It's a son of a bitch, but it's our son of a bitch. Somoza Garcia Anastasio "People's Revolutionary Army"

Phrase he may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch allegedly said by Franklin Delano Roosevelt about the Nicaraguan dictator Somoza (the elder) before the latter's visit to Washington in 1939.

Safir's Political Dictionary(Oxford University Press, 2008, p.676) states that this statement was first attributed to Roosevelt in Time magazine in 1948, allegedly from Welles (who was Deputy Secretary of State in 1939), in the form " As Nicaraguan might say, he"s a sonofabitch but he"s ours". Indeed, this story is in the issue of Time dated November 15, 1948. However, Time magazine does not provide any sources, so Safir classifies the phrase as apocryphal.

What is more interesting is that in some later editions this apocrypha appears in the form of a dialogue between Roosevelt and his Secretary of State Cordell Hull, with Hull speaking the main words. Here's a typical example:

President Franklin Roosevelt reportedly had questioned Secretary of State Cordell Hull, "Isn't that man supposed to be a son of a bitch?" The secretary reportedly replied, "He sure is but he is our son of a bitch"

(Robert Sheina, Latin America's Wars, Brassey's 2003, p.184)

This is “more interesting” in light of recent research.

Andrew Crawley, author of Somoza and Roosevelt (Oxford University Press, 2007), found this story in a book published in 1934, five years before the Nicaraguan dictator's visit to Washington. The characters there are completely different:

After the 1932 Chicago Convention, General Hugh Johnson ... was asked what he thought of his nomination. Johnson replied by recalling a story of a country convention of Democrats in which the wrong man had been chosen. Driving home from the meeting, two politicians were comparing notes. Both had opposed the succesfull candidate. One said to the other, "Damn it all! ... he is son of a bitch!" the other man sighed and said nothing for a long time. Then he cheered up, "After all", he observed, "... he"s our son of a bitch"

John F. Carter The New Dealers: By the Unofficial Observers(Simon & Shuster, 1934)

Crawley believes that the spreader of the legend attributing these words to Roosevelt is... Somoza himself, who loved to boast about his “special” relationship with the American president.

In any case, I believe that here we are dealing with a wandering duck, an ancient joke that American politicians told each other. The characters changed depending on the preferences of the narrator. This was the case until the printing press finally assigned “authorship” to Roosevelt-Hull.

SOMOZA GARCIA ANASTASIO

(b. 1896 – d. 1956)

The President of Nicaragua, a de facto dictator who used repression and cared only about his own well-being.

Talking about the politics and economy of Nicaragua without mentioning the United States simply makes no sense. From the time of Spanish rule to the present day, the political life of Nicaragua is controlled by 3-4 families with Spanish roots. From time to time, this political “beau monde” is diluted with several generals, revolutionaries or counter-revolutionaries, depending on the situation. Nicaragua is a small country: presidents and ministers, parliament and army here are like toys. But their actions are far from toy-like. The ease of attitude towards human life, or rather cruelty, in Latin American countries is surprising. With each coup, people are killed in the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands. Perhaps this is an echo of the Spanish conquests, or perhaps it gives importance to small countries in their own eyes. All of the above clearly illustrates the dictatorial regime of Anastasio Somoza. He and his sons were in power in Nicaragua for 44 years, during which time the country was ruled, both explicitly and implicitly, by the United States.

Anastasio Garcia Somoza, or Tacho as he was called in childhood, was born on February 1, 1896. Tacho became interested in gambling, wine and women at an early age. The boy had someone to follow by example. The “glorious” Somoza family was started by his grandfather, Bernabe Somoza, a bandit nicknamed “Seven Handkerchiefs.” During raids, he covered his face with a handkerchief; in addition, his nickname hinted at a Latin American proverb: “And half a dozen handkerchiefs are not enough to wash the blood off your hands.” When Bernabe was finally hanged in the city of Rivas, his son Anastasio, Tacho’s father, bought a coffee plantation with the money his dad “earned” and managed to make a decent fortune.

