Generals Chuikov & Gurov check the rifle of famed sniper Vassili Zaitsev at Stalingrad -- Daily LIFT #193

Generals Chuikov & Gurov check the rifle of famed sniper Vassili Zaitsev at Stalingrad -- Daily LIFT #193

Zaitsev, the most effective sniper of the battle that turned the tide against the Nazis, meets with Soviet generals during the battle.

Red Army Soldiers Throw Nazi Banners to the Ground, Moscow, June 24, 1945 -- Daily LIFT #188

Red Army Soldiers Throw Nazi Banners to the Ground, Moscow, June 24, 1945 -- Daily LIFT #188

At the end of the first Victory Day parade in Moscow in celebration of the defeat of the Nazis, Red Army soldiers threw the banners of Nazi regiments to the ground outside of Lenin's mausoleum in Red Square. The soldiers all wore gloves so that they would not actually have to touch the banners.

Today is the 75th anniversary of the USSR accepting the surrender of Nazi Germany ending the Second World War in Europe.

The Fall of the Reichstag: An eyewitness Red Army account

Written 20 years after the end of the war, this is a thrilling eyewitness account of the battle for the Reichstag in the final days of the Red Army's victory in Berlin. Its author was Vassily Subbotin who was a 24 year old lieutenant. Subbotin's father was killed in action earlier in the war in fighting in Ukraine.

The account opens with a prose poem, The Road, and then tells of the confused fighting, the terrible deaths with the war just days from ending, negotiations for the surrender of the German troops in the Reichstag, and the story of the raising of the Soviet flag over the building in victory that was preserved in one of the most famous photographs of the war.

We have included some other photos from the account as well.

Today is the 75th anniversary of Victory Day in the USSR.

Republished in 1985 this was an excerpt from a larger book, How Wars End.

Biographical details:

A poet, prose writer and translator, Vassily Subbotin was born in Siberia. His father came from a family of farmers. Both the father and the son went to the front in 1941.

Subbotin's father was killed in action on the 1st Ukrainian Front, while Vassily, then a twenty-four-year-old lieutenant, fought his way with the army into Berlin and took part in the assault of the Reichstag. It was there, during respites in the fighting, that he wrote the first sketches of his future book, How Wars End. It took him, in fact, twenty years to complete the work.

(click on scans to enalrge)

Soviet dice-bombers over Berlin

At the height of the battle

After the storming of the Reichstag

Mikhail Kantaria and Mikhail Yegorov, the men who raised the Banner of Victory

The Nazi emblem thrown down from the Reich Chancellery

Happy Victory Day!

Happy Victory Day!

May 9th, 1945 was Victory Day in the USSR when the Soviets officially accepted the surrender of Germany after years of devastating war. The world owes the peoples of the Soviet Union an immense debt of gratitude for their extreme sacrifices in the struggle to defeat  fascism.

Victory Day was an official holiday in the USSR and continues to be honoured in many of the former Soviet republics.

Defend Moscow!, Soviet Great Patriotic War Poster, 1941 -- Daily LIFT #187

Defend Moscow!, Soviet Great Patriotic War Poster, 1941 -- Daily LIFT #187

Poster from the dark days of the fall of 1941 as the Red Army rallied in defense of Moscow and the fate of the world hung in the balance. Today is Victory in Europe Day in many countries while tomorrow, May 9, is Victory Day in many countries of the former USSR.

No fascism ever again! -- Statements from Communist and Workers' parties on the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany

Monument to the Red Army Soldiers Who Died Defending the Caucuses, Gagra, USSR 1966

May 8th and 9th (in much of Eastern Europe) are celebrated around the world as the days on which victory was proclaimed against Nazi Germany after the terrible devastation and sacrifices of the Second World War.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of that triumph and internationally the threat of fascism is rising again. There are also ongoing attempts to whitewash the fascist and collaborationist past by many nationalist groups in Europe.This has been combined with a grotesque effort to equate communism with Nazism. 

