“Look at Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution and the slogans that they used: anti-imperialism; anti-colonialism; the struggle of the have-nots against the haves; the state monopoly over economy, which was very much patterned after the Soviet Union. All of these things did not come out of Islam. Islam is not that developed.” LooksStatesUsedStruggleEconomyRevolutionUnionsIslamSovietColonialismSoviet UnionImperialismMonopolySlogansKhomeini Author:Azar Nafisi
“When you think of power, you think the state has power. When you look at it in terms of revolution, in terms of the state, you think of it in terms of Russia, the Soviet Union, and how those who struggled for power actually became victims of the state, prisoners of the state, and how that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. We have to think of revolution much more in terms of transitions from one epoch to another. Talk about Paleolithic and Neolithic.” ThinkingLooksStatesTermRevolutionVictimUnionsRussiaPrisonerTransitionSovietSoviet UnionEpochDissolution Author:Grace Lee Boggs
“I think the big tragedy of the Cuban Revolution was that it became dependent on the Soviet Union, and it became dependent on the Soviet Union under a very reactionary bureaucratic regime led by Leonid Brezhnev.” ThinkingBigsRevolutionTragedyUnionsDependentSovietRegimesSoviet UnionCubanReactionariesCuban RevolutionBrezhnev Author:Tariq Ali
“In spite of the existence of the Soviet Union, however, the proletarian revolution during the past years has not recorded a victory in any other country.” YearsCountryPastExistenceRevolutionVictoryUnionsSpiteSovietOther CountriesSoviet Union Author:Leon Trotsky
“It is therefore not true that the mere existence of the Soviet Union is capable of assuring the victory of the revolution in other countries.” CountryExistenceRevolutionVictoryCapableUnionsMereSovietOther CountriesSoviet Union Author:Leon Trotsky
“The Russian revolution did not occur until a generation after Marx's death. He was not involved with it, or with what came after it. His works do not describe post-capitalist society, and a fortiori they do not recommend any part of what the Soviet Union did.” GenerationsRevolutionInvolvedUnionsPostsSovietCapitalistSoviet UnionRussian Revolution Author:Allen W. Wood
“The Bolshevik revolution was a counter-revolution. Its first moves were to destroy and eliminate every socialist tendency that had developed in the pre-revolutionary period. Their goal was as they said; it wasn't a big secret. They regarded the Soviet Union as sort a backwater. They were orthodox Marxists, expecting a revolution in Germany. They moved toward what they themselves called "state capitalism," then they moved on to Stalinism. They called it democracy and called it socialism. The one claim was as ludicrous as the other.” FirstsSaidStatesBigsMovingGoalSecretDemocracyRevolutionPeriodsCapitalismClaimsMovedUnionsSocialismTendenciesRevolutionaryGermanyOrthodoxSovietExpectingSocialistThey SaidSoviet UnionMarxistMoved OnStalinismBolsheviks Author:Noam Chomsky
“I don't think we replaced the Soviet Union with Al Qaida. I think we replaced, we should have, Soviet Union with the merger of globalization and the IT revolution. I think it's that. That is the real challenge that we face today. Unlike the Soviet Union, it has no face, it has no missiles, but it is something that challenges every job, every city and every community.” ThinkingShouldRealTodayJobsFacesCommunityChallengesCitiesRevolutionShould HaveUnionsAlsSovietReplacedSoviet UnionGlobalizationMissilesMergers Author:Thomas Friedman
“When you think of power, you think the state has power. When you look at it in terms of revolution, in terms of the state, you think of it in terms of Russia, the Soviet Union, and how those who struggled for power actually became victims of the state, prisoners of the state, and how that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. We have to think of revolution much more in terms of transitions from one epoch to another.” ThinkingTermRevolutionVictimPrisonerSovietSoviet Union Author:Grace Lee Boggs