Communist revolution

A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between Capitalism and Communism (especially in Marxist-Leninist views). The idea that a proletarian revolution is needed is a cornerstone of Marxism; Marxists believe that the workers of the world must unite and free themselves from capitalist oppression to create a world run by and for the working class.[1] Thus, in the Marxist view, proletarian revolutions need to happen in countries all over the world.

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Theory

Leninism argues[2] that a communist revolution must be led by a vanguard of "professional revolutionaries", men and women who are fully dedicated to the communist cause and who can then form the nucleus of the revolutionary movement. Some Marxists disagree with the idea of a vanguard as put forth by Lenin, especially left communists. Some who continue to consider themselves Marxist–Leninists also oppose the vanguard despite disagreeing with the majority of left communism.[3] These critics insist that the entire working class—or at least a large part of it—must be deeply involved and equally committed to the socialist or communist cause in order for a proletarian revolution to be successful. To this end, they seek to build massive communist parties with very large memberships.

Communist revolutions and coups throughout history

The following is a list of successful and unsuccessful communist revolutions and coups throughout history. Among the lesser known revolutions, a number of borderline cases have been included which may or may not have been communist revolutions. The nature of unsuccessful revolutions is particularly contentious since one can only speculate as to the kinds of policies that would have been implemented by the revolutionaries had they achieved victory.

Successful

Unsuccessful
Start date End date Duration Event(s) State Rebel group Revolutionary base area Deaths Result Notes
18 March 1871 28 May 1871 (72 days) Paris Commune[4]  France Paris 7,544 killed overall[5][6] Revolt suppressed[7]
  • Disbanding the Second National Guard by the French government
24 April 1916 29 April 1916 (6 days) Easter Rising  United Kingdom
[8]		 Dublin 485 killed[9][10][11] Unconditional surrender of rebel forces, execution of most leaders [lower-alpha 1]
2 August 1918 11 June 1925 (6 years, 314 days) Canadian Labour Revolt  Dominion of Canada Canada Failure of the revolt
29 October 1918 11 August 1919 (287 days) German Revolution of 1918–19[13]  German Empire
 German Republic		 Communist revolutionaries

Soviet Republics:

 Various regions of Germany 150–196[19]
23 March 1919 1 August 1919 (132 days) Hungarian Soviet Republic
(* Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–1920)
* Hungarian–Romanian War)		  First Hungarian Republic  Hungarian Soviet Republic[20] Hungary 6,670 killed[21] [lower-alpha 2]
2 March 1921 8 April 1921 (38 days) Labin mining strike and rebellion  Italy Labin Republic Istria 5[22] Strike suppressed. Miners acquitted of crimes.[23] [lower-alpha 3]
1 August 1927 1 October 1949 (22 years, 62 days)  China Chinese Communist Party Communist-controlled China cca. 8 million Communist victory [lower-alpha 4]
22 January 1932 February 1932 (11 days) 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising Republic of El Salvador Communist Party of El Salvador
Pipil rebels		 Western El Salvador
Departments:
 10,000 – 40,000[27] Revolt suppressed, ethnocide of Pipil people [lower-alpha 5]
19 July 1936 25 May 1937 (311 days) Spanish Revolution of 1936  Spain CNT-FAI[28][29] Various regions of Spain – primarily Madrid, Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of Levante, Spain. Suppressed after ten-month period.
19 December 1946 1 August 1954 (7 years, 226 days) First Indochina War  French Indochina

DR Vietnam

Lao Issara (1945–1949)
Pathet Lao (1949–1954)[30]
Khmer Issarak[30]

