Republished from the US DoD’s Air University Review, March-April 1980
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1980/mar-apr/rejai.html
The Professional Revolutionary: A Profile
Dr. Mostafa Rejai
A UNIQUE phenomenon of the twentieth century, the professional revolutionary provides an endless source of fascination for both scholarly and popular imagination. Observers with a romantic outlook portray the professional revolutionary as pure, virtuous, and idealist–as a heroic fighter for humanity, freedom, and justice. Those with a cynical cast of mind see the professional revolutionary as fanatical, psychopathic, and criminal–as a failure in a society the complete destruction of which alone would yield proper revenge. As we shall see, however, neither view is valid.
The genesis of the concept of professional revolutionary is found in Lenin (What Is To Be Done? 1902), who was also the first to personify it. Lenin defined the primary need of a revolutionary movement in terms of a secret, small, tightly knit, highly disciplined organization of professional revolutionaries–that is, men who devote their entire life to revolution, who turn revolution into a calling, a vocation, a mission.
The nationalist and revolutionary movements of the twentieth century have catapulted into prominence a host of professional revolutionaries in addition to Lenin. What do these diverse men have in common, and why/how did they become professional revolutionaries?
This, treatment of the professional revolutionary derives from a much larger study of 64 prominent revolutionary leaders from 12 major revolutions of the past. These revolutions occurred in England (1640s), America (1776), France (1789), Mexico (1910), Russia (1917), China (1949), Bolivia (1952), North Vietnam (1954), Hungary (1956), Cuba (1959), Algeria (1962), and France (1968).
Among the 64 leaders are 14 individuals who meet the requirement for professional revolutionary. They are Nikolai Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, and Grigori Zinoviev of Russia; Chu Teh, Lui Shao-ch’i, Lin Piao, and Mao Tse-tung of China; Ho Chi Minh, Le Duan, Troung Chinh, and Vo Nguyen Giap of North Vietnam; Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara of Cuba. There are undoubtedly other professional revolutionaries, but these fourteen individuals are the basis for a composite profile in the pages that follow. It goes without saying that not every individual embraces every trait identified.
THE professional. revolutionary is born in an urban setting or, if born in a rural area, experiences early and sustained exposure to urban life. The impulse to revolution, in other words, originates in urban centers, though subsequently it may be “exported” to the countryside. The urban milieu introduces the professional revolutionary to a variety of radical ideologies in his late teens or early twenties. By the age of twenty-five, he is virtually certain to have taken actual part in revolutionary agitation and organization.
The professional revolutionary comes from a middle or lower class family with a relatively large number of siblings. Although probability considerations would dictate otherwise, he is more likely to be an oldest or a youngest rather than a middle child. He typically comes from the main ethnic and religious groupings in his society; on occasion, however, he may represent a minority group, most likely Jewish. As time passes, his religious affiliation–whatever its origins–takes a sharp turn to atheism.
The professional revolutionary is probably reasonably well educated. This education takes place in public institutions, which brings him into contact with a spectrum of population not found in private or parochial schools. He is almost certain to have gone through high school and quite likely to have had college experience or professional training in such fields as medicine, law, education, the military, or the ministry. Regardless of the nature and extent of his education, the professional revolutionary is likely to be a prolific writer, chiefly on matters of revolutionary theory and practice. As such, he can be labeled an “intellectual.”
While his education may qualify him for one of the established professions, the professional revolutionary does not take his occupation seriously. Thus, for example, Lenin obtained a law degree but hardly practiced law; Guevara was a physician who never practiced; and Mao, Ho, and Giap all taught school for only short periods of time. The only exception to this rule is the military profession, which is necessarily taken with utter seriousness. In fact, should he lack formal military training as a requisite component of his skills, the professional revolutionary acquires military experience in the course of the revolution in informal ways.
While there is some likelihood that he participates in established political institutions and processes–in order either to manipulate or subvert them–the professional revolutionary is irreversibly committed to radical organization and agitation. He is also quite likely to have a lengthy record of arrest, imprisonment, or exile.
