Norman Davies Quotes

I didn't believe that the Soviet Union would ever break down.

The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.

Twenty years ago, I said there was going to be something that would stop the Soviet Union from taking over the world. And now we see that the Soviet Union has been stopped, through its own disintegration.

When the USSR collapsed, I was 11, and unlike many people, I don't miss it.

Nobody thought the Soviet Union would collapse; it was a shock for everyone.

I see the collapse of the Soviet Union as a great tragedy of the XX century.

The democratic choice Russian people made in the early 90's is final.

I see that not everyone in the West has understood that the Soviet Union has disappeared from the political map of the world and that a new country has emerged with new humanist and ideological principles at the foundation of its existence.

I distinctly remember the vivacious optimism that inundated the United States when the Soviet Union imploded in the early 1990s. This was not glee generated by the doom of an implacable enemy, but thrill germinated by the real possibilities that the future held for freedom.

Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Soviet Communist Party collapse? An important reason was that their ideals and beliefs had been shaken.

Of course, I know everything that happens in Russia. But even at the most dangerous moment or the most negative moment now, it's still 10 times better than what it was in the communist state.

I started like many young Russian people in the beginning of perestroika when it seemed that everything was possible.

There used to be this country called the Soviet Union; it's not there anymore. Our technology was better than theirs.

I paid too heavy a price for perestroika.

We were appreciating as early as 1978 that the Soviet economy was in serious trouble. We didn’t make the leap that we should have made – I could have made, that the economic trouble would lead to political trouble. We thought that they would tighten their belt under a Stalin-like regime and continue marching on.

Building up the arms did not cause the fall of Eastern Europe.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the Jimmy Carter of the Communist bloc. The Russians hate him.

Gorbachev's legacy is that he called time on communism, partially against his will, but in fact, he finished it off. Without violence. Without bloodshed. Beyond that, I am struggling to think of much else in terms of real legacy.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, people thought I wasn't funny anymore.

What did in the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union.

Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Wojtyla was a warrior, who did more to end the Soviet Union than even America.

If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life.

Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.

Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way.