Did Stalin say: “There would be a person, but there is an article”?

This famous phrase, allegedly said by the Soviet leader, is recalled both in the context of the Stalinist repressions and in relation to modern trials. We checked whether this quote belongs to Stalin.

These words can often be found in Media, social networks, Blogs, journalism and literary works. Sometimes the authors use this phrase without specifying the source, but more often attribute it to the former Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU Joseph Stalin. Majority collections quotes and "Wikisite" Stalin also indicate the author of this phrase. Once Estonian politician Siret Kotka "Quoted" Stalin, commenting on the search of the headquarters of one of the political parties in Estonia, held by the prosecutor's office under a fictional pretext. Former head of the Latvian State Energy Company Latvenergo, Carlis Mikelons, too I remembered Stalin's words in connection with his arrest. Journalist Ksenia Sobchak answered With this well -known phrase on the news about checking it for foreign financing.

Despite the fact that many sources call Stalin the author of the quote, not one of the mention is specified when, to whom and under what circumstances, Stalin allegedly said such a phrase. It can be assumed that if these words belong to Stalin, most likely, he would have pronounced them in a personal conversation: it is unlikely that such a contradictory phrase could appear in the official performances or texts of Stalin. Indeed, it was not possible to find it in transcripts speeches, not in full collection his works. There are no documentary evidence of Stalin's authorship in open sources. There is no this phrase in accessible memories contemporaries.

Where did this common phrase come from? In terms of meaning, the statement resembles the old Russian proverbs “there would be a back, there is wine” or “there would be a back, but there is a whip”, described Back in the XIX century in Dahl's dictionary. Nevertheless, the phrase that arose much later “would be a person, and there is an article” on the Internet quit about 13 times more often than these proverbs.

The phrase variant is often found in English -language option: "Show me the man, and i'll find you the crime." English sources almost unanimously attributed This quote to the head of the Soviet special services to Lavrenty Beria. “Lavrenty Beria, the most ruthless and the longest that served the head of the secret police during the Stalinist terror in Russia and Eastern Europe, boasted that he could prove the crime of any, even innocent. "What is a person, and I will give you a crime" - that was the notorious boast of Beria, " - Writes The publication The Oxford Eagle. “Beria first aimed at a person, and then proceeded to the search or fabrication of a crime. His operandi modus consisted in first to pronounce a person to a person, and later fill out the gaps in the case. ” Some English -speaking sources They sayThat Beria personally said this phrase to Stalin. But in Runet, Beria as a possible author of the quote is practically not mentioned.

Another candidate for authorship is the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov. IN Records Molotov’s conversations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Juozas Urbshis on June 14, 1940 there are such lines: “Urbshis says that he does not see an article, on the basis of which he could be put on court of the Minister of Internal Affairs and the head of the political police Poslavlaitis. He asks how to be? Comrade Molotov says that first of all it is necessary to arrest them and put them on trial, and there are articles. And Soviet lawyers can help in this by studying the Lithuanian Code. ” It is not known whether this idea of ​​know-how to Molotov was or he only formulated a method of combating people that was already used in the USSR.

According to the daughter of the Soviet test pilot Valery Chkalov, the famous phrase said two years earlier the prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky, who, along with Beria and Molotov, is called the key figure in organizing mass repressions in the USSR. In 2008, in an interview with Gordon Boulevard, daughter Valery told: “In March of the 38th father, they invited to trial at Bukharin and Rykov. It is clear what impression this frank farce could make on him. During the break, his father went to Vyshinsky and directly stated: he does not believe that Lenin's associates suddenly became enemies of the people. Vyshinsky grinned condescendingly in his face and completely calmly answered: "What is you a person, Valery Pavlovich. But is it the matter? There would be a person, but there would be an article!" "

There are other versions of the origin of the phrase. Some sources believe that the quote does not belong to either Beria, nor Vyshinsky, nor Molotov. TASS reference service claimsthat it was "the nameless Chekist folklore of the last century." The Soviet writer and human rights activist Vladimir Bukovsky recalls that he heard this phrase from the KGB officers. In his book of memoirs "And the wind comes back ..." Bukovsky tells About the years spent in Soviet specialists, prisons and camps: “It was as if it were not obvious that laws exist only on paper, for propaganda and everywhere turn against you. Didn’t they say to us in the KGB quite frankly: "There would be a person, but there is an article." Some Bloggers And Media They say that the famous quote was born as "a bitter joke among prisoners of that time."

Thus, we could not unequivocally determine the authorship of the quote. Usually, so many possible “candidates” indicates the absence of one particular author. Perhaps this phrase really crystallized from sayings of that time. And only then authorship was attributed to Stalin, since it was he who was the face of a large terror, often organized on the principle of "there would be a person, but an article is found."

Image on the cover: Information card for Joseph Stalin from the Archive of the Tsarist Secret Police in St. Petersburg. 1911. Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Is it true that Stalin is the author of the phrase “It doesn’t matter how they voted, important, as calculated”?
2. Did Stalin say: “There is no person - there is no problem”?
3. Did Stalin argue: “We have no irreplaceable”?
4. Did Stalin say: “The death of one person is a tragedy, the death of millions is statistics”?
5. "Amateur". Beria: executioner, rapist and initiator "Thaw"
6. "Amateur". Prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky
7. Meduza. Why did Stalin need a large terror and is he a good commander in chief?