--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: What the engineers had first seen in the…" description: "\"“What the engineers had first seen in the October coup d'état was ruin. (And for three years there had been ruin and nothing else.) Beyond that, they h..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg" --- # What the engineers had first seen in the October coup… ![“What the engineers had first seen in the October coup d'état was ruin. (And for three years there had been ruin and nothing else.) Beyond that, they had seen the loss of even the most elementary freedoms. (And these freedoms never returned.) How, then, could engineers not have wanted a democratic…” quote by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg) > ““What the engineers had first seen in the October coup d'état was ruin. (And for three years there had been ruin and nothing else.) Beyond that, they had seen the loss of even the most elementary freedoms. (And these freedoms never returned.) How, then, could engineers not have wanted a democratic republic? How could engineers accept the dictatorship of the workers, the dictatorship of their subordinates in industry, so little skilled or trained and comprehending neither the physical nor the economic laws of production, but now occupying the top positions, from which they supervised the engineers? Why shouldn't the engineers have considered it more natural for the structure of society to be headed by those who could intelligently direct its activity?”” [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Engineers, witnessing ruin and loss of freedoms, naturally desire democratic governance over dictatorial control. **In simple terms:** Engineers seek freedom and rational leadership. Key Takeaway Support democratic structures. Themes freedom democracy engineer ethics Mood thoughtful serious Type philosophical political When to use this quote - policy making - industrial leadership - education reforms Key Concepts political philosophy social responsibility Questions to Reflect On - What role should engineers play in politics? - How can expertise balance with democratic input? A Different Perspective Complex societies may resist pure technocracy. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Communism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communism/) [Dictatorship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dictatorship/) [Freedom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/freedom/) [Marxism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/marxism/) [October revolution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/october-revolution/) [Wrecking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wrecking/) ## Related quotes > [The world will not accept dictatorship or domination](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mikhail-gorbachev/the-world-will-not-accept-dictatorship-or-domination/) [Mikhail Gorbachev](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mikhail-gorbachev/) > [“there is found a third level of religious experience, even if it is seldom found in a pure form. I will call it the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/there-is-found-a-third-level-of-religious-experience-even-if-it-is/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [“A Jewish woman in exile in the 1930s is an antihero.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/n-ria-a/a-jewish-woman-in-exile-in-the-1930s-is-an-antihero/) Núria Añó > [“For their never-ending endeavours to obtain or retain wealth, countries desperately need companies, because they—unlike most human beings—have the means of production, and human…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/for-their-never-ending-endeavours-to-obtain-or-retain-wealth/) [Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/) > [“According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-engels/according-to-the-materialist-conception-of-history-the-ultimately/) [Friedrich Engels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-engels/) > [“The sum of productive forces, capital funds and social forms of intercourse, which every individual and generation finds in existence as something given, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-marx/the-sum-of-productive-forces-capital-funds-and-social-forms-of/) [Karl Marx](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-marx/) ## More by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn > [If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/if-you-wanted-to-put-the-world-to-rights-who-should-you-begin-with/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [“...you are strong only as long as you don't deprive people of everything . For a person you've taken everything from is no longer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/you-are-strong-only-as-long-as-you-don-t-deprive-people-of-everything/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/woe-to-that-nation-whose-literature-is-cut-short-by-the-intrusion-of/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/literature-becomes-the-living-memory-of-a-nation/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [If there were no executioners, there would be no executions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/if-there-were-no-executioners-there-would-be-no-executions/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/not-everything-has-a-name-some-things-lead-us-into-a-realm-beyond/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [It is almost always impossible to evaluate at the time events which you have already experienced, and to understand their meaning with the guidance…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/it-is-almost-always-impossible-to-evaluate-at-the-time-events-which/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Human nature is full of riddles; . . . one of those riddles is: how is it that people who have been crushed by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/human-nature-is-full-of-riddles-one-of-those-riddles-is-how-is-it/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [“It was astonishing that the pseudo wreckers, who knew perfectly well that they weren't wreckers, believed that military men and priests were being shaken…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/it-was-astonishing-that-the-pseudo-wreckers-who-knew-perfectly-well/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [When the whole discussion of "developing a national idea" hastily began in post-Soviet Russia, I tried to pour cold water on it with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/when-the-whole-discussion-of-developing-a-national-idea-hastily-began/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [“It was granted me to carry away from my prison years on my bent back, which nearly broke beneath its load, this essential experience;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/it-was-granted-me-to-carry-away-from-my-prison-years-on-my-bent-back/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Call no day happy 'til it is done; call no man happy til he is dead.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/call-no-day-happy-til-it-is-done-call-no-man-happy-til-he-is-dead/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relationships, this creates an atmosphere of spiritual mediocrity that paralyzes a person's noblest impulses.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/whenever-the-tissue-of-life-is-woven-of-legalistic-relationships-this/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [The same old caveman feeling-greed, envy, violence, and mutual hate, which along the way assumed respectable pseudonyms like class struggle, racial struggle, mass struggle,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/the-same-old-caveman-feeling-greed-envy-violence-and-mutual-hate/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) > [Surrender one hair, and you'll end up beardless.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/surrender-one-hair-and-you-ll-end-up-beardless/) [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) [Explore all 412 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/) ## More 1930 quotes > [“there is found a third level of religious experience, even if it is seldom found in a pure form. I will call it the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-einstein/there-is-found-a-third-level-of-religious-experience-even-if-it-is/) [Albert Einstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-einstein/) > [“A Jewish woman in exile in the 1930s is an antihero.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/n-ria-a/a-jewish-woman-in-exile-in-the-1930s-is-an-antihero/) Núria Añó Browse all 3 1930 quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What the engineers had first seen in the October coup d'état was ruin. (And for three years there had been ruin and nothing else.) Beyond that, they had seen the loss of even the most elementary freedoms. (And these freedoms never returned.) How, then, could engineers not have wanted a democratic republic? How could engineers accept the dictatorship of the workers, the dictatorship of their subordinates in industry, so little skilled or trained and comprehending neither the physical nor the economic laws of production, but now occupying the top positions, from which they supervised the engineers? Why shouldn't the engineers have considered it more natural for the structure of society to be headed by those who could intelligently direct its activity?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the-october-coup-d-tat-was-ruin/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "1930" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the-october-coup-d-tat-was-ruin/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e2/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-671_1930_what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the_677547.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What the engineers had first seen in the October coup d'état was ruin. (And for three years there had been…” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“What the engineers had first seen...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the-october-coup-d-tat-was-ruin/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn/what-the-engineers-had-first-seen-in-the-october-coup-d-tat-was-ruin/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```