A prolific writer, Vladimir I. Lenin never shied away from debating his opponents to defend the ideals of revolutionary Marxism. Here, we reproduce 5 of his sickest burns:

“In actual fact, it is obvious that Kautsky is writing in a country where the police forbid people to laugh “in crowds,” otherwise Kautsky would have been killed by ridicule.”

– The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky

“All the social-chauvinists are now ‘Marxists’ (don’t laugh!)”

– State and Revolution

“Kautsky takes from Marxism what is acceptable to the liberals, to the bourgeoisie (the criticism of the Middle Ages, and the progressive historical role of capitalism and capitalist democracy in particular), and discards, passes over in silence, glosses over all that in Marxism which is unacceptable to the bourgeoisie (the revolutionary violence of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie for the latter’s destruction). That is why Kautsky, by virtue of his objective position and irrespective of what his subjective convictions may be, inevitably proves to be a lackey of the bourgeoisie.”

– “Democracy and Revolution”

“Plekhanov has set a new record in the noble sport of substituting sophistry for dialectics.”

– The Collapse of the Second International

“Comparing the “continuation of the politics” of combating feudalism and absolutism—the politics of the bourgeoisie in its struggle for liberty—with the “continuation of the politics” of a decrepit, i.e., imperialist, bourgeoisie, i.e., of a bourgeoisie which has plundered the entire world, a reactionary bourgeoisie which, in alliance with feudal landlords, attempts to crush the proletariat, means comparing chalk and cheese .”

– “On Just and Unjust Wars”