75 Communist and Workers' parties signed a joint statement in honour of the anniversary which is shared here in full. There are also excerpts from statements by parties in Ukraine, the Netherlands, Iran and Austria

In the name of freedom, peace and truth — Against fascism and war: Joint statement of over 75 Communist and Workers' Parties

The victory over Nazi-fascism in the Second World War is a major event in history, the memory of which must be preserved and defended in the face of repeated attempts at historical falsification aimed at making us forget the decisive role played by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, by the communists and by anti-fascists from around the world.

Generated by capitalism, Nazi-fascism was the most violent and terroristic manifestation of monopoly capital. It was responsible for the outbreak of this war of aggression and plunder that caused close to 75 million deaths, of which approximately 27 million were Soviet citizens, and for the immeasurable suffering and horror of the Nazi concentration camps. The peoples can also not forget dark pages, such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA, without any military justification, which represented a display of power and of their world-wide hegemonistic ambitions.

The Second World War (1939-1945) was the result of increasingly acute inter-imperialist contradictions and, at the same time, of the intention to destroy the first Socialist State, the USSR, which was namely expressed in the support and connivance of the United Kingdom, France and the United States with the rearmament and expansionist ambition of Nazi Germany.

In commemorating the 75th anniversary of the historic Victory on  May 9, 1945, the undersigned communist and workers' parties, certain in the knowledge that they portray the feelings and aspirations of workers and peoples from all over the world:

- Pay tribute to all those who gave their lives on the battlefields against the Nazi-fascist hordes and in particular to the heroism of the resistance movements and anti-fascist fighters and to the heroic Soviet people and Red Army, led by the Communist Party, whose contribution, written in heroic pages such as the battles of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, was decisive for the Victory over barbarism;

- Consider that the Victory over Nazi Germany and its allies in the Anti-Comintern Pact was achieved thanks to the decisive contribution of the USSR, to the class nature of the Soviet power with the participation of the masses of the people, to the leading role of the Communist Party, to the superiority which was displayed by the Socialist system. That victory is an enormous historical legacy of the revolutionary movement;

- Value the outstanding advances in the social and national emancipation of the workers and peoples that the Victory and the resulting advancement of the forces of social progress and peace made possible, extending the sphere of socialism within the countries of Europe, Asia and Latin America, creating the conditions for the advance of the labour movement in capitalist countries, the sweeping development of the national liberation movement and the resulting liquidation of colonial empires;

- Denounce and condemn the campaigns that aim to belittle, distort and even deny, the role of the USSR and of the communists in the defeat of Nazi-fascism and also to unjustly and falsely blame the Soviet Union for starting the Second World War, to expunge the responsibilities of big capital and the governments at its service in the promotion and rise of fascism and in unleashing the war, and whitewash and rehabilitate fascism, while destroying the monuments and memory of the liberating Soviet army, promoting anti-communism and criminalizing communists and other anti-fascists;

- Denounce and condemn the EU’s anti-communist resolutions and the slanderous historical falsification which attempts to equate socialism with the fascist monster;

- Warn that the most reactionary and aggressive sectors of imperialism are increasingly viewing  fascism and war as a “way out” of the deepening crisis of the capitalist system, whose inhuman character becomes particularly obvious when, even in the face of the very serious epidemic outbreak of Covid-19, imperialism, the USA, NATO, the EU and its allies capitalist powers, continue a criminal policy of blockades and aggressions against countries and peoples;

-  Consider that the struggle for peace, social progress and socialism are inseparable; and make a commitment  to seek a stronger common action of the working class, of the workers and peoples of the world, of the political forces engaged in blocking the path to fascism and in the struggle against imperialism, imperialist aggressions and a new war of tragic proportions.

The situation with which the workers and peoples of the world are confronted underlines the importance of strengthening the struggle against imperialism, for the sovereignty of the peoples and the independence of States, for the rights of the workers and peoples, as leading forward to the revolutionary overcoming of the capitalist system, a system which breeds fascism, war, the injustices, dangers and contradictions of the present. As it was 75 years ago, it is today the struggle of the communists and all those facing capitalist exploitation and oppression that will open the way for the future for Humanity.

75 years since the liberation - Statement of the New Communist Party of the Netherlands (excerpt)

Communists took the lead in the armed struggle and dangerous missions, such as acts of sabotage and liquidations. For this reason, thousands of CPN-members were executed, or met their ends in concentration camps. The names of members of the CPN, such as HannieSchaft, Jan Bonekamp and many others, became symbols of the resistance through their heroic struggle.

