@Mopman said in #39:
> "Lenin as a ruthless and single-minded despot and a 'product of his time and place: a violent, tyrannical and corrupt Russia.' He seized power in a coup, promised a revolution, a socialist utopia for the people, offered simple solutions to complex issues and constantly lied; in fact, what he created was more 'a mirror image of the Romanov autocracy.' He authorized the deaths of thousands of people, and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for the greater ideal. One of his old comrades who had once admired him said he 'desired the good ... but created evil.' And that would include his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to new heights"
>
> From Lenin : the man, the dictator, and the master of terror
> by Sebestyen, Victor, 1956- author
Quotes by seemingly random propagandist authors (of which I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands) do not support one's point at all. One must look concretely at his deeds and historically documented facts, not some spewed-up propaganda that has been mass-produced since at least the McCarthy era.