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Joseph Stalin

88 quotes

“Before your eyes rises the hero of Gogol's story who, in a fit of aberration, imagined that he was the King of Spain. Such is the fate of all megalomaniacs.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Proletariatis Brdzola August 1905, as quoted in Young Stalin (2007) by Simon Sebag Montefiore, p. 376
“This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At the funeral of his first wife, Kato Svanidze, on 25 November 1907, as quoted in Young Stalin (2007) by Simon Sebag Montefiore, p. 193
“One of Ivan the Terrible's mistakes was to overlook the five great feudal families. If he had annihilated those five families, there would definitely have been no Time of Troubles. But Ivan the Terrible would execute someone and then spend a long time repenting and praying. God got in his way in this matter. He ought to have been still more decisive!”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Moskovskie novosti, no. 32, 7 August 1988
“The writer is the engineer of the human soul.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1932 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said by Stalin at a meeting of fifty top Soviet writers at Maxim Gorky's house in Moscow (26 October 1932), as quoted in Simon Sebag Montefiore's Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, p. 85, and Edvard Radzinsky's Stalin, …
“If, against all expectation, Germany finds itself in a difficult situation then she can be sure that the Soviet people will come to Germany's aid and will not allow Germany to be strangled. The Soviet Union wants to see a strong Germany and we will not allow Germany to be thrown to the ground.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said by Stalin during a meeting with the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop, shortly after the Soviet Union invaded Poland (28 September 1939), as quoted in World War Two: Behind Closed Doors: Sta…
“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this—who will count the votes, and how.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said in 1923, as quoted in The Memoirs of Stalin's Former Secretary (1992) by Boris Bazhanov [Saint Petersburg] (Борис Бажанов. Воспоминания бывшего секретаря Сталина). (Text online in Russian).
“Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Memoirs of Stalin's former secretary (1992) by Boris Bazhanov [Saint Petersburg] (in Russian)
“[The Albanians] seem to be rather backward and primitive people... they can be as faithful as a dog; that is one of the traits of the primitive. Our Chuvash were the same. The Russian tsars always used them for their bodyguards.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Edvard Kardelj (1947), as quoted in Vladimir Dedijer (1954), Tito Speaks, page 312
“The Pope! How many divisions has he got?”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said sarcastically to Pierre Laval in 1935, in response to being asked whether he could do anything with Russian Catholics to help Laval win favour with the Pope, to counter the increasing threat of Nazism; as quoted in…
“So the bastard's dead? Too bad we didn't capture him alive!”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said in April 1945 — On hearing of Hitler's suicide, as quoted in The Memoirs of Georgy Zhukov
“The fight against Zionism has nothing in common with anti-Semitism. Zionism is an enemy of workers around the world, both of those who are Jewish and those who are not.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in the Krasnaya Zvezda, 1953; as quoted in Contro imperialismo e sionismo, liberi dalle teorie razziali (Text in Italian).
“Does Djilas, who is himself a writer, not know what human suffering and the human heart are? Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a wench or takes some trifle?”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In response to complaints about the rapes and looting committed by the Red Army during the Second World War, as quoted in Conversations with Stalin (1963) by Milovan Djilas, p. 95
“The idea of a concentration camp is excellent.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On ideas of eradicating 'counter-revolutionaries and traitors' in Estonia, as quoted in Stalin : A Biography (2004) by Robert Service, p. 158; also in Bol'shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska, 1912-1927, p. 36.
“Tsar Alexander reached Paris.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Molotov in 1943, as quoted in Felix Chuev's 140 Conversations with Molotov Moscow, 1991.
“God is on your side? Is He a Conservative? The Devil's on my side, he's a good Communist.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Winston Churchill in Tehran, November 1943, as quoted in Fallen Eagle: The Last Days of the Third Reich (1995) by Robin Cross, p. 21
“The Jews are not a nation!”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Stalin : A Biography (2004) by Robert Service, p. 156
“There are no fortresses that Bolsheviks cannot storm.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clive Foss, The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption, London: Quercus Publishing, 2006, , p. 131
“I'm finished. I trust no one, not even myself.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to Nikita Khrushchev and Anastas Mikoyan as quoted in "Khrushchev: Notes from a Forbidden Land", Time, 30 November 1970, citing the publication of an installment of Khrushchev's reminiscences in Life that week.
