World War 1 therefore came to a close with an even greater death toll than that had occurred during the war itself and would be a human tragedy possibly unequalled in the history of the world.
The legacy of World War 1 however, not only continued but is alive today 96 years after its official ending.
To destabilize Russia, the giant on their eastern borders, Germany actively assisted dissidents, particularly the Bolsheviks who advocated leaving the “capitalist war to the capitalists” and secretly assisted the return of the Bolshevik leader, Lenin to Russia to undermine the strength of the Allies and their action was rewarded by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the killing of the Czar and his family. The new government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk effectively withdrawing Russia from the war against the Central Powers. The civil war in Russia meant that now Russia split into two camps – the White Russians (anti-communist) and the Communist Red Russians although British troops were sent to fight in support of the White Russian Cause.
Millions died during the Civil War but the defeat of the White Russian cause did not see the end of the matter as famine and disease claimed millions more with 3 million deaths from typhus in 1920 alone. Russia was an agricultural country but at the end of the civil war agriculture was in ruins and food shortages brought death to the new state for years to come and the death of Lenin brought about the coming to power of Stalin. The drive for industrialization in Russia under his rule, combined with the purges and the famine of 1932 due to the failure of the 5 year plan, forced collectivization and repression resulted in the deaths of millions while Russians continued to die in front of firing squads long after the final shots on the Western Front and the signing of the Peace Treaty at Versailles.
This brings us back to Germany. Despite losing the war, Germany was in some ways fortunate in the inter-war year despite the punitive terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, the loss of overseas territory, the loss of territory to Poland and France and the imposition of punitive reparations. Only a fraction of the reparations were actually paid and despite the period of hyperinflation and the social and political unrest, the Weimar Republic was I believe quite successful in steering Germany through difficult times. Unfortunately, there was a wide spread belief in Germany that they had been “stabbed in the back” and the Weimar Republic was believed to be implicated in this by many Germans.
The1929 Financial Crash swept across the world and President Hindenburg assumed emergency dictatorial powers. Massive deflation and unemployment saw the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party and his capture of the German political machine in 1933. French Marshall Ferdinand Foch had said of the Versailles Treaty, “This is not peace” It is an armistice for 20 years!” The American General Pershing had been opposed to the whole idea of the 1918 Armistice saying that the Allies should push the Germans back to Berlin otherwise they would never believe they were beaten.
Hitler firmly believed that Germany had been “stabbed in the back!” in 1918 and that there was a Jewish conspiracy which incorporated international Capitalism and Communism. His hatred of the Versailles Treaty saw early action to roll back its provisions and Europe and the world began an unmistakable move towards the resumption of World War I with brand new, updated, ever more ingenious methods of mass slaughter. Culminating in a single bomb that was capable of wiping out a city, World War II took warfare beyond morality as civilian populations became subjected to the concept of “Total War.”
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