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Soviet Quotes

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Soviet Quotes

“In Moscow, dim and green under the summer rain, columns of armour were waiting in the side-roads off the long avenue from Vnukovo airport. Tanks from the Taman Division stood beneath the dripping trees around Moscow University with their field kitchens and command trucks. This was not a new sight to me: the Soviet tanks had rested like that beneath the trees of the parks in Prague, late in another August twenty-three years before. Now they had invaded and crushed one more country -- their own.”

YearsLongCountryThreeWaitingSidesTreeFieldsLateSummerRainSightTwentiesGreenUniversityCommandKitchenParksDivisionSovietThree YearsTruckAirportsAvenuesTanksCrushedColumnsAugustMoscowDrippingArmourPragueSummer Rain
Author:Neal Ascherson
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“Like so many empires before it, the Soviet Union eventually imploded and fragmented, falling victim not so much to a direct military defeat as to disintegration accelerated by economic and social strains.”

FallSocialEconomicMilitaryDirectVictimUnionsDefeatEmpiresSovietSoviet UnionStrainFragmentedDisintegration
Book:The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives
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“The Soviet Union has long been proposing to outlaw chemical weapons, to remove them from the arsenals of states. We are prepared for resolution of this problem either on a global basis or piece by piece. As one of the first steps the USSR and the other socialist countries proposed in January 1984 that agreement be reached on ridding Europe of all types of chemical weapons.”

FirstsLongCountryStatesProblemStepsPiecesTypeWeaponsEuropeBasesUnionsPreparedRemoveAgreementResolutionChemicalsSovietFirst StepsSocialistSoviet UnionJanuaryArsenalOutlawUssrChemical WeaponsSocialist Countries
Author:Konstantin Chernenko
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“As a great socialist power the Soviet Union is fully aware of its responsibility to the peoples for preserving and strengthening peace. We are open to peaceful, mutually beneficial cooperation with states on all continents. We are for the peaceful settlement of all disputable international problems through serious, equal, and constructive talks.”

StatesProblemResponsibilitySeriousEqualUnionsInternationalPeacefulCooperationSovietContinentsSocialistSoviet UnionBeneficialConstructiveSettlementStrengthening
Book:Soviet-U.S. relations: the selected writings and speeches of Konstantin U. Chernenko
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“In the late 1980s, Soviets were allowed to keep the wealth they created by raising vegetables on their garden plots. Although these plots composed only about 2% of the agricultural lands in the Soviet Union, they produced 25% of the food! When Soviets kept the wealth they created, they produced almost 16 times more than when it was taken from them at gunpoint, if necessary!”

IfsWealthTakenLandLateGardenPropertyUnionsPlotVegetablesSovietSoviet Union
Author:Mary Ruwart
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“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.”

StillsStatesDifficultLossUnitedPartyEnemyExpectationsBlindHeavyConfusionBitterVainDisorderSovietClosingDisillusionmentUnshakableDifficult Days
Author:Lavrentiy Beria
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“Our scientists all the more occupy advanced positions in the development of world science. By the example of their successes in the field of atomic energy, our scientists and technicians have vividly shown how much the increased might of the Soviet state and the further growth of its international authority depends on their efforts and practical successes.”

WorldStatesMightEnergyGrowthEffortExampleFieldsPositionDependsDevelopmentAuthorityScientistInternationalPracticalsSovietTechniciansAtomic Energy
Author:Vyacheslav Molotov
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“The median family of four ... paid $4,722 in federal taxes last year. That's enough to pay for a new curtain for the secretary of commerce's office, to bribe a farmer not to plant 38 acres with corn ... seven weeks of salary for a Customs man assigned to save us from the terror of high-quality, low priced foreign TV sets, or the subsidy on 6,000 bushels of wheat to prop up the Soviet regime. Surely civilization would collapse without such essential services.”

MenYearsEnoughLastsPayQualityFourWeekTvsCivilizationTaxesEssentialsOfficeLowsPaidPlantSevenTerrorCustomsFarmersSovietRegimesCollapseCommerceLast YearSecretaryCurtainsSalaryCornWheatPropsHigh QualityBribeAcresSubsidiesMedianFederal Taxes
Author:Alan Bock
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“The list of American grievances is long: Pakistan developed nuclear weapons while promising the United States that it would not; the United States helped arm and train Mujahideen against the Soviets during the 1980s, but Pakistan chose to keep these militants well armed and sufficiently funded even after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989; and, from the American perspective, Pakistan's crackdown on terrorist groups, particularly after 9/11, has been halfhearted at best.”

WellsLongHas BeensStatesUnitedUnited StatesGroupsPerspectiveArmsWeaponsTrainListsNuclearTerroristSovietNuclear WeaponsPakistanGrievanceWithdrawalTerrorist GroupsMujahideen
Author:Husain Haqqani
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“The time will come when a spacecraft carrying human beings will leave the earth and set out on a voyage to distant planets - to remote worlds. Today this may seem only an enticing fantasy, but such in fact is not the case. The launching of the first two Soviet Sputniks has already thrown a sturdy bridge from the earth into space, and the way to the stars is open”

WorldWayFirstsHumansMayTwoFactsSeemsTodayEarthStarsHuman BeingsSpaceCasesFantasyPlanetsBridgesThrownSovietWorld TodayVoyagesLaunchingSturdyEnticingSpacecraftSputnik
Author:Sergei Korolev
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“The Cold War philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which prevented the former Soviet Union and the United States from using the nuclear weapons they had targeted at each other, would not apply to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran. For him (Ahmadinejad), Mutual Assured Destruction is not a deterrent, it is an inducement.”