 400,000–842,707 total killed[32][33][34] DR Vietnam-allied victory[35] [lower-alpha 6]
16 June 1948 31 July 1960 (12 years, 46 days) Malayan Emergency Malayan Communist Party British Malaya 11,107[36][37]
26 July 1953 1 January 1959 (5 years, 160 days) Cuban Revolution  Cuba 26th of July Movement
Student Revolutionary Directorate
Second National Front of Escambray		 3,000[38] 26th of July Movement victory [lower-alpha 7]
1 November 1955 30 April 1975[39] (19 years, 181 days) Vietnam War  South Vietnam Viet Cong Memot District (1966–72)
Lộc Ninh (1972–75)		 1,326,494–3,447,494[40] Communist victory
23 May 1959 2 December 1975 (16 years, 194 days) Laotian Civil War  Laos Lao People's Party Xam Neua 20,000–62,000 killed[41] Communist victory [lower-alpha 8]
19 July 1961 17 July 1979 (17 years, 364 days) Nicaraguan Revolution  Nicaragua Sandinistas
  • Sandinista Popular Army
 North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region 30,000+ killed Communist victory [lower-alpha 9]
c. December 1962 3 November 1990 (27 years, 338 days) Communist insurgency in Sarawak  Malaysia North Kalimantan Communist Party
  • North Kalimantan People's Army
 Sarawak 400–500 killed Government victory
1965 1983 18 years Communist insurgency in Thailand  Thailand Communist Party of Thailand
  • People's Liberation Army of Thailand
 Nakhon Phanom Province 1,450+ soldiers, police, and officials killed Government victory
18 May 1967 Present (56 years, 161 days)  India Communist Party of India (Maoist) Red corridor cca. 14,000 Ongoing [lower-alpha 10]
17 January 1968 17 April 1975 (7 years, 91 days) Cambodian Civil War  Cambodia Communist Party of Kampuchea Ratanakiri Province 275,000–310,000 killed Communist victory [lower-alpha 11]
29 March 1969 Present (54 years, 211 days) Communist rebellion in the Philippines  Philippines Communist Party of the Philippines Samar more than 40,000 Ongoing [lower-alpha 12]
12 September 1972 Present (51 years, 44 days) Maoist insurgency in Turkey  Turkey Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist
  • Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants of Turkey
 Tunceli Province 500+ Maoists killed Ongoing
27 April 1978 28 April 1978 (2 days) Saur Revolution  Afghanistan People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan Afghanistan 2,000[42] PDPA victory [lower-alpha 13]
17 May 1980 Present (43 years, 162 days) Internal conflict in Peru  Peru Communist Party of Peru–Shining Path
  • People's Guerilla Army
 Ayacucho Region 70,000+ killed Ongoing [lower-alpha 14]
13 February 1996 21 November 2006 (10 years, 282 days) Nepalese Civil War  Nepal Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Rapti Zone 17,800 killed overall Comprehensive Peace Accord [lower-alpha 15]
2 April 1948,
August 2021		 21 September 1988,
Present		 (40 years, 173 days
|(2 years, 86 days)		 Communist insurgency in Myanmar  Myanmar Communist Party of Burma
  • People's Army of Burma
 Shan State 3,000+ killed Ongoing

See also
Wikiquote has quotations related to Communist revolution.

Notes
  1. While not explicitly Communist in Nature, the Easter Rising of 1916 was supported by Marxist groups such as the Irish Citizen Army.
  2. Led by Béla Kun, defeated after five months.
  3. The anti-fascist, socialist Labin Republic uprising in modern-day Labin, Croatia, which pushed out Mussolini's fascist forces and established a socialist society in the city and surrounding towns.
  4. The Chinese Communist Revolution was the final stage of the Chinese Civil War, that resulted in the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in China in 1949.[25][26]
  5. The uprising, known as La matanza (the slaughter), was a Pipil and peasant rebellion led by Farabundo Martí.
  6. The defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, 1954, and brought the Communist Party of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh to power in North Vietnam. A victory followed closely by the protracted guerrilla warfare-dominated Vietnam War (1957–1975), which in turn led to the fall of Saigon and the driving-out of occupying United States military forces there, and the unification of North and South Vietnam by communist guerrilla forces into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The conflict drastically changed neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
  7. Nationalistic revolution led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara which overthrew former president Fulgencio Batista and instated a Marxist–Leninist socialist regime later on in Cuba. Even though Batista had been elected for his first term, he achieved power for his second term through a coup d'état.
  8. The Laotian Civil War resulting in the victory of the communist Pathet Lao/Lao People's Revolutionary Party in Laos by 1975, eliminating a coalition government with anti-communists led to the establishment of the communist-administered Lao People's Democratic Republic.
  9. The Nicaraguan Revolution that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle and brought the Sandinistas to power in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.
  11. The civil war in Cambodia ended with the Khmer Rouge revolution in 1975. The Communist Party of Cambodia and Pol Pot then ruled the country until 1979.
  12. Maoist-styled "Protracted People's War" in the Philippines, launched by the Communist Party of the Philippines through the New People's Army in 1969 and continuing at present.
  13. They were overthrown by the mujahideen in 1992.[44]
  14. The internal conflict in Peru comprised two rebellions by two different Marxist organizations. One, the Shining Path, fought a bloody war beginning in 1980 with successive Peruvian governments, both democratic and authoritarian in nature. Another organization, known as the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), named after an Incan warrior Túpac Amaru began their own rebellion in 1982. The MRTA and Shining Path quickly became bitter enemies and fought one another as well as the government of Peru. Fighting goes on today with a small number of Shining Path cadres, however the movement has mostly been crushed and only operates in a very remote jungle region. The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was largely destroyed in 1997 after the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.
  15. The Maoist Unified Communist Party of Nepal fought a fairly successful revolutionary war against the autocratic King of Nepal. In 2006 peace was declared, and an agreement was reached that the Maoists would join an interim government.

