Vladimír Iljič Lenin citáty

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„Kapitalisti sa môžu vykúpiť z každej krízy, ak prinútia robotníkov za to zaplatiť.“

„Aby si dosiahol veľkého treba začať s menším.“

„Aj keby mal človek niekoľko rokov, je mladý a silný, pokiaľ má komu povedať mama.“

„Pravda nesmie závisieť na tom komu bude slúžiť.“

„Keď pracuješ, nehanbi sa povedať ľuďom, ktorí prekážajú, že ti prekážajú.“

„Nevedomosť má bližšie k pravde ako predsudok.“

„Zvelič pravdu a máš hlúposť.“

„Idúc do boja, musíme chcieť zvíťaziť a vedieť ukázať správnu cestu k víťazstvu“

„Učiť sa, učiť sa, učiť sa! zo state "Spiatočnícky smer v ruskej sociálnej demokracii" z roku 1899, zverejnenej v roku 1924“

„Každý, kto sa považuje za umelca, má právo tvoriť slobodne, podľa svojho ideálu, nezávisle na čomkoľvek.“

„Len revolúcia je hybnou silou tohto sprachnivého konzervatívneho sveta. Revolúcia a nie evolúcia ním môže otriasť v samotných jeho základoch a premeniť na kopu prehnitých ruín.“

„Užitečni idioti se poperou, aby nám dodali i provaz, na kterém je poté pověsíme.“

„Človeka nesúdime podľa toho, čo o sebe hovorí alebo čo si o sebe myslí, ale podľa toho, čo robí.“

„Menej bombastických fráz - viac jednoduchej všednej práce.“

„Múdry je, kto robí chyby nie príliš podstatné a kto ich dokáže ľahko a rýchlo napraviť.“

„Ochraňovať našu mladú republiku zavedením a prevádzaním tvrdých potlačení, odstrániť všetkých vinníkov a podozrivých, alebo tých, ktorí by moli byt podozriví, dať do koncentračných táborov, vytvoriť červený teror, potrestať smrťou všetkých pokladaných za vinných a členov ich rodín dať do koncentračných táborov k tomuto účelu zriadených.“

„Štát je silný vtedy, keď masy všetko vedia, všetko môžu a všetko konajú vedome.“

„V revolúcii ľudia rýchlo dospievajú.“

„Môže byť národ slobodný, ak utláča iné národy? To nemôže.“

„Učiť sa, učiť sa, učiť sa!“

„Najhlbším zdrojom náboženských predsudkov je bieda a tmárstvo, práve proti ním musíme bojovať.“

„Mám rád, keď sa ľudia škriepia, znamená to, že vedia, čo robia a že majú smer.“

„Nedostatky človeka sú akoby pokračovaním jeho cností. Keď však prednosti siahajú ďalej, než treba, keď sa prejavujú nie vtedy, keď treba a nie tam, kde treba, potom sú to nedostatky.“

„Je príjemnejšie a užitočnejšie prejsť „skúsenosťou z revolúcie“ ako písať o nej.“

„Buržoázia sa dnes vyhýba zdaneniu úplatkárstvom a prostredníctvom svojich spojení; musíme uzavrieť všetky medzery.“

„Posledné slová pred smrťou k svojmu psovi, ktorý mu k posteli priniesol mŕtveho vtáka.“

“Trade unions and strikes cannot help in times of crisis when there is no demand for this “commodity”, they cannot change the conditions which, convert labour-power into a commodity and which doom the masses of working people to dire need and unemployment. To change these conditions, a revolutionary struggle against the whole existing social and political system is necessary; the industrial crisis will convince very many workers of the justice of this statement.”

“It is not the business of socialists to help the younger and stronger robbers. Socialists must take advantage of the struggle between the robbers to overthrow all of them. To be able to do this, socialists must first of all tell the people the truth, namely, that this war is, in three respects, a war between slave-holders with the aim of consolidating slavery.”

“You are known among us as a protector of the arts so you must remember that, of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important.”

“We must pursue the removal of church property by any means necessary in order to secure for ourselves a fund of several hundred million gold rubles (do not forget the immense wealth of some monasteries and lauras). Without this fund any government work in general, any economic build-up in particular, and any upholding of soviet principles in Genoa especially is completely unthinkable. In order to get our hands on this fund of several hundred million gold rubles (and perhaps even several hundred billion), we must do whatever is necessary. But to do this successfully is possible only now. All considerations indicate that later on we will fail to do this, for no other time, besides that of desperate famine, will give us such a mood among the general mass of peasants that would ensure us the sympathy of this group, or, at least, would ensure us the neutralization of this group in the sense that victory in the struggle for the removal of church property unquestionably and completely will be on our side.
One clever writer on statecraft correctly said that if it is necessary for the realization of a well-known political goal to perform a series of brutal actions then it is necessary to do them in the most energetic manner and in the shortest time, because masses of people will not tolerate the protracted use of brutality. … Now victory over the reactionary clergy is assured us completely. In addition, it will be more difficult for the major part of our foreign adversaries among the Russian emigres abroad, i. e., the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Milyukovites, to fight against us if we, precisely at this time, precisely in connection with the famine, suppress the reactionary clergy with utmost haste and ruthlessness.
Therefore, I come to the indisputable conclusion that we must precisely now smash the Black Hundreds clergy most decisively and ruthlessly and put down all resistance with such brutality that they will not forget it for several decades. … The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie that we succeed in shooting on this occasion, the better because this "audience" must precisely now be taught a lesson in such a way that they will not dare to think about any resistance whatsoever for several decades.”

