The surname of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs at three regimes has long become a common manner for a unprincipled person. We checked whether the diplomat spoke one of the most often attributed phrases.

The bishop, excommunicated from the church for participating in revolutionary activity, a person who contributed to Napoleon’s coming to power, an American speculator, an accomplice of the restoration of Bourbons, a collector of bribes from the governments of various countries of the world-all this is Charles Maurice de Taleyran-Perigor. The fact that it is he - the author of the winged phrase about betrayal, say sources such as "RIA Novosti" "Arguments and Facts", historian Natalia Basovskaya, Encyclopedia of the magazine "Around the world", magazine "Historian", Books Viktor Eremin "100 great intrigues" And Inna Soboleva “Defeat Napoleon. Patriotic War of 1812 "as well as various Collections of sayings. In some cases The quote is submitted in an expanded form: “betrayal is a matter of date. To betray in time to foresee it. ”

However, if you try to find the main quote in Russian -speaking literature earlier than 1982, then nothing will work out. In the indicated year, Neva appeared in the journal notededicated to Valentin Iosifovich Gaft, where, in particular, the character of Sidorin is the brilliantly played in the film “Garage” (1979). It was thanks to this picture and her scriptwriters Ryazanov and Braginsky that the phrase seemed to go to the people:

And what about Talleyrand? No variation of the translation of the phrase about foresight into French or English, apparently, is not known abroad. One of the few French -speaking links leads us to interviewwhich the Le Monde newspaper gave ... Ukrainian politician Yuri Lutsenko. So the Soviet comedy should be considered not just the cause of the popularity of the phrase in the post -Soviet space, but its original source.

Our quote has a completely different fate of the prologue: “betrayal is a matter of date.” German historian Peter Berglar in his book Metterns. Kucher Europe - the doctor of the revolution ”(1973) attributes her taline, but in row publications Its author is named by another Frenchman - Cardinal Richelieo. But all examples of the second attribution is moderately modern, and this suggests that the source of error relative to Richelle was the attribution of these words to him in the 1990 blockbuster "Strong nut - 2". But regarding the authorship of Talleyrand, the source is much more reliable. IN memoirs The diplomat himself says that at the Vienna Congress, the Russian emperor called Saxony “those who betrayed the European case” (hinting at the alliance with Napoleon), and Talleyrand sarcastically objected to him: “This is only a matter of time.” The Frenchman had in mind that at one time Russia was in such an alliance with Napoleon.

But this is a completely different story. But the source of the phrase “betraying in time is to foresee”, in all likelihood, is Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Garage”. At least Talleyrand himself did not write such things.