The Soviet Union needs thinking and critical friends, such as are capable not only of singing hymns in the hours of success, but of not shrinking in the hour of defeat and danger.
In spite of the existence of the Soviet Union, however, the proletarian revolution during the past years has not recorded a victory in any other country.
Life is not an easy matter… You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.
Only in the Fall of 1924 did [Joseph] Stalin discover that it is especially Russia, as distinguished from other countries, which can by its own forces build up a socialist society.
In the appendix to my History of the Russian Revolution I give a detailed and documented study of the ideas of the Bolshevik party on the October revolution. This study, I hope, will make it impossible in the future to ascribe to [Vladimir] Lenin the theory of Socialism in a single country.
In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
Let us not forget that revolutions are accomplished through people, although they be nameless. Materialism does not ignore the feeling, thinking, and acting man, but explains him.
![Leon Trotsky Quote - The people will have the right to elect their representatives from a list of candidates [who have been approved by the Party].](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/the-people-will-have-the-right-to-elect-their-repr-683x1024.jpg)
![Leon Trotsky Quote - Only in the Fall of 1924 did [Joseph] Stalin discover that it is especially Russia, as distinguished from other countries, which can by its own forces build up a socialist society.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/only-in-the-fall-of-1924-did-joseph-stalin-discove-1-683x1024.jpg)
![Leon Trotsky Quote - In the appendix to my History of the Russian Revolution I give a detailed and documented study of the ideas of the Bolshevik party on the October revolution. This study, I hope, will make it impossible in the future to ascribe to [Vladimir] Lenin the theory of Socialism in a single country.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/in-the-appendix-to-my-history-of-the-russian-revol-683x1024.jpg)
![Leon Trotsky Quote - Our differences with [Joseph] Stalin are entirely of a strategical character.](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/our-differences-with-joseph-stalin-are-entirely-of-683x1024.jpg)
