ABSTRACT
The great socialist revolutions in Russia and in China can be examined as a transitional moment for those millenary societies, characterized, in Russia’s case, by a big peasantry and a feudal production mode; and, in China’s case, by the Asian production mode. Both Russian and Chinese societies went through a crisis in the 19th Century. On the first case, the instability was a consequence of the growing autocracy and despotism; on the second case, it was a result of an invasion and the subsequent war period, a condition that remained present up until the victory of the Chinese Revolution of 1949. Russia and China, on their peculiar trajectories towards modernity, were able to count on both popular classes that had a leading role on politics and on first class intellectuals that knew how to mediate between the social and political characteristics of their countries and the necessity of a revolution. Currently, both countries are foreground protagonists in the world scenery, standing out for their specific ways of organizing their economies as well as their internal and external policies.
Keywords:
1917 Russian Revolution; 1949 Chinese Revolution; Intelligentsia; Socialism; Confucianism.