Joseph Stalin Quotes

Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.

In the U.S.S.R. anti-semitism is punishable with the utmost severity of the law as a phenomenon deeply hostile to the Soviet system. Under U.S.S.R. law active anti-semites are liable to the death penalty.

We do not want a single foot of foreign territory; but of our territory we shall not surrender a single inch to anyone.

The Pope! How many divisions has he got?

The only real power comes out of a long rifle.

Principles triumph, they do not compromise.

We think that a powerful and vigorous movement is impossible without differences "true conformity" is possible only in the cemetery.

In speaking of the capitalists who strive only for profit, only to get rich, I do not want to say that these are the most worthless people capable of doing nothing else. Many of them undoubtedly possess great organising talent, which I would not dream of denying. We Soviet people learn a lot from the capitalists. But if you mean people who are prepared to reconstruct the world, of course you will not be able to find them in the ranks of those who faithfully serve the cause of profit..The capitalist is riveted in profit and nothing can tear him away from it.

The death of one man is tragic, but the death of thousands is statistic

The easiest way to gain control of the population is to carry out acts of terror. The public will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened.

In the future, there will be fewer but better Russians.

To slacken the tempo ... would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind get beaten ...

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.

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

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.

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!

Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs.

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.

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

Ours is a just cause; victory will be ours!

If there are no isolated phenomena in the world, if all phenomena are interconnected and interdependent, then it is clear that every social system and every social movement in history must be evaluated not from the standpoint of "eternal justice" or some other preconceived idea, as is not infrequently done by historians, but from the standpoint of the conditions which gave rise to that system or that social movement and with which they are connected.

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.

The United States should get rid of its militias.

[redacted; spurious].

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.

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

There are no fortresses that Bolsheviks cannot storm.

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.

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.

We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?

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.

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.

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

The Jews are not a nation!

The way to handle people is to treat them like chickens. Take away everything they have by plucking all their feathers and then throw them a few bread crumbs. They will then follow you forever.

Artillery is the god of war.

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

Of all the treasures a state can possess, the human lives of its citizens are for us the most precious.

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

[redacted; quotation spurious].

If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.

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.

[spurious quotation].

[The Albanians] seem to be rather backward and primitive people ... they can be as faithful as a dog; that is one of the traits of the primitive. Our Chuvash were the same. The Russian tsars always used them for their bodyguards.

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.

Quanity has it's own quality.

Having consolidated its power, and taking the lead of the peasantry, the proletariat of the victorious country can and must build a socialist society.

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 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

I trust no one, not even myself.

You know, they are fooling us, there is no God.

It doesn't matter who they vote for, they always vote for us ...

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

You do not lament the loss of hair of one who has been beheaded.

We believe that the Anarchists are real enemies of Marxism.

Writers are the engineers of the human souls

Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.

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.

When you chop wood, splinters fly

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 the voters who count, but those who count the votes.

History shows that there are no invincible armies.

By May, 1st, 1937, there should not be one single church left within the borders of Soviet Russia, and the idea of God will have been banished from the Soviet Union as a remnant of the Middle Ages, which has been used for the purpose of oppressing the working classes.

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

Personel selection is decisive. People are our most valuable capital.

Advance towards socialism cannot but cause the exploiting elements to resist the advance, and the resistance of the exploiters cannot but lead to the inevitable sharpening of the class struggle.