Catherine Merridale Quotes & Sayings

The gentleness, the sentimentality, of many Soviet troops toward small children in Prussia was noted at the time. A woman with a baby, local people learned, was practically immune to rape. But even sentimental troops, the men who kept their pockets full of sweets for hungry German kids, worried about their families back home. It was a long time since any had seen their children. — Catherine Merridale

Sometimes a scoundrel is useful to our party precisely because he is a scoundrel. V. I. Lenin — Catherine Merridale

Human dignity is something one need not look for in the world of capitalists. V. I. Lenin — Catherine Merridale

Kerensky he dismissed in yet another snappy line, describing him as 'a balalaika on which they play to deceive the workers and peasants'. — Catherine Merridale

As modern tyrannies are swept away (and every honest heart delights), the quick-thinking servants of the world's great powers still proffer plans to intervene, to jostle, scheme and sponsor factions that they barely understand. — Catherine Merridale