Communist revolution

A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, 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. Thus, in the Marxist view, proletarian revolutions need to happen in countries all over the world.

Leninism argues 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. 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 1917-1925 but ended in defeat.
• The German Revolution of 1918–19, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, which ended in defeat for the communists.
• 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 Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, led by Béla Kun, which was defeated after five months.
• 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 Spanish Revolution of 1936
• 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.
• 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 Malayan Emergency when the Malayan Communist Party and communist guerrillas fought against, and were defeated by, British and Malayan forces.
• 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 Saur Revolution that brought the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan to power in Afghanistan. They were overthrown by the mujahideen in 1992.
• 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). 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.

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	France	Communards National Guards	Paris	7,544 killed overall	Revolt suppressed Disbanding the Second National Guard by the French government
24 April 1916	29 April 1916	(6 days)	Easter Rising	United Kingdom	Irish rebel forces: Irish Citizen Army	Dublin	485 killed	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.
1 August 1927	7 August 1950	(23 years, 7 days)	Chinese Civil War Chinese Communist Revolution	Republic of China	Chinese Communist Party Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (1927–1937) People's Liberation Army (1946–1950)	Communist-controlled China	cca. 8 million	Communist victory	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.
1 November 1955	30 April 1975	(19 years, 181 days)	Vietnam War	South Vietnam	Viet Cong People's Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam	Memot District (1966–72) Lộc Ninh (1972–75)	1,326,494–4,249,494	Communist victory
23 May 1959	2 December 1975	(16 years, 194 days)	Laotian Civil War	Laos	Lao People's Party Pathet Lao	Xam Neua	20,000–62,000 killed	Communist victory	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.
17 January 1968	17 April 1975	(7 years, 91 days)	Cambodian Civil War	Cambodia	Communist Party of Kampuchea Khmer Rouge	Ratanakiri Province	275,000–310,000 killed	Communist victory	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.
18 May 1967	Present	(55 years, 311 days)	Naxalbari uprising Naxalite–Maoist insurgency	India	Communist Party of India (Maoist) People's Liberation Guerrilla Army	Red corridor	cca. 14,000	Ongoing	The Maoist revolution of India happened in 1977. It was crushed by the Indian National Congress then led by Indira Gandhi. In India, various Maoist-oriented factions (generally called Naxalites) have waged armed struggles since the Naxalbari rebellion of 1967. Today, the most prominent Naxalite group is the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
29 March 1969	Present	(53 years, 361 days)	Communist rebellion in the Philippines	Philippines	Communist Party of the Philippines New People's Army	Samar	more than 40,000	Ongoing	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.
12 September 1972	Present	(50 years, 194 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
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	The Nicaraguan Revolution that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle and brought the Sandinistas to power in Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990.
17 May 1980	Present	(42 years, 312 days)	Internal conflict in Peru	Peru	Communist Party of Peru–Shining Path People's Guerilla Army	Ayacucho Region	70,000+ killed	Ongoing	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.
13 February 1996	21 November 2006	(10 years, 282 days)	Nepalese Civil War	Nepal	Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) People's Liberation Army, Nepal	Rapti Zone	17,800 killed overall	Comprehensive Peace Accord	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.
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
2 April 1948, August 2021	21 September 1988, Present	(40 years, 173 days) (1 year, 236 days)	Communist insurgency in Myanmar	Myanmar	Communist Party of Burma People's Army of Burma	Shan State	3,000+ killed	Ongoing
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

See also

• Class conflict
• Communist state
• Communist society