By Alexander G. Markovsky

On April 22, 1919, on his 50th birthday, Lenin gave an interview to London’s Daily Chronicle and made stunning revelations about the Bolshevik's struggle to destroy capitalism. The next day the interview was published in the New York Times as “Talk with Bolshevist Head.”    

“Experience has taught us it is impossible to root out the evils of capitalism merely by confiscation and expropriation, for however ruthlessly such measures may be applied, astute speculators and obstinate survivors of the capitalist classes will always manage to evade them and continue to corrupt the life of the community," he said.

To accomplish this, Lenin declared, “Debauch the currency to overturn the basis of society.” The destruction of currency was the main component of the Bolshevik strategy.

During the interview, Lenin further elaborated on the implementation of his strategy at length:

Hundreds of thousands of ruble notes are being issued daily by our Treasury. This is done, not in order to fill the coffers of the State with practically worthless paper, but with the deliberate intention of destroying the value of money as a means of payment.… The simplest way to exterminate the very spirit of capitalism is, therefore, to flood the country with notes of a high face-value without financial guarantees of any sort.…The great illusion of the value and power of money on which the capitalist state is based will have been definitely destroyed.