NCJ Number
111836
Date Published
1988
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article examines the cultural tradition of the professional revolutionary and its influence on the first modern terrorists -- the Russian groups of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Abstract
DeTocqueville first detected the rise of professional revolutionaries, describing them as promising to realize the doctrines of their movements in all their purity and demanding absolute obedience from the followers in whose name they speak. Buonarotti characterized the revolutionary underground with its cellular organization, goals of infiltration, and justification of any means to obtain the desired end. From Blanqui came the notion that social revolution depended on seizing power and that the revolutionary deed was more important than rhetoric. With the development of modern systems of military strategy, technology, and propaganda, the art of revolutionary warfare was elevated to a scientific level, leading Engel to conclude that centrally coordinated public insurrection must be the tool of revolutionary change. Morozov, an early champion of the use of terror to promote revolution and a member of Narodnaya Volya, viewed terrorism as part of a popular, ongoing, and permanent struggle against an existing or newly arisen oppresssive regime. Romanenko viewed terrorist revolution to liberate the people as unqualifiedly moral. Finally, Shternberg emphasized the universal nature of terror, the need for realistic goals, and targeting actions against the tyranny of the regime. 53 footnotes.