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Notable Quote

"It is wrong to write about Party comrades in a language that systematically spreads among the working masses hatred, aversion, contempt, etc., for those who hold other opinions. But one may and must write in that strain about an organisation that has seceded."

— Lenin, Vladimir event 1907

From Report to the Fifth Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. on the St. Petersburg Split and the Institution of the Party Tribunal Ensuing Therefrom

Context: From Lenin's April 1907 defence speech to a Bolshevik-Menshevik party tribunal, justifying an earlier pamphlet he wrote against the St. Petersburg Mensheviks who had broken away from the joint Social-Democratic organisation ahead of the Duma elections. Often quoted in isolation, stripped of its target, as a blanket case for hate-filled language against dissent in general. In context the claim is narrower: a tactical carve-out aimed specifically at a rival splinter organisation, explicitly contrasted with what Lenin says is impermissible language between comrades of the same party.

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