Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917), Chapter 5 Verified source · How we source quotes

Where this quote comes from

Lenin wrote this in The State and Revolution, completed in 1917 in the months before the Bolsheviks took power. In chapter 5 he argues that democracy under capitalism is democracy for a rich minority, much as freedom in the Greek republics belonged to slave owners. He presents the dictatorship of the proletariat as the stage that would replace it.

Source: The State and Revolution (1917), Chapter 5

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