Great Throughts Treasury

"But by no means limit ourselves to address the problem of religion in the abstract-to-idealistically, as a matter of reasoning completely detached from the class struggle (as they often radical bourgeois democrats). It would be absurd to imagine that, in a society based on the endless oppression and degradation of the toiling masses, we may remove religious prejudices with a mere preaching. It would give evidence of a bourgeois narrow-mindedness, lose sight of the fact that religious oppression of humanity is only the fruit or reflection aspect of economic oppression in society. Neither the books nor preaching can enlighten the proletariat positively if it is not enlightened by its own struggle against the dark forces of capitalism. The union in this genuinely revolutionary struggle of the oppressed class to make the earth a heaven, is more important to us than unity of proletarian criteria about imaginary paradise of heaven. 's why we do not represent or declare in our program that we are atheists , which is why we do not ban or prohibit proletarians who still cling to the vestiges of the old prejudices that come into closer contact with our party. Always preach a scientific philosophy, we must combat the absurdities of Christians, but this does not mean that the religious question should be placed in the foreground where it does not belong. We must not allow the forces oriented in a genuinely revolutionary struggle, economic and political, where infringements on behalf of opinions and conceptions of much less importance, they quickly lose any political significance and are gradually relegated to the pile by the normal course of economic development. The reactionary bourgeoisie, here as elsewhere, always strives stoke religious antagonisms in order to divert attention from the masses of those really important and fundamental issues, both economic and political, that the Russian proletariat is in the process of deciding through the practice of the revolutionary struggle. This reactionary tactic of dividing the proletarian forces, which today is mainly manifested in the pogroms of the Black Hundreds, tomorrow can be expressed in more subtle forms. Anyway, we know oppose this our propaganda firm sustained and patient towards proletarian solidarity and scientific philosophy that will prevent differences arising secondary."

"Bourgeois democracy is democracy of pompous phrases, solemn words, exuberant promises and the high-sounding slogans of freedom and equality. But, in fact, it screens the non-freedom and inferiority of women, the non-freedom and inferiority of the toilers and exploited."

"But suppose, for the sake of argument, free competition, without any sort of monopoly, would develop capitalism trade more rapidly. Is it not a fact that the more rapidly trade and capitalism develop, the greater is the concentration of production and capital which gives rise to monopoly?"

"Bolshevism went through fifteen years of practical history (1903-17) unequalled anywhere in the world in its wealth of experience. During those fifteen years, no other country knew anything even approximating to that revolutionary experience, that rapid and varied succession of different forms of the movement—legal and illegal, peaceful and stormy, underground and open, local circles and mass movements, and parliamentary and terrorist forms."

"But every little difference may become a big one if it is insisted on."

"But the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be exercised through an organization embracing the whole of that class, because in all capitalist countries (and not only over here, in one of the most backward) the proletariat is still so divided, so degraded, and so corrupted in parts (by imperialism in some countries) that an organization taking in the whole proletariat cannot directly exercise proletarian dictatorship."

"By destroying small-scale production, capital leads to an increase in productivity of labor and to the creation of a monopoly position for the associations of big capitalists."

"Capital is an international force. To vanquish it, an international workers' alliance, an international workers' brotherhood, is needed."

"Can a nation be free if it oppresses other nations? It cannot."

"Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with the view of confiscating them and leaving the population defenseless."

"Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labor over capital."

"Capitalists are no more capable of self-sacrifice than a man is capable of lifting himself up by his own bootstraps."

"Complete equality of rights for all nations; the right of nations to self-determination; the unity of the workers of all nations—such is the national program that Marxism, the experience of the whole world, and the experience of Russia, teach the workers."

"Communism is Soviet government plus the electrification of the whole country. Otherwise the country will remain a country of small peasant economy, and it is up to us to realize this quite clearly."

"Communism cannot be imposed by force."

"Confiscation of all landed estates. Nationalization of all lands in the country, the land to be disposed of by the local Soviets of Agricultural Laborers’ and Peasants’ Deputies."

"Comrade Stalin, having become Secretary-General, has unlimited authority concentrated in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be capable of using that authority with sufficient caution."

"Crime is a product of social excess"

"Convert the imperialist war into civil war."

"Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich — that is the democracy of capitalist society."

"Democracy means equality. The great significance of the proletariat's struggle for equality and of equality as a slogan will be clear if we correctly interpret it as meaning the abolition of classes. But democracy means only formal equality. And as soon as equality is achieved for all members of society in relation to ownership of the means of production, that is, equality of labor and wages, humanity will inevitably be confronted with the question of advancing father, from formal equality to actual equality, i.e., to the operation of the rule “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”."

"Dialectics is the teaching which shows how Opposites can be and how they happen to be (how they become) identical,—under what conditions they are identical, becoming transformed into one another,—why the human mind should grasp these opposites not as dead, rigid, but as living, conditional, mobile, becoming transformed into one another."

