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).
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).