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Tsar Nicholas the Bloody, who has dispersed the First and Second Dumas, who has drowned Russia in blood, enslaved Poland and Finland, and is in alliance with out-and-out reactionaries conducting a policy of stifling the Jews and all 'aliens', the tsar whose loyal friends shot down the workers on the Lena and ruined the peasants to the point of starvation all over Russia-that tsar pretends to be the champion of Slav independence and freedom!'

Vladimir Lenin#34

PoliticsHistoryNationalismAuthoritarianism

About this quote

What does it mean?
Lenin attacks Tsar Nicholas for violent repression, exploitation, and false claims of Slav independence.
In plain terms
He criticizes the tsar’s cruelty and hypocrisy.
What can you take from it?
Authoritarian leaders often hide oppression behind nationalist rhetoric.

Where it applies

  • historical critique
  • political analysis

Putting it to work

  • expose propaganda
  • highlight abuses

Questions to consider

  • What evidence supports these claims?
  • How do nationalist claims mask oppression?

Another view

The rant may oversimplify complex political dynamics.

More from Vladimir Lenin

  1. Shame on accursed tsarism which tortured and persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations.

    Permalink to quote #33
  2. The Labour Party is a thoroughly bourgeois party, because, although made up of workers, it is led by reactionaries, and the worst kind of reactionaries at that…

    Permalink to quote #35
  3. For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary.

    Permalink to quote #32

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