"We have no irreplaceable men," Joseph StalinA phrase attributed to the Generalissimo, but not his own. In 1942 it was used in the play "Front" by playwright Alexander Korneichuk. But he is not its author.
The words actually belong to Joseph Le Bon, Commissar of the French Revolutionary Congress, and were spoken in 1793. The Vicomte de Guiselin, arrested for political impropriety, begged for his life, as his education and experience could still be useful to the new France.
To which Commissar Le Bon replied, "There are no irreplaceable men in the Republic!" The commissar was right - soon after the viscount went to the guillotine himself.
