Table Of ContentK.N.BRUTENTS
National
Liberation Revolutions
Today
PART II
PROGRESS PUBLISHERS
MOSCOW
Translated from the Russian by John Bushnell
and Kristine Bushnell
КАРЭН НЕРСЕСОВИЧ
БРУТЕНЦ
СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ
НАЦИОНАЛЬНО-ОСВОБОДИТЕЛЬНЫЕ
РЕВОЛЮЦИИ
Часть II
На английском языке
First printing 1977
©Translation into English from revised Russian text.
Progress Publishers 1977
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
11104-745
Б-------------------53-76
014(01)-77
CONTENTS
P;.gc
CHAPTER ONE. The Social Basis of Revolutionary Democracy ............ 12
CHAPTER TWO. Revolutionary Democracy’s Ideological and Political
Platform..............................!......................................................................... 24
1. Some Aspects of the World Outlook and Sociology of
Revolutionary Democracy.............................................................. 24
2. The Problem of “Uniqueness” and the Attitude Toward
Marxism .............................................................................................. 57
3. The Role of Nationalist Ideas........................................................ 79
4. On an Overall Evaluation of the Conceptions of Revolu
tionary Democracy.......................................................... 85
CHAPTER THREE. Revolutionary Democracy in Power: Practical
Steps................................................................................................................ 96
1. The Principal Direction of the Domestic and Foreign
Policies of Revolutionary Democratic Regimes........................ 96
2. Factors Contributing to Contradictions in the Activity of
Revolutionary' Democracy.............................................................. 130
CHAPTER FOUR. Revolutionary- Democracy and the Principal
International Class Forces................................................ 154
1. Imperialist Policy Toward Revolutionary Democracy........... 154
2. Communists and Revolutionary Democrats............................. 182
CHAPTER FIVE. Revolutionary Democrats’ Political Evolution. Their
Historical Role............................................................................................. 21C
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................ 228
REVOLUTIONARY
DEMOCRACY IN THE NATIONAL
LIBERATION ZONE
The problem of contemporary revolutionary democracy in
the newly independent countries is especially relevant for the
theory and practice of the world communist movement. In
recent years, the Communist parties have taken note of the
activization of a new and influential socio-political force that
has emerged in the course of the national liberation struggle.
This new force not only combats imperialism and colonialism,
it also favors socialism; its social character is neither proletarian
nor bourgeois. In a number of emerging countries, it has
already become the crucial lever in the turn toward socialist
orientation, in others it is nowT an important factor expressing
anti-capitalist social tendencies.
Generalizing the political conclusions of the Communist
parties, conclusions drawn from social development and the
liberation struggle in the former colonial and dependent
world, the 1969 International Meeting of Communist and
Workers’ Parties stressed in its Document that in a number of
young states “the role of revolutionary and democratic forces
has been enhanced”.1
The meeting of Communist Parties of Arab countries held in
early April 1975 announced in its Statement: “One of the most
important phenomena in the Arab national liberation move
ment is the emergence of parties, forces and elements which, in
class terms, belong to the petty bourgeoisie, but have raised
themselves to the position of revolutionary democracy.”
* International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parlies. Moscow 1969,
Prague, I960, p. 28.
10 К. N. BRUTENTS
It should be noted that some scholars consider the term
“revolutionary democracy’’ not entirely adequate. One of the
difficulties is that the concept is most often associated with
Russian revolutionary democracy, and its application to other
political phenomena and a different body of public figures
prompts certain misgivings. But we may recall that Lenin
employed the term “revolutionary democracy” when.speaking
of peasant and petty-bourgeois figures in the national libera
tion movement in the countries of the East.1 On the other
hand, some are troubled — and this is quite natural — by the
use of the term “revolutionary democrats” with respect to
political groups and figures that at times have a reserved or
even negative attitude toward democratic forms of public life,
toward independent initiative on the part of the masses. Yet
the revolutionary and democratic character of the struggle of
peasant and petty-bourgeois parties and forces against im
perialism and internal reaction must be recognized. This
character is evident in their platforms and basic political line
and in their practical activity, which in effect comes down to
the solution — even if inconsistent and contradictory — of
democratic tasks, often by revolutionary means. This, as well as
the social base of these parties and forces, and the class
interests they express, provides substantive justification for
using the term under consideration.
Finally, it should also be noted that dissatisfaction with this
term has not led to the proposal of another, more suitable
(from theoretical and practical considerations) term1 2. It is not
happenstance that this term has entered the political vocabu
lary of the international communist movement and is widely
used in the documents of the CPSU and other Communist
parties.
This gives us the right to employ the term “revolutionary
democracy” — naturally, within the proper limits — to desig
nate the social phenomenon with which we are dealing—the
more so as in this case the term itself is not what is most
1 See, V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 18, p. 165; Vol. 41, pp. 281, 282.
2 Aside from the term “national democracy”, which is most often used in
an analogous sense and is likewise not entirely adequate.