At the age of 17, Tacho’s father sent him to business school in Philadelphia. In America, the young man did not abandon his hobbies and, instead of studying, began resale of used cars, and squandered the proceeds from his business in gambling houses. There, Tacho tried his hand at counterfeiting dollars. The attempt was unsuccessful - he was sent to prison. Through the efforts of his father, the young businessman was sent home.

In Nicaragua, Somoza Sr. bought his son a tavern and advantageously married Salvador, the daughter of Dr. Luis X. Debayle and Casmira Sacasa. However, a normal life was not for Tacho. Soon the tavern went under the hammer for gambling debts. The San Marcos estate, which Anastasio inherited from his father, also floated behind the tavern. To improve his financial situation, Tacho became a counterfeiter. In 1921, he was arrested along with an accomplice, the future chief of staff of the National Guard, Camilo Gonzalez. Debayle's family despised Somoza, but for the sake of their daughter the matter was hushed up. For some time, Tacho worked for the Rockefeller Foundation, modernizing latrines in Managua, for which he received the nickname “Marshal of the Sewer.” Then, with the support of the Americans, he became the "political boss" of the city of Leon.

In Nicaragua, dissatisfaction was brewing with the presence of American troops and the policies of the conservative governments of Chamorro, followed by Diaz. In 1926, General Sandino launched a guerrilla movement against the US occupation. Taking advantage of the situation, the military forces of the Liberal Party removed Diaz.

General José Maria Moncada became president. Members of the Debayle family were influential figures in the party and helped their son-in-law get nominated. Somoza was appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs in Moncada's government. Tacho combined this position with service as a translator for the US Marine Expeditionary Force. Journalist William Creme wrote: “Somoza spoke English fluently, but with a fantastic number of errors and in that special jargon used by American gangsters of Italian origin.” The “education” received in Philadelphia made itself felt.

General Sandino waged a guerrilla war with the US Army for seven years and forced the Americans into exile. In January 1933, the US Marines withdrew from Nicaragua. Its place was taken by the intelligence services and, above all, the CIA. Having come to power, Tacho said: “I think I will remain in power for 40 years, but if the United States judges differently, then I am ready to leave the presidential palace even tomorrow.” The US guided, supported and protected Tacho and later his two sons. But the trouble is that each subsequent Somoza was a greater degenerate than the previous one. The United States could no longer tolerate Somoza in its third “edition.” In 1979, they refused to support Somoza Jr., and the National Liberation Front seized power in the country. Sandino. The last Somoza fled to Paraguay. In 1980, in Asuncion, on the threshold of his home, he was shot by members of an Argentine terrorist group in absentia by the Sandinistas. Continuing the “glorious” traditions of Bernabe, none of the Somoza clan, except for his father, died a natural death. In 1982, the US Congress banned support for Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries.

Tacho proved himself to be more than loyal to the United States, and during the evacuation of American troops, the chief director of the National Guard, General B. Matthews, recommended Somoza in his place. In November 1932, the new President Juan Bautista Sacasa appointed General Somoza as commander of the National Guard. After the Americans left, General Sandino signed an agreement with President Sacasa to end hostilities. He disarmed, retaining the guard battalion. The partisans were allocated land to create an agricultural cooperative.

Somoza, meanwhile, “mastered” the guard. He got rid of unwanted officers and enlisted the support of the Chief of the General Staff, General G. Abausa. Tacho claimed that Sandino handed over only the outdated weapons to authorities and hid the rest. He demanded the complete disarmament of the Sandinistas and the liquidation of the guard battalion. Somoza sent guard units into the mountains of Segovia, who pursued the Sandinistas, despite government safe-conduct. Many Sandinistas died, the survivors ended up in prison.

Sandino demanded that Sacasa disband the guard as an illegal anti-people organization. In February 1934 he came to Managua for negotiations with the president. As a result, a decision was made to appoint General Portocarrero, a friend of Sandino, as civil and military commander of the 4 Segovian departments. Sacasa also pledged to reorganize the Guard. Somoza turned to the United States for advice. The US ambassador to Nicaragua said his government wanted Sandino removed. On February 21, 1934, in the square in front of the presidential palace, the “general of free people” Sandino was killed.

