100+ Quotes by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953, was a figure of immense power and influence in the 20th century. Born in 1878, Stalin's leadership marked a critical period in the Soviet Union's history, characterized by industrialization, collectivization, and authoritarian rule. His policies, such as the Great Purge, resulted in widespread repression, political persecution, and mass executions. Stalin's ruthless pursuit of power and his disregard for human rights led to the suffering of millions. Despite his role in defeating Nazi Germany during World War II, his legacy is marred by the immense human cost of his rule. Stalin's impact on the world stage, his influence on communist ideology, and his controversial legacy continue to be subjects of historical debate and analysis.
Joseph Stalin Quotes
Change happens through movement and movement heals. (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning) (Meaning)
The only real power comes out of a long rifle. (Meaning)
I trust no one, not even myself. (Meaning)
The Pope? How many divisions has he got? (Meaning)
It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army. (Meaning)
Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party. (Meaning)
Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs. (Meaning)
I believe in one thing only, the power of human will. (Meaning)
Quantity has a quality all its own. (Meaning)
You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves. (Meaning)
History shows that there are no invincible armies. (Meaning)
A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron. (Meaning)
Quanity has it's own quality. (Meaning)
Artillery is the god of war. (Meaning)
Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union. (Meaning)
Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.
It is difficult for me to imagine what personal liberty is enjoyed by an unemployed hungry person. True freedom can only be where there is no exploitation and oppression of one person by another;
It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes.
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.
Great Britain provided time; the United States provided money and Soviet Russia provided blood.
Divide the world into regional groups as a transitional stage to world government. Populations will more readily abandon their national loyalty to a vague regional loyalty than they will for a world authority. Later the regions can be brought together all the way into a single world dictatorship.
This creature softened my heart of stone. She died and with her died my last warm feelings for humanity.
Education is a weapon the effect of which is determined by the hands which wield it, by who is to be struck down.
The death of one man is tragic, but the death of thousands is statistic.
When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.
When there's a person, there's a problem. When there's no person, there's no problem. Josef Stalin
To choose one's victims, to prepare one's plan minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then to go to bed... There is nothing sweeter in the world.
The only real power comes out of a long rifle.
World dictatorship can be established only when the victory of socialism has been achieved in certain countries or groups of countries and when these federation of republics have finally grown into a world union of Soviet Socialist Republics uniting the whole of mankind under the hegemony of the international proletariat organized as a state.
I believe in one thing only, the power of human will.
Anti-Semitism is dangerous for the toilers, for it is a false track which diverts them from the proper road and leads them into the jungle. Hence, Communists, as consistent internationalists, cannot but be irreconcilable and bitter enemies of anti-Semitism. In the U.S.S.R., anti-Semitism is strictly prosecuted as a phenomenon hostile to the Soviet system. According to the laws of the U.S.S.R. active anti-Semites are punished with death.
Nobody respects a country with a poor army, but everybody respects a country with a good army. I raise my toast to the Finnish army
I trust no one, not even myself.
As we know, the goal of every struggle is victory. But if the proletariat is to achieve victory, all the workers, irrespective of nationality, must be united. Clearly, the demolition of national barriers and close unity between the Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Polish, Jewish and other proletarians is a necessary condition for the victory of the proletariat of all Russia.
The press must grow day in and day out - it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon.
It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.
The Pope? How many divisions has he got?
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.
Ah, these diplomats! What chatterboxes! There's only one way to shut them up - cut them down with machine guns. Bulganin, go and get me one!
It is not heroes that make history, but history that makes heroes.
A man's eyes should be torn out if he can only see the past
He who votes does not have power. He who counts the votes has power.
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!
Die, but do not retreat.
In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance.
Do you remember the tsar? Well, I‘m like a tsar.
Remember how the first world war broke out. It broke out as a result of the desire to redivide the world.
The United States should get rid of its militias.
You do not lament the loss of hair of one who has been beheaded.
Real liberty exists only there where exploitation has been annihilated, where no oppression of some peoples by others exists, where there is no unemployment and pauperism, where a person does not tremble because tomorrow he may lose his job, home and bread.
Obviously these [white-guard] emigres enjoy the right of asylum existing also in the U.S. So far as we are concerned we would never tolerate a single terrorist in our territory regardless against whom he would contemplate his crimes. Apparently the right of asylum receives broader interpretation in the U.S.A. than in our country.
