Below is a part transcript of an interview with Yuri Bezmenov conducted by writer Ed Griffen. The date of the interview is 1984. Mr. Bezmenov was born in 1939 in a suburb of Moscow. He was the son of a high ranking Soviet Army officer. He was educated in the elite schools inside the Soviet Union; and became an expert in Indian culture and Indian languages. He had an outstanding career with Novosti, which was, and still is I should say, the press arm or press agency of the Soviet Union; it turns out this is also a front, for the KGB.
He escaped to the West in 1970 after becoming totally disgusted with the Soviet system; and he did this at great risk to his life. He certainly is one of the worlds outstanding experts on the subject of Soviet propaganda; and disinformation and active measures. Below are some topical excerpts from the 1984 interview.
Ideological subversion is a process which is legitimate, old word, and open. You can see it with your own eyes. All American mass media has to do is to “unplug bananas” from their ears, open up their eyes, and they can see it. There is no mystery.
It has nothing to do with espionage. I know that espionage intelligence gathering looks more romantic. It sells more deodorants through the advertising. That’s probably why your Hollywood producers are so crazy about James Bond types of films. But in reality the main emphasis of the KGB is NOT in the area of intelligence at all.
According to my opinion, and the opinions of many defectors of my caliber, only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare. What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American that despite of the abundance of information no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country. It’s a great brainwashing process which goes very slow and is divided into four basic stages.
The first stage being “demoralization”. It takes from 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years required to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy exposed to the ideology of [their] enemy. In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least 3 generation of American students without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of Americanism; American patriotism.
Most of the activity of the department [KGB] was to compile huge amount / volume of information, on individuals who were instrumental in creating public opinion. Publisher, editors, journalists, uh actors, educationalists, professors of political science. Members of parliament, representatives of business circles.
Most of these people were divided roughly into two groups: those who would tow the Soviet foreign policy, they would be promoted to positions of power through media and public manipulation; [and] those who refuse the Soviet influence in their own country would be character assassinated OR executed physically, come Revolution.
Same way as in a small town of Hua in South Vietnam; several thousands of Vietnamese were executed in one night when the city was captured by [the] Viet Cong for only two days; and American CIA could never figure out – how could [the communists] possibly know each Individual, where he lives, where to get him; and [in order that they] would be arrested in one night basically in four hours before dawn, put on a van, driven out of the city limits and shot.
The answer is very simple. Long before communists occupy the city, there was extensive network of informers; local Vietnamese citizens who knew absolutely everything about people who are instrumental in public opinion – including Barbers and Taxi Drivers. Everyone who was sympathetic to United States was executed. Same thing was done under the guidance of the Soviet Embassy in Hanoi, and same thing I was doing in New Delhi.
[..] So basically America is Stuck, with demoralization; and unless, even if you start right now this minute; you start educating new generation of Americans – it will still take you 15 to 20 years to turn the tide of uh, ideological perception of reality; uh back to normalcy and patriotism.
The result? The result you can see — most of the people who graduated in the 60’s, dropouts or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You can’t get rid of to them. They are contaminated. They are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern [alluding to Pavlov]. You can not change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information. Even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still can not change the basic perception and the logic of behavior. In other words [for] these people the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To rid society of these people you need another 15 or 20 years to educate a new generation of patriotically minded and common sense people who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society.
You can see the whole interview on video here.
TrueblueNZ 
13 responses to “Demoralization”
I guess we just have to work out who all the “Barbers and Taxi Drivers” are. At least with blogs we’re a little more hidden from obvious view. But I’m sure the Marxist Left have a plan to identify all voices of dissent – especially those voices in the blogosphere. That’s provided they don’t shut us down in the mean time. How’s that “internet kill switch” coming along, OB1?
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“But I’m sure the Marxist Left have a plan to identify all voices of dissent – especially those voices in the blogosphere.”
You may bet on it, Kris. Their methods don’t change and why should they? They’ve always been successful.
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KK…………..we know who you are ;- )
Seriously, I visit a Rugby Forum (well, mainly rugby with some politics) which is international. The thing that strikes me most is how the Brit and the Irish rugger buggers have a knee-jerk MSM-like reaction to Israel, Bush, Obama, muslims, global warming, etc. They are unaware that they soft-core socialists…………and seem to think that anything to the ‘right’ of them is extreme right wing. I suppose being 30 to 40 years younger than me they have had the benefit of socialist education.
