ANATOLY LUNACHARSKY

His [Leon Trotsky’s] colossal arrogance and an inability or unwillingness to show any human kindness or to be attentive to people, the absence of that charm which always surrounded Lenin, condemned Trotsky to a certain loneliness. One only has to recall that even a number of his personal friends (I am speaking, of course, of the political sphere) turned into his sworn enemies

Sometimes, having laughingly accepted some critical objection, he [Lenin] will alter the wording that he himself has just put forward in all confidence

A bourgeois-and-workers' revolution is a betrayal of the working class

I was very much disturbed by Lenin's political ruthlessness

Many Bolsheviks, perhaps indeed all of them, have grown enormously in stature since the revolution: great tasks, great responsibilities and broad perspectives break only the weaker vessels and always serve to enlarge people who have any degree of intelligence and energy.

A bourgeois-and-workers' revolution is a betrayal of the working class

His [Leon Trotsky’s] colossal arrogance and an inability or unwillingness to show any human kindness or to be attentive to people, the absence of that charm which always surrounded Lenin, condemned Trotsky to a certain loneliness. One only has to recall that even a number of his personal friends (I am speaking, of course, of the political sphere) turned into his sworn enemies

I was very much disturbed by Lenin's political ruthlessness

Many Bolsheviks, perhaps indeed all of them, have grown enormously in stature since the revolution: great tasks, great responsibilities and broad perspectives break only the weaker vessels and always serve to enlarge people who have any degree of intelligence and energy.

Sometimes, having laughingly accepted some critical objection, he [Lenin] will alter the wording that he himself has just put forward in all confidence