Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe

This book wanders over well-tilled ground. How many books have there been on Hitler and the Nazis, on the October Revolution and the Bolsheviks, on Lenin and Stalin? Yet it does bring the old facts into new light. The Germans made Lenin, because they ferried him and his compères from Zürich to Petrograd in 1917, as a way to cause a Revolution and end the war in the Western Front. Bolshevik barbarism, begun by Lenin and ably furthered by Stalin, briefly emulated by followers in Austria, Germany, Hungary and elsewhere, terrified the Germans, a nation of property-owners. Thus, when the Great Depression struck and millions of Germans found themselves unemployed after hyperinflation in 1923 had destroyed their savings, and the Communists tried several times to overthrow the Government, many bürgers were only too happy to give their vote to the Nazis.Nazi terror was totally different from the Bolshevik variety. Practically anyone could be victimized in Lenin and Stalin's Soviet Union, even old-time Communists: Stalin killed most of them in his successive Terrors. Not in Hitler's Germany: there, only unpopular outsider groups were reppressed, like Communists (whom even the Socialists were happy to see in concentration camps), gypsies, homosexuals and of course Jews. Only in its final winter did Nazism really exhibit its nihilistic face in Germany itself, as portrayed in Eric Johnson's "Nazi Terror: The Gestapo, Jews and Ordinary Germans". However, once the Germans started to carve their empire they began to show what they had in store for the rest of humanity: First in Austria (where many of the most brutal SS officers came, like Adolf Eichmann or Odilo Globocknick), then in the Sudeten, next in Czechia, in Poland, in Yugoslavia and Greece, and finally the Soviet Union, each time behaving more brutally. The dead are prominent characters in Gellately's book, as Lenin, Stalin and Hitler blithely consigned to banishment or horrible death ten thousand here, fifty thousand there, for page upon page upon page of this long book. The cumulative effect is sickening.But Gellately also has a keen eye for the memorable detail. Here a few notable tidbits:- Hitler never received funds from big business until after he was in power.- Colonel Stauffenberg, who in 1944 tried to kill the Führer with a bomb, in 1933, as young lieutenant, was so overcome with joy when Hitler became Chancellor that he led an impromptu celebration march in Bamberg. When he was executed as a traitor, a relative was shocked, since the Colonel was the only real Nazi in the family.- The German law that legalized sterilization (the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases) was cribbed from the California sterilization act of 1909.- When in 1939 Germany and its ally the Soviet Union invaded Poland, the Soviets killed or drove to their deaths 3 or 4 times as many people as the Nazis, even though the territory they occupied only held a population half the size of the Germans'.- Here is a chilling phrase from Stalin, indicating the fate of the Baltic upper classes after the Soviet invasion in 1939: "Comrade Beria will take care of the accommodations of our Baltic Guests".- Hitler's favorite photographer, Hoffman, apparently knew of German military plans, since from 1940 onwards he showed photographs of the countries the Nazis intended to invade before the invasions happened. I thought: that's amazing.- Perhaps the most horrible image in the book to this reader is narrated by a woman in Saint Petersburg during the 900-day siege, when people where so hungry they would eat anything. In April 1942 she saw a corpse with a backpack huddled against a lamppost. She saw it for several weeks, as first the backpack, then the clothes, then the underclothes disappeared, and eventually the flesh and entrails of the corpse, skeletonized.- Himmler's 1943 operation to kill the Jews at the camp in Majdanek was named "Operation Harvest Festival".- Hitler thought Mussolini was a pussy and that only Stalin and he were "World historical figures". Stalin apparently agreed.- Harriman, Roosevelt's envoy to Moscow, thought Stalin was better informed than Roosevelt, more realistic than Churchill: he regarded him as the most inscrutable and contradictory character he ever met.- The proposal that the Soviet Union keep the parts of Poland it occupied since September 1939 and that Poland be indemnified with parts of Germany was Churchill's. Stalin concurred.- Beria was shocked when he heard, through telephone interception, that Roosevelt thought both Stalin and Churchill similarly untrustworthy.- When the Red Army soldiers went into Germany, they couldn't understand why the Germans, so rich, had invaded them "what could they have wanted that we might have had", they asked. And so on, and so on.Virtually every page is filled with similar juicy data. That is history as it ought to be written.I've read many history books this year. The only one I enjoyed as much as this one is Tim Blanning's "The Pursuit of Glory", which is one of my top three history reads, along with McCullough's "Reformation" and Beevor's "Berlin". I have purchased Gellately's "Backing Hitler", which I hope to enjoy as much as "Lenin, Stalin and Hitler". I thank my stars that I didn't have to live in those countries, through those times, but am glad that Gellately is around to tell me what they were like.

