67 Joseph Stalin Quotes

Joseph Stalin quotes

1. We think that powerful and lifeful movement is impossible without differences - 'true conformity' is possible only in the cemetery.

2. 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 aeroplanes.

3. A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.

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

5. We disagreed with Zinoviev and Kamenev because we knew that the policy of amputation was fraught with great dangers for the Party, that the method of amputation, the method of blood-letting - and they demanded blood - was dangerous, infectious: today you amputate one limb, tomorrow another, the day after tomorrow a third - what will we have left in the Party?

6. What would happen if capital succeeded in smashing the Republic of Soviets? There would set in an era of the blackest reaction in all the capitalist and colonial countries, the working class and the oppressed peoples would be seized by the throat, the positions of international communism would be lost.

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

8. We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.

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

10. 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.

11. The writer is the engineer of the human soul.

12. Cadres decide everything!

13. Life has improved, comrades. Life has become more joyous.

14. Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.

15. Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

16. History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.

17. Ours is a just cause; victory will be ours!

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

19. This leads to the conclusion, it is time to finish retreating. Not one step back! Such should now be our main slogan. ... Henceforth the solid law of discipline for each commander, Red Army soldier, and commissar should be the requirement - not a single step back without order from higher command.

20. This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. It cannot be otherwise. If now there is no a communist government in Paris, cause of this is Russia has no an army which can reach to Paris in 1945.

21. Those who cast the Votes, they decide nothing. Those who count the votes, they decide everything.

22. Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.

23. The Pope! How many divisions has he got?

24. So the bastard's dead! Too bad we didn't capture him alive!

25. In the Soviet Army, it takes more courage to retreat than advance.

26. Beat, beat and beat again!

27. Tsar Alexander reached Paris

28. I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy.

29. The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.[1]

30. A Lieutenant is not worth a General!

31. When I am gone, the capitalists will drown you like blind kittens.

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

33. What shall we do? We shall envy!

34. Quantity is quality

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

36. You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.

37. He Can't even do that right.

38. I do not change the soldier for the marshal.

39. I have no son named Yakov

40. Then devil is with us, and together we will win.

41. For some people, four walls are three too many.

42. Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.

43. Stalin was a guy like we are, not only that he considered himself a revolutionary and lived like one, but he was a character in the truest sense of the word.

44. Apparently, father was a Georgian when he was younger.

45. He had found Russia working with wooden ploughs and leaving it equipped with atomic piles.

46. The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks, from Stalin to Mr Bean.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

1. Are there no American citizens sympathizing with whiteguard emigres who conduct propaganda in favor of capitalism, against the Soviets? Then what does the point involve? The point is not to assist these persons, not to finance their activities. The point is that officials of both countries should not interfere in the internal affairs of the other country.

2. Neither Italian fascism nor German national "socialism" have anything in common with such a [Soviet socialistic] society, primarily because private ownership of factories, plants, lands, banks, means of transportation, etc., remain untouched there, and, therefore, capitalism in Germany and Italy remains in full force.

3. There is no nation in the whole world desiring war.

4. Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats.

5. If things should go too far and deportation of all whiteguard emigres from the United States were demanded, this would be an attempt against the right of asylum promulgated in both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.

6. [American Communist Party] legally exists in the U.S.A., it nominates its candidates in the elections, including Presidential elections.

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

8. Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

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

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

11. The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages...onward, to victory!

12. I admit that I do not recall the speeches of Comrades [Earl] Browder and [Samuel] Darcy. I do not even recall of what they spoke. It is possible that they said something of this nature. But it was not the Soviet people who created the American Communist Party. It was created by Americans.

13. He who casts a vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything.

14. He who votes does not have power. He who counts the votes has power.

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

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

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

18. This war is not as in the past: whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.

19. This war is not as in the past; whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach. It cannot be otherwise. If now there is not a communist government in Paris, this is only because Russia has no an army which can reach Paris in 1945.

20. The reason why there is now no communist government in Paris is because in the circumstances of 1945 the Soviet army was not able to reach French soil.

21. Political power does not rest with those who cast votes; political power rests with those who count votes.