Narrator: Yuri Bezmenov was a Soviet informant and KGB operative who defected to the United States in the early 1970s. In this 1984 interview with journalist G. Edward Griffin, titled “Deception Was My Job,” he explains how the Soviet Union used psychological warfare and ideological subversion to weaken other nations from within.
Yuri Bezmenov: My father was an officer of the General Staff of the Soviet Army. He inspected Soviet land forces in countries like Mongolia, Cuba, and Eastern Europe. I studied at the Institute of Oriental Languages at Moscow State University. Like every Soviet student, I had to volunteer for work, such as harvesting grain in Kazakhstan. By the end of my studies, I was recruited by the KGB.
One of my early assignments was to keep foreign guests constantly intoxicated when they arrived in Moscow. I worked as a press officer for Novosti, a KGB front organization posing as a press agency. About 75% of its staff were KGB officers. Our task was to manipulate visiting journalists and intellectuals into carrying Soviet propaganda back home.
Griffin: What was life like under communism compared to the West?
Bezmenov: Life was completely different. In the Soviet Union, an individual’s life had no value. It was a state-capitalist system where people were disposable. Even the worst criminal in America has more rights than an ordinary Soviet citizen. I was privileged because of my family background, but I defected out of moral indignation — I could no longer tolerate the oppression of intellectuals and dissidents, nor the hypocrisy of spreading “friendship and progress” abroad while enslaving others.
Griffin: How did you manage to defect?
Bezmenov: Defecting in India, where I was stationed, was nearly impossible. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had outlawed political asylum for Soviet defectors. I disguised myself as an American hippie — wearing jeans, beads, and a wig — and joined a group of travelers to avoid detection. I eventually escaped through Bombay, flew to Greece, and was debriefed by the CIA before settling in Canada.
Bezmenov: During my years at Novosti, I organized tours for foreign journalists and intellectuals. They believed they were visiting ordinary Soviet sites — kindergartens, factories, universities — but everything was staged. We showed them model institutions, not the grim reality. Their reports back home were full of praise for Soviet progress. Most of them were too afraid or too self-interested to question what they saw.
One of my tasks was to ensure that these guests stayed drunk and compliant. The KGB knew that a journalist softened by vodka and flattery would willingly sign statements crafted for propaganda. Many believed they were writing their own observations — they were not. We prepared “backgrounders” that outlined exactly what they should think and report.
Bezmenov: Western media, academics, and corporations often served Soviet interests unknowingly. They sold technology, grain, and political recognition to a system that sought their destruction. The most dangerous part of the Soviet power structure wasn’t the military, but the party bureaucrats and KGB elites — adventurists and megalomaniacs driven by ideology, not reality.
Griffin: What do you mean by “ideological subversion”?
Bezmenov: It’s the process of changing how people perceive reality — so much that, despite having access to information, they can no longer distinguish truth from falsehood. It’s not espionage; it’s psychological warfare. The KGB spent only 15% of its resources on spying — the rest went to ideological subversion.
The process has four stages:
This stage targets one generation of students. Marxist-Leninist ideology is pumped into their minds without challenge. By the 1980s, America already had an entire class of people — in media, education, and government — who thought like Soviet ideologues. Once demoralized, these people cannot be changed, even when confronted with facts. They reject evidence and cling to their programmed beliefs.
Once a nation is demoralized, attention turns to weakening its economy, foreign relations, and defense. This can happen quickly — within five years — by promoting social conflict and undermining trust in institutions.
A manufactured crisis — political, social, or economic — leads to chaos. People demand order and security. A new power structure then emerges, promising solutions.
After the crisis, a “normal” state is declared, even though it is really an authoritarian regime. Bezmenov cited the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 as an example — Brezhnev called it “normalization.”
Bezmenov: America is already demoralized. Even if you start educating a new generation now, it will take 15–20 years to restore patriotic values. Most people who promote socialist ideals today would be the first to be eliminated under such a regime. When the new order arrives, they’ll be lined up and shot — like in Nicaragua, Grenada, and Afghanistan. The “useful idiots” are always the first victims of their own revolution.
The United States is in an undeclared war — a war of ideas and subversion. The enemy is not a specific leader but the global system of Marxist ideology. Americans must re-learn real patriotism, stop aiding totalitarian regimes, and defend moral and spiritual values. Otherwise, there will be no place left to defect to.