“Why did you beat me so hard?”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He can't even shoot straight.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his son Yakov's suicide attempt, as quoted in Encyclopedia of Useless Information (2007) by William Harston
“Having consolidated its power, and taking the lead of the peasantry, the proletariat of the victorious country can and must build a socialist society.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Problems of Leninism, August 1924 edition
“The State is a machine in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing the resistance of its class enemies. in this respect the dictatorship of the proletariat does not differ essentially from dictatorship of any other class, for the proletarian State is a machine for the suppression of the bourgeoisie.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mortal sin of the Second International was not that it pursued at that time the tactics of utilising parliamentary forms of struggle, but that it overestimated the importance of these forms, that it considered them virtually the only forms; and that when the period of open revolutionary battles set in and the question of extra-parliamentary forms of struggle came to the fore, the parties of the Second International turned their backs on these new tasks, refused to shoulder them.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Party must be, first of all, the advanced detachment of the working class. The Party must absorb all the best elements of the working class, their experience, their revolutionary spirit, their selfless devotion to the cause of the proletariat. But in order that it may really be the armed detachment, the Party must be armed with revolutionary theory, with a knowledge of the laws of the movement, with a knowledge of the laws of revolution. Without this it will be incapable of directing the struggle of the proletariat, of leading the proletariat.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The principle of the minority submitting to the majority, the principle of directing Party work from a centre, not infrequently gives rise to attacks on the part of wavering elements, to accusations of "bureaucracy," "formalism," etc. It scarcely needs proof that systematic work by the Party as one whole, and the directing of the struggle of the working class, would be impossible without putting these principles into effect. Leninism in questions of organisation is the unswerving application of these applications of these principles.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the point of view of the onlooker, the question of the existence of a Georgian newspaper in general, and the question of its content and trend in particular, may seem to settle themselves naturally and simply: the Georgian Social-Democratic movement is not a separate, exclusively Georgian, working-class movement with its own separate programme; it goes hand in hand with the entire Russian movement and, consequently, accepts the authority of the Russian Social-Democratic Party—hence it is clear that a Georgian Social-Democratic newspaper should be only a local organ that deals mainly with local questions and reflects the local movement. But behind this reply lurks a difficulty which we cannot ignore and which we shall inevitably encounter. We refer to the language difficulty. While the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Party is able to explain all general questions with the aid of the all-Party newspaper and leave it to the regional committees to deal only with local questions, the Georgian newspaper finds itself in a difficulty as regards content. The Georgian newspaper must simultaneously play the part of an all-Party and of a regional, or local organ. As the majority of Georgian working-class readers cannot freely read the Russian newspaper, the editors of the Georgian newspaper have no right to pass over those questions which the all-Party Russian newspaper is discussing, and should discuss. Thus, the Georgian newspaper must inform its readers about all questions of principle concerning theory and tactics. At the same time it must lead the local movement and throw proper light on every event, without leaving a single fact unexplained, and providing answers to all questions that excite the local workers. The Georgian newspaper must link up and unite the Georgian and Russian militant workers The newspaper must inform its readers about everything that interests them at home, in Russia and abroad.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "From (the) Editors" (1901) an article in a socialist newspaper-- Stalin was one of the editors (aged 22)
“In my opinion there are two seats of war danger. The first is in the Far East, in the zone of Japan. I have in mind the numerous statements made by Japanese military men containing threats against other powers. The second seat is in the zone of Germany. It is hard to say which is the most menacing, but both exist and are active. Compared with these two principal seats of war danger, the Italian-Abyssinian war is an episode. At present, the Far Eastern seat of danger reveals the greatest activity. However, the centre of this danger may shift to Europe. This is indicated, for example, by the interview which Herr Hitler recently gave to a French newspaper. In this interview Hitler seems to have tried to say peaceful things, but he sprinkled his "peacefulness" so plentifully with threats against both France and the Soviet Union that nothing remained of his "peacefulness." You see, even when Herr Hitler wants to speak of peace he cannot avoid uttering threats. This is symptomatic.”
