The people's army is a historical category. At the end of the primitive commune system, armed organizations began to appear to protect the means of subsistence of clans, phratries and tribes. Although this kind of armed organization cannot be counted as an army, it is called "the real' armed people'" by Engels. With the improvement of social productive forces, the emergence of classes and the development of class struggle, the people have produced an army organized by themselves in order to resist the slavery and oppression of the ruling class. During the slave society, the armed groups established by the slave uprising were people's armed forces representing the interests of the slave class. The armed forces established in the Egyptian slave uprising in the 0/8th century BC, the slave uprising led by China Branch in the 5th century BC and the slave uprising led by Spartacus in ancient Rome in 73 BC are all earlier people's armed organizations in history. In feudal society, the armed groups in which peasants held uprisings were the people's armed forces representing the interests of the peasant class. In China, from Chen Sheng and Guangwu in Qin Dynasty to Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Qing Dynasty, hundreds of peasant revolutionary wars broke out around 2000. Although the slogan, organization, scale and influence of the peasant armed forces participating in the war are different, they are common in opposing feudal relations of production and advocating the establishment of an ideal society of "equality" for peasants. In the process of the emergence and development of capitalist relations of production, bourgeois-led revolutionary wars, such as the American War of Independence in 1775, the French Revolution in 1789, and the Spanish bourgeois revolution in the first half of19th century, all established the people's army. For the army established in the Spanish War of Independence, K. Marx praised it as "laying the foundation for truly arming the people" (Collected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 4, Page 3/kloc-0). However, due to the limitations of class and times, these troops failed to completely win the people's revolutionary cause.

After the proletariat stepped onto the stage of human history and politics, Marx and Engels founded the revolutionary theory of organizing the proletarian revolutionary army and overthrowing the old social system by violence. The army established according to this theory is different from any previous people's armed forces. It is a people's army led by a proletarian political party and guided by Marxist theory, striving for the complete liberation of the proletariat and mankind. 187 1 The Paris Commune Uprising was a people's army led by the proletariat and mainly composed of working people (mainly workers). With this army, the Paris Commune established the first proletarian dictatorship in human history (see color map). According to the experience of the Paris Commune, Engels repeatedly emphasized breaking the old army and establishing a new army, and in February 1887, he clearly put forward the concept of "real people's army" (Selected Military Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 2, page 424). виив Lenin and ив Stalin, in the process of leading the Soviet revolution, further put forward the principle that the proletarian army is composed of workers and peasants and is a tool for fighting for the interests of workers. The Soviet Red Army, established according to the above principles, made historic contributions to the establishment and consolidation of the Soviet state power, the resistance and defeat of the German aggressors in the Second World War and the victory of the Great Patriotic War.

Starting from the characteristics of China society and China revolution, the people of China regard the establishment of a new people's army as the primary issue of China revolution. During the period of 1926, Mao Zedong put forward the idea of building farmers' own armed forces. 1in August, 927, he put forward the conclusion that "political power comes from the barrel of a gun". After the failure of the Great Revolution, China launched and led 100 armed uprisings all over the country. 1, 1, Nanchang Uprising in August, 927 marked the beginning of China's independent armed struggle and the birth of China's new people's army (see color map). The revolutionary army of workers and peasants led by Mao Zedong and others who took part in the autumn harvest uprising, after the reorganization of the three-in-one, especially after the Gutian meeting, laid the foundation for fundamentally solving a series of theoretical, line and principle problems in building a new people's army. Under the guidance of these basic theories and principles, the Chinese Red Army of Workers and Peasants, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and all the people's armed forces during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, as well as the People's Liberation Army in China now, have been constantly developing and growing. Under the leadership of China, the people of China, with the people's army as the backbone, overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism after a long revolutionary war and arduous struggle, won the victory of the new-democratic revolution and established People's Republic of China (PRC). After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), relying on the people's army, it defeated the aggression, destruction and armed provocation of foreign forces, safeguarded the independence and security of the country, defended the socialist modernization drive and consolidated the state power of the dictatorship of the proletariat. China's democratic revolution and the history since the founding of the People's Republic have proved that without the people's army, there would be nothing for the people.