Chapter 29 Chapter XXII Revolution and Reconciliation in Europe Before 1929

While the colonial world was in the throes of national revolutions, Europe itself was awash with social revolutions.Across the continent, the old order was being called into question, partly because of the trauma of the world wars and partly because of the impact of the Great Russian Revolution.Thus, the history of Europe in the decade before 1929 is mainly the history of struggles between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces.In Soviet Russia, communism was triumphantly emerging after years of civil war and intervention.In Central Europe, radical revolutionary forces were suppressed and various non-communist regimes, from the liberal Weimar Republic in Germany to the rightist Horthy government in Hungary and the fascist Mussolini state in Italy, emerged.Western Europe was less violently harassed, yet even there the powers of traditional parliamentary institutions were abused by economic hardship, mass unemployment, and cabinet instability.By the late 1920s some order seemed to be being restored in Europe.Prosperity was growing, unemployment was falling, and international problems seemed to be resolved by the Dawes Plan, the Lodinow Pact, the Kellogg-Brianne Pact, and the five-year plans of the Soviet Union. Solved without the promise of a world revolution.Europe was returning to normalcy, or so it seemed, before the Great Depression precipitated a series of domestic and international crises that culminated in World War II.

The Bolsheviks signed the harsh "Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty" on March 3, 1918 (see Chapter 20, Section 4), hoping that they would finally turn from war to the establishment of a new social order. More desirable tasks come up.However, they were doomed to fight for more than three years to deal with counter-revolutionaries and foreign interference.To some extent, the counter-revolution was carried out by members of the propertied classes—military officers, government officials, landowners, and merchants; who, for obvious reasons, wished to rid themselves of the Bolsheviks.However, various members of the non-Bolshevik Left were equally enthusiastic about counter-revolutionary activities, the Socialist Revolutionaries being the most numerous of them.They agreed with the Bolsheviks on the need for a social revolution, but hated the Bolsheviks' monopoly on revolution.They saw the Bolshevik coup of November 7, 1917 as outright betrayal, not least because the Constituent Assembly elected on November 25, 1917 had only 175 seats for the Bolsheviks, 370 for the Social Revolutionaries and 370 for the other parties. Representatives occupy 159 seats (see Section 4 of Chapter XX).Thus, the non-Bolshevik Left took the lead in organizing underground opposition, while the Right led the army in an open rebellion starting in the Cossack regions.

These anti-Bolshevik groups were supported and aided by the Western Powers, who did so for various reasons—like the exasperating campaign of the Bolsheviks for world revolution.In Europe and the colonies, the Bolsheviks called on the "working masses" to "change the imperialist war into a civil war".The reaction of many Western leaders was, of course, an attempt to eliminate these Marxist demagogues before they lit the fuses of revolutions throughout the world. In addition, some politicians in Britain and France mistakenly believed that the Bolsheviks were tools of the German General Staff, and also Hope to get rid of them so that Russia can get back to war.Closely related to this is the problem of how the Allies dealt with a large amount of military supplies stored in Russia in the past. More than 160,000 tons of these military supplies were stored in Murmansk and 800,000 tons were stored in Vladivostok; Western powers were worried about the Bolshevik Willingly or unwillingly let these supplies fall into German hands.There were also economic motives behind the Entente intervention: the Bolsheviks' practice of nationalizing foreign property and refusing to pay foreign debts naturally created hostility from powerful vested interests who used their power to facilitate the intervention.

Under these circumstances, the border regions of Russia—the northern region of Archangel-Murmansk, the Baltic provinces, Ukraine, the Don region, Transcaucasus and Siberia—were Several counter-revolutionary governments were established shortly after the signing of the book.In addition to receiving military advisers and small detachments on certain fronts, these governments also received large amounts of funds and military supplies.The war in the West came to an end shortly after the military campaign began, raising the question of whether Entente intervention should go further.The original arguments about bringing Russia back into the war and preventing the Germans from seizing military supplies were now meaningless.

At the conference in Paris, the Allied leaders discussed whether to continue the intervention.Both President Wilson and Prime Minister Lloyd George favored an immediate armistice.However, Georges Clemenceau insisted that all of Europe was threatened by revolution and that Bolshevism must be wiped out at its origins.Both Wilson and Lloyd George failed to assert their views as they had to leave the meeting to fulfill their political responsibilities at home.Their remaining representatives, Secretary of State Robert Lansing and War Secretary Winston Churchill, held views closer to Clementine's.Thus, a resolution was reached to continue the intervention; a momentous decision that would mean more than three years of war and an unacceptable legacy of state-to-state distrust in the years following the war.

At first the Bolsheviks suffered one defeat after another simply because the old Russian army was torn apart and there was nothing else to replace it.People's Commissar of Defense Lev Trotsky gradually built up a new army, the Red Army, which by the end of 1918 numbered about 500,000.This army often had to fight on 24 different fronts as rebellions broke out across the country and Allied forces landed along the coast. In 1919, the main opponents of the Bolsheviks were Naval Admiral Kolchak in Siberia, General Denikin in Crimea and Ukraine, and General Yudenich in Estonia.A common pattern can be seen in the campaigns they waged.First they launched a sudden attack from the base; easily achieved the initial victory, and entered the stage not far from the general victory, then, they were blocked, gradually repulsed, finally defeated and "purged", "purged" is the Bolshevik A favorite word. In March 1919, Kolchak captured the city of Ufa on the west side of the Ural Mountains; in August, Denikin had advanced north to Kyiv; by October, Yudenich had penetrated deep into the outskirts of Petrograd.At this time, Lenin's regime was confined to the Petrograd-Moscow region, which roughly corresponded to the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century.By the end of 1919, however, the tide had turned: Denikin had been forced to retreat to the Crimea, Yudenich to the Baltic, Kolchak not only to the other side of the Ural Mountains, And was captured and executed.

In early 1920, it seemed that this ordeal had finally come to an end.However, the war dragged on for another full year due to the appearance of the Poles and renewed massive intervention by the French.Determined to extend their borders as far east as possible, the Poles invaded Ukraine in April 1920, taking advantage of the confusion and exhaustion of the Russians.The battle pattern of the previous year reappeared at this time.The Poles advanced quickly and captured Kyiv on May 7, but they were driven out of the city five weeks later; by mid-July they had retreated to their homeland.The victorious Bolsheviks pressed on and reached the outskirts of Warsaw on August 14.However, the Poles had strong support from the French.stopped the advance of the Russians and managed to drive them back.The battle ended in mid-October, and the Treaty of Rif of March 18, 1921 defined the Polish-Soviet border that existed until World War II.

