Vladimir Lenin
Leader of Russian Revolution
Sayings by Vladimir Lenin
We need electricity to make communism.
The opportunists are those who sacrifice the fundamental interests of the masses to the temporary interests of an insignificant minority.
A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
We must be able to withstand everything, to agree to any and every sacrifice, and even — if need be — to resort to all sorts of strategems, manoeuvres and illegal methods, to evasion and concealment of the truth, in order to penetrate the trade unions, to remain in them, and to carry on Communist work in them at all costs.
We must follow the path of the German Marxists. They have shown us how to defeat the enemy.
Politics is the most concentrated expression of economics.
The victory of socialism is possible first in a few or even in one single capitalist country taken separately.
It is more pleasant and useful to go through the 'experience of the revolution' than to write about it.
There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us precisely because he is a scoundrel.
We must execute not only the guilty. Execution of the innocent will impress the masses even more.
Yes, I am a monster, a bloodthirsty beast. But I am a monster for the good of the world.
It is necessary to use any ruse, cunning, unlawful method, evasion and concealment of truth.
Hang no fewer than one hundred well-known kulaks, rich men, bloodsuckers, and make sure that the hanging takes place in full view of the people.
We shall send the priests to the guillotine. We shall put the bourgeois on the scaffold.
The press is the chief instrument of our propaganda.
We need to clear the ground of this old rubbish. We must destroy everything that is old, rotten, and harmful.
War is a continuation of policy by other means.
We don’t believe in eternal morality.
When we are victorious on a world scale I think we shall use gold for the purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of the great cities of the world.
It is not enough to be a revolutionary and an adherent of socialism or a Communist in general. You must be able at each particular moment to find the particular link in the chain which you must grasp as a whole in order to hold the whole chain and to prepare firmly for the transition to the next link.