The Corrective Revolution (Arabic: الثورة التصحيحية) is an expression used by some self-described revolutionary governments in the Arab World to describe an internal political or bureaucratic power struggle, and also to indicate continued adherence to the ideals of an earlier revolution despite major policy changes, or the absence/overthrow of its previous leadership.
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Anwar El Sadat's policies after succeeding the late Gamal Abdel Nasser as President of Egypt were a corrective revolution. His ascent to power began in October 1970 and the Corrective Revolution reached full bloom in early 1971. It involved purging Nasserist members of the government and security forces, often considered pro-Soviet and leftwing, and drumming up popular support by presenting the takeover as a continuation of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, while at the same time radically changing track on issues of foreign policy, economy, and ideology. Sadat's Corrective Revolution also included the imprisonment of other political forces in Egypt, including liberals, and Islamists. The imprisonment of Islamists had a strong effect later on, as these Islamists were often members of the Takfir wal-Hijra movement and the Corrective Revolution marked the beginning of the crackdown that caused them to spread across the Arab World, and Europe, ultimately resulting in the spread of radical political Islam in these regions and also the assassination of Sadat.
The Corrective Revolution, better known as the Corrective Movement, was a military-pragmatist faction's takeover within the Ba'ath Party regime of Syria in 1970, bringing Hafez al-Assad to power. It was directed against a dominant ultraleft-wing faction of the party and, to some extent, provoked by what Assad and his supporters saw as adventureous and irresponsible foreign policies (notably the Syrian intervention in the Black September conflict in Jordan, after which the Black September Palestinian faction was named). As a result of the coup, de facto leader Salah Jadid was ousted and the party was purged.
The Corrective Revolution or Corrective Step was the Abdel Fattah Ismail Marxist faction of the South Yemeni National Liberation Front (NLF)'s successful internal coup in 1969. The leftist takeover later led to the creation of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), and South Yemen's transformation into the only Arab state to embrace doctrinaire Marxism.