The study of the famous military historian N.A. Shefov is devoted to the prerequisites, course and results of the Second World War of 1939-1945. The author covered in detail and in many ways in a new way the collapse of the Versailles system, the process of forming two blocs (the Axis countries and the powers of the anti-Hitler coalition), Nazi plans for the redistribution of peace and enslavement of the peoples of the occupied countries.