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The Germans had gone too far. On April 2, 1917 America declared war on Germany. The addition of the United States to the Allies tipped the power in their favor.
The Germans had gone too far. On April 2, 1917 America declared war on Germany. The addition of the United States to the Allies tipped the power in their favor.
=== Russia ===
----
As the United States was entering the war on the side of the Allies, Russia was having the [[Communist Revolution]] which would later cause it to withdraw from the side of the Allies and leave the war altogether.
The losses and hardship of the war had weakened Russian [[Czar Nicholas II]]. He abdicated the throne in March 1917 in favor of a provisional government, which intended to continue fighting in the war. But in November 1917, [[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin]], the leader of the [[Communist Party]], overthrew the government. The Communists executed every member of the Czar's family.
Lenin was one of the most influential people in history. He was both a thinker and a revolutionary, a rare combination. An atheist, he personally converted in 1889 to [[Marxism]]. He obtained a law degree shortly afterwards, and by 1895 was a subversive who was arrested and sent to the frigid Siberia as punishment. Once he served his time he left for Western Europe, where he developed his ideas further and became a leader of the [[Bolsheviks]]. He returned to Russia after [[tsarist rule]] ended in March 1917, and then Lenin led the Bolsheviks to power in the [[October Revolution]]. He then ruled the Soviet Union and imposed a system of Marxism-Leninism (communism) that remained in force there until the 1990s.
Lenin quickly arranged for peace with Germany to end Russia’s involvement with the Allies in the war. In March 1918, Lenin signed the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]], by which Russia gave to Germany much territory, including what is now [[Poland]], [[Finland]], [[Lithuania]], [[Ukraine]], [[Estonia]] and [[Latvia]]. This was a humiliating defeat for Russia, but it was simply too weak to fight the Germans further.