I came across the phrase in one of my readings, that in my opinion is essential and very important. Author of 1922 article called “On Russian revolution” (L. Kritzman) put it this way: “Before conquering things, the revolution conquered people; this is the secret of its victory.” Among other things author is discussing how Russian revolution managed not to fail under the pressure of reaction and counterrevolution that was sponsored and supported by the western imperialism that had much bigger resources than young soviet republic, and much more advanced technologically. They had stuff, lots of stuff, but revolution had masses that supported it. That is why the gainings of revolution were immense and unstoppable.
Great point for social optimism. As well as ahortest and clearest formulation on the matter of importance of masses in revolution.