That same night, guardsmen broke into the Sandinista cooperative. The massacre of unarmed people began and continued until the morning. More than 300 people died, mostly women and children. Only a few managed to escape. Sandino's murder sparked outrage far beyond Nicaragua's borders. Somoza was very frightened and ordered an investigation into what happened. Captain Gutierras was declared the scapegoat. He took the blame and was convicted, but after some time Somoza obtained an amnesty for him.

February 21 marked the beginning of total terror. During its existence, the National Guard killed 300 thousand people - 10% of the country's population. Elections were approaching, Tacho was eager for power. The only real force standing in his way was Sacasa's nephew Ramon. Tacho accused him of insubordination, surrounded the fortress he commanded, and demanded his surrender. At the same time, Somoza besieged the presidential palace in Managua. Ramon was ready for battle, but the president, fearing defeat, ordered him to lay down his arms. Sacasa and other Somoza opponents fled Nicaragua. The path to power was open. Congress, at the request of Tacho, elected his friend Carlos Jarquin as interim president.

In September 1936, presidential elections took place. Somoza received the majority of the votes. The coup d'état was formalized “constitutionally.” On January 1, 1937, Somoza officially took office as President of Nicaragua. He banned the activities of all parties except the Liberal and Conservative parties, which were allocated some seats in Congress in exchange for obedience. Somoza appointed his friend Colonel Reis as Minister of War.

Tacho really liked Hitler and Mussolini. He even organized his own fascist movement, the Blue Shirts, which disbanded in the early 40s. at the direction of the United States. In the living room of the presidential palace there hung a photo collage in which Tacho was “captured” in an embrace with Hitler. After the United States entered the war, Tacho hung the collage in his bedroom, stopped contacts with the Nazis, confiscated the property of the Nicaraguan Germans and bought it himself for next to nothing. He adopted a Labor Code that was progressive in content and allowed the activities of the socialist party. After the end of World War II, Somoza promised to carry out a wide range of reforms, which remained a promise. It later turned out that during the war, Tacho sheltered fascists from Uruguay on the territory of Nicaragua.

Somoza did not like communists, although he understood communism in a broad and unique way. He banned the “communist” poems of Ruben Dario, persecuted modernists, abstract artists and surrealists. Somoza banned pilots from wearing “communist” leather jackets. The peak of the fight against communism was the ban on tango as “the dance of the proletarians of Buenos Aires.” It was ordered to hand over all tango records, and the release of films in cinemas in which tangos were danced was prohibited.

Somoza defined his political credo as follows: “Bullets for my enemies, bucks for my friends.” It’s unlikely that friends shared much. Tacho's greed was fantastic. By 1945, he owned: 51 cattle breeding, 46 coffee, 400 tobacco estates; gold mines; 50% shares of the only cement plant; 50% of the shares of a match factory (to get rid of competition, Tacho banned the import of lighters); half of all wood processing factories; 4 power plants, etc. Every year Tacho embezzled 75 thousand dollars in taxes from foreign companies. Of the 100 tractors ordered from the USA, Tacho took 98 for himself. Under Somoza, cotton began to be grown on a large scale in the country. Plantation owners, mostly American companies, made large profits. Thousands of peasants were left without land, work and livelihoods. In rural areas, the population was dying of hunger. Cotton cultivation severely undermined the country's economy and left Nicaragua dependent on food imports.

Monuments were erected to Tacho, his name, the names of his wife and relatives were assigned to cities, squares, and streets. His daughter Lillian became "Queen of the National Guard." Under Tacho, the guard became a caste of “untouchables”. She controlled the trade in weapons, alcohol, drugs, and medicines. Radio and television, gambling houses, prostitution, tax collection and rural justice were also in her hands. Tiskap Hill, on which the presidential palace, police headquarters and military academy with barracks stood, became impregnable. Tacho loved prisons. He turned the eastern wing of the palace into a prison, in whose narrow cells one could only stand. Samosa’s personal menagerie with tigers, hyenas, crocodiles and anacondas was also located there. Terrible things were told about this neighborhood. Later, Somoza built another bunker for himself and an underground prison.

