The Russian Revolution was a social movement as well as a political one and involved the assertion of a people that they wanted a change in leadership, in economic structure, and in how society was ordered. The revolution was based essentially on principles espoused by Marx and Engels and then reshaped by Lenin and others in the era prior to the onset of the revolt. The Russian Revolution would serve as a model for other revolutionary movements to come, notably that in China, with modifications according to the specific needs in a given situation.
The conceptions of Marx derive from his view of the nature and origin of society. Marx had a conception of human history based on dialectical materialism. This conception includes the underlying idea that the determining factors in the development, relations, and institutions of mankind are not mystical or ideological but economic. All human actions are rooted in labor activities and in the nature of the relations deriving from those activities. Human beings must secure a livelihood, and to accomplish this they organize their productive forces to operate throughout the resulting economic spectrum. Everything else in life rests on this economic foundation. It is through this economic structure that society comes into being, and the society that results is made up of social classes, with one class dominant at a given time based on the control of the means of production. Human nature is expressed in the way individuals relate to class and the way they are controlled by that relationship. The workers sell their labor and are alienated from the product of their labor as a consequence. The workers do not own the means of production. In our present social structure, it is the capitalist who owns the means of production, and this person sells the product of the labor of the workers. Marx sees this as the exploitation of one class by another, finding that it produces class hostilities ...