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A '''Revolutionary vanguard'' '''movement''', '''revolutionary vanguard party''', '''vanguard movement''', '''vanguard party''', '''revolutionary vanguard''', or sometimes simply '''vanguard''' refers to the problem in [[Marxist]] doctrine of governing after [[violent]] [[revolution]] is achieved. While it takes years of [[ideological]] indoctrination, training and agitation to overthrow the existing government and social order, the objective can be achieved in a moment. At that point [[Socialist]]s are faced with the practical realities of governing. There is a tendency to rest on one's laurels after victory, and a danger of becoming just like the regime that was just overthrown.

A '''Revolutionary vanguard''' '''movement''', '''revolutionary vanguard party''', '''vanguard movement''', '''vanguard party''', '''revolutionary vanguard''', or sometimes simply '''vanguard''' is the solution to the practical problem of governing after a [[socialist]] revolution is achieved. It is an attempt to create a "[[permanent revolution]]" through an institutionalized party.  

Stagnation and [[corruption]] will ensure unless the "revolutionary fervor," [[class warfare|class hatred]], and [[bigot]]ry become institutionalized in the new Socialist regime party and [[bureaucracy]].

 

Stagnation and [[corruption]] will ensue unless "revolutionary fervor," [[class warfare|class hatred]], and [[bigot]]ry become institutionalized in the new Socialist ruling party and [[bureaucracy]]. Hence is born the concept of ongoing or "permanent revolution." This, and "institutionalized revolution" are just two examples of the [[oxymoron]]ic thinking common to [[Marxist]] theory.

==Origins of term==

==Origins of term==

[[Lenin]]'s [[ideological]] contribution was to make the [[Communist party]] itself the exclusive "vanguard of the proletariat" and thus the final arbiter of what was [[proletarian]] or [[bourgeois]].<ref>Revelations from the Russian Archives, [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/atts.html Attacks on Intelligentsia: Suppressing Dissidents,] Library of Congress Exhibit. Retrieved March 18, 2010.</ref>  In ''Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder''<ref>[http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html V. I. Lenin, ''"Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder''] (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.</ref> written in 1920, Lenin discovered his earlier account of the workers' consciousness was too optimistic. Workers are not only indifferent to [[revolution]], they oppose it. To some extent the workers are positively "reactionary." Two stubborn obstacles remain: "force of habit," the powerful attachment to "the forces and traditions of the old society," and "small-scale production," which continues "spontaneously and on a mass scale." Lenin calls "habit", using a Marxian term, "bourgeois passions," the inclination of people to acquire, love, and defend what is their own to the exclusion of others in the community. Springing from and reinforcing this "force of habit in millions and tens of millions" are "millions upon millions of petty proprietors" and "small commodity producers" whose private mode of production continues to foster the non-[[socialist]] habits that stand in the way of transition to [[communism]]. Since the workers and the rest of the people "can (and must) be remodeled and re-educated only by very prolonged, slow, cautious [[Community organizing|organizational work]]" the party must continue to rule dictatorially on behalf of the workers just as it earlier took the lead in making the revolution. This process will take "very many years." The "proletarian vanguard," Lenin admits, is the [[Politburo]] of the party, consisting of Lenin and a handful of close colleagues.<ref>[http://www.claremont.org/publications/pubid.4/pub_detail.asp Marx and Lenin,] Thomas G. West, The Claremont Institute, Posted on October 10, 2006. Retrieved March 18, 2010.</ref>

[[Lenin]]'s [[ideological]] contribution was to make the [[Communist party]] itself the exclusive "vanguard of the proletariat" and thus the final arbiter of what was [[proletarian]] or [[bourgeois]].<ref>Revelations from the Russian Archives, [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/atts.html Attacks on Intelligentsia: Suppressing Dissidents,] Library of Congress Exhibit. Retrieved March 18, 2010.</ref>  In ''Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder''<ref>[http://www.marx2mao.com/Lenin/LWC20.html V. I. Lenin, ''"Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder''] (1920) V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, English edition, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1952, Vol. II, Part 2.</ref> written in 1920, Lenin discovered his earlier account of the workers' consciousness was too optimistic. Workers are not only indifferent to [[revolution]], they oppose it. To some extent the workers are positively "reactionary." Two stubborn obstacles remain: "force of habit," the powerful attachment to "the forces and traditions of the old society," and "small-scale production," which continues "spontaneously and on a mass scale." Lenin calls "habit", using a Marxian term, "bourgeois passions," the inclination of people to acquire, love, and defend what is their own to the exclusion of others in the community. Springing from and reinforcing this "force of habit in millions and tens of millions" are "millions upon millions of petty proprietors" and "small commodity producers" whose private mode of production continues to foster the non-[[socialist]] habits that stand in the way of transition to [[communism]]. Since the workers and the rest of the people "can (and must) be remodeled and re-educated only by very prolonged, slow, cautious [[Community organizing|organizational work]]" the party must continue to rule dictatorially on behalf of the workers just as it earlier took the lead in making the revolution. This process will take "very many years." The "proletarian vanguard," Lenin admits, is the [[Politburo]] of the party, consisting of Lenin and a handful of close colleagues.<ref>[http://www.claremont.org/publications/pubid.4/pub_detail.asp Marx and Lenin,] Thomas G. West, The Claremont Institute, Posted on October 10, 2006. Retrieved March 18, 2010.</ref>

==References==

==References==

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[[Category:Marxist Terminology]]

[[Category:Marxist Terminology]]