official languages

Latin, German, Hungarian

State religion

Catholicism

Capital
& The largest city

Vein
pop. 1,675,000 (1907)

Head of state

Emperor of Austria,
King of Hungary,
King of Bohemia,
etc.

Square

680,887 km? (1907)

Population

48,592,000 (1907)

Rhine Guilder;
Crohn (from 1892)

National anthem

Volkshymne (National Anthem)

Period of existence

- a two-piece (dualistic) empire led by the Habsburg dynasty and formed by a compromise agreement concluded between its two constituent parts: Austria and Hungary in 1867. It existed in Central Europe until the collapse in 1918 at the end of the First World War.
The Austrian Empire was ruled by only two kings-emperors: Franz Joseph I 1867-1916 and Charles I 1916-1918.
The territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was 676 545 km ?.
Administratively and geographically, it was divided into two parts: Cisleitania - up to the Leita River, along which the actual border between Austria and Hungary used to pass, and Transleitania - the Land of the Crown of St. Stephen
Administratively, Austria-Hungary was divided into the following constituent parts (crown lands):

Austrian coast

Translating(land of the Hungarian crown)
Bosnia and Herzegovina(since 1908).

Ethnic map of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary was a multinational state, in which 50,293 men of more than 25 nations and nationalities lived in 1908. Numerous: Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Ukrainian, Poles, Slovaks, Croats. Ukrainian in 1910, there were 4,178 thousand people, which accounted for 8% of the population of the empire.
With the growth of the capitalist economy on the national outskirts, in particular in the Czech Republic, national contradictions intensify. Therefore, the national question in Austria-Hungary was the axis of political life. The dominant classes viewed Bosnia, Galicia, Slovakia, and other Slavic outskirts as colonies. Economically and culturally, the life of Galicia was dominated by the Polish gentry, on which the Austrian government relied. In 1867, a law was passed that sanctioned the policy of Polonization of the school in Galicia. In 1899, out of 150 deputies of the Galician Landtag, there were only 16 Ukrainian deputies. The Ukrainian situation was difficult in Bukovina and in Transcarpathian Ukraine. Driven to complete impoverishment, workers seeking a livelihood emigrated to America, particularly to Canada and Brazil.
The development of capital during the period of imperialism took place in conditions of the preservation of feudal relations in economic and political life and proceeded very unevenly. Industry developed (largely due to foreign investment, mainly German) mainly in the Czech Republic and Northern Austria, which made it possible for the monopolies to mercilessly exploit the population of other, more backward parts of the empire. This further intensified the centrifugal tendencies of the various peoples of the empire.
In the middle of the 19th century, the multinational Austrian empire was in a state of deep economic and political crisis. The contradictions between different parts of the empire, especially between Austria and Hungary, which became especially noticeable during the revolutionary events of 1848-1849 and after the defeat of Vienna in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, constituted a real threat to the existence of the Habsburg empire. In this situation, the Austrian government proposed an agreement that would grant Hungary significant autonomous rights.
On December 21, 1867, Emperor Franz Joseph I (1848-1916) approved the Austro-Hungarian agreement and the Austrian constitution. The Austrian Empire was transformed into a two-pronged (dualistic) state called the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hungary received political and administrative autonomy, its own government and parliament - the Seim.
At the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the Austrian emperor from the Habsburg dynasty, who at the same time bore the title of King of Hungary. Formally, his power was limited to the Reichsrat in Austria and the Sejm in Hungary. According to the provisions of the new Austrian constitution, the Reichsrat - a bicameral parliament - consisted of the Chamber of Masters and the Chamber of Deputies (525 members in total). In the House of Lords, in addition to hereditary members, the emperor could appoint members for life. They, in particular, were Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the writer Vasily Stefanik.
The Chamber of Deputies was formed by elections from individual provinces. The right to vote was limited by the property and age qualifications and the curial system. In 1873, direct elections were introduced from all curiae, except the rural one. Due to the decrease in the property qualification for urban and rural curia from 10 to 5 guilders of the annual direct tax, the number of voters increased significantly in 1882, but the government refused to introduce universal suffrage.
The next electoral reform of 1896 established five curia, which was to be elected on the basis of universal suffrage (it sent 72 deputies to parliament). In 1907, universal suffrage was introduced and the curial system of elections was abolished. Common to the entire empire were three ministries: foreign affairs, military and naval, and the ministry of finance. Legislature for common affairs both parts of the state were carried out by special "delegations", which were convened each year alternately in Vienna and Budapest. They consisted of 60 delegates each from the Reichsrat and the Sejm. Expenditures for general imperial needs were distributed proportionally for both parts of the empire, according to a specially signed agreement. So, in 1867, the quota was set at 70% for Austria and 30% for Hungary.
The Austro-Hungarian agreement of 1867 did not resolve all the contradictions between different parts of the empire. First of all, the Czech Republic and Croatia were dissatisfied. With the latter in 1868, with the assistance of Vienna, Hungary entered into an agreement, which for some time weakened the controversy. However, it was not possible to come to an agreement with the Czech Republic. Its representatives submitted a declaration to the Reichsrat, in which they demanded that the Czech Republic, Moravia and Silesia (the so-called lands of the crown of St. Wenceslas) be granted rights similar to those of Hungary. As a result of a long struggle, the Austrian government was forced to make a number of concessions (allowing the use of the Czech language in the administration and school, dividing the University of Prague into Czech and German, etc.), but it was not possible to completely resolve all the contradictions.
The existence of Ukrainian in Transcarpathia was generally not recognized by the Hungarian authorities. In 1868, the Diet in Budapest declared the entire population of the region a Hungarian nation. In Bukovina and Galicia, the situation was somewhat better. On these lands, Ukrainian cultural and educational organizations ("Prosvita", the Shevchenko Scientific Society) and political parties arose and successfully developed, Ukrainian representatives were in the Reichsrat and provincial Seimas. However, even here the Ukrainian were in an unequal position. In Galicia, power actually belonged to the Poles, and in Bukovina - to the Germans and Romanian boyars. The official language in Galicia was Polish, and in Bukovina - German.
Austria-Hungary. 1878 - 1918: 1. Bohemia, 2. Bukovina, 3. Carinthia, 4. Carinthia, 5. Dalmatia, 6. Galicia and Lodomeria, 7. Austrian Primorye, 8. Lower Austria, 9. Moravia, 10. Salzburg, 11 Austrian Silesia, 12. Styria, 13. Tyrol, 14. Upper Austria, 15. Vorarlberg, 16. Hungary, 17. Croatia and Slavonia, 18. Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the defeats in the wars with Germany and Italy, the foreign policy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was directed mainly towards the Balkans. In 1878, Austro-Hungarian troops occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina. The annexation of the occupied territories on October 5, 1908 led to an aggravation of relations between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, which resulted in the conclusion of a secret agreement with Germany on October 7, 1879. 1882 Italy joined this treaty, thus completing the creation of a military-political bloc - the Triple Alliance. directed against France and Russia.
Austro-Hungarian reform project
United States Greater Austria Project

By the beginning of the 20th century, it became clear that such a state organism, where two nations dominate over nine, was basically unviable, which was confirmed by numerous terrorist acts, uprisings, demonstrations and riots.
Franz Ferdinand planned to radically redraw the map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, creating semi-autonomous states, each of which would represent one of the 11 nations of the empire. Together they should form a large confederation of the United States of Greater Austria. But the reform plan was not implemented due to the assassination of the Archduke and the outbreak of the First World War, as a result of which the empire itself disappeared.
The first World War
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was killed in Sarajevo, which became the reason for the outbreak of the First World War of 1914-1918.
On July 28, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, and on August 6, 1914 - on Russia. At the front, the Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainian and Croats went over to the side of the Russians, refused to go on the offensive. The army suffered serious military defeats. The revolution in Russia had a great impact on the working people.
In the spring of 1918, Austria-Hungary, together with Germany, occupied Ukraine. Communication with the revolutionary masses, the struggle of the Ukrainian people against the invaders led to the rapid revolutionization of the occupation forces. The soldiers, returning, brought with them leftist ideas. Increasingly, strikes and demonstrations against the war began to explode, including in the army.
The war of the Austro-Hungarian Empire against the Entente countries of 1914-1918 in alliance with Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey ended with the collapse of the empire.
The collapse of the empire
Collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918. In October-November 1918, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and soon also Austrian troops began to flee from the front. The revolution has begun. Austria-Hungary signed an armistice agreement with the Entente, in fact, surrender.
Independent states were formed on the lands of Austria-Hungary: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). Part of the former territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire:
Thus, the ethnic Ukrainian lands of Austria-Hungary were divided between three states:

