291 quotes found
“During the night two delegates of the railwaymen were arrested. The strikers immediately demanded their release, and as this was not conceded, they decided not to allow trains leave the town. At th...”
“The difference between communism and socialism is that under socialism central planning ends with a gun in your face, whereas under communism central planning begins with a gun in your face.”
“Just as King Midas turned everything to gold, Stalin turned everything to mediocrity.”
“Why do people have memories? It would be easier to die - anything to stop remembering.”
“And even in the fever of epidemic arrests, when people leaving for work said farewell to their families every day, because they could not be certain they would return at night, even then almost no ...”
“Communism is an aggressive religion of the species.”
“I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.”
“They still possess virtues which might cause shame to most Christians. No hospitals are needed among them, because there are neither mendicants nor paupers as long as there are any rich people amon...”
“The Fascist utopia, like that of the Communists, was false, and generated immense suffering. But there were those who dreamed it sincerely.”
“Stalin goes to visit one of the collectives outside of Moscow, began Kolya in his joke-telling voice. Wants to see how theyre getting on with the latest Five-Year Plan. Tell me, comrade, he asks on...”
“[T]he heart is a very unreliable coinpass, and even will and knowledge, as all ideological factors in general, are not to be trusted as guides if they are without any material basis. [I]t is not lo...”
“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly...”
“We ate away, reminiscing about our victories over the enemies from different streets and villages and competing with each other in casting curses. A few golden butterflies and dragonflies were flut...”
“[It is b]etter to die on the losing side than to live under communisim.”
“Politically, he was a humanitarian who did know right from left and was trapped uncomfortably between the two. He was constantly defending his Communist friends to his right-wing enemies and his ri...”
“For the movement was without scruples; she rolled towards her goal unconcernedly and deposed the corpses of the drowned in the windings of her course. Her course had many twists and windings; such ...”
“Perestroika was an impossible idea on the face of it. The Party was setting out to employ its structures of command to make the country, and itself, less command-driven. A system whose main afflict...”
“Why didn't we put Stalin on trial? I'll tell you why...In order to condemn Stalin, you'd have to condemn your friends and relatives along with him. The people closest to you...our neighbor Yuri tur...”
“Having lived in a mythical country, a place neither here nor there, these intellectuals from Vilna and Gomel helped create another and called it the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Such a name...”
“Many greeted the truth as an enemy. And freedom as well.”
