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The Russian
October Revolution 849
obtain power in the state, but also to keep hold of it through military means. This item
2 in the guidelines for the deployment of the Red Guards ran as follows : ‘The voluntary
regiments shall at a time specified by the army committee be appointed by an order
to the front armies to regiments of the Red Guards, and will from this time on be in-
troduced to revolutionary discipline and mandatory service ; all volunteers will receive
increased pay. On entry into the regiment, the volunteer enters into the obligation
before the entire regiment to serve for at least six months with the Red Guards and to
fulfil all the duties of a revolutionary soldier […].’ And item 4 ran : ‘The volunteers are
only obliged to fulfil field service ; in base establishments and for commercial work, only
freely recruited workers will be used.’ The Austro-Hungarian observers also received
first-hand information on the efforts of the Ukrainian parliament, the ‘Central Rada’
(Central Council) to attain independence, to establish its own army and to set up a
state administration. It was known that attempts at gaining independence, and inde-
pendence declarations, were being made among individual regions and peoples such as
those in the Caucasus, Siberia, Bessarabia, Turkestan and in the Black Sea and Danube
region, as well as among the Bashkirs and Terek Cossacks. Estonia and Belarus were
striving for autonomy within the Russian Empire.2018 The disintegration of the old cen-
tral power, and the attempts at creating a new one, went hand in hand. This could also
be regarded with satisfaction by the Central Powers, since only if the Bolsheviks came
to power and pushed through their claim to leadership would the contract negotiated
with them be tenable.
In Vienna, the peace proposal from the Second All-Russian Congress had been
published immediately. In the German Empire, it took another day, since Ludendorff
was at first reluctant for the news to be spread. However, it could not be suppressed.
Shortly afterwards, there was a real sense of alarm in Berlin, when contacts between
German Social Democrats and Bolshevik representatives in Sweden became known,
which were aimed at winning German backing for the October Revolution. Germany’s
Socialists were to support the movement in Russia as far as possible through ‘large
demonstrations and strikes’. Philipp Scheidemann and Friedrich Ebert had refused
to stab the imperial government – which had been led since 1 November 1917 by the
Bavarian Count Georg von Hertling – in the back in such a way. However, they de-
clared themselves willing to read a Bolshevik appeal at mass gatherings, and to answer
it through supporting rallies.
Suddenly, there was talk of conducting the negotiations with Russia as peace nego-
tiations straight away, and using peace envoys. However, this was by no means in line
with what the Germans had envisaged. There was therefore a palpable sense of relief in
the German imperial government when a Russian radio message was intercepted, via
which the Council of People’s Commissars directed a formal proposal for an armistice
to all belligerents. In Berlin and in the German Supreme Army Command, the conclu-
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Title
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Subtitle
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Author
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2014
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Size
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 1192
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155