 As the Great War progressed , war exhaustion in Germany grew . The first strikes in the country since the start of the war broke out in 1915 , steadily increasing in frequency and magnitude . The unions ' role as troubleshooter between the employers and the workers soon led to conflict between the membership and union officials , and the Free Trade Unions steadily lost members . Correspondingly , the Reichstag faction of the SPD split over continued support for the war . The 1917 February Revolution in Russia was seen by the FVdG as an expression of the people 's desire for peace . The syndicalists paid special attention to the role the general strike ( which they had been advocating for years ) played in the revolution . They were unable to comment on the October Revolution as the Rundschreiben had been banned by the time it broke out . 
