Bertolt Brecht was the most important German Marxist playwright and poet of the interwar period. He was a longstanding friend of the Marxist cultural critic Walter Benjamin. The following exchanges with (and quotes from) Bertolt Brecht were recorded in Walter Benjamin's diary in 1938 (while they were both in exile from Nazi Germany):
"There can be no socialist economy in any single country. The Russian proletariat was, by necessity, dealt a severe setback by rearmament—and, what's more, was thrown back to long-superseded stages of historical development. Monarchy, among others, In Russia, personal authority reigns supreme. Obviously, only idiots could deny this." (Bertolt Brecht, as recorded in Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
"Brecht was following the developments in Russia, as well as Trotsky's writings. To him, they were proof that there was reason for suspicion—a justified suspicion demanding a skeptical view of Russian affairs. Such skepticism was in keeping with the attitude of classical writers. If eventually it proved to be correct, one would have to fight the regime--and publicly, to be sure." (Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
"There's no doubt that on the other side, in Russia itself, certain criminal cliques are at work. Every so often, this becomes apparent from their horrendous crimes." (Bertolt Brecht, as recorded in Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
"No doubt about it—the fight against ideology has become a new ideology." (Bertolt Brecht, as recorded in Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
"Brecht reads me several polemical exchanges with Lukács—notes to an essay that he's going to publish in Das Wort. These are disguised yet vehement attacks. Brecht asks my advice concerning their publication. Since he also tells me that Lukács is now held in high esteem 'over there.' I say that I can't give him any advice. 'These are questions of power. Somebody over there ought to have an opinion on them. You have friends there.' Brecht: 'Actually I have no friends there at all. And the Muscovites themselves don't have any either—like the dead.'" (Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
"'In Russia, a dictatorship rules over the proletariat. So long as this dictatorship is still bringing practical benefits to the proletariat—that is, so long as it contributes to the balancing out between proletariat and farmers, with an emphasis on proletarian interests—we should not give up on it.' Several days later, Brecht spoke of a 'workers' monarchy'—and I drew an analogy between such an organism and the grotesque freaks of nature which, in the shape of horned fish or other monsters, are brought to light from out of the deep sea." (Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
"A Brechtian maxim: take your cue not from the good old things, but from the bad new ones." (Walter Benjamin's diary, 1938)
Brecht and Benjamin playing chess while exiled in Denmark, 1934
Helene Weigel and Brecht in 1938
Brecht with mask
Brecht brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947
Source: Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings Volume 3: 1935-1938, (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002), 335-341.