The Revolutionary Organisation

Armed Struggle from the Late 18th Century to the Present
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-73721-1
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 57, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

Reihe: Studies in Global Social History

This is the first comprehensive study of the phenomenon of the armed-struggle revolutionary organisation. The Revolutionary Organisation covers the period from the late 18th century to the present, is global in scope, and discusses organisations inspired by all main ideological traditions: communist, anti-colonialist, nationalist, democratic, Islamist, fascist, and white supremacist. The condition of life-and-death struggle with the state imposes similar patterns of operation upon these organisations, irrespective of their ideological inclinations. This work interprets armed-struggle revolutionary organisations as hybrids of three orientations: an apparatus of professional revolutionaries; an emotional community sustained by ideology, battle comradeship, and ritual; and an instrument of physical force nurturing an heroic organisational ethos.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ree, Erik Van

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Gewalt Terrorismus, Religiöser Fundamentalismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface and Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

PART 1

Introduction

1 Introduction 1 Revolutionary Organisations 2 Revolution and Modernity 3 Definitions 4 Problems of Definition 5 Three Great Traditions 6 Making Revolution: Spontaneous and Planned Revolutions 7 Methodology 8 Subjectivity, Sources

2 The Revolutionary Organisation 1 Apparatus, Emotional Community, Instrument of Physical Force 2 Apparatus 3 Emotional Community 4 Instrument of Physical Force 5 The Life-and-Death Struggle

PART 2

Professional Revolutionaries

3 Revolutionary Commitment 1 Social Injustice and Humiliation 2 Humiliated Nation. Humiliated Race 3 Gender: Humiliation and the Independent Life 4 Heroes Old and New 5 Heroic Self-Sculpting 6 The Life of Greatness 7 Conversion 8 The Criminal Element 9 Commitment

4 Professional Revolutionaries 1 Revolution as Skill 2 Revolution as Secrecy 3 Revolution on Salary 4 Revolutionary Criminality 5 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: Exiles versus Undergrounders 6 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: the Leader-Centred Organisation 7 Leadership and Gender

5 Revolutionary Intelligentsia, Revolutionary Margin 1 Revolutionary Social Mobility 2 Drifters 3 The Family Uprooted 4 International Armed Solidarity 5 Total Immobility 5.1 Revolutionary Bohemia 6 Communal Living 7 The Mainstream (Or Not-So-Mainstream) Lifestyle 8 The Ascetic-Puritanical Lifestyle 9 The Libertine Lifestyle

6 Emotional Community 1 The Revolutionary Personality 2 Battle 3 The Idea 4 Collective Study 5 Ritual 6 Initiation Ceremonies, the Oath 7 Ceremonies of Periodic Meeting, Martyr Rituals 8 Modes of Address and Dress Codes 9 Revolutionary Symbolism

7 Instrument of Physical Force 1 Warfare and Terrorism 2 Legitimation: Ends and Means 3 A Job to Be Done, Concern, Euphoria, Massacre Fantasies 4 Violence as Purification 5 Revolutionary Heroism, Embedded Heroism 6 Heroic Self-Understanding, Heroic Poetry 7 Heroic Propaganda, Heroic Mobilisation 8 Revolutionary Heroines 9 New Times

PART 3

Apparatus

8 Professional-Revolutionary Philosophies: the Organisation 1 The Pyramid 2 Hierarchy No, Organisation Yes 3 The Pyramid Perfected 4 The Leader 5 From Single Leader to ‘Non-Organisation’ 6 Emir, Apparatus, Warriors 7 Conclusion

9 The Revolutionary Organisation: Beginnings 1 The Army Problem 2 Bands, Committees, Secret Societies, Religious Congregations 3 Clubs and Parties 4 Volunteer Armies 5 Time of Transition 6 The Rise of the Party in Arms

10 The Politico-Military Organisation 1 Politico-Military Secret Societies 2 Communist Parties in Arms 3 Parties in Arms: Fascism 4 Parties in Arms: Revolutionary Nationalism 5 The Volunteer Army Pyramid 6 Volunteer Army Two-Branchism 7 Islamist Volunteer Armies 8 Committees of Military Officers 9 Terrorist Army Fractions 10 The Politico-Military Control System 11 Military Rebellions 12 Supranational Organisation

11 Revolutionary Etatisation 1 Revolutionary Etatisation: Process 2 Revolutionary Etatisation: Ideology 3 The Nineteenth Century 4 Modes of Etatisation 5 Rural Guerrillas: State Construction 6 Rural Guerrillas: the Social Contract 7 Urban Insurrection 8 Urban Guerrillas

Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Revolutionary Organisation and Violence 1 The Armed-Struggle Ethos 2 Revolution as War 3 The Future of Armed Revolution

Bibliography

Index
Preface and Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

PART 1

Introduction

1 Introduction 1 Revolutionary Organisations 2 Revolution and Modernity 3 Definitions 4 Problems of Definition 5 Three Great Traditions 6 Making Revolution: Spontaneous and Planned Revolutions 7 Methodology 8 Subjectivity, Sources

2 The Revolutionary Organisation 1 Apparatus, Emotional Community, Instrument of Physical Force 2 Apparatus 3 Emotional Community 4 Instrument of Physical Force 5 The Life-and-Death Struggle

PART 2

Professional Revolutionaries

3 Revolutionary Commitment 1 Social Injustice and Humiliation 2 Humiliated Nation. Humiliated Race 3 Gender: Humiliation and the Independent Life 4 Heroes Old and New 5 Heroic Self-Sculpting 6 The Life of Greatness 7 Conversion 8 The Criminal Element 9 Commitment

4 Professional Revolutionaries 1 Revolution as Skill 2 Revolution as Secrecy 3 Revolution on Salary 4 Revolutionary Criminality 5 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: Exiles versus Undergrounders 6 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: the Leader-Centred Organisation 7 Leadership and Gender

5 Revolutionary Intelligentsia, Revolutionary Margin 1 Revolutionary Social Mobility 2 Drifters 3 The Family Uprooted 4 International Armed Solidarity 5 Total Immobility 5.1 Revolutionary Bohemia 6 Communal Living 7 The Mainstream (Or Not-So-Mainstream) Lifestyle 8 The Ascetic-Puritanical Lifestyle 9 The Libertine Lifestyle

6 Emotional Community 1 The Revolutionary Personality 2 Battle 3 The Idea 4 Collective Study 5 Ritual 6 Initiation Ceremonies, the Oath 7 Ceremonies of Periodic Meeting, Martyr Rituals 8 Modes of Address and Dress Codes 9 Revolutionary Symbolism

7 Instrument of Physical Force 1 Warfare and Terrorism 2 Legitimation: Ends and Means 3 A Job to Be Done, Concern, Euphoria, Massacre Fantasies 4 Violence as Purification 5 Revolutionary Heroism, Embedded Heroism 6 Heroic Self-Understanding, Heroic Poetry 7 Heroic Propaganda, Heroic Mobilisation 8 Revolutionary Heroines 9 New Times

PART 3

Apparatus

8 Professional-Revolutionary Philosophies: the Organisation 1 The Pyramid 2 Hierarchy No, Organisation Yes 3 The Pyramid Perfected 4 The Leader 5 From Single Leader to ‘Non-Organisation’ 6 Emir, Apparatus, Warriors 7 Conclusion

9 The Revolutionary Organisation: Beginnings 1 The Army Problem 2 Bands, Committees, Secret Societies, Religious Congregations 3 Clubs and Parties 4 Volunteer Armies 5 Time of Transition 6 The Rise of the Party in Arms

10 The Politico-Military Organisation 1 Politico-Military Secret Societies 2 Communist Parties in Arms 3 Parties in Arms: Fascism 4 Parties in Arms: Revolutionary Nationalism 5 The Volunteer Army Pyramid 6 Volunteer Army Two-Branchism 7 Islamist Volunteer Armies 8 Committees of Military Officers 9 Terrorist Army Fractions 10 The Politico-Military Control System 11 Military Rebellions 12 Supranational Organisation

11 Revolutionary Etatisation 1 Revolutionary Etatisation: Process 2 Revolutionary Etatisation: Ideology 3 The Nineteenth Century 4 Modes of Etatisation 5 Rural Guerrillas: State Construction 6 Rural Guerrillas: the Social Contract 7 Urban Insurrection 8 Urban Guerrillas

Conclusion: Final Thoughts on Revolutionary Organisation and Violence 1 The Armed-Struggle Ethos 2 Revolution as War 3 The Future of Armed Revolution

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Erik van Ree, Ph.D. (1988), University of Amsterdam, is Research Associate at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam. He has written numerous journal articles, and among his earlier books are The Political Thought of Joseph Stalin (2002) and Boundaries of Utopia – Imagining Communism from Plato to Stalin (2015).