A Communist Defector from Russia Warns America: Yuri Bezmenov and the Four Stages of Ideological Subversion
Bezmenov gave a series of lectures and interviews in which he explained the four stages the KGB planned for a Marxist subversion of a country
This Substack article is an excerpt from my book The Truth About Neo-Marxism, Cultural Maoism, and Anarchy: Exposing Woke Insanity in an Age of Disinformation.
Born in 1939, Yuri Bezmenov grew up in Stalinist Russia during World War II. His father was an officer of the general staff of the Soviet army, responsible for the inspection of Soviet military forces stationed on foreign soil in places like Mongolia, Cuba, and various Eastern European countries. When he was seventeen, Bezmenov entered the Institute of Oriental Languages, a part of Moscow State University under the KGB's direction and control. In 1963, he spent two years in India working as a public relations officer for Soviet Refineries Constructions.
In 1965, Bezmenov was called back to Moscow, where he began working as a Soviet journalist for RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency. He worked out of the Soviet embassy in that job, disseminating KGB propaganda through RIA Novosti. In 1970, Russian KGB officer Bezmenov defected to the West through Canada. In 1984, he published a book, Love Letter to America,1 under the pen name of Tomas David Schuman. In that book, Bezmenov outlined the four stages the KGB utilized as techniques of ideological subversion. In the United States, Bezmenov gave a series of lectures and interviews in which he explained the four stages of a Marxist subversion of a country.2 While Bezmenov was fairly consistent in how he described the four stages in his book and various lectures, he tended to blur some lines, at times seeming to blend together various of the four stages. Presented here is a synthesis of Bezmenov’s four stages constructed so as to convey his meaning more precisely.
Stage One: Demoralization
The first stage involves demoralizing the target society with psychological warfare designed to attack the moral fiber of the population. Ideological subversion messages make the target country’s population feel guilty for divisive issues like racial discrimination and unequal rights for women. Attacks on God and the family bring into question the fundamental social structures and beliefs that traditionally have given people purpose through a foundation of moral values that promote productive and fulfilling lifestyles. Bezmenov used “demoralization” in two subtly different ways. First, a population questioning its values induces confusion and a sense of unease. Second, a demoralized population becomes “de-moral” in that traditional values are challenged and abandoned. In the following quotes, Bezmenov explained the various ideological subversion techniques the KGB uses to demoralize countries like the United States.
“Let’s start with the first stage of Demoralization. It takes about 15 to 20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many (or few)? Simple: this is the minimum number of years needed to ‘educate’ one generation of students in a target country (America, for example) and expose them to the ideology of the subverter.”3
It takes about fifteen to twenty years to demoralize a nation, the minimum number of years needed to “educate” one generation of students in a target country. “To be successful, the process of subversion at the stage of demoralization must be always and only a two-way street, which means that the target nation must be made a recipient—passive or active—of the ideas of the subverter.”4 In other words, Marxism-Leninism ideology is being pumped into at least three generations of American students without being challenged. (You can see the result in) most of the people who graduated in the ’60s. Drop-outs or half-baked intellectuals are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, and educational system. You are stuck with them. You cannot change their mind even if you expose them to authentic information.
“This process has many names: psychological warfare, ideological aggression, propaganda warfare, etc. The KGB calls it ‘Active Measures,’ which are more important and dangerous than classic espionage—James Bond style.5 The purpose of this process is to change your perception of reality to such an extent, that even despite an abundance of information and evidence about the danger of Communism, you are unable to come to sensible conclusions in your own interests and in the interests of your nation. One of the main tactics in this process is to develop, establish and consistently enforce a set of ‘double standards.’”
