A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.

Definition

Tampereen punakaartin komppania rintamalla (26936605946)

The term—both as a noun and adjective—is usually applied to the field of politics, but is also occasionally used in the context of science,

invention An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...

or art. In politics, a revolutionary is someone who supports abrupt, rapid, and drastic change, usually replacing the status quo, while a reformist is someone who supports more gradual and incremental change, often working within the system. In that sense, revolutionaries may be considered radical, while reformists are moderate by comparison. Moments which seem revolutionary on the surface may end up reinforcing established institutions. Likewise, evidently small changes may lead to revolutionary consequences in the long term. Thus the clarity of the distinction between revolution and reform is more conceptual than empirical. A conservative is someone who generally opposes such changes. A

reactionary In political science, a reactionary or a reactionist is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the ''status quo ante'', the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics abse ...

is someone who wants things to go back to the way they were before the change has happened (and when this return to the past would represent a major change in and of itself, reactionaries can simultaneously be revolutionaries). A revolution is also not the same as a coup d'etat: while a coup usually involves a small group of conspirators violently seizing control of government, a revolution implies mass participation and popular legitimacy. Again, the distinction is often clearer conceptually than empirically.

Revolution and ideology

According to sociologist James Chowning Davies, political revolutionaries may be classified in two ways: #According to the ''goals'' of the revolution they propose. Usually, these goals are part of a certain

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

. In theory, each ideology could generate its own brand of revolutionaries. In practice, most political revolutionaries have been anarchists, communists, socialists, Islamists, syndicalists, or nationalists. #According to the ''methods'' they propose to use. This divides revolutionaries in two broad groups: Those who advocate a violent revolution, and those who are

pacifists Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campa ...

Anarchism

The revolutionary

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

Sergey Nechayev argued in ''

Catechism of a Revolutionary The ''Catechism of a Revolutionary'' refers to a manifesto written by Russian revolutionary Sergey Nechayev between April and August 1869. Background The manifesto is a manual for the formation of secret societies. It is debated how much input ...

'':

"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 and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose - to destroy it."

Marxism–Leninism

According to Che Guevara,''Killer Images: Documentary Film, Memory and the Performance of Violence'' by Joram ten Brink, Joshua Oppenheimer, Columbia University Press, 2012, page 84 "the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a true revolutionary lacking in this quality." According to the Marxist Internet Archive, a revolutionary "amplif esthe differences and conflicts caused by technological advances in society. Revolutionaries provoke differences and violently ram together contradictions within a society, overthrowing the government through the rising to power of the class they represent. After destructing the old order, revolutionaries help build a new government that adheres to the emerging social relationships that have been made possible by the advanced productive forces."

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