and
law matters; but totally and globally, everything was
alright with the country. It was growing and evolving. And those figures
which are sometimes used by analysts to explain the causes of the Red May were the
same as in other countries. No more, no less. The same unemployment was at the level of all other European countries, and in some of them, it was
even higher than in France. Technically, the society
just freaked out, like, "The country is evolving in a
wrong way, let's do it differently. How? How do we have to know? You're politicians, you do
it differently, somehow." The result of that fuss: there was no revolution, they managed to calm down the protests. But de Gaulle lost his power. Although, Georges Pompidou came to his place who was the right and and fervent advocate
of de Gaulle's politics and his good friend. And so, we could say, there
was no overthrow of the regime. And here's the
question! You, bottled one! Why the heck do we
need this information? We're talking about the murder here! I understand your question. You don't know
how many times I asked it myself while digging in all of that. Here's the reason. Technically, the protest failed, but not all people remained
satisfied with the results. 99% of students and
workers rioted a bit, took out their
emotions, and then, calmly, went out on their errands. Funny thing is, everyone protested bourgeoisie, some way or
other, thatseized the power, exploited workers,dictated
its own rules, and so on. And now, in the modern world, the most part of that
bourgeoisie are those folks who were yelling
on the streets in 1968. Half of the French
government and half of the whole management of the
country are those fellas from 1968. It's a normale state of things, it happens all the time. Even Churchill said, "If you're not a liberal when
you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a
conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain." But not everyone had
their brains evolved in time. And as I said, not all
of them were satisfied with the results of the protest. And in the early 1970s,
small bunches of those displeased people began to form radical groups that would become terrorists in the nearest future. And Action Directe
that killed Georges Besse was also formed out of
those displeased idealists. That's the reason we need it. The top person in the
organization Jean Marc Roullan. In 1968, he was 16 years old, and of course, he was on the streets. Besides, his father was
a revolutionary fanatic, and he held constant meetings of some sketchy dudes in his house discussing revolution, overthrow of the regime and how
things were rotten all the time. Naturally, such underground allure attracted the
kid, and after May 68, he decided firmly that he
would devote his life to it. Aside of France, there was enough such revolutionary and radical protest commotion in
all the countries at that time. Germany, Italy, and Spain, they also had underground organizations, and Rouillan was
constantly travelling, meeting different radicals and
terrorists, and also, he participated in different
actions of other organizations. He even went to prison one time when police caught him for an illegal weapon transfer. The second important
person in Action Directe was Georges Cipriani, this guy. By 1968, the year of protests, he worked as milling-machine operator in the Renault-Billancourt factory. And when I found it out, I said, ta-da! Come here, come here, my sweety! By 1968, Georges was 18 years old. He was born in 1950. And by the time of protests, he just went to work at the factory. Of course, he was at
demonstrations and strikes as the whole city was. And when the dust settled,
he went to work again because he needed something to eat, somehow. But you should know that very many agitators worked at any large factory at that time; they
went to work on purpose. You should remember that the Cold War was right in
the middle of the 1970s, the face-down of ideas of
capitalism and communism. And workers of any factory were perfect testing subjects for political activists. You come to the
factory and begin to explain in what shit those
workers live and all because of fucking capitalists. And if there was
communism, then our work at the factory were totally different! All the same activities -
sitting and wrenching - but definitely, each of us would have a Maybach and a house near the sea. And because such an agitator worked with everyone else, side by side, the level of trust to that person was higher that to some
rascal off the street. "Because Basil is our
guy, he says good stuff." And Cipriani was such an
activist, on top of it. He didn't work in
behalf of some party, no. But he was a
dedicated man himself, and he constantly urged workers to strike and resist, just because. No arguments were included. But up to a certain time, Cipriani was reasonably harmless dude, and everyone left him alone. And that certain time
was 25 February 1972, the day after which the
life at the Renault-Billancourt factory divided on "before" and "after". The day one man was
murdered on the factory. That man's name was Pierre Overney. Chapter V. Revenge Pierre Overney was a
rank-and-file worker at Renault and the same political activist as Georges Cipriani but far brighter. He was constantly
trying to find audience and to address it with some slogans; he was handing out leaflets, he was using all the possible
agitation methods and so on. Of course, each character
like that was a pain in the ass for executives of any factory. A giant pain, like a log. Imagine, you're a head of the factory, your facility is of epic scale; several thousands of men are working on it; and it produces some stuff. It doesn't matter what
the factory is making, even if sawing needle holes,
that doesn't matter, at all. What matters is your
leader responsibility to a very large circle of people. You answer before the
board of directors or before the factory owners and make the facility work, manufacture
production and pay off. You answer before all
vendours so that your factory would buy all the parts
needed, or raw materials, in time. Because it's important to your vendours if their business
processes don't collapse. You answer for
competitiveness of your production on the market in general, and that means constant improvement of workflow and implementation of new technologies. You answer before
the state and different social services so that taxes, pension payments,
salaries and other stuff were delay-free and full-scale. After all, you do all of that for your factory to live
and evolve further, remain competitive and have
some growth prospects. So that people could have workplaces 'cause they
need to feed their families. And the opportunity to live normal lives for those families because of the work at your factory - you answer for that, too. And if anywhere, any
department would stop, the failing of one process would drag the whole
construction down along with it. As one deralied car drags
all the train along with it, as the violation in one component could fail all the business process. And whatever happens anywhere, you would be held accountable because you are the administration. And when everything is alright and works as it should, when everyone gets money and all is great, no one would thank you. Of course, all is well because we are such great people here, and it happened all by itself. And if something isn't
right anywhere, that's because the executives are douchebags. That's normal, that was
always the case, and it will be. It isn't normal when
executives are douchebags, it's normal when...
You know what I mean! Well then, add the
early 1970s to this picture. At that time, OPEC were already here, and contradictions in the oil field, and the smell of that
was already unhealthy. Plus, the fat 1960s ended in France. The rate of economic growth
began to reduce little by little, and it became obvious for big executives
that something was coming. And your gut feeling was confirmed when you got protests of the Red May all over the country that were loaded with premonitions that the society was sitting on a powderkeg. That's the situation, when there is still some tension in the society, some strikes and
demonstrations here and there, something like that; and you are the top
person of the factory; and it's crucial that
the factory works normally. And amongst your
workers in the workshops, some dudes appear
that begin to tell your workers that they should break the tethers of capitalism, and they push them to strike. What will you do with such a dude? Will you push your matters aside? Will you take his hand and, with eyes full of empathy and understanding, will you listen to his
stream of consciousness? Now, of course, you'll
fire him for fuck's sake, and you will go about your own business. That was the way they
handled Pierre Overney. To be fair, I must say, although he was an ordinary worker, they gave him several talks before they fired them. They told him, "Look
here, bro, work is work. You have work to do. Because that's what we agreed upon when you came here to find employment. You do your job, and we pay you for it. That was it. That's all. Of course, politics is very
interesting but if you wanna do politics, go somewhere
else, not in our workshops." Naturally, Pierre didn't
give a damn on any notions, and he agitated everyone
to go on a strike as before. And for that, they threw him on
his ass quite fairly and forbade him to appear on the factory territory. How do you think, did it stop Pierre? No, of course, not. Together with his friends, he constantly idled
around near the front gate; he continued to hand
out leaflets, to draw some posters, and he
encouraged people to wake up. Of course, the security guards constantly chased
him here and there, but strictly speaking, the territory behind the fence was out of Renault's limits, and lawfully speaking, they couldn't do anything with that dude. He was just standing and
freaking them out day by day. In security reports, there
is info that they undermined several attempts to break into the territory of the factory, including at night. Why did activists need to
enter the factory at night? History is silent on that matter. But it's obvious that they were doing it not wanting to work
a lot, and to deliver on a week plan overnight. That commotion continued day by day. Of course, the security
guards were also human beings, and they hardly heard lots of
friendly stuff from activists. And 25 February 1972, during another squabble
between the security and Pierre, one of the of guards, Jean
Tramoni, just shot the dude. Those security guards had some Friday! Yes, that was wrong. It's wrong to kill
people under any pretext. Yes, of course, after that, the guard went to prison, and again, he didn't dodge and
agreed with everything. But humanwise, I could understand the reason why the
guard did what he did. That dude pissed him the fuck off. But the incident was one thing. Shit happens, when
people fight each other, punch each other,
sometimes even kill each other. No surprises here. But the death of an activist at the hands of a
guard exploded a bombshell. Another wave of riots rose
across the city once again, and radicals began
to yell at every bend, "We've told you so!
They will be killing us! Choking us! That
would be with everyone!" And so on, and so forth. Although, if you don't want
to get into such situation, you just have not to bother
people with guns regularly. And no one will touch you. Ordinary people, just
automatically, took a side of the poor victim of
the big system; they were also outraged and upset. Pierre Overney stopped
being an ordinary and useless factory worker, and
he momentarily became an idol. Several dozens of thousands
of people came to his funeral. Of course, after that, that
crowd went protesting, chanting and entertaining themselves
as they liked the most. I should add, that since 1968, since the Red May protests, there was some serious
split inside the opposition. One part was very
radical, and they wanted a violent overthrow of the regime, and more violence in general. And the other part of the
opposition that consisted of communists, mostly, thought fairly enough that those bunches of inadequates didn't allow to bring matters of 1968 to logical conclusions because usually, people were just scared by such
announcements and actions. Murder, blood, fires
on the streets, bombs in buildings are not
what an ordinary person would want to change the current regime. Although Overney's death
brought the protestants a bit closer together,
there was no unity inside. This time, radicals decided they should act and they should revenge. 6 days after Overney's murder, a bunch of radicals entered one of Renault's warehouses with
ready cars and set it afire. By the way, no special
group took responsibility for those actions, but some leaflets were found on the scene
that read, "That's for Pierre". A couple days later, the executives of the Billancourt factory
began to get personal threats. The first one who received them was Pierre Dreyfus, the director
of the whole Renault concern. Upon returning home,
he discovered a note on his porch that read that resistance fighters would blow up his apartment if all those people who'd been fired for harsh words and
calls for violence wouldn't be rehired by tomorrow. Those were about 15-20 people. Is this announcement normal? Rehire us, or we blow up
your apartment with your family. The environment among the employees would be a real bomb! But Pierre Dreyfus did
reach his house that night. But Robert Nogrette,
the COO of the factory, didn't come to the
factory the next morning. He was kidnapped. A group of people with guns
pushed Nogrette into some car - either a pickup or a larger truck -
and left to the unknown direction. Their motive was
following: Nogrette allegedly hired those specific guards on purpose so that they could kill Pierre Overney specifically. And he fired all the
radicals at the factory, that scum! The demands were the
same as with Dreyfus. Hire people back, and we'll cover it up. Actually, based on those demands, you could understand the
intellectual level of terrorists. It's certain that no
sane people would have to do anything with those guys. Who the fuck needs you,
marvellous guys, here, at the factory? Unclear. Even the workers
at the Renault factory were blown away with what
happened, and they organized a 2-hour demonstration - not to support the terrorists, but to
support their executives. Like, hello, guys,
back off, that's too much! Give our executives
back, we need to work. Plus, the radicals received some serious and harsh
criticism from their colleagues. The opposition
didn't supprot the current order of things, yes; but
those methods didn't sit well with them, as well. As the result, either the
terrorists understood that no one supported them, or they just didn't have the heart to kill a man, but Nogrette was released. He was held captive for two days, and as he said himself later, they treated him well, gave him food and water, allowed to go to the bathroom. They punched him a
bit, but that was all. And at that point,while
Nogrette was being held captive, Georges Cipriani
crawled out of his hole. That dude from Action Directe who killed Georges Besse; that dude that still worked at the Renault
factory at that time. And he was like, "They
are right, they are great! That's what you do!
