ABSTRACT
The year 1945 has often been regarded as the major dividing point in the history of the twentieth century. It was in this year that Europe and the world emerged from the long and desperate struggle that historians have named the Second World War. In the opinion of many Europeans, Soviet Union seemed impervious to the global economic crisis of the 1930s. There is much evidence that for Europe the long-term impact of Second World War was not as devastating as that of First World War— the tragic conflict occurring between 1914 and 1918 that Europeans refer to as "the Great War." Europe, battered, destroyed, and disillusioned, lay prostrate under the direct or indirect influence and control of those who held power in Washington and Moscow. Europeans they tended to view many postwar institutions, including the League of Nations and the Permanent Court of International Justice, with deep-seated skepticism.