“We would be deceiving both ourselves and the people if we concealed from the masses the necessity of a desperate, bloody war of extermination, as the immediate task of the coming revolutionary action.”

“The proletarian revolution calls for a prolonged education of the workers in the spirit of the fullest equality and brotherhood.”

“Dictatorship is rule based directly upon force and unrestricted by any laws. The revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is rule won and maintained by the use of violence by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, rule that is unrestricted by any laws.”

“International unity of the workers is more important than the national.”

“To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament — this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary- constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics.”

“Imperialism - the era of bank capital, the era of gigantic capitalist monopolies, the era of the transformation of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism - has particularly witnessed an unprecedented strengthening of the "state machine" and an unprecedented growth of its bureaucratic and military apparatus, in connection with the increase in repressive measures against the proletariat in the monarchical as well as in the freest republican countries.”

“The Poor Peasants’ Committees are necessary to fight the kulaks, the rich, the exploiters, who shackle the working peasants. But between the kulaks, who are a small minority, and the poor or semi-proletarians there is the section of the middle peasants. The Soviet government has never declared or conducted any struggle against them. Any steps or measures to the contrary must be condemned most vigorously and stopped. The socialist government must pursue a policy of agreement with the middle peasants.”

“I am not fond of the Germans by any means but at the present time it is more advantageous to use them than to challenge them. An independent Poland is very dangerous to Soviet Russia: it is an evil which, however, at the present time has also its redeeming features; for while it exists, we may safely count on Germany, because the Germans hate Poland and will at any time make common cause with us in order to strangle Poland. … Everything teaches us to look upon Germany as our most reliable ally. Germany wants revenge, and we want revolution. For the moment our aims are the same. When our ways part they will be our most ferocious and our great enemies. Time will tell whether a German hegemony or a Communist federation is to arise out of the ruins of Europe.”

“The transformation of numerous intermediaries into a handful of monopolists represents one of the fundamental processes in the transformation of capitalism into capitalist imperialism.”

“Terrorists bow to the spontaneity of the passionate indignation of intellectuals, who lack the ability or opportunity to connect the revolutionary struggle and the working-class movement into an integral whole. It is difficult indeed for those who have lost their belief, or who have never believed, that this is possible, to find some outlet for their indignation and revolutionary energy other than terror.”

“An end to wars, peace among the nations, the cessation of pillaging and violence — such is our ideal, but only bourgeois sophists can seduce the masses with this ideal, if the latter is divorced from a direct and immediate call for revolutionary action.”

“You must act with all energy. Mass searches. Execution for concealing arms.”

“We Great-Russian workers want, come what may, a free and independent, a democratic, republican and proud Great Russia, one that will base its neighbors on the human principle of equality, and not on the feudalist principle of privilege, which is so degrading to a great nation.”

“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.”

“To become the ruling class and defeat the bourgeoisie the proletariat must be schooled, because the skill this implies does not come ready-made, The proletariat must do its learning in the struggle, and stubborn, desperate struggle in earnest is the only real teacher. The greater the extremes of the exploiters' resistance, the more vigorously, firmly, ruthlessly and successfully will they be suppressed by the exploited.”

“We know that an unskilled labourer or a cook cannot immediately get on with the job of state administration.”

“The worker is becoming impoverished absolutely, i. e., he is actually becoming poorer than before; he is compelled to live worse, to eat worse, to suffer hunger more, and to live in basements and attics.”

“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.”

“Rectilinearity and one-sidedness, woodenness and petrification, subjectivism and subjective blindness — voilà the epistemological roots of idealism.”

“What caused the war? The greed of the Italian money bags and capitalists, who need new markets and new achievements for Italian imperialism. What kind of war was it? A perfected, civilised blood bath, the massacre of Arabs with the help of the “latest” weapons.”

“Shame on accursed tsarism which tortured and persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations.”

“A United States of Europe is possible as an agreement between the European capitalists … but to what end? Only for the purpose of jointly suppressing socialism in Europe”

“To Bring political knowledge to the workers the Social-Democratss must go among all classes of the population, must dispatch units of their army in all directions”

“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. We do not expect the advent of a system of society in which the principle of subordination of the minority to the majority will not be observed.
In striving for socialism, however, we are convinced that it will develop into communism and, therefore, that the need for violence against people in general, for the subordination of one man to another, and of one section of the population to another, will vanish altogether since people will become accustomed to observing the elementary conditions of social life without violence and without subordination.”

“Practice is the criterion of truth.”