Leadership Quote by John Lewis Gaddis

“The Soviet regime robbed people not only of their ability to live freely but also of the ability to understand fully what had been…

— Masha Gessen

“* *Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for.*Don’t imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the…

— George Orwell

The Soviet assumption that all other political life-forms and beliefs were inherently and immutably hostile was the simple and central cause of that Cold…

— Robert Conquest

“The Soviet state was, in fact, almost perfectly designed to make people unhappy. It denied its citizens not just hope, but also trust. Every…

— Oliver Bullough

During the Cold War era, the issue was the containment of Soviet influence, and we tolerated many an authoritarian regime as long as they…

— Zalmay Khalilzad

We must not fall into the trap of projecting our own morality onto the Soviet leaders. They do not share our aspirations, they are…

— Margaret Thatcher

“Every time this happened, some arbitrarily chosen scapegoats were punished for overzealousness in carrying out the old policy. These were circumstances that encouraged fatalism…

— Sheila Fitzpatrick

“As in 1917, the drift towards authoritarian government under Putin was enabled by the weakness of the middle classes and public institutions in post-Soviet…

— Orlando Figes

Strengthen an adversary led by a dictator who dreams of reassembling the old Soviet empire? What an extraordinarily dangerous lack of judgment.

— Chris Christie

Though Stalinism may have been a needless tragedy for both the Russian people and communism as an ideal, there is the intellectually tantalizing possibility…

— Zbigniew Brzezinski

“While freely conceding that the Soviet regime exhibits certain features which the humanitarian may be inclined to deplore, we must, I think, agree that…

— George Orwell

“Each of the two Western leaders came to believe that they could form a 'special' bond with Stalin. Both were wrong. Stalin had no…

— Laurence Rees