The professional revolutionary is a cosmopolite: he travels widely, gaining extensive exposure to foreign cultures, values, traditions, and languages. This diversity of foreign exposure accounts, in part, for the eclectic nature and origin of the ideology to which the professional revolutionary subscribes. Building on the experiences of his predecessors and counterparts in other societies, synthesizing a variety of beliefs and values, the professional revolutionary adapts foreign ideologies to the conditions and needs of his own country. In general, he is most likely to fuse shades of Marxism (including Marxism-Leninism or communism) with forms of nationalism. When combined, these two doctrines have proved the most explosive revolutionary ideology of the twentieth century.
As a rule, the professional revolutionary is optimistic about the “nature of man.” He sees man as basically good and rational but oppressed by and alienated from the society in which he lives. Hence, revolution becomes an act of total liberation.
Similarly, the professional revolutionary maintains a highly positive attitude toward his own country, as his nationalist ideology virtually requires. On the other hand, his image of the international society is dualistic: he sees the world in terms of “friends” to be cultivated and “enemies” to be fought.
WHAT life experiences account for the emergence of the professional revolutionary?
He probably led a stormy childhood characterized by early rebelliousness, parental conflicts, or loss of one or both parents. He is likely to have been born to a large family, and he tends to be either the oldest or the youngest, son. What accounts for the preponderance of oldest and youngest children among professional revolutionaries? Recent findings in the field of child psychology cast some light on the subject.1
Oldest sons are typically held to strict standards of competence and achievement. As a result, they tend to attain eminence in their chosen endeavors, revolution included. Moreover, oldest sons are likely to experience intense feelings of anxiety over the loss of parental affection/attention once siblings begin to arrive. Coupled with this anxiety are intense feelings of guilt over the hostilities they exhibit toward their siblings. Externalizing and politicizing these feelings of anxiety, hostility, and guilt–even to the point of revolutionary action–may be a way of managing one’s psychic balance.
Youngest children are more striving and defiant toward their siblings–and probably toward the world in general. They are more competitive and more vigilant in an effort to maintain their status and possessions in the cruel world that a large family may represent. Their perception of relative parental neglect and deprivation may generate impulses toward rebellion. Being highly group-oriented, youngest children may see revolutionary movements as a means of maintaining and augmenting their sense of identity and belongingness.
In contrast to all this, middle children are not subjected to the strict parental codes and norms of behavior that are applied to the first-born. Middle children are better adjusted and satisfied with their lives than either the oldest or the youngest ones. Understandably, they do not seek radical social change.
The professional revolutionary carries the rebelliousness and conflicts of his childhood on to school, where processes of radicalization gain fresh momentum. Exposed to a variety of persons and views but associating mostly with his own kind, he has his horizons broadened, his consciousness enhanced, and his intellectual development gains pace. He is typically found in the forefront of agitation, boycotting classes, leading student strikes, and the like.
The radicalization of the professional revolutionary is completed in foreign travels. He becomes cosmopolitan in many ways: he gains exposure to a variety of cultures and ideologies, personally experiences or witnesses varying modes of oppression and exploitation, shares experiences with other revolutionaries, and develops a set of standards against which to judge his own society.
THE development of the professional revolutionary is also marked by the evolution of a set of psychological attributes. To begin with, the professional revolutionary is driven by a sense of justice/injustice and a corresponding attempt to set things right. This sense of justice/injustice may be personally rooted; it may be perceived in societal conditions, or it may be personally based and projected outward onto the larger society. Whatever form it may take, the sense of justice/injustice is present in a most conspicuous fashion.
The professional revolutionary is motivated by nationalism and patriotism. He may seek to maintain the independence and integrity of his nation. He may set but to free his nation from the oppression and exploitation of another nation. He may wish to improve the status, prosperity, and prestige of his country.