By then, General Wrangel had replaced Denikin and, with the generous assistance of the French, had captured most of southern Russia.Having concluded their war with the Poles, the Bolsheviks turned their troops on Wrangel and drove him south into the Crimea.The peninsula, formerly the playground of tsars and grand dukes, was now crowded with a motley assortment of refugees—prelates, tsarist officials, noble landowners, remnants of the White Army.French warships evacuated as many as they could to ports from Constantinople to Marseilles, leaving the rest at the mercy of the victorious Red Army.

At this time, the only foreign troops remaining on Russian soil were the Japanese operating out of Vladivostok.Originally, in addition to the Japanese contingent in eastern Siberia, there were also American and British contingents, but the latter two were withdrawn in 1920.The Japanese stayed on, hoping to control these vast but sparsely populated regions through puppet regimes.The United States repeatedly put diplomatic pressure on the Japanese to leave, and finally, at the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference in 1922, finally persuaded them to withdraw. With the withdrawal of the Japanese, this dismal period of civil war and intervention drew to a close smoothly.The Communist Party led by Lenin controlled the country at this time. Few would have predicted this outcome in 1919, when the besieged Communist Party seemed destined to be wiped out by counter-revolutionary forces backed by Allied forces.But the fact is that, contrary to what Soviet historians assert, the Allies never focused their attention and financial resources on continuing the struggle in Russia.With the exception of certain fanatical anti-Bolsheviks in secondary positions, the leaders of the Entente considered intervention a mere side issue, and they supported it intermittently, with conflicting motives.They did provide the White Army with a lot of money and military supplies, but they rarely sent troops.It was only in northern Russia that these Entente detachments took part effectively in actual combat.In fact, in eastern Siberia, Japanese, American, and British troops were more often involved in plots against each other than in battles against the Red Army.The American diplomat and historian George Kennan has asserted that the intervention "worked everywhere to damage the enemies of the Bolsheviks and to strengthen the Communists themselves. This factor is so important that I think that if Western governments do not pass this It is very doubtful whether Bolshevism will gain the upper hand throughout Russia, helped by ill-conceived interventions to gain strength gradually."

Entente disunity and indecision were one reason for the Bolshevik victory.The situation of disunity in the White Army was even worse, not only because of the conflicting ambitions of the various leaders, but also because of the fundamental antagonism between the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries and various Right-wing elements.The Communists, by contrast, enjoyed certain advantages that turned out to be decisive.Their rock-solid party organization has imposed a unity and discipline that its opposition has never had.The Communist Party was strongly supported by the Cheka, an effective secret police organization, which ruthlessly cracked down on various opposition groups.Military Commissar Lev Trotsky deftly combined the zeal of the proletarian volunteers with the indispensable technical know-how of former Tsarist officers to create a new and powerful Red Army.Moreover, this army also enjoyed the enormous advantage of controlling internal lines of communication, in contrast to the situation of the White Army, which was separated by enormous distances between its various units and from its supplies in Western Europe and the United States. distance.In the end, the Bolsheviks were generally more successful in winning over the peasant masses.This does not mean that the Bolsheviks had persuaded the Russian peasantry to subscribe to the Marxist ideology; in fact, most peasants were so dissatisfied with both the Red and White armies that they preferred to be left alone.But when they had to choose, they often decided to support the Red Army, which they believed was on their side, allowing them to keep the land they had taken from the landowners.

