You must have your heart on fire and your brain on ice.

Autocracy cannot do without its twin agents: a hangman and a priest, the first to suppress popular resistance by force, the second to sweeten and embellish the lot of the oppressed with empty promises of a heavenly kingdom.

It is stupid to tolerate Nikola; all Chekists have to be on alert to shoot anyone who doesn't turn up to work because of Nikola.

Russians are too kind, they lack the ability to apply determined methods of revolutionary terror.

Learning is never done without errors and defeat.

The war is relentless: it puts the alternative in a ruthless relief.

As an ultimate objective, "peace" simply means communist world control.