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Revolutionary



 
 
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour. The term — both as a noun and adjective — is usually applied to to the field of politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
, and is occasionally used in the context of science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, invention
Invention

An invention is the creation of a new configuration, composition of matter, device, or process. Some inventions are based on pre-existing models or ideas....
 or art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
. In politics, a revolutionary is someone who supports abrupt, rapid, and drastic change, while a reformist
Reformism

Socialism reformism is the belief that gradual Democracy changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures....
 is someone who supports more gradual and incremental change.






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A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution
Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental social change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time....
. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour. The term — both as a noun and adjective — is usually applied to to the field of politics
Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
, and is occasionally used in the context of science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, invention
Invention

An invention is the creation of a new configuration, composition of matter, device, or process. Some inventions are based on pre-existing models or ideas....
 or art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
. In politics, a revolutionary is someone who supports abrupt, rapid, and drastic change, while a reformist
Reformism

Socialism reformism is the belief that gradual Democracy changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures....
 is someone who supports more gradual and incremental change. A reactionary
Reactionary

Reactionary refers to any movement or ideology that opposes change or progress in society, and which seeks a return to a previous state . The term originated in the French Revolution, to denote the Counter-revolutionary who wanted to restore the real or imagined conditions of the Monarchy Ancien R?gime....
 is someone who opposes all such changes.

According to sociologist James Chowning Davies
James Chowning Davies

James Chowning Davies is an United States of America sociology and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Oregon. Davies is perhaps best known for his so-called "J curve" theory of political revolutions, which seeks to explain the rise of revolutionary movements in terms of rising individual expectations and falling lev...
, political revolutionaries may be classified in two ways:
  1. According to the goals of the revolution they propose. Usually, these goals are part of a certain ideology
    Ideology

    An ideology is a set of aims and ideas, especially in politics. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to all members of this society....
    . In theory, each ideology could generate its own brand of revolutionaries. In practice, most political revolutionaries have been either liberals
    Liberalism

    Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
    , nationalists
    Nationalism

    Nationalism refers to an ideology, a feeling, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. While there is significant debate over the historical origins of nations, nearly all Expert accept that nationalism, at least as an ideology and social movement, is a Modernity phenomenon originating in Europe....
    , socialists
    Socialism

    Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
    , communists
    Communism

    Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
    , fascists
    Fascism

    Fascism is a Political radicalism, Authoritarianism Nationalism ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or Race ....
     or anarchists
    Anarchism

    Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
    .
  2. According to the methods they propose to use. This divides revolutionaries in two broad groups: Those who advocate a violent
    Violence

    Violence is the expression of physical force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Variant uses of the term refer to the destruction of non-living objects ....
     revolution, and those who are pacifist
    Pacifism

    Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes or gaining advantage. Pacifism covers a spectrum of views ranging from the belief that international disputes can and should be peacefully resolved; to calls for the abolition of the institutions of the military and war; to opposition to any organization of society...
    s.


The revolutionary anarchists Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism.Born in the Russian Empire to a family of Russian people nobles, Bakunin spent his youth as a junior officer in the Russian army but resigned his commission in 1835....
 and Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Gennadiyevich Nechayev , born October 2, 1847, died either November 21 or December 3, 1882) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence....
 argued in Catechism of a Revolutionary
Catechism of a Revolutionary

The Revolutionary Catechism or Catechism of a Revolutionary is a manifesto written by Anarchism in Russia Mikhail Bakunin and Sergey Nechayev between April and August 1869....
:
The Revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no private interests, no affairs, sentiments, ties, property nor even a name of his own. His entire being is devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion - the revolution. Heart and soul, not merely by word but by deed, he has severed every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world; with the laws, good manners, conventions, and morality of that world. He is its merciless enemy...


Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara
Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentina Marxism revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader....
 said this about revolutionaries: "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. ... We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force."

Notable revolutionaries

  • Abdullah Öcalan
    Abdullah Öcalan

    Abdullah "Apo" ?calan is the Kurdish founding leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party , which was founded in 1978 and has been recognized as a terrorist organization by the USA, EU and List of countries and organizations that list the PKK as a terrorist group....
  • Ahmed Ben Bella
    Ahmed Ben Bella

    Mohamed Ahmed Ben Bella was the first President of Algeria....
  • Ayatollah Khomeini
  • Bobby Seale
    Bobby Seale

    Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an United States civil rights activist, and revolutionary, who along with Huey P. Newton, co-founded the Black Panther Party on October 15, 1966....
  • Camilo Cienfuegos
    Camilo Cienfuegos

    Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriar?n was a Cuban revolutionary born in Lawton, Havana City. Raised in an anarchist family, he became a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ra?l Castro and Huber Matos....
  • Che Guevara
    Che Guevara

    Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentina Marxism revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader....
  • Emiliano Zapata
    Emiliano Zapata

    Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio D?az....
  • Fidel Castro
    Fidel Castro

    Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary leader who was prime minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976 and then president, premier until his resignation from the office in February 2008....
  • George Washington
    George Washington

    George Washington was the leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States of the United States of Americas ....
  • Guiseppe Garibaldi
  • Hristo Botev
    Hristo Botev

    Hristo Botev , born Hristo Botyov Petkov , was a Bulgarians poet and national revolutionary. Botev is widely considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and national hero....
  • James Connolly
    James Connolly

    James Connolly was an Ireland socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but despite this he would become one of the leading Marxist theorists of his day....
  • John Brown
    John Brown (abolitionist)

    John Brown was an United States abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859....
  • José de San Martín
    José de San Martín

    Jos? Francisco de San Mart?n Matorras, also known as Jos? de San Mart?n , was an Argentina general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain....
  • Ho Chi Minh
    Ho Chi Minh

    H? Ch? Minh was a Vietnamese communism revolutionary and statesman who was Prime Minister and President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ....
  • Leon Trotsky
    Leon Trotsky

    Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxism theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin....
  • Manuel Marulanda
    Manuel Marulanda

    Pedro Antonio Mar?n Mar?n known by his "nom de guerre," Manuel Marulanda V?lez, and nicknamed by his comrades "Tirofijo" , apparently because of a reputed ability to accurately aim firearms was the main leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-EP ....
  • Mao Zedong
    Mao Zedong

    Mao Zedong was a China military and politics dictator. Mao led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People?s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976....
  • Maximilien Robespierre
    Maximilien Robespierre

    Maximilien Fran?ois Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known figures of the French Revolution. He was an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror that ended with his arrest and execution in 1794....
  • Michael Collins
    Michael Collins (Irish leader)

    Michael John Collins was an Ireland revolutionary leadership, Minister for Finance and Member of Parliament for South Cork in the First D?il of 1919, Director of Military intelligence for the Irish Republican Army, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations....
  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

    Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk was a Turkish people army officer, revolutionary statesman, and Father of the Nation Turkey as well as its List of Presidents of Turkey....
  • Nat Turner
    Nat Turner

    Nat Turner was an United States Slavery who led the Nat Turner's slave rebellion that resulted in 60 dead, the most fatalities in one uprising in the antebellum southern United States....
  • Pancho Villa
    Pancho Villa

    This article is about the Mexican revolutionary general. For the boxer, see Francisco Guilledo.Doroteo Arango Ar?mbula , better known as Francisco or "Pancho" Villa, was the first Mexican Revolutionary general....
  • Patrice Lumumba
    Patrice Lumumba

    Patrice ?mery Lumumba was an African anti-colonial leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped to win its independence from Belgium in June 1960....
  • Rosa Luxemburg
    Rosa Luxemburg

    Rosa Luxemburg was a Poland Germany Marxist theory, Socialism philosopher, and revolutionary for the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the German Social Democratic Party of Germany, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany....
  • Simón Bolívar
    Simón Bolívar

    Sim?n Jos? Antonio de la Sant?sima Trinidad Bol?var Palacios y Blanco ? more commonly known as Sim?n Bol?var ? was, together with the Argentina general Jos? de San Mart?n, one of the most important leaders of Spanish America's successful struggle for independence....
  • Spartacus
    Spartacus

    Spartacus , according to Roman historians, was a slave and gladiator who became the leader in the somewhat successful slave uprising against the Roman Republic known as the Third Servile War....
  • Subcomandante Marcos
    Subcomandante Marcos

    Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, or just Subcomandante Marcos, also known as Delegado Cero in matters concerning the Other Campaign, describes himself as the spokesman for the Mexico rebel movement, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation ....
  • Sun Yat-sen
    Sun Yat-sen

    Sun Yat-sen , also known as Sun Yixian, Sun Wen, Sun Itchisen/Sun Itchiyama and Sun Zhongshan , was a China revolutionary and Politician leader often referred to as the Father of the Nation....
  • Thomas Sankara
    Thomas Sankara

    Captain Thomas Isidore No?l Sankara was the leader of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. While noted for his personal charisma and praised for promoting health and women's rights, he also antagonised many vested interests in the country....
  • Toussaint Louverture
  • Vasil Levski
    Vasil Levski

    Vasil Levski was the nickname of Vasil Ivanov Kunchev , a Bulgarians revolutionary renowned as the national hero of Bulgaria and styled the Apostle of Freedom....
  • Vladimir Lenin
    Vladimir Lenin

    Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and also known by the pseudonyms V.I. Lenin and N. Lenin, was a Russians revolutionary, a Bolshevik Communism politician, the principal leader of the October Revolution and the first head of the USSR....
  • Vő Nguyęn Giáp
    Vo Nguyen Giap

    General V? Nguy?n Gi?p is a retired Vietnamese career officer in the Vietnam People's Army and a politician. Principal wars: First Indochina War and Vietnam War ....
  • William Wallace
    William Wallace

    William Wallace was a Scotland knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and regarded as a patriot and national hero....