In retrospect, the long period of civil war and intervention was a disaster for all parties involved.It laid waste to the Russian countryside from the Baltic to the Pacific, and decimated the Russian people to misfortune, hunger, and disease.Equally serious was the deterioration of relations between the newly formed Soviet Union and the Western world.The Marxist fear of being "surrounded by capitalism" harbored by Soviet leaders deepened, while Western politicians took too seriously the useless proclamations of the Comintern founded in 1919.This mutual mistrust was so deep and persistent that it poisoned international relations for the next decade and greatly contributed to the onset of World War II. As civil war raged in Soviet Russia, the key question facing Europe was whether communism would spread to the West.Lenin and his Bolsheviks believed that their cause was doomed if communism did not spread to the West.According to the Marxist system of ideology, they could not imagine that their revolution would survive and take root in a country, especially in mainly agricultural Russia, so they watched closely and hopefully the developments in Central Europe, especially in Germany , since Germany is clearly the key country.If Germany were to become communist, its industrial strength combined with Russia's natural resources would be indestructible, and the future of the revolution would be secure. At first, these hopes of the Bolsheviks seemed likely to come true.The Kaiser had to abdicate on November 9, 1918, after a naval mutiny and revolutions spreading inland from the Baltic ports (see Chapter 20, Section 6).Workers' and soldiers' councils similar to those of the Russian Soviets arose in major cities, including Berlin.The revolutionary movement was so strong that communism seemed likely to reach continental Europe at least as far as the Rhine.However, the end result was not a Soviet Germany but a bourgeois German republic. Several factors, then unnoticed, explain this significant result, one factor being the prosperity of pre-war Germany, which kept the working class relatively contented and less motivated to revolutionize.True, the National Social Democratic Party in 1914 was the most powerful party in Europe, but it was conservative and more focused on social reform than revolution.Equally important was the wealth of the German peasants, who were much better off than the Russian peasants.They didn't fare too badly during the war years, so the Bolshevik slogan "Give the land to the peasants," although very effective in Russia, had little effect on Germany.Moreover, the war ended at the time of the German revolution, which was again quite different from the situation in Russia.Demands for peace perhaps helped the Bolsheviks more than anything else, but they meant nothing in Germany.Moreover, although the German army was defeated, it was by no means demoralized and mutinied like the Russian army in 1917.In Germany, when the final contest came, opponents of the revolution could call upon the reliable army to support them. A final factor of great significance was the split in the German Socialist Front.Of course, this is by no means the only split. In 1914 all the socialist parties in Europe were split to varying degrees over the question of whether they were for or against the war.In Germany, the Social Democratic majority led by Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann supported the German war effort from the outset.Because of their conservative nature, they now desperately opposed the revolutionary workers' and soldiers' councils. "I hate social revolutions", Albert declared candidly, "I hate social revolutions very much".Another faction of the Social Democrats was the Spartacus League, Lenin's equivalent of the Bolsheviks, led by two brilliant and able revolutionaries, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg; Christian family, whose ancestors were Polish-Jewish.As one might expect, the Spartacus League backed the Workers and Soldiers Councils, hoping to establish a Soviet-style regime in Germany.Between the Social-Democratic majority and the Spartacus League was the Independent Social Democratic Party; it also favored a Soviet Germany, but wished to cooperate with the Social-Democratic majority. When Prince Max announced the Kaiser's abdication, he himself resigned as chancellor, handing power to Friedrich Ebert.Albert set up a cabinet of "six members", the Council of People's Representatives, three of whom were members of the Social Democratic majority and three of whom were Independent Democrats.The Spartacus League preferred to remain outside the Cabinet for the simple reason that they were only interested in pushing the revolution further to the left.Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the German Republic from the balcony of the Reichstag, but at the same time Liebknecht proclaimed Soviet Germany a mile away from the balcony of the Imperial Palace.At this point, the big question is which faction will win. In March 1917, when the Provisional Government was formed, the situation was comparable to that of Russia.Albert was very concerned about the results of Russia, and he did not want to be the second Kerensky.Therefore, November 10 was the day after the Kaiser abdicated.He formed a secret alliance with the chief of the general staff, General William Greerner, to suppress the Spartacus League and the Workers-Soldiers Council.Every night from 11pm to 1am, the two men talk