Synopses & Reviews
A bold new accounting of the great social and political upheavals that enveloped Europe between 1914 and 1945—from the Russian Revolution through the Second World War.
In Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, acclaimed historian Robert Gellately focuses on the dominant powers of the time, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but also analyzes the catastrophe of those years in an effort to uncover its political and ideological nature. Arguing that the tragedies endured by Europe were inextricably linked through the dictatorships of Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, Gellately explains how the pursuit of their “utopian” ideals turned into dystopian nightmares. Dismantling the myth of Lenin as a relatively benevolent precursor to Hitler and Stalin and contrasting the divergent ways that Hitler and Stalin achieved their calamitous goals, Gellately creates in Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler a vital analysis of a critical period in modern history.
About the Author
Robert Gellately is the Earl Ray Beck Professor of History at Florida State University and recently was the Bertelsmann Visiting Professor of Twentieth Century Jewish Politics and History at Oxford University. He is the author of The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933—1945 and Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. He was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and lives in Tallahassee, Florida.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations and Glossary Note on Russian Spelling and Dates
Maps
Introduction
PART ONE: LENINS COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP
1 The First World War and the Russian Revolution
2 On the Way to Communist Dictatorship
3 Civil Wars in the Soviet Union
PART TWO: THE RISE OF GERMAN NATIONAL SOCIALISM
4 Nazism and the Threat of Bolshevism
5 First Nazi Attempt to Seize Power
6 Hitler Starts Over
PART THREE: STALIN TRIUMPHS OVER POLITICAL RIVALS
7 Battle for Communist Utopia
8 Lenins Passing, Stalins Victory
9 Stalins New Initiatives
10 Stalin Solidifies His Grip
PART FOUR: GERMANS MAKE A PACT WITH HITLER
11 Nazi Party as Social Movement
12 Nazism Exploits Economic Distress
13 “All Power” for Hitler
PART FIVE: STALINS REIGN OF TERROR
14 Fight Against the Countryside
15 Terror as Political Practice
16 “Mass Operations”
17 “Cleansing” the Soviet Elite
PART SIX: HITLERS WAR AGAINST DEMOCRACY
18 Winning Over the Nation 285
19 Dictatorship by Consent 298
20 Persecution of the Jews in the Prewar Years 315
21 “Cleansing” the German Body Politic 331
PART SEVEN: STALIN AND HITLER: INTO THE SOCIAL CATASTROPHE
22 Rival Visions of World Conquest
23 German Racial Persecution Begins in Poland
24 Hitler and Western Europe
25 The Soviet Response
26 The War Spreads
PART EIGHT: HITLERS WAR ON “JEWISH BOLSHEVISM”
27 War of Extermination as Nazi Crusade
28 War Against the Communists: Operation Barbarossa
29 War Against the Jews: Death Squads in the East
30 The “Final Solution” and Death Camps
PART NINE: HITLERS DEFEAT AND STALINS AGENDA
31 Greatest Crisis in Stalins Career
32 Between Surrender and Defiance
33 Soviets Hold On, Hitler Grows Vicious
34 Ethnic Cleansing in Wartime Soviet Union
PART TEN: FINAL STRUGGLE
35 From Stalingrad to Berlin
36 Stalin Takes the Upper Hand
37 End of the Third Reich
Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Photographic Credits