I have this big thick book  where some descriptions
of Lenin sound a lot like you know who.  Why is that?
Abusive men think alike? (Some of these references are to
Hitler and Stalin - where noted)

WORDS (labels) p76
Throughout his career, Lenin showed a brilliant if sinister
genius for investing words and expressions with special
meanings which suited his political purposes - ...

ISOLATION p58
His isolation from people, his indifference to them, gave him
a certain massive integrity and consistency.  In one way it
was a weakness: he never knew what people were actually going
to do - that was why he was continually surprised by events,
both before and after he came to power.  But it was also his
strength.  His absolute self-confidence and masterful will
were never, for a moment, eroded by tactical calculations as
to how people were likely to react.
ISOLATION p270
But this was characteristic of Stalin's ignorance of what
actually went on in the Russian countryside - an ignorance, of
course, which Lenin had shared.  According to Khrushchev, 'Stalin
separated himself from the people and never went anywhere . . The
last time he visited a village was in January 1928.'  The whole of the
gigantic operation of collectivizing the peasants, involving about 105
million people, was conducted from Stalin's study in the Kremlin.
(his ivory tower)

TEFLON p53
He brushed aside the attacks, which never seem to have caused
him to pause or reconsider for one second.  There was no chink
in his self-armour.

PUPPETS p51
He saw the people with whom he dealt, his comrades, not as
individuals but as receptacles for his ideas.  On that basis,
and on no other, they were judged.  So he had no hierarchy of
friendships; no friendships in fact, merely ideological
alliances.  He judged men not by their moral qualities but by
their views, or rather the degree to which they accepted his.

STATE OF COBU p80
...that summer marked the extinction of visible political
opposition in Lenin's state.  He had given non-Communists the
(non Cobu conformers) the choice that still faces them today
sixty years later: acquiescent silence, prison or exile.

CONTROL p89
As usual, Lenin thought entirely in terms of control; not of
production.  He thought that provided he got the system of control
right, the results would flow inevitably.  He was wholly ignorant
of the process whereby wealth is created. (JD said ST ruined
the Carpet Cleaning Business, the Van Business, etc. as he
mustered more and more control - he destroyed them with his greed)

LABELING p70
He was ceasing to be interested in what a man did or had done -
let alone why he had done it - and was first encouraging, then
commanding, his repressive apparatus to hunt down people, and
destroy them, not on the basis of crimes, real or imaginary,
but on the basis of generalizations, hearsay, rumours.  First
came condemned categories... The watershed was Lenin's decree
of January 1918 calling on the agencies of the state to 'purge
the Russian land of all kinds of harmful insects'...

commitment p132 (this is Hitler)
'Hitler never really makes a political speech, only philosophical
ones.'  In fact he did not so much outline a programme and make
promises as demand a commitment.

CULT LIKE p272
   The refeudalization of the Soviet peasantry, who then formed
three-quarters of the population, had a calamitous effect on the
morale of the Communist rank-and-file, who carried it through.  As
Kolakowski puts it: 'The whole party became an organization of
torturers and oppressors.  No one was innocent, and all Communists
were accomplices in the coercion of society.  Thus the party acquired
a new species of moral unity, and embarked on a course from which
there was no turning back.'
PARTY SPIRIT p295
What did become meaningful to them were the social organizations
which Hitler created in astonishing numbers, under the policy
he termed 'belonging.'

"DEALING" MEETINGS p274 (to create a certain "air")
                  Periodically there were carefully staged
show-trials, such as the Menshevik trial in March 1931, or the
Metro-Vickers engineers trial in April 1933.  These highly publicized
events, which revealed in elaborate detail the existence of a series of
diabolical conspiracies, each a small part of one gigantic conspiracy
against the regime and the Russian people, were needed to create the
xenophobia and hysteria without which the Stalinist state could not
hang together at all.  But of course they were only a tiny fraction of
the process, the public rationale for arrests and disappearances
taking place all over the country on an unprecedented scale.
   Most 'trials' were not reported, although they often involved large
groups of people, classified together according to occupation.  Many
were never tried at all.  The arbitrary nature of the arrests was
essential to create the climate of fear which, next to the need for
labor, was the chief motive for the non-party terror.  An OGPU man
admitted to the Manchester Guardian Moscow correspondent that
innocent people were arrested: naturally - otherwise no one would
be frightened.  If people, he said, were arrested only for specific
misdemeanors, all the others would feel safe and so become ripe
for treason.  But this apart, there seems to have been no pattern of
logic or sense in many instances.
"continued" p 277
It inspired imitation and it generated fear; and those who feared it
most were most inclined to imitate its methods in constructing
defensive counter-models of their own. (in context this is better
understood - but that's more context than I wish to put here!)

STYLE p292
Hitler's orders were always oral, often emerging incidentally in the
course of long harangues, and sometimes given on the spot to whoever
happened to be around.

END RESULT: JUSTIFICATION p296
     Just as the Soviets cadres were taught to justify the most
revolting crimes in the name of a moralistic class warfare, so the SS
acted in the name of race - which Hitler insisted was a far more
powerful and central human motivation than class.  Service to the
race, as opposed to the Marxist proletariat, was the basis of Nazi
puritanism, marked by what Rudolf Hoess, commandant at
Auschwitz, termed the 'cold' and 'stony' attitude of the ideal Nazi,
one who 'had ceased to have human feelings' in the pursuit of duty.

These quotes are from the pages of - - - -
MODERN TIMES:
THE WORLD FROM THE TWENTIES TO THE NINETIES
by Paul Johnson (Revised Edition)
published in 1983 and named one of the best books of the
year by the New York Times.  (page numbers from the paperback)

> Received from a friend "down under"  (Australia).. interesting how others
> view our country.
> CS

Out of all the weaponry and nuclear capabilities around the globe
guess which is the only country to ever use it?
    Twice.
Don't mess with us.  We're not wrapped too tight.
Although many European countries got it right - if you're stopped
 drinking and driving you know where they put you?
    In the insane asylum.
         Why?
Because if you're going to try and drive after drinking you
  obviously must be insane.
But think about all the countries with nuclear arms.
We wonder and worry.  And you can bet they wonder and
worry about us.  They don't have to worry about us pushing
the button.  They already KNOW we'll do it.  It's just a
question of WHEN we'll do it again.  No one else has ever
destroyed so many civilians than Uncle Sam with two single
           blasts.
Still, it's more of a Mexican standoff/ cold war...
And then again - we have "watering holes" (bars) open till
     2 AM and let the patrons drive home.
It is said the Russian Premier would have too much vodka and
  often have to be restrained from "pushing the button."
And one more aside: Norway or Sweden were putting a satellite
into space.  They sent word to all the world powers.  Well, the
   message sent to Russia ended up under a pile of papers.
So when the Norwegian missile went into the sky - the Russians
went on alert - wondering if it was an attack from us.  They have a ten
minute limit on launching a counter-attack.  They were trying to get
in touch with the US to verify what was happening but time was
  ticking away and they were getting ready to respond in kind.
With only a few minutes to spare, the Norwegian missile turned
as it went into its orbit and the Russian radar showed the rocket
   wasn't headed toward them.  Response was called off.
       We came that close.
While we're on the subject - you know that sub that sank?  They
were testing a secret weapon so secret a picture of it does not exist.
It's a type of rocket in three stages to go after our submarines.  This
sub - they have like nine of them around the globe.  While the Gulf
war was "popular" - there was one of those subs off the West Coast
ready to nuke any number of our cities should the communists have
deemed it necessary.
Sleep tight.