163
" The fundamental law of revolution, which has been confirmed by all revolutions, and particularly by all three Russian revolutions in the twentieth century, is as follows: it is not enough for revolution that the exploited and oppressed masses should understand the impossibility of living in the old way and demand changes; what is required for revolution is that the exploiters should not be able to live and rule in the old way. Only when the "lower classes" do not want the old way, and when the "upper classes" cannot carry on in the old way – only then can revolution triumph. This truth may be expressed in other words: revolution is impossible without a nationwide crisis (affecting both the exploited and the exploiters). It follows that revolution requires, first, that a majority of the workers (or at least a majority of the class-conscious, thinking and politically active workers) should fully understand that revolution is necessary and be ready to sacrifice their lives for it; second, that the ruling classes should be passing through a governmental crisis which draws even the most backward masses into politics (a symptom of every real revolution is a rapid tenfold and even hundredfold increase in the number of representatives of the toiling and oppressed masses - hitherto apathetic – who are capable of waging the political struggle), weakens the government and make it possible for the revolutionaries to overthrow it rapidly. "
― Vladimir Lenin , Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder: A Popular Essay in Marxian Strategy and Tactics
165
" Socialists have always condemned war between nations as barbarous and brutal. But our attitude towards war is fundamentally different from that of the bourgeois pacifists (supporters and advocates of peace) and of the Anarchists. We differ from the former in that we understand the inevitable connection between wars and the class struggle within the country; we understand that war cannot be abolished unless classes are abolished and Socialism is created; and we also differ in that we fully regard civil wars, i.e., wars waged by the oppressed class against the oppressing class, slaves against slave-owners, serfs against land-owners, and wage workers against the bourgeoisie, as legitimate, progressive and necessary. We Marxists differ from both the pacifists and the Anarchists in that we deem it necessary historically (from the standpoint of Marx's dialectical materialism) to study each war separately. In history there have been numerous wars which, in spite of all the horrors, atrocities, distress and suffering that inevitably accompany all wars, were progressive, i.e., benefited the development of mankind by helping to destroy the exceptionally harmful and reactionary institutions (for example, autocracy or serfdom), the most barbarous despotisms in Europe (Turkish and Russian). Therefore, it is necessary to examine the historically specific features of precisely the present war. "
― Vladimir Lenin , On War and Peace: Three Articles
166
" Notwithstanding all the laws emancipating woman, she continues to be a domestic slave, because petty housework crushes, strangles, stultifies and degrades her, chains her to the kitchen and the nursery, and she wastes her labour on barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve‑racking, stultifying and crushing drudgery. "
― Vladimir Lenin , Collected Works, Volume 29: March-August 1919
179
" Rusya'da, hem 1870'li, hem de 1860'lı yıllarda (hatta 19. yüzyılın ilk yarısında) da grevler oldu ve bunlar makinelerin vb. "kendiliğinden" tahrip edilmesi vb. eşliğinde yaşanan grevlerdi. Bu "isyanlarla" karşılaştırıldığında, 1890'lı yıllardaki grevleri "bilinçli" grevler olarak tanımlamak bile mümkün; bu dönemde işçi hareketinin ileri doğru attığı adım böylesine önemlidir. Bu bize, "kendiliğinden unsurun", aslında, bilinçliliğin nüve halinden başka bir şey olmadığını gösterir.
İlkel ayaklanmalar da kendilerini belli bir bilinç uyanışıyla ifade etmişlerdi: İşçiler, kendilerini ezen düzenin değişmezliğine çağlar boyu sürüp gelen inançlarını yitirmişler ve ortak bir karşı koyuşun gerekliliğini, anlamaya demeyeceğim ama hissetmeye başlamışlar, efendileri karşısındaki kölece boyun eğişe kesin bir son vermişlerdi. Fakat bu yine de mücadele olmaktan çok, çaresizliğin ve öç alma duygusunun bir dışa vurumuydu.
1890'ların grevleri, çok daha fazla bilinç belirtileri gösteriyordu: Belli talepler öne sürülüyor, eylem için hangi anın uygun olduğu önceden hesaplanıyor, başka yerlerde gerçekleşen belirli olaylar ve örnekler değerlendiriliyor vb. Eğer isyanlar ezilen insanların sadece başkaldırısı idiyse, sistematik grevler de sınıf mücadelesinin ilk nüvelerini ifade ediyordu, "
― Vladimir Lenin , What Is to Be Done?
