“The most indubitable feature of a revolution is the direct interference of the masses in historic events. In ordinary times the state… elevates itself above the nation, and history is made by specialists in that line of business… But at those crucial moments when the old order becomes no longer endurable to the masses, they break over the barriers excluding them from the political arena, sweep aside their traditional representatives, and create by their own interference the initial groundwork for a new regime.”

Leon Trotsky