on a dedicated phone that connects the Chancellery in Berlin to the headquarters in Spa.Thanks to this strong support, Albert became active against the extreme left.The USPD refused to act together and quit the cabinet, but that didn't matter. On November 30, the Spartacus League was renamed the Communist Labor Party of Germany and plans for an insurrection were drawn up, but before these plans were completed Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luteburg were arrested, He was shot dead "while attempting to escape".More than 1,000 of their followers were killed in the brutal street fighting that ensued.By mid-January 1919, the danger from the left had been eliminated. Germany had passed a critical moment when, on January 19, 1919, elections were held throughout the country for a National Assembly rather than a Congress of Soviets.The elected representatives are overwhelmingly moderate leftists.The National Assembly met in Weimar partly to escape the unrest in Berlin and partly to associate the new Germany in world opinion with peaceful cultural symbols like Goethe and Schiller.Albert was elected the first president of the republic and Scheidemann the first prime minister. The constitution adopted in July 1919 was undoubtedly a democratic constitution, at least in general.It included all the methods endorsed by the democracies of the time, including universal suffrage, proportional representation, the Bill of Rights, the separation of church and state, and the separation of teaching and learning.The president is elected for a seven-year term. He appoints the prime minister, who then selects personnel to form a cabinet that must be supported by a majority of members of the National Assembly, the lower house.The Senate, the upper house, made up of representatives from the 18 states, can delay but not prevent legislation. Behind the guise of this new constitution, much of the old Germany remained the same.The bureaucracy, judicial system and police department survived intact.In universities, the most undemocratic and anti-Semitic professors and student organizations continue to exist on the grounds of academic freedom.The newly formed International Army was a microcosm of the old Imperial Army.Apart from the statutory eight-hour working day, virtually no social reforms were introduced.The industrial cartels and monopolies remained the same; the Junkers in East Prussia retained their estates, as did the Kaiser and the local rulers.In short, the German Revolution preserved more than it changed.Power rested largely in the hands of old rulers who would never accept the new order.Initially, the Weimar Republic did manage to stabilize itself with foreign financial assistance.But when the Great Depression weakened the nation's foundations, most of these disobedient bureaucrats, military officers, and landed gentry attacked the Republic and hastened its demise.An American observer described this inherent Achilles heel of the Weimar Republic as follows: The suppression of the Spartacus League and the establishment of the Weimar Republic ensured that the rest of Central Europe would not become communist.For many years, however, this part of Europe was fraught with riots and uprisings.The mass of peasantry between the Baltic and Aegean was politically awakened and active to an unprecedented degree, one reason being that countless peasant recruits had had their horizons greatly enlarged by their war experience.They observed not only differences between urban and rural life, but also differences in living standards and social institutions across countries.The overthrow of the Habsburg, Hohenzollern and Romanov dynasties also had a profound effect on the peasantry.According to long tradition, such overthrows were earthquakes that aroused nationalist aspirations and class consciousness.Finally, the revolutionary situation was aggravated by the unprecedented devastation and suffering caused by the long war, especially in those countries that had suffered defeat. The exact manifestations of this revolutionary turmoil vary from country to country.The Communist parties did not play a prominent role, with the exception of Hungary, where the Hungarian People's Republic was proclaimed on November 16, 1918, by Count Hay Karoy, a nobleman with a ecclesiastic and pacifist education.Karoy severed ties with Austria and then attempted to liberalize Hungary through reforms such as universal suffrage, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, separation of church and state, and confiscation of large estates.But that failed to win over the Czech, Yugoslav and Romanian minorities, who needed independence not reform and therefore looked to Prague, Belgrade and Bucharest instead of Budapest.In addition, the terms of the armistice requested by the Allied Powers were very harsh, and Karoy could not accept it. In March 1919, he resigned and left the country. The Hungarian International