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Joseph Stalin

88 quotes

“If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Draft Constitution of the U.S.S.R., 25 November 1936.
“Who's going to remember all this riff-raff in 10 or 20 years time? No one. Who remembers the names now of the boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of? No one.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fascism is the bourgeoisie’s fighting organisation that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concerning the International Situation, Concerning the International Situation, 1. The Period of Bourgeois-Democratic “Pacifism”, 6 January-November, 1924
“It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment. Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview Between J. Stalin and Roy HowardInterview Between J. Stalin and Roy Howard; March 1, 1936
“As we know, the goal of every struggle is victory. But if the proletariat is to achieve victory, all the workers, irrespective of nationality, must be united. Clearly, the demolition of national barriers and close unity between the Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Polish, Jewish and other proletarians is a necessary condition for the victory of the proletariat of all Russia.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "The Social-Democratic View of the National Question", 1904 (aged 26)
“Social democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism.... These organisations (i.e. Fascism and social democracy) are not antipodes, they are twins.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Concerning the International Situation,” Works, Vol. 6, January-November, 1924, pp. 293-314.
“It is impossible to finish off capitalism without having finished off social democracy in the working-class movement.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Voprosi Leninizma, Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politicheskoy literaturi, (1939)
“The State is a machine in the hands of the governing class for suppressing the resistance of its class antagonists. In this way the dictatorship of the proletariat differs in no way essentially from the dictatorship of any other class.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Voprosi Leninizma, Gosudarstvennoe izdatelstvo politicheskoy literaturi, (1939)
“To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed... There is nothing sweeter in the world.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joseph Stalin (c. 1940) Stalin's Kampf: Joseph Stalin's credo
“We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences — "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stalin's article "Our purposes" Pravda #1, (22 January 1912)
“If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a "peace conference," you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and aeroplanes.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech "The Elections in St. Petersburg" (January 1913)
“A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech "The Elections in St. Petersburg" (January 1913)
“The existing pseudo-government which was not elected by the people and which is not accountable to the people must be replaced by a government recognised by the people, elected by representatives of the workers, soldiers and peasants and held accountable to their representatives.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What We Need", editorial published (24 October 1917), as quoted in Stalin : A Biography (2004) by Robert Service; also in Sochineniya, Vol. 3, p. 389
“The press must grow day in and day out — it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at The Twelfth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) (19 April 1923)
“We disagreed with Zinoviev and Kamenev because we knew that the policy of amputation was fraught with great dangers for the Party, that the method of amputation, the method of blood-letting — and they demanded blood — was dangerous, infectious: today you amputate one limb, tomorrow another, the day after tomorrow a third — what will we have left in the Party?”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at The Fourteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) (December 1925)
“Bukharin's a swine and surely worse than a swine because he thinks it below his dignity to write a couple of lines.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bol'shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska 1912-1927, [Bolshevik Leadership, Correspondence 1912-1927], p. 90
“What would happen if capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets? There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1926 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at The Seventh Enlarged Plenum of the E.C.C.I. (December 1926)
“If the opposition disarms, all is well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Political Report of the Central Committee, The Fifteenth Congress of the C.P.S.U.(B.) (7 December 1927)
“True courage consists in being strong enough to master and overcome oneself and subordinate one’s will to the will of the collective, the will of the higher party body.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom, Arthur M. Schesinger, New Brunswick: NJ, Transaction Publishers (1998) p. 56. First printed in 1949. Second Speech Delivered at the Presidium of the ECCI on the Ameri…
“We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Political Report of the C.C. to XVI Party Congress (29 June 1930)
“We are in favour of the withering away of the state, and at the same time we stand for the strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which represents the most powerful and mighty of all forms of the state which have existed up to the present day. The highest development of the power of the state, with the object of preparing the conditions of the withering away of the state: that is the Marxist formula. Is it "contradictory"? Yes, it is "contradictory." But this contradiction is a living thing and wholly reflects the Marxist dialectic.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the 16th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (1930) Quoted in: Alfred B. Evans, Soviet Marxism-Leninism: The Decline of an Ideology pg. 39
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech "The Tasks of Economic Executives" (4 February 1931) Stalin said this in 1931, at the beginning of the rapid industrialization campaign. Ten years later, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
“I know that the gentlemen in the enemy camp may think of me however they like. I consider it beneath me to try to change the minds of these gentlemen.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Omitted portion of an interview between Stalin and Emil Ludwig (13 December 1931)
“We must finally understand that of all the precious capital in the world, the most precious capital, the most decisive capital, is human beings [...]. Cadres decide everything! (A more accurate translation, with respect to the context, might read: "Cadres are the key to everything")”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Graduates from the Red Army Academies. (4 May 1935); Variant translation: Human resources solve all!
