Josef Stalin

The only real power comes out of a long rifle.

Die, but do not retreat.

The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do.

I believe in one thing only, the power of the human will.

Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union.

The Pope! How many divisions has he got?

 

There are various forms of production: artillery, automobiles, lorries. You also produce ‘commodities’, ‘works’, ‘products’. Such things are highly necessary. Engineering things. For people’s souls. ‘Products’ are highly necessary too. ‘Products’ are very important for people’s souls. You are engineers of human souls.

 

[ Remark upon being informed that the United States had developed the atom bomb :] Well, that’s fine. Let’s use it. What’s the next item on the agenda?

[ When asked by French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval to encourage Catholicism in the Soviet Union in order to appease the Pope, 13 May 1935 :] The Pope? How many divisions has he got?

In case of a forced retreat of Red Army units, all rolling stock must be evacuated; to the enemy must not be left a single engine, a single railway car, not a single pound of grain or a gallon of fuel. . . . In occupied regions conditions must be made unbearable for the enemy and all his accomplices. They must be hounded and annihilated at every step and all their measures frustrated.

You are engineers of human souls.

History shows that there are no invincible armies.

Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than dry water or wooden iron.