Communists were at the forefront of the resistance in all of Europe, not just in the Netherlands. The heroic demeanour displayed by communists was the result of communist ideals and praxis, the collective struggle, solidarity, camaraderie and trust in the strength of common working-class people. For this reason, the pre-war dealings of the CPN and its close ties with the working class, established through the class struggle, were of crucial importance for the latter resistance in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands were liberated by English, American and Canadian troops. We must, however, not forget that, on the other side of Europe, the Soviet Union and the Red Army gave the decisive contribution to the defeat of Nazi-Germany.

The anticommunist distortion of history propagated by bourgeois political parties and the EU, which hushes up the role of the CPN in the resistance, which attempts to equate fascism and communism, which goes as far as to state that the Soviet Union shares responsibility for the outbreak of World War II, is extremely dangerous. With this narrative, they conceal the causes and true character of fascism and war.

We pay homage to the members of the CPN and the other resistance fighters
who fought the fascist occupation.

Not then, not now, no fascism ever again!

The statement on The 75th anniversary of VE Day! - Tudeh Party of Iran (Excerpt)

On May 9th, amidst the global health crisis emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic, falls a major anniversary…  For it was on this day, 75 years ago, that the Victory over Nazi Germany was secured thus ending World War II in Europe.  This Victory was the culmination of combined counter-offensives by the Soviet Red Army and partisan units, who turned around the Nazi war machine in the East and changed the course of the war; the Allies; and the resistance movements across Europe, during the latter part of 1944 and into the spring of 1945.

The Second World War was instigated for the purpose of world domination by the Axis powers - an alliance of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, and their collaborators. Aggression by the Nazi-Fascist Axis was driven by a cold economic reasoning;  a need to re-divide the world and redraw the lines laid down by the other imperialist powers - namely Britain, France, and the emerging United States - and thus resolve the drive for profit by big business in Germany, Italy, and Japan.  Of course, the defeat and bringing down of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the other main objective, one from which all of the imperialist powers would have benefited. However, after over 50-million deaths - more than 20 million of which accounted for Soviet citizens alone - and utter devastation wrought to countries around the world, the Axis powers were defeated and the Soviet Union gloriously prevailed thanks to the heroic resistance and steadfastness of its people and armed forces.

The Tudeh Party of Iran was actually established as an anti-fascist party in the midst of the WWII, on 2nd October 1941, by communist prisoners released after the removal of Reza Shah by the Allies that September, owing to the preponderance and orientation of him and his administration towards Nazi Germany.  Indeed, at that time, the state and its apparatus were awash with pro-Nazi collaborators and those advocating for Iran’s alignment with the Axis powers.  Thus, in the early years after its formation, our Party’s driving focus was the fight against any vestige of fascism and Nazism in Iran.  The Party began publishing the “Anti-Fascist Mardom (People)” newspaper to educate and organise the masses in fight against the Nazi hordes that, within a year, were pushing towards the Caucasus adjacent to the country’s borders with the Soviet Union.  This activity continued until the end of the war and laid the ground for a shift towards progressive policies in Iran over the years that followed.

The Victory over Fascism heralded a new era in the establishment and spread of socialism around the world.  A wave of national liberation movements against the empires of Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands - as well as that of the newly-emerged and emboldened power; the US - began, and was strongly supported by the Soviet Union and the newly-formed socialist states in Eastern Europe.

On the momentous occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Victory over Fascism in Europe, the Tudeh Party of Iran applauds and salutes the memory of all those who stood and fell in the struggle against the Axis powers and their collaborators.

75 years since liberation from fascism and foreign rule - Party of Labour of Austria (Excerpt)

May 8 and 9 are the anniversaries of the unconditional surrender of Germany in the Second World War. These days meant 1945, 75 years ago, the end of historical German fascism, of its war of extermination and its crimes. At the same time, they marked the Great Antifascist Victory of the Peoples. The Party of Labour of Austria highlights the following points on the 75th anniversary:

- May 8 and 9, 1945 were days of liberation. We oppose any view which seeks to reinterpret the end of the Second World War as a defeat for the Austrian people, whether on the basis of historical revisionist, revanchist, anti-communist, German nationalist, pan-Germanist or even fascist attitudes.

