Bertrand Russell on his meeting with Vladimir Lenin in 1920

Watch the full interview here: • Bertrand Russell - Gre...

[@GijsTheDog]

"I didn't much like that" Probably the most British response you can give in that situation.

[@SairaSabir1443AH]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHrUn3-QdpiIbqM

[@Iustinfm]

Years of fighting, humans right violations, terrorist attacks: "We shall call it the "troubles"

[@job5236]

Yes, they slay in subtle ways.

[@anondoggo]

That's why I love British people XD

[@arthurheidt6373]

@@Iustinfm there was no point in stirring up poor peasants against rich ones, the rich ones where rich because they where higher in the ranks of their peasant family farm.

[@marktaylor6491]

When he brought up Cromwell, I was half expecting him to say 'who had met in my youth'.

[@leeboy26]

"We're going to chop the head off a king hahaha' "I didn't much like that"

[@kosikumah7249]

I almost did a double take and said : did he just mention CROMWELL?

[@faithlesshound5621]

@@kosikumah7249 As the leader of England's revolution, Cromwell ended up in a similar situation to Lenin and Stalin: no crown, but called "His Highness." A "democratic" leader who dismissed his Parliament, which became stuffed with religious bigots. He erased national differences from the top down by ruling a "Commonwealth" of England, Scotland and Ireland with military force and English gauleiters.

[@kevinbergin9971]

@@faithlesshound5621 He butchered many (Ireland especially) Lenin would have approved I'm sure.

[@siler7]

I think you a.

[@geegee1014]

A few people saying they cant hear the voice clearly, here is a transcript: I met Lenin in 1920 when I was in Russia, I had an hours talk tête-à-tête with him. And um, he spoke English much better than you would have expected, the whole conversation was in English. I expected it to have been in German, but I found that his English was quite good. I was less impressed by Lenin than I expected to be. He was of course a great man. He seemed to me a reincarnation of Cromwell, with exactly the same limitations that Cromwell had. Absolute orthodoxy, he thought a proposition could be proved by quoting a text in Marx, and he was quite incapable of supposing that there could be anything in Marx that wasn’t right, and that struck me as rather limited. I disliked one other thing about him which was his great readiness to stir up hatred. I put certain questions to him to see what his answer would be, and one of them was “You profess to be establishing socialism, but as far as the countryside is concerned you seem to me to be establishing peasant proprietorship which is a very different thing from agricultural socialism”. And he said, “Oh dear me no, we’re not establishing peasant proprietorship”, he said “You see there are poor peasants and rich peasants, and we stirred up the poor peasants against the rich peasants, and they soon hanged them to the nearest tree, ah hah hah HAH HAH”. I didn’t much like that.

[@geegee1014]

@@amoinoacid thanks! :)

[@cepewka13]

thanks

[@gudemik5335]

Thank you, being a not native it was difficult to understand.

[@thebiggestcauldron]

Thank you, I really needed a transcript! Why does "dislike" have an asterisk?

[@geegee1014]

@@thebiggestcauldron It was to show where the edit was, i'll remove it.

[@LaGzerdotcom]

I'm listening to a person who died ~50 years ago describing an event that happened ~100 years ago.

[@mykebellinger6439]

Imagine 100 years from now someone watching their great grandma on tiktok

[@LaGzerdotcom]

@@mykebellinger6439 they would cringe at our generation

[@newsaddict7737]

@@LaGzerdotcom Every generation cringes at the previous generation(s). Because life is a constant stream of embarrassment. So anyone will have something to cringe at, because life can be such an emotional embarrassing journey with problematic turn of events. Life can be such a pain, but going through it, can show beauty beyond the stars.

[@big_slurp4603]

Wow time passes sooo crazy

[@vladraduandrei5227]

@Rodney Hamilton oof , would have been impossible for me since I was born in 95

[@robsmith7567]

It's quite impressive to actually here a first hand encounter of someone who actually met Lenin face to face.

[@tomggabin5838]

Here! Here!

[@Jide-bq9yf]

Couldn’t agree more .

[@kohekade2961]

And not just anyone, Bertrand Russell... One of the greatest thinkers and men of all time.

[@blackphillip564]

Not really. Lenin died in the full light of history. If there was a manuscript of someone who described meeting Jesus or genghis Khan

[@minboogie]

Yea and still be alive 😅

[@Lawtasaj]

apparently Lenin spoke English with an Irish accent (having lived with Irish immigrants during his time in London)

[@paulrouhan7288]

Wow, Lenin was truly magnificent..

[@harverc229]

I expected a strong Russian accent like a true Russian should sound like in English.

[@leightonredmond8150]

His english teacher was from Rathmines, Dublin He had the south dublin accent when speaking english The exact accent I grew up with

[@tomasomaonaigh7659]

@@leightonredmond8150 Would that be the West brit accent........

[@leightonredmond8150]

@@tomasomaonaigh7659 ......Don't ever say anything about irish being british again or so help me god

[@TheDoctorofOdoIsland]

"He seemed to me a reincarnation of Cromwell" That's so incredibly specific and British to say.

[@SimonAshworthWood]

More like Cromwell was a pre-incarnation of Lenin.

[@JZuncut]

@@SimonAshworthWood no

[@Yamsthenills]

@@JZuncut I mean, both of them were vanguard-born populists who were tremendously effective at choosing their moments and seizing power from abusive imperial regimes, both did a lot of good and a whole lot of evil, and both are disproportionately villified in comparison with the power structures they opposed, who willingly wrought far more harm over far longer timescales than either revolutionary did. That's the bulk of that comparison to be made.

[@Yamsthenills]

@@sirmount2636 I have bad news for you about not only your conception of those men but also your conception of any world leader you might possibly admire

[@w.w.marchi1677]

@@sirmount2636 If genocide means killing a imperial family that was known for it's antissemitic policies and popular repression, and then suffering external invasion from 14 powerful nations which helped the white army that was far more brutal than the red army, then sure, he was. But one must remember that the changes the soviet revolution did for the labor world and human rights was like nothing else in the world, maybe except for the french revolution in terms of historic influence. We have to remember that while the USA lived in racial segregation until the 60's, Soviet Russia had racial equality even in the 20's, and not only that, but the freedom women had under Lenin government was so far beyond it's time. There was no more prostitution. The women wasn't a domestic slave of men anymore. It's amazing to see that the revolutionary spirit was so great in 17-24 that they achieved gender equality in a very conservative and patriarchal society. There was no class exploitation, really, but new production relations based on social cooperation between workers, peasants and small tradesman. Not everything was a bed of roses but men and women wasn't slaves of their own biological needs. They did not work to live, but rather lived to work and enjoy the riches of their work.

I was impressed with Bertrand Russel just as I expected to be.

[@End-Result]

Genteel British*

[@igorfilipovic6531]

I ja

[@andreichivu7653]

Sensational tête-à-tête between a nazi-rasist-eugenist and a bolshevik monster...

[@willshogren1987]

Because he's British. That's it.

[@BeerdyBruceLeeCentral]

Yeah, I met Lenin, wasn't that impressed. - Bertrand Russell.

[@kazaddum2448]

@@nguyenhoanglong420 Billions disagree.

[@kadventure]

Except he literally said in this video he was in fact impressed by him, just not by the amount he thought he was going to.

[@bobbydylanio]

@@kadventure Which is the only thing that a philosopher would care about.

[@paulrouhan7288]

He said that Lenin was a great man.

[@Wedneswere]

that is not at all what was said. that's silly pretentious reductionism. shame on you.

[@Oners82]

"I didn't much like that..." Bertrand Russell, master of understatements!

[@mikitazhylinski5526]

Well, as a man who speaks russian, I say that was a joke from Lenin. It is this type of dark russian humor that can hardly be translated or understood by people who did not live in Russia (of any period I guess)

[@Oners82]

@@mikitazhylinski5526 That literally makes no sense. I was talking about Russell's reaction to the statement, not commenting on whether Lenin's comment was a "joke" or not.

[@mikitazhylinski5526]

@@Oners82 okay, simply: Lenin makes a joke, Russell fails to understand it.

[@Oners82]

@@mikitazhylinski5526 Simply: Lenin allegedly made a joke, Russell didn't like it regardless of whether it was a joke or not because even if it was a joke people being murdered isn't funny.

