НОЯБРЬСКАЯ РЕВОЛЮЦИЯ 1918 г. В ГЕРМАНИИ И ПРОБЛЕМЫ ВОЗНИКНОВЕНИЯ, РАЗВИТИЯ И ПАДЕНИЯ ВЕЙМАРСКОЙ РЕСПУБЛИКИ

Abstract

The article aims to consider the history of the Weimar Republic through the prism of the algorithm of the German revolution (that began in November, 1918 and is known as the November Revolution) and its continuation that discloses regularities of the origin, development and disappearance of the first German democracy. A comparative-historical approach to the German revolution (1918-1923), the Great French revolution (1789-1799), the French revolution of 1848, the Russian revolution (1917-1922), the events of the Italian history of the period of Mussolini, the Spanish Franco's period, the Portuguese history from 1926 to 1974 has become the cornerstone of the analysis. The author divides the German revolution into three stages: 1918-1923, 1924-1929, 193033. The first stage lasted from the revolt in Kiel (November 3-10, 1918) to the beer putsch in Munich and the revolt of communists in Hamburg in November, 1923. The open civil war in the country ended at that stage: the social protest splashed out in the streets, led to mass demonstrations, strikes and disorders, but not to revolts and big armed conflicts. This protest fell down during the economic stabilization of 1926-1928, but it began to rise again with the world economic crisis of 1929. The second stage (1924-1929) came to an end with the beginning of the world economic crisis. The third stage was connected with the new aggravation of opposition in the German society which led to the polarization and radicalization of society and, eventually, to the rise of the Nazis to power. The analysis shows that the German revolution has common features with the French revolution of 1848 and the Russian revolution in its February-October stage. Besides, the German revolution of 1918-1923 and the subsequent history of the Weimar Republic has broad analogies with the Great French and Russian revolutions in the stages known as the Thermidor and the Bonapartist regime. The author comes to a conclusion that events of the end of 1923 in Germany can be regarded as the Thermidor - a kickback of the revolution to the right, and Hitler's coming to power could be qualified as the Bonapartist regime. This period of the German history finds analogies in contemporary events: the Italian history of the period of Mussolini, Spain in Franco's period, the Portuguese history from 1926 to 1974. The author comes to a conclusion that the Weimar Republic became the same period of revolutionary development of Germany as the First Republic in France, which caused its history, many regularities of its emergence, development and falling.