EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
On January 21, 1924, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), the ideological inspirer of the October Revolution of 1917 and the first leader of the Soviet Union, died. In the years after his death, a real cult of his personality was created. His body lies in the center of Moscow to this day as a symbol of an entire era. Here we have collected selected quotes from Lenin's multi-volume works and Ilyich's declassified telegrams. A. Litvin in order to illustrate what a politician (and a person) he was.
We at EKIP have previously published texts by Lenin, with the aim of illustrating the development of "early socialism" in the USSR, and again on the same date. But this time, on the anniversary of September 9th and the Soviet occupation of Bulgaria, we believe it is especially useful to get to know more closely the personality and thinking of the leader who inspired all communist countries around the world and was revered as an idol and hero by all of them. Including the People's Republic of Bulgaria. With the quotes below, we want to specially congratulate and perhaps, if we are lucky, make all those of our compatriots who still celebrate this date as a "holiday" think.
“The Red-White Terror in Russia - 1917 - 1922.”
“...a wonderful plan! Finish it together with Dzerzhinsky. In the form of “greens”, so that later we can blame them. We will enrage everyone within a radius of 20 km. - kulaks, priests, rentiers. Bonus - 100,000 rubles for each hanged.”
December 24-27, 1917. (V. Lenin - Complete Works, vol. 35, pp. 200, 201 and 204, from the work “How to Organize a Competition”)
"A war not of life but of death for the rich bourgeois intelligentsia. We must deal with them even for the slightest offense... In one place they will put them in prison, in another - they will make them clean toilets, in a third - they will issue them yellow books, in a fourth - they will shoot them on the spot. The more variety, the better and the richer the common experience will be."
June 3, 1918. ( D. Volkogonov - Lenin. Political portrait. Manuscript with Lenin's order to the Chairman of the Cheka in Baku, Ter-Gabrielyan )
“...You can also instruct Ter to prepare everything necessary for the complete burning of Baku in the event of an invasion and have him announce it officially.”
August 9, 1918. (V. Lenin - Complete Works , vol. 50, pp. 143-144)
"Penza, Gubispolkom (note: Provincial Executive Committee). ...to carry out large-scale mass terror against the kulaks, priests and White Guards; those suspected of being involved should be imprisoned in a concentration camp outside the city."
(A. Latyshev – The Declassified Lenin. M., 1996, p. 57)
“To Comrades Kuraev, Bosch, Minkin and the other Penza communists. Comrades! The uprising of the five kulak districts must be ruthlessly crushed. The interests of the entire revolution rest on this, because this is the last and decisive battle with the kulaks. It must serve as an example. Hang (hang for the people to see) no less than 100 famous kulaks, rich men and bloodsuckers. Publish their names. Confiscate all their bread. Take hostages - according to yesterday's telegram. Make it so that for hundreds of kilometers around the people see, tremble, know and shout: they are crushing and will crush the bloodsucker kulaks. Send a telegram that the task has been received and fulfilled. Yours, Lenin.”
August 22 , 1918. (V. Lenin Complete Works , vol. 50, p. 165)
"Saratov city (note: authorized by Narkomprod - People's Commissariat for Food Supply), next to Pikes... I advise you to appoint your own people as chiefs and shoot the conspirators and those who hesitate, without asking anyone and without considering the idiotic bureaucracy."
September 10, 1918. (V. Lenin – Complete Works, vol. 50, p. 178
City of Sviyazhsk, to Trotsky: "I am surprised and alarmed by the delay in the operation against Kazan, if what I have been told is true - you have every opportunity to destroy the enemy with artillery. In my opinion, it is not right to pity the city and postpone it any longer - merciless extermination is necessary."
June 3, 1919 (V. Lenin – Complete Works, Vol. 50, p. 335)
Regarding foreigners, my advice is not to rush to the gallows. Isn't a concentration camp better?
(A. Latyshev – The Declassified Lenin. M., 1996, p. 56)
"All foreign citizens from 17 to 55 years of age living on the territory of the RSFSR, who join the ranks of the bourgeoisie of the countries at war with us, shall be imprisoned in a concentration camp."
November 19, 1919 (V. Lenin – Complete Works, Vol. 39, p. 315)
"...far from all Christians understand that free trade in bread is a crime against the state. "I produced this bread, it is my product and I have the right to trade in it" - this is how the Christian reasons, out of old habit. And we must teach him that this is a crime."
Lenin, August 26, 1921. (V. Lenin – Complete Works, Vol. 53, p. 142)
To T. Lunacharsky "I advise that all theaters be destroyed. The People's Committee for Education should deal with literacy training, not theaters."
March 19, 1922 (News of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 1990. Issue 4, pp. 190-193)
"... I come to the unconditional conclusion that right now we must fight the clergy most resolutely and mercilessly and crush their resistance with such cruelty that they will not forget it in the next few decades... The more representatives of the reactionary clergy and the reactionary bourgeoisie we manage to shoot on this occasion - the better."
Lenin, August 1920 (A. Latyshev – Declassified Lenin. M., 1996)
"...To take military measures, i.e. try to punish Latvia and Estonia (the old name of Estonia) in a military way, for example, "on the shoulders" of Balakhovich, to enter anywhere within 1 km. of the border and to enrage 100 - 1000 of their officials and rich people."
May 17, 1922 (V. Lenin – Complete Works, Vol. 45, p. 190)
"The court should not abolish terror; to promise such a thing would be a lie, but it should legitimize it in principle and clearly, without falsehood or embellishment."
Translation: Marina Zaharieva
