Shadows of Red Vienna

When the old liberal capitalism and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed after the First World War and the Spanish flu pandemic, Vienna was not just a capital that was left without an empire – it was a city that lost the ground under its feet. Imperial splendor overnight turned into anguish, mass unemployment, hunger, tuberculosis and a housing hell, where working-class families took turns renting and sharing "beds by the hour".

While on the surface the city was barely breathing under the weight of misery and despair, in the deep shadows behind the ancient gates a very different life was taking place. In the suffocating half-darkness of the basement, along with the dull sound of the gestetner, banned papers and leaflets are printed, coded messages are whispered, forged passports are distributed and plans are hatched that will fundamentally shake the existing order. This pulsating underground of the Austrian capital seethes in silence; invisible and ready to fundamentally change the history of Europe.

FERTILE GROUND FOR CHANGE

The years between 1919 and 1934 went down in history as the period of "Red Vienna" (Red Vienna), which was born on the embers of a system that was bankrupt both morally and economically. The Social Democratic Workers' Party took over power. Stunned by a convincing victory and willing to help the most vulnerable, the Austrian social democrats developed their own ideology - Austro-Marxism. Although they shared an ideological basis with Bolshevik Moscow, they differed in terms of methods, preferring the democratic path over the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Local authorities, including the police, tolerated political emigration from the left wing, as long as they did not directly threaten the stability of Austria itself. Thanks to the relative freedom of movement and work, Vienna served as a safe haven for foreign communists and leftists who were persecuted and sentenced to death in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Hungary or Romania. Geography did the rest. Due to its position on the map, Vienna remained an imperial hub even after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy: it was well connected by train to Moscow, Berlin and Paris, and at the same time it was a natural gateway to the Balkans. The all-powerful Comintern recognized this immediately. The Regional Balkan Secretariat was formed in Vienna, which for years coordinated revolutionary activities in Southeastern Europe. Couriers could cross the Austrian-Yugoslavian or Austrian-Hungarian border relatively quickly and unnoticed. The management of the illegal network in the Kingdom of SHS took place much easier from Vienna than from distant Moscow.

The relative freedom of the press made the city a powerful propaganda center for the revolutionaries. Communist literature was printed here and then smuggled through illegal channels to the Balkans and Central Europe. When the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was outlawed in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Promulgated in 1920 and by the Law on State Protection in 1921, its leadership and publishing activities were transferred precisely to Vienna's working-class districts. Papers and party bulletins, incl The fight in a certain period, they are printed here.

TWO CENTURIES IN THE MIRROR

The parallel with the twenties of the last century is extremely relevant today. After a series of crises, wars, pandemics and inflation, we are still facing almost the same historical symptoms in a new guise. The middle and working classes are once again creaking under the burden of the cost of living, while the extreme wealth piles up at the top. Citizens - from the world's metropolises to the outskirts - are increasingly faced with uncertainty, rents that eat up most of their wages, and technology that threatens to take away even the little job security they have.

Not to mention the crisis of credibility of traditional institutions and political elites: just as the former parliamentary systems completely lost their legitimacy in the eyes of citizens due to corruption, sluggishness and the absence of empathy for the common man, so today's institutions are systematically collapsing, leaving citizens left to the elements and a deep sense of helplessness. And perhaps the most important: the twenties and thirties of the last century represent a painful reminder of the period in which the then political order retreated under the onslaught of radical populism and fascism, because it could not, or did not want to, solve the basic existential problems of citizens. Looking at the current time, unfortunately, there is no manpower in sight to turn the wheel of history and prevent a repeat of what happened in Europe at the time, and in the whole world, already at the end of the thirties of the 20th century.

THE FIRST LEAGUE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ELITE

A century ago, Vienna became a huge "refugee" camp for the red elite. After the banning of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in the Kingdom of SHS, the collapse of the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and the suppression of the communist uprisings in Bulgaria in 1923, thousands of defeated activists, intellectuals and revolutionaries flocked to the Austrian capital. To the communists of the 1920s, Vienna was what London was to the liberals of the 19th century - an island of freedom in a sea of ​​reaction.

From the Yugoslav communists and leftists in "Red Vienna" during the 1920s and early 1930s, mainly members of the emigration leadership of the Communist Party lived and worked. Among the most important was Sima Marković, a university professor and one of the first secretaries of the KPJ, who remained in Vienna after Obznana, becoming a central figure in the Viennese emigration headquarters. Filip Filipović, co-founder and secretary of the KPJ, who was also elected mayor of Belgrade in 1920, but the authorities at the time annulled that election, worked alongside him. Mustafa Golubić, a pre-war member of Young Bosnia and a Soviet intelligence officer, was also active in the Austrian capital in the 1920s, and Đuro Đaković was among the participants of the First World Conference in Vienna in 1922.

Although Josip Broz Tito is often mentioned in the context of "Red Vienna", he was not a significant figure in the Viennese emigration leadership or the Balkan Secretariat during the 1920s. He had real contact with the Viennese headquarters of the party only in 1934, immediately after his release from prison. Then Milan Gorkić, who as general secretary managed the party center in emigration, invited him to Vienna and introduced him to the Politburo. Broz was then first introduced with the nickname Tito, but that was already at the very end of the era called "Red Vienna".

Admittedly, young Josip Broz was still in the immediate surroundings in 1913, in Vienna's Novi Mesto, working in the "Daimler" car factory. That period is often mentioned in popular stories ("Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, Tito and Freud in Vienna 1913"), but it has nothing to do with communism or "Red Vienna".

IS THE LIGHT GOING OUT AGAIN?

However, nothing lasts forever, so even "Red Vienna" lasted only fifteen years - but with what results. During this period, this reform project brought a radical transformation of the health and education system, free textbooks and supplies for children, advanced kindergartens and cultural literacy of the working class. The city authorities also built tens of thousands of quality and affordable homes for workers, equipped with a variety of social, health and service facilities. The idea was simple and for that time almost radical: the city must not be just a collection of private interests, but a common space where even those with the least money have the right to a dignified life. This visionary undertaking is rightly considered one of the most successful social and urban experiments of the twentieth century, the foundations of which still provide Vienna with the status of a city with the highest quality of life in the world.

But the Austro-Marxism of the time soon gave way to cruel Austro-fascism, and a short and bloody civil war in the streets of the capital finally extinguished the lights of this brave and progressive idea. While it lasted, it was proof that ideas that can shake the world are always born in the shadow of the biggest crises. Exactly a century later, as we once again count the cracks in the system, history asks us the same question: Will we recognize the warning signs this time before the lights go out again?