International events in recent decades have increased people's interest in the history of World War II. In this book, Professor L.I. Olshchinsky, a professional military historian, doctor of historical sciences, who taught at the Academy of the General Staff of the USSR, reveals how fascist aggression from its origins grew to a real threat of world domination. Based on modern studies of the history of foreign policy and intelligence, as well as the analysis of military-strategic planning, the real goals of the leading world powers in this thunderstorm period are covered in a new way. Unlike many history books, this book draws conclusions from the lessons of history for the present, emphasizing the aggressive behavior of the United States at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries and revealing the dangers of new attempts to establish world domination.