Five quotes attributed to Lenin

The Soviet leader left behind not only a huge collected works, but also many expressions that went to the people. We chose several of them and checked whether they really belong to Lenin.

"Any cook can control the state"

The phrase that a woman who does not even have special training can (in other versions - should) rule the state is attributed not only to Lenin, but also by Trotsky. In 2009, ex-president Leonid Kuchma He mentioned "Leninsky slogan", reflecting on the crisis in the system of public administration of Ukraine. Allegedly Leninist quote is used by ordinary users "Living Journal", And Historians At a meeting at the Ural State Pedagogical University.

We could not find this phrase in Lenin with the verb “maybe”, neither with the verb “should” we could not. In 1917, the journal "Education" was Published The article "Will the Bolsheviks will hold state power." In it, the leader of the revolution writes: “We know that any laborer and any cook are not able to enter into the government of the state right now. In this we agree with the cadets, and with Breshkovskaya, and with Tsereteli. But we differ from these citizens in that we demand an immediate gap with the prejudice of how to rule the state, to carry a everyday, daily work of management in a state of only rich or from wealthy families taken by officials. We demand that the training of public administration be conducted by conscious workers and soldiers and that it was started immediately, that is, all the working people, the whole poor, immediately began to attract this to teaching this. ”

Apparently, over time, the detailed phrase of Lenin was transformed into, as Kuchma called, the slogan. Moreover, this happened quite quickly - already in 1925 appeared poster with the words "Each cook I have to learn To manage the state ”and the signature“ Lenin ”. In 1933, it was these words attributed The leader of the Bolsheviks Trotsky in the article “Alarm of anxiety”. Subsequently, the verb “learn” from this formulation disappeared.

Most of the untruth

"Study, study and study"

The call for continuous education fell not only on Soviet school icons and banners, but also became a "hero" jokes. This phrase is used by the authors of the Russian -speaking version Deutsche Welleand users "Classmates".

In 1899, Lenin wrote article "The backward direction in Russian social democracy." In this work there is such a fragment: “While an educated society loses interest in honest, illegal literature, among workers there is a passionate desire for knowledge and socialism, real heroes stand out among workers, who, despite the ugly atmosphere of their lives, despite the dulling hard labor at the factory, find so much nature and power of will to study and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn. And to develop conscious social democrats, "working intelligentsia." Subsequently, Lenin used similar turns in report at the IV Congress of the Comintern in 1922 and in article “Better less, but better” in 1923. This quote is also in due time appeared On Soviet posters.

At the same time, at least very similar, but at least identical formulations are found in earlier sources. For example, Anton Chekhov He wrote In the story “My Life” (1896): “We need to study, study and study, but we’ll wait with deep public trends: we have not yet grown up to them and, in good conscience, we don’t understand anything in them.”

Most of the truth

"We will go the other way"

This phrase Vladimir Ulyanov allegedly told his mother, mourning the execution of the eldest son of Alexander - in 1887 his Hanged For participation in a conspiracy against Alexander III. In 1951, the words “we will go the other way” became the name paintings Petra Belousov, depicting the future leader of the Bolsheviks with a grieving mother. The fact that at that moment Lenin told her precisely these words, for example, some users are sure "Living Journal".

We were not able to find this phrase among the written heritage of Lenin. The closest statement of the revolutionary is given by his sister Anna Ilyinichna in a small book “Ilyich’s Children and School Years”. She Writes: “Volodya experienced misfortune with great hardness, continued to carefully engage, but became more serious and silent. He often thought about whether the older brother chose the right path of the struggle, and said: "No, we will not go in the same way. We must not go in the same way."

Anna Ulyanova’s book was published in 1935 - almost half a century after the events described. Therefore, the reliability of these memories has every reason to doubt. We could not find any other memories of contemporaries about this phrase. But back in 1925, very similar words I put it In the leader of the leader Vladimir Mayakovsky in his poem “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”:

And then
        said
                Ilyich seventeen -year -
This is a word
        stronger oaths
                A soldier of the raised hand:
- Brother,
        We are here
                They are ready to change you
We will win
        But we
                Let's go to others!

This is not for sure

"In fact, this is not a brain, but shit"

The phrase addressed to the intelligentsia, which is attributed to Lenin, is found in one form or another on sites with quotes, in user texts "Living Journal" And "VKontakte". In 2012, citing Lenin, director Stanislav Govorukhin ExplainedWhy the winner of the presidential election should not rely on "all kinds of liberal writers, laureates of" Boker ", authors of these books, which are impossible to read."

The fact that Lenin really affirmed this can be said with a high degree of confidence. A similar phrase is found in letter To Maxim Gorky, which fell into the complete collected works of the leader. At the same time, in the case of its other phrases, the reduction of Lenin’s words to slogans takes place here. Lenin informed Gorky that he was dissatisfied with the brochure of the writer Vladimir Korolenko, and noted: “What a vile, vile, vile defense of the imperialist war, covered by sugary phrases! A miserable tradesman, captivated by bourgeois prejudices! For such gentlemen, 10 million killed in the imperialist war is a matter that deserves support (with deeds, with sugary phrases “against” war), and the death of hundreds of thousands in a fair civil war against landowners and capitalists causes Achi, Okha, Sildings, and Handing. No. It is not a sin to sit in prison such “talents” if it should be done to prevent conspiracies (like a red hill) and the deaths of tens of thousands. And we discovered these conspiracies of the cadets and "perocades". And we know that near -Cadet professors give all the next to the conspirators help. This is a fact. The intellectual forces of workers and peasants are growing and growing stronger in the struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and its accomplices, intellectuals, lackeys of capital, who are thinking of themselves with the brain of the nation. In fact, this is not a brain, but g <uen>. "

Is it true

"Of all the arts, the most important is cinema for us"

Allegedly said words about cinema hit On Soviet posters back in 1925. Talking about film festivals or thematic exhibitions, some use this quote today - for example, administration One of the districts of St. Petersburg. Often you can also find a version of this statement, in which the “most important of the arts” along with cinema (and so far “people are ill -shed”) is recognized by the circus. This opinion was attributed to Lenin, for example, journalists Vladimir Kara-Murza Sr. And Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In the texts of Lenin himself, we could not find such a phrase about the exclusivity of cinema. The fact that the leader of the revolution pronounced in 1922 in a private conversation was reported by Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first people's commissar for enlightenment. In 1925, citing a letter from Lunacharsky, this phrase brought In the book "Lenin and Cinema" Grigory Boltyansky. The letter itself was published in 1933, and in 1970 excerpts from it appeared In the fifth edition of the complete works of Lenin. He allegedly said to Lunacharsky: “As you get to your feet thanks to the right economy, or maybe you will receive a well -known loan for this business with a general improvement in the country's position, you will have to deploy production wider, and especially promoting healthy cinema to the masses in the city, and even more so in the village ... You must solve the most important movie for us”. Thus, the connection of this phrase with Lenin is based exclusively on the memoirs of Lunacharsky, so it is impossible to reliably confirm its authorship. At the same time, an addition to the circus does not at all find any evidence.

This is not for sure

What do our verdicts mean?