The US leadership knew what Tacho represented, but did not refuse support. It was about him that F. Roosevelt said: “Yes, he is a son of a bitch. But he’s our son of a bitch.” The Americans provided the greatest and most invaluable service to the dictator in organizing his personal security. Without their help, Somoza would not have lived a day in this world. FBI and CIA agents organized, trained and directly supervised an extensive network of informers. “Orejas” (“ears”) were found in all levels of society, in all cities and villages. There were thousands of them. Thanks to "Orejas", numerous conspiracies, rebellions and election combinations failed even at the preparation stage. It is clear why the conspiracy of young uncompromising poets, simple in concept and execution, was a success. There was simply no place for an informer in their narrow circle.

It was decided to kill the tyrant during the fiesta in Leon. On September 21, 1956, in the midst of the evening, during a dance, the poet Perez approached Somoza's table and shot him 6 times. Tacho was taken to the hospital in the American Panama Canal Zone; President D. Eisenhower sent his personal doctor. However, despite all efforts, Somoza died on September 29, 1956.

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Once upon a time at the President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt asked how assurances of support for democracy around the world fit with White House patronage of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Samosa. To which Roosevelt, without blinking an eye, replied: “Samosa may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” Cynical reliance on sadists and international criminals in various parts of the globe has always been an integral part of American diplomacy, since it helped to cut the world according to its own patterns at minimal cost. What kind of democracy is this? It's just a beautiful figure of speech.

William Walker (? - 1860)

Samosa was not the first US "son of a bitch" in Nicaragua. In the middle of the 19th century, Americans relied on a type for whom the prison clearly cried. It was at this time that the Americans intended to dig a canal through the territory of Nicaragua - since Panama did not exist then. It appeared later as a result of the “color revolution” organized by the United States.

The White House appointee had to stop the unrest in Nicaragua and, having become president, issue permission to lay the canal. The choice fell on US citizen William Walker. Together with a gang of 57 mercenaries, Walker invaded the independent Central American state in 1855 and, as a result of a bloody coup, became its president. His first decree was the restoration of slavery in Nicaragua. The Americans were triumphant.

But the joy was premature. Walker seized the property of a joint stock company that intended to build a canal. And at that moment he became an ordinary son of a bitch for the United States, not at all one of his own. The Americans created an anti-Walker coalition, which included Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. And the coalition troops quickly swept the presumptuous adventurer out of the country.

But he did not calm down there. In November 1857, Walker attempted to recapture Nicaragua, but was unsuccessful. In the spring of 1860 he invaded Honduras, was defeated and executed by court.

Anastasio Samosa (1896 - 1956)

The Americans learned a lesson from this mistake. And in the next century they made the right choice. Their hopes were more than justified by Nicaraguan Anastasio Samosa, who emigrated to the United States. At first, he was engaged in counterfeiting. But then, after serving six months in prison, he started selling used cars. In 1927, Samosa and American Marines were sent to Nicaragua to overthrow the democratic government. Augusto Sandino. The coup failed. However, Sandino agreed to create some kind of arbitration force that would be able to resolve political conflicts. This is how the National Guard appeared, led by “General” Samosa.

This was the fatal mistake of the Sandinistas. Having settled in and taken root in the military establishment, in 1934 Samosa ordered the assassination of Sandino and key members of the government. And three years later he became president, enjoying virtually unlimited power until his death.

More than 10 thousand people became victims of the Samosa regime. His son, to whom power passed, has already destroyed tens of thousands. However, in terms of cruelty, the son was far from his father. When the plot was discovered, Samosa the elder ordered the rebels to be burned alive. He was also unusually greedy. By the 50s, his family clan completely controlled the trade in weapons, alcoholic beverages, drugs, and medicines. Organized prostitution, gambling houses, radio and television, tax collection and rural justice were also under her jurisdiction. At the same time, as they say, he was pretty weird. For example, having hated tango, he ordered all Nicaraguans to hand over gramophone records with this “vile” dance for destruction.