See also

  • American Revolutionary War
    American Revolutionary War

    The American Revolutionary War , also known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Thirteen Colonies on the North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers....
  • Armchair revolutionary
    Armchair revolutionary

    Armchair revolutionary is a pejorative term, generally used within the Radical Left and other left-wing-revolutionary movements, to describe a person who endlessly criticism the thoughts, ideology or practice of social movements or armed groups from a metaphorical armchair ? i.e., from a mostly or totally inactive, theoretical position....
  • Catechism of a Revolutionary
    Catechism of a Revolutionary

    The Revolutionary Catechism or Catechism of a Revolutionary is a manifesto written by Anarchism in Russia Mikhail Bakunin and Sergey Nechayev between April and August 1869....
  • Counter-revolutionary
  • French Revolutionary Wars
    French Revolutionary Wars

    The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states....
  • Institutional Revolutionary Party
    Institutional Revolutionary Party

    The Institutional Revolutionary Party is a Mexico political party that wielded power in the country—under a succession of names—for more than 70 years....
  • Islamic Revolutionary Court
    Islamic Revolutionary Court

    Islamic Revolutionary Court is a special court in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to eliminate those suspected of wanting to overthrow the Islamic regime....
  • League of Revolutionaries for a New America
    League of Revolutionaries for a New America

    The League of Revolutionaries for a New America is a communist party in the United States founded by a group in California around Nelson Peery who split from the Communist Party USA in 1958....
  • Military Revolutionary Committee
    Military Revolutionary Committee

    Military Revolutionary Committee also known as the Milrevcom was the name for military organs under soviet during the period of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Russian Civil War....
  • National Revolutionary Army
    National Revolutionary Army

    The National Revolutionary Army was the National Army of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the National Army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of Single-party state beginning in 1928....
  • Professional revolutionaries
    Professional revolutionaries

    The concept of professional revolutionaries, alternatively called cadre, is in origin a Leninist concept used to describe a body of devoted communists who spend the great majority of their time organizing their party toward proletarian revolution....
  • Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
    Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

    The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ? People?s Army , also known by the acronym of FARC or FARC-EP, is a self-proclaimed Marxism-Leninism revolutionary guerrilla organization....
  • Revolutionary Cells
    Revolutionary Cells

    The Revolutionary Cells - Animal Liberation Brigade is the name of an animal rights group founded in 2003, California, United States, which advocate the use of an armed struggle, as well as a diversity of other tactics for animal liberation....
  • Revolutionary Communist League (France)
    Revolutionary Communist League (France)

    The Revolutionary Communist League was a France democratic revolutionary socialist political party. It was the French section of the reunified Fourth International....
  • Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
    Revolutionary Internationalist Movement

    The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement is an international Communist organization which upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.Founded in 1984, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement seeks to unite the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties of the world into a single political tendency....
  • Revolutionary movement
    Revolutionary movement

    Revolutionary movement is a specific type of social movement dedicated to carrying out a revolution. Charles Tilly defines it as a social movement advancing exclusive competing claims to control of the state, or some segment of it....
  • Revolutionary Road
    Revolutionary Road

    Revolutionary Road, the first novel of author Richard Yates , was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962 along with Catch-22 and The Moviegoer....
  • Revolutionary socialism
    Revolutionary socialism

    The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialism tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society....
  • Revolutionary song
    Revolutionary song

    Revolutionary songs are political songs that advocate or praise revolutions. They are used to boost morale, as well as for political propaganda or agitation....
  • Revolutionary terror
    Revolutionary terror

    Revolutionary terror is the term from the theory of communism that refers to the institutionalized application of force to the counterrevolutionaries....
  • Revolutionary Tribunal
    Revolutionary Tribunal

    The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and became one of the most powerful engines of Reign of Terror....
  • Revolutionary Vol. 2
    Revolutionary Vol. 2

    Revolutionary Vol. 2 is the second album released by rapper Immortal Technique and is a follow-up to his debut album, Revolutionary Vol. 1....
  • Revolutionary wave
    Revolutionary wave

    A revolutionary wave is a series of revolutions occurring in various locations. In many cases, an initial revolution inspires other "affiliate revolutions" with similar aims....
  • Socialist-Revolutionary Party
    Socialist-Revolutionary Party

    The Socialist-Revolutionary Party was a Russian political party active in the early 20th century....


Footnotes