Russia and the Origins of the First World War - Lieven (1983)

The immediate reason for Russia's involvement in the First World War lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during July 1914. No history of the origins of the war could therefore fail to pay considerable attention to the July crisis. The crisis did not, however, exist in a void. On the contrary, it was the latest in a series of diplomatic conflicts which in the decade prior to 1914 had raised international tensions almost to the breaking point. These conflicts cannot, however, be understood without some reference to the changing pattern of relations between the Great Powers since 1870. Thus any study of the origins of the First World War cannot ignore European diplomatic history in the period 1871-1914 and, in particular, in the decade prior to Armageddon. By using both archival sources and published Soviet material inaccessible to all but Russian-speaking specialists this book hoped to add something to the understanding even of this well-trodden field.

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