Oh, you meant the Bolshevism. Well I don't know about Lenin personally, but a lot of Russian revolutionaries in general have been proudly calling themselves terrorists.
Anyway, after the Bolsheviks seized power, they justified the Red Terror by the threat of terrorism (it officially started after one of their leaders was assassinated).
They were also creating fake terrorist organizations to catch the mentioned real old school terrorists from rival ideologies (Operation Trust).
Later, during the show trial era, the usual charge was a participation in a secret (and non-existent) anti-Soviet terrorist organization, in addition to being a foreign (British, German, Polish, Japanese) spy.
A lot of this is reflected in the plot of 1984 where Winston is recruited (and then recruits his gf) into a fake terrorist group to fight the Party by any means.
Unfortunately, I don't have the quote handy, but yes, Lenin was quite blunt about his aims and methods. The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is another thing he was quite in favour of, iirc.
Just another "When somebody tells you what they are, believe them" one, I think.
They quickly made a difference between the state terror, as in the Red Terror (their own name), which was good and directed against the enemies of the People, and the sinister anti-state terrorism and they wouldn't classify their own revolutionary activities as such in official literature because of that.
There was actually remarkably little being talked about the revolutionary era Russia, not least because the Bolsheviks have been only a minor force before their sudden coup but also because how many then fell to internal purges and power struggles so their contributions were erased just like they were being famously removed from group photos (the Death of Stalin end credits montage is a really amusing take on this practice: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cr0BJpKMvEc).
Elaborate, comrade.
Lenin was a self-admitted terrorist, was he not?
Oh, you meant the Bolshevism. Well I don't know about Lenin personally, but a lot of Russian revolutionaries in general have been proudly calling themselves terrorists.
Anyway, after the Bolsheviks seized power, they justified the Red Terror by the threat of terrorism (it officially started after one of their leaders was assassinated).
They were also creating fake terrorist organizations to catch the mentioned real old school terrorists from rival ideologies (Operation Trust).
Later, during the show trial era, the usual charge was a participation in a secret (and non-existent) anti-Soviet terrorist organization, in addition to being a foreign (British, German, Polish, Japanese) spy.
A lot of this is reflected in the plot of 1984 where Winston is recruited (and then recruits his gf) into a fake terrorist group to fight the Party by any means.
Unfortunately, I don't have the quote handy, but yes, Lenin was quite blunt about his aims and methods. The "dictatorship of the proletariat" is another thing he was quite in favour of, iirc.
Just another "When somebody tells you what they are, believe them" one, I think.
They quickly made a difference between the state terror, as in the Red Terror (their own name), which was good and directed against the enemies of the People, and the sinister anti-state terrorism and they wouldn't classify their own revolutionary activities as such in official literature because of that.
There was actually remarkably little being talked about the revolutionary era Russia, not least because the Bolsheviks have been only a minor force before their sudden coup but also because how many then fell to internal purges and power struggles so their contributions were erased just like they were being famously removed from group photos (the Death of Stalin end credits montage is a really amusing take on this practice: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cr0BJpKMvEc).