The politics of Charles I. Attempt to make peace

The death of Franz Joseph was undoubtedly one of the psychological prerequisites leading to the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was not an outstanding ruler, but became a symbol of stability for three generations of his subjects. In addition, the character of Franz Joseph - his restraint, iron self-discipline, constant politeness and friendliness, the very respectable old age, supported by state propaganda - all this contributed to the high authority of the monarchy. The death of Franz Joseph was perceived as a change in historical eras, the end of an incredibly long period. After all, almost no one remembered the predecessor of Franz Joseph, it was too long ago, and almost no one knew the successor.

Karl was very unlucky. He inherited an empire that was dragged into a destructive war and was torn apart by internal contradictions. Unfortunately, like his Russian brother and adversary Nicholas II, Charles I did not have the qualities that were necessary to solve the titanic task of saving the state. It should be noted that he had a lot in common with the Russian emperor. Karl was a great family man. His marriage was harmonious. Charles and the young empress Cita, who came from the Parma branch of the Bourbons (her father was the last Duke of Parma), loved each other. And marriage for love was a rarity for the highest aristocracy. Both families had many children: the Romanovs had five children, the Habsburgs - eight. Tsita was the main support of her husband, she had a good education. Therefore, evil tongues said that the emperor was "under the thumb." Both couples were deeply religious.

The difference was that Charles had practically no time to transform the empire, while Nicholas II ruled for more than 20 years. However, Karl made an attempt to save the Habsburg empire and, unlike Nicholas, fought for his cause to the end. From the very beginning of his reign, Charles tried to solve two main tasks: to stop the war and to carry out internal modernization. In the manifesto on the occasion of his accession to the throne, the Austrian emperor promised "to return to my peoples the blessed peace, without which they suffer so grievously." However, the desire to achieve his goal as soon as possible and the lack of the necessary experience played a cruel joke with Karl: many of his steps turned out to be poorly thought out, hasty and erroneous.

On December 30, 1916, Karl and Zita were crowned King and Queen of Hungary in Budapest. On the one hand, Charles (as the Hungarian king - Charles IV) strengthened the unity of the dualistic state. On the other hand, having deprived himself of maneuver, tied himself hand and foot, Karl now could not begin to federalize the monarchy. Count Anton von Polzer-Khoditz at the end of November prepared a memorandum in which he proposed to Karl to postpone the coronation in Budapest and to come to an agreement with all the national communities of Hungary. This position was supported by all former associates of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who wanted to carry out a series of reforms in Hungary. However, Karl did not follow their recommendations, succumbing to pressure from the Hungarian elite, primarily Count Tisza. The foundations of the Kingdom of Hungary remained intact.

Tsita and Karl together with their son Otto on the day of their coronation as monarchs of Hungary in 1916.

Karl took over the duties of the supreme commander in chief. "Hawk" Konrad von Hötzendorf was relieved of his post as Chief of the General Staff and sent to the Italian front. He was succeeded by General Arz von Straussenburg. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was headed by Ottokar Czernin von und zu Hudenitz, a representative of Franz Ferdinand's circle. The role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs increased dramatically during this period. Chernin was a controversial personality. He was an ambitious, gifted, but somewhat unbalanced person. Chernin's views were a strange mixture of supranational loyalism, conservatism and deep pessimism about the future of Austria-Hungary. Austrian politician J. Redlich called Chernin "a man of the seventeenth century who does not understand the time in which he lives."

Chernin himself went down in history full of bitterness with a phrase about the fate of the empire: “We were doomed to perish and had to die. But we could choose the type of death - and we chose the most painful one. " The young emperor chose Chernin because of his commitment to the idea of ​​peace. "A victorious peace is very unlikely," noted Chernin, "a compromise with the Entente is necessary, there is nothing to count on conquests."

On April 12, 1917, the Austrian emperor Karl turned to Kaiser Wilhelm II with a memorandum letter, where he noted that “every day the dark despair of the population is growing stronger ... If the monarchies of the Central Powers are unable to make peace in the coming months, the peoples will heads ... We are at war with a new enemy, even more dangerous than the Entente - with the international revolution, whose strongest ally is hunger. " That is, Karl quite rightly noted the main danger for Germany and Austria-Hungary - the threat of an internal explosion, a social revolution. Peace had to be made to save the two empires. Karl offered to end the war, "even at the cost of heavy sacrifices." February revolution in Russia and the fall of the Russian monarchy made a huge impression on the Austrian emperor. Germany and Austria-Hungary followed the same disastrous path as the Russian Empire.

However, Berlin did not hear this appeal from Vienna. Moreover, in February 1917, Germany, without informing the Austrian ally, began an all-out submarine war. As a result, the United States received an excellent excuse to enter the war on the side of the Entente. Realizing that the Germans still believed in victory, Charles I began to independently search for a path to peace. The situation at the front did not give the Entente hopes for a quick victory, which strengthened the possibility of peace negotiations. Eastern front despite the assurances of the Russian Provisional Government to continue the "war to a victorious end," no longer posed a serious threat to the Central Powers. Almost all of Romania and the Balkans were occupied by the troops of the Central Powers. Positional warfare continued on the Western Front, bleeding France and England. American troops had just begun to arrive in Europe and doubted their combat effectiveness (the Americans had no experience of a war of this magnitude). Chernin supported Karl.

Charles chose his brother-in-law, brother Cittus, Prince Sictus de Bourbon-Parma, as an intermediary for establishing ties with the Entente. Together with younger brother Xavier Siktus served as an officer in the Belgian army. This is how the "Siktus scam" began. Siktus maintained contacts with French Foreign Minister J. Cambon. Paris put forward the following conditions: the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France, without concessions to Germany in the colonies; peace cannot be separate, France will fulfill its obligations in relation to the allies. However, a new message from Siktus, sent after a meeting with French President Poincaré, hinted at the possibility of a separate agreement. The main goal France was a military defeat for Germany, "cut off from Austria."

To condemn the new opportunities, Charles summoned Sictus and Xavier to Austria. They arrived on March 21st. In Laxenberg near Vienna, a series of meetings of the brothers with the imperial couple and Chernin took place. Chernin himself was skeptical about the idea of ​​a separate peace. He hoped for world peace. Chernin believed that peace could not be concluded without Germany; refusal of an alliance with Berlin would lead to tragic consequences. The Austrian Foreign Minister understood that Germany could simply occupy Austria-Hungary in the event of her betrayal. Moreover, such a peace could lead to civil war. Most Austrian Germans and Hungarians could perceive the separate peace as a betrayal, and the Slavs supported it. Thus, a separate peace led to the destruction of Austria-Hungary, as well as the defeat of the war.

The negotiations in Laxenberg culminated in the transfer of Charles's letter to Sixtus, in which he promised to use all his influence to fulfill the French demands regarding Alsace and Lorraine. Simultaneously, Karl promised to restore the sovereignty of Serbia. As a result, Karl made a diplomatic mistake - he handed the enemies irrefutable, documentary evidence that the Austrian house was ready to sacrifice Alsace and Lorraine - one of the main priorities of the allied Germany. In the spring of 1918, this letter will be made public, which will undermine the political authority of Vienna, both in the eyes of the Entente and Germany.

