This conference by Yuri Bezmenov, alias Tomas Schuman, is a terrific presentation on the nature and mechanics of subversion. A defector from the ex-Soviet Union, Bezmenov worked for the KGB as a propaganda expert before passing to the West. As 85% of all KGB efforts were directed not at spying per se but rather at distracting western society in order to subvert and destroy it, this presentation is worth viewing again. Bezmenov begins his speech by reminding us about Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese general who has authored the tremendously important The Art of War, a book on military strategy. The point of reminding us about this is obvious: all the signs that our western society is being the target of one or of several destabilization operations by foreign and domestic forces are evident. That’s why we need to focus our attention on the specifics of how a subversion operation works.

Bezmenov presents the stages of such operations as follows:

1-Demoralization, during which the different components of a society are infiltrated and then hijacked to take them away from their initial mission. Artificial bodies of bureaucrats come to replace the citizens;

2-Destabilization, during which the process of subversion began in step 1 increases in intensity and means;

3- Crisis, during which a society inevitably faces either civil war or invasion by foreign forces;

4- Normalisation finally, during which all activists and « revolutionaries » who got involved in social change and uprisings are eliminated by the new power elite. Bezmenov gives several examples of communist revolutions where early backers and actors of the revolution have been killed once the situation has settled. Continuer la lecture →