“There is not, nor should there be, an irreconcilable contrast between the individual and the collective,... There should be no such contrast, because collectivism, Socialism, does not deny, but combines individual interests with the interests of the collective. Socialism cannot abstract itself from individual interests. More than that, socialist society alone can firmly safeguard the interests of the individual. In this sense there is no irreconcilable contrast between Individualism and Socialism.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stalin-Wells Talk: The Verbatim Report and A Discussion”, G.B. Shaw, J.M. Keynes et al., London, The New Statesman and Nation, (1934) p. 7
“The Communists base themselves on rich historical experience which teaches that obsolete classes do not voluntarily abandon the stage of history.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stalin-Wells Talk: The Verbatim Report and A Discussion”, G.B. Shaw, J.M. Keynes et al., London, The New Statesman and Nation, (1934) p. 13
“Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the Conference of Stakhanovites (17 November 1935)
“Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division, and from the antagonism between poor and rich, means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with H. G. Wells (September 1937)
“Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with H. G. Wells (September 1937)
“Much more could have been done had we Bolsheviks been cleverer.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with H. G. Wells (September 1937)
“The confidence of the people in the worker-directors of the economy is a great thing, Comrades. The leaders come and go, but the people remain. Only the people are immortal, everything else is ephemeral. That is why it is necessary to appreciate the full value of the confidence of the people.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the Reception of Directors and Stakhanovites of the Metal Industry and the Coal Mining Industry (29 October 1937)
“History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio Address (3 July 1941)
“You have let down our country and our Red Army. You have the nerve not to manufacture IL-2s until now. Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats. Shenkman produces one IL-2 a day and Tretyakov builds one or two MiG-3s daily. It is a mockery of our country and the Red Army. I ask you not to try the government's patience, and demand that you manufacture more ILs. This is my final warning.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Telegram to government aviation production plant superintendents by Stalin in the autumn of 1941, warning them to produce more Il-2 Sturmovik ground attack aircraft for national defense.
“Ours is a just cause; victory will be ours!”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at celebration meeting (6 November 1941). However, Stalin was quoting Vyacheslav Molotov's speech to the Soviet people of June 22, 1941. A facsimile of the draft of this speech is reprinted in the Russian journal…
“Is it possible, then, to doubt that we can and must gain victory over the German invaders? The enemy is not as strong as some terror-stricken pseudo-intellectuals picture him. The devil is not as terrible as he is painted.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech on the 24th Anniversary of the Revolution (7 November 1941)
“Comrades, Red Army and Red Navy men, commanders and political instructors, men and women guerrillas! The whole world is looking to you as a force capable of destroying the brigand hordes of German invaders. The enslaved peoples of Europe under the yoke of the German invaders are looking to you as their liberators. A great mission of liberation has fallen to your lot. Be worthy of this mission! The war you are waging is a war of liberation, a just war.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Order #55 of the National Commissar for the Defense" (23 February 1942) Stalin said this when the enemy had reached the gate of Moscow during World War II. He called on the people not to identify all Germans with th…
“This leads to the conclusion, it is time to finish retreating. Not one step back! Such should now be our main slogan. ... Henceforth the solid law of discipline for each commander, Red Army soldier, and commissar should be the requirement — not a single step back without order from higher command.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Order of the National Commissar for the Defense of the Soviet Union" (28 July 1942) Moscow
“National in form; socialist in context.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Language Policy in the Soviet Union", Lenore A. Grenoble, New York: NY, Kluwer Academic Publishers (2003) p. 41.
“We cannot forget what Lenin said about our great construction, which in large part depends on our succeeding in delaying the war with the capitalist countries. This war is inevitable, but it can be delayed until the proletarian revolution ripens in Europe, or until the colonial revolutions break out, or, finally, until the capitalists fight among themselves for the division of the colonies.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the XV Congress of the PCUS (b) 2-19 December 1927; quoted by Carlo Sforza the 11 July 1950 in the Chamber of Deputies.
“The kind of socialism under which everybody would get the same pay, an equal quantity of meat and an equal quantity of bread, would wear the same clothes and receive the same goods in the same quantities—such a socialism is unknown to Marxism. All that Marxism says is that until classes have been finally abolished and until labor has been transformed from a means of subsistence into the prime want of man, into voluntary labor for society, people will be paid for their labor according to the work performed.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talk With the German Author Emil Ludwig, December 13, 1931.
“This country is a ritual.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't want to have to say this out loud, but I did what I did, I killed as many as I could lay hands on, and very few escaped.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Stalin-Kaganovich Correspondence, 1931-36
“Some people believe that Marxism and anarchism are based on the same principles and that the disagreements between them concern only tactics, so that, in the opinion of these people, no distinction whatsoever can be drawn between these two trends. This is a great mistake. We believe that the Anarchists are real enemies of Marxism. Accordingly, we also hold that a real struggle must be waged against real enemies.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marxism is not only the theory of socialism, it is an integral world outlook, a philosophical system, from which Marx's proletarian socialism logically follows. This philosophical system is called dialectical materialism.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Strikes, boycott, parliamentarism, meetings and demonstrations are all good forms of struggle as means for preparing and organising the proletariat. But not one of these means is capable of abolishing existing inequality. All these means must be concentrated in one principal and decisive means; the proletariat must rise and launch a determined attack upon the bourgeoisie in order to destroy capitalism to its foundations. This principal and decisive means is the socialist revolution.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Until the bourgeoisie is completely vanquished, until its wealth has been confiscated, the proletariat must without fail possess a military force, it must without fail have its "proletarian guard," with the aid of which it will repel the counter-revolutionary attacks of the dying bourgeoisie, exactly as the Paris proletariat did during the Commune.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have no son named Yakov.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted in Joseph Stalin: Dictator of the Soviet Union (2006) by Brenda Haugen, p. 11
“You know, they are fooling us, there is no God.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A teenaged Stalin to a fellow student while studying to become a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, as quoted in Landmarks in the Life of Stalin (1942) by Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, p. 9
“God's not unjust, he doesn't actually exist. We've been deceived. If God existed, he'd have made the world more just... I'll lend you a book and you'll see.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A teenaged Stalin after reading The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin as quoted in Young Stalin (2007) by Simon Sebag Montefiore, p. 49