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Marx's Theory of Revolution and the Revolutions of the Twentieth Century

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter explores the debate over whether and how far the collapse of communism, far from signifying the defeat of Marxism, actually proved the correctness of the diagnosis of the revolutionary ... More

This chapter explores the debate over whether and how far the collapse of communism, far from signifying the defeat of Marxism, actually proved the correctness of the diagnosis of the revolutionary process that Marx advanced in Das Kapital. The debate essentially involves a conflict between different interpretations of what Marx was saying, and a useful case study of such conflict can be found in analysis of developments in Germany in the inter‐war period—in the collapse of the Weimar republic and the inception of the Nazi era. Applying the Marxist model to the case of post‐communist Russia, it becomes clear that his methodological approach retains much of its relevance—not in respect of his theory of class struggle, but in his conception of the effects of the inability of a society to adapt itself to a changing social, political, and economic environment, and the characteristics of the ideological crisis to which such incapacity gives rise.Less

The Revolutionary Process

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter analyses the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution to throw light on the theoretical factors relating to their social and political dynamics in effecting ... More

This chapter analyses the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution to throw light on the theoretical factors relating to their social and political dynamics in effecting a transfer of power. This covers not just the weakness of the ancien régime in resisting the forces of revolution, but also that of the revolutionary forces in determining the optimal machinery of government for the post‐revolutionary state. This latter weakness can produce undesirable institutional legacies requiring decades to be dismantled.Less

The Russian Experience: Theoretical Interpretations

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter speculates on how the theory of revolution might develop further, in the light of the experiences of post‐communist Russia. This means regarding the Russian example, not as a case study ... More

This chapter speculates on how the theory of revolution might develop further, in the light of the experiences of post‐communist Russia. This means regarding the Russian example, not as a case study of the theoretical model, but as the occasion for a revision of that model. If it emerges that revolution is not solely a phenomenon of pre‐industrial, underdeveloped countries, then the features peculiar to such countries (such as low levels of literacy and general culture) cannot be regarded as universal features of revolutionary change in a theory of revolution. The most important problem in this regard is the place of violence as a necessary element of revolution, which has now come into serious question. Other theoretical issues involve spontaneity of action, the role of mass movements, and changes in concepts of property rights.Less

Why Revolutions Happen

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

The study of the great revolutions of the past shows that they occur in countries that encounter fundamental challenges, which may be a consequence of local or of global processes, to which their ... More

The study of the great revolutions of the past shows that they occur in countries that encounter fundamental challenges, which may be a consequence of local or of global processes, to which their institutional structures and the psychological outlook of the populations have rendered them unable to adapt themselves in the time available. This incapacity to adapt manifests itself in a progressive narrowing of remedial options that might, were the state stronger, produce sufficiently robust policies to remove the internal constraints that impede the adaptation required. The result is a sequence of fragmentation and breakdown processes, which the state is increasingly powerless to resist.Less

Revolutions and Economic Growth: General Approach

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter examines the role of economic modernization as a principle generator of the challenges that, if not adequately addressed by the state, lead to pre‐revolutionary conditions and thence to ... More

This chapter examines the role of economic modernization as a principle generator of the challenges that, if not adequately addressed by the state, lead to pre‐revolutionary conditions and thence to revolution itself. It examines the historical record of economic modernization in this context, and reviews the theoretical literature on the processes involved. In the Russian case, the Soviet system proved unable to master the economic development that it had itself unleashed, or to remove the internal constraints on adaptation that it had itself established.Less

Economic Problems of Revolution

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

Revolutions are not simply political processes that tend towards economic outcomes, but contain their own economic logic. This chapter examines the role of finance and budgeting in a revolution, and ... More

Revolutions are not simply political processes that tend towards economic outcomes, but contain their own economic logic. This chapter examines the role of finance and budgeting in a revolution, and explains how the changing balance between growing resource needs and shrinking resource availability, plus the tendency to misuse monetary mechanisms for political advantage, decrease the ability of an ancien régime to survive.Less

The Economic Cycle of Revolution

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter provides a theory of the economic cycle, which drives full‐scale revolutions (as opposed to mere crises), which involves the interactions of three basic factors—changes in the structure ... More

This chapter provides a theory of the economic cycle, which drives full‐scale revolutions (as opposed to mere crises), which involves the interactions of three basic factors—changes in the structure of demand, the logic of government, and changes in transaction costs. It explains how each of these factors contributes to the various phases of the cycle, and provides historical examples of their operation.Less

The Revolutionary Process in Contemporary Russia

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter analyses the course of the Russian revolution, which brought about the collapse of communism, in order to define its generic theoretical features. Its purpose is to define the ... More

This chapter analyses the course of the Russian revolution, which brought about the collapse of communism, in order to define its generic theoretical features. Its purpose is to define the ‘revolutionary curve’ that defines its internal logic of events. It also clarifies three specific features: first, the evolution from ‘reform from above’ to ‘revolution from above’ effected during the Gorbachev era; second, the reasons for the general absence of mass violent action and of revolutionary terror; third, the marked unwillingness of the protagonists to admit the revolutionary character of the changes they were pushing forward. The chapter concludes with a brief prognosis for Russia's current post‐revolutionary situation under President Putin.Less

The Leaders of the Contemporary Russian Revolution Speak . . .

