Chapter 8 Chapter 2 The World Revolution

Bukharin said: "I think we are beginning to enter a revolutionary period today. This period may be very long, and it may take 50 years before the revolution can achieve complete victory in all Europe and finally the whole world." ——Blue Sam's "Six Weeks in Russia in 1919" (Arthur Ransome, 1919, p. 54) Reading Shelley's poems (not to mention the lamentations of Egyptian peasants from 3,000 years ago) is chilling.The poem is a vocal indictment of oppression and exploitation.Will people in the future still read these poems under the same oppression and exploitation?Will they also say: "Unexpectedly, even at that time..."

——In 1938, the German poet Brecht read Shelley's poem "Anarch Mask" (Brecht; 1964) After the French Revolution, another Russian Revolution took place in Europe.It is tantamount to telling the world once again that once the fate of the motherland is completely entrusted to the poor and humble general public, no matter how powerful the enemy is, they will eventually be driven away. ——Excerpted from the propaganda poster of the 19th Brigade of Giopona, an Italian wartime guerrilla in 1944 (Pavone, 1991, p. 406) Revolutions are the children of war in the 20th century: specifically, revolutions in Russia that created the Soviet Union in 1917.In the second stage of the 31-year war era, the Soviet Union transformed itself and became one of the world's leading superpowers.But in a broad sense, it generally refers to the previous revolutions that are constants of global history in this century.However, war alone is not enough to bring crisis, collapse and revolution to belligerent countries.In fact, before 1914, the general opinion was just the opposite, at least among the old regimes, and no one believed that war would destabilize the country.Napoleon I complained loudly, thinking that even if the Austrian emperor lost another 100 battles, he could continue to be happy and be his eternal emperor. Otherwise, you can see that the king of Prussia is the best example. The country has lost most of its land, but it still reigns there.But I, Napoleon, the proud son of the French Revolution, did not have such a good fate. As long as I suffer a defeat in one battle, my status will be greatly lost.But in the 20th century, the situation changed completely.The overall war has an unprecedentedly high demand on the people of the country, and it is bound to push the load of a country's national power to the limit.What's more, the cost of war is cruel, and the nation is even on the verge of collapse.Looking at the results of the two general wars, only the United States retreated unscathed, even stronger than before the war.For all other countries, the end of the war also means the coming of great turmoil.

The fate of the old world is obviously doomed to decline.The old society, the old economy, and the old regime, as the Chinese proverb says, have all "lost their destiny."Humanity is waiting for another option, another path.In 1914, everyone was familiar with this new road. In most European countries, the socialist party represented this choice (see Chapter 5 of "The Age of Empires"). Full of confidence in the doomed victory of history, so the future of the revolution is optimistic.It seems that only one order is required and the people will rise up and overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism.In one fell swoop, the unnecessary pain and suffering of war are transformed into positive meanings with positive value: because pain and suffering are originally the bloody pains that must occur when the new world is born.And the Russian Revolution, or to be more precise, the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, sounded the clarion call for uprising all over the world.The October Revolution was as central to the twentieth century as the French Revolution of 1789 was to the nineteenth.In fact, the short 20th century discussed in this book roughly coincides with the birth of Russia in the October Revolution.This coincidence is really not accidental.

The repercussions of the October Revolution throughout the world were far more profound and widespread than its predecessors.If we say that the ideal pursued by the French Revolution lasted longer than the Bolsheviks; the actual consequences of the 1917 Revolution were far more profound than those of 1789.So far, the organized revolutionary movement spawned by the October Revolution is still the most formidable force in modern history.Since the founding of Islam conquered various places, the force with the strongest global expansion ability is the first to promote this revolutionary movement.Back then, when Lenin quietly arrived at Finland Station in Petrograd, within 30 to 40 years, one-third of the world's population fell on the day directly derived from the "ten days that shocked the world" ( Ten Days That Shook the World) (Reed, 1919) under the communist regime.This kind of Communist Party is the standard model that Lenin organized and created.In the second stage of the long war from 1914 to 1945, the world set off a second upsurge of revolution, and this time, most of the revolutionary masses began to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet Union.The content of this chapter is the history of these two stages of revolution; however, the focus naturally falls on the first revolution, which took shape in early 1917, and the special temperament it set for many subsequent revolutions.

All in all, this first revolution dominated the patterns of all subsequent revolutions.