Revolutionary Socialist Party, which included communists and socialists, filled the void.Backed by workers' and soldiers' councils, this party created the Soviet Republic.Its main character is Kun Bello, a middle-class Jew who used to be an officer in the Hungarian army and lived as a prisoner of war in Russia.In Russia, he met Lenin and other Bolsheviks, and returned home as a professional revolutionary.Since it was the development of events that brought him to power in one step, he could not keep his power.Rural peasants generally remained hostile, refusing to sell grain in exchange for Communist paper money.Meanwhile, Romanian troops were invading Hungary, and on August 4, 1919, they captured Budapest, forcing Kun Bello to flee to Vienna. In February 1920, when the Romanian army withdrew, a right-wing government headed by Admiral Horthy Miklos was proclaimed with the support of the Allies.Horthy remained in power throughout the interwar period; during this period Hungary was the only country in Central Europe that underwent almost complete absence of land or other reforms. In most other Central European countries, peasant parties voiced popular discontent.The following peasant leaders took office in the postwar years: Alexander Stambolijski in Bulgaria in 1919; Stefan Radić in Yugoslavia in 1925; Vincent Vitos in Poland in 1926; In 1928 Julius Manu took office in Romania.However, due to their pacifism and dislike of violence, none of them could keep themselves in power for long.They are vulnerable to well-established soldiers and officials who do not hesitate to strive for power when their interests are threatened.Another reason for the failure of peasant leaders was the growing dominance of peasant parties by lawyers and urban intellectuals, attracted by political opportunities.under this leadership.Peasant parties usually represented the interests of rich peasants.There is almost no contact with the vast number of poor peasants. Peasant leaders were dismissed one by one. In 1923 Stambolijski was assassinated and King Boris established a dictatorship. Radici was killed in 1928, and the following year King Alexander established his dictatorship.In Poland Witos lasted only a few days before being eliminated by General Josef Piłsudski; the latter ruled the country until his death in 1935. In 1930, Manu was dismissed by King Carol II, who repeatedly established and abolished the cabinet, and was forced to flee Romania 10 years later. The same pattern prevailed in Austria and Greece; for various reasons, peasant parties never took root in either country.Austria ended up with a dictatorial government in 1934 led by Chancellor Dolphus, and Greece in 1936 with an outright fascist regime led by General Metaxas.Thus, by the time of World War II, all of Central Europe was under dictatorship, with the exception of one country, Czechoslovakia.The country has certain favorable conditions that explain its uniqueness: a high level of culture, a trained bureaucracy inherited from the Habsburgs, the powerful leadership and a balanced economy that offers a higher standard of living and a greater sense of security than the agriculturally-dominated Eastern nations. While Bolshevism, Equalitarianism, and traditional parliamentarism were struggling for primacy in Eastern and Central Europe, a completely new doctrine was emerging in Italy, the most prominent in Europe in the postwar years. political innovation.The history of Bolshevism can be traced back at least to the "Communist Manifesto" in 1848, while agrarianism was gradually formed politically in the early 20th century with the emergence of peasant parties.Fascism, by contrast, emerged suddenly and dramatically in October 1922 with Mussolini's march on Rome. Postwar conditions in Italy provided fertile ground for violent, startling, anti-intellectual movements such as Fascism. Italy in 1919 had only two generations of national independence and unity.In reality, parliamentary government is a rotten quagmire in which party "bosses" deftly manipulate short-lived coalitions.This unstable political structure was further weakened by severe economic dislocation in the postwar years.Many of the millions of demobilized soldiers cannot find work.Foreign trade and tourism were in decline in the post-war period.Expatriation, which for decades had served as a safety valve and source of overseas remittances, has been petering out due to restrictive regulations in the United States and other countries.This economic pressure has fueled popular disquiet, which has been exacerbated by Paris's defiance of Italian demands.The resulting disappointment and bruised ego create a simmering situation where blood and riches seem to have been spent in vain. This became evident with the November 1919 elections, in which the Socialists won 160 seats, the Catholic People's Party 103, the traditional Liberals 93 and the Radicals 58.When Parliament was