I Investigated The Brutal Reality Of LIfe Along Europe’s Eastern Edge

I Investigated The Brutal Reality Of LIfe Along Europe’s Eastern Edge

For years, people have been asking me why I’ve never filmed in little old Latvia. But the truth is, I can never think of a theme for the video. Latvia is a small, peaceful country, and the people probably don’t all over their trains. However, recently I randomly found this little Soviet book of photographs from the town of Dalgav Pills in the very east of what was once the Soviet Socialist Republic of Latvia. After seven years on YouTube, I finally have my video idea. Let’s go and see what remains of the past in Dalgaf Pills. I think you’re going to hear the word Soviet quite a few times. Join me. There is just one issue though, and that is that Dalgaf Pills is a small provincial city in Latvia, and I’m in Lithuania, and there’s no transport. So, I’m going to have to bloody stick the old thumb out and hitchhike. So, um hopefully someone picks me up. Maybe this chap. What is this? >> [laughter] >> That was a stroke of luck, wasn’t it? Flipping and his wife Anastasia heading to Dav Pills. Going to give me a lift. Let’s go. Dav Pills if they let me in. So the idea is we’re going to go to D of Bills and look for some of the things from these postcards. See what still remains there. This book was printed in 1975. So um 50 years ago to the year. So um let’s see what remains of old Soviet dog of pills in 2025. Well, this marks a momentous occasion in the history of the channel as we say goodbye to the Republic of Lithuania and we say hello to our 14th out of 15 former Soviet Republics and flipping heck. Here we are. We’re in Latvia. Oh, more Russians there than Latapians. Oh, it’s going to be fun. [clears throat] flipping pills on a snowy wet gray miserable end of November morning. Dalga pills. Look at it. GH nasty. She’s in what? Well, there we go. We’ve just got out the car and arrived here in Dalgaf Pills, Soviet Dalgo Pills, and already we’ve met in Babushka begging for change on the street because there’s just not enough money or help from the government for people. Latafia feels already a little bit poorer than Lithuania. Let’s um explore the city. Maybe we’ll meet some more babushkas. There we go. The Babushka just said they still speak Russian here in Dalgav Pills. Ancient Dalgav Pills because written on the wall over there it says Dav Pills 750 years old. Let’s go and have a look. 750 years old. Older than Australia, older than America, older than many places. Look at it. So the lady said that because we’re near to Bellarus, we’re near to Russia, we’re near to well, we’re like in the center. So people have to have a obshi yazik a general language that they can share, you know, and that is Russian. And so here in ancient Davil 750 years old they still speaks. Why is it called Dalgaf Pills? Nastia. Why is it called Dalgaps? So Dav means as Nastia said the castle on the river on the river. Dalgav. I’ve wasted two bloody euros. We’re like asking people where are these things. They’re like, “Oh, that doesn’t exist. I’ve paid €2 for this. It’s a flipping disgrace. Anastasia is trying to find a message for us. Uh-huh. [laughter] See what lovely friendly. You see what lovely flipping they have in this town. Look at this giant flipping Soviet lamp post. Look at this. You see, in the past they built lamp posts proper in the Soviet times. Look at this lamp post still standing. Flipping it. Look it. It’s not made of >> plastic. It’s made of bloody. Look at that. Made of strong metal. Come all the way from Magneita Gors called Novakuta in Poland. Built proper lamp post. Look at it. Still standing after all these years. The same lamps. You cannot knock down or break a Soviet lampost. They’re built to withstand bloody tank battles. Look at it. Soviet lampost. Oh, no. Fields concert. These old these these ladies are dancers and they’re doing shows. >> Hopefully not in a poll. >> This babushka is 84 years old and she’s still dancing. She’s part of a dancing crew. Foreign [laughter] speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Grace visual. So this is the dance group of these two babushkas and this is where they dance and they do shows for the town’s people and it gives them something to doa and look at their beautiful clothes that they wear. [laughter] Wow. We met a Babushka patriot. A Latvian Babushka patriot. >> Yep. >> Are you a patriot? >> I am Swedish. >> Oh, you’re Swedish. [laughter] Okay. He’s a Swedish patriot. >> Hello, my sweet. Can I get a picture? >> Yes, of course you. >> But you know what I’m going to say? I think Dalgo Pills has the best babushkas in all the former Soviet Union. I’ve never met better babushkas. I mean >> that town in Azabaijan who gave me this tomato she was a good babushka but here just for the pure quantity of quality babushkas doesn’t get better than old dalgo pills Latafian babushkas there’s