Looking for a quote (Lenin?)

[Corbeau]

Hello everybody. I'm trying to find the source and exact wording in English of a quote that I heard a few times a long time ago, so I'm not sure if what I remember is correct. In my memory it is attributed to Lenin and goes something like: "We will not be ruined by the external enemy, but by the scoundrels from within our ranks."

Does it ring a bell for anyone?

[Chomskyan]

Hello everybody. I'm trying to find the source and exact wording in English of a quote that I heard a few times a long time ago, so I'm not sure if what I remember is correct. In my memory it is attributed to Lenin and goes something like: "We will not be ruined by the external enemy, but by the scoundrels from within our ranks."

Does it ring a bell for anyone?

Far from being an expert on Lenin, however I did skim Lenin's "death bed" letters and some similar content is in those if I remember correctly.

[Comrade Hadrian]

I believe the quote you're looking for can be found in Stalin's Foundations of Leninism:


"With reformists, Mensheviks, in our ranks," says Lenin, "it is impossible to be victorious in the proletarian revolution, it is impossible to defend it. That is obvious in principle, and it has been strikingly confirmed by the experience of both Russia and Hungary.... In Russia, difficult situations have arisen many times, when the Soviet regime would most certainly have been overthrown had Mensheviks, reformists and petty-bourgeois democrats remained in our Party...in Italy, where, as is generally admitted, decisive battles between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie for the possession of state power are imminent. At such a moment it is not only absolutely necessary to remove the Mensheviks, reformists, the Turatists from the Party, but it may even be useful to remove excellent Communists who are liable to waver, and who reveal a tendency to waver towards 'unity' with the reformists, to remove them from all responsible posts....On the eve of a revolution, and at a moment when a most fierce struggle is being waged for its victory, the slightest wavering in the ranks of the Party may wreck everything, frustrate the revolution, wrest the power from the hands of the proletariat; for this power is not yet consolidated, the attack upon it is still very strong. The desertion of wavering leaders at such a time does not weaken but strengthens the Party, the working-class movement and the revolution"

[Corbeau]

Actually, the form I heard it many times really was a one-sentence "proverb". I just did some more googling and the direct translation is: "Comrades, if anyone is going to be the death of us, it will be scoundrels/fools/??? from within our own ranks" (the key word here actually meaning a "naughty adolescent/young man". However, I absolutely can't find anything similar in English.

[Chomskyan]

Actually, the form I heard it many times really was a one-sentence "proverb". I just did some more googling and the direct translation is: "Comrades, if anyone is going to be the death of us, it will be scoundrels/fools/??? from within our own ranks" (the key word here actually meaning a "naughty adolescent/young man". However, I absolutely can't find anything similar in English.

What language are you translating from? The original Russian?

[Corbeau]

From Croatian/Serbian.