Revolutionary Waves and Lines of the 20TH Century

This paper analyzes the main features of the twentieth-century revolutions, and their difference from those of the 19th century. In the twentieth century, revolutionary activities increasingly moved from the World System core to its semi-periphery or even to the periphery. New types of revolution emerged, whereas less widespread types widely diffused. First of all, these were Communist revolutions, and toward the end of the century as a result of the decline of Communism – anti-communist ones as well as power-modernist and others. The paper offers a new typology of revolutions. The twentieth-century revolutionary process is described in chronological order as comprising five revolutionary waves. The paper considers some aspects of the theory of revolution as applied to revolutions of the twentieth century. In particular, such concept as lines of revolutions is introduced; their connection with revolutionary waves and differences from them are shown. The lines of revolutions show significant similarities in the causes, character, goals and results of revolutions of certain periods (up to three-four decades). Moreover, the lines of revolutions do not coincide with the waves of revolutions. The wave of revolutions is a more objective concept associated with a group of fairly close-in-time events (often associated with a specific region and some common world-system event). The line is a more theoretical construct, combining cases of different chronologies from different waves, but there are also quite objective things behind it. Nine lines of revolutions are analyzed (five in the first half of the century, four in the second). Much attention is paid to the analysis of revolution as one of the transformative changes (along with others – including coups, reforms, violent modernization, etc.) in theory and in relation to different periods.