The leaders come and go, but the people remain. Only the people are immortal.
Farmers present by themselves the basic force of the national movement. Without farmers there can be no strong national movement. This is what we mean when we say that the nationalist question, is actually, the farmers' question.
If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.
Artillery is the god of war.
Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.
In war I would deal with the Devil and his grandmother
You know, they are fooling us, there is no God.
There is not, nor should there be, an irreconcilable contrast between the individual and the collective, between the interests of an individual person and the interests of the collective.
- Oh no, The Collective Farm policy was a terrible struggle... Ten million (he said holding up his hands). It was fearful. Four years it lasted. It was absolutely necessary.
In the future, there will be fewer but better Russians.
Music's a good thing, it calm the beast in the man.
Words are one thing - deeds something entirely different. Fine words are a mask to cover shady deeds. A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.
The writer is the engineer of the human soul.
Voters decide nothing. Vote counters decide everything!
How do you expect the Germans to revolt when they don't even dare walk on the grass?
The production of souls is more important than the production of tanks.... And therefore I raise my glass to you, writers, the engineers of the human soul.
Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.
Marxism is not only the theory of socialism, it is an integral world outlook, a philosophical system, from which Marx’s proletarian socialism logically follows. This philosophical system is called dialectical materialism.
Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach.
At this point the question of Ukraine is the most important. The situation in Ukraine is very bad. If we don't take steps now to improve the situation, we may lose Ukraine. The objective should be to transform Ukraine , in the shortest period of time, into a real fortress of the U.S.S.R.
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.
Of all the treasures a state can possess, the human lives of its citizens are for us the most precious.
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.
You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.
Is it possible, then, to doubt that we can and must gain victory over the German invaders? The enemy is not as strong as some terror-stricken pseudo-intellectuals picture him. The devil is not as terrible as he is painted.
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 airplanes.
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.
The Jews are not a nation!
Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.
This war is not an ordinary war. It is the war of the entire Russian people. Not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads, but to aid all people groaning under the yoke of Fascism
Quantity has a quality all its own.
Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party.
Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats.
Take some exercise, try to recover the look of a human being.
I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this - who will count the votes, and how.
When you chop wood, splinters fly
It doesn't matter who they vote for, they always vote for us.
We Marxists believe that revolution will occur in other countries, as well. But it will occur at a time when it will be considered possible or necessary by revolutionaries of those countries.
Each position, each metre of the Soviet territory must be stubbornly defended, to the last drop of blood. We must cling to every inch of Soviet soil and defend it to the end!
Undoubtedly, our path is not of the easiest; but, just as undoubtedly, we are not to be frightened by difficulties. Paraphrasing from the well-known words of Luther, Russia might say: ‘Here I stand on the frontier between the old, capitalist world and the new, socialist world. Here on this frontier I unite the efforts of the proletarians of the West and of the peasantry of the East in order to shatter the old world. May the god of history be my aid!
American Communists have the opportunity to preach freely their ideas. It would be absolutely wrong to hold the Soviet government responsible for activities of the American Communists.
Our new Soviet constitution will, in my opinion, be the most democratic constitution of all those existing in the world.
We believe that the Anarchists are real enemies of Marxism.
Bukharin's a swine and surely worse than a swine because he thinks it below his dignity to write a couple of lines.
Marxists have more than once pointed out that the capitalist world economic system contains in itself the seeds of a general crisis and of warlike clashes.
Political power does not rest with those who cast votes; political power rests with those who count votes.
We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences - "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery.
History shows that there are no invincible armies.
Mr. Churchill, Mr. Prime Minister, how many divisions did you say that the pope had?
The art of leadership is a serious matter. One must not lag behind a movement, because to do so is to become isolated from the masses. But one must not rush ahead, for to rush ahead is to lose contact with the masses. He who wished to lead a movement must conduct a fight on two fronts--against those who lag behind and those who rush ahead.
We desire to give the Soviet people absolute liberty of voting for those they desire to elect, those whom they trust to ensure their interests.
This war is not as in the past: whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.
A certain inequality in regard to property still exists in a socialist society. But in a socialist society there is no unemployment, no exploitation, no oppression of nationalities.
There is no doubt that the absence of a second front in Europe considerably relieves the position of the German Army, nor can there be any doubt that the appearance of a second front on the Continent of Europe - and undoubtedly this will appear in the near future - will essentially relieve the position of our armies to the detriment of the German Army.
