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Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky Quotes

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Famous Leon Trotsky Quotes

“With all due respect to all philistines, the dictatorship of the proletariat does just consist in "giving a hiding" to the classes that were previously supreme, before forcing them to recognize the new order and to submit to it.”

GivingDoeOrderClassDuesSupremeHidingSubmitDictatorshipProletariatPhilistines
Book:The defence of terrorism: terrorism and communism; a reply to Karl Kautsky
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“Terror, as the demonstration of the will and strength of the working class, is historically justified, precisely because the proletariat was able thereby to break the political will of the intelligentsia, pacify the professional man of various categories and work, and gradually subordinate them to its own aims within the field of their specialties.”

MenAblePoliticalClassBreakFieldsAimTerrorVariousCategoriesWorking ClassJustifiedDemonstrationSubordinatesProletariatSpecialtyPolitical Will
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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“The bourgeoisie, which far surpasses the proletariat in the completeness and irreconcilibility of its class consciousness, is vitally interested in imposing its moral philosophy upon the exploited masses. It is exactly for this purpose that the concrete norms of the bourgeois catechism are concealed under moral abstractions...The appeal to abstract norms is not a disinterested philosophic mistake but a necessary element in the mechanics of class deception.”

PhilosophyPurposeMistakeConsciousnessMoralClassElementsMassAppealsDeceptionAbstractConcreteNormAbstractionMechanicConcealedBourgeoisImposingProletariatBourgeoisieCompletenessDisinterestedPhilosophicMoral PhilosophyCatechismClass Consciousness
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“Transcending class distinctions, the speaker [Stalin] portrays the relation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat as a mere division of labor. The workers and soldiers achieve the revolution, Guchkov and Miliukov "fortify" it.[...] This superintendent's approach to the historical process is exactly characteristic of the leaders of Menshevism, this handing out of instructions to various classes and then patronizingly criticizing their fulfillment.”

ProcessLeaderClassAchieveRevolutionApproachLaborRelationHistoricalMereWorkersSoldierVariousFulfillmentCharacteristicsDistinctionCriticizeDivisionInstructionSpeakersProletariatBourgeoisieTranscendingDivision Of LaborClass DistinctionSuperintendents
Book:History of the Russian Revolution
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