“The main emphasis of the KGB is not in the area of intelligence at all…only about 15% of time, money, and manpower is spent on espionage as such. The other 85% is a slow process, which we call either ideological subversion…. What it basically means is to change the perception of reality of every American, to such an extent, that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions.”6
“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 the 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 is going to receive a kick in his fat bottom.”7
“To demoralize America’s protective forces it is enough to make your kids call the police ‘pigs’ and ‘fascists’ for a decade, disband police agencies watching over subverters and radicals by calling them ‘spies’ (that is exactly what [the] American Union of Civil Liberties [ACLU] did), stage campaign after campaign of discreditation and ‘investigations’ of the ‘wrongdoings’ of the police, and in 20 years you arrive at the present situation, when the majority of civilian population of this nation is virtually without civil laws or protection from murderers, lunatics, criminals, etc. Can you now expect your police and civil authorities to protect you and your family in case of terrorist attack or a major civil disturbance?”8
“Marxist-Leninist ideology coated in various indigenous ‘social theories’ have greatly contributed to the process of American family break-up. The trend recently is changing in the opposite direction, but many generations of Americans, brought up in broken families, are already adults lacking one of the most vital qualities for the survival of a nation—loyalty. A child who has not learned to be loyal to his family will hardly make a loyal citizen. Such [a] child may grow into [an] adult who is loyal to the State though. The USSR example is rather revealing in this case.”9
“In the struggle for the ‘final victory of Communism,’ the goal of the subverter is to substitute, as slowly and painlessly as possible, the concept of loyalty for nation with loyalty to the ‘Big Brother’ welfare state, who gives everything and is able to take everything, including personal freedom—from every citizen. If that objective is successfully achieved, the subverter does not need any nuclear warheads and tanks and may not even need the physical military invasion. All that will be needed is to ‘elect’ a ‘progressive thinking’ president who will be voted to power by Americans, who have been addicted to welfare and ‘security’ as defined by Soviet [Marxist] subverters.”10
“Racial and ethnic interrelations is one of the most vulnerable areas for demoralization. There is not a single Communist country where racial groups are ‘equal’ and enjoy as much freedom to develop themselves culturally and economically as in America. Actually, there are not too many ‘capitalist’ countries where ethnic minorities have it as good as in the USA. I have been to many countries of the world and I can state to you, my dear Americans, that your society is the least discriminatory.”11 The Communist “solution” for racial problem(s) is “final”: they simply murder those who are different and stubbornly insist on remaining silent.
Stage Two: Destabilization
Once the target population has been demoralized, the expectation is that people will implement destructive policies, such as defunding the police. These ill-conceived policies increase crime, people feel less secure, and society becomes less economically productive. Society becomes destabilized because demoralized populations act irrationally. Counterproductive public policies cause mass fear and economic misery as the country loses its psychological sense of balance. Again, Bezmenov explained as follows:
“Here the efforts of [the] subverter narrow down to the ‘essentials’: the internal power structures of a target nation; the nation’s foreign relations; economy and ‘social fiber.’ If the preceding stage of demoralization is successful, the subverter no longer has to bother about your ideas and your life. Now he gets to the ‘spinal cord’ of your country and helps you to bring your own society into the state of destabilization. That may take from 2 to 5 years, depending on the maturity of a nation and its ability to mobilize for resistance.”12
“The first symptom of instability is expressed as the desire of the population to bring to power those politicians and parties who are charismatic, act like good ‘caretakers’ and promise more ‘security’—not from external and foreign enemies, but rather, job ‘security,’ ‘free’ social services and other ‘pleasure strokes’ provided by ‘Big Brother.’ By concentrating the attention of a nation on short-term solutions and ‘improvements,’ such irresponsible politicians simply procrastinate on facing ‘the moment of truth,’ when the nation will have to pay a much higher price for the main and basic problem—bringing [the] country back to stability and restoring the moral fiber.”13
Stage Three: Crisis
A destabilized society is open to violent, revolutionary anarchy, as evidenced in the United States by groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Leftist radicals begin operating in the open, with the full support of mass media as they take over positions in communities as law enforcement prosecutors, city councils, and boards of education. On the state and national scene, neo-Marxists and Maoists come forward with “progressive” policies that further throw the society into chaos, as demonstrated by the increasing use of mail-in voting and the efforts to characterize voter ID requirements as techniques designed to suppress minority voting. Bezmenov pointed to Central American countries racked by revolutionary violence and coup d’états as radical activists take over governmental positions and authorize emergency powers for themselves as the society moves toward civil war. Again, Bezmenov explained as follows:
