Violent Revolution

The fundamental form of political revolutions, refers to the political change of smashing the old state machinery, overthrowing the political rule of the ruling class, and establishing a new political system and political order by means of force. Often used to refer to the political revolution in which the advanced class shatters the outdated system of social relations and achieves a change of state power, the general law of proletarian revolution, the highest form of struggle of oppressed classes against ruling classes.

Lenin pointed out, indeed, what is revolution from the Marxist point of view? The violent break-up of the obsolete political superstructure, the contradiction between which and the new relations of production caused its collapse at a certain moment. Mao Zedong said that a revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. The conditions for a violent revolution are that there is a revolutionary situation and a social crisis occurs, and that the obsolete political superstructure is broken up by using force and a transfer of power is achieved. Terrorist acts by a few people without revolutionary situation and mass base are not a revolution. The state is by its very nature an instrument of class rule and an organ of organized violence in the hands of the ruling class. All reactionary ruling classes maintain their system of exploitation and domination over the people by virtue of the state power in their hands. The bourgeois bureaucratic-military machine built on the basis of capitalist private property is an organ of violence that directly enslaves and oppresses the proletariat and other working people in the hands of the bourgeoisie. In class society, the intensification of contradictions between the oppressed and ruling classes will inevitably develop into external confrontation and armed conflict. The ruling classes will not spontaneously surrender their power and withdraw from the arena of history. They will always use the state machinery in their hands to hold down the resistance of the oppressed classes. Only by the conquest of political power by violent means and overthrowing the reactionary rule can the revolutionary oppressed classes achieve fundamental revolutions in the social system and ultimately realize their emancipation. “Force, in the words of Marx, it is the midwife of every old society which is pregnant with a new one, that it is the instrument with which social movement forces its way through and shatters the dead, fossilized political forms.” The deepest root of violent revolution is the contradiction between the relations of production and the productive forces. When the existing relations of production become a serious obstacle to the continued development of productive forces, it is required, through a revolution, to change the old relations of production and the old superstructure that maintains them, to liberate the productive forces and to push society further forward. Social revolution is the inevitable trend and the concentrated manifestation of class struggle, and usually involves the use of violence. Of course, violent revolution is not the only way to realize political revolution; when the revolutionary forces are dominant, or when the revolutionary situation develops to the extent that the ruling class is no longer strong enough to fight against the revolutionary forces and expresses its willingness to cede power, the political revolution can transition from the violent form to the non-violent form.

Violent revolution has different forms and concrete ways due to different concrete conditions in different countries, including uprisings, riots and wars, etc. In human history, there have been violent struggles by slaves against the oppression of the slave-owners, by peasants against the oppression of the feudal nobility, by the bourgeoisie to overthrow feudalism, by oppressed nations against imperialism and colonialism, and by the proletariat to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie. Under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, the October Socialist Revolution in Russia first staged armed uprisings in the big cities and then “marched triumphantly” into the countryside to win victory in the whole country. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, new-democratic revolution in China first set up revolutionary base areas in the countryside, encircled the cities from the countryside, and finally liberated the cities to achieve revolutionary victory in the whole country. The proletarians in other countries have also formed certain features of their own in carrying out violent revolution. Under the socialist system, the dictatorship of the proletariat exercises necessary violence against the class enemies and prevents and crushes armed attacks or subversive activity of imperialism with revolutionary violence.

The theory of violent revolution is an important content of Marxist doctrines. In 1848, in The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels pointed out that in the proletarian revolution “the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat”. “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.” In 1852, in the book The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Marx held that the future proletarian revolution should not simply transfer the bourgeois state machinery from the hands of the bourgeoisie to the hands of the proletariat but must abolish and “smash” the reactionary army, police and bureaucratic apparatus of the bourgeoisie by revolutionary violence, which is “the precondition for every real people’s revolution”. Engels said: “The proletariat cannot conquer political power, the only door to the new society, without violent revolution.” The Communists’ task is “to recognize no means of attaining these (abolishing private property) aims other than democratic revolution by force”. In The State and Revolution, Lenin pointed out that the bourgeois state cannot be superseded by the proletarian state (the dictatorship of the proletariat) through the process of “withering away”, but, as a general rule, only through a violent revolution. The proletarian revolution is impossible without the forcible destruction of the bourgeois state machinery and the substitution for it of a new one. After the February Revolution in Russia, Lenin emphasized the importance of organizing and arming the masses, making preparations for a violent revolution, and achieving the great victory of the October Socialist Revolution through a violent revolution. Mao Zedong put forth the idea of “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”. He also emphasized that it would take a long and arduous violent revolution to win the victory of the new-democratic revolution. Marxism does not exclude the possibility of gaining political power by peaceful means under specific historical conditions. But it emphasizes that the proletariat should actively strive for such a possibility on the one hand; on the other hand, it must be ready to face the attack of the counter-revolutionary armed forces.

World history has proved that revolutions in class societies are generally achieved by overthrowing the rule of the reactionary class and establishing a new power through violent revolution. The proletariat uses violent revolution to smash the state machinery of the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is the general law of the proletarian revolution.