Hello, history friend. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the July crisis.

Just before we get into it, here's a friendly reminder that we're going to be doing a Q&A episode in a couple of weeks.

So get your questions in. If you have anything you'd like to ask about, well, really anything about the July crisis.

I've already gotten some really interesting questions,

and I'm trying to make it easier for you to pose them.

You can, of course, do it through the usual channels, WDF Podcast at Hotmail.com,

or I'm also on Blue Sky, just WDF podcast.

But probably the easiest way is to go to the Patreon page.

I've made the Q&A post there public, so even if you're not a patron, you can put questions there for me.

So find that post, I'll link it below, and you'll be able to pose questions for this Q&A.

And I look forward to hearing your questions for me.

It's going to be an interesting test of my knowledge, but let's have a bit of fun with it.

All right, having said that, this episode should hopefully answer some of your questions,

as we ask, whose fault was it anyway?

And in this episode, we focus on Russia. Whose fault was the First World War?

In the last episode we focused on Austria's contribution.

It was, in short, a reckless, naive and maddeningly complacent approach to the Serbian

question that compelled Vienna to declare

war on the 28th of July, and thus usher in a new phase of the July crisis.

The decision was taken in the context of Habsburg decline amidst a European concert which

refused to recognise Austria's legitimate interests, or right to defend herself,

against a creeping pan-Serb movement.

...