Page - 696 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

696 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution by means of systematic underground activity. The notion of a deliberate revolution was actually integral to the war and had been floating around in the strategic concepts since the beginning of the conflict. Austria, for example, had already considered in 1914 un- leashing revolts in the Arabian territories controlled by the British. Conversely, the Rus- sians had given thought to revolutionising Galicia and, beyond that, the Slav territories of the Dual Monarchy. When, however, such things came up in the context of political concepts, it was a long way from the idea to its implementation. Ultimately, only very little of this was actually realised. It was all, furthermore, based on a completely different revolutionary concept than the upheaval in Russia, which was to create a new historical gauge. Rebellion, insurrection, revolt, nationalistic agitation with the aim of weakening the regime  – all of this was typical. The French Revolution had created a new type, since France had erupted from within, turned the revolution outwards, believed that Napole- onic rule could only be secured by means of war and, finally, again achieved a new order by means of several restorative phases. For the European peacekeeping powers, revolu- tion became a type of bogeyman and a swearword. For those who then struggled against the attempt to rigidly cling to the existing order not least for nationalistic reasons, rev- olution became a vehicle of protest. It could be repeatedly observed, however, that the new global order of states was almost always accompanied by wars and revolutions. Perhaps revolution is too familiar to us today as a historical phenomenon for us to still be able to understand the cautious approach to the revolutionary semantics of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, everyone has their own private revolutions in the field of fashion, spiritual development, sport or any number of areas. Added to this are the diverse social and political upheavals, not least those of the year 1989, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, around 80 revolutions in the Arabian world and even the proc- lamations of permanent revolution, which no longer have anything to do with those sudden, fateful and intense changes in a state that are inherent in a historical concept of revolution.1581 Only these changes, however, are to be defined as an element of the ‘ac- celeration of history’, just as cabinet wars or border disputes cannot be equated with the forces of the acceleration of historical events that ensued from the two World Wars of the 20th century. With the February Revolution in Russia, the oft-cited global change in 1917 began to clearly emerge. The outbreak of revolution initially appeared to be merely a sign that supply ca- tastrophes resulting from the war had also taken place elsewhere and that the people were no longer prepared to simply accept the war and its consequences. It was thus by no means a phenomenon that was unique to Austria-Hungary. Starvation, poverty and social inequality in a war that had already cost millions of victims in dead and wounded found its analogy on all sides. In February 1917, however, war weariness in Russia had consolidated itself in such a way that already called into question a continuation of the war. The adversity allowed