On April 3, 1917, at a meeting with the German emperor, Karl proposed to William II to abandon Alsace and Lorraine. In exchange, Austria-Hungary was ready to transfer Galicia to Germany and agree to the transformation of the Polish kingdom into a German satellite. However, the German leadership did not support these initiatives. Thus, Vienna's attempt to bring Berlin to the negotiating table failed.

The Siktus scam also ended in failure. In the spring of 1917, the government of A. Ribot came to power in France, which was wary of the initiatives of Vienna and offered to fulfill the demands of Rome. And according to the London Treaty of 1915, Italy was promised Tyrol, Trieste, Istria and Dalmatia. In May, Karl hinted that he was ready to cede Tyrol. However, this was not enough. On June 5, Ribot said that "peace can only be the fruit of victory." There was no one else to talk to and nothing about.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary Ottokar Czernin von und zu Hudenitz

The idea of ​​the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The First World War was total, intensive military propaganda set one goal - complete and final victory. For the Entente, Germany and Austria-Hungary were absolute evil, the embodiment of everything that was hated by the republicans and liberals. Prussian militarism, Habsburg aristocracy, reactionaryism and reliance on Catholicism were planned to be uprooted. The Financial International, which stood behind the United States, France and England, wanted to destroy the powers of medieval theocratic monarchism and absolutism. The Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires stood in the way of the capitalist and "democratic" New World Order, where big capital, the "golden elite", was supposed to rule.

The ideological character of the war became especially noticeable after the two events of 1917. The first was the fall of the Russian Empire, the house of the Romanovs. The Entente acquired political homogeneity, becoming an alliance of democratic republics and liberal constitutional monarchies. The second event is the entry into the war of the United States. American President Woodrow Wilson and his advisers have been actively fulfilling the wishes of the American financial aces. And the main "crowbar" for the destruction of the old monarchies was to play the cheating principle of "self-determination of nations." When nations formally became independent and free, they established democracy, and in fact, they were clients, satellites of great powers, financial capitals of the world. The one who pays calls the tune.

On January 10, 1917, in the declaration of the Entente powers on the goals of the bloc, the liberation of Italians, South Slavs, Romanians, Czechs and Slovaks was indicated as one of them. However, there was no talk of liquidating the Habsburg monarchy yet. They talked about broad autonomy for "unprivileged" peoples. On December 5, 1917, speaking in Congress, President Wilson announced his desire to free the peoples of Europe from German hegemony. About the Danube monarchy, the American president said: “We are not interested in the destruction of Austria. How she disposes of herself is not our problem. " In the famous "14 Points" by Woodrow Wilson, point 10 was about Austria. The peoples of Austria-Hungary were asked to provide "the widest possible opportunities for autonomous development." On January 5, 1918, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, in a statement on Britain's military objectives, noted that "we are not fighting for the destruction of Austria-Hungary."

However, the French were in a different mood. It was not for nothing that Paris, from the beginning of the war, supported the Czech and Croatian-Serbian political emigration. In France, legions were formed from prisoners and deserters - Czechs and Slovaks, in 1917-1918. they took part in hostilities on the Western Front and in Italy. In Paris, they wanted to create a "republicanize Europe", and this was impossible without the destruction of the Habsburg monarchy.

In general, the question of the division of Austria-Hungary was not announced. The turning point came when the "Sixtus scam" surfaced. On April 2, 1918, Austrian Foreign Minister Czernin spoke to members of the Vienna City Assembly and, in some impulse, confessed that peace negotiations had indeed taken place with France. But the initiative, according to Chernin, came from Paris, and the negotiations were interrupted, allegedly due to Vienna's refusal to agree to the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine to France. Outraged by the obvious lie, French Prime Minister J. Clemenceau responded by saying that Chernin was lying, then published the text of Karl's letter. A hail of accusations of infidelity and betrayal fell upon the Vienna court, that the Habsburgs had violated the "sacred commandment" of "Teutonic fidelity" and brotherhood. Although Germany itself did the same and conducted backstage negotiations without the participation of Austria.

Thus, Chernin rudely set up Karl. Count Chernin's career ended there, he resigned. Austria hit hard political crisis... In court circles, they even started talking about the possible resignation of the emperor. Military circles and the Austro-Hungarian "hawks" committed to an alliance with Germany were furious. The Empress and the Parma house to which she belonged were attacked. They were considered the source of evil.

Karl was forced to make excuses in front of Berlin, to lie that it was a fake. In May, under pressure from Berlin, Karl signed an agreement on an even closer military and economic alliance of the Central Powers. The Habsburg state finally became a satellite of the more powerful German Empire. If we imagine an alternative reality where Germany won the First World War, then Austria-Hungary would become a second-rate power, almost an economic colony of Germany. The victory of the Entente also did not bode well for Austria-Hungary. The Sixtus scandal buried the possibility of a political agreement between the Habsburgs and the Entente.

In April 1918, the "Congress of the oppressed peoples" was held in Rome. Representatives of various national communities of Austria-Hungary gathered in Rome. Most often, these politicians did not have any weight at home, but they did not hesitate to speak on behalf of their peoples, which, in fact, no one asked. In reality, many Slavic politicians would still be satisfied with broad autonomy within the framework of Austria-Hungary.

On June 3, 1918, the Entente announced that it considers the creation of an independent Poland, with the inclusion of Galicia, as one of the conditions for creating a just world. In Paris, the Polish National Council has already been created, headed by Roman Dmowski, who, after the revolution in Russia, changed the pro-Russian position to the pro-Western one. The activities of the supporters of independence were actively sponsored by the Polish community in the United States. In France, a Polish volunteer army was formed under the command of General J. Haller. Yu. Pilsudski, realizing where the wind was blowing, broke off relations with the Germans and gradually acquired the fame of the national hero of the Polish people.

On July 30, 1918, the French government recognized the right of Czechs and Slovaks to self-determination. The Czechoslovak National Council was called the supreme body that represents the interests of the people and is the nucleus of the future government of Czechoslovakia. On August 9, the Czechoslovak National Council was recognized as the future Czechoslovak government by England, on September 3 - by the United States. The artificiality of the Czechoslovak statehood did not bother anyone. Although Czechs and Slovaks, apart from linguistic proximity, had little in common. For many centuries, both peoples had different histories, were at different levels of political, cultural and economic development... This did not bother the Entente, like many other similar artificial structures, the main thing was to destroy the Habsburg empire.

Liberalization

The most important component of the policy of Charles I was the liberalization of domestic politics. It is worth noting that under the conditions of war, this was not the best decision. First, the Austrian authorities went too far with the search for "internal enemies", repression and restrictions, then began liberalization. This only aggravated the internal situation in the country. Charles I, guided by the best intentions, himself rocked the already not very stable boat of the Habsburg Empire.

On May 30, 1917, the Reichsrat, the Parliament of Austria, which had not met for more than three years, was convened. The idea of ​​the "Easter Declaration", which strengthened the position of the Austrian Germans in Cisleitania, was rejected. Karl decided that strengthening the Austrian Germans would not forgive the position of the monarchy, but vice versa. In addition, in May 1917, Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza, who was the personification of Hungarian conservatism, was dismissed.

The convocation of parliament was Karl's big mistake. The convocation of the Reichsrat was perceived by many politicians as a sign of the weakness of the imperial power. The leaders of the national movements received a platform from which to exert pressure on the authorities. The Reichsrat quickly turned into an opposition center, in fact, an anti-state body. As the parliamentary sessions continued, the position of the Czech and Yugoslavian deputies (they formed a single faction) became more and more radical. The Czech Union demanded the transformation of the Habsburg state into a "federation of free and equal states" and the creation of a Czech state, including the Slovaks. Budapest was outraged, since the annexation of the Slovak lands to the Czech ones meant a violation of the territorial integrity of the Hungarian kingdom. At the same time, the Slovak politicians themselves were waiting for someone to take, not giving preference to either an alliance with the Czechs or autonomy within Hungary. The orientation towards an alliance with the Czechs won only in May 1918.

