Lenin: Loot the Looters
Vladimir Lenin, Advice to Workers and Peasants. 1917
Original Source: Pravda, No. 18, 6 February 1918, p. 3.
You ... have before you the very difficult and noble task ... of organizing the new economic order in the provinces and of establishing on a firm foundation the power of the Soviets. In doing this you will be helped ... by all workers and peasants ... who are coming more and more to see that apart from the Soviet Government there is no escape from famine and death ...
The bourgeoisie ... and the saboteurs are ... conspiring against us. They know that they will be completely ruined ... if the people succeed in dividing the national wealth which is now in the exclusive possession of the rich ...
That is where your function begins. You must organize and consolidate the Soviet power in the villages. You will encounter there the village-bourgeoisie--the kulaks-who will hinder your work in every way. But to fight them will be an easy matter. The masses will be with you ...
Make it clear to the peasant that the kulaks and the bloodsuckers must be expropriated in order to bring about a just and equitable distribution of goods ... The bourgeoisie are concealing in their coffers the riches which they have plundered, and are saying, "We shall sit tight for a while." We must catch the plunderers and compel them to return the spoils.
Your chief business will be this: do not let the brigands get away with their riches, otherwise we shall perish ...
That Bolshevik was right who in reply to a question whether or not it was true that the Bolsheviks are looters, said, "Yes, we loot the looters."
Source: James Bunyan and H.H. Fisher, ed., Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1918; Documents and Materials (Stanford: Stanford University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 542-543.