That's how we will wage war with those shit-eating scoundrels! We should take them all
captive, put them on their knees, shoot them down and
establish a new order!" That's not a direct
quote, but that was the point. In public and on
common meetings, he began to support terrorists and to agitate workers to rise against their chiefs. Guess what happened to him? Naturally, he took off the
factory like a shot because neither executives nor
workers were in playful mood. You should understand that always, under any regime, at any time, 90% of people just want to live and not to bother anyone. Mostly, all the ordinary
people want to live their life and to do their own
businesses, to nurture their children. And all that
politics, world order, riots, revolutions, slogans and other shit is an entertainment for a very small amount of people. Although, at that time,
everyone thought that a lot of people were for those
radicals and for revolution, the total load of
people just wanted to live. That's why, in that situation, when activists tried to find excuses for a kidnapping, those workers didn't bat an eye when Cipriani
was kicked out of the factory. Everyone realized that
the situation smelled bad, and it would be
better not to mess with it. But Cipriani chose
such a bad timing for his speeches, and he
allegedly said so painful words that they didn't just fire him. They fired him with a
so-called Black Mark in his file. The Black Mark was just like a reference from your previous work but it meant,
actually, that you wouldn't be hired anywhere with guarantee. At any factory in the country. While such fools and
activists worked not only at Renault but at any
factory in the country, and they were a pain in
the neck of each and every executive of those factories, there was an unspoken arrangement
between all the factories. If someone at the factory got an especially fucked-up person who just didn't allow either the
factory itself or people to work properly, just firing that man in
that situation meant only one thing: that person would go to the next factory and would be fucking brains of executives and
working personnel out there. And in order to work out such people more
efficiently, all the big guys agreed among themselves to put special marks into those people's files and work record books. So that dude wouldn't be
hired anywhere by any means. Or at least, there was a note, like, call us, and we'll tell you everything. And with that ticket to the free life, Cipriani landed on the street. And at that point, I
was like, that's it! They killed Besse
because of their revenge! Of course, crimes against the working class is a
very extended definition, and any shit from crooked
head could fit into its limits. But here we are! There's motivation!
Cipriani was humiliated, right? He landed on the street
because of his beliefs, right? He couldn't find another job,
what else did he have to do? To brood over schemes of vengeance! Yes! That's it, I finally can go home! But I was happy for
5 seconds, literally. But then I was like, wait,
where does Georges Besse come in? He was killed in the
middle of the 1980s, and Cipriani landed
on the street in 1972. He hadn't brooding over his vengeance for 14 years, right? And Georges Besse didn't fire him, there were other
executives around the 1970s. Of all the leaders of the group, Cipriani was the
only one Renault worker. Jean Marc Rouillan
hadn't worked anywhere ever. Nathalie Ménigon worked at
the bank, and they fired her for some inside
reasons, too, and after that, she joined the radicals. But that was also in the 1980s. In the 1970s, Ménigon was too small. And Joëlle Aubron was just a wife of some terrorist, she was
going nutsfor the sake of it. That's why the version
with revenge doesn't stick. Even if Cipriani wished to
revenge to the Renault executives, it's unlikely that he
could convince everyone else. And during interrogations, where everyone could get
20 years in prison each, they would have confessed
and pointed at Cipriani. Or at least, they would have said he were the main
ideologist of the operation. But no, they told a carbon-copy bullshit about capitalism, crimes
against workers and so on. And after all that
time and all that context, it would seem that
we're at a dead end again. And it's clear only that the
reason lied somewhere else. Yes, it did. And we're going to the right direction. All that remains is to dig deeper. Chapter VI. "Crimes" for
the Sake of the Factory So, we're in the middle of the 1970s. There are still 10
years before Besse' murder but the picture already
began to paint itself. All over the country, there was a lot of underground groups appearing, waging an ideological war with the existing
regime, and here and there, there were clashes and demonstrations. And especially crazy ones
already began to put out weapons. Action Directe as
organization appeared in the late 1970s. They were hardly the only militants that began to attack state institutions, attack banks, explode
buildings and to kill people. There was a lot of such people, and
I would recite them until tomorrow. Concurrently, there was the oil crisis. When the members of OPEC limited oil deliveries to the European countries and to the
USA because they were sick and tired of being
simple resource colonies that were exploited in any ways. Plus, prices shot up
for any kind of fuel and for energy, and the US and
European economy began to stagger. Because of the crisis, as
it usually happens, some facilities went under and closed down, and someone began to cut all their expense sides in order to survive. Because of that, the unemployment rose even more, and that poured more oil in the flames with the total level of tension and discontent. Plus, let's remember that in 1979, Renault decided to
save and buy AMC shares. And in the early 1970s, with good volumes of sales, Renault felt great, but by the late 1970s, because of falling demands on cars, because of the energy crisis and because of global
economic decline in the country, the company began to feel not good. And they also had to make giant injections of cash into the American company
that could only shit itself. Plus, they had a bunch of racing teams round their neck
that were also not so cheap. And now, we remember that, by the late
1970s and the early 1980s, Renault was a huge corporation with dozens of factories and
tens of thousands workplaces. Such Titanics can't
turn around momentarily, as well as adapt to
the situation quickly. But they could begin
to sink, very quickly. Year by year, their
financial health was getting worse. The volume of sales dropped, the cost of making grew, the end product went up in price, and
no one wanted to give much money for a
simple hatchback by Renault. Plus, they hung themselves a weight of car racing teams on one leg, and the fourth by volume car manufacturer in
America on the second leg. And the US car market was up
shit creek after the oil crisis. And by 1984, or 1985, Renault obtained a magnificent number in
their financial accounting. 12.5 billion franks of losses per year. 12.5 billion. Not million, billion. Practically, because
of external factors, the oil crisis and wrong executive solutions, after several years, the company plummeted into a very serious economic ass. It was obvious that the
company had to be rebuilt, and rebuilt quickly. Because if Renault collapsed
- and with such parameters, that was the
question of one year, tops - everyone would be hung to dry. Renault was one of the largest employers and tax payers of the country. And a hundred thousands of
people that would just lose their workplaces - that wasn't the sight you would wish to see in the
middle of the crisis as the state. The company had to be saved, no matter how, just fuck
it, don't give la shit. They needed a decision, and
Renault had to survive at any cost. As mostly, Renault belonged
to the state at that time, the state made a
decision about the change of senior executives. They chose Georges Besse. At that point, in
1985, Besse was in charge of Pechiney Ugine
Kuhlmann company, a.k.a. PUK. Yes, you could laugh that
Besse was in charge of pookas. And I laughed when I found out. But jokes aside, Pechiney Ugine
Kuhlmann was another fucking huge company in France, and in the 1980s, about 100,000 people worked there. Mostly, the company was
dealing with raw materials from the mining sector. Like, aluminium, ferro-alloys
and rare ores for atomic industry. Plus, they were producing
every kinds of packings. Like heat seal packaging with
an aluminium membrane inside. That shit was their business. But the main thing was extraction and delivery of raw materials. Despite the crisis that
was mowing everyone off, Besse' company was just fine. No deviation in financial balance; the company was
standing on its feet firmly; nothing was collapsing. At that moment, there was no better candidate for Renault than Besse because he had a successfull experience of managing similar huge corporation during difficult times. I don't know if they asked his opinion or just sent him to the new workplace by command. But it doesn't matter for us. What matters is that in 1983,
Georges Besse entered the office. I think, the day he
studied all the reports, he went and drank himself stupid. Things were going much worse
in the company than he supposed. Practically, all the
processes of delivery and producing were horrible ineffective and obsolete by standards of the 1980s. Logistics,
warehouses, supplier management, lines of products - all of that was horribly slow; too many people worked everywhere, and efficiency of
whole departments approached zero. It was obvious for Besse that the
company wouldn't survive without serious changes and reforms. And the first thing Besse did,
was cutting down all the car racing. With one movement, in the harshest possible way, he cut
off all the programs of racing team financing. At fat times, when the
company has much money - go nuts as you waish,
no one is against it. But when you have to survive, just spending money like water for some mythical image - that
was too costly affair. Besse thought so. And he thought it right. The second move -
everything that didn't bring profits here and now, each person that generated losses,
each process that didn't bring money - to hell with it. There was a full and very meticulous inspection of everything that
was going on in the company. They looked in every hidden corner and under every skirt
in order to understand what each person was
doing in the company and how much benefit they provided. About half a year was
needed for that research. And after all the data was gathered, it became obvious that a huge lot of people was just sitting
on their hands doing nothing. Usually, when it comes to reduction of staff that brings nothing aside from losses, open debates begins. The unions begin to
outrage, the press comes running immediately and pokes people with their mics, and the
long dillydallying begins. Is it wrong or right what the executives are doing? What the union thinks about it? What Uncle Ben thinks about it? The Uncle Ben who's been going to work for 10 years just for
the sake of it and doing nothing useful. No one asks when Uncle
Ben was sober the last time but his opinion about managing an industrial behemoth is interesting for everyone right away, yes. Besse didn't allow anything like it. At the very least, he didn't
allow the press to his factories so that they didn't infuse panic. And he rarely
appeared before them himself; his motivation was
the fact that he didn't have time for talking, he had to work. By the way, after that,
the press characterized him as a man that was used to say nothing but to do much. It was a pretty
strange eulogic reaction. Usually, the press
doesn't praise anyone like that. Honestly, I don't know how Besse found commond
ground with the union, but after the global
inspection of the company activities, they
signed a regulation that, literally in a couple of months, 21,000 people would
leave their workplaces. And the union agreed with that. The only explanation I could find in my head of the
reason why the union didn't resist was the fact that they realized the real state of
things at the factories, too. And the question facing them was: either they reorganized production works and lost 21,000 people but the company would survive, or they would just
collapsed, and over 100,000 people would lose their jobs. There was no other way. You could get an impression
that I treat workers like a snob. That I constantly
throw biting words at them. But I throw biting
words only at lazy people and drunkards, and the living dead woods that exist in each company. Of course, the vast
majority of workers at any factory are smart, active,
high-class professionals. And they should be left alone. And all of those who go to work to do some bikeshedding nine to five - those people must be chased over the hills and far away. And the amount of those dudes at Renault factories was 21,000. And the only thing Besse didn't touch but, on the contrary,
increased financing of it, was the developing of cooperative engine and model with AMC to
get the market share in the US and make some money. Technically, the company
dried itself, shaking off unwanted expenses, and all the means that they managed to free were sent to develop projects that would guarantee the future of the company. And yes, those
actions would appear unfair to someone or brutal for the
fired workers or for racing teams that were dropped, that had their own fanbases who rooted for them and
worried about them, and all. But technically, Besse
had to stew in the juice that was being boiled
and drawn by previous executives for a very
long time by not improving their manufacturing,
by turning the blind eye to the efficiency of
employees, and so on. Roughly speaking, when
you're letting your health go hard for a long
time, and you're beginning to feel a gangrene on
your toes, let's suppose, - that's it, you should have your
leg cut, or else you will die. And the doctor that cuts away your leg is an unpleasant
character at the moment. But what should you do?
