It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws.
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Lenin suggests that heavy taxation and inflation are effective tools for undermining the bourgeois class.
In this quote, Lenin articulates a strategy to weaken the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class that owns the means of production, by using economic pressures such as high taxation and inflation. This indicates a Marxist approach to revolution, where the elevation of the working class is achieved through the financial burden placed on the ruling class, ultimately leading to their economic downfall and the emergence of a classless society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about economic policies, one could reference this quote to highlight the potential consequences of heavy taxation.
More from Vladimir Lenin
All quotes βFor the complete extinction of the state, complete Communism is necessary.
Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism.
A democracy is a state which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.
We are not utopians, we do not βdreamβ of dispensing at once with all administration, with all subordination. These anarchist dreams, based upon incomprehension of the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship, are totally alien to Marxism, and, as a matter of fact, serve only to postpone the socialist revolution until people are different. No, we want the socialist revolution with people as they are now, with people who cannot dispense with subordination, control, and "foremen and accountants".
No amount of political freedom will satisfy the hungry masses.
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