[WS] I am reading Halperin's book "Germany Tried Democracy" which argues that the communists had similar hopes after World War 1, which was also viewed as "capitalist war." That may be so, but the revolutionary potential never materialized - in fact the majority of the working class went with Social Democrats and Independents and the Communists were pretty much marginalized.
The myth of a revolution seems to be the greatest curse that the Russian revolution cast on the European left. The Russian Revolution was a fluke, a historical accident that happens once in thousand years, a coincidence of several factors that rarely occur together - extreme etatisme and weak civil society (as Trotsky aptly observed) the near destruction of the Russian army, political blunders of the Kerensky government, German fomenting of popular unrest, and nationalistic movements of ethnic groups within the Russian empire. Only then a small revolutionary group could grab the power of the state - and even that with difficulty, as evidenced by the civil war.
Unfortunately, Marxist agitation tried to make law of nature out of historical accidents and convinced many labor leaders that revolution is a "law of history" and Europe will follow the footsteps of Russia. It is like someone observing another person hitting a jackpot on a slot machine and hoping he will hit a jackpot too.
As the post WW 1 history shows, communist revolutions did not materialize in any of the industrialized countries - not even close. Worse yet, they contributed to internal divisions within the working class. The only success that socialist and working class parties ever achieved was through electoral politics. A belief that a revolution was imminent after WW2 strikes me as pure fantasy.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."