On Lenin

On January 28, 1924, Stalin was invited to give a speech at a memorial meeting of the Kremlin Military School. It was first published in Pravda issue No. 34, February 12, 1924. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 6 of the Complete Works of Stalin.

Stalin recalled the experience of meeting and working with Lenin, and narrated Lenin’s personality and excellent qualities as a political leader. He depicted the main qualities of Lenin from eight aspects.

Firstly, Lenin was a man of extraordinary caliber. Compared with other leaders of the party, Lenin was the highest leader and a mountain eagle. In the struggles, Lenin did not know what fear was, and boldly led the Party forward along the unexplored paths of the Russian revolutionary movement.

Secondly, Lenin’s greatest strength was his extreme modesty and approachability, he rejected to remain unobserved within the Party ranks, and never emphasized his supreme status in the Party. He was the new leader of the new masses, of the simple and ordinary masses of the “rank and file” of humanity and is deeply loved by the masses.

Thirdly, Lenin had extraordinary persuasion talents. His rhetoric was far superior to that of the ordinary “parliament” speakers. This benefited from the powerful logical force in Lenin’s speech. This kind of powerful logical force enables his speech to hold the audience tightly, gradually move the audience, and finally get the strong approval of the audience.

Fourthly, “no whining over defeat”—this was the feature of Lenin’s activities that helped him to rally around himself an army faithful to the end and confident in its strength. To believe in our own strength and victory was what Lenin told us at that time.

Fifthly, “no boasting in victory”—this was the feature of Lenin’s character that helped him soberly to weigh the strength of the enemy and to insure the Party against possible surprises.

Sixthly, Lenin was highly principled. When the opinion of the majority or the momentary interests of the Party conflicted with the fundamental interests of the proletariat. On such occasions Lenin would never hesitate and resolutely took his stand in support of principle as against the majority of the Party. Moreover, he did not fear on such occasions literally to stand alone against all, considering—as he would often say—that “a policy based on principle is the only correct policy.

Seventhly, Lenin despised those who superciliously looked down on the masses and tried to teach them from books. Faith in the creative power of the masses—this was the feature of Lenin’s activities which enabled him to comprehend and make sharp estimates on the spontaneous process and to direct its movement into the channel of the proletarian revolution.

Eighthly, the insight of genius, the ability to rapidly grasp and penetrate to the inner meaning of impending events, which demonstrated the political skills of Lenin, enabled him to put forward correct tactics and a clear line of action at the turning points of the revolutionary movement.

Stalin’s speech vividly depicts Lenin’s character and the basic characteristics of his political activities, demonstrates Lenin’s personal charm as a brilliant theoretician, thus plays an important role in understanding Lenin and Leninism.