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter presents an assessment, based on interviews with its leading protagonists (Gorbachev, Yakovlev, Gaidar, Burbulis), of the assumptions, objectives, and implementation of the reform ... More

This chapter presents an assessment, based on interviews with its leading protagonists (Gorbachev, Yakovlev, Gaidar, Burbulis), of the assumptions, objectives, and implementation of the reform policies of the perestroyka era. All the interviewees exhibited a sense that they were helping to introduce an era of more rational and stable government.Less

The Preconditions for Revolution in the USSR

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter examines the reasons why the Soviet command economy proved unable to achieve the level of modernization required for its survival. It demonstrates how the control of the Communist Party ... More

This chapter examines the reasons why the Soviet command economy proved unable to achieve the level of modernization required for its survival. It demonstrates how the control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) over the economy lacked the capacity to adapt to postmodern conditions, and thereby set in motion the destabilizing processes that eventually brought it down.Less

The Economic Cycle of Revolution in Russia

Vladimir Mau and Irina Starodubrovskaya

in The Challenge of Revolution: Contemporary Russia in Historical Perspective

This chapter applies the theoretical model developed in the preceding chapter to the collapse of the post‐communist Russian economy during the 1990s.

The Naxalites in Perspective

Rabindra Ray

in The Naxalites and their Ideology

The CPI(M–L) is still around, not as a single party, but as a number of sects, each claiming for itself continuity with the original founding group. However, none of them practises the terrorist line ... More

The CPI(M–L) is still around, not as a single party, but as a number of sects, each claiming for itself continuity with the original founding group. However, none of them practises the terrorist line that the leadership of the party adopted between 1970 and 1972, though one of these groups, at least, subscribes to the same theory of revolution sketched out by the leader of the party, Charu Mazumdar, in its terrorist phase. This chapter suggests that the Naxalites, while having had an impact on the political scene and the moral constitution of the Indian sensibility, have become a group that most Indians have become aware of without clarity as to what they stand and stood for and the events that sprung them into limelight.Less

Revolution from the Inside: Trotsky's Conception of the Process

Robert Daniels

in The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia

One reason why Russian radicals were interested in Marxism at the turn of the century was the attraction of its quasi-scientific laws of progress towards utopia, even though the doctrine was ... More

One reason why Russian radicals were interested in Marxism at the turn of the century was the attraction of its quasi-scientific laws of progress towards utopia, even though the doctrine was difficult to apply to a country that seemed unprepared for proletarian revolution and socialism. Leon Trotsky articulated a broad theory of the nature of revolution, but the events which he tried to understand and in which he was involved actually led to his downfall. For Trotsky, revolution was a long but interconnected process of political and social struggle. This chapter explores Trotsky's conception of the process of revolution in the context of the Russian Revolution of 1917. It discusses Marxism in Russia and its flawed notion of revolution, Karl Marx's theory of revolution, the connection between revolution and capitalism, Trotsky's “theory of permanent revolution” or “uninterrupted revolution,” Thermidor and the rise of postrevolutionary dictatorship in Russia, and Trotsky's view of the War Communism.Less

On Suffrage Militancy and Modernism: Femininity and Revolt

Ewa Płonowska Ziarek

in Feminist Aesthetics and the Politics of Modernism

This chapter develops the political theory of revolution and female subjectivity produced by the British suffrage militancy in the context of Hannah Arendt's theory of revolution and Theodor Adorno's ... More

This chapter develops the political theory of revolution and female subjectivity produced by the British suffrage militancy in the context of Hannah Arendt's theory of revolution and Theodor Adorno's aesthetic theory. What is at stake in the analysis is the conflicting relation between women's political and literary discourses of revolution and their relevance for feminist aesthetics. This juxtaposition of suffrage militancy with aesthetic and political theory allows us to rethink the pervasive modernist preoccupation with the new beyond mere formal experimentation for innovation's sake and address it instead in the context of political struggles. Without this intersection between political and aesthetic struggles, it is all too easy to dismiss the rhetoric of the new as a symptom of either the aestheticization of politics or the commodification of art instead of recognizing it as a transformative political and aesthetic force.Less

When Egyptians Revolt

Noha Mellor

in The Egyptian Dream: Egyptian National Identity and Uprisings

The chapter illustrates the subtle ideological differences between Western and Islamic perception of “revolution”: for instance, Western theories seem to regard revolutions as an ongoing process with ... More

The chapter illustrates the subtle ideological differences between Western and Islamic perception of “revolution”: for instance, Western theories seem to regard revolutions as an ongoing process with the aim of transforming existing political structures as a by-product of fundamental changes in state security apparatus or foreign policy; on the other hand, Arab-Islamic theories place emphasis on Muslims as individuals and their duty to fight corruption within the state and in accordance with God’s laws. This overview, although by no means exhaustive, provides a starting point for a debate in examining such ideological differences and the criteria that can justify a rebellion against a ruler, even if he belongs to a seemingly pious Islamic movement such as the Muslim Brotherhood.Less

Insurgent Intellectuals

Joaquín M. Chávez

in Poets and Prophets of the Resistance: Intellectuals and the Origins of El Salvador's Civil War

The chapter traces the origins and the political culture of the urban insurgents of El Salvador who first waged war against the state and the elites in the early 1970s. It analyzes the guerrillas’ ... More

The chapter traces the origins and the political culture of the urban insurgents of El Salvador who first waged war against the state and the elites in the early 1970s. It analyzes the guerrillas’ ideologies and politics, daily lives, intellectual production, political conflicts, ethics and practices of political violence, and pedagogical engagements. Like their counterparts across Latin America, insurgent intellectuals in El Salvador forcefully debated theories of revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, and the acrimonious discussions between Old Left and New Left intellectuals, especially regarding electoral politics and armed struggle, shaped the ethos of social activists and insurgents in this period. The chapter also considers the insurgent intellectuals’ assimilation of guevarismo, the revolutionary thought formulated by Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and the contours of the revolutionary theories and strategies they produced in the 1970s. It also analyzes the assassination of Roque Dalton in 1975 as an expression of the New Left’s paradoxical anti-intellectualism.Less