[@mikitazhylinski5526]

@@Oners82 Well, you see. You do not get it too. That is because a notion of "funny" is subjective.

[@TON-ws9og]

Listening to Bertrand Russell for 60 seconds makes me want to write poetry

[@surfingsage]

the man’s got a nice lilt, i’ll give you that :)

[@igorjajic2726]

Hahahaha if you do sent me some

[@joetatoesniff9525]

@@igorjajic2726 roses are red violets are blue Joetatoe is demented and if ur a Libtard so are u

[@garethfairclough8715]

Listening to Bertrand Russell for 6 seconds makes me want to vomit.

[@NuntiusLegis]

@@garethfairclough8715 What's your problem?

[@ComedyJakob]

I like the way that Russell describes dogmatic adherence as imposing a limitation on oneself. I quite agree.

[@dodgro8342]

except that he´s lying.

[@williamzk9083]

Archival evidence revealed after the fall of the Soviet Uunio shows that Lenin issues orders such as "kill 10,000 kulaks". These were small to medium Ukrainian Farmers with about 5-22 employees. They were highly productive. He had them executed not for a crime but simply because they were a class of small people that opposed him. This mass murder was the beginning of the genocide known as the Holodomor that probably killed 5 million and maybe as much as 8 million. Stalin added more murders and also confiscated the food and shipped it out of Ukraine. The Peasants and Kulacks who resisted were tortured till they gave up the hidden grain. One method was to douse a woman dress hem in petrol and ignite it till she spoke or her husband spoke. -This is what adherence any ideology, such as orthodox marxism, can lead to.

[@dodgro8342]

@@williamzk9083 first of all, let´s have a look at that "archival evidence", second of all, a kulak is a village capitalist and loan shark, who uses the slave labour of the poorest peasants in order to enrich himself. He is a speculator, too - keeps back the bread in times of hunger in order to sell it after a while for double the price. After the revolution, many of these criminals would borrow their way inside kolhozes to destroy them from within. Mass hunger of1932-1933 was caused partially by their activity (and the activity of other counter-revolutionary layers). I can´t even read your idiotic post, it´s so... bleh. Zero knowledge of the subject. But hey, I can tell you´re not a farmer or agricultural worker. Otherwise you would know that capitalist agriculture is also collectivized. The difference between capitalist and socialist kolhozes is that socialist kolhozes didn´t have a monopoly draining them of all their profit and didn´t have the exploitation of any worker, including migrant labour.

[@festethephule7553]

@@dodgro8342 Ok?

[@alicek.4714]

..rather on other people. at least in this case.

[@nscocoanaut]

"I didn't much like that.."

[@andrewmurray1084]

@@johnmulligan455 Classic, British understatement at it's finest!

[@geofreycrow9663]

It pleases me that this is the top comment.

[@pauljackson2409]

It makes you wonder what it would take to get Russell to use the term 'murderous psychopath', if that's all the invective he can muster about Lenin.

[@ally11488]

Paul Jackson - I feel he thought the aristocracy who sent millions to their death between 1914-18, were equally as murderously psychopathic. Bertrand was nuanced.

[@pauljackson2409]

@Lex772 As indeed they were. I expect Russell 'didn't much like them' either.

[@orangemanbad]

What a life this man lived. His grandpa knew napoleon. He knew everyone else.

[@joshuapenner2164]

Did you buy that NFT or did you steal it as you should have XD

[@orangemanbad]

@@joshuapenner2164 I own it!

[@GlizzyGoblin757]

@@orangemanbad waste of money.

[@orangemanbad]

@@GlizzyGoblin757 nah. 1.7 million well spent

[@kevinjackson4933]

@@orangemanbad lol... only the orange man should be throwing around millions like that. You must be a rich peasant.

[@OCRay1]

I read a comment of a viewer of another Russel interview in 1952 that was kind of fascinating. At least for me. And I’m certain this talk was right about the same time of the 1952 discussion. He said that ‘we are watching a clip that’s 70 years old which isn’t even a full lifetime generally speaking and he is talking about his grandparents who were born in the 1700’s.’ I don’t know if that comment is as impactful for everyone but for Americans it’s crazy because that takes is back to the revolution of our nation in just a few generations. It’s so trippy to seemingly shrink time like that. It really does go by so so fast.

[@BlookbugIV]

If you make it to 50 that’s half a century - only 20 of those half-centuries in one thousand years. 40 times is the time of Christ, 90 times a 50 year olds lifetime they are just finishing the Great Pyramids.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Your nation was born in the mid XX. century. Before that it was just a bunch of immigrant trying to make money and taking land. You should lose your "education" already and start using your brain!

[@OCRay1]

@@BlookbugIV Good point. It’s so weird to me. Just not something I’ve thought about

[@luxborealis]

Non-historians almost always overestimate how long ago the past actually was. Part of training becoming a historian (unless you’re in an English speaking country or a country they colonized, long story) involves exercises to perspectivize the path through modelling and hermeneutics, so you can overcome this alienation. Most of human history happened really not that long ago, I’m among those who refuse to call anything after the invention of writing "ancient."

[@nenaradicevic8079]

Where can I find that interview ?

[@JohannBBravo]

always when i hear him talk or read his text, i immediately admire his clarity in convictions and in his ethics! he is dear to my heart!

[@donnal8683]

I cracked up when Bertrand Russell began imitating Lenin.

[@jmiquelmb]

His laugh is hilarious

[@BboyKeny]

@bad dreams Sure but then the jokes turned into reality, which kinda beats the point of joking about it if you go do it anyway.

[@tiestokygoericprydz3963]

Should've met Sergei Prokofiev, Shostakovich too

[@Philrc]

@bad dreams it's Lenin and I presume you were. at the meeting between these two? on the side making sandwiches? Bertrand Russell didn't think he was joking and neither does anybody else but you apparently know he was, or think he was

[@Philrc]

@bad dreams The fact is that's exactly what they got the peasants to do isn't it? So it's not really much of a joke. sounds to me like you're trying to defend Russia right now. Also lots of people have read about Lenin and watched bits of film clips about him . It doesn't make them infallible in that Judgment of whether he's joking or not I'm more likely to believe a report from someone who spoke to him face-to-face than someone who just "thinks" they know him well

[@robertswitzer990]

I’ve always been extremely impressed with Russell’s dissatisfaction with some of the most renowned philosophers and political scholars. He really is his own man, a thinker who does not easily given in to orthodoxy of party or philosophical lines.

[@uberhaxonova]

He is simply a man that analyzes all the facts of a situation/idea, creates a satisfactory conclusion, and then tests his conclusion to test its validity. Many people do this, those who do it better are usually more successful. In the case of Lenin, Lenin seemed to be aggressive and humorous about murder and wrath. Any moral/honorable man would be displeased with that kind of humor. Low-class socialist.

[@krel3358]

@@uberhaxonova I'm willing to bet Lenin detached himself from the killing and let others do it for him. Its usually the case that men who are responsible for ordering deaths, are a bunch of cowards who have never so much as gotten into a fistfight or have lived in an ivory tower for many decades.

[@faithlesshound5621]

@@uberhaxonova Lenin came from the middle class, like most of the Old Bolsheviks. Stalin was one of the few whose background was working class or, in your terms, "low class." N.B. I was responding to Josephean's remark that Lenin was a low class socialist.

[@AbeTheSigma007]

@@uberhaxonova Lenin just simply arrived and enacted a “Scorched Earth Policy”. Whatever he said was propaganda and manipulation. He ended up insane in his later years from syphilis. The disease also caused him to have episodes of Seizures. I heard that He had a little island, that he rowed a boat to go and kill rabbits. He would spend the entire day on his little island killing rabbits. Then, bring them back on his rowboat. He didn’t shoot them, he used the butt of his rifle. One day, he killed So many rabbits, that his boat sank! Ands at night, he would howl at the moon! Perhaps it’s true. However, He was shot twice in an assassination attempt and the slugs remained in his body. Then He had a series of strokes. The first one, in 1922, another one that took him out of the spotlight, because he couldn’t talk anymore. And finally in 1924, at just 53 years old, he had a Massive stroke and he expired not soon after. A few hours, actually. He was then mummified and put on public display. A nasty existence in my opinion…

[@hgkjghkhj93]

@@uberhaxonova He also ate children and was the human incarnation of the fungus

[@spaghettiking7312]

"I didn't much like that." Most logical man I've heard.