WarStatesPhilosophyPresidentUnitedUnited StatesColdWeaponsDestructionMadUnionsNuclearFormerIranMutualSovietNuclear WeaponsCold WarSoviet UnionAssuredDeterrent
Author:Bernard Lewis
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“One answer to why public interest in men's tennis has been on the wane in recent years is an essential and unpretty thugishness about the power-baseline style that's become dominant on the tour. Watch Agassi closely sometime...he's amazingly absent of finesse, with movements that look more like a heavy-metal musician's than an athlete's...what a top PBer really resembles is film of the old Soviet Union putting down a rebellion. It's awesome, but brutally so, with a grinding, faceless quality about its power that renders that power curiously dull and empty.”

MenYearsLooksHas BeensFilmSportsInterestAnswersQualityWatchesStyleMovementEssentialsMusicianEmptyUnionsAthleteHeavyTennisDullRebellionSovietMetalsDominantSoviet UnionAbsentPublic InterestHeavy MetalFacelessFinesse
Author:David Foster Wallace
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“Scholars have been arguing for a long time whether the Soviet Union could have been turned into some kind of social democracy. I doubt it myself. I think what Gorbachev didn't quite understand, until it was too late, is that his efforts at change unleashed new, certrifical forces he hadn't counted on. He opened the door a crack and a huge wind blew it open.”

ThinkingKindLongHas BeensForceSocialEffortDemocracyDoubtDoorsWindHugeLateLong TimeUnionsArguingToo LateCracksSovietScholarSoviet UnionCould Have BeenUnleashedGorbachevSocial Democracy
Author:David Hoffman
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“Since I have fought against these Jewish-Soviet ideas in Germany, since I have conquered and stamped out this peril, I fancy that I possess a better comprehension of its character than do these men who have only to deal with it in the field of literature.”

MenIdeasCharacterLiteratureDealsFieldsGermanyFancySovietPerilComprehension
Book:The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939: An English Translation of Representative Passages Arranged Under Subjects and Edited by Norman H. Baynes
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“All this [Soviet labor camp for political prisoners] brings about one marked change in your physical appearance; by the end of your first year, you will have what are known as 'zek's eyes.' The look in a zek's eyes is impossible to describe, but once encountered, it is never forgotten. When you emerge, your friends, embracing you, will exclaim: 'Your eyes! Your eyes have changed!' And not one of your tormentors will be able to bear your scrutiny. They will turn away from it, like beaten dogs.”

YearsFirstsLooksEndsEyeAblePoliticalTurnsKnownImpossibleDogChangedBearsLaborPrisonForgottenAppearancePrisonerCampsSovietBeatenScrutinyPhysical AppearancePolitical Prisoners
Author:Irina Ratushinskaya
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“If the present White House leadership runs the gauntlet of common sense and the people's will for peace and challenges us by starting MX missile deployment, then the Soviet Union will respond by deploying a new intercontinental ballistic missile of the same class, with its characteristics in no way inferior to those of the MX.”

PeopleIfsWayRunningHouseChallengesWhiteCommonClassUnionsStartingCommon SenseCharacteristicsWhite HouseSovietInferiorsSoviet UnionMissilesDeploymentGauntletDeploying
Author:Dmitriy Ustinov
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“The aggressor too should know that the preemptive use of nuclear weapons would not insure victory. With modern detection systems and the combat readiness of the Soviet Union's strategic nuclear forces, the United States would not be able to deal a crippling blow to the socialist countries. The aggressor will not be able to evade an all-crushing retaliatory strike.”

KnowsShouldCountryStatesUseAbleForceUnitedDealsUnited StatesModernVictoryWeaponsUnionsBlowStrikesNuclearCrushCombatSovietNuclear WeaponsSocialistSoviet UnionStrategicReadinessAggressorsDetectionSocialist Countries
Author:Dmitriy Ustinov
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“We have won on the Arlov, Kursk, Belgorod, and Kharkov grounds. We won because the country was being defended not only by the army but by the entire Soviet people. The Socialist economy, Soviet political structure, and Marxist-Leninist ideology proved their unarguable excellence against the Fascist economy, Fascist political structure, and Fascist ideology of Germany.”

PeopleCountryPoliticalEconomyArmyStructureExcellenceIdeologyGermanySovietSocialistFascistsMarxistSocialist Economy
Author:Ivan Bagramyan
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“While thinking when sober, our success at reaching our goals by using the First Baltic Front troops, the Memel operation, it can't be disregarded, that the troops not only honorably accomplished their powerful strategic operation, but also an infusion of victory for the Soviet armed forces and an entrance into the final stages of the war.”

ThinkingFirstsWarForceGoalPowerfulStageFrontsVictoryFinalsOperationsAccomplishedReachingSovietTroopsSoberStrategicEntrancesArmed ForcesDisregardedInfusion
Author:Ivan Bagramyan
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