The amnesty announced on July 2, 1917, thanks to which political prisoners sentenced to death, mainly Czechs (more than 700 people), were released to freedom in Austria-Hungary did not contribute to calmness in Austria-Hungary. Austrian and Bohemian Germans resented the imperial forgiveness of the "traitors", which further exacerbated the national divisions in Austria.

On July 20, on the island of Corfu, representatives of the Yugoslavian Committee and the Serbian government signed a declaration on the creation of a state after the war, which will include Serbia, Montenegro and the Austro-Hungarian provinces inhabited by the southern Slavs. The head of the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" was supposed to be a king from the Serbian dynasty Karageorgievich. It should be noted that the South Slavic Committee at that time did not have the support of the majority of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes of Austria-Hungary. Most South Slavic politicians in Austria-Hungary itself at this time advocated wide autonomy within the Habsburg Federation.

However, by the end of 1917, the separatist, radical tendencies had won out. A certain role in this was played by the October Revolution in Russia and the Bolshevik Decree on Peace, which called for a “peace without annexations and indemnities” and the implementation of the principle of self-determination of nations. On November 30, 1917, the Czech Union, the South Slavic Club of Deputies and the Ukrainian Parliamentary Association issued a joint statement. In it, they demanded that delegations from various national communities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire be present at the peace talks in Brest.

When the Austrian government rejected this idea, on January 6, 1918, a congress of Czech Reichsrat deputies and members of the state councils met in Prague. They adopted a declaration in which they demanded that the peoples of the Habsburg empire be granted the right to self-determination and, in particular, the proclamation of the Czechoslovak state. Prime Minister Cisleitania Seidler declared the declaration "an act of high treason". However, the authorities could no longer oppose anything but loud statements to nationalism. The train left. The imperial power did not enjoy the same authority, and the army was demoralized, and could not withstand the collapse of the state.

Military disaster

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3, 1918. Russia has lost a huge territory. Austro-German troops were stationed in Little Russia until the fall of 1918. In Austria-Hungary, this world was called "bread", so they hoped for grain supplies from Little Russia-Ukraine, which was supposed to improve the critical food situation in Austria. However, these hopes were not met. The civil war and poor harvest in Little Russia led to the fact that the export of grain and flour from this region to Tsisleitania in 1918 amounted to less than 2.5 thousand cars. For comparison: from Romania were taken out - about 30 thousand cars, and from Hungary - more than 10 thousand.

On May 7, a separate peace was signed in Bucharest between the Central Powers and defeated Romania. Romania ceded Dobruja to Bulgaria, part of southern Transylvania and Bukovina to Hungary. As compensation, Bucharest was given Russian Bessarabia. However, already in November 1918, Romania deserted back to the Entente camp.

During the 1918 campaign, the Austro-German command hoped to win. But these hopes were in vain. The forces of the Central Powers, unlike the Entente, were running out. In March - July, the German army launched a powerful offensive on the Western Front, achieved some successes, but was unable to defeat the enemy or break through the front. Material and human resources of Germany were running out, the morale was weakened. In addition, Germany was forced to maintain a large force in the East, controlling the occupied territories, having lost large reserves that could help on the Western Front. In July-August, the second battle of the Marne took place, and the Entente troops launched a counteroffensive. Germany suffered a heavy defeat. In September, the Entente troops, in the course of a number of operations, eliminated the results of the previous German success. In October - early November, the allied forces liberated most of the German-occupied territory of France and part of Belgium. The German army could no longer fight.

The offensive of the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front failed. The Austrians attacked on June 15th. However, the Austro-Hungarian troops were only able to penetrate in places into the Italian defenses on the Piava River. After a few troops, suffering heavy losses and demoralized Austro-Hungarian troops retreated. The Italians, despite the constant demands of the allied command, could not immediately organize a counteroffensive. The Italian army was not in the best condition to attack.

Only on October 24 did the Italian army go on the offensive. In a number of places the Austrians successfully defended themselves, repelling enemy attacks. However, the Italian front soon fell apart. Under the influence of rumors and the situation on other fronts, the Hungarians and Slavs revolted. On October 25, all Hungarian troops simply left their positions and went to Hungary under the pretext of the need to protect their country, which was threatened by the Entente troops from Serbia. And Czech, Slovak and Croatian soldiers refused to fight. Only the Austrian Germans continued to fight.

By October 28, 30 divisions had already lost their combat effectiveness and the Austrian command issued an order for a general retreat. The Austro-Hungarian army was completely demoralized and fled. About 300 thousand people surrendered. On November 3, the Italians landed troops in Trieste. Italian troops occupied almost all of the previously lost Italian territory.

In the Balkans, the Allies also launched an offensive in September. Albania, Serbia and Montenegro were liberated. An armistice with the Entente was concluded by Bulgaria. In November, the Allies invaded Austro-Hungarian territory. On November 3, 1918, an armistice with the Entente was concluded by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on November 11 - by Germany. It was a complete defeat.

End of Austria-Hungary

On October 4, 1918, in agreement with the emperor and Berlin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Burian sent a note to the Western powers stating that Vienna was ready for negotiations on the basis of Wilson's "14 points", including the point on the self-determination of nations.

On October 5, the Croatian People's Council was established in Zagreb, which declared itself the representative body of the Yugoslavian lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On October 8 in Washington, at the suggestion of Masaryk, the Declaration of Independence of the Czechoslovak People was announced. Wilson immediately admitted that the Czechoslovakians and Austria-Hungary were at war and that the Czechoslovak Council was a government at war. The USA could no longer regard the autonomy of peoples as a sufficient condition for the conclusion of peace. This was a death sentence for the Habsburg state.

On October 10-12, Emperor Charles received delegations of Hungarians, Czechs, Austrian Germans and South Slavs. Hungarian politicians still did not want to hear anything about the federalization of the empire. Karl had to promise that the forthcoming federalization manifesto would not affect Hungary. And for the Czechs and South Slavs, the federation no longer seemed like the ultimate dream - the Entente promised more. Karl no longer gave orders, but begged and begged, but it was too late. Karl had to pay not only for his mistakes, but for the mistakes of his predecessors. Austria-Hungary was doomed.

In general, one can sympathize with Karl. He was an inexperienced, kind, religious person who was in charge of the empire and felt terrible mental pain, as his whole world was crumbling. The peoples refused to obey him, and nothing could be done. The army could have stopped the disintegration, but its combat-ready core fell on the fronts, and the remaining troops were almost completely decomposed. We must pay tribute to Karl, he fought to the end, and not for power, so he was not a power-hungry person, but for the legacy of his ancestors.

On October 16, 1918, a manifesto on the federalization of Austria ("Manifesto on the Peoples") was issued. However, the time for such a step was already lost. On the other hand, this manifesto avoided bloodshed. Many officers and officials, brought up in a spirit of loyalty to the throne, could calmly begin to serve the legitimate national councils into whose hands power was passed. I must say that many monarchists were ready to fight for the Habsburgs. Thus, the "lion of Isonzo" Field Marshal Svetozar Boroevich de Boyna had troops that remained disciplined and loyal to the throne. He was ready to go to Vienna and occupy it. But Karl, guessing about the plans of the field marshal, did not want a military coup and blood.

On October 21, the Provisional National Assembly of German Austria was established in Vienna. It included almost all the deputies of the Reichsrat, who represented the German-speaking districts of Cisleitania. Many MPs hoped that the German districts of the collapsed empire would soon be able to join Germany, completing the process of creating a unified Germany. But this was contrary to the interests of the Entente, therefore, at the insistence of the Western powers, the Austrian Republic, declared on November 12, became an independent state. Karl announced that he was "removed from government," but stressed that this was not an abdication. Formally, Charles remained emperor and king, since refusal to participate in public affairs was not tantamount to abdication of the title and throne.

