Interwar period

The Field Marshal who had led his country to independence in 1918, writes Oliver Warner, was called upon twice to defend his own creation during the Second World War.

Geoffrey Warner describes a politically polarising event which would later influence the formation of French fascism and the Vichy state.

“We shall now proceed to construct the Socialist order” announced Lenin to the Congress of Soviets early on the morning of November 8th, 1917. He had prepared no blueprint from which to work, and forty years later, writes Ernest Bock, the structure of the Soviet state is very different from that which its founder envisaged.

The decade before the Nazi occupation was a period of bitter division in France, raising questions about the nature of French fascism.

Béla Menczer describes how the last Austrian Emperor strove to regain one of his family’s Kingdoms.

Territorial concessions in Anatolia were promised to the Greeks during the First World War but, writes Cyril Falls, hope of fulfilment was defeated by the resurgent republicans of Turkey.

Stephen Usherwood describes how the crisis of 1926, which silenced the British Press, was a challenge to the broadcasting authorities.

John Raymond offers a light-hearted survey of an important era in British social and political history, when the Prime Minister set an example of optimism that, despite setbacks at home and abroad, many of his most distinguished countrymen followed.

Christopher Weaver describes how one of the creators of modern Soviet Russia met a hideous death in Mexico.

For about four months, writes Bela Menczer, a Communist government attempted to deal with the problems of the former partner in the Habsburg empire.