End of an Era

Russian Tsars have controlled a sprawling landmass across Europe and Asia for 200 years. But the world is changing beneath their feet. The last of the imperial landlords, the Russians are late to the game of industrialization.

This leaves the Russian Empire in a weakened condition, with 90% of its population still employed as peasant farmers on estates controlled by the nobility. It's a situation of great inequality, ripe for change.

When World War I erupts in Europe, Russia eagerly joins in. The Tsar fields huge armies of ill-equipped recruits, which are methodically mowed down by the Germans. Humbled and demoralized, Russians wants out of the war.

Germany also wants Russia out of the war. It transports a Russian exile by secret train from Germany to the Russian capital. His name is Vladimir Lenin, and his communist ideology immediately takes root. The Revolution is ON.


	Russian Civil War Lenin is a long-time supporter of insurrection against the landed gentry in Russia, which initially leads to his arrest and exile. He returns to support an early failed revolution, and goes on to advocate a 'proletarian' (workers) revolution to overthrow capitalism worldwide, before resuming exile in Germany. When the Tsar is assassinated late in World War I, Lenin returns to spark a Revolution. Russia becomes the world's first experiment in socialism, supposedly run locally by worker councils called 'soviets.' In reality, Lenin's Communist Party is running the show.



	Reds Against Whites Lenin doesn't achieve total control right away. Instead, he wages a brutal civil war pitting the 'Reds' (communists) against the 'Whites' (imperialists) that rages for five years. This is one year longer than the American Civil War, and results in a total death toll perhaps twice as great. In Russia, this period is known as the 'Red Terror.' When it's all over, the Communist Party controls the entire state apparatus, with local councils in every village. As envisioned by Lenin, this amounts to a democratic and open discussion of policies within the party, followed by a requirement for total unity in implementing the policies. The requirement for unity is the kicker, enabling the gradual construction of dictatorial one-party rule throughout the Soviet Union.


	Rise of Communism During the early years, the communist model as developed in Russia is widely admired throughout the world. There is widespread labor unrest in Europe, where capitalists had been largely successful in squashing union efforts at reform. As a result, communist parties spring up all over Europe, and in America as well. By the mid-1930s, membership in the American Communist Party is approaching 70,000. Many young, liberal-minded Americans are drawn to the notion of control by workers' councils, a model which seems both democratic and idealistic. Little is known of the actual conditions in Russia, where party control is rigidly enforced. Twenty years later, former American Communist Party members are branded as traitors to democracy.


	Brutal Policies Lenin collaborates with a young Joseph Stalin, his successor, to create the 'Soviet Union.' This is a political union of four previously independent republics (later expanded to 15) under the leadership of the Communist Party, in Moscow. Stalin is remembered today as a ruthless tyrant who murders his rivals, allows millions to die of starvation in Ukraine, and another million political dissidents to perish in work camps. Stalin's overriding goal, however, is to modernize Russia, through the forced creation of a mighty industrial complex where none had existed before. He has to take food from farmers to finance this program, which is largely responsible for Russia's later ability to eventually defeat Hitler's mighty war machine.


	Nazi Germany During the Great Depression of the 1930s, all the industrialized democracies of the world, including America, seem to hit a stone wall at the same time, with stubbornly high unemployment and stagnant growth. The exception is Germany, which abandons democracy to adopt a new form of government called 'Fascism.' This is a partnership between the Nazi Party and virtually all German business, forming a single structure designed to maximize results. Hitler eventually turns it into a demonic quest to make pure-bred Germans into a 'master race,' by exterminating Jews and other 'impurities.' This included mandatory participation in Nazi Party organizations from the earliest ages, which Germans enthusiastically embrace.


	World War Two The interval between the First World War and the Second World War is only 20 years, but it's the period that introduces the concept of mechanized mass-production. This is first used by Henry Ford to make automobiles, but is equally applicable to the production of tanks, aircraft, warships, artillery and munitions. The result is a far more deadly war, over a far larger area. Note that the Japanese War in the Pacific is approximately equivalent in scope (but not even close in casualties) to the War in Europe and Russia. Total military and civilian deaths are about double the total from WWI. Deaths from each of two atomic bombs dropped by America, to end the war, are equal to deaths from a previous firebombing raid on Tokyo.