this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Late Stage Capitalism
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Is it confirmed that he actually said that?
It's according to Molotov's recollection. From Сто сорок бесед с Молотовым by Felix Chuev:
Just to get it right. Felix Chuev said that Molotov said that he remembers Stalin said that?
Is that enough to say with confidence that Stalin actually said it? (serious question, don't mean to suggest Stalin did not say it; I hope so much that he said it, that I want to be as sure as possible 🙈)
Yep. Chuev conducted a series of lengthy interviews with Molotov over the period of 1969 - 1986 and he kept extensive notes about what Molotov attested to.
While I can't seem to find an English language translation of 140 Conversations with Molotov, his other work, Molotov Remembers, is frequently cited as a primary source by historians.
Given that it's testimony from something which was said many years prior to the interview I'd hazard a guess that Molotov was paraphrasing because the chances of it being an exact quote are vanishingly slim but such is the nature of historical work; often the eyewitness testimony is going to be somewhat hazy, especially long after the fact.
I personally would feel comfortable in saying that Stalin had actually said something to this effect, if not exactly word for word, to Molotov.