It's his job, he's helping you. And Besse was that doctor. The most surprising
thing is the following. We already know that when big companies get to the deepest financial asses, even if their executives act very quickly and right,
there would be no instant effect. When you need half a year only to gather information about processes because the company is huge, then to think that everything would be alright magically in another half a year -
that absolutely pointless. You have to reprocess a
trilliard of processes, that should take years or even decades. But Georges Besse became the head of Renault in
the very beginning of 1985. And in the middle of 1986,
just one and a half years after his designation,
the company showed profits. Besse silently clenched his
teeth and dragged the company out of the financial hole to
profits for some sorry year and a half. At that time, with the
financial crisis, the continued oil crisis, and the reducing European car market, it was a real miracle of management - to drag a
giant company from the bottom. Although the press wrote very little of him
because Besse didn't communicate with them practically -
he had other things to do - it was obvious that he was
just a brilliant manager. And everything that man got were 4 bullets from 2 women who decided with their 2 friends that firing 21,000 workers were a crime against the working class. At least, they explained it that way. That's another proof
that life is fucking unfair. But do you know what the problem is? The problem is, all of that isn't the answer to the question why they killed Besse. In the middle of
an economical and energy crisis, workers were being
fired not only in Renault but almost everywhere. Not only Renault but all the
companies had to dry themselves, and serious clashes of unions and executives were everywhere. For example, on the 3M
factory, during one strike against firings, workers took their executives hostage and said they wouldn't let
them go until they signed papers that no one would be fired. And the same shit was
happening at French branches of Sony. At Peugeot factories, at Citroën factories, at any other large facilities, the
processes were the same. There were protests and property riots, but killings... There were no killings.
Only Besse was killed. There was never a case of physical assault towards top executives. When hostages were held at 3M,
they were just held in the office. It would be a different matter if Besse was killed
during a demonstration with mad crowds smashing
everything around them. It's understandable when
a person happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time, and they got in trouble. I would understand that. And here, there was a
directly planned operation against the specific executive. And if we'd believe the terrorists'
rhetoric, they would treat about half of the senior executives of the whole country alike. Or at least, they should have shot a couple dozens of CEO down or tried to do that, at least. And here - there were no attempts. They killed only Besse. From the first time. It looked like a
coincidence of circumstances. As if he was chosen as
a victim just because. But what if Besse wasn't a
random and singular victim? Who else did Action
Directe directively kill? I told you earlier
that more than 100 people in total found death at their hands, and those were random
victims of their actions when those guys threw bombs in public places or exchanged fire with cops. But did they kill directly anyone else? Perhaps, the method
of murder could help us to connect Besse'
death with anyone else. The answer was not
hard to find. Just under 2 years before Georges Besse was killed, 25 January 1985, the same month when Georges Besse entered
the office of Renault's CEO, a man was found in his
home with 8 bullet wounds. That man's name was René Audran. And his death was also
Action Directe's doing. Chapter VII. Colonial Interests If we look into the
literature terrorists wrote about their activities, then we'd see that René
Audran's murder was a separate bragging right of Action Directe. They said, that was not a
murder but an execution. Because they thought that
René Audran deserved it. René Audran was the main
engineer of the Ministry of Defense in France, and he was
responsible for delivery of French weapons to other countries. In particular, he
oversaw the weapon delivery to Iraq that was at war
with Iran in the 1980s. The conflict between Iraq and
Iran was just horrible, no joking. The war began in 1980,
lasted 8 years, and during those 8 years, there were all
kinds of things out there. Carpet bombings, chemical operations, minor teenagers sent to the front lines, hunger, lack of medical assistance and so on. Wars are always fucking ugly. The ugliest thing in the world. No matter where and under what
banners it went on the planet. We don't have exact info about losses. All the assessments are so different and
contradictory that you couldn't even dream about some accuracy. But if we take average numbers, 750,000 people were killed, and million and a
half were wounded or MIA. And that happened not so long ago, in the 1980s, in the late 1980s. And as René Audran
took part in supporting of that war as a person of high standing and delivered weapons to Iraq, the guys from Action
Directe killed him for that. But I have a question in my head. Strictly speaking, honestly. Why do you give a fuck that someone
is waging war somewhere a world away? Look here. The 1980s
weren't the same as modern times. At that time, much
less information about what and where was happening. You had papers with more or less official point of view, and TV- and radio-channels with about the same point of view. And they would tell and show only
what they needed to tell and show. It was very difficult to begin seriously worrying about the fate of an ordinary resident
of Iraq for no reason. I even allow the possibility that half of the population of the
Earth didn't know at all what was happening and
who was fighting where. Excuse me, but where's
Iraq and where's France? Killion a high-ranking person from the Ministry of Defense because someone was being at war somewhere and that dude was doing his job and
delivering some weapons to those guys - that
was a bit odd, I think. You don't get it, right? Okay, fine, I'm gonna
rephrase the question. Why did they get at that war
and at that particuclar man? The war between Iran and Iraq was hardly the only conflict
that was going in the 1980s. Not the only one at all. By that moment, there were
- tick off your fingers - the Ethiopian Civil
War; the Angolan Civil War; the Second Sudanese Civil War; the Western Sahara
War, the South African Border War, the coup and
the seize of power in Turkey. Should I go on? Okay. The Islamist uprising in Syria; the Salvadoran Civil War; the Soviet–Afghan War;
the Second Mafia War; the 1982 Lebanon War and
the Lebanese Civil War - those are 2 different
things, you shouldn't confuse them. Further on? Like a boss. The escalation of the Cold War and the Doomsday Clock between
the USA and the USSR; 1989 Tiananmen Square
protests and massacre; 1983 Beirut barracks
bombings; the internal conflict in Peru; the Nicaraguan Civil War; the Falklands War and the United States invasion of Grenada; and the Iran-Iraq War, yeah. Those were happening at the same time. I repeat the question: why did they get at
Iran and Iraq, exactly? In the 1980s, there were so
many wars - shop till you drop. And France took part not only in one war with its weapons and its influence. But let us remember that those radical terrorists already had their demands for France to wrap down its presence in other
countries and in its colonies. Do you remember the
Algerian War in the 1960s? And the radical
declarations at that time? That looked a bit strange, too. The French inside France vote for their country to give up its piece of land willingly to God knows whom. Is it strange? It is. Let us work backward. The independent state of Algeria
appeared as the result of Algerian War of Independence that
was fought 1954-1962. Before that time periond, since 1834, Algeria was the territory of France. During their colonial
expansions, the French came there with their huge navy, way back in the XIX
century, in the 1830s. And they said, "We are the power. You are aborigines and
natives, and now, we're gonna teach you how to live the right way." And they began to do exactly that. The Algerians, of course,
had been resisting for some time for signs on the wall, but they surrendered pretty quickly because it was hard for them to field something against the military power of France. And for over 100 years, Algeria was the full-fledged territory of France. During all that time, French had been building there their so-called
migratory resource colony. The Algerian population
allegedly was presented as citizens of the French Union, but they had lesser rights
than native French. Far lesser. Native citizens of Algeria
couldn't take high positions in any important institutions. But still, they were recruited
as privates to the French army and used as manpower in mines; they were used to build facilities, dockyards and ports for delivery of useful shipments. And they got far less money for
the same labor than French workers. In a word, a standard colony. Beside the direct use
of manpower to build something useful for
the sake of the empire using cheap hands, on the territory of the country, they
discovered heavy stocks of gold, different iron ores, rare wood that grew near the shores. And the French used
those riches to the full. Everything they could
dig out of the earth, they had to dig out and to drag away. Or they could try to do
some wares out of the dug out stuff right on the territory of the colony; but then,
they had to drag it away anyhow because the
metropoly had to get profits. But from the point of view of ordinary
population, everything was not so bad. At least, in comparison
with regular colonies. Algeria didn't feel so bad because it was not only exploited and oppressed. The French shared their
technologies with them, they built cities, they built the financial system; they built educational centers,
and they moved the country to evolution, in general. It was like this, among
other reasons, because many native Frenchmen came to
that country to settlement. Technically, they built
the country for themselves. By the end of the XIX century, around 15%
population in the country were really the "French"
French from the French France. And that was the case until the World War II, and it was win-win for everyone, in general. Yes, there were smal clashes, there were movements for liberation of Algeria, but they were nothing serious, actually. And that's why no one
paid any attention to them. After the World War II ended, Algeria looked at the bunch of cases when countries
declared their independence of Britain, for example. And they were, like, "We want it, too!" And momentarily, by history standards, literally after several years, there was a strong national
movement in the country for separation Algeria from France. And the French, in
their turn, didn't get that gag because they perceived Algeria as their property. Well, something like children
stirring the pot in the kitchen who don't want to eat porridge but only to take walks and to watch toons. And with those eyes, full of puzzlement, France looked at Algeria. Like, "You don't have the right
of voice, what are you doing?" The French came and
tried to spank Algeria, to put it in time-out,
but they couldn't do it. The child turned to a
teenager and began to bite. And by 1954, those actions
resulted in a prolonged and bloody war. Details of the conflict
don't matter much for us. All the details of all
the wars are the same. Blood, intestines on the
walls and destroyed human fates, those are all the details of the war. What's important, is the result. Technically, on paper,
Algeria was free, yes. But that was of little use. Because France signed the
independence of the country with the condition
that France would keep control over all the strategically
