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Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky Quotes

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Famous Leon Trotsky Quotes

“The boycott of parliamentary institutions on the part of anarchists and semianarchists is dictated by a desire not to submit their weakness to a test on the part of the masses, thus preserving their right to an inactive hauteur which makes no difference to anybody. A revolutionary party can turn its back to a parliament only if it has set itself the immediate task of overthrowing the existing regime.”

IfsDesireTurnsDifferencesPartyMassWeaknessTasksTestsInstitutionsRevolutionaryRegimesSubmitParliamentAnarchistParliamentaryBoycott
Book:History of the Russian Revolution
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“A program of "disarmament," while imperialist antagonisms survive, is the most pernicious of fictions. Even if it were realized by way of general agreement - an obviously fantastic assumption!- that would by no means prevent a new war. The imperialists do not make war because there are armaments; on the contrary, they forge arms when they need to fight.”

IfsWayNeedsMeanWarFightingFictionArmsProgramContraryFantasticAssumptionAgreementDisarmamentPerniciousAntagonismArmament
Book:The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going?
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“The fall of the present bureaucratic dictatorship [in the Soviet Union], if it were not replaced by a new socialist power, would thus mean a return to capitalist relations with a catastrophic decline of industry and culture.”

IfsMeanFallCultureIndustryReturnRelationUnionsCommunismSovietCapitalistDeclineDictatorshipSocialistReplacedSoviet Union
Book:The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and where is it Going?
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“The slanders poured down like Niagara. If you take into consideration the setting - the war and the revolution - and the character of the accused - revolutionary leaders of millions who were conducting their party to the sovereign power - you can say without exaggeration that July 1917 was the month of the most gigantic slander in world history.”

IfsWorldWarCharacterPartyLeaderMillionsRevolutionMonthsSettingSettingsRevolutionaryConsiderationSovereignAccusedWorld HistoryRebelliousJulyExaggerationSlanderConductingNiagaraRevolutionary Leaders
Book:History of the Russian Revolution
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“As a general rule, man strives to avoid labor. Love for work is not at all an inborn characteristic: it is created by economic pressure and social education. One may even say that man is a fairly lazy animal. It is on this quality, in reality, that is founded to a considerable extent all human progress; because if man did not strive to expend his energy economically, did not seek to receive the largest possible quantity of products in return for a small quantity of energy, there would have been no technical development or social culture.”

IfsMenHumansMayHas BeensRealityCultureEnergySocialAnimalQualityProgressEconomicProductsDevelopmentReturnLaborPressureStriveCharacteristicsLazyQuantityStrifeHuman ProgressGeneral Education
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“The Federated Republic of Europe-the United States of Europe-that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world.”

IfsWorldGivingCountryStatesUnitedUnited StatesGroupsEconomicEvolutionDemandEuropeRepublicSplitsImperialismAutonomyFrontiersAbolitionEuropean Countries
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“If the Revolution has the right to destroy bridges and art monuments whenever necessary, it will stop still less from laying its hand on any tendency in art which, no matter how great its achievement in form, threatens to disintegrate the revolutionary environment or to arouse the internal forces of the Revolution, that is, the proletariat, the peasantry and the intelligentsia, to a hostile opposition to one another. Our standard is, clearly, political, imperative and intolerant.”

IfsArtStillsMatterHandsFormPoliticalArtistForceEnvironmentRevolutionAchievementStandardsTendenciesBridgesRevolutionaryOppositionInternalsHostileImperativesMonumentRebelliousProletariat
Book:Literature and Revolution
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