Meaning
What does I Serve the Soviet Union mean?
I Serve the Soviet Union is a hyped sentence, originating from the popular HBO series, Chernobyl.
It is used in relation to jokes about sharing and communism, which itself is all about sharing… with the exception being food.
Origin
What's the origin of I Serve the Soviet Union?
The scene is seen in the fourth episode of the HBO miniseries, where General Nikolai Tarakanov thanks the laborers, who helped clean up the radiation from the roof of the power plant.
They all respond uniformly; “I Serve the Soviet Union”.
Spread & Usage
How did I Serve the Soviet Union spread?
Following the debut of the episode, actor Ralph Ineson, who plays General Tarakanov made a tweet, which contained the image, that would later be featured on the meme.
The image was then posted to the /r/ChernobylTV subreddit, making its first appearance on the site.
In the next few days, the phrase and the screenshot were started to be used in various contexts as an image macro on Reddit and Instagram.
It quickly became a meme template, due to its easy identification and the already existing link between the meme community and communism.