References
  1. Engels, Friedrich (October–November 1847). The Principles of Communism – via Marxists Internet Archive. Further, it has co-ordinated the social development of the civilized countries to such an extent that, in all of them, bourgeoisie and proletariat have become the decisive classes, and the struggle between them the great struggle of the day. It follows that the communist revolution will not merely be a national phenomenon but must take place simultaneously in all civilized countries – that is to say, at least in England, America, France, and Germany.
  2. Lenin, V.I. (1972) [18–23 March 1919]. "Eighth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.)". Lenin's Collected Works. Vol. 29 (4th English ed.). Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 141–225 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  3. Chomsky, Noam (March 12, 2013). "Noam Chomsky on Revolutionary Violence, Communism and the American Left". Pax Marxista (Interview). Interviewed by Christopher Helali. Archived from the original on July 29, 2015 – via chomsky.info.
  4. Milza, Pierre (2009). L'année terrible: La Commune (mars–juin 1871) [The terrible year: La Commune (March–June 1871)] (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 978-2-262-03073-5.
  5. Milza, Pierre (2009a). L'année terrible: La Commune (mars–juin 1871) [The terrible year: La Commune (March–June 1871)] (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 978-2-262-03073-5.
  6. "annexe au procès verbal de la session du 20 juillet 1875" [appendix to the minutes of the session of July 20, 1875], Rapport d'ensemble de M. le Général Appert sur les opérations de la justice militaire relatives à l'insurrection de 1871 [Overall report by General Appert on the operations of military justice relating to the 1871 insurrection] (in French), Versailles: Assemblée nationale, 1875
  7. "Third Party Address [The Paris Commune]". Marxists Internet Archive. May 1871.
  8. Townshend, Charles (2006). Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion. London: Ivan R. Dee Inc. ISBN 978-1566637046.
  9. "1916 Necrology" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 14, 2017.
  10. "1916 list". Glasnevin Trust. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017.
  11. Sinn Fein Rebellion handbook, Easter, 1916. 1916. p. 52. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  12. Kealey, G. S. (1984). "1919: The Canadian Labor Revolt". Plowing / Le Travail. 13: 11–44.
  13. Hoffrogge, Ralf (2014). "Working-Class Politics in the German Revolution". In Müller, Richard (ed.). The Revolutionary Shop Stewards and the Origins of the Council Movement. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-21921-2.
  14. Hoffrogge, Ralf (2011). "From Unionism to Workers' Councils – The Revolutionary Shop Stewards in Germany 1914–1918". In Ness, Immanuel; Azzellini, Dario (eds.). Ours to Master and to Own: Worker's Control from the Commune to the Present. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
  15. Gaab, Jeffrey S. (2006). Munich: Hofbräuhaus & History: Beer, Culture, and Politics. Peter Lang / International Academic Publishers. p. 58. ISBN 978-0820486062.
  16. Mitchell, Allan (1965). Revolution in Bavaria, 1918–1919: The Eisner Regime and the Soviet Republic. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 346. ISBN 978-1400878802.
  17. Schröder, Ulrich; Kuckuk, Peter (2017). Bremen in der Deutschen Revolution 1918/1919: Revolution, Räterepublik, Restauration [Bremen in the German Revolution 1918/1919: Revolution, Soviet Republic, Restoration] (in German). Falkenberg. p. 48. ISBN 978-3954941155.
  18. Pryce, Donald B. (June 1977). "The Reich Government versus Saxony, 1923: The Decision to Intervene". Central European History. Cambridge University Press. 10 (2): 112–147. JSTOR 4545794. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  19. Jones, Mark (2016). Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 196–199. ISBN 978-1-107-11512-5 – via Google Books.
  20. Völgyes, Iván (1970). "The Hungarian Dictatorship of 1919: Russian Example versus Hungarian Reality". East European Quarterly. 1 (4). ISSN 0012-8449.
  21. Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015. McFarland. pp. 344–345. ISBN 978-1-4766-2585-0 – via Google Books.
  22. Osmanagić, Danijel (August 3, 2021). "100 let Labinske republike" [100 years of the Republic of Labin]. Zgodovina na dlani (in Slovenian). Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  23. "Labinska republika" [Labin Republic]. Istarska enciklopedija (in Croatian). Archived from the original on November 10, 2019. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  24. Yang, Benjamin; Saich, Tony (2016). The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party: Documents and Analysis. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-56324-154-3.