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
“National and racial chauvinism is a vestige of the misanthropic customs characteristic of the period of cannibalism. Anti-Semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism. Anti-semitism is of advantage to the exploiters as a lightning conductor that deflects the blows aimed by the working people at capitalism. Anti-Semitism is dangerous for the toilers, for it is a false track which diverts them from the proper road and leads them into the jungle. Hence, Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable and bitter enemies of anti-Semitism. In the U.S.S.R., anti-Semitism is strictly prosecuted as a phenomenon hostile to the Soviet system. According to the laws of the U.S.S.R. active anti-Semites are punished with death.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anti-Semitism: Reply to an inquiry of the Jewish News Agency in the United States" (12 January 1931). See Stars and Sand by Joseph L. Baron, p. 316.
“As is known, the Government of the State in Britain at the present time is in the hands of one party, the Labour Party, and the opposition parties are deprived of the right to participate in the Government of Britain. That Mr. Churchill calls true democracy. Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Hungary are administered by blocs of several parties—from four to six parties—and the opposition, if it is more or less loyal, is secured the right of participation in the Government. That Mr. Churchill describes as totalitarianism, tyranny and police rule. Why? On what grounds? Don't expect a reply from Mr. Churchill. Mr. Churchill does not understand in what a ridiculous position he puts himself by his outcry about “totalitarianism, tyranny and police rule.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview to “Pravda” Correspondent Concerning Mr. Winston Churchill's Speech at Fulton; March, 1946
“Still others think that war should be organised by a "superior race," say, the German "race," against an "inferior race," primarily against the Slavs; that only such a war can provide a way out of the situation, for it is the mission of the "superior race" to render the "inferior race" fruitful and to rule over it. Let us assume that this queer theory, which is as far removed from science as the sky from the earth, let us assume that this queer theory is put into practice. What may be the result of that? It is well known that ancient Rome looked upon the ancestors of the present-day Germans and French in the same way as the representatives of the "superior race" now look upon the Slav races. It is well known that ancient Rome treated them as an "inferior race," as "barbarians," destined to live in eternal subordination to the "superior race," to "great Rome", and, between ourselves be it said, ancient Rome had some grounds for this, which cannot be said of the representatives of the "superior race" of today. (Thunderous applause.) But what was the upshot of this? The upshot was that the non-Romans, i.e., all the "barbarians," united against the common enemy and brought Rome down with a crash. The question arises: What guarantee is there that the claims of the representatives of the "superior race" of today will not lead to the same lamentable results? What guarantee is there that the fascist literary politicians in Berlin will be more fortunate than the old and experienced conquerors in Rome? Would it not be more correct to assume that the opposite will be the case?”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Report to the Seventeenth Party Congress on the Work of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. (B.) (January 26, 1934)
“The strength of Soviet patriotism lies in the fact that it is based not on racial or nationalistic prejudices, but on the peoples' profound loyalty and devotion to their Soviet Motherland, on the fraternal partnership of the working people of all the nationalities in our country. Soviet patriotism harmoniously combines the national traditions of the peoples and the common vital interests of all the working people of the Soviet Union. Far from dividing them, Soviet patriotism welds all the nations and peoples of our country into a single fraternal family. This should be regarded as the basis of the inviolable friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Union which is growing ever stronger. At the same time the peoples of the U.S.S.R. respect the rights and independence of the peoples of foreign countries and have always shown themselves willing to live in peace and friendship with neighbouring states.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Celebration Meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Working People’s Deputies and Moscow Party and Public Organizations (6 November 1944)
“We are not the kind of people who, when the word "anarchism" is mentioned, turn away contemptuously and say with a supercilious wave of the hand: "Why waste time on that, it's not worth talking about!" We think that such cheap "criticism" is undignified and useless. Nor are we the kind of people who console themselves with the thought that the Anarchists "have no masses behind them and, therefore, are not so dangerous." It is not who has a larger or smaller "mass" following today, but the essence of the doctrine that matters. If the "doctrine" of the Anarchists expresses the truth, then it goes without saying that it will certainly hew a path for itself and will rally the masses around itself. If, however, it is unsound and built up on a false foundation, it will not last long and will remain suspended in mid-air. But the unsoundness of anarchism must be proved.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You [Albanians] are a separate people, just like the Persians and the Arabs, who have the same religion as the Turks. Your ancestors existed before the Romans and the Turks. Religion has nothing to do with nationality and statehood... the question of religious beliefs must be kept well in mind, must be handled with great care, because the religious feelings of the people must not be offended. These feelings have been cultivated in the people for many centuries, and great patience is called for on this question, because the stand towards it is important for the compactness and unity of the people.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said to Enver Hoxha, on their second meeting together in March-April 1949, as quoted in Hoxha's (1986) The Artful Albanian, (Chatto & Windus, London),
“Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution. To be more exact, Leninism is the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution in general, the theory and tactics of the dictatorship of the proletariat in particular. Marx and Engels pursued their activities in the pre-revolutionary period (we have the proletarian revolution in mind), when developed imperialism did not yet exist, in the period of the proletarians' preparation for revolution, in the period when the proletarian revolution was not yet an immediate practical inevitability. But Lenin, the disciple of Marx and Engels, pursued his activities in the period of developed imperialism, in the period of the unfolding proletarian revolution, when the proletarian revolution had already triumphed in one country, had smashed bourgeois democracy and had ushered in the era of proletarian democracy, the era of the Soviets.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Party is the highest form of organisation of the proletariat. The Party is the principle guiding force within the class of the proletarians and among the organisations of that class. But it does not by any means follow from this that the Party can be regarded as an end in itself, as a self-sufficient force. The Party is not only the highest form of class association of the proletarians; it is at the same time an instrument in the hands of the proletariat for achieving the dictatorship, when that has not yet been achieved and for consolidating and expanding the dictatorship when it has already been achieved. The Party could not have risen so high in importance and could not have exerted its influence over all other forms of organisations of the proletariat, if the latter had not been confronted with the question of power, if the conditions of imperialism, the inevitability of wars, and the existence of a crisis had not yet demanded the concentration of all the forces of the proletariat at one point, the gathering of all the threads of the revolutionary movement in one spot in order to overthrow the bourgeoisie and to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletariat needs the Party first of all as its General Staff, which it must have for the successful seizure of power. It scarcely needs proof that without a party capable of rallying around itself the mass organisations of the proletariat, and of centralising the leadership of the entire movement during the progress of the struggle , the proletariat in Russia could not have established its revolutionary dictatorship.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The achievement and maintenance of the dictatorship of the proletariat is impossible without a party which is strong by reason of its solidarity and iron discipline. But iron discipline in the Party is inconceivable without unity of will, without complete and absolute unity of action on the part of all members of the Party. This does not mean, of course, that the possibility of conflicts of opinion within the Party is thereby precluded. On the contrary, iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes criticism and conflict of opinion within the Party. Least of all does it mean that discipline must be "blind." On the contrary, iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes conscious and voluntary submission, for only conscious discipline can be truly iron discipline. But after a conflict of opinion has been closed, after criticism has been exhausted and a decision has been arrived at, unity of will and unity of action of all Party members are the necessary conditions without which neither Party unity nor iron discipline in the Party is conceivable.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The theory of "defeating" opportunist elements by the ideological struggle within the Party, the theory of "overcoming" these elements within the confines of a single party, is a rotten and dangerous theory, which threatens to condemn the Party to paralysis and chronic infirmity, threatens to leave the Party a prey to opportunism, threatens to leave the proletariat without a revolutionary party, threatens to deprive the proletariat of its main weapon in the fight against imperialism. Our Party could not have emerged on to the broad highway, it could not have seized power and organised the dictatorship of the proletariat, it could not have emerged victorious from the civil war, if it had had within its ranks people like Martov and Dan, Potresov and Axelrod. Our Party succeeded in achieving internal unity and unexampled cohesion of its ranks primarily because it was able to in good time to purge itself of the opportunist pollution, because it was able to rid its ranks of the Liquidators and Mensheviks. Proletarian parties develop and become strong by purging themselves of opportunists and reformists, social-imperialists and social-chauvinists, social-patriots and social-pacifists.”
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source