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"We will hang the capitalists with the rope that they sell us."

January 1, 1970

Quote Details

Added by wikiquote-import-bot

Added on April 10, 2026

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Atheism activists Antisemites Academics from Germany German atheists Economists from Germany

Original Language: English

Sources

Often attributed to Lenin or Stalin, less often to Marx. According to the book, "They Never Said It", p. 64, the phrase derives from a rumour that Lenin said this to one of his close associates, Grigori Zinoviev, not long after a meeting of the Politburo in the early 1920s, but there is no evidence that he ever did. Experts on the Soviet Union reject the rope quote as spurious.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Marx

Often attributed to Lenin or Stalin, less often to Marx. According to the book, "They Never Said It", p. 64, the phrase derives from a rumour that Lenin said this to one of his close associates, Grigori Zinoviev, not long after a meeting of the Politburo in the early 1920s, but there is no evidence that he ever did. Experts on the Soviet Union reject the rope quote as spurious.