The First Year
“Lenin viewed all these movements (actions of 1917) as a means to destroy the old political system and thus clear the way for his party’s dictatorship.
Orlando Figes
“1917 did not mark a complete break with the past. Rather it was the replacement of one form of state-authoritarianism with another”.
Michael Lynch
“The system of legislation the Bolsheviks set in place within two weeks of the October coup, for all its revolutionary rhetoric, marked a reversion to the autocratic practices of tsarist Russia before the October Manifesto of October 17, 1905. They simply wiped out the eleven intervening years of constitutionalism”.
Richard Pipes
“The machine gun became for them the principle instrument of political persuasion…and they could use it with impunity” (on the closing of the Constituent Assembly).
Richard Pipes
“One of the most salient features of revolutionary Russia in the eight months or so after October 1917 is that nothing seemed to have changed for the better. This realization, and the even more precarious, uncertain conditions that soon emerged, disturbed and angered broad groups of workers”.
W.G. Rosenberg
“From a party dedicated to the overthrow of the old system, it became a party dedicated to the building of a new society without exploiters.”
History of the CPSU
“The single party system became for the Bolsheviks an inescapable necessity. Their own survival, and no doubt the survival of the revolution, depended on it. They had not aimed at it with any premeditation.
Isaac Deutcher
“In his writings and his speeches he always insisted that his ideas were wholly in accordance with Marx. However, in practical terms, Lenin’s role in Russia after April 1917 was that of a skilled opportunist who outmanouvered a collection of opponents who never matched him in sense of purpose and sheer determination.”
Michael Lynch
“The Communists simply claimed that they represented the best interests of the proletariat; they never intended to put this to the test, at least in the form of elections to see how many people supported them.”
AJP Taylor
“Revolutions in short are made in the name of the proletariat, not by it. The Communists, from Marx onwards, were the chosen few who really knew what the proletariat wanted. Lenin was the most confident and the most persistent of these prophets”.
AJP Taylor
"If Lenin had never existed, a socialist government would probably have ruled Russia by the end of [1917]."
Robert Service
"In particular, he (Lenin) had little foresight about what he was doing when he set up the centralised one-party state. One of the great malignancies of the 20th century was created more by off-the-cuff measures than by grandiose planning
Robert Service
“In 1917 he combined fanaticism, ruthlessness and absolute self-confidence with a terrifying naivety about government, economic and Russian society. […] To impose such immense sacrifices in the name of so naïve and flawed a vision makes Lenin one of the greatest criminals of the 20th century.”
Dominic Lieven
“Trotsky displayed his best qualities in 1917. He was the idol of the mass meetings in Petrograd. Determination and boldness showed in everything he did. No-one then noticed that he lacked Lenin’s depth or Lenin’s ability to subordinate his personal feelings to the victory of socialism. Trotsky was one of the best speakers of the revolution. He spoke everywhere with amazing brilliance and had the ability to popularise even difficult ideas with great skill.”
Spundle (Bolshevik Historian)
“Lenin viewed all these movements (actions of 1917) as a means to destroy the old political system and thus clear the way for his party’s dictatorship.
Orlando Figes
“1917 did not mark a complete break with the past. Rather it was the replacement of one form of state-authoritarianism with another”.
Michael Lynch
“The system of legislation the Bolsheviks set in place within two weeks of the October coup, for all its revolutionary rhetoric, marked a reversion to the autocratic practices of tsarist Russia before the October Manifesto of October 17, 1905. They simply wiped out the eleven intervening years of constitutionalism”.
Richard Pipes
“The machine gun became for them the principle instrument of political persuasion…and they could use it with impunity” (on the closing of the Constituent Assembly).
Richard Pipes
“One of the most salient features of revolutionary Russia in the eight months or so after October 1917 is that nothing seemed to have changed for the better. This realization, and the even more precarious, uncertain conditions that soon emerged, disturbed and angered broad groups of workers”.
W.G. Rosenberg
“From a party dedicated to the overthrow of the old system, it became a party dedicated to the building of a new society without exploiters.”
History of the CPSU
“The single party system became for the Bolsheviks an inescapable necessity. Their own survival, and no doubt the survival of the revolution, depended on it. They had not aimed at it with any premeditation.
Isaac Deutcher
“In his writings and his speeches he always insisted that his ideas were wholly in accordance with Marx. However, in practical terms, Lenin’s role in Russia after April 1917 was that of a skilled opportunist who outmanouvered a collection of opponents who never matched him in sense of purpose and sheer determination.”
Michael Lynch
“The Communists simply claimed that they represented the best interests of the proletariat; they never intended to put this to the test, at least in the form of elections to see how many people supported them.”
AJP Taylor
“Revolutions in short are made in the name of the proletariat, not by it. The Communists, from Marx onwards, were the chosen few who really knew what the proletariat wanted. Lenin was the most confident and the most persistent of these prophets”.
AJP Taylor
"If Lenin had never existed, a socialist government would probably have ruled Russia by the end of [1917]."
Robert Service
"In particular, he (Lenin) had little foresight about what he was doing when he set up the centralised one-party state. One of the great malignancies of the 20th century was created more by off-the-cuff measures than by grandiose planning
Robert Service
“In 1917 he combined fanaticism, ruthlessness and absolute self-confidence with a terrifying naivety about government, economic and Russian society. […] To impose such immense sacrifices in the name of so naïve and flawed a vision makes Lenin one of the greatest criminals of the 20th century.”
Dominic Lieven
“Trotsky displayed his best qualities in 1917. He was the idol of the mass meetings in Petrograd. Determination and boldness showed in everything he did. No-one then noticed that he lacked Lenin’s depth or Lenin’s ability to subordinate his personal feelings to the victory of socialism. Trotsky was one of the best speakers of the revolution. He spoke everywhere with amazing brilliance and had the ability to popularise even difficult ideas with great skill.”
Spundle (Bolshevik Historian)