It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.
Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Soviet political leader
[Я считаю, что совершенно неважно, кто и как будет в партии голосовать; но вот что чрезвычайно важно, это - кто и как будет считать голоса.]
Comment (1923)
Alt. trans.: "I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how." Quoted in B. Bazhanov, The Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary (1992) [Борис Бажанов. Воспоминания бывшего секретаря Сталина]
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