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Acounter-revolutionary or ananti-revolutionary is anyone who opposes or resists arevolution, particularly one who acts after a revolution has occurred, in order to try to overturn it or reverse its course, in full or in part.[1][2] Theadjective "counter-revolutionary" pertains to movements that would restore the state of affairs, or the principles, that prevailed during a pre-revolutionary era.
A counter-revolution is opposition or resistance to a revolutionary movement.[2] It can refer to attempts to defeat a revolutionary movement before it takes power, as well as attempts to restore the old regime after a successful revolution.[2]
The word "counter-revolutionary" originally referred to thinkers who opposed themselves to the 1789French Revolution, such asJoseph de Maistre,Louis de Bonald or, later,Charles Maurras, the founder of theAction Française monarchist movement. More recently, it has been used in France to describe political movements that reject the legacy of the 1789 Revolution, which historianRené Rémond has referred to aslégitimistes.[citation needed]
Thus,monarchist supporters of theAncien Régime following the French Revolution were counter-revolutionaries, as were supporters of theWar in the Vendée and of the monarchies that put down the variousRevolutions of 1848.[citation needed] The royalist legitimist counter-revolutionary French movement survives to this day, albeit marginally. It was active during theRévolution nationale ofVichy France, though, which has been considered by René Rémond not as afascist regime but as a counter-revolutionary regime, whose motto wasTravail, Famille, Patrie ("Work, Family, Fatherland"), which replaced theRepublican mottoLiberté, égalité, fraternité.[citation needed]
After the French Revolution, anti-clerical policies and the execution of King Louis XVI led to the War in the Vendée. The suppression of this counter-revolution produced what is considered by some historians to be the first moderngenocide.[3][page needed] Monarchists and Catholics took up arms against the revolutionary French Republic in 1793 after the government asked that 300,000 men be conscripted into the Republican military in thelevée en masse. The Vendeans also rose up againstNapoleon's attempt to conscript them in 1815.[citation needed]
TheGerman Empire, and its predecessors theHoly Roman Empire andGerman Confederation, operated under counterrevolutionary principles, with these monarchical federations crushing attempted uprisings in, for example,1848.[citation needed] After the1867–71 creation of a new German realm byPrussia, chancellorOtto von Bismarck used policies favored by Socialists, such as state-sponsored healthcare, to undercut the opponents of the monarchy and protect it against revolution. Not long after theGerman Revolution of 1918–1919 and signing of theTreaty of Versailles, a failedcoup d'état known as theKapp Putsch was instigated by elements opposed to theWeimar Republic. It was led principally byWolfgang Kapp andWalther von Lüttwitz.[citation needed]
During the Weimar era, the German Realm became an ideological battlefield between "red" and "white" factions. The state became bifurcated between the conservativeJunker nobility which dominated the army and other high offices, including the presidency with Field MarshalPaul von Hindenburg, and the leftist revolutionaries who attempted several coups in the 1920s and later gained a base in parliament via theCommunist Party of Germany, which, being internationalist in nature, opposed the extremist nationalism of the newNazi Party.[citation needed] The Nazis, by making common cause with the counterrevolutionaries against the Communists, effected a takeover of the German state. At first under the adopted imagery of the monarchical era, and later, after the death of Hindenburg, under purely Nazi imagery.[citation needed]
The Nazis did not publicly characterise themselves as counterrevolutionaries. They condemned the traditional German forces of conservatism (e.g., Prussianmonarchists,Junkers, andRoman Catholic clergy). For example, the Nazi Party marchDie Fahne hoch labeled them as reactionaries (Reaktion) and counted them together with theRoter Frontkämpferbund as enemies of the Nazis.[citation needed] Nevertheless, in practice the Nazis supported many of the same ideas as the counterrevolutionary factions and virulently opposed revolutionaryMarxism, using the conservativeFreikorps to crush Communist uprisings, ostensibly idealising German tradition, folklore, and heroes, such asFrederick the Great.[citation needed]
The fact that the Nazis called their 1933 rise to power thenational revolution showed that they understood the popular hunger for some type of radical change; nonetheless, they understood the equally powerful popular impulse toward stability and continuity, and rejected the parliamentarianism of theWeimar Constitution as merely a first step towards Bolshevism.[citation needed] Thus, for instance, they catered to reactionary tendencies among the German people bypropagandistic demonstrations linking the Nazi state to the traditionalReich ("realm" or "empire") by referring to it informally as the"Drittes Reich" ("Third Empire"), implying a specious continuity between it and the historic German entities appealing to German reactionaries: the Holy Roman Empire (the "First Realm") and the German Empire (the "Second Realm"). (See alsoreactionary modernism.)[citation needed]
