“Vladimir Ilyich, your concrete actions are completely unworthy of the ideas you pretend to hold.”

Letter to Vladimir Lenin (21 December 1920); as quoted in Peter Kropotkin : From Prince to Rebel (1990) by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, p. 426
Variant translation: Whoever holds dear the future of communism cannot embark upon such measures.
It is possible that no one has explained what a hostage really is? A hostage is imprisoned not as punishment for some crime. He is held in order to blackmail the enemy with his death.
As translated in Selected Writings on Anarchism and Revolution (1970) edited and translated by Martin A. Miller http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/kropotlenindec20.html
Context: Vladimir Ilyich, your concrete actions are completely unworthy of the ideas you pretend to hold.
Is it possible that you do not know what a hostage really is — a man imprisoned not because of a crime he has committed, but only because it suits his enemies to exert blackmail on his companions? … If you admit such methods, one can foresee that one day you will use torture, as was done in the Middle Ages.
I hope you will not answer me that Power is for political men a professional duty, and that any attack against that power must be considered as a threat against which one must guard oneself at any price. This opinion is no longer held even by kings... Are you so blinded, so much a prisoner of your own authoritarian ideas, that you do not realise that being at the head of European Communism, you have no right to soil the ideas which you defend by shameful methods … What future lies in store for Communism when one of its most important defenders tramples in this way every honest feeling?

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Vladimir Ilyich, your concrete actions are completely unworthy of the ideas you pretend to hold." by Peter Kropotkin?
Peter Kropotkin photo
Peter Kropotkin 141
Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scie… 1842–1921

Related quotes

Ram Dass photo

“Your problem is you are too busy holding on to your unworthiness.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
Oscar Wilde photo

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1954)

Victor Davis Hanson photo

“Vladimir Putin is a thug and a killer who in the grand tradition of Russian autocracy has no intention ever of holding free elections.”

Victor Davis Hanson (1953) American military historian, essayist, university professor

2010s, Why Does the Left Suddenly Hate Russia? (2017)

David Allen photo

“Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

13 November 2009 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/5673602109
Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

Fernando Pessoa photo

“The poet is a pretender.
He pretends so completely,
that he even pretends that it is pain
the pain he really feels.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

O poeta é um fingidor.
Finge tão completamente
Que chega a fingir que é dor
A dor que deveras sente.
"Autopsicografia" ["Autopsychography"], in Presença, No. 36 (November 1932)
Fernando Pessoa's most translated poem.
Richard Zenith's translation:
The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.

Janet Jackson photo

“I feel asleep late last night
Crying like a newborn child
Holding myself close
Pretending my arms are yours
I want no one but you.”

Janet Jackson (1966) singer from the United States

I Get Lonely
The Velvet Rope (1997)

“I'm not holding you against your will; I'm holding you against your car.”

Linda Howard (1950) American writer

Source: Mr. Perfect

Stanley Knowles photo

“Ideas change the world, but they do it by assuming shape, they do it by taking concrete form.”

Stanley Knowles (1908–1997) Canadian politician

Source: The New Party - (1961), Chapter 6, Structure, p. 60

Related topics