- May 8 and 9 brought down the fascist system of rule - and with it, terror and persecution, mass murder and genocide. The victims of these crimes will never be forgotten. We remember the murdered Jews, Roma, religious and ethnic minorities, homosexuals, war opponents and pacifists, politically persecuted and opponents of German fascism. We oppose racism and anti-Semitism, nationalism and chauvinism, xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance.

Victory Day 9th of May - Communist Party of Ukraine  (Excerpt)

Dear comrades!

Please accept congratulations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine with the 75th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, which saved the USSR, Europe and the whole world from the threat of fascist slavery and genocide.

The tragedy of that terrible war is the main lesson of the twentieth century. It serves as a reminder to everyone about what leads to indifference and compromise with the Nazis. But it also demonstrated the unique example of the military fraternity of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Accept our tribute to the courage of the soldiers of the allied armies, who together with the Red Army fought against fascism and broke the back of the Nazi beast. Let us bow before the strength of spirit of the generation of Victors, who won the the greatest military battle for peace, for the prosperity of the peoples and countries of the world community.

May 1, International Workers' Day Holiday Card, USSR 1976 -- Daily LIFT #185

May 1, International Workers' Day Holiday Card, USSR 1976 -- Daily LIFT #185

April in Lenin's Life, USSR April 1983

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

Leaflet: April in Lenin's Life, USSR April 1983

This short little piece looks at the various events that happened in April over the course of Lenin's life. It has some interesting photos and anecdotes and was excerpted from the book The Portrait and Time by Y. Yakovlev that had been published in Moscow the year before.

There are snippets and events from both before and after the revolution. April 22, 2020 was the 150th anniversary of Lenin's birth.

(Click on scans to enlarge)

   

Poster for the 110th anniversary of Lenin's birth, USSR 1980 -- Daily LIFT #182

Poster for the 110th anniversary of Lenin's birth, USSR 1980 -- Daily LIFT #182

Capitalism is not the end of history -- More statements from around the world on the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth

April 22. 2020 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lenin. The necessity of socialism in these terrible times has never been clearer as has the need for a real alternative to the neo-fascism of the right, the hypocritical swamp of liberalism and the decay of social democracy.

We already looked at Communist and Workers' parties statements from around the world in our post The future belongs to socialism -- Statements from around the world on the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth.

Here are more excerpts of statements from Portugal, Brazil, Pakistan, Iraq, Chile and Austria. 

150 years since the birth of Lenin: Statement by Jerónimo de Sousa, General Secretary of the Portuguese Communist Party 

Lenin's contribution to the development of Marxism in the era of imperialism and his analyses of the transition from capitalism to a new phase, the monopoly phase, the phase of imperialism, on the question of the state, the phases and stages of the revolutionary process maintain a striking topicality in its essence.

The development of the crisis of capitalism confirms Lenin's fundamental theses about the laws that govern capitalism in this imperialist phase. They highlight the trend towards the finantialization of the economy, which drives capital towards speculation, to the detriment of productive investment, the law of unequal development, the tendency towards stagnation, reflected by the drop in the growth of GDP in the main capitalist countries.

Unable to overcome the insoluble contradictions, from the outset the contradiction between capital and labour and the permanent struggle around the rate of surplus value, insatiable in the greed of appropriation and accumulation of capital without limits, capitalism combines its oppressive nature with new and more complex types of labour exploitation and planetary predation that has been enhanced by the processes of capitalist globalisation and finantialization of the economy.

Processes that thrive and affirm themselves on the political level in the shadow of strategic cooperation between the most reactionary and conservative forces and social democracy and with the State assuming the role of promoter of private capital, commodifying all areas and sectors of economic and social life.

Their consequences are the worsening of exploitation, unemployment, precariousness, the increase in social injustices and inequalities, attack on social and labour rights, denial of democratic rights, and also war.

Today, a thousand and a half large multinational companies control more than 60% of the world economy and 26 multimillionaires hold a wealth equal to the poorest half of the world population - about 3.8 thousand million people.