[@mirceapintelie361]

Also quite very ironically considering how english aristocracy rules by instigating one part of english society against another then they propose themselves as the moderate side🧐

[@williamrobinson4265]

LOL go study actuall logic and analytical philosophy no this berty continental bullcrap saying most logical man youve heard means nothing from u mate

[@nia.d3356]

@@williamrobinson4265 and your opinion on his opinion means nothing mate. infact most of all our lives mean nothing.... MATE.

[@rolanddeschain5161]

@@williamrobinson4265 Do you know who Bertrand Russell was?

[@dyadic]

@@williamrobinson4265 You lack of both the intellect and the resources to insult anyone. Shut up, please.

[@marcelyanez9045]

Thank you for making this conversation available to everyone.

[@outlawinline]

I met Lenin too, but he didn't say much.

[@anonymouslyopinionated656]

oh so he didn't Wax eloquent..

[@rmanpojo8485]

I am the wallrus

[@jackspring7709]

Lol.

[@lorigulfnoldor2162]

You see, you have to open the Crystal Coffin and give Lenin a First Love Kiss for him to say anything at all. Oh, and you have to be a Prince, too...! (Well, maybe a half-blood prince will succeed, though)

[@sirmittens3370]

I aswell stared at Lenin sleeping. A strong sleeper for sure.

[@tmanthepseudophilosopher9526]

“Absolute Orthodoxy, he thought a proposition could be proved by quoting a text in Marx, and he was quite incapable of suggesting that there was anything in Marx that wasn’t right.”

[@marcosgonzalez7042]

Yet he was always critiqued by the orthodox marxists who told him that the vanguard theory was useless and that it was impossible for Russia to have a revolution considering the low number of industrial workers in the country. It's weird to hear someone say that Lenin believed in everything Marx wrote, most people that he spoke or wrote to said the exact opposite, and many marxists of the time treated him and the bolsheviks as some kind of deviation.

[@IsmailofeRegime]

@@marcosgonzalez7042 The thing is, when you look at most of the "orthodox Marxists" who criticized Lenin, their own ostensible fidelity is found wanting. For instance, Plekhanov became a vehement defender of Russia's participation in World War I, so much so that he alienated himself from most of the other Mensheviks. Kautsky's attitude toward parliaments and bourgeois democracy was closer to modern-day social-democracy than to Marx and Engels. Lenin made the point that Marxism is not a dogma, and that the superficial "orthodoxy" of the guardians of the Second International was used as a cover for reformism, social-chauvinism, etc.

[@marcosgonzalez7042]

@@IsmailofeRegime yes, quite a few of the so called "orthodox marxist" ended up as nothing more than social-democrats, something that one could argue is one of the worst revisionistic derivations of marxism.

[@trajan75]

@@marcosgonzalez7042 You could argue that, or you could also argue that it is an extension of some branches of Christian social thought which has always been critical of Capitalism

[@kawaii_hawaii222]

^supposing

[@monkeymox2544]

I find it very odd that Russel thought that Lenin didn't suppose anything in Marx could be wrong. The foundation of Leninism is that Marx was wrong about a number of things - class consciousness, the need for capitalism to build a material base for communism, the role of the state, etc.

[@teretx566]

You are absolutely right!

[@woahnerd5681]

He didn't suppose anything was wrong yet Lenin opposed the vanguard theory.

[@DANTHETUBEMAN]

@@richardcory5024 funny, I'm a strict constitutionalist, I think the USA should go back to fallowing the laws of that document 📄 that includes eliminating the federal reserve bank.

[@richardcory5024]

@@DANTHETUBEMAN I don't believe that the constitution actually introduced any laws, merely principles which could be interpreted any which way anybody in political power chose. I am not aware that the constitution had anything specific to say about the federal reserve bank. Perhaps you could helpfully point to the section where it specifically forbade the creation of that institution. Government activity has often consisted of journeys, driving through the large avenues intentionally provided as loopholes by the constitution to respond to political will. Politics always trumps the law and the constitution in the final analysis. In the end the constitution is just a paper document which can be torn up, if enough people decide that that is what should be done with it.

[@DANTHETUBEMAN]

@@richardcory5024 only the congress shall have the power to coin money, once the fed is inserted the congressman no longer has to partition the people for money creation he goes to the bank.

[@davemckay4359]

It's amazing to hear someone so close to the source of history.

[@NuntiusLegis]

It would be more amazing if the world would have payed more attention to his conclusions.

[@wslovsport]

The conclusions in question: God isn't real and naive realism is true. Absolutely groundbreaking stuff!

[@hvp69]

“i was less impressed by lenin than I expected to be.”

[@elgatofelix8917]

I think he expected to Lenin to sodomize him instead of just molesting his children. You know "muh equality" and what not

[@punk952]

@@elgatofelix8917 come again?

[@Arigator2]

Marxism is all about envy. All the talk about equality is designed to make people jealous of everybody who has more than them. Of course you never think about the people who have less than you. Its class warfare the poor vs the rich. Of course they find out that a lot of the rich are rich because they were productive and without them everybody is going to starve. Mass starvation is a universal trait of Marxism. It happened just 20 years ago in North Korea. The government had to allow limited capitalism just to keep people alive. The same thing happened in China.

[@punk952]

@@Arigator2 Bertrand when he met Lennin:"Communism works in theory, which is why im here in the first place meeting with you fuhrer" Decades later:"I was less impressed by Lenin than I expected to be"

[@hvp69]

@@Arigator2 Nah, marxisms is about abolishing the exploitation of workers by the capitalist. Workers create a bunch of wealth and the capitalist takes is because a piece of paper says he owns the means of production. Look at jeff bezos - he's not creating all of that wealth - the labor of his workers is. Jeff just takes it like a fucking parasitic leech.

[@andy2550]

That actually IS quite fascinating.

[@artv.9989]

And it still goes on to this day, especially in America, look at what the mainstream media is doing with constantly infuriating people into hating Trump (someone who wasnt supposed to get elected in the first place) and those that support him, its the same tactic, America is more divided now than ever before

[@IsmailofeRegime]

@@artv.9989 Is this the same media that gave endless attention to Trump's political ambitions in the years leading up to 2016, when he was still a reality TV star?

[@yellyman5483]

It really is!

[@artv.9989]

@Fard Rid oh they are doing much more than just making profit

[@cooldudecs]

@@artv.9989 there is not an America anymore

[@sarelito9202]

His depth and breadth of vision are refreshing! Ah, the sound and taste of real intelligence grounded in sanity! Wonderful!

[@LuckyBird551]

According to some people that met him, Lenin spoke English with an Irish accent. Apparently, the person he hired to teach him English was Irish, and that's why he spoke it that way.

[@monkeytennis8861]

That's not how that works and it's complete bollocks

[@emilianosintarias7337]

@Jean Sanchez According to Mr. Russell he did, he was an orthodox marxist, so Marx's discourse on machines and the "general intellect" and all

[@emilianosintarias7337]

@Jean Sanchez I meant the internet and was joking

[@mmw4990]

@@monkeytennis8861 that is absolutely how that works

[@vladimirlenin9120]

**Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho**

[@nguyenhoanglong420]

I gotta say you are god :3

[@jyotishmanmudiar5958]

I didn't much like that

[@dragindeeznuts2525]

IMPOSTER

[@dragindeeznuts2525]

@@forest7205 -I- WE do not know .

[@dragindeeznuts2525]

@@forest7205 Why did you create an account on KZbin ? It's the same reason .

[@johnw21]

"You see, there are poor peasants and rich peasants. And we stirred up the poor peasants against the rich peasants, and they soon hanged them to the nearest tree, oh ho ho ho!".

[@luizavanco4943]

Thank you!

[@llllll4077]

I didn't much like that.

[@Baxxbier]

I didn't get this ..thank you for transcribing

[@retiredshitposter1062]

"You see, there are peasants of color and white peasants. And we stirred up the peasants of color against the white peasants, and they soon hanged them to the nearest tree, oh ho ho ho!". -Coming soon to a western nation near you.

