In the meantime, the first characteristic of a really revolutionary party is — to be able to look reality in the face. - Leon Trotsky

The balance of political power at any given moment is determined under the influences of fundamental and secondary factors of differing degrees of effectiveness, and only in its fundamental quality is it determined by the state of the development of production.

The German soldiers, that is, the workers and peasants, will in the majority of cases have far more sympathy for the vanquished peoples than for their own ruling caste. The necessity to act at every step in the capacity of 'pacifiers' and oppressors will swiftly disintegrate the armies of occupation, infecting them with a revolutionary spirit.

It was as the supreme expression of the mediocrity of the apparatus that Stalin himself rose to his position.