What is certain, from Stepan's account of the war along with flashbacks and dialogue in Metro: Last Light, and the live-action shorts, nuclear weapons landed on Russian soil shortly before they responded. In Metro 2035, a key spokesperson from Polis reveals that 140,000,000 or 139,000,000 Russians died during the war - which would mean that only 6 or 7 million endured, but it is uncertain how many of them survived the 20 years of post-apocalyptic conditions that followed. While (at the time of writing) modern countries that are known to have nuclear weapons include France, Britain, China, North Korea, Israel, India, and Pakistan, it's implied in Metro 2034 that the United States was a definitive enemy of Russia during the Great War. After the initial exchange, other nuclear-armed nations began their response the end result was a massive global exchange of nuclear weaponry over a brief span of time. Very little is known about the war itself, including why and exactly how it was fought, though a promotional animation for Metro Last Light's site, "Enter the Metro" revealed that a total of 20,000 warheads were used and that the war began with a limited exchange between two Middle Eastern countries - appearing to be Iran or Iraq, and Lebanon or Israel. Alternatively, many people call it simply the Attack or the Catastrophe. However, Varsovians, as well as survivors elsewhere in Poland and Russia, usually refer to the war as Armageddon due to the obvious biblical reference. In Serdobsk, the event has been dubbed as the Beginning because it sparked a new era for humanity and planet Earth.
The inhabitants of Kraków tend to call it the Conflagration due to widespread destruction wrought by the fires as a result of nuclear detonations.
WORLD WAR III BOOK SERIES
In novels from the Universe of Metro 2033 series we see the name of this conflict varies from place to place. It is commonly regarded as World War III, the Third World War, or the Great War of 2013 - as it's considered to be the last global conflict in human history to be on the same or greater scale than the first two preceding World Wars (it is worth noting that the First World War used to be known as The Great War, since it was the largest conflict thus far seen by mankind and was perceived as the "war to end all wars"). The event that has led to the post-nuclear reality of Metro 2033 has different names that vary between locations and from one source to another. The great war is an integral part of the Metro Series canon, as it's the major event that predates the events of both the books and the games. the Great War of 2013 or simply Armageddon). The world of 2033 lies in ruins as a result of World War III (a.k.a.
Near-extinction of humanity Combatants CIS