Still, the bullet found the “true democrat.” In September 1956, a successful assassination attempt was organized on him. And 8 days later he died in an American hospital.

Rafael Trujillo (1891 - 1961)

He came to power in the Dominican Republic in 1930. The mechanism used was typical for Latin and Central American countries. Military career, bribery, conspiracies, coups. And quite soon he became the bearer of the following quite official ranks and titles: Generalissimo, Admiral of the Fleet, Benefactor of the Fatherland, Liberator of the Nation, Patron of Fine Arts and Literature, First Doctor, First Doctor of Sciences... Although in a whisper, risking his head, he was called a goat for sexual promiscuity.

He ruled until 1961, satisfying the main demands of the United States - he tirelessly fought against communism. As, indeed, are all American puppets. Under him, there was only one party, there was strict censorship and unlimited police brutality. Trujillo was pathologically cruel. After the suppression of the strike of agricultural workers, all its participants were sent to prison. A week later it was reported that all the troublemakers, several hundred, had committed suicide.

He also carried out ethnic cleansing. For example, with the support of the National Guard, 20 thousand seasonal workers from Haiti were cut out. The Americans, observing this from the sidelines, joked: “Dominicans are sent to prison even for complaining about bad weather.”

Trujillo, like Samosa, took over the entire economy. All farms with the most fertile lands belonged to his clan. But at the same time, the country's economy was rapidly going downhill. The communist partisan movement was gaining strength. The decrepit dictator was unable to cope with the growing problems. And in 1961, as a result of a conspiracy organized by the CIA, Trujillo was shot and killed.

Alfredo Stroessner (1912 - 2006)

Ruled Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. Of course, he was a general. From a family of German emigrants. And this goes some way to explaining why he welcomed many Nazi criminals with open arms, including the world-famous sadistic executioner Dr. Mengele.

Under him, Nazis warmed up in Paraguay ran the prisons and served as guards there. According to some reports, almost a quarter of the country's residents have been imprisoned. Lawlessness reigned blatantly; quite often, disfigured corpses of arrested people were found in vacant lots, or even right on the streets.

During the years of his reign, out of 250 thousand native Indians, 220 thousand were killed. They were literally hunted - they were poisoned with dogs, traps were set, poisoned food was scattered.

Unemployment and hunger reigned in the country, people were decimated by disease, since there was no medical care outside the capital. The average life expectancy was 50 years.

And at the same time, Stroessner annually received financial assistance from the United States, which was, in essence, payment for the fight against communism.

However, at the same time, discontent accumulated among the military elite, which received crumbs from the plunder of the country. And in 1989, Stroessner was overthrown by his son-in-law, also a general. The fiend of hell lived to be 94 years old in Brazil.

Francois Duvalier (1907 - 1971)

This one was an even bigger fiend than Stroessner. He was a doctor, having received a full medical education, but came to power in Haiti in 1957 as a result of a traditional military coup.

He killed 50 thousand people without trial or investigation. 300 thousand people fled from the island in horror. Covered the entire country with a network of prisons and concentration camps. He kept the residents in fear by posing as an all-powerful voodoo sorcerer, Baron Saturday, the leader of the dead. His secret police, essentially death squads, consisted of “people from the other world.” That is, gullible Haitians, most of them illiterate, were told that death was not the worst thing for them, but that turning them into zombies was much worse.

And all this was introduced into the consciousness of the islanders with the help of all media channels. Newspapers were full of photographs of mutilated corpses, severed heads and other horrors. There were reports on the radio about executions. Duvalier, undoubtedly, was not inferior in terms of sadism to Mengele, warmed by Stroessner. In his palace, for “personal needs,” a torture chamber was set up with the appropriate devices and equipment. At the same time, murders were also a commercial matter. 5,000 liters of frozen blood were sold monthly in the United States.