  25. Yang, Benjamin; Saich, Tony (2016). The Rise to Power of the Chinese Communist Party: Documents and Analysis. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-56324-154-3.
  26. Perry, Elizabeth J. (2018). "Is the Chinese communist regime legitimate?". In Rudolph, Jennifer; Szonyi, Michael (eds.). The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power (PDF). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  27. Tulchin, Joseph S. & Bland, Gary, eds. (1992). Is There a Transition to Democracy in El Salvador?. L. Rienner Publishers. p. 167. ISBN 9781555873103. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
  28. Rocker, Rudolf (2004). Anarcho-Syndicalism Theory and Practice. Oakland, Edinburgh: AK Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN 1-902593-928.
  29. Dolgoff, Sam (1974). The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936–1939. Black Rose Books Ltd. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-919618-20-6.
  30. Dalloz, Jacques (1987). La Guerre d'Indochine 1945–1954 [The Indochina War 1945–1954] (in French). Paris: Seuil. pp. 129–130, 206.
  31. Kiernan, Ben (1985). How Pol Pot Came to Power. London: Verso Books. p. 80.
  32. Lomperis, T. (1996). From People's War to People's Rule.
  33. Clodfelter, Micheal (1995). Vietnam in Military Statistics.
  34. Karnow, S. (1983). Vietnam: a History.
  35. Lee Lanning (2008), p. 119; Crozier (2005), p. 47; Fall (1994), p. 63; Logevall (2012), pp. 596–599
  36. "Royal Malaysian Police (Malaysia)". Crwflags.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  37. Smith, Harry (August 1, 2015). Long Tan: The Start of a Lifelong Battle. Big Sky Publishing. ISBN 978-1-922132-32-1. Archived from the original on January 3, 2021. Retrieved November 1, 2020 – via Google Books.
  38. Dixon, Jeffrey S.; Sarkees, Meredith Reid (2015). A Guide to Intra-state Wars: An Examination of Civil, Regional, and Intercommunal Wars, 1816–2014. CQ Press. p. 98.
  39. The Paris Agreement on Vietnam: Twenty-five Years Later (Conference Transcript). Washington, DC: The Nixon Center. April 1998. Retrieved September 5, 2012 – via International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College.
  40. Rummel, R. J. "Table 6.1B: Vietnam Democide Estimates, Sources, and Calculations" (GIF). University of Hawaiʻi. Lines 777–785. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  41. Obermeyer, Ziad; Murray, Christopher J. L.; Gakidou, Emmanuela (2008). "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme". British Medical Journal. 336 (7659): 1482–6. doi:10.1136/bmj.a137. PMC 2440905. PMID 18566045. See Table 3.
  42. Ewans, Martin (2002). Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics. New York: HarperCollins. p. 88. ISBN 0-06-050507-9 – via Google Books. There was, therefore, little to hinder the assault mounted by the rebel 4th Armored Brigade, led by Major Mohammed Aslam Watanjar, who had also been prominent in Daoud's own coup five years before. Watanjar first secured the airport, where the other coup leader, Colonel Abdul Qadir, left by helicopter for the Bagram air base. There he took charge and organized air strikes on the royal palace, where Daoud and the presidential guard were conducting a desperate defense. Fighting continued the whole day and into the night, when the defenders were finally overwhelmed. Daoud and almost all of his family members, including women and children, died in the fighting. Altogether there were possibly as many as two thousand fatalities, both military and civilian.
  43. "1978: Afghan coup rebels claim victory". BBC News. April 29, 1978. Archived from the original on May 6, 2023.
  44. "Afghanistan's Saur Revolution of 1978, and the U.S.-backed counterrevolution". Rebel Yell!. Spring 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2008.

Bibliography
  • Crozier, Brian (2005). Political Victory: The Elusive Prize Of Military Wars. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7658-0290-3.
  • Fall, Bernard B. (1994). Street Without Joy. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-1700-7.
  • Lee Lanning, Michael (2008). Inside the VC and the NVA. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-60344-059-2.
  • Logevall, Fredrik (2012). Embers of War: the fall of an empire and the making of America's Vietnam. Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-75647-4.</ref>
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