It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws.
Vladimir LeninRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the honesty required in confronting the harsh realities of revolution and war.
Lenin's quote expresses the imperative of being truthful about the brutal reality that a major revolutionary change often involves violent conflict and sacrifice. By stating that concealing the necessity of a 'desperate, bloody war of extermination' would be deceitful, he highlights the importance of transparency in revolutionary actions and the weight of the moral responsibility to acknowledge the human cost of such endeavors.
Themes
RevolutionWarTruthSacrificeHonesty
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about the necessity of facing difficult truths in a political movement.
More from Vladimir Lenin
All quotes →For the complete extinction of the state, complete Communism is necessary.
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A democracy is a state which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.
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We are not utopians, we do not “dream” of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and "foremen and accountants".
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The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
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