Premium Only Content

demoralization
Subscribe
The Present — January 13, 2023
39 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America
A disturbing interview given by a KGB defector in 1984 describes America of today and outlines four stages of mass brainwashing used by the KGB.
Key Takeaways
A former KGB agent named Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov claimed in 1984 that Russia has a long-term goal of ideologically subverting the U.S. He described the process as "a great brainwashing" that has four basic stages. The first stage, he said, is called "demoralization," which would take about 20 years to achieve.
Paul Ratner
Share 39 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America on Facebook
Share 39 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America on Twitter
Share 39 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America on LinkedIn
This article was first published on Big Think in July 2018. It was updated in January 2023.
In 1954, early on in the Cold War, the Soviet Union created the Committee for State Security, more commonly known in the West as the KGB. The group came to oversee the Soviet Union’s internal security, secret police, and domestic and foreign intelligence operations.
Across the world, the KGB did whatever it could to thwart pro-Western and anti-Soviet political movements and figures. The group would assassinate political leaders with cyanide and other weapons. It would fund and arm leftist groups, especially those in developing nations. And the KGB successfully established moles in U.S. intelligence agencies, though the exact number still isn’t — and may never be — known for sure.
Also unclear were the group’s long-term plans involving the U.S. One glimpse, however, comes from a former KGB agent named Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov, who defected to Canada in 1970. He claimed to know details of a Soviet plan to undermine the U.S., not on the battlefield but in the psyche of the American public.
In 1984, Bezmenov gave an interview to G. Edward Griffin from which much can be learned today. His most chilling point was that there’s a long-term plan put in play by Russia to defeat America through psychological warfare and “demoralization.” It’s a long game that takes decades to achieve but it may already be bearing fruit.
Bezmenov made the point that the work of the KGB mainly does not involve espionage, despite what our popular culture may tell us. Most of the work, 85% of it, was “a slow process which we call either ideological subversion, active measures, or psychological warfare.”
What does that mean? Bezmenov explained that the most striking thing about ideological subversion is that it happens in the open as a legitimate process. “You can see it with your own eyes,” he said. The American media would be able to see it, if it just focused on it.
Here’s how he further defined ideological subversion:
“What it basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent 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.”
Bezmenov described this process as “a great brainwashing” that has four basic stages. The first stage is called “demoralization” which takes from 15 to 20 years to achieve. According to the former KGB agent, that is the minimum number of years it takes to re-educate one generation of students that is normally exposed to the ideology of its country — in other words, the time it takes to change what the people are thinking.
He used the examples of 1960s hippies coming to positions of power in the 1980s in the government and businesses of America. Bezmenov claimed this generation was already “contaminated” by Marxist-Leninist values. Of course, this claim that many baby boomers are somehow espousing KGB-tainted ideas is hard to believe but Bezmenov’s larger point addressed why people who have been gradually “demoralized” are unable to understand that this has happened to them.
Referring to such people, Bezmenov said:
“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.”
Demoralization is a process that is “irreversible.” Bezmenov actually thought (back in 1984) that the process of demoralizing America was already completed. It would take another generation and another couple of decades to get the people to think differently and return to their patriotic American values, claimed the agent.
In what is perhaps a most striking passage in the interview, here’s how Bezmenov described the state of a “demoralized” person
As I mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore,” said Bezmenov. “A person who was demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures; even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him [a] concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it, until he [receives] a kick in his fan-bottom. When a military boot crashes his balls then he will understand. But not before that. That’s the [tragedy] of the situation of demoralization.”
This ia what ww have seen it with covid vaccine
Masks which obviously wouldn't work
Lockdowns for small business only of course
Covid jail camps which i went to bc i was homeless ans i suffered war crime punishment there
Fuck most of society for allowing tryrants and dictators destroy Canada
Anyone who dosent fight for this country should be deported
-
1:14
Medical failures
10 months agosafe and effective
1821 -
1:53:38
megimu32
3 hours agoON THE SUBJECT: So Bad, We Love It.. The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure Movie Rewind
19.9K3 -
LIVE
Illyes Jr Gaming
3 hours agoTuesday Night Gaming On RUMBLE
232 watching -
LIVE
AlaskanBallistics
2 hours ago $0.23 earnedI Love This Gun Podcast #36
102 watching -
LIVE
Anthony Rogers
9 hours agoEpisode 367 - The Power of Gold
181 watching -
1:00:41
BonginoReport
6 hours agoManosphere Pod Red Pills Bernie?! - Nightly Scroll w/ Hayley Caronia (Ep.52) - 05/20/2025
333K68 -
LIVE
Jorba4
5 hours ago🔴Live-Jorba4- Rainbow Six Siege W/ ZerrickGaming
114 watching -
14:29
Deskofpompliano
6 hours ago $3.95 earnedRetail Investor Are Eating Wall Street’s Lunch
42.8K3 -
LIVE
EnDuEnDo
4 hours ago🚨Variety Stream 🎮 Push to 500 Followers 🚀 Chill Vibes 😎
92 watching -
1:23:59
Kim Iversen
23 hours agoKash & Bongino Say Epstein Killed Himself — Who Are They Covering For?
197K176