Down with Big Brother Quotes

“Communism was not defeated by any one individual or even a combination of individuals. In the last resort communism defeated itself.”
― Michael Dobbs, Maha suur vend

“The antinuclear sentiments of both leaders were soon strengthened by a man-made nuclear catastrophe that seemed to fit right in with the biblical prophecy of Armageddon that had impressed Reagan so much: 'A great star fell from the sky, flaming like a torch; and it fell on a third of the rivers and springs. The name of the star was Wormwood; and a third of the water turned to wormwood, and men in great numbers died of the water because it was poisoned' [Revelation 8:10]. The Ukrainian word for 'wormwood' is Chernobyl.”
― Michael Dobbs, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

“By the time Gorbachev came to power, alcoholism had reached epidemic proportions. Official studies showed that 70 percent of all crimes were related to alcohol. Drink was blamed for widespread absenteeism at work, a sharp increase in the divorce rate, and a dramatic drop in male life expectancy.”
― Michael Dobbs, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

“A lower-ranking official was served tea on a plain tray. Once he reached the rank of chief of sector, the tray suddenly sprouted a napkin. In apparatchik-speak, the promotion was referred to as 'receiving the napkin.”
― Michael Dobbs, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

“Borowczyk headed for his department, K-5, on the other side of a canal that runs through the middle of the shipyard. Rusting away in a corner of the department were piles of imported steel-welding equipment, costing millions of dollars, which nobody had learned how to put to use properly.”
― Michael Dobbs, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire