The Bezmenov legacy

Aug 1, 2024·Alasdair Macleod

Were the collapse in western morality and the denial of plain facts the result of a KGB plot? Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov explained that it was indeed planned by the KGB.

In 1984 KGB defector Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov described ideological subversion, or the four stages of mass brainwashing used by the KGB to undermine American society. The intention was to change the perception of reality to such an extent that no one can come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their country, and their role in society. 

We cannot know the extent to which these KGB plans were carried out, but so far the outcome closely resembles Bezmenov’s description, to a degree which surprised him when he defected. 

The first stage is demoralisation, taking ten to fifteen years. By this term, he meant the destruction of America’s Christian-capitalist morality. At the time of his interview, the protesting students of 1960s America were becoming captains of industry and advancing up politics’ greasy pole in both major parties. 

Similarly, the violent students at the Sorbonne, Japanese university protests, student sit-ins in the UK, followed by the Red Army faction in Germany were all of the period, participants similarly promoted over time to senior roles in their respective nations as businessmen, politicians and thought leaders. We put these coincidences down to some sort of student awakening driven by discontent with the ruling classes: but what if Bezmenov is right, that they were provoked by the KGB in a carefully orchestrated plan?

We are now on a second generation of these leaders, presidents and prime ministers who are in their forties and fifties. A shortened version of the interview with the relevant extract is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX3EZCVj2XA

What was not expected was the collapse of the Soviet regime itself just a few years after Bezmenov’s interview with G Edward Griffin. It was the Soviet Union that fell prey to economic reality — the impossibility of economic calculation under a socialist regime. But Bezmenov was clear that the seed of the first stage of demoralisation had been completed by the time of his defection.

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