[@TheShootist]

@@retiredshitposter1062 not.

[@Kirill_Ivanov.]

Well, yes, Lenin did not contradict Marx so much that he even criticized him in his works in plain text, lol.

[@JSmusiqalthinka]

Still, although he didn't always believe Marx was right, he believed his interpretation of Marx was basically correct, and anyone who disagreed with him was, in his view, disagreeing with Marxism and therefore socialism/communism.

[@petar4209]

@@JSmusiqalthinka Tbf Lenin was mostly correct. He even established primitive forms of revolutionary methods that wouldn't come about until decades later. Also had a killer stache like damn

[@slavenskazajednica7912]

BR in 1949: We must attack USSR with nulear weapons before they get one. Stalin: Unfortunately for you we already have one. BR: Ok ok lets all calm down and put down our nuclear weapons.

[@nonono4160]

Yeah he was a pretty reprehensible and hypocrtitical human being. Funny to see how all the comment section is singing him praises. He was pro eugenics too iirc.

[@harlequin2614]

@@nonono4160 found the commie in the comments….fuck Stalin fuck Lenin and fuck Marx and really fuck any modern idiot who espoused communism or socialism

[@Unstable_constant]

damn, I didn't know he was so extremely based. I mean set theory and all that formal logic stuff is admirable but nuking Russia to hell is on another level. Great man

[@slavenskazajednica7912]

@@Unstable_constant If they did that there wouldve been nothing but desert in the Northa America today. And youre fucking stupid.

[@AYVYN]

He wanted to denuclearize Russia in 1948

[@johannpopper1493]

This is wonderful. Never heard it before. Thanks for posting.

[@matthewstokes1608]

Wonderful? A duped old godless privileged fool who fell for the rantings of another odious tyrant… ‘in principle’… And millions died… Where is the confession of guilt? The begging fir forgiveness? I think Russel and these champagne socialist clowns have one hell of a lot to answer for. .

[@forgetfulfunctor1]

A great, logical, non-politically loaded, historically informed, first person account from one of the most world renowned logician of history. I cant wait to read the youtube comments, now

[@forgetfulfunctor1]

@Noble Failures he spoke with him for an hour makes him a supporter? Am I misunderstanding you? What was he supposed to do, assassinate him? XD

[@forgetfulfunctor1]

Like I said, I cant wait to read the comments

[@pineapplepenumbra]

@Noble Failures Interesting posts (I'm indulging forgetfulfunctor1, here), but could he really be called a Socialist if he wanted to be part of a ruling class, with so much power over the lower classes?

[@CrossHolder92]

>Great >Logical >NON-POLITICALLY LOADED :DDDDDDDDDDD (Are you delusional or just plain crooked?) >Historically informed But at least it really was a first person encounter, you were right about that.

[@pineapplepenumbra]

@Noble Failures " Socialism is a nondemocratic, top down structure of control by a small elite" It doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be. What I believe in is Capitalism for the majority of goods, but Socialism for the basic necessities, ie a State run train network, waterworks/waste disposal, energy, NHS, etc. Since many of these were State run, and have since been privatised, the costs have shot up and the service has come down. The companies have to make money for the shareholders, which is not an issue for State run institutions, which should, however, make a bit of extra money for investing in updating infrastructure. For years we've had under investment in virtually everything, so, for example, we're losing masses of water due to leaking pipes, then we get watershortages in a country where *it's known for its near constant rainfall!* Why aren't they also building more reservoirs? We've got a rapidly increasing population, which means we have the triple problems of building everywhere, so that rain doesn't sink down into aquifers, the extra demand on water from the population directly, and the extra water used by companies providing work and products for the extra population! Furthermore, a _decent_ minumum wage and _fair taxation!_ For example, today I saw on the front of a newspaper how a sportsman (I think it was a footballer, UK football, that is) who pays more tax than Google and Amazon! "Do not roget that Hitler was also a Socialist." I've joked with people that, technically, I'm a Nazi, as in I believe in protecting my country, and I'm a Socialist, which makes me a National Socialist. Years ago I was teaching a guy and we were discussing politics. He said, "left wing, the Tories, right wing, Labour". I was slightly surprised, and tried to explain that it was the other way around, and, at first, he didn't believe me. I said, "don't take my word for it, read your text books, look online, you'll see that it's the other way around." There was a pause for a few seconds, then he said, "I'm going to have to rewrite my politics essay, aren't I?" What had confused him was Hitler and the Nazis, as they were, technically, Socialist. However, and this is something the vast majority of people simply don't understand, one can be _Economically_ left wing and _Socially_ Authoritarian (ie anti gays, the population MUST be very obedient to the government or face severe consequences, etc) or the reverse, or some mix in between. "The key to coming to truth is to understand that what we are presented with is a managed dialectic." That's what my girlfriend has been saying for many years now. We've also been pointing out that, in many countries, there is only the illusion of democracy, including the US. There are managed "choices", but they aren't really choices. The US has done an excellent job of brainwashing the vast majority, they have been turkeys voting for Christmas for a very long time now. According to Mussolini's definition, the US has been fascist for decades.

[@Darhan62]

"His great readiness to stir up hatred." Beware of any leader who chooses that as their path to power.

[@jeffwads]

Not hatred...pure envy. Pretty simple.

[@yawos9024]

@@jeffwads Envy of colonialist, imperialists, and fascists whose only rise to the top was because of primitive accumulation of capital? Who is envious of King Leopold?

[@josephdockemeyer6782]

@@jeffwads No, Hatred. Stirring up people to hate their fellow man. If you are unable to see that then you're blind. Possibly intentionally blind. Just like the communists do everyplace.

[@firstlast1357]

Well , BLM riots and the mob protesting at the Supreme Court justices homes … who instigated that?

[@didierdrogado4155]

Yeah, the Russians living under the crushing Tsarism and left in ignorance and misery for generations should be thankful to the rich tsars living in palaces, while the people literally starved

[@mugiwara7347]

This man met lenin and his grandfather met napoléon in elba. Quite an extraordinary life.

[@kekero540]

When Lenin takes it from 0-1000 real quick.

[@choxxxieful]

...Broke my neck in the process...

[@romans8024]

Rich peasant 0, poor peasant 1

[@williamrobinson4265]

berty couldnt keep up xD

[@GjaP_242]

@@williamrobinson4265 1:48

[@luxborealis]

It is what is called a pro gamer move.

[@larryfine88]

More will be learned about Lenin's views when his preserved corpse is revived.

[@stiepanholkien605]

This should be the ending to Atomic Heart, fight with cyber Lenin.

[@TheSleepingSeer]

@ClandestineOstrich to be fair, he did do quite a bit of the former

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

Lenin IS being revived these days. The unfairness and injustices of Capitalism are becoming intolerable to the bottom 99%. Revolution is coming--the common man is going to be liberated by a new socialist revolution! The Democratic Party ought to rerelease Lenin's writings, since they are just as relevant today as they were 100+ years ago.

[@SwordOfApollo]

"SMASH CAPITALISM! GRRR!"

[@gimzod76]

@@GregoryTheGr8ster Which is why socalist party's keep loosing elections and the only people wanting his religion are upper class loosers who still live with their parents.

[@jameshepburn4631]

Oil industry mogul Armand Hammer back in the 1960's also remarked on a meeting he had with Lenin in Moscow in 1922. Hammer was quite surprised to hear Lenin speaking English not only fluently but with an Irish accent! Hammer said, in his address at UCLA, he had expected Lenin to speak like Trotsky with a thick Russian accent or to even need the help of a translator because of poor ability to speak English, but neither was the case. Hope somebody somewhere has and can post a film with sound or a radio recording of Lenin speaking English. Lenin's English tutor in Switzerland was an Irishman, at that time a British subject. That's where Lenin got the accent from, not from the neighbors. Also, if there are any archives of Hammer's Occidental Petroleum company anywhere, there may be the script of his talk at UCLA.

[@haroldfarquad6886]

Fascinating, I didn't know this!

[@JohnJohnson-pq4qz]

@@haroldfarquad6886 Lenin Lived In London for over a year so his sources of English were pretty much unlimited if he wanted to practice..which he clearly did to become fluent. I find it difficult to believe you are going to pick up your entire accent from one person. How many kids grow up in north America with immigrant parents with heavy accents, but don't sound anything like them?

