Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (29 March 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician, and chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Stalin. He was top deputy of the NKVD during the Great Purge, responsible for many of the millions of imprisonments and killings. He was arrested and executed by his political rivals. He claimed to have poisoned Joseph Stalin according to the memoirs of Vyacheslav Molotov.
Sourced
- Do you know that there’s hardly anyone left of last year’s Caucasian governments? I’ve tried to stop it, but in vain. Yet they can’t all be Trotskyites and traitors.
- Quoted in “The Kremlin and the People” - Page 126 - by Walter Duranty - History – 2007
- The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks. But their expectations are in vain: bitter disillusionment awaits them. He who is not blind sees that our party, during its difficult days, is closing its ranks still more closely, that it is united and unshakable.
- Quoted in “The Current Digest of the Soviet Press – Page 9 – by Joint Committee – World Politics – 1953
Disputed
- Published in the United States in 1955 as Beria's work, no evidence of its authenticity has emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and different editions of it are believed to contain text added by L. Ron Hubbard and neo-Nazi Kenneth Goff. The original authorship remains unclear.
- To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression and scientific turmoil. At least a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only Communism can resolve the problems of the masses.
- In a Capitalistic state you are aided on all sides by the corruption of the philosophy of man and the times. You will discover that everything will aid you in your campaign to seize, control and use all "mental healing" to spread our doctrine and rid us of our enemies within their own borders.
- By psychopolitics create chaos. Leave a nation leaderless. Kill our enemies. And bring to Earth, through Communism, the greatest peace Man has ever known.
- Reported as false in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 5-6.
Misattributed
- If we can effectively kill the national pride and patriotism of just one generation, we will have won that country. Therefore we must continue propaganda abroad to undermine the loyalty of citizens in general and of teen-agers in particular.
- Often cited as appearing in Brain-Washing, this quote does not appear in that book, or in any other work authored by Beria. Reported as false in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 6.
