The development of military theoretical thought in Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries led to the fact that the General Staffs of all the great powers - European countries - affirmed the idea of a fleeting war. Its results should become decisive in favor of one of the parties in the shortest possible time - from six to eight months. At the beginning of the 20th century. The balance of power in Europe was such that in the event of a war between the Entente and the Triple Alliance, the Germans were doomed to fight on two fronts: in France and in Russia. French revanchism and the human power of Russia, the British fleet and the colonial empire left Germany no chance of winning the protracted war. The war, if the Germans wanted to win it, had to be quick, and the enemies had to be beaten one by one. Thus was born the “Schlieffen Plan,” the implementation of which would lead Germany to world domination. This book is devoted to elucidating the causes and circumstances of its collapse at the very beginning of the war.