Soviet Gear - Why it Didn't Die | Feature Fittings

[Music] hello and welcome to something a little different a brand-new series for the channel feature fittings which has been brought to you by Skillshare but but yes a brand new series one to showcase a world of historical garments from steel to cloth from armor - well the these are jobs but it's got just about everything like this yellow stuff and this camera stuff and oh the thing you actually came for this uniform stuff because today in feature fittings we're going to be talking about Soviet gear why it's made the way it is why it's found where it is and why it stood the test of time now that might seem quite a knock us at face value but hear me out I have an actual point to make and what better way to make my point than with pitches take a look at this digital graphic I can't actually see it's a 1980s US soldier in Beirut then look again 2008 Afghanistan now let's do the same with the Soviet / Russians 1980s uniform 2008 uniform obviously the u.s. gear evolved quite a lot more than the Russian gear did in the almost 30 years between those two points so why is that why is it that Russians continued to use cold war equipment long past the point they probably should have why is it that Soviet gear didn't die what a start it makes sense to talk about the gear itself on me I'm wearing a 1994 first Chechen war VDV impression because it was affordable now I like to think that Soviet and Russian equipment like this was built on a principle of 3 s's simple sustainable and cheap so first point simple do not confuse us simple to wear because it's not just look at this bad try figuring that out first go instead it was very simple to make production was heavily streamlined so as to help the Soviets get a massive amount of equipment to their massive amount of people individuals comfort and ergonomics would it be compromised or rather straight-up disregarded but hey when the Soviet manufacturers only competitors or on the other side of the Iron Curtain used to complain now this simple production fed into simple maintenance meaning the equipment had sustainability when it breaks you can fix it I managed to fix a bit of my own kit and I've me sustainability was great for the Soviets because they love to recycle and with this they could do it again and again and again and again and of course both of these factors translated into cost efficiency so the Soviets it would be very much quantity over quality they wouldn't have much fancy gear but they'd be able to equip every one of their soldiers every one of our allies soldiers and basically anyone had just asked there was plenty of Soviet gear to go around although this isn't to dismiss the importance of fancy gear the equipment we have today is obviously better than Cold War technology or else you won't have it instead my three bullet points should serve not to explain the superiority of Soviet gear but why it still has some appeal however we're not just talking about gear in this video we're talking about so V gia so what is it about the Soviets that kept this gear in use long after its expiry date well that comes down to everybody's two favorite factors politics and economics to explain that we're going to need to take a look at some history going back to the Second World War is when I'd say the Soviet Union first emerged as a dominant military power Soviet arms development and trade was crucial to the survival of the Communist leadership and so was not taken lightly during the war over half the country's economy was poured directly into military spending and after the war the Union Pete and the arms race of the cold began the cold war didn't see the same wartime production from before but it was still substantial so their arms and equipment were developed rapidly at this time and found their way to the states of the new Warsaw Pact socialist states abroad and even many third world countries and that trade played a big part in the prevalence of Soviet key today they had sent their gear off to China North Korea Yugoslavia Cuba Vietnam Cambodia and a whole ton of countries from India to North Africa with this kind of demand you can see why the Soviets emphasize simple design and mass production so much as time would however go on to show this trade was about as sustainable as a Soviet Union itself the Cold War slowed coming into the eighties and with it so too did the entire economy third-world exports halted as China and other countries got stuck into their own manufacturing and trade and military spending would fall into decline even with the ongoing Afghan war the 80s was evidently a decade plentiful of economic and military failure for the Union most of the old leftover equipment we see today are from this decade of decline the consequences of this go well beyond just the scope of this video as it wouldn't be only the stagnation of military development of the entire nation because infamously as a result of their past failures the country's downfall would come in 1991 as a Soviet Union was dissolved into 15 States the bulk of the Union would be handed to the new Russian Federation and with the bulk of the Union came the bulk of the infrastructure and surplus of the old Soviet military and of course the Federation inherited the many problems of the Union the economy was in shambles unity was hard to find an order was not guaranteed in this kind of environment it comes as no surprise at the young Russia would see war come quickly the 1990s were hard times in Eastern Europe the Russians would find themselves in Chechnya Georgia Tajikistan Moldova and others and their funds were about as as low as their morale so on all of these fronts the Russian army would find themselves wearing the old gear with new flag the belt buckle really tells the story better than I could as Russian soldiers had to continue adorning themselves with the hammer and sickle of the defunct Union however today Russia is much different I'd even say we tend to take it for granted how far they've come the transition from Union to Federation was one that may have legally happened overnight but mentally it took decades this is best shown and of course none other than the gear Russian Armed Forces today has just about finally put the old equipment to rest they've even changed the buckles so in an official sense so the gear has died but that doesn't mean the Soviets legacy has ended with the Federation it would be hard for us to forget how much this equipment got around it can be found all across the globe many countries hold on to their surplus for when they might need to cope on the old reliable just as Russia had done in the 90s and for those without borders or government insurgencies find it just as simple sustainable and cheap as the Soviet Army had and we don't even need to go as far as the Middle East or Africa to find it we can simply just go back to the source because while the governmental forces of Russia may be able to obtain bigger and better gear not the only fighters in Eastern Europe trouble continues in the Ukraine and the Caucasus and with it any one of the former union may be looking upon their old uniform weapons or badges it was the gear that brought them through the Afghan war it was the gear that brought them through the 90s and maybe they believe it will be the gear that brings them through the next war they haven't yet died so why should they gear now this video has of course been my first foray into studio work it certainly has room for improvement if the learning experience has been so much more enjoyable because I've been taking cinematography lessons from professionals like Matt workman over on Skillshare Skillshare is a fantastic tool for learning with premium membership you can get access tons of high quality classes in art design editing gardening anything you can think of really so if you're interested in joining the millions of other students already on Skillshare and dealing courses from work them and a myriad of others you can do so just by using this special offer follow the promo link on screen or in the description in the first 500 people to do so can get their first two months of premium membership for free that's unlimited access to over 20,000 classes for free and if you miss this offer Skillshare is still super affordable at under $10 a month with an annual subscription so why not sign up with skill share and start learning today thank you to everyone for watching a thank you to Skillshare and a thank you to the patrons which of course includes Thomas curly hairy berkley anal scrubs Urmi res and Schuyler Hagler why all the thanks well because I'm glad for anyone willing to take a chance on the new series for the channel this of course isn't the only thing for the channel there will still be the animated videos that don't feature my awkward face as usual oh and I also wanted to apologize for just how bloody long this video took usually these things should take like five days but this one took a month because there was a lot of trial and a lot more error now that I mostly mostly know what I'm doing you can expect a lot more videos for the channel bye bye now

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,138,103

Rating: 4.7625208 out of 5

Keywords: Feature History, History, Education, Entertainment, Academic, Presentation, Feature Fittings, Uniforms, Military History, Militaria, Kits, Reenactment, Soviet, Soviet Union, Russia, Chechnya, Studio

Id: AcATnw1AexA

Length: 10min 15sec (615 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 23 2018