Russian revolutionary (1870-1924)
But every little difference may become a big one if it is insisted on.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Paragraph One of the Rules", One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
The art of any propagandist and agitator consists in his ability to find the best means of influencing any given audience, by presenting a definite truth, in such a way as to make it most convincing, most easy to digest, most graphic, and most strongly impressive.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The Slogans and Organisation of Social-Democratic Work
Whoever wants to reach socialism by any other path than that of political democracy will inevitably arrive at conclusions that are absurd and reactionary both in the economic and the political sense.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution", Collected Works
Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Dogmatism and Freedom of Criticism", What Is To Be Done?
What we prize most is peace and an opportunity to devote all our efforts to restoring our economy.
VLADIMIR LENIN
speech delivered at the fourth All-Russia Congress of Garment Workers, February 6, 1920
Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Report on the Work of the Council of People's Commissars, December 22, 1920
It is at moments of need that one learns who one's friends are. Defeated armies learn their lesson.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder
We want to achieve a new and better order of society: in this new and better society there must be neither rich nor poor; all will have to work. Not a handful of rich people, but all the working people must enjoy the fruits of their common labour. Machines and other improvements must serve to ease the work of all and not to enable a few to grow rich at the expense of millions and tens of millions of people. This new and better society is called socialist society. The teachings about this society are called socialism.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"To the Rural Poor", Collected Works
I must say that the tasks of the youth in general, and of the Young Communist Leagues and all other organisations in particular, might be summed up in a single word: learn.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The Tasks of the Youth Leagues
A political leader who desires to be useful to the revolutionary proletariat must be able to distinguish concrete cases of compromises that are inexcusable and are an expression of opportunism and treachery.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder
It is true that liberty is precious -- so precious that it must be rationed.
VLADIMIR LENIN
attributed, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization
It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws. But when it comes it moves irresistibly.
VLADIMIR LENIN
speech at the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, August 23, 1918
Political institutions are a superstructure resting on an economic foundation.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The Three Sources and Three Constituent Parts of Marxism
The bourgeoisie incites the workers of one nation against those of another in the endeavor to keep them disunited.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Capitalism and Workers' Immigration", Za Pravdu, October 29, 1913
Every cook must learn to rule the State.
VLADIMIR LENIN
attributed, "Woman's Place", New International, August 1935
The progressive historical role of capitalism may be summed up in two brief propositions: increase in the productive forces of social labour, and the socialisation of that labour. But both these facts manifest themselves in extremely diverse processes in different branches of the national economy.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"The Mission of Capitalism", The Development of Capitalism in Russia
It is not national interests we are upholding -- we claim that the interests of socialism, the interests of world socialism, rank higher than national interests, higher than the interests of the state. We are defenders of the socialist fatherland.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Address to the Party Central Committee, May 14, 1918
Monopolies, oligarchy, the striving for domination and not for freedom, the exploitation of an increasing number of small or weak nations by a handful of the richest or most powerful nations -- all these have given birth to those distinctive characteristics of imperialism which compel us to define it as parasitic or decaying capitalism.
VLADIMIR LENIN
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism
The functionaries of our political organizations and trade unions are corrupted -- or rather tend to be corrupted -- by the conditions of capitalism and betray a tendency to become bureaucrats, i.e., privileged persons divorced from the people and standing above the people.
VLADIMIR LENIN
The State and Revolution
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