In addition to the structural factors very incisively identified above, there was also the historical context: the war produced runaway inflation and food shortages which led to mass famine and food riots in the cities and countryside, and mass desertions, mutinies, and the formation of military soviets on the battlefield. Neither the monarchy nor the bourgeoisie could prevent a social collapse, and the refusal to end the war sealed the fate of the Provisional Government. All Power to the Soviets became, you might say, a matter of historical necessity, quite readily understood by the masses in the prevailing misery and chaos. Though grim, the contemporary crisis in the West is not a revolutionary or even a pre-revolutionary one, where the broad mass of the population has lost all confidence in the ruling class and its parties and are are prepared to take a desperate, hopeful leap into a new society. In this context, Lenin and Trotsky, their exemplary leadership skills notwi! thstanding, wouldn't be politically much beyond where Occupy and its allied movements on the continent are now.
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Be a little patient. The deflationary spiral is only four years old. And they are working very hard at provoking a pan-Arab/ North African war cause doncha know, that's how you defuse revolutions.
The anti-muslim hate propaganda is about to be plastered all over NYC subways..... And the vets from the current wars are coming home to destitution and illness.
Give it a little time.
Joanna