Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. Names inextricably linked to the course of contemporary history. Amid the European turmoil of the first half of the 20th century, these dictators made decisions that shaped the world as we know it. And they made it impossible to conjure up another image for Europe today. In *Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler*, renowned historian Robert Gellately dissects the period between 1914 and 1945, an era of almost continuous turmoil: two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, the rise of the Third Reich. And he shows how these three men occupied central positions in these events. Gellately also analyzes the connections between these historical moments and warns: to consider these events as unconnected episodes is to fail to understand their genesis and nature. The author focuses on the dominant powers of the time, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but analyzes the catastrophe in global terms. After all, more lives were lost in this period than in any other in history. Within weeks of seizing power, the Bolsheviks created secret police forces far more brutal than their Tsarist counterparts. The Nazis followed suit and established the Gestapo. Under both regimes, millions were imprisoned, tortured, and killed. In this book, Gellately argues against the current that downplays Lenin's role in Stalin's crimes and shows that the terror reaped by the latter was largely sown by the former. In World War I, some eight million men died in combat, seven million were permanently disabled, and another 15 million were seriously wounded. An estimated five million civilians lost their lives to "war-related causes," such as disease and malnutrition. These civilian deaths do not include those in Russia, where the situation was the most severe of all, greatly amplified by (two) revolutions in 1917, followed by civil war and famine. All of this occurred in what would become only the first phase of the great social and political catastrophe. The next time would be even more lethal. Postwar "normality" in Europe was marked by political violence, attempted coups (and successful coups), assassinations, and general instability. This climate was conducive to the emergence of new parties and, above all, to the emergence of radicals and dictators from both the right and the left, who, supported by the enraged, extremists, and especially by young "idealists," sought to exploit the general crisis. The monster of war was ready for the next round, which began in September 1939. World War II erupted around Poland and expanded across Western Europe until finally the world was engulfed in a pandemonium of destruction and horror far more deadly than even the Great War. Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler draws on newly discovered German and Russian sources to explain how the pursuit of utopian—and horribly distorted—ideals led only to an anti-utopian nightmare. "Gently sets a high standard for any other author who wants to compare dictatorships." — The Economist "The book is, above all, extremely readable and full of surprising and terrifying details." — Times Literay Supplement "Sensitive and sophisticated." — The Washington Post