The inhuman character of imperialism is well evident in its action in the context of the emergence of the global epidemic outbreak, maintaining and intensifying blockades and reinforcing illegal sanctions against peoples and countries.

The world has changed a lot in the last century and a half, but the exploitative nature of capitalism has not changed becoming increasingly rentier, parasitic and decadent.

Capitalism is not the "end of history". The revolutionary overcoming of its insoluble contradictions is a requirement of social development.

In permanent confrontation with the needs, interests, aspirations of the workers and peoples, the overcoming of capitalism has increasing acuity, through different paths and stages, as a goal of the struggle of workers and peoples, as a perspective and condition of a future inseparable from a full human liberation and fulfillment.

Socialism remains with its full potential of materialisation on the horizon of the struggle of workers and peoples.

Lenin, the genius of revolutionary praxis: Statement of the Communist Party of Brazil

Another salient and fundamental theoretical contribution made by Lenin to the Marxist theory was the identification and systematization of the transition from capitalism, by the end of the 19th century, to a phase of broad predominance of monopoly in the central capitalist powers, which was a consequence of the “law of concentration and centralization of production” already noted by Marx.

According to Lenin, it was precisely that transition that sustained those powers’ brutal colonial expansion in Asia, Africa and Latin America in that period. Therefore, his systematization became known as the “theory of imperialism”. In his view, the political economy of capitalism in the new monopolist phase was dominated by the force of finance capital, which sought to guarantee access to economic territories for exclusive or privileged exploitation world-wide, through open colonization or political subordination.

But Lenin did not just systematize the distinctive characteristics of the new monopolist phase of capitalism. From this theoretical systematization, he extracted the strategic and tactic consequences for the revolutionary forces’ political action. He concluded that, under new conditions, movements for national emancipation in the colonies and in the dependent countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America would become a crucial vector in the revolutionary struggle around the world. Hence, he argued that the socialist parties should incorporate in their programs the promotion of the “peoples’ right to self-determination”, a proposition met with strong resistance from various sectors in the European left at that time.

Lenin noted, moreover, that the advent of the monopolist phase of capitalism created a dynamic of “uneven development” in the international system. The accumulation of capital in the countries where finance capital was most concentrated and developed was ever more based on the extraction of income from the productive activities realized in other countries and regions. This growingly “rentier” and “parasitic” nature of accumulation led to the decomposition of economic dynamism in the system’s core and to the continuous emergence of more dynamic, competing economic poles in other countries and regions. These new poles, for their part, began to question the structures of hegemonic domination by the power that was in economic decline. Therefore, according to Lenin, tensions between these powers were inevitable in the “age of imperialism” and the international system would become growingly unhinged and turbulent, prone to conflicts and wars. It would be up to the revolutionary parties to politically exploit the tensions and contradictions between the central capitalist powers in order to advance their own agendas of national and social emancipation, while developing a strong internationalist mobilization against the imperialist war and for peace.

Message on 150th anniversary of Comrade Lenin: Politburo Communist Party of Pakistan.

The capitalist system of course is a system of waging slavery and its foundation is rooted in corruption. In the name of democracy it is actually a system of feudal and capitalist dictatorship.

In countries like Pakistan even the status quo parties have to make compromises with establishment and imperialist forces to come into power after electoral process. Survival of their governments depend upon submission to the instructions of these forces. Disobedience can cause them removal from power through Martial Law or otherwise, the leadership of the party will face humiliation, imprisonment even death by hanging. Under these circumstances revolutionary communists are left with no other choice except socialist revolution and this is the lesson of teaching of Leninism.

We do not forget comrade Lenin.

Red salute to comrade Lenin on his 150th birthday.

On the 150th birthday of the leader of the October Revolution and founder of the First Socialist State: Iraqi Communist Party

Lenin intended his contribution to the enrichment and development of Marxist thought as a guide to the revolutionary struggle of the working class, especially in the field of building its revolutionary party and the theoretical foundations for formulating its strategy and tactics according to concrete historical circumstance. It was his party that led the working class and its allies in Russia to victory by seizing power, establishing the power of the working class and the power of the soviets to serve the interests of the exploited and oppressed. Lenin demonstrated the role of the working class, whether in the matter of receiving power or later in the process of the transition to and building of socialism.

