Gustav Stresemann, the nationalist liberal, called for Germany to consolidate a bloc of 150 million consumers, on the basis of which it might hope to face the power of American industry.21 At that point Russia had still been in the fight. Once Tsarist power collapsed in 1917 and America entered the war, it was obvious to the more intelligent strategic thinkers in Germany that there was no better means with which to dynamite the Tsarist Empire than for Berlin to espouse the demand for self-determination.
