John Reed > Quotes

“I suddenly realised that the devout Russian people no longer needed priests to pray them into heaven. On earth they were building a kingdom more bright than any heaven had to offer, and for which it was a glory to die….”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“So, with the crash of artillery, in the dark, with hatred, and fear, and reckless daring, new Russia was being born.”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“Carlyle, in his French Revolution, has described the French people as distinguished above all others by their faculty of standing in queue. Russia had accustomed herself to the practice, begun in the reign of Nicholas the Blessed as long ago as 1915, and from then continued intermittently until the summer of 1917, when it settled down as the regular order of things.”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“Out on the Nevsky, in the deepening dusk, a long double file of cyclists came riding, guns slung on their shoulders. They halted, and the crowd pressed in and deluged them with questions. "Who are you? Where do you come from?" asked a fat old man with a cigar in his mouth. "Twelfth Army. From the front. We came to support the Soviets against the damn' bourgeoisie!”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“The ladies of the minor bureaucratic set took tea with each other in the afternoon, carrying each her little gold or silver or jewelled sugar-box, and half a loaf of bread in her muff, and wished that the Tsar were back, or that the Germans would come, or anything that would solve the servant problem…. The daughter of a friend of mine came home one afternoon in hysterics because the woman street-car conductor had called her "Comrade!”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“In 1917 there were more than twelve million members of the Russian consumers’ Cooperative societies; and the Soviets themselves are a wonderful demonstration of their organising genius. Moreover, there is probably not a people in the world so well educated in Socialist theory and its practical application.”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“Imagine this struggle being repeated in every barracks of the city, the district, the whole front, all Russia. Imagine the sleepless Krylenkos, watching the regiments, hurrying from place to place, arguing, threatening, entreating. And then imaging the same in all the locals of every labour union, in the factories, the villages, on the battle-ships of the far-flung Russian fleets; think of the hundreds of thousands of Russian men staring up at speakers all over the vast country, workmen, peasants, soldiers, sailors, trying so hard to understand and to choose, thinking so intensely-and deciding so unanimously at the end. So was the Russian Revolution….”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were the only party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it on the country.”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“В общем меньшевики и социалисты-революционеры полагали, что экономически Россия не созрела для социальной революции, что возможна только революция политическая. По их мнению, народные массы были недостаточно подготовлены для того, чтобы взять власть в свои руки; всякая такая попытка неизбежно привела бы к реакции, и тогда какой-нибудь беззастенчивый политикан смогу бы восстановить старый режим. Вот почему "умеренные социалисты", получив власть, страшились использовать ее.”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“В конце этой войны я вижу Европу, пересозданную не дипломатами, а пролетариатом. Европейская федеративная республика, Соединенные Штаты Европы – вот что должно быть. Национальная автономия уже недостаточна. Экономический прогресс требует отмены национальных границ. Если Европа останется раздробленной на национальные группы, то империализм будет продолжать свое дело. Дать всему миру мир может только Европейская федеративная республика, – он (Троцкий) улыбнулся тонкой, чуть иронической своей улыбкой. – Но без выступений европейских масс эти цели не могут быть достигнуты пока...”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“Bolshevism?”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“measures against the Bolsheviki. Daily”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“IN the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious people there comes a time when every act of the authorities exasperates the masses, and every refusal to act excites their contempt….”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“During civil war the right to use violence belongs only to the oppressed....”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“The "moderate" Socialists needed the bourgeoisie. But the bourgeoisie did not need the "moderate" Socialists. So it resulted in the Socialist Ministers being obliged to give way, little by little, on their entire program, while the propertied classes grew more and more insistent.”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World

“You foreigners look down on us Russians because so long we tolerated a mediæval monarchy," said he. "But we saw that the Tsar was not the only tyrant in the world; capitalism was worse, and in all the countries of the world capitalism was Emperor.... Russian revolutionary tactics are best....”
― John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World