The Dilemmas of Lenin Quotes

“The Executive Committee of the People's Will had scored it's biggest success on 1 March 1881 by assassinating Alexander II, but also its biggest failure. (...) The aim of terror was to rouse the people from their torpor and trigger a mass uprising based on previous models (Razin/Pugatchev), but this time under new conditions and in order to completely destroy the autocracy and its institutions. It never worked out and, in a grumpy mood, Lenin once characterised terrorists as liberals with bombs, suggesting that both held the opinion that propaganda alone, of deed or word, would be sufficient for the task that lay ahead. For the most part terrorist acts scared people and legitimised government repression.”
― Tariq Ali, The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution

“terrorist acts against the powerful were viewed with awe and sympathy.”
― Tariq Ali, The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution