Richard Overy - The Dictators: Hitlers Germany, Stalins Russia

PENGUIN BOOKS

THE DICTATORS

Fascinating [an] excellent book Andrew Roberts,
Literary Review

How did two such appalling ogres dominate huge nations, territories and twentieth-century history for so long? This original and thought-provoking book left me at least feeling that at last I understood the mystery a good deal better Peter Lewis,
Daily Mail

Splendid provocative formidably up to date Overy's compelling achievement lies in his depiction of entire states and societies Robert Service,
Guardian

He packs an astonishing amount of vividly told information into this volume he is an interpreter and a superb one rather than an analyst. His skills lie in the fluent telling of a complex story, in the sharp flash of insight, in his patient commitment to the rational explanation of events that sometimes seem to defy all reason Jane Caplan,
The Times Literary Supplement

Richard Overy has produced a monumental study of the question that should be haunting all of us as we contemplate what Europe did in the twentieth century His book is a major contribution to understanding what it was all about David Ross,
Tribune

Overy has written a rigorously systematic comparison between Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's German Reich. It's a masterpiece of historical analysis Niall Ferguson,
Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Overy is Professor of History at King's College, London. He is the author of numerous books on the Third Reich and the Second World War, including War and Economy in the Third Reich, Why the Allies Won, Russia's War, The Battle and Interrogations. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy in 2000 and in 2001 was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for his contribution to military history.

Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL England

Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England

www.penguin.com

First published by Allen Lane 2004

Published in Penguin Books 2005

Copyright Richard Overy, 2004

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-14-191224-0

Human groupings have one main purpose: to assert everyone's right to be different, to be special, to think, feel and live in his or her own way. People join together in order to win or defend this right. But this is where a terrible, fateful error is born: the belief that these groupings in the name of a race, a God, a party or a State are the very purpose of life and not simply a means to an end. No! The only true and lasting meaning of the struggle for life lies in the individual, in his modest peculiarities and in his right to those peculiarities.

Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate, p. 230

.

.

The author would like to thank John Cunningham at the Society for Co-Operation in Russian and Soviet Studies (SCRSS) and Marek Jaros at the Wiener Library (WL), the Institute of Contemporary History, for their help with the pictures in this book.

Copyright for the following pictures is held by the SCRSS: first section, pictures 112, 14, 1621, 2336; second section, pictures 2326, 31.

Copyright for the following pictures is held by the WL: second section, pictures 12, 13, 20, 27. The following images were supplied by the WL, copyright unknown: second section, pictures 110, 1522, 2830, 32.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders but this has not been possible in all cases. If notified, the publishers will be pleased to rectify any omissions at the earliest opportunity.

1 Germany in 1933

2 The Soviet Union in the 1940s

3 The Party organization in Germany

4 The camp system in central Russia and Siberia

5 The camp system in Greater Germany

6 The camp system in the Western Soviet Union