Soviet Quotes

The people will always attempt to find the positive aspects of all circumstances, which, in themselves, are not susceptible to danger.

It doesn't matter who they vote for, they always vote for us.

It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" the unemployed can have who go hungry and cannot find utilization of their labor.

Why will our elections be equal? Because neither differences in regard to property (differences partly existing) nor differences of race and nationality will cause any privileges or disadvantages. Women will enjoy the right to elect and be elected equally with men. Our elections will be really equal.

In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.

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.

We desire to give the Soviet people absolute liberty of voting for those they desire to elect, those whom they trust to ensure their interests.

Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.

The leaders come and go, but the people remain. Only the people are immortal.

Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.

Universal, equal, direct and secret elections in the U.S.S.R. will be a whip in the hands of the population against poorly functioning organs of government.

We [U.S.S.R. and U.S.A.] can exist peacefully together if we don't indulge in too much mutual fault-finding in all kinds of trifles.

In a socialist society, everybody is obliged to work even though he is remunerated for his labor and not yet according to his needs, but according to the quantity and quality of the labor expended.

Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party.

You do not lament the loss of hair of one who has been beheaded.

How do you expect the Germans to revolt when they don't even dare walk on the grass?

Take some exercise, try to recover the look of a human being.

It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.

We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences - "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery.

It is not heroes that make history, but history that makes heroes.

We built [socialistic society] for the sake of real personal liberty, liberty without quotation marks.

music's a good thing, it calm the beast in the man.

We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?

History shows that there are no invincible armies.

If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a 'peace conference,' you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.

We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us.

There is talk ... of our constructing Dnieprostroy through our own means. The means needed are great, several hundred millions. Let us not get into the position of the peasant who, after accumulating a nest-egg, instead of repairing his plough and renewing his equipment, buys a gramophone and goes bankrupt.

Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.

We built this [socialistic] society not for the curbing of personal liberty, but in order that human personalities should really feel free.

To slacken the tempo...would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind get beaten.

This is impossible to predict. War may break out unexpectedly.

Bukharin's a swine and surely worse than a swine because he thinks it below his dignity to write a couple of lines.

As you can see, even when [Adolf] Hitler desires to speak for peace, he cannot dispense with threats. This is symptomatic.

When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.

In the future, there will be fewer but better Russians.

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.

A certain inequality in regard to property still exists in a socialist society. But in a socialist society there is no unemployment, no exploitation, no oppression of nationalities.

The rich experience of history teaches that up to now not a single class has voluntarily made way for another class.

Anti-Semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.

The only real power comes out of a long rifle.

There is not, nor should there be, an irreconcilable contrast between the individual and the collective, between the interests of an individual person and the interests of the collective.

Real liberty exists only there where exploitation has been annihilated, where no oppression of some peoples by others exists, where there is no unemployment and pauperism, where a person does not tremble because tomorrow he may lose his job, home and bread.

Words are one thing - deeds something entirely different. Fine words are a mask to cover shady deeds. A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

The press must grow day in and day out - it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon.

Of course, in order to build something new, one has to economize, accumulate means, temporarily limit one's requirements, borrow from others. If you want to build a new house,you save money temporarily and limit your requirements, otherwise you might not build your house.

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.

Do you remember the tsar? Well, I‘m like a tsar.

It was necessary, temporarily, to limit certain requirements, accumulate necessary means, strain forces. We acted precisely in this way and built a socialist society.

This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity.

Our new election system will spur on all institutions and organizations and will force them to improve their work.

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.

To assert that we desire to bring about revolution in other countries, by interfering with their lives, is to speak of something which does not exist and which we never preach.

I don't know what specific frontiers Germany could adopt for her purposes, but I think that those willing "to lend" a frontier to her can be found.

When you chop wood, splinters fly

We secured peace for our country for one and a half years, as well as an opportunity of preparing our forces for defense if fascist Germany risked attacking our country in defiance of the pact. This was a definite gain to our country and a loss for fascist Germany.

Each country, if it so desires, will make its own revolution. And if no such desire exists, no revolution will occur.

If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.

Yes, the electoral struggle [in U.S.S.R.] will be animated. It will proceed around numerous very sharp questions, namely, practical questions having first-rate significance for the people.

Nobody respects a country with a poor army, but everybody respects a country with a good army. I raise my toast to the Finnish army