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date: 18 February 2025

Revolutionaries. 

Source:
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
Author(s):
James DeFronzoJames DeFronzo

Revolutionary movements aim at transforming basic institutions in a society, such as a country's political or economic system. Although weakened prerevolutionary states often provide good opportunities for revolutionaries, the victory of revolutionary movements and the success of postrevolution governments depend on the quality of revolutionary leadership. Revolutionary leaders have sometimes come from the deprived or oppressed portions of society, but typically they have emerged from the affluent and educated classes. Revolutionaries were usually motivated to oppose the existing government because they were influenced by the ideals of their parents, exposed to radical ideologies as students, or both. Sometimes a personal tragedy, for which a future leader held the existing regime responsible, pushed him or her in a more radical direction. For example, when the Russian revolutionary ... ...

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