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 throughout history
The following is a list of successful and unsuccessful communist revolutions 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.
- The 1917 communist revolution in the Russian Republic, known as the October Revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It resulted in the victory of the Bolsheviks and the creation of Soviet Russia, the predecessor of the Soviet Union.
- The Canadian Labour Revolt was a series of loosely connected strikes, riots and labour conflicts primarily organized by the One Big Union (OBU) that occurred from 1917 to 1925 but ended in defeat.
- The Irish Soviets of 1919–1922, declared during the revolutionary period of the Irish war of independence and the Irish civil war, which were defeated by the Irish Free State forces by the end of 1922.
- The creation of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, which was defeated within a month by the German army and Freikorps.
- The Mongolian Revolution of 1921 led by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, which defeated the Republic of China's Mongolian puppet state and the White Guards under Baron Ungern with the help of the Russian Red Army.
- 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 for approximately one month
- The 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising, known as La matanza (the slaughter), Pipil and peasant rebellion led by Farabundo Martí.
- The People's Liberation War in Yugoslavia waged by the Yugoslav Partisans under the command of Josip Broz Tito with Allied support against the invading forces of Nazi Germany and the Yugoslav monarchists known as the Chetniks. The victorious partisans establish the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- The August Revolution of 1945 creating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
- The Proclamation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948, when the Soviet-backed Workers' Party of Korea, led by Kim Il Sung, announced the formation of the state of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. However, as of 1992, the country no longer prescribes to Marxism–Leninism, and as of 2009 is no longer a communist state.
- The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was a 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 got himself into power for his second term through a coup d'état.
- Les Trois Glorieuses of 1963 in Congo-Brazzaville, a successful coup d'état led by the Confédération générale aéfienne du travail and the Union de la jeunesse congolaise against Fulbert Youlou established the People's Republic of the Congo.
- The Communist Party of Indonesia's support for President Sukarno, which ended when Indonesian General Suharto removed President Sukarno from power and unleashed a wave of mass killings against real or alleged communists.[4]
- The First Indochina War that resulted in 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.
- The overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie by Mengistu Haile Mariam who then set up one-party Marxist–Leninist rule in Ethiopia by the communist Workers' Party of Ethiopia establishing the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, until they were defeated and expelled by the socialist and Hoxhaist Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front during a subsequent civil war.
- The Carnation Revolution, when leftist and anti-colonial forces in the Portuguese military overthrew the longtime authoritarian government of Portugal, under Marcelo Caetano.
- The 1975 Sepoy-Janata Biplob (Soldier-People's Revolution) in Bangladesh, which was organised by the Biplobi Shainik Sangstha, a clandestine socialist group within the Bangladesh Army. After the new president, Ziaur Rahman, offered pay increases for the soldiers, most soldiers lost interest in the ideals of the revolution.[5]
- The Saur Revolution that brought the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan to power in Afghanistan. They were overthrown by the mujahideen in 1992.[6]
- The overthrow of Eric Gairy that brought the New Jewel Movement to power in Grenada from 1979 until 1983, when they were deposed by a United States-led invasion.
- The Salvadoran Civil War, from 1980 - 1992, FMLN (mainly composed of Marxist–Leninist guerrilla groups) fought against the U.S. backed military government which suppressed the rebel movement by framing and mass murdering alleged Marxist–Leninist revolutionaries (El Mozote massacre).[7][8][9] The FMLN was inspired by the ideologies of Farabundo Martí and Vladimir Lenin.
- The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) rebellion in Sri Lanka in 1971 and from 1987 to 1989. The JVP fought with Sri Lankan then government, but defeated at both two occasions. Rohana Wijeweera, leader of the JVP, was captured by the government force and summarily executed in 1989.
