[ChuckMcM]

As I understand it, Stalin said, "Quantity is its own kind of quality." But I don't have the original Russian (someone here no doubt does) where he was referring to the USSR's ability to produce arms faster than their opponents even though the quality was lower.

[varjag]

This is a quote by Thomas A. Callaghan Jr, but is often mis-atrributed to Stalin.

https://klangable.com/blog/quantity-has-a-quality-all-its-ow...

[sssilver]

in this[1] work titled “On Dialectic and Historic Materialism”, Stalin references the idea and properly attributes it to Engels.

1 https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/stalin/t14/t14_55.htm

[ChuckMcM]

And people ask why I still come to this site :-). That is a great link.

[varjag]

Certainly that dialectic principle is broadly known. But it's specifically (mis)attributed to Stalin with the reference to wartime production/conscription and you won't find that in his works, recorded speeches or memoirs of contemporaries.

This goes in fact for most of his grand quotes. Whatever deep sounding passage are attributed to him and can't be traced back to Marxism tenets, are typically adaptations from the Bible, reflecting his education as a priest.