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Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky Quotes

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Famous Leon Trotsky Quotes

“Can and must! The proclamation of this new conception of [Joseph Stalin] is closed by the same words, "Such are in general the characteristic features of Lenin's conception of the proletarian revolution." In the course of a single year Stalin ascribed to [Vladimir] Lenin two directly opposed conceptions of the fundamental question of socialism. The first version represents the real tradition of the party; the second took shape in Stalin's mind only after the death of Lenin, in the course of the struggle against "Trotskyism".”

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Author:Leon Trotsky
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“In Russia itself the proletariat conquered in spite of the fact that there was no Soviet State in existence at the time elsewhere. For the victory are necessary, not only certain objective conditions, internal as well as external, but also certain subjective factors - the Party, the leadership, the strategy.”

WellsStatesFactsCertainPartyExistenceConditionsVictoryStrategyRussiaObjectivesFactorsSpiteInternalsSovietElsewhereSubjectiveProletariat
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“Socialist economy cannot reject the huge advantages of the world division of labor: on the contrary, it will carry it to the highest development. But in practise, it is not a question of the future socialist society, with an established internal equilibrium, but of the given technically and culturally backward country which in the interests of industrialisation and collectivization is forced to export as much as possible in order to import as much as possible.”

WorldCountryOrderGivenInterestEconomyHugeDevelopmentHighestAdvantageLaborContraryInternalsRejectsDivisionSocialistEquilibriumImportsPractiseDivision Of LaborSocialist Economy
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“Only the defeat of the proletariat in Germany in 1923 gave the decisive push to the creation of Stalin's theory of national socialism: the downward curve of the revolution gave rise to Stalinism, not to the theory of the permanent revolution, which was first formulated by me in 1905. This theory is not bound to a definite calendar of revolutionary events; it only reveals the world-wide interdependence of the revolutionary process.”

WorldFirstsProcessEventsCreationTheoryRevolutionBoundsDefeatWideSocialismPermanentRevolutionaryGermanyDefiniteCurvesCalendarsInterdependenceProletariatStalinism
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“The initiative of the Five Year Plan and of the accelerated collectivization belongs entirely to the Left Opposition, in uninterrupted and sharp struggles with the Stalinists. Not having the possibility of occupying myself here with long historical researches, I will limit myself to a single illustration. The Dnieprostroy is considered with right as the highest achievement of Soviet industrialization. Yet [Joseph] Stalin and his followers ([Clim] Voroshilov and others) a few months before the beginning of the work were decided opponents of the Dnieprostroy plan.”

YearsLongLeftStruggleFivePlansPossibilityMonthsLimitsAchievementHighestResearchDecidedHistoricalOpponentsFive YearsOppositionFollowersSovietInitiativeIllustrationIndustrializationHistorical ResearchFive Year Plans
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“Only when the kulak refused to deliver grain to the State did [Joseph] Stalin, under the pressure of the Left Opposition, accomplish a sharp turn. Being the empiricist that he is, he moved, to the opposite extreme, and set as a task for two or three years the collectivization of all the peasantry, the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, and the compression of the Five Year Plan into four years.”

YearsTwoStatesTurnsThreeLeftClassFiveFourPlansTasksOppositesPressureMovedExtremesAccomplishFive YearsOppositionThree YearsFour YearsGrainCompressionFive Year Plans
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“No one revolution up to now has brought all that was expected of it by the masses. Hence the inevitability of a certain disillusionment, of a lowering of the activity of the vanguard, and consequently, of the growing importance of the rearguard. [Joseph] Stalin's faction has raised itself on the wave of reaction against the October revolution.”

CertainGrowingRevolutionActivityMassImportanceRaisedWaveExpectedReactionsOctoberDisillusionmentInevitabilityFactionsVanguardOctober Revolution
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“The clearer and deeper the public opinion of the world, in the first instance the opinion of the working masses, will understand the contradictions and the difficulties of the socialist development of an isolated country, the higher will it appreciate the results achieved. The less it identifies the fundamental methods of Socialism with the zigzags and errors of the Soviet bureaucracy, the less will be the danger that, by the inevitable revelation of these errors and of their consequences, the authority, not only of the present ruling group, but of the workers' State itself, may decline.”

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Author:Leon Trotsky
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“The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.”

PeopleHumansCharacterFallMoralConditionsDepthDefinedThrownReservesStay StrongCharacter BuildingBeing StrongFall BackStrength Of CharacterGood CharacterGreat CharacterStrength And WeaknessStrong WillMoral CharacterStrong PeopleJust Stay StrongStrong CharacterStrong InspirationalBuilding CharacterStrength WeaknessHuman StrengthAdversity And StrengthStrength In Adversity
Book:Portraits, political & personal
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“Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain - at least in a poor country like Russia - and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.”

MenInspirationalTwoCountryAmericaPoorEffectsProduceRussiaChainsVanityWheelsDistinctionBikeTireAutomobileBicycleCyclingSoviet RussiaPoor CountriesTandemTandem BikesTandem BicyclesTwo Wheels
Book:The History of the Russian Revolution ...
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