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Top 25 Masha Gessen Quotes (2025 Update)

Masha Gessen Quote: “When something cannot be described, it does not become a fact of shared reality.”

1. “When something cannot be described, it does not become a fact of shared reality.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “When you lose your freedom, you lose, first and foremost, the opportunity to choose the company you keep.”

2. “When you lose your freedom, you lose, first and foremost, the opportunity to choose the company you keep.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Science gradually yielded to propaganda, and as a result propaganda tended more and more to represent itself as science.”4.”

3. “Science gradually yielded to propaganda, and as a result propaganda tended more and more to represent itself as science.”4.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “A constant state of low-level dread made people easy to control, because it robbed them of the sense that they could control anything themselves. This was not the sort of anxiety that moved people to action and accomplishment. This was the sort of anxiety that exceeded human capacity.”

4. “A constant state of low-level dread made people easy to control, because it robbed them of the sense that they could control anything themselves. This was not the sort of anxiety that moved people to action and accomplishment. This was the sort of anxiety that exceeded human capacity.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “There was a game called “Work.” and on of the most-often-repeated Soviet jokes described it perfectly: “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”

5. “There was a game called “Work.” and on of the most-often-repeated Soviet jokes described it perfectly: “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “When you’re part of the opposition you want to stay. It’s part of your identity. You’re useless if you leave. You feel like you have failed.”

6. “When you’re part of the opposition you want to stay. It’s part of your identity. You’re useless if you leave. You feel like you have failed.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “The Trumpian lie is different. It is the power lie, or the bully lie. It is the lie of the bigger kid who took your hat and is wearing it – while denying that he took it. There is no defense against this lie because the point of the lie is to assert power, to show “I can say what I want when I want to.” The power lie conjures a different reality and demands that you choose between your experience and the bully’s demands:.”

7. “The Trumpian lie is different. It is the power lie, or the bully lie. It is the lie of the bigger kid who took your hat and is wearing it – while denying that he took it. There is no defense against this lie because the point of the lie is to assert power, to show “I can say what I want when I want to.” The power lie conjures a different reality and demands that you choose between your experience and the bully’s demands:.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “One time, Alexander Nikolaevich discovered, Stalin invited an old friend back in Georgia to Moscow for a reunion. They dined and drank – Stalin took pride in his hospitality and his menus, which he personally curated.7 Later the same night, the friend was arrested in his hotel room. He was executed before dawn. This could not be explained with any words or ideas available to man.8.”

8. “One time, Alexander Nikolaevich discovered, Stalin invited an old friend back in Georgia to Moscow for a reunion. They dined and drank – Stalin took pride in his hospitality and his menus, which he personally curated.7 Later the same night, the friend was arrested in his hotel room. He was executed before dawn. This could not be explained with any words or ideas available to man.8.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “It turned out that capitalism alone could make people not only rich and happy but also poor, hungry, miserable, and powerless.”

9. “It turned out that capitalism alone could make people not only rich and happy but also poor, hungry, miserable, and powerless.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “It’s not natural for people in the opposition to leave. It’s always a personal catastrophe.”

10. “It’s not natural for people in the opposition to leave. It’s always a personal catastrophe.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “But the funniest one they showed us was about the need for leisure time. I was sitting next to women who work until one in the morning every day. And here they were telling us that when a person does not get any rest, he becomes a destructive member of society because of the elevated risk of accidents. The women were laughing so hard they fell off their chairs.”

11. “But the funniest one they showed us was about the need for leisure time. I was sitting next to women who work until one in the morning every day. And here they were telling us that when a person does not get any rest, he becomes a destructive member of society because of the elevated risk of accidents. The women were laughing so hard they fell off their chairs.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Putin needed an enemy, an Other, against which to mobilize. LGBT people are really convenient: we’re sort of the ultimate foreign agent.”

12. “Putin needed an enemy, an Other, against which to mobilize. LGBT people are really convenient: we’re sort of the ultimate foreign agent.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “There is a reason that Russian troops in both Moscow and Beslan acted in ways that maximized bloodshed; they actually aimed to maximize the fear and the horror. This is the classic modus operandi of terrorists, and in this sense it can certainly be said that Putin and the terrorists were acting in concert.”

13. “There is a reason that Russian troops in both Moscow and Beslan acted in ways that maximized bloodshed; they actually aimed to maximize the fear and the horror. This is the classic modus operandi of terrorists, and in this sense it can certainly be said that Putin and the terrorists were acting in concert.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Little Octobrists are future Young Pioneers. Little Octobrists are studious kids. They study hard, love school, and respect their elders. Little Octobrists are honest and truthful kids. Little Octobrists are fun-loving kids. They read and they draw, they play and they sing, and they stick together. Only those who work hard and persist earn the right to be called Little Octobrist.2.”

14. “Little Octobrists are future Young Pioneers. Little Octobrists are studious kids. They study hard, love school, and respect their elders. Little Octobrists are honest and truthful kids. Little Octobrists are fun-loving kids. They read and they draw, they play and they sing, and they stick together. Only those who work hard and persist earn the right to be called Little Octobrist.2.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “The people who came were not always the ones who most needed to escape: they were the ones most capable of escaping.”

