"Tyrannical towards himself, he must be tyrannical towards others. All the gentle and enervating sentiments of kind ship, love, friendship, gratitude and even honor must be suppressed in him and give place to the cold and single minded passion for revolution."

“The Society has no aim other than the complete liberation and happiness of the masses – i.e., of the people who live by manual labor.”

“To weld the people into one single unconquerable and all-destructive force – this is our aim, our conspiracy, and our task.”

“In revolutionary circles, the word Nechaevism was long to be a term of harsh condemnation, a synonym for risky and reprehensible methods of attaining revolutionary goals. Lenin was to hear himself accused hundreds of times of ‘Nechaevist’ methods by his opponents.”

“The revolutionary can have no friendship or attachment, except for those who have proved by their actions that they, like him, are dedicated to revolution.”

“Therefore, in drawing closer to the people, we must above all make common cause with those elements of the masses which, since the foundation of the state of Muscovy, have never ceased to protest, not only in words but in deeds, against everything directly or indirectly connected with the state: against the nobility, the bureaucracy, the clergy, the traders, and the parasitic kulaks. We must unite with the adventurous tribes of brigands, who are the only genuine revolutionaries in Russia.”

“He was, in short, a Bolshevik before the Bolsheviks.”