important objects and facilities. All the mines and all the
factories, all the ports and everything that had been under control of
France, would stay under their control. Of course, you could paint
yourself a banner, write a fucking great anthem with pipes, but everything important for France would
stay under control of France. And after the declaration of the independence
of Algeria, the French went on dragging everything
they needed out the country. But beside resources, people, extractive industries, a lot of
businesses and all of that, France needed Algeria for
something more important. And that something also remained under control of France after signing
the independence of the country. For France, a piece of Western Sahara was important
that was situated on the Algerian territory. More specifically, all the territory of the desert near
the town called Reggan. And when you hear it for
the first time, a small hunch dog wakes up in
you, and it's, like, "Excuse me, what!?" The
reason why the exploting country needs facilities, people and resources - that's
understandable, no problem. But why the heck could you need a pile of sand in the desert - that's
pretty unclear at the first sight. There's only wind out
there, sand and 2 bushes. There were no social media back there, or photos, like, look here, John
Chairless is al-sheikh now, fuck! And he's standing with his Mary Scheherazade, wrapped in sheets, waiting for likes in the great sandbox. But strategically, that mountain of sand was really important for France. They needed it for their
nuclear weapon testing. Chapter VIII. Metal That Gives Power France is one of nuclear-weapon states. The nuclear-weapon state is the country that has a working and
successfully tested nuclear weapon. If you have only some
groundwork or some nuclear plant that generates electricity, you're not a nuclear-weapon
state but a shit on a stick. At this point, in 2022, 5 states officially have
nuclear weapons: those are the USA, Russia, the
UK, France and China. Allegedly, the nuclear weapon is present also in North Korea,
Israel, India and Pakistan. Allegedly, because
all those countries had their tests but
neither of them confessed if they had something working. And beside that, there
were nuclear explosions on our planet
organized by who-knows-who. All the countries checked out that
someone banged something in the ocean. But when they asked each other what that was
exactly, all of them were, like... Nuclear testing is a very important thing in the
developing process; because you can calculate anything with your computers, but in real life, something might go wrong and the
weapons load might not bang. Or bang, but in some different way. Or bang in that moment
when you don't expect that. The same thing with your drunken dad. Anyway, only after you finished the full-fledged
testing, you can be sure that you have a working weapon. Without testing, you might tell anything to anyone; but without real facts of testing, you
couldn't scare anyone with it. After all, you wouldn't be so sure that you won't shit
yourself in the right moment. And nuclear weapon isn't
just any bomb, by the way. This is a very important argument in any negotiations and very certain centers of power that make people listen what you're saying and what you want. For our narrative, it's important that during the period
after the World War II, only the USA, the Great Britain,
and the USSR had nuclear weapons. The UK had its first testing in 1952, near the Montebello island. It's on the west of Australia. What did the British do? They parked a frigate on anchor, put a bomb in it, sailed further away, and exploded all of
that stuff. That's all. By they way, the word "testing" simply means a bomb explosion. You take the bomb,
choose a target, put on the darkest shades, push the button - and enjoy fireworks. And yes, testings were organized in the
open air in the ocean. No one collected radioactive debris. You could try to find them after a whole ship burst
to pieces in the ocean. They just exploded it and sailed further on
doing their business. Ecology! Don't forget! The Soviet Union had its first testing in 1949 on the testing
site in Semipalatinsk. It's the territory of modern Kazakhstan. Those guys built several
facilites in the steppe, like some towers, foretypes of warehouses, domestic
houses, in order to see what would remain
intact after the explosion. The bomb was planted into one of
the towers, and it was exploded. And by the way, another information for those who worry so much. The participants in nuclear
testing always were and will be animals that were put around on different points of
the testing ground and at different distance
from the explosion in order to see how forced
meat flies on the walls. Think about it for a few seconds. You won't put living people on the
testing ground, right? You won't. But goats, doggies, cows,
kitties, pigs, rats - come here. And if some of you have your chin trembling
because the Soviet Union was so horrible and
cruel, you should know: there were dudes who put
people on testing grounds. And not even in North Korea. Those were Americans. And their testing grounds
were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Beside the fact that the nuclear strike
on Japan was a military operation, that was the first successful nuclear weapon testing with people. The Experiments Column in
global sense looks exactly like that! Before dropping bombs on
Japan, literally a couple of weeks before Hiroshima, in July 1945, those guys exploded a bomb on their testing ground in Nevada, and they put a bunch of animals in there, of course. Because it was boring without animals, and sensations were wrong. And a couple of weeks
later, in early August 1945, bombs were dropped down on people. Of course, it's a
tragedy; that's forbidden, yes. But nobody cares. The explosion of a
nuclear bomb is the power demonstration and the
direct notion that you should do what we ask you to do. And while the World
War II was followed by global remaking of world
order and all power centers, the nuclear bomb in someone's
pocket was a very strong argument to participate in that process. And here, France sucked so
many dicks you couldn't count. Technically, the USA, the UK and the USSR decided what would belong to whom after the war. Look how pleased all of them are! The moment that photo was made, Britain and the
Soviets still didn't had tested bombs but
they were very close to the end of development. And the USA knew that. That's why everyone
was smiling politely to each other, so brightly
that they were shining. That was easy with
such a level of radiation. France wasn't used to that
position where everyone held it cheap. It had been an empire all the
way, and a very important bird! And here they say to you, "Go for a walk while adults
would discuss some matters here. And they realized
that France would either become a
nuclear-weapon state, and they would be able to speak on a
par with serious guys, or it would continue
to stand doggy style in the position "la fuckolie". But we deal with
French, and it's only natural that they had to fight among themselves on the top for ten times, to discuss it from every point, to spit each other in the face, to rally that nuclear weapon was
evil and very, very bad. But by the late 1950s, it was already perfectly clear that they needed their own bomb. And here, we should
take our bullet points and explain at them how to make your own nuclear weapon. But I'm gonna do it with
one condition: promise me not to recreate it in your kitchen. Or, only under supervision of adults. For starters, you need a
scientific base: special labs and a bunch of smart people inside that would be
studying atomic structures, nuclear chain reactions, how that could work and how you could make nuclear fuel from mud and straw. France did have all of that. Long before the World War II, there were scientists in
France that were doing that. I must say, a pretty big share of fundamental processes was opened by French scientists exactly. The most famous of them were a married
couple, Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Both were Nobel prize
laureates in chemistry. If you're interested, you could
read about them, those guys were funny. But their scientific
works are just super boring. They didn't invent any memes even. Further on, you need
to make nuclear fuel. If we take it just super simple, it would look about like this. For our recipy, we have to take natural uranium and a huge
plant that could enrich it. Did you hear such a
term - enriched uranium? And that all the countries
run with it back and forth? So, I'll tell you what that is
and how everything fits together. Spoiler, enriched uranium
doesn't fit into your system. It's like a large basket of Buffalo wings from
KFC, just a bit stronger. At the very least, you
would turn to a fine rocket. There is natural uranium
that is mined from the earth. The uranium content in the ore isn't very high - 1%
in average, or less. That's why you have to dig some huge, super huge hole to dig out at least some needed quantity of uranium from that hole. Further on, you have to
free clean uranium frm any mud and straw, and as the result, you would have a silver-colored metal. You shouldn't touch it with your bare hands, but ribbon gloves are okay; nothing
scary would happen to you. On its own, in such relatively natural state,
uranium is a real nothing. Well, it's just a piece of metal. Yes, it's chemically active. Yes, it's a bit
radioactive, but essentially, it's just a piece of metal as it is, that's all. But if you cast a certain magic on it, you might get
something interesting. Here comes a bit of tension. I'm gonna explain difficult things. That's why you should pull such a face. With such a face, you
would understand it better. And if you do like this, you would understand it all. If you did it more often, you would have known a long time
ago that you're adopted. Regular uranium consists of 3
parts in strict proportions. Each parts is called an isotope. Roughly speaking, it's like water consists of 2
molecules of hydrogene and one molecule of
oxygene, the H2O formula. And uranium consists of
3 isotopes of uranium. I know, chemists are
already very tense because of such analogies, but don't you dare throw your ebonite sticks at me. Shove them back where they belong. I'm gonna make things simpler on
purpose so that the principle was clear. Isotopes that make uranium
are called pretty tricky. U-238, U-235 and U-234. They look like a very
strange bus numbers. Route 238, route 235, and route 234. The terminal station is nuclear winter. Proportions of each
isotope in uranium are different. 238 takes the most of its mass, 99.27%. And if you rack your brains a bit, you could notice that 99.27 percent of total mass is practically the
whole amount of mass of the element. Yes, almost the whole mass of uranium comes to 238 isotope. The rest take a teeny-tiny
share the size of fucking nothing. Essentially, that basic mass with 99 and shit percent is absolutely useless because uranium-238 can't do the nuclear chain reaction. The nuclear chain
reaction means that atomic nuclea inside some stuff,
in certain conditions, like at certain temperature or under some other impact, begin to bump into each other, and change and split frantically. If you skipped
science at school, it looks about like this in a simple way. Imagine, you have a huge pack of dogs. About 100 of them. All are lying, sleeping,
no one is bothering anyone. But suddenly, some dog
has a scary dream, it jumps up and begins to bark. What will happen? All that pack would be barking another week through a contagion effect. Because all of them would begin to bark, others would bark because
of the noise, and so on. And now, imagine, what would happen if any barking from any dog would add to your pack another dog,
or several at once, even. And those dogs also could
bark and summon new dogs. It's some scary stuff. It's not enough that you can't stop it; they would crowd the whole city in a couple of seconds. That is the nuclear chain reaction but with atoms instead of dogs. And when atoms begin to split because of excitement, an epic
