Marx’s Concept Of Revolution And Its Contemporary Significance

"The Concept of Revolution" is an important part of Marx’s theory. The concept of "revolution" has profound theoretical connotation and important theoretical position in the theory system of Marx’s theory. "Revolution" has always been a political category. In the narrow sense, the revolution mainly refers to the replacement of the social system, the overthrow of the old regime and the destruction of the old dictatorship of the machine, which is called the violent revolution. In the revolutionary age of Marx, on the one hand, Marx emphasizes the importance of violent revolution, on the other hand, Marx advocated the concrete form of revolution is peace or violence, which directly depends on the social and historical conditions at that time. On the basis of this, Marx study and expound the revolution of the generalized meaning furtherly. It is pointed out that the revolution not only refers to a fundamental change in social politics and the replacement of regimes, including the reform of the system and closely linked with the daily change process. In other words, the generalized revolutionary means negative, qualitative and discarded, is contradictory to overcome and resolve. Thus, the revolution which is extensive and universal has been extended to all areas. However, for a long time, the understanding and research of Marx’s revolutionary thought in the domestic academic circles mainly focus on the violent revolution, social revolution and political revolution. As a result, Marx’s revolutionary thought in the contemporary "developed industrial society" seems to have been surpassed by the times. In contemporary China, the proletariat has seized power, resolved the issue of private ownership of the means of production, and established a socialist system, and Marx’s revolutionary concept appeared to be no longer applicable. Especially since the end of twentieth Century, the word "revolution" is gradually fading out of people’s vision, and Marx’s view on revolution has received little systematic research and comprehensive explanation. "The revolution is outdated", "Farewell to revolution" was rampant. Isn’t the revolutionary change needed for social development in contemporary world and even contemporary China? Is Marx’s thought of revolution and the theory of revolutionary really out of date? The answer is obviously no. Therefore, that comprehensive and systematically study Marx’s concept of revolution is of important theoretical significance and practical significance to correctly understand the revolutionary meaning, to eliminate the misunderstanding of Marxist revolutionary idea and theory, to solve the problem of contemporary capitalist system bringing the crisis of survival, for deepening reform of the system of contemporary China, to solve all kinds of social contradictions.This paper focuses on analyzing several different interpretations and Marxism views of revolution of the academic circles and rationalizes the theoretical and practical basis of the formation of Marx’s revolutionary theory form the original text, besides the paper reveals the connotation and extension of the concept of revolution, and expounds the important theoretical and practical significance of Marx’s concept of revolution.This paper is divided into four parts:The first part analyzes several one-sided understanding and misunderstanding of Marxist revolutionary concept from the academic circles pointing out this several views are wrong. This part stresses that we should interpretate and understand Marx’s concept of revolution, The relationship between revolutionary concept and historical materialism and the important position of the revolutionary concept in the Marx doctrine theory system multi-dimensionally.The second part rationalizes the theoretical and practical basis of the formation of Marx’s revolutionary theory form the original text and points out the critique of Hegel and Enlightenment scholars and a series of natural scientific achievements in nineteenth century is an important theoretical basis for the formation of Marx’s revolutionary outlook. The industrial revolution, the development of capitalist economy and the struggle of the proletariat and the socialist revolutionary movement in various countries are practical basis of the formation of Marx’s revolutionary outlook.In the third part, the paper expounds the basic content of Marx’s revolution from four aspects, political revolution, social revolution, philosophy revolution and scientific and technological revolution, on the basis of which the paper analyzes the relationship between the various levels of revolution and social revolution. This part emphasizes the essence of Marx’s view of revolution is to refer to all the activities of people to transform the world and change society. Therefore, the revolution is not only violence, bloodshed, war, the destruction of the old system, but also the reform and improvement of the existing system. Revolution is negation, sublation, it is the solution of contradiction and conflict. In Marx’s opinion, the revolution is not only in the form of intense conflict, but also in the form of peaceful transition, what kind of form to take directly depends on the social and historical conditions at that time.In the fourth part, it further reveals the theoretical and practical significance of Marx’s revolution theory, and emphasizes on the comprehensive system of Marx’s theory of revolution, which not only has important theoretical significance to criticize one-sided understanding of revolution theory and negative theory of revolution, but also to restore Marx’s revolutionary thought true meaning. A comprehensive and systematic study on Marx’s theory of revolution has important practical significance to criticize the contemporary capitalism, to reveal the development trend and historical destiny of capitalism, for the guidance and recovery of the world socialist movement, especially for the deepening of reform in contemporary China, to improve the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and the dream of China and Chinese modernization achieve.