The professional revolutionary is vain, egotistical, ‘intent on gaining recognition of his personal superiority. He may have delusions of grandeur, seeing himself as an extraordinary man driven by sublime moral principles and called on by a higher order to bring liberty, equality, and fraternity to humankind. In undertaking all this, the professional revolutionary seeks symbolic immortality.2
The professional revolutionary is ascetic, austere, and puritanical. Self-discipline, self-reliance, self-denial, and relentless emphasis on hard work set him apart from ordinary beings. Accordingly, his demand for “virtue” is ceaseless, chronic, and compelling. Evil and corrupt as he finds the existing society, he feels called on to replace sin, greed, and lust with temperance, industry, and purity.
The professional revolutionary tends to be a marginal man in his society, that is, he may deviate in important ways from accepted social norms. This marginality may be physical, social, or psychological. The professional revolutionary may experience bitter personal humiliation, particularly in colonial contexts. He may be scolded in school for being a member of a minority group or coming from a peasant background. Similarly, he may be berated for physical disfigurement of various kinds: unusual features, scarred face, or short stature. In any event, frustrated and humiliated, the professional revolutionary compensates for his marginality by projecting his feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem outward onto the larger society.
The vain, ascetic, austere, marginal professional revolutionary has a gentle side as well: he probably possesses qualities of aestheticism and romanticism. He may be a lover of literature and philosophy (Trotsky, Ho, Guevara), or a lover of poetry (Guevara), or, indeed, he may be a poet in his own right (Mao). He may be a nature lover (Mao). He may have a passion for music (Lenin).
THE professional revolutionary is particularly adept at developing and deploying two elements that are crucial determinants of revolutionary success Of failure: ideology and organization.
Revolutionary ideology has three components: (1) a thorough-going critique of the existing order as inhuman and immoral; (2) a depiction of an alternative, superior order embodying positive values of liberty, equality, and fraternity; and (3) a statement of plans and programs intended to realize the alternative order.
Deploying such an ideology, the professional revolutionary undermines the confidence and morale of the ruling regime, rationalizes and legitimizes the need for revolution, politicizes and mobilizes the masses, enhances the followers’ sense of cohesion and solidarity, and elicits commitment and devotion. He does not adopt an inflexible or purist ideological posture but deliberately dilutes and soft-pedals ideology in order to maximize popular support and make room for maneuver and compromise. He is pragmatic and opportunistic.
Organization is a fundamental adjunct to ideology, the link between ideology and action. The professional revolutionary translates ideology into action thr9ugh the medium of organization. Ide910gy helps “reach” the masses; organization functions to tap their energies and channel them toward the realization of revolutionary objectives.
Deploying political, military, and paramilitary organizations, the professional revolutionary eventually launches an offensive on all fronts. He coordinates a program of: (1) maintaining close contacts with the masses; (2) continuing to politicize and mobilize them by means of distributing incentives or punishment, as appropriate; (3) recruiting, socializing, and training cadres and fighters; (4) fighting the battles that need to be fought; (5) gathering maximum intelligence about the enemy; and (6) unleashing a sustained policy of terror and violence that may eventually topple the existing regime.
WHILE the professional revolutionary is a definite personality type, he is neither uniformly noble nor uniformly evil. When combined, the romantic and the cynical views of the professional revolutionary hold a degree of validity. Alone, neither is capable of accounting for this unique phenomenon of our age. The professional revolutionary is a distinctive product of a set of circumstances, a variety of complex and sometimes contradictory attributes, a series of life experiences, a host of psychological dynamics, and an array of ideological and organizational skills.
The professional revolutionary is an outgrowth of increasing urbanization, rapid developments in communication and transportation, the trend toward universal education, and diffusion of revolutionary ideologies. In a word, ironical as it may be, the professional revolutionary is an inescapable by-product of the very modernity that has been a distinguishing mark of the twentieth century.
Miami University, Ohio
Notes
1. Cf. Lucille Forer and Henry Still, The Birth Order Factor (New York, 1976).
2. Cf. Robert J. Lifton, Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (New York, 1968).
Contributor
Mostafa Rejai (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles) is Professor of Political Science at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He is author of The Comparative Study of Revolutionary Strategy (1977) and Leaders of Revolution (1979), and his articles and reviews have appeared in professional journals in the United States and Europe. Dr. Rejai is a fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society and an associate editor of Journal of Political and Military Sociology.
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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