outburst of energy happens that we need so badly. And so! Uranium-238 that presents 99.27% from the basic mass, can't do that. It's like a dog without a mouth. It could only look cute and
understand everything, but it cannot bark. You could heat it, slobber it, bang it
with a hammer, it doesn't care at all. Let's call it a relative impotent. And the second uranim isotope, U-235, our 235 bus, can
do the nuclear reaction. Yes, it can! You just touch it, and everything
near it would suddenly regret it. And so, let's call it Bitchy Casanova. But the natural
uranium, taken from mines, has only 0.72% of that isotope. Well, 0.72 from the basic mass. And you couldn't separate it just
like that, it would react at once. And being raped by
uranium Casanova isn't the thing that you would want to
experience in your life, trust me. The third isotope, U-234, makes 0.0005% from the basic mass at the level of acceptable error limit, that's why they don't mention it in many sources; they just write that uranium consists from
isotopes 238 and 234, that's all. And if we take usual natural uranium in its usual natural conditions, you couldn't gain a thing in those proportions
between the impotent isotope and the Casanova isotope. It's useless because more than 99% of its mass doesn't want
anything and can't do anything. But if you change that proportion and make uranium with a
greater share of Casanova, you could invent
something interesting with it. And the process when the
share of active uranium isotope, our Casanova isotope, U-235, in the basic mass of
uranium increases, that's called the process of uranium enrichment. And if the result of your
tricky manipulations with uranium makes sure that the share of Casanova in the result materail would
be higher than natural 0.72%, that would be enriched uranium. And if it would be lower, that would be depleted uranium. That's all the difference. Is it clear? Nod so that I could see it. I always admired how clever you are. Whatever I tell,
everything is clear to you. Take the second deserved kiss. The enrichment of uranium is
the task of special plants. Those are really huge things; some chemical magic happens inside them, and they consume some fucking amount of energy to do their work. One uranium enrichment plant consumes as much energy as a whole city. That's why they're
usually built near some water power plants or some power plants that work on oil, gas or coal, so that the whole power plant could work only for one plant. Because it needs a real lot of energy. By the way, I would really like to see how ecological activists imagine the way you could power a whole uranium enrichment plant with a turbine tower or with a solar panel. I would like to see
it and laugh very much. Together with all the nuclear
scientists and power engineers. Of course, activists parry with the fact that nuclear technologies
are horrible as they were, and they need to be destroyed. But it's because they don't have
their own power plant, and so they're mad. Okay, let's return to
our nuclear bomb recipy. We dug a huge hole in the earth,
received the ore, got uranium from the ore. Then we took it to a
special uranium enrichment plant, and for that process,
we spent a huge amount of energy, time and
money, and as the result, we got enriched uranium that
can be used as nuclear fuel. Here's another important nuance. Depending of the way we want to use enriched uranium, we need different
concentration of Casanova in that uranium. If using our intellectual and
anal suffering on the plant, we increase Casanova's concentration, i.e. Uranium-235, up to 5%, or perhaps to 10%, or even to 20% from basic mass, that enriched uranium can be used as fuel on power plants. Roughly speaking, it's like for cars, we have sorts
of gas - 92, 95 and 100. And for atomic
reactor, there are 5%-uranium, 10%-uranium and 20%-uranium. And it's used as a fuel. And if you increase the
concentration up to 90%, it can be used as a weapon. It would blow up like hell. And there are also
reactors that don't produce power but serve for different research. Including research to create
weapon-graide uranium and plutonium. For those reactors, enriched uranium with 5%, 10%, 15% is a quite fit, too. Technically, you could take a usual research reactor, and if you have a right amount of 5%-uranium, then, after hard and tricky suffering and spending much time and many human resources, you could get some amount of weapon-grade uranium or plutonium out of that stuff. For this very
reason, everyone gets tense even if a certain country
has usual atomic reactors. As a rule, such
facilities are top secret, and it's unclear what happens out there. Anything could happen, really. It could look like
peaceful atom in the shop window, but under the table,
it could be anything. Especially in the 1960-1970s. But getting uranium with 90%
Casanova concentration is very hard. It's very expensive because the process of enrichment isn't linear. Each following procent
of concentration would be more difficult and
expensive for you than the previous one, and when you reach 30% at least, that would be very hard to obtain both with
infrastructure and with energetics. And so, scientists grunted a bit, racked their brains,
and then they discovered that if you throw
20%-uranium into the atomic reactor and make some fuss inside, you could take
plutonium out of the reactor. And in certain condition, plutonium is a perfect fit for nuclear weapon. And it happens to be
cheaper and more dangerous than weapon-grade uranium with high Casanova concentration. By the way, you could get plutonium only that way. Only inside an atomic reactor. It doesn't occur in nature. It's an atificially
created chemical element. Or, rather, it occurs in nature but in such tiny numbers that you couldn't get it anywhere in the amounts you need. And if you could irradiate
uranium in a very specific way, you can get plutonium. It's very convenient for
nuclear weapon production. All in all, you could put uranium into the missile, not a problem. But plutonium is
still cheaper and funnier. The entire scheme
looks something like this. We find uranium deposits, we dig uranium ore out of them. Then we take it to some special facility that clears uranium of some additions, mud and straw. And later, we put that uranium to some uranium enrichment plant. We get it to the needed
Casanova concentration, then we put it into an atomic
reactor, do some magic, salt and pepper to taste, and
then we take plutonium out of it. Later, we put plutonium in a bomb in some certain way, we write "world peace" on it - and
that's all, the bomb is ready. You can go and boast
before your neighbors. But all of us
remember - well, I hope, we still remember - it's not enough to make a bomb, you should test it. And Algeria was a
perfect fit for those matters. We're talking about Algeria here, y'all. You have a piece of
desert where nobody lives. You could blow up a ton of shit. You won't blow up a nuclear
bomb in France, won't you? People live here,
eating croissants, and so on. But you could say to Algerians that they shouldn't go over that dune because snow could fall onto their
head, and that's all. That was the decision, by the way. In total sum, France organized 17 nuclear testings
in Algeria 1960-1966. They bombed as they could. Those parties were really hot. The first 4 tests were
simply land-based, i.e. they exploded nuclear
weapon on the ground. Later, they began to
organize underground tests. Underground testing means that they blow up a weapon in a deep mine so that they wouldn't pollute everything around them with radioactive ashes. And when they passed
all the tests, gathered all the data, and
had their share of fun, the French wrapped all their
testing grounds in Algeria down, and they went to bomb testing
grounds in French Polynesia, another French colony. There was a lot of empty islands. Plus, you could explode
something under water. And the climat was more pleasant there. Plus, Polynesian women were bombs, too. But here's the thing, why the heck I'm telling you all of this? If I might not tell you all
those things, I wouldn't tell you. I've been inventing that analogy with dogs and nuclear chain
reactions for two days, really. And naming active uranium isotope, that Bitchy Casanova, is
just worthy a Nobel prize, I think. In all that story with Algeria
and nuclear testing, there was one person that made me very interested. That man was called
Michel Baroin, and it's highly unlikely that any
of you could hear about him. Michel was a politician, diplomate, Doctor of International Law, and an employee of
French special service. And for many years, he was busy with
discussion of questions in Algeria. In general, he attended to
presence and protection of interests of France all over Africa. That harmless term, presence
and protection of interests, that we hear very often on TV
or other media, it's just about stealing plants, instituting and possessing of control over some important deposits, for example, putting your own people to important top posts in the
government, and so on, and so forth. That thing that all the important objects remained under control of France after the Algerian
recognition of independence, that means protection of
interests in the parlance of diplomates. Not like it could sound "You, apes, go fuck yourselves, we won't give you anything, and we will fuck you all" -
but protection of interests. Very precise nuances of wordings. And Michel attended to those things. Through all his political
life and special-service-life, beginning with the 1950s. He was one of those people who
participated in signing the Évian Accords. The Évian Accords aren't some conspiracy of
all cafes and restaurants to sell the Évian water for some absolutely inadequate money but a paper about ending the war in Algeria, recognition of
independence of the country and all that shit that was signed on super beneficial terms for France. At some point, people of the government called Michel and told him the following,
"Michel, are you sleeping? Take you suitcase, take the plane. You're flying to Gabon. Why? It seems we found
an uranium mine out there, and it seems there is so much uranium that we could
cover a half of the planet." Chapter IX. An Ideal Scheme As we could guess from all that was said before, everything that was connected with uranium, with its mining, with its transportation, enrichment and further use, those were all really sensitive matters of strategic values. Of course, France didn't have its own uranium in sufficient volumes. The country had uranium mines, yes, but they were so small that they couldn't ever cover uranium needs for
some strong nuclear program. They couldn't be
enough for some experiments, but building of their own nuclear weapon or power plants without colonies was
out of the question. That was the reason France mostly mined its uranium on
colonies' territories, of course. Like any other resources. And uranium is a pretty rare shit. And its amounts in the
earth are not very high. And concentration of uranium is always low in uranium ore. And when someone finds uranium
deposits somewhere in the world, everyone who's interested come
to those places like vultures. Especially, back then, the 1950-1970s. Today, many deposits are investigated, everyone understand their volumes and some planning
horizon in very country. And back then, when it all began to appear, no one
knew where to get uranium. As soon as someone
found some rock with uranium somewhere, you could say good-bye to it. They would come running, close it off, shoot everyone down or
shoot themselves down. You would be lucky if you escaped. The same thing like with the gold rush in the US but with uranium and over the whole planet. Since the late 1940s, like
1948-1949, since that time, the French were looking all the possible uranium deposits in all their
colonies in all the possible ways. Because the whole nuclear
program in the country fully depended on the search of those mines. And at that moment, when