"Destroy the family, you destroy the country."

"Democracy is a form of the state, it represents, on the one hand, the organized, systematic use of force against persons; but, on the other hand, it signifies the formal recognition of equality of citizens, the equal right of all to determine the structure of, and to administer, the state."

"Discrimination among citizens on account of their religious convictions is wholly intolerable. Even the bare mention of a citizen's religion in official documents should unquestionably be eliminated."

"Disarmament is the ideal of socialism. There will be no wars in socialist society; consequently, disarmament will be achieved. But whoever expects that socialism will be achieved without a social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat is not a socialist. Dictatorship is state power based directly on violence. And in the twentieth century — as in the age of civilization generally — violence means neither a fist nor a club, but troops. To put “disarmament” in the program is tantamount to making the general declaration: We are opposed to the use of arms. There is as little Marxism in this as there would be if we were to say: We are opposed to violence!"

"Dialectics as living, many-sided knowledge (with the number of sides eternally increasing), with an infinite number of shades of every approach and approximation to reality (with a philosophical system growing into a whole out of each shade)"

"During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the consolation of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarizing it."

"Every cook has to learn how to govern the state."

"Every question “runs in a vicious circle” because political life as a whole is an endless chain consisting of an infinite number of links. The whole art of politics lies in finding and taking as firm a grip as we can of the link that is least likely to be struck from our hands, the one that is most important at the given moment, the one that most of all guarantees its possessor the possession of the whole chain."

"Everyone is free to write and say whatever he likes, without any restrictions. But every voluntary association (including the party) is also free to expel members who use the name of the party to advocate anti-party views."

"Exchange, fair or unfair, always presupposes and includes the rule of the bourgeoisie."

"Do everything to demonstrate, and in the most emphatic manner, our sympathy for the Moslems, their autonomy, independence, etc."

"Does not the whole history of socialism, particularly of French socialism, which is so rich in revolutionary striving, show us that when the working people themselves take power in their hands the ruling classes resort to unheard-of crimes and shootings if it is a matter of protecting their money-bags."

"Disorderly, unorganized and petty terrorist acts may, if carried to extremes, only scatter and squander our forces. That is a fact, which, of course, should not be forgotten. On the other hand, under no circumstances should it be forgotten that a slogan calling for an uprising has already been issued, that the uprising has already begun. To launch attacks under favourable circumstances is not only every revolutionary’s right, but his plain duty. The killing of spies, policemen, gendarmes, the blowing up of police stations, the liberation of prisoners, the seizure of government funds for the needs of the uprising — such operations are already being carried out wherever insurrection is rife."

"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."

"Down with all colonial policy, down with the whole policy of intervention and capitalist struggle for the conquest of foreign lands and foreign populations, for new privileges, new markets, control of the Straits, etc.!"

"Fear is the foundation of obedience."

"First ascertain exactly the position of the various capitalists, then control them, influence them by restricting or enlarging, facilitating or hindering their credits, and finally they can entirely determine their fate."

"Far from extinguishing competition, socialism, on the contrary, for the first time creates the opportunity for employing it on a really wide and on a really mass scale, for actually drawing the majority of working people into a field of labor in which they can display their abilities, develop the capacities, and reveal those talents, so abundant among the people whom capitalism crushed, suppressed and strangled in thousands and millions."

"For any truth, if overdone (as Dietzgen Senior put it), if exaggerated, or if carried beyond the limits of its applicability, can be reduced to absurdity."

"For the first time after centuries of working for others, of forced labor for the exploiter, it has become possible to work for oneself and moreover to employ all the achievements of modern technology and culture in one’s work."

"Freedom is a grand word, but under the banner of freedom for industry the most predatory wars were waged, under the banner of freedom of labor, the working people were robbed. The modern use of the term freedom of criticism contains the same inherent falsehood."

"Experience has proved that, on certain very important questions of the proletarian revolution, all countries will inevitably have to do what Russia has done."

"For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary."

"Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners."

"For the first time the peasant has seen real freedom — freedom to eat his bread, freedom from starvation."

"Freedom of speech and the press must be complete. But then freedom of association must be complete too."

"Freedom of criticism is undoubtedly the most fashionable slogan at the present time, and the one most frequently employed in the controversies between socialists and democrats in all countries."

"From the correct Marxist premise concerning the deep economic roots of the class struggle in general and of the political struggle in particular, the Economists have drawn the singular conclusion that we must turn our backs on the political struggle and retard its development, narrow its scope, and reduce its aims. The political wing, on the contrary, has drawn a different conclusion from these same premises, namely, that the deeper the roots of our present struggle, the more widely, the more boldly, the more resolutely, and with greater initiative must we wage this struggle."