Aleksandr Zinovyev Quotes

Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev was a Russian logician and writer of social critique.

Born to a poor provincial family, he distinguished himself in the Second World War and later in the scholarship of logic. In the 1970s he criticized the Soviet political system, sacrificing his high academic station in Moscow. Eventually Zinoviev faced exile in 1978, after his novels Yawning Heights and The Radiant Future were published in Europe. He continued to develop his socio-philosophical ideas in subsequent publications, at times employing his original genre of the sociological novel.

After the Collapse of the Soviet Union, Zinoviev wrote a book A Russian Tragedy about the USSR's collapse, calling it a catastrophe. In his later life, he championed the Soviet system and regarded post-Soviet Russia with disdain. He considered Joseph Stalin as one of the greatest personalities in history.

✵ 29. October 1922 – 10. May 2006  •  Other names Aleksandr Zinov'ev

Aleksandr Zinovyev: 28 quotes0 likes

Famous Aleksandr Zinovyev Quotes

“Historically, Marxism was born with the ambition of explaining everything in the world scientifically. It is known, that Marx even dealt with mathematics. Although he could not solve problems which are nowadays clear for even asinine pupils, Marx left behind for the future generations his smart tips.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“She is well known as an ardent supporter of whatever the party’s main direction is. She used to be a passionate Brezhnevist. Now she is an even more passionate Gorbachevist.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“Marxism emerged not only with the intention of explaining scientifically everything in the world, but in addition to this, as a representative of the ‘hurt and injured’ classes of the world, expressing thus the centuries old dream of an earthly paradise. But dreams and wishes have nothing to do with science.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“The firmest proof that Marxism is not science but an ideology is Marxism’s attitude to the experience of the real communist (or socialist) societies.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“Perestroika is nothing but a spectacle organized from above.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

32nd article
Gorbachevism (1988)

“Gorbachevism, carried out by mediocre but ambitious party bureaucrats, is an attempt not only to outdo the people but also the objective laws of human society.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

4th article
Gorbachevism (1988)

Aleksandr Zinovyev Quotes about science

“Marxism disguises itself as science and owing to this it is easier for Marxism to portray the existing society as acting on the basis of scientific laws of his history, to portray the leadership’s selfishness and idiocy as ingenious scientific foresight etc.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“All in all, Engels talked so much rot of every kind, that now all the world’s academies of science should be directed to rectify his mistakes and idiocies.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“Unlike science, an ideology is constructed of conventional ambiguous expressions, which require interpretation. It is impossible to verify or experimentally confirm an ideological statement, one cannot refute these for they are meaningless. […] While arising, an ideology may have pretensions to be scientific. But having become an ideology, it loses all the major characteristics of science.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

Aleksandr Zinovyev Quotes

“During the Brezhnev era, it would have taken a couple of months for all the discussions, after which the commission would have flown for a holiday to the Crimea or Caucasus in a body. And really, why should one fly to a certain Partgrad if everyone knows that all those ‘Lighthouses’ are mere swindle.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)
Context: The members of the commission flew to Partgrad the very next day – it was an unprecendented case in the Soviet Union. During the Brezhnev era, it would have taken a couple of months for all the discussions, after which the commission would have flown for a holiday to the Crimea or Caucasus in a body. And really, why should one fly to a certain Partgrad if everyone knows that all those ‘Lighthouses’ are mere swindle.

“On the palace of the Prince, there was a slogan: ‘Long live feudalism – the bright future of the whole humanity!’ The slogan on the first sanctuary read: ‘Forward to the victory of serfdom!”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“The scientific approach uncovers, that Communism does not eliminate the inequality between men, the social injustice, exploitation of man by man and other evils of society – communism merely changes their form and gives birth to new evils, which become eternal fellow-travelers of communism.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

5th article
Gorbachevism (1988)

“The Stalin Square and Stalin Prospect were renamed Lenin Square and Lenin Prospect. The statue of Stalin was remade into statue of Lenin.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“One physicist writes a study on microphysics, but another writes a book on the importance of Lenin’s and Engels’ works for the development of physics; one mathematician proves theorems, another publishes demagoguery on ingenious mathematical ideas of classical Marxists.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“But the Party had declared merciless war on drinking and that’s why those two remarkable party leaders had to confine themselves to the most trivial non-alcoholic drink. Had their fathers and grandfathers lived up to that moment and had they got to know it, they would have regarded it as a betrayal of Russian traditions and a trick by masons and Zionists.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“Having taken advantage of the carelessness of the KGB, the true communist ran to Moscow, with the intention of announcing the Western journalists that communism in Partgrad is being built in a wrong way and to begging the Western leaders to exert pressure on Soviet leadership so that the latter would rectify the Soviet communism and he, a true communist would be taken back in the party.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“It was prince Igor who decided already many years before Peter the Great to cut an opening to Europe. But as he didn’t know where Europe was, he cut it in a wrong direction, namely to Asia.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“More and more centres of population are joining the socialist competition to acquire the name of the place where prince Oleg was stung by a snake and former czarina Maria was strangled.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“The first words of the inhabitats of Partgrad were offensive words.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“After the death of Stalin the town was renamed Grazhdansk. But this name didn’t hold out more than a couple of years: then was the town given the name of Khrushchev himself. For a certain period after the deposal of Khrushchev the town didn’t have any name at all.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“Although Russia was the first victim of the global Americanisation, one should realise, that the whole Western Europe is affected. The liberal democracy belongs to the past. So does classical Capitalism. We are already situated in a post-democratic era: The new ruling class has realised that one cannot solve the problems of mankind through democracy.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

As cited in "Der ewige Dissident" in Jungle World 21(1999) http://www.nadir.org/nadir/periodika/jungle_world/_2000/21/25b.htm

“I consider him [i. e Stalin] one of the greatest persons in the history of mankind. In the history of Russia he was, in my opinion, even greater than Lenin. Until Stalin's death I was anti-Stalinist, but I always regarded him as a brilliant personality.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

In an interview to Независимая Газета http://www.peoples.ru/art/literature/prose/roman/alexander_zinoviev/

“But the [communist] authorities acquire from Marxism a splendid method and abounding phraseology to justify whatever piggery.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“None of the Marxist concepts (literally – not a single one!) matches the logical rules of scientific concepts.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

On the Social State of Marxism (1978)

“When Andropov became First Secretary of Central Committee of CPSU, he ordered the town renamed Partgrad. It’s hard to guess, how long will that name endure.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“Khrushchev’s perestroika ended without any bloodshed. Khrushchev’s companions abandoned their leader in time and turned Brezhnevists.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“The oblast head of Church disproved the claim in a party newspaper. At the same time he condemned the president of the US as a warmonger.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

“They new the old folk wisdom: what has been built might be really crap and therefore it doesn’t make any sense to dig it, for the smell could make the life really impossible. They regarded Gorbachev exactly that kind of a fool, who had broken the rule.”

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Katastroika (1988)

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