in session, the society refused to salute the king and chanted "Long live socialism!" Things culminated in September 1920, when workers across northern Italy began taking over factories.The old pre-war political manipulator Giovanni Giolitti, who formed a cabinet in June 1920, decided to let the "campers" occupy the factory, because he thought they would mess up the operation of the factory and would have to evacuate the factory automatically .In the end, workers did agree to evacuate in return for increased wages and participation in industrial management. The "sit-in demonstrations" again and again proved the ineffective and powerless position of the government and factory owners, and made people suddenly understand the political scene of the time.More importantly, this "sit-in" has emphasized the useless "maximalism" of Italian socialists.Although these vocal revolutionaries came across as Leninian in their demands for immediate socialism, they had no intention or plan to seize power.They undoubtedly had every chance of taking over power, since Giolitti did not take action against the "sit-ins", partly because he did not know whether the soldiers obeyed orders or joined the ranks of the workers.All the first-rate conditions for a revolution were present—there was no desire to start one.The slogan of the Socialist Party at that time was: "Revolutions are not started by men. Revolutions come by themselves." In two years, this slogan was proved wrong by a man who was preparing to start a revolution. Benito Mussolini was of working-class origin, the son of a blacksmith with socialist views in the impoverished village of Romagna.He managed to get a teaching certificate but made little use of it.Temperamentally, he was better suited for revolutionary agitation than for lecturing in the classroom.During the Tripoli War in 1911, he was noted for his inflammatory speeches in which he called the Italian flag "a rag fit only on a dunghill." The following year he became the official Editor of the socialist party newspaper Vorvar. In August 1914, when the First World War broke out, he was still a revolutionary and a pacifist, but in the second month he underwent a dramatic transformation, facilitated by funding from the French government ; the French government at this time desperately wanted Italy to become its ally.It was possible for Mussolini to start his own newspaper, La Popolo, through which he launched a violent campaign for intervention. In September 1915, Mussolini enlisted in the war and fought in the trenches for several weeks before being wounded and discharged.Thereafter, he was neglected in obscurity until 1919 when he formed his first "combat team", the "Fighting Fascists". "Fascist" refers to a bunch of sticks with an ax with a protruding blade tied in the middle. It is the token of the ancient Roman attendant when he cleared the way for the local administrator.Thus, it was a symbol of unity and power, and became Mussolini's slogan against the political chaos and social conflicts of the time.At first, he had the support of only a handful of frustrated students and demobilized soldiers.In the parliamentary elections of November 1919, he put forward two candidates, one of whom was himself; neither he nor the other was elected, and he received only 4,975 votes, while his opponent, the Socialists It got 180,000 votes.However, in the elections of May 15, 1921, the Fascist party won 22 seats, while the number of Socialist representatives fell from 160 to 122.The biggest victors were the Liberal Party, with 275 seats, the Catholic People's Party still retained 107 seats, and the newly formed Communist Party had only 16 seats. Mussolini was far from the seat of power, but at the time of the elections his party had at least one national organization with some 250,000 members.From then on the party moved steadily forward, partly because Socialist passivity created a void that Mussolini could immediately fill.Equally important was the enormous support Mussolini received at this time from industrialists, landowners, and other members of the propertied class.Horrified by the widespread seizure of factories and estates, these people wished to rely on the violent fascist groups as a bulwark against the terrible social revolution.In fact, as the workers evacuated the factories at the end of September 1920, the danger of revolution had disappeared.At this time.It is the fascist violence cells, aided by the benevolent neutrality of the police, that disturb the peace of society.They attacked trade union offices and Socialist Party headquarters with impunity, raided working-class districts, expelled socialist mayors and other officials, and smashed opposition newspapers.The government and wealthy people in society not only tolerated this violent terrorist movement, but even secretly supported and aided it. In the autumn of 1922, Mussolini prepared for a coup by winning the support