“It may take only 2 to 6 months, to bring America to the same situation which now exists South of the border in Central America.”14
“At this third stage of subversion, you will have all your American ‘radicals’ and Soviet ‘sleeper’ agents springing into action, trying to ‘seize power as quickly and ruthlessly as possible.”15
“If all the previous stages of Soviet subversion have been successfully completed by that time, most Americans will be so totally confused that they may even welcome some ‘strong’ leaders who ‘know how to talk to the Russians.’ Chances are these leaders will be elected and given almost unlimited ‘emergency powers.’”16
“A forceful change of the U.S. system may or may not be accomplished through a civil war or internal revolution, and a physical military invasion by the USSR may not even have to take place at all. But change it will be, and rather a drastic one, with all the familiar attributes of Soviet ‘progress’ being instituted such as nationalization of vital industries, the reduction of the ‘private sector’ of the economy to the bare minimum, the redistribution of wealth and a massive propaganda campaign by the newly ‘elected’ government to ‘explain’ and justify the reforms.”17
Stage Four: Normalization
In stage four, normalization, the target society capitulates to Communism. The Russian military may even be called into the target nation to reintroduce strict law and order. The fourth stage assumes the new Communist government has nationalized vital industries, reduced the economy’s private sector to a minimum, redistributed wealth, and eliminated private property. The newly “elected” Communist government has also engaged in a massive propaganda effort to explain and justify progressive reforms. Now, in the fourth stage, a submissive population submits to totalitarian subjugation to the new world order of Marx, Lenin, and Mao. Bezmenov explained as follows:
“This is when my dear friends, you will start seeing ‘friendly’ Soviet soldiers in the streets of our cities working together with American soldiers and the ‘new’ police force to ‘restore law and order.’ Very soon your yesterday’s American socialist radicals and do-gooders who were working hard to bring ‘progress’ to their own country will find themselves in prisons and hastily built concentration camps. Many of them will be executed, quietly or publicly. Why? Simple: The Soviet ‘liberators’ will have no further use for the ‘disturbers.’ The ‘useful idiots’ will have completed their work. From then on, the New Order will need stability and new morality. No more ‘grass roots’ movements. No more criticism of the State. The Press will obediently censor itself. In fact, this censorship is already existing now, imposed by the so-called U.S. ‘liberals’ and socialist do-gooders. You will now have the opportunity to ‘enjoy’ the same life as the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Angolans, and Nicaraguans, betrayed by you enjoy now. This state of social ‘normalization’ may last forever, that is—your lifetime and the lifetimes of you[r] children and grandchildren.”18
Bezmenov’s expertise with the KGB was in propaganda. Thus, the most convincingly elaborated of his four stages of ideological subversion is the first stage, involving what he conceptualized as “demoralizing” the population. The value for the discussion in this chapter of Bezmenov’s analysis is that he conceptualized ideological subversion as a psychological process of political warfare. There is one additional Bezmenov quotation that merits consideration:
In the files were people who were doomed to execution, there were names of pro-Soviet journalists with whom I was personally friendly. [Pro Soviet?] Yes, they were idealistically minded leftists who made several visits to the USSR. And yet the KGB decided that come revolution or drastic changes in political structure…they will have to go. [Why?] Because they know too much. Simply, because, you see, the useful idiots, the leftists who are idealistically believing in the beauty of Soviet Socialist or Communist or whatever system, when they get disillusioned, they become the worst enemies… No, they serve purpose only at the stage of destabilization of a nation. For example, your leftists in the United States, all these professors and these beautiful civil rights defenders, they are instrumental in the process of subversion only to destabilize a nation. When their job is completed, they are not needed anymore. They know too much. Some of them, when they get disillusioned, when they see that Marxist-Leninist come to power. Obviously, they get offended, they think that they will come to power. That will never happen, of course. They will be lined up against a wall and shot.19
Suppose there was any doubt that neo-Marxists and cultural Maoists who engage in political warfare have lost their belief in God. In that case, Bezmenov’s quotations make clear that winning takes the place of morals in their secular religion where deception and lying become standard methods to propagate and proselytize their radical Left “truth-telling” narratives. His quotations also clarify that Communists cannot win until they first destroy. Communists demonstrated in the twentieth century that when they gain power, what follows is economic ruin, mass starvation, genocide, loss of individual freedom, and repression of dissent. These outcomes should not be a surprise. The momentum of a political movement that comes to power through deception designed to produce demoralization, destabilization, and crisis does not suddenly transform into goodness and light once the insurgency succeeds.