they embraced the strategy that the country
needed both nuclear power and nuclear weapon,
they created a special department - the Atomic
Energy Commission, a.k.a. CEA. And it consisted of
scientists and security officials. That question was directly
connected to the nation security. And those guys of CEA travelled over all the
available and possible colonies of France
and sticked their nose absolutely everywhere
where, theorhetically, some hint at uranium could be. In 1956, 4 years before the first French nuclear weapon testing, CEA scientists discovered a very strange place
in some dump in Gabon. Gabon is a god forsaken
place in Central Africa. It's situated right
here, and in our modern world, for the time being, its
population is 2.2 million people. And in the 1950s, there were
about 1 or even 1.5 million people. There is no exact information because
you couldn't count them on palm trees. The French landed in Gabon
in 1840 for the first time, about the same time as in Algeria. They caught all the local chieftains, explained who's the
master here, and they began to exploit them as some usual colony. They exported coffee, wood, minerals, all the usual stuff. The place those
scientists discovered was near some town called Franceville. That's a pure African name,
there's no way French invented it! Well, that place was
strange because originally, it was just like an ordinary uranium deposit. But uranium that was
contained in the ore from that place had very strange proportions. Do you remember, I told you that uranium has isotopes, and they have some strict correlation of mass? 99.27 percent of the
inactive isotope U-238, 0.725 percent of the active isotope, U-235, that Casanova, and 0.005 percent of U-234, which is at the level of error limit. And uranium found in
Gabon, concentration of active isotopes was 0.717 percent. And it seems that the
difference with usual uranium was 0.008 percent,
that was small change. But the big idea was, no one had seen it in the entire world. Nowhere else. Natural uranium was always with strict proportions, no more no less. All over the world, all the
known mines were absolutely the same. But here, the amount of
active isotope was less. After many years of
research, scientists found out that out there, near Franceville, 2 billion years ago, there was a real natural atomic reactor of fucking big scale that burnt out that part of
active uranium in uranium. That's real, it's possible in nature. Now, that phenomenon and that place are known as Oklo
nuclear fission reactor. There is a lot of articles and interesting things about that. But back then, in 1957, they understood that was some strange uranium deposit, and they didn't care about it. Because it had the main
thing the French needed. It had uranium. A lot of it. For the first time, 1957-1974, the French dug out 5 huge uranium mines on the territory of that deposit that put Gabon at the 6th place in the world in uranium mining. Look here. Imagine, you are France. You find so strategically important deposit in one of your colonies. But you already signed all the important papers with UN, and you
promised to the whole world that you give
sovereignty to all the colonies. And if you give
sovereignty to those guys who were wearing palm skirts a while ago, there's no saying what they could do with your
mines, absolutely no saying. But you must give them independence. Or, rather, you should give
them independence on paper. And really, no one gives a shit who will do what inside the country. You should honor the rituals. And what would you do in
that case, were you France? You would put your own government,
under your control, you're right. And Michel Baroin worked
on that project exactly, as on independence of Algeria. Meet 2 friends. Léon M'ba and Albert-Bernard Bongo. Those guys were not just
any friends; both of them, just accidentally, were
the first and the second presidents of the Gabonese Republic. First, Léon M'ba ruled the country,
and Albert-Bernard Bongo was second. And in the late 1950s, when uranium mines were
found, Gabon was still a colony that had to become independent in some way but to
regain full dependence. That was the equation. At that moment, Léon
M'ba was just an ordinary politician but he was pro-France. Even in 1951, for some reason, he tried to be elected to the
National Assembly of France. Of course, they kicked them out
of there without second thoughts. And Michel came up to Léon and said, "Look here, we could give Gabon independence and make you president, but with one condition: you have to leave our control
everywhere where we need. And if we need to do something, you would do that with
smile and zeal. Agreed?" Of course, democratic party
of Gabon appeared immediately because democracy
looks exactly like that. In a spite of
several years, they created a needed image for Léon
M'ba, they trained him as mayor of Libreville, that is the capital of Gabon; and
later, they carefully put him to the post of president of the government council of Gabon, and they began to
prepare for independence. The independence was
declared 17 August 1960. That was the year of
the first nuclear tests in Algeria, and up to that point, they had been mining uranium in
Gabon for 3 years already. At that point, the moment of independence declaration, Léon M'ba was premier minister. Automatically, he became
the head of the government. But the country was independent. Plus, democracy came, freedom, at last! And with those democratic values, you have to take the will
of people into consideration. And you should hold a
presidential election. A real one, a real
free democratic election. You should know that all that shit with independence went under slogans "For freedom, for people, for Gabon's future", all
of that fucking shit. That was perfect
distraction of the public while you were to dig
uranium, without the fuss. In 1961, there was a
presidential election. And with genuine pleasure, I ask you to have a look at the candidate list and to assume what fever pich was happening with that fair and competitive fighting for
the presidential chair. Here's the list. We didn't fuck up during the edit, there's one candidate, that's right. And, absolutely surprising,
there were 100% votes for him. Obviously, that was the great candidate, if all of them voted
for him with such passion. That was the democratic
party of Gabon, not a dog's dick. And the country's leadership - he wasn't alone in there, there was some amount of people,
and everyone understood everything that was happening. Of course, they understood that
there was no such thing as independence. And Léon would only do everything what they'd
tell him to do from Paris. And 3 years after the election, when all the doubts
about the independence of thкe country's leadership fell away, the domestic opposition
and the military tried to make an army coup. And they even managed
to kidnap the president. That was in 1967.
Albert-Bernard Bongo, that Léon's friend, that was premier minister at that time, and the
president's right hand, called Charles de Gaulle, and he said, "Hey, boss, they stole
Leo. What should I do?" Charles told him to keep a low profile, "We'll figure it out, don't worry. And during the next few days, the French moved their military and special ops forces from Congo who were making democracy
out there, of course. They found Léon, punched
all the rebels in their teeth, returned Léon to his chair and ran back to Congo doing their democratic errands. But as Léon was 65 years old at that time, and his
health was not so good with such fun in the background, it was only natural that
the old geezer didn't make it. They tried to fix him in Paris. He spent some time out
there, but the nature took over, and in the
same year, 1967, Léon died, and his friend Albert-Bernard
Bongo was put into his place. That was the Premier
Minister that called de Gaulles. The scheme of keeping Bongo in
command was the same as with Léon. In 1967, he became president by
the right of the Prime Minister. And in 1973, 1979 and 1989, he was elected during the most honest democratic elections with
one candidate in the list. All of that was happening
under supervision of Michel Baroin because he was
responsible for the whole African region. But let us return to the mines. We did speak about them originally. Here's the place on the map where they are concentrated. And by the late 1960s, there were 4 large mines around there, and they were extracting uranium from them. But you don't give a shit
about the just extracted uranium. You have to transport it
to the enrichment plant in order to turn it
into enriched uranium and to send it
further on, to become fuel for nuclear power plants or for bombs. Here's the question:
how would you transport uranium from that African ass? You should know that in the 1960s, Gabon represented 240,000 square
kilometers of actual fucking nothing. Just jungle, land and mountains. What would you do? You could try to bring
something down the river. From Franceville till the West
Coast, the Ogooué river leads. That's its name. It is shallow, and you
couldn't put a huge ship from industrial harbor
into it, it wouldn't fit. You could transport something little, okay, but you can't transport thousands of tons of uranium ore or pure uranium down the river. You could try to use airplanes. But they couldn't take
much either because that stuff is very heavy, and that
would be very expensive. And you wouldn't build
the uranium enrichment plant out there because it's dangerous to leave that sort of
technology in the country. Yes, the country is
under your control; yes, everything is calm there. But what if? Some military coup is always possible. And if they take your plant away
from you, it could be very soon that you would present
Africans with nuclear technologies just like that. That's a no. There is one way out. The railroad. You
could transport the stuff on the railroad to the port, embark on huge hips nad sent it to the plant that stands somewhere
out there, in France. That's a great scheme. Your technologies are safe, and you could safely
transport the ore back and forth. Only one question remains: who would pay the whole banquet? Building the railroad road... Railroad road, live with such wordings! That's nothing, you wouldn't die. Building such a railroad, that 700-km stretch, is very expensive.
Just really, very, very expensive. One thing if you build a railroad somewhere in Europe, in the US, or even in
Russia, where you have factories that produce rails, or concrete, or construction supplies within reach; you have much equipment within reach, and there
is a bunch of railroads you could take to come
to the construction site. And the other thing is to
build everything from scratch, in the middle of
nowhere, without infrastructure, god knows with what
hands and out of what. The only benefit is you could see some rare monkey species in the forest. That's all. Gabon couldn't manage it as the country, just physically, really. From the other hand, France also didn't want to pur down a bajillion of cash to Gabon's infrastructure. First, they grudged the money. Second, it would be a
real smoking gun that France suddenly decided to pour down several year budgets of Gabon into some free country. And they didn't want
any extra attention. At first, those guys
decided to play simple, and they tried an absolutely
standard move of big politics. They gathered all the stories how all the poor and miserable Gabonese lived poorly in their
Gabonese hicksville. Like, they had nothing back there, no common goodies and normal clothes, no medicine; and they were eating some shit
that grew under their feet. And why was their life so bad? Because they had no railroads. And if they had a railroad, we would bring them a bunch of
goodies of any kinds, and Gabonese would
live happily and merrily. They put such presentations and pictures into the bag
of Gabonese president, and they sent him to the global central bank with all of that. Like, give us money, please,
and we would say thank you. Do you have much money?
