History’s Revenge: Why the USSR’s Collapse Is Like WWI

... August of 1914. Apart from the millions killed, the war destroyed four empires – Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and German. It sparked a genocide (the Armenians... ... ticking time bombs. And the war set the stage for the continuation of the conflict in World War II, the most destructive war in history, in which the most lethal weapon ever... ... over the first half of the century. The Great Depression could be added to the list. WWI unleashed revanchism in Germany, weakened democracies and markets, and strengthened the USSR, which existed in an alternate economic universe. When Vladimir Putin called the...