This chapter explains the geography and different levels of violence in post-war Europe through a combination of three factors. The first factor was the Russian Revolution, both as a game-changer in international politics and as a fantasy that mobilised anti-revolutionary forces well beyond those countries where a triumph of Bolshevism was probable. A second factor that explains the uneven distribution of post-war violence lies in the mobilising power of defeat in 1918 on one hand, and the internally appeasing power of victory on the other. The third major factor was the abrupt break-up of Europe's land empires and the inability of the successor states to agree on borders with their neighbours. In the defeated states of Europe, anti-Bolshevism helped to explain why the war had been lost, why the old regimes disappeared and why chaos ruled over much of Eastern and Central Europe.