V.I. Lenin on the Subject of the Masses

“When a revolution has been sufficiently prepared, the concept of ‘masses’ becomes different: several thousand workers no longer constitute the masses. This word begins to denote something else. The concept of ‘masses’ undergoes a change so that it implies the majority, and not simply a majority of the workers alone, but the majority of all the exploited. Any other kind of interpretation is impermissible for a revolutionary, and any other sense of the word becomes impermissible.” – V. I. Lenin, “Third Congress of the Communist International”