of the king and the church with explicit pledges to respect the interests of the monarchy and the church.With the regular army and police having made it clear that they were benevolently neutral, Mussolini proceeded confidently to mobilize his Blackshirts for a much publicized march on Rome.Prime Minister Luigi Facta asked King Victor Emmanuel to declare martial law, but the king refused and asked Mussolini to form a cabinet instead.Therefore, the members of the Black Shirt Party only had to march towards Rome symbolically, while Mussolini arrived in Rome on October 27 in a sleeping car. Mussolini became prime minister through ad hoc constitutional means, but it soon became apparent that he had no intention of respecting constitutional procedure.His party won 35 seats in the 1921 election, but these seats accounted for only 6% of the total number of seats.Mussolini warned Parliament: "I could have turned this dirty, dark meeting hall into a camp for violent groups...but I don't want to do it, at least not now." To restore order and introduce reforms , the parliament and the king granted Mussolini dictatorial powers, which could be exercised until December 3I, 1923.During this period, he allowed a degree of freedom to the press, trade unions and parliamentary parties.但与此同时，他正通过任命赞成法西斯的人为省长和法官、组织一支自愿参加的法西斯民兵队伍来控制国家机器。 最后的较量随着1924 年4月6日的选举而到来。法西斯党通过任意使用暴力小组，获得了65%的选票，赢得了375席，而在这之前他们仅拥有35席。两个月后，人们发现杰出的社会党议员贾科莫·马泰奥蒂被暗杀。他曾写过《法西斯蒂真相》一书，描述了法西斯党徒数百件非法暴行的详情。人们普遍猜疑，马泰奥蒂是墨索里尼本人下令杀害的，这一点后来得到了证实。大多数非法西斯议员退出了议会，发誓马泰奥蒂事件不澄清决不返回议会。墨索里尼面临着重大危机，但由于反对派的优柔寡断和国王的坚决支持，他设法幸存了下来。 到1926年秋时，墨索里尼认为自己已强大得可以采取攻势。他宣布缺席议员的席位为空缺的席位，解散了各种老的政党，加强了新闻检查制度，建立了秘密警察组织。由于议会仅起通过法西斯议案的橡皮图章作用，意大利已成为一党制国家。 新的法西斯政权逐步形成了某些独特的特点。一个特点是实行组合国；在组合国中，议员不是作为地区性选区的代表，而是作为行业和职业的代表当选的。从理论上讲，它通过将劳资双方一起置于国家善意的保护下，消除了阶级冲突。实际上，只有资方享受到了真正的自治，而劳方则被否定了罢工或选择自己的领导人的权利。工人和农民的地位在组合国中基本上都没有得到改善。 墨索里尼统治下的意大利的另一特点是精心设计的市政工程规划；制订这种规划是为了提供就业机会、树立给人以深刻印象的建造物，以颂扬法西斯主义。过去的纪念碑得到了修复，许多城市被装饰以高大的新建筑物、工人住宅和运动场。有些沼泽地被抽干用来耕种。使旅游者印象特别深刻的是“准时运行”的火车和广泛的新公路或高速公路。 这个法西斯政权奉行对外侵略的政策，这一政策以当时的一种新学说——战争和帝国扩张的内在价值和必要性——为依据。墨索里尼在官方的《意大利百科全书》中写道：“只有战争能使人类的能力达到最高水平，能在敢于从事战争的人身上打上高贵的印记。……法西斯主义认为获取最高统治权的趋向……是生命力的表现。”1923 年，墨索里尼企图将这些理论付诸实践，以驻希腊的一些意大利官员被暗杀为借口占领了希腊的科孝岛。当时的国际气候对这样的冒险很不利，墨索里尼发现，在得到某些赔偿之后必须撤退。但在20世纪30年代，外交上的势力均衡起了变化，给予他更大的行动自由。他立刻趁机入侵埃塞俄比亚，结成罗马-柏林轴心（见第二十四章第三节，第四节）。 西欧不存在可与俄国内战和中欧左、右派之间剧烈冲突相比的种种动乱。民主制度在西方更为根深蒂固，因此主要的社会结构更健全，并享有民众更多的支持。此外，西方列强已是战争中的胜者，而不是败者，这一事实进一步促成了政治和社会的稳定。不过，不能因此就说西欧在战后数年中没有遇到因难。实际上，它也有许多问题，其中最严重的是经济问题，虽然这些问题有着深远的社会和政治影响。西欧两个主要国家英国和法国的经历可说明这一点。 英国的主要问题无疑是长期、严重的失业问题。战争结束后紧接着有过一时的繁荣，当时工厂加班加点地生产，以满足波长期抑制的消费需求。但1920年，经济萧条开始出现，到1921年3月时，已有800多万人失业。80世纪2O年代失业仍在继续，而20世纪30年代形势变得更糟。因此，英国的不景气实际上从1920年而不是从1929年就已开始，而且无较大间断地一直延续到第二次世界大战。 要了解这一长期的严峻考验，就应该注意到，英国战前的经济是以进口食品和原料、出口制成品为基础的。第一次世界大战前夕，英国建造了世界上三分之二的新船只，出口它所生产的九分之七的棉布、三分之一的煤和四分之一的钢铁。此外，英国还从海外投资、金融业务和商船运输中得到大量的无形收入。 世界大战刺激了诸如美国、日本和英联邦自治领之类国家的工业化，打破了这一经济平衡。这意味着英国海外市场的减少，尤其是纺织品市场的减少；在纺织品方面，英国面临着日本的激烈竞争。英国商船队在很大程度上遭到破坏，和英国不再是世界金融中心这一事实一样，也使无形收入减少。布尔什维克革命进一步损害了英国的经济，因为它不仅消灭了大量的投资，还消灭了一个重要的制成品市场。 在解释英国的经济困难时，至少与战争同样重要的一点是，英国人本身在提高工业效率方面未能跟上世界其余国家。最初，他们曾在工业革命中走在世界的前列，但现在，他们却在使其设备现代化方面落在后面。因为他们往往不是到机器过时时，而是到机器用坏时，才更换机器，所以，每工时的生产率与其他国家相比落后了。例如，假定1913年矿山每一工人在一个轮班中所作的工作量为100，那么到1938年时在英国矿山仅增加到113，而在德国矿山却增加到164，在荷兰增加到201。 面对效率更高的外国工业的竞争，英国制造商常采取的手段是削减工资、相互间达成确定价格、分配生产定额和分享日益缩小的外国市场的协议。这些措施并没有面对英国工业日益过时这一根本问题。这种失败某种程度上起因于英国社会传统的价值观。英国各大学最能干的毕业生很可能进入行政部门而不是经商，因此，工业常常留给那些能力较差、未受过充分的技术训练的人管理。他们往往认为他们的职责是与工会斗争、使工资保持低水平，而不是提高工厂的效率和生产率。同时，工人不仅为提高工资而斗争，而且常常为阻止可能降低就业率的技术进步而斗争。 这些情况结合在一起造成了在两次世界大战之间的时期里笼罩着英国的几乎未得到缓和的不景气。数百万家庭靠国家救济即通常所说的“失业救济金”维持生活。整整一代人在没有就业机会的环境中成长。这种情况使人们在心理上如同在经济上一样不健全。最后，失业者变得情绪低落，依赖失业救济，对前途不抱任何希望。 这些状况必然产生政治上的影响。最重要的是自由党的衰落，当时工人们因希望摆脱困境而愈来愈转向工党。因而，这种经济危机往往使英国政界趋于两极分化：有产阶级一般拥护保守党，工人阶级支持工党，中产阶级则在两者之间摇摆不定。每一个党都有自己医治国家弊病的灵丹妙药：保守党提倡保护贸易制；日益衰落的自由党提倡自由贸易；工党提倡资本课税和重工业国有化。最终结果是保守党和工党一个接一个地交替组阁，但没有一个内阁能大大地改善国家的命运。 随着大战的结束，劳合·乔治首相于1918 年12月14日举行了所谓的“非常时期大选”。他的联合政府因极端民族主义政纲而赢得了绝大多数席位——484席；这一政纲包括将战争赔偿金全部送回本国和严厉惩办德国“战犯”。尽管劳合·乔治获得了绝大多数席位，但他的地位仍不牢固，因为他的支持者中有70％的人是保守党人，而自由党人则分裂成他的支持者和在野的阿斯奎斯的26名追随者。这使工党成为主要的反对党，但由于它只占有63席，它不能指望向占绝对优势的保守党挑战。 劳合·乔治从一开始起就因长期存在的爱尔兰问题而感到窘迫。1914 年大战的爆发结束了自由党让爱尔兰自治的尝试。新成立的新芬党在1918年的选举中获得了73席，这时，它正要求完全独立。这些代表拒绝在威斯敏斯特担任下议院议员，于1919年1月在都柏林聚会，并直布爱尔兰为自由邦，因而导致了残酷的游击战争；这一战争一直拖延到1922年劳合·乔治同意爱尔兰自由邦享有与其它自治领相似的地位时为止。 爱尔兰的这些骚动与日益严重的失业问题一起逐渐破坏了劳合·乔治的地位。1922 年10月，劳合，乔治被迫下台，让位给安德鲁·博纳·劳，后者组织了一个清一色的保守党政府。11月举行的选举中保守党获得了多数席位，但工党令人吃惊地赢得了142席，而自由党仍意见分歧、软弱无力。1923年5月，博纳·劳因健康不佳而辞职，斯坦利·鲍德温继任首相。新首相提出了更高的保护关税，作为解决失业问题的办法，他要求1923年报月举行选举，对这种彻底背离英国自由贸易传统的办法作出裁决。在选举中，保守党失去了他们的多数票，但保有未超过半数的最多票数，其次是工党和新统一的自由党，分别获得192席和158席。 鲍德温拒绝组织新政府，因此，拉姆夫·麦克唐纳在自由党的支持下，成为第一个工党内阁的首脑。他当政仅10 个月（1924年1月至11月），除采纳一种更具和解性的对德政策和承认苏联外，几乎没有什么成就。承认苏联的做法给保守党提供了推翻政府所短要的论点。他们提出了“红色”恐怖的问题，并用它在随后的选举中击败了工党，在这次选举中，他们赢得了占多数的200个席位。鲍德温这时组织了一个持续了5年的政府。它的政策反映了其领导人的谨慎、平庸。失业仍在继续，最终导致了1926年的总罢工。尽管罢工有250万工人的支持，但还是失败了，政府成功地通过了《劳资争议法》，宣布所有的“同情”罢工均为非法的。 依照法规，议会的任期满了；1929 年5月举行了大选。鲍德温特有的口号是“安全第一”，但这一口号在不断增长的失业率面前并不受人欢迎。工党获得了289席，保守党获259席，自由党获58席。