Useful idiot
The term useful idiot describes the use of public persons for propaganda purposes without their realizing it.
Concept history
The term is often attributed to Lenin . However, this relationship has not been proven. The first known use of the term comes from the Soviet literary critic Vasily Basanov in 1941. He used it to describe the perspective of the writer Nikolai Leskov on the role of the nihilists in the January uprising . According to this, the nihilists were "only useful idiots" for the rebellious Poles . It was later assumed that Lenin was describing Western intellectuals who, in their idealism , let themselves be captured by the Soviet Union for their propaganda. However, this could not be proven by literature. Other sources name Karl Radek as the author .
The term has spread worldwide since the Second World War . In many cases it describes the means of Soviet or Russian foreign policy even today. In a two-part radio documentary by the BBC from 2010, the journalist John Sweeney describes the authors HG Wells , Doris Lessing , George Bernard Shaw and Walter Duranty as well as the singer Paul Robeson as useful idiots .
There are also examples from other authoritarian regimes such as North Korea and Libya (under Muammar al-Gaddafi ).
Current use
In connection with the Crimean crisis and the war in Ukraine, there are numerous examples of the use of the term in leading international media . He mostly describes the emphatically cordial contact between the Russian government under Vladimir Putin and various international personalities, including Gérard Depardieu , Sepp Blatter , Alexis Tsipras , Marine Le Pen , David Duchovny , Mickey Rourke and Donald Trump .
In Germany the term u. a. also used on Gerhard Schröder , Wilfried Scharnagl , Gabriele Krone-Schmalz , Udo Voigt , Matthias Platzeck , Philipp Missfelder , Carlo Masala and Alexander Rahr . The accusation is mostly that they seek proximity to Moscow because of particular individual interests and in return are appropriated by the Kremlin for domestic and foreign policy purposes, the interrelationships of which they do not fully understand.
US President Trump
After Donald Trump was elected US President , former CIA chief Michael Hayden referred to him as "Putin's Useful Idiot". The same term was used by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright , the Washington Post and, later in the first term, Die Welt
Individual evidence
- ^ William Safire: On language New York Times, April 12, 1987
- ↑ Politika No. 1, 1990. Publishing house of the Central Committee of the CP Estonia . P. 105.
- ↑ Ходорковский просит Лондон не идти на сделки с Кремлем BBC, September 20, 2010
- ^ Rudolf Walter Leonhardt: Artists and Scholars as Useful Idiots Die Zeit, 38/1967
- ↑ John Sweeney: Useful Idiots BBC1, Aug. 8, 2010
- ↑ Jeff Jacoby: Useful idiots, then and now Boston Globe, March 13, 2013
- ↑ Michael V. Hayden: Former CIA chief: Trump is Russia's useful fool. In: The Washington Post . 3rd November 2016.
- ↑ Schulz after Talkshow-Zoff: "Krone-Schmalz is a 'useful idiot' for Putin" , Focus Online, February 25, 2015
- ^ Friedrich Schmidt: Russia's compliant friends , FAZ., July 31, 2015
- ↑ Thomas Mayer: Russia and the right-wing parties: Putin's useful idiots , Der Standard, November 27, 2014
- ^ Andreas Rüesch: Putin's useful idiot , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, April 9, 2015
- ↑ Edward Lucas: Putin's useful idiots: Eminent Russia expert says liberals who support Edward Snowden have given succor to the Kremlin as it seeks to crush Ukrainian protesters , Daily Mail, February 22, 2014
- ↑ Nathalie Vogel: In This Info-War. The Problem Is Not Only Russia , The Interpreter , December 11, 2014
- ^ Former CIA chief calls Trump 'Moscow's useful idiot' www.pri.org, December 16, 2016.
- ↑ Brent Griffiths: Albright: Trump fits the mold of Russia's 'useful idiot' politico.com, October 24, 2016.
- ↑ Jennifer Rubin: Putin has found his perfect 'useful idiots' Washington Post, May 17, 2017.
- ↑ Alan Posener: Why does Trump speak of 50 million Russian victims of Nazi Germany? welt.de, April 3, 2020.