The word revolution means a "change." So you can draw the conclusion from this statement that Revolutions are changes. Yet did Life change much for the ordinary working society?.
Let's begin with the French revolution. Louis XVI was an absolute ruler, the King of France. The country was in debt of millions of pounds and the tax system was a failure. France needed change and the revolution begun. Louis and the Royal Family was thrown out and executed and after a few years Napoleon became emperor. So what changed, only the fact that Napoleon now ruled. The poor were still poor. The rich were mostly rich and you could say nothing really changed.
What about the Russian revolution in 1917? Before, the Tsar who was the absolute ruler ruled by secret police so everyone did their part. Yet in the First World War with Japan, Russia lost both army and naval battles and the Russians were convinced of the incompetence of their ruler. After 1917 there were many power struggles for who would lead. After intense fighting, Lenin, Vladimir Ulyich Ulanov became an absolute ruler with the help of an even more deadly secret police. Not much changed either except that the peasants had to give all their produce to the state because of communist rules. This led to a decline in food production as there was no motivation for farmers to work harder. 10 million people died of starvation as a result. Instead of the revolution changing for the better it became worse.
Take the Chinese revolution onto account. Prior to the 1949 Revolution, direct producers in some parts of rural China were already taking matters into their own hands by overthrowing the local feudal lords. This practice may have been encouraged by the growing knowledge that in the Communist Party-controlled areas of China there was already some degree of land redistribution and landlord power had been destroyed or severely diminished. In other words, prior to the 1949 Revolution, feudal China was in a state of crisis that was deepening and spreading.
