The Soviet Union explained in one analogy

In this analogy we imagine the USSR is like a train.

First Stalin suspects the engineer of being a spy, so he has him shot. The train stops.

Next Khrushchev rehabilitates the engineer. The train is still stopped.

Finally Brezhnev instruct everyone to draw down the shades, make clickety-clack noises and sway from side to side to make it seem as though the train is moving.

Nazi Germany explained in one joke:

Hans is arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 and sentenced two six weeks in a concentration camp. When he comes out, his neighbor asks him how bad was it.

"Oh, it wasn't bad at all," Hans replied. "We got breakfast in bed, sports before lunch, wine with dinner and a movie afterwards."

"What?" his friend exclaims in disbelief. "But Fritz came back from the camp last week and he said it was terrible!"

"I know," says Hans. "And Fritz was taken away again yesterday."


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I always wonder what is worse: that such things happen or that people learn to joke about them.

Explained in one sentence.

They put all their money into being a
20th century superpower and nothing into
the infrastructure of the country.