Comic Strips

Reminds me of this quoted exchange I read in Stalin's biography recently. Situation is Stalin being increasingly irritated with Molotov, his long-time comrade and lashing out at a meeting, in 1941 (before the war)

Stalin did not con­ceal his dis­ap­proval of Mo­lotov. He very im­pa­tiently listened to Mo­lotov’s rather pro­lix re­sponses to com­ments from mem­bers of the Bur­eau.… It seemed as if Stalin was at­tack­ing Mo­lotov as an ad­versary and that he was do­ing so from a po­s­i­tion of strength.… Mo­lotov’s breath­ing began to quicken, and at times he would let out a deep sigh. He fid­geted on his stool and mur­mured some­thing to him­self. By the end he could take it no longer:

“Easier said than done,” Mo­lotov pro­nounced in a low but cut­ting voice. Stalin picked up [Mo­lotov’s] words.

“It has long been well-known,” said Stalin, “that the per­son who is afraid of cri­ti­cism is a cow­ard.”

Mo­lotov winced, but kept quiet—the other mem­bers of the Polit­buro sat si­lently, bury­ing their noses in the pa­pers.… At this meet­ing I was again con­vinced of the power and great­ness of Stalin. Stalin’s com­pan­ions feared him like the devil. They would agree with him on prac­tic­ally any­thing

I'm willing to bet everyone in that meeting almost drowned in the irony but also deathly afraid to say anything