Joseph Stalin Quotes

World War II was fought for the abolition of racial exclusiveness, equality of nations and the integrity of their territories, liberation of enslaved nations and restoration of their sovereign rights, the right of every nation to arrange its affairs as it wishes, economic aid to nations that have suffered and assistance to them in attaining their material welfare, restoration of democratic liberties, and destruction of the Hitlerite regime.

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.

Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.

When there's a person, there's a problem. When there's no person, there's no problem. Josef Stalin

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.

According to our constitution, political emigres have the right to reside on our territory. We accord them the right of asylum, the same as the United States accords the right of asylum to political emigres.

Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege.

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.

Each country, if it so desires, will make its own revolution. And if no such desire exists, no revolution will occur.

Why will our elections be equal? Because neither differences in regard to property (differences partly existing) nor differences of race and nationality will cause any privileges or disadvantages. Women will enjoy the right to elect and be elected equally with men. Our elections will be really equal.

The rich experience of history teaches that up to now not a single class has voluntarily made way for another class.

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.

[State] finds [frontier] either with the aid of force, as in 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium in order to deal a blow against France or it "borrows" a frontier, such as Germany did with regard to Latvia, for instance, in 1918, in attempting to break through to Leningrad across Latvia.

Leninism is Marxism of the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution.

It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes.

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.

We built this [socialistic] society not for the curbing of personal liberty, but in order that human personalities should really feel free.

We secured peace for our country for one and a half years, as well as an opportunity of preparing our forces for defense if fascist Germany risked attacking our country in defiance of the pact. This was a definite gain to our country and a loss for fascist Germany.

It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" the unemployed can have who go hungry and cannot find utilization of their labor.

Neither Italian fascism nor German national "socialism" have anything in common with such a [Soviet socialistic] society, primarily because private ownership of factories, plants, lands, banks, means of transportation, etc., remain untouched there, and, therefore, capitalism in Germany and Italy remains in full force.

The press must grow day in and day out - it is our Party's sharpest and most powerful weapon.

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!

Our society consists exclusively of free working people of cities and villages, workers, peasants, intelligentsia. Each of these strata may have its special interests and express them in numerous existing organizations.

This war is not as in the past: whoever occupies a territory also imposes his own social system.

The Soviet system will not evolve into American democracy or vice-versa.

When one man dies it is a tragedy, when thousands die it's statistics.

It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.

Yes, the electoral struggle [in U.S.S.R.] will be animated. It will proceed around numerous very sharp questions, namely, practical questions having first-rate significance for the people.

Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

American democracy and the Soviet system can exist simultaneously and compete peacefully. But one cannot develop into the other.

[After Communism succeeds] ...then, there will come a peace across the earth.

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.

He who votes does not have power. He who counts the votes has power.

There are on occasions, as we know, when resources are abundant, but they are expended so incompetently that the advantage is nullified.

In the Soviet army it takes more courage to retreat than advance.

I have in mind repeated statements by Japanese military men containing threats against other states.

I admit that I do not recall the speeches of Comrades [Earl] Browder and [Samuel] Darcy. I do not even recall of what they spoke. It is possible that they said something of this nature. But it was not the Soviet people who created the American Communist Party. It was created by Americans.

Mr. Churchill, Mr. Prime Minister, how many divisions did you say that the pope had?

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.

If things should go too far and deportation of all whiteguard emigres from the United States were demanded, this would be an attempt against the right of asylum promulgated in both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.

The leaders come and go, but the people remain. Only the people are immortal.

The people will always attempt to find the positive aspects of all circumstances, which, in themselves, are not susceptible to danger.

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.

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.

Remember how the first world war broke out. It broke out as a result of the desire to redivide the world.

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!

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.

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.