a cafe in the old Soviet building it says cafe nitsa mega look at it I wonder what it’s like inside is it as Soviet inside as outside knows only one way to find out let’s go side. Yo, cafe meets a mega. >> Oh my god. So in Soviet times this was a cafe but it was a children’s cafe. Cindi, >> Cindi, >> Cindi, >> Cindi, Cindi. >> The name was Cindi Cafe and it was where they had like ice creams for all the little children of the town. >> And the lady here said that all the children of the town came here to eat ice cream here in this. The children still the Soviets built things for children. Where’s the children’s cafe in the UK? Be full of Nazis. But here in Soviet times, Wow. And we got food. Check it out. Some type stuff and salanka and compot. It doesn’t get more Soviet in the European Union. than this place. >> Where else can you get three meals? Not one. Three meals for $20. Only in Soviet dagger beers. The rule of a Soviet canteen stool is when you finish your meal, you’ve got to place your tray somewhere. If I can do it one-handed and film. That is the number one rule of the Soviet canteen. If you don’t do that, the babushka behind the counter goes flipping mental mega. You need to come to mega solova. You need to meet lovely and try the beautiful food, the Soviet food. And there we go. The mega. Soviet stall still exists here in Davfields. Where are we going? >> Priyama. >> Uh-huh. So I see at the end of old Lenin Street, which is now called Ria Street. Rigus Ayella, if that’s how you pronounce it, is some old Soviet building. Maybe the railway station or something. Let’s go and check it out. Up there in the distance, the beautiful Soviet horizon. Oh yeah, look at this. From 1951 Dalgavs 1951. So this would have been bought, this would have been built under Stalin just after the second world war. You can imagine the workers coming here arriving in old Dalgav pills above the 1951. You can see like some like marks where it before written in Russian script Dav Pills, but now they’ve got it obviously in the the Latin script of the um Latian language. But yeah, this is it. The old railway station, Soviet railway station of Dgav Pills. I like it. Check it out. It doesn’t get more Soviet than its green old Soviet chairs. You’ve got the flipping palm tree in the middle of the room. You’ve got babushkas buying tickets to god knows where. Over here you’ve got your pot plants. Some old babushka station masters probably looking after the pot plants here. The cacti. And up there in the ceiling you can see the red star. It’s now painted white. The Soviet star. Now most of the um paraphernalia and symbols of Soviet times have been knocked off, but I suppose the ones up there are so high up they couldn’t get a ladder. And so up there there’s like some little stars. Wow. Probably the greatest ticket office in all of the former USSR here in Dalgavil. We think that Anastasia has found our first postcard building. But check this out. Look, it’s the old internet club. If you’re as old as me, you remember the internet clubs before people had Wi-Fi at home and stuff. used to come to the internet club and do things. And here’s the old internet club doors. Check it out. Flipping out the old internet club of Dalga Bills, right, Nastia, what have you found? Well, we found one bloody thing from the past. It was worth spending €2 on this. Look, there’s that little red building there. See it? Little red building on the corner. And it’s that building there. There used to be a tree there, but the tree is gone. But that was some kind of Soviet shop. There you go. There it is. And there it is. Not the most interesting find, I will admit. But we’ll push on. I’m going to get me 2 worth before the end of the day. Well done, Nastia. There we go. >> What do the young people do here in this Soviet town? I know what the old people do. They hang out at the old Soviet bus stop. Look at them all. Up to no good. Nefarious. All smoking and kissing and doing things together. We just And here we found something from the postcards. Look at this. See this brown building? See it? Well, that’s it there in front of us. The Dalg of Pills State University. And here it is from 1975 on the postcard. 1975 2025. 50 years later, still standing. We’re going to jump on a tramvi and see if we can find any more things from the postcard as we go around the town. And an old tramvi chick as they’re called. 