Lenin was the theorist who further developed and defined the component parts of Marxist philosophy, the political economy of capitalism at its highest levels, and scientific communism. His works were dedicated to the spreading and developing Marxism and revolutionary theory.

His works and writings, and his dialectical materialist approach, stemming from the tangible analysis of the concrete conditions and from the calculation of the balance of power surrounding the revolutionary struggle, retain their relevance in general, and constitute a "beacon" for the ideological and political education of each new generation of revolutionaries.

Declaration for the 150th anniversary of the birth of the leader of the Russian Revolution: Communist Party of Chile

Lenin's idea to fight for the revolution according to the conditions of each country, is fully in force today when capitalism is destroying the planet and puts its economic interests and those of its corporations above the life of those threatened by pandemics.

His teachings have been a guide in the triumph of not a few revolutions in the world, the liberation of colonies and the achievement of higher levels of independence. It is also present in the advances and struggles of new societies that are moving towards socialism. Indeed, inspired by the thought of Lenin, together with the experience and direction of its leaders, the triumphant revolutions made their way in Asia, Africa and Latin America, not without setbacks but in a generally positive direction.

The triumphant revolution led by Lenin developed enough to defeat Nazism, the most dangerous and criminal offspring of capitalism and, later, to put a man in space before anyone else. A backward society with feudal features became modern despite the enormous destruction of lives and resources lost crushing the Nazi beast, which today aims to raise its head again to save capitalism from its crisis.

On the 150th birthday of Lenin: Declaration of the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Austria

With the name Lenin we associate important and momentous events in the history of mankind, especially the Great Socialist October Revolution of 1917 -its theoretical and practical preparation and its beginning at the right time under the slogan "peace, work, bread" are due to Lenin's strategic thinking and his sharp analysis of the concrete conditions. He earned invaluable merits in the foundation of the first socialist state of the world and the USSR, as well as in the formation of the world communist movement through the creation of the Third, the Communist International. Lenin played a central role in all these great achievements of the revolutionary workers' movement. It can rightly be said that Lenin, as a historical personality, was the greatest revolutionary of the 20th century, although he did not experience even a quarter of it.

Soviet Pin in Honour of the Centenary of Lenin's Birth, 1970 -- Daily LIFT #179

Soviet Pin in Honour of the Centenary of Lenin's Birth, 1970 -- Daily LIFT #179

Today is the 150th anniversary.

Amilcar Cabral:

We are not saying anything new. Today everybody, even the colonialists and imperialists, fully realizes that without the victorious Great October Revolution, without the establishment and consolidation of the world's first socialist state—the Soviet Union—and without the successful continuation of Lenin's cause, the oppressed peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America would have remained in the darkness of colonial slavery. The political map of the world would have looked quite different, for the anti-imperialist, national-liberation movement would not have assumed the scope and power it has today. Everybody knows that the Leninist analysis of imperialism and imperialist domination is a powerful weapon for the national-liberation movement and all forces fighting imperialism. 

Fidel Castro:

Lenin is a truly exceptional phenomenon in human life ... It is rare when in some process—and perhaps, never in the political process generally —someone's mind, thought, perspicacity were able to make such a huge contribution to the development of that process as the mind, thought and perspicacity of Lenin. 

Tim Buck:

Lenin didn't speak, or write, about the necessity for audacity in the way that Danton did but he showed his capacity for it in a greater variety of engagements and on a greater scale than the famous French revolutionist had opportunity to know of. Lenin demonstrated the decisive role of audacity in revolution more clearly and more dramatically than has any other revolutionary whose activities are recorded. The fact that so little is written about this characteristic of his is striking evidence of the fact that mankind at large, including Communists, is still discovering so much that is new in Lenin's theoretical and ideological work that admiration of his remarkable intellectual audacity attracts the main attention. The personal audacity which was the physically decisive factor in some of the greatest of his historical achievements is usually accepted as though it flowed naturally and automatically from his theoretical conclusions—come to think of it, in his case it did. That's the sort of man that he was. Lenin's personal audacity, the superficial appearance that he didn't even realize the extent of the risk involved, was the more inspiring because it was in fact always the result of conviction, arrived at by careful study, and never of unthinking recklessness.