Who, whom?

Who, whom? (Russian: кто кого?, kto kogo?; Russian pronunciation: [kto.kɐˈvo]) is a Bolshevik principle or slogan which was formulated by Vladimir Lenin in 1921.

"Comrade Lenin Cleanses the Earth of Filth." (Mikhail Cheremnykh and Viktor Deni, 1920)

Origins and usage

Lenin is supposed to have stated at the second All-Russian Congress of Political Education Departments, on 17 October 1921,

Весь вопрос—кто кого опередит? The whole question is—who will overtake whom?

— Lenin

Leon Trotsky used the shortened "who whom" formulation in his 1925 article, "Towards Capitalism or Towards Socialism?"^[1]

The shortened form was invoked by Joseph Stalin in 1929, in a speech to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which also gave the formula its "aura of hard-line coercion" (while Lenin's phrase indicated a willingness to embrace economic competition):

The fact is, we live according to Lenin's formula: Kto–kogo?: will we knock them, the capitalists, flat and give them (as Lenin expresses it) the final, decisive battle, or will they knock us flat?^[2]

It came to be used as a formula describing the inevitability of class struggle, i.e. who (which of two antagonists) will dominate the other. In this view, all compromises and promises between enemies are just expedients – tactical maneuvers in the struggle for mastery.^[3][4]

See also

• Cui bono
• Charles de Gaulle, who said "France has no friends, only interests."
• What Is to Be Done?