In 1970, KGB agent Yuri Bezmanov, defected to the West after becoming disenchanted with the Soviet system. Fifteen years later, in 1985, he spoke with writer and documentary film producer G. Edward Griffin to discuss the Soviet Union’s strategy to subvert the United States. It’s interesting that after 35 years, this interview is still being viewed on YouTube because, in light of emerging trends, it remains as evocative and as prescient as ever.
Although at the time of Bezmanov’s interview, the seeds of this plan to infiltrate American institutions weren’t as overt and well-rooted as they are today with avowed Marxists and Maoists openly proclaiming their allegiance to totalitarianism and their opposition to our democratic institutions, the systematic way in which our country is being destabilized by these forces is clearly revealed in Bezmanov’s transcendent confessional.
According to Bezmenov, the ideological subversion that is being practiced by our foreign adversaries has very little to do with clandestine espionage. Most of it is “legitimate, overt and open” consisting of four stages: demoralization, destabilization, crisis and normalization. Bezmenov asserts that the initial stage, or “demoralization,” takes approximately 15 to 20 years, the length of time it takes to raise a generation and indoctrinate the public in the ideology of communism.
“Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged or counterbalanced by the basic values of … American Patriotism … and moral standards.” The basis for this ideological brainwashing is the belief that a person who is demoralized is incapable of processing the truth.
Bezmenov explains that “Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures…” the facts tell him nothing. “Even if I show him a (Soviet Union) concentration camp he will refuse to believe it until … the military boot crashes him, then he will understand but not before that.” What is most disturbing and unforgivable is that most of this demoralization, according to Bezmenov, is being “done by Americans to Americans.”
The second stage of ideological subversion or “destabilization” is designed to throw society into chaos. This process usually takes two to five years during which the usual norms of the economy, foreign relations and national defense systems are altered. Citizens are seduced by those in power with promises of giveaways in order to gain the support of the people for the creation of a massive bureaucracy that increasingly intrudes on people’s lives. The implementation of this second stage is importantly dependent on the complicity of academia and the media.
The third stage of ideological subversion requires the instigation of a crisis that leads to a civil war, a revolution or a foreign invasion. This is the stage when the leftist idealists or, as Bezmenov calls them, the “useful idiots” (his words not mine) become expendable and will be eliminated, exiled or imprisoned to prevent them from becoming obstacles when the utopia they naively thought they were creating for themselves never materializes. The fourth and final stage is “normalization” when the people who are being subjugated essentially acquiesce to their subjugators.
If we ignore these signs we do so at our own peril. The suppression of free speech, the call for the “deprogramming” of certain groups with whom we disagree, the disengagement of parents in the overseeing of their children’s education, and the increasing dependence of many of our fellow citizens on government programs are consistent with Bezmanov’s prophecy which concludes with the following warning. “The time bomb is ticking. Every second, the disaster is coming closer and closer. Unlike myself, you will have nowhere to defect to … This is it. This is the last country of freedom and possibility.”
Shelly Aldean is a Carson City resident.
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