Charles "suspended" the exercise of his powers, hoping that he can return the throne. In March 1919, under pressure from the Austrian government and the Entente, the imperial family moved to Switzerland. In 1921, Charles will make two attempts to regain the throne of Hungary, but unsuccessfully. He will be sent to the island of Madeira. In March 1922, due to hypothermia, Karl will fall ill with pneumonia and will die on April 1. His wife, Tsita, will live an entire era and die in 1989.

By October 24, all the Entente countries and their allies recognized the Czechoslovak National Council as the current government of the new state. On October 28, the Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovakia) was proclaimed in Prague. On October 30, the Slovak National Council confirmed the accession of Slovakia to the Czech Republic. In fact, Prague and Budapest fought for Slovakia for several more months. On November 14, the National Assembly met in Prague, Masaryk was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

On October 29, in Zagreb, the People's Council announced its readiness to take all power in the Yugoslav provinces. Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia and the Slovenian lands seceded from Austria-Hungary and declared neutrality. True, this did not prevent the Italian army from occupying Dalmatia and the coastal regions of Croatia. Anarchy and chaos ensued in the Yugoslavian regions. Widespread anarchy, collapse, the threat of famine, and the severance of economic ties forced the Zagreb veche to seek help from Belgrade. Actually, the Croats, Bosnians and Slovenes had no way out. The Habsburg Empire collapsed. Austrian Germans and Hungarians created their own states. It was necessary either to take part in the creation of a common South Slavic state, or to become victims of the territorial conquests of Italy, Serbia and Hungary (possibly Austria).

On November 24, the People's Council appealed to Belgrade with a request for the Yugoslavian provinces of the Danube monarchy to join the Kingdom of Serbia. On December 1, 1918, the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (future Yugoslavia) was announced.

Polish statehood was formed in November. After the surrender of the Central Powers, a dual power developed in Poland. The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland sat in Warsaw, and the Provisional People's Government in Lublin. Jozef Pilsudski, who became the generally recognized leader of the nation, united both power groups. He became the "chief of state" - the interim head of the executive branch. Galicia also became part of Poland. However, the borders of the new state were determined only in 1919-1921, after Versailles and the war with Soviet Russia.

On October 17, 1918, the Hungarian parliament broke the union with Austria and declared the country's independence. The Hungarian National Council, headed by the liberal Count Mihai Karoji, set out to reform the country. To preserve the territorial integrity of Hungary, Budapest announced its readiness for immediate peace talks with the Entente. Budapest withdrew Hungarian troops from the crumbling fronts to their homeland.

On October 30-31, an uprising began in Budapest. Crowds of thousands of townspeople and soldiers returning from the front demanded the transfer of power to the National Council. The victim of the rebels was the former Prime Minister of Hungary Istvan Tisza, who was torn to pieces by soldiers in own home... Count Karoji became prime minister. On November 3, Hungary signed an armistice with the Entente in Belgrade. However, this did not prevent Romania from seizing Transylvania. Attempts by the Karolyi government to negotiate with the Slovaks, Romanians, Croats and Serbs on preserving the unity of Hungary on the condition of granting its national communities broad autonomy ended in failure. Time was lost. Hungarian liberals had to pay for the mistakes of the former conservative elite, which until recently did not want to reform Hungary.

Uprising in Budapest on October 31, 1918

On November 5, in Budapest, Charles I was deposed from the throne of Hungary. On November 16, 1918, Hungary was proclaimed a republic. However, the situation in Hungary was dire. On the one hand, in Hungary itself, the struggle of various political forces continued - from conservative monarchists to communists. As a result, Miklos Horthy became the dictator of Hungary, who led the resistance to the 1919 revolution. On the other hand, it was difficult to predict what would be left of the former Hungary. In 1920, the Entente withdrew its troops from Hungary, but in the same year the Treaty of Trianon deprived the country of 2/3 of the territory, where hundreds of thousands of Hungarians lived, and most of the economic infrastructure.

Thus, the Entente, having destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Empire, created a huge area of ​​instability in Central Europe, where old grievances, prejudices, hostility and hatred broke loose. The destruction of the Habsburg monarchy, which was an integrating force capable of more or less successfully representing the interests of the majority of its subjects, smoothing and balancing political, social, national and religious contradictions, was a great evil. In the future, this will become one of the main prerequisites for the next world war.

Map of the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1919-1920

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Austria-Hungary as a dualistic monarchy was formed in 1867 and existed until 1918. Its specific features were: a) the absence of overseas possessions, since all of its lands were located in the center and in the east. Europe b) the multinational nature of the state structure, combined elements of a centralized and federal monarchy; c) the intensive development of the national consciousness of the peoples of the outskirts, which led to mismatch separatism.

Defeat. Austria in the war with. Prussia in 1866 accelerated the process of political transformation of the empire. Habsburgs. Emperor. Franz. Joseph (1867-1916) accepted the offer of the Minister of State. A. Beista to carry out political reforms. It was necessary to find a compromise between two significant groups of the population - the Germans (Austrians) and the Hungarians, although they made up only a third of the population of the empire. In February 1867, the constitution was updated. Hungary (existed until 1848), which contributed to the creation of its own government. For the so-called. Ausgleich - "an agreement between the king and the Hungarian nation" -. Austria became a dualistic monarchy of two powers "Cisleitania" united. Austria ,. Czech Republic. Moravia. Silesia ,. Harz ,. Istria ,. Trieste ,. Dalmatia ,. Bukovina. Galicia and. To the extreme "Translatedia" consisted of. Hungary ,. Transylvania ,. Fiume and. Croatian-Slavonii (received autonomy in 1867-Slavonia (rejected autonomy in 1867).

United. Austria-Hungary (Danube Monarchy) was one of the largest states. Europe. In terms of territory and population, it was ahead. Great Britain ,. Italy and. France

Within the territory of. More than 10 nationalities lived in Austria-Hungary, none of which constituted the majority. The most numerous were Austrians and Hungarians (40%), Czechs and Slovaks (16.5%), Serbs and Croats (16.5%), Poles (10%), Ukrainian (8%), Romanians, Slovenes, Italians, Germans, etc. The overwhelming majority of them lived in compact groups, which contributed to the development of national liberation movements and the strengthening of centrifugal tendencies. Religious contradictions were added to the national contradictions, since there were several church confessions in the country - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Uniate and others.

Emperor. Austria was also king. Hungary, the ruler of the unified royal-imperial institutions - the military department, foreign affairs and finance. Austria and. Hungary had its own parliamentarians. NTI and governments, the composition of which was approved by the emperor. King-emperor. Franz. Joseph was inconsistent and unpredictable in carrying out radical political and economic reforms depending on his own pleasing, he constantly changed the cabinet, often paralyzed political life, since none of the "teams" could bring the reforms to the end. The army played an important role in internal life, for the imperial ambitions of the heir to the throne, the archduke. Franz. Ferdinand has become an elite piece. Propaganda formed in mass consciousness a somewhat mythical image of the powerful imperial army and navy, the number increased, the costs of its retention increased.

Austria-Hungary was a land of contrasts. There was no universal suffrage in the empire, since only the owners of a certain real estate... However, in the areas of compact residence of some nationalities, their own constitutions were in force, local parliaments (17 throughout the empire) and self-government bodies existed. Office work and teaching in elementary schools are little conducted in national languages, but this law was often not followed and the German language prevailed everywhere.

The economy. Austria-Hungary at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries was characterized by weak rates of industrial development, backward agriculture, uneven economic development of certain regions, and an orientation towards self-sufficiency.

Austria-Hungary was a moderately developed agro-industrial country. The vast majority of the population was employed in agriculture and forestry (over 11 million people). Low level the rural state was determined by the landlord latifundia, where it was used handmade farm laborers. In Hungary,. Croatia ,. Galicia ,. In Transylvania, about a third of the cultivated land belonged to large landowners, who averaged more than 10 thousand hectares every day.

In Austria-Hungary, the same economic processes took place as in other developed capitalist countries - the concentration of production and capital, an increase in investment. In terms of individual gross indicators and (steelmaking), the empire was ahead of it in the second half of the 19th century. England and. France ?? were industrialized. Austria and Czech. The six largest monopolies controlled the production of almost the entire hall of heat ore and more than 90% of steel production. Metallurgical concern "Skoda" v. The Czech Republic was one of the largest enterprises in the European military industry. Total in. Small and medium-sized industry prevailed in Austria-Hungary. Characteristic feature the economy of the empire was its technological backwardness, poor provision of the latest technology and the absence of the latest industries. German and French narrow capital was actively invested in basic industries - oil production, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering.

Industry and agriculture worked for the benefit of their own market. In the Danube monarchy, products were used mainly of their own production. Trade between the intra-imperial territories had a significant impetus after the elimination of customs duties in the second half of the 19th century and manufacturers from different parts. Austria-Hungary was developing promising markets. Cisleitania and. Broadcast ,. Galicia. Imports, like exports of goods, were insignificant and barely reached 5-5%.

There were up to a million officials in the country - twice as many as workers. And for every ten peasants there was one official. Bureaucracy reached unprecedented proportions, which in turn led to sharp social contrasts. The overall standard of living was very low. For example, in 1906 6% of the population spent the night in Viennese shelters. A different standard of living was in the capital and in the provincial cities of the faith. Vienna, the worker received an average of 4 guilders a day, then during. Lvov - about 2. In addition, prices for consumer goods in the capital were lower than those of the provinces.

Multinational. The Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century was going through a deep crisis due to the rise of national and labor movements. National movements with clearly defined centrifugal tendencies, we, had the goal of creating our own independent states, were formed in the second half of the XIX century. This is due to the process of the formation of the national intelligentsia. It was she who became the bearer of the spirit of freedom, the idea of ​​independence and found the means for the penetration of these ideas into the mass consciousness.

The first means was the "struggle for language" - for the national language of instruction in schools, universities, for the national language of literature, for equal rights of national languages ​​in office work and the army.

This movement was led by cultural and educational societies: National League (Italian lands), Matica Školska (Czech), Matica Slovenian (Slovenia) ,. People's House(Galicia) and others. They founded national schools and literary journals. Under their pressure in 1880, Vienna was forced to establish the equality of the German and Czech languages ​​in official business on the Czech lands. In 1881 the University of Prague was divided into two - German and Czech. In 1897, the emperor signed the so-called linguistic decrees, which finally equalized the rights of the German and Czech languages. The movement of the Slavic intelligentsia for the establishment of close ties became widespread. In some national lands, mass organizations were formed, for example, the Czech military-sports organization "Sokol", which united tens of thousands of young men and women, held nationalist rallies. All this contributed to the formation of national identity and on the eve. World War I, most of the subjects. The Austro-Hungarian Empire were already established citizens of the future sovereign sovereign sovereign powers.

At the beginning of the 20th century, under the influence of the Russian democratic revolution (1905-1907), the workers' movement intensified. The leadership of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (founded in 1889) called on workers to take massive action in support of the demand for universal suffrage. In November 1905 on the streets. Vienna and. Demonstrations took place in Prague, which escalated into clashes with the police. The workers arranged with a trike. The government was forced to agree to the introduction of a general choice of law.

The day before. First World War. Austria-Hungary took an openly hostile position on. Balkan countries captured. Bosnia and. Herzegovina, which led to increased tensions in relations with. Serbia. With the support of. German government. Austria-Hungary headed for unleashing a world war.

Austria-Hungary (German Österreich-Ungarn, officially since November 14, 1868 - German Die im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreiche und Länder und die Länder der heiligen ungarischen Stephanskrone (Kingdoms and lands represented in the Reichsrat, the unofficial Holy and official land of the Hungarian Empire) full name - German Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie (Austro-Hungarian monarchy), Hungarian Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia, Czech Rakousko-Uhersko) - a two-unit monarchy and multinational state in Central Europe that existed in 1867-1918. The third largest state in Europe at that time, after the British and Russian empires, and the first entirely located in Europe.

Military map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1882-1883. (1: 200 000) - 958mb

Description of the card:

Military maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Military Mapping Survey of Austria-Hungary

Year of issue: late 19th, early 20th century
Publisher: Geographical Division of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff
Format: scans jpg 220dpi
Scale: 1: 200,000

Description:
265 sheets
Map coverage from Strasbourg to Kiev

History

Austria-Hungary appeared in 1867 as a result of a bilateral agreement that reformed the Austrian Empire (which, in turn, was created in 1804). alliance with Germany and Italy. In 1914, as part of the bloc of the Central Powers (Germany, Ottoman Empire, later also Bulgaria) entered the First World War.
The assassination of the Archduke in Sarajevo by Gavrila Princip ("Mlada Bosna") served as a pretext for unleashing a war against Serbia by Austria-Hungary, which inevitably led to a conflict with the Russian Empire, which entered into a defensive alliance with the latter.

Borders

In the north, Austria-Hungary bordered on Saxony, Prussia and Russia, in the east - with Romania and Russia, in the south - with Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Montenegro and Italy and was washed by the Adriatic Sea, and in the west - with Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Bavaria. (Since 1871 Saxony, Prussia and Bavaria are part of the German Empire).

Administrative division

Politically, Austria-Hungary was divided into two parts - the Austrian Empire (see for more details Austrian lands as part of Austria-Hungary), ruled with the help of the Reichsrat, and the Hungarian Kingdom, which included the historical lands of the Hungarian crown and was subordinate to the Hungarian parliament and government. Informally, these two parts were called Cisleitania and Translated, respectively. Annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908, Bosnia and Herzegovina was not included in either Cisleitania or Translatedia and was governed by special authorities.

Collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918

Simultaneously with the defeat in the war, Austria-Hungary disintegrated (November 1918): Austria (as part of the German-speaking lands) proclaimed itself a republic, in Hungary the king from the Habsburg dynasty was deposed, and the Czech lands and Slovakia formed a new independent state - Czechoslovakia. Slovenian, Croatian and Bosnian lands became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 - Yugoslavia). Krakow land and territories with a predominantly Ukrainian population (known as Galicia in Austria-Hungary) were transferred to another new state - Poland. Trieste, the southern part of Tyrol, and somewhat later Fiume (Rijeka) were annexed by Italy. Transylvania and Bukovina became part of Romania

With Hungary.

Collegiate YouTube

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✪ Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary in the 19th century

✪ The true history and reasons for the outbreak of the "First World War" (Nikolai Starikov)

✪ Hungarian Revolution of 1919.

✪ Role of Austria Hungary in World War I

✪ Austria-Hungary, parade, 1910

Subtitles

Causes

Course of events

General crisis in the rear and at the front

In January-February 1918, a wave of strikes swept across the country. Basic requirements: a truce with Russia on any terms, democratic reforms, better food supplies.

The general strikes at the beginning of the year, the lack of provisions and the spread of revolutionary ideas negatively affected the Austro-Hungarian army and finally completely demoralized it. The first armed uprising in the Austro-Hungarian navy was Kotor. It began on February 1, 1918 in the Bay of Kotor on the Adriatic with a riot on the cruiser St. Georg, later the crews of another 42 ships and port workers joined the rebels. Most of the revolts were sailors who belonged to the national minorities of the empire - Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Hungarians. They were led by F. Rush, M. Brnichevich, A. Grabar and E. Shishgoric. Revolutionary committees were created on the courts. The rebels demanded the immediate conclusion of peace with Russia on her terms - that is, the self-determination of the peoples of Austria-Hungary. On February 3, several submarines approached the bay from the naval base in Pula, and infantry was transferred overland to the port. On the same day, the uprising was suppressed, about 800 people were arrested, all the leaders were shot.

In the east, the situation is even worse. Despite the statements of Austro-Hungarian politicians about the futility of a campaign against Ukraine, the Austrian army continued its offensive. In February, a separate peace treaty and several more economic and economic agreements were signed with the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), and on April 29, the Central Rada of the UPR was replaced by the Skoropadsky government. Meanwhile, in Galicia, in the wake of the empire's rapprochement with the UPR, local Ukrainians became more active, who held a national congress in Lvov on July 16.

On May 1, a wave of mass demonstrations swept across Austria-Hungary. On May 5, the Germans caught 18 Austrian soldiers propagandizing the revolution and shot them. In the same month, in the deep rear of the empire, in the city of Rumburk, a local garrison revolted. The uprising was suppressed. On June 17, a hunger riot took place in Vienna, and on June 18, a general strike due to hunger.

In the last months of the empire's existence, about 150,000 people fled from the Austro-Hungarian army (for comparison: the number of deserters from the beginning of the war to August 1918 was 100,000 people, and from August to October it increased two and a half times and reached 250,000 people ). On August 20, another uprising of soldiers took place in Mogilev-Podolsk. This time, the reason was the order to be sent to the Italian front, where fierce battles have been going on lately. On the same day, after a 12-hour battle, the uprising was suppressed, and the surviving rebels fled to the partisans. In September, there was an uprising of the Austro-Hungarian troops in Odessa. The reason is the order to be sent to the Balkan Front. National strikes and strikes began again soon after. different regions empires led by local national committees. This was the reason for the collapse of Austria-Hungary.

Austria

Austria was the titular state in the Habsburg Empire, the rest of the country united around it. The government of Austria-Hungary and all governing bodies of the country met in Vienna. Actually, Austria itself did not fall away from the empire and did not proclaim independence, although there were conflicts between Italians and Austrians, as well as between Slovenes and Austrians. Both conflicts were resolved peacefully.

On November 3, 1918, Austria-Hungary signed an armistice with the Entente. The empire at that moment was decentralized and actually disintegrated, a war had been going on in Galicia for two days, and Czechoslovakia declared independence. On November 6, Poland declared its independence.

By 1920, the situation in Austria had stabilized, a constitution was adopted, and reforms were carried out. The first Austrian republic lasted until 1938, when it was annexed to the Third Reich.

Hungary, Transylvania and Bukovina

The coalition government of Mihai Karolyi came to power in Hungary. A general strike took place in Transylvania on the same day. Street riots in Budapest lasted until November 2. On November 3, the Communist Party of Bukovina was formed in Bukovina, demanding the unification of the region with the Ukrainian SSR. Meanwhile, on November 5 in Budapest, Charles I was deposed from the Hungarian throne, although he himself resigned as the Hungarian king on November 13, without abdicating, however, from the throne. The government of the country was headed by Mihai Karoji. He ruled the country for several months, but was unable to carry out vital reforms for the country and establish friendly relations with the Entente.

The position of Hungary also worsened due to the entry of Romanian troops into Transylvania and its annexation by Romania. The social democrats and communists have stepped up their activities in the country. On February 20, 1919, in Budapest, the communists pogrom the newspaper of the Social Democrats “Vörös Uyshag”. 7 people were killed, including police officers who intervened in the clashes. This led to a series of mass arrests of members of the Hungarian Communist Party. Despite this, the population's sympathy for the communists grew, and on March 1, under public pressure, the Hungarian government was forced to legalize the Communist Party. On March 11, an anti-government demonstration of workers and military took place in Szeged. On March 18, during a demonstration at the Chepel plant, calls were made for the establishment of Soviet power in the country. On March 19, the Entente representative in Budapest handed the head of the government Mihai Karolyi a map of Hungary with the country's new borders and asked for permission to send Entente troops to Hungary to "prevent riots."

On March 20, 1919, the situation in the country worsened. The communists began to take over all government organizations in Budapest. The Karoya government resigned. On March 21, a new communist government was formed, headed by White Kun, and the Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed. On March 22, the RSFSR government was the first to recognize the new state and sent a welcoming radio message to Budapest. On March 22, Soviet power was proclaimed in Transcarpathia, although the ZUNR claimed it. On March 25, the Hungarian Red Army (VKA) was formed, and on March 26, the first decrees of the communist government on the nationalization of enterprises were issued. On March 29, several major armed clashes occurred between the troops of both countries on the disputed Hungarian-Czechoslovak border. Hungary has declared war on Czechoslovakia. On April 16, Romanian troops crossed the Romanian-Hungarian demarcation line in Transylvania and launched an offensive on the cities of Szolnok, Tokay, Debrecen, Oradea, Kecskemet, Mukachevo, Khust. Meanwhile, on the border with the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Serb troops began to maneuver, and the Czechoslovak army began an offensive on the northern front.

By May 1, 1919, Czechoslovakia completely occupied Transcarpathia and part of Slovakia, and the VKA managed to stop the Romanian troops on the Tisza River. A massive conscription began in the VKA. On May 30, the offensive of the Romanian and Czechoslovak troops was stopped and the counter-offensive of the VKA on the northern front, called the "Northern campaign", began. As a result, the Hungarians managed to invade Slovakia and proclaim the Slovak Soviet Republic. Transcarpathia was proclaimed Subcarpathian Rus as part of Hungary, although it actually continued to be controlled by the Czechoslovak army. Meanwhile, in June, anti-Soviet uprisings began in Hungary itself.

Already in July, VKA units began evacuating from Slovakia. On July 20, the Hungarian offensive began on the Romanian front. His plan, due to betrayal in the ranks of the VKA, fell into the hands of the Romanians and the offensive on July 30 was thwarted. The Romanians went on the offensive along the entire front line. On August 1, the communists withdrew from the coalition government. The new government dissolved the VKA and abolished the constitution of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, thus the communist regime fell. On August 4, the Romanian army entered Budapest. On August 6, the Romanians appointed Archbishop Joseph as ruler of Hungary. He was removed from this post on August 23 at the request of the Entente. After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet Republic, Istvan Betlen and Miklos Horthy took control of western Hungary. On November 11, their troops entered Budapest, having recaptured it from the Romanians. Horthy became dictator of Hungary (with the official title of regent since Hungary formally remained a monarchy) and ruled the country until 1944.

On June 4, 1920, the Treaty of Trianon was signed between Hungary and the victorious countries, which established the modern borders of Hungary. Transylvania and part of Banat went to Romania, Burgenland to Austria, Transcarpathia and Slovakia to Czechoslovakia, Croatia and Backa to Yugoslavia. Romania also occupied Bukovina, although it was not part of Hungary. At the time of the signing of the treaty, none of these territories was controlled by Hungary. In connection with the signing of the treaty and huge territorial losses, revanchism was established in Hungary; it got to the point that mourning was declared in the country - until 1938 all flags in Hungary were at half-mast, and in educational institutions each school day began with a prayer for the restoration of the Motherland in its former borders.

Czechoslovakia and Transcarpathia

The intelligentsia and students were in favor of the formation of the independent Czech Republic and Slovakia. Two branches of the liberation movement were formed. The first, led by Masaryk, Beneš and Štefánik, went abroad and created the Czechoslovak National Committee, while the other remained in the country where she carried on propaganda. The first branch was supported by the Entente, with its help Czechoslovak propaganda was carried out in the countries of Europe and Austria-Hungary itself. On January 6, 1918, the General Sejm of Czech Imperial and Zemstvo Deputies adopted a declaration demanding autonomy for Czechs and Slovaks.

