Impact of World War I and the Rise of the Soviet Union

Consequences of World War I

Demographic: Losses between 9 and 10 million Europeans who died in combat, 19 million wounded, and 3 million invalids.

Economic: Total destruction of means of production and transportation. After the war, Europe was left in ruins.

Social: A general impoverishment of the lower and middle classes. Women held jobs, leading to the recognition of women's rights.

Political: The demographic loss caused European prestige systems to be questioned in difficult times.

Cultural and Moral: Bankruptcy of humanistic values and ideals of the Enlightenment, a crisis in the notion of progress. Scientific and technical advances were halted.

Causes of the First World War: The Armed Peace

The First World War began in 1914 as a result of tensions and rivalries between major European powers. Between 1870 and 1914, state budgets devoted increasingly more to their militaries, increasing the fear that war could break out at any time. Those years are known as the Armed Peace, which was apparently a period of peace that states took advantage of to prepare for war.

The Spark of War

The spark that finally brought about the war was the assassination in the city of Sarajevo. The police attributed the attack to nationalist Serbs seeking to incorporate the territory of Bosnia into Serbia to construct a Greater Serbia. A few weeks later, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia.

The Czars of Russia, from Nicholas II to Alexander III

Three problems occurred:

• Industry: Low industrialization, and it appears that the proletariat is the working class that now has self-awareness.
• Agrarian Problem: Until 1861, the land was controlled by the high nobility, communities, and kulaks.
• Political Problem: The absolutist system.

Revolution of 1905

The crisis and bad harvests caused by overproduction led to strikes and peasant uprisings. Russia declared war on Japan over territorial disputes. The military effort did not prevent the defeat of Russia.

Russian Civil War

After the first measures were adopted, the Bolsheviks began to consolidate power in Russia. In many places, however, power was in the hands of Czarists, Mensheviks, liberals, and other counter-forces, who organized White armies with international support (France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan). The war between the Red Army (the Bolsheviks), organized by Trotsky, and the White armies was marked by extreme violence: neither side took prisoners. The Red Army won the war.

Stalin

From 1928 until his death in 1953, Stalin imposed a particularly harsh personal dictatorship of a totalitarian nature, characterized by devotion to Stalin and brutal repression.