Revolutionary Organisation

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).

"Revolutionary organisations have shaped our world—think of the Bolsheviks, the African National Congress, or the Taliban. Yet there is no comprehensive study of what they are and how they function, as distinct formations. Erik van Ree’s brilliant new book fills that gap, transforming our understanding of how revolutionaries have crafted their sense of identity. In an extraordinary work of breadth, erudition, and insight, van Ree demonstrates that armed-struggle revolutionary organizations find definition and emotional community in their preparedness to take and retain power through violent means, acting according to their own standards of propriety and sanctity."– James Ryan, Reader (associate professor) in Modern European History, Cardiff University, and author of Lenin's Terror: The Ideological Origins of Early Soviet State Violence (2012)"This study of violent revolutionary organizations and revolutionaries over several centuries and continents is remarkable for the breadth and depth of its analysis. Based upon a deep reading of primary and secondary literature, it is original and challenging, as we have come to expect from Erik van Ree’s brilliant and penetrating scholarship. This is a work of genuine world history that will be essential reading for historians, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, and students of international terrorism."– Ian D. Thatcher, Professor in History, Ulster University"Sometimes someone writes a book that makes us wonder why it wasn’t written sooner. The Revolutionary Organisation is such a book. A global account of one of the great world-making forces of the modern era, it’s a massive undertaking, but Erik van Ree pulls it off beautifully, perhaps above all because his succinct fusion of history and sociology so successfully exposes for us the singular ethos of revolutionaries and their epic lives across great swaths of space and time. Cohesive in scope, convincing in its argumentation, and extremely clear in its writing, The Revolutionary Organisation is immensely useful for scholars of political violence, but also directly engaging for all readers interested in the history of revolutionary movements and moments."– Claudia Verhoeven, Associate Professor of History, Cornell University, and author of The Odd Man Karakozov: Imperial Russia, Modernity, and the Birth of Terrorism (2011) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism (2022)