Book of the relevant interactions between WWII leaders.

I have read many books about the history of 1920-1945 period but Gellately's book provided me with additional insights. Several people have singled out the negative portrait of Lenin as a major contribution of the book and the author certainty makes a good case for this portrayal. The book is also remarkable by the parallel narrative of the events in the Soviet and Germany. The book is divided in ten parts whose (sometimes abbreviated) titles are: Lenin's Communist Dictatorship - The Rise of German National Socialism - Stalin Triumphs - German Make a Pact with Hitler - Stalin's Reign on Terror - Hitler's War against Democracy - Stalin and Hitler - Hitler's War on "Jewish Bolshevism" - Hitler's Defeat and Stalin's Agenda - Final Struggle. This kind of treatment brings out how each dictatorship fed on the other to consolidate its power. It is well known that Hitler made maximum use of the fear of the Bolsheviks by many Germans but Stalin also made use of the fear of foreign spies to impose his reign of terror. The uneasy alliance between Stalin and the West is also discussed in depth as well as the fears of each side that the other may conclude a separate peace with Hitler and how such fears affected post war events.Overall the focus is on political history and the behind the scenes machinations of those in power rather than the details of the military campaigns and other overt events. If you have already some familiarity with the history of the period you are going to appreciate the book even more.The book also brings forth the fact that both Stalin and Hitler had many eager followers that often exceeded their orders in imposing terror and killing people. While this phenomenon does not absolve the evil dictators of their crimes it is also points out the darker sides of human nature that often come into play and, maybe, we should pay more attention to the latter forces than to whoever happens to be their leader. The modern parallel seems to be the excessive focus on bin-Ladden rather than the factors that make certain people flock to his cause.There are several little known stories that are presented in the book and there is no space to mention all of them so I pick only two, both on page 290, that struck me the most. One is a statement by Admiral Raeder about Hitler "... In my opinion he was a great and talented politician in the first years, whose national and social aims were already known for years, and which found an echo in the armed forces as well as among the German people." Keep in mind that the "aims" included extreme anti-Semitism. The second story on the same page is that of the enthusiastic support of the Nazis by the young lieutenant von Stauffenberg who gained fame later by his attempted assassination of Hitler in July 1944. The story gives further credence to the argument that the conspiracy against Hitler was motivated not by principled opposition to his aims, but mainly by disappointment that his leadership was causing Germany to lose the war. (After all the "coup" occurred less than two months after the Normandy landing.)

Another must read book for anyone who wishes to understand the minds of communism and progressivism. For anyone interested in connecting the dots, and learning how the minds of the uber elite liberal/progressives/communist work and how hungry they are for power at any colst, even that of human life. It can be a bit cumbersum at times reading, but well worth the time and effort.

chilling

Received the book in excellent condition with very strong binding and excellent quality of print of pages.About book :-A must read Book of 600+ pages containing details of horrific events in, of first half of the 20th century Europe, in the wars of ideologies led by 3 individuals Lenin, Stalin and Hitler starting from first world war till the end of second world war as Robert Gellately titled as "The age of social catastrophe".Author compared the dictatorship of all three dictators and their style of authority which covers all their actions and it's profound effects on the human lives executing millions in their time.A tough read though with respect to horrific actions wherein human life was devalued to fulfil their agenda.

I've read a number of paperback books, none have been as cheap as this. Delivery was good though.Pages so thin that I literally have to put it on the table and read rather than keeping the book in hand.The quality of the cover is cheaper than roadside 3rd copies sold cheaply too.

Wow. What a book. This book will change the way you look at humanity. We have come a long way and we must continue to challenge authoritarianism if we want to live in a better world.