In his book, the famous historian and writer Valery Shambarov talks about the First World War, which contemporaries called the Second Patriotic War, and the victorious Bolsheviks declared imperialist and ordered to forget. But historical memory cannot be killed, and the author, scrupulously restoring the forgotten events of the early 20th century, while simultaneously drawing parallels between the First and Second World Wars, reveals to the reader the true reasons why the world came into mortal combat twice in 25 years.