Socialist Revolution

Also known as “proletarian revolution” or “proletarian socialist revolution”. It is that the proletariat (through the Communist Party) leads the working people, overthrows the rule of the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system, establishes the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialist system, and finally realizes the communist revolution. Socialist revolution is a form of revolution that collects political revolution, economic revolution and social revolution in one. Under the leadership of the proletariat, the socialist revolution unites all forces that can be united, such as the working class, the peasantry and the petty-bourgeoisie in opposition to the bourgeois revolution. The proletariat must carry to completion the democratic revolution, by allying to itself the mass of the peasantry in order to crush by force the resistance of the autocracy and to paralyze the instability of the bourgeoisie. The proletariat must accomplish the socialist revolution, by allying to itself the mass of the semi-proletarian elements of the population in order to smash by force the resistance of the bourgeoisie and to paralyze the instability of the peasantry and the petty-bourgeoisie.

The ultimate purpose of the socialist revolution is to liberate and develop the productive forces. To achieve this purpose, it is necessary to abolish capitalist private property, expropriate the exploiters and establish socialist public property in the means of production, on this basis consciously solve the contradictions between socialist productive forces and relations of production, economic foundation and superstructure, strengthen the reform of economic and political systems, and vigorously carry out technological innovation and technological revolution, actively develop science and technology and raise the productivity of labor so as to strengthen the material basis of socialism and make the socialist system fortified, developed and perfected day by day.

The process of socialist revolution can be divided into two steps. Before the conquest of political power by the proletariat, the central task of the socialist revolution is to overthrow the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie through revolutionary armed struggle, radically smash the old state machinery and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. After the conquest of political power by the proletariat, it should suppress the resistance of the exploiting classes, step by step achieve the socialist transformation of the private property in the means of production, establish and develop socialist public property, liberate and develop the productive forces of society, gradually sweep away the influence of the system of exploitation and the exploiting classes as well as their political ideology, and improve socialist relations of production and superstructure, perfect socialist democracy and legal system, vigorously promote the construction of socialist material, political and spiritual civilization; on the basis of highly developed productive forces, completely abolish the conditions of class antagonisms and class distinctions, and ultimately realize communism.

Because of the different social conditions in the countries where the proletariat is located, the tasks and paths of the socialist revolution are also different. The establishment of the Paris Commune by the French proletariat in 1871 was the first great attempt and practice of socialist revolution. The victory of the October Revolution in 1917 opened a new era of the socialist revolution, opened the prelude to the world socialist revolution and had a profound impact on world history. In China, the social nature of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in Old China determined that the revolution should be carried out in two steps. The first step was to accomplish the new-democratic revolution and, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, overthrow the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism and establish the People’s Republic of China. From the new-democratic revolution to the socialist revolution, a unique path of socialist transformation suited to China was creatively opened up. After the basic accomplishment of the socialist transformation and the elimination of the exploiting classes as classes in 1956, class struggle will continue to exist for a long time to a certain extent, but it is no longer the principal contradiction. Under the new historical conditions, we should vigorously develop the productive forces of society, gradually establish a highly democratic socialist economic and political system, and, on this basis, gradually abolish all class distinctions, and all major social distinctions and inequalities which are chiefly due to the inadequate development of the productive forces until communism is finally realized. Differing from the revolutions before the overthrow of the system of exploitation, this revolution is carried out not through fierce class confrontation and conflict, but through the socialist system itself, under leadership, step by step and in an orderly way. It will not only take a very long historical period to accomplish, but also demand many generations of unswerving and disciplined hard work.

Socialist revolution is the most extensive, most profound and most radical and unprecedentedly great revolution in human history. The socialist revolution of the proletariat is fundamentally different from any revolution of an exploiting class (all previous revolutions). It is not to replace one system of exploitation with another, but to completely abolish all systems of exploitation. The Communist Manifesto pointed out that all previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority. It does not take place when the new mode of production is already in place, and the conquest of political power is not the end of the revolution; rather, it begins with the conquest of political power and uses it as a lever to transform the old economic system and organize the new socialist economic system, and to blaze the trail to communism.