[@brianarbenz7206]

Armand Hammer -- proud corporate sponsor of the Bolshevik Revolution.

[@DeepTitanic]

I think Lenin was ginger too.. Good fella

[@edmundkockenlocker4672]

Bertrand Russell was everything that Lenin wasn't - a reasonable person who listened carefully to what others had to say, even if he didn't agree with them.

[@travisbickle3835]

I didn't meet Lenin myself for sure but I don't understand how he was orthodox or dogmatic about Marxism since Marx thought a revolution would happen in a late stage capitalist highly indurialized country, but Lenin made it happen in a backwards peasant country.

[@Richallmight2]

Exactly, he instrumentalized Marx theory for the revolution to happen in Russia and then trigger a revolution in germany, wich didn't happen

[@deusola911]

He thought that a revolution in Russia would stir the highly developed European nations(most importantly Germany)

[@KevTheImpaler]

Seems to be one of the things Marx got wrong. Revolutionaries made multiple assassination attempts on the Czars. some successful, not so many on industrialised western democracies.

[@Ali.Shamsedin]

@@KevTheImpaler Yeah Marx himself became disillusioned with the inevitability of proletarian revolution under capitalism. Which threw away the idea that industrialized societies with large proletariats were the prime environment for socialist revolution. Which is why Lenin was so important. He proved that proletarian revolution can be forced into existence regardless of the circumstances, through the revolutionary vanguard.

[@hallo-mt5tx]

he was orthodox about the economic and political aspects of marxism the idea on how to make it happen and make it work was his own interpretations, which is called leninism

[@OolTube02]

Russell was one of the first sympathizers of communism who instantly realized that this revolution was likely not going to create a worker's paradise but a dictatorial nightmare. Other intellectuals took much longer to catch on to the God that failed...

[@OolTube02]

@Noble Failures Covering his ass from what? He saw what Bolshevism was all about as early as 1920. He had no illusions about it. en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Practice_and_Theory_of_Bolshevism

[@jkovert]

@@OolTube02 Nonsense. He just thought Lenin was rude.

[@OolTube02]

@@jkovert "I think if I had met him without knowing who he was, I should not have guessed that he was a great man; he struck me as too opinionated and narrowly orthodox. His strength comes, I imagine, from his honesty, courage, and unwavering faith-religious faith in the Marxian gospel, which takes the place of the Christian martyr's hopes of Paradise, except that it is less egotistical. He has as little love of liberty as the Christians who suffered under Diocletian, and retaliated when they acquired power. Perhaps love of liberty is incompatible with whole-hearted belief in a panacea for all human ills. If so, I cannot but rejoice in the sceptical temper of the Western world." That he wrote back then, not forty years after communism had already been unspeakably monstrous but when the Russian Revolution had only just happened.

[@jkovert]

@@OolTube02 He has nothing useful to offer.

[@unwinsis]

OolTube02 the peasants in Czarist Russia were property of the landowners. Some landowners owned up to 200,000 peasants. They had no family roots because they were commonly separated from their families in childhood and sent to other farms to be worked to death, of forced into the Czar's army where they were ill equipped compared to European armies, and won battles only because they had more lives to lose. For most people, communist Russia was preferable to what they had before.

[@haljones246]

Isn't it extraordinarily powerful how an extreme understatement can have such impact when it comes from the mouth of such a credible character as is Bertrand Russell.

[@heyguy9282]

Good observaation, Hal.

[@cerdic6305]

What did he understate?

[@moritamikamikara3879]

​@@cerdic6305he hears a head of state talk about and laugh about how he got his people to murder their neighbors and he goes "Mmh, I didn't much like that."

[@Rufusdos]

Great editing on the clip. That's one hell of a final line. The massacre of the Kulaks.

[@altalt839]

The internet is amazing.

[@LSD25ALICE]

LOL! I love his response : "I didn't much like that". Classic! Bertrand Russell is always a gem to listen to! There is so much to learn from him.

[@Feisty6969]

BR rocks loved his temperament, philosophy as a study and infinitesimal calculus..especially digging these interviews...I never heard him talk..cool..exactly as I had hoped...

[@holliswilliams8426]

Bertrand Russell was a great man and very good at writing, I recommend his ''History of Western Philosophy'' if you can put the time aside to read it.

[@goshu7009]

There is no ,,Western" Philosophy West from Germany and little in France. Its just in English, is not possible. Ask anyone who understand this mater.

[@ignaciomedinadunin359]

There are Greeks, Muslims, Italians. There is no way Italy "does not exist" in matters of phylosophy.

[@goshu7009]

@@ignaciomedinadunin359 There is no Greeks, but Jews. Greece is created 1830, and never existed before that. ALl you know about Aristotel, Pitagor - all of this guys were Jews. Later, after 1830, presented by British empire as ,,Ancient Greeks".

[@ignaciomedinadunin359]

@@goshu7009 Can you tell me please how these guys were jews?. Excuse me but they called themeselves "greeks" or "helenes"; the greeks of nowadays just took the name and geographic space. There is an important difference between state, nation and motherland. I await for your answer.

[@goshu7009]

@@ignaciomedinadunin359 Very simple. I am from Thias region. People here say: Everytime a ,,greek" is born, a ,,Jew" is crying. And thats because the so called ,,Greeks" after 1830 (this word was uknown before), are taking Jewish Identity from Antiquity. All this ,,Greeks" from 4 Century B:C - represent the last and the Best Jewish Scholars and Propehts, Teachers and masters. MOst of them took their knowldge from Egypt. During that time, the so called ,,Greeks"after 1830, were called ,,Danayans" - a Pirate, nomadic tribe. One of the Sea peoples, one of which are Phoenicians. They use different tactic when invade - in this case - They mixed with the locals of the Balkans and took their identity. Hellas or Helenes means literally ,,Whity". Thats when they so called ,,Greeks' who are little dark on skin, short, black curly hair, started to mix with the locals, who are white, tall and bright hair and eyes (this Genotype comes from Black Sea and Caspean Sea region) IF you look the Statues of the so called ,,Greek GODs" they dont look like greek people, but like other balkan people like Bulgarians, Serbians, Croatians.... I can continue with hours, but that would be disrespect for your inteligence, since you can go to the library and read.

[@johnpritchard5410]

Lenin studied foreign grammars to put himself to sleep, because of chronic insomnia. Vlad was studying the miasma of the French subjunctive and literary tenses, when someone came to the door. Krupskaya answered, then told her husband that a certain Lev Bronstein from back home wanted to meet him.... to the station!

[@lpi3]

Stop it. Vlad is short name for vladislav. It has nothing to do with vladimir. Short name for it is Vova.

[@johnpritchard5410]

@@lpi3 s it's Vova the Impaler?

[@TheOriginalJphyper]

Although I don't agree with Mr. Russell on everything, I still have to respect him. He was a wise and good person.

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

What, because he didn't much like Lenin laughing about peasants hanging other peasants?

[@TheOriginalJphyper]

@@varvarvarvarvarvarI know more about him than just what's in this video.

[@SJQuirke]

How can you say that? This little anecdote shows - just like many others that he was anything but wise - And a good person? All that he was, was very clever - but of course - you don't have to be stupid to be a fool - and evil

[@TheOriginalJphyper]

@@SJQuirke I don't see how you could've come to that conclusion from this.

[@seane6616]

@@TheOriginalJphyper What do you disagree with him on?

[@JimC]

Here's how he recounted the meeting in his essay "Eminent Men I Have Known": "When I met Lenin, I had much less impression of a great man than I had expected; my most vivid impressions were of bigotry and Mongolian cruelty. When I put a question to him about socialism in agriculture, he explained with glee how he had incited the poorer peasants against the richer ones, "and they soon hanged them from the nearest tree ha! ha! ha!" His guffaw at the thought of those massacred made my blood run cold."

[@charlesschleicher9352]

Russell on Lenin: "The more I talked to this fellow, the more I didn't care for him."

[@TheRealGnolti]

Knowing that Russell also met Cromwell puts this account in perspective.

[@TheRealGnolti]

@coolinjapan BR was a kind of Edwardian Gianni Russo. I'm sure he has plenty to tell about history as he lived it.

