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Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
Americans call the Second World War "The Good War." But before it even began, America's wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens-and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war's end, both the German and the Soviet killing sites fell behind the iron curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness. Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.
Editorial Reviews
Istvan Deak, The New Republic
"[A] genuinely shattering report on the ideology, the political strategy, and the daily horror of Soviet and Nazi rule in the region that Timothy Snyder calls the bloodlands.... Timothy Snyder did archival research in English, German, Yiddish, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Russian, and French. His learning is extraordinary. His vivid imagination leads him to see combinations, similarities, and general trends where others would see only chaos and confusion.... This is an important book. I have never seen a book like it."
Fareed Zakaria GPS, Book of the Week
"If you want to understand the real history of what is going on between Ukraine and Russia and the West, you have to read this harrowing history. Between 1943 and 1945, 14 million people died in Eastern Europe, killed by Stalin or Hitler. Snyder explains why and how this part of the world became the 20th century's hell hole."
New York Times Book Review
"Timothy Snyder…compels us to look squarely at the full range of destruction committed first by Stalin's regime and then by Hitler's Reich. Each fashioned a terrifying orgy of deliberate mass killing.... Snyder punctuates his comprehensive and eloquent account with brief glimpses of individual victims, perpetrators and witnesses."
The New Republic, Editors' Picks: Best Books of 2010
"Between 1933 and 1945, 14 million people were murdered in Eastern Europe. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin catalogues how, where, and why these millions died. The cumulative effect makes you reconsider every aspect of modern Europe and World War II. Along the way, Snyder achieves something more vital: he wrests back some human dignity for those who died, without treating them solely as victims."
The Economist
"[G]ripping and comprehensive.... Mr. Snyder's book is revisionist history of the best kind: in spare, closely argued prose, with meticulous use of statistics, he makes the reader rethink some of the best-known episodes in Europe's modern history…. Even those who pride themselves on knowing their history will find themselves repeatedly brought up short by his insights, contrasts and comparisons.... Mr. Snyder's scrupulous and nuanced book steers clear of the sterile, sloganising exchanges about whether Stalin was as bad as Hitler, or whether Soviet mass murd...
"[A] genuinely shattering report on the ideology, the political strategy, and the daily horror of Soviet and Nazi rule in the region that Timothy Snyder calls the bloodlands.... Timothy Snyder did archival research in English, German, Yiddish, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Russian, and French. His learning is extraordinary. His vivid imagination leads him to see combinations, similarities, and general trends where others would see only chaos and confusion.... This is an important book. I have never seen a book like it."
Fareed Zakaria GPS, Book of the Week
"If you want to understand the real history of what is going on between Ukraine and Russia and the West, you have to read this harrowing history. Between 1943 and 1945, 14 million people died in Eastern Europe, killed by Stalin or Hitler. Snyder explains why and how this part of the world became the 20th century's hell hole."
New York Times Book Review
"Timothy Snyder…compels us to look squarely at the full range of destruction committed first by Stalin's regime and then by Hitler's Reich. Each fashioned a terrifying orgy of deliberate mass killing.... Snyder punctuates his comprehensive and eloquent account with brief glimpses of individual victims, perpetrators and witnesses."
The New Republic, Editors' Picks: Best Books of 2010
"Between 1933 and 1945, 14 million people were murdered in Eastern Europe. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin catalogues how, where, and why these millions died. The cumulative effect makes you reconsider every aspect of modern Europe and World War II. Along the way, Snyder achieves something more vital: he wrests back some human dignity for those who died, without treating them solely as victims."
The Economist
"[G]ripping and comprehensive.... Mr. Snyder's book is revisionist history of the best kind: in spare, closely argued prose, with meticulous use of statistics, he makes the reader rethink some of the best-known episodes in Europe's modern history…. Even those who pride themselves on knowing their history will find themselves repeatedly brought up short by his insights, contrasts and comparisons.... Mr. Snyder's scrupulous and nuanced book steers clear of the sterile, sloganising exchanges about whether Stalin was as bad as Hitler, or whether Soviet mass murd...
Readers Top Reviews
Gorgeous NickoKin
I just bought the paperback version of this. The topic is current and important, and I have valued Snyder's other work. I am dismayed that the text (400+ pages plus an extensive bibliography) is presented in such a tiny font - my best estimate is 9pt). This does not promise to be easy reading, either in content or in legibility. I see there is a new edition on its way. I very much hope this important shortcoming will be rectified in the later version.
TarrelGorgeous Ni
This is a very well researched, highly detailed piece of work on the history of Central Europe from the end of the First World War till after the second. Mr Snyder illustrates in harrowing detail how virtually every ethnic group suffered some sort of persecution during this period, and also how so many came out with blood on their hands. As someone whose family heritage lies in this part of the world I found the book fascinating but also saddening. Page after page, the author reels off statistics of deaths in the hundreds of thousands and millions. If I had a criticism, it’s that this becomes relentless after a while. However I suppose it only reflects the relentless nature of the killing that took place. This book is a wake-up call and stark reminder of the ability of normal people to do evil when certain conditions come together. It shows that, under the thin veneer of civilisation, we are tribal at heart. Having been educated in the UK, I studied the first and second world wars at school, inevitably from a British perspective. This book presents those conflicts from a Central European (and particularly Polish) perspective. One discovers, for example, that rather than the First World War “ending in 1918”, the border wars that secured the inter-war Polish borders raged until 1922. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in that period of history in that part of the world. But be warned; it is not a “light read” and is not for the squeamish!
Rance A. NethkenT
I have read a lot of books on the Ukraine, and been to Ukraine many times. My future wife, Anna lives in Lviv, Ukraine. She told me stories about the Red Famine that was orchestrated by the Russian dictator, Joseph Stalin. Many family members of Anna's was murdered by the NKVD, (Russain Secret Police) or known today by the KGB or now the FSB. She described in detail the atrocities and it was horrible. Bloodlands is very descriptive on these inhuman issues commited by Stalin. I always thought Hitler was the worst; not so!! Where Hitler killed many millions, Stalin murdered 33 million of his countrymen. This book tells the story as it really happened, and Anna was not wrong! Hopefully, there will never be a purge like this in the world again! A very intense book to read, but glad I read the truth about the purge committed by Stalin in the 30's.
OldtimerRance A.
Perhaps it is because I am in my 90th year, but I cannot believe many Americans have any idea how gigantic was the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children (yes, even babies) under the Stalin and Hitler regimes. This book tells all, with gory details galore. I have visited several of the Nazi death camps. Nevertheless I had no idea (until I read this book) how awful was the carnage between 1920 and 1945 in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, and other places.
Henry L. ChangOld
5 stars, according to the amazon.com rating system means "I love it". I can't say that I loved reading this book because it details, in a strikingly straightforward manner, the most horrifically immense instances of mass murder in all of history. There number of civilians who perished in the events leading up to and during WW2 are well known to be incredibly large. The great majority of the historical literature chronicling the events in Easter Europe tend to focus on the military strategies and events of this period. This book is different - it casts its exhaustively researched eye upon why and how the power players in this cataclysm murdered the civilians. This is essential reading for anyone who wishes to gain greater understanding of these monumental events. Could this book have been better organized and made more readable? Probably. Could it do so and still convey the essential nature of what transpired without veering off into the realms of incompleteness or conjecture? Maybe, but not easily. There is simply too much information to convey. I have been consuming books on the Eastern Front off and on for 45 years. This book stands alone. I cannot recommend it more strongly.