麦克唐纳在自由党人的支持下再次组阁。他不能料到，这个国家会在半年内遭到大萧条的打击；这次大萧条使英国经济更加瘫痪，最后扫除了麦克唐纳的新政府。 法国在战后数年中也为经济困难所困扰，不过，它的境况在某些方面比大多数邻邦要好些。法国有一个十分平衡的经济，因此，它不象以农业或工业为主的国家那样易受伤害。战争的和平解决使法国收回了拥有煤矿的萨尔盆地和拥有纺织工业及丰富的钾碱、铁矿资源的阿尔萨斯-洛林地区，从而加强了法国的经济。反过来说，法国早几年日因损失140万年富力强的男子和财产遭到空前破坏而被削弱。西线的战争主要在法国国土上进行，这给村庄、城镇、工厂、矿山和铁路带来了价值230亿美元的损失。而且，法国先前是通过贷款而不是通过税收来为战争筹措资金，这在战后就意味着需要进一步的贷款来重建家园。政府采取了多印钞票的手段，结果导致了法郎贬值，而这又产生了政治上的影响。 与英国只有两、三个政党的情况大不相同，法国拥有好几个政党，因此，一届内阁的生命力取决于它有无能力为获得大多数人的支持而将这些政党组成一个足够大的联盟或集团。这一点说明了法国内阁与英国内阁比较起来更换得较快的原因。从左派到右派的主要政党是共产党和社会党、激进社会党以及诸如共和民主联盟和民主联盟之类的右派各党。共产党和社会党主要代表城乡工人；激进社会党是中间派，为中下层阶级所支持；右派各党通常为扭有力的天主教徒，代表财团和巨额融资。 如同英国发生的情况一样，法国1919 年的选举选出了一个由保守派和民族主义者占优势的议会。在以后5年中，法国由主要建立在右派诸党的基础上的“民族集团”内阁统治。这一时期里举足轻重的人物是雷蒙·普恩加来，他决心要德国人赔偿重建家园所需的费用。他的政策最终导致了1923年法国对鲁尔的侵占，这是一次代价昂贵、几乎一无所获的行动。到1924年初时，一法郎的价值已从战前的19.3美分降到3美分多一点。法国公众因这种经济上的不稳定和对鲁尔的冒险行动而与政府疏远，鲁尔行动使人们担心会重新爆发战争。因此，在1924年5月的大选中，“左翼联盟”即“左派集团”获得多数席位。激进社会党领导人爱德华.赫里欧在社会党人的支持下当选为总理。在外交事务方面，他结束了对鲁尔的侵占，同意和平解决赔偿问题，承认苏联。但财政难题仍未得到解决；在这难题上，放任主义的激进社会党人和半马克思主义的社会党人不能取得一致意见。社会党人要求资本课税，赫里欧却反对，结果他的内阁于1925年4月垮台。法郎立即贬值，第二年，一法郎仅值2美分—— 其价值相当于战前的十分之一。 法国这时再次转向右派。1926 年7月，普恩加来组织了一个除社会党和共产党外有其他所有政党参加的“全国联合会”内阁。为表明形势的严重性，新内阁包括6位前总理，其中还有赫里欧。普恩加来采取了保守但却严厉的措施，以紧缩开支，增加岁入。到1926年年底时，法郎的币值达到一法郎值4美分，并稳定在这个水平上。由于这只是战前法郎价值的五分之一，政府使自己免去了五分之四的国债，不过，这是在法国债券持有人受损害的情况下取得的。法郎的贬值吸引了许多旅游者，尤其是美国人，同时还促进了法国商品的出口。普恩加来的成功使他当了三年总理，创造了两次大战之间的最高纪录。1929年夏，普恩加来辞职，恰好避开了一股经济旋风，这股经济旋风将破坏他先前所已实现的不牢固的稳定局面。 1924 年至1929年是欧洲和平与和解的时期之一。1924年，《道威斯计划》——一项有关赔款支付的协定——的协商是这一稳定过程的第一阶段。《凡尔赛和约》要求德国人承担战争责任，要求德国人答应贻偿战争所造成的损失。在凡尔赛，对赔款支付的数额和时间表没有达成协议；在以后几年中，这一问题不仅是协约国与德国之间，而且是各协约国之间长期不和的根源。 1920 年，赔款委员会——一个受命拟定详细计划的机构——决定，德国的赔款应按下列方案分配：52%给法国，22%给英国，10%给意大利，8%给比利时，剩下的8%给其他协约国。第二年，委员会规定德国的赔款总额为320亿美元，可用现金和实物（煤、机车、纺织机械和德国工厂及矿山的其它产品）支付。协约国的企业界很快就提出抗议，因为这些商品正形成一股与他们自己的商品相竞争的力量。因此，协约国要求德国主要以现金支付赔款，但这只有在德国的出口额大大超过进口额时才能实现，这一点自然是绝对办不到的，因为世界各地的关税正在提高，德国也正在增加进口商品以满足重建家园的需要。 1921 年和1922年，德国支付了部分赔款，但与此同时，它正遭受着灾难性的通货膨胀。1914年时，一马克值25美分，到1922年7月，已贬值到仅值2美分，一年以后，它变得一文不值——一大堆马克才兑换一美元。在这种情况下，德国人要求延缓两年偿付赔款。英国人正在受失业之苦，急欲加快国际贸易的复兴，因此同意了这一要求。然而，遭受损失最惨重的法国人确信，只要德国人愿意就一定能偿付，并着手使用武力。1923年1月，法国军队不顾英国人的批评，与意大利和比利时小股部队一起侵占了鲁尔工业区。 德国人的反应是进行总罢工，结果，法国人不得不为占领付出了得不偿失的代价。由于德国经济毫无生气、法国人又受到阻碍，赔款问题陷入僵局，于是，成立了一个由美国银行家查尔斯·道威斯主持的经济专家委员会。1924 年9月1日，协约国和德国双方通过并开始实施所谓的《道威斯计划》。这个计划建立在“商业，而不是政治”这一口号的基础上，它要求每年支付的赔款额从23800万美元开始，达到最高额59500万美元。这些金额可依据一定年份的繁荣指数予以调整。另外，德国须废除其恶性膨胀的货币，并在协约国的监督下改组它的国家银行。作为回报，德国将得到8亿美元的外国贷款，而法国必须撤离鲁尔。 然而，这一安排同其它许多安排一样，将被大萧条的冲击带走。即使在1928年9月以前《道威斯计划》生效的4年里，德国人支付的现金和实物也仅相当于他们从外国市场、主要是美国市场所借款项的一半。不过，《道威斯计划》的确缓和了欧洲的紧张局势，为政治问题的解决开了路。 在大战刚结束后的几年中，欧洲的外交为法国及其中欧和东欧的盟国所支配。由于奥匈帝国的消失、德国和俄国的屈服，法国这时成为欧洲大陆的头号强国。因为德国和俄国显然迟早会设法重申自己的主张，所以，法国外交的目标是为国家安全建立一个可靠、持久的基础。 从理论上说，国际联盟以其《盟约》第十条提供了普遍的安全，这一条耍求各成员国“尊重并维护国联所有成员国的领土完整和现有的政治独立，反对外来侵略。”困难在于国联缺乏实施这一条款所必需的力量。国联大会能请求成员国运用经济抵制甚至武装报复来反对侵略者，但这种经济和军事制裁的任何一项措施都只能由各国政府来实施。国联本身既没有武器，也没有军队法；法国曾提出成立一支由国联支配的国际警察部队，但这一建议被否决了。因此，归根到底，国联所作的决定的分量取决于国际舆论，而国际舆论在重大问题上通常是混乱的、有分歧的。 法国在不到50 年的时间里就遭到了德国的两次侵略，因此，它不愿将其安全交托给没有权威的国联。最初，它建议结成英法美三国同盟，这将保证法国在遭到德国侵略时得到英美的援助。当这一计划因美国参议院拒绝批准同盟条约而失败时，法国转向了较小的欧洲国家，这些国家在支持和平解决、反对修订条约方面与它有着共同的利益。它于1920年9月、1921年和1924年分别与比利时、波兰和捷克斯洛伐克协商建立了正式的军事联盟。捷克斯洛伐克先前已在1920年至1921年间与罗马尼亚和南斯拉夫一赵成立了所谓的“小协约”，以便在遭到匈牙利的进攻或面临哈布斯堡王朝的复辟时，互相提供援助。波兰因于1921年与罗马尼亚给成同盟而与小协约国连在一起；在与罗马尼亚缔结的盟约中，波、罗两国保证在遭到俄国侵略时互相援助。由于法国与小协约国的关系，法国能扩大自己的联盟组织，分别于1926年和1927年将罗马尼亚和南斯拉夫拉入联盟。 这一联盟组织基本上是反德的，它的主要目的是通过孤立德国来保护法国及其盟国。不过，大约1925 年前后，法、德两国的关系有了改善，这一方面是因为《道威斯计划》的实施暂时获得成功，一方面是因为两国外交部长即法国的阿里斯蒂德·白里安和德国的古斯塔夫·斯特来斯曼持相互和解的态度，他们断定各自国家的安全可以通过直接谈判和达成协议来加强。他们受到了英国外交大臣奥斯汀·张伯伦爵士的鼓励；张伯伦还说服意大利人接受了这一观点。给果产生了称为《洛迦诺公约》的一系列协定，这些协定是于1925年10月签订的。 这些协定规定，德国可加入国际联盟，并成为常任理事会成员。作为回报；德国同意不通过武力来谋求条约的修订，和平解决同法国、比利时、捷克斯洛伐克和波兰的一切争端。德国确保留了通过和平手段设法更改其东部边界的权利，但它承认其西部边界的永久性。德国、法国和比利时答应任何时候都尊重它们相互间的边界，英国和意大利保证遵守这一规定。 《洛迪诺公约》在当时给人们留下了深刻的印象。张伯伦表达了那时普遍存在的一种观点，他宣称，公约标志着“和平年代和战争年代之间的真正分界线”。同样，白里安也发表了有关“洛迪诺精神”的动人演说；“洛迪诺精神”禁止了战争，用“调解、仲裁与和平”代替了战争。在这种乐观主义的余辉中，美国国务卿弗兰克·凯洛格按照白里安的建议，提出各国保证摈弃战争、不把战争当作“推行国策的一种工具”。这一建议得到了实施，1928年8月27日，《凯洛格-白里安公约》被签订。由于公约只拒绝战争并未规定制裁措施，它很快就得到60多个国家的签署。虽然公约只依靠世界舆论这种道义上的压力，但仅如此多的国家签署公约这一事实便足以促成国际紧张局势的进一步缓和。 同样有希望的是同德国关系的改善。1926 年，德国被允许加入国联，并成为常任理事会成员。另外，关于赔款的支付问题，也与德国达成了进一步的解决办法。《道威斯计划》没有规定德国应支付的赔款总额，因此，第二个经济专家委员会在另一位美国财政家欧文·扬格主席的领导下，于1929年在巴黎开会，制订了一个于1930年初被采纳的新的赔款计划。这一计划规定德国应支付的赔款总额为80亿美元，58年内分期付清。作为对德国接受《扬格计划》的回报，法国于1930年，即比《凡尔赛和约》所规定的期限早四年撤出莱茵兰。 与此同时，一系列裁军会议正在举行，这不仅是因为国际舆论的压力，而月、是因为协约国已用旨在“普遍限制各国军备”的说法迫使德国裁军。此外，国联盟约声明“维护和平需宴裁减各国的军备，”并规定国联理事会“制定计划”。不过，尽管有这些保证，但在两次大战之间的时期里并没有实现全面裁军。拥有被征集的军队的国家不希望将受过训练的后备兵作为实际可作战的士兵包括在军队兵额之内，而那些拥有自愿军的国家则坚持认为后备兵应包括在内。有些国家要求军备限制以财政支出为基础，但英国和美国坚决反对，因为他们每个士兵的财政支出比别的国家高得多。此外，法国及其盟国坚决主张军备应受到国际的控制和监督，而英美则宁愿依靠信义。根本的困难在于：各国考虑到缺乏一个国际安全体系，便靠自己的军队来谋求安全。不过，在限制海军方面取得了一些进展，这一定程度上是因为海军强国的数目比陆军强国少。但即使在这方面，也只是对某类舰只的吨位比例取得一致的意见，并没有限制舰只的总吨位。 尽管裁军失败了，但20 年代末期人们都有一种感觉，认为欧洲终于恢复到了正常状况：德国和它以前的敌人似乎已经和解；法国军队撤出了莱茵兰，德国人加入了国联；赔款问题似乎终于得到了解决；60多个国家已摈弃战争“作为推行国策的工具”；繁荣程度在增长，失业率正相应下降。甚至来自苏联的消息也是令人鼓舞的，因为这个国家已于1928年开始实行一个新的、宏伟的“五年计划”（见第二十三章第一节）。西方大多数权威人士认为这一计划是不切实际、注定要失败的，但是，它至少可使苏联人的注意力从国际冒险活动转移到国内经济发展中去。因此，“洛迦偌精神”似乎是有意义、有内容的，人们可以想当然地认为欧洲这时能安定下来，象在19世纪那样去享受几十年的和平与繁荣。