The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there is enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there is little goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy. It "knows" who is to get something and who has to wait.

If we had more time for discussion we should probably have made a great many more mistakes.

Under all conditions, well-organized violence seems to him the shortest distance between two points.

Our differences with [Joseph] Stalin are entirely of a strategical character.

It is also false that the revolution ripens and comes to development only in the national soil.

Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.

There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances.