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Marx himself had different views of the prospects for revolution at different times in his life Up until the end of the First World War, however, Marxist commonly believed that the workers' revolution would come soon. The prospects for revolution looked far bleaker by the 1920s. The call to war had found the workers not uniting to overthrow capitalism but rallying to nationalist causes. Even the Russian revolution had failed to spark similar uprisings in the more advanced economies of Western Europe.