 He claimed to be a loyal Leninist, although was—according to Service—"not a blindly obedient Leninist".Stalin respected Lenin, but not uncritically, and spoke out when he believed that Lenin was wrong.During the period of his revolutionary activity, Stalin regarded some of Lenin's views and actions as being the self-indulgent activities of a spoiled émigré, deeming them counterproductive for those Bolshevik activists based within the Russian Empire itself.