We discuss one of the key problems of the modern history - the collapse of the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Empire. The dual monarchy, or Monarchy, lasted a little more than half a century, from 1867 to 1918, and disintegrated as a result of the sharp aggravation of interethnic contradictions and the military-political defeat of the Central Powers. The book of the contemporary of the historical drama, the Hungarian publicist, the left-liberal politician O. Jászi occupies a special place is in the rich Austro-Hungarianism. The author of this study was the scientific editor of the translation of O. Jászi’s book into Russian. We examine two innovative ideas in many ways pioneer of O. Jászi’s historical and sociological labor: a) the contradictory impact of economic forces (factor) on the close integration of multi-level regions of the Danube monarchy; b) as we show, relying on the research of O. Jászi, the psychological reason for the collapse of the polyethnic state was the cultural and mental incompatibility of Hungarians and Austrian Germans, as well as of other peoples of the Monarchy. We summarize that the economic backwardness of Hungary and the originality of the Hungarian national identity, different political culture were the deep disintegrational factors of the disappearance of one of the largest continental empires from the world political map.