Quantity has it's own quality.
There are no fortresses that Bolsheviks cannot storm.
Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.
A sincere diplomat is like dry water or wooden iron.
Personel selection is decisive. People are our most valuable capital.
We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.
When one man dies it is a tragedy, when thousands die it's statistics.
As you can see, even when Hitler desires to speak for peace, he cannot dispense with threats. This is symptomatic.
Ours is a just cause; victory will be ours!
The situation is that in Germany capitalism has remained, classes and class struggle have remained which all the same will break into the open, which includes also the field of struggle of parties representing opposing classes just as it broke through in, let us say, Spain.
Writers are the engineers of human souls.
Our Soviet society is socialist because private ownership of factories, plants, land, banks and means of transportation has been abolished in our country, and replaced by public ownership.
To assert that we desire to bring about revolution in other countries, by interfering with their lives, is to speak of something which does not exist and which we never preach.
Nowadays wars are not declared. They simply start.
The rich experience of history teaches that up to now not a single class has voluntarily made way for another class.
Revolution, the substitution of one social system for another, has always been a struggle, a painful and a cruel struggle, a life and death struggle.
There are on occasions, as we know, when resources are abundant, but they are expended so incompetently that the advantage is nullified.
The people will always attempt to find the positive aspects of all circumstances, which, in themselves, are not susceptible to danger.
Have you or haven't you built a good school? Haven't you improved living conditions? Aren't you a bureaucrat? Have you helped to make our labor more effective, our life more cultured? Such will be the criteria with which millions of voters will approach candidates, casting away those who are unfit, striking them off lists, advancing better ones, nominating them for elections.
The Soviet system will not evolve into American democracy or vice-versa.
It doesnt matter how many people vote, only who counts them.
Each country, if it so desires, will make its own revolution. And if no such desire exists, no revolution will occur.
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.
Only when we succeed in creating such an order under which people receive for their labor from the society not according to the quantity and quality of labor, but according to their needs, will it be possible to say that we have built up a communist society.
"Of course, in order to build something new, one has to economize, accumulate means, temporarily limit one's requirements, borrow from others. If you want to build a new house, you save money temporarily and limit your requirements, otherwise you might not build your house."
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.
Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution.
It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" the unemployed can have who go hungry and cannot find utilization of their labor.
To slacken the tempo...would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind get beaten.
No revolution can be made with silk gloves.
Capitalism in its imperialistic stage is a system which regards war as a legitimate method for solution of international disputes - a method which is legitimate in fact if not legally so.
Anti-Semitism, as an extreme form of racial chauvinism, is the most dangerous vestige of cannibalism.
Admittedly communism has not been achieved in Russia. State socialism has been built.
This is impossible to predict. War may break out unexpectedly.
In a socialist society, everybody is obliged to work even though he is remunerated for his labor and not yet according to his needs, but according to the quantity and quality of the labor expended.
I have in mind repeated statements by Japanese military men containing threats against other states.
If you think that the people of the Soviet Union have any desire themselves, and moreover, by force, to alter the face of surrounding states, then you are badly mistaken.
Under national "socialism", there is also only one party. But nothing will come out of this fascist one-party system.
History shows that when a state is intent upon making war against another state, even though not adjacent, it begins to seek frontiers across which it could reach the frontiers of the state which it desires to attack. Usually, the aggressive state finds that frontier.
The term "state socialism" is not precise. Under this term many understand an order under which a certain part of the wealth, sometimes a quite considerable part, passes into state ownership or under its control while in the great majority of cases the ownership of plants, factories, and land, remains in private hands.
Exported revolution is nonsense.
In what do the activities of the Communist Parties consist? In what ways can they manifest themselves? These activities usually consist in the organization of working masses, in organizing meetings, demonstrations, strikes, etc. It is absolutely clear that American Communists cannot perform this in Soviet territory. The American workers are not in the U.S.S.R.
The society which we have built can in no way be termed "state socialism."The social organization which we have created can be termed a Soviet, socialist organization which has not yet been quite completed, but is in its root a socialist organization of society. The foundation of this society is public ownership.
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.
The people who cast the votes decide nothing; the people who count the votes decide everything.
American democracy and the Soviet system can exist simultaneously and compete peacefully. But one cannot develop into the other.
We have not yet built a communist society. It is not so easy to build such a society.
― Joseph Stalin Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
