One of the most thought-provoking questions on the 100th anniversary of WWI was whether it was inevitable. Had it not occurred, history might have been taken a different course. In the 20th century we got used to Lenin’s version: the imperialist contradictions made the clash unavoidable. It is this interpretation that later gave birth to the Bolshevist slogan: “the national government must suffer defeat for the sake of the world revolution.”

Our nation partook of its bitter fruit in loads. Meanwhile, the realities of the 21st century allow us to use richer colors to describe that tragic picture. Perhaps, by 1914 the European civilization simply resembled a group of fast-growing teenagers who do not commensurate their muscle strength with their thinking and actions. Europe and Russia proved unprepared either for the spectacular demographic explosion or for the technological leap, including in military technology. Already at the end of the tumultuous 20th century Henry Kissinger would say: “The leaders of all the major countries simply did not grasp the implications of the technology at their disposal, or of the coalitions they were feverishly constructing. It never occurred to them that the failure to make their alliances correspond to rational political objectives would lead to the destruction of civilization as they knew it.” The few intellectuals as they watched the mankind’s growing potential of self-destruction were grossly mistaken that this capacity in itself makes the war impossible. Alas, political ambitions, shortsightedness, narrow-mindedness, thoughtlessly borrowed as it were from the XVIII century made them deaf to the voice of reason. For Russia the war had a very tragic finale.

Winston Churchill, in his six-volume work The World Crisis (incidentally, the Eastern Front volume opens with the dedication “To our loyal allies and comrades in the Russian Imperial Army”): “Surely to no nation has Fate been more malignant than to Russia. Her ship went down in sight of port. She had actually weathered the storm when all was cast away. Every sacrifice had been made; the toil was achieved. Despair and Treachery usurped command at the very moment when the task was done. The long retreats were ended; the munition famine was broken; arms were pouring in; stronger, larger, better equipped armies guarded the immense front; the depots overflowed with sturdy men. Alexeieff directed the Army and Koltchak the Fleet. Moreover, no difficult action was now required: to remain in presence: to lean with heavy weight upon the far-stretched Teutonic line: to hold without exceptional activity the weakened hostile forces on her front: in a word, to endure — that was all that stood between Russia and the fruits of general victory.” 

But no common victory emerged. Russia and Europe divorced for a long time. Today the words of Kissinger are relevant as never before: the old myths, lack of foresight, double and shortsighted standards, the incapability to lift the eyes above the narrow horizon of primitive ambitions are again pushing Europe towards new trials.