The Ash Files

Yuri Alexandrovic Bezmenov was born at the peak of Joseph Stalin’s merciless regime on a frigid night in 1939. From a young age, his high-ranking Army officer father exposed him to communistic philosophies. After earning a degree from an elite high school, he enrolled at the University of Moscow where he studied history and language. Part of his education involved compulsory military training. During this formative period, the young man was taught strategic war games and interrogation tactics. Upon graduating he began working as an informant for the notorious KGB. Each day he grew increasingly disgusted with the brutal Soviet system. Desperate to escape, the weary columnist risked his life and fled to India in 1970 disguised as an enlightenment-seeking hippie.

By the 1980s the tenacious defector reached America. Once there, he immediately recognized striking similarities between the United States and Russia. Disturbingly, the rampant perceptual programming appeared to be straight from a USSR playbook. Studies conducted by Soviet psychologists had proven the population’s cognitive malleability. They discovered intense bombardments of fear will permanently brainwash citizens. Once this initial stage is completed, no amount of information will undo the previous ideological subversion. Hoping to prevent certain corruption from seeping into the western culture, he decided to issue a public warning before it was too late. Bezmenov dedicated his life to exposing insider intel about mind control techniques. Here are the indoctrination methods he revealed in 1984: 

Stage One: Demoralization

It usually takes 15-20 years to demoralize a nation— this is the minimum amount of time it takes to indoctrinate a generation of students to enemy propaganda. Marxist-Leninist views are driven into the developing brains of impressionable pupils. Counterbalances or alternative points of view are intentionally eradicated. Core family values and patriotism become vilified. Simultaneously those in influential positions are deliberately installed. Regime-supporting politicians, CEOS, media platforms, publishers, journalists, professors, actors, judges, and other key players strategically advance. Anyone opposed to the forced doctrines is eliminated. By the end of Stage One, exposure to facts and logic is futile. Subjects are unable to think critically for themselves. 

Stage Two: Destabilization

The rapidly accelerating destabilization process only takes 2-5 years to fully execute. Authorities now focus on domestic affairs including the economy, foreign relations, and defense operations. Totalitarianism emerges from the shadows and arrives at the forefront of society. Covert approaches grow clumsily obvious. According to Bezmenov, antagonists turn their attention away from the populace during this period. He adamantly stated: “at this stage, the subverter does not care about your ideas or your patterns of consumption; whether you eat junk food and get fat and flabby, it doesn’t matter.”

Stage Three: Crisis

A revolutionary transformation takes place during the third phase. Formerly stable societal foundations can be demolished in just six weeks. These meticulously manufactured catastrophes include wars, pandemics, insurrections, and environmental disasters. Following the emergency, there is a violent change in power. The vast majority of civilians will be devastated financially. Crippling debt leads to dependence on the government for basic life essentials such as food, water, and shelter. Unfathomable desperation creates obedience to those providing all necessities. As the saying goes: don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Stage Four: Normalization

Insurgents continue inching towards total conversion through small controlled doses of incremental progression. Federally-backed broadcasting networks deceptively rebrand the reconstructed country. Feelings of discomfort that previously griped communities dissipate. Ensuing mandates go largely unquestioned. Privacy intrusions, loss of freedoms, and violations of fundamental rights are unwaveringly accepted. Resistance no longer dwells in the psyche of the masses. A ‘new normal’ comes to full fruition. Herd mentality is passed down to preceding descendants. The final stage may last indefinitely or until additional cycles begin.

When most individuals think of psychological espionage, romanticized action films such as James Bond typically surface. On the contrary, true mind control is a methodical and insidious process. Cognitive persuasion slowly infiltrates the very heart of civilization. By the time people realize what is transpiring, irreversible damage has already been done. More than thirty years have passed since Bezmenov laid out these dystopian blueprints with eerily prophetic accuracy. How it ultimately ends has yet to be determined because our consciousness is ever-evolving. Where we go from here is for humanity to decide.