The End of the Habsburg Monarchy

The collapse of Habsburg rule in Central Europe, especially in historical retrospect, was considered inevitable by many historians. But despite serious internal and external threats, the collapse of the Danube Monarchy was not a foregone conclusion. The decision of the Imperial elites to go to war at any cost made the situation worse. However, the dissolution of Austria-Hungary became inevitable only at the end of the First World War due to the sharp deterioration of living standards, the consequences of military measures for soldiers and civilians, the influence of the Russian Revolution and the US entry into the War, the strengthening of national separatism, and the openly antiHabsburg policy of the Allies in 1918. But were the collapse and dissolution of Austria-Hungary as predetermined as numerous popular and scholarly publications present it? Or could events have developed differently? The author's thoughts on this topic make up the content of the article. The author comes to the conclusion that the k. & k. monarchy as "yesterday's world" did not disappear in 1918: it was preserved socially and psychologically. On the basis of many works of the monarchy, as well as the cultural achievements of Austria in the period between the two world wars, the myth of a good "Christian state" — the Habsburg Empire-was created. "The peace of Franz Josef' and his crowned predecessors means above all an unchanging peace order. This myth diverted attention from the tragedy of the First and Second World Wars, from the “brown nightmare” of Nazism, from the joint responsibility of the “Ostmärker” (the designation of the Austrians in the period 1938—1942) for the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship. Since the 1980s, historians, writers, public figures have increasingly begun to pay attention to the negative aspects of the "old Empire", the history of its demise. It took liberalization, the erosion of the classical social environment and ideological camps to initiate a change in the view of the past of Austria, a “change in the cultural memory” of the people

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