Vyacheslav Molotov
Overview
 
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet
Soviet people
Soviet people or Soviet nation was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Initially used as a nonspecific reference to the Soviet population, it was eventually declared to be a "new historical, social and international unity of people".-Nationality politics in early Soviet...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and diplomat
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

, an Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik
Old Bolshevik , also Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for those who were members of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917, many of whom were either tried and executed by the NKVD during Stalin era purges or died under suspicious...

 and a leading figure in the Soviet government
Government of the Soviet Union
The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was the de jure government comprising the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union from 1946 until 1991....

 from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

. He served as Chairman
Premier of the Soviet Union
The office of Premier of the Soviet Union was synonymous with head of government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . Twelve individuals have been premier...

 of the Council of People's Commissars from 1930 to 1941, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1939 to 1949 and from 1953 to 1956.
Quotations

Someone helped us a lot with the atomic bomb. The intelligence (service) played a huge role. These Rosenbergs suffered in America. It is not excluded that they helped us. But we shouldn't really speak about it, because we might receive this kind of help in the future.

About Julius and Ethel Rosenberg being undercover Soviet agents. Quoted in "The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story" - Page 306 - by Robert J. Lamphere, Tom Shachtman - History - 1995

One blow from the German army and another from the Soviet army put an end to this ugly product of Versailles.

Quoted in "Legitimacy and Force" - Page 49 - by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick - United States - 1988

We cannot lose Poland. If this line is crossed, they will grab us, too.

December 4, 1981. Quoted in "Surviving the Millennium" - Page 236 - by Hall Gardner - Political Science - 1994

As long as we live in a system of states, and as long as the roots of fascism and imperialist aggression have not finally been extirpated, our vigilance in regard to possible new violators of peace should not slacken, and concern for the strengthening of cooperation between the peace-loving powers will continue to be our most important duty.

Quoted in "Strategy and Tactics of Soviet Foreign Policy" - Page 4 - by John Malcolm Mackintosh - Soviet Union - 1963

The old world must make way for the new.

January 10, 1930. Quoted in "Soviet Union, 1936" - Page 107 - by Joseph Stalin, A. Fineberg - Soviet Union - 1936

Only a fool would attack us.

June 1941. Quoted in "Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives" - Page 715 - by Alan Bullock - 1993

 
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