What did Einstein think of Lenin?

The claim

A meme quoting Einstein’s comments on Lenin gives the false impression of uncritical support.

The facts

While Einstein held Lenin in great admiration, and identified himself as a socialist, this meme deliberately distorts Einstein’s comment by suppressing an important part of his statement. Restoring the words which have been omitted (identified by the ellipsis), this is the complete quotation.

“I honor Lenin as a man who completely sacrificed himself and devoted all his energy to the realization of social justice. I do not consider his methods practical, but one thing is certain: men of his type are the guardians and restorers of humanity.” [1]

It is clear that the words in bold were removed in order to give the false appearance that Einstein was uncritically in favor of Lenin’s ideology and methods. In reality Einstein disagreed completely with Lenin’s methods, and did not consider them practical.Even more specifically, Einstein believed that Bolshevism’s approach to its aims was entirely wrong.

“The Bolshevist experiment may be worth trying. But I think that Russia errs badly in the execution of her ideal. The Russians make the mistake of putting party faith above efficiency. They replace efficient men by politicians. Their test stone of public service is not the accomplishment but devotion to a rigid creed.” [2]

This fact is completely suppressed by the the creators of the meme in which Einstein is represented as expressing wholehearted support for Lenin.Additionally, Einstein was a “convinced pacifist”, [3] who detested war, and consequently could not agree with Lenin’s campaign of systematic violence.

He rejected “brute force” as “the solution of international conflicts”, considering that violence was only justifiable “a hostile power threatens wholesale destruction of one’s own group”. [4] Wholesale destruction of entire ethnic groups was a systemic feature of Soviet Russia.

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[1] Lewis Samuel Feuer, Einstein and the Generations of Science (Transaction Publishers, 1982), 25.

[2] Reiner Braun and David Krieger, Einstein — Peace Now!: Visions and Ideas (Wiley-VCH, 2005), 276.

[3] “I had no alternative but to act as I did, although I have always been a convinced pacifist.”, Alice Calaprice and Albert Einstein, The New Quotable Einstein (Princeton University Press, 2005), 160.

[4] “I have always been a pacifist, i.e. I have declined to recognize brute force as a means for the solution of international conflicts. Nevertheless, it is, in my opinion, not reasonable to cling to that principle unconditionally. An exception has necessarily to be made if a hostile power threatens wholesale destruction of one’s own group.”, Alice Calaprice and Albert Einstein, The New Quotable Einstein (Princeton University Press, 2005), 160.