Russian revolutionary (1870-1924)
Human thought by its nature is capable of giving, and does give, absolute truth, which is compounded of a sum-total of relative truths.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
Russians are too kind, they lack the ability to apply determined methods of revolutionary terror.
VLADIMIR LENIN
attributed, Lenin: Life and Legacy
Where and when have riots and anarchy been provoked by wise measures? If the government had acted wisely, and if their measures had met the needs of the poor peasants, would there have been unrest among the peasant masses?
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Report on Land", November 8, 1917
One must not count in thousands, like the propagandist belonging to a small group that has not yet given leadership to the masses; in these circumstances one must count in millions and tens of millions.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder
Human reason has discovered many amazing things in nature and will discover still more, and will thereby increase its power over nature.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Materialism and Empirio-Criticism
The working class must break up, smash the "ready-made state machinery," and not confine itself merely to laying hold of it.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The State and Revolution
The majority of the so-called great powers have long been exploiting and enslaving a whole series of small and weak peoples. And the imperialist war is nothing other than a war for the division and redivision of this kind of booty.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The State and Revolution
Down with this contemptible fraud! There cannot be, nor is there nor will there ever be "equality" between the oppressed and the oppressors, between the exploited and the exploiters. There cannot be, nor is there nor will there ever be real "freedom" as long as there is no freedom for women from the privileges which the law grants to men, as long as there is no freedom for the workers from the yoke of capital, and no freedom for the toiling peasants from the yoke of the capitalists, landlords and merchants.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Soviet Power and the Status of Women
We set ourselves the ultimate aim of abolishing the state, i.e., all organized and systematic violence, all use of violence against people in general.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The State and Revolution
I am a bad, wicked man, but I am practicing moral self-purification; I don't eat meat anymore, I now eat rice cutlets.
VLADIMIR LENIN
attributed, Not By Politics Alone
Let the "socialist" snivellers croak, let the bourgeoisie rage and fume, but only people who shut their eyes so as not to see, and stuff their ears so as not to hear, can fail to notice that all over the world the birth pangs of the old, capitalist society, which is pregnant with socialism, have begun.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Prophetic Words
The government considers it the greatest of crimes against humanity to continue this war over the issue of how to divide among the strong and rich nations the weak nationalities they have conquered, and solemnly announces its determination immediately to sign terms of peace to stop this war on the terms indicated, which are equally just for all nationalities without exception.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Report on Peace, November 8, 1917
We Social-Democrats always stand for democracy, not "in the name of capitalism," but in the name of clearing the path for our movement, which clearing is impossible without the development of capitalism.
VLADIMIR LENIN
letter to Inessa Armand, 1916
All countries will inevitably have to do what Russia has done.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder
It is essential to grasp the incontestable truth that a Marxist must take cognisance of real life, of the true facts of reality, and not cling to a theory of yesterday, which, like all theories, at best only outlines the main and the general, only comes near to embracing life in all its complexity.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Letters on Tactics
No Bolshevik, no Communist, no intelligent socialist has ever entertained the idea of violence against the middle peasants. All socialists have always spoken of agreement with them and of their gradual and voluntary transition to socialism.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Reply to a Peasant's Question", February 15, 1919
We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don't clutch at us and don't besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are "free" to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Dogmatism and Freedom of Criticism", What Is To Be Done?
The Bolsheviks could not have retained power for two and a half months, let alone two and a half years, without the most rigorous and truly iron discipline in our Party.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder
The most important thing is to know how to awaken in the still undeveloped masses an intelligent attitude towards religious questions and an intelligent criticism of religions.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The Significance of Militant Materialism
Human knowledge is not (or does not follow) a straight line, but a curve, which endlessly approximates a series of circles, a spiral. Any fragment, segment, section of this curve can be transformed (transformed one-sidedly) into an independent, complete, straight line, which then (if one does not see the wood for the trees) leads into the quagmire, into clerical obscurantism (where it is anchored by the class interests of the ruling classes).
VLADIMIR LENIN
Summary of Dialectics