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Many historians have held that the rise and spread ofMethodism in the United Kingdom prevented the development of a revolution there.[4] In addition to preaching the Christian Gospel,John Wesley and his Methodist followers visited those imprisoned, as well as the poor and aged, building hospitals anddispensaries which provided free healthcare for the masses.[5] The sociologist William H. Swatos stated that "Methodist enthusiasm transformed men, summoning them to assert rational control over their own lives, while providing in its system of mutual discipline the psychological security necessary for autonomous conscience and liberal ideals to become internalized, an integrated part of the 'new men'… regenerated by Wesleyan preaching."[6]
The practice oftemperance among Methodists, as well as their rejection ofgambling, allowed them to eliminatesecondary poverty and accumulate capital.[6] Individuals who attended Methodist chapels andSunday schools "took into industrial and political life the qualities and talents they had developed within Methodism and used them on behalf of the working classes in non-revolutionary ways."[7]
The spread of the Methodist Church in the United Kingdom, author and professor Michael Hill states, "filled both a socialand an ideological vacuum" in English society, thus "opening up the channels of social and ideological mobility… which worked against the polarization of English society into rigid social classes."[6] The historianBernard Semmel argues that "Methodism was an antirevolutionary movement that succeeded (to the extent that it did) because it was a revolution of a radically different kind" that was capable of effecting social change on a large scale.[6]
In Italy, after being occupied by the French army in the late 18th century, there was a counter-revolution in all theFrench client republics. The most well-known was theSanfedismo, a reactionary movement led by the cardinalFabrizio Ruffo, which overthrew theParthenopean Republic and allowed theBourbon dynasty to return to the throne of theKingdom of Naples.[citation needed]
A resurgence of the phenomenon happened during the Napoleon'ssecond Italian campaign in the early 19th century. Another example of counter-revolution was the peasants' rebellion in Southern Italy after thenational unification, fomented by the Bourbon government in exile and thePapal States. The revolt, labelled pejoratively by opponents asbrigandage, resulted in a bloody civil war that lasted almost ten years.[citation needed]
In theAustrian Empire, a revolt took place against Napoleon called theTyrolean Rebellion in 1809.[citation needed] Led by a Tyrolean innkeeper by the name ofAndreas Hofer, 20,000 Tyrolean rebels fought successfully against Napoleon's troops. Hofer was ultimately betrayed by theTreaty of Schönbrunn, which led to the disbandment of his troops and was captured and executed in 1810.[citation needed]
TheSpanish Civil War was a counter-revolution. Supporters ofCarlism, monarchy, and nationalism (seeFalange) joined forces against the (Second) Spanish Republic in 1936.[citation needed] The counter-revolutionaries saw theSpanish Constitution of 1931 as a revolutionary document that defied Spanish culture, tradition and religion. On the Republican side, the acts of theCommunist Party of Spain against the rural collectives are also sometimes considered counter-revolutionary. The Carlist cause began with theFirst Carlist War in 1833 and continues to the present.[citation needed]
TheWhite Army and its supporters who tried to defeat theBolsheviks after theOctober Revolution, as well as the German politicians, police, soldiers andFreikorps who crushed theGerman Revolution of 1918–1919, were also counter-revolutionaries. The Bolshevik government tried to build an anti-revolutionary image for theGreen armies composed of peasant rebels.[8][full citation needed] The largestpeasant rebellion against Bolshevik rule occurred in 1920–21 inTambov.[citation needed]
GeneralVictoriano Huerta, and later theFelicistas, attempted to thwart theMexican Revolution in the 1910s.[citation needed] In the late 1920s, Mexican Catholics took up arms against the Mexican Federal Government in what became known as theCristero War. The President of Mexico, Plutarco Elias Calles, was elected in 1924. Calles began carrying out anti-Catholic policies which caused peaceful resistance from Catholics in 1926.[citation needed]
The counter-revolution began as a movement of peaceful resistance against the anti-clerical laws. In the summer of 1926, fighting broke out.[citation needed] The fighters known as Cristeros fought the government due to its suppression of the Church, jailing and execution of priests, formation of a nationalist schismatic church,state atheism, Socialism, Freemasonry and other harsh anti-Catholic policies.[citation needed]
The 1961Bay of Pigs invasion intoCuba was conducted by counter-revolutionaries who hoped to overthrow the revolutionary government ofFidel Castro.[citation needed] In the 1980s, theContra-Revolución rebels fighting to overthrow the revolutionarySandinista government inNicaragua. In fact, the Contras received their name precisely because they were counter-revolutionaries.[citation needed]
TheBlack Eagles, theAUC, and otherparamilitary movements ofColombia can also be seen as counter-revolutionary. Theseright-wing groups are opposition to theFARC, and otherleft-wingguerrilla movements.[citation needed]
Some counter-revolutionaries are formerrevolutionaries who supported the initial overthrow of the previous regime, but came to differ with those who ultimately came to power after the revolution. For example, some of the Contras originally fought with the Sandinistas to overthrowAnastasio Somoza, and some of those who oppose Castro also opposedBatista.[citation needed]