1 Thomas D. Schuman [Yuri Bezmenov], Love Letter to America (Los Angeles: W.I.N. Almanac Panorama, 1984).
2 Yuri Bezmenov lectures and interviews can be found in the following sources: (1) “Yuri Bezmenov: Psychological Warfare & Control of Western Society (Complete),” video of a 1983 lecture in Los Angeles, California, YouTube.com, posted February 23, 2011,
; (2) “Full Interview with Yuri Bezmenov: The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion (1984),” YouTube.com, posted August 22, 2020,
; (3) “Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete),” recording of G. Edward Griffin’s interview with Yuri Bezmenov in 1984, interview entitled “Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press,” YouTube.com, posted December 5, 2017,
. Bezmenov quotations in this chapter subsection are drawn from these sources. See also: Yuri Bezmenov: The Life and Legacy of the Influential KGB Informant Who Defected to the West (Ann Arbor: Charles River Editors, 2020). See also: “Four Stages of a Marxist Subversion of a Country: KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov Warns America of Marxist Subversion,” Unconstrained Analytics, October 2, 2020, https://unconstrainedanalytics.org/kgb-defector-yuri-bezmenov-warns-america-of-marxist-subversion/. See in particular a subsection of the Unconstrained Analytics page “Yuri Bezmenov Quotes.” To find a digital copy of Bezmenov’s book Love Letter to America, see: Yuri Bezmenov, Love Letter to America (Los Angeles: W.I.N. Almanac Panorama, 1984), archived on archive.org, https://archive.org/details/BezmenovLoveLetterToAmerica/page/n1/mode/2up. While Bezmenov’s English is understandable, English was obviously not his native language. In these various sources, Bezmenov tended to repeat the same points in roughly the same order, but with variations in how he expressed his thoughts. The quotes in this chapter subsection include various combinations of his wordings drawn from these multiple sources. Thus, the Bezmenov quotations in this chapter subsection are not precise word-for-word quotations, but the quotations are accurate and faithful to what Bezmenov wrote and spoke.
3 Schuman [Yuri Bezmenov], Love Letter to America, 24.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., 23.
6 “Yuri Bezmenov Quotes,” a subsection of “Four Stages of a Marxist Subversion of a Country: KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov Warns America of Marxist Subversion,” Unconstrained Analytics, October 2, 2020, https://unconstrainedanalytics.org/kgb-defector-yuri-bezmenov-warns-america-of-marxist-subversion/.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Schuman [Yuri Bezmenov], Love Letter to America, 42. Italics in original.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., 43.
15 Ibid., 43–44.
16 Ibid., 44. Italics in original.
17 Ibid. Italics in original.
18 Ibid., 44 and 46.
19 “Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete),” recording of G. Edward Griffin’s interview with Yuri Bezmenov in 1984 entitled “Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press,” YouTube.com, posted December 5, 2017,
. For a transcription of this quotation, see: Coughlin and Higgins, Re-Remembering the Mis-Remembered Left, fn. 121, p. 48. Bracketed clarifications are from the original text.
Outstanding!