Origin of the First World War

More than one hundred years have passed since the beginning of the First World War, which contemporaries have christened as the Great War. A huge amount of literature dedicated to this war has been published in the world, and continues to concern the minds of people from various countries. In Soviet Russia this war turned out to be forgotten. They simply crossed it out of the historical process as if it had never existed. A few pages in history textbooks and popular pamphlets is all that was dedicated to this event, which changed the modern world beyond recognition. Over the past few years the growing interest of readers and historians in Russia in the issues of the First World War bears witness to the fact that this theme is beginning to emerge from a state of oblivion and gradually take its rightful place. However until now, none of our native authors have examined the origins of the First World War i.e. they have not seriously studied its causes or looked at the historical course of the countries that unleashed this world war prior to when swords crossed.

This book is the first and to date only comprehensive examination of the causes of the First World War in Russian historiography. It has been based on multiple sources and studies, introduced for the first time into the academic environment. In the book not a single word is written about the war itself and military action. It describes how politicians and diplomats from European states stoked the fire causing it to rage into a war. The distinguishing feature of the book is that the author  studies the path to war of each major European power. The narrative unfolds for the reader images of many leaders, politicians and diplomats involved one way or another in the development of the First World War. Some of these names and figures are unfamiliar to the Russian reader. This makes the book even more alluring.

This publication is aimed both at specialist historians and a wide readership interested in the poorly studied issues of world and national history.