Re: Explanation

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Last events in Yugoslavia are combined democratic revolution and a coup
>d'etat. First part (democratic revolution) was when people from all over
>Serbia came to Belgrade at October 5th. They start with open attack on
>Parliament, state TV (both are burned down), and police stations. People
>from other cities protected revolution in Belgrade fighting with the police
>which moved to the Belgrade. Second part (the coup) come to the stage when
>bourgeois factions, both from DOS (Democratic Opposition of Serbia) and from
>Milosevic's SPS (Socialist Party of Serbia), realize that they have real
>revolution in their own house. They moved away already defeated police,
>prevent intervention of army and success to calm down people after just a
>few hours of battle.
>Milan

*****   The most famous of these urban uprisings was the Fall of the
Bastille.  The king decided to beef up his arsenal of weapons and
soldiers in order to have the military force to dissolve the Estates
General.  But these actions inflamed the passions of public opinion.
Increased mob activity in Paris led the Parisian leaders to form a
permanent committee to keep order.  Needing arms, they organized a
popular force to capture the Invalides, a royal armory, and on July
14 attacked the Bastille, another royal armory.  But the Bastille had
also been a state prison, and though it now contained only seven
prisoners (five forgers and two insane people) its fall quickly
became a popular symbol of triumph over despotism.  Paris was turned
over to the mob and Louis XVI was soon informed that the royal troops
were unreliable.  When told of this by an advisor, the king is
supposed to have said, "but that's a revolt."  No sire, his advisor
replied, that's a revolution.
<http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/neamane/history200/section3/lecture9.html>
*****

In the case of Yugoslavia, however, we would have to invert the
dialogue between the king and his adviser above:  Was it a
revolution?  No, sir, it was a revolt.  A real revolution, democratic
or socialist, won't "calm down" after "just a few hours of battle."
Leninism isn't the same as wishful thinking.

Yoshie