Table of Contents

Abbreviations and Glossary
Note on Russian Spelling and Dates
Maps

Introduction

PART ONE: LENIN’S COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP
1 The First World War and the Russian Revolution
2 On the Way to Communist Dictatorship
3 Civil Wars in the Soviet Union

PART TWO: THE RISE OF GERMAN NATIONAL SOCIALISM
4 Nazism and the Threat of Bolshevism
5 First Nazi Attempt to Seize Power
6 Hitler Starts Over

PART THREE: STALIN TRIUMPHS OVER POLITICAL RIVALS
7 Battle for Communist Utopia
8 Lenin’s Passing, Stalin’s Victory
9 Stalin’s New Initiatives
10 Stalin Solidifies His Grip

PART FOUR: GERMANS MAKE A PACT WITH HITLER
11 Nazi Party as Social Movement
12 Nazism Exploits Economic Distress
13 “All Power” for Hitler

PART FIVE: STALIN’S REIGN OF TERROR
14 Fight Against the Countryside
15 Terror as Political Practice
16 “Mass Operations”
17 “Cleansing” the Soviet Elite

PART SIX: HITLER’S WAR AGAINST DEMOCRACY
18 Winning Over the Nation 285
19 Dictatorship by Consent 298
20 Persecution of the Jews in the Prewar Years 315
21 “Cleansing” the German Body Politic 331

PART SEVEN: STALIN AND HITLER: INTO THE SOCIAL CATASTROPHE
22 Rival Visions of World Conquest
23 German Racial Persecution Begins in Poland
24 Hitler and Western Europe
25 The Soviet Response
26 The War Spreads

PART EIGHT: HITLER’S WAR ON “JEWISH BOLSHEVISM”
27 War of Extermination as Nazi Crusade
28 War Against the Communists: Operation Barbarossa
29 War Against the Jews: Death Squads in the East
30 The “Final Solution” and Death Camps

PART NINE: HITLER’S DEFEAT AND STALIN’S AGENDA
31 Greatest Crisis in Stalin’s Career
32 Between Surrender and Defiance
33 Soviets Hold On, Hitler Grows Vicious
34 Ethnic Cleansing in Wartime Soviet Union

PART TEN: FINAL STRUGGLE
35 From Stalingrad to Berlin
36 Stalin Takes the Upper Hand
37 End of the Third Reich

Epilogue
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Photographic Credits

About the Author

Robert Gellately is the Earl Ray Beck Professor of History at Florida State University and recently was the Bertelsmann Visiting Professor of Twentieth Century Jewish Politics and History at Oxford University. He is the author of The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933—1945 and Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany. He was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

Reviews

“Sophisticated . . . scholarly and very readable. . . . [Gellately] rips up the accepted versions of this terrible period and analyzes it on the evidence that we now have.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Washington Post Book World“Mr. Gellately sets a high standard for anyone writing about comparative dictatorship. . . . Lucid prose and vivid examples make the book admirably accessible to non-specialists.” —The Economist “Intriguing. . . . An excellent overview of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism. . . . Gellately performs a very useful public service.” —The New York Sun “Clearly written and massive documented. . . . the full story has finally been told.” —The Buffalo News

"Sophisticated . . . scholarly and very readable. . . . [Gellately] rips up the accepted versions of this terrible period and analyzes it on the evidence that we now have." -Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Washington Post Book World"Mr. Gellately sets a high standard for anyone writing about comparative dictatorship. . . . Lucid prose and vivid examples make the book admirably accessible to non-specialists." -The Economist "Intriguing. . . . An excellent overview of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism. . . . Gellately performs a very useful public service." -The New York Sun "Clearly written and massive documented. . . . the full story has finally been told." -The Buffalo News