Yes. And we have a little. Let us decide that
situation in some way. But those people were either smarter or not so sick in the head as they are now, but no one bought those songs in the Central Bank. Omar Bongo travelled
back there several time. Each time, he told ever
more vivid stories how fucking hard life in Africa
is without a railroad. But all of that was to no luck. But in 1973, Michel Baroin came to Albert-Bernard
Bongo, and he said, like, "I thought of
everything and made an agreement. We have sponsors that are ready to build the railroad; they
have money, everything is alright, I checked. There is only one condition. You have to convert to Islam. No options, you should go. Don't worry, I asked them not to
invent a too funny name for you." I'm not messing around. There was such a converstaion. Honestly, I would like to
look at the eyes of Albert Bongo when he was told that further on, his name would be not
Albert but Omar Khayyam Ibn Hussein oghlu or
something like that. And that was necessary. The point of the situation: during all that
time, the French had been secretly negotiating with OPEC. What happened in 1973? The first oil crisis, that's right. When OPEC put limitations on oil delivery, they didn't want just to make some more money. They had enough money. With those limitations, they wanted to show
their power and to explain that they were to be reckoned with. But you could show off
like that one time, good. They would notice you, listen
to you, even shake your hand. But in the long term, you wouldn't be able to blackmail countries that have nuclear weapon when your ammunition consists from Kalashnikov guns and a couple of missiles that could
blow up a field toilet. And your soldiers could blow
up the field toilet themselves. You should only keep their food on the field kitchen for
a couple of days too long. France was just about the only country that got oil from
OPEC without limitations and extra charges whatsoever. Yes, for global panic, the
French imposed some stupid restriction inside their country, too, like you should spare
gas, and all that stuff. But it wasn't really needed because the French didn't have any shortage. They honored a couple of stupid rituals to do some cover-ups, that's all. All of that happened
because at that moment, France was the only way to obtain nuclear weapon for OPEC needs. In 1968, the UN
committee made еру Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. For the public and those
who were worried, that was pictured as if a bunch of guys were sitting with serious
faces and said, like, "Nuclear weapon is bad, horrible; we musn't allow its proliferation in no way. No, no, no, no, no. That's why we wrote some serous document made on the most serious paper with most serious ink and seals. More serious is only our
suspect that you're fag..." Technically, that treaty obligated all the country in
possession of nuclear weapon in no way and under no circumstances to give their nuclear weapon to anyone. And all of the were like,
yes, good, as it should be! Or else, all the countries
with nuclear weapon longed to give it to each and everyone else. Like, "Guys, we have
our super technology that allows us to dictate our
policy all over the world. Here you go, take it, please. We made it just for you. No, we don't need it,
thкat's okay, we had enough of it. You're top guys now." That treaty said that who had nuclear weapon, that should have it. That's all. "We are the power and the might center, and everyone else could
have a dick with butter. By the way, Granny made that
butter herself, you should try it." And that treaty was signed by the USA, the Soviets
and the Great Britain. And France ditched it.
It didn't sign anything. It was sick to death
with their agreements. It was bent over once after the war already, it didn't want it anymore. That's why the French
didn't have any slightest limitation even legally, and they could safely trade nuclear
weapon and nuclear technologies. And OPEC members knew that, of course. And at that point, when everyone recieved limitations on oil delivery, and the export to the USA was taboo, at all, OPEC came to the French, and they said, like, "Shall we talk?" And the French answered, "We shall." And Michel Baroin
invented an ideal scheme. The point of the deal was following. First, OPEC members would give money to build the
Trans-Gabon Railway from uranium mines in Franceville up to he
shipping port in Libreville. OPEC had to finance the building all the way
through, till the last cent. And railroad is called
Transgabonais, by the way. I wouldn't want to
hear that in Thailand, you know. "Hello, I'm Transgabonais." Second, France would organize uranium delivery on its own and takes responsibility for shipments safety and uranium delivery from the mines. By the way, it was their
dumb luck that they had a military base in Gabon, near the port where uranium was transported to. It just fell out of the pocket. "That would be our watching point. We have a free country here, democracy, everything is safe. Well, just in case. Let it stand, we just want to watch." Third, France would
implement special quotas and admit students from OPEC into its universities for its own money; so they would learn how to handle nuclear technologies, reactors, and all of that, and later, they could safely work in their countries at all the possible facilities. Fourth, OPEC would
give money, and they would build a single uranium enrichment plant on the territory of
France; and guys from OPEC would own 10% of it, and they would claim the same 10% of all amount of enriched uranium that would be produced by that plant. Fifth, France would
deliver several nuclear reactors directly and help to turn them on. That was all the scheme. Albert Bongo had to convert to
Islam to confirm France's commitment. Because that was a very
importand and sensitive for Muslims. If you came to us, if you denied your religion and converted to our religion, then we trust you. If you converted to
Islam, you're one of us. And the French were
like, "Who's gonna be Muslim? Him? Easy-peasy! Sorry. Hey, you, on the
palm-tree! Come here! Come on! Hurry, run to those
guys, to their temple, go with God... I mean, Allahu Akbar!" That was their decision. Oil people would deliver
everything to France as before, plus, they would
give them a ton of money for building the railroad
and necessary facilities. And the French would give technologies, learn future specialists, and deliver reactors and fuel for them. And no one would do
anything to them for that. The problem is that I didn't tell
you about some very important detail. That detail was the fact that the deal wasn't
made quite with OPEC. Yes, OPEC participated as an organization, but all those negotiations were held with one specific country. And all the technologies,
shipments and the share of uranium enrichment facilities had to
go to one specific country. That country was Iran. Chapter X. Deal with the Devil Iran was one of the countries that
were initiators of OPEC creation. Just because it could. And because Iran had power. In the 1970s, Iran was one of the most developed
countries in the Middle East. At that point, the office
was held by a pro-western sheikh Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. And the country was actively
developing, supplying the half of the world with oil,
making money and investing it in its development. All in all, they could make ther own
nuclear program, without any hellp. But in the light of their technological
differences with the West, they would waste too much time. And no one would allow
them to do that because no one wanted another center of power. But they had an opportunity
to settle with the French. And based on their
tenderness, the French was also interested to
make everything work. One way or another, in 1973, Albert Bongo converted to
Islam confirming his intention, and he became El Hadj Omar Bongo. During the same year, they
laid the cornerstone to the railroad that would connect
Franceville with Libreville. And that it was touted like the greatest project for
tourism and development of inner infrastructure of the country. Like, it would be comfortable to travel back and forth, here's for the new life! But the main task of the
railroad that went under the radar, of course, was delivery of ore from the mine that was situated literally in several tens of
kilometers from Franceville. Concurrently, in
order to secure the deal, two companies were born. The French government
created the COGEMA company, and the Iranian government
created the Sofidif company. Those companies shared
each other's stock in certain proportions, and they created together the third company called Eurodif. It owned the liked named uranium enrichment plant Eurodif. The point of mixing
shares inside the company: as the result, Iran should have 10% share of Eurodif on its hands, and also, 10% of all enriched uranium that
plant would produce. And for that, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi paid 1 billion 180 million dollars to the French to build that plant. And also, through the COGEMA company, France had to deliver atomic reactors to Iran, and
also, through Eurodif, they had to deliver enriched uranium for those reactors to work. On paper, that looked
like France had to deliver to Iran an atomic reactor to produce electricity in nuclear power plants. And everyone made serious faces, like, yes! Iran needed electricity! Natural, pure, modern, all of that. Exactly for
electricity, yes! But excuse me! There is more oil than water in Iran. And their total deposits of oil and gas would last 100 years, even if they would deliver hydrocarbons to
the half of the planet. Hydrocarbone stock in Iran would run short far later than it would be in the rest of the
Middle Eastern countries. Really, they have shit tons of them. And that story they needed an atomic reactor for electricity was such a ridiculous excuse that even readers of cheap crime stories would
suspect something was wrong. On the Eurodif plant,
uranium was enriched up to 5%. That was enough to make plutonium out
of it, for the weapon. Yes, you'd have to spend a shit ton of energy for
that because the reactor would consume it in huge numbers and not produce, of course. But power plants working on
hydrocarbons were a dime a dozen in Iran. They could handle it. And everyone understood everything. But actually, the game was much
funnier, and the stakes were much higher. The Eurodif uranium enrichment plant had to be launched in 1978, like the first stretch of Transgabonais. And the last payment of
Iran had to be paid in 1977. And Iranian government did exactly that. By that time, France already managed to deliver several atomic reactors to Iran. And as soon as the
Eurodif plant would be finished, shipments of enriched uranium had to travel to Iran. But the main LOL was the
fact that no one intended to deliver any uranium. In 1977, exactly at
that point when Iran paid for everything, some disturbances began in the country resulting in the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979. The point was that
Iranian people at large were hardly content with
the government policy. They didn't like
westernization, women in skirts, and so on. The protestants had a
certain leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. Ayatollah is a religious
title, like our patriarchs. But out there, the title of Ayatollah was quite more serious. And Ruhollah Khomeini -
that was the man's name. And it would seem, France
would have wanted to help to its partner to deal with this matter. They had business
relationships, agreements, responisibilities and
everything. But why? Did they already pay us? They did. Should we fulfill our
contract obligations? Why the fuck? We'd
better help the revolution! They would turn the things upside down, and we wouldn't have to
deliver anything, we're good! Generally, Iran's power was enough to handle the protests on its own. Reza Pahlavi wasn't a fool. But the French managed to bring
Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the protests, over to Paris,
and they hid him in their embassy. And he led the protests from there. And no one even
bothered to hide anything. Media wrote about it
safely, and the French were, like, "Yes! We're covering the darling of the people and
fighter for all that's saint. Because he could be punished
by the bloody Iranian regime. We won't allow it, oh
no, we're the good guys!" The USA were still holding
the grudge because Iran was initiator of the
prohibition of oil delivery, and they were only happy to shit into their pockets with
all the means possible. Iran was left alone. And it failed. By all tokens, when
Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power as the result of all that
fuss, and when he realized all the agreements
and saw that his country was fucked with the nuclear deal, he was just taken aback. There were papers, there were
agreements, there were reactors, but where was the fuel? The Eurodif plant worked for a year now,
and the Gabonese uranium was already
travelling along the railroad built for their money, and no one wanted to return or to deliver anything. What the fuck!? And after the fair
question of Iran, like, guys, hello, where's
uranium? - at that point, accusation began to
pour down from every media and shit throwers, like,
Iran were a horrible state that wanted to make nuclear weapons and to kill all of us, that's why we had to to rally all together
against those horrible monsters. Concurrently, right after the Islamic Revolution,
the Iran-Iraq war began. Actually, everyone
fought everyone back there. Technically, battles were held on
