Explanation: Marx’s theories were very much built off of his experiences in the Revolutions of 1848 - he saw that no amount of fire and fury in the bellies of a small vanguard could replace mass support and unity. To this end, he believed that the most important development in the journey towards a socialist state was the development of a capitalist economy. The capitalist economy builds industry, which creates a large proletariat, which is then agitated by their exploitation at the hands of capitalism, which then develops class consciousness, which allows them to marshal their strength against the capitalist state and mode of production.

Revolution fails? It’s not because you didn’t ‘believe’ hard enough, or socialism is ‘impossible’ in your very specific country. It’s because the proletariat was not ready. Go back to laying the groundwork. Make sure that the revolution’s goal is socialism; if it is just democracy, aim for that first, then overthrow bourgeois democracy. One step at a time. Let the pieces form together, don’t try to crush them into fitting.

None of this is ‘automatic’ - it must be cultivated by class conscious individuals and groups to help their comrades realize class consciousness faster than the capitalists can suppress the idea - but neither can it be truly ‘forced’ - it is a development.

The Bolsheviks, an originally fringe leftist group in the Russian Empire, believed that only a small ‘vanguard’ party would have the necessary education, discipline, and political correctness to ‘guide’ the poor, sniveling masses to their salvation. A coup by the Bolsheviks over the newly democratically-elected socialist-supermajority legislature of Russia, which did not support the Bolsheviks, created the USSR, which… did not end up being a particular success for socialism.

All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.