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Explanation: Boris Yeltsin, at the time just an up-and-coming Soviet legislator, made a visit to the USA in 1989. During this visit, he, on a lark, decided to visit a local grocery store, to see how the average American shopped.
He was blown away by what he saw. No Soviet store would have stocked such a range, quality, or kept it in supply - even the ‘special’ stores only privileged Soviet citizens were permitted to purchase from.
Regardless of one’s opinions on capitalism (Marxist, anti-Marxist, or even [shudder] pro-capitalist), Yeltsin was absolutely correct that the Soviet system of central planning, specifically, had squandered the immense potential of the Soviet Union, and that the people of the Soviet Union suffered for it. That very small visit had a major impact on Yeltsin, who was already part of the reformer faction inside the USSR.
A shame he was otherwise a shithead unsuited to lead his country out of the 60 years of totalitarian oligarchy it had struggled under.
I’m not sure “on a lark” is accurate. A surprise to the American hosts, certainly, but how sure are we that it wasn’t a premeditated ‘gotcha’ tactic on Yeltsin’s part?
Never knew it was on a lark. Wonder how many impactful moments have happened because of happenstance.
I love this one though. It is small but telling as to the whole experience of the people.
Yeah, the reason it being on a whim and unannounced was so integral to his reaction is that, to him, it completely ruled out the idea that the store might’ve been specially stocked ahead of time like some Potemkin village.
On topic, video of a Cuban family visiting a Brazilian market for the first time (video not in English):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASx4oHVgzus
I think it’s hard for Americans to comprehend just how impressive the American lifestyle is, and how surprising seeing it was for people from a time before the internet and a society that tried to keep that sort of information out. I can’t even come up with a good metaphor - maybe it would be like going to North Korea and finding out that everyone there (even poor people) had flying cars and robot butlers like in the Jetsons. When I immigrated as a child, I recall looking around and thinking “This is like a comic book.”
I can’t even come up with a good metaphor
Maybe like an American computer nerd going to that famously huge Shenzhen tech mall?
Have you had the chance to compare it to shops in other western countries in the last few years?
I went to Taiwan a couple of years ago and it was different but not dramatically better or worse. Otherwise, no, I haven’t traveled out of the country much.
But the stuff that surprised me when we came to the USA was, for example, the availability of bananas. In the Soviet Union, I had gotten to taste bananas because my grandmother was one of the relatively few people at the factory where she worked who would occasionally have business trips to Moscow, and she would sometimes bring bananas back with her for me and my sister. Otherwise we would only eat fruit that grew locally and only when it was in season (except if my grandmother preserved it). So it’s hard for me to imagine going anywhere now that might impress me as much as the USA did then - I doubt even living like a Saudi prince would. (I guess the Saudi princes have authority over other people which is like nothing I’ve known. I’m just talking about their access to luxury products.)
Ah, Tucker ‘Russia First’ Carlson.