[@willhazell1447]

Um. Oliver Cromwell died 214 years before Bertrand Russel was born...

[@TheRealGnolti]

@@willhazell1447 Oops, my bad. I must have been thinking of Oliver Twist. Great to encounter a true history expert here!

[@powerbite92]

Cromwell's flaws were easily seen by those around him, in his writings and in his conduct..

[@drott150]

@@willhazell1447 A little sooner from his second death.

[@garryferrington811]

Fascinating...a true intellectual is commenting critically about his meeting with such an important man.

[@dieinternationalesolidarit8540]

Love or hate Lenin, he was also a true intellectual. Ruthless, but still a great mind

[@omlettecheese2260]

@@dieinternationalesolidarit8540 Well Russell seems to be suggesting otherwise. I'm not saying that Karl Marx didn't have some very important and interesting ideas, but who reads Karl Marx uncritically and doesn't see any questionable ideas really hasn't read him. I'm sure even Karl Marx, egotist that he was, would have to agree with that.

[@land2097]

@@omlettecheese2260 lenin himself wrote many books expanding upon marxism

[@Halo_Legend]

@@dieinternationalesolidarit8540 No.

[@tanner4280]

@@omlettecheese2260 what’re you basing his “egotism” on? Because decades later people took on a fervor for his method and named themselves after him? Having read a good amount of his work, ego centric is literally the last way I’d describe any of it

[@cringemaster3923]

Pretty much sounds exactly like you’d picture Lenin.

[@danielwbader]

It seems like this discussion kept going. Does anyone know where to find the full conversation?

[@allosaurustime]

There are no recordings of Lenin speaking English, but Russell’s impression is still fitting for him. It sounds the way Lenin looks, somehow

[@Halo_Legend]

Crazy, that is.

[@jacksonpro9905]

Unfortunately there are not much of Lenin speaking Russian. Lenin had a speech defect, though his speeches were always very powerful in action he preferred them to be just written down than recorded. But some people who had chance to meet hem told that he had a strong irish accent because he could afford only Irish english teachers

[@rainscratch]

Have just uploaded some films from 1918-1920 which contain recordings of Lenin's voice (in Russian) - I added English subtitles. kzbin.info/www/bejne/innCfXiOj8t2ms0 These would have been recorded on early cylinder or foil mechanisms (similar to the early Edison machines) as it was before sound on film became possible.

[@fazbell]

I've always been impressed with Russell's MORALITY. His sense of justice and equity was unmatched.

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

Dave Sanders Have you compared it with that of every other human being who ever existed? Have you compared him with JESUS? Btw, Bertrand Russell doubted the existence of Jesus, which shows the limitations of his intellect, if not his morality. (Was BR trying to eliminate competition through denial, knowing that he himself could not compete?)

[@markeedeep]

No, you're imagining things there.

[@sergiosatelite467]

@@jesusislordsavior6343 Russell met Jesus too. His account: “I met Jesus when I was in Jerusalem in the year one. I thought the conversation would be in koine Greek or Aramaic but he’s English was much better than you would expect. As for the man himself, I was not as impressed with him as one might expect. I saw him do the bit where he “walks” on water, and for the year 1 I thought it very good. But he thought he was the exclusive son of god and had Bible verses to prove it. He couldn’t even imagine the whole god thing as useful literature. I didn’t very much like that. So, I asked him to “make me” me some wine and I went on to look for Cicero and Catullus.”

[@jesusislordsavior6343]

@@sergiosatelite467 It is appropriate in this case to counter a quotation of lesser authoirty with one of greater authority. This one is addressed 'to whom it may concern'. It is far too late for Bertrand Russell, but time remains for you to benefit from the warning: 'Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is prudent.' (Proverbs 17:28, translated from the Hebrew to English. An inscription, 'KING OF THE JEWS', was posted at Jesus' Crucifixion in three languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.) Bertrand Russell is now in possession of better information than he had while living on earth. The man was hardly in a position to judge Lenin, for both made the same fatal mistake. At least Protestant missions were permitted to operate in Russia during the early Soviet years, whereas Putin has clamped down on them. What would Bertrand Russell have tnought of this? (As if it mattered.) History does take interesting turns.....

[@sergiosatelite467]

@@jesusislordsavior6343 got a call from the Middle Ages! It’s for you!

[@leemdynamo]

I learned something I didn’t know from this short clip. Appreciate hearing his assessment.

[@robkunkel8833]

Transcript study: (to the best of my ability) 0:40 “He seemed to me to be a reincarnation of Cromwell” (Oliver, from England) “with exactly the same limitations that Cromwell had. Absolute orthodoxy. He thought a proposition could be proven by quoting a text in Marx. And he was quite incapable of supposing that there anything could be anything in Marx that wasn’t right. That struck me as rather limited.”

[@jaojao1768]

Interesting that german was so widely spoken

[@pintoflager]

It still is one of the most spoken languages in the world, and a significant portion of Europe has spoken some form of German for many centuries - when globalism first started taking hold, it was a contender for the global lingua franca.

[@igorjee]

Germany was much bigger and there were large in German minorities all over central and Eastern Europe. Additionally, German was the language of science. Most of the bourgeoisie and upper classes could speak some German. Hitler managed to halve or even quarter the importance of Germans in the world. They bounced back somewhat but lost their previous position forever.

[@keedt]

Also, Lenin spent a long time in Switzerland which was a safe haven for various kinds of Russian revolutionaries at least since Dostoevsky's time.

[@drencrum]

Lenin spent a lot of time in Germany and a lot of the ideals of socialism were first popularized in Germany.

[@sirmount2636]

The German Empire sponsored Lenin’s trip back to Russia under secrecy as a means to topple the Russian government and win the war. It worked, as far as destroying the Czar, but it came back to bite them in the 40’s. 😂

[@alzndjsnsmwjsj8227]

0:46 I doubt this, Lenin had significant disagreements with Marx

[@bri_____]

Clearly not enough to mention to Bertrand Russell.

[@drott150]

Lenin was a religious zealot in his belief of Communism. That's why he had the drive, focus, confidence, energy and sheer bravery to achieve what he did.

[@alzndjsnsmwjsj8227]

@@drott150 Lenin had all the traits you mention except for religiosity and zealotry. He had zeal, but zealotry is taking it too far. Lenin was a Marxist because he believed it was an accurate science, but that didn't stop him from disagreeing with Marx on certain things. He did believe that communism isn't only possible and desirable, but also that it's inevitable, but he believed this for scientific reasons.

[@drott150]

@@alzndjsnsmwjsj8227 You say he had zeal but zealotry was taking it too far? I have no idea what your semantics mean. Lenin had religious zeal in his beliefs. His brother was killed by the Tsarists. He deeply hated the Tsar and his regime. So much so, he was willing to do anything to get rid of it. He was willing to risk imprisonment, torture and death to achieve his goal. He lived through many years of very dangerous times before he finally ascended to power. Anyone with a smoldering hatred of his political opponents so intense he is willing to risk everything including his life, is a zealot by definition. Anyone happily willing to commit mass murder and genocide to bring about what he believes in - as evidenced in Russell's account of what Lenin said - is a zealot by definition. Zealot doesn't mean you're irrational or stupid either. It just means you are hyper focused and hyper committed to what you believe in. As far as Lenin not agreeing with Marx on certain things? Maybe. But the Communist Manifesto was interpreted by many different communists of his era in differing ways. They read into various aspects of what they believed Marx may not have expressed explicitly or clearly according to their own interpretation. And some people had differing interpretations than others. Same thing with the Bible, the Koran, The US Constitution etc. Those differences in interpretation doesn't mean a murderous fanatic like Lenin wasn't a communist zealot.

[@alzndjsnsmwjsj8227]

@@drott150 There is a difference between zeal and zealotry. A zealot has so much zeal that they're blinded by their beliefs, they aren't scientific in their analyses. You can have zeal without being a zealot. And Marx expressed his ideas very specifically, Lenin wasn't just interpreting what he wrote in a certain way, he understood him and explicitly disagreed with him on certain things. Marx stated that since only countries with fully developed capitalism could become socialist, revolutions would start in the capitalist imperial core and spread to the periphery. Lenin proved that Marx had it backwards. The works of Marx and Engels aren't written like religious texts at all, they're filled with evidence and detailed explanations. The Communist Manifesto is a slight exception, but that's a minor work meant as a very rudimentary introduction to communism. And you'll have to elaborate on your "mass murder and genocide" charge against Lenin. According to the standard anti-communist narrative, Lenin is guilty of mass murder, but that narrative is far from objective. I'm not sure where the charge of genocide comes from.

