p A social revolution is a deep-going upheaval in the political, economic and ideological life of society. It is a revolution that brings about the succession of ruling classes and types of states, abolishes old relations of production, introduces new ones and radically changes social views and institutions.

p A social revolution does not take place by accident but is a natural product of the material conditions of society’s life at definite stages of its development, of its internal contradictions. Pointing to the causes of the social revolution, Marx, in his preface to A Contribution to the Critique of the Political Economy wrote that at a certain stage of their development, the productive forces of society come in conflict with the existing relations of production within 309 which they have hitherto been at work. From forms of development of the productive forces these already obsolete relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an epoch of social revolution.

p The conflict between the new productive forces and the old relations of production is the objective economic foundation of the social revolution. We have ascertained earlier that relations of production cannot indefinitely lag behind the development of the productive forces. Sooner or later they must conform to them. And they are brought into conformity by a social revolution.

p A conflict in the sphere of production is always expressed in a conflict of class interests. The reactionary class, the vehicle of old relations of production, is opposed by the progressive class, the vehicle of new relations of production. Hence the irreconcilable struggle of the progressive class against the reactionary class, of which the social revolution is the highest expression and the consummation.

p The old, reactionary class never gives up its rule voluntarily. It uses the full power of the state to preserve the old production relations. To abolish the old production relations and introduce new ones, therefore, the progressive class must gain political power. In other words, whether the new relations of production win or not, ultimately depends on whether the revolutionary class gains state power. Therefore state power is the basic question of any revolution.

Social revolutions are of tremendous importance in the life of society. It is only through radical, revolutionary changes that the old, reactionary social system can be abolished and a new, progressive system introduced. Only social revolutions resolve economic and class contradictions which matured in the long period of preceding social development. Only revolution helps to remove obstacles to economic, political and cultural progress (obsolete production relations and their reactionary vehicle, the old classes). The creative energies of the people are awakened in time of social revolution, and millions upon millions of people are drawn into active social life, as a result of which the process of social development is greatly accelerated. For this reason Marx called revolutions the locomotives of history.