territories of Iraq and Iran, yes. But the whole world
was fighting out there. Because Iran was
very strong and it could be an equal player
with the powers that be very soon, and it had to be
kicked out from that field once and for all. That's why the US, France, the USSR and Great Britain were financing Iraq. And Iran was reposing on
its own power, and also on the help of Syria and
Livia, its OPEC partners. And China helped a bit, too. A spoiler question from the future: what state are Syria and Livia now? Yes. As I've said, an impossible amount of people died in the Iran-Iraq war. As it always happens
in those games, yeas. And it turns out that wasn't enough that you were publicly sent
to hell with your agreements; you were stripped of your money; your enemies from Iraq fly on American and French fighters and bombers; and plus, they kill your people;
but that's not enough. You were pissed and
shit-canned for the whole world to see so that
you couldn't show off and knew your place. The funniest thing was that Iran even tried to
file complaints to justice courts because of the
nuclear deal with the French. They showed them papers; they said they had agreements and the French had to fulfill their obligations, or at least, give their money back, please. And the answer was, "Hey you, animal, shut up your mouth. We will freeze all of your
accounts, and by the way, meet sanctions." Put yourself in Iran's position. What would you do when
they treated you like that? When you realize that you wouldn't achieve
justice, and whatever you did, they would spit you in the face. And they wage an actual war with you, both in political sense and literally. And they want to beat you to death just because you
happen to become strong. What would you do? You would seek revenge. And if there are no rules, the revenge would be cruel. Iran began financing
radical movements inside France. Using them in order
to play its own game. All the members of the organization
were more like well-trained gunmen. How did they train? Who instructed them? Yes, weapon delivery, training of fighters and
leaking of the info needed was oversight by Iranian special forces. That is the answer where usual dudes had been trained like
professional mercenaries. In their memoirs, I
was able to dig out only cordial thanks to their brothers in arms and passionate people. Moreover, some operations
of gunmen and terrorists in France were held only to
distract the public attention. Something like bombing a police station. And some of them
were precisely targeted. The first victim - René
Audran, murdered 26 April 1986. Why do you give a fuck that someone
is waging war somewhere a world away? A man was found in his home with 8 bullet wounds. René Audran. René Audran was sending weapon shipments to Iraq, Iran's enemy. He was a talented military engineer; he helped to develop a large amount of weaponry and made agreements to deliver it to the places needed. And the peculiar ferocity of that murder shocked
all the French government. 5 February of the same 1986. A bomb exploded in one of the shops from the large trading network that belonged to Michel Baroin. It looked like a just
some strange shop explosion. But Michel knew why the bomb happened to be exactly in his store. In general, he attended
to presence and protection of interests of France all over Africa. And Michel Baroin
invented an ideal scheme. And no one would do
anything to them for that. 2 months after that bomb, 26 April 1986, in the center of
Paris, on the New York Quay, some unkown people hit do death a girl of 22
that was called Veronica. The murderers weren't been found, although
everyone was looking for them hysterically with
every means possible, and the whole city was upside down. The reason was
Veronica's family name, Baroin. She was Michel Baroin's daughter. You would seek revenge. And if there are no rules,
the revenge would be cruel. In September 1985, within
3 days range, another shop went boom, as well as the Renault Pub. It was just a special pub
from Renault, some usual drinking
establishment where workers of the factory used to hang out. And if the bomb in the store was addressed to Michel Baroin again, the bomb in the
Renault Pub was addressed to some other person. To the person who
participated in the dealings with Iran no less than Michel Baroin. It was addressed to the person that was building the uranium enrichment plant, Eurodif, and who was its CEO. Georges Besse. Why did somebody want to kill a head of a car
corporation? 2 questions bothered me. Why Georges Besse was killed exactly, and not someone else? The operation was
planned exactly against him. Through all his life, before Georges Besse appeared to be in Renault, he attended to nuclear operations. 1974-1985, he worked as general manager in mining and energetic sector. He was CEO in COGEMA. That was the company Iran paid 1 billion dollar throughh, to
build the Eurodif plant. And he was CEO of the Eurodif plant. And after his murder,
that plant got his name. Why did Jacques Chirac
arrive at the crime scene? The mayor of Paris at that time. And in the nearest future, Prime Minister and President of France. Jacques Chirac, Georges
Besse and Michel Baroin were friends since their university. And in 1974, Chirac was
Premier Minister under the President Giscard d'Estaing. Together with him, they
signed the deal with Iran. And at that point
when you need to organize such a dangerous deal, you would put on main posts only your closest people, people you could trust with your life. And when one of your best friend is killed right beside
you, and the daughter of the second friend
is smeared along the asphalt, you'd know that you're next. The night after Georges
Besse' murder, Jacques Chirac had a phone conversation
with the President of France. The next day, France announced that it's
ready to make the first payment, 330 million dollas, returning the money that was paid for Eurodif. But the French were ready to return not the whole
sum but the third of it. And - 5 February 1987. The plane crash in Gabon; the
private plane of Michel Baroin. Michel was on board. He died, as well as the entire crew. You would put your own
government, under your control. Who's gonna be Muslim? Him? If you converted to
Islam, you're one of us. As soon as the fuss with
Iran happened, Omar Bongo realized that he was to take the fall because he was connected with the global scheme and he was the
voucher of the deal. Everyone knew that he was
a puppet in French hands. But still, Iran put pressure
on him, a serious pressure. For his loyalty for
France, Omar Bongo was allowed to do anything at
all inside his country. He enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, he used the budget of the country as he wanted. He bought cars and yachts, he had 33 personal real estate
units in Paris on his account, houses, apartments, villas
in Nice and some other shit. And inside Gabon, under Michel Baroin's hand, for the French money, they built a
real person palace for him. A huge one. And no one
hid that fact at all. The French Wikipedia
tells proudly about it. Corruption is bad. Very bad. But if it
benefits us, so be it. We could stand it. But when shit hits the fan, when the question of
your personal safety comes up, and Iran gives
you a specific hint that you're next, the
question of palaces, cars, yachts and models in your
bedroom becomes secondary. And your skin is far
more important to you. Michel flew to meet Omar Bongo, and details of that
meeting remain unknown. The one thing we know that
Bongo was very concerned. And when blood and intestines fly over the wall, you would hardly drink your mint tea, safe and sound. The negotiations were swift and harsh, and according to
eyewitnesses, both left the office angry. And several hours later, Michel's plane that was
standing on the parking lot of the gate that belonged
to the President of Gabon, couldn't gain altitude and fell
several minutes after it took off. All the details of the
plane crash were classified. And the information about the last minutes of
the flight was erased from black boxes that
were to be sent to Paris. Of course, after that, the next election in 1993, Omar Bongo had without any support of France. And suddenly, from nowhere, there was a hell of a lot of
candidates, an opposition, and people of Gabon
suddenly got a choice. A pure accident, no coincidence at all. And after all of
that, when all the people who took part in that scheme paid their price, each their
own, when France announced, like, "Okay, so be it, we're ready to give you back
your money" - after that you could safely give up your gunmen as a goodwill gesture for negotiations. After Georges Besse's
murder, their leaders were caught as a whole, and they
surrendered without a fight. That's another weird thing. When people came for them the leaders were just sitting and
waiting for them to be arrested. 21 February 1987, 16 days after the plane
crash and Michel Baroin's death, the French police, with
reference to some inside sources, found the leaders of Action
Directe on a farm in Parisian suburbs. They surrendered without a fight. Those gunment who fought so fiercely against the
government, against the order, against capitalism -
they fulfilled their task and were waiting for their punishment. Georges Besse was
killed because of Eurodif and his participation in
the nuclera deal of France and Iran where the French made everyone they wanted suck many dicks. And the crimes against
the working class and other idelologic
wordings were just a sham that wouldn't raise additional questions and didn't
give people the reason to look closely to the situation. Ideas, moral lessons and sermons that make some people good and other people bad - those
are some shit on a stick and food for hamsters. The very same way as all the ideas of
all the good and fair in this world. Even if we assume,
even if we thinkg that Georges Besse was really killed because of his activities in Renault, it's still some shit on a stick. Let's assume, really, in
order to stop unjustice towards workers, they needed to kill the head of the company who was busy with restructuring. They needed to stop that
horrible capitalist who kicked people out on the street, and put all the money into
the American car market. Renault decided to
save and buy AMC shares. And the only thing
Besse didn't touch was the developing of
cooperative engine and model with AMC to get the
market share in the US and make some money. AMC together with Renault developed a crossover that they managed to launch while Besse was still alive. The first American crossover
with integrated frame and body. Light, manoeuvrable, passable. The name of that
crossover was Jeep Cherokee. That jeep was the only
profittable brand of AMC. The car that would be a bestseller in the American market; because of it, they would create the
Grand Cherokee a bit later, a mega popular car all over the world that would be sold in
some impossible numbers. But the fruits of that
development didn't go to Renault, to France. They didn't get anything of it because the man that replaced Besse, the man that was called Raymond Lévy, was simply scared that they could kill him, too, if
he would continue the project. As the result, he sold AMC to Chrysler. And in Chrysler, the new star of the company, the
brilliant Lee Iacocca, smiling in the ad spots, told everyone how marvelous that car
was, a real symbol of America. And he sold that car to millions. Renault spent hundreds of million
dollars to keep AMC above the ground; it remade all the processes within AMC; it faced its own
inside crisis and, by some miracle, it managed to
survive and keep the development. Now it had to relax and to obtain profits from the American market because they did it. Because they had it. But 4 bullets shot at the CEO of the factory,
allegedly for the sake of the French people,
stripped that French people of all the
profits and all the taxes to the treasury of the
state, the reason everything was happening to begin with. And activists under the
banner of fighting capitalism made an incredible
present to that capitalism. Only in a different country. What could you do for an idea? We know the answer perfectly. Everything. And I ask that question again, what could you do for an idea? We know the answer. And as the mankind is built
that way that we live with ideas, we would be fed with
them our whole life. I don't doubt it. It's so easy to divide everyone
for good and bad with one phrase. It's so easy to believe that and then, to go championing your
ideals that no one wants. And really important
things would happen behind your back, and they really wouldn't want to get your attention to them. There is no truth, there won't be
a truth because no one needs it. This world reposes and
will repose on power, spheres of
influences, leverages and money. And fresh ideas would be always ready for the public; the ideas that are so easy to feed people with to distract their
attention when you need to do something unnoticed. And by the way. Why did I need to tell
that entire story to you? Written by Stas Asafiev Directed by Daniil Gudkov Editor - Andrey Ezotov Director of photography
and LD - Vitaly Andreev Director of photography - Egor Zorin Director of photography and
lampmen foreman - Andrey Shuvalov Producer - Eliza Tsatsurina Commercial producer - Sergei Semyonov Grading - Vadim Yerlin Credits - Dennis Grushechkin Infographics - Pavel Anisimov Sound and remastering - Denis Stroev Prop archives - Vladimir Velychansky Helper - Georgi Krievinysh Helper - Sergei Soloviov Film score - Stas Asafiev Supported by Avtopragmat
- selection of used cars
