All right, welcome to episode 7 of 1983, the year the world almost ended.

Of course, this series would be impossible if you all did not offer your kind support.

So thank you very much. It really does mean a lot to me, and it really does help out, so thank you.

Today in episode 7, we continue with our look at Soviet history.

So without further ado, let's get started.

As always, we start off with our song of the week. This episode, we feature a popular song from

World War II, a popular Russian song. It is called The Sacred War. And we'll see you on the other side.

All right, before we get too deep into the Soviet side of World War II, I just want to spend a moment or three setting the scene and discussing some of the causes of the war.

First, we have the failure of collective security and peace.

There are at least seven major steps on the road to the war,

which fall under the umbrella of the failure of collective security. The first and probably most

famous is the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty, unlike, say, the Congress of Vienna,

which ended the Napoleonic Wars and set up the post-war Europe of that age,

did not create an enduring peace. Instead, it resulted in German resentment against what they termed

the dictated peace. And we could go further into this, but I really don't want to spend enough time to do that.

So if you've got questions, feel free to comment

either on the Facebook page or here on Patreon. But while it might sometimes be lost in all the

discussion of the treaty, plenty of people in the West realized the treaty was horrible. French

Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander, prophetically stated the treaty was, quote,

this is not peace, it is an armistice for 20 years, end quote.

Not only did you get the Treaty of Versailles, but you had the League of Nations.

Without the United States and the Soviet Union in it, it did not have the will, nor the ability, to

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