His self-belief and confidence were unshakeable. Splitting the Party and splitting again, going into a political wilderness, would seem a hopeless route to take for a tiny group with little popular support. But in the long term – and Lenin was always looking at the bigger picture and the longer term – the tactic paid off.

Victor Sebestyen, Lenin: The man, the dictator, and the master of terror, New York, 2017, p. 167