The History Channel gets an "A" for the idea but an "F" for execution in shifting away from backwoods space aliens who run haunted pawn shops long enough to produce a series that attempts to tie together both world wars.
Forget the oft-cited mistakes the series makes about uniforms, weapons, anachronisms and other visual trappings. There are far too many bombshell blunders -- among the worst is crediting the Communists (Bolsheviks) for overthrowing Czar Nicholas II in 1917 -- for these shows to be viewed by anyone hoping to learn the facts about the wars.
Incidentally, the Germans DID sneak Lenin into Russia AFTER the czar's ouster to end the war on the Eastern Front -- and it worked. Lenin was brought from exile in Switzerland in a sealed one-carriage train to undermine the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky, which had taken over after Nicholas' overthrow.
Kerensky had kept Russia in the war, but the Bolsheviks succeeded in their October Revolution because they promised to bring peace. To end the war, Lenin was willing to surrender huge tracts of Russia and the Ukraine to Germany, but Germany agreed to the armistice with the Allies before the peace treaty could be made effective.
Forget the oft-cited mistakes the series makes about uniforms, weapons, anachronisms and other visual trappings. There are far too many bombshell blunders -- among the worst is crediting the Communists (Bolsheviks) for overthrowing Czar Nicholas II in 1917 -- for these shows to be viewed by anyone hoping to learn the facts about the wars.
Incidentally, the Germans DID sneak Lenin into Russia AFTER the czar's ouster to end the war on the Eastern Front -- and it worked. Lenin was brought from exile in Switzerland in a sealed one-carriage train to undermine the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky, which had taken over after Nicholas' overthrow.
Kerensky had kept Russia in the war, but the Bolsheviks succeeded in their October Revolution because they promised to bring peace. To end the war, Lenin was willing to surrender huge tracts of Russia and the Ukraine to Germany, but Germany agreed to the armistice with the Allies before the peace treaty could be made effective.