World War I and Its Aftermath

1914–1929

Contemporaries dubbed World War I the “Great War” with good reason. Over the course of four years, millions died in battle—victims of advanced military technologies, outdated tactics, wretched leadership, and a desire for total victory. The first document allows us to see these horrors through two soldiers’ eyes. The second document reveals that civilians contributed to the staggering death toll, for it was they who manufactured the grenades, rifles, and other weapons used at the front with such devastating effects. Yet the war’s legacy did not stop there. Civilian protests against the war unleashed the Russian Revolution, which transformed the world’s political landscape. The third document illuminates the ideology of the founder of the Soviet state, V. I. Lenin (1870–1924) on the eve of the revolution. To the west, governments faced their own challenges as they struggled under the weight of postwar reconstruction and popular discontent. As the final two documents attest, among the people who capitalized on these troubled times were Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) and Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), who ushered in a new age of violent dictatorship in Europe.