The First Revolution of the Twentieth Century: Fears of Socialism and Anti-Labour Mobilisation in Europe After the Russian Revolution of 1905

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AbstractIn the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Europe experienced labour conflicts, unprecedented in their character, intensity and scope. From the waves of strikes and social conflicts of the pre-war era, through the ordeal of the First World War, and the extraordinary violence of the post-1917 upheavals, the revolutionary potential of mass strikes never ceased to torment those who were assigned, or self-appointed, to protect the threatened order. The purpose of this article is to analyse the repertoire of actions and ideas of right-wing civil defence leagues, vigilante organisations, private police and yellow unions which emerged at the end of the century, and most noticeably in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1905. This phenomenon is considered in a comparative and transnational perspective, with a particular focus on the most industrialised societies of pre-war Europe: France, Germany and Great Britain. The article provides a systematisation and assessment of the different forms, types and characteristics of this process of relative privatisation and realignment in security roles, outlying trends and shared clusters of ideological beliefs in violent activity across various industries and national contexts. The article shows how the pre-war experience of vigilantism, anti-socialism and nationalism would represent a key incentive to the development of governmental strikebreaking schemes as well as an important situational antecedent for citizens’ militias and right-wing paramilitary organisations in the aftermath of the Great War.