Hungary did not want to lose Transcarpathia, so on December 26 it proclaimed the autonomous status of Carpathian Rus within Hungary under the name “Russian Krajina” with the center in Mukachevo. However, at the beginning of 1919, Czech troops occupied Transcarpathia and Slovakia, and on January 15 they entered Uzhgorod. With the seizure of power in Hungary by the Soviet government, Czechoslovakia and Romania began a war against it. Czechoslovakians and Hungarians also had to compete with the Ukrainian People's Republic, which, after the decision of the “Council of all Rusyns living in Hungary” to annex Transcarpathia to the Ukrainian cathedral state, began to openly claim the entire region and sent troops there. On May 8, 1919, the "Central Russian People's Council" in Uzhgorod, occupied by Czechoslovak troops, voted to join Czechoslovakia. However, Hungary occupied the southeastern regions of Slovakia, proclaiming the Slovak Soviet Republic there and cutting off Transcarpathia from Prague. On July 30, the Romanian army launched a victorious offensive on the Romanian front and occupied Budapest. The Hungarian Soviet Republic was defeated, and Czechoslovakia was restored to its former borders. With the signing of the Treaty of Trianon with the assistance of the Entente on September 10, 1919, Transcarpathia was ceded to Czechoslovakia.

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria

At the end of October, the situation worsened even more, as the Poles created a "liquidation commission", the main goal of which was the annexation of Galicia to the revived Poland. The commission was formed in Krakow and was going to move to Lvov, from where it was planned to govern the region. This forced the Ukrainians to hasten with the proclamation of the ZUNR, which was scheduled for November 3.

In reality, the power of the ZUNR extended only to Eastern Galicia and for some time to Bukovina, although the republic was proclaimed in the territories of Transcarpathia, in which Ukrainian interests collided with Hungarian and Czechoslovak interests, the whole of Galicia, the western part of which was alternately controlled by the warring parties, Volhynia, which became part of Poland , and Bukovina, which was occupied by the Romanian troops. In addition, two Lemko republics and one Polish republic arose in the Lemkiv region. The Comancha Republic (East Lemko Republic) was proclaimed in the village of Comancha near San, it claimed to be united with the ZUNR. The Russian People's Republic of Lemkov (West Lemko Republic) was proclaimed in the village of Florinka and claimed to be united with democratic Russia or Czechoslovakia. The republic, founded by local communist Poles, was called Tarnobrzeg. All three republics were liquidated by the Polish army.

At the end of 1918, the ZUNR authorities began negotiations with the directory of Simon Petliura, who headed the UPR. On January 3, 1919, the states announced their unification, and on January 22, the "Act of evil" was signed, according to which ZUNR was part of the Ukrainian state, turning into a subject of administrative-territorial division called ZOUNR (Western Region of the Ukrainian People's Republic). In reality, however, this did not bring any results. The Poles continued to successfully advance in the west, there was an acute shortage of ammunition in the country, and Simon Petliura was in no hurry with help.

The Entente repeatedly intervened in the conflict with a proposal to sign an armistice and demarcate the border between Poland and the ZUNR, but for various reasons, in turn, neither one nor the other side was willing to compromise.

Spring active fighting resumed. At first, the Poles successfully advanced, displacing the UGA to the Zbruch and Dniester. As a result of the offensive, the Ukrainian formations of the UGA 1st Mountain Brigade and the Glubokaya group fell deep into the rear of the Poles and went to Transcarpathia, where they ceased to exist. However, on June 7, Ukrainian troops launched the "Chortkovo offensive", which lasted until June 22. UGA managed to take control of Eastern Galicia again. On June 28, Petrushevich assumed the powers of a dictator, and in July the Poles launched a decisive offensive, as a result of which the UGA ceased to exist. On October 1, Poland and the UPR made peace and established a common border. At the end of the summer, the UPR was destroyed by the advancing westward Soviet troops. The Polish-Ukrainian War was followed by the Soviet-Polish War, in which the Poles set themselves the goal of reviving Poland within the borders of 1772. Under the Riga Treaty of 1921, the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR recognized Galicia as Poland.

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

A crisis broke out in the country. In October 1918, it reached its climax (see General crisis in the rear and at the front). Austria-Hungary was defeated, Serbia, on the contrary, was being restored. On September 15, 1918, Serbian troops launched an offensive. At the same time, a national liberation movement developed in the rear of the Austro-Hungarian army in occupied Serbia and Montenegro. On November 1, Serbian troops entered Belgrade, and the very next day they launched a large-scale offensive against Vojvodina. In the south, the Serbs advanced into Croatia. By this time, Serbia had completed work on a program to resolve the Yugoslavian issue. It was planned to unite all the lands inhabited by Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Bosnians into a single kingdom headed by the Karadjordjeviches. In addition to this program, called the Corfu Declaration, there were others, but less radical.

In the fall, local and central governments were formed in the Yugoslavian regions of Austria-Hungary. For a long time they did not take up their duties, waiting for the most favorable moment for the proclamation of independence. On October 29, the recently formed People's Council of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes announced its readiness to take full power in the region into its own hands. Local Slavic organizations announced the termination of cooperation with the government of Austria-Hungary, and on the same day the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (GSHS) was proclaimed. In the historiography of the West, this event is classified as a coup d'etat.

The Ljubljana People's Council had no more than a hundred soldiers and officers. Soldiers who were caught and detained during the day, returning from the front, dispersed to their villages at night. The guards, set up in the evening, disappeared God knows where. In the morning they found in the guardroom only a rifle leaning against the wall ...

A. Prepelukh-Adbitus,
Slovenian publicist

In the new state, many officers of the Austro-Hungarian army, local self-government bodies, courts, army, etc. went over to the side of the people's veche. Thus, power in the kingdom passed into the hands of the veche without bloodshed.

The new state lasted only a month. It was possible to obtain international recognition only from Serbia and Hungary, which sent their representatives to Zagreb, the capital of the kingdom. Soon a series of disobedience of local councils to the People's Chamber began, rebel groups were formed, anarchy was established in the state. The situation was worsened by the advance of the Italians in the north. They captured the large port cities of Dalmatia and Slovenia, where the entire former fleet of Austria-Hungary was based, which fell into the hands of the government of the State Agricultural Union.

The State Agricultural Union turned to the USA, Serbia, Great Britain and France for help with a request to prevent the occupation of the country by Italian troops. Dusan Simovic was sent from Serbia to the State Agricultural Union. He formed detachments of the Yugoslavian army, which participated in the battles against Italy and Austria, which also wanted to occupy Slovenia.

M. Petrovich,
Member of the People's Council of Novi Sad

Economy

However, the imperial central bank soon broke agreements with the governments of the new states, resuming bond payments and providing loans to the Austrian government. Having lost confidence in the Central Bank, the new states began to provide for their own economies. On January 8, 1919, a decree was signed in Croatia, according to which it was necessary to stamp all the kroons circulating in it at that time in order to separate them from the rest of the money of the former empire. On February 25, a secret congress of the National Assembly took place in Czechoslovakia. It was decided to give the Minister of Finance the right to stamp all kroons circulating in Czechoslovakia. On the same night, all borders were closed by troops, and postal communication with other countries was interrupted for several weeks. This action was taken by the Assembly to prevent the smuggling of banknotes. From March 3 until the stamping of crowns was carried out, after which a law was passed according to which only Czechoslovak money can legally be used in Czechoslovakia. Following this, all branches of the imperial central bank in the country came under the direct control of the government.

Stamping local currency in the Czech Republic and Yugoslavia threatened Austria, as all unstamped crowns ended up in this country, which could lead to increased inflation. This forced the Austrian government to stamp the money in their country. Hungary stamped its currency only after the end of the war with Romania and Czechoslovakia, and Poland did it already in 1920.

The external debt of Austria-Hungary was equally divided among all the newly formed states. The bonds were replaced with new ones, each country having its own. All of them were denominated in the national currency of the country where they were issued. In the event of a "preponderance" of the debt of the former empire in one of the countries, it was equally redistributed among the rest. Thus, national economies were formed and were already operating. At the peace conference that took place after the world war, they were only legalized. On July 31, 1924, the Imperial Central Bank officially ceased to exist. Now each new state followed its own path of development, different from the others. Some of them began to quickly and energetically restore the economy, while others survived the crisis.

Effects

Austria-Hungary collapsed as soon as the First World War ended. Its territory was divided between the neighbors of Austria-Hungary and the newly formed states. The complete collapse of the empire was not included in the post-war plans of the Entente, and she negatively perceived it.