In this book, the author gives his interpretation of European history of the 20th century, examining the grandiose shifts and cataclysms of the era of 1905-1956, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Polemicizing with the provisions of classical historiography, he examines the concept of totalitarianism in relation to the regimes that arose in Europe between the two world wars, notes the peculiar features of Soviet history, traces the roots of the general problems facing various regimes after the First World War, and analyzes in detail the fiftieth anniversary, to which he gives a common name the period of the “war-revolution”, the soil that nurtured the “great tyrannies”, the “prehistory” of the events unfolding in Europe today. Contents: What needs to be explained and how to do it First interpretations Totalitarianism and Soviet history Historical background: 1789-1905 Great changes Features of Eastern Europe War-revolution, 1905 -1956Act I: 1905-1923Act II: War in PeacetimeAct III: 1939-1956