How Bismarck spoke after death

Why Putin's propagandists attributed to the Iron Chancellor what he never said

On the advertising posters of the Historical Park "Russia is my story", which opened under the auspices of the Moscow government, fictional quotes attributed to real historical characters are placed. One of the victims of the Historical Park was Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890. The poster with the slogan near the Moscow metro station "Polyanka" was photographed by journalist Alexander Chernykh. The Bismarck Foundation "Currently" said that there were no such words of such words of the chancellor.

On the poster located at the Polyanka metro station, the words are attributed to the Bismarck: "The Russians cannot be defeated, we were convinced of this in hundreds of years. But the Russians can instill false values, and then they will defeat themselves!" It is unlikely that the authors of the poster themselves attributed this quote. Judging by the search for Google, this or similar text is used on the Internet at least 25 thousand times. For the first time, this phrase, compared with the authorship of Bismarck, appeared somewhere in 2006-2007. It was actively used by visitors to the Russian Vedas and “Movement against Illegal Immigration” forums (the organization was recognized as extremist in Russia and is prohibited).

The same poster with a false quote

At the same time, the real author of the quote clearly intentionally made it from two parts. The ending of the phrase is recognized very quickly: this, of course, is popular in the conspiracy circles “Dalles Plan” , which is attributed to the director of the CIA Allen Dallesu (in fact, the ideas contained in the “plan” are expressed by one of the negative characters of the “eternal call” of the Soviet writer Anatoly Ivanov). This is what this fragment shown on the classic website of supporters of the conspiracy theory looks like:

“The war will end, everything will be settled and settled. And we will quit everything that we have: all the gold, all material power and bodging and fooling people! The human brain, the consciousness of people are capable of changing. Having sowed chaos there, we will invisibly replace their values with false ones and make them believe in these false values.”

Words similar to those that are used at the beginning of the quotes were used in his book by a completely different German - military theorist Karl von Clausewitz . Thinking about the results of the Napoleonic Wars (in 1812–1814 the Clausewitz was a Russian officer), he writes:

Such a country can be defeated only by playing on its own weaknesses

"The Russian Empire cannot be formally taken under control, that is, occupied, especially the forces of the current European states-and the 500,000th army, led by Napoleon, did not work out. Such a country can be defeated only by playing its own weaknesses and the consequences of its internal contradictions."

Clausewitz wrote his work on the war from 1816 until his death in 1831. But the military theorist does not offer to vaccinate any "false values".

In order to finally make sure the fiction of the quote attributed to the German chancellor, the “present” turned to the employees of the Bismarck Foundation. Dr. Ulf Morgenstern assured us that the Chancellor of the German Empire did not say anything like this, and even posted a column on this occasion on the fund's website:

- When Bismarck said "we", he meant Prussia and Germany. But these countries first attacked Russia after his death. The only invader in the framework of its temporary horizon was Napoleonic France, and with it Bismarck would hardly include himself in a certain (West) European collective "we," the historian explains.

Bismarck did not hide his values from Russians, the fund employee explains:

- Ultimately, this Berlin Machiavelli was into the hands of any internal political problem of neighbors. The country immersed in his own turmoil posed a much less danger to him than a firm state, deprived of any contradictions.

When the Russians have licked their fire, they are the first to suffer from it, they will burn their fingers on this fire

Of all the words of Bismarck, where he speaks of the eastern neighbor and the conclusions that Germany can draw from Russian troubles, the historian leads the following:

"If even greater madness is found in Slavic communism than in our socialism, we will not have the opportunity to prevent this, and there is no need for ourselves the task of doing this ... to perceive the struggle with Russian communism as the task of German diplomacy means to overestimate our own means, to use the means alien to us and try to influence the course of world events. When the Russians will enroll their fire, they are the first and the first from it. They will suffer, they will burn their fingers on this fire, ” the chancellor said to the biographers, dictating“ Kissinger memorial notes ”.

The scenario, according to which events began to develop after 1917, was the worst for the conservative-monarchist Bismarck, adds an employee of the fund, and he, of course, would consider such “false values” as a threat.

However, Russian propagandists attributed Otto von Bismarck and much more absurd quotes. In April 2015, the German Wave found out the origin of the words that the German Chancellor allegedly spoke of Ukraine:

Russia and Germany entered the war many years after the death of Bismarck (in the picture: the signing of the Brest-Lithuanian world, March 1918)

"For the huge body of the Russian Empire, only one operation is fatal - the amputation of Ukraine. It is necessary not only to tear, but also to contrast Ukraine with Russia, to suffer two parts of a single people and observe how the brother will kill his brother."

The fake of this quote was even easier. Firstly, politically the Iron Chancellor thought categories of large empires: Germany, France, Russia. The idea of their dismemberment, collapse, and pulled by some parts with others was absolutely alien to him. Secondly, this quote is anachronical: Bismarck simply did not know the word "Ukraine". It came to the European diplomatic vocabulary after his death.

We can say that in some ways the bismark was lucky. Since he lived in the 19th century (last year Germany celebrated his 200th anniversary), no one claims to eavesdrop on his thoughts. Some diplomats of later times were less fortunate. Here is one example: in June 2015, the secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev in an interview with Kommersant said: “You probably remember the statement of the US-US-Madel Olbrite ex-secretary , that Russia does not belong to either the Far East or Siberia.”

We heard almost from officials many times: it is unfair that Siberia with its immeasurable wealth all belongs to Russia

Then it quickly became clear that Olbright never said this, and General FSO, Boris Ratnikov, said this phrase for the first time. He explained that during the connection to the subconscious of the Secretary of State discovered the "pathological hatred of the Slavs" and the desire to assign Siberia. Despite the obvious fake, not only Patrushev referred to this phrase, but also Vladimir Putin.

“After all, we heard almost from officials repeatedly: it is unfair that Siberia with its immeasurable wealth belongs to Russia,” Putin said during a large press conference on December 18, 2014.

Bismarck (neither present nor fictional) president of Russia has not yet quoted.

The article was first published on the website of "Real Tea"