Revolution!

My next assignment will be on the subject of revolution, it asks if the revolutions in Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary at the end of World War 1 were because of that war or would they have happened anyway. It is an interesting subject and i think the key question to ask first is what do you mean by "revolution", a word now rather overused.

Relevant to my subject there are two kinds of revolution : political and social. In the three countries/empires in question political revolutions do apply though social revolution, a revolution in how a society operates and grows from top to bottom, applies mainly to Russia and in some ways to Austria-Hungary. It doesn't really apply to Germany even if The Kaiser was deposed. The aristocracy remained in place along with rich businessmen (indeed it is because of the political power and influence of these groups largely that Hitler was able to gain power, but that is a subject for another day).

Political revolution, on the other hand, applies to all. Germany became a republic with a socialist government, Austria-Hungary broke up, and Russia of course became the USSR. There is little doubt that the pressures of war, especially the effect of shortages and restrictions on the civilian population, helped build up the pressure for change. However it is simplistic to say the working class were equally oppressed and impoverished. Indeed many workers did well in the war and saw their wages rise, especially those in vital industries. It was the middle class who suffered, falling incomes, those on fixed incomes especially. However everyone saw their spending power erode in the end as raging inflation and shortages bit in later in the war.

One could argue, however, that there were revolutionary pressures in all three states before the war. Russia had had problems for years, the 1905 revolution for example which saw the Tsar give up some powers before snatching them back and leaving the Duma impotent. Germany had seen the rise of socialism and even from the early 1900s The Kaiser had to use political guile to get his armaments programmes through the Reichstag. Austria-Hungary was a basket case empire which uses the tension between various ethnic groups to maintain cohesion, a policy that was probably bound to fail sooner or later.

It can be no co-incidence that all three states suffered their revolutions within a couple of years of each other. Pressures already existed and the war causes these pressures to keep on building up. Without the war it may have been all three states saw revolution in any case but perhaps of a different (and less violent) kind. That of course is something we will never know for sure.