Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin

In the heart of Europe in the middle of the 20th century, the Nazi and Soviet regimes killed some 14 million people. The Bloody Lands, the place of death of all the victims, cover the area from Central Poland to Western Russia: Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries. During the strengthening of National Socialism and Stalinism (1933–1938), the joint German-Soviet occupation of Poland (1939–1941), and then the German-Soviet war (1941–1945), this region was subjected to mass violence on a scale unprecedented in history. Its victims were mainly Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, and the peoples of the Baltic countries. The study of the authoritative American historian Timothy Snyder summarizes the most tragic pages in the history of Eastern Europe in the 20th century.

“Bloody Lands” deconstructs the nature of related totalitarian regimes: Nazi Germany and fascist Russia. The book creates a large-scale reconstruction not only of the tragedy of the Holocaust, but also of the crimes of the Stalinist regime, particularly in Ukraine, starting in 1933.

“Bloody Lands” is an important work for understanding the history of Ukraine as a space where two totalitarian regimes clashed. Timothy Snyder consistently shows how both systems operated according to similar principles: through the devaluation of life, the destruction of dignity, and the erasure of memory.