from V.I. Lenin, 'The Discussion On Self-Determination Summed Up' (1916)
To imagine
that social revolution is conceivable without revolts by small nations
in the colonies and in Europe, without revolutionary outbursts by a section of
the petty bourgeoisie with all its prejudices, without a movement of the
politically non-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against
oppression by the landowners, the church, and the monarchy, against national
oppression, etc.-to imagine all this is to repudiate social revolution.
So one army lines up in one place and says, "We are for
socialism", and another, somewhere else and says, "We are for
imperialism", and that will he a social revolution! Only those who hold
such a ridiculously pedantic view could vilify the Irish rebellion by calling
it a "putsch".
Whoever
expects a "pure" social revolution will never live to see it.
Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what
revolution is.