Reported revolutionary soldier as brutal sort (7)
I believe the answer is:
gorilla
'reported revolutionary' is the definition.
'gorilla' can be an answer for 'revolutionary' (thesaurus). I am unsure of the 'reported' bit.
'soldier as brutal sort' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'soldier' could be 'or' (soldier from Other Ranks) and 'or' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for gorilla that I've seen before include "Large primate" , "Heavy" , "Aggressive-looking type" , "brutal man" , "Primate - sturdily-built aggressive man" .)