Anatoly Rybakov Quotes

There must be those who differ. If there were no unorthodox thought there would be no thought at all

Death solves all problems — no man, no problem.

You could kill a man, but you could never break him.

The smart tyrant flatters the people with words,while with deeds he destroys them.

One thing is sure:the idea that each nation is racially pure is a myth, especially a nation with a history of four thousand years.

Falsehood had become the morality of the society.People lied at every turn.

Death solves all problems — no man, no problem. Anatoly Rybakov NOT Josef Stalin

She didn't have the strength to fight hunger and injustice,she didn't know how to fight hunger and injustice,she didn't know how to fight, but she refused to enjoy a feast during this plague.

Sometimes the bigger the apartment, the harder it is to find room to put up an extra person for the night.

Art that puts itself in dependence on orthodoxy,even under the most progressive doctrine,is doomed to failure.

Someone said that revolutions are begun by idealists and ended by the scoundrels who destroy the idealists.

Friends and acquaintances in this day and age don't write at all, or if they do it's only to let you know they're still alive,which explains the craze for greeting cards of all kinds!

I think a man can either believe in God or not believe, he can get faith and he can lose it but there is only one God for the true believer, and that is the one he carries in his heart.

There was something religious in grandmother's face, not in any sanctimoniously devout or ecstatic sense,but a look full of religious feeling, serenity and resignation.

Byelorussian songs, if you've ever heard them are slightly monotonous, even mournful yet they do have a certain melancholy charm and compassion about them.

A great poet can have the role of spiritual head of a nation.A great ruler is the spiritual head of a nation, and next to him there can be no other spiritual head.

Throughout history people blamed their sufferings on everyone and anyone except God.You don't criticize God,you thank Him.

We wanted to serve the socialist fatherland,but it turned out we weren't needed.

Anatoly Rybakov’s forbidden Children of the Arbat*6 and other good books; finally, we’d all become democrats. How

Everyone was driven to write.It was Gorky's fault--he had announced that "literature should be written by working people",and showed with his own example that an ordinary tramp could become a writer.

There was snow on the veranda, and on his orders the snow had not been removed. If there were no tracks in the snow, it meant that no one had approached. And as usual, the sight of the untouched snow soothed him

Those are gladioli,Josef Vissarionovich.The lower buds open before the tops.But it's better when they blossom at the same time.So the lower ones are wrapped in black paper,to keep them from blooming until the top ones do.

They are all blinded and stunned by him,he's a God for them -- greater than a God,because people who believe in God have a concept of good and evil,charity,redemption,compassion but they don't.They have only Stalin. He's their god and their conscience.

My descendants will manage without my portrait' she smiled. Anyway they'll have plenty of photographs of me. To this our famous conductor replied that a photograph only gives the outward appearance of the person,whereas a painting reveals the inner world.

...They came to see me too,Varya said.It was a joke.They asked if I believed in God...Yes Mikhail Yırevich repeated,that question shouldn't be in there.The first census after the revolution was in 1920 and when Lenin saw the question on faith,he had them take it out.He understood the inequity of the question.

The golden stock of the Russian Revolution.' Where is this golden stock today? These people have come to replace them. From the top to the bottom.They are offering up Russia,they driving people to their deaths.Sasha remembered:Panait Istrati had called those who had opposed and fought against Stalin in the 1920s and who were annihilated by him in the 1930s 'the golden stock of the Russian Revolution

...Alexei Tolstoy,Leonov, and Zoshenko had demanded that Tukhachevsky be shot. Pasternak ought to be added to them.Yes,even Pasternak couldn't stand the pressure.Vadim trembled with joy when he saw his name among the rest.."Tell me dear what millennium is it outside? This one!Everyone signed--Vsevolod Vishnevsky,Vasily Grossman,Tynyanov,Paustovsky,Konstantin Simonov,Antokolsky,Fedin,Sholokhov,Fadeyev,Tikhonov,all of them...Is that considered the normal order of things?