Washington was interested in the Duvalier regime. He was helped not only financially, but also with the help of the army. In 1970, military sailors attempted a coup. Three ships began to fire at the presidential palace. The mutiny was suppressed with the help of the US Air Force.

True, young president John Kennedy who was shocked by all this out of habit, began to criticize the Haitian dictator. It even went as far as stopping economic assistance. However, Kennedy was soon shot dead. Duvalier cleverly took advantage of this by showing off a Kennedy doll riddled with needles. Like, this is his personal merit.

He died of natural causes in 1971. His son continued his work - Jean-Claude Duvalier. The methods were the same, but the grip was weaker. As a result, he was overthrown in 1986.

History shows that the United States does not hesitate to do anything to solve its problems. This was the case before, and this continues to this day. During the war of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the States raised Osama bin Laden. Which eventually got out of control. In the Balkans, in order to weaken Serbia and other fragments of Yugoslavia, they took the side of the Kosovo Albanians, who are still creating tension in the region. In Ukraine, they did not hesitate to support outright fascists to carry out a coup. Qatar supports the current ruling emir, who openly finances ISIS*. They need it because the United States has the largest military base in the region in Qatar. Plus the financial interests of the American elite. And this is far from a complete list of “sons of bitches” in the United States.

*The “Islamic State” (ISIS) was recognized as a terrorist organization by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on December 29, 2014, its activities in Russia are prohibited

Predecessor: Carlos Alberto Brenes Jarquin Successor: Leonardo Arguello

President of Nicaragua

May 7 - September 29 Predecessor: Victor Manuel Roman and Reyes Successor: Luis Somoza Religion: Catholic Birth: 1st of February(1896-02-01 )
San Marcos Death: September 29(1956-09-29 ) (60 years)
Panama Canal Zone Burial place: Managua Children: sons: Luis, Anastasio

Anastasio Somoza Garcia(Spanish) Anastasio Somoza Garcia ; February 1 - September 29) - Nicaraguan military and statesman, de facto head of Nicaragua from 1936 to 1956.

As the head of the National Guard, he organized the assassination attempt on the revolutionary Augusto Sandino, who led the fight against the American occupation forces in 1927-1933.

On September 21, 1956, the poet Rigoberto Lopez Perez attempted to assassinate Somoza, wounding him in the chest with a pistol shot. Lopez was shot by security on the spot, and Somoza died 8 days later in an American hospital in Panama, after which his son Luis Somoza Debayle became the head of Nicaragua.

Somoza regime

Under Somoza, a strict authoritarian regime was established in Nicaragua. The Guard became the arbiter of destinies in Nicaragua [ style] . She controlled the trade in weapons, alcoholic beverages, drugs, and medicines in the country. Organized prostitution, gambling houses, radio and television, tax collection and rural justice were also under her jurisdiction. Anastasio Somoza himself was considered already in the mid-1940s one of the richest people in all of Mesoamerica. He was an extreme anti-communist (in particular, surrealism was banned in any form as “communist art”), patronized fascist and Nazi organizations, and showed open sympathy for Hitler before the start of World War II. However, on December 8, 1941 he declared war on Germany.

"Our son of a bitch"

Despite his authoritarianism, the anti-communist Somoza enjoyed political support from the United States. Franklin Roosevelt is credited with saying in 1939: “Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” As historian David Schmitz points out, a study of the archives of Franklin Roosevelt's presidential library found no evidence to support this statement. The phrase first appeared in the November 15, 1948 issue of Time magazine; On March 17, 1960, it was mentioned in the CBS broadcast Trujillo: Portrait of a Dictator as being said in reference to Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. Thus, the authorship and object of this statement remain doubtful.

