Let's chalk this up to "history" and not delve into politics in violation of the forum rule #1. No politics.
Apologies. It was intended as history. I mostly avoid the 'news' today mostly because of politics.
There's a military podcast, Don Carlin's Hardcore History; that is long form audio history. He has a long series on WWI called "Blueprint To Armageddon". If I remember correctly, it's about a seven part series, each two or threehours long. Great for long drives - doesn't work for bullet casting or reloading because it's so compelling. It is both compelling, and at many points straight out depressing, as he describes the daily life of a WWI soldier in almost clinical detail. Maybe particularly compelling to me after 30 years of being lawn dart infantry.
Anyways, one of the last parts is compelling because it deals with what REALLY happened towards the end of WWI and afterwards, after Ludendorff devised the plan to go retrieve Lenin from exile (Switzerland if I remember now) and turn him loose in Russia. Forgetting that the population in Germany was almost in as desperate straits as the population in Russia was by that point in the war.
Lenin's promises to angry, disaffected, hungry civilians seeing the daily casualty lists in Russia were just as appealing to Germans in the same situation. And to a lesser extent Britain - leading to a worried British government coming up with the first of what we would call today 'reasonable gun control laws'. Germany wasn't so much beaten at war (although they were well on their way to being there), as the Kaiser and German Empire were looking at having what had just happened to the Russian Empire next door happen in Germany. They had to get out of the war ASAP before internal affairs back at home handed the country to the communists as in Russia.
I'm a military history buff, and the back story behind many wars is often at least as interesting as the history of battles, strategy, tactics, etc. Military history often intersects with politics past and history repeating itself in the present. Will remember to be more careful in the future.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History