Home > AA312 Total War & Social Change 1914-1955
Question: How far were the revolutions in Germany (1918) and Russia (1917) the consequence of defeat in war?
Answer: Whilst there are many definitions of the term “revolution”, it is generally considered to be a process involving total governmental breakdown which destroys the states monopoly over their armed forces and leads to a struggle between armed blocs for state control. Revolution ends when a power bloc is able to assume sovereign control of the state . Kaplan adds to this by arguing that modern revolutions are “characterized by rapid, violent and fundamental changes in the political institutions and social structure of the old regime through rearrangements in class alignments and the participation of masses of people”.
The Russian revolution (1917) clearly demonstrates all these characteristics however the German revolution has proved more controversial. Although Germany emerged from the events of 1918 as a republic rather than a monarchy, many key personnel had remained in place, ...(short extract)
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- Subject: World War 1 and 2
- Course: AA312
- Level: Degree
- Year: 2nd/3rd
- Mark: 68%
- Words: 2164
- Date submitted: January 13, 2009
- Date written: May, 2007
- References: Yes
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 91
