Ivanov- "Up to now , all revolutions have been made by moralizing diletantes. They were always in good faith and perished because of their dilettantism. We for the first time are consequent.."" Yes, " said Rubashov. "So consequent, that in the interests of a just distribution of land we deliberately let die of starvation about five million farmers and their families in one year. So consequent were we in the liberation of human beings from the shackles of industrial exploitation that we sent about ten million people to do forced labour in the Artic regions and the jungles of the East, under conditions similar to those of antique galley slaves. So consequent that, to settle a difference of opinion, we know only one argument: death, whether it is a matter of submarines, manure, or the Party line to be followed in Indo-China.. Arthur Koestler
About This Quote

Ivanov’s speech was given to the victims of Stalin’s purges in the early 1950s. The gist of his remarks is that too often, people have sought to change the world only by seeking power. They have failed. Ivanov suggests that they have sought to change the world by just being themselves, thereby allowing the world to change them instead.

Source: Darkness At Noon

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