But Communists must not only be scientific; they must also learn to work with the masses. In this they face a special difficulty; the man who has thought for years in Marxian categories may find it as hard to explain them to simple people as an electrical engineer would find it to explain the theory of turbines to men in a candle-lighted world. This is more serious for the Communist than for the engineer; for the latter can build his turbines without help from the candle-lighted individuals, but the Communist cannot make a revolution without the people.

I love this quote, comparing capitalism with a candle lighted world is a very good metaphor and the quote shows exactly how hard it is to organize a working class that has never known anything but the dreadfulness of a system where everything is decided by the few who own the means of production.

It is the working class which must dictate and not the Party; in 1925 when Zinoviev argued for dictatorship by the Party, Stalin fought against this “narrow point of view,” saying that the confidence between the masses of the people and the Party must not be destroyed by any peculiar Party rights, “because in the first place, the Party might be mistaken, and even if it were not, the masses might take some time to see that it was right.”

If you dig even a little into Soviet history it is so easy to see that Stalin was a very reasonable party leader that respected his people and the love for him is absolutely earned. All of the propaganda against him just shatters instantly with very little effort.

Hillquit called the Russian revolution an “historical accident,” since it occurred in a backward peasant land. Norman Thomas on the contrary holds it occurred just because the Russians were so backward that they would endure a dictatorship such as no other people would stand.

Racist haven't changed at all since then

I think this is the best source I have read so far to explain what a vanguard is and why it's needed, it explains it all in a way that is less formulaic and much more understandable with our everyday experiences. The requirements to be a part of that vanguard seem very daunting when described this way and I honestly don't think I could be like that, at least without the world going to shit first. I also think that parties nowadays are missing some of the disciplined scrapping of members from all levels in a democratic way, having some stuck up people high up in the party shaping a general line that many don't want to follow is a problem that sometimes comes from up top and should be fixed before it affects the rest of the party.