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# There is a recollection by Vyacheslav Molotov of how, and how much, he was paid in the years of his political activity
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/est-takoe-vospominanie-viacheslava-molotova-o-tom-kak-i-skolko-on-poluchal-deneg-v-gody-svoei-politicheskoi-aktivnosti/
- Published: 2021-01-26T11:41:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:41:38.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Books, Mores, Society, People

There is a recollection by Vyacheslav Molotov of how, and how much, he was paid in the years of his political activity. The account was taken down in the 1970s, when Molotov was already past eighty, from his own words by the Soviet writer Feliks Chuev, and published in the book "One Hundred and Forty Conversations with Molotov".

– Were you paid a salary, or were you on state provision?  
– A salary.  
– How much?  
– I don't know. I never took an interest. Practically unlimited. According to need. You have enough to live on, and that's all. Within those limits.  
– Still, Stalin probably overdid it here.  
– Without a doubt. And not only Stalin, all of us here… I have thought a great deal about this, incidentally. Nobody should. Nobody should, – Molotov repeats.  
<..>  
– We had a salary, of course. You see, in our case the rule was broken, because there was a salary, and on top of that everything was provided. In effect, we were on state provision. I cannot say exactly now how much I was paid, it changed several times. After the war, moreover, on Stalin's initiative, the so-called packets were introduced. Money was sent in a sealed packet, very large sums, to military and Party leaders. No, that was certainly not quite right. The amounts were not merely excessive, they were improper. I do not merely fail to deny it, I have no right to object to it in any way.  
How much Stalin received, nobody can say. He had several dachas… Well, how can one say how much he received?  
And of personal belongings there was almost nothing. The darned tunic of the Generalissimo  
We had a Party organisation, we paid our dues. Latterly I was registered at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And when it came to expelling me, I was enrolled in the cell of the Administration of Affairs of the Council of Ministers.  
Where Stalin was registered, I don't know. We did not attend meetings, of course. We had to be on the books somewhere, we paid our dues, and that was all.  
<..>  
– Did you receive fees for articles, for speeches… For official speeches we didn't, but if there were some articles…  
But we didn't take them.