...For all the profound human modesty of Comrade Stalin,he will have to tolerate our outpourings of love and loyalty to him[applause],because not only we,who live and work under his direction,but all the working people in our land,tie their hopes for a radiant future for mankind to his name.[Applause] 'Listen,why should I read this? Let's go' Gleb repeated. All right.All right. But what do you think? -He's flunky! -But he wrote The Quiet Don,a great novel. In the twenties there was doubt about his authorship.They even had a special commission to investigate. I heard something about that. Akimov told me.The read author was some White officer.But no one would acknowledge that...If The Quiet Don is a work of genius,the author cannot be flunky.As your beloved Pushkin said,dearie,genius and evil are incompatible. Not every genius can overcome fear.And Sholokhov is no genius.

And Eisenstein was doing it,too!As a young boy Sasha had seen his Battleship Potemkin in the Khudoshestvennyi Theater on the Arbat Sqaure.The cashiers,ticket-takers,cloak room attendants, all were dressed in sailors' uniforms;it looked just grand,it set the mood.The world had acknowledged BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN as the best film and Eisenstein as the greatest director.Now the 'greatest' was loyally serving the tyrant and executioner.Here was an example for his argument with Gleb about genius and villainy. Gleb also read the paper and gave Sasha a meaningful glance. 'Well then one more sycophant.

убийцами и их вдохновителями. Что-то знает? О чем-то догадывается? Осиное гнездо! Какую пользу приносят? Почему отделяются от партии? Хотят создать особое положение для так называемых старых большевиков, хотят представить себя единственными представителями большевистских традиций, блюстителями ленинского наследия, хотят стать высшим партийным судом, «совестью» партии. Охранителями ее единства. От кого охраняют? Они не партию, они себя охраняют — бывшие троцкисты, зиновьевцы, бухаринцы, уклонисты и оппозиционеры всех мастей, убеждены, что их сила в сплоченности, единстве, монолитности, круговой поруке. Ошибаются. Связи, которые они называют деловыми, рабочими, партийными, дружескими, окажутся связями преступными — достаточно показаний одного, чтобы заподозрить многих, достаточно показаний многих, чтобы виновными стали все. Теперь помалкивают. Молчание — тоже форма протеста. Что издают в своем издательстве? Что они там пишут? Создают свою историю. Не историю, нужную партии, а историю, нужную им самим, в которой прежде всего нет места товарищу Сталину. Это, видите ли, личные воспоминания, мемуары. Человек знает только то, в чем он сам участвовал, знает только частное, а не общее, это заставляет его фантазировать, а следовательно, искажать события. Это вредно для освещения истории партии. Чем же еще занимаются эти так называемые старые большевики? Ссорятся, меряются своими заслугами, обвиняют друг друга в сотрудничестве с царской охранкой и тем только компрометируют звание старого большевика. Приходится разбирать их склоки, их ссоры — КПК только этим и занимается. Разве у товарища Емельяна Ярославского нет другой работы, как разбирать их склоки? Кстати, товарищ Емельян Ярославский — председатель этого общества. Конечно, почетно быть председателем общества старых большевиков, но товарищу Емельяну Ярославскому следовало бы подумать, кому это общество нужно. Кому и чему оно служит? Между прочим, дорогой товарищ Емельян — еще и староста общества бывших политкаторжан и ссыльнопоселенцев. Конечно, это тоже почетно, тем более Емельян Ярославский родился в Чите, в семье ссыльнопоселенцев. Но опять же товарищу Емельяну следовало бы подумать, кому это общество нужно. Тоже богадельня, но уже для меньшевиков, эсеров, анархистов и просто бывших уголовников, выдающих себя за политических

Аплодировали Сталин, Молотов, Каганович, Ворошилов, Орджоникидзе, Чубарь, Микоян, Ежов, Межлаук. Это продолжалось бесконечно долго. Люди не могли сдвинуться с места, не могли уйти, не могли расстаться со Сталиным, ведь это был их день, может быть, единственный в жизни