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Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder

A book I have wanted to read for some time is Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.  It was written back in 2010, but remains one of if not the only comprehensive look at the mass atrocities committed by the Soviet Union first, and then Nazi Germany later, during the period of time between the early 1920s to the late 1940s. 

bloodlands, timothy snyder, world war 2, holocaust, history, recommendations

Check it out on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4uvDdxj

Bloodlands does a great job of putting this period into a single, unified history that shows how both the Soviets and the Germans operated independently, in coordination, and in response to each other’s actions in terms of the repression of minorities and perceived enemies.  

Basically, the title refers to a specific geographic region in Central and Eastern Europe that lies east of Berlin but west of Moscow.  The main focus was on the Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and the western areas of Russia. These were the areas controlled by the Soviets and the Nazis and therefore subject to the policies of both regimes.

The book really digs in with the Holodomor in the early thirties, where collectivization led to mass death through starvation and transfers to the Gulags.  Not long after, the Great Terror followed with arrets and executions of hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens, with ethnic minorities like Poles heavily targeted.

The German story really starts after the joint invasion and partition of Poland, and then with the occupation of other countries following the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.  Snyder demonstrates how broad the approach was to mass murder, whether through shootings, starvations or camps.

This is an important read, but to be honest it is a hard book to read. It really hurts the soul, particularly when Snyder is able to work in personal letters, diaries and other materials that bring the names and stories behind the numbers and statistics.

For anyone who wants to understand the twentieth century, you almost have to read Bloodlands as painful as it is to read. 

Interested in more books on the history of the Soviet Union, check out my review of the Russian Revolution by Antony Beevor!


Publication date: April 2022  | Publisher: Basic Books   | Page Count:  592


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