Konev was a tall, gruff, vigorous man with a shrewd twinkle in his blue eyes. He was 48 years old, a year younger than Zhukov, and in some respects his career had paralleled the other man's.

The plans of NATO are defensive because they assume we are aggressive. NATO is aggressive as it is the alliance of capitalist countries.

Konev was a mental robot, saying only what had been written for him, as though his tongue moved only when wound by a key in the Kremlin.

Our neighbors use searchlights, for they want more light. I tell you, Nikolai Pavlovich, we need more darkness.