- The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983–1987. Thomas Sankara dissolved Upper Volta and proclaimed Burkina Faso, "Land of Upright People". The revolution suppressed most of the powers held by tribal chiefs in Burkina Faso. These feudal landlords were stripped of their rights to tribute payments and forced labour as well as having their land distributed amongst the peasantry.[10]
Start date | End date | Duration | Event(s) | State | Rebel group | Revolutionary base area | Deaths | Result | Notes | |||
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18 March 1871 | 28 May 1871 | (72 days) | Paris Commune | ![]() |
Paris | 7,544 killed overall[11][12] | Revolt suppressed[13]
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24 April 1916 | 29 April 1916 | (6 days) | Easter Rising | ![]() |
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Dublin | 485 killed[14][15][16] | Unconditional surrender of rebel forces, execution of most leaders | While not explicitly Communist in Nature, the Easter Rising of 1916 was supported by Marxist groups such as the Irish Citizen Army. | |||
29 October 1918 | 11 August 1919 | (287 days) | German Revolution of 1918–19 | ![]() ![]() |
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Soviet Republics: |
Various regions of Germany | 150–196[18] |
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23 March 1919 | 1 August 1919 | (132 days) | Hungarian Soviet Republic (* Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–1920) * Hungarian–Romanian War) |
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Hungary | 6,670 killed[20] |
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Led by Béla Kun, defeated after five months. | |||
1 August 1927 | 7 August 1950 | (23 years, 7 days) | ![]() |
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cca. 8 million | Communist victory |
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19 July 1936 | 25 May 1937 | (311 days) | Spanish Revolution of 1936 | ![]() |
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Various regions of Spain – primarily Madrid, Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of Levante, Spain. | Suppressed after ten-month period. | |||||
16 June 1948 | 31 July 1960 | (12 years, 46 days) | Malayan Emergency | ![]() |
British Malaya | 11,107[25][26] |
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1 November 1955 | 30 April 1975[27] | (19 years, 181 days) | Vietnam War | ![]() |
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Memot District (1966–72) Lộc Ninh (1972–75) |
1,326,494–3,447,494[28] | Communist victory | ||||
23 May 1959 | 2 December 1975 | (16 years, 194 days) | Laotian Civil War | ![]() |
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Xam Neua | 20,000–62,000 killed[29] | Communist victory |
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19 July 1961 | 17 July 1979 | (17 years, 364 days) | Nicaraguan Revolution | ![]() |
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North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region | 30,000+ killed | Communist victory |
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c. December 1962 | 3 November 1990 | (27 years, 338 days) | Communist insurgency in Sarawak | ![]() |
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Sarawak | 400–500 killed | Government victory | ||||
1965 | 1983 | 18 years | Communist insurgency in Thailand | ![]() |
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Nakhon Phanom Province | 1,450+ soldiers, police, and officials killed | Government victory | ||||
18 May 1967 | Present | (56 years, 1 day) | ![]() |
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Red corridor | cca. 14,000 | Ongoing |
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17 January 1968 | 17 April 1975 | (7 years, 91 days) | Cambodian Civil War | ![]() |
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Ratanakiri Province | 275,000–310,000 killed | Communist victory |
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29 March 1969 | Present | (54 years, 51 days) | Communist rebellion in the Philippines | ![]() |
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Samar | more than 40,000 | Ongoing |
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12 September 1972 | Present | (50 years, 249 days) | Maoist insurgency in Turkey | ![]() |
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Tunceli Province | 500+ Maoists killed | Ongoing | ||||
17 May 1980 | Present | (43 years, 2 days) | Internal conflict in Peru | ![]() |
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Ayacucho Region | 70,000+ killed | Ongoing |
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13 February 1996 | 21 November 2006 | (10 years, 282 days) | Nepalese Civil War | ![]() |
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Rapti Zone | 17,800 killed overall | Comprehensive Peace Accord |
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2 April 1948, August 2021 |
21 September 1988, Present |
(40 years, 173 days) (1 year, 291 days) |
Communist insurgency in Myanmar | ![]() |
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Shan State | 3,000+ killed | Ongoing | ||||
See also

References
- 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.
- 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.
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- 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.
- "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
- "Third Party Address [The Paris Commune]". Marxists Internet Archive. May 1871.
- "1916 Necrology" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 14, 2017.
- "1916 list". Glasnevin Trust. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017.
- Sinn Fein Rebellion handbook, Easter, 1916. Irish Times. 1916. p. 52.
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- 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.
- "Royal Malaysian Police (Malaysia)". Crwflags.com. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
- 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.
- 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.
- Rummel, R. J. "Table 6.1B: Vietnam Democide Estimates, Sources, and Calculations" (GIF). University of Hawaiʻi. Lines 777–785. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
- 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.