Chapter One. IMPERIALISTS START THE SECOND WORLD WAR. In the first half of the twentieth century the world experienced two destructive wars, the responsibility for which devolves on the imperialist system... The deepening of the general crisis of capitalism, sparked by the First World War and the Great October Socialist Revolution, still further aggravated all the imperialist contradictions. Imperialism was no longer an all-embracing system. The socialist revolution in Russia had shaken the entire edifice of world capitalism. The world split into two opposite systems, and the Soviet Union began exercising considerable influence on international affairs. Contains 14 detailed maps on heavy stock, most of them oversized fold-outs. Bound-in ribbon bookmark. Many reproductions of Soviet wartime posters and paintings.