• Preface and AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPART 1Introduction1 Introduction1 Revolutionary Organisations2 Revolution and Modernity3 Definitions4 Problems of Definition5 Three Great Traditions6 Making Revolution: Spontaneous and Planned Revolutions7 Methodology8 Subjectivity, Sources2 The Revolutionary Organisation1 Apparatus, Emotional Community, Instrument of Physical Force2 Apparatus3 Emotional Community4 Instrument of Physical Force5 The Life-and-Death StrugglePART 2Professional Revolutionaries3 Revolutionary Commitment1 Social Injustice and Humiliation2 Humiliated Nation. Humiliated Race3 Gender: Humiliation and the Independent Life4 Heroes Old and New5 Heroic Self-Sculpting6 The Life of Greatness7 Conversion8 The Criminal Element9 Commitment4 Professional Revolutionaries1 Revolution as Skill2 Revolution as Secrecy3 Revolution on Salary4 Revolutionary Criminality5 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: Exiles versus Undergrounders6 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: the Leader-Centred Organisation7 Leadership and Gender5 Revolutionary Intelligentsia, Revolutionary Margin1 Revolutionary Social Mobility2 Drifters3 The Family Uprooted4 International Armed Solidarity5 Total Immobility5.1 Revolutionary Bohemia6 Communal Living7 The Mainstream (Or Not-So-Mainstream) Lifestyle8 The Ascetic-Puritanical Lifestyle9 The Libertine Lifestyle6 Emotional Community1 The Revolutionary Personality2 Battle3 The Idea4 Collective Study5 Ritual6 Initiation Ceremonies, the Oath7 Ceremonies of Periodic Meeting, Martyr Rituals8 Modes of Address and Dress Codes9 Revolutionary Symbolism7 Instrument of Physical Force1 Warfare and Terrorism2 Legitimation: Ends and Means3 A Job to Be Done, Concern, Euphoria, Massacre Fantasies4 Violence as Purification5 Revolutionary Heroism, Embedded Heroism6 Heroic Self-Understanding, Heroic Poetry7 Heroic Propaganda, Heroic Mobilisation8 Revolutionary Heroines9 New TimesPART 3Apparatus8 Professional-Revolutionary Philosophies: the Organisation1 The Pyramid2 Hierarchy No, Organisation Yes3 The Pyramid Perfected4 The Leader5 From Single Leader to ‘Non-Organisation’6 Emir, Apparatus, Warriors7 Conclusion9 The Revolutionary Organisation: Beginnings1 The Army Problem2 Bands, Committees, Secret Societies, Religious Congregations3 Clubs and Parties4 Volunteer Armies5 Time of Transition6 The Rise of the Party in Arms10 The Politico-Military Organisation1 Politico-Military Secret Societies2 Communist Parties in Arms3 Parties in Arms: Fascism4 Parties in Arms: Revolutionary Nationalism5 The Volunteer Army Pyramid6 Volunteer Army Two-Branchism7 Islamist Volunteer Armies8 Committees of Military Officers9 Terrorist Army Fractions10 The Politico-Military Control System11 Military Rebellions12 Supranational Organisation11 Revolutionary Etatisation1 Revolutionary Etatisation: Process2 Revolutionary Etatisation: Ideology3 The Nineteenth Century4 Modes of Etatisation5 Rural Guerrillas: State Construction6 Rural Guerrillas: the Social Contract7 Urban Insurrection8 Urban GuerrillasConclusion: Final Thoughts on Revolutionary Organisation and Violence1 The Armed-Struggle Ethos2 Revolution as War3 The Future of Armed RevolutionBibliographyIndexPreface and AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPART 1Introduction1 Introduction1 Revolutionary Organisations2 Revolution and Modernity3 Definitions4 Problems of Definition5 Three Great Traditions6 Making Revolution: Spontaneous and Planned Revolutions7 Methodology8 Subjectivity, Sources2 The Revolutionary Organisation1 Apparatus, Emotional Community, Instrument of Physical Force2 Apparatus3 Emotional Community4 Instrument of Physical Force5 The Life-and-Death StrugglePART 2Professional Revolutionaries3 Revolutionary Commitment1 Social Injustice and Humiliation2 Humiliated Nation. Humiliated Race3 Gender: Humiliation and the Independent Life4 Heroes Old and New5 Heroic Self-Sculpting6 The Life of Greatness7 Conversion8 The Criminal Element9 Commitment4 Professional Revolutionaries1 Revolution as Skill2 Revolution as Secrecy3 Revolution on Salary4 Revolutionary Criminality5 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: Exiles versus Undergrounders6 Bureaucracies in Permanent Crisis: the Leader-Centred Organisation7 Leadership and Gender5 Revolutionary Intelligentsia, Revolutionary Margin1 Revolutionary Social Mobility2 Drifters3 The Family Uprooted4 International Armed Solidarity5 Total Immobility5.1 Revolutionary Bohemia6 Communal Living7 The Mainstream (Or Not-So-Mainstream) Lifestyle8 The Ascetic-Puritanical Lifestyle9 The Libertine Lifestyle6 Emotional Community1 The Revolutionary Personality2 Battle3 The Idea4 Collective Study5 Ritual6 Initiation Ceremonies, the Oath7 Ceremonies of Periodic Meeting, Martyr Rituals8 Modes of Address and Dress Codes9 Revolutionary Symbolism7 Instrument of Physical Force1 Warfare and Terrorism2 Legitimation: Ends and Means3 A Job to Be Done, Concern, Euphoria, Massacre Fantasies4 Violence as Purification5 Revolutionary Heroism, Embedded Heroism6 Heroic Self-Understanding, Heroic Poetry7 Heroic Propaganda, Heroic Mobilisation8 Revolutionary Heroines9 New TimesPART 3Apparatus8 Professional-Revolutionary Philosophies: the Organisation1 The Pyramid2 Hierarchy No, Organisation Yes3 The Pyramid Perfected4 The Leader5 From Single Leader to ‘Non-Organisation’6 Emir, Apparatus, Warriors7 Conclusion9 The Revolutionary Organisation: Beginnings1 The Army Problem2 Bands, Committees, Secret Societies, Religious Congregations3 Clubs and Parties4 Volunteer Armies5 Time of Transition6 The Rise of the Party in Arms10 The Politico-Military Organisation1 Politico-Military Secret Societies2 Communist Parties in Arms3 Parties in Arms: Fascism4 Parties in Arms: Revolutionary Nationalism5 The Volunteer Army Pyramid6 Volunteer Army Two-Branchism7 Islamist Volunteer Armies8 Committees of Military Officers9 Terrorist Army Fractions10 The Politico-Military Control System11 Military Rebellions12 Supranational Organisation11 Revolutionary Etatisation1 Revolutionary Etatisation: Process2 Revolutionary Etatisation: Ideology3 The Nineteenth Century4 Modes of Etatisation5 Rural Guerrillas: State Construction6 Rural Guerrillas: the Social Contract7 Urban Insurrection8 Urban GuerrillasConclusion: Final Thoughts on Revolutionary Organisation and Violence1 The Armed-Struggle Ethos2 Revolution as War3 The Future of Armed RevolutionBibliographyIndex