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Excerpt characterizing Somoza Garcia, Anastasio

Prince Andrei looked at Timokhin, who looked at his commander in fear and bewilderment. In contrast to his previous restrained silence, Prince Andrei now seemed agitated. He apparently could not resist expressing those thoughts that unexpectedly came to him.
– The battle will be won by the one who is determined to win it. Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? Our loss was almost equal to that of the French, but we told ourselves very early that we had lost the battle - and we lost. And we said this because we had no need to fight there: we wanted to leave the battlefield as quickly as possible. “If you lose, then run away!” - we ran. If we hadn’t said this until the evening, God knows what would have happened. And tomorrow we won’t say this. You say: our position, the left flank is weak, the right flank is stretched,” he continued, “all this is nonsense, there is none of this.” What do we have in store for tomorrow? A hundred million of the most varied contingencies that will be decided instantly by the fact that they or ours ran or will run, that they will kill this one, they will kill the other; and what is being done now is all fun. The fact is that those with whom you traveled in position not only do not contribute to the general course of affairs, but interfere with it. They are busy only with their own small interests.
- At such a moment? - Pierre said reproachfully.
“At such a moment,” repeated Prince Andrei, “for them it is only such a moment in which they can dig under the enemy and get an extra cross or ribbon.” For me, for tomorrow this is this: a hundred thousand Russian and a hundred thousand French troops came together to fight, and the fact is that these two hundred thousand are fighting, and whoever fights angrier and feels less sorry for himself will win. And if you want, I’ll tell you that, no matter what it is, no matter what is confused up there, we will win the battle tomorrow. Tomorrow, no matter what, we will win the battle!
“Here, your Excellency, the truth, the true truth,” said Timokhin. - Why feel sorry for yourself now! The soldiers in my battalion, would you believe it, didn’t drink vodka: it’s not such a day, they say. - Everyone was silent.
The officers stood up. Prince Andrei went out with them outside the barn, giving the last orders to the adjutant. When the officers left, Pierre approached Prince Andrei and was just about to start a conversation when the hooves of three horses clattered along the road not far from the barn, and, looking in this direction, Prince Andrei recognized Wolzogen and Clausewitz, accompanied by a Cossack. They drove close, continuing to talk, and Pierre and Andrey involuntarily heard the following phrases:
– Der Krieg muss im Raum verlegt werden. Der Ansicht kann ich nicht genug Preis geben, [War must be transferred to space. I cannot praise this view enough (German)] - said one.
“O ja,” said another voice, “da der Zweck ist nur den Feind zu schwachen, so kann man gewiss nicht den Verlust der Privatpersonen in Achtung nehmen.” [Oh yes, since the goal is to weaken the enemy, the losses of private individuals cannot be taken into account]
“O ja, [Oh yes (German)],” confirmed the first voice.
“Yes, im Raum verlegen, [transfer into space (German)],” Prince Andrei repeated, snorting angrily through his nose, when they passed. – Im Raum then [In space (German)] I still have a father, a son, and a sister in Bald Mountains. He doesn't care. This is what I told you - these German gentlemen will not win the battle tomorrow, but will only spoil how much their strength will be, because in his German head there are only reasonings that are not worth a damn, and in his heart there is nothing that is only and what is needed for tomorrow is what is in Timokhin. They gave all of Europe to him and came to teach us - glorious teachers! – his voice squealed again.
– So you think that tomorrow’s battle will be won? - said Pierre.
“Yes, yes,” said Prince Andrei absently. “One thing I would do if I had power,” he began again, “I would not take prisoners.” What are prisoners? This is chivalry. The French have ruined my house and are going to ruin Moscow, and they have insulted and insulted me every second. They are my enemies, they are all criminals, according to my standards. And Timokhin and the entire army think the same. We must execute them. If they are my enemies, then they cannot be friends, no matter how they talk in Tilsit.
“Yes, yes,” said Pierre, looking at Prince Andrei with sparkling eyes, “I completely, completely agree with you!”
The question that had been troubling Pierre since Mozhaisk Mountain all that day now seemed to him completely clear and completely resolved. He now understood the whole meaning and significance of this war and the upcoming battle. Everything he saw that day, all the significant, stern expressions on faces that he glimpsed, were illuminated for him with a new light. He understood that hidden (latente), as they say in physics, warmth of patriotism, which was in all those people whom he saw, and which explained to him why all these people were calmly and seemingly frivolously preparing for death.