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Episode 196.

Episode 196.

Things You Didn't Know About episode 196, things you didn't know about the Soviet Union.

Most of us in the West were not told about a lot of positive things that went on in the Soviet Union

and the Soviet leaders didn't want the West to know anything negative about what

was going on in their country. Today's episode is my attempt to rectify things. If I miss anything, please message me on

Facebook through the Russian rulers history page. The first little known fact is that the Soviet space Program was the first one to put a man-made item on another planet.

The Soviet Venera 7 was launched on August 17th, 1970 and made it to Venus on December 15th.

After landing on the planet, the craft sent back only 23 minutes of week data, presumably because it landed on its side.

It wasn't until 1976 that the United States Space Program landed on the planet, that being Viking One on Mars.

Next up is one of my favorites and it has to do with Ryza Gorbachev, Mikhail's wife.

During the Gorbachev's visit to England in December of 1984, Riza told British

Agriculture Minister Michael Jopling that there were more than 300 ways to cook potatoes in the USSR.

When he doubted her claim, she promised to send him a cookbook, which she did a few months later,

noting, quote, my apologies for being somewhat inaccurate. In fact, there are 500 rather than 300

recipes to cook potatoes. During the Cold War between the United States and the USSR, Soviet directors actually won three Oscar awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

They were War in Peace in 1968. Dursu Uzla in 1975, and Moscow does not believe in tears in 1980.

It is said that because economic success was not crucial to the Soviet directors, they were able to make more philosophical films with deeper meanings than their American counterparts.

The most famous of the Soviet directors was Andre Tarkovsky, who was considered one of the greatest directors

of the 20th century.

Lika, the world famous dog that the Soviet space program sent into outer space in 1957 was actually

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