[@fabiankunz7599]

what a clear man. too bad and a shame that not more of his generation were such bright and humble minds.

[@kenmcclellan]

"His great readiness to stir up hatred." Story of our past couple of years.

[@ibrahimburhanoglu1136]

kindly help me pls: at 0:46 second says RUSSEL xxxxx 's reencarnation ! I cannot get it clearly the name RUSSEL pointing at ,from his pronounce!!!

[@chessdaft]

Cromwell, as in Oliver Cromwell.

[@ardea1021]

Probably Cromwell, the revolutionary english statesman who, to put it shortly, lead the "parliament armies" in the English Civil War

[@witri9]

“A great readiness to stir up hatred”

[@coolworx]

Same group is still at it, today.

[@hellucination9905]

Marxism is grounded on the hate of god and christianity, envy and technocracy.

[@antediluvianatheist5262]

@@hellucination9905 Marx's writings are grounded in material reality. If that's what you got from reading his works, it tells us things about you.

[@tola9727]

@@hellucination9905 Yes it is against god and christianity. And?

[@robertstan298]

Eat the rich. Cry me a river, bootlicker.

[@zerimar26]

Would of liked Russell to have a conversation with Lenin a year before Lenin passed away. One of the questions I would liked Russell to have asked is what did Lenin think about Stalin and the future of socialism?

[@gh87716]

A year before Lenin's death? That would've been quite hard, as Lenin had begun to develop serious cognitive problems as a result of being inbred and sickened from syphilis, an illness he picked up as a result of his lascivious behavior in French brothels.

[@zachgates7491]

Russell’s description shows the continuity between Lenin and Stalin.

[@selmahare]

… and Putin.

[@zachgates7491]

@@selmahare Putin is acting more like JFK (see Cuban missile crisis) than like Stalin.

[@JacenSolo0]

Don't be ridiculous. Lenin encouraged the peasants to break their shackles to the landlords but they had already done so very violently before the bolsheviks had come to power. Violence ruled on the land. 'let not the contemptible eunuchs tell us that a slave master who through cunning and violence shackles a slave and the slave who through cunning and violence breaks them are equal before the court of morality'. You are simply arguing that Lenin a revolutionary was wrong to incite peasants brutally oppressed for centuries to gain freedom. Stalin did not do that. In fact he took away their freedom by trying to force them into collectives. Lenin was decidedly against this.

[@zachgates7491]

@@JacenSolo0 said he was against collectivization, which proves nothing. Lenin thought he was entitled to do anything because he was on the right side of history. This includes lying and murdering. If agriculture was failing, he would have followed Stalin’s path most likely.

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

@@selmahare What about Hitler?

[@redhen2470]

"You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don't care for him.” - Norm MacDonald

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

He is also quoted as being afraid of going back in time and joining the Nazi party because of Hitler.

[@Dystisis]

macdonald was a funny guy, but... what's the relevance?

[@33Donner77]

Most people know hardly anything about Hitler, and that is a major problem. Why was he able to take control? Most people just trudge along and follow the party line. Goodbye Liberties.

[@redhen2470]

@@Dystisis The understated comment about not liking Lenin.

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

@@redhen2470 The understatement doesn't work because Lenin isn't vilified as Herr H in the Western culture.

[@AK-vr8el]

A project needs to be created to interview the elderly so we can have their knowledge, experience, and perspective to benefit future generations.

[@NeverRubARhubarb]

I'd give the boomer generation a miss. Not a lot of benefit to anyone - present or future.

[@MyCofeeTime]

this type of documents are jewels for humanity.

[@ardour1587]

Its not document. Documents state facts and here is an opinion. And pretty lame one btw. You have to know nothing about Lenin to call him an orthodox marxist.

[@avernvrey7422]

You can't lead a revolution if you have doubts. Fanatics are always successful in their doggedness.

[@Nero-ox5tw]

Masterful observation

[@powerbite92]

Helps if you have all the major banks behind you...

[@Atilla_the_Fun]

Not necessarily a bad thing. Look at the French Revolutions long run effects on the world

[@uberhaxonova]

@@Atilla_the_Fun long-run effects... lmao, lets talk again in 10 years and attribute whatever the hell is going on then to the revolution 200 years ago.

[@Atilla_the_Fun]

@@uberhaxonova That's how history works man??? Agricultural revolution happened 10,000 years ago, it still affects us today because you can drink beer and eat cultivated rice without even having to look for food yourself.

[@SagesseNoir]

Lenin believed in Marx as Cromwell believed in the Bible.

[@slukky]

except neither fully understood either book.

[@SagesseNoir]

They both subjected their favored text to a bit of... uh, creative interpretation

[@khaliddiallo3658]

Oh yeah, maybe you are talking from your God damn ass😀

[@vampireducks1622]

@@khaliddiallo3658 And you're talking from your... sow?

[@antonsimachkov6255]

@@slukky you say that because you actually do

[@Osirus37]

The comparison with Cromwell is absolutely perfect. The blind zealotry of both would oversee the deaths of untold thousands.

[@ismaelsantos5378]

That's because Socialism, in all it's forms, it's not a political ideology or an economic system, it's a cult. Their goal is utopia and everything that isnt utopia is "not real socialism". It's impossible to have a debate in good faith with a socialist because that requires logic and honesty, and the cult is built on fantasy and deception. Their "utopia" is also impossible on many levels beyond the economic. They are basically at war with reality itself

[@DiamandaHagan]

Davros from Doctor Who had his voice based on Russels and when he impersonates Lenin he sounds like Davros taking the piss out of The Master.

[@lorranneves2020]

Bearing in mind that this is Russell's personal impression of Lenin, which cannot be disconnected from Russell's political view, it is not an absolute truth and we cannot even know if the meeting was as Russell says it was, mainly because anyone who has read anything from Lenin sees that he doesn't write something and says it's true because Marx said it. This description of Lenin is a bit odd when compared to what Lenin wrote and the practical politics he helped lead with the Bolsheviks. Russell as a political analyst was a great mathematical logician.

[@tethryss5001]

Bearing in mind, that you can write a lot better than you can talk and while you write you correct yourself. Highly likely, that Lenin was a fanatical marxist who viewed Marx as an almost Messiah-like figure who in his mind, gifted socialism to the world as the ultimate breakthrough political ideology that would forever change and reshape the world he knew. When I write, I write FAR better than I talk, and if I am writing for others, such as how Lenin did, I often will correct myself or modify my own thoughts to better be understood and approved by the crowd. This is also possibly how Lenin went about things. I am not saying it WAS this way, but it is worth keeping in mind that somebody's writings is not actually a good way to judge their character. You get an idea, but not a concrete picture of how someone thought, as writing is how you WANT to be viewed and displayed.

[@a.a.1245]

The same can be said about your views, which cannot not be disconnected from your own political views. Life it is a sea of uncertainties, isnt it?

[@billbogg3857]

Lenin believed that Marxism was 'scientific socialism' and that it's propositions were irrefutable so this would explain his ultra orthodoxy.

[@tethryss5001]

@@billbogg3857 How the hell does someone get that from a guy who never worked a day in his life and couch surfed while complaining?

[@billbogg3857]

@@tethryss5001 He was a mathematician and wrote numerous books on logic,philosophy,politics,education.Went to prison as a conscientious objector. Active in numerous political movements so he wasn't exactly a couch potato though I admit not a very practical person . I do not see why a couch potato or anyone else should not be allowed an opinion which may be right. Lenin :‘the materialist conception of history is no longer a hypothesis, but a scientifically proven proposition’. Lenin thought he was applying a science to an inevitable conclusion. So when he says that he thought a proposition could be proved by quoting a text from Marx he is probably reporting what Lenin thought accurately.

[@X-IMG]

We need Bertrand Russell today...

