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About this quote

What does it mean?
Lenin describes the masses being sacrificed for the interests of a few elite and capitalist profit.
In plain terms
People are being killed for the benefit of a small ruling class.
What can you take from it?
Powerful elites exploit and sacrifice the masses for profit.

Where it applies

  • revolutionary movements
  • colonial exploitation
  • authoritarian regimes

Putting it to work

  • raise class consciousness
  • organize workers

Questions to consider

  • What mechanisms allow elites to maintain such power?
  • How can the masses resist exploitation?

Another view

The language is highly charged and may oversimplify complex historical events.

More from Vladimir Lenin

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  3. Present-day society is wholly based on the exploitation of the vast masses of the working class by a tiny minority of the population, the class of the landowne…

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