Page - 871 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

I f the twin terms of ‘triumph and tragedy’ were not already so hackneyed, one would have to apply them to the first weeks and months of 1918. The collapse of the Dan- ube Monarchy began parallel to its greatest military and political successes. On an al- most daily basis, peace settlements were dictated, there were mass strikes, the Imperial and Royal troops reached Odessa and the Black Sea, the alliance with the German Empire in its existing form shattered, and fleet units and replacement personnel re- volted. The end loomed. One thing was always rooted in another and would have been unthinkable without it. The January Strikes It began in Brest-Litovsk. Before his renewed departure to the peace negotiations with Russia, Czernin had urged that as little information as possible be announced regarding the progress of the negotiations ; in particular all news from Russian sources that did not correspond to the Minister’s bulletins was to be censored and its appearance in newspapers under no circumstances approved. This measure was unsuccessful, however. The news filtered through  – and stirred things up. The unrest grew daily. During the first days of January, short-lived strikes flared up in Hungary, Transyl- vania and Poland. In themselves, they were not particularly significant, since there had always been short strikes in 1916, 1917 and now also 1918. The reasons for these were first and foremost supply issues. This time, however, noticeable political slogans inter- mingled with the strikes, above all Bolshevik ones. In Brest-Litovsk it was claimed that ‘the counts and generals, supported by the sword, have brutally rejected the will to peace of our Russian brothers. The masses want neither victory nor glory of arms  – they want immediate peace, peace at all costs. [..] The Russian workers and soldiers have fought not only for their freedom with the most extreme means of class struggle, with mass strikes, mutiny and street fighting ! They have shed their blood for the liberation of all peoples of the Earth from the suffering of war and the yoke of capitalism. […] Workers of the world, unite !’2071 However, it was not only the social components that created a stir. The nationalities, above all the Slav ones, were agitated. Here the Pan-Slavists joined hands with those who clung to the demand for the right to self-determination. Czechs and southern Slavs were in agreement in December 1917 on wanting to demand the participation of