[@marcosschulz88]

The remark in the beginning of the video should be corrected. In 1920 there was no "Soviet Russia", they were in the middle of a huge civil war that would end only 2 years later. And that really puts the encounter in a totally different perspective, as Russell wouldn't be meeting any country political leader or chief of state. At that point Lenin was one of the main leaders of an ongoing revolution and they were fighting foreign forces as well. Victory took a heavy toll, so I think that small correction alone would cast a different shadow over the violent statement that Russell much correctly didn't appreciate.

[@sirmount2636]

Don’t apologize for this maniac. The murders only accelerated after the war was over.

[@alexanderrepin1103]

Sir, could you explain what Russell said at the end of this audio recording? About stirring up of hatred.

[@katiakaterina9260]

Russell: "You're not establishing agricultural socialism, but peasant proprietorship." Lenin:"you see. There are poor peasants & rich peasants. We stirred up poor peasants against rich peasants, & they soon hanged them to the nearest tree, oh ho ho ho!"

[@alexanderrepin1103]

@@katiakaterina9260 Thank you, Lady. I get it! :)

[@alejandror8749]

Conservative people in the comments of a Bertrand Russell video. How unexpected.

[@ms-jl6dl]

Yes,it's connected with intelligence. Something you wouldn't understand.

[@svendbosanvovski4241]

A C Grayling in his brief overview of Bertrand Russell in his The History of Philosophy ended by saying something similar to what Bertrand says about Lenin in this: "...taken in the round there is no denying he was a great man". Lenin had a disdain for what he saw as the vacillating character of intellectuals. Bertrand used his great intellect to challenge blind adherence dogma. In hindsight we'd have to say that Bertrand was proven correct.

[@danieljliverslxxxix1164]

And the reason Lenin and Stalin and Bolsheviks hated and mistrusted the so-called "intellectuals" is because 1) they don't do anything productive, 2) they are more easily swayed by liberal ideologies that can guarantee them the kind of lavish lifestyle Russell had, and 3) they hold themselves in a position of superiority, antithetical to what the Bolsheviks wanted to achieve. On whole Russell is perhaps the second greatest blight on philosophy, second only to Plato. Nor were the Bolsheviks or the USSR opposed to education. When Wittgenstein attempted to immigrate to the USSR he was told he could do so only if he would accept a teaching job. Wittgenstein told them he wanted to work as a field labourer and was told "we have enough field labourers. We need teachers.", and so Wittgenstein decided not to go. Your interpretation is completely dishonest.

[@darklord220]

@@danieljliverslxxxix1164 what did the bolsheviks achieve? Oppression of the russian people that the tsars could only dream of?

[@carbon1255]

@@danieljliverslxxxix1164 Can you edit your comment to begin "In defence of Pol Pot" it's give me an even bigger chuckle

[@denis888red]

@@carbon1255 Very droll ;) 🙂

[@SavoPaddy]

Thanks for posting. What an interesting comparison to Cromwell. Rare to get such a human insight into an historical figure.

[@Evilanious]

I like that even though he was incredibly smart, this guy kept it simple. Lenin seemed overly orthodox and cruel, which are bad things.

[@SagesseNoir]

I've heard that it was B. Russelll asked Lenin: "When are you going to stop killing people?" Lenin reportedly said "When they are no longer in my way."

[@skotiskiller]

Your mother said that not Lenin.

[@SagesseNoir]

Mother didn't even know who Lenin was.

[@lukebruce5234]

Sounds like a fake quote, sounds similar to the million deaths is a statistic fake quote.

[@SagesseNoir]

Millions of deaths did happen in Russia during the civil war of 1918--1920, and during the later terrible reign of Joseph Stalin. As for the quote by B. Russell to Lenin I know only that i heard of it.

[@oceanhedonist265]

Nope. That was asked by a woman visitor to Stalin. His answer was "when we no longer need to."

[@bsmith538]

It’s worth reading Bertrand Russell’s Lenin: An Impression. It’s very short. Russel sees Lenin as a rather remarkable man, with his critiques mostly surrounding his analytical method (in one section that hasn’t aged well, he criticizes Lenin for prioritizing economic causation over ‘racial causation’ ... Lenin certainly looks better on this issue now).

[@MitchellPorter2025]

"Beliefs other than his own - for example, the belief that climate or race might affect national character in ways not explicable by economic causes - he regarded as heresies due to the bourgeois or the priest. "

[@Richallmight2]

@@MitchellPorter2025 "beliefs" over knowlegde...what a great philosopher right? Please read materialism Empirio-criticism. Russell don't know where Lenin is coming from clearly, and not referencing his First and Second more important philosophical Works, only attacking Lenin's personal assertions...terrible

[@MitchellPorter2025]

@@Richallmight2 Hi - are you a Brazilian Marxist? Would be interested in your perspective on current Brazilian politics

[@Richallmight2]

@@MitchellPorter2025 sorry, didn't see that comment. Are u still up to It?

[@varvarvarvarvarvar]

@François Jean Jacques Communism was always an English export, like opium for the reluctant Chinese market. Marx wrote his works in London. Lenin lived in London. The cultural marxism didn't begin in the 60s, it preceded Marx with the Reformation and the Glorious Revolution. The modern world goes back at least to the defeat on Napoleon.

[@noaholson9047]

What’s the technobabble you hear in the background

[@Nate-im3sg]

I think it's really cool that he brought up James Cromwell who quoted Russell multiple times on 'Succession'

[@TheBombayMasterTony]

Never heard about this.

[@MrPtrlix]

I heavily disagree with Russell's work on epistemology and language, but his public political personality seems to be admirable.

[@patrickpaganini]

@@vincentmcgrath4179 Lol I agree. But that was quite brutal.

[@onsenguy]

it's probably because you don't understand it.

[@williamrobinson4265]

thats it thats the only thing he was a likeable hack a complete joke of a philosopher and merely exemplified the charm of upper class english pretention

[@williamrobinson4265]

@@onsenguy no russel was a joke and is laughed at now and was back then by his peers

[@onsenguy]

@@williamrobinson4265 laughed at by who? noam chomsky, christopher hitchens, and sam harris hold him in high regard.

[@peaco1000]

What an extraordinary clip.

[@RicShaymin3398]

The laugh at the end sounded like something from the NES

[@alanguest1979]

Never knew Lenin spoke English!

[@raylast3873]

I would say he didn't much understand Lenin or the Russian Revolution.

[@hilbertsinn6886]

In stark contradistinction to an astute fellow like yourself, presumably.

[@nguyenhoanglong420]

Well no one can understand when God say!!! If you view Lenin as a religion aspect you will see he is a incredible force of God that lead the world to Aetheist !!! Yes Lenin is The God against all religions

[@nihilioellipsis]

was that last part a reference to the kulaks?

[@RameenFallschirmjager]

Russell voice sounds exactly like what I'd imagined from his photos!

[@eisenjeisen6262]

When you get to know Bertrand Russell, you get to love him!

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Or, if you're not completely mentally incompetent, despise him.

[@williamrobinson4265]

not if you are actually a professional philosopher

[@TheOnIyGod]

I could never love an "instigator".

[@davidlevesque9137]

I think there's a possibility Russell took that last statement as a threat. As in you don't accept my view, then it's the highway or death( hanging from a limb). Considering the view t;at it's fun manipulating the general public, it also puts the idea of,.. after I got done doing a show of power, and telling people what to do next. I was amused some did very much as I expected. Letting their jealousy and ignorance guide their activities. And killing, then blaming it on an outside force, or Lenin. And still that power, getting away with it. Though would have been Stalins thing to laugh at. So, it goes with, one, doesn't know what someone else is going thru.

[@Stephen-zq2wf]

If They Can Scare You If They can Make You be FearFul If They can make You Angry Then .. They can CONTROL You !

[@kayty6673]

Great Channel. I subscribed

[@retro.spectral]

I bet Lenin was equally unimpressed

[@anthonypeak1]

dunning kruger

[@Amethyst_Friend]

Why, because Russell could think for himself without being enslaved intellectually by a single author's viewpoint?

[@retro.spectral]

@@Amethyst_Friend since your comment reveals a stupidity beyond deserving of a reply, I'll just leave it at calling you stupid.

[@Shredow2]

@@retro.spectral Fuck off Tankie. Even most socialists despise your ilk.

[@averagejohnson3985]

No argument, only insults. The mark of a fool