15. “The people who came were not always the ones who most needed to escape: they were the ones most capable of escaping.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Still, KGB staff in Dresden had to scrimp and save to ensure that at the end of their posting they would have something to show for it.”

16. “Still, KGB staff in Dresden had to scrimp and save to ensure that at the end of their posting they would have something to show for it.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “The Soviet regime robbed people not only of their ability to live freely but also of the ability to understand fully what had been taken from them, and how.”

17. “The Soviet regime robbed people not only of their ability to live freely but also of the ability to understand fully what had been taken from them, and how.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “A state born of protest against inequality had created one of the most intricate and rigid systems of privilege that the world had ever seen.”

18. “A state born of protest against inequality had created one of the most intricate and rigid systems of privilege that the world had ever seen.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “As a gay parent I must flee Russia or lose my children.”

19. “As a gay parent I must flee Russia or lose my children.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Finally, there is every indication that Putin’s government worked neither to prevent terrorist attacks nor to resolve crises peacefully when they occurred; moreover, the president consistently and increasingly staked his reputation not only on his own determination to “rub them out” whatever the circumstances but also on the terrorists’ perceived ruthlessness.”

20. “Finally, there is every indication that Putin’s government worked neither to prevent terrorist attacks nor to resolve crises peacefully when they occurred; moreover, the president consistently and increasingly staked his reputation not only on his own determination to “rub them out” whatever the circumstances but also on the terrorists’ perceived ruthlessness.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “If the Nazi Holocaust exterminated the Other, the Soviet terror was suicidal.”

21. “If the Nazi Holocaust exterminated the Other, the Soviet terror was suicidal.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “We relate to the virus, in some ways, as we relate to Trump. We yearn desperately to return to a time of imagined normalcy, before Trump and before the coronavirus. But we can heal only by looking forward – perhaps to a life that will be slower, more environmentally responsible and less materially comfortable, but also more clearly rooted in mutual aid and the understanding of our fundamental equality and interdependence.”

22. “We relate to the virus, in some ways, as we relate to Trump. We yearn desperately to return to a time of imagined normalcy, before Trump and before the coronavirus. But we can heal only by looking forward – perhaps to a life that will be slower, more environmentally responsible and less materially comfortable, but also more clearly rooted in mutual aid and the understanding of our fundamental equality and interdependence.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “It is expected that all decisions taken by the coordinating council or by the general meeting shall be recommendations: members who are in the minority should not be obligated to participate in a decision with which they disagree but neither shall they have the right to counteract the actions of the majority in any way other than through the power of conviction.”

23. “It is expected that all decisions taken by the coordinating council or by the general meeting shall be recommendations: members who are in the minority should not be obligated to participate in a decision with which they disagree but neither shall they have the right to counteract the actions of the majority in any way other than through the power of conviction.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “In the fall of 2000, a group of Russian Olympic athletes met with Putin and complained that the lack of a singable anthem demoralized them in competitions and made their victories feel hollow. The old Soviet anthem had been so much better this way, they said.”

24. “In the fall of 2000, a group of Russian Olympic athletes met with Putin and complained that the lack of a singable anthem demoralized them in competitions and made their victories feel hollow. The old Soviet anthem had been so much better this way, they said.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “What distinguishes a totalitarian ideology is its utterly insular quality. It purports to explain the entire world and everything in it.”

25. “What distinguishes a totalitarian ideology is its utterly insular quality. It purports to explain the entire world and everything in it.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “The assault on language may be harder to define and describe than his attacks on institutions, but it is essential to his autocratic attempt, the ultimate objective of which is to obliterate politics.”

26. “The assault on language may be harder to define and describe than his attacks on institutions, but it is essential to his autocratic attempt, the ultimate objective of which is to obliterate politics.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “No powerful political actor had set out to destroy the American political system itself – until, that is, Trump won the Republican nomination. He was probably the first major party nominee who ran not for president but for autocrat. And he won.”

27. “No powerful political actor had set out to destroy the American political system itself – until, that is, Trump won the Republican nomination. He was probably the first major party nominee who ran not for president but for autocrat. And he won.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Trump’s lies and his word piles both are exercises in arbitrariness, continued assertions of the power to say what he wants, when he wants, to usurp language itself, and with it, our ability to speak and act with others – in other words, our ability to engage in politics.”

28. “Trump’s lies and his word piles both are exercises in arbitrariness, continued assertions of the power to say what he wants, when he wants, to usurp language itself, and with it, our ability to speak and act with others – in other words, our ability to engage in politics.”

— Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen Quote: “Unusually for the Trump era, the argument in the hearings was not about the facts – the facts were known and uncontested – but about the nature of political power in America. One side was arguing that political power was provisionally granted by voters and limited by law, rules, norms, expectations, policy legacy, and the system of checks and balances. The other side was arguing that power wants to be absolute and is limited only by what the president can get away with.”

29. “Unusually for the Trump era, the argument in the hearings was not about the facts – the facts were known and uncontested – but about the nature of political power in America. One side was arguing that political power was provisionally granted by voters and limited by law, rules, norms, expectations, policy legacy, and the system of checks and balances. The other side was arguing that power wants to be absolute and is limited only by what the president can get away with.”

— Masha Gessen

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