In many sources, this is a statement that they like to remember during the elections, attributed to the “Father of Peoples”. We checked whether he claimed something like that.

The phrase is known in various versions, and many of them are often given with the mention of the Soviet leader. So, in Report 2003 about parliamentary elections in Georgia, Journalists of “Channel One” invested in Stalin’s mouth the phrase “It doesn’t matter who votes, it is important, as the voices believe”. A similar wording Used Radio "Freedom". Actor Stanislav Sadalsky in his blog brought option, carried out in our title. Sometimes Used And the version of "The election is not the one who is more popular, but the one who considers voice."

There are two main theories regarding the moment when Stalin could pronounce a similar phrase. According to First, Joseph Vissarionovich spoke like this in 1934 at the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) "regarding the election procedure of the General Secretary, on which he won." Note, firstly, that at the 1934 congress, the election of the Secretary General of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was not held. Moreover, that year the mention of the position of general secretary in general It disappeared from the documents. Nevertheless, Stalin then retained full power, because remained one of the secretaries, and later one after another, its main competitors began to leave from the political arena (sometimes - fatal).

In the context of phrases, the elections of members of the Central Committee of the Party, who passed the day before the elections to the secretariat and are also successful for Stalin, are of great interest. The fact is that their results were later repeatedly subjected to doubt, however, convincing evidence of falsification was not found to this day. How there are no evidence in documents Or at least in the memoirs of eyewitnesses that the leader uttered the phrase of interest to us. This option generally appears in accessible Russian -speaking sources only in post -Soviet times.

Another dating is based on the memoirs of Boris Bazhanov, a defector who, in 1923-1927, worked as an assistant to Stalin and the secretary of the Politburo, and when he was in Paris, in 1930 he published a French -speaking book Avec Staline Dans Le Kremlin ("With Stalin in the Kremlin"). In one of the episodes of Bazhanov Curses The words of Stalin, allegedly said in December 1923 at a meeting of the leading three on the topic of providing the intra -party majority: “You know, comrades, what I think about this: I think that it does not matter who and how will vote in the party; But what is extremely important is who and how will count the voices. ”

Thus, in fact, the only lifetime source in which such a phrase is attributed to Stalin is the memoirs of his secretary who escaped abroad. Even in vast The digital archive of Stalin There is nothing similar. But in foreign sources there are more than one similar statement to the Stalin era. So, on newspaper caricature 1871, depicting William Tweed, one of the most unprincipled politicians in the history of the United States, under the electoral urn, you can read: “Strength is in calculations”, and below there is a signature “Quote”: “While I think the voices are going to do with this?”

Martin Skorsze made Twida the hero of the historical drama of the "gang of New York" (2002). In one of the episodes of the film, he speaks: “Remember the first rule of politics: the result is not ballots, those who consider them make the result.”

In 1877, the California newspaper The Daily Examiner attributed a similar phrase to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the United States Transerias Chardler: “Give me Returning Boards (the organization responsible for the calculation of the votes. - Ed.), And it will not be important for me who voted.” And in 1880 The New York Times Tied A statement with the French emperor Napoleon III, but did this in the form of a denial of authorship:

““ I don’t worry who cast his votes if I can calculate them, ”Napoleon once remarked (in fact). However, if he said this, he would frankly express the essence of the origins of imperialism and enrich the world supply of quotes. ”

In old franco -speaking sources, such a statement is not found, so that it can really be considered the fruit of the fantasy of the journalist. The reason to attribute these words to Napoleon III: in 1851 on his initiative Two referendum took placeDuring which only the forces were delivered to most of the sites, and the ballots “against” were required to be made by hand and give the head of the site, personally lowering them into the urn.

Similar quotes in the American press appeared later: in 1890th, 1899th And subsequent years, so the phrase more than a century ago was quite winged. And only on November 5, 1989 in the English newspaper The Observer for the first time attributed Stalin, and then with a reservation "as considered."

Thus, Joseph Stalin cannot be considered the author of the quote "it does not matter how voted, it is important, as calculated." Whether he said something like that, reliably is not known. However, various phrases appeared in the 19th century in the USA.