Bourgeois revolution

Bourgeois revolution is a revolution supported by some bourgeoisie, the proletariat, and the peasantry against feudalism, slavery, and/or imperialism. It provides material gains to all revolutionary classes via a change in laws (superstructure), such as land redistribution, dissolution of feudal titles, liberation of slaves, and abolishing foreign domination. It sets up capitalist relations of production, i.e. private property.

Bourgeois revolution against imperialism, or national-bourgeois revolution, is supported by the national bourgeois and petty bourgeois, but not the comprador bourgeois (sellouts).

Bourgeois-democratic revolution occurs when the proletariat and peasantry play a major role in the revolution, and therefore gain political freedoms (free speech, right to organize, etc). The resulting government is called people's democracy. If the bourgeois gain power after this stage, they will eventually reverse the widespread political freedoms. They usually consolidate power with an open dictatorship.

National bourgeois-democratic revolution is also called national-democratic revolution. The resulting government is called New Democracy. If the national bourgeois gain power here, they will eventually sell out to imperialism, returning the country into foreign domination and usually open dictatorship.

Only the proletariat can carry the bourgeois-democratic revolution to its completion, not reversing the gains of the proletariat and peasantry. This naturally leads to socialism, as the only alternative to capitalist monopoly.

Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao all recognized the importance of bourgeois-democratic revolution and fought for it through their communist parties.

Before imperialism

For example, the French Revolution. Robespierre was for the proletariat. The bourgeois gained power in the end with Napoleon's dictatorship.

In the age of imperialism

The February Revolution in Russia was a bourgeois-democratic revolution against feudalism in an imperialist country. At this time, imperialism was young, so the Russian Empire, despite being underdeveloped and semi-feudal, was not completely dominated by its allied banks in the City of London.

The Russian bourgeois were unable to complete the bourgeois-democratic revolution. The Bolsheviks took power and completed it with land redistribution and the NEP, which were popular with the peasantry. Over time, the NEP generated rural bourgeois who oppressed the working peasantry, so from 1927-1932, the working peasantry built collective farms with the help of the proletariat under Stalin.

A national bourgeois revolution was carried out by Ataturk in Turkey. At first, it was allied with the Soviets. Eventually, it degenerated into repressing communists and broke with the Soviets, and the national bourgeois became subservient to imperialism.

The Liberation of China was a bourgeois-democratic revolution led by the proletariat, in coalition with the peasantry, the urban petty-bourgeois, and the national bourgeois. Mao's New Democracy lasted until 1957.

Further reading

• Anarchism or Socialism by Stalin:

Today we are demanding a democratic republic. Can we say that a democratic republic is good in all respects, or bad in all respects? No we cannot! Why? Because a democratic republic is good only in one respect: when it destroys the feudal system; but it is bad in another respect: when it strengthens the bourgeois system. Hence we say: in so far as the democratic republic destroys the feudal system it is good — and we fight for it; but in so far as it strengthens the bourgeois system it is bad — and we fight against it.

So the same democratic republic can be "good" and "bad" at the same time — it is "yes" and "no."