According to a number of sources, the British prime minister at one time earned a winged phrase about the strength of Russia. We checked whether its author is really - Sir Winston Churchill.

One of the common options for the attached torsion phrases looks like this: “Russia never is as strong as it looks; Russia is never as weak as it seems. ” In this form it was mentioned by the resource NacheDeeu, writer Mikhail Gigolashvili in his collection "Secret Writing"as well as the head of the Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence and Global issues Joshua Khuminski.

A number of Western media (including authoritative The Wall Street Journal And United Press International) claim that in May 2002, Russian President Vladimir Putin attributed Churchill a slightly different version of the phrase: "Russia was never as strong as it wanted, and never as weak as it seemed." Historics writers Vladimir Bryukhanov And Oleg Fatkovas well as resource "Pravda.ru" A similar option is given, ending on "what enemies considered it."

To begin with, we will clarify the situation with the speech of the Russian president. Resource Putin-news.ru With reference to the journalist The New York Times, Andrew Higgins, claims that the case was in the Reichstag in 2002. However, c original Higgins' articles Putin’s speech in the Reichstag and Churchill quote are mentioned in different paragraphs and are not directly binded. In addition, a memorable German -speaking performance Putin in the Bundestag took place in 2001, and not in 2002. And in it, the President of the Russian Federation did not talk about Churchill or the notorious quote.

However, on May 28, 2002, Putin spoke at a joint press conference on the occasion of the institution of the Russia-NATO Council, where declared: “I held a series of consultations with my colleagues not only in the government, but also in the regions of the country, held consultations with the leaders of almost all political forces in the Russian parliament. During these consultations, one of my colleagues recalled the expression of Winston Churchill, who said approximately the following: "Russia was never as strong as it wanted, but was never weak as some think."

That is, indeed, even the Russian president attributed this quote to Winston Churchill. However, find it in open sources associated with the name of the British Prime Minister (in archives, letters, authoritative collections of quotes), fails. The British is engaged in heritage International Society of Churchillwho also does not report such a statement. Moreover, one Russian Internet user even Indicates The specific year of pronouncing the phrase (1939), together with another famous quote, in which the Briton calls Russia "a mystery, interfered with a secret and placed inside the puzzle." The last quote at that time the first Lord of the Admiralty really Said On October 1, 1939 on the BBC radio, but did not speak out on the topic of strength of Russia.

If you delve into foreign sources of the 20th century, it turns out that the 1981 American edition is edited by the founder of the Academic Slavic Studies in the United States Archibald Carey Kulidge attributed The quote that interests us is an unnamed European policy of the period between the two world wars, but the Canadian magazine of 1983 release - to some French diplomat XIX century. The diplomat seems to have a specific name - on the page British Institute of Economic Energy The author of the quote is Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. In many others sources The statement is simply called "the old saying of the diplomats." But the authoritative encyclopedia of the British in the article "Russia" claims that the organizer of the Vienna Congress, a long -term Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Chancellor of the Austrian Empire, Clemens von Metternsh, claims the phrase.

And although neither Metternich nor Talleyrand could find similar quotes, even less chance of finding it from Churchill, whose heritage was well studied until the shortest and smallest statements.