Hitler Adolf - Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: the age of social catastrophe

I have generally used the most common translations of Russian names, such as Leon Trotsky; Maxim Gorky, rather than Gorki; Georgy, rather than Georgii. I have omitted diacritical marks and other such features of the Russian language in the endnotes. Dates in the Russian section of the book prior to February 1918 are given according to the Julian calendar (or Old Style), which was twelve days behind the Western calendar in the nineteenth century and thirteen days behind it in the twentieth. January 31, 1918, was the last day of Julian calendar in Russia, with the next day becoming February 14.

T he names of Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler will forever be linked to the tragic course of European history in the first half of the twentieth century. Only weeks after the Russian Revolution the Bolsheviks created secret police forces far more brutal than any that had existed under the tsar. The Nazis followed suit and were no sooner in power than they instituted the dreaded Gestapo. Under both regimes millions of people were incarcerated in concentration camps where they were tortured and frequently worked to death. The Nazis invented camps equipped for the industrial killing of millions of Jewish women, men, and children on the basis of supposed racial criteria.

The Soviet and Nazi dictators were themselves products of the structural changes generated by the Great War. Before 1914 they were marginal figures and would not have had the slightest hope of entering political life. Only in their dreams could they have imagined themselves as powerful rulers and leaders of mass movements. But once the war monster was released in 1914, the social and political crisis that swept across Europe opened up wholly new opportunities for the radicals and utopians.

Every corner of Europe was affected by catastrophe that enveloped the continent for the next three decades. There were two world wars, the Russian Revolution and civil war, the Fascist takeover in Italy, the Nazi seizure of power, and the Holocaust. As well, there were numerous other uprisings and coups. The dark energies released by the hatreds, anxieties, and ambitions can be gleaned in part from the enormous scale of the killing. Far more men in uniform and still more civilians were struck down than in any comparable period in history. This book focuses on the dominant powers of the time, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but analyzes the catastrophe itself in global terms, in an effort to lay bare its large-scale political and ideological nature. From this perspective, we can see that the tragedies endured by Europe were much more than discrete events. They were inextricably linked and an integral part of the bitter rivalry waged by the Communists and the Nazis for world domination.