Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

“‘I will meet her,’ said a young Soviet man of his wife, ‘under the ground.’ He was right; he was shot after she was, and they were buried among the seven hundred thousand victims of Stalin’s Great Terror of 1937 and 1938.”

This quote captures the fatalism and resignation faced by victims of Stalin’s Great Terror. The anticipation of death (“I will meet her...under the ground”) and the subsequent fulfillment of this grim prophecy underscore the pervasive atmosphere of fear and inevitability that characterized the era.

“‘Only Tania is left.’ Adolf Hitler had betrayed Stalin, her city was under siege by the Germans, and her family were among the four million Soviet citizens the Germans starved to death.”

This brief statement from an 11-year-old girl during the Siege of Leningrad conveys the solitude and desperation engendered by war. The simplicity of the phrase “Only Tania is left” belies the unimaginable horror and loss experienced by one so young, serving as a microcosm for the broader human cost of the Nazi-Soviet conflict.

“The war broke the old land empires of Europe, while inspiring dreams of new ones.”

This quote sets the stage for understanding the transformative impact of World War I as a catalyst for the rise of Hitler and Stalin. It succinctly captures the dual nature of the war’s aftermath: the destruction of established empires and the concurrent birth of ambitious visions for new political orders.