Young people, particularly, need the joy and force of life. Healthy sport, swimming, racing, walking, bodily exercises of every kind, and many-sided intellectual interests. Learning, studying, inquiry, as far as possible in common. That will give young people more than eternal theories and discussions about sexual problems and the so-called ‘living to the full’. Healthy bodies, healthy minds I Neither monk nor Don Juan, nor the intermediate attitude of the German philistines. You know, young comrade –– ? A splendid boy, and highly talented. And yet I fear that nothing good will come out of him. He reels and staggers from one love affair to the next. That won’t do for the political struggle, for the revolution. And I wouldn’t bet on the reliability, the endurance in struggle of those women who confuse their personal romances with politics. Nor on the men who run petticoat and get entrapped by every young woman. That does not square with the revolution.

  • Fakename_Bill [he/him]
    3·
    4 years ago

    I don't put much stock in Lenin's views on sexuality. Love Lenin, but he was a bit of a prude. Volcel should stay just a meme.

    • SteveHasBunker [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I mean he’s not even really going Volcel here. He’s just saying he thinks a lot of young people are being immature and excessively horny and he thinks that a bad combo.

      It’s prudish but he’s not really telling people not to fuck, just not to get swept up with every person DTF with you. I think young people today (or at least somewhat cosmopolitan ones) have gotten pretty good have having mature healthy casual sex lives, so these views are certainly outdated, but Pre-contraceptives and sexual revolution I can get an older dude being like “all these bright young kids are gonna fuck their lives being so horny”

      • CatherineTheSoSo [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        What's more is that Lenin is talking about it in the context of revolutionary politics. People bitch about DSA turning into a date club all the time. I'm sure Lenin had to deal with the same thing a century ago.

        • SteveHasBunker [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          “Sorry I’ve been MIA Lenin, Mila ghosted me last night and.... you know I really thought we were going somewhere. It really has me depressed, I’ve been...”

          “Marx help me...”

        • grisbajskulor [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Actually, this exact thing may have happened to Lenin with french communist Inessa Armand!

          Angelica Balabanoff recalled about the relationship between Armand and Lenin: Lenin loved Inessa. There was nothing immoral in it, since Lenin told Krupskaya everything [again the same code]. He deeply loved music, and this Krupskaya could not give him. Inessa played beautifully — his beloved Beethoven and other pieces. He sent Inessa to the Youth Conference of the Zimmerwald Group — a little old, but she had a credential from the Bolsheviks and we had to accept it. He did not dare to come himself, sat downstairs in a little adjacent cafe drinking tea, getting reports from her, giving her instructions. I went down for tea and found him there. Did you come na chai, I asked, or na rezoliutsii? (for tea, or for the resolution?) He laughed knowingly, but did not answer. [Inessa fought hard, but the resolution Lenin prepared for her was defeated 13–3.] When Inessa died, he begged me to speak at her funeral. He was utterly broken by her death.

    • jabrd [he/him]
      1·
      4 years ago

      I agree. Kollontai was right on the issue of sexuality and had a much better analysis of how it evolves with material forces. Lenin was genuinely just a prude