12:35. Look at that. On top of that building there says 12:35. Where’s the bloody sunshine? Middle of the day. No sunshine. Life in gray old Dalga fields in the winter time. >> [laughter] >> the old buildings of Dalgo. Check it out. Look at this. From imperial times, >> but we’re now going to the prison, the white swan, the most famous high security prison in all of Latvia. Let’s go and check it out. foreign. Yeah. Next time Benjamin now So, we bumped into on the tram chick our new mate Ego who’s going to show us where the prison is. And he’s what you call in Russian. I’m going to teach you some slang. Nushchelle. Nashchiel means like one of us, like a dude, a bloke who likes a pint or two. Nash. And he’s going to show us the prison. Wow. So here, eager just shown us is the Bi, the white swan, the most famous prison in all of Latvia and one of the most famous prisons in the former USSR. Russian prisons, or sorry, Soviet prisons have names, aren’t they? The black dolphin in Siberia. And this one, the levid, the white swan. Check it out. Lebanid. Look at it. An old SARS building. Now a flipping prison. Check it out. Wow. We can see some people in there. Start over. Imagine some people have been sitting there for 20 odd years. This is where the hardest criminals of Latapia come. The murderers, the other nasty people sit there. They’re in there somewhere. They’ve been there for decades, some of them, in those old SARS cells with the bars on the window. No. >> Uh-huh. Oh, someone’s arriving. Oh, >> the police are playing a famous um Russian song basically. So, even the coppers here play Russian songs here at the White Swan, the toughest prison in all of Latvia. So, Eager Nashel is continuing our tour. We’ve been to a prison and now he said he’s going to take us to a nice bar that he knows where him and his mates hang out. So, we’re going to go and check it out. Meet the cream of society. Live like a king in Duffel. >> Bandit. >> Wow. Eager was telling me that there are bandits in town. criminal elements. We got to be a bit careful walking around old Dalgaf Pills. So, we need to be careful for the old bandits of Dalgav Pills. But, I think Eager’s going to look after us. He knows where to go. That’s the advantage of hanging out with a nutshell. Eager allowed inside this bar or is he um is that pressure? He’s okay. >> He’s allowed in. He’s All right, Eagle, you’re being kicked out. to our new friend Eager who’s been kicked out back onto the streets of flipping DA fields. The lady behind the bar in the Klondike, she said there’s one more eager in town. His name’s Lana. He’s actually the best friend. Lana, short for Leonard. Is the best friend of eager. So, we might find old Lana if we’re lucky. Get the double whammy. The two Nush shells in this city. I’ve found one more building from the postcards. Check it out. Here’s the postcard. Look at it. A little building, gray Soviet building with some people. And there it is. Exactly the same. The same windows, same steps, the same whatever you call it. Bit of a roof there. Can you see that? We found one more. Look here. The old apartment buildings here. Soviet. See them on the postcard? And there they are in the distance. The three of them. The three buildings, the shops underneath, the old balconies. That’s them on this postcard. Can you see any of these pictures? They’re bloody out of focus and tiny. I don’t know. I’ll find out when I’m editing the bloody video of this been a whole waste of time. But anyway, there are the three apartment buildings from 1975. And there are those same apartment buildings 50 years later still standing. Well, here on the edge of town, overlooking the river Dao Gav, we found one more building. Look at it. The old sanatorium. It’s now bloody boarded up and abandoned. But before in Soviet times, in 1975, that was a sanatorium. A place where people would come and take rest by the river, treat themselves, heal themselves. and now unfortunately abandoned in modern day Latvia but 50 years ago. Look, it was beautiful. Let’s see what 40 quid gets you in flipping DGA builds. 40 quid gets you. Oh. Oh, this is all right, isn’t it? 40 quid in Dargo pills gets you this and a nice picture of the river DGAV. There’s the bathroom. There you go. 40 quid flipping DGAV bills. Let’s go out and get a um beer food or a drink. Right then, back on the mean streets of flipping Dgav bills. [laughter] We found the street. >> We found Eager’s best mate, Leonard, just on the street. I knew it was him. I’m a little bit afraid because Tadu said, “Let’s go to a bar and I don’t want a night like we had before in flipping Vius last time we met.” Oh, no, no, no, no. I’m older. I can’t take it. My liver can’t take it. One or two beers, back to the hotel, sleep. No vodka. No vodka. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Fish black. >> [music] [music] >> Hey,

🇱🇻 When the USSR dissolved itself, many ethnic Russians suddenly woke up the next day in a new independant country across the border from their Motherland. People in towns such as Narva in Estonia or Visaginas in Lithuania, or, as I explored, Daugavpils in the far eastern part of Latvia which is home to the most notorious prison in the European Union, the White Swan. Join me on a journey to the European Union’s unvisited distant edge to see the harsh reality of life.

Thanks to my friends Tadeusz and Anastasia for joining me on this trip. His instagam can be found at: tadeusvasilevskij