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Wow RB, this so blends in.
I’ve been writing a piece called “Twisted Nobility” as well as rewriting another old piece about why Western culture, and the remnants of its religious, are under attack. I may later add segments of this piece about demoralization because it fits both those at the top and those at the bottom (like mawn just reported). Watch my blog. It promise I’ll get maybe 3 or 4 posts out very soon that compliment this post.
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I know what you mean, Mawm – us old buggars certainly missed out on the many ‘benefits’ the younger generation received during their “edukashun”. It’s a real handicap being able to think for yourself! – a cross us oldies will just have to bear in silence I guess.
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Have I told you about my Jewish Carpenter mate, Keith? – He’s on OUR side! In the end the Left lose … BIGTIME!!!
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That whole thing of gathering info on people to round them up when the moment comes has been perfected over the years, it seems. It was much slower when my Dad (he was 11 or 12 at the time) was rounded up with his entire family because his Dad had fought against the Soviets in 1920. They made sure they separated the father from his wife and children, thus ensuring no resistance.
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I am somewhat less pessimistic on that score Red. It may take a generation to indoctrinate people into some belief system that is fundamentally wrong, but that does not mean it would take that same time to make them see the error of their ways, if the alternative is demonstrably correct and better. Note that the leftoids could not achieve their objective other than by simultaneously changing a whole raft of things, from the concept of family right through to changing the emphasis of education, the perception of science, media and culture, economic thought etc etc. In my perception, breaching only one of these facets of indoctrination/change is sufficient to start bringing the whole house of cards down.
The problem is doing this before they manage to get a decisive grasp on society, and therein lies the real danger, because it will take several generations after that to reverse things. In short, I don’t think we actually have 20 years or one generation, but we will have to achieve some dramatic effort in say 2-5 years, otherwise we’ll be looking at the yoke for at least 50 years. It would, however, appear that the collectivists are in a bit of a hurry recently (especially in the US, probably because of 2012 fears), so matters may come to head sooner, which would be in our advantage as the collectivists haven’t got their structures ready.
As for NZ, we MUST look at reforming government and basing it on principles rather than on a sick personality cult.
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Wow, Lucia. Your family actually experienced this strategy. Real food for thought.
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Bez- did you see the video Pascal posted on the Wisconsin Tea Party thread? Doctors ready to commit fraud and sign up to lies without any hesitation. Doctors- morally putrid, smirking, smug, lying without a milligram of compunction. Pretty difficult to correct that degree of brain damage.
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No surprises here,just more confirmation of what I ‘ve believed for some time.
The German media published a photo some years ago of Joska Fisher assaulting a policeman during the student riots in the ’60’s. He became foreign minister in the Green/Social Democrat coalition there.
Same thing here in NZ ,the 70’s protesters turned out to be the Labour front bench of the late 90’s. Telling us how to live our lives.
Ashton,senior in the EU now, was in the CND. Barosso head of the EU, a former communist and academic. These people run the EU.!!!!
And even though the Soviet Union has collapsed there are screen writers in the US and Britain who still actively undermine the traditional west for one reason or another.Bastards.
I hope that some day the KGB archives will be opened up so that all these traitors can be exposed. Not that many will give a shit ,we’ll be entranced by the next instalment of Dancing with or Cook with or Build Something or other.
Talking of Vietnam, I hate those protesters. Many well healed ,middle class types who were all for a communist victory but who didn’t give a shit for democratic self determination ,north or south. None of those f*ckers protested Pol Pot’s genocide of his own people. Well they wouldn’t ,Pol Pot wasn’t American!
To think that today many of our school children are taken on pilgrimage to Vietnam to witness the great struggle. Every one knows the name My Lai ,whose heard of Hua?
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Red,
Yeah, I grew up hearing the stories about it. And then in the last 10 years or so, I researched and found out exactly why it happened. It was because of that 1920 war, where Soviets broke out and tried to take over Europe, but were stopped by Poland. Stalin was humiliated at the time, and took it out on every single soldier and his family, who was involved in that war against him.
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Took his revenge 20 years later, that is.
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