“España no era Rusia”: la revolución española de 1917: anatomía de un fracaso

This article analyses the crisis of modernity of Spain’s Restoration regime as part of the revolutionary dynamic spurred by the First World War. Within this context, the Spanish case (with its obvious particular connotations) is examined as the regional version of the breakdown of the traditional European socio-political order then dominated by constitutional and parliamentarian monarchies although elitist or clientelist in nature.

Her neutrality spared Spain from the human slaughter but could not isolate her from the war’s huge socio-economic and political impact. The combination in 1917 of factors both external (ideological polarization, Russian revolution) and domestic (shortages of basic products, rising prices, social dislocation) led to a reformist/revolutionary cycle that nevertheless ended in utter failure. This article examines the conditions and reasons (agential and accidental) that explain such failure as well as the price that the regime had to pay to guarantee its survival. Within these parameters, the peculiarities of the Spanish revolutionary cycle are analysed in comparative terms with the differential features of the Russian model.