Yuri Bezmenov is regarded as one of the most famous intelligence agents of the Soviet Union who eventually defected to the West.
He was born in Moscow where he studied the Eastern languages and then worked as a translator for a Soviet economical aid group in India. When he discovered the group had been exploiting the resources of India in favor of the Soviet Union, he quit his work in India and returned to Moscow where he worked at RIA Novosti as a detective and a propagator of false news. He was returned to India but he resented his country’s stances there and then defected to the West, eventually dying in 1993 in the United States of America.Among his important works is a small book titled “Love Letter to America”. In that book, Bezmenov described the method practiced by the Soviet Union and currently by many other countries for producing ideological devastation. According to him, if this method is followed, a country does not need its army forces for controlling another country.The first step as per this method involves removal of a country’s spiritual power. This mission requires 20 years for completion and results in a new generation that is wired with imported devastating ideology. That imported ideology will bring an end to the national one by focusing on the bases of the ideology in a society, represented by religion, education, information and culture. New religious leaders have to be assigned and the old ones should be encouraged to practice politics.The book said encouraging religious societies and organizations to collect donations produces two results. The first one is assigning the leadership to those who are the best in the field of marketing but not necessarily the most religious. Secondly, the donator should feel he has fulfilled his duty and is then free to do what he likes. Such a situation is very common in our societies.It is also important to make religious men appear on TV and use propaganda celebrities for promoting the ideas. This is the way religious ideas leave the serious circle and shift towards mockery.Then the second phase begins, represented by deterioration of education and spread of ignorance in the targeted country.The third phase involves monopolization of the information and media sectors in order to present single viewpoint to the public, defame patriotic figures and divert attention to trivial issues.The last phase targets culture, attracting young unknown writers in that country to support ideas that are not in line with the interests of the country. When they become older, their ideas will spread among the new generations, leading many of them to adopt them.This phase also includes deterioration of state authorities such as judiciary, police and army, weakening of family ties and provocation of minors. Such a strategy also involves increased number of urban areas at the expense of productive countryside. The labor unions are also targeted for destruction.After completing the step of removing spiritual power, it is then time to destabilize the targeted country by choosing easy solutions that usually bring about increased number of crises. The sleeping cells are also awakened at this time.Through this manner, the targeted country does not need foreign armies to attack it. It has already become submissive. Any changes can then be easily applied including nationalization of individuals’ properties and redistribution of wealth. The media will justify every action, molding citizens into being ready for accepting the new conditions.No doubt, most of the viewpoints of that expert are right; many of our countries did witness similar conditions. However, why didn’t such attempts succeed in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Turkey (before the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood Group)? The answer is that our countries have the seeds of corruption and an intuitive readiness to coexist with corruption more than other countries.email: [email protected]By Ahmed Al-Sarraf