During the mid-19th centuryBakumatsu, especially during theJapanese civil war of 1868–1869, the pro-bakufu forces and especially the samurai, and after the period, ex-samurai, were left without money since their skills are obsolete.[citation needed] They banded up with the eastern shogunate led by theShogunTokugawa Yoshinobu who wished to drive foreign and especially Western European and American influence against the revolutionaries ofEmperor Meiji, who sought to modernize Japan with the states ofWestern Europe as Japan's example. The war ended with a small number of casualties, mostly samurai. Years later, western samurai and imperial modernists engaged in the deadlierSatsuma Rebellion.[citation needed]
In 1917, during theWarlord Era generalZhang Xun attempted to reverse the1911 Revolution that brought an end to theQing dynasty by seizingBeijing in theManchu Restoration.[citation needed]
The anti-communist (and thus counter-revolutionary)Kuomintang party in China used the term "counter-revolutionary" to disparage the communists and other opponents of its regime.Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang party leader, was the chief user of this term.[citation needed]
The reason that the nominally conservative Kuomintang used this terminology was that the party had several leftist revolutionary influences in its ideology left over from the party's beginnings.[citation needed] The Kuomintang, and Chiang Kai-shek used the words "feudal" and "counter-revolutionary" as synonyms for evil, and backwardness, and proudly proclaimed themselves to berevolutionary.[9] Chiang called the warlords feudalists, and called for feudalism and counter-revolutionaries to be stamped out by the Kuomintang.[10][11][12] Chiang showed extreme rage when he was called a warlord, because of its negative, feudal connotations.[13]
Chiang also crushed and dominated the merchants of Shanghai in 1927, seizing loans from them, with the threats of death or exile. Richmerchants,industrialists, andentrepreneurs were arrested by Chiang, who accused them of being "counter-revolutionary", and Chiang held them until they gave money to the Kuomintang. Chiang's arrests targeted rich millionaires, accusing them of communism and counter-revolutionary activities. Chiang also enforced an anti-Japanese boycott, sending his agents to sack the shops of those who sold Japanese made items and fining them. He also disregarded the internationally protected International Settlement, putting cages on its borders in which he threatened to place the merchants. The Kuomintang's alliance with theGreen Gang allowed it to ignore the borders of the foreign concessions.[14]
A similar term also existed in thePeople's Republic of China, which includes charges such collaborating with foreign forces and inciting revolts against the government and rulingCCP. According to Article 28 of theChinese constitution,The state maintains public order and suppresses treasonable and other counter-revolutionary activities; It penalizes actions that endanger public security and disrupt the socialist economy and other criminal activities, and punishes and reforms criminals.[15]
The term was widely used during theCultural Revolution, in which thousands of intellectuals and government officials were denounced as "counter-revolutionaries" by theRed Guards. Following the end of the Cultural Revolution, the term was also used againstLin Biao and theGang of Four.[citation needed]
After the overthrow ofHosni Mubarak's authoritarian government in the2011 Egyptian revolution, counter-revolutionary forces led byAbdel-Fattah Al Sisi subsequently overthrew the democratically elected presidentMohamed Morsi and established an authoritarian regime under Sisi.[16][page needed]
On 1 February 2012, thebiggest tragedy in Egyptian football resulted in the deaths of at least 74 people.[17] It happened exactly one year after Mubarak announced in a speech that there would be chaos if he stepped down, and on the same date when armed thugs attacked participants in the 2011 revolution. Some photographic and video evidence showed that police and security forces in the stadium were unwilling to respond to the riot. Many argue that the riot was planned as revenge againstUltras Ahlawy, the rowdy al-Ahly supporters who had taken part in the 2011 revolution and were known for their constant anti-governmental chants in football matches.[18]
In July 2013, Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah Al Sisi overthrew the presidentMohamed Morsi, the first president democratically elected by the Egyptian people since the proclamation of the republic in 1953. The counter-revolution ended when Al Sisi was sworn in as Egypt's 6th president in June 2014.[citation needed]
In theLaws,Plato relates a dialogue between Cleinias of Crete and an unnamed Athenian interlocutor. Part of their discourse touches on counter-revolution. Cleinias posits that a state can be considered morally superior when the virtuous citizens triumph over the unruly masses and the less virtuous classes. He asserts, "the state in which the better citizens win a victory over the mob and over the inferior classes may be truly said to be better than itself, and may be justly praised."[19]
However, the Athenian presents a hypothetical scenario wherein someone must pass judgment on a group of brothers, some of whom are behaving justly while others are acting unjustly. When questioned about the optimal resolution, Cleinias suggests that the most effective judge would not necessarily be one who imposes the just to govern over the unjust, whether by force or consent. Instead, he advocates for a judge who facilitates reconciliation by establishing a mutually agreed-upon set of laws designed to maintain harmony among them. This implies Cleinias' belief that a counter-revolutionary victory by the "better citizens" over "the mob" need not involve violence but can be attained through the enactment of just legislation.[19]
Historians have held that religious Revivalism in the late eighteenth century distracted the minds of the English from thoughts of Revolution.
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